THE LATE BISHOP HUNTINGTON
At the Head of His Diocese for Thirty-five Years
The Leonard Library
WptUltt College
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MEMOIR AND LETTERS
OF
FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
MEMOIR AM> LETTERS
FREDERIC D,\> HI NTINGTON
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iiUNTINGTON
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MEMOIR AND LETTERS
OF
FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
ftrot -Gteljop of Central jfteto port
BY
ARRIA S. HUNTINGTON
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
({) ftitiersi&e press, Cambridge
1906
COPYRIGHT 1906 BY ARRIA S. HUNTINGTON
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published November /po6
PREFACE
In the preparation of this Memoir the endeavor
has not been to construct a complete Biography, or
to include in a comprehensive record the many in
terests, the acquaintances, and the correspondence of a
long life. Bishop Huntington s early religious experi
ence was unusual, and that is given in his own words.
Other considerations beside the inadequacy of the
editor for theological and historical labors were
taken into account in confining the work to a limited
space. It would not have been consistent with the
personality portrayed to reproduce, merely for the
honor paid to their subject, the noble and eloquent
tributes rendered him in press and pulpit, and only
those are here preserved which throw a direct light
upon traits of character.
The writings of Frederic Huntington, in the course
of two generations, have reached people in all lands
who never saw his face or heard his voice. In the
field of education alone thousands of teachers have
drawn help and inspiration from the little book,
" Unconscious Tuition." His sermons and devotional
volumes continue to awaken to righteousness, and
bring spiritual consolation to earnest souls. For such
as these, for the Clergy of his own Diocese, and the
flocks who loved ancf revered their Chief Pastor, as
well as for the old Parishioners who cherish his mem
ory, these imperfect recollections are gathered up.
CONTENTS
I. HERITAGE AND YOUTH 1
II. THE DIVINE COMMISSION 44
III. THE FIRST CALL 67
IV. A NEW PATH 110
V. SPIRITUAL CONFLICT 153
VI. DIVINE GUIDANCE 182
VII. THE PASTOR AND HIS FLOCK 212
VIII. THE KING S MESSENGER 250
IX. ENTRANCE ON THE EPISCOPATE 279
X. THE ROYAL LAW 323
XI. THE ROAD UPHILL 365
XII. THE JOURNEY ENDED 422
APPENDIX 427
BIBLIOGRAPHY 431
INDEX . 433
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
BISHOP HUNTINGTON 1887 . Frontispiece
PORTRAIT OF FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON AT THE
AGE OF TWENTY-SEVEN, FROM A CRAYON POR
TRAIT IN 1846 BY SETH CHENEY . . 86
BISHOP HUNTING-TON S BIRTHPLACE AND SUMMER
HOME AT HADLEY . . ^74
BISHOP AND MRS. HUNTINGTON 1895 . 412
MEMOIR AND LETTERS OF
FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
CHAPTER I
HERITAGE AND YOUTH
" In this place there was a record kept of them that had been pil
grims of old."
ON the first day of the past century a wedding took
place in the old family mansion at Hadley, Massa
chusetts, which may well be memorable to the many
descendants of Dan Huntington and Elizabeth Whiting
Phelps. The alliance was entirely suitable, in view of
the position of the bride and bridegroom, their an
cestry, kinsfolk, and education. Both came from a
lineage of distinguished Connecticut forefathers; on
one side the Huntington founders of the town of Nor
wich, the Metcalfs, and the Throops; on the other
the early settlers of the towns of Northampton and
Hadley, sons of Hartford and Windsor colonists,
brave and gentle folk who landed in the Mary and
John at Dorchester in 1630 and made their way
across the wilderness a few years later.
The bride s grandfather, Moses Porter, 1 lost his life
as captain of a militia company in the tragic Battle
1 See notes in Appendix.
2 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
of the Morning Scout at Crown Point in September,
1755, leaving a widow and little girl in the house then
newly erected two miles north of Hadley village. His
wife was descended from Rev. John Whiting, a grad
uate of Harvard College in 1653, a godly and esteemed
minister of Hartford, who seems to have been, in the
long line of ancestry, excepting Rev. Dan Huntington,
the only progenitor from whom the future bishop in
herited an inclination towards the calling of a preacher. 1
Elizabeth, daughter of John Whiting and Phoebe
Gregson, became the wife of Nathaniel Pitkin, 2 son of
William Pitkin, 3 who held high office in the Hartford
Colony. Their daughter, Elizabeth, married Captain
Moses Porter, and of this marriage there was but one
child, Elizabeth. She became the wife of Charles
Phelps, descendant of Nathaniel Phelps, who was a
founder of the town of Northampton and one of the
first deacons of the church there. The offspring of
this union were a son and daughter: Moses, whose
name was changed to Charles Porter, born August,
1772, and Elizabeth Whiting, born February 4, 1779,
who became the bride of January 1, 1801.
Of distinctly Puritan stock, without any mixture
on either side, the history for six generations is that of
stout-hearted men of action, with established religious
convictions, faithful to church and state, upright in
morals. Public service was rendered in those times
as part of social obligation, and more often at personal
sacrifice than for any expected recompense. Such is
the record of early days gathered from the reminis
cences of Rev. Dan Huntington, written in old age, of
1 See notes in Appendix. 2 See notes in Appendix.
3 See notes in Appendix.
HERITAGE AND YOUTH 3
his home in Lebanon, Connecticut, and of the relatives
and neighbors Huntingtons, Wolcotts, Trumbulls,
Throops, Metcalfs, Masons, Wheelocks.
William Huntington, father of Dan, enlisted under
General Putnam, served with him in the beginning
of the Revolution, and was in command of a company
of militia when New London was burned by the
regulars ; an incident well remembered by his young
est son, then a child, who saw the smoke of the con
flagration from their home.
Dan Huntington graduated from Yale College in
1794, with the first honors. He became a tutor at
Williams College, then just established, but was
recalled to a similar position at Yale, which he held
for two years, pursuing his studies in theology with
the president, Dr. Timothy Dwight. This gentleman
published in his celebrated "Travels" 1 an account of
the Hadley estate, which he pronounced "the most
desirable possession of the same kind and extent
within my knowledge;" going on to describe at some
length its attractions. It was on a visit to its owner,
Charles Phelps, that he met the daughter Elizabeth
Whiting, and was much impressed with her charm of
person and of character. He did not fail to mention
these attractions to his favorite tutor, with a suggestion
that the young man might find in her all the qualities
most desirable in a minister s wife. Not long after
wards, Rev. Mr. Huntington, having been asked to
occupy the pulpit at the Hadley meeting-house on a
Sunday, was invited on the following Tuesday to
drink tea with the family of Squire Phelps. The ao
1 Dr. Edward E. Hale calls this "the first guide-book of New
England, excellent reading to this day."
4 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
quaintance thus begun (whether by chance or contriv
ance, who can tell ?) ripened into a mutual affection,
and the marriage was celebrated the following year.
In his "Family Memorial," written as an octo
genarian, Rev. Dan Huntington says that at this time
he was much attracted by the current setting towards
what was then called "the West," the Connecticut
reserve lands in Ohio. But the place of assistant
minister at Litchfield, Rev. Mr. Champion having
become disabled, was offered to him. He accepted,
and was ordained to the work of the ministry in Sep
tember, 1798. This "delightful village" was, as he
himself describes it, " on a fruitful hill, richly endowed
with schools, both professional and scientific, and
their accomplished teachers ; with its learned lawyers,
and senators, and representatives, both in the National
and State departments; and with a population en
lightened and respectable. Litchfield was now in its
glory. I came among them without patrimony; but
with their assistance, in a handsome settlement, I soon
found myself in a way to be comfortably at home
among them, with a neat domicile of my own."
The house which he built for himself was burned in
1861, but the stepping-stones remaining are the same
over which the family were wont to pass, and some
of the original fruit-trees, preserved by grafts, have
been remembered as the "minister s pear," to the
present generation. Through the pious commemoration
of a townsman, a fine portrait, copy of a miniature,
painted on ivory, at the period of Rev. Mr. Hunting-
ton s pastorate, has been placed in the chapel of the
church, among those of the other deceased ministers,
Rev. Lyman Beecher being his immediate successor.
HERITAGE AND YOUTH 5
To this home and parish, possessing attractions to an
unusual degree, was introduced the bride of the new
century, after " a long journey over frozen ground,
through snow-banks, and amid the storms of winter."
Writing to his grandchildren in old age, her hus
band says playfully: " On this, as on all other subjects,
all is well that ends well. If you would know more
about it, my dear children, try it for yourselves when
the time comes. What say you to a courtship of a
year or two without an engagement ? the heart, without
the hand ? the apparent affection, but not the promise,
anterior to the marriage vow ? "
The character of the young minister was genial and
cheerful; even in his declining years one who knew
him well testifies: "Never were ears less open than
his to listen to the Crack of doom, never was tongue
less ready than his to be a prophet of coming disaster.
Every village stir was not in his opinion a crisis. He
waked and slept, and waked again and the Lord sus
tained him. He was willing to labor and to wait and
pray.
"The manners of our friend were gentle and his
words well chosen. Had he found it necessary to go
into a King s Palace we should have felt no concern
as to his bearing. He would have carried himself with
a singular grace, without any amazed awkwardness,
and as one who had somehow been there before."
We learn from such a tribute, given by an intimate
friend of the subject of this memoir, 1 how largely the
youngest son owed to his Huntington blood a kindly
and genial instinct, and a simplicity of character
which especially distinguished him.
1 Rev. Rufus Ellis.
6 FREDERIC DAN HTJNTINGTON
There is no doubt that from his mother Frederic
inherited a strain so opposite to the sanguine and the
optimistic, so austere and so reserved, that an effort
must be made to portray faithfully the remarkable
character which she possessed.
Elizabeth Whiting Phelps was an only daughter.
Her childhood was spent mostly at home under refined
and happy influences. Mrs. Phelps, the mother, was
an active, clear-minded, cheerful person, keeping an
open house, administering the affairs of a large estate
with justice and generosity, social, neighborly, and
unaffectedly religious. Her disposition shows itself
through the pages of her diary, kept from her six
teenth year, and was in contrast with that of her hus
band, who was more inclined to moods. In his family
some singularities have been traced back to an ances
tress Grace Martin, who married Nathaniel Phelps of
Northampton in 1676, herself recently come from Eng
land. Early annals speak of her as " of great resolution
and perseverance and a little romantic withal." In her
descendants one finds a tinge of melancholy, reticence,
and reserve, and that indifference to the opinion of
others which borders on eccentricity. There was also an
idealism, and a tenacity of opinion which showed itself
strongly in the life of the elder Charles Phelps, in his
vision of a great university on the Vermont hills, and the
dogged resolution with which he resisted the formation
of that state and its separation from New York. 1
From such antecedents Elizabeth Phelps inherited
a strong character, high ideas, passionate self-devotion.
Like her mother she had a keen sense of humor and a
quick wit, but she did not share the same sprightly
1 Under a Colonial Koof-tree.
HERITAGE AND YOUTH 7
nature, and in her Journal an unusual seriousness
manifests itself. Beginning at the time when she made
an outward confession of religion in 1798, her entries
soon go beyond the customary scrupulous record of
each Sunday s sermon and text; prayers, meditations,
self -questionings are poured out as the natural expres
sion of a sensitive and highly spiritual soul.
On her wedding day she writes : " Is this the closing
scene of my single life ? the time which for more than
a year I have been anticipating and for which prepara
tion of mind ought to have been made?" And on
reaching Litchfield : " I am now settled in my dwelling ;
now am I under the inspection of an attentive town
but this intimidates me not, the eye of the Lord is upon
me, therefore let me fear before Him."
Birthdays of all her children were marked by special
prayer. Of a maidservant born in the house she writes :
" Elvira is eighteen years old to-day. I would entreat
Almighty God to forgive all that has been amiss in
my treatment of her and my intercourse with her;
help me in time to experience more meekness, forbear
ance, longsuffering, gentleness."
From the first, when she became mistress of the
Litchfield Parsonage, there was nothing plaintive or
timorous in the way she met the world and its duties.
Children came fast and were welcomed, and with these
cares were added those of her position: visitings and
tea-drinkings ; associations of ministers and clerical
exchanges, demanding frequent hospitality; visits
from her honored parents and consequent entertaining.
The limited income of a country parson was neces
sarily supplemented with a liberal hand by Mr. and
Mrs. Phelps, who were not too far removed to send
8 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
wagon-loads of fruit and stored across the Connecticut
hills. In the constant correspondence between mother
and daughter there is no recognition of stint or de
pendence, although the demands of a growing family
finally compelled Rev. Mr. Huntington to remove to
Middletown, where for a while he added receipts from
boarding-pupils to his income. In 1816 Mrs. Hunt-
ington s father died, having completed an upright and
useful career, one of his latest services to the com
munity being a care for the erection of the meeting
house, in Hadley, to this day in good preservation and
a model of Puritan architecture. 1 His estate was di
vided between the son and daughter, the latter retain
ing the old homestead and buildings adjoining, with
a farm of so considerable extent that it would afford
provision for a large family. It seemed wise and pru
dent for the Rev. Dan Huntington to remove thither,
he himself continuing to preach at intervals in different
places. In May, 1819, the eleventh and last child, the
seventh son, was bom. We find this record in his
mother s journal a little homemade book of nar
row sheets of note paper, clear, firm, and accurately
indited.
June 27, 1819. HADLEY.
Sabbath Evening.
The 28th day of last month, about eleven o clock
in the morning, I was made to rejoice in the birth of
another son ; never can I admire and adore the good
ness of God for his mercy to me in this time of distress,
anxiety and danger how much better did he deal
1 This edifice was erected in 1808 in the West Street of the village,
and removed to its present site in 1841. The weather-cock was
brought from England for the earlier building in 1752.
HERITAGE AND YOUTH 9
with me than I feared. I am ashamed of my unbelief
and of my shameful distrust of Thee, O my Covenant
God, why is it that I am so favored ? Thou art gra
cious and merciful to the evil and unthankful. I be
seech thee to enable me to spend my future life more
in thy service and to Thy glory, make me more diligent
and active in instructing those around me, and espe
cially my dear children in the things of salvation, and
wilt Thou crown my exertions with Thy blessing.
In particular would I plead at this time for the
precious little one just brought into the world. I have
been the means of giving him a sinful, corrupt nature.
I can do nothing to effect his salvation, without the
influences of Thy Spirit, O be pleased to help me, and
especially dwell in his heart, by Thy grace, and suffer
him not to go in the way of sin ; renew his heart early
in life if it may consist with Thy will and prepare him
to be a blessing in the world and blessed at last in Thy
heavenly kingdom. Thou hast enabled me O Lord,
to wait upon Thee in Thy house and to dedicate him
to Thee in Baptism, now may we feel that he is not our
own, but may we be careful to bring him up for Thee,
who has so kindly dealt with us.
This was the day of the baptism of Frederic Dan,
just a month after his birth. The entry is inscribed in
the hand of the old pastor, Rev. John Woodbridge, in
the records of the Church of Christ, Hadley; a fact not
of itself of any significance except for the connection
of this rigid old Puritan with what became a largely
controlling influence in the life of the child whom he
had admitted into the Christian fold.
Not two years after Frederic s birth the same re-
10 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
gistry sets down minutes of a church meeting at which
a letter of petition was presented by the Reverend Dan
Huntington.
Although a clergyman in the Congregational body, he
had become interested, through correspondence and
study, in the movement towards Unitarianism. He was
beginning to associate himself with other little groups
of thinking people in the towns of western Massa
chusetts. Joined with him in the letter was his brother-
in-law Charles Phelps, lately removed from a Boston
law practice to a new house on the family estate. That
the attitude of these minds was not one of entire sep
aration from the covenant of their forefathers seems
evident from the fact, attested in the pastor s own hand,
that the letter to be considered requested from its
writers communion with the church "as Unitarians"
and " the same privilege for their children, who desire
it with the same views of Gospel which they themselves
entertain."
The place of worship at Hadley was the nearest to
the family residence, situated in the neighboring vil
lage. It was there that Elizabeth Phelps, before her
marriage, had united with the confessed followers of
Christ. She herself had the full right of participation
in the sacrament, and her husband desired it for him
self and the sons and daughters growing up around
them. The request was refused, in a tone which be
trays all the bitterness of ecclesiastical controversy.
The reply, after remarking that " it is a novel and un
precedented thing for persons having no communion
with a Church to solicit a participation in its privileges,"
goes on to state the differences as shown in the Unita
rian writings: "It is one of their favorite objections
HERITAGE AND YOUTH 11
against the system that it strips the most high of every
thing amiable, and clothes him with all the odious at
tributes of a Tyrant. In their estimation the religious
worship we pay is offered to a being of the most ma
lignant character and to one who is dependent as we
are for his existence and all of his attributes. How if
this imputation be just we can deserve to be called
Christians it is difficult to imagine. If the Church
should comply it would seem that an assent to the con
fessions of faith is not essential to membership."
"It would imply that the doctrine of the Lord s
divinity is less essential than it is." Very natural ob
jections were raised that it would tend to disunion and
might lead to proselyting; "that it would open the
door to other errors in belief."
The summing up was as follows: "For these rea
sons the Committee believe that the applicants should
place themselves under our watch by a transfer to us
of their special relations to the Church of which they
are respectively members." The expression " under
our watch " is the key-note to an inquisition henceforth
practiced towards Mrs. Huntington. Knowing how
many of the " First Churches " of the Calvinistic strong
hold were deliberately renouncing its doctrines and are
to-day Unitarian places of preaching, it is not strange
that rugged characters of Puritan descent should adopt
measures which seemed warranted by the taint of
heresy.
The inclinations, associations, and views of the Hunt-
ingtons had become well known. Rev. Dan Hunting-
ton traveled up the valley and over the hills, frequently
taking with him some member of his family, preaching
to the small flocks of ardent disciples of the " Liberal
12 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
Christianity" which was to them mercy and not
wrath.
Elizabeth Huntington at home read Channing and
Martineau and Dewey and Henry Ware, and the
" Monthly Religious Magazine." On the Puritan Sab
bath she took her children to sit with her under the old
pulpit from which issued vivid pictures of future retri
bution. The youngest child, Frederic, never lost the
impression of those anathemas. To his wondering
mind the streaming tears of the minister were as inex
plicable as the threats of impending doom. He used to
say in later life that it became fixed in his mind that the
preacher s habit of crying visibly and audibly in public,
was " because he was afraid too many people would be
saved." At regular intervals appeared the officers of
the church, making long visits, searching, questioning,
arguing with the saintly woman whom they held sub
ject to inquiry. To the high-strung, thoughtful boy,
loving his mother passionately, believing her the best
and purest of beings, it was a puzzle which he could not
explain. He knew that his mother fasted and prayed
and sorrowed for daily sin ; kept tender watch over her
children; perused eagerly the literature in behalf of
the abolition of slavery and the establishment of uni
versal peace, and extended her practical sympathy to
the inebriate, the oppressed, the slave.
The result is on record in her own handwriting.
"August 17th, 1828. A week ago yesterday Deacon
J. Smith and Deacon Hopkins made me the second
visit. The Monday after Mr. Woodbridge sent me a
letter requesting me to meet the Church the next day
to answer to the complaint laid against me which is
that I have not attended the sacrament of the Lord s
HERITAGE AND YOUTH 13
Supper with them for five years the reason of this
was that Mr. Woodbridge said I ought to be excom
municated for being a Unitarian the inference which
I drew from this was that I ought not to disturb his
feelings nor those of his charge by attending, tho
I did attend his church-meeting and to-day he has
been laboring with his Church to persuade them to the
duty of excommunication and church discipline the
Lord direct them in the way of duty.
" Nov. 2nd, 1828. The Church have withdrawn their
watch and fellowship from me by public act and a copy
has been sent me.
"Nov. 2nd, 1828. As I am dismissed from the
Church in Hadley, I have concluded to unite with the
Church in Northampton.
"Nov. 23rd, 1828. Attended meeting; Mr. Wood-
bridge preached, also Thanksgiving Day.
"Dec. 13th, 1828. Last Sabbath Whiting, Bethia,
Frederic and I attended meeting at Northampton, the
two first and myself were admitted to the Communion,
as I had been dismissed from the Church in Hadley I
thought it best to unite there tho I do not agree in
every particular with Mr. Hall, yet as he requires
no particular creed and he seems to be a serious and
conscientious man, I hope it may be acceptable to my
Maker to follow this course.
" Dec. 27th. Last Sabbath went to meeting in town
(Hadley) Mr. H. is to preach to-morrow in the Central
School House. What a blessing it would be to have a
place of worship where we could go regularly and
pleasantly attend but Thou O Lord must make all
things for our good."
It will be remarked that with quiet dignity Mrs.
14 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
Huntington continued at intervals to attend Mr. Wood-
bridge s services and to maintain her connection with
the church from whose communion she was excluded.
It became the family custom for some members to at
tend worship either in the nearer village of North Had-
ley or in the Hadley meeting-house, while as many as
could be conveniently conveyed drove to the Unitarian
gathering in Northampton. In that same memorable
year of the excommunication, we read in her diary
that she visited Boston with an older son and heard Dr.
Channing and Dr. Gannett, then both in the full glory
of their fame and influence.
The effect of the intolerance so unusually manifested
was no doubt strongly a personal one to the young boy,
who, finding it unintelligible, grew up with a sense that
a blow had been struck wantonly against his mother,
in herself a model of piety and Christian forbearance.
It led him in his youth to seek inspiration in those writ
ings which were to her the sources of joy and high re
flection. But beside this inclination towards the liberal
thought of the day, there was for many years deep
down in his being a repulsion towards that creed which
he then believed inevitably associated with actions
fraught with deliberate ill-will. In an article in the
"Monthly Religious Magazine" for September, 1845,
on " The Religious and Theological Interests of Har
vard College," he alludes to the experiences of his boy
hood in seeing " a noble-hearted, devout woman, in an
advanced period of her useful, honorable and bene
ficent life, on account of a deliberate and well-weighed
change of opinions, followed after, persecuted, threat
ened, warned by menaces most terrible to a woman s
sensitive, trustful, affectionate nature, at last roughly
HERITAGE AND YOUTH 15
excommunicated from a Church of which she had been
for years an untiring benefactor, and which her blame
less spirit had so long adorned.
" The tears and anxiety we used to see with our child s
eyes, after those impudent deacons and sly ambassa
dors, or their spiritual dictator, had withdrawn from one
of those cruel interviews, left an impression that will not
lose its horribleness while we remember anything. This
was in the heart of our old Massachusetts, in the
midst of its hills and valleys and free air, some of the
loveliest scenery in the world, indeed, but not beautiful
enough to move and soften the gloomy features of that
stern, forbidding, unrelenting Calvinism." Many years
after, Bishop Huntington referred again to this incident
in an article entitled From Puritanism Whither ? 1
" So the cruel Christianity presented itself to a very
juvenile observer, somehow, doubtless by the saintli-
ness of the victim, without twisting him into an infidel.
"Instances of this sort were neither very common
nor extremely rare. It is unfair to judge a theological
scheme, any more than a tool in the hand, merely by
its capacity for abuse. We are put here upon the task
of defining the effect of a religious institution and party
in New England, at the beginning of this century, on
a mind in search of a Christian faith and home. The
defects were not those of unprincipled intolerance or
indifference to truth, but of narrowness and dispro
portion. It is impossible that any denomination built
on a dogma or group of dogmas, and not on the fact of
the life of God manifest in the person and acts of Christ,
should represent Christianity.
" It may revere the son of God in one or more of His
1 The Forum, June, 1886.
16 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
offices or characters, hut it cannot receive Him as He
chose to call Himself, the son of Man. It cannot re
unite the life of the human race with God s life. It
cannot bear the test of comprehensiveness or Catholi
city, or cover the experience of all souls and nations, or
satisfy the wants of integral man, in spirit, mind, body.
No great Christian cause has lived on a subjective
revelation, or a sentiment, or an idea, or the issue of a
process of ratiocination. Congregational Orthodoxy
believed in Christ, but it was Christ in the past and the
future and in Heaven, not where living and tempted
men most need Him."
This retrospect was in the calmer mood of age. As
time passed much was softened in connection with the
painful experience. In his last years Rev. Dan Hunt-
ington and his daughter Bethia were received into full
participation with the Russell Church in Hadley,
where under a milder construction of its tenets the old
clergyman enjoyed the privileges of the Orthodox
communion in which he had been reared.
In "Anniversary week," May, 1831, then just twelve
years old, Frederic accompanied his parents and a
sister to the city, himself driving the family " carryall "
and pair of horses, a leisurely journey of a hundred
miles. One object was to attend the Governor s elec
tion, an occasion at which Rev. Mr. Huntington him
self had preached the sermon in 1821, as he had in
Connecticut in 1814. One of the sons, John Whiting,
was at this time a student at Harvard. The mother
attended the philanthropic gatherings, especially
meetings in the interest of the Peace Movement and
Abolitionist agitation. The father took his family to
see his ministerial friends, among them the venerable
HERITAGE AND YOUTH 17
Eliphalet Porter, of Roxbury, and his young colleague,
Rev. George Putnam. Social visits were paid at the
house of William Parsons, an eminent merchant resid
ing on the corner of South and Summer Streets, and a
connection by marriage; and to Major Thomas Melvill,
in Green Street, who had been a member of the Boston
" Tea Party " and is said to have found some of the tea
in his boots afterwards. He has been remembered as
the last man in the community to wear smallclothes.
The party returned to Hadley by way of Connecticut,
making a stay among the large circle of Huntington
kinsfolk in Lebanon. There were relatives in Norwich
also and among them was Carey Throop, an uncle of
Rev. Dan Huntington. One of his townsmen recalls
that when a boy he was crossing Mr. Throop s field
early one Lord s day and, meeting the old gentleman,
inquired of him if he had seen anything of a swarm of
bees passing in that direction the night before. Uncle
Carey drew himself .up to his full and not inconsider
able height, and answered solemnly, "Young man, I
am surprised that you should speak of such a thing
as bumble-bees on Sunday morning."
But in spite of the serious views of life, and the then
unrelaxed Puritan observances, family intercourse on
the farm of " Forty Acres," as it was originally called,
was happy and cheerful. The remoteness of situation,
and perhaps some differences in religious sympathy
with their neighbors, threw the children upon them
selves greatly for diversion. The only playfellows
were their cousins at "Pine Grove," the large house
lately erected by Major Phelps on the southern portion
of the paternal estate. Of the ten brothers and sisters,
five were still at home when Frederic began to study
18 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
Latin with his sister Bethia. Three sons went to Har
vard, the others to schools or academies in neighbor
ing towns ; the girls were sent to the famous Seminary
in Troy, the founder and head, Mrs. Emma Willard,
being a friend and connection. Her sister, Mrs. Lincoln,
also an accomplished educator, married John Phelps,
a cousin of Mrs. Huntington.
One of the daughters, visiting her sister Elizabeth,
then married to George Fisher and residing in Oswego,
received from Frederic the following letter, which gives
a little glimpse of the family life.
HABLEY, Jan. 14, 1834.
To MARY DWIGHT HUNTINGTON, OSWEGO, N. Y.
Dear Mary : Your letter to Theodore we received
to-day.
In speaking of the Concert you do not inform us
whether you performed the Solo that you were requested
to or not; though perhaps we ought to infer that you
did, as a thing of course. I am truly glad that you have
an opportunity of exercising your singing powers, as
you appear to have in the choir of Mr. Parker. Last
evening Father and Mother went to Amherst, and
made Dr. Humphrey a visit. It was a very pleasant
day and evening, indeed we have had fine weather for
almost a fortnight until to-day. It commenced raining
this morning and continues to do so yet, so that this
deep snow settles, and evaporates quite fast at present.
It must be a great disappointment to many, for Ed
ward who was here last evening, told us that he was
expecting with about sixty others of the male and fe
male gentry of Northampton to go to Springfield for a
sleigh ride this afternoon; the young people of the
HERITAGE AND YOUTH 19
Upper Mills also were expecting to make up an excur
sion of pleasure to " Muddy -Brook," but their enjoy
ments are nipped or rather dissolved, I am afraid, by
this unexpected rain.
Mr. Harding called here last night in the evening and
remained till ten o clock this morning. He has a horse
that will match with our grey colt and wishes to have
Pa and Theophilus go out there this week and see if
they can trade so as to bring them together. He wished
them to take with them Bethia or Ma. If it should be
pleasant perhaps they will go. Last Sunday we almost
all of us attended meeting at the Mills. Mr. Payson
delivered two excellent sermons, one upon " The Good
Man," the other upon " Covering Sin."
Theophilus and Theodore intend to worship at Had-
ley this year with Father. Mother, Bethia and myself
intend to go to Northampton when it is convenient.
Uncle Phelps is filling the new ice-house with ice
from the river. Edward last week made the family
here a present of a patent cooking-stove like that which
Charles has in his kitchen. It is furnished with a large
tin cover to bake under; a tin oven made for the purpose
to set under it and roast in ; a boiler to boil clothes
in and other boilers; a small crank turns any part of
it near the fire that may be wished. It is perfectly con
venient for every purpose of cooking and a large armful
of wood one and a half feet long will warm the kitchen
as warm as the sitting room. The settle stands before
the old fireplace. You can hardly imagine how differ
ently the kitchen appears from what it used to.
We hear frequently from William. All well as usual
and unite with sending love with your brother,
F. D. HUNTINGTON.
20 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
At the end of the letter is written in the mother s
handwriting :
DEAR MART: If you find yourself in need of any
article of dress and your purse has become empty, let
us know, and we will endeavor to supply you with cash,
for though we have nothing to waste in ornament and
superfluities, thanks to our great Benefactor, we have
enough to make us comfortable. Far more of this
world s goods than was sufficient for Him who came
from heaven to show us the way thither.
Surely we may well blush at the shameful distance, at
which we follow Him.
With much love to parents and children, and dear
Mary,
from her mother,
E. W. H.
The gray colt referred to was probably matched, for
a pair of white horses grew old in the service and on one
occasion took Mr. and Mrs. Huntington on a journey
to Oswego and back, to visit their daughter and her
family there. The barouche in which they drove was
preserved until a later generation, large, roomy, and
with steps to let down and fold up again, the delight of
the grandchildren. The ride of five miles to North
ampton, to church or visiting, was more of a circum
stance in those days than now. In Frederic s childhood
a bridge, with its curved floor of ancient pattern,
spanned the Connecticut River at the south end of the
farm, led across to Hatfield, and so by a good road to
the county town. But this bridge was burned and
never replaced, and for many years after travelers were
HERITAGE AND YOUTH 21
obliged to take a ferry at the end of Hadley street. A
Boston and Albany stage passed through the village
to Northampton and thence westward, and by this
and the Erie Canal visits between the households in
Hadley and Oswego were exchanged.
The boys occupations were various. They made ex
periments in the culture of bees and they seem to have
attempted the cultivation of peanuts, sending orders
for them and for horse-chestnuts in the letters to Bos
ton, which traveled then usually by private hand, and
getting them fulfilled through some obliging neighbor.
The "Farmer s Almanac" was eagerly welcomed
and read. Regular work out of doors was expected of
them and this was seldom distasteful to Frederic, who
all his life recalled with enthusiasm the days spent on
the slopes of the hills, on the breezy meadows, or in the
woods in winter.
In cold weather he helped in cutting and drawing the
firewood for the house, often taking entire charge of
two "yoke" of oxen, driving the teams down the
mountain side, unloading and returning. At one
time it was bark for the tannery which he hauled daily
from the clearing to Fort River at the south. Years
later, making an address before an agricultural so
ciety, Mr. Huntington said: "I rode plough, as they
say, a good many times round before I ever stepped into
a pulpit, retaining to this day an especially clear
recollection of being pitched over the horse s neck
once, in a great quagmire, at the foot of Mt. Warner
yonder, a sort of * slough of despond which my
father, with no despondency at all, but notions that
seemed to me, at the time, excessively Utopian, insisted
on converting into an arable cornfield, making us boys
22 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
partial instruments in the work; and long before I
began to dig roots in the Greek Grammar, under Pro
fessor Tyler, in term-time, I used to weed ruta-bagas in
vacation."
His earliest letter to a sister, at the age of nine, says :
"To-day I have been ploughing the piece under the
bank with the black colt alone."
Besides this active physical exercise the deeper as
pects of nature undoubtedly made an impression upon
the contemplative mind of a boy developing under
such influences. He ever counted it one of the chief
blessings in his lot that the wonderful beauty of the
valley of his birth and the graceful and imposing fea
tures of its scenery were so familiar to him. The dis
tinct outlines and forest-clad summits of Mount Hoi-
yoke and Tom on the south, of Toby and Sugarloaf on
the north; the long ranges of hills rising one behind
another to the westward across the winding Connecti
cut ; the luxuriant loveliness of the meadows, with their
magnificent elms; the surpassing splendor of the sun
sets and the majesty of the thunder clouds ; all these
bred in him an abiding love of the nobler features of
the world around. Throughout his life his intense
enjoyment of such scenes amounted to a passion.
In contrast to this existence of enjoyment, and per
haps owing to a sensitive disposition, there were phases
of morbid apprehension unusual in a child, but which,
in the form of nervous imagination connected with
disease, occured at periods throughout his life. When
only twelve years old he was possessed in this way, and
replying to what was perhaps good-natured raillery
from his brother at college, he says :
" Your subject for me to write to you upon, I think
HERITAGE AND YOUTH 23
was, What is the best cure for Hypo ? I do not think
there is any use in trying to get rid of it before the time
comes."
His mother calls these "fidgety fears," but they
were so real to the child that he never forgot the dis
tress he suffered in the spring of 1830. It took one
form as a dread of being poisoned, especially through
food which might have been contaminated with his
touch, a premonition of the infection of microbes, then
probably unheard of. After he had washed his hands
before meals, his little sister, knowing his apprehension,
would open all the doors for him until he reached the
table. This especial folly was cured by heroic treat
ment. One evening at supper, he had consumed the
usual tale of doughnuts prompted by a boy s healthy
appetite, tucking under the rim of the tea-tray, as too
fatal to swallow, each end which he had held in his
fingers. By some chance his mother became aware of
the expedient for avoiding contamination. She imme
diately filled a cup with milk, broke into it the rejected
food and bade him eat it. With only a mournful
" Mother, I will do it, but I shall die," he obeyed.
It was, of course, the end of this particular phase of
the malady, but perhaps in consequence, his parents
in the summer of 1831 gave him an opportunity for
change of scene by accepting an invitation for him to
visit his brother, and take lessons in Latin and math
ematics, in the neighboring town of Northampton. The
eldest son had settled there, opened a law office and
begun that honorable career, which was summed up in
later times by Judge Hoar, in his reminiscences of the
Anti-Slavery party, where he speaks of " Charles Hunt-
ington, the Judge, the Advocate, the stainless gentle-
24 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
man." This young man had married early a daughter
of Elisha Hunt Mills, one of the conspicuous citizens
of the town, and not long after built himself a house
at the foot of Round Hill. It was through this home,
in what was one of the most delightful towns in New
England, the seat of unusual culture, taste, and refine
ment, that the young people of the Hadley farm found
their pleasantest social connections.
But at the age of twelve Frederic was too young to
realize anything but the absence from his home. He
was pitifully unhappy. In a letter to his sister Mary at
school her mother says: "When we left Frederic he
looked very sorry. He feels it a great evil that he can
not live at home, but your Pa has told him that it may
be possible he may not have to stay there longer than
you are at Troy and that has given him some relief."
Writing himself to Mary he says of his homesickness,
" I find that the best way to get rid of it is to keep em
ployed about something."
Before many months passed his parents decided
wisely not to insist upon a separation which really
brought suffering. In July his brother John Whiting
died suddenly at home, a few days before the time set
for him to graduate from Harvard College. The young
man had shown great promise, was of an elevated and
serious disposition, and seems to have had an unusual
influence in his brief career.
In a letter to their mother from Cambridge, seven
years after, Frederic writes :
" I met lately with a very affectionate and touching
tribute to the character of our Whiting. Among what
are called the Bowdoin Prize Dissertations, bound and
preserved in the College Library, is one by Bellows,
HERITAGE AND YOUTH 25
now of New York, written during the year after he
graduated. On a blank leaf of the manuscript he had
written the following words :
" * In secret memorial of a man of un defiled heart,
sound mind and gentle manners, cut off in the dew of
youth devoted to God and usefulness, This humble
effort of one whom he loved and labored to benefit is
dedicated to the memory of John Whiting Huntington,
classmate and chum of the author.
" It implies, what I suppose is very true, that Mr.
Bellows ascribes his first religious impressions, that
have led him to his present useful and distinguished
position, 1 to the example and efforts of his room
mate."
Up to 1831 the education of the young children had
been at home under the supervision of father, mother,
and an older sister. Later in life Frederic expressed
his gratitude for the care thus given him, and attributed
largely to it his love of study and of letters. Learning
was a pleasure and he was early inspired with a desire
to become wise, not for the sake of competition, for
there was none, but for its own reward. It was the
habit of the entire family to spend their leisure hours
in reading. They were supplied with the best books of
the day and with standard literature. He says himself :
"I began to read Channing s and Dewey s and
Martineau s writings when I was a child. Living in the
country, I read them often in the open air, and they
are associated with running streams in the woods, with
apple blossoms, with clear hill tops, and with wide spaces
of earth and sky. To these thoughtful and devout au
thors I have always felt more indebted, perhaps, for
1 Rev. Henry W. Bellows, D.D.
26 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
first arousing the life of my mind and heart than to
any others, except the inspired men of the Bible, and
Sir Thomas Browne and Burke and De Quincey. It
was because, like many others, I found them when I
seemed to need them. Parted from their guidance
afterwards, in interpreting some of the great meanings of
revelation and history, I yet have never forgotten
my unpaid obligation."
When Mary and Frederic entered school they at
tended Hopkins Academy in Hadley, generally walking
the two miles morning and evening and carrying their
luncheon. This historic seat of learning was founded
from a fund left by Gov. Edward Hopkins of Connecti
cut, whose wife was the daughter of David Yale, for
whose grandson, Elihu Yale, Yale College was named.
The apportionment of the bequest to the town of Had
ley was made through the influential settler, William
Goodwin, for whom the present village library is
named. The instruction in the academy was good.
Rev. Dan Huntington was at one time a preceptor, as
were also other men of learning, and young people
from neighboring towns were attracted thither in con
sequence. It was there that Frederic made his prepa
ration for college, with but one intermission which
occured in the following manner: In the summer of
1834, in a public examination, the boy lost his pre
sence of mind during a recitation from Cicero s Orations
and his memory suddenly forsook him. One of the
blunders he always vividly recalled, was in the nomina
tive singular of the substantive legibus. After several
mistakes and guesses he gave it up, to the great morti
fication of his father, one of the examiners. Such a
dereliction in a pupil who had been well grounded in
HERITAGE AND YOUTH 27
Latin was deemed to merit pointed rebuke, and Fred
eric was told that he might pass the next few months
as a merchant s clerk in the employ of his brother
Edward in Northampton. This edict implied a for
feiture, perhaps forever, of a scholar s life, and was a
severe blow to an ambitious and really studious
youth. But after having submitted to the discipline
and proved his attachment to the classics by devot
ing his leisure hours to Virgil, he was allowed to come
home in November and for the rest of the winter his
father himself superintended his lessons. If this was
too stern dealing with the result of a momentary
embarrassment, it nevertheless had the effect of en
hancing the value of learning to the boy, who found
himself deprived of the jopportunities liitherto freely
accorded him. His purposes were concentrated and
after a further term at the academy, with some
exercises in algebra and Greek under his brother
William, then practicing medicine in Hadley, he
was easily fitted for entrance to Amherst College in
July.
Before we chronicle his departure from the home
which in its associations was to be endeared to him
for sixty years more, we pause to give its picture in his
own words written in old age.
"The outward frame and scene survive still, with
nearly unchanged features, in a New England valley;
domicile, old-fashioned furniture, open fireplaces and
andirons, the clock that has ticked the seconds of a
Century and closed many a frolic of children with
the stroke of nine; garret, cellar, Indian relics, elm
trees, garden, well, orchard, cornfields; the brook
behind the hill, the indoor heirlooms of six genera-
28 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
tions, all invested and hallowed with traditions and
reminiscences that repeople every nook and corner
of the place and bring tears to the eyes."
Even the homely toil, performed as it was in those
days by mothers and daughters bred in dignity and
refinement, assisted by handmaids reared in the house,
had its aroma of poetry. Writing, when a Boston
clergyman, to his sister, in remonstrance against some
proposed household changes, he said : " But as to the
old kitchen and all that, that is a matter that
touches me in a vital point. Can it be that I am to
see those dear old nooks and corners in their wonted
position never again ? Potash kettle ! Buttery ! Milk-
room! Precious, venerable, beloved, hallowed by a
thousand tender associations and sacred recollections.
Am I to see you no more as you were, wearing the
familiar and homelike look, forever ?
" I tell you, Bethia, it is a very serious matter. Did
I not use to take sweet and holy counsel with the best
and purest of mothers, by the twilight, many and
many a time, in that shady old milk-room ? Milton
may talk about the dim religious light of Gothic
cloisters; it never was half as impressive as the light
that used to shine in at sundown, not exactly, to be
sure, thro storied windows richly dight, but through
panes stained with age as art could not do it. I say
again nobody has any business to meddle with those
walls."
The festival of Thanksgiving, enjoyed by a large
family, on the generous scale with which the house
hold had always been maintained, was one which he
never ceased to recall with pleasure. The preparation,
for days, the initiatory feast of chicken pie the night
HERITAGE AND YOUTH 29
before, the bewildering variety spread on the festal
board, the roasting turkey suspended from the big
fireplace, the table full of sons and daughters gath
ered to give thanks he held " a picture of that de
parted jubilee among the treasures of a grateful
memory."
It was a home of which religion was the mainspring.
The mother especially felt an obligation to keep fasts
as well as feasts, although the strict following of Cal-
vinistic observances had been set aside. Her daily
intercourse with the Almighty inspired the round of
care, and with prayer was mingled praise. Sunday
evenings she would sing hymns, to the accompani
ment of a guitar.
In the records of the Evangelical Association of a
neighboring county it appears that its members met
at the house of the Rev. Mr. Huntington of Hadley.
The morning sessions were held at sunrise. This little
knot of earnest believers, following a way which seemed
to them to lead into fuller truth, thus imitated the
example of the primitive Christians. At one of these
gatherings at Northampton in 1827, " Mr. Huntington
acted as Moderator and opened the meeting with
prayer. Mr. R. W. Emerson preached from the text,
Pray without ceasing.
In a letter to his wife from New York Mr. Hun
tington says :
" I was told, I suppose it was to inflate my vanity,
that yesterday I had a fuller house than had ever at
tended the preaching of any other man in it, except
Dr. Channing. I presume it was accident. I have not
the most distant thought that the preaching of the old
Hadley plough-jogger can have in it anything very
30 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
enchanting in the City of New York, and why I am
here I absolutely know not. But here I am, and
whatever I am and whatever I have I will endeavor
to devote to the service of my blessed Lord and
Master."
In 1835, at sixteen years of age, Frederic was ad
mitted, by the Rev. Oliver Stearns, into communion
with the Church of Christ, in Northampton, where he
had been brought up under the preaching of the Rev.
E. B. Hall, for many years the family pastor. This
step was taken deliberately. It had been often affec
tionately and solemnly urged by his mother, whose
constant prayer for her children, that their souls might
be awakened to the spiritual life, was answered in the
case of every one ; all but the youngest daughter, who
died at the age of thirteen, becoming open witnesses
to their faith.
Frederic was from his earliest infancy a child of the
covenant, brought up as a member of the visible
church, and this act of communion with the Christian
body in which he had been nurtured was natural and
harmonious. That it proved a strong security we have
his own testimony, though his temperament and dis
position led him easily towards moral excellence.
Doubtless his high purposes were largely due to the
fact that he lived much in the companionship of older
persons, themselves of elevated character. This in
fluence, of which he was aware, led him to the pre
paration of a manual for teachers which has been
probably more widely read than any other of his pub
lished writings. In "Unconscious Tuition" he em
bodied his own experiences as well as his established
theories on an important side of education. In his own
HERITAGE AND YOUTH 31
home neither corporal nor any degrading punishment
was found necessary; the teachings pervading it
were good examples and pure conversation, the com
panionship of gentle sisters, honorable brothers, a
wise father, and a dear and holy mother whose
intercessions never ceased to be offered for her
children.
Notwithstanding all these safeguards, no youth
who is allowed any liberty can grow up without some
exposure to evil. One summer, an evil-minded com
panion was thrown much in the boy s way and this
and one or two similar experiences in college caused
him to look back with repugnance to what came near
becoming sources of hidden corruption. But owing
to the more beneficent influences over him he came out
of the trial with a strengthened integrity.
The question as to the choice of a college was left
undecided up to the last moment. Elizabeth Hunt-
ington, who had already sent six sons out into the
world, showed an unusual reluctance to part with this
one. It might have been that the loss of his little sister
Catherine caused her to cling more closely to her
youngest child. But she dreaded to have him exposed
to new impressions in a distant place. One who prays
for her loved ones with such constant and personal
intercessions as hers is gifted with deep spiritual
insight, but there was much that was especially sym
pathetic in mother and son. He had inherited that
longing to get away from one s fellows which sent his
great-grandfather, Charles Phelps, from the busy town
up to the Vermont hills. Frederic said himself of his
boyhood, that although living in the companionship
of others he spent days in a sense of solitude. These
32 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
moods went with him through life and gave him his
strong distaste to publicity, to crowds and functions
and external expressions of the deep realities,. The
austerity of a long line of Puritan forefathers had left
its impress. And to one who watched with a mother s
solicitude, the first contact of such a nature with
the great world of humanity was a critical time. It
was not strange that she desired to keep a lad of
sixteen under her own influence until he became more
mature.
Therefore, after some deliberation, his parents de
cided that he should enter Amherst College, not more
than three miles distant. His three elder brothers had
all attended Harvard College, and the tendencies of the
family were so distinctively liberal that the choice
of a stronghold of orthodox congregational theology
seemed unusual. However it may be, his own love of
home coincided with the choice, and gave him for four
years longer that free enjoyment of rural life which
ever distinguished him. At the same time his social
instincts were so naturally expanded, under the genial
associations of college life, that the periods of painful
isolation of spirits from w T hich he suffered in his boy
hood seemed to pass away.
The day after the determination was made, he was
examined, by special permission, and admitted to
Amherst College, with the class of 1839. He passed
the three months of subsequent leisure, largely on the
farm, in out-of-door work, which was ever a congenial
occupation, in company with his brothers, Theophilus
and Theodore.
A few days after his final departure from home his
mother writes :
HERITAGE AND YOUTH 33
ELM VALLEY, Oct. 3, 1835,
Thursday evening.
To FREDERIC D. HUNTINGTON, STUDENT, AMHERST
COLLEGE.
My dear Frederic: I am going to do what I recom
mend to you to do, keep a sort of record of the events
of the day; and when I have a convenient opportunity
send it to you, that you may not lose all knowledge of
us, or interest in us. We have visited you several
times to-day in spirit, and in conversation, and I ima
gine you have arranged your furniture, and swept and
dusted your room and find yourself with your room
mate very comfortably situated, and ready and able
to go on with your studies to advantage. I am quite
happy in the persuasion ; because we read in the Book
of books, this direction and promise united : " Commit
thy way unto the Lord and he shall give thee the desire
of thy heart; in all thy ways acknowledge Him and
He shall direct thy paths."
The two brothers have gone into town to collect,
if they can, seventy persons who will be willing to
unite in forming a singing-school to be taught by Mr.
Kingsley. Your father is quite down with a cold, is
now sitting by the kitchen fire to avoid the chattering
of five females; yes, five without your mother; by
this you will understand that Mary and Harriet Mills
returned before dinner with Theophilus who went this
morning to Northampton on business.
Saturday evening: half past ten. All gone to bed in
peace and comfort; what obligations are we under to
our guide by day and our guard by night ! the pillar of
cloud and the pillar of fire that attend us, tho too often
unnoticed.
34 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
We miss you often at our social meals, and our
social fireside; at the morning and evening sacrifice,
and also as we gather around our Saturday evening
table, with our religious books, and elevating employ
ment. But thanks to God, we would not mourn your
absence; we may hope for a meeting in this life. Some
of our members have reached the end of their journey,
when it was but just begun ; and we are permitted to
think of them as the inhabitants of a world of purity
and peace and love, where no discordant passions
agitate the bosom, and no doubts or fears interrupt the
Communion of the blessed society May the Lord
of the Sabbath give us all a Sabbath blessing!
On Saturday afternoon our girls, Harriet, Eliza
beth, 1 and Mary visited Mt. Warner. For want of a
better conveyance they rode with Theodore part of the
way in the old red wagon. Elizabeth came home much
delighted with the refreshing sight of the Colleges and
particularly of the door of the Chapel, as she thought
possibly you might be standing in it. Wednesday
forenoon : This morning your father, Theophilus, and
Ben. have gone to the mountain to pick up apples.
Theodore stayed at home, is husking corn, I believe.
Your father and mother last night had an invitation
to drink tea this evening with widow Major Smith, in
company with Doctor Brown and lady. This morning
Mrs. Doctor Porter sent a note requesting our com
pany and Bethia s at their house to meet friends at
tea to-day, what a pity, as calls of this kind are so
rare, that there should be two for the same time!
I intend to leave this at Dr. Porter s store, to be sent
to you. I hope soon to receive a long letter from you.
1 Elizabeth Fisher a granddaughter.
HERITAGE AND YOUTH 35
I feel a kind of satisfaction in the tho t that your writ
ing desk is the same which was used by your brother,
who is now a glorified spirit, and is perhaps permitted,
as he himself hoped might be the case, to witness your
faithful efforts in duty, and even assist you in the
arduous work.
With the most earnest desire for your happiness
and improvement,
I am as ever your affectionate mother,
ELIZABETH.
In February Frederic received his first letter from
his father.
" Why may I not have the pleasure of writing a little
letter ? But this is a pleasure, I believe, which I have
never yet had. And though I do not remember that you
have ever asked me to write, I have not a single doubt
but you will be just as glad to have me. Where there
is a well-regulated affection, such as I hope subsists
among the several branches of our family, formality,
jealousy, distrust, and indifference can have no place.
And because, in your absence from us, Providence has
kindly cast your lot not far from home, am I, on this
account, never to have the pleasure of writing you or
receiving a letter from you ? This would be making a
wrong use of the indulgence. And though I hear no
bad account of you, in your absence no idleness, pro
fligacy, insubordination, vice of any kind, nor want of
scholarship, nor even of heresy, I cannot persuade
myself that this is any reason why I should not now
and then take pen in hand, and be a little sociable, if
it is only to encourage you in the way of well doing.
Mount Warner, with its formidable heights, indeed
36 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
may lie between us ; but even these may be surmounted.
Tho ts are free as air. We may send them over moun
tains, across oceans and deserts, to the ends of the earth,
to the stars and to the end of time, in an instant."
The sly allusion to heresy was characteristic of the
old gentleman, whose turn for pleasantry was far more
in evidence than any really controversial spirit. In
point of fact Frederic s position as the only Unitarian,
with the exception of his roommate, in the whole
college, was never in any way a marked one. So far
from finding himself an object of suspicion, he always
expressed gratitude for the circumstances of his college
career. The fact that in his religious opinions he stood
alone had a tendency to redouble his efforts towards
scholarship and exemplary conduct. He was always
treated with courtesy by the faculty. After the first
months his Sundays were largely passed with his
family, when he accompanied them to their place of
worship in Northampton.
On the other hand, a few years after, he refers in a
letter to his mother to a threatened act of neighbor
hood oppression, and the playful allusions are an evi
dence of the good-humored spirit of tolerance for
ecclesiastical ostracism which prevailed in the house
hold. When the new bridge was erected over the
Connecticut a question arose as to collecting tolls on
Sunday. To the Huntington family, who drove back
and forth each week to church across the river, the
exaction seemed unnecessary and arbitrary.
Undoubtedly with the village people this remon
strance was less to be considered because of the feeling
excited by having a household of some prominence
pass the meeting-house and go on to an alien place of
HERITAGE AND YOUTH 37
worship. A contemporary used to recall to her grand
children seeing the large carriage drive down the
West street and turn into the Northampton road, and
it aroused a sense of religious differences which in
those days were far more keenly deplored than at
present.
"You speak of Colonel , and his little-souled
coadjutors. Probably he feels, when he has turned
upon us the key of that toll-gate, like another St. Peter
who has laudably locked out a reprobate from Paradise.
There is a bridge that Milton speaks of
" Of wondrous length,
From hell continued reaching to the orb
Of this frail world; which the spirits perverse
With easy intercourse pass to and fro.
except whom God and good angels guard by special grace.
" For this bridge I presume he would admire to give
us a contract gratis, and probably he thinks it is the
only one we have a right to pass. However, as you
say, if we trust Providence perhaps he will provide a
passage way, when the pure keen air, the piercing
spirit of the North shall visit us unjust as the just,
and the incrusted surface shall upbear our steps.
Why might not we give ice a new name, and call it
the heretics bridge?"
His father continues his epistle, filling three pages
with excellent advice.
."In the multiplicity of your engagements, give
yourself time to think. Think a great deal and think
closely when you read, lay by your book and think
what you have been over think what you have
heard and seen, in the common intercourse of life."
The system of instruction in that day was not
38 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
adapted to lead the mind from the technicalities of
grammar and text-book to the higher play of thought
and imagination. In later reminiscences the student
of the "thirties" was wont to describe the barren
and mechanical field on which classical literature and
history were pursued. Not a word of illustration or
reference was added to the subject to arouse that
interest which gives so largely the charm to a modern
lecture room.
At an alumni dinner Dr. Huntington told the tale
of one unlucky instructor. Speaking of the college he
says : " From the first breath of its infancy Amherst
College has never tasted a whiff of any other than New
England air. If foreign ideas have ever arrived and
dismounted at this door, it has fared with them a good
deal as it did with the polite and amiable French
master that came, in the summer of 36, to teach our
class, when we were sophomores, the French pronuncia
tion. There were two windows and they always hap
pened to be accidentally open, on the north side of the
recitation room, and from the moment the roll was
called a silent process of waste began on that end of
the seats, till, somehow, when the hour was up, through
the doorway along with the unobservant and smiling
tutor, only three angels issued where threescore
went in. "
The resource of the more active intellects was found
in debate, then very popular, and in the different
societies. Among these were the "Alexandrian," of
which he was president, the "Chi Delta Theta," the
" N. L. D.," and the " Alpha Delta hi." To the latter
Frederic s allegiance was strong through life, and in
his last will and testament he bequeathed his pin, with
HERITAGE AND YOUTH 39
its insignia, to a daughter. Young men, members of
the fraternity, who made themselves known to him
were most cordially received. It happened more than
once, in later years at the Hadley homestead, that
students, paddling down the river in a canoe, would
beach their craft under the willows, and cross the
meadows to call upon him, and he delighted to wel
come them in behalf of their alma mater.
He was one of the editors of the periodical " Horae
Collegianae," conducted by a committee of seniors. In
that appeared in November, 1837, his first printed ar
ticle, entitled "The Hours of Life." Its heading was
the quotation from a sun dial near Venice, " Horas
non numero nisi serenas," a sentiment which at
tracted the boy, and was ever characteristic of a taste
which found its deepest satisfaction in tranquil con
templation, in the calm and soothing aspects of nature,
in a social intercourse free from criticism and con
tention.
In spite of the fact that he passed through the four
years curriculum without a mark in the scale of de
portment, for absence or any breach of discipline, he
entered with zest into occasions of merriment and
joined his companions in open-air diversions; not in
those days athletic sports, but rambles along stream
and through the woods, with gun or fishing rod.
He formed acquaintance readily, and his quick sense
of humor made him foremost in wit and chaff and
repartee.
His roommate, Dexter Clapp, was a man of rare
loveliness of character. They attended the Hadley
Academy together, were natives of the same county,
entered the divinity school and the sacred ministry at
40 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
the same time, and maintained an unbroken intimacy
until the death of Rev. Mr. Clapp, after pastorates
at the Unitarian churches in Spring Street, Roxbury,
and in Salem, Massachusetts. With such companions,
his college time was delightfully passed. Generosity,
good cheer, and loyalty to each other characterized the
intercourse of the set of students thus brought to
gether, and proved a bond of affection in after-life.
In the winter of 1837, following a fashion of the time,
and partly for the purpose of helping meet his expenses,
Frederic took a position as teacher in South Amherst.
He had never attended a district school, and it was
his first experience as an instructor, but he had a nat
ural taste for the occupation and experienced no diffi
culty in fulfilling what was required of him. Like
many others similarly placed, he learned, as he writes
his sister Mary, that " boarding round is not the pleas-
antest mode of living; rather precarious as respects
reading, study, lodging, keeping, &c., &c."
Here, as in college, his thoughts constantly turned
to what in writing to Edward he speaks of as " home,
the best place in my estimation in this little world."
In another letter he says :
" Your epistle came to hand I was at the time in a
state of quiet, so to speak. A few of us were gathered
about the step-stones at the South door at eventide, a
hallowed spot and hour, a few of us, I say Cousin
Eunice Phelps, sister Mary, Amelia Judkins and my
self. Speaking of Cousin Eunice, you probably recol
lect her a lady of talent and refinement a teacher in
Troy Female Seminary, spending a part of her vaca
tion with us. But perhaps you are wondering how I
happen to be in Hadley. The fact is the term closes
HERITAGE AND YOUTH 41
next Wednesday, Commencement Day. The exam
ination has closed already and we are free at that
time, we have a vacation of six weeks.
"The Social Union Society, whose business it was
to engage an orator this season, failed in their attempt,
after applying to Webster, J. Q. Adams, Judge Story,
Dr. Channing, Frelinghuysen, Dr. Cox, Mr. Sprague,
George Bancroft and others, &c., &c. Too great
men in my opinion, at least many of them. The term
has been exceedingly pleasant studies conic sec
tions, Cicero de Oratore, Longinus, the book of Reve
lation and French, quite easy. Have been reading
Irving s Rocky Mountains, Sartor Resartus, Red
Rover. "
There were occasional social festivities in Amherst
among families connected with the college. Among
the friends of that time, and on terms of intimacy,
Mr. Huntington enjoyed an acquaintance with Emily
Dickinson, later distinguished as a poet.
The centre of social and intellectual life in North
ampton at this time was the hospitable home of Judge
and Mrs. Lyman. Their pastor afterwards said that
there was no image in his mind of their front door
ever being closed early or late. The daughter writes in
her Recollections of Mrs. Lyman:" 1 "When winter
came on, her thoughts would turn naturally to the two
families of Huntington and Phelps, whose beautiful
homes near Hadley were her delight in her summer
hours, but whose young inmates she felt were sadly
cut off from social privileges in the long winters."
Together with his sisters, Frederic was a privileged
1 Recollections of my Mother : Mrs. Anne Jean Lyman, of North
ampton, by Susan J. Lesley.
42 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
guest, and frequently made one of the lively company
gathered around the hostess, herself the wittiest of
them all, a " queenly woman," as Mr. R. W. Emerson
called her, "with flowing conversation, high spirits
and perfectly at ease."
Shakespeare readings were a favorite evening enter
tainment. " When my mother took the part of Portia,
and Mr. Frederic D. Huntington, then a youth, that
of Bassanio, in the Merchant of Venice, every one
that could came to listen." Frederic found another
pleasant visiting place at the " Gothic Seminary " for
young ladies, the objective point of many a sleigh
ride and serenading party from Amherst College, eight
miles away. He often refers to " the Trio," his special
friends and correspondents, in letters to Mary, his
" sister dear," while she was passing the winter at her
brother s residence near by. On Round Hill, above
the old town, flourished the famous school, which num
bered among pupils and teachers George Bancroft,
John Lothrop Motley, and Benjamin Peirce.
In the four years of a college course Frederic s tastes
had ripened, his character had become formed. Con
centration of purpose, steady habits of industry, founda
tions of knowledge clear and defined, are gained in a
curriculum such as he had pursued, and they are
those which he himself ever set at a high value. His
existence had been led in a narrow channel but it ran
deep. In the small circle of his student life his chosen
comrades were men like himself, pure, refined, intellec
tual, and to this association he owed much. The tender
affections of his home encouraged his nature in un
reserved and spontaneous expression. Ha rd work on
the farm in vacations toughened his frame and in-
HERITAGE AND YOUTH 43
spired him to healthy activity, while at college a regi
men which exacted daily attendance at chapel at six
o clock in the morning implanted a hardy indifference
to bodily ease. Love of nature, fondness for books,
high ideals, all these the boy had carried with him
when he entered Amherst College. He left its halls
with an increased manliness, established principles,
and the consciousness of intellectual power which was
acquired by his practice in writing and debate.
At the termination of the college course he suffered
from the only serious illness of his life, an attack of
typhoid fever. In spite of these hindrances and of the
term spent in teaching, he easily held first rank in
scholarship for four years and on graduation was
awarded the highest appointment an English oration
with the valedictory address. This was largely pre
pared on a sick bed, during his convalescence, and
delivered when he could barely stand, on Commence
ment Day, August 28th, 1839. His subject was
"The Brotherhood of Scholars." Among the other
parts were "Materials for Poetry in Hebrew His
tory," Richard Salter Storrs; "The Ideal of Art,"
Nathaniel Augustus Hewitt ; " Devotion to Principle, "
Henry Grant DeForest. These three, who became the
distinguished preacher, the founder of the Paulist
Fathers, the influential citizen, together with Edward
B. Gillett, later a lawyer of distinction in western
Massachusetts, made up a group of intimate com
panions, whom Frederic Huntington held as valued
friends all through his life.
CHAPTER II
THE DIVINE COMMISSION
" It is the King s Highway we are in."
THE visitation of fever which passed over the Con
necticut Valley in the summer and autumn of 1839
proved a grave infliction. Three in the Huntington
household and four in the Phelps were attacked, and
in each occurred a death. The long strain of anxiety
and bereavement began with Frederic s illness. He
was tenderly cared for by mother and sisters. As he
lay in the darkened room, his parching thirst aroused
memories and longings for the little brook flowing
behind the hill across the road, and his soul sought for
spiritual refreshment. During his convalescence there
was leisure for reflection, for humble dependence and
for a reconsecration to a religious life. It was then
that his decision to enter the sacred ministry took
definite shape, a calling to which in a measure he had
looked forward from the beginning of his academic
studies. With all his heart, earnestly and prayerfully,
he set himself towards his chosen career.
There was no question as to a choice in theological
instruction. Although the religious influences of his
boyhood were those of the "Standing Order" of
Orthodox belief, his parents had been banished from
their former communion. Its ecclesiastical yoke
THE DIVINE COMMISSION 45
seemed to him one of intolerance and bigotry. " Its
aspect was uninviting. The culture was undeniably
rude. There was an ever-increasing impression of
unreality. Naturally the immense problem and mys
tery of the unseen world come before a youth in public
worship, and at those points where the instituted
ministration touched the chief things of life birth, the
act of uniting with the Church, wedlock, death and
burial. Here this touch seemed to H. to be neither
strong nor gentle. Again and again he asked himself,
why this solemn performance might not be less rough
and raw. Why should it not manifest in some fair mea
sure the glory of that realm where, as all were agreed,
the perfection of beauty shines ?
" In vacations and holidays he wandered with his
fowling-piece in sweet-scented woods and along the
river banks, wondering why all the deep meanings of
splendor and shade, the living forms and harmonies,
the innumerable and vivid witnesses to a beauty-
loving Maker and order-loving Designer should be
so far apart from that other thing called religion. Why
should the weekly Sabbath shut the door on all these
divine disclosures, and open a door into a bare room
of unsightly woodwork and blank plastering without
color, symmetry or significance ? " This he wrote
fifty years later of his own boyhood. 1
On the other hand the Unitarian doctrines seemed
to him full of beauty and simplicity. He had been
taught to reverence the Scriptures and commit them
to memory, to worship the Saviour of mankind and
trust His love and redeeming power. Like his mother
he longed ardently for a creed which would gather in
1 The Forum, June, 1886.
46 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
rather than exclude, which would win rather than de
nounce. " At Northampton, near by, two generations be
fore, Jonathan Edwards, though he so preached that the
older people clutched the sides of the pews to keep
them from sliding into the pit, failed to persuade the
young to live in chastity and decency, gave the attempt
up in despair and went away leaving the town unclean."
With the echoes of these imprecations still in his
ears, witnessing a church discipline which demanded
public penitential confessions of immorality, under a
pulpit which omitted all ethical application, there was
a charm in the contrast offered by Dr. Channing s
gentle and exalted utterance on " the dignity of human
nature." Frederic s convictions were the result of
early impressions, of environment and reaction against
ecclesiastical intolerance, but they were none the less
seriously considered and prayerfully determined. One
feeling was predominant when he sent his request for
admission to the Harvard Divinity School, that his
mind should be kept open towards all new light and
all new truth which might enter it.
In order to regain his strength after the weeks of
fever he took a short excursion into Connecticut with
his parents and elder sister, and then accepted a position
to teach in the charming hill town of Warwick, in
Massachusetts, near the New Hampshire border. The
healthful air was one object, to aid his convalescence,
and another a desire to provide for himself in the ex
penses of a professional course. He found a pleasant
welcome from the Rev. Preserved Smith, a man emi
nent for his interest in education.
^ Writing to his mother September 14th, 1839,
Frederic says :
THE DIVINE COMMISSION 47
" Mr. Smith s family make me very welcome there
and it seems more like home than any other place. He
has a superior library, and music of a tolerable quality.
The old lady is particularly kind, one of the earth s
excellent. Of the scenery the external world, as it
strikes my fancy, I cannot say enough in the way of
admiration. It is romantic, perhaps not beautiful yet
the immediate vicinity is neat and cultivated. But the
mountains, and they are close by, are glorious; their
sides covered with dense green forests or rich pasturage,
and their rounded tops much of the time covered with
sunlight, while the valleys are shaded. I revel in the
wildness of scenery mingled with the cultivated, morn
ing, noon and night.
" By making regular divisions of my time I accom
plish out of school, no inconsiderable amount of read
ing, both in English, Latin and French, besides walk
ing, and rambling over the hills. I must not omit to
tell you that I have been requested by the Franklin
County Board of Education to give a lecture in four
towns in this vicinity this Autumn. My fellow lecturers
are Rev. Mr. Everett and Rev. Mr. Smith. I hesitated
awhile on account of the tallness of my company, but
they were urgent and I accepted. My subject is Moral
Instruction.
The pupils in the academy were bright young
people, and the families with whom their schoolmaster
thus became acquainted remained valued friends.
Throughout his life the memories of those pleasant
weeks in Warwick with the Pomeroys, Lathrops,
Balls, Spooners, Wheelocks, and Russells were among
those which he loved to recall, and in his later years
Bishop Huntington made a journey each summer to
48 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
* renew with some of the few who remained, the friendly
intercourse of the past.
The month of October of the year 1839 proved a sad
one for the home household. Nearly every member had
suffered from the prevailing fever since midsummer.
October 9th, his mother writes: "Thanks to the
Father of our Mercies we are all able to walk about
the house and to walk out of doors a little, and to ride
out in this delightful Autumnal air, all excepting our
dear Mary who has at last been obliged to quit her
labors of love and care of the sick and herself to be the
object of our solicitude."
Five days later the beloved sister was taken, as her
mother writes of her, "rich in faith, rich in hope,
rich in good works her mind is clear as light. Her
life how pure and excellent."
To the favorite brother, whose aspirations she had
often kindled, whose high-souled sympathy had
responded to hers, it was an especial loss. In a letter to
his brother Edward, October 21st, he says: "Is it not
an evidence that our family affections are a part of
religion that they are immortal that while other
objects lose their fascination and we seem to take a
firmer hold on futurity, even then our attachment to
each other becomes deeper ? "
The term in Warwick closed before Thanksgiving.
That annual festival Frederic passed with his family
in their bereaved home and then joined the junior
class at the Cambridge Theological School.
DIVINITY COLLEGE.
CAMBRIDGE, Dec. 5th.
MY DEAR MOTHER : Finding myself somewhat
settled, I thus comply with your earnest request, and at
THE DIVINE COMMISSION 49
the same time discharge a positive duty. The journey
was not rendered very disagreeable by the tempestuous
weather without, the cars being provided, as you
know, with all the comforts of a parlor. Mr. Child *
was extremely entertaining. His extensive travels,
his close habits of observation, his peculiar views in
politics and domestic economy, his thorough and
practical education all combine to make him a man
of remarkable powers in conversation. A truer aboli
tionist I suspect never lived.
Here I am in old Harvard. It is the place of all
places, for study. My room has a pleasant location,
looking towards Charlestown and Boston hand
somely furnished, carpeted and papered. The articles
I brought are coming into very valuable use, though
the sheets and pillowcases are superfluous, these
being supplied by a benevolent sisterhood in Cam
bridge. All the men in the Hall seemed gratified to
see me and things wear a very kindly aspect. The peo
ple I have seen are the families of Dr. Ware, Jun.,
and Mrs. Howe; I shall call at Prof. Pierce s soon.
In one week s time I hope to stand square with my
classmates in the studies meantime I recite with
the rest. I have just been to hear a lecture from Mr.
Adam the distinguished Orientalist.
As the season opened he describes Cambridge,
"becoming with the rich foliage and full blossoms of
the Spring a perfect Paradise. Do not allow your
selves any sort of anxiety respecting my habits of
exercise. Our hall is surrounded by a very salubrious
1 The husband of Lydia Maria Child, the well-known author of
anti-slavery literature.
50 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
as well as a very spiritual atmosphere. And we do not
allow ourselves here to forget the care of the physical
man. A game of ball occupies us an hour or two of
every day. Our gardens furnish us with plenty of
amusement besides, and two or three walks weekly to
Boston three and a half miles distant, and elsewhere,
make up you will perceive, quite a little amount of
labor. I never felt more vigor in my life. Even the sea
winds, which to other dwellers on the coast are so dis
agreeable, are to me only fresh and pleasant breezes.
" I find our secluded spot as calm, as favorable to
study and devotion as ever. If one does not practice
the virtues and draw near to God, here, where there
is no collision of passions and so few of the temptations
that beset our busy life, I don t know where he can
expect to do it. In study, however, I am aware, there
are dangers likewise dangers that spring from the
study itself.
" May strength be given us to resist them success
fully. There is One who is strong and ready to give
counsel and guidance and wisdom itself."
The country youth had entered a new intellectual
world. Through practice in the Amherst debating
clubs, he had become a master in forensic oratory
and his soul was fired with interest in the subjects of the
day, especially the reforms which were then fresh in
men s minds and dividing society into hostile camps.
In the curriculum of the Divinity School Friday even
ing discussions on stated subjects were prescribed.
Among the set of men who gathered there enthusiasm
did not flourish. Educated in the calm and cultivated
atmosphere of Boston Unitarianism, they felt no such
hot antagonism to Calvinism as that which stirred one
THE DIVINE COMMISSION 51
who was reared under its forbidding aspects. Hunt-
ington distinguished himself among them, not only
by the brilliancy of his style, but by his intense ardor
for the side he espoused and his aptness in utterance.
One element in the persuasiveness of his eloquent
words was their fine intonation and perfectly modu
lated delivery. Long afterward a fellow student re
called vividly the impression of a summer afternoon,
in the shade and stillness of Divinity Avenue, when
sitting in his room he became spellbound, listening
from across the hall to the rich musical inflections of
Huntington s voice, as he read aloud one of Marti-
neau s sermons. Successful as he then proved himself
to be in extemporaneous speaking, it was a gift which
in after years he held to be fraught with danger, and
those whom he instructed in pulpit methods will recall
the warnings, which increased in old age, against
preaching without most careful preparation.
In spite of his early readiness in disputation, he never
showed a taste for controversy for its own sake. His
chief endeavor was to state a subject clearly, and he
cared less to overthrow an adversary, or to convince
an audience by a process of reasoning, than to enforce
by lucid and persuasive exposition the appeal which
the truth makes to the conscience of men. In the in
tellectual atmosphere of the university the charm of
literature cast its spell around him. He drank deep at
the sources of noble English. Coleridge, De Quincey,
and Carlyle were the new writers who were influencing
the minds of that generation, and their works impressed
him profoundly.
Much poetry, now familiar to us, was then a delight
fully new experience. To his mother, bereaved in the
52 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
loss of the beloved daughter, he writes, asking her to
accept a volume just published.
"Its very title promises something like sympathy
to the mourner. Yet, solemn as are the Voices of the
Night, they breathe comfort and encouragement for
the labors of the day. Many of them I have committed
to memory. In many respects I like the piece called
Flowers, better than any other in the book." This
was a favorite to the end of his life, and his fondness
for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow s poems and for
William Cullen Bryant s, carrying with them early
associations, never yielded to the great masters of
verse, across the sea. From youth to old age, even to
a few weeks before his end, "The Waning Moon"
was frequently repeated with deep feeling.
The first real contact of the young man with sinning
souls came through the work in the city institutions,
which was part of the training of the divinity students.
This formed the only outlet for active sympathy, in a
rather isolated course of study and reflection.
CAMBRIDGE, April 4, 1840.
To EDWARD PHELPS HUNTINGTON.
In that you study serenely and are absorbed thereby
you resemble me. More and more I become careless of
society. When I look at it I see little but a subject of
pity or laughter. Having discovered where the springs
are I hope by and by to make an effort to touch them.
Criticism, Evidences, Pulpit Oratory, these are our
regular topics at present. I am engaged just now in a
course of Civil History somewhat extended. The
walks about here are delightful, and I improve them.
Esq. Time is leading Spring in, in a very gentlemanly
THE DIVINE COMMISSION 53
way, and though winter occasionally blusters and
sprinkles a little snow in his laughing sister s pathway,
she enervates him with one of her warm sighs.
My room has a Western view very fine, embra
cing the garden belonging to the school, the village of
C., high grounds beyond with pleasant villas, and then
the blue of the mountains melts into the softer blue of
the sky that embraces them. The garden we have the
privilege of cultivating.
Our preaching is of the highest order. Of course
we can find such hereabouts. Dr. Walker and Dr.
Channing are the two great ones and Prof. Ware is not
far behind. I usually attend in the City in the morning,
as I instruct every Sabbath before the services in one
of the Prisons. I find many characters there that in
terest me; humanity although in ruins, and Faith
hidden under a mass of degradation. The men seem
quite willing to learn and to think the women are
doubtful.
The Transcendental Movement had its attractions.
It is interesting to compare the impressions of the
youth with the ripe judgment of the scholar fifty years
later.
CAMBRIDGE, May 16, 1840.
MY DEAR MOTHER: In his late kind letter Father
alludes to the agitation of new opinions that now so
extensively occupies the attention of liberal Christians.
It is emphatically the great Theological question of the
day. It is not altogether, though too much, a question
of words and quiddities. I am satisfied in my investi
gations thus far that there is truth, some new truth in
this system of self-styled spiritualism.
54 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
Do not imagine I am at all beguiled with the tinsel,
the pretended intellectual character of German Tran
scendentalism. I never was so far from that as at this
moment. I only wish to make it a subject of fair,
honest, intelligent inquiry. It will hardly do to call
Transcendentalists fools, for they number some
able minds. I find that the system was first drawn out
by Kant in Germany the most unexceptionable
man in doctrine that the sect has perhaps contained.
In the hands of Fichte, Hegel and Schelling it became
more atheistic. In England it has been more a subject
of philosophy than of Theology. Coleridge like Goethe
has interwoven it in his poetry. Carlyle acknowledges
an idealistic Pantheism and probably Emerson would
do the same. There are few such however among
American Spiritualists. They still hold to the strict
Personality of the Deity and other essential features
of Christianity. They have their meetings conversa
tions etc., about here, often calling themselves Philoso
phers.
Emerson and Alcott mystify, Ripley spiritualizes,
Stetson jokes, Very poetizes etc., Norton stands out
against them and receives pamphlets and other squibs
with perfect composure. I fear he is not altogether
charitable, however. I have met Rev. T. Parker once ;
he preaches in a Church in Roxbury, is a Spiritualist,
a distinguished scholar and clever man.
Nearly half a century later Bishop Huntington
wrote: "From 1835 to 1840, a movement was felt
which was to affect palpably American thought, lit
erature and faith. Its influence was exerted primarily
in Unitarian circles, but reached thinking men in
THE DIVINE COMMISSION 55
New York, Philadelphia and St. Louis. Under the
name of Transcendentalism it introduced, chiefly
from German Schools, the intuitional Philosophy,
not only discrediting experimentalism, and the de
ductive process generally, but proposing inevitably a
new method in the evidences of Christianity, Biblical
criticism, the testing of creeds, and the spiritual life.
Naturally enough the incoming wave found easy ad
mission in Unitarian ranks, where liberty was already
a cardinal principle. Immediate fruits were the Norton
and Ripley debates on Spinoza and Pantheism, the
Dial, Theodore Parker s transfer from the suburbs
to a Boston lecture hall, the coterie grouped about
Emerson and Margaret Fuller, and a division of the
Unitarian preachers and people into a conservative
and progressive party. A remoter and better conse
quence, as the way of Providence is apt to be with
sincere reforms, was a permanent modification of
theological habits in various Protestant leaders, a
widening of the grounds of Christian belief, a fresh
ening of dry fountains of discourse, and the dismem
berment of a barren cause. Such attending phenomena
as individual or partisan extravagance, over-statement,
ill-temper, a provincial cant, an imitative Germanized
style corrupting good English would be transient.
" To eager and open-minded young scholars those
were interesting days. Every week brought some new
contribution to the local excitement. Emerson preached
his aphoristic sermon before the graduating class of
the Divinity School. Was it Pantheism or not ? Henry
Ware and his coadjutors said it was little or no better.
Doctors Francis, Stetson, Ripley and others said it
was a sure prophecy from a divine oracle. Clubs
56 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
met and sat up late. Translations from German meta
physics, poets, and commentators were on parlor centre-
tables. Bright women recruited the intuitional contin
gent. Brook Farm attempted to apply the foreign
illumination to Yankee industry and the solution of
labor questions by an improved Fourierism, drawing
companies from the region round about to brilliant
symposia, but under a financial necessity presently
folded its tents and silently stole away. Sartor Re-
sartus and Carlyle s subsequent writings were then
and for some time after the popular reading for under
graduates and self-educated students all over the land.
More than that, they were stirring in multitudes a sense
of the radical difference in all moral and religious and
social action between appearance and reality, letter
and spirit, make-believe and self-forgetful earnestness.
The increase was not all solid gold. When much rub
bish is suddenly cast out, there is always risk that some
new rubbish will be taken in." l
The letter written to the Hadley home, May, 1840,
called forth some words of warning from his father, to
which he replied at length.
CAMBRIDGE, May 30.
To THE REV. DAN HUNTINGTON.
My dear Father: This has been the week of
Anniversaries in the City. Many of them I attended
with interest. Of course the Conference of Unitarian
clergymen was the most important in my view. The
information laid before that body was cheering, the
spirit manifested was excellent, the discussions able
and candid. Among other questions that of "New
1 The Forum, June, 1886.
THE DIVINE COMMISSION 57
Views" came up and was freely discussed by Revs.
Ripley, Hedge, Osgood and Stetson, from the new
party; and Gannett, Pierpont, Hall and Hill from the
old.
I thank you sincerely for the excellent cautions in
your late letter and I took the liberty of reading them
to a friend or two. As to the merits of the questions
at issue, I know as yet, but little. I wish to examine
both sides cautiously, intelligently and fairly. At the
present point, I can say that I think there is truth in
all views that the excesses and marked peculiarities
of Transcendentalism are all humbug; not however
because they are new, for I suppose new truths will be
forever breaking upon men s souls, and that men should
always stand ready to receive them.
The weather here has been extremely hot this week,
the thermometer mounting to 96. It must be fine
weather for crops. H. told me the other day that he
never saw the river valley more beautiful. Would that
I could look in upon it!
You inquire kindly about funds. I am in no want
at present. Expenses here are small. Perhaps I had
best take a school in the Fall, though that term will be
a very interesting one here on many accounts and im
portant too.
Please express yourself more fully respecting what
you think best for me. I am your boy still, though I
was twenty-one day before yesterday.
With the truest love and the most affectionate re
membrance of all, your dutiful son, FREDERIC.
The privilege of hearing eminent preachers was one
which the young student especially valued. Among
58 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
these whom he enjoyed, in addition to others already
mentioned, were Dr. Orville Dewey, Dr. Ezra Stiles
Gannett, Dr. Francis Greenwood, and Dr. George
Putnam.
He was at first much impressed by Theodore Parker,
" so much talked of now, a noble man, eloquent, bold
and in earnest, and a scholar withal and as spiritual-
minded as the best of his frightened accusers." This
in July, 1840. The following year, July, 1841, he writes
his mother : " Nothing agitates the community in this
region at present so deeply as Parker s sermon. My
own unimportant view of the matter, so far as I have
thought upon it is this. Mr. Parker was unfortunate,
if not blamable, in selecting, as the occasion of bring
ing out opinions so new, an ordination of a minister
by other ministers of an existing sect whose opinions
he must have known to differ materially from his own.
He has embarrassed the Unitarian body gratuitously
and without right or authority to do so." He was, how
ever, at that time, impressed with Theodore Parker s
fervor and eloquence and ready to give him credit
for fearlessness and sincerity.
To his brother he sends an account of experience in
another line of doctrinal utterance.
DEAR NED : I might have been seen, a few even
ings since in one of the galleries of Park St. church.
Persons were one by one quietly taking their places
in the different parts of the house. The few lamps that
were lighted burned somewhat dimly and waveringly.
I had just concluded an animated whisper conversa
tion with a young German Mystic, dismissed now from
respect to gathering assembly, Then the deep double
THE DIVINE COMMISSION 59
bass of the organ, with a full choir pealed forth the
following, imitating the idea of the third and fourth
lines, till the building shook to its foundations:
" See the storm of vengeance gathering
O er the path you dare to tread !
Hear the awful thunders rolling,
Loud and louder o er your head !
Turn O sinner ! "
And now rose the elegant form of the celebrated
Presbyterian clergyman, Mr. Kirk. Of him it is
enough to say he is an eloquent man, a man of superior
talent, but a poor theologian.
In the same epistle he concludes: "The Fourth
with its foolery, its flags, its parades, its false patriotism
and its pitiable confusion has gone away; and it has
been succeeded by the holier hours on which we cele
brate a nobler than a nation s birth even a world s
the calm, the peaceful commemoration of the resur
rection of the Prince of Peace and of the birth of man s
hope of immortality. To the spirit of that mighty Mes
senger of the Message he brought, I cannot help con
sidering the shoutings and shootings as directly opposed.
They breathe of war and passions, of the senses and sin,
of forgetfulness of the spiritual element of our nature.
" Our term is nearly finished. I think I may say, I
never accomplished a greater amount of work in the
same time. On casting up the pages I have read and
studied since the first of March, I find they amount to
about eleven thousand, besides writing, debating and
other things. A vacation is quite in place and I am de
lighted with your proposition to move among the hay
makers. On Saturday I intend to go to Northampton.
60 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
Cannot we meet the week after ? Keep cool. The Lord
bless you. Yours changelessly, one of the friends whose
pride you are."
The course which the student of divinity pursued at
Cambridge was, as he himself afterwards recalled it,
one " of which it may be safely said that at that time a
favorable opportunity for outlook and quiet study was
the chief advantage, rather than the curriculum and
the chairs." During the spring of 42 he writes to his
parents : " Judging from present appearances we are
likely to be left in the school, as is apt to be the case
here, very much to the guidance of our own impulses.
Is it not well that we are such safe young men ? "
Dr. Henry Ware had become emeritus. His son,
Dr. Henry Ware, Jun., an excellent and distinguished
man, was in failing health, and this was the last class
which had the benefit of his instruction. In October,
1840: "Our new professor Dr. Noyes has com
menced his duties. He seems to be a thoroughly schol
arly man, and will doubtless be much liked." In
ecclesiastical history the students seemed quite inde
pendent. "My plan is to take a single idea, a single
thought, as for example, the idea of the freedom of the
will, the idea of a Catholic Church, of the Trinity, of
the Reformation, of Quakerism, and trace it first to
its original starting-place as nearly as possible and then
follow out the history of that idea, in all its develop
ment and modifications and applications through all
the periods of Church History. I think it is most phil
osophical to follow such a course, and the knowledge
thus gained is more available."
Although it was out of the regular system for students
to preach while at the Divinity School, permission
THE DIVINE COMMISSION 61
was granted to do so in certain cases and Mr. Hunt-
ington seems to have given his first sermon at the
House of Correction in East Cambridge, March 22nd,
1841.
During the following summer he ministered to a
little flock of " Liberal Christians " who gathered in a
lonely schoolhouse on the hills above the Connecticut
Valley. The building still stands in the town of
Leverett, as humble and remote as it was sixty years
ago-
Several years after, when the young minister of the
South Congregational church in Boston was in the
height of his activity, his father writes of this worthy
little band to whom he himself had been ministering:
"They have given very good attendance. A number
of them have spoken of you in a very friendly manner.
They seem to take something to themselves for having
broken a colt, that bids so fair to run a good race. I
hope their honest pride may be duly appreciated."
Huntington was at this same time teaching for a
second autumn term in the neighboring village of
Warwick, renewing his old associations, riding daily
one of his father s horses and laying aside means to
complete his theological course. He delivered some
educational and lyceum lectures in the adjoining
towns, and during the following winter vacation
preached occasionally in the small Unitarian parishes
on the river, where his father was in the habit of sup
plying the pulpit.
At times he assisted at King s Chapel in Boston by
reading the service for Rev. Dr. Greenwood. This was
his earliest acquaintance with a liturgical form of
worship.
62 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
CAMBRIDGE, April 8, 1842.
DEAR EDWARD : All your criticisms upon per
formance in the pulpit and upon the clerical office are
full of interest to me. You cannot well imagine the
eagerness with which I look about for different styles
and the success, the excellencies, the blemishes in each.
Putnam of Roxbury is our greatest preacher now in
the country. He is simple, direct, nervous, chaste,
eloquent. James F. Clarke is one of the best and most
original thinkers.
Our class are preaching Sunday evenings in the
village church here. My connection with Mr. Young s
Sunday-school is a source of a great deal of interesting
and, I trust, profitable labor. If I were employed with
the children I should feel myself to be taken from my
more important studies. But my office concerns rather
the teachers whom I meet at their houses on the
evenings of week-days for conversations, religious,
theological, critical. They are unrestrained, sociable
and sensible. Some of these ladies (there is only one
gentleman and he is silent as a post) are very talented
and very cultivated belong to the " first circles "
(a horrid expression) and often write beautiful essays.
To be the instructor of such persons requires a man
to have his wits about him, at least.
During the senior year at the Divinity School he
served as superintendent of. the Sunday-school con
nected with the society of Rev. Alexander Young,
at Church Green in Boston. In this position he was
the successor of Rufus Ellis, one year in advance of
him at Cambridge. Rev. Mr. Ellis became pastor of the
household at Elm Valley, during his ministry at the
THE DIVINE COMMISSION 63
Unitarian church in Northampton. Of his first visit to
the town, with his friend Huntington, he afterwards
wrote in strains of delightful retrospect.
" It was a beautiful day in the earliest autumn,
when two of us, fellow students at C. climbed up to
the seat behind the driver on the old Putts-Bridge
Stage, which made the connection in those days be
tween the Western Railroad and Northampton. Long
ago in my earliest childhood, I had seen Holyoke and
Tom, but the visions had passed into dreamland, out
of which they seemed to come naturally enough that
refulgent summer; and when we drew up at length at
the Mansion House, after crossing the ferry at Hock-
anum and driving none too slowly through the rich
unfenced meadows, came back the associations of the
time when it was filled with summer strangers and the
parents of Round Hill scholars. . . .
" How many walks, how many Sundays followed !
How many houses became homes, and would still, I
think. Shall I ever have time to carry on these chapters ?
to -take some one with me to my first Association,
(pronounced then by the elders in that region without
the second syllable, Assciation ) to go over in some
congenial company to see those dear old saints in Had-
ley; that calm old man, quietly farming and theologiz
ing upon his broad rich meadow, not knowing what a
stir the son who returned on that Saturday for his va
cation was destined to make in our Zion; that true
Christian woman his wife, that courtly and melancholy
and wise and large-minded gentleman under the ever
greens in the brown house opposite." *
The two households thus affectionately mentioned
1 Memoir of Rufus Ellis.
64 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
by one who was their minister for ten years, were those
of Rev. Dan Huntington and Major Charles Phelps.
The latter, Mrs. Huntington s only brother, had
passed some years of his life in Boston, where he mar
ried first a niece and then a daughter of Chief Justice
Theophilus Parsons. He was admitted to the bar,
elected a representative of the General Court from
Boston, and served as commander of the celebrated
company of cavalry, the Hussars, his immediate pre
decessor being Josiah Quincy. In 1816 he removed his
family to Hadley, where he built a commodious house,
"Pine Grove." In the town and county he distin
guished himself as an influential public officer, member
at different times of both houses in the legislature,
a valued counsellor and an upright .and honorable
gentleman. It was by him that the "Oliver Smith
Will" was drawn, leaving a large fortune to be in
vested for charitable purposes, which are widely
known as " The Smith Charities." The suit instituted
by the heirs to break the will became famous through
the celebrated lawyers engaged by the opposing parties.
Daniel Webster, with his majestic presence and his
overpowering weight of argument, won the case, but
the brilliant eloquence of his opponent, Rufus Choate,
and his glowing description of the scenery of the
Connecticut Valley, was never forgotten by those who
crowded the Northampton courthouse that sum
mer s day of 1847. It was an occasion which Mr.
Huntington, an interested listener, often afterwards
described with inimitable effect.
Major Phelps spent the later years of his life at his
Hadley home in complete retirement. Through their
connections in Boston, and educational advantages,
THE DIVINE COMMISSION 65
as well as owing to their tastes and temperament, his
children grew up to be a family of unusual culture and
proved congenial neighbors to the cousins at Elm
Valley. Two sons, Francis, a successful teacher of
boys, and Arthur, who was for some time connected
with the customhouse, became leading members of
the New Church (Swedenborgian) in Boston. The
third daughter, Caroline, married Stephen Greenleaf
Bulfinch, a Unitarian clergyman, son of the eminent
architect and himself a scholar and poet.
It was not without some struggles and inward ques
tioning that Huntington remained to complete his
course in Cambridge. The Divinity School was in a
transition state, his resources were restricted, and only
through extra work and close economy could he avoid
becoming an expense to his father. At the same time
there were attractive opportunities already open to one
who was gifted in speech and eager to enter active
life in the world. But sober judgment won the day,
setting the true value upon thorough and painstaking
preparation for service. In after years his sympathies
were especially stirred for young men struggling to
secure an education through their own exertions.
The annual visitation of the Divinity School took
place July, 1842, on which occasion he received the
certificate of a theological education and read a dis
sertation entitled, "The Comparative Prospects of
Romanism and Protestantism." At the request of Rev.
Dr. Gannett, then editor of the " Monthly Miscellany
of Religion and Letters," the paper was afterwards
printed in that magazine.
His character had matured in these three years of
study. He had entered as a country youth, little ac-
66 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
quainted with the great world of letters and of men.
From books and study he had gained much, to men
of learning he had listened attentively and profited
by their teaching. But his convictions were acquired
through independence of thought, and he carried away
from his theological course the same open spirit with
which he had entered it. If one word could sum up
the quality of his nature, it would be reality. He was
eager in his search for truth and single-minded in his
purpose to interpret honestly the message revealed to
him.
An evidence of this direction of his intellectual
aspiration is found in the subject he selected for the
"Master s Oration" which he delivered at Amherst
College: "A Sincere Belief the Source of a True Life."
It was at this Commencement, July 28, 1842, that he
received his degree of A.M. , a few weeks after his final
departure from Cambridge.
CHAPTER III
THE FIRST CALL
" There are two things that they need to possess who go on pilgrim
age : courage and an unspotted life."
IT has been made evident that there was no hesitation
in Mr. Huntington s mind, after his choice was first
determined, as to his calling to enter the sacred min
istry. His inclinations were equally distinct toward
parish work. The seven years of study, happy as they
were, prepared him to enter all the more eagerly upon
the active life of a pastor. From the beginning he was
earnest to reach the souls of poor as well as rich, to
come near the toiling masses ; and his father s proposal
to him to take charge of a little flock in one of the
pleasant villages of the Connecticut Valley, did not
accord with this ideal.
It was not in his character to look out for a set
tlement, or to concern himself as to the best open
ing for the future. But there were members of
the Unitarian denomination in Boston already in
terested to retain in that vicinity a promising can
didate. The first entry in the record of Sunday minis
tration, kept afterward without break for sixty-two
years, is :
"After leaving the Divinity School, July 17, 1842.
Jamaica Plain A. M. and P. M."
68 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
This might have led to a permanent engagement,
in accordance with the plans of friends, if he had
not already agreed to furnish a temporary supply for
some weeks at the South Congregational society.
This parish, situated on Washington Street at the
South End, was reduced in numbers and prosperity,
but it offered an opportunity for future growth. It
was placed among comfortable homes, and yet near
the crowded districts of the poorer tenements. The
region towards Roxbury was a pleasant one, but it did
not possess the oldtime attraction of the North End,
or the social prestige of Beacon Hill. Although the
edifice was not situated in a public centre, within
near reach of city crowds, it was on a main thorough
fare, was sufficiently spacious, and well adapted to
parish work. To this field an invitation was extended
on August 7, 1842, before Mr. Huntington had com
pleted the term of his temporary charge. It was a
call to usefulness, and he accepted without long delay,
entering upon his duties a few weeks later.
UNITED STATES HOTEL,
July 19, 1842.
To EDWARD PHELPS HUNTINGTON.
Dearly beloved Brother: Last Sunday I preached
for the first time as a real preacher, at Jamaica Plain.
Such a world of artistic and natural beauty I am sure
I never was in before. They invited me from one coun
try seat to another, and from one garden of fruits and
flowers to another, till I was almost bewildered, as if
in fairyland. The famous Community too, near there,
was looked at. Dwight hoes corn Sundays. Some sail,
some walk, some hear Parker preach. The general
THE FIRST CALL 69
feeling with which I came away was one of sadness and
commiseration.
Nearly forty years later Bishop Huntington wrote
of the Brook Farm experiment: "This was .a sanguine
attempt of Mr. Ripley, and a few of his friends, to
embody in a mc/dified form, on a large tract of land,
some of the better suggestions of the French Com
munists, to give everybody something to do in some
bucolic fashion, to afford a convenient rally ing-place
for the symposia of the coming reformers of religion,
literature, society, and so to offer a model of respectable,
cultured Christian Fourierism, with Fourier and much
of his nonsense left out. Fine times they had there
beyond question, with much that was pure and sincere
and lofty in aspiration and conversation, and much
that was sentimental, crude and ridiculous. Theodore
Parker used to come often across the pastures to talk
with such good company, the farm lying within the
precincts of his parish. Of an evening the group would
include very much the same persons, not a few of them
already or afterwards eminent, that had been accus
tomed to gather in the parlors of Mrs. Farrar in Cam
bridge, Mrs. Parkman in Boston, or at Mr. Emer
son s own house in Concord, or that contributed prose
or verse, or Orphic sayings which were neither, to the
pages of the Dial. Central in the circle, and always
oracular in speech, each on a separate tripod, were
Bronson Alcott, Margaret Fuller, and Mr. Emerson.
"Hawthorne occasionally looked in, in his silent
observant way, but did not commit himself. Of the
young listeners and enthusiastic seekers were Wheeler
and Bartlett, Jones Very, J. S. Dwight the musician
70 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
and the lady he married, George W. Curtis and a few
foreigners. So the experiment went on, hastening to
dissolution and moribund from the start. If there were
affinities, so were there antipathies and repulsions.
Queer people, impracticable people, disagreeable peo
ple, in short bores and dunces, always attach themselves
to novel combinations of that sporadic sort. Mr. Ripley
was no quartermaster, organizer or financier. The
turnips and potatoes languished while the builders
of the Future cultivated literature on a little oatmeal.
The weeds grew rank while the unanxious husband
men discussed the Vedas, recited Schiller, laid down
the principles of every one of the fine arts, or pondered
the problems of the universe. Before very long that
pleasant place of cattle and corn and poultry knew
them no more. The leader of the enterprise went to
the Tribune office, Mr. Curtis in due time to his
editorial chair, the rest hither and thither to seek their
bread. Another was added to the long list of com
munistic failures, God having clearly ordained that
his sons and daughters shall dwell in families, and that
the laws of life and duty, labor and thrift, responsi
bility and increase, shall not be abrogated by the
dreams of dreamers, however amiable or honest or
gifted they may be."
It has been seen that neither literary nor social in
clination led Mr. Huntington among the followers of
Transcendentalism. He threw himself from the first
heart and soul into the work of building up his church,
and beyond his parish visits his leisure was spent in
an acquaintance which ripened into something deeper
than friendship. The Bible class which he had con
ducted during the winter of 1842 in Rev. Mr. Young s
THE FIRST CALL 71
society proved to be of supreme personal importance
since it was here that he first met his future wife,
one of the teachers in the Sunday-school and an ear
nest member of the congregation. The engagement
which took place in September could not fail to arouse
a good deal of interest, as it followed so closely the
young minister s introduction to his field of labor.
Hannah Dane Sargent was only nineteen years old,
and one of a large family of brothers and sisters. In
communicating his happiness to his brother Edward,
Mr. Huntington writes : " Her father, Epes Sargent, is
a merchant in the foreign trade. Her brothers you
must know something of, Epes is a literary man by
profession former editor of the New World,
author of Velasco, and many other things. John O.
has been the editor of the Courier and Inquirer and
, *
of the Boston Atlas is now a lawyer in New York.
The family is large, refined, affectionate and a little
proud. Gen. Lincoln of the Revolution was her great
grandfather."
The letter announcing to his parents his prospects
of marriage was entrusted to his brother Charles, at
that time a member of the General Court, to take back
when he returned to his home in Northampton. These
were still the days when it was an object to send mis
sives by private hand. Delays and disappointments
naturally resulted from the system of entrusting cor
respondence to the chance transportation of friends and
neighbors. One often finds in reading the old epistles
that some recognition or word of sympathy eagerly
looked for by the absent one was hindered by a slight
circumstance or a change of plan of the travelers
going back and forth. For some years Rev. Dan Hunt-
72 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
ington held the office of postmaster in the village of
North Hadley, employing the assistance of his sons,
for a nominal salary which included the privilege of
sending mail matter exempt from postage, an item of
importance to so large a family.
The parents from Hadley had visited Boston during
" Anniversary Week " of the previous spring, enjoying
as usual the gatherings for philanthropy and religious
objects, but they made the journey again in October, to
meet their son s promised bride and to attend his
installation.
The ordination services of Mr. Frederic D. Hunt-
ington, as pastor of the South Congregational Church
and Society, took place on the evening of the 19th of
October, 1842. The introductory prayer was by the
Rev. Chandler Robbins; selections from Scripture
were read by Rev. James F. Clarke 1 ; the sermon was
delivered by the Rev. George Putnam; prayer of
ordination offered by Rev. N. L. Frothingham; the
charge by the Rev. Dan Huntington, the venerable
father of the candidate ; the right hand of fellowship
was extended by Rev. J. I. T. Coolidge, an intimate
friend and classmate at Cambridge ; the address to the
society made by Rev. George E. Ellis, and the conclud
ing prayer offered by Rev. H. W. Bellows.
The young pastor s active sympathies and strong
sense of social responsibility rendered the calls of a
city parish inspiring, and his spiritual nature found
deep satisfaction in the opportunity for kindling souls
to the higher life.
He wrote to his brother: "The ordination exercises,
as you will learn by the Transcript and the Times,
were interesting and eloquent to a most unusual degree.
THE FIRST CALL 73
Father s charge seems to have been quite the lion of the
occasion. Boston people think him a splendid gentle
man of the old School. The hymns were compiled by
me, principally from Bryant, Kirk White, Norton,
Frothingham and Pierpont.
" No longer am I, as heretofore, my own man. God
help me to be a servant of my people and of his Truth.
My introductory sermons are on The influence of
worship on duty and The mission and office of the
Christian minister, in the present age. "
October, 1842.
DEAR AND KIND MOTHER: Your letter, full of
comfort and pleasing and strengthening and enliven
ing words, must receive but a short reply. I have never
known before what real duties are. All the day I have
been attending to the printing press (preparing the
Ordination exercises for the public) and visiting the
sick and afflicted. I take these first in my parish calls,
because I think they have the first claim. A sermon is
yet to be written before Sunday, and a child on that
day is to be baptized in the church.
Wednesday, the girl in whom "new wisdom every
hour I see " and who certainly has a depth of spiritual
beauty and gentle feeling and refined thought that I
did not half understand when I first gave myself to her
rode with me to Hingham. The occasion at Co-
hasset was well. Thursday we came back. Her friends
the Lincolns, 1 have just such a home as our own,
1 The mother of Hannah Dane Sargent was Mary Otis Lincoln,
a grand-daughter of General Benjamin Lincoln whose ancient man
sion in Hingham is above referred to. It was then, and is still the
property of one branch of the family.
74 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
the same air of comfort and ease and old-fashioned
enjoyment and furniture.
U. S. HOTEL,
BOSTON, Jan. 18, 43.
MY DEAR MOTHER : I am not quite so much hur
ried, I hope I never shall be as to cut me off from
communing with my friends. Among all my duties and
engagements 1 I imagine I shall always keep one va
cant place sacred at least for my mother and father, and
I should be rather surprised if it should not be kept
large enough to include my sisters and brothers.
I send the "Examiner" containing an excellent
article by Mr. Henry Ware, on Peace. It belongs to
Edward and is sent to you because I know you would
like to read it.
In the parish we seem to labor not altogether in
vain ; if we grew in grace as rapidly as in numbers, we
should soon come to the perfect measure. Last Sab
bath evening my Missionary sermon was followed up
by a meeting, and a Committee of ten chosen to visit
the whole congregation and solicit subscriptions. We
shall have a contribution besides from those who don t
like to subscribe. The whole day Communion
Sunday was peculiarly happy and prospered. We
have social Teachers meetings once a month and
meetings for religious instruction and conversation, of
all who will attend, once a fortnight. These are at
tended with great interest at private houses. Last
Monday, a stormy evening, the house was full to over-
1 During the winter of the year 1843 Mr. Huntington was chap
lain of the Legislature, in connection with Rev. Edward N. Kirk, it
being the policy at that time to select one from the Unitarian and
one from the Orthodox denominations.
THE FIRST CALL 75
flowing. The exercise consists principally of a familiar
lecture extemporaneous from myself on the N.
T. We have commenced the Gospel of John. Some
one told me that the poorer people felt ashamed to
come. Last Sabbath therefore, in as delicate a way as I
could, I gave them a particular invitation, and told the
rest of the Society somewhat bluntly, that if any of
them came to exhibit fashion or taste or any external
accomplishment they would better dress in the plainest
garb they could find or stay away altogether.
The correspondence between the two brothers had
been a close one since Frederic s college days, in spite
of the fact that Edward was the senior by twelve years.
He had not taken a college course, but had engaged in
business and was most happily married in the year
1841, and settled near Springfield. His tastes were
literary, and he entered with deep sympathy into the
details of professional work. To the great sorrow of
his family he was taken away, in a rapid decline, less
than six months after the following letter was written.
The occasion was a call to New York, from the Church
of the Messiah, inviting the Rev. Frederic Huntington
to become an associate to the Rev. Dr. Dewey, who
was out of health.
CABOTVILLE, March 1, 1843.
DEAR FREDERIC : Mr. Mills a few evenings since
made a remark illustrative of the confidence in men of
the power of money for any end, however base, which
was truly shocking. Speaking of his parish, and the
propriety of going to another in Boston to supply the
vacancy he said he had no question. The parish that
76 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
could give the most offer the greatest inducements
was entitled to the man. This idea wants to be prac
tically contradicted. Men should be disabused of this
pernicious doctrine; and it would be worth one life
to show men that other things are paramount. Are
such things esteemed folly? So is true wisdom even.
It is not tempted by a view of this world and their
glory. The proposal has been made public as if tri
umphantly, a bauble no one could refuse. The eyes of
the world are on the decision and the world says " he ll
go." But this is nothing compared to the test.
Your opportunities for study and usefulness which
are indeed things of highest regard are quite equal.
Go there and in five years you will either break down
or burn out. You know my doctrine has always been
that it is better that a man make his place shine than
that a place make the man shine. Act calmly, use
reason, take counsel of conscience and God s word.
Act so as best to promote the interests of the Gospel
you preach, not only in probable results but immediate.
God guide you: very affectionately,
EDW. P. HUNTINGTON.
The inducements and arguments to accept the in
vitation to New York could not be lightly set aside.
Miss Sargent s two brothers, Epes and John O., were
living in New York. They realized the opportunity
in that city for a young man whose talents had built
up a city parish to such unexpected numbers and
financial prosperity in a few months. The salary of
fered was comparatively large and the position a con
spicuous one in the Unitarian denomination. Rev.
Dr. Bellows, in common with influential New York
THE FIRST CALL 77
laymen, made a plea as much for the cause of liberal
Christianity as for the parish itself. It was an opening
which appealed to ambition and offered many attrac
tions. But the claims in Boston were such that Mr.
Huntington could not long hesitate. He decided that
his duty lay in the field which he had entered so short
a time before, and with a people who had generously
responded to his plans.
He writes, March 4, 1843, to John O. Sargent:
"Any man could have gone with an easier con
science than I. As it is, all is well. . . . Here my re
lations are perhaps more agreeable than before. Our
people are full of enterprise and hope and growth."
The expressions of confidence and affection for their
preacher were indeed such as to encourage him to
remain. Still preserved are letters written at that time
by three men, Jonathan Ellis, John Nazro, and David
Reed, who in urging him to stay by them gave a pledge
of hearty support which never failed. Of his people,
their pastor could say in farewell, when the final
parting came, that they were " more than friends,
the fellow-worshippers of thirteen unclouded, blessed
years; the companions of how many a secret experi
ence, how many a shaded room, where life and death
were struggling for reconciliation, how many a solemn
communion, where love and trust were gently striving
to cast out doubt and fear."
It has been said that there were few instances where
the mutual affection of minister and people was so
great. If the pulpit was conspicuous for its devotional
and uplifting character the hearers were no less earnest
in the application of the sermon to their daily lives.
The Rev. Edward E. Hale, writing of Mr. Huntington,
78 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
his immediate predecessor, called it "an intense and
eager preaching which is not satisfied until the whole
man is quickened and his life fired. At the same time
he is an organizer as he has always been. I have been
told that in college he was called, in joke, the Major
General, and I can well believe it. He did not mean
to do all the work of a church, active and eager though
he were. He meant to have its members work, and
where he led the way they followed loyally.
"Never was a ministry more successful. The
church was full; the charities were admirably ad
ministered; the Sunday-school was in perfect order.
More than this, oh so much more than this, hearts had
found living food here that had hungered and thirsted
elsewhere. Here were those who had heard no peace
elsewhere and had found it here. Here were voices
pleading with God, and finding an answer, who had
not known how to plead before. Here was sin repent
ant and forgiven. Here were exiles who had been lost
and were found. Here were those who were all alone
in a strange city and in this church, in its fellow
ship and its minister had found companionship and
a new life."
The impression Mr. Huntington s personality made
upon a casual listener is given in the following sketch,
published in the local press of the day.
" The prevailing quality of his character is exhibited
in the deep and heartfelt seriousness which pervades
his whole manner, in the solemn and impressive tones
of his voice, and in the great scope and dignity of the
thoughts he utters. The style of his composition is
elegant, refined, and polished but his innate power of
mind, strength of character and range of thought,
THE FIRST CALL 79
overwhelms and obscures, in a measure, even those
high graces of art. He seemed to us like a wise and
devout statesman, deeply versed in the study of that
greatest of all studies the riddle of the universe
human nature. He is a man fitted by the constitution
of his mind to rule among men to govern, direct, and
harmonize a society, or a community. He would
make an excellent governor of a colony. He would en
joy the respect, esteem, and confidence of his people;
and all his acts would be distinguished for their sense,
judgment, dignity and humanity."
One recognizes in this early portrait those com
manding qualities which for thirty-five years distin
guished the bishop of the Diocese of Central New
York. But far beyond any executive ability or literary
distinction was the spiritual influence of the preacher.
It is the blessed privilege of a consecrated ministry
like his to impress upon the hearts of his hearers the
reality of a personal Saviour. No negations, omissions,
or deviations in theology obscured the presentation
of the Living Redeemer as a source of holiness and
strength to those who seek Him. It was for this water
of life to thirsty souls that many orthodox believers,
from other Christian bodies, found their way on Sun
day afternoons to the corner of Castle Street, and
received religious inspiration and renewal.
On September 4, 1843, Frederic Dan Huntington
and Hannah Dane Sargent were married at the resi
dence of the bride s father in Hartford Place. The
ceremony was performed by the Rev. Alexander
Young, the family pastor. The couple took a wedding
journey, which for those days was quite extensive,
reaching Niagara Falls, visiting friends in the towns
80 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
and cities of New York State, and ending at Elm
Valley in Hadley.
Mr. Huntington preached in Albany and Rochester
to Unitarian congregations. The following character
istic letter from Rev. Dan Huntington outlines the
trip, although it was not precisely carried out as he
advises.
ELM VALLEY, Sept., 1843.
DEAR FREDERIC : As you are about to journey
through a new and interesting part of the country, I
would make the most of it as a tourist. And to that
end, I would abandon as much as possible all rail
roads, canals and steamboats. As it relates to any
pleasure as a tourist, I should about as soon take a ride
through the centre of the earth, if it were properly
perforated, as to be transported in cars or steamboats,
or any other boats. By all means get a peep at all the
villages, and hamlets, and mountains and plains, and
lakes and waterfalls, of our beautiful country as far
as possible. Let none escape, where you go. To this
end travel on the top of stages, in buggies and in cabs
and if there is no other way, trips on foot occasionally
will do you no harm.
In Rochester, make yourself known to Mrs. Backus,
the widow of Dr. Backus, my old neighbor and Presi
dent of Hamilton College. In Trenton, report yourself
to the Van der Kemps. One of them you know is a
correspondent of your mother. In Utica, report your
self to Judge Bacon, the poet, the Judge, the Philoso
pher, my classmate and correspondent, his wife one
of the lambs of my flock at Litchfield, a particular
friend of Judge Story. Make it an object to see the
great number of neat and pleasant villages about
81
Utica. When on the North river call over to Saratoga
Ballston Troy Waterford, the Minister s wife here
was Betsey Porter. Stop if you please at Pittsfield one
night, take a horse and buggy and travel up and down
the valley of the Housatonic, one of the finest tracts
of country in the world, embracing Stockbridge,
Lenox, Sheffield, Great Barrington, Lanesboro, Wil-
liamstown &c. I have not time to proceed.
Tell Hannah I now love her as a daughter, one
among the first nine or ten in the world. Wishing you
both much joy,
I am affectionately yours,
D. HUNTINGTON.
"Your Aunt Lyman with a numerous progeny are
in Western New York. See them all. Edward can
tell you who and where they are."
The death of Edward Phelps Huntington occurred
only a month after his brother s marriage. The fol
lowing letter was written to their sister, in the family
home.
BOSTON, Oct. 30, 43.
MY DEAR SISTER BETHIA : From the letters writ
ten last week, I was made aware with what unexpected
rapidity the disease was acting. Finding no farther
information Saturday evening I had made up my
mind that the suffering man was not yet released.
Charles, however, had written me on Friday of his
death, though from some delay his communication did
not reach me till this (Monday) noon. You are this
very afternoon laying away the dust, made precious
to us by the spirit that animated it, out of all human
sight. May God s blessed and comforting spirit be
82 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
with you all. May he send down upon the house and
the hearts that are made dark with mourning, the light
of his own fatherly smile and favor. May he give you
joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit
of heaviness.
Knowing how much our brother must have longed
for his freedom, knowing what a burden to him that
aching body must be, knowing how infinite to him
must be the gain of separation, I was ready, willing,
almost eager to hear of the consummation. Thanks
be to the Father of all mercies that he does not chain
the soul to its cumbering tenement forever. Thanks
be given to him that after a little discipline of pain, he
takes the part that cannot perish, into a world congenial
to its high attributes, to its glorious nature. I could
have wished indeed to have been able to see the patient
look, and hear the kind voice once more. But that
could not be and I am content. The uncertainties of
the case and my duties here have prevented my being
with you. You have better consolations than any
mortal lips could speak, I am sure.
It can hardly be supposed that the calmness with
which affliction is met and submitted to, is a sure test
of the depth or vitality of our Christian affections and
principles and hopes. Yet I do believe if we are true to
our Master and his Revelation we shall not fail to see
what inestimable compensations there are for those
who die believing, and for those who are left lonely by
their departure. " Whoever believeth in me shall never
die. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me, tho
he were dead yet shall he live." How much more intense
was the anguish of Christ, often his physical pain
and his inward suffering both than ours can be !
THE FIRST CALL 83
And yet how little he seemed to grieve ! How invincible
was his fortitude! How calm his patience! How un
disturbed his tranquillity because he stood so near
to God.
It should be, surely, our full satisfaction that we
can find, as we contemplate the character and life of
our brother, how successfully he had struggled to form
himself after Christ s own image; how many of his
virtues he had gained; how much of a like heavenly
temper of self-sacrifice, benevolence and piety pos
sessed him continually. He has gone where there is
no sorrow, nor sighing, nor distress. We will all say it
is well. We will not complain. We will only strive to
be better than before.
BOSTON, Dec. 23.
MY DEAR MOTHER: Thanks, ten thousand thanks
for your letter. It was full of home, of both homes, the
earthly and the heavenly. What beautiful sentences
those of Edward that Father found! They are worth
a long search. They seem like a new chapter of the
Gospel the gospel of love and self-renunciation,
and calm trust in God.
Your letters have a faculty of seating me down in
the old fireside. How I wish I could in reality sit down
there now, this quiet Saturday evening. What
would I not give for one of those ancient Saturday
evenings when we were all together. I am not very
busy, as I am to preach at the College Chapel to-mor
row, on an exchange with Dr. Walker. Day after
to-morrow is Christmas. I am told Ellis holds a service
and I hope you will be able to attend. Mr. Putnam is
to preach at King s Chapel, and that will give me a
chance to listen. I like the observance of Christmas.
84 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
You speak of my walks among the poor and Han
nah s. You would be interested in some of our cases.
There is a devoted company of good women in my
flock, that I can call upon for aid at any moment, and
all together we trust we are bringing some comfort
into a good many cellars and hovels. It is enough to
make one sick to see the wretchedness we go amidst
sometimes. But the Benevolent Societies are so active
that few are left without fuel and provisions. I send
you a circular that I was appointed to draw up a few
days ago.
The Ladies Society of which the pastor speaks
in such words of confidence and commendation was
in existence when he took the parish. Under the
name of "The South Friendly " it held a long record
for good works. Rev. Mr. Hale calls it "an elastic
organization ready for the largest or the smallest duty.
It could clothe regiments for the war, as it has done,
or it could sell a buttonhole bouquet on May morning
as it has done. It was equipped for the duties of hos
pitality, of worship, of charity, of education. Here
was a step quite in advance of the average Boston
congregation of the generation before this church
was founded."
Of his methods of parish work the young minister
writes to his parents: "Our vestry meetings once
a fortnight have begun. We have a devotional
exercise, sing twice, meditate a little; I deliver a
familiar lecture on some topic connected with the
religious life, and after some general conversation
we separate. We talk of having a public service on
the last night of the year."
THE FIRST CALL 85
But it was not only in his own parish that the effect
of Mr. Huntington s energy and earnestness in active
work were felt. "To him as much as to any man
Boston owes the systematic arrangement of the Provi
dent Association for the relief of the poor, set on foot
by him and his friends in the southern wards, and
enlarged to take in all the city."
The plans for regular registration, sectional visit
ing, intelligent investigation, cooperation with public
authorities and with other charitable societies, were
features much the same as those introduced twenty -five
years later by the united charity organizations. The
South End Provident Association was inaugurated in
1851 with Rev. Mr. Huntington for its president. Its
objects were " not only to succor existing misery, excite
the indolent to labor, and restrain the vicious, but
to make some permanent contribution to the sanitary,
economical, and moral welfare of the suffering classes
in our large towns and cities."
Mr. and Mrs. Huntington began housekeeping at
No. 20 Harrison Avenue, next door to their lifelong
friends Rev. James I. T. Coolidge, Minister of Pur
chase street church, and his wife, who was Mary
Rogers, a niece of Dr. William Ellery Channing.
BOSTON, Oct. 5, 1843.
To Miss BETHIA HUNTINGTON.
My dear Sister : It has taken just about one week
to get into a settled state a straightforward path.
People say we look here now as if we had been house
keepers a dozen years. In truth I almost feel so myself.
I thank Heaven daily for my home. Friends are kind
and callers are plenty, quite sufficiently so. Hannah is
86 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
as easy and matronly as possible. Monday evening the
house was open to the parish and thronged. Everything
was on a simple and informal scale and I intend to
repeat the thing on the first Monday evening of each
month.
The congregation was generous and appreciative.
The following spring, May 15, 1844, after a visit to
the young couple his father writes : " The little hoist to
your salary was a very good hit. The next time we
visit you may it be up to $2500. Some of your good
folks talked with me on the subject, altogether gratui
tously on their part, saying that they were growing
rich by your popularity, and that they had no desire
to put it into their own pockets. I barely observed that
it was a good thought."
On July 3, 1844, the first child was born, an event of
joy and thankfulness to his parents. He was named
George Putnam, after his father s valued friend and
counselor, the pastor of the First Church in Roxbury.
In 1845 Mr. Huntington purchased a very pleasant
house in Roxbury, which was his home during the
remainder of his connection with the South Congre
gational society. This residence was on Hawthorn
Street, part of the old farm laid out two hundred years
before by Florence Maccarty, a forefather of Mrs.
Huntington.
To HIS MOTHER.
The house itself is spacious and commodious, has
a pleasant garden connected with it, and a grove hard
by in the rear belonging to a gentleman s private
grounds. It is sheltered from the winds, and overlooks
FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON, MT. 27
From a Crnyon Portrait in 1M6 by Seth Cheney
THE FIRST CALL 87
an agreeable stretch of country. On the top is an
outlook, or cupola, giving a view of the harbor and a
part of the city.
There is space enough, the air comes in fresh and
pure from the hills, and the garden will give me the
exercise on the soil which I need, besides affording
me an opportunity to apply whatever I know about
the arrangement of trees and shrubbery. As to dis
tance, the place is two miles from my church, not far
after all. Omnibuses run every fifteen minutes, and
the walk of forty minutes beneficial. If I calculate
rightly we shall see rather more of our parish than
less, living in the same place summer and winter,
making a weekly business of visiting them, having
frequent meetings in the vestry, and a pretty spot to
invite them to, with only a short walk or ride.
HIGHLANDS, March 26, 46.
MY DEAR PARENTS: If I remember rightly, my
last message homeward was a rather hasty one by
some necessity. The last few weeks have been particu
larly occupied and I am a little more at leisure now.
The Sunday-school Book took a good deal of time.
That has gone to press now and I sincerely hope it
may be useful. To do something for the moral eleva
tion of the young in this exposed, tempted and worldly
age, would be indeed an achievement to be earnestly
desired, and if attained, to be greatly thankful for.
I have just completed an Introduction to an Ameri
can edition of "Martyria." 1 The book will be out
1 William Mountford, author of Martyria, an Englishman and a
Om/amm Clergyman, has been most widely known through his
k Euthanasy published in America in 1849. Mr. Huntington
wrote the editorial note of introduction. Several years before he had
88 FREDERIC DAN HUNT1NGTON
soon and I hope you will like it as much as I do. It
is full of noble and pure sentiments.
If you hear that I have turned "Parkerite," for
rumors take strange freaks nowadays, ascribe it to
so imposing a foundation as the fact that Parker has
several times picked me up as a pedestrian on the
road, and taken me into town in his buggy, a
courtesy which I have acknowledged by calling on
him at his house. We had a long talk on theological
matters, and I am, if possible, more strongly convinced
than ever, that his views are neither Scriptural or
logical. But I do feel the utmost friendliness towards
him as a man, and endeavor to cherish a generous
charity towards his honest errors of opinion, and I
should not dare to call myself a Christian if I did not.
The book mentioned was the first he ever prepared
for publication, a Text Book on the Book of Acts.
From his college days to the end of his life, Mr. Hunt-
ington was engaged almost continually in newspaper
and periodical work, and it was a means of influence
for which he was especially fitted. Gifted with fine
literary discrimination and command of language;
naturally ardent for a cause, without any leaning
towards partisanship; always conversant with the
currents of thought of his day and generation; un
sparing in rebuke and yet by disposition not a dis
putant or inclined to controversy; he appreciated the
dignity and the responsibility of the editorial chair
obtained passage for Mr. Mountford to this country and entertained
him many months at his own home. Mr. Mountford married in
Boston, and became minister of a church in Gloucester, Massa
chusetts.
THE FIRST CALL 89
without overstepping its privileges. His earliest connec
tion of this nature, after entering the ministry, was with
the " Monthly Religious Magazine." In November,
1844, he writes his mother: "It is next year probably
to be my Monthly. Mr. Gannett is busy with the
Examiner and sees that I can conduct it just as well
alone. It will be no more trouble to me, or but little;
the work will be pleasanter for being all to myself and
the pay much more considerable. I am securing an
excellent list of contributors, so that there will be
little left for me to do in the way of writing for it."
In a very urgent appeal he asks his mother to be
one of the writers, giving the result of her " agreeable,
profitable and holy contemplations." Her reply in the
negative is characteristic.
"Whether with greater opportunities for mental
cultivation in youth, I might have been able to write
a decent paragraph, or whether there is a natural
deficiency, a want of intellectual capability, are ques
tions which it would be difficult for me to answer. I
must content myself with the hope, that if I here,
according to my poor ability, desire and endeavor to do
good in a very small way, if only by waiting and weep
ing between the porch and the altar, I may in a future
life be furnished with powers which will enable me
to render a higher service to Him who claims our
best and our all." Mr. Huntington was an editor of
the "Christian Register" from 1847 to 1851, and
of the " Monthly Religious Magazine " from 1845 to
1859.
Incessant literary labor in his study did not interfere
with active days in the parish. The month of his
ordination he wrote home: "Parish calls begin to
90 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
look thick and frequent. I feel such a need as I never
felt before of strength and wisdom, not from men or
books." And in November, 1848: "I have just com
pleted a circuit of some three hundred calls, accom
plished this fall, which has kept me, with other duties,
very busy. Hannah is nobly engaged in the same
service more or less every week." "You will be glad
to hear that a very comfortable sleigh has just been
given me, by the same gentleman who last year en
dowed us with a pair of wolf-skins. By the latter
happy device, we are conveniently exempted from the
charge of going abroad as wolves in sheep s clothing."
Long drives were taken not only on clerical ex
changes but to deliver lyceum lectures, then at the
height of popularity. Many a time the lecturer, re
turning from some distant point late at night, would
find the young wife sitting up for him in the stillness of
the country neighborhood, with the big Newfound
land dog Neptune keeping faithful guard. One
record of a single season mentions forty places in
Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire, where
engagements were kept.
The subjects treated were Alfred the Great, a Com
plete Manhood; Common Sense and Intellectual
Energy; Intellectual Sincerity; Hebrew Heroism;
Epicureanism; Independence of Character; St. Chry-
sostom; Work and Study.
, February 6, 50.
Io HIS SISTER.
It is excessively cold; and last night I rode off a
dozen miles to lecture and back again; so that to-day
I enjoy the fire, a good wood-fire, in my study. I gave
a lecture that I had delivered only twenty-two times
THE FIRST CALL 91
before. Should not you think it would be tedious ?
A new audience every time helps the interest a little.
It was by hard work of this kind that the Roxbury
home was paid for and a beginning made on the ulti
mate purchase of the ancestral estate, at Hadley,
originally the property of his mother, held after her
death in 1847 by his father as a life tenure and then
to be divided among the brothers and sisters.
HIGHLANDS, June 14, 46.
To HIS SISTER.
My dear Bethia: It is Sunday morning again and
a beautiful one. You can imagine what a refreshment
it is to me, before going into the city for the labors
and excitements of the day, to have a few morning
hours here of perfect quiet, in the midst of a fragrant
air, and a stillness broken by nothing but singing
birds.. It is like baptism in pure water. And its in
fluence ought certainly to go with one, like a sacred
charm, until the evening.
Several young locusts in my yard are now out, and
they make the atmosphere sweet in two senses, by
their odors, and by reminding me of the locusts on our
place at home which used to flourish by the street.
Then pinks are out and syringas have ventured to
show a few white petals, tho it is their first year.
Another fragrant plant is the Missouri currant. A
flowering almond, a tree rose, two altheas, a smoke
tree, a tulip tree; some honeysuckles, the English
scarlet hawthorns, and nearly all my ornamental and
fruit trees have taken root and are beginning to grow.
Hannah and her husband and son take a great deal
92 FREDERIC DAN HTJNTINGTON
of pleasure which they hope is not irrational in the
daily nurture and observation of these wonderful
things of the Almighty.
In the Spring of 1846 came the great anxiety and
sorrow of Elizabeth Huntington s illness. She was in
failing health through the following twelve months.
HIGHLANDS, April 12, 46.
MY DEAR MOTHER : I must take these few mo
ments on Sunday morning before Meeting to offer you
my affectionate salutations and tell you how anxiously
I sympathize with your infirmities. How my letter
may find you is uncertain; but my earnest desire is
that your pain may have been relieved, your weakness
strengthened, your disease stayed in its course. It is
my continual prayer that though your body may grow
feeble, your spirit may wax stronger and stronger in
faith and courage and hope; that outward suffering
may be made up by inward peace; that the soul may
exult and rejoice in lofty communion with God and
Christ while the earthly tabernacle languishes.
It is Easter Sunday. I like the practice of observ
ing this occasion, as it celebrates the great event in
the life of the Saviour and the foundation of our im
mortal hope, turning our mortal darkness into un
speakable glory. My sermon is on the proofs of Christ s
Resurrection, "The Lord is risen indeed."
If I go to Hartford to the dedication and installation
I shall look in upon your sick room a few hours within
ten days. Peace be with you from God the Father,
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Devotedly your son,
FREDERIC.
THE FIRST CALL 93
Mrs. Huntington passed from earth on April 6, 1847,
the day of the Annual Public Fast, an anniversary of her
solemn written dedication of herself in girlhood and
her admission to communion with the church.
Her strongest desire to be released from the agony
of her disorder was uttered after a weary night, in the
words of the patriarch, " Let me go for the day break-
eth." Reminded of the loved ones who had gone be
fore, she replied, " Oh, yes, I shall look them all up."
April 19, Mr. Huntington writes to his sister: " The
remembrance of everything relating to herself is cheer
ful, consoling and inspiring. What a rare character
was hers ! Of all that I have become conversant with
thus far in my life, I have found none purer, truer,
more blameless. Ought we not all to rejoice in the light
of her goodness, and live in the strength of her faith ? "
A great quickening of the soul, in a certain sense a
conversion, took place in her youngest child after his
mother s death.
Not long subsequent, the journal, kept by her
from youth to old age, came into his possession. Read
ing it with all the tender memories awakened, recalling
how his mother had openly walked with God through
out those years, in consistency of life and devotion to
works of religion and charity ; her private meditations ;
deep sorrow for daily faults, and prayers for pardon;
her intense longings for Divine grace awakened in
him questionings as to what was the hidden source of a
religious consecration like hers. He searched his own
heart and exclaimed to an intimate friend, "My mo
ther had found something which I have never known."
It was the sense of sin. Deep down in the theology of
her Puritan forefathers, under a system which con-
94 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
tained distortions and intolerance from which her soul
recoiled, Elizabeth had yet gained a realization of the
Divine presence, a sense of the majesty of God, which
filled a nature full of sensibility like hers with con
trition and repentance, sent her on her knees before
the Saviour she loved, and wrought in her a passionate
entreaty for higher spiritual gifts. At this turning-
point in his experience her son realized that there were
foundations on which he had not a foothold, and lofty
heights of faith he had not attained. He reached out for
a definite creed, a positive belief. Stirring within him
was an unrest to which he was not prepared to give
conscious expression. He was hardly yet aware
of the need of an established order, a visible church.
But the immediate result showed itself in an address
before a convention of Unitarian ministers at Ports
mouth, New Hampshire, October 8, 1851. The text
was taken from Phil, iii, 3 : " For we are the circum
cision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in
Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh."
The title is "Spiritual Heirship." 1
The day before this was delivered Rev. Mr. Hunt-
ington had written to his father : " I have prepared a
sermon for this occasion with some care and many
prayers for light. If it is true, it ought to be preached;
if it is not, I have the satisfaction of knowing that it
will not be believed because I have preached it." Few
who made up the hearers of the discourse, more than a
half century ago, are left to recall it. One, however,
Rev. J. I. T. Coolidge, states that the ministerial
brethren there assembled recognized clearly that it
betokened a change working in the mind of the writer.
1 Sermons jar the People.
THE FIRST CALL 95
Already he had begun to feel himself less in sympathy
with the denomination which had been his home.
This appears in a letter to his father dated May, 1851.
THE HIGHLANDS.
You can hardly realize how beautiful our own
place here has become. I know of no spot except
Hadley that I prefer to it. Every moment s breath is a
delicious luxury. The anniversaries are going on;
but I like the trees, the stillness, and the flowers so
much more than white cravats and black coats and
crowded meetings, that I give Boston as wide a berth
as possible, and have declined all invitations to speak.
Still more significant of changing views was a visit
paid to the Rev. S. L. S. Button, an Orthodox Con
gregational minister, and pastor of the old North
Church in New Haven, Connecticut, for whom he
preached in March, 1852. In the following May Mr.
Dutton preached for him, with full approval of his
congregation. This, however, was then regarded as
an act of catholicity rather than as betokening any
theological sympathy between the two clergymen
and their flocks.
He himself describes to his father his visit to Mr.
Dutton: "He moved up into the pulpit with me, and
looked around at the audience, as if he thought he
had done a clever thing, for which the church universal
ought to thank him. Nothing went awry. The trini-
tarian doxology, which it is the practice of his choir
to sing at the close of the service, was omitted, perhaps
by the delicacy of the chorister, or of Mr. D. himself.
" Monday morning I left and returned home. Alto-
96 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
gether my visit was a delightful one. Whether any bene
fit is to come of it, on a wider scale than my personal
gratification, I cannot tell. Results are with God."
On June 26, 1853, Rev. Mr. Huntington preached
for the Rev. Samuel J. May, in Syracuse, so long to
be the seat of his episcopal labors in future years.
He was at this time on his way to Meadville to deliver
a sermon before the graduating class of the Theologi
cal School. The subject of the discourse, afterward
published in his first volume, was "The Word of Life;
a Living Ministry and a Living Church." " God was
in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself."
In the Roxbury home a second child, a daughter,
was born in June, 1848, and in October, 1852, an
infant son came into the world to live scarcely two
weeks.
HIGHLANDS, October 28, 52.
To Miss BETHIA HUNTINGTON.
Dear Sister: It is well our little Charlie stayed
with us just long enough to become one of us, to be
numbered in our household, to take a distinct in
dividual place, to become a possession to memory
and affection forever. He is our third child, only
not visible to these eyes of flesh, but making Heaven
far more a reality than it ever was before.
Death in our house ! How much more terrible that
thought would have been two weeks ago, than it is
now! So gracious is God. The house has more the
feeling as if God had set his seal upon it than it had
before. We seem, somehow, spiritually safer in it. A
more complete experience of life has been had within
it. I think I was never conscious of God s hand being
THE FIRST CALL 97
laid so directly on my heart, as during this anxiety and
mourning. There is something encouraging in it. " For
our profit " it is and certainly it would be shameful for
us to be so corrected without profit. Pray for us that
it may not be so. If one may speak so, it appears as
if God is more in earnest with us, showing us by this
sharper discipline that he really means to make some
thing of these poor, halting, sinning natures, if we
will only let him, after all. Throughout the sickness,
and since, we were assured that God was directing us
exactly as he would, moment by moment; and so we
could pray for the child s life, and yet be certain that if
he died, it would be because that would be better for
us all.
The children, how much I dreaded to tell them!
One morning, the fresh and boundless joy of waking to
learn they had a little brother; and then a hundred
bright plans formed : and another morning, twelve days
after, they awake to hear the little brother is gone.
After leaving the little body at midnight with the cold
air blowing in from the open window upon it, I was
able to feel how safe, how sheltered, his spirit is !
But I waited painfully the waking of the living ones.
With much effort I succeeded in telling them cheer
fully. They were sad only a few minutes. Again God
was more merciful than my fears. Their regrets are
frequent but not gloomy. After we had talked with
them of the spirit and the body, of the beautiful
place at Mt. Hope, already a spot of happy associa
tions, where we should put the body, and of the
more beautiful place where the soul is, they went
eagerly and pleasantly in to look at the motionless face,
and it was plain enough how artificial, how entirely the
98 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
effect of education, is all the dread and the recoil
from the presence of death, for there was nothing of
it in them.
You will imagine what a day Sunday was with us;
solemn to all the land, but trebly so to us, for it was the
tenth anniversary of my settlement.
The public event to which the writer refers was the
death of Daniel Webster.
ROXBTOY, Nov. 23, 52.
My substitute for a personal attendance at your
Thanksgiving table; and to be read after your
breakfast.
MY DEAR SISTER BETIIIA : You are by this time
quite convalescent, I hope. May the good comfort
and grace of God be with you. It is not for me to
exhort you to patience, who have myself so much need
to learn it from you. If it is not familiar to your mem
ory, get Father to read you Milton s magnificent
passage " Hail Holy Light." You will feel it now,
perhaps with a new sense, and at any rate the prayer
"So much the rather thou, celestial Light, shine in
ward," will be breathed by you and answered.
This last expression reminds me of a train of thought
which has lately interested me, and which I have put
into a sermon, on the text "Ask and it shall be given
you." The sermon was designed to meet some of the
difficulties that arise in the mind respecting answers
to prayer; and especially to resist the notion which
has come somewhat into vogue in our day, that the
only office of praying is to stimulate ourselves, bring on
a better mood, and so benefit us according to natural
THE FIRST CALL 99
laws. On the contrary, the whole teaching of Scrip
tures seems to me to show us that there are verily and
literally two parties engaged in this high communion,
God and the praying soul; one actually asking, and
the other actually giving; as much so, as if a hand
were visibly stretched out from the skies, placing gifts
in ours. How these answers are made to consist with
natural laws, so called, or the fixed order of things,
must of course be a mystery to us ; because we did not
make nature, and are finite. But faith readily accepts
such mysteries, in many other cases as difficult as this,
and experience confirms the Bible doctrine. My own
experience certainly does; and I doubt not, yours
does. To me there has been of late a growing satis
faction in this spiritual exercise. I have known re
markable answers to particular and personal inter
cessions, in my intercourse with my people. Religious
changes and Christian peace seem to have been
granted, wonderfully, to such petitions. And then did
any of us ever have a real trouble that prayer did not
strikingly and supernaturally lighten ? I can see now
what I could not once how it is rational and
right to pray for earthly good in particular respects,
so far as that is connected with our spiritual progress
and safety; although of course, no prayer is the prayer
of faith which is not offered with the willingness that
God should withhold the thing asked for, and answer
in some other way. In the growth of these sentiments,
I have often been led back to our blessed mother s
instructions. Who knows but that growth itself is one
of the answers to her own prevailing supplications?
Prayers of the righteous hers were, indeed. It often
occurs to me that whatever progress the Spirit has
100 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
permitted me to make in a religious experience
poor and slow enough I know it is, has only brought
me nearer to the very point where her own convic
tions rested. The counsels that I hardly understood,
or did not receive them, are welcomed now with my
whole soul.
Would to God I could tell her so. She might then
keep a new Thanksgiving, in her world of bliss, her
life of joy and glory, But how, again, do we know but
every thought and motion in us, her own family still,
is seen of her ? " Every one that hath this hope, puri-
fieth himself."
How much my thoughts will be with you and father
and all the dear kindred, on Thursday! You do not
know how I long to spend one more Thanksgiving at
fHadley. Something in that day always makes me feel
j as if I ought not to be anywhere else. Very quiet, you
will be. But dear affections, holy hopes, sweet memo
ries, a glorious faith, the Infinite Father and his Christ,
will all be with you. Are not these honored guests ?
You will not be alone.
HIGHLANDS, July 23, 1854.
DEAR FATHER AND SISTER: When I returned
from church this morning I found myself the father
of a fourth child, a third son. I know of none on earth,
whom we can more confidently invite to share in our
gratitude to the Giver of Life and breath and all
things, and in all our sober rejoicings, than you and
the dear ones about you. Of course when we remem
ber how soon our little Charlie was caught away from
our arms, after he was placed in them, our joy must
be chastened and our hopes moderated. But I trust
THE FIRST CALL 101
we are not the less truly happy for that. We ought only
to feel the Father to be nearer, and Heaven more
actual. To the glory of the one, and a wise prepara
tion for the other may this child live, so long as he is
permitted to stay in this world.
The third son was baptized James Otis Sargent for
his mother s brother.
March 23, 53.
To Miss BETHIA HUNTINGTON.
I am very busy, in connection with Dr. Hedge of
Providence, compiling a new hymn-book, which we
mean of course to make rather better than any that
have gone before it. It will certainly contain many
hymns you have never seen, from the Catholic and
Wesleyan collections, from the German, and other
sources. Piety finds its natural expression in singing ;
and the religion of any sect may be judged of, I think,
by the sacred music through which it worships God.
The book referred to was published with the title
of "Hymns for the Church of Christ," and contains
much beautiful sacred verse. It was only a beginning
of that strong interest which lasted through life, in
hymnology, church music, and religious poetry.
Mr. Huntington s nature was one which found peculiar
sympathy with what he called "the song element in
personal character." Writing long after, he says:
"For common-place business and routine tasks the
mind is contentedly prosaic; but when religious emo
tion rises to a higher pitch it is undulated into mea
sures of liberty and gladness.
"Older than sermons, older than lessons, older
102 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
even than her written creed, is the psalmody of three
thousand years, the song-power of the Church. From
the first shout of the sons of God on the morning of
creation until the predicted strains of the new heavens
and the new earth, this is a characteristic of our re
ligion. Songs go up from emancipated Israel on the
shore of the sea, from Miriam and from Deborah,
from priests and levites in their ritual order, from
prophets in wildernesses, from the king hunted in the
cave or reigning in pomp, or penitent in sackcloth, or
sorrowing in exile; from missionary groups all round
the Mediterranean, from apostles in prison, from
before the altars of all continents and islands where
the cross has stood; everywhere the people sing.
Ships of Tarshish sing; trees of the wood sing; in
habitants of the rock sing ; the tongue of the dumb
symbol of regenerated and liberated powers once bound
in sin sings ; the mountains, pillars of strength,
break forth into singing; the widow s solitary heart,
the token of a comforted humanity, sings for joy."
Several years after the invitation from the Church
of the Messiah, New York city, a second offer was made
and declined, and as a token of affection at that time
Mr. Huntington and his wife received from some of
his parishioners a gift of a fine Chickering piano,
an addition to their household which they both greatly
appreciated. He writes to the generous donors: "I
have always felt that there should be the gentle in
fluence of music in every home. There are times when
I crave nothing so strongly and when nothing does
so much to remove weariness and soothe anxiety, to
cheer the whole soul and quicken its better affections
and lift it upward."
THE FIRST CALL 103
There was another mark of affectionate regard
from the South Congregational parish, presented to
Mrs. Huntington. This was a portrait of their pastor,
made by the celebrated crayon artist, Seth Cheney.
His drawings are inspired by sentiment and spirituality,
and it was universally conceded that the likeness of
Mr. Huntington was one of his best achievements.
Such frequent and thoughtful expressions of friend
ship from his flock so deeply strengthened the tie be
tween them and their minister that the final separation
in 1855 was a painful one. Rev. Edward E. Hale told
the story years afterwards, speaking of Harvard Uni
versity. " The college had received a new endowment.
Miss Plummer of Salem had endowed a professorship,
of which the incumbent was to be the minister and
friend of the students. It was the professorship of the
heart, not the head, she said. Those were in the days
when Arnold s life made us feel how large a place
religion takes in the conduct of such schools. The
Corporation thought, and I think all men agreed with
them, that this spiritual oversight of hundreds of the
picked young men of New England at the critical
period of their life was the first honor to which a
clergyman was called, and probably the first duty.
This post was first offered to Rev. George Putnam.
When he declined, the choice fell upon Rev. Mr.
Huntington."
Writing to his sister, Dec. 1, 1854, Mr. Hunting-
ton says : " Tell father I drive the Cambridge question
out of my mind all I can, dreading to meet fairly so
responsible, so painful, and so difficult a decision. But
I shall be obliged to face it soon. I cannot see that
such a situation as mine ought to be left. I prize its
104 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
independence, its variety of aspects and its wide reach
of sympathies and opportunities."
An informal notice had been received a few weeks
previous, to the effect that the president and fellows
of Harvard University were prepared to appoint him
to the office of preacher in the College Chapel and
Professor of Christian Morals. In April, 1855, the
board of overseers took concurrent action on this
appointment, not without some protest; one member
of that body citing the fact that Professor Newman
had gone over to the Church of Rome after a like
experiment at Oxford, proving it " worse than a failure."
The New York " Tribune " published a leading article
entitled " A Jesuit Professorship," and notes of warn
ing were not wanting from other sources. But while
it was charged that Harvard College had committed
itself to the insidious inculcation of Unitarian doc
trines through personal influence over the students,
the defendants claimed that the new professor was
known to have strong evangelical tendencies, that
no technically orthodox man could be nominated and
confirmed under existing conditions, and that "there
was great and urgent need of the introduction of some
new restraining and elevating force into the university,
to save its students from irreligion, atheism, and im
morality." It was this line of argument which ulti
mately decided Mr. Huntington to accept the position.
He was called to preach to a congregation of unusual
intelligence, the members of the faculty and their
families, with the students of the university; "to
give instruction on moral and religious topics through
lectures or text-books; and by personal intercourse,
by friendly services, by counsels and sympathies, by
THE FIRST CALL 105
special conference and correspondence with parents,
to act on the hearts and lives of the young men, en
deavoring to draw them to a Christian righteousness,
to protect them against the temptations peculiar to
their situation and to maintain among them a sincere
and vital religion."
His parishioners and friends sent him a communi
cation of twenty pages, containing remonstrance and
argument against his acceptance of the " appointment
which has caused us such griefs." The reply to this
memorial was lengthy, and went carefully over each
point of the objections. In commencement Mr. Hunt-
ington says : " For more than twelve years of my ma
ture life it has been the one supreme earthly purpose
of my soul, to understand, to measure, to trace in all
their bearings the interests of this flock, to know its
interior condition and its outward relations, its wants
and exposures, the state of its families and individual
members, so that I might effectually instruct, and
by any means aid and edify it. That any object
should have been presented, which could make it
seem possible for me to turn aside from this great
privilege and passion of my soul is, of itself, no small
proof that it has remarkable intrinsic demands on
my attention." After a detailed and an affectionate
review of the situation of the South Congregational
parish and its future prospects, he proceeded to lay
before them some of the principal considerations
which led him to a conclusion favorable to the call to
Harvard.
"The students come in year after year, fresh from
the atmosphere of home, with tender and susceptible
natures, and forthwith they are put upon all the lower-
106 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
ing and corrupting temptations of a strange scene and
a great city, with none of the safeguards of domestic
affection, and no Christian friend, whose office it is to
stand at their side, to remonstrate against the sin and
to encourage them in the way of right, to think of them,
to love them, to attract them into pure companionship,
to care for their souls. And what makes this case
peculiar is that they are a community constantly
shifting. For four of the most impressive years of life
they remain in the college circle and then they scatter
over the continent, bearing with them the characters
they have formed, and the notions they have adopted,
to be, for immense good or for opposing and incalcu
lable ill, the educated, the professional, and often the
leading minds of the land. More and more, and each
one including something like a hundred souls, this tide
of thought and influence pours forth, as steadily as
the streams run from foundations to the sea, and with
impulses as constant as the throbs of the ocean on the
beach. What the nature of that influence shall be, so
far as our foremost university is concerned, is the
solemn question now put before me.
" Were the opportunities for external action, beyond
the bounds of the college, and of Cambridge, which
it is proposed to throw open to me by the appointment,
clearly expressed to you, I think you could not but
perceive that they will put into my power means of
public service, not less but greater than I now enjoy.
I have utterly misapprehended what is held out to me,
if it should prove a cloistered retreat, or a scholastic
confinement. I am not going there to shut myself in
from the living forces of society, nor from the assem
blies of men. It is my conviction that the bond between
THE FIRST CALL 107
a literary institution and the mass of the surrounding
people, in this age, ought to be close and vital."
Finally Mr. Huntington enumerated some of the in
fluences which were brought to bear upon his accept
ance. "I have asked no man for his advice, feeling
that issues must, after all, be decided within my own
mind and conscience, subject only to the leadings of
Heaven. But I have supposed that one of the ways in
which God indicates to us his will, is by the deliberately
formed opinions of wise and good and unprejudiced
men.
" That it is a practicable work and that I am a proper
person to enter upon it has commonly been expressed
with a warmth of feeling that I did not expect, and
with a decision and fervor that have been exceedingly
impressive. It has come to me from graduates of this
and other institutions, from the presidents and pro
fessors of other New England colleges, from mer
chants and men of practical affairs, from different
sects in the church, and different parties in the state,
from the mothers and fathers of youth that may be
scholars, and it has come almost with one voice. It
has pronounced the appointment of a Christian teacher
at Harvard College a relief to many apprehensions,
and an occasion for public congratulation."
To the South Congregational Society he pays this
heartfelt tribute: "It is not exceeded, I believe, by
any in the land, for strength in all parochial resources,
for numbers, for harmony, for mutual kindness and
consideration, for attention to the pulpit, for promp
titude and energy in every good undertaking proposed
to its members, for the absence of all querulous or
uncongenial or quarrelsome elements, for uniform
108 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
patience and kindness and generosity towards the
minister, and indeed for every attribute and quality
which make up parochial character desirable in the
eyes of the pastor.
"I shall need your cordial sympathy and God-speed
in the agonies of a separation, for though it will not be
on my part a separation of the heart, nor the breaking
those precious and indissoluble bonds which have
been woven by the prayers and intercourse and love
of twelve happy years, in the deeper experiences and
holiest purposes of life, it will be the parting of the
pastoral relation and the necessary discontinuance of
all our former offices of fellowship, and so it will be an
act of unprecedented pain. I shall need your utmost
consideration, your most gentle judgment, your
Lhnstian intercession."
The following letter was written nearly a quarter of
a century later by the Bishop 6f Central New York in
response to an invitation to attend an anniversary,
the semi-centennial of the South Congregational
Solely. It is addressed to the R*v. Edward Everett
-... SYRACUSE, Jan. 23, 1878.
. MY DEAR BROTHER: -Returning f rom 8 lo
journey, I am too late in answering youp very kind
noteof the 10^ Thedearold "South Con gre g at L a r ,
md nl T , *? and not much lder aa J~ .
hkely to hve longer than either of us. We ha
both done what we could in our several ways to add
to d. Me. May God accept whatever in our service
was n ght and don &e ^ ^
g an on &e ^ ^
n the pansh who would recognize me if I could stand
THE FIRST CALL 109
up before them at the semi-centennial, and they would
say: "His head has grown white, however it may be
with his theology." I wish you would thank them for
taking the advice I gave them when I went away in
calling you to follow me. That was the last of a long
and thick succession of most gracious and judicious
compliances with my wishes. Their building went to
Rome, and their minister went whither he thought
God called him, but their prosperity seems never to
have forsaken them. How many honored and dear
names I could mention of those who were with me
from the beginning! And how much could be said of
them! Give my love to all the children and kindred
of all those who have fallen asleep.
Believe me sincerely and faithfully,
Your friend,
F. D. HUNTINGTON.
CHAPTER IV
A NEW PATH
" Then said Christian, I perceive not yet but that this is my way to
be desired herein. And Christian set on his way, with his sword
drawn in his hand."
ON a September afternoon in the year 1855 Mr.
Huntington and his family drove from the Highlands
through the winding country roads connecting the
villages of Roxbury and Brookline, over the wooden
bridge which crossed the Charles River and so on to
Cambridge. A college bookstore, the post-office,
and a few shops then made up the little business
centre known as "Harvard Square." Beyond the
grassy spaces of the "Yard," mostly open enclosure,
with here and there an ancient structure among the
trees, stood the old Observatory, marked by the cu
pola on the roof and a small octagon wing at the side.
The building, converted into an ordinary mansion,
was placed on a slope looking towards the Library, its
little lawn screened by a tall hawthorn hedge from the
dusty high-road, along which the hourly omnibuses
still made their slow progress to the city. On one side
was a long sunny piazza, the front door opened on
Quincy Street, and to the north was a group of apple-
trees and a stable. To this attractive residence the
young Plummer professor directed his children s atten
tion as he came down the steps of the College office,
and pointed out their future home-
A NEW PATH 111
Pleasant was the outward aspect and pleasant the
associations into which the family was entering. Those
were days marked by simplicity of life, without pre
tension and without display; by cheerful and intimate
companionships; the pursuits of cultivated minds;
an exchange of ideas which gave variety to familiar
intercourse. It has been maintained that at no time /
in the history of our country was life so full, so free, so I
untrammeled, and so satisfying, as during those two]
decades which ended with the Civil War. Before that!
dark cloud settled over the land, with the subsequent
change in fortunes and rapid increase of a wealthy
class, social existence in a small community like that
of Cambridge was an ideal one. The educational
advantages of Mr. Agassiz s school attracted young
girls whose birth and breeding were such that they
brought with them from their homes in the Southern
and Middle States the same fine manners which they
found in the university town. Their presence added
gayety to the winter festivities, while they on their
part were cordially received into a company of young
people rarely excelled in ease and refinement, beauty
and wit. It was a time when customs were entirely
American; before foreign travel had introduced the
habits of Continental life. There was neither the
glamour of great riches nor the unrest and discontent
caused by changing standards and conditions. If the
aspect was one of sobriety, if the outlook was restricted
and daily events unexciting, there could not be dullness
in a circle which included such families as the Agassiz,
Longfellows, Danas, Nortons, Lowells, Palfreys.
While the whole faculty could meet in one room in the
little gothic cottage occupied by the president, the
112 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
members of the college set were not too numerous
to live together on terms of intimacy which precluded
any stiffness or formality. The entertainments were
many of them impromptu; for the elders a little sup
per or an evening visit ; for the younger carpet-dances
or charades. The whole neighborhood gathered for
a piano recital by Otto Dresel, a concert from the
Mendelssohn Quintette Club, or readings from Fanny
Kemble. Scenes from Shakespeare were enacted,
clever plays improvised, or an operetta, with the score
furnished by the musical department and the libretto
supplied by the English and Italian professors. It was a
time when every one read Dickens; his characters
were as familiar as the local oddities in the streets,
and when Mrs. Charles Lowell threw open her hos
pitable home for a costume party, it was the scene of
many clever impersonations. President and Mrs.
Sparks entertained distinguished guests, and gathered
groups of friends weekly to partake of a hospitality as
dignified as it often was unconventional. What was
worn, what was eaten, what china was set out, what
kind of decorations prevailed, were at that time re
garded as strictly individual. Differences of taste
might be good-naturedly discussed, but it was not con
sidered of consequence whether fashion was followed or
strict etiquette observed. Each hostess entertained
as best suited her convenience and her establishment,
without ceremony and without competition. Strangers
came from abroad, and were met with ease and a
graceful welcome, sometimes at a formal banquet,
sometimes at a simple household meal. Many of those
beautiful and imposing dwellings are still preserved and
are the pride of the community, but the spirit and
A NEW PATH 113
traditions of the past linger in but a few. The rural
setting in which they were placed, the green parks and
picturesque groves, have disappeared.
On the Norton estate a lover of solitude might
wander for an afternoon through the footpaths which
intersected its woods, ending in the secluded shade of
Divinity Hall, and thus back to the town through what
was known as "Professors Row." Closing that visfa,
stood the old gambrel-roofed house, celebrated by the
poet Holmes as his birthplace. Across the common
was the arsenal, with antiquated dwellings around it
embowered in foliage. There were walled dooryards,
where the lilac bushes blossomed bright in springtime,
and the little gates swung out on the graveled path
way ; narrow lanes between stiff brick houses mellowed
in tint; colonial mansions with prim pediments and
porches, and garden beds edged with box. Everywhere
the great elms overarched the roadways, and gave a
sense of retirement and calm. The little town stretched
only to the edge of the salt marshes and on the other
side sloped away into the open country of the Middlesex
farms, with glimpses of the winding river, the wooded
Fells, and far away the stretches of forest on the
northern hills. It was a place apart from the great
marts of traffic, from smoke and dust and machinery;
the atmosphere was .wholly academic, the setting pro
vincial; the currents of life flowed on evenly and in
placid content.
Week-day prayers and Sunday services were held in
University Hall, that noble structure which still bears
testimony to the architectural supremacy of Bulfinch.
For commencement exercises and other public occa
sions the college was permitted the use of the village
114 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
meeting-house and it was there that on September 5 the
induction took place of Rev. Frederic D. Huntington,
D. D., as Preacher to the University and Plummer
Professor of Christian Morals. The discourse was
preached by Rev. James Walker, president of the
institution; prayer was offered by the Rev. John
Albro, pastor of the Orthodox Congregational Church,
in Cambridge; the Scriptures read by Rev. Convers
Francis, professor in the Theological School ; the
prayer of induction offered by Rev. William A. Stearns,
D. D., president of Amherst College, and the concluding
prayer by Rev. John Pryor, D. D. The hymns were
the inspiring invocation of Montgomery, "O Spirit of
the living God," and an original composition written
by Rev. William Newell, D. D., minister of the parish,
beginning,
" Welcome, servant of the Lord !
Bear aloft the torch of truth."
One of the entering class of that year described the
scene fifty years later :
" We freshmen had been given seats in the back pews,
but I can see, almost as plainly as if it were yesterday,
the venerable Dr. James Walker, the then president
of the college, standing on the pulpit platform, his
fine countenance showing a wonderful blend of dignity
and gentleness, and face to face with him, the stalwart,
broad-shouldered figure of the younger man, to whom
he was delivering the charge." *
The president s sermon was a strong plea for the
Christian education of youth in college, conceding,
1 Rev. William Reed Huntington: Memorial sermon, "The Good
Shepherd, " preached at Emmanuel Church, Boston, at the unveiling
of the memorial tablet, November 26, 1905.
A NEW PATH 115
however " in the main as true," that " the religious, or
at any rate the Christian life is not a development of
human nature, but something superinduced upon it,
and wholly the work of grace." After citing history in
favor of the university as preeminently the "child of
the church," he said: "Of course it is no longer neces
sary that the teaching or discipline of colleges should
make men theologians. The greatest change which has
taken place of late in respect to education consists in
this, that it has become a distinct profession. It is
within the memory of some of us, when professors and
tutors were taken, almost as a matter of course, from
among clergymen and students in divinity; now as a
general rule, a professor is as much a layman as a
lawyer or a physician is. This change has made it not
less, but more indispensable, that there should be a
pastor of the college, to take care of its religious in
terests, and to conduct its religious services. It only
remained to find the man ; that the selection has been
made in wisdom, we have the best evidence of which
the case admits, in the almost entire unanimity with
which it has been made, and also the hearty concur
rence it has met with from the public, including the
leading and best minds of all denominations."
Mr. Huntington s reply expressed his sense of the
dignity of the presence he was in, the variety of inter
ests there represented, declaring, "the best inaugu
ral I could pronounce would be a confession of per
sonal insufficiency, and an invocation of all good
men s prayers for the heavenly help. I wish to re
member, and I beg you, sir, never to suffer me to for
get, that my special and elect business here is to be a
minister of Christ; not of nature-worship, which is
116 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
idolatry, not of pantheism, which is superstition,
not of a religion humanly created or developed, which
is self-contradiction, not of an ethical philosophy,
which has no Jesus for its embodiment and no cross
for its symbol. You will not expect me to offer here
my salutations or invitations to the members of the
classes that I am hereafter to address. What is in my
heart for them and I hope nothing that is not there
I am to say to them from week to week. If a cordial
desire to enter in among them with genuine relations
of simple good-will, if a natural liking for young men
and a large faith in their predominant traits, if a
profound conviction that the only religion which has
either a right to be accepted among them, or a promise
from Heaven that it shall be, is a religion that is genial,
magnanimous, earnest, direct, and positive, a religion
that respects every manly instinct, comprehends every
honorable feeling and scorns all but generous manners
and considerate methods of approach, and if a de
termination to be of any kind or degree of brotherly
service among them that their free will may allow
if these are regarded by them as legitimate grounds of
confidence or affection, then they and I shall be friends;
and if friends then fellow-helpers to the truth. Then
we shall do something together for the perpetual
rededication of these ancient and honored halls to
Christ and the church, and the scholars of human
learning shall be kings and priests unto God."
CAMBRIDGE, Nov. 10, 55.
To Miss BETHIA HUNTINGTON.
Dear Sister: You will like to hear of our safe
settlement in the new quarters. They are vastly bet-
A NEW PATH 117
tered by paint and paper and furniture. We have
even some advantages that we never had at the dear
old home on the Highlands. My study is charming,
and I wish you could look in upon its coziness this
morning. The fuss and pains of getting fixed have
been enormous and can hardly be looked back upon
without a groan. The thanksgiving at restored order
is sincere. The expense incurred in all this and some
other extra outlays can hardly be less than a thousand
dollars, a sum which I propose to raise this season by
lyceum lectures. The correspondence arranging these
is a sad encroachment upon time. Indeed, what with
special tasks, and receiving calls, we have hardly yet had
time to breathe. Cambridge people are certainly abun
dant in their attentions. Our rooms are stocked with
flowers and fruits, and every kindness has been shown
us. If only the Holy Spirit should awaken a Christian
interest in the college, my joy would be complete.
The house set apart for the Plummer professor
made a delightful home. It was large and cheerful,
ample in its accommodations and possessed some charm
ing features which delighted the children. There was
a little inside window, swinging open above the landing
of the staircase, through which of an evening would
come the hum of voices when company was assembled
below; strains of music from the piano, the accom
paniment of a song, or the lively tune of a dance. The
professor and his wife enjoyed gathering young people
around them. From the first Mr. Huntington set
himself to become personally acquainted with the
undergraduates and to entertain them under his own
roof. This was not difficult at a period when the en-
118 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
tering class numbered barely a hundred. It was the
custom to invite the freshmen to Sunday evening tea, in
groups of not more than eight, and those who cared to
keep up the acquaintance were made to feel at home
at any time.
The intercourse of every-day life offered agreeable
associations to the newcomers. They found two old
Northampton friends living in Quincy Street. Harriet
Mills was now Mrs. Charles Henry Davis, her hus
band the head of the "Nautical Almanac," and later
a distinguished admiral. Sallie Mills was the wife of
Benjamin Peirce, the great mathematician. Judge
Charles P. Huntington had married a third sister Helen,
so that there was a family connection. In the near
vicinity were Governor and Mrs. Washburn and their
daughter, most highly valued friends; Professor
Felton and his family ; Professor Jeffries Wyman, Dr.
Beck the German scholar, Professor Levering, and his
wife who was an old Boston acquaintance. The future
honored head of the university, Charles Eliot, was then
a young tutor and had lately married a daughter of
Mr. Huntington s beloved associate in the ministry,
Rev. Ephraim Peabody. It is remembered that one
morning when two or three men came in with the
chaplain for breakfast, after morning prayer at the
College Chapel, there was a reference to the sermon of
the Sunday previous and its subject. Mr. Eliot, one
of the company, quoted some lines from Mrs. Brown
ing s " Vision of the Poets," as appropriate. He after
wards sent them to the preacher and they were printed
in the discourse entitled, " Salvation not from suffering
but by it," when it appeared in the collection, " Sermons
for the People." One of the constant morning guests
A NEW PATH 119
was Professor Francis J. Child, and for two winters he
occupied rooms in the house, living on terms of delight
ful intimacy with Professor Huntington. His warm,
affectionate nature, delicate wit, and ardent disposition
made him a congenial companion.
Much more than in the social enlivenment was the
change to a university town an agreeable one. There
was greater freedom of thought, a larger outlook, and
the stimulus arising from the prospect of a new field of
labor. Since the days when Mr. Huntington was a
student at the Theological School, new subjects had
begun to interest men s minds, new teachers and investi
gators had come forward, and generous gifts responded
to the demands of science and the liberal arts. A
building was in process of erection for the researches
in the Department of Chemistry under Professor
Cooke. Not much later the Museum of Natural His
tory was founded, the beginning of which had become
familiar to the inhabitants of Quincy Street. Not only
did Professor Agassiz gather around him in his home,
foreign savants of his own kindly and simple-minded
character, but strangers of another order were domesti
cated, a huge turtle wandering around the dooryard,
or tropical reptiles and snakes occasionally heard of.
So much beloved was the great naturalist that even the
children felt the benefit of his presence among them.
In those days "nature study" as a subject of school
curriculum was not known, but there was much in
terest in collecting specimens, and the boys entered
with ardor into the pursuit. A group of them in the
neighborhood formed a small society of their own,
called "The Agassiz Natural History Society" in
which Professor Huntington took much interest, giving
120 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
them the use of the octagon room in his house, for
their meetings. Associated together in this pleasant
study were George Huntington, then thirteen years
old, Constant Davis, son of the admiral, Benjamin
Peirce and James Lovering, sons of professors, Frederic
Ware, whose father was the author of " Zenobia," and
Robert Peabody, later the well-known architect.
Three of the number lived only to early manhood, one
scarcely to middle life.
George Huntington was always grateful for the in
spiration which awakened his interest, taught him ac
curate habits of observation and research, and enabled
him to share with others, especially his children and
near friends, the delight he experienced in birds and
flowers.
Professor Huntington wrote in later years: " I notice
that on the memorial which is to be raised, at Cam
bridge, to Mr. Agassiz, it is proposed to omit all his
long list of honorary titles, conferred by crowns,
universities, and national societies, and to write after
his name simply the word teacher. The first honor
belonging to his large mind, I conceive, was his rever
ence for the mind that is above all minds, for the person,
creatorship, and fatherhood of God. His second honor
was that he loved, with an affection as sweet as a child s
and as strong as a woman s, everything that the Maker
has made, from the mollusk up to man, and from the
stars in the sky down to the starfish in the slime of the
sea. Next to them, his glory was his passion and his
power in giving to other minds the wealth of his own.
The term that is to be carved on his monument, there
fore, is a tribute not only to the scientific master but
to the calling he chose and followed to the end."
A NEW PATH 121
In the middle of the last century social life within
the college grounds bore the same simple character
as the functions outside. Seniors were satisfied to
entertain their guests on Class Day in old Holworthy,
and its steep stairways and low dingy rooms were the
centre of fashionable gayety. There was but a limited
interest in games. Football was played on the Delta
and boat-races held on the Charles, with spectators
gathered on the roofs of residences on the Milldam.
One of these regattas, which occurred in July, 1858,
was described by President Eliot at an athletic dinner
more than forty years afterward. Although a tutor he
took an oar to help out the undergraduate crew, and
they won a glorious victory for the college, amid the
plaudits of their enthusiastic friends. The president
recalled that " we had no one to help us after rowing
the six miles, and we just rowed back to Cambridge.
I remember there was but one man to greet us, and
that was the Plummer professor of those days."
Without any great enthusiasm for sport, Professor
Huntington was always an advocate for athletics and
for manly, vigorous pursuits. As a country boy, bred
to farm work, active exercises such as swimming,
horseback riding, and skating were a delight to him
and were encouraged in his children. He deplored the
sedentary existence often engendered by the change to
studious habits and college routine. The endowment
of the new professorship had enjoined upon its incum
bent the promotion of the physical as well as the moral
welfare of the students. When he removed to Cam
bridge there were very limited accommodations for
gymnastic exercise. A demand was felt and somewhat
loudly expressed, but the decisive step was taken by
122 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
Professor Huntington, who secured from a donor in
Boston a sum sufficient to insure the erection of a
building well equipped for those days. In the " Har
vard Magazine" of 1859 it is mentioned with pride
that "conservative Harvard should be the first of the
colleges in this country to incorporate into its course of
education an organized system of physical training."
In August, 1855, just before his induction at Har
vard, Amherst College, his alma mater, conferred
upon Frederic Dan Huntington the degree of doctor
of sacred theology. He was then thirty-six years of
age, entering a new career full of hope and high aims,
possessing the sympathy and personal magnetism
which success in pedagogy requires, and thoroughly
imbued with the deep responsibility of such a calling.
In 1856 he published " Unconscious Tuition " which,
in the form of a text-book for teachers, has been widely
circulated throughout the land for a hah century.
Although a practical homily on the personal influence
of the class room, it is much more, for it establishes
the spiritual connection between pupil and teacher,
without which education fails in its highest purpose.
These words, written later, express what he himself
always kept in mind. "Life is the test of learning.
Character is the criterion of knowledge. Not what
a man has, but what he is, is the question after all.
The quality of soul is more than the quantity of in
formation. Personal, spiritual substance is the final
resultant."
It was in this spirit that work was taken up in the
recitation room, on the playground, in the chapel.
To reach the youth under his charge on the religious
side of their nature was a vital and important question;
A NEW PATH 123
" to conduct the devotions so that they shall fulfill the
manifest purpose of their appointment; have a spirit
as well as a shape ; bring a devout sacrifice as well as a
bodily attendance; diffuse a hallowing influence over
the restless and eager life congregated there; awaken
strong resolves and pure aspirations and call down
the answer and benediction of Heaven."
In an article on the subject of " College Prayers" he
finds " the first condition of any adequate benefit from
the service that it be treated by all that are responsible
for it as a reality; as what it pretends to be; as real
prayer." In those days the enforcement of attendance
on the daily worship had its undesirable effect in the
rush and haste of reaching the building at an early hour,
and the mechanical aspect which the observance bore.
The professor s wife found her sensibility shocked
when the boys familiarly talked of " cutting prayers "
and begged them to substitute some other expression.
Mr. Huntington deplored any connection of the con
duct of worship with discipline. " In some seminaries
it would seem as if the final cause for prayers were a
convenient convocation of the scholars, as a substitute
for roll-call. They must be somehow brought together,
in order to come under the eye of a monitor and be
counted, and so they are summoned to praise God."
In his own practice he conformed to the simple
custom for daily service, of prayer and reading of
Scripture. With an uncommonly beautiful voice,
thoroughly trained, and expressive; with a gift in
prayer which was one of his highest powers for spiritual
uplifting, even a careless and inattentive audience of
immature youth might well at times feel a stirring of
soul. In the closing passages of the article quoted he
124 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
says: "Knowledge and faith have one interest, one
aim, one God and Saviour to confess and serve; and
therefore over every step in education, every lesson in
learning, every day of the student s tried and tempted
life, should be spread the hallowing peace and the
saving benediction of prayer. Deep down in their souls
students feel this. At least in their better moments
they realize it. Even the most impulsive and incon
siderate have some dim, instinctive witnessing within
them that it is good to call on God. Many an earnest
believer has felt his first renewing convictions, the first
strong grasp of the hand of remorse, the first touch of
penitential sorrow, amidst these apparently neglected
entreaties. The sure arrow from the Divine Word
has there reached many a haughty and obdurate heart.
Could the secrets hid in the hearts of educated men be
revealed, we have no doubt it would be seen how large
a part the college prayers bore in the hearts of initia
tion or the reinvigorating of their best designs. Many a
man has there in silence said honestly and faithfully
to his own conscience, To-day I shall live more
righteously; meanness and sin shall be more hateful
to me; generosity and goodness more lovely; and all
the day has answered to the pledge. Admonitions that
would have been rejected if offered from man to man
work their effectual plea in the indirect persuasion
of a request to the Father of Lights. Noble friendships
between young hearts have felt themselves more dis
interested and more secure for the holy appeal to the
source, making each man feel himself a brother in the
mighty fraternity of love. The noble claims of human
ity, girding him to labor and suffer for his kind as the
only worthy calling of his scholarly life, have there
A NEW PATH 125
pressed their way into the heart of hearts through a
clause of the Bible that speaks to the rich and the poor,
or a supplication for sage and slave alike, for bond and
free, for the heathen and the helpless. Eminent ser
vants of the best causes, disinterested patriots, preachers
of Christ; missionaries to the ends of the earth have
taken there the first impulse that bore them on to their
places of heroic action or martyr-like endurance,
faithful unto death, awaiting crowns of life."
Professor Huntington made himself acquainted
with the students daily lives and interests. Of the close
relations established, the following tribute testifies. It
was sent " in loving memory. It comes from the heart.
I write of the things that never die. I entered Harvard
in 1857. My impression is that the post of chaplain
was vacant for some time prior to the appointment
of the Rev. Mr. Huntington. When he became chap
lain he was a member of the faculty, but we soon
learned that all confidences to him were sacredly kept,
and that he had come to be the friend and adviser of the
students. They gladly accepted him as such. He
was trusted and beloved. He not only helped many
to better resolutions and a higher life but he raised the
standard of truth and honor throughout the college."
Another says : " The university pastor was a frequent
visitor in the students rooms. He respected every form
of religious thought and seldom referred to matters of
faith, except when the voluntary remarks of students
led in that direction. He often invited a number of
students to his home. No favoritism was apparent on
these occasions. Indigent and ungainly students from
the rural districts were received with the same kindly
welcome which awaited rich men s sons."
126 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
One "who witnessed Dr. Huntington s devotion to
the exigencies of the sick-room and the death-bed of
students, and who has known with what eager confi
dence young men resorted to his study for spiritual
counsel," adds: "His affectionate regard and kind
treatment towards the young men, in their hours of
sickness and sorrow, was more like that of an elder
brother than a professional tutor, and his wise counsels
and earnest labor for their religious advancement
have been more like the solicitous yearnings of a
devoted father than the discharge of the routine of a
college professor." * From another source:
" In 1859, at the age of fifteen, I was sent from my
home in Maryland to take the Harvard examinations.
In presenting myself for this purpose, Professor Hunt-
ington was one of the first to interest himself in me.
Noting my age, he strongly urged me not to attempt
the arduous college course for at least two years, notwith
standing my apparent preparedness. Although an entire
stranger he took me to his house to tea, gave me letters
of introduction to Professor Park and Mrs. Harriet
Beecher Stowe, of Andover, commending me to their
interest. I took his advice, and he gave me in addition
a long and earnest talk about my religious duties,
which I have always remembered with gratitude. I
remained under his care until the clouds of civil war
compelled my return and participation. The interest
he manifested in me under these circumstances could
never be forgotten, and it has always been an inspiration
when similar opportunities have been presented to
me. Consequently I have always held his name in
great reverence and in loving remembrance."
1 The Boston Recorder, March, 1860. "Correspondence from
Cambridge."
A NEW PATH 127
The years of Professor Huntington s residence in
Cambridge, from 1855 to 1860, were those of intense
political feeling, high passions, and sectional bitterness.
It was not partisanship, but the deeper struggle for
supremacy of ideas which swayed North and South,
while industrial and vested interests combined to com
bat the abhorrence, steadily growing in men s minds,
of that policy of the national government which up
held slavery as supported by judicial authority. The
household at Hadley had been nurtured in an ardent
longing for the abolition of human warfare as well as
of slavery. Elizabeth Huntington might well have
expressed her own creed in the noble lines of Hartley
Coleridge :
" Far is the time, remote from human sight,
When war and discord in the world shall cease;
Yet every prayer for universal peace
Avails the blessed time to expedite."
From the pulpit and in the press Professor Huntington
had always borne vigorous testimony against tyranny
and oppression, as a strong believer in freedom and
national righteousness, but he had never allied himself
with the Abolitionist party. For Charles Sumner he
had a sympathetic admiration, and in the heated at
mosphere after the assault upon the senator his indig
nation rose high with that of citizens of Massachusetts
of all classes and predilections.
In Cambridge a public meeting of protest was held
June 2, 1856, and resolutions drafted by a committee
with Richard H. Dana, Jr., as chairman. The pre
amble states the offense to be "defended and adopted
by the slave-holding power, by their representatives
and their press, and seen in connexion with the whole
128 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
course of things relating to Kansas and with other acts
elsewhere and heretofore, we recognize not an isolated
act of one man, but a part of a system, not the accident
of passion, but the effect of causes permanent in their
nature, and increasing in their powers. We see in it
part of a system which aims at the subjugation of free
speech and free action in the free states, and in their
representatives. We see in it a part of a system, the
latest and most extreme encroachments of that fearful
oligarchy of slave powers, which has usurped political
domination and now threatens to spread a moral 1
servitude over the land."
The resolutions declare a "solemn conviction that
the time has come when the people of the free states
must unite in one earnest effort to recover their per
sonal liberties and political equality and to retrieve
the honor of the country. The Constitution puts in our
hands, by legal and peaceable means, the power to do all
this. Let it be done."
The speeches on this occasion were from Professor
Joel Parker and Professor Theophilus Parsons of the
Harvard Law School, and ProfessorHuntington. Hon.
Richard H. Dana presented the resolutions with re
marks which were received with great applause. From
personal acquaintance he made this tribute to Mr.
Sumner :
"When proposed as candidate for the Senate, the
highest office Massachusetts can give, while his
election hung trembling in the balance, week after
week, when one or two votes would secure it, and this
or that thing said or done it was thought would gain
them, nothing would induce Charles Sumner to take
one step from his regular course from his house to his
A NEW PATH 129
office, to speak to any man; he would not make one
bow the more, nor put his hand to a line, however
simple or unobjectionable, to secure the result. I know
I have a right to say this I know that in this course
he resisted temptations and advice and persuasions
which few men would not have yielded to."
The words of Mr. Huntington at the close of his
speech show the vehemence by which he himself
was moved. " It has been well said that the New Testa
ment gives us not the Resolves of the Apostles, but the
Acts of the Apostles. Sir, we must hold fast these fine
sentiments we utter so fluently till they take shape and
consistency in action. The summer heat must not wilt
them down ; the summer pleasures must not emasculate
them; the early and latter rain must not dilute them.
The autumn frosts must not wither them. We must
keep them till next November. Then we must take
them between our fingers, and put them into those
boxes where are the fate-books of republics, the
treasury-chests of every wise and upright democracy.
And if the Missouri rioters or the renegade knighthood
of the Carolinas shall come on to snatch the very
ballot-boxes out of our hands, then, sir, we must put
them into but Mr. Chairman, I am a member of the
Peace Society [cheers and cries of Go on ]. No, it shall
not come to that!
"If we are faithful and true it shall not come to that.
A great revolution is taking place, deep in the minds of
men, one of those revolutions which never, never go
back."
An incident of that time is described in the " Memoir
and Letters of Charles Sumner," by Edward L. Peirce.
"As soon as Sumner s purpose to go to Boston to
130 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
vote for Fremont was known, a committee of citizens
waited on him and urged his acceptance of a banquet;
this invitation he declined, but he was unable to re
press the popular sympathy which sought expression in
a public reception. This became an imposing demon
stration, unorganized, spontaneous, and heartfelt. A
committee of whom Professor Huntington of Harvard
College, since bishop of Central New York, took the
lead, arranged that it should be without military
display, but civil, dignified, and elevated in character. 1
(Professor Huntington s letter, October 10, 1856, to
Sumner.)
"Professor H. presented Sumner as one who had
come, a cheerful and victorious sufferer, out of the
great conflicts of humanity with oppression, of ideas
with ignorance, of scholarship and refinement with
barbarian vulgarity, of conscience with selfish expe
diency, of right with wrong This to the mayor. He
was presented to the governor by Professor H. as one
whose friends are wherever justice is revered, who
has a neighbor in every victim of wrong throughout
the world, now returning to his state, her faithful
steward, her eloquent and fearless advocate, her hon
ored guest, her beloved son. "
It has been mentioned in the correspondence of
Professor Huntington that owing to the inadequacy
of his salary to meet the expenses of his position he was
obliged to devote part of his time during the winter
months to the lecture field. In spite of the pressure of
other duties, and the necessary absence from home, he
enjoyed meeting audiences of thinking people and felt
1 Edward Everett was first asked to deliver the address of wel
come but declined for political reasons.
A NEW PATH 131
the animation which numbers and enthusiasm give
to a public speaker. That there was nothing of the
commercial spirit in the contracts into which he en
tered may be gathered from the following anecdote,
published in the " Utica Observer," of June 22, 1903.
Speaking of Bishop Huntington, then the bishop of the
diocese, the editor says: "It was when his pastorate
of a Boston church was at the height of its brilliancy
that he was induced to come to the interior of New
York for the first time and to lecture before the Utica
Mechanics Association. His engagement had been
made without a price being named. The chairman of
the lecture committee, when the arrangements were
otherwise completed, wrote to him to learn what com
pensation he would expect. The answer was unusual.
I have never, he replied in effect, found myself able
to affix a price to intellectual or moral labor. When
the lecture has been delivered you may give me what
you will. That letter, cherished for years, was burned
in the < Observer s fire in 1884 with many another epistle
of less value from men ranking high in the lecture
field. It was cherished as an illustration of the man so
many of us have come to know better and to love and
venerate so highly in these later years."
There is a personal incident connected with these
days of lecturing. In the library left behind by Bishop
Huntington is a volume on the fly-leaf of which the
text, " Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt
find it after many days," was written under an in
scription made "with grateful love and esteem." The
author of the book, a luminous and inspiring inter
pretation of Divine power in the world, wrote in
explanation of this tribute :
130 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
vote for Fremont was known, a committee of citizens
waited on him and urged his acceptance of a banquet;
this invitation he declined, but he was unable to re
press the popular sympathy which sought expression in
a public reception. This became an imposing demon
stration, unorganized, spontaneous, and heartfelt. A
committee of whom Professor Huntington of Harvard
College, since bishop of Central New York, took the
lead, arranged that it should be without military
display, but civil, dignified, and elevated in character. *
(Professor Huntington s letter, October 10, 1856, to
Sumner.)
"Professor H. presented Sumner as one who had
come, a cheerful and victorious sufferer, out of the
great conflicts of humanity with oppression, of ideas
with ignorance, of scholarship and refinement with
barbarian vulgarity, of conscience with selfish expe
diency, of right with wrong This to the mayor. He
was presented to the governor by Professor H. as one
whose friends are wherever justice is revered, who
has a neighbor in every victim of wrong throughout
the world, now returning to his state, her faithful
steward, her eloquent and fearless advocate, her hon
ored guest, her beloved son. "
It has been mentioned in the correspondence of
Professor Huntington that owing to the inadequacy
of his salary to meet the expenses of his position he was
obliged to devote part of his time during the winter
months to the lecture field. In spite of the pressure of
other duties, and the necessary absence from home, he
enjoyed meeting audiences of thinking people and felt
1 Edward Everett was first asked to deliver the address of wel
come but declined for political reasons.
A NEW PATH 131
the animation which numbers and enthusiasm give
to a public speaker. That there was nothing of the
commercial spirit in the contracts into which he en
tered may be gathered from the following anecdote,
published in the " Utica Observer," of June 22, 1903.
Speaking of Bishop Huntington, then the bishop of the
diocese, the editor says: "It was when his pastorate
of a Boston church was at the height of its brilliancy
that he was induced to come to the interior of New
York for the first time and to lecture before the Utica
Mechanics Association. His engagement had been
made without a price being named. The chairman of
the lecture committee, when the arrangements were
otherwise completed, wrote to him to learn what com
pensation he would expect. The answer was unusual.
[ have never, he replied in effect, found myself able
to affix a price to intellectual or moral labor. When
the lecture has been delivered you may give me what
you will. That letter, cherished for years, was burned
in the Observer s fire in 1884 with many another epistle
of less value from men ranking high in the lecture
field. It was cherished as an illustration of the man so
many of us have come to know better and to love and
venerate so highly in these later years."
There is a personal incident connected with these
days of lecturing. In the library left behind by Bishop
Huntington is a volume on the fly-leaf of which the
text, " Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt
find it after many days," was written under an in
scription made "with grateful love and esteem." The
author of the book, a luminous and inspiring inter
pretation of Divine power in the world, wrote in
explanation of this tribute :
134 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
God of all has done more for them than all his creatures
by ordaining such mild skies, and pleasant weather.
Three of my trips to Brooklyn have been taken,
and have proved rather pleasant, furnishing an
opportunity to visit various friends, and to hear promi
nent preachers, of all sorts and styles, Bethune,
Tyng, Beecher, Storrs, Alexander. Only once I have
preached last Sunday morning for Storrs, in return
for his favors to me in the same kind. The lecture
audiences are grand, quite exciting, some twelve
hundred intelligent people in the hall, and a hundred or
so standing crowded in the passages and on the stair
cases outside.
rri T/r T> A P"1 5 > 1858.
lo Miss BETHIA HUNTINGTON.
Yesterday was an Easter of uncommon outward
splendor, and uncommon joy to our hearts. Seven
students and three others came forward and joined
the college church. The young men are full of promise
and seem to be respected in this great step.
I have waited long, and hardly dared to hope for
such a sight. Many years have passed since any mem
ber of the college joined the church. God grant that
others may come, and all stand fast.
The distinctive revival movement does not hitherto
appear much in the college institution, though there is
unusual attention to religious things, and meetings
are full. This week is the anniversary of mother s
birth into the fullness of eternal life, and of her first
earthly entrance upon it.
Among Professor Huntington s published sermons
is one preached April 11, 1858, on the Sunday after the
1 Christian Believing and Living.
A NEW PATH 135
preceding letter was written. An introductory note
makes "a respectful and affectionate acknowledg
ment to the students of the college who received it
with more than their usual attention, many of whom
have asked for its publication, and whose uniform
candor makes it a privilege to be their minister. May
they all be taught of God, and lay hold on eternal
life. This is life eternal, that they might know thee,
the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent. " The subject of the discourse is "Permanent
Realities of Religion and the Present Religious Inter
est." It deals with the subject of the revival meetings
which in that year occupied the public attention to a
marked degree. The words of the writer on a mani
festation not greatly in accord with the spirit of the
denomination he represented are given in part. On
the title-page is a quotation from Frederic W. Robert
son, then in the height of his influence. "Sin-laden
and guilty men ; the end of all the Christian ministry
is to say that out with power Behold the Lamb of
God. When we believe that the sacrifice of that
Lamb meant love to us, our hearts are lightened of
their load ; the past becomes as nothing, life begins
afresh." The text was from Isaiah, Iv, 6, 7: "Seek
ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon
him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let
him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy
upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon." The writer meets plainly an opposition to
the movement acting through the community set
ting aside the word "revival" as a mere name and
stating instead "substantial facts, which for Truth s
136 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
sake we ought to see, and seeing revere ; " the sense of
sonship, the feeling of God s presence, a realization
of sin, repentance, the need of sympathy, the value of
human social prayer." Protests are made against
religious excitements. "Excitements are of different
kinds and degrees; excitements that come from the
senses are full of peril ; excitements which, necessarily,
by a law of nature, must be followed by a reaction even
into apathy, are hurtful. These statements are past
question and need not be oracularly put forth every
day as discoveries. Indifference so stolid that man,
made to love God and goodness with all his heart, can
not abide in it, but has to be excited out of it, is also
suspicious. A coolness so complacent that it must be
broken up by a wrench of repentance, is also full of
peril. Your worldly unbelief is hurtful. We have to
set off exposures and dangers against each other, in
this world, and find the safe way or the way of salvation,
by coming as quickly as we can to our Guide. We shall
probably estimate the harm of religious fervor very
much according to our relative estimate of the impor
tance of religion itself. There are indiscretions, we
hear. No doubt of it. The question is whether the
indiscretions are so many, and so glaring, as to over
balance the palpable and lasting good that comes of
engaging many people heartily in the new conviction
that they have a spiritual, immortal capacity, and owe
their lives to their Creator. When we have governments
without indiscretion, colleges without indiscretion,
manners, trade, navigation, over any sort of sea, with
out it, we shall have an administration of Christianity
without indiscretion. But remember, the greatest in
discretion we can possibly fall into about religion, is
A NEW PATH 137
to let it alone. No man, it seems to me, who looks
largely over the facts and phenomena of the Christian
world, can dare to insist that all mankind shall take
one outward path to Heaven. The inward path must
be essentially the same for all. There is but one Door.
By me, Christ said, enter in; I am the Door. But
the ways that lead to the door, with slighter or greater
divergence from each other, reach out at last, over all
the intellectual territory of the great continent of hu
manity. Who shall not rejoice to believe that, through
them all, pilgrims are pressing on, sincerely, patiently,
humbly; with hope, with faith, that they may enter?
Now when the pilgrims were come up to the gate,
there was written over it, in letters of gold, " Blessed
are they that do his commandments, that they may
have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through
the gates into the city." God grant to his church
ever new, deeper, more genuine revivals of pure and
undefiled religion. May He pour out his spirit upon all
flesh, in other Pentecosts, on every barren place, every
cold church, every unprofitable heart."
Oct. 2, 1856.
To Miss BETHIA HUNTINGTON.
You will be interested to hear that a goodly number
of our new class are religious men. Last Wednesday
I invited together all the church members of the
college (most of them of Trinitarian denominations)
and addressed them on their peculiar duties as Chris
tian members of this college. It was an earnest, at
tentive, and very interesting assembly, of nearly a
hundred young men.
138 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
Distinctively Mr. Huntington was a preacher, and this
sacred calling was in his mind preeminent. His Sunday
sermons were addressed not only to the large body of
undergraduates and members of the other university
departments, but to the professors and their families,
whom he considered under his special pastoral care.
He gathered the children into a Sunday sehool held at
his own house, where classes were instructed; at one
time by two students then standing in unusually close
relations to the chaplain, William R. Huntington
and Francis J. Abbott. In the administration of the
services he set himself to present an attractive and
reverent form of worship. The building and com
pletion of Appleton Chapel, in October, 1858, were a
source of great interest to him, gratifying both his
strong aesthetic sense and his growing inclination to
wards churchliness in the outward manifestation of
religion. In order to express his conception of public
worship he prepared a service-book which was used
on Sunday afternoons.
Although this was done with the approval of the
president, the innovation was not in accordance with
the views of some of the faculty, and the attempt could
not be called successful. The compilation was, as he
himself explains in the preface, " a considerable de
viation from the Book of Common Prayer, that is
recognized as the most complete body of liturgical
exercises in our language."
In the pages of his magazine Professor Huntington
had for some years taken notice of the solemn sea
sons of commemoration of the Saviour s passion,
resurrection, and ascension. In 1858 he reviewed
"Christian Days and Thoughts" by Rev. Ephraim
A NEW PATH 139
Peabody, offering a heartfelt tribute to the reverent and
devotional spirit of the book. " It strengthens the ten
dency which we rejoice to find growing and gaining
on every side, to mark and keep the feasts and fasts of
the church in a wise and truly catholic observance.
If anything in laws of association and veneration is
clear, it would seem to be clear that the time of Chris
tendom ought to be all measured and notched and
consecrated by the leading events of our divine Lord s
experience while he wore the form of our humanity,
and thus the atmosphere of our ordinary existence
be kept within the august influence of the supernatural
age. It would nourish religion, sustain Christian order,
enrich preaching and private devotion, and shed fresh
beauty over the hard and practical aspects of our
study and work."
With this growing appreciation of the rich spiritual
inheritance which has come down to us from the past,
Dr. Huntington welcomed the selections from Lyra
Catholica, Germanica, Apostolica, and other "hal
lowed minstrelsy of the Catholic communion, the
time being quite come when Christians who would be
truly catholic cannot afford to lose the nourishment
and consolation for the inward life which any branch
of Christ s body supplies." Thus he wrote in that
preface, which in June, 1858, commended to American
readers the " Hymns of the Ages," a compilation made
by two devout women who were his personal friends.
The introduction, which has been cited as an example
of his " fine culture and pure English, " closes with the
following paragraph. "From the whole vast range of
Christian thought, experience, and imagination,
from the fresh melodies lifted in the morning air of the
140 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
Christian ages, from that long line of consecrated
and aspiring singers reaching back to the days of
Constantine, from among the lofty strains of Am
brose and Jerome and their strong fellow-believers,
where the sanctity of centuries is so wrought, like an
invisible aroma, into the very substance and structure
of the verse that it would seem as if some prophetic
sense of their immortality had breathed in the men that
wrote them, from the secret cells and the high Ca
thedrals of the Continental worship, where scholarship
and art and power joined with piety to raise the lauds
and glorias, the matins and vespers, the sequences and
the choral harmonies of a gorgeously appointed
praise, from the purer literature of old England,
embracing the tender and earnest numbers of South
well, and Crashaw, and Habington, and a multitude of
better known besides, these voices of faith are
reverently gathered into their perfect harmony."
In May, 1856, " Sermons for the People " appeared,
the first bound volume of printed discourses which
Professor Huntington published. The introduction
contains a tribute to the South Congregational Society,
for whom most of them were written, " a people that
must always be to me, in a signification that stands
alone, The People, a people that I tried for thirteen
years to help, whose harmony, energy and fidelity, made
my work delightful, and whose constant kindness I can
not repay, save by these unworthy acknowledgments,
and by an attachment that will never be changed."
Of the sermons written for special occasions are
several delivered before meetings of ministers; one at
the Meadville Theological School; one to the Bos
ton Young Men s Christian Union; one on "National
A NEW PATH 141
Retribution and the National Sin, "of which a note says
that "it was preached on Fast Day, 1851, soon after
the passage, in Congress, of the bill known as the
Fugitive Slave Law." Those who found in the later
writings of the bishop of Central New York utterances
on public matters which were attributed to the pes
simistic spirit of old age, may read in the stern ar
raignments of the young minister, at a time of intensely
heated public feeling, the same unsparing rebukes to
a community truckling with greed and oppression.
" We may build barricades for our prison-houses, and
plant guns and staves and chains about our victims;
we may stigmatize or crucify the prophets that tell us
the truth; we may rejoice in every fresh success of
cruel usurpations over human freedom ; but we cannot
thereby stay the advancing steps of retribution, we
cannot, by police or militia, by conventions or statute-
books, by certificates of bondage or judicial forms,
press down behind the eastern horizon that ascending
sun which shall bring in the day of our judgment."
Most of the readings were intended for private
devotional use, and the large sale of the book, its
multiplied editions and circulation among different
classes of believing Christians, testify to the permanent
place it gained in the hearts of the people. Of signifi
cance is a plea made in one discourse, for the better
social and economic position of woman, on the ground
that a fair and equal chance for the development of
her powers had not been afforded her in the past. This
was just at the period when a complaint was making
itself heard from the platform, often exciting strong
prejudice against those who had the courage to speak
lor their sisters.
142 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
The sermon on " The Christian Woman " has cheered
and strengthened many, young and old, through its
rare sympathy, while it holds up a pattern of com
plete womanhood in its beautiful delineation of con
secrated service.
A discriminating critic said of the whole volume
after its writer had passed away :
" Some of his later publications may have contained
riper thoughts, but probably no one of them enjoyed
so wide a circulation. The charm of these sermons,
as, indeed, of all the sermons that he ever put into
print, lay in a certain subtle interweaving of the prac
tical and the homely with the idealistic and the imagi
native. Always eloquent, but never turgid; weighty
without ponderosity ; effective while leaving no im
pression that the preacher had been straining after
effect, these sermons justified their title, and
not only reached the people, but did the people
good." l
The eight lectures delivered at the Graham Institute
in Brooklyn and at the Lowell Institute in Boston were
published in 1859 under the title, " Divine Aspects of
Human Society." Thirty years later this book, which
had been widely read, was reprinted. It is noteworthy
that at the time of its first appearance, social subjects
received so little attention that they were neither dig
nified by scientific treatment or included in courses of
academic learning. When Lord Elgin wrote to the
Hon. Edward Everett requesting the titles of American
publications on social reform, the latter finding him
self unable to furnish any such list, notwithstanding *
his wide acquaintance with literature, applied to the
1 Rev. W. R. Huntington : Memorial Sermon.
A NEW PATH 143
Plummer professor at Harvard as the only man likely
to give the desired information.
A teacher of ethics, with a strong love for humanity,
Professor Huntington was an earnest student of history
and of social progress. Thinking minds of that gener
ation had become familiar with communistic theories
through the experiments made by the disciples of
Fourier and Robert Owen, while from across the water
came echoes of that sympathy with the Chartist move
ment expressed by Frederic Maurice and Charles
Kingsley. Mrs. Browning s hero in "Aurora Leigh"
was described as "elbow deep in social problems."
The large and intelligent audiences, who at that time
listened to public lectures, gave eager attention to
Professor Huntington s exposition of the Christian
basis of relations between man and his fellows, of
mutual help as a divine appointment, of the law
of advancement, of the sphere of Christ s kingdom
upon earth. In after years the lofty conceptions of the
university professor entered into realization when, as
a leader of men, his influence was given to movements
for the advancement of the interests of labor, for the
reclaiming of the criminal, for the education of the
Indian and of the colored race, for equal political
and industrial conditions.
In the midst of the many calls and distractions of the
Boston and Cambridge life the Hadley home never
lost its hold upon Professor Huntington, and he fre
quently found a few days leisure to spend with his
brother and sister and their aged father.
In 1857 Rev. Dan Huntington printed for his de
scendants a series of reminiscences under the title of
" Memories, Counsels and Reflections by an Octoge-
144 FKEDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
nary." His youngest son gave his personal attention
to the publication, having himself a strong interest
in the preservation of family tradition and in the ties of
kinship. His pride in the place of his birth and strong
affection for it are expressed in the oration he was
asked to deliver at the bi-centennial of the town of
Hadley, held in June, 1859. In this address he de
scribes in vivid portrayal the events which led to the
founding of the town, its early history, the period of
the Indian wars, the concealment of the regicides in
the old parsonage, the educational development of
Hopkins Academy, the lives of those who "governed
the flock," in the words of the epitaph on the tomb of
the first minister, John Russell. He closed with a touch
ing allusion to the village cemetery, making an appeal
for its pious care and more attractive preservation.
" It is right that our long review of the generations
of the living should halt here where every generation
and every procession halts at last. Through the gate
way of mortality every review must pass. There every
history must be sifted. A hundred years hence, how
many coming after us will have entered! To those
who shall gather to celebrate the third centennial,
what strange and quaint antiquities the surviving
specimens of our customs and fashions and dwellings
and forms of speech will be. But this we know: and
let this be our consolation : humanity, duty, character,
goodness, truth, freedom, faith, hope, charity, will
all be unchanged keeping their loveliness and
majesty forever."
Always ready in after-dinner speechmaking, and
admirable in anecdote, Dr. Huntington never per
mitted his gift for pleasantry to lead him into the
A NEW PATH 145
excesses of an habitual story-teller. On this occasion
at Hadley, the banquet which closed the day called
forth one of his most genial moods. He was surroufcded
by the familiar faces of his townsfolk, and by distin
guished guests, a goodly company gathered to do
honor to the historic town. The toast to the orator
of the day seems prophetic, in the light of subsequent
years : " May his active life find solace and vigor, and
may his age reap the fruits of serenity and peace,
amid the placid retirements of his native Elm Valley."
His concern for the community was, however, far
deeper than the interest stirred by a passing pageant
or any exchange of felicitations. In the spring of 1859,
after a few days at the old homestead, he wrote :
" All the incidents of my little visit were pleasant and
satisfactory, and are agreeable to recall. The points
that occur to me as causes for special gratification
were the signs of comfort and peace in the old house,
and father s evident health. The tea at Major Syl
vester s was a pleasant episode. I ought also to men
tion, as a reason for honest and general thankfulness,
that so many of you are finding a sympathy and enjoy
ment in the religious opportunities of your own neigh
borhood. I hope nothing will occur to arrest that
tendency or to disturb the more liberal and spiritually
earnest state of things growing up in the town. If so,
the past or all that was wrong or painful in it
may best afford to be forgotten."
At this time the family at Elm Valley were wor
shiping with the Russell Church in Hadley, under a
Congregational minister whose pastorate was in every
way acceptable. In response to an invitation to de
liver a lecture in their meeting-house, Professor Hunt-
146 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
ington wrote, March 18, 1859: "There is no pros
pect that my duties will allow me to go to Hadley
before the celebration. I would a little rather also,
all the past considered, that my first acceptance of a
ministerial invitation to appear in public in Old Hadley
should be strictly in the line of the ministerial office.
If the good old sound orthodoxy of the Front Street
keep going on in the last of the three apostolic graces
a while longer, as fast as it has for the year past, and
if I should continue growing in favor, on the other
hand, with the Israel of the faith, perhaps the two
parties they and I may meet. In that case, it is
only to be hoped we should not pass each other with
out a recognition."
Each summer Professor Huntington took his wife
and children back to the old home, so that the earliest
memories of the little ones were associated with it.
After such a sojourn he wrote in July, 1859, to his sister :
" We have to content ourselves with happy memories
and sweet thoughts of your green meadows and still
waters, not unmixed with deep desires and prayers
for the peace and welfare of you all. May God answer
them and bless you."
The family life in the Cambridge home was a
delightful one. The parents were not too absorbed
in outside interests to give time and sympathy and
companionship to their children. The older ones re
ceived every advantage of schooling which the period
afforded, with private instruction in drawing and
French. As a boy in the old country home their father
had been taught to find his chief pleasure in reading,
and he supplied his own household with the best books,
often selecting for them some volume suited to their
A NEW PATH 147
special tastes. From earliest childhood they became
familiar with beautiful verse, listening to him while he
read aloud his favorite poems, with an exquisite ex
pression and sympathetic rendering rarely excelled.
He taught them to learn hymns as soon as they could
read, and took a strong interest in the selections for
their school recitation. His gift to his eldest daughter
on her tenth birthday was a copy of Keble s " Christian
Year," a work already familiar on his study-table.
All literary enjoyment was so ardently shared by the
head of the family with the home circle, that a culti
vated taste was naturally developed which excluded
attractions less elevated and refined. Out-of-door
pursuits and healthy activities were equally encouraged.
It was a happy event when the busy professor could
take the children for a skating expedition or a sleigh-
ride, and such delights were eagerly anticipated, with
occasional drives through the lovely country which
then stretched unbroken on the confines of Cambridge.
The freedom of suburban residence permitted the
possession of live creatures, a luxury not suited to
city life but which was a feature of these earlier days.
No road was too long for the energetic and hardy
frame of the professor, if he had a good horse and the
reins in his own hands, and many an engagement for
preaching or lectures was kept through a drive across
the state; while his favorite companion was a fine
dog gamboling before him on a walk, or curled up by
the side of his study chair. There was much rejoicing
in November, 1859, when a second daughter was born.
The youngest child, Jamie, was five years old and a
universal favorite, having an unusually winning and
social disposition. His father writes that the only
148 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
consciousness he showed of being dispossessed from
the position he had occupied in the household was
"when the baby was getting the attention and admi
ration of the whole room, he drew up very soberly to
his mother s side, and said to her in a low voice,
Mamma, do you like me ?
CAMBRIDGE, Nov. 20, 1859.
To Miss BETHIA HUNTINGTON.
Dear Sister: This is Thanksgiving week. Cold
and small must any of our hearts be that do not find
abundant cause for cordial praise. In our own family
in its different branches, how many cases of mercy,
healing, deliverance, protection, bounty; new lives
given and old lives spared, plenty and affection
for all, and for all the immortal hopes of the Gospel
of salvation. As we have no service in the Chapel that
day, I preached my Thanksgiving sermon this morn-;
ing, from the text, "Who layeth the beams of his
chambers in the waters." God s steadfastness amidst
man s fluctuations; illustrated in the outward world,
in society, history, institutions, affairs of religion,
with three duties inferred : gratitude, trust, loyalty,
with their three expressions, thanksgiving, prayer,
obedience. The whole psalm (104th) is one of the
sublimest. Herder thinks that Milton borrowed from
it the inspiration of the morning hymn of Adam in
Paradise.
CAMBRIDGE, Dec. 25, 1859.
To Miss BETHIA HUNTINGTON.
Dear Sister: To-morrow I intend to send a
package of books by express. I hope all of you whose
names are written in them will accept them as a de-
A NEW PATH 149
signed and cordial gift. It has all along been my in
tention to give them, and the lectures have been
kept back only to go in the same bundle with the
sermons. The two volumes together may be said to
have pressed into them, and expressed through them,
the greatest amount of my inner life and thought for
the last three years. God knows how earnestly I have
prayed that they might do good and not evil; that
their error might be overruled and their truth accepted,
and our Blessed Lord s honor and cause be in some
way and measure advanced by them.
Yesterday was a day full of sacred interest to us.
Some of the Roxbury relations were with us, and a few
intimate friends coming in, the holy ordinance of
baptism was administered upon our dear little Ruth
Gregson, a domestic service, in our parlor at four
o clock. The Chapel has hardly become enough like
a church to us to lead us there. Join your prayers with
ours, that the new and precious life thus brought into
the living body of the church on earth may also be
made a member of the invisible and eternal church
which is one on earth and in Heaven.
Scarcely had this service ended when we went to our
public Christmas Eve worship in the Chapel, at five
o clock. The interior had been beautifully dressed
with evergreens, including cross and star, and the
inscriptions on the college seals, on opposite walls
in evergreen letters: "Veritas" and "Christo et Ec-
clesise." The building was full of people, and the
exercises seemed very reverential and impressive.
They were liturgical, much like our usual afternoon
worship, only adapted to the Saviour s birth-night.
The music by the students was solemn and touching.
150 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
This seemed a fit mode of ushering in the festivities
and joys of the season. We then returned home, and
the children distributed their presents with the usual
good cheer. After the house had become still, about
half past ten o clock, as I was sitting in the study
preparing for the holy duties of to-day, suddenly most
delightful music, in youthful voices, broke out under
my window. I raised the curtain, and there stood a
picturesque group of singers, mostly young boys,
muffled in cloaks and shawls, with lanterns, under
the sparkling stars in the frosty night air, pouring out
Christmas carols, genuine old English carols,
in music and words wholly peculiar, and beautiful
exceedingly. At first I was puzzled to make them out.
I noticed that whenever they spoke the name of Jesus
they bowed the head. Altogether the effect was re
markable, as if I had been transported back into
the ages of old romance and faith. On going out to
ask the strangers in, they greeted me with a " Happy
Christmas." They proved to be the choir of the Epis
copal " Church of the Advent " in Boston, whom one
of our neighbors worshiping there had brought out to
his house here, where I presently joined them. It was
an old-country church custom for these companies,
called "waits, " to carol in this way, on Nativity night,
under the rector s window. You know the pathetic
and moving character of the music-voices of boys.
This formed a charming conclusion to the day.
In another letter referring to this event he says: " It
was as if something from Bethlehem and Fatherland
had blended graciously, and floated down through the
starlit and frosty air to our door."
A NEW PATH 151
CAMBRIDGE, Jan. 1, 1860.
DEAR SISTER BETHIA : With all my heart, as the
sun of the first day of the New Year goes down, in the
stillness that rests upon the pure white earth, amidst
the Sabbath feeling always deeper at this hour, let me
offer, before you and our dear father, the fervent and
devout wish that this year may be happy, and good,
and crowned with heavenly blessings, to you both,
from the beginning to the end. May you be blessed in
basket and store, in body and soul, in affection and
faith, in the joys of this life, in " the means of grace,
and the hope of glory." We have just come in from our
afternoon service, where we sang old " Benevento,"
and read the gracious 103d Psalm. The text this
morning was from the Parable of the Tares ; the ser
vant s mistake and sin in not using his one talent.
You remember mother s interest in peace. This
gave me interest in giving an address last Monday,
before a Peace Society in Providence, in connection
with Christmas. Our term ends two weeks from next
Wednesday. I hope to see you all, the last week in the
month.
With steadfast affection yours,
F. D. H.
The sun of the second Sabbath of the year has gone
down in a flood of silent glory and as his beams have
gradually faded away, the splendor of the moon has
filled their place. It is a perfect night, after a day
perfect in its kind, but very warm for the season. I
wish you could look in upon us and spend the evening,
at least. We have fitted up the back parlor and now
take tea here. Among several new pictures in the room
is one just given to Arria, a large and handsome
152 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
engraving of Raphael s "Transfiguration." I have
been reading aloud to Jamie, who shows great sensi
bility, dear child, to spiritual impressions. He has
learned, of his own accord, " the Apostles Creed " and
repeats it with us when we say it, as well as the Lord s
Prayer. Little Ruth, who has learned to smile in our
faces, is upstairs asleep. George is busy with his books.
SPIRITUAL CONFLICT
" This is a valley that nobody walks in but those that love a pilgrim s
life ; yet I must tell you that in former times men have met angels
here."
FROM the preceding chapter it may be seen that the
years between 1855 and 1860, the term of Professor
Huntington s residence at Harvard University, were
filled with interests and activities thoroughly congenial
to his tastes and aspirations. As a teacher he was
brought in contact with the minds of bright and eager
youth; as a preacher he counted among his hearers
men of intellect and reputation; he addressed large
and cultivated audiences from the lecture-platform;
found wide opportunity for religious influence through
the press and in his published writings; mingled with
society under its most engaging aspects; lent his aid
to movements of widespread beneficence. From first
to last, his own denomination conferred upon him
almost every distinction which official station and
appointments for ceremonies and celebrations could
afford; in representative gatherings of charities, agri
cultural societies, library associations, commencement
occasions of nearly every New England college, his
words were listened to with sympathy and appreciation.
And yet this entire period was one of intense anxiety,
of great mental strain and spiritual distress.
154 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
He said of himself that his sufferings sometimes
amounted to agony, in uncertainty as to the Divine
will, in conflicting views as to the demands of con
science, in the prospect of breaking precious ties, in a
renunciation of much that he held dear. Alone in the
struggle he was "thrown upon God in solemn soli
tude."
The first direct step which he took to free himself
from any trammels as to expression of opinion was
in 1856 when he added to the title of the "Monthly
Religious Magazine," of which he occupied the edi
torial chair, the name "Independent Journal," with
an explanation, to which he thus refers in the following
number. "Denominations, nowadays, strangely over
lap each other, and get mixed. To be clear of all
sects is not to stand between any two, nor to court
the favor of any. Our own aversion to the Unitarian
name, and our desire to be independent of it, arises
partly from a belief that that term is not a descrip
tion of our religious convictions on several import
ant points, and partly from a settled distrust of the
general influence of the sectarian measures it covers,
rather than from any want of friendship for its men,
or of appreciation of its freedom." In these same
spring months the columns of the periodical were
opened to an article on " The Relation of the Atone
ment to Holiness," from the " New Englander," by
the Rev. S. W. S. Dutton; a letter on the same
subject by Rev. E. B. Hall, D. D., with remarks; a
reply by Rev. Mr. Dutton, and a second letter from
Dr. Hall. In introducing the first, by a conspicuous
clergyman of the Orthodox Congregational Church in
New Haven, already on fraternal terms, with Professor
SPIRITUAL CONFLICT 155
Huntington, the latter states that " it is a reprint entire
of the Concio ad Cleriim delivered before the Gen
eral Association of Connecticut last July. It must
be borne in mind that it received the evident and
full approbation of that rather orthodox body ; though
we are aware that to mention that circumstance will
prejudice its reception with some persons whose lib
erality is rather in name than in reality. Others will not
fail to be nourished by the truths it so fervently pro
claims, finding some thing there that meets their hearts,
and gratified by the encouragement it gives to the hope
that clear and consistent statements shall yet be found
for vital theological doctrines in which earnest be
lievers can agree."
In response to Dr. Dutton s arguments, Dr. Hall, a
Unitarian minister of age and learning, asked in his
communication for Scriptural proofs of the doctrine.
The whole controversy is reviewed at length in the
quarterly issue of the "New Englander," Congre
gational, for May, 1856, on the ground that " Professor
Huntington occupies a public position, of incalculable
power over the religious convictions of the American
people. Every parent who is desirous of educating
his boy has an interest in ascertaining the nature of
that religious teaching to which he will be subjected
in the oldest and wealthiest university of our land."
An extract is given from an article on " The Divinity
of Christ " published in the " Monthly Religious Maga
zine "for May, 1851, in which Professor Huntington
says: "We believe, therefore, we cannot but believe,
we are as unable as we are undesirous to doubt, that
in regard to that deep, wide line that distinguishes the
Infinite from the finite and the Divine from the human,
156 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
Christ the Redeemer does not stand by his nature on the
human side. We discover no way in which an estranged,
lost family on earth, not knowing God by all its wis
dom, and condemned by a law which it had not power
or will to keep, could be raised, restored, and justified,
but by one who should bring the Deity to the earth,
while he lifts up man towards Deity. The Redeemer
must make God manifest in the flesh, mediate between
heaven and humanity, show us the Father to move
and melt the child."
The writer in the " New Englander " goes on to say
of the passages quoted, that although the animus
of the entire production cannot be apparent as in
the eloquent whole, these few blossoms will show the
nature of the mind whose fruit was then but forming,
and which we trust may long continue to ripen rich
earthly harvests, before transplanted to the Paradise
of God and of the Lamb."
It is significant that while Professor Huntington
closes the discussion in his " Monthly " with an ap
peal to the Unitarian denomination to enter upon fresh
studies of the life of Christ, "and to reach beyond
the old standards for views which promise a pro-
founder peace to the heart," the reviewer proceeds
with an inquiry whether such a candid exposition of
belief would entitle its exponent to be received into
the orthodox fellowship. " He has in a manful spirit
addressed his old companions by a free and frank
avowal of disagreement with their opinions. He does
not ask to publish in our periodicals his confession of
faith; but he publishes our confession in his own
monthly, for the benefit of his Unitarian friends, and
explains and defends its principles. Has he not the
SPIRITUAL CONFLICT 157
same claim on our sympathy and recognition, which
those fathers of our churches had, who left their own
communion at the commencement of the present cen
tury and sundered their ancient associations at the
expense of personal ease and consideration ? Let any
one who wishes to be informed of the parallel, peruse
the strictures on Professor H. in the Unitarian papers,
or read his remarks on the discussion. Moreover, he is
coming forth from his childhood s faith, and from all
his earlier habits of religious belief; while those with
whom we have compared him only separated from their
friends and teachers because the latter avowed doc
trines which they had not imagined them to hold,
doctrines which were directly at variance with the
public confession of the churches where they min
istered. Ought not the memory of that severe trial to
quicken the generous yearning for a mind that is strug
gling to obtain the truth, and brave enough to accept
and avow it wherever discerned ? "
It will be seen by this open vindication in a periodi
cal which circulated extensively through New England,
that the position of Professor Huntington in the reli
gious world was a subject of wide interest. He had
neither concealed the differences of belief which
separated him from his brethren nor had he gloried
in them.
His withdrawal from the "Monthly Religious
Magazine" in December, 1858, was due to a desire
for relief from "fourteen years of editorial work and
time for other studies. Considering the mutabilities
of modern journalism, this is long enough to establish
a respectable reputation for constancy. Considering
all things, it is long enough for edification.
158 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
" In the confidence that the future progress and pro
sperity of the church depend on a nobler catholicity,
a more simple and direct communion between the
believer and the person and the heart of Christ, we
have striven hard not to speak of any religious organi
zation, or any earnest disciple, with bitterness. But
he must be a slight observer of the mysteries of his own
nature, who does not know that these biases creep
upon us in unsuspected signs. We are not unwilling
to acknowledge that we have printed some words,
under what now seems a mistaken impression of duty,
which we would gladly blot out. For all needless of
fenses, against men or bodies of men, we sincerely
declare our shame, and ask forgiveness.
" No attempt has been made to turn this journal into
a vehicle of the editor s theological belief. We have not
been anxious that a complete creed, not even that our
own creed, should be gathered from its pages. On
many points, and those not the least vital to Christian
ity, regarded as a body of truth addressed to the mind,
our views have undergone serious modifications since
we slipped, half accidentally, into this editorial chair."
Many years afterwards Bishop Huntington wrote out
the history of his religious experience during those
years of unrest. We have already given his estimate
from the point of view of later life, of the Transcen
dental Movement. He had felt with other minds of his
generation, the quickening influence of philosophic
idealism. Speaking of himself in the third person he
goes on to say :
" It appeared to H. that beneath the shiftings on the
current of speculation there was a change at work in
the whole doctrinal basis of the denomination to which
SPIRITUAL CONFLICT 159
he had belonged. Doubtless that the jejune self-inter
ested moralizing of the Priestley and English Socinian
school should be spiritualized by a lofty appeal to con
sciousness and insight under a direct power of the spirit
of God, was an immeasurable gain. St. Paul proclaimed
an eternal law when he wrote, Spiritual things are
spiritually discerned. But Christianity is a revelation.
Of that revelation there is a record. Its credentials, its
histoiy, the general and reverential consent of eighteen
Christian centuries, its marvelous power over civilized
peoples, hardly less than miraculous, invest it with
tremendous sanctions. There is no trace of anything
like Christian culture apart from its authority. In open
questions it has been what there must be, a court of
ultimate appeal. Hitherto H. had seen it so held, as
well in his own as in other Protestant bodies. Through
out the Unitarian and Trinitarian polemics that ap
peal had been made with confidence on both sides alike.
The main question was : What do the scriptures teach
and mean? It was a question of interpretation of
documents, hardly a question whether the documents
were authentic and binding. ... In the short space of
twenty years the Unitarian press and pulpit virtually
ceased to make a stand on the foundation which had
been known as the Word of God. . . .
" Broad room was opened for more extensive relaxa
tions. Individual independence is a rapid but bold
rider, and drives with loose reins. Institutional Chris
tianity began to be regarded more as a superstition
than as a safeguard or an obligation. Ordinances were
optional. All beliefs were elective. Sacraments were
not sacraments, except in figures of speech ; they might
be serviceable or not. . . . Any distinctive divinity in
160 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
Christ, the personality of the Holy Ghost, a sacrificial
redemption, a permanent and hereditary disease of sin
in human nature needing such redemption by a sec
ond Adam or head of the race, were emphatically if not
passionately rejected, whether as facts or dogmas. . . .
" There would be from a believing past and from many
side sources of God s gracious help, high-toned fam
ilies, pure lives, encouraging and enlightening preach
ing, ardent reformers; but it is difficult to see how
practically the upshot could be escaped that everybody
is to do, in this world of temptation, error, and folly,
what is right in his own eyes. That in his own eyes
right would always be right, would, in that case, be
nothing more than a charitable hope."
" It happened that H. was for thirteen years engaged
in the diversified ministrations of a prosperous city
congregation mostly gathered within that period of
time, acquiescing in Unitarian views and plans, sur
rounded by attached and reasonable parishioners,
with no sort of external obstruction. If he remained
ignorant of anything doctrinal or practical, anything
of public policy or esoteric consideration, anything
of form or spirit, anything in charities or aggressive
enterprises, belonging to his denomination, it certainly
was not for want of opportunities of knowledge. With
the ministers of that denomination he enjoyed with a
keen relish the warmest friendships. On occasions
when it might be expected he advocated and defended
orally and in print those constructions of Scripture in
which he had been brought up. In all quarters his
treatment by his brethren was in the amplest degree
generous and trustful. Gradually, however, he dis
covered that what he was most heartily and anxiously
SPIRITUAL CONFLICT 161
teaching was less and less in accordance with the de
nominational spirit and form.
" When set to speak for the cause he did it with a
diminishing zeal. With some pain he became aware
that he was oftener in a vein of criticism than advocacy,
and that he probably disappointed his audience by
unfavorable comparisons between their negations and
the positive creed of a historical church. At first his
endeavor was to find out a way of so urging the truths
of Christ s divine nature and mediatorship, the neces
sity of a personal relation to Him, both subjective and
sacramental, and the inspiring power of his cross
upon character, charities, and missions, as to secure a
reception of these truths without needless opposition.
Substantially the same aim and line were followed in
a service of five years in the chapel of Harvard Col
lege as an independent, to which he was invited
by President Walker and the fellows and overseers,
partly orthodox and partly liberal, in 1855.
"In this comparatively tranquil air everything was
favorable to reading and thought, to a free comparison
of systems, and an unprejudiced survey of the world
outside. Certain editorial and other public engage
ments continued for some time, at least, a nominal
relation to the body to which he owed much and to
which he must always be grateful. It was a relation
which, in spite of all exertions to the contrary, his own
misgivings, some protests from his former associates,
and some sharp attacks from one or two Congrega
tional newspapers, rendered irksome and at last in
tolerable. However desirable it might be to deliver
one s convictions to an assembly of young men in a
leading university, to patient and unremonstrating
162 FREDERIC DAN HTJNTINGTON
learned faculty-men and their families, and to others
with them, he knew there must be a limit to the prose
cution of that design. Looking out as intelligently as
he could, he thought he saw the disbelieving and dis
integrating tendencies above-named to be unchecked.
He asked himself: Is there anywhere in ecclesiastical
annals an instance of so swift a plunge downwards in
any association of people bearing the name of Christ,
simply losing hold of the central fact of revelation ? He
could no longer be content with a kind of Christianity
destitute of a Christ in whom is all the fullness and power
of God, without an inspired charter, without the law
and inheritance and corporate energy and universal
offer of the gifts and graces of eternal life in a visible
church. . . .
"At no time, though familiar with most forms of
unbelief, was H. either pressed or allured to any school
of avowed skepticism. Doubts as to one and another
article of the faith, he had, and they were sometimes
obstinate. But neither the course of the world, nor the
constitution of man, neither the mysteries of revelation
nor those of Providence, neither what a scientific
testimony told him of nature, nor what nescience
suggested as probable, held out to him any plausible
disproof that God lives, cares for his children, and
speaks to them." 1
CAMBRIDGE, NOV. 20, 1859.
To Miss BETHIA HUNTINGTON.
If the interest taken by the public just now in my
behalf awakens any new interest in you and father, I
trust it will not be an interest of disturbance or pain.
1 The Forum, June, 1886.
SPIRITUAL CONFLICT 163
If father speaks of it, tell him -I think we are one in the
substance of the faith now, and shall see eye to eye
hereafter. I have just been reading over his printed
creed, in his book, and do not see that I differ from
that. We are not in danger of believing too much, nor
of erring fatally if we cling to Christ, to the Bible, and
the mercy-seat. My external relations are pleasant
enough, and most of those about us, though naturally a
little moved by the startling public statements, treat us
quite liberally.
In a few words of retrospect left among his papers
Bishop Huntington wrote: "My first discontent was
with the denial of the divinity and the redemption
of our Lord, and this was followed by a gradually
established belief in the Trinity and in the divine or
ganization and authority of the church apostolical
and primitive."
The acceptance of a full statement of the Orthodox
belief was slow. On Whitsunday, 1858, Rev. J. I. T.
Coolidge, pastor of the Purchase Street Unitarian
Church, had preached a sermon in which, as he pre
pared it, he wrote down, almost unconsciously, the words
"Trinity in unity and unity in Trinity," an expres
sion so decisive that at the close of the discourse he
offered his resignation to the congregation. When he
communicated this experience to his old friend and
brother in the ministry, Professor Huntington, in an
interview the next day, Professor Huntington de
clared, " I cannot say that." But he spoke the words
with sorrow and deep feeling.
When at length he wrote the sermon entitled " Life,
Salvation and Comfort for Man in the Divine Trinity,"
164 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
the light had entered his soul. This confession of a
true faith was prepared for publication in the volume
"Christian Believing and Living," and appeared in
December, 1859. A priest of a later generation makes
this tribute to the writer: "His masterful sermon,
with the explanatory note thereon, uncovers the work
ing of his philosophic faith, and reveals the patient
deliberation of the investigations, with the irresistible
cogency of the arguments, that attend his final decision
for the church doctrine of our Lord s divinity. It is a
treatise of vast value to the church. It has won and
may still win many more to the faith. Holy Scripture,
authors ancient and modern, philosophy, spiritual in
tuitions, considerations of practical purport all are
here called upon to vindicate the great doctrine and to
justify the change in the author s theological con
victions, from which thereafter he never swerved. His
heart having been given to this truth, and his intel
lect fairly won to its scriptural and philosophic con
sistency, he accepted and declared the issue without
subtlety and without quibbling." *
In a note upon this sermon at the end of his volume
Dr. Huntington says :
" The course of the author s experience if such a
reference may be allowed prompts a few words
further on two or three difficulties connected with the
subject in minds hesitating to receive the form of the
doctrine, while yet inclined by their reverence to offer to
the Saviour exalted honors. The whole issue is close
and brief. Jesus is either the incarnation not of an
abstraction, a quality, or a principle, but of God, or
else he is a created being, who began to be in time, so
1 Memorial Sermon: Rev. W. D. Maxon, D. D.
SPIRITUAL CONFLICT 165
that there was a time when our Lord and Redeemer
was not. There is a devout class of men who speak
earnestly of Christ as divine, and who yet acknowledge
that they date the beginning of his being from the hour
of his birth as the. Son of Mary.
" Closely analyzed, the idea of incarnation which is
advanced by some writers, who yet deny that Christ
is God, seems to signify nothing really distinct in kind
from what takes place in any living child of human
birth. We may partially cover the question up with
sounding words, or try to exalt the subject by dig
nified generalities; but unless there was a Divine
Personality incarnated, there were only those ab
stract notions or ideas which, in some sense or other,
may be said to be incarnated in every human character.
More than this is certainly affirmed in the mighty
sentences of the Gospel. More than this would seem
to be demanded by hearts that the Gospel has quickened
and enlarged. In the attempt to maintain a middle
position there appears to be constant struggle between
the moral posture of the student and the intellectual,
between his sentiments toward the Saviour, which are
essentially adoring, and the abating definitions of his
formal statements. The right conclusion of that
struggle is a great joy."
These sentences are not quoted merely to aid souls
perplexed and questioning, for to such the complete
treatment of the subject is commended, but because
they were a reality to him who wrote them and are
plainly autobiographical. The joy and peace were his
in full measure when he found himself again a leader of
minds, an expositor of living truths, after the cloud
and darkness he had passed through. The following
166 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
letter to an intimate correspondent expresses what he
felt.
CAMBRIDGE, Dec. 29, 1859.
To A. J.
The decisive publication has been made, in a
volume of sermons. I want your sympathy in this
hour of conflict, when so many friends are filled with
grief and pain, when some are angry, some nobly
generous, some surprised knowing that my convic
tions were less understood than I thought, and
when it seems quite probable that the outward rela
tions of my life may be greatly changed. Be assured
my peace is all that our Blessed Lord and Saviour
promised. I was never so at rest, never less anxious,
never so strong as now. As you have long prayed for
me, so frame now a Collect of Thanksgiving, and offer
it gladly in my behalf. And then intercede that I may
be kept in an humble, meek, patient and gentle spirit,
after Him, who, in great condescension, "as at this
time, " came to visit us in the form of a servant.
Jan. 8, 1860.
To HIS SISTER.
Notices of my book are coming in all the time.
Those on one side are very cordial and approvatory,
tho I am glad to say, to the credit of Christians, I
have seen none that exult in a partisan or proselyting
spirit. The other party seems to be on the whole, as
considerate as could be expected.
Private letters too, are various in spirit and sig
nification. Some of them I should like to show you.
But your quiet view is good. These mysteries are too
high for us, hence I am more anxious to affirm than
to deny.
SPIRITUAL CONFLICT 167
In May, 1859, Professor Huntington had sent to
President Walker a confidential letter, enclosing a
resignation of his office. Asking forbearance for
misgivings already expressed to his valued counselor,
he says: "Occurrences, trains of thought, remarks
brought to my attention, revive from time to time
with different degrees of force; tho they are rarely
subdued.
" You will not wonder that I am oppressed with the
responsibility of acting as the religious teacher of
these young men, under just these circumstances,
away from home as they are, having no parents at
hand to correct what they might deem erroneous, and
without a large experience. On the other hand, you
will consider how I am likely to feel about a full and
explicit declaration of my convictions, so as to be
faithful to Christ, and my own soul. Besides all this the
question arises, and pursues, how far a mistrust or
uncertainty in the minds of my hearers as to my
theological place, tends to prevent a hearty, profit
able reception of any spiritual influence from my
services. In other respects I do not wish you to
suppose my life here is otherwise than congenial and
agreeable."
President Walker s reply to the confidence and
trust imposed upon him in this communication was
one of regret for a separation which he believed would
be a calamity to the college. In availing himself of
permission to retain the resignation for a time, he
begged that it might be a few months, until his suc
cessor was appointed, his own retirement being then
already decided upon.
During the following months the doubts and un-
168 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
certainties in Professor Huntington s mind had given
place to settled conviction, and through the issue of
" Christian Believing and Living " his creed was de
clared before the world. For a short time he found
himself in the intellectual life of New England "the
observed of all observers." The removal of any am
biguity in his position marked for him a plain course
as to the duty incumbent upon him to resign the office
of Preacher to the University.
Members of the orthodox denominations, in dis
cussions through the newspapers and in private argu
ment, made haste to maintain that through his selec
tion as an "Independent" he might in all candor
and sincerity preach any doctrines he pleased, urging
also that the increasing number of students of Evan
gelical tendencies at the College Chapel removed his
obligations to conform to liberal views.
He himself took a different view. " My election by
the Corporation and its confirmation, after postpone
ments and much public discussion by the Overseers
(then a State Board) was well understood to be due, to
my independency of denominational ties, and the fact
that I refused to be classed as either a Unitarian or a
Trinitarian."
Nearly twenty-five years after, a reference in a
Boston newspaper recalled the incidents of that time.
" When Dr. Huntington resigned his position in Harvard
University on account of a radical change in his reli
gious views, he rejected with a dignity akin to scorn
the suggestion that, as he made no pledges when
elected, there was no reason why he should resign.
Square dealing in ecclesiastical matters is sometimes
an ideal virtue, which men are willing to evade, and
SPIRITUAL CONFLICT 169
follow the advice that Portia rejected, To do a great
right, do a little wrong. Indeed the instances are not
few, where religionists come far short of the code of
honor which binds men of the world, in rejecting
advantages to which they are not fairly entitled."
There were, however, many who felt that the
Chaplain would be doing no injury to his sense of
integrity in retaining a position lofty enough to be
free from entanglement and sectarian suspicion. Even
Rev. Manton Eastburn, Bishop of Massachusetts,
in common with other eminent men, took the ground
that more good could be done by remaining in the
field than in leaving it.
The pressure of the arguments from sincere and
trusted advisers may be inferred from the following
letter to the preacher s most intimate and beloved
friend on the Harvard faculty, Professor Josiah
Parsons Cooke, head of the Department of Chemistry.
The confidence reposed in him at this critical time,
may be understood when one reads the tribute offered
by Bishop Huntington, at Prof. Cooke s death in 1894,
to one "distinguished in the world of knowledge and
by those who are able to appreciate character, equally
esteemed for that which is greater than knowledge
and passeth understanding. At any time since I
came to know him, during nearly forty years, he
would have instantly surrendered all the satisfactions
and rewards of learning rather than be. untrue in act
or word to his Divine Master, or swerve from the way
of Christian integrity. When I had the pulpit and
pastorate of the College, he used to gather students
Sunday afternoons for religious instruction and en
couragement."
170 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
Jan. 18, 1860.
To J. P. C.
Dear Friend : Some time ago I promised you
that before actually resigning my office, I would in
form you of any intention I might form to do so. Even
without such a promise I should feel impelled to
acquaint you with that purpose before acting upon it,
and now that the time has come I find I shrink far
more from breaking the matter to you than to any other
person in this community, so you are the first man to
whom I break it. Indeed it costs me severer effort to
write this note than to write my letter to the Corpora
tion, and I write rather than speak, only because it is
less trying to my feelings. There are reasons for this.
And first of all it is because you have been throughout
my firmest, promptest, most efficient and self-sacrificing
friend, and helper, among all my associates here,
in the sacred work which I have had most at heart.
You have seen the real meaning and aim of my min
istry. You have nobly stood by me in good report and
in evil report. You have incurred great inconvenience
and trial on my account, and for the sake of that great
object which I came here to serve. Often, I have no
doubt, you have extended your favor to measures and
expressions which your individual judgment would
not have chosen, and from loyalty and friendship to me
and my undertaking, for Christ s sake above all.
There is probably no other man here who will regret
my going with any feeling at all comparable to yours.
All this, I know. How deeply and sadly I feel it ! How
I have been obliged to struggle under the sense of it!
God help us both to bear it, with mutual confidence
unshaken and calm trust in God that all shall be over-
SPIRITUAL CONFLICT 171
ruled for our good, for the good of the College and for
the Master s honor!
Believe me, it is the true course which I am taking.
I know my Christian honor is dear to you. You would
not have me act, so that one slightest stain of reproach,
or shade of ambiguity, or least bond of compromise,
should rest upon me. Trust me, then, so far as to be
lieve that the course I am taking is the only one con
sistent with your friend s preservation of a perfectly
fair name. Over and over again I have considered the
whole subject in all its bearings ; have brought all that
you have said, or can say, before conscience and my
Maker. Day by day and night by night I have prayed
and wrestled in my prayers with the Spirit who has so
abundantly taught me to trust Him. And now in an
swer my way is clear. I must not expect others to see
it, certainly not at once. But you will not expect on
your part that a view of duty so deliberately and
solemnly adopted, can be easily altered. May we not
both be spared the trial of a fruitless attempt?
Circumstances make it imperative that my resig
nation should go in to-morrow. I especially beg you
not to mention it to any person till next week. It is
.probable I shall stay in C. many months, perhaps
years. I have offered to perform the devotional ex
ercises, if desired, next term.
My dear friend, my path, plain as it is, is not easy.
Look up for me this night to the Lord of Peace and
Strength, and should you intercede for the University,
remember me, and my need of help from on high.
God care for us, and bless us!
Affectionately, gratefully, and forever yours,
F. D. H.
172 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
On January 19, Professor Huntington presented to
the Corporation of Harvard College a request to be
discharged from the post of service to which he had
been called five years before, prefacing this with the
statement that he had already twice offered his resig
nation to the President, "leaving it to his judgment
either to convey this communication to your Board
or to withhold it. The reason assigned to my proposal
to retire, was the growth and extent of my difference in
religious opinion and religious faith from a majority
of those addressed by my preaching.
"Aware that not a few, good men, in both the
parties referred to (Orthodox and liberal) consider it
best that the office should not be vacated, I have re
considered more than once very anxiously and with a
deep desire to be taught the truth. It is urged that the
attendance on the Chapel services, from the several
departments of the University, indicates no necessity
for such a step. But it will be argued on the one hand
that no public policy can be sound which involves the
least compromise of personal simplicity of character.
Those minds that do not attach great importance to
distinctions in belief will appreciate the rule of honor.
On the other hand I venture to hope that the same,
confidence which might lead some persons to wish me
to remain, will prompt the charitable suggestion that
my action is determined by considerations of which
the full strength cannot be felt elsewhere than on the
spot. There is no reason why I should not go further
and express with respectful deference, and in the way
of a report of my observation, a question whether
inherent difficulties, insuperable at least for the
present, do not stand in the way of a satisfactory
SPIRITUAL CONFLICT 173
separate religious ministration in an institution such
as this in the present crisis."
The writer,, after a further review of the situation,
makes a suggestion that it might be well for the stu
dents to be distributed for Sunday worship among the
parishes of Cambridge, according to their own reli
gious preferences or training, a policy since established
in the college. In closing, with acknowledgments
for abundant kindness to the students, to his asso
ciates and especially to those "older than myself or
intimately connected with the University for a longer
time, who have so simply and considerately consented
to the means I have proposed for the Christian wel
fare of the young men, and who have rendered my
residence among them delightful," the writer offered,
if desired, to conduct the week-day devotional ser
vices in the Chapel for the remainder of the aca
demic year. This was accepted, but his last sermon
in Appleton Chapel, without formal leave-taking, had
already been delivered on the preceding Sunday, Jan.
15, 1860.
He was called to the pastorate of the church in
Harvard University at a meeting of the members,
June 19, 1855, as conveyed by a document signed by
James Walker, Convers Francis, C. C. Felton. The
letter resigning this office was written June 30, 1860,
at the end of the college term. It is pleasant to insert
here a letter from one of these church officers, always
a valued friend of its pastor.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 29, 1860.
MY DEAR MR. HUNTINGTON : I have been filled
with regret, at the news I have received, within a day
174 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
or two. I know that you have been led by the most
conscientious motives, to resign your place in the
University. I have not time now to enter into any ex
tended argument to induce you to recall your resig
nation; but I earnestly hope the Committee of the
Overseers and the Corporation will be able to con
vince you that you may, consistently with your sense
of Christian obligations, continue with us as our
honored and beloved religious teacher and guide. It
is my personal and most decided wish; and I cannot
doubt that it is the wish of the University. I shall
lament the contrary decision, if you should finally
settle upon it, not only as a calamity to the college, but
as a great misfortune to myself and my family. I need
not remind you that you were appointed without the
slightest reference to special opinions or controverted
questions; so far as any change of views on your part
may be supposed to have affected your action, I cannot
doubt, from what I hear and know of public senti
ment, that you may, with entire good faith, dismiss
that consideration from the elements of final decision.
That your labors have been effective, useful and im
portant to the moral and religious condition of the
College, I know : but I know also, better than you can
know, how difficult it is to work a visible change in so
peculiar a society as that of a college. You have al
ready made a visible change: and your further con
tinuance in the office is essential to make that change
for the better, not only permanent but progressive.
The same papers that announced your resignation,
announce my election by the Corporation to the
Presidency. I was not ignorant of the fact that my
name was mentioned in conversation and by the press,
SPIRITUAL CONFLICT 175
with others, for this most responsible position; but I
had no intimation from any member of the Corpora
tion or of any other body, that I was seriously thought
of. Should the Overseers concur, I shall probably
accept the office, with many misgivings and serious
questionings, whether it will be for the good of the
College, or my own happiness. And I should regard
your retirement at such a moment as a very unfortu
nate circumstance.
With kind regards to Mrs. Huntington,
Ever cordially yours,
C. C. FELTON.
A gratifying tribute came from three professors of
the Law Department. " We believe that the University
has been made better by your labors. It will be fortu
nate for her future history if the moral and religious
influence which the example and instructions of the
incumbent of the place you have occupied shall exert
upon her pupils, shall be guided and animated by as
devoted a purpose, as untiring a zeal, and as sincere,
wise and well-directed regard for the best welfare of
others as have characterized your administration of
its duties." This was subscribed, with other expressions
of commendation and affection: Joel Parker, The-
ophilus Parsons, Emory Washburn. It could not be
expected that there would be unanimity of feeling
among those who had sat under Professor Huntington s
preaching, in the seats of the faculty, during the five
years which wrought such changes in his own mind.
Among some of those sincerely attached to the Uni
tarian denomination there was dissatisfaction, not
only with the doctrine to which they listened but to the
176 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
new features introduced into the worship. Such
differences were not bitter, nor loudly expressed, but
their existence helped to soften the sundering of a tie,
between minister and people, which had been that of a
regular parish, and in many cases become an affec
tionate and personal relation. There were other regrets
in breaking from the close associations of the past,
and it seems not inappropriate to copy here a few
words written from the retrospect of age.
" Of course no experience in my life can have been
more important to my own mind than my separation
from the Unitarian denomination in which I was born
and brought up, and my acceptance of the Catholic
faith of the Historical Church. What has led me
into these reminiscences is a certain solicitude, of
which I am often conscious, lest my change of re
ligious faith and position should be supposed to cast
discredit on my early training in my family and in
the Unitarian body, or to imply that I fail to appre
ciate and acknowledge the actual and generous ad
vantages which in some respects I am sure I derived
from my education and association on the side of the
liberal culture, the thought and life of New England
during the second quarter of the century, or say
from 1820 to 1860. For these, with all the errors, one-
sidedness and losses, I can truly say, I am thankful
to the Providence of God. I am not quite patient
at the idea that I have renounced either a love of in
dependence and freedom or a grateful sense of those
favors and honors which the liberal party of those
days lavished upon me, to its utmost bounty, and be
yond all my deserving; that I have passed from the
sphere of sympathy with toleration, progress, and char-
SPIRITUAL CONFLICT 177
ity to a region of exclusiveness, bigotry, or mere ven
eration for the past.
" Surely the wrench itself, and all that went with it,
a re-beginning of all one s professional, and much of
one s social career, and its scenery, with all that I have
preached and published since, both positive and nega
tive, ought to suffice for proof of the reality, thorough
ness and comprehensiveness of the convictions which
commanded it."
Appropriate to such reflections is the following, a
copy of which was preserved with other correspondence
and inscribed, "a specimen of many written at this
time."
Nov. 30, 1859.
To C. S. K.
My dear Friend : It cannot be otherwise than
gratifying to me that you keep a remembrance of my
ministry, and an interest in my belief fresh and strong
enough to prompt you to write me at this time. As
you suggest, my correspondence is very large, espe
cially at the present moment. Letters come in, in such
quantity, with inquiries, congratulations, and regrets
that I lay aside, for the most part, my ordinary occu
pations to answer them, and certainly yours, the
letter of an old and faithful friend, shall not be
neglected. Indeed how can I find any happier and
better employment than in commending to others
what I find so clear, so strengthening, and so com
forting to myself ?
The preaching of my deliberate and deepest con
victions is the business of my life. For now I feel an
assurance I never felt before, I feel certainty, now,
of standing on "the foundation of the Apostles and
178 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cor
ner-stone." Now I can join in without hesitation, or
reserve, with the great multitudes of the Christian
ages, and of all Christian lands, in the grand and
glowing ascription, " Glory be to the Father, and to the
Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the begin
ning, is now and ever shall be, world without end,
Amen."
How unnatural it would be if I did not wish to im
part this joy, and confidence, and peace, and conso
lation, which I am sure God has given me by the Cross
of my Lord, to all whom I love, and it seems to
me that I never loved so many, nor so much before.
You will not expect me in these narrow limits to give
you the reasons by which my mind has been led to its
present conclusions. Suffice it to say, the process has
been steady, slow and always in one direction. In
spite of all the external and friendly inducements to
remain where I had a large hearing, position, honors,
sympathies, enough to fill the human desires of any
reasonable man, my mind has been lifted up and borne
irresistibly along to another faith.
Do not suppose, because you have associated this
other faith with dogmatism and bigotry, that I am
going to be a dogmatist or a bigot. I don t believe I
am. The truth is, those are faults of human nature,
rather than of religious systems. I find them too pre
valent everywhere; certainly they are too rife and
bitter among Unitarians. There are most truly liberal
and noble and generous Christians in all sects. But
we want more of them; and I hope to see them mul
tiplied. Certainly there is nothing inconsistent with
such a spirit in an Evangelical theology. You refer
SPIRITUAL CONFLICT 179
to my past instructions very kindly. My dear friend,
if you were willing to listen to me, and inquire with
me then, listen to me and inquire with me all the more,
now. What was positive and affirmatory in my preach
ing was true. What was negative and unscriptural,
I hope may be forgiven. Pray come on, with me, to
these still better and firmer views: These are two
good texts for you : " Hold that fast which thou hast,"
and " Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief." En
treat the Holy One to enlighten you; to give you a
fair, candid, unprejudiced spirit of investigation; to
open your whole understanding and heart to the truth.
And he will "lead you into all truth."
You refer to a sermon I once preached, giving seven
reasons for disbelieving the Trinity. I remember it
perfectly, tho it is a long time since I have seen
the manuscript, and I am not likely to look it up. It
was written in good faith, but not half so good a
faith as the Master has been pleased to give me since.
And I hope you will credit it, when I tell you that, as
I look back upon the real state of my mind, when the
discourse was delivered, it seems to me very plain that,
after all, I was not satisfied, but only trying to be so;
that I was defending what human lips had taught me
rather than the Infinite One who is the Light of the
world.
You speak and I thank God you can of
your faith in "the divine Sonship of our blessed
Saviour, Jesus Christ." Now, if you carefully exam-
ne the real meaning of that language, will you not
find it impossible to stop short of the absolute and
perfect oneness of nature between the Son and the
Father ?
180 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
A clear and full statement of the reasons for his
change of belief was given by Professor Huntington
to his friend and former family pastor, Rev. Dr. Hall,
one of the oldest and most honored of the Unitarian
ministry, who had sent a letter of kindly remon
strance, which was met by a reply, written in .a spirit
of sacred confidence. The extract which is given man
ifests, in a touching manner, the depth and permanence
of that mother s influence which was the mainspring
of her son s life.
Dec. 15, 1859.
To E. B. H.
You speak of my mother. I think I shall always
love all that loved her. Her impression on you does
not surprise me, for her piety, in depth, consistency,
vigor, fervor and practical force surpassed any piety
I have ever known. It was too high, pure, heavenly
to be associated without profanity with any secta
rian name or persuasion. But in fact that piety was
produced, nurtured, and matured under the influ
ences and within the Fold of the Trinitarian Church.
There for seventeen years it grew and bore expressions
and fruits as abounding as it ever yielded, before the
pressure of an ultra-Calvinistic discipline and intol
erant personal exclusiveness drove her from the home
of her heart, and even modified her statement of
opinion, though never reverence for her Divine Saviour.
All the secrets of that intellectual and inward process
are known only to the Searcher of hearts. But next
to Heaven, a holy confidence and cherished records
admitted me to a deep acquaintance with all her per
plexed way. She never wished to leave the Trinita-
SPIRITUAL CONFLICT 181
rian communion. She never parted with the substance
of her early faith. No power, under the Holy Spirit,
was so efficient in bringing me where I now am, as
the past communications if I may not say the im
mediate action of her love, and I suppose we were
never so much at one as we are in these happy
hours.
CHAPTER VI
DIVINE GUIDANCE
" Now Christian was much affected with his deliverance from all the
dangers of his solitary ways. And about this time the sun was rising
and this was another mercy. Then said he :
" His candle shineth on my head and by his light I go through
darkness. "
ALMOST at the end of his pilgrimage Frederic Hunt-
ington wrote: "It has been all these forty years and
more, a chief joy and satisfaction of my life to show
to others the wondrous way in which the God of Truth
and Peace has led me to his Household and made it
my home. I was brought up and was a minister among
those who deny the truth of the Trinity. My heart s
desire for all such is that they may be saved." This
was the motive of his preaching, and it was in a like
spirit of consecration that he gave his writings to the
world. The fruits of his early pastoral work, of his
religious experience and deliberate change of con
victions are all summed up in the two volumes of ser
mons published in 1855 and 1859. Through these
his reputation was established, and his name became
widely known, not only in his own country, but across
the sea. In 1860, quite unknown to the author, an
edition of " Christian Believing and Living " was
published in Edinburgh and London : the discourses
printed without the Scripture texts, and with no pre-
DIVINE GUIDANCE 183
face or explanation to indicate that the writer was an
American.
The interest awakened in his readers may be seen
in letters to Dr. Huntington, given in the present
chapter. The following clear and discriminating es
timate is from the Rev. J. G. Butler.
"No English writer, not excepting the justly de
served favorites, Robertson and Bushnell, has, in
equal space, compacted so much living and valuable
thought in language so clear, vigorous, terse and
elegant as will be found in the two volumes, Christian
Believing and Living and Sermons for the People.
The range of topics includes a connected and prac
tically full statement of the essential doctrines, and a
similar exposition of actual Christian experience.
Without employing the technical terms of theology
and philosophy, yet using no feebler equivalents, he
deals with every form of speculative and experimental
question from the standpoint of scriptural truth.
The underlying philosophy of the Christian system
is discriminately applied to particular points of belief
and to differing phases of spiritual life, as well as to
advanced issues raised by modern infidelity, and to
current social problems. As suggestive studies upon
all these leading themes of the pulpit, emphatically
upon the relation and bearing of a genuine health
ful Christianity upon the customs and institutions of
society, these volumes are eminently full, intelligible
and satisfactory in both reasonings and conclusions.
" The writer s method, too, of putting thought, and
his style in giving it expression strongly attract a
thoughtful and discriminating reader. Uniting keen
philosophical insight with great analytic and logical
184 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
power, naturally broad perceptions and balanced
judgment, with the largest, most refined culture, in
cluding not only the careful study of books, but also
of men in their natures, their business and social
habits, and their varied experiences there is a vi
tality, a directness, force and progress in his thinking
that compel attention and awaken a corresponding
enthusiasm.
" As a crowning charm of these books, on every page
we discern a hearty scorn of shams and a righteous
severity against counterfeits and pretenses, alike in
religious professions and every-day life, a thorough
love for realness and loyalty to truth; a genuine
reverence for things, human as well as divine, that are
to be revered; and an intense purpose to honor God,
and to be helpful to man. As helps to devotion, there
fore, as supplying, through the invigorating play of
quickening thought, continual incentive to healthful,
spiritual feeling, these admirable volumes deserve
the highest commendation to Christian students and
thoughtful believers of every name." l
For a short time after his resignation at Harvard,
discussion and conjecture were rife over Dr. Hunt-
ington s future course. When it became known that
the board of overseers had asked the chaplain to re
consider his resignation, letters poured in urging him
to remain at the University. From the same sources
where the appointment of a liberal to the post of
college preacher had been deplored five years before,
came now urgent remonstrance against his leaving.
1 Rev. Charles Macauley Stuart says of Christian Believing and
Living that it is " to my mind the choicest devotional classic this
country has produced."
DIVINE GUIDANCE 185
In an editorial obituary notice in a Boston news
paper it was said of Bishop Huntington s early ex
perience: "At one time a popular preacher in the
city of Boston, in a Unitarian pulpit, then a pro
fessor of ethics and religion at Harvard University, he
in due time ceased to be a Unitarian, and for lack
of welcome by Trinitarian Congregationalists, and
because of the suspicion and frigidity of the Con
gregational leaders of that day, entered the Pro
testant Episcopal church, in which he was to rise
ultimately to the place of Bishop and be one of the
earliest and most ardent advocates of that form of
Christian activity which is calculated to retain in al
legiance to the church the wage-earners and artisans."
As a matter of history, the statement quoted, with
regard to the attitude of the prominent men in the
Orthodox Congregational body, is without foundation.
The following communications taken from the corre
spondence of that time are sufficient evidence that no
mark of good-will was wanting. In the weeks after
tendering his resignation Dr. Huntington preached
on Sundays in the Pine Street and Bowdoin Street
churches ; the Old South ; for Rev. Dr. Albro in
Cambridge ; and occupied the pulpit of the Shawmut
Church for several weeks, all Orthodox Congregational
parishes.
From REV. EDWARD N. KIRK, D.D., pastor of the
Mount Vemon church.
BOSTON, Dec. 1, 1859.
DR. HUNTINGTON.
My dear Brother : I am charged by a committee
of gentlemen from a very important church, if we may
186 .FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
thus speak of any one in particular, to confer with
you in regard to their desire to secure your services
as their minister and teacher.
You of course anticipate every point of that confer
ence on my side. But the preliminary one is, are you
willing to confer on the subject? The inquiries I
would propose are these. Are your views for probable
greatest usefulness such as to preclude the considera
tion of becoming pastor of a church in Boston ? Are
your views of the Unitarian church such as to induce
you ecclesiastically to separate yourself from them ?
You will not I trust consider me intrusive in re
viving the last point when we had closed a discussion
of it. Then I was endeavoring to ascertain my own
duty. Now I am acting for a large body of Christ s
disciples; and you will appreciate my motives. You
may imagine that the time will seem long to these
brethren until I shall be able to report to them.
Shall I call on you, or will you determine your course
without an interview ?
Most affectionately,
Your brother in Christ,
EDW. N. KIRK.
From REV. NEHEMIAH ADAMS, pastor of Essex Street
Congregational Church.
BOSTON, Jan. 18, 1860.
REV. PROFESSOR HUNTINGTON, D. D.
My dear Sir: It has been my desire for some time
to see you and express the high gratification derived
from reading your Sermons, in the volume just pub
lished, which has awakened so much interest among
all who have perused it.
DIVINE GUIDANCE 187
I was pleased with the sensible and judicious
manner in which you placed the disclosure of your
views subordinately in your volume, without osten
tation.
I never have seen the subject treated more fully,
more satisfactorily, or from better points of view. The
whole development and your entire position are deeply
interesting to the whole Evangelical community.
While my respect for you would lead me to refrain
from anything which would seem to look like endorse
ment, still there are duties of fellowship and private
signs of interest and of desire to be one with you, for
the truth s sake, which lead me to say that, if for any
reason you can see your way clear to preach for me
during the day or in the evening of any Sabbath it
will be very gratifying to me; and if next Sabbath
will be convenient to you for this purpose, my pulpit
is open to you. I desire to do that which will pro
mote your public usefulness; for you have, I trust,
a good work before you. Be so good, therefore, as to
make use of me in the way intimated for that pur
pose. If you can, will you preach at Essex Street
church next Sabbath, the 22, morning, afternoon or
evening ?
Most truly yours,
N. ADAMS.
From the REV. RAY PALMER, author of the hymn,
"My Faith looks up to Thee."
ALBANY, Jan 22, 1860.
MY DEAR BROTHER : I wrote you simply be
cause I felt I must express the deep interest in you and
188 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
the warm sympathy with what God has been mani
festly doing for you and by you for a long time. It
seemed impossible but that the trials of your position
must have been many, and it appeared to me to be a
duty impressed on those whose hearts were with you
to say so, for your encouragement and comfort. . . .
This has struck me in reading your discourses, and
it gives them a special charm, that you seem all the
while to be evolving a theology from experience,
rather than aiming to reach an experience by theology,
i. e. as reasoned out by the logical intellect. As in
wardly guided, you explore the field of religious truth,
and at once recognize and verify the Christian doc
trines, by a divine light and spiritual appreciation.
When the Holy Spirit in the soul " takes the things of
Christ and shows them " to the attentive and waiting
understanding, with what a self-witnessing power
they come! . . .
I thank you for what you say so kindly of the hymn.
It is always grateful to me to hear that it aids the
worship of Christ s people. The truth which it em
bodies will sufficiently explain the fact that it has
found a place in the hearts of living and dying
saints.
I hope to be in Massachusetts in February and will
certainly come to see you, and if you have an hour to
spare we will talk as fast as we can.
Believe me fraternally and affectionately yours,
RAT PALMER.
From REV. S. P. THOMPSON, D. D., pastor of the
Broadway Tabernacle, Congregational, New York
City.
DIVINE GUIDANCE 189
NEW YORK, Jan. 29, 1860.
MY DEAR BROTHER : It is lawful to do good on
the Sabbath day ; and especially lawful to care for some
great interest of the Master s kingdom. Last night,
after reading of your resignation at Cambridge, I re
solved to write you not to be in haste to commit your
self to new arguments, and especially not to throw
away your individuality and your power for personal
movement by entering into any of the closer sects;
and I retired thinking and wondering what should
the Professor do ? To-day it has been revealed to me
what you shall do; and "being in the spirit, on the
Lord s Day," and having heard the voice, I make
haste to deliver the message.
For three years past there have been sporadic
movements toward a new Congregational church
in New York. These movements would have crys
tallized around our beloved brother Storrs, but for
the hard times, and his earnestness for a liturgy. It
was thought best to avoid novelties and to start purely
congregational. The elements for such an organiza
tion remain numerous and strong. The field is ample.
I am most earnest for the thing.
Well, to-day, Mr. L., formerly of Boston, came to
me to say that an effort must be made to get you here.
Amen ! said I; and I write at once to say that by way
of introducing you to parties here, I will exchange
with you at Shawmut, any Sabbath after the next, or
will welcome you to my pulpit for the whole of any
Sabbath which you will name.
There will be money, enterprise, strength, faith,
working-power, everything in short that you could de
sire, in getting up a church, and such a field as you
190 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
would have ! and such welcome as I should give you !
and such joy as I would have in you!
Write when you will come.
Ever truly yours,
JAS. P. THOMPSON.
Confer not with flesh and blood ! Obey the heavenly
vision.
ST. ANTHONY, Feb. 6, 1860.
MY DEAR FRIEND AND BROTHER : I see by a
paper which has just come to hand, that you have been
constrained to resign your place. I greatly regret that
necessity which has compelled you, and sympathize
deeply in the trial through which you are passing.
I have not seen your last book, which I suppose may
have had something to do with the issue to which you
have come. But I was prepared to see that a bold and
outspoken declaration would cost you a hard struggle.
"Liberal Christianity" is not, after all, the gentlest,
broadest thing in the world. This you had learned
before, and so far, probably, are not disappointed.
Still the burden you carry must be heavy, and I hope
you will have grace to bear it in such a way as will
strengthen you. In some respects I almost envy you,
for it is really good and blessed, as I can testify, to
be under any pressure that presses toward God.
About the richest months of enjoyment I have ever had
were those in which I was most pitied and consoled
with by my friends. They wrote me about the " suffer
ing" and "pain" and "loss," and such like forms of
misery really I did not know where it was. Under
the shadow of the Almighty such things do not come.
Yours truly,
HORACE BUSHNELL.
DIVINE GUIDANCE 191
Professor Park, of the Theological School at An-
dover, wrote on the date of Februry 4, 1860:
"I presume that you will recall your resignation of
the Plummer Professorship. Will it be too much to
ask that if you have decided not to recall it, you will
have the goodness to inform me ? I feel very desirous
of having a conversation with you on one project, in
the case of your deciding to leave Harvard"
From PROFESSOR PARK.
ANDOVER, Feb. 13, 1860.
I have just received your kind letter
It would be only an affectation for me to deny, that
I am disappointed. When I wrote you, I firmly ex
pected that you would either remain independent
of all denominations in your present office, or else
would be willing to take a position among the Con-
gregationalists, where I supposed that you would ac
complish more than you could accomplish anywhere
else, for the cause which you love. I heard last Satur
day that you had decided on a different course, and
this morning I find the rumor confirmed by your letter,
which is very frank.
It would be simply foolish for me to deny that I am
grieved, as you supposed that I would be.
Still, I shall always entertain for you a very high
respect, and I shall always cherish for you a warm
affection; and although I disapprove of your course,
I do not doubt but that you are as honest and candid
in taking as I am in disliking it. Allow me to say, that
you make on my mind the impression, that you are an
exceedingly honest and honorable thinker; and I
192 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
shall never cease to feel a high regard for your thoughts,
even when I do not coincide with them.
As the " Biblia Sacra " is not a denominational work
it will very gladly receive your contributions, from
whatever denomination you may send them. Let
me indulge the hope that you will write for the peri
odical whenever you can. I can easily imagine that
you are overwhelmed with letters. Do not take the
trouble to answer this.
Very affectionately,
I am, dear sir, your friend,
EDWARD A. PARK.
From PRESIDENT MARK HOPKINS.
WILLIAMS COLLEGE, Feb. 9, 1860.
REV. DR. HUNTINGTON.
My dear Sir: How much pleasanter life would
seem if no questions of doubtful propriety or duty
would come up. You asked me to preach for you. I
doubted and declined. I must still think, rightly.
Now I am asked to write you. I doubt and comply,
and so if you think me wrong you will please re
member, so great is my doubt, that we do not differ
much in opinion. I am so wholly ignorant of your
views, and of those more intimate circumstances
which will be controlling, that anything I may say
will be liable to be irrelevant if not impertinent.
The request comes from some of the Shawmut
people, who think you might do a great work for
Christ in that part of the city, and who would be
willing to do anything in their power if they could
have you for a pastor and work with you.
DIVINE GUIDANCE 193
I am free to say that my preference would be to
have you remain where you have been, and I am not
without hope that such an arrangement may yet
be made. If not, then I sympathize with the Shaw-
mut people, and think you would find among them
a wide and welcoming and worthy field. This is on
the supposition that in changing your doctrinal be
lief you have not, like the most, whether clergy or
laity, who have passed from Unitarianism to Ortho
doxy, also passed from Congregationalism to Epis
copacy, and that you will not do that. The general
act I think I can account for, and on grounds some
of which I think would be strongly against your do
ing the same.
But however that may be, I am sure I can say in
all sincerity, that my simple wish is to see you where
you can do the most for the cause of our Divine Re
deemer, without reference to names or forms. If
you think you find Episcopacy in the Bible I have
not a word to say. Nor should I have to the most
of those who go to that from taste, or personal pre
ference, though I should regard it as a matter of
principle. They may be better off there, and just as
useful. But with a right doctrinal system, and a free
dom that would put you in sympathy with the masses,
you have the power, beyond most men, while you will
please the cultivated and refined, to reach and stir
those masses. That is what is needed, and that is
what I wish to see you in the best position to do. I
should be glad to see realized again, as it would almost
seem as if we might, Cowper s description of White-
field. For the end just mentioned I should be glad to
see you with the simple dignity of a pastor and
194 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
preacher, relying on the power of the Spirit, having
as you would have, the prayers and cooperation of
your church, and the affection and confidence of your
brethren, with no authority above you but that of
the Master. So it was with our Puritan Fathers, and
so, as I believe, with the pastors and preachers, of the
primitive church. So I should hope to see the sling
and the stone again doing their work.
That you will excuse this liberty I have taken, I
feel confident, and beg to assure you, however you
may decide these comparatively minor questions, of
the deep sympathy and fullest confidence of
Yours in the common redemption,
MARK HOPKINS.
CAMBRIDGE, Jan. 27, 1860.
To C. J. B.
Dear Friend: We will wait a little and see. The
Master will show the way. It is not perfectly clear.
Having waited on Him very deliberately, at every
step so far, I must not anticipate His direction now.
Only the independence must not be individualism,
nor yet religious democracy. The independence must
be in the souls of preacher and people, but never
mere isolation, nor living out-of-doors, nor forget
ting history, nor denying the Past and God s great
Providence in His Church. We must take care and
build on the Rock this time.
I believe in order, in a Church Body and .Form.
Were I to sit down with you and the friends you
speak of, I think I could satisfy some of you that the
noblest and best way to bring the Gospel to the people
high and low, poor and rich, alike would be to
DIVINE GUIDANCE 195
offer them the service of the Catholic Apostolic Church
with her strength and stability, her beautiful
" Christian Year," her wonderful variety and impressive
adaptations, her fixed order, true liberty, and free con
ditions of Communion, her gracious ordinances,
constant appeal to Scripture, and tasteful worship,
her superior culture of the spirit of reverence the
inmost spirit of religion the constant celebration
of Christ, the living Head of the Body, and His cross,
her true theory of the training up of the young in rela
tions with the Church, and looking to Confirmation
as their own act, and her large, active, zealous spirit
of Missions reaching out among the ignorant and
poor. But I have no time to enumerate, and less to
explain and enforce her claims.
I came home from the old farm this morning at
one o clock and found twenty-five letters on my desk,
besides other business.
Yours ever,
F. D. H.
From his own pen we transcribe Dr. Huntington s
reasons for entering the Episcopal Church.
"The question remaining was where H. should go.
. . . Domestic traditions would be apt to point out to
him a path toward the popular Orthodoxy. In his
father s library most of the theological department was
supplied by Puritan divines. Having seen that scheme
in its actual operation in the kindred varieties of Pres
byterian and Congregational organization, together
with its scientific exposition by men of strong dialec
tic power, he was not thereby convinced or fed. An
opening was made for him in Boston where an
196 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
independent society might adopt a liturgy. He could
see no root or affiliation, no brotherhood or sister
hood or fellowship for such a product, and respect
fully shrank from such an undertaking. If asked
why he should not join such respectable and active
bodies as the Baptists, or Methodists, or Sweden-
borgians, he could only answer by asking why he
should. Toward the Roman Catholic Church, apart
from its heritage in common with all the faith
ful in all ages and countries, a Divine Christ, the
Apostles Creed, an inspired Bible, and a spirit of
reverence for the supernatural, he found no con
straining attraction. Could its three salient chal
lenges have been sustained, the exceptional attention
he gave to them might have resulted in a surrender.
Moehler s Symbolism and Maurice s Kingdom of
Christ were laid in his way together at the outset
of his theological education. One by one the three
papal challenges broke down. The argument of a final
authority overruling and extinguishing private judg
ment was met by the ready reply : If I take you at
your word, I shall negative your position by employ
ing in my acceptance of it the very faculty and right
which you deny that I possess. The pretension to
catholicity and unity fell to pieces at the exposure of
the included heresies, shielded abominations, schisms,
intolerance, and papal inconsistencies in the Roman
obedience. The pretension to apostolicity, as to the
differentials, gave way completely under the weight
of more than three hundred years of intervening
church-life and conciliar decree between the last of
the Apostles and anything that could fairly be called
a papacy.
DIVINE GUIDANCE 197
" Judging no man and no system, knowing well,
and praying for grace to remember, that to one Master
only each must stand or fall, H. believed that a church
to which he could whole-heartedly and gladly yield
both allegiance and service must wear upon its outer
and inner constitution certain marks of truth. Its
creed or symbol of faith must satisfy the require
ments of the three agreeing tests God in Holy
Scripture ; God in one kingdom, set up as He declared
by Jesus Christ; having laws; a covenant, a door
of entrance, a history, and a continuous common life;
and God in the testimony of His Spirit, in the spirit
and mind of man made in His image. Bound by this
threefold cord and upheld by this threefold support,
a church promised to afford him room, light, safety.
Its entire visible economy, in sacraments, orders, and
discipline, must be a direct outgrowth of the Word
made flesh, or the Incarnation, not a rule imposed,
but a divine development. Its worship must be lit
urgical, the utterance of the brotherhood after Scrip
tural models; its conditions of communion must be
large enough to make admission possible for uni
versal humanity, men of every nationality, tempera
ment and foregoing conditions. It must habitually
publish the moral law and illustrate it. It must
protect wedlock and the household by religious sanc
tions and by stringent regulations as respects mar
riage and divorce. It must invariably recognize as
divine and primal appointments the state and the
family, along with the church, and, in times of lawless
ness or disorder join its spiritual force with that of
the government, and all the more if government is
free. Its prescribed offices must be absolutely im-
198 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
partial and uniform as respects all social and class
distinctions, from the highest to the lowest. It must
treat character as a growth carried forward by a
disciplined will, under regenerating and superhuman
helps, not as the happy issue of an ecclesiastical charm
or as a mere supplement to an emotional experience
and must therefore make the training of character the
prime element in education. In such a church H.
sought out and thinks he found a home." l
The following letter was written to an old friend
who had long been a communicant in the church.
CAMBRIDGE, Feb. 25, 1860.
To A. J.
It should be from me, and not from any other that
you learn that, this week, on the Eve of Ash Wednes
day, I sent in to the Standing Committee of the
Diocese my papers making application to be con
sidered a Candidate for Orders.
Praise to Father, Son and Holy Ghost! I do not
now regret that the process has been so slow, and so
painful. It only emphasizes the joy of deliverance,
and gives greater assurance. My study of the origin,
history, constitution, and practical economy of the
Sacred Body of Christ has been protracted enough
to give me confidence; and my enthusiasm and loyalty
of attachment will match yours. " The King s Daugh
ter " already appears to me " all glorious within " as
without. Thro all this " strife of tongues " the Lord
has remembered his promise, and kept me safe and
warm in His pavilion. Sometimes averted and altered
faces have been colder than the frosty skies ; but there
1 The Forum, June, 1886.
DIVINE GUIDANCE 199
has been Spring within, and almost every mail has
brought me strong and tender assurances of fellow
ship and blessing from the wise and good all over the
land, not a few from the Bishops and Clergy of
our Church. Of course the Orthodox Congregation-
alists will be disappointed in inc. But many of them
are very generous, feeling the Evangelical faith to be
greater than the Ecclesiastical difference.
Of course I have six months release from preach
ing, a sound and wise provision, and one that I
need for calmer thought and rest and study.
Preaching never looked so attractive as now, and
Church work altogether, for I never had so much to
preach.
In 1902 Rt. Rev. Thomas M. Clark, then Bishop
of Rhode Island, wrote to Bishop Huntington in a
letter on some other subject :
" I remember a day when you were settled in Boston
as a Unitarian minister, I went around with Dr. Vin-
ton to hear you preach, and on the way home he said
to me, I wish that you and I could preach as that
man does. I remember another morning, when I
was living on Asylum Street, that you called upon
me and said that you wished to talk with me a lit
tle while about something in the Episcopal Church
which interested you, especially, you added, in re
gard to the rite of confirmation, and after you had
left, I said to myself, I think that that man will bring
up in the Episcopal Church before he dies. All this
occurred fifty or sixty years ago and little did I dream
then of the present event."
The rector of Grace Church, Boston, was not
200 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
alone among the clergy who had remarked the in
clination growing in Dr. Huntington s mind towards
their own Communion. But it was a matter of signifi
cance to himself that not one of them advanced ar
gument or persuasion to induce him to enter the
ministry. He was wont to say afterwards that nothing
could have impressed upon him more deeply the his
toric claims of Episcopacy than the fact that its fol
lowers were content to leave an intelligent and earnest
seeker to find his own way into the Church. Among
his many interests and intimacies there were few
close ties or friendships connecting him with the body
of Christians toward which conviction was leading
him. His old and valued associate, Dr. J. I. T. Cool-
idge, had taken orders in the Episcopal Church, but
he had left Boston and become assistant minister at
St. John s Church, Providence. In the city and its
environs there was not one to whom he turned for
sympathy or counsel. It will be seen that the follow
ing letters of approval and welcome were all from
comparative strangers, but they were none the less
hearty in their expressions.
CHURCH OF THE ADVENT,
BOSTON, Jan. 5, 1860.
REV. AND DEAR SIR : I am reading your volume
of Sermons, and though I have not finished the pe
rusal of all, nor indeed of any as I hope to do, for
they are sermons for devotional study more than for
reading, merely, yet I have read enough to fill me with
joy and gratitude to God. May I not also be per
mitted to express my thanks to you ?
To me it is very marvelous that one occupying
DIVINE GUIDANCE 201
your standpoint, could become so true and valiant
a defender of "the faith once delivered to the saints."
For I have generally regarded such an attainment
as almost impossible, without the long-continued
teaching of the Church Catholic by the instrument
ality of her ecclesiastical system of worship and
sacraments. Pardon me for saying this, which I did
not intend when I first took up my pen, my object
being only to express my exceeding thankfulness and
joy-
Praying God s blessing upon you, I am,
Very respectfully,
Your obliged friend,
JAMES A. BOLLES.
BALTIMORE, Jan. 6, 1860.
(Twelfth Day).
MY DEAR SIR : I cannot forbear to write to
you any longer, seeing I have so fine an opportunity.
Miss Phelps called on me, bright and early this fine
morning of the Feast, to show me your letter to her,
and to put the question you so kindly referred to me.
But before answering it, "laud be to God" that
it is in your heart to think of it ! May the blessed Spirit
ripen into action so good a thought, and show you the
blessed inheritance you will provide for yourself and
your children, at so great a price for it is a great
tiling, and must be a trial, to change old relations,
and lose (perhaps) old friends. I assure you that
any who can love you less for so conscientious a sac
rifice will be amply made up to you, by the warm and
loving hearts that will welcome you to the fold of
your fathers again and by that ennobling sense which
202 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
an Anglican enjoys, of sympathy and unity with the
illustrious men of our race and with the worthies of
Primitive Christendom. Truly the insensibility
of our educated countrymen to the loss they suffer
by living out of the religious heritage of the "Anglo-
Saxon" people, and out of sympathy with its gi
gantic achievements, is (as the French say) ignoble.
The Canon has no reference to the prayers of a
College-Chapel which are virtually " Family-Prayers,"
and which any bishop, who understands himself,
will pronounce entirely out of the limits of our Legis
lation. If it should be requisite I am sure I can give
you the opinions of some of our best Canonists to
that effect.
Believe me, I am greatly obliged to you for all your
kindness.
Faithfully your friend and servant,
A. CLEVELAND COXE.
MIDDLE-TOWN, CONN., Feb. 2, 1860.
REV. AND DEAR SIR : I am almost afraid you
will think me impertinently intrusive in addressing
you; and yet I am unwilling to refrain any longer,
from doing what I have long desired to do.
It will not surprise you to find any one saying, that
he has followed your steps with interest and thank
fulness. I certainly have done so, feeling both in no
ordinary degree; and I am sure you will not wonder,
I trust you will not be displeased, when I say, that
it has seemed to me, that the branch of Christ s Church
in which I am an unworthy Minister, might finally
offer you a house of rest.
Whether that be so or not, I beg to be allowed to ex-
DIVINE GUIDANCE 203
press my strong sympathy with you, in these con
victions, which have led you from the same religious
body in which I myself was educated, and for many
members of which I retain a very strong affection.
My dear Sir, may I ask you, at your convenience,
and if and when it is agreeable to you, to favor me
with a visit here ? I have perhaps some right to ask
this, of which you do not know. My father was in
his lifetime a friend of yours. And, unless I am in
error, a brother of yours married a near relation of
mine. In our New England usage, this may be an
excuse for what, even with it, perhaps, is a great
liberty.
At all events, you will I trust permit me to offer the
assurances of my sincere respect and admiration,
and to say that I am very sincerely yours,
JNO. WILLIAMS,
Assistant Bishop of Connecticut.
PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 4, 1860.
REV. AND DEAR SIR : I hope you will not con
sider me obtrusive, if in obeying an impulse that has
possessed me for some days, I presume so far upon
our slight acquaintance as to offer you my sincere
sympathy and gratulation in reference to your present
position, both theological and ecclesiastical, specially
the former.
I have been, in common with many others, mindful
of the progress you were making in Divine knowledge,
from your articles in your Magazine, and likewise
aware of the peculiarity of your relations at Harvard,
which seemed critical of great results.
When I learned from the papers that you had re-
204 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
signed your position I had a strong feeling of disap
pointment amounting almost to the sense of defeat.
Your labors in the college seemed so prosperous
that there needed only to be toleration to work a
thorough change in the character of the Institution,
and for this the friends of the Evangelical faith hoped
and prayed.
Of course it is no matter of surprise that the tolera
tion was not granted freely or that it should be stren
uously refused, just in proportion to the force of the
demand and the activity of your efforts. But, without
knowing precisely how much of personal discomfort
you might have to bear in consequence, I did hope
that your persistency would live down the opposi
tion and make you hero and confessor even if martyr.
I do not of course presume in my ignorance to
judge of the propriety of your resignation, but I may
tender you my sympathy as a brother in Christ and
my thanks for the noble work you have already done.
I am challenged to this, all the more, from having
read with delight your last volume. My heart goes
out towards you as I read, and I feel the wish to take
you by the hand and say so.
I remember, moreover, a remark you made to me
one evening at Mr. Savage s in reply to a question of
mine, viz., that if either you or Mr. Coolidge would
leave your positions you would find your place in the
Episcopal Church.
Your feelings may be changed in this respect, al
though I suppose, still, that both your deliberations
and your feelings, the more ripe they are, will deter
mine you the more towards this conclusion as the
repose of your soul. Be this, however, as the guiding
DIVINE GUIDANCE 205
spirit shall direct. Let me assure you of the earnest
and fraternal interest with which I am, and shall be,
Your brother in Christ,
ALEX. H. VINTON.
ST. LUKE S HOSPITAL,
NEW YORK, April 3, 1860.
REV. AND DEAR SIR: I take the liberty of ad
dressing you for the purpose of begging your accept
ance of these pamphlets, herewith sent, which I flatter
myself you may look over with some interest, at
least, they will serve as one way of acknowledging
the great interest and pleasure with which I have read
your eloquent and more generally edifying pages.
I am more in your debt than you may be aware. I
have not waited for your Episcopal ordination to
let your voice be heard in my church, you have
preached to my congregation more than once, and
greatly to their satisfaction, having learned to listen
when I discourse to them in other words than my
own, and so to enjoy the privilege of hearing the great
preachers, the living or dead.
Greeting you as an able minister of the new Testa
ment, and welcoming you to a field of labor in
which we shall be nearer neighbors, I am yours,
Very respectfully and sincerely,
W. A. MUHLENBERG,
Pastor of the Church of the Holy
Communion and of St. Luke s Hospital, New York.
The following extract from a letter written by a
churchwoman, then a resident in Cambridge, em
bodies the sentiments of a large circle of devout be-
206 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
lievers among the laity. "How can I express to you
the congratulations and thankfulness I feel, that you
are so soon to become joined in very deed to the visible
body of Christ s flock, henceforth to devote all your
energies and influence to doing the most good in the
best way. I have heard that you said that Episcopalians
had done nothing to persuade you to join them, but
they did pray, and how earnestly, God knoweth."
As soon as his final decision was made, Dr. Hunt-
ington found a home for his wife and children at old
Christ Church, Cambridge, where they were made
welcome by the excellent rector, Rev. Dr. Nicholas
Hoppin. There was much that was agreeable in the
ecclesiastical impressions gained from this historic
building; "our ancient Church," as it is called by
Oliver Wendell Holmes, in the memorial poem, where
he describes it as standing beneath the loftier spire
of the edifice on the other side of the old burying
ground.
" Like sentinel and nun they keep
Their vigil on the green ;
One seems to guard and one to weep
The dead that lie between."
On the day before the family began their attendance
at Christ Church, George Huntington received from
his father the following words of counsel :
CAMBRIDGE, Jan. 21, 1860.
DEAR GEORGE : In order to help you in a full
and easy observance of all the parts of the Church-
Service, I present you a book for use in the church,
which contains not only the " Common Prayer, "
DIVINE GUIDANCE 207
with the Psalms and Hymns, but also the Proper
Scripture Lessons for the several days, in order.
In becoming accustomed to this mode of worship,
so venerable, impressive, and beautiful, you will
find much assistance in beginning with an entire
compliance with all the usages of the place. Other
wise you will not feel in harmony with those about you,
and a sense of strangeness will hinder your prayers
and praise. If you would enter happily into it, and
get your soul engaged in it, comply with each rever
ential custom from the outset. What is half-done
is never well done. I refer to such acts as kneeling,
responding, keeping the place, following the minis
ter throughout. It is a proper and reverential custom,
on first taking one s seat in the pew, each time, to
kneel and to bend and cover the head, saying a short
petition or invocation for a blessing on the service;
a prayer for right thoughts, and that all forbidden
desires and fancies may be kept away; that a real
spiritual benefit may be obtained; that God s Holy
Word and Commandment may be understood and
obeyed faithfully and received into the heart; that
the Day may be kept holy, and the place holy; with
other such requests, having a proper beginning and
end, like the Collects. Indeed you can take the lan
guage of some of the Collects in the Book, or frame
one for yourself. If you like, commit a form to memory.
Only let it be sincere, reverential, and not omitted.
Nothing is more just and right and graceful, and
few things are so good, for the manly heart, as for
a man to go upon his knees. Begin so, and you will
hereafter be glad.
My dear George, I rejoice in you, more and more,
208 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
as a good, obedient, believing son. I am satisfied
you mean to follow our Saviour, and live by his holy
religion.
May that blessed religion always guide you! I
desire nothing for you so much, because there is no
good so great.
Affectionately yours,
F. D. H.
In the month of May, Professor Huntington went
to New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. To his
son he wrote a long account of St. Luke s Hospital,
which he visited with Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg. The
spirit of the Institution and of its founder filled him
with enthusiasm and delight.
"As I walked away, seeing what this good man,
with his beautiful charity, his tranquil, pure face,
and white locks of hair, was doing as he moved about
tenderly among the victims of disease (beside having
started a very strong Free Church in the centre of
the City and educated many young men for the min
istry), I could not help feeling how noble his life had
been, and how willing he might be to die. Surely,
he will have the promise : * The Lord shall make all
his bed for him in his sickness. "
To HIS SISTER :
I made acquaintance with many of the clergy and
laity of the Church I have joined, and of course it was
interesting to me to see and study the system, where
it is so full of activity, strength and missionary zeal.
May some of the lessons I learned bear fruit in my
future works !
DIVINE GUIDANCE 209
After his last sermon preached in the Congregational
Church in Cambridge, Sunday evening, Feb. 26,
Dr. Huntington, now a candidate for Orders in the
Episcopal Church, became himself a worshiper at
Christ Church, teaching a large Bible class in con
nection with the Sunday-school. On the feast of the
Annunciation, March 25, 1860, he received the rite
of Confirmation at the hands of Rt. Rev. Manton
Eastburn, the Bishop of Massachusetts. His wife
and eldest son and daughter were confirmed in the
class, which was a large one, including a number
of mature people.
Rev. Dan Huntington, the professor s aged father,
had been reared in the traditions of Connecticut
Puritanism, and not even the liberalizing tendencies
of his later years could eradicate its prejudices. He
knew nothing of bishops, and distrusted with all his
might the system which conferred power upon them.
The needs of his religious nature were satisfied with
the simplicity of the ecclesiastical training of his fore
fathers. His son s departure from the old ways of
Congregational polity was unintelligible to him. The
following letter was written to allay his uneasiness,
so far as was possible with an old man long past the
age of controversy.
CAMBRIDGE, March 17, 1860.
MY DEAR FATHER : My intention now is to
come to you on the 26th., Monday. That evening I
have to give a Charity lecture for a Baptist (not an
Episcopal) Parish, in Springfield. Most of my ser
vices in that line are given to denominations that I
do not belong to. In fact they give me so much to do
210 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
in that way that I am busy enough without doing much
preaching. You have misapprehended Bishop East-
burn entirely. If you knew him at all, you would re
spect and love him. He is one of the most earnest and
devoted Christians I have ever seen, simple in his
manners, kind in his disposition, loving all those who
love the Lord Jesus Christ, and glad to cooperate with
them in helping on the kingdom of Heaven among
men. He has nothing at all to do with affording me
this pleasant and profitable vacation, which I needed
so much and am enjoying so much, except to carry
out a wise and useful rule of the Church to which
he belongs, as he is in duty bound to do. Indeed he
has not come near me with any interposition or
command on the subject. I have joined a branch of the
Church where this rule is followed, with my eyes
open, and of course I choose to follow the rule. I
consider it, for many reasons, a wise and good one,
in my case as well as others. But Bishop Eastburn
has no pleasure in my omitting to preach. Indeed
he has done and said everything that a Christian
gentleman could do and say, to make my way easy
and pleasant and to avoid the least appearance of dic
tation. He would be glad to have me come and be his
colleague in old Trinity Church. Indeed, I think, he
would resign his ministry there, and give it up to me
altogether, if I would accept it.
You speak of my "not doing anything which can
not be undone." Of course the way out of any Church
is open, and whenever I wish to do so, I can leave one
Fold for another. But for the present I love the Epis
copal Church. I honor it more and more; I long to
be at work within it; Providence permitting, I shall
DIVINE GUIDANCE 211
be a Preacher in it next Fall. I am ashamed to have
been so long ignorant of its claims to belief and attach
ment ; its historical foundation ; its glorious Saints and
Martyrs; its liberty and piety; its generous and com
prehensive doctrine of the Communion; its dignified,
orderly, and impressive worship; its internal peace
and harmony; its love for children and youth. When
you consider what I have given up and gone thro
for the sake of belonging to it, you will not suppose
that I can be easily turned aside from the course in
which God is leading me. I am sorry it is not the way
of my fathers. But I am sure it is the way of my
fathers fathers, for ages.
Let us be less anxious to have those we love think
just as we do. God s love is very large. Heaven is
open to all that love, believe and obey
" Where the Saints of all ages in harmony meet,
Their Saviour and brethren transported to greet."
Wherein we differ let us wait till we reach the
world of light.
Your very affectionate son,
FREDERIC.
CHAPTER VII
THE PASTOR AND HIS FLOCK
" Whose delectable mountains are these, and whose are the sheep
that feed them ? The mountains are Emmanuel-land, and are within
sight of his city, and the sheep are his."
THOSE who rejoice in the present strength and ac
tivity of the Episcopal Church in Boston will recall
with interest the conditions existing half a century
ago. In those days its character was distinguished
to a marked degree by a strict conservatism, a dig
nified respectability, an acknowledged exclusiveness.
It stood with emphasis for what it represented, but
there was little concern for church extension. The
head of the diocese adhered strongly to the tenets
of doctrine which are distinctly Protestant. While
his personal qualities made him decisive in adminis
tration and unfaltering in pulpit utterance, in leader
ship of men on the delicate and difficult lines of the
episcopate his jurisdiction failed to leave a perma
nent impress. The ecclesiastical matters which most
occupied his mind were connected with what was then
known as the "Tractarian movement," just coming
into prominence, and which aroused his intense oppo
sition. But in the years following 1860, while the use
of altar decorations and the practice of unaccustomed
ceremonials were openly rebuked, there was no such
direct contention over matters of ritual as to disturb
THE PASTOR AND HIS FLOCK 213
the currents of Church life. Of the sixty-seven parishes
in Massachusetts there were at that time but seven
directly within the city of Boston, all stable and pros
perous; Trinity under the pastorate of Bishop East-
burn himself; the Church of the Advent, devotional
in spirit and zealous in good works; and St. Paul s,
long influenced by the powerful ministry of Dr.
Alexander Viiiton. At the latter s departure in 1858,
an unsettled feeling arose among some of his parish
ioners. From this and other causes it became evident
to men s minds that the time was ripe for a new parish.
It seemed natural that it should be established west
of the Public Garden, on the new-made land which
promised soon to be occupied as a residence portion
of the city.
There was much involved, however, beyond the ad
vantages derived from selecting a site in a locality
likely to be surrounded by an influential population.
To the minds of those associated with this enterprise,
came undoubtedly an impulse from the religious Re
vival in England, following the Oxford publications,
balanced by strongly Puritan tendencies, prejudice
against externalism, distrust of clerical prerogative
and dread of a sacramental system. Another in
fluence, especially attractive to a certain class of
minds, was the school of thought, led by Arnold and
Maurice, which aroused enthusiasm on lines sure to be
predominant in a new organization. Some of those
who had made part of the congregation at St. Paul s
were drawn thither from the Congregational body
by Dr. Vinton s deep scriptural instruction. To their
earnest seeking after truth the devotional spirit of the
liturgy made a strong appeal. Others came from the
214 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
Unitarian societies disaffected with Theodore Parker s
popularity in his own denomination, and deprecating
further departure from the liberal thought of Dr.
Channing s day. The agitation on political affairs,
the unrest of approaching civil strife, tended to make
this period one when the sundering of old ties and the
forming of new ones seemed a part of the religious
as well as of the outer world. The little band whom
these compelling forces drew together, met for the first
time at the residence of Dr. William R. Lawrence, at
98 Beacon Street, on March 17, 1860, to take the ini
tial steps towards the formation of a new parish, which
organized as Emmanuel Church, on Easter Monday,
April 27, 1860.
Already an informal engagement had been made
with Dr. Huntington, and it seemed most suitable
that the choice of a rector should fall upon one who
was conspicuous for a course which some of them
had followed, and who held in his own nature the
differing elements represented in the movement itself.
No man could be better fitted to control the attention
of hearers, and to unite into a harmonious parish,
those who were descendants of the old Standing
Order of New England, Boston liberals, Evangelical
believers, and the new generation who sought a more
catholic observance of the Christian year, and a
fuller expression of the spiritual beauty of the Church s
services, than a preacher who had been reared in
Calvinism, nurtured under the noble utterances of the
early Unitarian divines, and yet, through conviction
as well as taste and inclination, had found his way into
the bosom of the Mother Church.
It has been seen that in the consideration of the
215
future, various paths opened before the Plummer
professor, on his resignation. There was at the first
some fascination in the suggestion which presented
itself unbidden to his imagination, of an independent
Society, fashioned on his own lines, welcoming those
who were of congenial taste and religious affinity.
But this vision melted before the grave question whither
it would ultimately send youth, trained under an indi
vidual enterprise, and going out from its fold. It gave
place to the strong claims of an historic Episcopate,
and an organized Christianity, to the grander concep
tion of the minister as an ambassador of the King
dom of Christ.
One of the first proposals came as an offer of the
place of assistant minister at Trinity Church, Bos
ton, on the Green Foundation. In his letter of reply,
Dr. Huritington acknowledges the honor done him
and expresses a strong sense of the attractions held
out, but explains that he had already pledged himself
to another field of labor. How ardently this latter
fired his enthusiasm and appealed to his aims and
hopes, may be seen from the letter announcing the
decisive action for the formation of the new parish.
CAMBRIDGE, May 1, 1860.
To A. J.
The gracious Head of the Fold has permitted the
organization of the Parish of "Emmanuel Church."
I think you will like the holy, significant, and musical
Name, and see its fitness as emphasizing the great
doctrine which the Spirit has revealed to me. The plan
is to worship in a hired hall for a year or more, while
the Church-building is erected on the new lands at
216 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
the foot of the Public Garden; and to begin in Sep
tember, immediately after* my ordination as Deacon,
the date of which is not yet fixed. Everything seems
sufficiently promising so far. The men enlisted are
in earnest, and if God will we shall prosper. That
" God with us " may there manifest his glory in turning
souls from error to truth, and from Satan to himself,
let us humbly and faithfully pray.
My confidence, hope and joy and peace in the
ministry, were never before what they are now.
On September 12, 1860, Frederic Dan Huntington
was admitted to the Order of Deacons in Trinity
Church, Boston, by the Rt. Rev. Manton Eastburn,
Bishop of Massachusetts. The Rt. Rev. George Bur
gess of the diocese of Maine preached the sermon.
On the following Sunday the opening devotional ser
vices of Emmanuel Church were held by the new
rector at the temporary place of worship in Mechanics
Hall, Bedford Street. A large congregation assembled,
and the first sermon before the flock thus gathered
together was on the subject of " The Cross, its three
fold glory, and its blessing."
In a communication, the previous June, to one of
the prominent laymen of the parish, Dr. Huntington
had suggested that provision be made in the hall
for those who could not afford to pay regularly for
seats. This was the first of the protests, which he
never ceased to repeat, against the policy of hired
pews in a sanctuary. A courteous reply from his
correspondent, Dr. William R. Lawrence, engages
that "provision will be cheerfully made by sittings
appropriate to such use, and also by seats hired and
THE PASTOR AND HIS FLOCK 217
not used by those who have united with us. Nearly
all have taken more seats than they require for their
families." In the leaflet which was immediately dis
tributed among the worshipers, provision was made
for all the ministrations of a thoroughly equipped
parish, both on the side of the rector and of his flock.
Each week, was a Friday evening service and a Wed
nesday afternoon Bible class. For the carrying of the
Gospel and its beneficent influences, spiritual and
temporal, to the less privileged, ten departments of
work were planned, with an introductory note inti
mating that every regular attendant at divine worship
was expected to select from them one or more lines
of personal service.
From the beginning Emmanuel was a working
church. However powerful the preaching might be
in attracting hearers and building up a strong con
gregation, it was not upon spoken words from the
pulpit, but by the living testimony of devout believ
ers, through their own acts of self-sacrifice, that the
record of the future was to depend. The training of
the children of the flock, with the necessary measures
for the conduct of an efficient Sunday-school, came
first in importance, and connected with it were
committees for looking up j outh who were strangers
in the city, for hospitality to occasional worshipers,
for the direction and observance of the festivals of
the Church. In the line of aggressive missionary
work was the opening of a Sunday-school in the neg
lected portion of the city, care and visiting of the
sick, hospital relief, and charitable assistance to
the indigent. The rector himself opened the Mission
on the evening of Jan. 6, 1861. Before the New Year
218 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
the first confirmation in Emmanuel parish was held
at Trinity Church, when a large class was presented,
the greater number of persons being in middle life.
Frederic Dan Huntington was advanced to the
Priesthood on March 22, 1861, in the Church of the
Messiah, Boston, by the Bishop of the diocese, Rt.
Rev. Man ton Eastburn. The sermon was preached
by the Rev. Henry Burroughs.
After the organization of the parish there had been
no delay in preparing plans and prosecuting the work
of erecting a suitable church edifice. The site was
on Newbury Street, just beyond the Public Garden,
which at that time formed the western boundary of the
improved land. Beyond, where had been the waters
of the Back Bay, was a wilderness, with the gravel-
trains bringing in the substratum for the new lands
and the tall skeletons of the pile-driving machines
outlined against the sky. Arlington Street was soon
appropriated to stately private residences. From
thence to the Common, Boylston Street was in those
days a quiet residence district. It was here, conven
iently near the new church, that Dr. Huntington
established his household. The home seemed small,
after the commodious quarters in Cambridge, but it
was made sufficient not only for the family but
for parochial purposes. The rector s study was in
the back parlor, and the front room served for com
mittee meetings, parish conferences, and the weekly
Bible class. While, on one side of the folding-doors,
the busy pastor wrote his sermons or listened to varied
appeals for sympathy or counsel, on the other the young
assistant rector held interviews with his corps of
helpers and inaugurated the Mission work. Rev.
THE PASTOR AND HIS FLOCK 219
William Reed Huntington began his ministry in a
little room over a carpenter s shop. Giving part of
his time on Sundays to Emmanuel Church, most of
his energies were devoted to seeking out and instruct
ing stray souls in that neglected district which made
up the Mission field. In this rude chapel Dr. Hunt
ington himself loved to preach. His own vision for
Emmanuel had been that of a great People s Church.
This plan was not carried into effect, partly because
the minds of those controlling the movement for a
new parish were not prepared for all that was involved
in the abandonment of a system of rented pews, and
partly because the stress of financial uncertainty,
accompanying civil disturbance, limited the size of
the structure. A further modification in the plans
adopted by the building committee caused Dr. Hunt
ington some disappointment. He greatly deprecated
their decision to erect the side and rear walls of
brick, with the fa9ade only of stone. With the style
of the architecture, the form, proportions, and details
he was abundantly satisfied. But he earnestly ad
vocated a spirit of genuinenesss in the complete
work. "A building with a front of one material for
show, and an inferior material for the parts a little less
exposed, is an insincere building." In spite of this
appeal, made at some length and with all the argu
ments at his command, the building committee felt
that they had a practical situation to meet. In order
to keep within the funds placed in their hands they
were forced to make some changes in the original plan.
Permission however was given to the rector to raise
an additional sum of five thousand dollars to carry
out the design. One subscription of a thousand dollars
220 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
was made, but this was all. The ** sermon in stones,"
so much in accordance with his own integrity of char
acter was not to be, but in other respects the beautiful
structure was a joy and a cause of thanksgiving to
the preacher whose ringing words echoed within its walls
for seven years. In his weekly record of Services Dr.
Huntington writes on December 15, 1861: Emmanuel
Church opened, Laus Deo!
The consecration took place April 24, 1862, Rev.
Dr. Muhlenberg preaching the sermon. In his an
nual address to the Convention of the diocese Bishop
Eastburn says of this auspicious occasion : "May
the sanctuary thus dedicated to the Most High be
ever a place in which His presence shall dwell, and in
which many souls, through the blessing of the Holy
Spirit in the Ministry of the Word, shall be born into
the new life of repentance toward God, and faith toward
our Lord Jesus Christ ; " a prayer of Episcopal bene
diction which we must believe to have been answered,
in the fullness of Divine mercy.
One of the first questions which the rector of
the new parish had to meet was that of his attitude
towards those parties within the Church known as
"High" and "Low," a nomenclature now happily
less often applied. Even before his ordination a note
of timidity was sounded through the remonstrance of
an influential member of the society just inaugurated.
Some words uttered by Dr. Huntington on a public
occasion, were repeated with alarm, lest in exalting
the Church which had lately won his allegiance he
might be open to distrust by those who, as the good
layman admitted, were ready "to scent Puseyism
in a gesture, and Popery in the cut of a garment."
THE PASTOR AND HIS FLOCK 221
In the following spring a letter of inquiry from an
other source elicited the following more detailed re
joinder.
BOSTON, April 19, 1861.
MY DEAR SIR : Perhaps it would comport best
with my practice, not to say my rule, to offer to your
letter the general reply that in all party questions
in the Episcopal Church I take little interest, and can
take no side. A certain tone of manly frankness in
your communication, however, touches me, and
moves me to a different course.
To an earnest mind standing without this Branch
of Christ s Flock, the evils and mischiefs of its party
division appear even greater than they do within it.
Multitudes, throughout the country, are seen to be
restrained from joining it by this unhappy cause. I
came in, after a very careful and patient study of the
religious systems prevailing about us, under a de
liberate and thorough conviction that our ecclesias
tical economy, tho by no means perfect, is yet, by
far, more in conformity with the gospel plan and the
primitive pattern than any other, better suited to the
hearts of men, and better adapted to all the proper
offices of the Lord s living Body in this age and coun
try. The times and sacrifices incidental to my change
of relations, the attention necessarily given to the
distinctive points, and the large opportunity I have
had for observing denominational peculiarities, have
naturally occasioned in me, I suppose, a strong and
lively preference for the Church of my adoption.
On the other hand, the greater part of the partisan con
troversy in this Church seems to me weak and wrong.
222 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
I do not mean to deny that real and important differences
exist among us, such as a due honor for the Master
and his Truth will not allow us wholly to ignore. It
may even be said that there are two definable ten
dencies at work, leading to two extremes. A few per
sons, on either side, may have traveled to those ex
tremes. But the vast majority do not admit of any
such twofold classification. There is no clear line
dividing them. They are of all kinds, shades and
intermixtures. For example, it is evident that there
is such a thing as an ultra-ecclesiastical, a sacramen-
tarian view of Christianity which is dangerous and
false, not in Romanism only, but also within our Pro
testant Episcopal organization. I have no sort of
sympathy with it. I protest against it, with all the
convictions of my soul, and with all my might. And
yet when I hear men who seem to me humble, and
holy, and Christian sweepingly charged with setting up
sacraments before Christ, the sin of uncharitableness
seems to me equal to the sin of bad doctrine. The
language is too indiscriminate, and names of the
parties are vaguely, erroneously, and sometimes
cruelly applied. . . .
As to Ceremonialism, if I know myself at all, it
is neither in my blood, my tastes, my culture, nor my
convictions. I do not feel drawn that way. In pos
tures, and decorations, and all that pertains to what
are commonly called externals, I want nothing beyond
the dignified, decent and reverent observances common
to the great majority of Church people in both par
ties. In most matters of administration I probably
incline to rather more than the usual liberty and variety,
where tlie Prayer-Book and Canons do not direct. . . .
THE PASTOR AND HIS FLOCK 223
Much as I love this Apostolical Order, my whole
life would have been h ved to little purpose if I did not
recognize the Christianity of other Households of
Faith. I believe in a rubrical and spiritual worship,
an Evangelical pulpit, and a canonical and liberal
discipline. But you propose a specific inquiry, or a
particular case supposed. Should I vote in Convention
on a strictly party question, with the delegates of
my parish for the sake of Parish agreement? I can
not answer that because the case does not stand out
simple and clear before my mind. With my limited
knowledge of Convention proceedings, it is not easy
to conceive of a purely party question divested of all
other elements. If such a question should ever arise,
I should be likely to feel very little respect for it. I
should hate to vote on it at all. If voting at all, I
should try so to vote as not to express a party-feeling.
As to the delegates, I should be perhaps as likely to
expect them to vote with me, as to conform my vote
to theirs. But, as I said, I cannot shape the condition in
my thoughts clearly enough for a satisfactory reply.
Permit me to add that I am glad to see an intelli
gent layman sufficiently interested in these subjects
to take the trouble to seek for opinions of no more
moment than mine.
I confide in your promise to make no public use of
these private words and no unnecessary reference to
them.
Yours very sincerely,
F. D. HUNTINGTON.
An indorsement on the above shows that the MS.
was returned after a copy was taken to read to the
224 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
vestry of Emmanuel Church. Its occasion was evi
dently the approaching Convention of the diocese of
Massachusetts, the first at which Dr. Huntington
took his place among the clerical members, although
he had been afforded a seat by courtesy in the pre
vious May, while a candidate for Holy Orders.
Henceforth, he was to be a power for the extension
of Christ s kingdom in that assembly, which he at
tended for eight succeeding sessions. In June, 1863,
he was made by the Board of Missions chairman
of the Executive committee, a special missionary
agency, at that time appointed to " present the cause
of missions in such churches as might be willing to
receive their appeal." The two clergymen thus em
powered to begin an active campaign of missionary
enlightenment were Dr. George M. Randall, rector
of the Church of the Messiah, Boston, later a pioneer
bishop in the West, and the rector of Emmanuel
Church. Dr. Huntington threw himself into this
enterprise with all the ardor of his nature, and that
energy which delighted to endure fatigue and over
come difficulties. In his Report to the Convention
of May, 1864, he says of himself and his co-worker,
that "they have traveled over nearly all parts of the
territory of the State and have visited and addressed,
besides the District Associations, thirty-five Parishes."
A plan of systematic offerings for missions was recom
mended in these visits, so as to "encourage not only
every man and every woman but every child to sig
nify in writing beforehand how much each one would
give at stated intervals. The time seems propitious
for extending the knowledge and influence of our
Church."
THE PASTOR AND HIS FLOCK 225
In 1865 Dr. Huntington was elected chairman of a
committee on new parishes, a position which brought
him in close connection with the organized efforts for
establishing the church in growing towns and in those
districts where the services of the church had not been
held. These places he personally assisted, often by
his own visits and preaching, by providing lay-readers
and clerical supplies, and obtaining gifts and stipends
to continue the work. The first service held in the
town of Woburn was arranged through him and a
missionary station established. During the early
months of his ministry in Boston he gave his Sunday
evenings to St. Peter s, Cambridgeport, then weak
and in need of assistance. From the beginning of the
Maiden parish he interested himself in its welfare,
continuing his aid until his son, Rev. George Putnam
Huntington, after serving as a lay-reader, was called
to the rectorship. The first services at Grace Church,
Amherst, an important point in the diocese, were held
by Dr. Huntington himself during his summer vaca
tion in 1864, and he entered into the organization of
the parish with all the enthusiasm which his love for
his alma mater, and for the locality of his birth, nat
urally inspired. The beautiful stone church, in the
erection of which he took much delight, was largely
due to his efforts. For the remainder of his life Dr.
Huntington rejoiced to minister at the altar of this
sanctuary which became a place of worship for his
household while at Hadley.
It was the custom at Emmanuel to hold the second
service on the Lord s day in the afternoon, and this
left the rector free to afford assistance on Sunday even
ings to other parishes. Sometimes a call came for an
226 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
occasion in the city, in the interest of some public
cause, but more often he went out of town to some
small flock. His own record shows that during the
nine years of his ministry to a large congregation of
his own, he preached in fifty-six of the sixty or seventy
churches of the diocese, not only once, but frequently
a number of times, in the same place. Especially was
this the case among the smaller flocks within reach of
liis summer home, and, like his father before him, he
traveled by carriage up and down the Connecticut
Valley and across the hills, seldom resting for a Sunday
during his vacation.
Circumstances placed him where the care and over
sight connected with the growth of the diocese became
an interest and an obligation. In 1865 he was elected
chairman of the Standing committee to fill the vacancy
caused by the elevation of Dr. Randall to the Episco
pate in the missionary district of Colorado. In the
following year Dr. Huntington presented, for adoption
by the Convention, a new missionary canon, the result
of which was the unification of those organizations
already in existence, and the establishment of a board
elected by the Convention, and entitled, " The Execu
tive Missionary Committee." Under this provision
Dr. Huntington was made chairman of the new com
mittee, and his full report to the succeeding Convention
in 1867 reviewed the field open for mission work in
Massachusetts. While the speaker complained that
the finances were in arrears and the missionaries not
fully paid, he boldly asked for double the sum con
tributed the past year. He said: " It cannot certainly
be suffered that the value of the knowledge of the
Gospel of Salvation and of the Church through whose
THE PASTOR AND HIS FLOCK 227
ordinances it is ministered, is less to a given number
of souls here in New England than in any other part
of the world. It will be a long time yet before this part
of the country ceases to exercise on the newly settled
territories a powerful moral and intellectual control.
The current of civilizing and refining, and to great
extent of evangelizing influences, must continue to set
from the north and east to the west and south. The
changes that are going on in religious thought and
conviction offer a peculiarly favorable opportunity for
the introduction of the truth of Scripture through the
Apostolic System, to almost any village in the Com
monwealth. We know of many considerable settle
ments where no sanctuary for the worship of the Most
High God is built. In a very large number there is
already a disposition to welcome our Church services
both for the edification of grown people, and especially
for the training of the young. . . .
"Throughout the land our church appears to be
awaking as never before to her great commission and
to be conscious of her neglected privilege. Are we
moving with the stirring movement under the breath
of the Spirit ? " With such earnest appeal the oppor
tunity was laid before the clergy and laity assembled
and practical suggestions offered for holding services
through a special missionary in new communities,
such work to be strengthened and ministered to by
neighboring rectors. The chairman urged that the
amount to be appropriated for the ensuing year be
again made twice that of the past. He reported that
the appropriations had been promptly paid through
collections made at Emmanuel Church. Here, among
his own people, the rector ceased not to urge, exhort,
228 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
admonish, concerning the duty of making liberal gifts
for the support of the gospel in other fields. In an
address before a delegate meeting of the Board of
Missions in Providence in 1866, Dr. Huntington spoke
on the " best means to be used by the parochial clergy
for awakening and maintaining Missionary zeal in
their own parishes."
Out of his own rich experience and unusual success
in arousing his congregation to a generous response, he
mentioned, among other means of enlightenment, the
value of giving detailed information as to the needs,
the opportunity, the mode of operation and the prob
able or actual results of labors in the field. This was
his own habit, and on some occasions an allusion to a
special incident was made so telling, by the magnetism
of his speech and his consummate art in arousing the
feelings of his hearers, that the response came not only
in large offertories, but in many private and generous
gifts. Another point emphasized in his missionary
address and carried into practice as a branch of his
own parochial system was the importance of interest
ing the children in missionary objects. At the meetings
which he inaugurated in his parish to arouse young and
old, he gathered in the scholars of the Mission, who
gave frequent and animating songs to add to the
heartiness of the occasion. One of the measures of the
new committee had been the inauguration of mission
ary convocations, and one of its reports mentions that
at Emmanuel, after the stirring addresses in Epiphany,
1868, a choir of children gave the carol, "We three
Kings of Orient."
Another line of effort to carry the gospel to neglected
districts took shape in the organization of the " Epis-
THE PASTOR AND HIS FLOCK 229
copal Evangelization Society," of which Dr. Hunting-
ton was made president. Its purpose was to employ
itinerants to hold services in the churchless regions
among the indifferent and neglected, such preachers
being known as " Evangelists." A notice in the press
says that the address of the presiding officer, in which
he laid before a public meeting the great possibilities
of such a work, and the obligation incumbent upon
Christians to sustain it, held " the congregation in the
most rapt attention for three quarters of an hour."
His argument was that the Apostolic custom might
well be renewed, to go from place to place, * in jour-
neyings often," and he urged that the times of great
missionary effort are times of great refreshment to
home churches.
Among the objects of systematic offering which the
people at Emmanuel were instructed to make was that
of preaching the gospel to the Indian tribes in the
West, interest hi which was awakened through the
labors of Bishop Whipple. In the autumn of 1863 a
class of young women in the Sunday-school, under the
instruction of Mrs. Homer, began to contribute to that
object. The following spring, a society of church-
women was formed called the "Dakota League,"
which became a general organization in the diocese of
Massachusetts, for the advancement of work among
the Indians, resulting eventually, in connection with
some similar efforts, in the formation of the great
Woman s Auxiliary to the Board of Missions.
Dr. Huntington s own sympathy with the mission
ary work in the West led him to send his eldest son to
the frontier, as a teacher in the Seabury Divinity
School. George Huntington had graduated from
230 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
Harvard College in 1864, and in that summer while
absent on a vacation he received from his father a letter
opening the plan.
HADLET, Aug. 9, 1864.
MY DEAR GEORGE: In reply to a letter of inquiry
from me, Bishop Whipple and Dr. Breck have sent
me a proposal to receive you at Faribault as an assist
ant in the instruction and management of their new
Church-Seminary, consisting of a Divinity School and
Preparatory Department. Your work will of course
be in the latter, and you will be called to teach nothing
to which you are not fully competent. These gentle
men suggest that you should only pursue the study of
Hebrew, which you can acquire there to advantage,
giving the rest of your time to tuition, and that you
should be free to make new arrangements at the end of
a year.
This brings before you an important question for
immediate decision. Without attempting to prejudge
or to overrule the free choice of your own mind, I shall
only put down the reasons as they appear to me. In
favor of this plan then are the following considera
tions :
1. Direct helpfulness. Every day you would be
rendering a service of some value to others; and more
than that, a service bearing upon the highest interests,
the ministry and the Church of Christ.
2. A discipline for yourself. You will be in a con
stant practice of strengthening your faculties and
communicating your knowledge. Maturity of char
acter, self-command, ease of manners, facility of lan
guage, a larger intercourse with men, a firmer pos-
THE PASTOR AND HIS FLOCK 231
session of the rudiments of different branches of study,
would be in some measure at least, among your gains ;
and these would be a great help to you in any pro
fession you might follow afterwards.
3. You would have the best possible chance to test
your attachment to and fitness for one of the two pro
fessions which you have determined to adopt, and thus
your ultimate election would be a wiser and clearer one.
4. You would be in immediate communication with
gentlemen of as noble and fine a spirit, as high and
disinterested a character, and as genuine refinement
as can be found connected with any institution in the
land, and joining to these qualities a very rare degree
of energy, force, and practical sagacity. Thus you
would come in contact with the ministry at the right
point.
5. You would be cast aloof from the set of associa
tions and influences with which you are thoroughly
familiar, upon a fresh field; and this of itself would
help give breadth to your education. Cambridge and
Faribault, Massachusetts and Minnesota, would make
a capital mixture.
6. Your Harvard diploma and your good name
would give you a good start in a community where
a grand work of civilization is to be done.
7. The climate is as fine as any on the continent.
It is true all these promises might not be realized ; but
there are fair elements in the case, and there is nothing
extravagant or visionary in trusting them.
There is a great deal else I should like to say, for
my affections, sympathies, hopes, convictions are all
deeply involved in this crisis of your life. Every day I
pray God to direct you. Nothing I can conceive of
232 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
holds out as good a promise as this proposal. I hope
it may strike you favorably.
Affectionately, my dear boy,
Your father,
F. D. H.
BOSTON, June 5, 1865.
DEAR GEORGE : From our Easter collection I
have directed the General Secretary to forward to
Bishop Whipple, or in his absence to Dr. Breck, for
the Missionary purpose of the diocese, $200; to Mr.
Hinman, for the Dakota Mission, $100; and to Mr.
Tanner $100.
I was interested in your account of the Indian
question, and received the paper giving a description
of the recent murders. It would be childish in the
Government to modify its policy, so far as it was
favorable to the Missions, for one such outrage, or for
half a dozen. The more savage the natives are, the
more they need the softening and restraining influence
of Christianity; and I trust General Grant s counter
order is an indication of moderate and comprehensive
measures.
I will send you a cheque before you start for home.
Would you not like to take this opportunity to see the
Mammoth Cave in Kentucky and the Natural Bridge
in Virginia ? You might go from Chicago to Louisville,
call on Dr. Craik, take the cars to the vicinity of the
Cave, pass over to .Virginia, and perhaps stop at one
of the battle-fields, returning by way of Washington
and Philadelphia. Regarding it as an advantageous
part of your education I should be willing to provide
the extra sum necessary for your expenses. It often
THE PASTOR AND HIS FLOCK 233
occurs to me as a deficiency in my training that I have
traveled so little. Some of the Parish here have lately
been urging me to go to Europe ; but I feel little incli
nation, and very likely shall never undertake to cross the
ocean. Perhaps your mother mentioned that, being on
a journey to Buffalo, a few days ago, to look up a
Headmaster for St. Mark s, Southboro, I had a few
hours, asleep and awake, at Niagara.
No other plan presents itself for you, I believe, than
to spend the next year at home in theological study.
I can easily point out work enough for you in that
way, and perhaps I should make the attempt, in my
busy, broken days, to pursue some investigations,
including Hebrew, with you. You will, I have no
doubt, be ready to act for me, if occasion requires, and
to identify yourself with the best aims we are capable
of following in the house and in the Church.
The Rev. Dan Huntington passed away, in the full
ness of age, in October, 1864. Writing to him just
before, on his ninetieth birthday, his son said : " I wish
we could all join together in a service of family thanks
giving to the God and Father who is the Refuge of
all generations. But we can all render up our several
offerings of gratitude to our Preserver and Deliverer.
This is one of the duties you have taught your children,
by precept and example. I hope that both your memo
ries and hopes on this occasion will be pleasant and
cheerful, as they almost always are. The Gospel gives
you strong promises that in the time of old age you will
not be forsaken."
To his son, in Minnesota, Dr. Huntington wrote:
" Everything about your good old grandfather s death
234 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
was peaceful and happy as his life had been. His
last articulate words were those of the Apostolical
Benediction with a fitting Amen. This was Sunday
evening, the last day of his life and ministry on earth;
the next morning, at four o clock, the mysterious wheels
of mortal animation stood still. The sacred illusion
of his illness was that every day was Sunday. When we
buried him it was near sunset, the air was still, and the
splendor of a brilliant autumnal sky poured itself
into his open grave, as was meet for the end of a course
so genial and so beneficent as his."
On December 22, 1864, the customary greeting was
sent to the old homestead, this time to the sister alone,
who remained there after her long and devoted
attendance on their father.
" I wish you could be at our Christmas Eve service
in the Church, and at the Christmas Communion.
Everything is good that unites more closely the family
in Heaven with the family on earth, and both with
the living and loving and glorious Head, who came to
be one of us, and die for all."
The ancestral mansion had now passed into the
possession of the youngest of the family, through
purchase from his brothers and sisters. One of the
many generous acts which testified to the affection of
the parishioners at Emmanuel Church for their pastor
was a gift from a number of its prominent men to
complete the payments on the estate. Henceforth the
care and management of the farm in all its details
was Dr. Huntington s pastime and delight. The
months of summer residence there undoubtedly
lengthened the life of the hard-working priest and
prelate. The home was one of abounding hospitality,
THE PASTOR AND HIS FLOCK 235
maintained with patriarchal dignity and the simple
habits of Puritan inheritance. While the head of the
household passed hours during the days and evenings
of the vacation at his desk, engaged in literary work,
or in directing parish and diocesan affairs through
correspondence, he found leisure for long drives with
his family and guests, exploring every road and byway
through the valley and across the hills. In the haying
season he did the work of one able-bodied laborer in
the field, entering into the occupation with a zest and
ardor which never abated. From his study-table at
the end of the hall he had always in sight the move
ments in the barn and the large yard. Many a morning
he was busy with his writing at the early hour when the
cows went out to pasture. To the north his window
looked into the old garden, and the changing pageant
of earth and sky, the fruits and blossoms, the flower-
bordered walk, the butterflies and the birds, offered a
scene of quiet repose which was always grateful. He
never wearied of drawing the attention of guests to his
beautiful display of hollyhocks at midsummer. Here
at twilight he sat with his book occupied in reading
and meditation, or he would join his wife and children
on the lawn in front of the porch, his dog at his feet,
while he entered into the conversation or shared with
the group around him some subject with which his
mind was engaged. Sometimes he would stroll away
into the woods or to the edge of the pasture to make
friends with his Alderney heifers. After supper, on a
beautiful evening, all would gather on the quaint
" stoop," along the length of the house in the rear, to
enjoy the gorgeous tints of sunset across the river, to
listen to the sounds dying out in the village street
236 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
beyond its banks, to watch the purple glow fading into
darkness on the mountain ranges and the first star
twinkling in the heavens. After the lamps were lighted
came the letters and newspapers, a little reading aloud,
and an early bedtime.
In the summer of 1860 the Hadley host wrote to a
friend: "Our time here is spent principally out-of-
doors. We ride a great deal, and when we get up on
to the high grounds, into mountain scenery, I assist
the children s anticipations of next month "by telling
them how that is like Berkshire. The beauty of the
valley is indeed very different from the majesty of
your grand elevations; but I cannot allow that there
is anything in this world more lovely, more perfect,
in its kind, than this beloved old homestead where I
was bom ; with the windings of the river, the green
meadows and still waters of an earthly Paradise,
the flowing outlines of the cnstant Western hills,
the splendid urn-shaped and sheaf-shaped elms around
us and over us, the woods, not far off, at the East,
with large grassy yards and hay-fields on every side.
It is doubly delicious just now, after a Sunday s visit
to Boston in this intensely sultry weather."
It was in such healthful and simple employment
of the holidays that the busy pastor stored up strength
for the multiplied engagements of the winter months.
In September he was again in the pulpit at Emmanuel,
and from then to succeeding June not a Sunday passed
without arduous work. Added to the two services in
his own church and the third devoted to missionary
engagements, or to some special call, the rector never
failed to be present in his Sunday-school, making him
self personally acquainted with the children, catechising
THE PASTOR AND HIS FLOCK 237
and instructing them. One of the strongest influences
for good which those who were young women at that
time ever afterwards recalled with gratitude was the
Sunday Bible class, taught by Mrs. William R. Law
rence, to which the rector gave his earnest sympathy,
and frequently the encouragement of his presence.
This was only one instance of the personal solicitude
he felt for the members of his large parish, watching
over their spiritual life, visiting them regularly, be
coming acquainted with the interests of people in all
walks of life. The following letter was written to a
student at Harvard just before his confirmation. The
young man was the son of a valued parishioner, and in
later life became conspicuous for his noble influence
and active Christian work. After his death his old
rector wrote (in 1900), "The service he rendered by his
character, testimony, and bestowments to the Church
cannot be taken away or forgotten."
BOSTON, April 4, 62.
To J. D. W. F.
My dear Friend: Since hearing from you the
good news of your intention to come openly into the
Fold of Christ, I have thought much about you, and
have wanted to tell you again how heartily I rejoice
in your decision. You may be sure it is right; for you
are following the plain direction of your Saviour. It
is He that has put this purpose into your heart. You
must depend entirely on Him to carry it into effect,
in a true, consistent Christian life. You are now a
Soldier of the Cross; a great and noble work is given
you to do ; but you will also have great helps and en
couragements in doing it; and so you are never to be
238 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
disheartened. If you sometimes fail, let that only nerve
you to new diligence. Religion never appears with
more grace or power, than in the character of a young
man; and especially, perhaps, of young men in col
lege. I think they sometimes make the mistake of
supposing they shall recommend their religion, and
make it acceptable, by keeping it in the background.
But almost everybody, even worldly and careless
people, have a secret respect for Christians who thor
oughly carry out their principles, show their colors,
and stand by their Master.
Your success will depend chiefly on your private
devotions. Keep some time sacred every day for these.
Find out when you can best manage to be alone and let
nothing interfere with your retirement for reading the
Bible, and prayer.
Some of the most quiet Christians in the world have
been the firmest. Let your acquaintances see that while
you make no noise about your piety, your principles
are fixed, your course is deliberately chosen, and your
spirit clad in the whole armor of God.
I trust the Sunday evening will be to you, to many
more, the beginning of many happy years of Christian
progress and peace, and that you will always look
back to that scene with a grateful memory.
I am most truly and faithfully,
F. D. HUNTINGTO^.
HADLET, July 10, 1862.
To A. W. S. C.
In the retirement and leisure of these still days, in
this still place, my thoughts go out after one and
another of the dear young believers that have con-
THE PASTOR AND HIS FLOCK 239
fessed their faith in Emmanuel Church; and they
turn to none oftener than to you. Life, at the longest,
is so short; our powers, at best, are so poor; the souls
for which our Master has died have such inestimable
value; and "the world" presses so hard upon the
aspirations of our higher hours, that I can hardly
consent to let the service which Christ has entrusted
to me in his Church wholly cease even in these days
of summer rest. I long, at least, that the impressions
of our holy seasons in the months past should not be
lost while we are scattered apart, and are set free for
recreation and pleasure. I don t know how you find it;
but, for myself, I think it always needs a little more
than the usual watchfulness and self-control to keep
the hidden life of faith and holiness up to the right
standard, during these periods of pleasure and play,
more than when the various helps and supports of
our regular winter habits are about us. The times of
daily devotion are apt to be interrupted in one way
or another ; the order of our private religious exercises
falls apart; the spirits are excited and borne away
with the round of social gaieties; and so the spiritual
tone is sometimes relaxed or lowered. Others, how
ever, and perhaps you may be among them, are
greatly aided by this change from city to country.
They feel nearer God amidst the simplicity, the
grandeur, and solemn beauty of his hills and forests
and open sky, than under the dust and noise where
multitudes jostle against each other. The difference
is owing, probably, in part to temperament, and in
part to the peculiar circumstances of each individual.
The true way is to look at every change as having
something to do with our religious training and dis-
240 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
cipline. The God of both winter and summer makes
everything beautiful in its own season; and it is only
we, in our willfulness, or selfishness, or negligence,
who turn his appointments into snares and tempta
tions. But what a blessing that promise is, that he
will not suffer us to be tempted "above that we are
able," but will, with the temptation, if w*e are only
faithful, make a way of escape. I dare say you are
often dissatisfied with yourself. All earnest Christians
are. You do not seem, perhaps, to be making the ad
vances you have desired. Almost three months have
gone since that sacred Confirmation evening; and it
may be that you do not see in yourself much growth
in purity and in likeness to Jesus. But take heart, and
do not be discouraged if it is so. While you trust the
strength of God s promises, guard your actions, and
their inward springs. Be always seeking out some
opportunity of ministering good to the other members
of the family. The scene of your self-denial may be
familiar and tame, and your best efforts may not
always appear to be appreciated. But your Saviour
sees them, every one, and remembers them ; and it is
thro just these little trials that your spirit is to be
"endued with power from on high," and matured
into a noble Christian womanhood. . . .
It occurs to me that you may have known nothing,
or but little, of the movement in which our Emmanuel
people are now so generally and deeply interested,
the building or buying of a Mission Chapel for our
work in the ninth ward. And as I have lying by me an
unused copy of the sermon with which I initiated the
measure, I will enclose it for you and your mother
instead of writing out a description of the plan here.
THE PASTOR AND HIS FLOCK 241
My whole heart is in this enterprise for the neglected
Pagans close by us in Boston. I have been laboring
incessantly for it ever since I saw you in P. (this ser
mon was preached the very Sunday after), and I have
had the satisfaction of seeing even those that were
coolest at first becoming engaged in the project. You
will not forget to entreat the Head of the Church to
prosper it. He has done so already ; for we have about
eight thousand dollars subscribed, in these hard times.
On Sunday afternoons it was often Dr. Huntington s
habit to minister at one of the hospitals, occasionally
at the House of the Good Samaritan, in which he was
much interested, and quite regularly, for some months
each season, at the Home for Consumptives, then
just opened and enlisting his strong support. Its
founder, Dr. Charles Cullis, was a parishioner, and
the earliest plans for the work were submitted to his
pastor for counsel. His simple faith and spiritual
character endeared him very much to Dr. Huntington,
who endorsed and aided his work. Among other new
objects of charity to which the busy minister gave time
and assistance was the Dedham Home for Discharged
Female Prisoners, which he frequently visited.
Holding a firm belief that almsgiving should be sys
tematic and intelligent, he employed a parish visitor,
under his own oversight, who was largely engaged in
befriending such as personally applied to him. With
most of those who came to the door seeking relief, an
occurrence more frequent in the days before the estab
lishment of organized charities, he spoke himself; and
in his busy hours some unfortunate was pretty sure
to be seen sitting in the hall waiting for an interview.
242 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
Practical measures for the improvement of the condi
tions connected with poverty occupied his mind, and
he was much concerned for the better housing of
families of the Mission congregation who inhabited
damp and unwholesome tenements in an ill-drained
district. The establishment of the Rector s Aid
Society, a body of earnest young men, resulted in
the erection of Huntington House, completed and
named for its founder, after his removal from Boston.
It was through this same organization that in April,
1866, Dr. Huntington s strong desire to have under his
control a church building free to all worshipers of
Almighty God, became realized in the consecration of
the Chapel of the Good Shepherd. It was distinctively
stated from the beginning that this sanctuary was
not intended for a single class, but as a place where
rich and poor should meet together. The name ex
pressed the teaching connected with it, that those who
entered the doors and attended the services "should
constitute a special flock, on equal terms with each other
before the Saviour of souls ; that their ways should be
kindly and that the Ministry should serve them cheer-
fully."
Near the end of his life, October, 1899, Bishop
Huntington wrote, on the occasion of its twenty-fifth
anniversary, to the rector, Rev. George Prescott, this
retrospect of the Church of the Good Shepherd :
You know, in part at least, how dear and precious
it was to me from the hour of its birth as a mission,
during all my ministry in Emmanuel. Indeed, I should
never have been satisfied to be the pastor of a con
gregation made up largely of families of wealth and
THE PASTOR AND HIS FLOCK 243
leisure, without the balance of a flock of a less favored
class, wherein I and my parishioners could expend
our sympathies and unbought labors. Therefore, just
as soon as the Parish was organized, I struck off into
the comparatively unshepherded population in and
about Church Street, and the district east and south.
The first " Chapel " was a rude upstairs section of a
carpenter s shop, partitioned off with pine boards.
There we gathered a Sunday-school, and sang and
prayed. From there, in due time, we removed to
Nassau Hall, on Washington Street, between Common
Street and Hollis, where we had services, sacraments,
preaching, and where the benevolent women and girls
of Emmanuel administered their charities, and where
some of the noblest, best bred, most refined and effi
cient daughters of Boston had their training in the
manifold departments of church work, for which
Boston and other parts of the world have been better
ever since. How that scene of practical Christian
activity was afterwards transferred to Cortes Street,
and by what successive and honorable steps in indus
trial and spiritual enterprise advanced to its later and
well-known distinction, you will not need that I should
call to mind. I wish that I had time to pay the deserved
tribute of my esteem and gratitude to the true and
devoted pastors shepherds, indeed who were
with me and came afterwards, and especially to the
present admirable successor, whose wise administration,
unwearied toil, patient sacrifices, and lovely disposition
need no praise from me. God bless him, his home, and
all his people!
Faithfully,
F. D. HUNTINGTON.
244 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
Another recollection of those days comes from the
first assistant minister.
" How can I begin to do justice to that morning of
bright hopes, that epoch of quickened faith, glad
sympathies and high endeavor ? The people who ral
lied around Huntington, helped him to found this
Church, and gave, not only their money, but themselves
to the task of edifying the body of Christ, were a
choice company. They loved their leader, they be
lieved in him, and unfamiliar though he was with
the ways to which most of them had been accustomed
from their childhood, they felt no shadow of a doubt
that, out of the very novelty of the conditions by which
he found himself environed, there would come a
stimulus that should make him more effective even
than before. Nor were they disappointed in the event.
"How eagerly we listened to the sermons; how
earnestly we talked among ourselves of the rector s
rapidly unfolding plans; how impatient we were to
escape from our temporary place of worship, on the
other side of the town, and to enter upon occupancy
here, where the new Boston was taking form." 1
In a sermon preached at the end of the first year of
parish life their rector had told his flock : " My view
of the work of this Church is very simple. It is that
every person in the congregation, of either sex, of all
conditions, and of every age, if not disabled by severe
disease, ought to have some kind of service in hand
to be done as circumstances allow, in virtue of being
a member of that congregation, under the direction of
the rector, and in the name of Christ, who is the ever
1 Memorial Sermon: "A Good Shepherd," Rev. William R.
Huntington, D.D.
THE PASTOR AND HIS FLOCK 245
present Head of all under-shepherds and of the whole
flock." This was no passing admonition, left to chance
to take practical effect, but a programme laid down
as strictly for himself, by the leader, as for those under
his spiritual care. It was his untiring business from
week s end to week s end to watch over and to encour
age the various departments of service in the parish,
and to enlist personally in these ministrations every
person who occupied a seat on Sunday. One who was
at that time a young girl recalls how promptly on her
return home from boarding-school a little note came
from the rector, assuming as a matter of course that
she would engage in some line of usefulness, and sug
gesting where her efforts would be of most benefit to
herself and to others. The Mission field was a large
outlet for sympathy and cooperation. Among the
visitors enrolled to go into the homes of distress and
want, one finds printed in those old reports names still
remembered in the community for influence and high
position.
Although the rector took the initiative in the building
of the Mission chapel, the wardens and vestry assumed
themselves the work of parish enlargement, and
there was no stint in funds for the prosecution of all
branches of parochial activity. In 1864 a chapel was
erected adjoining the church to provide for lenten
services and for the Sunday-school, and the following
year a transept was added on the west, giving two
hundred additional sittings.
When, many years later, a fine ecclesiastical structure
was erected in Lynn by one of the noble churchmen
of Massachusetts, the donor said that it was his old
rector at Emmanuel who "first taught him how to
246 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
give." The liberality of this layman, as of others who
sat under that preaching, was indeed the result of
Christian principle, which regards the acquisition of
wealth as the enlargement of sacred obligations.
Those who occupied the heads of the pews half a cen
tury ago, were the solid business men of the common
wealth who, beside managing their affairs with sa
gacity and prudence, practiced habits of life which
knew nothing of ostentation. Others in that large
audience were students, lawyers, judges, men influ
ential in counsel, wide in their sympathies, conserva
tive in their tastes, deliberate in their judgments.
Among the larger interests which their pastor pre
sented to them with earnestness was that of clerical
education, and generous offerings were made to the
" Society for the Increase of the Ministry." In a letter
to his son George, who was preparing to enter Berkeley
Divinity School, Dr. Huntiugton expresses his strong
desire to see a similar institution planted in the vicinity
of Harvard. It was therefore in a spirit of hearty con
gratulation that he announced to his congregation one
Sunday morning the munificent gift made by one of
their number, Benjamin Tyler Reed, for the founding
of the Theological School at Cambridge. He became
a visitor of the seminary, was a trustee of Trinity Col
lege, of Vassar College, and of St. Paul s School,
Concord, and still further manifested his strong inter
est in education as one of the founders of St. Mark s
School for boys, Southboro.
It seems in place here to give some reminiscences
of the rector of Emmanuel, written by one who was in
his youth an active worker: "He was particularly
kind and watchful to young men who were away from
THE PASTOR AND HIS FLOCK 247
their homes, and in Boston, either as students or in
business. Dr. Huntington was the great preacher of
Boston in those days. He ever seemed to endeavor
to impress upon his hearers that it was a very solemn
thing to live, that the responsibility was great, and
duty to God and man must be done no matter what
happened. His sermons were always deeply thought
out, expressed in choice, often magnificent, English
of good length, but never too long, the words distinct,
his voice and accent fascinating, his manner serious,
stately, dignified, yet at the same time humble rather
than pompous.
" I recall to mind his interest in the church Reading
room. The young men desired to have a room cen
trally located where the church publications could be
found, and where the Boston churchmen could meet
for conversation during the evenings, the clergy could
find a mutual meeting-place, and where the services
and special church occasions could be bulletined. The
Doctor was our most interested supporter, and his
influence was a great help to us. Some were afraid of
it because it was to be distinctively churchly, and
Bishop Eastburn had no sympathy with the enter
prise. The church Reading room struggled for years,
but it lived, and the Diocesan House is the result and
its historical continuation."
January 1, 1865.
To A. L. P.
We have turned the comer in our winter work of
the year. Too little room is given to old friendships,
to quiet communion and the simple genial enjoyment
of the hearts we love, in this eager, noisy, human life.
248 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
We are in the midst of winter work the Mission and
its charities, which take a great deal of time. We get
better and better organized every year. I wish you
could have been with us at our Christmas festivity and
that you could see the Church in its evergreen dress.
You cannot conceive the change that has come over
our Community in its observance of this Festival within
twenty or thirty years. I can remember when not a
sprig of green or a public service marked the day,
except with a few scattered Church families. Now,
scarcely a house is without its celebration. But there
is a great deal to be learned yet.
Dec. 31, 1866.
To HIS SISTER.
That date I have written, I suppose, for the last
time. It is the last night and almost the last hour of
the year. I have been writing letters not only to various
parts of this country, but to England, to France, to
Africa, to China, and now the last word shall go to
you, my faithful, true-hearted, loved, revered, only
sister.
We are growing old. The other day Hannah and I
got our first eye-glasses. Luckily they are just alike, so
that if they change places it will not discomfort us.
We ought not to mourn the flight of time if we believe
that this life is the antechamber and beginning of Life
Eternal.
Old Madam Hooper is gone, the oldest, most ven
erable and lovely " Mother in Israel " of my Parish.
Her death was entirely beautiful. She liked to have me
tell her about father. As it was just before Christmas,
I took the text of Simeon and Anna and preached a
THE PASTOR AND HIS FLOCK 249
sermon on Christian Old Age. But the better sermon
was her life.
Christmas was bright and cheery, with its great
Memory, its animating worship, its noble music, its
Holy Communion, and its family pleasures. How
impressive it is to think of all the millions of deeds of
kindness, plans, and schemes, and surprises of disin
terested good-will and generosity all over the world
wide Christendom, and all springing from the act of
love 1800 years ago. To-morrow morning at nine
o clock we begin the New Year with a service and the
Holy Communion.
CHAPTER VIII
THE KING S MESSENGER
" You did well to talk so plainly as you did.
There is little of this faithful dealing with men now-a-days."
IT should be borne in mind, that during the years of
planting and growth in Emmanuel parish, while its
life was becoming more vigorous, its activities more
varied and effective, the community and the nation
were passing under the clouds of civil strife, of blood
shed, apprehension, and financial insecurity. The
lessons to be learned through public events were
pronounced from the pulpit with the clear utterance
of the prophets of old. On Sept. 14, 1862, Dr. Hunt-
ington preached a sermon, afterwards reprinted as a
special contribution to the " Christian Witness," from
the passage in II Chronicles xx. 12.
" O our God, ... we have no might against this
great company that cometh against us; neither know
we what to do : but our eyes are upon thee." He
introduced the subject by referring to a discourse "in
which less than two years ago we took this language as
text for the general doctrine of God s providence,
giving it a figurative application to the anxieties and
perplexities of our individual and common life. Few
minds could believe then that within twenty months
the words would come to have a literal meaning for us
THE KING S MESSENGER 251
as a nation, in the battles, the invasions, the abused
patience of a peaceful government, the multitude of
confederate assailants, the heathenish cruelties, the
mortal agonies, of these alienated and armed States.
"This morning, only change the names of persons
and places, and the whole passage sounds as if it were
written of our own people, with weapons in their
hands, with the visions of streams of blood before their
eyes, with supplication on their lips, and with some
thing fearfully like dismay in their hearts." The com
plete sermon is a powerful plea, as the title indicates, for
" A Nation s Look toward God," beginning by pointing
out strong and vivid analogies with Old Testament
history. " God binds men together, organizes them, and
trains them up through the mutual affections, sacri
fices, and services of corporate Institutions: first the
Family, secondly the State, thirdly the Church. The
Church is both Family and State, a divine Family,
a divine State ; visible and historical as well as spiritual
and perpetual. Hence the national character is a holy
thing. When it is prostrated and polluted it is the most
terrible of degradations. A people without religious
patriotism is a mob of weak and one-sided insurgents,
held together, if at all, only by interest and fear. . . .
"The philosophy of sheer individualism is an
unchristian philosophy. It lacks the purest, the loftiest,
the most unselfish aspirations of humanity. Christ
comes, not only to make righteous individuals, but to
build a righteous kingdom, whereof each individual
is a member, so that no one can say to another, I have
no need of thee. Open the Scriptures almost anywhere
and you will find that God s people loved their nation,
prayed for it, lived for it, died for it, as a divine thing."
252 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
In closing, the preacher reminded his audience of
the character of its noble heritage and the public
iniquities which had led to adversity and anguish. " We
have trusted to our enterprise, our trade, and our
wealth; and now a debt of a thousand millions or
more is to impoverish us. We have bought and sold
votes with money and for party; and now we are
learning, by lessons burnt into our hearts, what law
and government are really worth, and what they cost.
We have professed liberty, but beyond all the obliga
tions of the Constitution, have been willing that our
fellow men should suffer the wrongs of slavery; and
now our brothers are captives and prisoners, while
slavery is at the bottom of the whole boiling cauldron
of our troubles. The scourge is upon us, are we hum
bled by it ? We are under the rod, do we acknowledge
who holds it? We recruit the ranks with bounties in
money, which may be well, as a proof of the willingness
of those that offer them; but is an army so recruited
like one that moves to battle only for justice and truth ?
The air is full of criticisms upon this or that com
mander crude, impatient, self-glorying, or partisan
speculation ! But how many of our people go into the
closet, and there, on their knees cry, with the Hebrew
captain, in the humility of a self -forgetful faith, Our
eyes are upon thee ?"
On Nov. 17, of the same year, Thanksgiving Day, the
rector, in a discourse on " The Chastened Feast," took
for his text the verse of the Psalms, " Rejoice with trem
bling," and struck a note of gratitude for mercies, in the
midst of discipline, rather than of warning and admo
nition. He dwelt, appropriately to the occasion, upon
the fact that of the three terrible dealings of God with
THE KING S MESSENGER 253
man, two famine and pestilence had been averted;
dwelling, however, not alone upon the material causes
for thankfulness, but upon assurance in the divine
promises.
On the fourth of March, 1863, Dr. Huntington
wrote to Kis sister: " The date reminds us naturally that
just one half of President Lincoln s term of office has
expired. What a troubled and fearful administration !
And how anxiously we must look forward to the
remaining half! At the close of it shall we be a dis
membered country, with local strifes and bitter jeal
ousies, or one people again ? Will the curse of slavery
be removed from the land forever; or will it have an
empire of its own, founded on the horrid principle of
legalized oppression ? It is not easy to believe the latter.
One of my parishioners lately said to President Lin
coln, in Washington, I remember seeing you, Sir,
when you were president of a railroad company in
Illinois. Ah, yes, was the characteristic reply: and
if I were President of the railroad company now,
instead of being President of the United States, I guess
I should sleep better o nights.
" Our mother, I believe, was equally a lover of peace
and of liberty; equally disapproving war and slavery.
How strangely the two ideas have come into conflict
with each other! But God is a God of both peace and
liberty, and He can guide the storm. We are in the midst
of Lent services. The frequent worship is delightful."
In April, 1863, the leading article in the "Church
Monthly" was from Dr. Huntington, on the subject,
"Loyalty and Love," a reconciliation between the
two conflicting conditions of peace and war. It was
possibly somewhat out of character that one who had
254 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
been brought up as a believer in the establishment of
universal concord, and who had been an advocate of
the Peace Society, should defend the maintenance
of any cause through military force. But the spirit
of the times stirred even those far less ardent in tem
perament to sympathy with the passage of armies, the
rejoicing in victory, " the tumult and the shoutings "
consequent upon victorious conflict. The writer ably
sustained the moral strength of the principles involved,
and their nobler aspect. He quoted from an eminent
statesman, who said, after extensive travel through the
country; " I have nowhere found any feeling of exas
peration against the people of the South, but in every
point a solemn determination to uphold the govern
ment, at the same time with a sadness and a depth of
tenderness I will in vain endeavor to describe. This is
not a war upon the people of the South, but a war
undertaken for their defense and for their deliverance."
After a picture of what true Christian soldiership
might be, the article continues : " Light is given us in
this line of thought to see how it is, and to see that it
is just as faith ought to have expected, that the high
and mighty Ruler of the Universe, who is the only giver
of all victory, carefully keeps the issues in His own
hands. His are the sicknesses that waste, the drought
that famishes, the tempests that wreck, the winds that
hinder or speed fleets, and the rains that swell rivers,
and the frosts that chill in one place and destroy
miasma in another; and He means to make it manifest,
doubtless, before the eyes of mankind, that by Him
nations are ruled, squadrons turned, and wars made
to cease. Numbers, armaments, drills, revenues, experi
ence, courage, strategy these are the instruments of
THE KING S MESSENGER 255
war; but the Almighty must accept and bless them
before they prosper. He blows upon them with His
indignation, and they are like the chaff of the summer
threshing-floor which the wind driveth away. May He
grant that as defeat and loss school us into energy and
order and humble dependence upon Him, so every
success may lift hearty anthems to His praise ! "
On the national Fast Day, that same month, April,
1863, another exposition from Hebrew history was
delivered to the flock at Emmanuel, from the text,
" Hear now, O house of Israel : Is not my way equal ?
are not your ways Unequal ? " Ezekiel xviii. 25.
" An exile with his exiled fellow-countrymen, sitting
by the mournful river Chebar, on the hill of grief,
the faithful Ezekiel, himself a splendid example of
patriotic loyalty, inflexible in his integrity, unflinching
in his faith, summons the guilty Israelites to an august
reckoning of their sins, in Jehovah s name. Hear now,
O house of Israel : O house of America ! Is not my
way equal ? are not your ways unequal ?
It was a time when distrust and discouragement
began to be more openly expressed through the pro
longed continuance of the struggle. "Divided coun
sels, party passions and corruptions, weak defenses
and fruitless campaigns, delay, and the new levies,
and the fresh millions of appropriations," were bringing
to light " the moral falsehoods which kill the Nation s
true life more effectually than sword or shot or all the
diseases of the hospital and camp." The lessons to
be gained from the "long and severe tuition" were
obedience to the voice of God, patience, Christian
endurance, solid adherence and loyalty to a fixed prin
ciple, through all disasters, defeats, and delays.
256 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
"Stubborn resistance and exhausting sieges where
we looked for easy victories; massive fortifications of
rivers and seaports and inland capitals, where we pre
dicted open and exposed approaches ; thousands found
in arms where only hundreds were expected ; combina
tion and determination, and promptitude, and energy,
and perseverance opposed to us, where we told each
other we should encounter only laxity, and weak
ness, and confusion, and vacillation; treachery and
division and incompetency discovered on our own
side, where we flattered ourselves there would be no
thing but honor and unity and signal ability to com
mand and to prevail. This is God s method of saying
to us, in the stern and instructive language of facts,
Are you in earnest ? Do you believe as you profess ?
Is your faith only in yourselves, or in the Lord, Eternal
and Holy, as your Nation s God? They are God s
equal and righteous way in the war, purging and
correcting us for our unequal ways before it came."
On the fourth Sunday after Easter, April 24, 1864,
a sermon was delivered and afterward printed by
request of the wardens and vestry, which was entitled,
"Personal Humiliation demanded by the National
Danger." This was no hopeful summoning of multi
tudes to battle for the right; no kindling assurance of
the marks of Divine favor in time of tribulation; no
softening of chastisement by lessons of humble sub
mission and faith. In the powerful language of a
prophet was depicted the widespread apprehension
of impending public disaster which possessed serious
minds.
" After an interval of comparative quiet we seem to
be approaching one of those critical and fearful turns
THE KING S MESSENGER 257
of campaign and battle where the vast fortunes and
interests of a kingdom have often been gathered up
for a revolution in some dreadful valley of decision.
Long processes of planning, accumulations, trans
porting and concentration of forces, are about coming
on both sides to their maturity and their trial. It
would seem as if the people must be hushed with awe,
as nature seems to be, before the crash of the thunder-
gust from the full magazines of the sultry air. . . .
"Hostile armies, numbered by hundreds of thou
sands of soldiers, officered by determined and exas
perated leaders, with national life, pride, and honor
at stake, do not meet and part without making the
earth groan under them and far around them. If you
leave the great moral considerations, and pass on to
call up and prefigure the separate and particular
shapes of terrible anguish which are to darken and
distress the land the moment these waiting collisions
come, these sleeping monsters of armies awake and
uncoil, and the lightnings are loosened, anguish on
the battle-field, in the heat and thirsts of the sun, and
the chill of night ; anguish in ambulances and hospitals ;
anguish in thousands and tens of thousands of deso
lated homes all over these mourning States, why,
if we are creatures of sympathy or sensibility at all,
is it not enough to restrain this eager chase for osten
tatious riches ? "
Then follows, in scornful words of indignation, but
in sorrow and in sadness, an arraignment of that state
of society, due to the rapid rise of fortunes; "an
inflated estimate of material things, with the absorbing
and heated pursuit of wealth. What wonder if some
whispers of discontent creep through the encamp-
258 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
raents of the army and the cabins of the navy ? From
the capital, through all our large cities and seats of
commerce, out to the remotest hamlets, and from
rulers in the highest stations to subjects in the mean
est, men are calculating the profits of their oppor
tunity. Making all allowance for benevolent allevia
tions of the sufferings of soldiers, these facts yet remain
undisputed. Religious humility and that reverence
which the Nation s God designs by His discipline, and
demands in His Word, are not generally produced. We
are not repentant. We are not sobered. We are not on
our knees. We are not a people bringing forth fruits
meet for repentance." In conclusion, the better way
pointed out through the text, "Humble yourselves
therefore under the mighty hand of God," was plainly
enforced; " the patriotism of the true citizen, which, by
daily speech, by gifts, by sacrifices would strengthen
the impending movements of the forces; with an
increase of sympathy which binds classes more closely
together, an abatement of outward extravagance, more
retirement, more recollections, redoubled devotion
to the offices of worship and charity.
"The nature of a devout and humble mind must
have changed very much since the Scriptures were
written, if, in looking forward to the season of blood
and sorrow that is before us, really good men do not
feel it to be safer and wiser to be wherever prayer is
wont to be made, in Church or in Chapel, on hallowed
days or any days, than in pleasure parties, or convivial
clubs, or an unremitted application to the world s busi
ness. Whatever else we do for the torn and bleeding
country, we must pray for it. Whatever else we leave
undone, we must urge our petitions to the God of for-
THE KING S MESSENGER 2.39
giveness, the God of concord and unity, and the God of
victory for it. However else we fail, we shall never
really fail in intercessions for the right and for the
defenders of it, for magistrates and chiefs, and for all
the people, before Him who heareth prayer, and who
made Israel to prevail while the commander s arms
were lifted up in supplication."
A few weeks later the preacher wrote to Hadley :
BOSTON, June 7, 1864.
The world of nature is full of gracious beauty, and
the season must be favorable to the setting and growth
of grass. But the human world is full of mourning,
lamentation, and woe. The battle-field and disease
together make great havoc.
In his own family Dr. Huntington had no losses
during the Civil War, although nephews and other
kinsmen served honorably in the field, and one suf
fered the horrors of a southern prison ; but as pastor of
a large flock he was called upon to minister consola
tion to aching and bereaved hearts. Splendid young
men, parishioners and communicants, perished in
battle or died in the hospitals; and mourners multi
plied as the struggle drew to an end. Spoken and
written words of sympathy, visits to the afflicted, last
services to the departed, formed no small part of his
labors as a pastor during those dark months. It was
at such times that his rare power of sympathy, and the
sustaining strength which his own spiritual experience
afforded to those who came to him for counsel and
courage, were deeply felt. Prayers, fervent and scrip
tural, such as in the earlier clays of his ministry helped
260 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
to lift the hearts of his congregation to the throne
above, were poured out in private devotions with the
sick, with the anxious and heavy-hearted who turned
to him in trouble. Among other forms of strength and
refreshment brought to such sorrowing souls he was
a strong believer in what he pronounced "the high
office of sacred poetry." In the Introduction to "Lyra
Domestica," the title of a collection which he made
himself, 1 he says of the early German hymn writers:
" They abound in those clear annunciations of spiritual
truth which a genuine experience of divine realities
always readily recognizes as the result of a similar
experience in another. They reach down into solemn
depths of sorrow and up into holy heights of joy; but
they do both with an unbroken tranquillity of spirit
which makes us feel that the joy is chastened and the
sorrow not comfortless." Of the concluding poems in
this volume, from different sources, the editor says:
" They are sublime confessions of Christ before men,
preaching his gospel, commending his sacraments,
calling to his baptism, celebrating his Eucharist,
glorifying his Nativity, Easter, and Pentecost, honor
ing the noble army of his Martyrs, and breathing
down the hallowed fire of their piety and prayers
through worshiping generations."
In a Preface to " Hymns and Meditations," by Miss
A. L. Waring, in 1863, he expresses his own poetical
taste and discrimination. " The ideas of a Christian
life which are wrought into the poetry are always both
strong and tender, vigorous and gentle, brave and
trustful. We find few traces of that refined religious
selfishness on the one hand and that feeble sentimen-
1 Lyra Domestica : with additional poems, 1866.
THE KING S MESSENGER 261
talism on the other which vitiate so much of the pious
literature, and especially the metrical pious literature
of modern times. A state of comfortable pietistic com
placency is not here put instead of a self-renouncing
submission to the perfect will of God, nor does the
call to action ring out with less clearness and power
because we see laid open before us the divine depths
of a complete and serene communion with the in
dwelling Christ."
Two years later poems, "fugitive and permanent,
old and new, near and distant, open and obscure,"
were gathered together in a volume called "Elim, or
Hymns of Holy Refreshment," with this motto : " And
they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water,
and threescore and ten palm trees, and encamped
there."
Dr. Muhlenberg wrote of this collection, "How
did you get together so many beautiful hymns ? "
Among the authors were some little known in
America at that time. Dr. Huntington especially
delighted in the noble verse of C. F. and of William
Alexander. The latter, then Dean of Emly, and later
Archbishop of Armagh, said in a letter acknowledging
the receipt of "Elim:"-
"I am glad that my wife and I occupy a niche in
your volume, and hope that we may be liked by our
cousins over the sea. My wife has written much, and
she has won her way to a real position, I think, among
living poets. I have written but little, scattered, vaga
bond, unfinished pieces. I was at Oxford, where I have
obtained poetical prizes. The muses demand a life;
and I have only had half hours to give them." That
Mrs. Alexander s claim to recognition was genuine is
262 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
proved by the fact that in our present " Church
Hymnal" there are no less than twelve hymns of her
composition.
Notwithstanding his strong love of poetry, a taste
which belonged more to his own generation than to
the present, Frederic Huntington gave little to the
world. He wrote, while a Unitarian preacher, some
hymns for special occasions, with " A Supplication, "
of twelve or more stanzas, expressing deep spiritual
communing; and a few touching lines in old age. The
following estimate is both true and appreciative :
"Though he lived almost an ascetic life, so far as
personal indulgence went, his sense of the beautiful,
whether in nature or in art, was of the keenest. Es
pecially was his critical judgment of value in matters
of style. Perhaps no American writer ever had so full
a command of devotional English as he. His hold
upon the adjectival resources of the language rivaled
Jeremy Taylor s. His imagination played around a
sacred subject like a flame, lighting up whole territories
of contiguous truth. Save for a few hymns written in
early life, he adventured little in the way of original
verse, but there was no lack in him of the vision
and the faculty divine, the soul of the poet shone ever
through the mantle of the prophet and through the
fair linen of the priest.
" Of the collections of religious poetry which he
edited, none, I think, was so markedly illustrative of
his personality as the volume entitled Elim, or Hymns
of Holy Refreshment. Nowhere else does the large
catholicity of his spiritual nature, his ability to sympa
thize, alike with the catholic and with the individual
istic conception of Christian truth, more distinctly
THE KING S MESSENGER 263
reveal itself. There is a mysticism that is sacramental,
and there is a mysticism that is non-sacramental,
nay, almost anti-sacramental, Huntington did justice
to both. Probably he would have made but an indif
ferent professor of systematic divinity, but that is
because he was so well versed in the divinity which
outlives all the systems, the simple divinity which
finds centre and pivot in the person of our Lord Jesus
Christ." 1
It has been already remarked that there was
hardly any time when the earnest preacher did not
express himself from the editorial chair as well as
from the pulpit. In 1861 he took charge of the " Church
Monthly, " in conjunction with Dr. George M. Randall,
in the interest of the extension of the Church in Massa
chusetts. In order to bring the principles of the faith,
its doctrines, and historical defenses within the reach
of the uninstructed, the use of a column was obtained
in a daily newspaper, the "Boston Traveller." The
introductory letter, signed F. D. Huntington, explicitly
set forth that it was not intended for controversy,
partisan strife, or personalities. " We shall not conceal
our purpose to recommend, so far as we fairly can, the
scriptural standards, orderly ways, primitive discipline,
and catholic spirit of this apostolic communion, be
lieving as we heartily do that no greater blessing can
be offered to our fellow men, to their families and their
children." When the articles closed, at the end of the
year 1865, after nearly the whole round of the Chris
tian year, it was stated that, " We have been able to
continue much longer than we had any reason to
1 Memorial Sermon : " A Good Shepherd," Rev. William R. Hunt
ington, D. D.
264 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
expect would be possible. For the most part the Chris
tian bodies around us in this country, under a benign
and patient Providence, are working out their experi
ments with religious sincerity. We are more than
content that the truths of our fold have a fair and equal
opportunity for development among them. We have
no right to demand recognition for them except as they
furnish a superior and scriptural power in the great
conflict of the age, between faith and an unbelieving
self-will; except as they tend to mould the characters,
manners, homes, and social institutions of men into
righteous, noble, and reverential forms; except as
they offer Christianity to the understanding and
affections of the people as a commanding, genial, and
beautiful reality : even the power of God and the
wisdom of God unto their salvation."
Another branch of church teaching through the
press was the publication of a number of tracts on
different subjects. One of these was delivered in the
series of "Price Lectures," " The Roman Catholic
Principle." "Two Ways in Religion" contrasted " in
a most admirable manner, and without offensive epi
thets or accusations, the Unitarian and Trinitarian
systems." An address before the Diocesan Board of
Missions claims " Massachusetts as a Field for Church
Missions." The principle of the tithe is treated in the
pamphlet entitled " Systematic Offerings for Christ," a
presentation of the Christian duty to lay aside each
week a fixed sum for the support of the Lord s house
and the extension of Christ s Kingdom, which might
well be taken to heart by thousands of careless or unin-
structed communicants at the present day. Among
other published addresses was " A Plea for an Open
THE KING S MESSENGER 265
Church," which resulted in an organization to pro
mote the establishment of free churches, at a period
when to sell pews or rent sittings was a fixed custom
with the wardens and vestries of a parish.
Rt. Rev. Carlton Chase, Bishop of New Hampshire,
wrote to him, June 13, 1863 : " It is a beautiful quality
of your mind that you see every nail s head and if it
needs striking, you strike it and you miss it not. I
have seen two or three of your things lately, which I
admired exceedingly. Nobody surpasses you in the
analysis of character and truth. At brushing away
mists you have a wonderful skill. I have often recom
mended The Rock of Ages to persons who I thought
would admire the beautiful preface, if they did not
yield to the force of the book.
" May you live long, my dear brother, to bless the
Church and the world with the precious fruits of your
studies. I do not see how you find time to prepare for
so many special calls."
One of the most important treatises published by
Dr. Huntington, after he left the Unitarian body and
became a priest of the Church, was the Introduction
to an American edition of an English theological pub
lication: "The Rock of Ages, or Scripture Testimony
to the One Eternal Godhead, " by Rev. Edward Henry
Bickersteth. It is impossible in so short a space to
give sufficient extracts from what was in fact Dr.
Huntington s last word on the subject of his change
of belief, to those who had assailed him for it. The
whole argument which he thus commends, is an appeal
to "the one Book," the texts classified and carefully
collated, so as to present the weight of evidence as sim
ply and directly as possible. The fact that its author
266 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
passed from under the cloud of intellectual doubt into
the acceptance of Catholic truth through the devout
study of God s word made the work especially valuable
to one who had himself experienced uncertainty and
spiritual distress. He knew, no man better, the agonies
of the New England conscience over definitions of
dogma as well as the joy received through divine
illumination, and it was from deep conviction that he
wrote in the opening sentence of the Introduction, " The
doctrine of the Trinity, offered to man as a benignant
revelation of practical truth, ought always to be
handled in a spirit of Christian tenderness." The last
volume of sermons he ever published opened with a
discourse entitled "The Trinity a Practical Truth,"
which closes with a solemn appeal : " Has this wonder
ful and blessed doctrine entered in, to bear its gracious
fruit in your own weak and tempted lives? Do you
personally, laying aside your own pride, humbly
repenting of your sin, believe in God, as they must
believe who are to live and not die?
" Daily having confessed Him, are you proceeding in
a godly life more and more, growing into a higher sanc-
tification of every power and affection of your soul ?
" Only he who so belie veth, saith your God, is
saved." 1
In a letter on his birthday, May 28, 1867, Dr. Hunt-
ington wrote: "Forty-eight! How much there seems
yet to be done! How little accomplished! There are
those thirteen years of a ministry, not exactly of Uni-
tarianism, to be sure, but in the Unitarian denomina
tional interest. How shall I get them back ? Alas, only
by trying to prevent others from a like mistake."
1 Christ in the Christian Year : Trinity to Advent.
THE KING S MESSENGER 267
In the eight years passed as a presbyter, Frederic
Huntington s public services were rendered almost
entirely to his own diocese. In the meantime, however,
his reputation increased and his gifts and influence
became more widely known. When the death of the
Right Reverend George Burgess left the Church in the
state of Maine without a spiritual head, the choice of
the Convention fell upon Dr. Huntington. The deci
sion which led to his declining the Episcopal office at
that time, was made, as he stated to the standing com
mittee, on broad grounds, the comparative claims of
the fields of labor. The usefulness, abundance of
resources, and grave responsibilities of his position
in Massachusetts could not be lightly estimated, and
the voice of the Church concurred in his choice.
The only General Convention of the Episcopal
Church which he attended as a member of the House of
Deputies, was that held in New York, in 1868. He took
part with deep interest in all the proceedings, but it
was not his temperament to feel tolerant toward exces
sive debate. A later newspaper communication, signed
"Connecticut River," expresses something of this
impatience, and he makes there a suggestion that each
deputy, " before he introduces any new matter for
consideration, ask himself at least five times, and per
haps some judicious friend once, whether it is required
by the religious interests of the Church;" and that
"when it is pretty evident to common sense how a
question is to be decided, those of a contrary mind
shall generally give over the forensic part of the fight."
He himself gave unremitting attention to the work
in committees, which he believed to be important in
saving valuable time to the House.
268 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
Writing to his sister, Nov. 3, 1868, he said: "Con
trary to many timid apprehensions and some un
friendly prognostications, there was a remarkable
harmony from first to last. No ill-feeling, no bad
temper, no faction, no strict party vote on any ques
tion. Even the most critical topics were discussed and
disposed of with entire courtesy and kindness, some
times with playfulness, generally with seriousness and
dignity. When the regular business was sometimes
interrupted for a brief session of silent or spoken
prayer, on some peculiarly weighty subject matter,
pending the deliberations, like the choice of a Mis
sionary Bishop, the effect was very solemn indeed.
Many people outside are disappointed at reading the
reports, because they are so much taken up with mat
ters of law and order. That is doubtless one of the
characteristics of our Church. But the fact is that the
real moral and religious interest of the occasion is not
shown at all in the reports of the secular papers, be
cause it centres in the great evening meetings, when
the manifold and extensive missionary operations of
the Body are considered.
" I suppose you have seen the account in the Spirit
of Missions, of the grand gathering at the Academy
of Music. I have hardly ever been more awed than
when four thousand persons repeated the Apostles
creed, with a voice like the sound of many waters ; and
at the name of Jesus the whole vast assembly bowed
low, as if a wave of the Spirit swept over them, bending
every head. It was a great pleasure to me to become
acquainted with many Churchmen, Bishops, and
others, from distant parts of the country, those, from
the South not having been North for many years."
THE KING S MESSENGER 269
In 1869 the rector of Emmanuel Church was still in
the prime of life, reaching in that year the age of fifty.
He occupied a position conspicuous for public useful
ness, he was honored by the community in which he
lived, beloved by his parish, with a large flock listening
to his words and dependent upon him for instruction,
guidance, and sympathy. The Church in Massa
chusetts was rapidly extending its field of influence,
and the promise of his future labors in the diocese were
such as to satisfy any man s ambition. The weight
which pressed upon him most heavily, as a burden he
felt unequal at times to bear, was that of so presenting
the Word of God, in season and out of season, as to win
hearts to Christ and to keep alive their spiritual conse
cration. In his sermon entitled "Christian Loneliness," 3
the preacher undoubtedly drew from passages in his
own life, which occurred not only when he struggled
with the uncertainties of religious belief, but in con
nection with the sacred calling of a shepherd of souls.
With his lofty conception of what preaching should be,
he was more and more oppressed with the difficulty of
gaining time for adequate preparation. It became a
necessity for the busy pastor either to do his writing
at midnight or to betake himself to another house
where he could be undisturbed. These inconveniences,
however, were of no account, compared with his dis
satisfaction over the result. The greater his facility
of composition, after the practice of years, the more
abhorrent it seemed to his sensitive conscience to
produce a sermon which lacked spontaneity and the
inward inspiration. No task, all his life through, was
so delightful as to employ his intellectual gifts upon a
1 Christian Believing and Living.
270 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
subject in which his mind was deeply engaged. But
it was proportionately difficult to feel that he could
always do justice to his audience in the composition
of two, or even one new discourse a week. The reality
of this state of mind, familiar to earnest natures, but
at this time in him almost overpowering, may be seen
from a letter written just before his son was admitted
to the diaconate.
BOSTON, March 23, 1868.
MY DEAR GEORGE : We shall expect to see you
at the end of the week. As you will naturally see, the
solemnity and sacredness of this period of your life
are felt by me as well as by you. Twenty-six years of
service in the ministry have not made it look common
place, or easy, or otherwise than awful. The attrac
tions, privileges, blessings, of the office are real, but
they do not lighten the weight of accountability; no
thing can. I believe you are prepared for the work, so
far as preparation can go before the work itself. But
it is a school, a discipline, a tentative, unmastered busi
ness all through, from the beginning to the end. Who
ever does not expect to learn only from hour to hour,
or God s heavenly grace in it, and to find it a path of
incessant humiliations, had better forsake it early. I
think I can truly say that the agony, the crucifixion
of hope and pride and ambition, that I habitually
suffer, Sunday nights, would long ago have driven me
from any other calling. The Bible, the promises, prayer,
the love of the Church, the loyalty to Christ, these are
the stay and staff.
After a season of incessant labor there was great
refreshment in a visit to the farm. From thence, on a
THE KING S MESSENGER 271
short spring vacation, he wrote to his two little girls at
home.
HADLEY,
DEAR OLD HADLEY, May 11, 1868.
DEAR RUTH AND MARY : After what I wrote
Jamie about Lock you will be glad to hear that he has
been found. He and Ponto have had a good time all
day. The squirrels have been very troublesome, eating
up and carrying off corn; and I have shot two. One
of them the white kitten took for her portion ; the other,
Ponto buried, for future use I suppose, in the garden,
in one of the flower-beds, not yours though. If you
plant squirrels, what will come up ? I don t know ;
hogs, perhaps. The carpenter has been here and we
have been building a new arbor. This morning we
got up before five o clock and liked it so well that we
mean to do it again ; it gives such a long day for the
work.
Cousin Charlotte has bought a new carpet for her
parlor and invited some of the North Hadley people
to come to-morrow afternoon and help her make it up,
and then take tea with her. It seems to be a way they
have here. Your Aunt Bethia is going, and I am
expected to go to the tea and meet Mr. Beaman.
We saw in Hadley Street the largest flock of birds
swallows that I ever saw anywhere. There must
have been several thousands. This evening there are
bonfires in the fields, and they are very beautiful.
Now I am going to read the paper your mother
sent me. Give my love to her, and to Arria and
Jamie.
Your ever affectionate father,
F. D. H.
272 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
In August, 1868, Dr. Huntington wrote to a pa
rishioner who had begged him to find an opening in
Massachusetts for a certain presbyter, of whom she
had formed rather an undue estimate:
"If B. is doing work where he is, by all means let
him stay there. He evidently thinks Romanism and
modern Protestantism are the only Christianity there
ever was in the world : does n t remember that the
Kingdom of God stood some six hundred years before
either of them; takes St. Paul s mention of his pecul
iar and individual vocation to preach as upsetting the
practice and doctrine of the original Twelve, and even
the Saviour s own institution and commission; con
founds the tolerance of continental Protestants (who
were orderly but not regular) temporarily with the
radicalism of these days ; puts Whately above the
whole line of Anglican Divines and Early Fathers,
overlooks all that the N. T. insists upon as the Gospel
of the Kingdom ; fails to see that exchanges be
tween denominations are always inconsistencies (for
if there is a real difference in sacred things, enough
to base a separate denomination upon, how can it be
right to ignore it in the public instruction ?), and would
make a perfect farce of the Church s ordaining a Con
gregational Minister, if he may let a Congregational
Minister into his pulpit the next week; and does not
consider that the moment you open the doors for
altering the Prayer-book you are quite as likely to put
Ritualism into it as Puritanism.
" The summer hastens fast. Monday next I go to
Boston, and so work begins.
" Brooks at Trinity will be a great accession to our
cause in Boston."
THE KING S MESSENGER 273
It was at the General Convention in 1868 that a
favorable report was made on the creation of three
new dioceses within the state of New York. Not
many weeks after, these jurisdictions elected their
respective heads. At the Albany Convention Dr.
Huntington was a strong candidate ; a little later the
first Convention of Central New York elected Dr.
Abram Littlejohn, who became the choice for Bishop
of Long Island, the following week, and accepted that
invitation. At a second election, held in Syracuse,
January 10, 1869, Frederic Dan Huntiugton was chosen
Bishop of Central New York.
This new call to the Episcopate came to him with a
far more compelling force than the preceding. One
element in a change of feeling was the altered aspect
of parochial activity. The prosperity of Emmanuel
Church seemed assured, under the divine blessing.
Its congregation, zealous in good works and united in
spirit, had completed its Mission Church, and was
likely to enlarge still further in that direction. Mean
time, although Dr. Huntington was doing in Massa
chusetts, as openly conceded, much of a bishop s work,
this could not fail to be under increasing disadvantages.
To the head of a new diocese, in the founding of its
institutions, and the extension of its missionary work,
there opened a field, made attractive by its harmony,
its sympathy between clergy and laity, and its history
under the leadership of Hobart and De Lancey. The
Bishop of Western New York, from whose oversight
the recently united parishes were removed, was a
warm personal friend, eager to welcome a brother
with every expression of affection and good- will.
Frederic Huntington was not one to meet so august
274 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
a call without careful consideration. He was as deeply
impressed with a sense of his own unworthiness for the
higher office as of his insufficiency to reach the stand
ard he had set for himself as parish preacher. His
was not a nature to rush lightly into any new path
opening before him, or to set a value on the worldly
inducements of honor and preferment. It was the
large interests involved and the high ends in view
which induced his acceptance. In a spirit of humility,
but one of hopefulness and anticipation, he sent to the
standing committee of the diocese of Central New
York, on the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul,
a letter signifying his acceptance, subject to ecclesi
astical concurrence.
BOSTON, Jan. 19, 69.
To A. J. P.
You will be interested, and the others, 1 to know that
I shall have an Indian Mission in my Diocese, on the
Onondaga Reservation.
Yesterday was a terrible day. I sent in my letter of
resignation, and the remonstrances and persuasions
and offers of every kind of pecuniary and other induce
ments to stay here were hard to bear. They break
sleep and distress the spirit. It touches me that you are
so merciful.
Ever affectionately,
F. D. H.
BOSTON, Feb. 6, 1869.
To A. L. P.
We are walking, of course, among sad faces and
weeping eyes, and pleading remonstrances. Only one
1 The Dakota League.
THE KING S MESSENGER 275
comforter can turn the valley of Baca into a well of
spiritual refreshment, and through this " Achor " open
"a Door of Hope." The roots that have been striking
nearly thirty years in one spot are all to be torn up.
This is the third time such a wrench has come; but
never before have we been dislodged from this com
munity. I trust my decision of the question is right.
The nature of the office, its sacred and solemn demands
and peculiar opportunities, the fine Missionary field
in the Diocese, the unity of feeling and action among
the Clergy, the strength and wealth of my Parish here,
my own need of change of work to save health and
prolong life, are among the chief reasons. It is a com
fort to find that the wise and good men of the Church,
standing aloof from either local interest, the Bishops
and others, uniformly bid me go. May Christ s strength
only be made perfect in my weakness, and may the
Church be served and advanced!
Through Lent I want to give the dear flock here
everything I can. Bishop Smith writes that he should
prefer to have the Consecration in Boston, which, of
course suits us all.
Among the friends in New England who were dis
appointed, his brethren in the diocese gave expression
to their sense of loss and of sincere regret. Although
an invitation to a " Clerical breakfast," when privately
suggested, was declined, from a characteristic distaste
for functions and laudations, the letters of sympathy
received at that time were preserved with deep appre
ciation. In resolutions sent by the annual Convocation,
"the growth and prosperity of the Church in Massa
chusetts during the preceding years" were attributed
276 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
" in a great degree to the blessing of God upon your
faithful and loving labors." Most of the Church news
papers commended the elevation to the Episcopate
of one eminently fitted for the office. To his personal
characteristics, private correspondence and the press
of that period bear interesting testimony.
A Boston contributor to a Chicago weekly calls him
"a perfect steam-engine in his untiring and amazing
zeal." A brother clergyman expresses his admiration
for one who, having a wealthy, fashionable metropolitan
parish, still retained and kept ever aglow a " Missionary
heart " to care for and go after the poor and dispersed.
An editorial speaks of " the warm-hearted sympathy
with every effort to advance the kingdom of Christ or
to alleviate the sufferings of humanity, his accessi
bility to every claim upon his attention, his unwearied
patience, kindliness, and gentleness of manners." One
of the leading bishops of that time, writing of his
thanksgiving over the choice to the sacred office of
one whom he esteemed and valued, continues, in a
strain more personal and peculiarly appropriate:
" While for the Church of God I rejoice, for yourself I
can only express deep sympathy. The experience of
over seven years in the Episcopate, and that, too,
under the most favorable circumstances, shows that
it is a position of unusual care, great self-sacrifice,
constant perplexity and annoyances. To one who has
nestled closely to the heart of an attached congrega
tion, and been able to feel under his head the pulsa
tions of their love, the isolation of official dignity and
the complete divorce from all parochial ties, is felt
with fearful power and pain. No honors given to the
Bishop are as sweet as the warm love given to the
THE KING S MESSENGER 277
Pastor; and you will often yearn for the glowing
affection and kindling sympathies produced by parish
intimacies, not found in the higher office to which you
are called." These words from the Bishop of Pennsyl
vania 1 were prophetic to him whom he addressed, of
many future pangs of separation from the generous
and devoted flock he was leaving and of the immedi
ate pains of parting. They are thus expressed in the
farewell sermon at the conclusion of eight years of
ministry :
" Ever since I had notice, through the voice of the
Church, that the Master had another post for me, and
especially during all this solemn leave-taking Lent,
when I have occasionally turned my thoughts from the
absorbing occupations here to the untried office as
signed me, I have wondered how I could spare all the
intimate and tender attachments which are possible
to a Minister and his family only in pastoral relations.
After the air has been so warmed for us, all our lives,
by affections strengthening every day, our hearts will
be likely to find almost any other climate less genial
and less comforting.
" We have endeavored to subordinate what is per
sonal to the claims of the Kingdom of God. Less
worthy influences may have stolen in unawares; and
at any rate I have no idea of setting up a claim for the
merits of a great sacrifice. I only ask that you will
hold in occasional recollection my dependence on the
Spirit of God, my inexperience in the way I am to take,
and my need to be kept, through the power of your
Christian intercessions, a wakeful watchman, a wise
builder, a diligent Missionary, a patient and impartial
1 Rt. Rev. William Bacon Stevens.
278 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
pastor of a large and vigorous Flock, led hitherto by
Master-shepherds .
Associations and affections, so precious and so
comforting, are not of the earth alone. The last Christ
mas of his life, Bishop Huntington wrote to a former
parishioner by whom the beautiful Memorial has been
erected in Emmanuel Church to its first rector :
" No member of the dear old Flock is more mindful,
I believe, than you are of those happy days when you
and your father used to sit before me, and close to me,
in Emmanuel. Yes, Happy Days they were, and all
days since have been better for them."
CHAPTER IX
ENTRANCE ON THE EPISCOPATE
" Then said he : I am the guide of those pilgrims that are going to
the Celestial country."
THE diocese of Central New York, organized in
Convention Nov. 10, 1868, was set apart from that of
Western New York, and included fourteen counties
in the centre of the great commonwealth, numbering
within its jurisdiction one hundred and six parishes
and missions, and one hundred and seventeen clergy.
Of the six large seats of population the choice of a
See City fell naturally between Utica and Syracuse,
although cordial overtures looking towards the bishop s
residence were made from several other cities. Reasons
laid before him decided the future diocesan to select
Syracuse; one strong inducement, in view of his rela
tions to the whole flock under his care, being the con
venient railroad facilities in all directions. The region,
which he soon rapidly traversed from end to end, is
one of unusual loveliness, fertility, and agricultural
resources, with trade and manufacturing interests
which have steadily increased. Its most commanding
educational institution is Cornell University, but it
includes Syracuse and Colgate Universities and Ham
ilton College. All through the rich farming country
are quiet villages, the abode of a refined and stable
280 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
population, the older communities to be found in the
hill towns, where churches, courthouses, and acad
emies were erected in the early days. The picturesque
lakes, the smiling valleys, the grand stretches of upland
looking towards the wilderness, combine advantages
of climate and scenery unsurpassed in our northern
latitudes.
The salt springs hi Syracuse early attracted a com
pany of settlers who developed these natural resources
and laid the foundations of a prosperous city, its op
portunities for trade and manufacture being still
further increased by the opening of the Erie Canal.
From the beginning, the active spirit of the great West
pervaded this business centre, while Utica, only sixty
miles nearer Albany, retained the conservative char
acter of that section of the state.
The consecration of Frederic Dan Huntington to
the Episcopate took place in Emmanuel Church, Bos
ton, on April 8, 1869. Rt. Rev. Benjamin B. Smith, of
Kentucky, then the presiding bishop, was the conse-
crator and Rt. Rev. Arthur Cleveland Coxe, Bishop of
Western New York, the preacher. The occasion was
one of much interest; impressive in the beauty of the
service and the deep sympathy manifested by those
present. On the following day the newly-made prelate
ordained his eldest son, George Putnam Huntington,
to the priesthood, and, after holding a confirmation for
his parishioners at Emmanuel, set forth across the
Hudson for his new field of labor.
His first service was held in Grace Church, Utica,
where, among the floral decorations, the text, " My grace
is sufficient for thee," impressed the new chief pastor
by its touching significance. Following directly were
ENTRANCE ON THE EPISCOPATE 281
confirmations in New Hartford, Auburn, in the three
parishes in Syracuse, and the two in Oswego. From
the latter place the rector of Christ Church had writ
ten, early in March, concerning the coming visita
tion :
We are counting the days, and are very much like
children at school looking forward to the pleasure of
home with their father. May God give to us all his
blessing is the prayer of
Yours very truly,
AMOS B. BEACH.
In January, 1869, Rev. Joseph M. Clarke, later one
of the presbyters attending Bishop Huntington at his
consecration, sent him a long and confidential com
munication.
After expressing his own satisfaction and that of
his parishioners at the choice of their spiritual over
seer, he says : " I well remember my own delight when
I first saw that the former well-known Chaplain of
Harvard College had been confirmed in the American
Catholic Church. A member of my parish here gave
me the two published volumes of your sermons, and I
have made use of them and of the Rock of Ages in
winning to the faith, and confirming in it, those who
have been under alien influences.
" If you come to reside in Syracuse, as I trust you
will, you will find the atmosphere here, I think, not so
very different from that of Boston. We are the head
quarters of the is-ms for Western New York. Our city
being about the geographical centre of the state as
well as the diocese, progressives, generally, as well as
282 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
the politicians, hold their conventions here ; and there is
sufficient of each of the elements to welcome them and
make them feel at home. In the midst of all, the great
Conservative power here, as elsewhere, is the Church.
St. Paul s parish has four hundred communicants ; my
own, which, as well as Trinity, is a free church parish,
started in 1848, has three hundred.
"The Church is growing very rapidly, and we are
looking forward to doing much work in city missions,
in parish schools, and in charitable institutions, in
which it will be the greatest possible help if we can
have the bishop s residence and influence here. Syra
cuse, too, is finely fitted to be a centre of influence in
evangelizing the region around it. The Church has
suffered much in Central New York by the emigration
westward. There are many feeble parishes, and many
more stations where there are a few scattered sheep
that ought to be looked up by some Evangelist of
Christ."
From St. Paul s rectory, April 23, 1869, Bishop
Huntington wrote to his family in Boston :
" It is six o clock and the full sunlight is pouring in
at the doors of the study of Mr. Hills where I am writ
ing. Hitherto the Lord hath helped me. With many
hours of depression and great bodily weariness, I get
through each day without sinking down. Monday I
came here and held service, and confirmed at Trinity
in the evening. With a very short night I started off
Tuesday morning for Oswego, so as to breakfast with
Dr. Beach. This was my hardest day. It was oppres
sively hot, and all the courage and strength in me
seemed to be gone. At the forenoon service, though the
Church was full, I could not rouse myself to any
ENTRANCE ON THE EPISCOPATE 283
interest or vigor; the words seemed to fall flat. A
despairing conviction took hold of me, which I have
felt before, that all my sermons would be useless to
me, and that I could never meet the expectations of
the people in the preaching part of my work. Through
most of the day the agony was fearful. After dinner
the people began to pour into the house to see me.
Two or three times I went upstairs utterly exhausted ;
but each time some important body or other called
and must be seen. About six o clock a pouring shower
came up from the lake, and I went to my room and fell
into a deep sleep for half an hour. In the evening I got
through better, confirming fifty-two at the Church of
the Evangelists.
" The Oswego people talked a great deal about the
Fishers, 1 and were as kind as possible. Next morning
I came back to Syracuse. The evening service at St.
Paul s went off finely, so did that of the Convocation
yesterday. It looks oddly to see a church full of men and
women in the middle of a week-day forenoon. It makes
me realize the greatness and solemnity of my position
and responsibility. I can hardly describe my feelings
as I stand surrounded by twenty or thirty of the Clergy
all looking to me for direction in every particular. It is
impossible for me to doubt that they are really and
heartily satisfied with their Bishop. You will not sup
pose that I am elated or carried away by the demon
strations; on the contrary, I am often sad and bitterly
self-distrustful in the midst of them. But you may find
a momentary gratification in knowing the fact that a
more cordial and general expression of personal satis-
1 Bishop Huntington s eldest sister, Eizabeth, married George
Fisher, of Oswego, which was their residence for many years.
284 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
faction and favor could hardly be conceived than I
meet everywhere, in churches, dwelling-houses, streets,
cars, and newspapers. The whole people take pride in
doing me honor. You would be amused at some of
the forms that their pleasure assumes. One Auburn
man objected to my calling on Secretary Seward before
he called on me, for, says he, The Bishop s smarter
than Seward any day. The business men say the
Bishop is practical, and the women have various ways
of making it appear that they like his looks, and the
little girls take hold of his hands and say that they
are glad he is going to live where they can see him in
the street. The old church people pay him their best
compliment when they say his ways and manners
remind them of Bishop De Lancey, and the old Demo
crats when they observe that he looks like Governor
Seymour. How thankful I shall be if God grants me
the blessing of reunion to you all, dear wife and chil
dren. It is but a dreary business without you; and as
to hurry and labor, I have never, in all my busiest and
hardest Lent work of the parish, seen anything so
fatiguing. But I have had no headache at all. I gener
ally sleep until five or six o clock, and the last two days
have been fresher than before."
To his youngest son, Jamie, he wrote : " You would
have been impressed very deeply to see the Onondagas
come up to the chancel yesterday. There were thirteen
of them, mostly men, but some women with red and
green shawls over their heads, some old and some
young, but all with the sad, solemn look and movement
characteristic of their doomed race. There were some
magnificent figures and gray heads among them.
They all sat near the door, waited till the rest of the
ENTRANCE ON THE EPISCOPATE 285
congregation had partaken, and then in single file
( Indian file, we used to say) they moved up the aisle
and knelt down to receive the sacrament. The Saviour
died for them as much as for us. The Church only
honors Him and herself in welcoming them. I have
hardly ever felt more moved than at this touching sight.
A kind of awe seemed to fall upon all our hearts, and
there was a silence that could be felt. They remained
after the service, and I shook hands with each one.
They looked intently at me with their piercing eyes,
but said little. They have a name for me, I am told,
and shall try to find it out. 1
" You will find beautiful walks around the city hil
locks. The street that bears your name is one of the
handsomest I have seen anywhere. Dr. Wilbur has
brought me some beautiful hepaticas."
SKANEATELES, June 18, 69.
To THE SAME.
My dear Boy : You will remember this as the place
of beauty, lying seventeen miles southwest of Syra
cuse, which we were to have for our rural retirement,
and to which you were sometimes to walk of a Satur
day ? Well, I drove over the road yesterday with a fine
pair of sorrel horses fresh from the stable, and a light
open barouche, having for companions a former
Governor who lives here, and two doctors of divinity
(Clarke of Syracuse and Wilson of the Cornell Univer
sity), and a splendid ride it was, along noble slopes,
covered with thriving farms. But, although you have
1 This note was left among Bishop Huntington s papers : " Your
Onondaga name is Ka-hen-do-wah-nen. A very large field, with an
indirect reference to the harvest."
" W. M. BEAUCHAMP."
286 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
got a pretty good pair of legs and know how to use
them, I think you would find them a little tired at the
end of the walk. The Village nestles in a Valley, on a
hillside, at the end of the lovely lake, tho the whole
region is high and open to the light. As we drove in just
before sunset nothing could be more perfect in ap
pearance. The centre of the lake, surrounded by
graceful shores, partly wooded and partly dotted with
settlements, was still, and reflected the sunlight in
many brilliant and more delicate colors. The little
boats lay on the water, with their sharp outlines, and
here and there a man was pulling across with his oars.
Then as we walked home from the little Church down
by the water-side, at ten o clock, after a very animating
service, the moon was bright, and we had a scene of
another kind, but equally picturesque.
I wish you could have been at the Convention, the
proceedings were so orderly, the worship so grand,
the services so earnest and everything so satisfactory.
Wednesday evening there was a superb reception
given in the Bishop s name at the residence of Roscoe
Conkling, Esq., U. S. Senator, where I stayed. In all
my ways thus far, going and coming, and prosecuting
my sacred work, I have been greatly prospered and
happy, as you have prayed that I might be.
Friday next, I hope to see the dear old home, and to
rest about ten days. On Monday, July 5th., I shall have
to start again and go Westward.
God bless and keep and comfort and strengthen you
for every duty. Give my love to all in the house. Ever
most affectionately,
Your father,
F. D. H.
ENTRANCE ON THE EPISCOPATE 287
The greater part of the first summer was passed by
the new Bishop in his diocese, with occasional short
vacations at the farm in Hadley. In September he took
his family to Syracuse to a home purchased for their
use by some prominent churchmen of that city, under
the lead of the Hon. George F. Comstock, who from
the first urged upon Bishop Huntington this choice
for his headquarters.
HADLEY, Sept. 29, 1869.
To A. J. P.
Right glad you made me by your pleasant words
from Shelburne. I should have been sorry to turn
away Westward without something coming from you.
This setting our faces away from Boston, instead of
towards it, this particular season when all the associa
tions are connected with a return to the familiar scenes
of labor and fellowship, makes the change in our life
more a reality, perhaps, than it has been before.
But we have no misgivings, I believe, about the
Divine call and the duty ; and that makes hard things
easier. All my life has been so abundant in blessing
and in the fulfillment of my plans and desires that it
would be mean and ungrateful in me to take up my
staff with complaining. I like the work of my office,
and it seems to me it may favor the growth of the many
neglected graces in my character. There seems to be
less temptation than before to put self uppermost : and
that is certainly one of our commonest and greatest
dangers.
It seems as if I were writing to all of you.
It will be a great relief to hear that there is a Rector
at " Emmanuel." The " Good Shepherd " must depend
288 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
much on that. We can keep saying, "The Lord
reigneth."
There seems to be no time for a league meeting that
I can attend at present. 1
Christ love you and keep you always.
Faithfully and affectionately,
F. D. H.
A few months later Bishop Huntington wrote to an
other of these personal friends at Emmanuel Church,
making his first appeal outside the diocese for aid in
the work among the Indian people of his own jurisdic
tion. Speaking of the Onondagas he says : " They have
hardly waited for us to seek after them: they have
come seeking us, asking for our instruction, our
worship, our faith, our blessing. They are ready to
receive the Gospel at our hands. They want, they say,
the Old Church that Bishop Hobart offered them.
One of the Chiefs said to me to-day in my study : Now
that you have come to live so near us we feel strong:
we believe you will take care of us. I must try to do
it.
" Our Missions are extending so rapidly that all the
funds of the Board are in demand for the regular Mis
sionary operations. I believe that some of my dear
parishioners of the former days will be glad to send
me something for this most interesting and touching
charity. May God bless all the givers."
From the response that came from this effort on the
part of women who undertook it, the church building
1 The Dakota League, started, and carried on at first largely, by
a band of women at Emmanuel Church, a number of whom were
together at Shelburne, N. H., when this letter was written.
ENTRANCE ON THE EPISCOPATE 289
on the Reservation was repaired, a chancel made, and
a bell hung in the belfry to summon the flock to wor
ship.
The house on James Street was large and attractive,
shaded by beautiful trees and situated in a delightful
neighborhood. The only children now left at home
were the daughters, a third having been born in Bos
ton. The elder son remained at Maiden, Massachu
setts, where in 1874, he married Lilly St. Agnan Bar
rett, continuing in charge of St. Paul s Parish, a post
of steady and arduous labor, for sixteen years. His
brother was absent from the family circle at school
and college until 1876, when he returned to Syracuse,
prepared for sacred Orders at St. Andrew s Divinity
School, and took charge of Calvary Mission. Much of
the correspondence which has been preserved is from
the Bishop to his sons, usually hasty epistles written
in the brief periods between constant journeys, but
giving glimpses of the interests which filled his life and
the strong ties of home and family.
In a birthday letter to one of his daughters, in 1870,
he says: "About the time this reaches you, you will
be passing another milestone. It adds to my home
sickness to be absent from the circle at the Feast. An
other year I don t believe we shall want to repeat the
experience of this ; and yet after all, I shall have to be
away from the family just so much. As we go on, we
all feel more and more, I suppose, that the great ob
jects life is given for are few and simple; and that
they lie largely outside of ourselves. The family, home-
affection, constantly becomes, with me, a larger and
larger share of the whole interest and comfort of ex
istence."
290 FREDERIC DAN HTJNTINGTON
>. SYRACUSE, Jan. 1, 1870.
To Miss BETHIA HUNTINGTON.
My dear Sister : That date I write for the first time
to you. It is before breakfast, and for a wonder the sky
looks as if the sun might smile upon us. I hope and
pray that with the New Year much gentle and com
forting light may shine upon you, upon your heart,
your home, your daily life, your inward communion
with God. The years come and go ; but not so our love
for each other, which is independent of the changes of
time; not so either our faith in Christ and His mercy
to us, which are above all accident and decay. He
is the same, yesterday, to-day, and forever, what
ever else fluctuates. In the Church we commemorate
to-day the beginning of his suffering in the flesh and
his obedience to the law, but He may be in all things
an example to us, even in subjection to outward ordi
nances. It is very impressive that the Lord of glory
should so respect and obey the regulations of a religious
economy which is adapted to human necessities and
mortal infirmities. How thoroughly and entirely He
took our nature upon him !
You don t know how much I enjoyed my visit with
you. It would do me good, I believe, if I should so spend
a day or two every month. It was a real rest, and a
delightful communion. We all unite in messages of love
and hearty greeting,
Ever affectionately and faithfully yours,
F. D. H.
The first season brought its taste of inclement
weather, traveling across country in the days when
railroad communication was limited.
ENTRANCE ON THE EPISCOPATE 291
SYRACUSE, March "10, 1870.
Back again, by a ride in a driving storm through
eighteen miles of snow-drifts, in an open sleigh, four
horses, from Central Square, so called, from being
the centre of nothing, but just beyond " Cicero " and
" Clay. "
Twelve months after his consecration to the Epis
copate Bishop Huntington wrote:
SYRACUSE, April 8, 70.
DEAR GEORGE: This is an anniversary of search
ing thoughts, and, I am sure, of sincere gratitude. I
feel as if I had only yet made a few scratches on the
surface of the ground. But there has been no disaster,
no grave disappointments or discord, I believe.
In our home, how many blessings we have seen !
BINOHAMTON, Monday morning.
(May, 1870.)
To MRS. HUNTINGTON.
Saturday I was as homesick as a schoolboy after
his first vacation. How can I ever get the better of it ?
Bright weather always makes it worse. Close work and
the remembrance of God s goodness and of duty to
Him are, I believe, the best remedies. Yesterday we
laid the corner-stone of the House of the Good Shep
herd, under the bright sun ; a long file of S. S. children
escorted the procession and cast bunches of flowers
upon the stone after it was laid, moving in a circle, and
covering the spot with a floral crown. Hymns and
chants, Glorias, prayers and addresses, filled up an
hour. Of course Mrs. Wright was very happy. The
Mission is conducted by a League, and as usual the
292 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
work outward is blessing and strengthening everything
within. To-day I move Westward to two Missionary
stations. Would it not be nice if I were with you all
to-day ? Jim is starting off for Manlius, I suppose, and
the two darling girls for school. The Lord bless and
keep you.
Ever faithfully and lovingly,
Your husband,
F. D. H.
Tell Pattison the hat was polished up in the nick of
time, as it was forced to come under the eyes of the
multitude yesterday.
The P. S. message, to a devoted presbyter and inti
mate family friend, indicates a characteristic of Bishop
Huntington, whose disregard of externals sometimes
laid a burden upon his household. His easy habit of
preferring old clothes to new became apparent as he
went his rounds, but such unconventionality was unex
pected in a newly-made prelate.
The wife of a distinguished citizen, herself as un
worldly as she was preeminently gifted, used to tell a
story of her first impression of their new neighbor.
They were driving past as he left his own door, and
when her husband told her who it was, Mrs. S. ex
claimed: "Why, Charles, he wears as shabby a coat
as you do!"
It was not in dress alone, however, that he preserved
a simplicity of life, which grew upon him, rather than
diminished, as age and honors increased. He always
insisted upon carrying his own traveling-case, heavy
though it might be, and for many years walked with it
in his hand to and from the station, or jumped off the
ENTRANCE ON THE EPISCOPATE 293
moving train as it passed near the house. He planned
his journeys, went and came, expecting nowhere defer
ence or distinction. The habits of early rising in order
to get the work of correspondence off his hands
promptly, of moving rapidly from one point to another,
and of reading and writing during the hours of travel ;
his hardihood in driving long distances through any
weather to avoid delay, all these contributed to the
accomplishment of a multitude of affairs.
In business matters he was clear and methodical,
without giving much concern to the acquisition or the
expenditure of money. In his Boston parish the salary
barely met the expenses of city life and the education
of his children. As a bishop his income was still less,
and there were many demands upon it. While he never
desired riches for himself or his family, he used to say
that he sometimes occupied his wakeful hours at night
planning how he could dispose of large sums for the
objects in which he was interested. These were visions
which, in spite of kind assistance in the diocese and
without, were never realized. Faith and courage on his
part were not wanting when a definite thing must be
accomplished, but it may be that the fact of his never
obtaining large use of wealth from its stewards, is ac
counted for by an ingrain Puritan austerity, which is
not the temperament for the attainment of material
ends.
SYRACUSE, May 25, 1870.
DEAR GEORGE : It is good to get back from a long
and tiresome visitation into this quiet, shaded, resting
home, for a few days. I had nearly three services
a day, for nine days. Your mother met me at Norwich,
294 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
and saw the valley of the Chenango, and the gem of
it, Oxford, with its beautiful stone church, ivy-covered ;
its elms, lawns, lovely Rectory and accomplished Rec
tor.
Next week I must write my address for Convention.
We have just closed our semi-annual meeting of the
Board of Missions, showing vigorous work in all direc
tions, and nearly $3000 in the Treasury. We prize
your brief notes, not for their brevity, and keep near
you in your Parish work from day to day. Hoping to
see you the last week in June,
Ever faithfully and affectionately,
Your father,
F. D. H.
SYRACUSE, May 28, 70.
MY DEAR SISTER: You see by the date that I
have come to another of the way-marks. One hardly
knows whether to make a birthday a Feast or a Fast.
If we think only of God s mercies, of health and
home and friendship, of prosperous undertakings, of
faith and hope and the privileges of the Church, it
should be a Festival. But the remembrance of our own
failures and faults puts upon it somehow something of
the character of humiliation.
I wish you could see the beauty of this spot ; every
thing is so fresh and bright; the foliage is so abundant
and the whole street and scene are so rural, so un
like a city.
You are in the beloved old home. How perfect it
must be ! We think and speak of you every day, I be
lieve. The work I came here to do seems to be going
forward prosperously; and yet the progress of sin, of
ENTRANCE ON THE EPISCOPATE 295
all sorts, especially in the great cities, is fearful. We
might all despair, but for Him who sitteth above the
floods.
At the end of that summer, after a rest at the farm,
a few lines in pencil , written to his sister on the journey
back to Syracuse, express the inevitable sense of sepa
ration from much that was left behind.
DELAVAN HOUSE,
ALBANY, Oct. 7, 70.
Our visit in Boston has given us the sight of many
dear faces, and made us feel afresh that we are not
wholly forgotten there. Indeed it is doubtful whether
in any new place friendships quite so deep and warm
can ever be formed as those in Massachusetts. I feel
it more than before. Abundance of good-will, kindness,
courtesy, respect, consideration, we have in the home
we have lately made : and if we do not forfeit them by
some fault of our own we may reasonably expect they
may be continued to us. It is true, nevertheless, roots
are not easily struck after fifty years of age. We are
content and thankful. It is plain that my work is in
my Diocese and not in Boston. The sense of being
engaged in the Master s service, and in this way, is
enough. Syracuse is much more natural and attractive
than it was a year ago. And there has been much of
Hadley and Boston we have been permitted to keep.
HADLET, Sunday evening,
Sept. llth., 70.
To M. M.
My dear Friend: We have thought and spoken of
you several times to-day, feeling your absence. By
296 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
God s great goodness, after meeting a great many per
sons of my Diocese within the week at Syracuse, visit
ing schools and flocks, setting some wheels in motion,
and finding the outlook generally rather encouraging,
I got back in time to help make ready for the nuptials
and to greet the arriving guests. 1
This morning the air was almost supernaturally glori
ous, and so it has continued. Fair weather came out
. of the North, with an atmosphere of a blue so deep, a
transparency so rare, a splendor so surpassing, that the
Sunday seemed as much of the New Jerusalem as of
the earthly expectation. As I sat reading, just before
church-time, a messenger from Amherst rode up to say
there was no preacher there. Of course I stood in, and
the First Lesson and the Epistle suited the sermon on
the Water out of the Rock. At four o clock we had our
Evening Prayer, and I read a sermon of Liddon s.
Then we strolled out : H. and A. and the little girls,
Ponto and the cat; all that are left here except my
saintly sister. Over all the landscape valley and
hill the sharp light glimmered and blazed; and the
noble shadows had their edges cut as with the finest
chisel; and just the faintest tinge of Autumn lent pa
thos to this stately Sabbatic pomp. We went to the
barns; then down into the meadow towards the river;
then out south of the buildings to get a full, long view
of Holyoke, shifting its shade every moment as the sun
sank lower; and here the bell sounded out, and never
more musically ; then across the sheep-yard among
the apple-trees, firs and maples; then to the stump of
the grand old elm that used to mark the bounds of our
estate; then across the road, down the maple avenue,
1 The wedding of a niece, in the old homestead.
ENTRANCE ON TbE EPISCOPATE 297
into the pastures; and home again, grateful and con
tent.
SYRACUSE, Feb. 4, 1871.
MY DEAR SISTER : I have been sitting by the fire
and thinking of this date and what it brings to mind.
A great deal can be remembered : but how little in
my life now could have been foreseen when mother
died. Next after what our parents were to us, among
the family blessings, I am thankful that the homestead
remains, and that you and Theodore are so near to it
as to be identified with it.
The winter wears away rapidly. My visits to Phila
delphia and New York, where I went to preach, and
to attend a council, took me through great storms.
These absences make the intervals at home very pre
cious. There is a good deal of meaning in that little
phrase, "They shall go no more out." Let us know
how all is going with you. Wishing you peace and
comfort,
Yours affectionately,
F. D. H.
Rev. George Huntington was much engaged in ob
taining the means for the erection of a building for St.
Paul s Church, Maiden, and his father, who heartily
aided in the undertaking, wrote to him concerning the
subscriptions, a large part of which came from his own
old parish of Emmanuel.
Feb. 18, 1871.
DEAR GEORGE : We were all much excited by the
news of the $1000. It certainly comes as an answer to
298
many prayers, from Him who turns the hearts of men.
Your want has scarcely been out of my mind half a day
since you were here. Let thanks be given to God!
Ought you not to proceed at once to complete the sub
scription ? Will not this gift stimulate others ?
I send two pamphlets that may interest you. Prof.
Lewis s observations on the traces of an original primi
tive monotheism in Homer, especially in the Homeric
titles of Zeus as compared with the Scriptural praises
of Jehovah, are very interesting. They bear on the
great question whether the world s civilization is a pro
gress ab initio, or the recovery from a lapse; two
philosophies.
We have had a branch of the Perfectionist agitation
here. Brother S. thought of staying to preach on Sun
day, but proved amenable to gentle advice, and find
ing he must use the Prayer-book and get leave of the
Rectors, amiably went home. Their mistake is not so
much heresy as sentimental disproportioning of the
Truth.
To-morrow I go to the Indians to confirm. Keep
Moberly for Hadley. I am reading Vaughan s sermons.
They are the best yet, better than Liddon s or Rob
ertson s as sermons.
SYRACUSE, April 14, 1871.
To A. L. P.
It is two years to-morrow since I came into this Dio
cese. When you intercede for me, pray that the years
to come may witness in me increasing devotion, self-
forgetfulness, gentleness, courage and efficiency in
serving both the inward and outward Kingdom of our
Lord, the Crucified and the Risen. With my own
ENTRANCE ON THE EPISCOPATE 299
supplications are mingled " humble and hearty thanks."
How much to be grateful for, so much open oppor
tunity for work : good-will, kindness, a diocese harmo
nious and united to a degree, I suppose, remarkable
and perhaps unparalleled. And in my home what
countless blessings!
SYRACUSE, May 28, 1871.
MY DEAR JAMES : It is my great privilege to be
at home on my birthday. Your mother and I came back
yesterday, after a week s visitations along the Southern
line of the Diocese, hi cities and villages, large Parishes
and Mission -stations, taking us up Cayuga Lake and
through a great deal of beautiful scenery which I want
you and George to see some time with us.
To-day the Whitsunday glory has been complete.
A clear still splendor has covered the fresh green earth.
This morning I went up to "Grace" to Communion
and preached. I never had a happier birthday, I be
lieve. Thank you for your remembrance. Labuntur
anni. I don t know that I should prefix the Eheu to the
fugaces.
"Swift years, but teach me how to bear,
To fee!, and act, with strength and skill,
To reason wisely, nobly dare,
And speed your courses as ye will."
Our times are in the Father s hand. His goodness
and mercy have followed me all the days of my life.
As to examination, take it easily. Dismiss anxiety.
Even mistakes,- mental mistakes, before twenty
years can be made up; with character it is more difficult.
With deep, strong, tender love.
Your father at fifty-two,
F. D. H.
300 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
MY DEAR GEORGE : Our thoughts are much with
you to-day and no doubt with all your cares and occu
pations you remember us. I know well what a confir
mation-day is to a Parish Priest; every year it not
only tries and proves him, what manner of man he is,
and searches him through and through, but it
yields him also generally " the joy of harvest." Your
Bishop spoke so cordially of you the other day that, in
addition to deeper satisfactions, I hope you will find
his visit agreeable and encouraging. It is pleasant to a
Bishop to receive, as he leaves a Parish, some grate
ful word from the Rector, as an indication that he has
not wholly missed the mark or labored in vain.
Your mother and I came back yesterday. Her com
pany was a great comfort to me all the way. The life I
lead is essentially a solitary one. Nobody comes very
near the Bishop however many may love and care
for him at a distance. I have never been lonely till
within the last two years ; it is good for me, I dare
say, and it is about the only drawback on a most
favored and blessed lot.
Bishop Huntington set himself in the beginning of
his Episcopate to found a Church boarding-school for
boys, which was opened in Manlius in 1869, and soon
after established there on a fine property, with a suit
able building and equipment, largely due to the liber
ality of Judge Comstock. This institution was, for the
rest of the Bishop s life, an object of interest and
solicitude. He carried for a long time the burden of
its finances, and took a responsibility for its manage
ment. When relieved of these cares he continued to
give it his spiritual support and sympathy.
ENTRANCE ON THE EPISCOPATE 301
SYRACUSE, Oct., 1871.
Sunday evening.
To Miss BETHIA HUNTINGTON.
To-day I have been to visit St. John s School, at
Manlius. The boys seem contented and happy, and
they are remarkably reverential in Church. What a
blessing it would be to our land and the world if that
noble and beautiful trait of character were more com
mon.
We start to-morrow morning, God willing, for Rich
mond and Norfolk. My thoughts are often with you
all and almost everything about the farm is remem
bered. It is all safe in Theodore s hands, under the
Great Guardian. We had a summer full of blessings.
One of the chief comforts was your being with us so
much.
My address will be House of Bishops, Episcopal Con
vention.
The Triennial which met in Baltimore in the autumn
of 1871, was the first in which Bishop Huntington took
his seat in the Upper House. It was in keeping with
the reserve and self-distrust of his nature that he was
occupied solely in listening and observation, and did
not utter himself in motion or debate. It is said that at
subsequent Conventions he seldom gave expression to
his opinions as a speaker. 1 There was much, however,
both in the legislative proceedings and in the mission
ary work, in which he took the keenest interest, and he
greatly enjoyed contact with men of wisdom and learn
ing.
1 The venerable Bishop R. H. Wilmer of Alabama wrote in 1892:
" Looking back on several General Conventions I recall with ad
miration your still silence."
302 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
The committee work which he most enjoyed was
that devoted to the preparation of a new Hymnal ; and
the final adoption, at this time, of a collection to which
he gave many weeks of labor, was a source of great sat
isfaction. Although later superseded by the one now
in use, the Hymnal of 1871 was far in advance of the
previous one and was received with favor.
Events in the Church at large had made this Con
vention one of anxious anticipation and its results were
a cause of thanksgiving.
- BALTIMORE, Oct., 1871.
The harmony of the Convention in both Houses is
extraordinary. Bishop Whittingham told me yesterday,
as I was dining at his house, that after an experience
of fifty years he has never seen anything like it, the mani
fest and felt power of the Holy Ghost, answering prayer,
and this just when the Church was thought to be on the
edge of anarchy.
SYRACUSE, Nov., 1871.
MY DEAR SISTER : On this day of preparation
for the Feast, when the guests used to assemble from
different quarters, as I suppose they do still in some
New England homes, our thoughts, at least, natu
rally draw together. How distant the remembrance is
of the scenes in the old kitchen forty odd years ago,
every part of them, in all their details, from the great
blazing oven to the little many-shaped tin pie-pans,
when the favorite pie of each one of us was baked. Rice
pie with raisins was always my choice. Mother s figure
moving in the midst of all the busy goings-on, with her
remarkable blending in face and manner, of energy
ENTRANCE ON THE EPISCOPATE 303
and thoughtfulness, conscientious care and tender affec
tion, is as distinct as can be. I have a particularly clear
recollection of helping father, one such Wednesday,
clear up the garden and front-yard, making ready for
a tremendous snowstorm, combing the ground with
our rakes, he said, for its white powdering. We shall
think of you with love and prayers to-morrow.
I have just finished my circuit of visitations for the
season, returning yesterday. It is a relief to be at home,
tho there is always much that is interesting in my jour
neys amongst the Parishes.
SYRACUSE, Dec. 28, 1871.
DEAR BETHIA : May the Christmas be cheerful
with you and the promise of "Peace on Earth" be
fulfilled to your own heart. Frost and moon promise to
make it sparkling and Christmas-like. The cold is in
tense and the snow keeps falling. It sometimes falls
here in such clouds as we never see in New England.
Last night Hannah and I, returning from an Ordina
tion and Consecration some fifty miles away, were
caught in a snow-drift in the morning. We had a Meth
odist minister with us, .who sang hymns, and, among
others, Mother s old " When marshaled on the nightly
plain." It almost made me cry.
I am very much engaged on the " Messenger, " hop
ing to issue a Church paper which at least will be with
out personalities, polemics, or partisanship, and will
help the readers to be better Christians.
"The Gospel Messenger," a Church weekly, was
originally established in 1827, in Auburn, for the west
ern part of the state, "in the interests of evangelical
304 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
piety and sound religious information." At the time
of the division of the diocese it was ably conducted, in
Utica, by the Rev. William T. Gibson. Circumstances
led to a formal conveyance to Bishop Huntington, by
Bishop Coxe, who had received it from the executors
of Bishop De Lancey, and the editorship and office
were transferred to Syracuse, in January, 1892. Subse
quently it became connected with the "New York
Church Journal." In 1876 a monthly organ of the
diocese of Central New York, known as the " Gospel
Messenger and Church Journal," was begun in Syra
cuse, and remained, excepting for a short period, under
the Bishop s sole editorial supervision during the rest
of his life.
Amidst the many duties of office, with editorial work,
special sermons, and general correspondence, there was
leisure found, between frequent journeys, for a task
particularly congenial, the preparation of a devotional
work, " Helps to a Holy Lent."
The introduction points out that " each daily portion,
including something of Holy Scripture, meditation,
hymn and prayers, bears an analogy to our liturgical
appointments, and is a kind of faint reflection in minia
ture of the order of Divine service. A considerable part
of the pages is original. Most of the Collects are taken
from English sources, though many of them are trace
able to a more Eastern origin." Of this publication
the Author wrote to his son at Harvard :
Feb. 20, 1872.
Two copies of " Helps " have just gone off for you,
one for yourself, and the other to give away as you
choose. Mr. Dutton writes that he has great difficulty
ENTRANCE ON THE EPISCOPATE 305
in filling the orders, and that the demand in Boston
has been too much for the supply. This is pleasant, but
it won t turn our heads, if we mind what the book
teaches. It seems remarkable that your Church-fellows
in College should keep up a service, however brief.
God grant the blessing of His spirit on every gathering !
With that and the Bible lessons of Mr. B. you will have
a good Lent.
On Monday I go to New York to lecture in the course
on " Religion and Modem Thought." I half wish it
were at Cambridge instead.
In the following summer a change took place in the
diocese of Massachusetts, through the decease of Rt.
Rev. Man ton Eastburn, its bishop for thirty years. The
question as to the choice of a successor to so important
a position was a matter of anxiety to the clergy and
laity, and to no one more than to Bishop Huntington,
in whose affections the Church in New England held
a large share.
He wrote to his son, the rector of St. Paul s, Maiden,
from Hadley, Sept. 29, 1872.
" lean make no better use of a part of this sacred day
than to tell you why I should rejoice if this Diocese
should choose Dr. Paddock to be its Bishop. It is be
cause, while he has other qualifications in a satisfactory
degree, judgment, wisdom, experience, patience,
culture, and decision, he is eminently godly. He has
the spirit and the aims, the tone and the manners be
fitting the office. He would win confidence, and that
would go far to reconcile differences and strengthen
the Church."
Of two clergymen whose names were mentioned for
306 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
the sacred office, the writer says : " They are good and
true Christian gentlemen, and faithful priests. I am,
as you know, attached to them both. But they are both,
not in the worst sense, men of the world.
" The Kingdom of God should be led by men not of
the world."
SYRACUSE, Oct. 1, 1872.
To HIS SON JAMES.
Here we are at the post of service again. The place
looks finely, within the house and without. We found
flowers and fruits awaiting us, sent by kind neighbors.
The children seem very happy. The spasm of home
sickness, is, I suppose, about over with us all; and now
we will all put our shoulders to work and care again,
as in God s sight, and for the honor of Christ.
Oct. 18, 72.
It is late and I am tired with my day s work. You
know I have taken charge of St. Paul s ; but the Vestry
have, at my recommendation, elected Mr. Lockwood,
Rector, one of our best and ablest and most schol
arly young Clergymen.
May this be a new era for the Church in Massachu
setts ! I could wish that Diocese were more like mine,
which is doing nobly.
The first number of the " Gospel Messenger " of the
diocese, chronicles two events of interest : one was the
earliest general meeting of the Woman s Auxiliary of
the Diocese, held in Watertown on January 5, 1876;
and the other the opening of a building erected for the
House of the Good Shepherd, Syracuse. This charity,
which was Bishop Huntington s peculiar charge from
ENTRANCE ON THE EPISCOPATE 307
its inception, started, as is often the case, from what
seemed an incident of no great importance. In the
winter of 1873 two strangers, Canadian women, were
taken with illness, and found refuge at St. Joseph s,
then the only hospital in the city and under the charge
of Roman Catholic Sisters. Owing partly, perhaps, to
the strength of religious differences in the community
from which they came, they felt unhappy and lone
some among those not of their own household of faith.
The case came to the attention of the Chief Shepherd,
who in the care of his flock never forgot his consecra
tion vow, " to be gentle and merciful for Christ s sake
to poor and needy people, and to all strangers desti
tute of help." It emphasized the fact that the Protes
tant Christians of Syracuse had made no provision
for their own people who desired services of Divine
consolation in time of sickness and absence from home.
The population of the city was increasing so rapidly
as to warrant hospital extension. Bishop Huntington
laid the matter before the congregation of St. Paul s
Church on a Sunday morning, with the result that at
the close of the sermon, one of the members offered the
use of a private residence for three months. Here the
House of the Good Shepherd was opened, with such
encouragement that larger quarters were found, and
a trained nurse placed in charge. The Church Sister
hood, established by the Bishop to unite the women of
the several parishes in active work for the sick and des
titute, assisted materially in securing furniture and
weekly provision for the new institution.
When the first hospital building was planned, a fine
site on the hill near the University was presented by
Judge Comstock; and means for its completion were
308 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
obtained by the Bishop, as he describes in the following
letter.
HADLEY, July 5, 74.
MY DEAR GEORGE : If you and Lilly were here
our joy would be full. The sense of rest is very palpa
ble. Just at the time when work begins to subside,
usually, i. e., at our Convention, it seemed to be neces
sary to take hold of the Hospital project in earnest.
Several distant visitations had to be disposed of first,
and in fact less than a fortnight s time remained for the
whole business of raising the subscriptions. It was plain
that the task must be mine or nobody s. To make it
harder the Board voted that nothing should be done
till $20,000 should be subscribed. This was supposed
by many to be a deathblow to the project. Everybody
looked on the attempt as Quixotic, the idea as prepos
terous, and the achievement, in these times, and in Syra
cuse, as no more likely than a miracle. I resolved, by
the help of God, to put off smelling the breath of the
cows and hearing Ponto squeal, till I should get the
subscriptions. That it would be done so soon I did not
venture to hope or imagine. I took the last subscrip
tion at two forty-five Friday afternoon, and at three
o clock had a meeting of the Trustees, and we elected
a strong Building Committee.
There were not only many amusing revelations and
incidents in the process, but the sort of amazement and
awe with which the bankers, merchants, and lawyers
came to look upon me towards the close was entertain
ing to the last degree. I am told men pointed at me in
the street as they would at the Wandering Jew, or Dr.
Livingstone, or Caesar. To take $20,000 is just the
thing to make the City open its eyes. Five years of spirit-
ENTRANCE ON THE EPISCOPATE 309
ual labor or moral sacrifice would be nothing to that.
God pity their souls !
Your birthday fell on the last of those anxious,
crowded, intense days. There was time to ask God to
bless you, to grant you a full teachable and united
flock, and to permit you to see so much of the fruit of
your six faithful years of watching and working as it
may seem to Him best that you should see. A great
deal has come into your life within that time. In the
natural course of things, how much more of the work-
season is left for you than for me!
We look forward now to your visit eagerly.
Ever affectionately,
F. D. H.
HADLEY Aug. 13, 1874.
To H. S. W.
Your letter came when I was in Rhode Island trying,
with my Brother-Bishops, to make the abused Hymnal
a little more acceptable. I trust we have made enough
alterations and not too many, and of a kind to carry the
Book through the Convention. But an assembly of
men is an uncertain element, and nobody can ever
know what it will do, especially if it comes to discussion.
Did you ever see a " Parish Clambake " ? We were
led out to one, one afternoon. It is one of the ghastly
services of a half-christianized community to make up
for their neglect of God s law, in putting the tithe into
His Treasury, by a combination of frolic, traffic and
religion, and so making out a support for the preaching
of a mutilated Gospel. There were fine women and
fine men; the spot was lovely; the sky was superb.
But the chowder was gritty; the green corn was liter-
310 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
ally wrapped in sackcloth and ashes ; there was a smack
of mammon in the sauce ; and I was glad to get back
to Watts and Doddridge, Keble and Ken.
January 31, 75.
Our Hospital affairs are going on smoothly. Mrs.
Bumham makes an excellent impression. 1 Keble
School is full. We have had a two days Conference
of our Diocese at Waterloo, with animating and hearty
worship, stirring singing, and a dozen thoughtful papers
on important practical topics, so earnest and able
as to make me proud of the intellectual and spiritual
character of my Clergy.
Early in his Episcopate, Bishop Huntington inaugu
rated the custom of holding yearly Conferences for the
clergy and laity of the diocese. These occasions were
full of interest to himself, and gave him an opportunity
to impress upon those who worked under him the value
he placed upon certain aspects of the sacred ministry.
His purpose was threefold : to promote more thorough
study of the scriptures and the Fathers, to deepen the
spiritual life of the clergy, and to awaken greater mis
sionary zeal in the parishes. The preparation of written
essays was intended not only to be a literary stimulus,
which with his fine intellectual taste could not be depre
ciated, but still more a means of promoting wider read
ing and better acquaintance with the great exegetical
writers of the day. His own mind, as has been already
1 Mrs. Mary D. Burnham came from Boston, where she had been
one of the devoted band of workers in Emmanuel Church, to take
the position of Head of the Woman s Auxiliary of the Diocese and
to be House-Mother of the Hospital.
ENTRANCE ON THE EPISCOPATE 311
indicated, was not inclined to discussion for the sake of
argument, but rather for illumination through the ex
change of ideas and an extension of the range of sym
pathies. His respect for scholarship was profound, and
one benefit sought in these gatherings was to give the
younger men an opportunity to profit by the patient
labor of those among them who had real knowledge to
impart. It was his practice to close the interchange of
thought with some suggestion of his own on the deeper
lessons to be drawn, often arousing in his hearers, by
his magnetic and quickening power, an inspiration
which sent them home with a new spirit of consecration.
Thus at one time, when the subject treated was the
different aspects of the " Message, " he reminded them
that all their words were spoken in the presence of
Him who is alike the Master of the work and the
Original of the Message, at another, on the theme of
" Worship," he drew their thoughts upward to Christ
as the one Fountain-head of all light and power and
life.
In March, 1879, he gave a Conscio ad clerum on
"Preaching as it was in the original system of the
Church, or the sermon of the Petrine period the pattern
of the sermon-work of after ages, as respects doctrine,
method and spirit."
The missionary meetings in connection with the
Conferences were made the occasion of securing the
best speakers to be obtained, and in this way the differ
ent Convocation districts and the rural parishes had
the benefit of inspiring addresses from bishops and
other workers in domestic and foreign fields.
At the seventh annual Convention of the diocese,
June 14, 1876, the Bishop said in his address : " Expe-
312 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
rience shows that the best men for our missionary ser
vice are those trained on our own ground. Besides,
every bishop wants the use of all his own candidates
during their diaconate, a period of great practical
importance, for the free work of itineracy and in small
stations, of which we have so much on hand. It is clear
to me that we shall never be furnished with a full force
of evangelists and associate missioners till we educate
them among ourselves. We ought therefore to be look
ing forward to that measure and shaping a plan for a
training-school at the centre of the diocese, conducted
with a regular course of study, lectures in the different
departments of scientific and pastoral theology and
homiletics, by our own scholars, with terms of practical
exercise under parish ministers." In the following
September this ideal was so far realized that a small
house was rented near Calvary Mission, not far from
the Episcopal residence, and St. Andrew s Divinity
School opened; the staff of teachers consisting of the
Bishop; Rev. C. P. Jennings, D.D., as Dean; Dr. J.
M. Clarke, Rev. H. R. Lockwood, and others. 1 The
students and clergy constituted an Associate Mission,
and by this means services were sustained in small
parishes and stations.
During the summer of 1876 James Huntington was
abroad, taking a walking tour through Scotland, and
his father wrote to him concerning the new project.
1 In succession the deans of St. Andrew s Divinity School were:
the Rev. Charles P. Jennings, S.T.D., the Rev. William D. Wilson,
D.D., LL.D., L.H.D., and Professor Emeritus of Cornell Univer
sity, who took charge November 1, 1886, and the Rev. Theodore
Babcock, D.D., who became dean October 1, 1899. The Bishop
himself conducted classes and gave courses of lectures during some
part of each season.
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HADLEY, August 10, 76.
Many of my hours, of course, are given to our Dio
cese and to the next year s work. The group of theo
logical students forms a feature of special interest, on
other grounds than that of its novelty ; and I hope my
anxiety about it will not amount to a distrust of Provi
dence. Dr. Perry has asked me to preach his conse
cration sermon, Sept. 10, at Geneva. Thinking it over,
I declined. There are those equally competent who
prize and enjoy such opportunities. Four times I have
stood back from such a preaching, feeling unequal to
it. Am I getting old or lazy, or fastidious ? I never like,
especially on such ceremonies, to discourse, unless be
forehand I am conscious of the strong afflatus and an
absorbing subject.
That same season it became necessary to raise a
large sum for St. John s School, Manlius, and the
Bishop s mind during the vacation was oppressed with
the difficulty of meeting an obligation which no one but
himself seemed disposed to assume. Generous friends
within the diocese and without came to his assistance,
however, and he wrote a little later, expressing his
gratitude for the relief.
HADLEY, Sept. 1, 76.
DEAR JAMES : You will rejoice with me that last
evening s mail brought the last $100 necessary to
finish the St. John s subscription. Some of it has
been in smaller sums, and almost as slowly and spar
ingly as the raindrops that have fallen since dog-
days began. In spite of the dryness, this is a day of
thanksgiving.
314 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
Some of the farmers are cutting up their corn. The
carriage wheels rattle. The river, I never saw so low.
But there is general health. We are wondering what
the effect of our summer s recreation will be. God
knows, and something depends, no doubt, on our
selves.
SYRACUSE, Oct. 7, 1876.
To E. V. D.
The other Sunday I was on a visitation to one of my
active and interested little Missions " Willowdale,"
on Seneca Lake. A short time before the service, where
1 was to confirm several young persons, the "first-
fruits " of the Mission work, I had occasion to go to the
small Church; and as I came out I met a very aged
lady with a cheerful face, seated in an armchair, help
less, and carried to meet God in His House by the arms
of two stout young farmers. I could only say, " Inter
cession ! " We bear one another to the mercy-seat, to
the Saviour, to Peace. I must thank you for giving me a
new occasion for this blessed office. If our prayers
should be answered, and the tempted heart be snatched
from the snare of the fowler, I hope you will let me
know it that we may give thanks together. For I sup
pose thanks are as dear to our Lord as petitions; and
we so often have to exclaim, " Where are the nine ?
Were there not ten cleansed ? "
Your letter shows that you keep close to the Master,
or rather that He keeps you close to Him. It is better
to think of Him than even of our spiritual selves.
Whether we are happy is not essential. It is essential
only that we have Jesus in us, the hope of glory and a
present life.
ENTRANCE ON THE EPISCOPATE 315
Happy old Emmanuel days! Nor are our present
days less good in a different way.
God grant you inward strength and light!
Most affectionately and faithfully yours,
F. D. H.
The religious work of the Mission here referred to
was especially dear to Bishop Huntington s heart. He
always spoke with interest and appreciation of the op
portunity afforded him of becoming acquainted with it,
and the devoted woman who gave her life to it, on the
long drives when he accompanied her across the coun
try region between the lakes. It was her custom each
Sunday, after service in the little church near her farm
house, to visit three Mission stations in succession, the
faithful pony harnessed to a buckboard bringing her
home at nine o clock in the evening.
In allusion to these expeditions, the Bishop wrote
her once : " The Bible has a great deal about horses.
Your nag ought to have a biography. How fine that is
in Jeremiah xii. 5: If thou hast, etc. ! "
A presbyter writes, in a private letter some time after
Bishop Huntington s death, to the author of the beauti
ful memorial sermon, "The Good Shepherd:" "In
a special way I appreciated your description of his
episcopate, its simplicity, its devotion, its rich giving
of its best. Of this I could testify myself, living as I did
on the very borders, and witnessing from across the line
something of what he did and said. It was always a
spiritual and intellectual feast-day when he made
Geneva his headquarters for the visitations in the west
ern section of his diocese, and found a restful home in
my own parish. I recall with joy and pride in him, the
316 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
day when at the laying of a corner-stone in a little vil
lage across the lake, surrounded by a few hundred
country folk, he made an address that would have
stirred the hearts and lifted the minds of any congre
gation in the land."
SYKACUSE, Nov. 27, 76.
To Miss BETHIA HUNTINGTON.
My dear Sister: We can gather to-morrow in lov
ing remembrance and imperishable love and undivided
sympathy, if not in the outward presence ; and near
to the mercy-seat, if not in sight of the old home. We
shall think of you many times. Our circle will not be
large. It being St. Andrew s Day, and our new Divinity
School being called from that Apostle, we are to have
a special Communion service in the morning. My Bos
ton visit was full of hearty greetings and pleasant things
though the weather was bad. Most of the time I was
at Maiden.
The Boston people like literary tournaments and
evidently enjoyed the Church Congress. Unitarianism
and Puritanism both were taken by surprise at the free
dom, boldness, freshness, and progressiveness of the
discussions. It was a new revelation. As soon as the
proceedings are printed together I will send you a copy.
The head of the diocese did not confine his interest
in the education of the youth in Central New York to
the boys at St. John s School. He believed equally in
using every means to train up girls to a noble Christian
womanhood.
The exercises of the first graduating class at Keble
School proved to be the beginning of a long succession
ENTRANCE ON THE EPISCOPATE 317
of those happy occasions, continued without break for
twenty-four years, when in presenting the diplomas,
the Bishop added words of fatherly counsel. His ad
dress on June 19, 1877, gave the history of the school,
opened for boarding-scholars, six years before, by Miss
Mary J. Jackson, its honored principal to the end. He
said : " The name selected and conferred upon it, after
much thought, was that attractive one which the school
delights to bear, associated with the finest and most
exalted traits of Christian life and character, with con
secrated scholarship, with poetry and charity, and with
the reverent worship of the Church of God in our Eng
lish tongue." Keble School was in the near vicinity of
the Bishop s residence, two of his daughters received
their education there, and his relations with it were in
timate and sympathetic. He became well acquainted
with many of the young girls, who came from homes
in his diocese and from a distance, some of them
daughters of his clergy. It was for two of suph anniver
saries that he wrote the papers, afterwards published
and widely read, " Good Talking and Good Man
ners; Fine Arts." The Keble daughters who were
privileged to attend the gatherings will remember how
the speaker contrived in brief space, and yet year after
year with fresh grace and skill, to convey affectionate
admonitions, a farewell to those for whom the day of
parting had come, and a message of hope to carry
with them for their future life.
In September, 1877, the Bishop returned to Hadley,
after the family had left, on his way from his diocese
to the Triennial Convention in Boston. A few lines to
his youngest son, express the indefinable influence of
the scenes of his childhood, with those impressions of
318 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
an autumn afternoon so beautifully portrayed in a
poem which he himself often repeated with deep appre
ciation, "The Closing Scene," by Buchanan Read.
Sept. 30, 1877.
The old place never says so much as when it is stillest
and most deserted. It seems to have a kind of tender,
motherly pity for all of us who come and go. A slight
yellowish haze just tempers the full light that covers
the valley and the hills. The shadows are distinct.
There is only the least tinge of purple on the woods.
The river is like glass. Yesterday we took the boat out
of the water at the ferry-place, and it now lies careened
against the elm in front of the horse-barn. Carl walks
about in stately wonder. I have just been over to the
pasture, and presently Bethia is going with me behind
the hill.
In an account of the General Convention of 1877, in
the pages of the " Gospel Messenger, " Bishop Hunt-
ington expressed his constitutional distaste for exces
sive discussion. "The moral law for deliberative Bod
ies needs a special commandment: Thou shalt not
talk over much. Counting nothing but the cost in
time and pecuniary expense, the Church and Boston
Churchmen have just suffered a fearful and needless
waste from the tongues of men who talk without excuse.
The matter is not to be treated as a mere foible. The
intemperance is a sin and ought to be treated as a sin
not to be borne. A moderate degree of abstinence
should be made a qualification for deputy-ship. If par-
ler had been the final cause and sole function of Parlia
ment, King John might well enough have had his way,
ENTRANCE ON THE EPISCOPATE 319
Stephen Langton have saved the expense of his jour
ney to Rome, and the great Earl Simon kept sheep in
Leicestershire, instead of making crowns sit urteasy
on royal heads.
"After all, the holy kingdom of our Lord is best
served and most set forward, not by legislative assem
blies but the faithful labors of his servants in their sev
eral spheres of toil. And his most honorable stewards
and ambassadors are not those who figure conspicu
ously in assemblies but those who stand in their lot and
do his will day by day."
Three new congregations were by this time gathered
in Syracuse, with all of which the Bishop held especially
close and affectionate relations, St. John s, Calvary,
and Grace. A beautiful stone edifice for the last-named
parish was consecrated by him Feb. 9, 1877. Under
the lead of Rev. Thomas E. Pattison and his de
voted wife, an earnest band of worshipers had already
been drawn together. Calvary Church was opened
for divine service on Christmas morning, 1877, and
none were happier than the Bishop s own family, three
of whom had been workers in the Mission from the be
ginning. He himself was the celebrant, assisted by his
son, the minister in charge. In his own words in the
" Gospel Messenger," " Thus in the merciful Provi
dence of God, the Bishop of the Diocese has a Free
Church in his own immediate pastorship and charge,
at his own disposal, for the furtherance of the princi
ples of our doctrine, discipline and worship."
The Lenten readings, " Helps to a Holy Lent," com
posed largely of selections, were so widely circulated
that in 1876 a second volume, " New Helps," was issued,
320 FREDERIC DAN HTJNTINGTON
which contained a larger proportion of the Bishop s
own writings. The following year the Bohlen Lectures,
whicii he had delivered the preceding winter in Phila
delphia, were published under the title, " Fitness of
Christianity to Man."
In 1878 he issued a new volume of sermons, " Christ
in the Christian Year and in the Life of Man; Ser
mons for Laymen s Reading." Of this he wrote to his
eldest son, Sept. 17, 1877: "My volume is done and
the proofs come rapidly. With some misgivings I hope
it may be of use."
SYRACUSE, Dec. 13, 1877.
To A. L. W.
My first Lecture of the four for Philadelphia is just
done and I must work hard on the others. They will
be on the argument for Christianity drawn from its fit
ness to the wants of man, man as a being of active
worship, thought, and culture. I doubt if you have no
ticed that I have been rash enough to make another
book of sermons. If I were near by I should give your
mother a copy, and hope for gentle judgment from her
critical mind.
SYRACUSE, Ash Wednesday, 79.
DEAR GEORGE: One is impressed this morning
with the thought that millions of men will pray to-day
for spiritual gifts and for the Kingdom of our Lord;
and that even in our own small Household three thou
sand ministers are setting themselves to Forty Days of
strenuous labor. Such a campaign ought to do some
thing to stay the religious decline and yield returns,
visible or invisible. May God grant you your share.
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June 27, 1879.
To A. L. P.
This has been a year of blessing, hard work, but
blessed work, and you will let me say, thankfully, that
I come to the close of it with as much vigor and fresh
ness of body and spirit as I ever knew, almost, in my
life. People with such a constitution as mine ought to
work. It must be what they are made for. Our Con
vention was delightful. Except for my chronic lack of
money, all seems to go well outwardly, and except for
the chronic lack of spirituality and self -sacrifice, all
well inwardly.
. Sept. 27, 79.
During the last two or three weeks of our stay at Had-
ley we were watching over my dear Sister Bethia. I
finally closed her eyes, on Sunday afternoon, Sept. 14,
and we laid her precious body in the Hadley grave
yard on Tuesday.
Her disease was not much prolonged. It was the
end of a life of unswerving, unvarying, complete, in
genious self-sacrifice for those around her. She never
had a fuss or an alienation, I am sure, with a human
being. You can imagine how glad and grateful we all
were that she fell asleep, as she would have asked, in
her own room, the same where I was born. On the Sun
day before, I sat with her and we had a long talk of old
times. I reminded her of my birth-time. She told me
how delighted she was when she took me, a baby, into
her arms, she being thirteen years old then. Among
her last words were, " Good morning, my brother;"
" A little while ; " " Christ ; " " Everlasting rest." But she
was unconscious for some hours. Having cared for mo-
322 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
ther and father, sisters and brothers, she saw them all
pass, one by one, into the Eternal Peace, and then she
placed her own feet firmly on the stones of the brook,
and went over. And now she is far up among the hills
of God. But for the grace and mercy of God I could
not hope to overtake her. She was the guardian spirit
of the old Home, and how much we shall miss her there
as long as we are suffered to go to it!
CHAPTER X
THE ROYAL LAW
" Brethren, I have it in my commission to comfort the feeble-minded
and to support the weak. You must needs go along with us."
" To be ardent without affectation, enthusiastic with
out inconstancy, vigorous without assumption, cheer
ful without irreverence, equal to all occasions without
courting either applause or opposition, is the perfect
type of piety." These words Bishop Huntington wrote
in the introduction to an English biography, 1 early in
the years of his Episcopate. There could be no better
description of traits which constituted a charm of his
own disposition and which manifested themselves
through the cares and vicissitudes of a long life devoted
to the service of his fellow men. It has been seen in the
records of his youth and manhood that he threw him
self with all his heart into plans and undertakings for
the benefit of the world around him, lending the influ
ence of his voice and pen to movements in behalf of the
suffering and the oppressed. Upon the platform his elo
quence was magnetic, but that side of his nature "which
courted neither applause nor opposition " had little
sympathy for public demonstrations or debate. Al
though this distaste increased with advancing years, he
never failed to take a keen interest in the causes under-
1 Memorials of a Quiet Life, by Augustus J. C. Hare. American
Edition.
324 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
lying social agitation or to participate in practical
measures of reform. The decade after his sixtieth birth
day was perhaps the high-water mark of his energetic
and eager efforts for the extermination of evil. No
utterances of his on any subject were more ringing,
more vehement, more in the spirit of the prophets of
old than those on the relations of capital to labor, on
the misuses of wealth and the decline of public moral
ity. But while he contended for social righteousness,
his was not the nature to bewail or rebuke the sins of a
community without attempting to set wrongdoers on
the straight path. Soon after his removal to Syracuse
he was called upon to serve at the head of a committee
appointed at a citizens meeting, to consider that spe
cial form of tolerated impurity, known as "the social
evil." The printed report, which he prepared, dealt
with this difficult subject in uncompromising loftiness
of warning and meets the situation by direct counsel,
incorporated in certain resolutions, one of which con
templated the immediate opening of a reformatory
for girls.
At this period such youthful offenders, even when
still childlike in age and experience, were incarcerated
in the same wing of the county Penitentiary with the
debased and criminal of both sexes. Bishop Hunt-
ington, with the exception of his son, was the only
clergyman or layman who took steps to remedy this
flagrant evil, in behalf of the neglected girls of the
city. When the Shelter was opened in 1877, through
the initiative of the Rev. James Huntington, the
Bishop assumed the responsibility of the furnishing,
and stood behind its financial support from that time
until the destructive fire in 1901, when friends rallied
THE ROYAL LAW 325
to its relief and placed it on a more permanent founda
tion. To the end of his life Bishop Huntington main
tained the religious services in the institution, largely
through his private chaplains, oftentimes by his own
ministration.
SYRACUSE, May 7, 1878.
Mr DEAR WIFE : Yesterday afternoon Mr. Ham
ilton took me out to the East side of the City to look for
a good site for the "Shelter." We found two excellent
spots, but whether we shall have the means to buy and
build is not so clear. 1 Poor F. B. has gone from bad to
worse, and at last to the police court. She has written
me a piteous appeal and last evening her mother came
to see me. This morning I go down to see Justice Mul-
holland and think I shall try to get him to suspend sen
tence if she will go to the House of Mercy for a year.
At a meeting of the White Cross Society, in New York,
a letter from Bishop Huntington was received which
was printed verbatim in a circular issued. Speaking of
the strange apathy among Christian people on the sub
ject of social purity, he says : " Why are such progres
sive movements, full of the most beneficent spirit of
our time, more promptly seized upon and pushed for
ward in the conservative habits of the old country, than
in this land of liberty, where they are needed quite as
much?"
His protest was always raised, and aid in influencing
legislation promptly given, against bills for the legal-
1 A lot of land was presented, in a letter to the Bishop, offering her
"widow s mite," by Mrs. Henry Raynor, and on this site the first
building was erected, through gifts from Henry Daboll, of Memphis,
Mrs. Horace White, and other friends of the work.
326 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
izing of vice, or in support of measures for the protec
tion of children, for the appointment of police matrons,
for associations in behalf of discharged prisoners, and
kindred efforts of humanity and amelioration.
In his own diocese, two plague spots of moral cor
ruption caused him much concern : one was the then
existing Free Love Community, on the old Oneida
Reservation ; and the other the strong Pagan influence
among the Onondaga Indians, living on their tribal
lands just south of Syracuse. It was in protest against
the openly avowed manner of life among the people of
the Oneida Community, that he wrote, in February,
1879, one of his most powerful productions, in defense
of family life, with an arraignment of those by whom
the laws of marriage were boldly defied. The resolu
tions with which the report closed were published, over
the signatures of prominent men in church and state.
The complete MSS., preserved among the Bishop s
papers, has this endorsement in his own handwriting:
"My part in breaking up the Oneida Community.
The man Noyes became alarmed at what we were pre
paring to do by law, and fled, it was said, to Canada,
in the night."
With the disappearance of the leader the objection
able features of the establishment gave place to an in
dustrial organization, and the existence of a commu
nistic settlement of such a character in the midst of
Christian civilization remains now one of the strange
incidents of the past.
For the benighted heathen living as aliens in the
great Empire State, Bishop Huntington never ceased
to labor, filled with commiseration for those descend
ants of the red man, separated by language and tradi-
THE ROYAL LAW 327
tion from improving influences while subjected to con
tact with the debased and designing of the community
around them; dependent like children for protection
upon the state and yet controlled by the arbitrary rule
of their own chiefs.
In 1885, in a letter to a Syracuse journal, Bishop
Huntington recalled his earliest visit, thirty years be
fore, to the Onondaga Reservation, " when that sweet-
hearted philanthropist, the Rev. Mr. May, of Syracuse,
took me out there, as I was traveling, and we went to
the schoolhouse, and old LaForte came in to receive
a message from the Massachusetts Society for Propa
gating the Gospel among the Indians of North Amer
ica." When he came again, in 1869, the new Bishop was
received at " the castle " by members of his own com
munion, gathered in under the ministrations of the old
diocese of Western New York. For this little flock,
and to carry the gospel among the unconverted of the
tribe, Bishop Huntington established a permanent
Mission, with church, school and mission house, mak
ing provision for its regular support through the Wo
man s Auxiliary of Central New York. He himself
became personally acquainted with these simple folk,
visiting them and listening with patient attention when
they brought their troubles to him; aiding especially
in plans for the education of the children, some of whom
were sent to Carlisle and Hampton. One of the most
beautiful prayers which he ever wrote out was for these
stray sheep in the wilderness. But he did not rest with
out repeated attempts to secure better conditions on
the whole Reservation.
The Hon. Horatio Seymour wrote to a Syracuse
paper : " Bishop Huntington beyond any person I know
328 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
has given his time and labor to improve the Indians on
the Onondaga Reservation. If I understand his opin
ions they are that the land should be held by each occu
pant in fee, but that the owners should have no right to
sell their interests ; that by this plan each family would
have motives for making improvements on their lands
and for making them productive by systematic indus
try. They would know that their property would go to
their children ; and yet as none could sell, they would
not be cheated out of their interest. It strikes me that
this would be a wise and a humane change of the law."
In a letter to the New York "Evening Post," Bishop
Huntington said of the system of government among
the Onondagas : " Petty and puerile as it is when com
pared with almost any civil economy known to modern
times, it is yet capable of a great deal of injustice and
does not waste its opportunity. The tribal government
consists chiefly of a complicated chieftainship in various
grades, the offices being partly conferred by election
and partly hereditary, the line of transmission running
mostly through the mother s veins. The superior chiefs,
ignorant men, form a close, irresponsible, despotic cor
poration or oligarchy. The lands, held in common, are
portioned out arbitrarily under their direction to fam
ilies and individuals, for a term of years, on a plan
which gives easy play to caprice, cupidity, cruelty and
revenge. The income of certain stone quarries falls
into the same greedy hands." On another occasion, he
adds : " Convinced that a breaking up of the tribal re
lation was absolutely necessary to civilization or thrift,
I have labored to bring it about; have written and
spoken and been interviewed for it, have been to Albany
and argued it before a special Committee of the Legis-
THE ROYAL LAW 329
lature, and have pleaded with the Governor more than
once, and am at this moment in correspondence with
him." Thus the Bishop wrote in 1882, and the tale
might have been repeated for the next twenty years.
At the age of eighty-three he attended for the last
time one of the conferences in behalf of the Indians at
Lake Mohonk, and read a paper which was as vigor
ous, as far-seeing and as weighty as those of his earlier
years. After carefully setting forth the situation he
said : " So it will continue to be, substantially, till the
people choose officers and law-makers of such disin
terested and impartial statesmanship as to set reso
lutely about interpreting and modifying fairly the
treaty obligations under the screen of which for it is
nothing more than a screen immorality, corruption,
with idleness and ignorance, plead a flimsy excuse and
ply their infamous traffic. In my judgment the apathy
of successive administrations at Albany toward the
vicious Pagan practices at Onondaga is without de
fense, as the practices are without decency. There
should be without delay a thorough and searching and
complete investigation of the history of these compacts
between the Indian chiefs and the state of New York,
not, in this case, the government in Washington. If it
should prove that the treaty terms have been repeat
edly broken by either party and are only a stumbling-
block to reform, then they are a scandal. That search
ing inquiry should be made by a commission having a
heart in the business, and their report and its facts
should be seen by the legislature, the executive, and
the newspaper press. Citizenship, severally in land,
it is quite true, will not do everything; it will not create
character, but it will yield two benefits, positive and
330 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
negative : it will add dignity to manhood in a sense of
personal responsibility and a civic consciousness; it
will protect domestic order and just dealing between
neighbor and neighbor and restrain crime."
Among the many occasions when Bishop Hunting-
ton pleaded for the Indians, from the Poncas on the
western lands to his own scanty remnant of the great
Iroquois, none was more impressive through associa
tions of the past than that on which he spoke in the vil
lage just across the river from the old homestead where
he was born, and in sight from his window. The cele
bration at Hatfield was in commemoration of an event
during the harvest season of 1676, when a band of In
dians fell upon the settlement, while the men were in
the fields, and carried nineteen people, old men, women,
and children, into captivity.
The details of the final rescue and ransom, after
many difficulties, by two dauntless men, and the
joyful return, all living but three, with two children
born after the long march to Canada, form one of
the thrilling tales of the Connecticut Valley. The
orator of the anniversary gathering, Bishop Hunting-
ton, was the great-grandson of a military captain
slain by the same savage hands at the battle of Lake
George. In the opening of his address he referred
to this ancestor and remarked playfully to the good
folk of Hatfield : " It was no fault of mine that he made
the house I live in, in summer, over the river, to turn
its back to you and its face to the east. That way I
see the sun rising, this way I see friendly human habi
tations, the cultivated acres of an intelligent industry,
a church-spire and many a splendid array of clouds
and sky, as the sun goes down; in the evening the
THE ROYAL LAW 331
cheerful lights of peaceful homes. Sometimes I hear
the strains of martial music, sometimes voices along
the streets; occasionally, on the third night of July,
such sounds as might have come from the Mohawks
or Nipmucks or Narragansetts of 1676; sometimes
a hymn of praise from the lips of thankful worshipers.
Of your church-bell most of all its Sunday evening
tones I should fail completely to make you under
stand or to feel all that it has been to me, for seventy
years, and all that it is to me still, in tenderness, in
pathos, in association with a hallowed and blessed past
in thoughts which, as Wordsworth says, do often
lie too deep for tears. It blends in my memory with
the living voice of my mother, my revered father,
brothers and sister who rest in the Hadley burial-
ground, I alone of them left behind. You on this side
do not know that in coming over the water between
us, the notes of that bell take somewhat of a mysteri
ous quality of musical sweetness, which I always
miss as soon as I leave the boat on the western bank."
Other reminiscences of the old days followed, and then
the speaker, with a change of tone, enforced the deeper
lesson of the day s harrowing memories.
"After what we have heard of the Red Man s
atrocities, our minds filled and sensibilities lacerated
with this actual savagery, may I venture to enter a
Christian plea for him and beg you to look a moment
at the other side of the picture ? For there is another
side. There certainly is. Savage or human, brute or a
soul, the Indian is not merely a creature of the past.
In this great leading Nation of ours he is a present and
living element, a responsibility, a problem, a trust;
for he is a brother-man. About 300,000 are in our
332 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
States and Territories to-day, and in the day of judg
ment God Almighty will say, Where is thy brother ?
Nay, it is the day of Judgment and He is saying that
now. The extent of difficulty or resistance to Christian
ity in any heathen people is the measure of its power,
and if there is any Race or Nation worse, darker,
drearier, or wasting faster, there precisely is where the
Gospel ought first to reach out its hand, and lift its
voice, to heal, to bless, to save."
HADLET, MASS., August 24.
St. B s Day.
To H. S. W.
My dear Friend : It is worth while to know that
you have missed something, and care enough for it
to look it up, and that something one of my poor
hurried letters, which never seem to say half what
they ought to, or half they mean.
The summer is ending. How short, how bright,
how intensely summer-like it has been! If it has
brought rest or healing to your spirit or body I am
thankful. With your children and your mother,
the spirit of youth and the spirit of age, there must
have been many quietly and rationally happy hours,
not wholly saddened by the memory of joys past and
old home vanished. " There remaineth " another
" Rest " with no shadowy remembrances, another
House, from which " they go no more out," a sum
mer on the everlasting hills without storm and without
end. Meantime the alternations of the seasons of our
northern climate, of stillness and labor, heat and
cold, seem to me to add to the interest of life. And I
always find that when the first autumnal colors and
THE ROYAL LAW 333
half-lights steal into the woods and the sky, a readi
ness for work returns. It has been a great relief to
me that there was no necessity of going to Lambeth,
and that we could have our stay here, as usual, un
disturbed. During July our oldest son, with his wife,
and two little grandchildren, were here. Various
other friends have come and gone, Bishop Williams
among them. For the last fortnight, Ruth having
gone to make visits about Boston, the rest of us have
had a lovely carriage-ride in Southern Vermont.
James, who always wants his walk, was on his feet,
making each day the distance our strong horse drew
us in the carryall. So we jogged on among the Green
Mountains and their valleys, by running brooks of
water, through forests, with countless beautiful
openings, far-reaching views, and shady nooks. At
evening we came together. So we traveled more than
two hundred miles, slowly and delightfully. It did us
all a great deal of good, tho I did not need it.
Last evening we drove up to our own door again,
the dearest spot on earth to me. Next week I have
got to go down to hot and dusty New York. We shall
hardly get to Syracuse before Sept. 24th., as James
expects me to ordain him Deacon on St. Matthew s
Day at his brother s Church in Maiden. You will
think of us that Ember week, will you not, while on
your knees ?
Immediately after his ordination to the diaconate,
Rev. James Huntington took charge of Calvary
Church, Syracuse, receiving Priest s Orders in May,
1880. In the four years of his ministry there, he lived
at his father s house, and, besides parish work, la-
334 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
bored earnestly in behalf of souls among the inmates
of the Penitenitary and the county Poorhouse, giv
ing active service also in the establishment of the
Shelter, of the Bureau of Labor and Charities, and
the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
During the period of his residence at home, the family,
with the exception of the eldest son, were all together.
The first break came when considerations of health
required the second daughter to go abroad for change
and study. Her older sister accompanied her to Ger
many and remained away through the following sum
mer.
To A L P January. 1881.
A. and R. sailed away from us last Thursday. I
saw them off. With our untraveled ways and close
domesticity this is a hard separation. But the voyagers
belong more to God than to us. He is as near them
on sea as land, and in one land as in another. He is
stronger, wiser, better than we are. Why should we
complain or fear ?
After bidding them good-by I went to Boston to
give the " Instruction," and to meet the Girls Friendly
Society, and to see our children and some old parish
ioners, and then to Hadley to spend a quiet Sunday
and rest. I came back to New York and we had
our first business meeting of the Committee on the
Liturgy. We laid out our work peaceably. May the
Holy Spirit save us from ruining the Prayer-book, or
the Bible, for then what would be left ?
To H S W HADLEY, July 20, 81.
My dear Friend : How faith gets its confirma
tions as we go on living our life under the Hand of
THE ROYAL LAW 335
God, guided, delivered, fed, comforted, we and
our children that He has given us.
You justify me by your kind inquiry in speaking
particularly of our own family. George is here with
his three little boys and they enliven our stillness. I
want you to see the book on which he has been mod
estly but laboriously engaged for several years,
ever since Bishop Alexander s superb Bampton
Lectures on the Psalms were issued, now just pub
lished, " The Treasury of the Psalter." x I know it
will interest you, for it tells much of the uses of the
Psalms in the old Church offices, and opens the
Scripture and glorifies Christ. You speak of my dear
boy James. You will observe how kindly and affec
tionately his work at Calvary was recognized by the
Convention, for I have sent you the " Messenger." He
feels, as I do, that we ought to have in this country an
order of Evangelists corresponding to that of St.
John in England, and not English. For years he has
felt himself called to some such separated and spe
cial work a Community life. With two others who
share the same aspiration and consecration, he is
contemplating the starting of such a House and
Mission and Order in New York. They may begin
this Fall. I do not dissuade him, but don t you
see how the very possibility of parting with him
rends my heart? He must follow the highest lead
ing.
1 The Treasury of the Psalter : an aid to the better understand
ing of the Psalms in their use for Public and Private Devotion ;
compiled by the Rev. George P. Huntington and the Rev. Henry
Metcalf.
336 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
Sept. 4, 1881.
NORTH-STUDY, Sunday afternoon.
To HIS DAUGHTER IN GERMANY.
The anniversary of your mother s wedding.
A still air and the brooding sky full of mystery and
comfort, very beautiful and very tender.
My dearest Ruth : I don t write you much, I
know; and you know the reason. As chroniclers and
reporters, and indeed as commentators too, your
mother and sister do their work so constantly and so
well that I could really hardly mention one fact
without risk of repetition. And then the days and
nights and weeks and years of ceaseless correspond
ence do make one ready to accept a tolerable excuse
for letting the pen lie. You are very good with your
letters, and I think you have just favored me with the
best you have ever written, that from Zurich, with
its vivid description and entertaining incidents.
We all suppose that it is unavoidable that you should
feel a little heart-sinking at sending A. off homeward
and turning your face eastward and going back to
lonely work again. We would spare you that if we
could. But God does not spare us hard things,
because He loves us, and many things which would
be hard and harder are made easy by it. You have
met this trial with your usual courage, I am sure,
and will find your comfort and contentment, as we all
often do, by plunging into tasks and keeping the
mind busy.
Just now I too am a little homesick, as the summer
ends, and Tuesday I must go back alone to Syracuse,
etc., for a week, and afterwards shall have only about ten
days here. My inordinate love for this place makes this
THE ROYAL LAW 337
about as sharp an annual cross as I have to take up;
but I trust I am thankful for a season so full of bless
ings as this has been.
We have all been in the garden, and Mary gave me a
buttonhole bouquet of pansies and a sprig of lemon
verbena. I send specimens. Since then we have been
out, since the Evening Service, looking at the turkeys,
the Jerseys, and the kittens.
It would be better if you were here. How much
better !
Mary is singing at the piano. It is too dark to write.
Love and blessing, dear.
F. D. H.
SYRACUSE, Dec. 19, 81.
To H. S. W.
My dear good Friend : How pleasant it was to see
your hand again and how more than pleasant to read
your words of affectionate remembrance. The copy
of the " Psalter" will reach you, no doubt, by mail. I
am glad you want it, and I believe you will prize it,
finding in it something to study as well as to enjoy. I
have watched the whole making of it, in the four or five
years past. George is retiring in his work, but thorough
in his scholarship and reverent in spirit.
James, dear boy, has gone on his way, as he believed
for years God called him. With two young Priests of
about his own age, filled with the same purpose, both
of whom have spent some time at Cow ley, he has taken
an old, cheap house, in the lower part of New York,
near the East river, in connection with a Mission
partly German, started by the Sisters of St. John the
Baptist.
338 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
There they are, living and working together, in much
meditation and prayer, seeking to prepare, if they may,
the way of the Lord, by being Missioners in the Church
at large. They have formed a new Order, " The Order
of the Holy Cross," with Bishop Potter s approval,
and with Dr. Houghton for Director. You will imagine
the anguish of giving him up here, where I wanted him
so much. But how could I hold him back, knowing
his heart, seeing what he has done for me, and fully be
lieving with him that the Church sorely needs both a
standard of holy living in the Ministry and a leaven of
Evangelization supplementing our miserable, halting,
half-secular Parochial system. I asked them to come
here, but they thought New York the better place to
begin, I hope they may come here yet. They live
in poverty, chastity, and obedience, with bare floors,
no tablecloths, scanty furniture, plain food, and seem
content. I went and celebrated with them one morning,
slept there in a cot, and we consecrated the different
rooms with prayers from the " Priest s Prayer Book."
Pray for them.
We plod on here, as busy as we can be, every day,
with more calls, lines of labor, combinations and per
sonal cares than we have wealth and wisdom. It is not
unhappy work with all its shortcomings.
A. came home to us in October, and assures us that
she left R. really better. She spends the year at Leip-
sic, in music. The passion for travel does not develop
in me yet. A. reads to us her notes in Spain, Africa,
Italy, France, the Tyrol, and I listen gladly and then
creep back thankfully to my own study.
Your loving ex-Bishop,
F. D. H.
THE ROYAL LAW 339
SYRACUSE, April 14, 1882.
To A. L. P.
What a full and bright and blessed season it has been
for the whole Church ! Both Lent and Easter have great
power in drawing people to the true Fold. Lent inter
ests and attracts the sober and devout, showing them
that our system is scriptural and searching. The great
Feasts draw the multitude. Our Cause grows steadily.
The Ritual extravagance and sentimentalism and fancy-
work have hindered it somewhat, but that check will
not be permanent, if we are wise and patient, and if
the bulk of our strong men keep the via media, as we
may reasonably expect. The gain is steady.
HADLEY, Aug. 29, 82.
MY DEAR JAMES : Your Sunday rain did not
reach us here. It was, all through, a dark, brooding, still,
pathetic, heart-breaking day, with a constant expecta
tion of drops that did not fall. I was at home and most
of the time out of doors. Probably nobody can know or
tell what this dear old place is to me, or what share it
has had and still has, by its silent, touching, healing
power, in the moulding and preservation and consola
tion of my life. It is peopled with living companions at
every nook and turn, unseen, gentle, solemn, soothing
and gracious. It is next to the Bible and the Church.
I read Ruth s and other glowing descriptions of the
sublimities and glories of the world ; and then I sit at
my North window, and stroll over the farm, and thro
the woods, and am satisfied, and thank God.
This and the character and lives of my children,
and the harmony of my Diocese, are the chief themes
of my personal thanksgiving.
340 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
Last evening they all went to Mt. Warner by moon
light. Thursday there is a breaking-up and your mother
and I shall be left alone. I think I may take her for a
day or two to Warwick. It seems there is another boy
at Maiden. I suppose they hoped for a girl, but a new
human soul and body are precious, any way.
SYRACUSE, Jan. 19, 1883.
To THE SAME.
The years fly, the last always the shortest. More
and more as I go on, this life seems to me only getting
ready to live. All seems tentative, provisional, unsatis
factory, and so prophesies another world, where we
shall " see " not " as through a glass."
This throws some light on the present weakness and
pain, loneliness and disappointment. "What I do"
says our Lord, " thou knowest not now, but thou shalt
know hereafter." To comprehend the mysteries of the
life we are living now, would provide an intellectual
Heaven in itself. But we want more than that. The
heart needs a Heaven too, and finds it in Christ.
In 1880 the Bishop asked his clergy to attend a gath
ering or Retreat, the first in the diocese, at St. John s
School, Manlius, during the absence of the pupils in
their winter vacation. In his letter of invitation he said :
" Under a conviction that one of the greatest needs of
our common work is deeper and stronger religious life
in ourselves, the Bishop invites the clergy to a season
of retirement, common and private devotion, and spirit
ual meditation."
The addresses given by him at one of these occa
sions, in the winter of 1883, were afterwards written
THE ROYAL LAW 341
out and delivered by request before the students of the
General Theological Seminary. He wrote to his son
George: "If plain speaking will make them do it,
the young men ought to ponder what is before them
and go below the surface of the profession." A paper
is preserved bearing the individual signature of each
student, expressing grateful acknowledgment for the
lectures and asking the privilege of having them pub
lished for their future use in the ministry. They were
printed with the title, " Personal Christian Life in the
Ministry."
PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 14, 83.
The General Convention.
To REV. GEORGE P. HUNTINGTON.
It is not to be spoken of aloud but I suppose I have
got to write the Pastoral Letter. It seems to have been
so arranged within and without the Committee. To
be the voice of this Church to the people, at this time,
is an awful task and an awful trust. One must be judged
of God and criticised of men accordingly. I shall need
your prayers.
In his address to the Diocesan Convention, delivered
in June, 1884, after a recounting of the events of the past
year s labors in the Episcopate, the consecrations of
churches, ordinations to the sacred ministry; and
dwelling upon the prosperity of St. John s and Keble
schools, the district organization of the Woman s Aux
iliary to the Board of Missions, gratifying instances of
the canceling of parochial indebtedness, renewed zeal
in the repair and adornment of church buildings,
Bishop Huntington emphasized the deeper satisfaction
342 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
to be felt in an increased spirituality: "a quickened
sensibility to all devotional impressions, a deeper long
ing for sacramental helps and ministries. In many Par
ishes now, to which I return annually, and in more and
more of them, I find at least a few disciples thus walk
ing by faith, and not the less but the more true to every
practical duty, for frequent communions with their
ascended Redeemer." He continued with an admoni
tion to those who would grudge to others a spiritual
sustenance for which they themselves hungered not, and
words of sympathy for the Shepherd, "with none to
watch and work with him, none to wake early or make
sacrifices where he is groaning in spirit to lead the way."
Other subjects treated in a grave and solemn tone, were
a better provision for the clergy; the worldliness often
manifested in the manner of obtaining parish support ;
the alarming increase of vice among neglected children
of both sexes; with a commendation of the Girls
Friendly, the White Cross, and Christian Purity so
cieties. The lengthy and searching address closed with
the following personal Apologia, the only one that we
find in the whole course of Bishop Huntington s Con
vention charges, but none the less significant in the
characterization of a mind counted at this period one
of the greatest and most influential in the American
Church.
My dear friends, we have been laboring to
gether, as Bishop and Diocese, fifteen years. Will you
allow me to share with you once for all one burden to
which it would be unmanly to allude very often ? I
ask the Brethren to tell me candidly and freely if they
see any way whereby I can be more serviceable to them
THE ROYAL LAW 343
or their people. Every year makes duty more impera
tive as it makes the time shorter.
All I can give is the attempt. So many attempts
have been unavailing that I dare promise nothing
more. The feeble hope which for a time I indulged
in myself that my public services would after awhile
become a source of satisfaction to me or much profit
to others is less and less sanguine. Those of you who
know what it is to find the disappointments of the chief
aspiration of life growing keener as life wears away,
know also that one gets no powers to go on at all,
without flinching or retreating, except in God alone.
I suppose others may be able to say with me that
they scarcely can recall a day since youth when they
would not willingly have given the endeavor up alto
gether if it had not seemed cowardly or disobedient.
What it is of far more moment for me to consider, is
your advantage and the Master s Will. By whatever
means then I can make up for failures past, I am the
more concerned to lay out for that end all the time
remaining and the strength God may give.
Two years later, during the General Convention
held at Chicago, Bishop Huntington wrote to his
wife :
"It does not appear from the action and spirit of
our House that any legal permission will be given to
Bishops to retire at the age of seventy. Personally,
I confess I should look to a discharge from one im
portant part of my official tasks, three years hence,
with a great sense of relief the preaching. From
the duties of counsel, correspondence, administration,
I do not shrink, painful as some of them are. Nor,
344 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
with my unusual health and endurance, should I
think it right to ask exemption from the discomfort
of travel. But at the same time the obligation of
public speech, the cost of the delivery of sermons
especially, are so irksome as to be almost unendurable.
I scarcely can preach, anywhere, to any congregation,
large or small, cultivated or illiterate, without thinking
somebody else would do more good in my place, that
the heart and consciences and lives of the hearers
might be better benefited, and that those hearers,
even those who are nearest to me and love me most, are
really disappointed. So my usefulness is perhaps
diminished, and yet where is the remedy?"
This dissatisfaction, amounting at times to dis
tress, was one which the subject himself connected,
in some moods of self-analysis, with a general reserve
of disposition, a preoccupation and absence of
mind, giving an impression of coldness which yet
melted instantly into peculiar gentleness towards
any one who came to him for relief or sympathy.
These phases of dejection increased with age, partly,
no doubt, from physical exhaustion, and because, with
the cessation of activity, the inherited strain of Puritan
melancholy gained the ascendency. The peculiarity
showed itself in his disinclination to preach at public
occasions and during the meetings of the Triennial
Convention, when visiting bishops are always sought
for by the city parishes. He had all his life, quite
apart from any personal feeling, an unwillingness to
encourage the idea of a preacher being followed
after, through any motive but a desire for spiritual
help. To a great extent, however, he did feel himself
inadequate to meet the expectations of his audience.
THE ROYAL LAW 345
Probably, he was, as he confessed, inclined to be
over fastidious in his idea of literary work, but he
was also really convinced that his words failed to
reach those for whom they were intended, through
some lack of force. One gets a glimpse of this way
of looking at his own life and its demands in a letter
written not long after the above.
To A. S. T.
Age probably has something to do with it, but at
any rate I find myself more and more inclined to
subordinate the individual in relation to the great
causes, plans, and orderings of Providence. Where
I work, and what I say and do, as to its importance
and effect, seem to be of diminishing moment. Such
are the multitudes, the forces, the voices, the ideas,
the movements, the competent persons in every de
partment, that one is more and more apt to say, "It
is no matter; what I do, or what I don t do, will get
done and better done than I could do it." This may
run, to be sure, to inaction and the repression of enter
prise. We must keep pegging away. To work steadily
and hard at something is clearly both duty and com
fort; but what comes of it, that is another matter,
and hardly our concern.
SYRACUSE, April 6, 1885.
To A. L. P.
Like you I find myself in no growing sympathy with
the extravagancies of ceremonial. Whether there is
false doctrine under them or not, it is often extremely
difficult to find out. At any rate it is associated with
them. And the whole thing is so palpably an imitation,
346 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
an exotic, a copy, with no natural roots in our national
life or domestic training, that it is extremely difficult
to keep off a sense of affectation, of unreality. I try
to do it, and to see both sides, to judge fairly
and largely, to make allowance for the inborn di
versities of taste and sensibility, and I believe that by
great toleration, great width, great patience, the
Body of Christ may retain its Catholic character and
be true to its Head include variety without losing
unity, and so gather in the more souls. We can fall
back for our comfort on the grand promise: "The
Lord reigneth" and "changeth not." And He will
come again.
In the autumn of 1885 a new edifice was erected for
St. Paul s Church, Syracuse. The Bishop s relations
with the parish, and with its rector, Rev. Henry R.
Lockwood, had always been close and affectionate;
but it was an unlooked-for event when a proposal
was made him to take it for his Cathedral. As the
oldest and largest congregation in the See City there
seemed much that was appropriate in an arrange
ment which placed its beautiful and spacious structure
at the disposal of the diocese for solemn gatherings,
while its chapel was a suitable place for the daily
prayers of St. Andrew s Divinity School. Bishop
Huntington had all his life dreamed of a great city
church, with seats free to all worshipers, frequent
and inspiring services, and ministrations to the stranger,
the lowly, and the outcast. When he had his pastoral
staff, a personal gift, affixed to the bishop s chair in
the chancel at St. Paul s, he hoped much for the future
and looked forward to the time when the sanctuary
THE ROYAL LAW 347
would be consecrated as a people s church. Years
passed and he found that the prospect of the debt
being discharged did not brighten, and that such
changes as he deemed essential to make it a cathedral
in any true sense were not likely to take place. So he
quietly withdrew, after notifying the wardens and
vestry; but this was not without repeated efforts to
remove the financial burden. In 1889, the year when
he completed the twentieth of his Episcopate, he sug
gested that in place of other commemoration a signal
method of celebrating that epoch in the history of the
diocese would be the lifting of the indebtedness upon
St. Paul s, with its consecration at the annual Con
vention. Thus he wrote to the officers of the church,
assuring them that "anything within my power, even
to a sacrifice, would be eagerly done to raise us up
into that liberty and righteousness in the sight of
God and men."
It has been already said that, however much Bishop
Huntington s heart and longing aspiration turned to
the opportunities of a city parish, there was no place
where his office as Chief Pastor gave him more satis
faction than in his ministration to the small flocks
scattered through the remote villages of his charge.
One who belonged to such a humble but earnest
household of the faith recalls the unlooked-for plea
sure which* not infrequently cheered the worshipers,
when, instead of the expected lay-reader or casual
supply, the Bishop himself would drive up on a Sun
day morning, coming in his own conveyance across
the hills.
Within the round of stations under the care of the
Associate Mission in Syracuse, he always stood ready
348 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
to fill a vacancy, and, especially at Easter and other
great feasts, to celebrate the Eucharist. It was this
encouragement of his personal presence, sometimes
just in a moment of doubt or despair, that kept alive
the patience and hope of the few faithful communi
cants.
While Frederic Huntington was rector of Emman
uel Church, four of his near kindred passed away : the
father, two brothers, Charles and Theophilus, and the
eldest sister, Mrs. Fisher, all leaving families and
descendants. The next eldest, William, after minister
ing in the Unitarian denomination, settled on a farm
in Wisconsin, where his children had their early edu
cation. Late in his life he entered the Episcopal
Church, and became a missionary in South Dakota,
receiving Deacon s Orders from the hands of his
youngest brother, Bishop Huntington. He closed a
happy old age, with sons and a daughter near him, at
Amherst, Massachusetts. The last surviving brother,
Theodore, had spent his days on or near the an
cestral estate at Hadley, but finally removed to his
wife s birthplace in Connecticut, where he died.
EASTFORD, Nov. 17, 85.
To A. D. P.
We have just come back from the place where, in
the bright sunshine of an Indian summer afternoon,
and near a running stream of clear water, we have
laid Theodore s dear body. His life ended after a
decline almost without pain, and so gradual that it
was difficult to tell when he began to die. There was
no cloud on his faith and no fear of the great change.
He waited for it in the gentle patience and holy hope
THE ROYAL LAW 349
that we have seen in him through all his quiet and
unspotted life.
You see that I am left alone, the last of the eleven.
God seems to see that it needs more time to prepare
me than it does the rest of them for the Home " from
which they go no more out."
SYRACUSE, Dec. 22, 85.
To REV. GEORGE HUNTINGTON.
Pilgrims Day, but the Apostles are older than
the Pilgrims.
We all wish you a bright Feast, my dear George, at
the Holy Night and the Great Birthday. The box I
think is on its way. The aunts and grandmother get a
great deal of gentle excitement and wholesome exercise
out of the nephews and grandsons. I am quite discour
aged by their superior zeal, and shrink out of the race,
contenting myself with a message of love and imaginary
kisses and a cheque for you. I wish I could look in
on your circle and see the fun and hear the hum.
The New York Mission seems to be another great
step forward in Church-life. If the life could only
be deepened too !
The Cathedral has been an unexpected tho greatly
desired gift. The Resolutions were made large enough
to give me all the liberty I shall need, I think. There
is general cordiality. Some things are not as they
should be, as to sittings, the debt, but there is an
opportunity for much to be done, new duties, a
new accountability, so I need to be prayed for.
To-morrow I go to the Funeral of Mr. Pierpont,
our chief benefactor. How I shall miss him! and
who will take his place ? His money and friendship
350 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
have carried me through a good many hard places.
The young men don t seem to be quite such Church
men as their fathers.
With much love and blessing for each and all,
Affectionately,
YOUR FATHER.
SYBACUSE, Feb. 6, 86.
To A FRIEND IN TROUBLE.
Let me pity your mother-heart. I can go with you,
and for you, to Him who knows all and with infinite
tenderness sees the past, the present, the future.
Wait patiently for Him! How well I remember
Louise Carey singing those four words in the choir of
"Emmanuel" in Boston, repeating them till there
was no more room for any other thought in my soul,
with her wonderful, pleading intonation !
It is late Saturday night. The day, the week, and
many days, have been full of cares and anxieties.
But, I believe I am ready for to-morrow. I wish I
could have your prevailing prayers for my sermon at
the " Cathedral " where there is so much to be done
on the text, "Whose fan is in His Hand."
This is a giddy city, so much chaff, so little wheat.
We are beginning to prepare for a general, united
Mission of all the Churches, with Fr. Field from St.
Clement s, for Missioner. You will intercede for him,
and us, I know.
We have never had better health in Syracuse, than
here on the hill, this winter.
In October, 1886, while Bishop Huntington was
absent at the General Convention in Chicago, his
THE ROYAL LAW 351
household removed to Walnut Place. This was due to
Judge Comstock and his son, who by an exchange of
the property on James Street, which had been occupied
as an episcopal residence, were enabled to erect for
the use of the Bishop and his family a new dwelling
unusually commodious and cheerful, and in a charming
situation. One pleasant feature was the near prox
imity of the Hospital of the Good Shepherd. For the
remainder of his life it was the Bishop s great interest,
not only as the president of the institution, but as
its friend and pastor, to visit it frequently, to hold
services, on feast days and Sundays, for the patients
and nurses, and to welcome the superintendent and
members of the Training School to his own home.
SYRACUSE, Oct. 28, 86.
MY DEAR GEORGE: The Convention was unsatis
factory chiefly on negative grounds, for what it
lacked. It lacked large and vital measures, a genial,
warm and brotherly spirit, within itself, the devotional
relatively to the ecclesiastical and forensic element,
and a wise economy of time and speech. I was tired
of the heat and noise, and conceiving my duty to be
practically done, left Saturday, and spent Sunday in
Buffalo and Rochester with friends, and in worship,
and got home Monday noon. Since that time I have
been hard at work trying to get kosmos out of chaos
in my mass of papers and not without success. Your
mother and sisters have benevolently saved me
much bother and discomfort. We like the house
altogether. I want you to see my study, and the rest
of it.
We are quite in the country.
352 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
In 1886 Bishop Huntington wrote to a friend
traveling in Europe:
" Every day you are seeing things which, no doubt,
I should be glad to see and be the wiser for seeing.
But I must wait for such visions and revelations as it
may please the Lord of earth and Heaven, sea and sky,
to give me hereafter. It is not probable now that I
shall ever cross the water. Four things have always
stood in the way: good health, much work, little
money, and dear old Hadley. So I have been happy
and content, in the native land, with no palaces,
not many antiquities, and hardly a Cathedral."
HADLEY, July, 88.
MT. HOLTOKE TO THE SEA.
A cordial and loving greeting from among the elms
and orioles, the roses and clover-blossoms, meadows
and orchards, Jersey cattle and St. Bernard dogs, the
splendors of brilliant days and the silences of deep
cool nights.
SYRACUSE, Dec. 12, 88.
There has been a Thanksgiving and, no doubt, you,
like us, have found much to be grateful for, tho our
Feast, perhaps like yours, was stiller than in the past
times. So evening comes in silence and shade together.
But I don t think I want to go back. Do you ? Let us
look rather to what is to come.
Long before Frederic Huntington delivered the
Graham Lectures on "Divine Aspects of Human
Society," as a youth going out from the Theological
School to his first city parish, and later as teacher of
THE ROYAL LAW 353
Christian morals at Harvard, his interests had been
deeply engaged in questions relating to the brother
hood of man. A closer attention to the economic
side of the problems involved in present social con
ditions came about partly through his son, Father
Huntington, who was for several years a public ad
vocate of the single-tax principles, and in close touch
with societies of wage-earners, establishing, with a
few of the clergy and laity, the Church Association in
the Interests of Labor, known familiarly as C. A. I. L.
Of this Bishop Huntington was president until his
death, and also of the Christian Social Union. In an
address before the Evangelical Education Society the
Bishop replied to the question, " What effort should
the Clergy make to reconcile the conflict between
capital and labor, or to secure the application of the
golden rule to business and social life ? "
His opening words were as follows:
"Whatever the perplexity of the problem, the
King s Messenger must look, first, for the rule of his
ambassadorship, to the law of the lips and life of this
King. At any period, in any land, Christianity has
found it impossible not to conceive of Christ on earth
as belonging to the unprivileged, the plain-living and
hard-working people. At any time, anywhere, the
Christian Church, whatever its abuses, would have
been shocked to see its Master and Saviour represented
as associated by choice, by habit, by taste, if we may
use that word, with the best-housed, best-fed, best-
dressed families; with the luxurious and affluent,
the men of privilege, and of the power of property.
It is profoundly significant. To know where our
Lord was born, how He lived, and what His manners
354 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
and associations, how He invariably treated social
distinctions, on what social class He pronounced
benedictions, never failing to be gracious and encour
aging to them, and to what class He said, Woe unto
you, and at the hands of what class He was crucified,
this must go far to determine the question we have
before us of the clergy, as it is worded : that is, how to
secure the application of the Golden Rule to busi
ness and social life, no matter, as I take it, to
whom we minister, on whose support we depend for a
living, or with what degree of favor we may be re
ceived."
In the course of his address the speaker said:
"Doubtless better modes of material management
will be found out; they are slowly getting found out.
But far deeper down in the depths of the human soul,
and in the spirit of God, and in the Mediator s cross
of self-sacrifice, lies the secret of the only lasting
harmony. Whatever kind of house he lives in, what
ever he eats or wears or lays up and counts, if man is
loving and just to his fellow man he will walk in the
light and so walk safely and at large; if he hates his
fellow man he will walk blindly, first to wrong and
finally to wretchedness. A society that has all its
property at the top and all its discontent at the bottom
will topple over iijto ruin. We may decry and deplore
turmoil and violence, strikes and lockouts, hung-up
wheels of factories, and stalled railway trains of pas
sengers and freight; we must deplore them. But they
are an inevitable satire on a nation or community
where passengers themselves are held only as so much
baggage, where workmen are reckoned part of the
machine, where the Declaration of Independence is
THE ROYAL LAW 355
in everybody s hands but not in the consciences or
hearts of legislators and manufacturers and million
aires. At the core of all these guilty troubles is one
malignant disease contempt of what the brother-
man is, coveting and worshiping of what he has. Put
the man where you please, put him high or put him
low, he cannot live really live by bread alone.
By the Word of God he shall live."
And again from his lips came stern denunciation of
social iniquities: "Will the fire scorch the Hebrew
monopolists only? Will it skip the pews of the nine
teenth century capitalists, owners of foul sweating-
shops, unsanitary tenements, selfishly managed mines,
factories and railways, because the warnings have
rung down through eighteen centuries ? There are
inequalities that the Almighty permits; there are
other inequalities which man makes and God abhors
and rebukes. One of these must be that where a
privileged, shrewd, and importunate employer makes
miseries along with his millions. There are compe
titions fair and scrupulous, there are others as despi
cable as they are despotic."
It would be difficult to estimate the extent to which
Bishop Huntington gave the influence of his intellectual
ability in the cause of what has been broadly defined as
Christian socialism. His utterances on that subject,
publications in the daily press, and in the church
newspapers, articles in magazines, sermons, platform
speeches, editorials in the " Gospel Messenger, " charges
to the clergy, pastorals and Convention addresses, all
bore witness to his deep concern for the application of
Christian principles in the establishment of right rela
tions between workers and employers, and of higher
356 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
standards in legislation and business. The titles of
some of these writings are: "Present Aspect of the
Church Social Union," delivered by its President at
Minneapolis, in 1895 ; " The Master- Workman : a Labor
Day Discourse;" "Causes of Social Discontent," in
the "Forum " of September, 1888; "Social Problems
and the Church," in the "Forum" of October, 1895;
"Applied Christianity the True Socialism, * in the
"Homiletic Review," April, 1890; "The Church and
the Labor World," in the " Iron Cross;" " Moral Cow
ardice : a Pastoral Letter to the Clergy and Laity of
Central New York."
Among shorter contributions are: "The Cause and
Losses of Strikes ;" "The Relations of Employer and
Employed;" "The Labor Troubles;" "The Abuse
of the Money Power; " "Class Slavery; " " The Pre
vious Question in Labor Reform ; " " The Social
Submergence."
Of the widespread effect upon the thought of the day
by his championship of a then unpopular cause, no
better proof can be given than in the following letter
found among the Bishop s papers:
MY HONORED BROTHER : You are an old man and
may lay down life s burdens which you have so nobly
borne, and I am a young man, a Baptist minister, with
I trust many years of toil ahead ; but I want, though a
stranger, to thank you for the great service which you
did me through your articles on the Church and the
social problem a few years ago. They opened my eyes.
They led me to enlist in the great army of reform to
which you belong, and I want to tell you now that as
you lay down your weapons I am one of the hundreds
THE ROYAL LAW 357
and thousands of young men all over this country who
are taking up those weapons of truth and who trust we
shall see full victory.
Nov. 24, 1889.
To REV. JAMES HUNTINGTON.
Did you notice that the Scriptures yesterday, espe
cially the Epistle, Gospel, and Old Testament lessons,
contemplate a regenerate and righteous Society, a
public and Social Salvation, a "delightsome land,"
" their own land," judgment and justice on the earth ?
Christ is Feeder as well as King, a Shepherd King.
The Bread eaten, the sacrificial Food, is endlessly and
boundlessly multiplied.
Bishop Huntington was requested by Miss Harri-
ette Keyser, the Secretary of C. A. I. L., to furnish a
letter to be used for organization work, and sent the
following :
" The constantly advancing movement of the new
demands of the Kingdom of God, as the Divine agency
of social righteousness among men, specially served by
our Association, are hardly less striking than the per
manence of its principles. The signs multiply, and our
faith grows accordingly, that C. A. I. L. was formed,
with its clerical and lay membership, at the right time,
with the right aims. What other recognized organiza
tion within the Church is so explicitly and resolutely
given to this service ? Every fresh phase in the rapidly
shifting course of political and industrial affairs chal
lenges the solemn attention of studious and patriotic
men, citizens and scholars, prophets and priests. With
their sympathy and practical assistance, we hope to
358 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
accomplish, in the coming season, more than here
tofore, by lectures, discussions, publications, and
sermons for the cause of justice, order, equity, peace
and good-will."
In a private letter he said :
" I try, in my many preachments, to put in something
for C. A. I. L. and the Cause."
In a sketch of the varied duties of the Episcopate,
at one of the Convention addresses to the Central
New York Diocese, its head spoke rather explicitly of
the claims upon a bishop s time and strength : " Nearly
one half of his waking hours, running generally into
the night, must be occupied with correspondence
wherever he may be. It would be well-nigh impossible
to describe the range of his daily mail. Thinking it
might be entertaining, if not instructive, I have just
attempted to make out a classification of this epistolary
variety by specifying species only, but after covering
two foolscap pages with headings I gave it up the
topics stretching all the way from situations for shop-
boys and servant-maids to inquiries whether the
Christian Religion will probably survive the second
edition of Lux Mundi, and whether Leo XIII will be
the last Pope. This tax is imposed, I suppose, by the
circumstance that a Bishop is a person easily identified
and reached, holding an office thought to be serviceable,
in contact with nearly all human conditions, and not
very likely to resent almost any kind of approach.
With respect to this incessant and copious torrent of
requests and questions, little and great, according to
my conception of a true Shepherd of the Fold of Christ,
a Bishop ought to hold himself ready to answer, re
spectfully and cheerfully, even the least sensible of
THE ROYAL LAW 359
them all, if he is appealed to in the name of our patient
and infinitely forbearing Master. They come from
one or another child of God somewhere suffering,
from some human need such as any servant of the
Master, whose mercy knows no bounds of position
or breeding or knowledge, would gladly relieve, even
where the prospect is dim."
In addition to the many calls naturally coming, as
the Bishop said, to a man in his position, there were
seekers especially drawn to himself through a know
ledge of his own religious experience. The following
letters are examples of the positiveness of his replies.
To AN INQUIRER.
The Apostles Creed is to be believed and held by a
disciple in the Church Catholic, as you see in the
Office of Baptism, in the Prayer-book, where those
who are made members of Christ by the initiatory
Sacrament declare the rule of Faith, Obedience and
Renunciation. Confirmation completes the baptismal
consecration by an individual choice. It adds no new
article of belief, but settles, "confirms," establishes
the believer and gives him a special grace to go for
ward and grow in goodness.
The thirty-nine articles are Provincial, a solemn
statement of a National Church or two, in view of a
temporary emergency, largely negative, a guide to
the Clergy, not binding on the laity.
If you wish to be a disciple of Christ, trust Him
as your Saviour, worship according to the Book of
Common Prayer, and can say the Apostles Creed
ex animo, you are entitled to confirmation and had
better receive it.
360 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
In coming to me you come to a brother-soul that has
had some experience in the "outcast" business and
has tasted of its bitterness, but for twenty-one
years, dating back to the feast of the Annunciation,
has known such unbroken peace within, in the doc
trine and worship of this Church, that the conflicts
are well-nigh forgotten. Before that time I was fa
miliar with most forms of doubt and denial, by per
sonal contact.
In my judgment this Church which is a School
as well as a Home is the natural place of those who
find it not altogether easy to reconcile an intellec
tual and a spiritual habit. It would probably help
you to read for awhile the works of thinkers and
students who have rested in the Apostolic Confes
sion.
FROM A LETTER TO A MINISTER LATELY UNITARIAN.
I do not myself believe that the obstacles to bridg
ing the gap between the Church and a large number
of devout and thoughtful people in each of the Chris
tian sects are so desperate or insuperable as they are
made to appear. In order to do it we want men of
some thinking power, some learning, some largeness
of sympathy, who either by their experience or their
insight are capable of looking on both sides at once.
Those who have lived on both sides ought to be
thereby fitted for so noble a service.
Coming now to what you want to find out : the prob
ability of your feeling at home in our Communion
and being happy and useful in our Ministry would
depend in part on your hearty acceptance of the
Church-system as I have endeavored to present it.
THE ROYAL LAW 361
Holding it you would find your course easy, your
surroundings congenial, and the general intellectual
and ecclesiastical relations satisfactory, allowing for
the unavoidable trials which belong to a cross-bearing
profession everywhere. With Ministers coming from
without, the crux is apt to be the Apostolic Succession,
which, however, is not a speculative dogma but a fact,
determinable largely by arithmetic, each Bishop
being consecrated by three Bishops, all the Clergy
being ordained by Bishops, and Christ having pro
mised to be with the Apostles to the end of the world.
In the New Testament there is no instance of an
ordination without a chief minister or Apostle. A full
and cordial assent on points like this has much to do
with contented and effective work afterwards. As to
liberty, you need not be afraid of being cramped, I
think. The Bishops respect honest convictions and
personal independence, guarded by reasonable limits.
It appears to be the natural effect of living in the Church
to increase churchly sentiment.
Three convictions brought me from where I was to
where I am: viz. that Christianity cannot be ac
counted for on the Unitarian theory of Christ; that
the Christian heart needs both consolations and
inspirations which Unitarianism, even in Channing
and Martineau, does not supply; and that there can
be no Church without organization, nor any authori
tative or abiding organization, except that of pur
Lord and His Apostles and the Primitive Age. Since
coming to these conclusions and acting on them,
every day has confirmed my confidence, adding,
without a shadow of doubt or regret, to my gratitude
and joy that God led me as He did.
362 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
To ONE IN PERPLEXITY AND DISCOURAGEMENT.
The fact that your difficulty is so nearly what it was
twelve years ago or more seems, of itself, to have some
signification, seeing that Holy Scripture, the best
Christian literature, wise instruction, reason, con
science, the Church, and loving intercessions, have all
been at hand to aid and comfort you.
May it not mean that you have been looking too
much, i. e. too exclusively, i. e. one-sidedly, in a par
ticular direction ? May you not have regarded your
personal religion too much as a peculiar state of the
sensibilities, a lively emotion, a vivid feeling of your
Lord s presence and favor, in fact a condition of
satisfaction, and too little as a plain, straightforward
doing, day by day, of God s will in the duties of your
ordinary life, and in an obedient, childlike spirit?
There is a great difference. It is the difference between
a practical and a testimonial piety; between a self-
absorbed introspection and a healthy discipleship. I
do not mean that you are inactive or selfish ; far from
it; but that you are striving and struggling after a
frame which you believe to be the highest type of the
Christian life, instead of being content to do simply
and cheerfully those things which lie in the path
Providence has marked out for you. The Church asks
of her children the latter course as the way to Heaven.
You will find your Saviour there, in that path, or
nowhere. I do not believe you have such faults as
need keep you restless and wretched. At any rate,
whatever they are, God, for His Son s sake, has for
given them all. You are not a daughter of the bond
woman, but of the free, and ought to go on your way
rejoicing !
THE ROYAL LAW 363
To A CLERGYMAN.
There is a difference of moods, with terms and
periods in the spiritual man. It cannot be altogether
explained or accounted for, nor do we always know
how far it may be due to physical, dietetic, external
causes. Their existence proves the value and the
necessity of a regular religious regimen, or devotional
observances, even when the interest subsides, and the
sensibility is dulled. The framework of habit is a
safeguard and there are ups and downs, seasons of
refreshment and liberty. I pray when I do not feel
like praying. God knows all about it, and has issued
his orders with a full and gracious knowledge of my
nature and needs.
Moreover, there are apparently certain tides or
currents, on a wider scale, in the community, in the
general religious life, and they are not altogether to
be accounted for. So far as I can judge, if they are
under law, the law is obscure. At present, however, the
unprecedented eagerness of enterprise, and rush of
events, and intermixture of public affairs, will go far
to explain what looks like dryness, indifference,
worldliness. The movement is circular, or spiral, and
we can hope that, as in the past, a time- of spiritual
awakening may come round. We have missionary
zeal ; we want an age of piety and prayer. Meantime
individual obligation is clear enough. Surely we may
trust that our apathy will be broken up in God s own
time and way, and a better than mediaeval "age of
faith" come in by a new reformation.
As to our testimony, or witness-bearing to others,
the difficulties are certainly great. Our Lord did not
fully state how we are to let our "light shine," or in-
364 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
terpret his commission to proclaim the Gospel. We
can watch for opportunities. Few words may be as
effective as long speeches, and single phrases as elabo
rate exhortations or appeals. Life, the face, the voices,
silence, teach and preach.
We live by the day one day at a time. Does this
not loosen the problems, and bid us be at peace,
though we may not always be of good cheer ?
CHAPTER XI
THE ROAD UPHILL
" By this time the pilgrims had a desire to go forward, so they
walked together towards the end of the mountains. Then said the
shepherds one to another, Let us here show the pilgrims the gate of the
Celestial City."
SYRACUSE, May 29, 89.
To M. R. H.
I find it very easy to be seventy years old, now
that I have tried it. God s goodness and human kind
ness make it easy. Perhaps you will like to hear that
I have just as much strength for labor and endurance
as I had twenty or thirty years ago, in fact, so far
as I can see, as much as I ever had. This cannot last
always.
Everything that I hear about Cambridge and
Boston interests me. There is much that I do not
hear. We all work here and rest little. There is not
much time to rest. The world requires intense and
incessant action, if it is to be made better of its bad
ness.
Your views of the great Hereafter suit me exactly.
You and I have made a pleasant beginning, but it is
only that. There may be no birthdays in heaven, or
lilies of the valley; but then there will be no growing
old and no sad partings.
On the feast of the Annunciation, the beginning of
a letter to A. L. P. recalls that, "It is the anniversary
566 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
of that blessed day in 1860 when H. and Geo. and A.
went with me to Christ Church, Cambridge, in the
evening, to be confirmed. We were going out then from
a place of unsatisfying privileges, comfort and honors,
a barren and dry land where no water was,
into a country which we had not known save by
faith, and as it were in dream, but promised to us and
given to our ancient Fathers. As it has proved, the
description of Palestine in Deuteronomy is not too
good for it.
" Next week will be almost as full of service as of
solemnity. So I take an hour with you in the sombre
half-light of the tender eve of Palm Sunday, before the
shadows deepen around the great Cross. We are all
made to know something of the sufferings of heart or
conscience, which that sacrifice interprets and sanctifies.
But we know too that beyond them lie Paradise and
the Life Eternal, where already we seem to see forms
and faces, shaped by memory and imagination, which
connect the past and the future, and make them
one."
Some years previous to the date of the following let
ter, the Rev. George Huntington suffered from a serious
nervous breakdown, consequent upon overwork, and
was obliged to resign his parish in Maiden. He re
moved for rest and change of air to the little hill
town of Ashfield, in Massachusetts, fitting up the old
rectory as a home for his family, and taking charge
of the small congregation of St. John s Church.
SYKACUSE, Oct. 29, 90.
MY DEAR GEORGE : It is natural that I should
have many and frequent thoughts about the place
THE ROAD UPHILL 367
and returns of your ministry now that it has pleased
God to answer favorably the prayers which some of
us at least have been offering daily, for several years,
for your restoration to health. A devout thanksgiving
is not only the first duty, but it seems that it ought to
subdue and put into the background the anxiety, which
is partly unavoidable, as to your income. The pe
cuniary hardship is real; but when we compare it
with the far greater distress attending your disable
ment a few months ago, we ought really to let hope
and courage take the place of despondency. The
question whether you could work for your family
and the Church was a much heavier one than the
question where you shall work. It is unavoidable that
after a long and slow decline the return to soundness
and vigor should be gradual. It is well to be on the
lookout for a more remunerative position, and it is
well to be willing to wait longer for it. More and
more it has become my faith that the personal Provi
dence is in all the ordering of our lives, even the very
least, and that when we miss what we greatly desired
we may safely conclude that God has some better
thing to give us when He and we are ready.
What strikes us as incongruous is that with your \
manifold equipment you should reach so few minds (
and lives. But then one remembers Julius Hare
and his brother, and dozens of the most intellectual
priests in the English Church, serving for years in
cures like Ashfield. The reasons and equities and f
openings of mysteries are sure to appear by and
by.
With love and sympathy and trust,
YOUR FATHER.
368 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
Three months later his son received a call to the
rectorship of St. Thomas Church, Hanover, New
Hampshire.
SYRACUSE, Jan. 29, 91.
MY DEAR GEORGE : You know what a lively
interest we all take in every step of your way towards
Hanover. The opening must be regarded as God s
way of answering many anxious prayers. It was
distinctly in my hope that you might be in a College
town, for which you have special adaptions, 1 and I
believe you will be of great service to Bishop Niles,
who needs the help.
The following June, in the course of the same cor
respondence : " Let your reply go to Hadley where I
long unspeakably to be." And in another: "Give us
all the time you can this summer. Every hour I long
more for the silence there, the old sweet odor, the
long days and the night-mystery and benediction."
HADLEY, July 7, 1891.
To L. S. H.
In this separated and silent place and its quiet
hours I think over the days past and the days to come.
Often and anxiously I inquire of myself and of our
dear Lord what I can do to make my sacred and
1 Rev. George Huntington, in addition to his parish work at
Hanover, became a Professor of Hebrew in Dartmouth College and
received a few years later at Commencement the degree of Doctor
of Divinity. This recognition of his son was a gratification to
Bishop Huntington which gave him even more pleasure than the
honors he received himself in 1887 and 1889: from Columbia Uni
versity his title S. T. D.. and from Syracuse University L. H. D.
THE ROAD UPHILL 369
swiftly passing work more effectual, especially
what I can do for Syracuse, for the Church in it, for
the Church people in it. If in your closer intercourse
with the women or men there than is possible for me,
you hear of any suggestion as to my labors or method
or plans or shortcomings, which would be of use to
me, I beg you to let me know it.
The pure, fragrant morning air is drawing in at
my window. The life of the house is only beginning
to stir. All sounds are musical and all sights are
beautiful. Since we came, many calls have come to
me for service. I have preached, confirmed, married,
traveled, kept up with the mail, and read a good deal.
I am now in the voluminous " Life " of the late Arch
bishop Tait, which rebukes and humbles me.
Baby Hannah is an unceasing delight. The opening
of a spirit is more wonderful than the opening of a rose.
In advancing age, Bishop Huntington s vacations
were spent in much the same way as of old. He
never lost his keen relish for the occupations of the
farm, entering into the work of the hay-field until
near the end of his life. 1 He always said that even
on the hottest day he was cooler when busy with his
rake in the meadows, than in any other place; and he
seldom showed any sign of fatigue. When he was past
taking an early plunge in the river he loved still to
1 That Bishop Huntington considered his estate as a trust to be
employed for the good of others may be seen from the following
words written to a Syracuse neighbor; "The great tobacco harvest
of this valley is nearly over. I am glad to claim that a tobacco-plant
has never been raised on this farm, where the soil invites it. Some
thing that nourishes the life of man or beast seems to be a worthier
crop."
370 FREDERIC DAN HTJNTINGTON
wander along its banks, and was often waiting at the
boat-landing for the members of the merry party row
ing on the stream when they returned home. He
found the greatest enjoyment in the beautiful wood
land on the estate, one summer taking much pleasure
in laying out a winding road, a mile long, through
which he would drive his guests, sometimes it seemed
at imminent risk of overturning, for being all his life
accustomed to horses he never felt any fear himself.
No tangled pathway or abrupt turn or steep descent
daunted him when on an expedition across country.
A guest in the house, describing a visit there, says
of her host : " One peculiarity about our drives was
that we did not keep to the highway at all. He seemed
possessed with a fancy for letting down bars, and
taking to fields and meadows, and I never drove over
so much grass in my life as while there."
With increasing years he became easily fatigued
by the noise and confusion of a large household, and
passed more and more time in his study, with his
writing or books; but he delighted in taking his
family on long days excursions, or with some of
his grandchildren would jog about the lanes in a low
phaeton, his gray suit and old straw hat marking him
out as a familiar figure to the country folk. Always
alive to the welfare of his native town, he took an
active part in securing the Goodwin Memorial Library
building, at the opening of which he made the leading
address. He was genuinely interested in the affairs
of the two congregations near his home, one at the
village to the north and the other worshiping in the
old Hadley meeting-house erected under the super
vision of his grandfather, nearly a century before.
THE ROAD UPHILL 371
Anything which concerned the prosperity of these
fellow-believers was of moment to him, through the
truly catholic spirit which included other bodies of
faith, and also on account of the early associations
so dear to him. With changes in administration, all
differences connected with his mother s .experience
were forgotten, in his later relations to the pastor of
the Hadley church and his flock.
In the early winter of 1891, Bishop Huntington
responded to a request from the Presbyterian Union,
in New York City, and delivered before them a care
fully prepared paper on Church Unity, which was
afterward published. "The Evangelist" said of it:
"Bishop Huntington s address was beautiful for
that broad sympathy with men in their natural pre
possessions, that yearning love for the cause of Christ,
and that quick spiritual apprehension which are
marked characteristics of the man. He would leam
what the Church is, not so much by the study of
history as by the study of Christ. The Church is His
body, in Him Christians are actually one, though they
have not come to realize it. The discussion was not
now one of doctrinal points, and since Presbyterians
recognized the validity of Episcopal ordination, it
seemed a simpler matter to the good bishop than it
probably does to most of us, that Presbyterians should
accept the Historic Episcopate, with such powers of
adaptation to our policy and regulation . of our wor
ship, and discipline as are due to our own honorable
traditions. . . .
" Thus he thought a federation of Churches might
be made, somewhat analogous to our national federal
union."
372 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
The exact language used was as follows :
" There need be no distress at the word federation ,
for there would be no federation of Churches; the
Church would be, as she originally was, and in the
original sense ever must be, one.
" This republic is not a federation of nations, but of
states as a Nation. In the choice of a term for one
of the constituent parts of the integral commonwealth,
the state, our civil fathers took a name which
had been and still is in civil language applied to the
constitutional whole. By the limitations of language,
inaccuracy is the blemish of many a nomenclature
which nevertheless serves a great purpose in the
philosophy and practice of government. Within a
National or Provincial Church there might be synodic
Councils, Chapters, or Convocations. Encircling them
all would be the fourfold vinculum, the very same that
our Declaration named, Scripture, Creed, Sacraments,
Apostolical Commission." *
For the Lenten season of that year Bishop Hunt-
ington prepared the last of his three books of devo
tional readings, with the title of "Forty Days with
the Master." The material in this volume was taken
entirely from his own writings.
Amid his constant literary activities were publica
tions each year of Lenten pastorals, searching, spirit
ual, and direct in their character; contributions to
leading church weeklies ; and tracts, of which .may be
mentioned particularly the following: "Christ ,and
the World ; " " Gospel and Judgment ; " " Three Lines
1 The so-called " Quadrilateral " issued by the House of Bishops
at the General Convention in Chicago in 1886; four articles of
agreement put forth as a basis of Church Unity.
THE ROAD UPHILL 373
of Service;" "The Common Things of Divine Ser
vice;" " Letter to a Young Postulant;" " Divine Citi
zenship." Many of these messages, from the pulpit
or the press, the Bishop circulated personally, send
ing them to the clergy and to friends at a distance,
thus keeping in touch with a long list of correspond
ents.
SYRACUSE, Dec. 23, 92.
DEAR GEORGE : I wish we could all keep the
Feast together. That being out of the question I want
to give you the Christmas morning salutation. What
stronger proof of the Kingship of the Son of Man in
a world so self-seeking as this, than that by Him, one
day and night every year, everybody in Christendom
is set to thinking kindly of somebody else ? It is as
great a miracle as what the shepherds saw and heard
at Bethlehem.
We all heartily wish you all the Christmas joy.
How much we have to be thankful for!
With love and blessing,
F. D. H.
Bishop Huntington s want of sympathy with ex
tremes in ritual observances was well known, though
there were not many cases in his own jurisdiction
where he felt called upon to warn or to admonish, and
none where any serious collision occurred. In the
matter of language and terminology his objection was
strongly expressed against the use of the word " Mass."
In the spring of 1893 this was a subject which gave
him so much concern that it was only with an effort
that he set it aside, as shown in the following letter.
374 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
WALNUT PLACE, May 26, 93.
To THE REV. GEORGE HUNTINGTON.
I have dismissed the matter of the " Mass " from my
mind. I thought and think now, that if any Priest
in our Church should persist in using the outlandish
and offensive term, with a knowledge of the religious
harm it must do, of the reasons against it, and of the
absence of all authority for it, such a persistency could
not fail to cause a suspicion of a concealed intention
to assimilate the Anglican to the Latin Church, and
to hide the difference between the two as respects
Eucharistic doctrine. The great opportunity which
the " advanced men " (so far as they hold to the Hu
manity in the Incarnation and its practical realization
in Society) have before them, renders their account
ability the more fearful if they overlay or disturb
or misrepresent the spiritual substance of the Faith.
Sept. 4, 1893, was the fiftieth anniversary of the
marriage of Frederic Dan Huntington and Hannah
Dane Sargent, in Hartford Place, Boston; and the
Golden Wedding celebration took place quietly at
Hadley. The entire family was assembled: the five
children, a daughter-in-law and son-in-law, and seven
grandchildren. Mrs. Archibald Sessions, the second
daughter, had already made her permanent summer
home, with her husband and little girl, at Pine Grove,
the mansion on the southern part of the original
property built by Major Phelps, and purchased from
his cousins by Bishop Huntington two years before.
On the day of commemoration a few intimate friends
and relatives gathered with the family for supper
in the "Long room" of the old house. Many mes-
THE ROAD UPHILL 375
sages of affection and congratulation were received,
with gifts in gold and silver ; a beautiful picture being
sent by the clergy of Syracuse. The occasion was
one of complete happiness and thanksgiving, expressed
by the whole household together, at Grace Church,
Amherst, the day previous, when Bishop Huntington
celebrated the Holy Eucharist, and his two sons as
sisted, the younger preaching the sermon.
One day that season the Bishop climbed up the rough
ground on Mt. Warner, with some of the farm people,
in a search for a lost heifer, and experienced a strain.
It did not seem a matter of any consequence, at first, but
gradually caused discomfort, so that on returning to
Syracuse he gave up much walking or standing. The
pain and inaction, combined with an accumulated
nervous fatigue, produced a condition of depression
and weakness which increased as the winter came on.
While no serious difficulty developed, the sufferer
could not throw off the feeling of apprehension, which
was an inherited constitutional affection. It was
finally decided, by the advice of the physician, to try
the effects of a voyage across the Atlantic and the
change of scene to be found in foreign travel. Mrs.
Huntington, with the youngest daughter, accom
panied her husband, and they spent six weeks in
Great Britain and France, returning early in June, in
time for the Annual Diocesan Convention which met
in Syracuse.
CUNAKD ROYAL MAIL STEAMSHIP "UMBRIA."
April 14, 1894.
To REV. JAMES HUNTINGTON.
My dear James : We are glad to know of your
engagements and to get your Good-by.
376 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
"Again farewell, an idle word,
Spoken to thee, who farest well always:
Good-bye then, idler still.
As God were not
With thee through all the never-ending days."
Let your chief intercession for me be that I may
be more willing that God s will may be done with me,
in life or death, health or infirmity, that I may be of
more and better use in Christ s service while I live
here, and that the perfect love of God in me may cast
out fear.
Your ever loving and trusting father,
F. D. H.
EUSTON HOTEL, LONDON, April 27, 1894.
To L. S. H.
This afternoon, we have been floating up and down
the Cam, under the Spring sunshine, Colleges and
their Quadrangles in full view; orchards full of fruit
blossoms, and gardens, sweet with flowers, on either
side, lilacs, laburnums, and masses of ivy hanging
over the banks, and down the ancient walls; and
mossy stone steps, classic bridges and arches overhead ;
birds of many kinds singing in the shrubbery, crows
cawing in the tree-tops just as ours do at Hadley,
but building their nests in plain sight of the town, as
ours do not; whole fleets of students rowing and
sailing, many tennis courts, children at play, and
swans craning their white necks, all a lovely vision.
We have seen many things and people. Next week
we expect tq go to Oxford, Salisbury, Canterbury,
Paris, and then Northwards, D. V. God will hear
the many prayers yours and others and will
THE ROAD UPHILL 377
answer them all in His own good and wise way,
whether just as we desire or not.
We have worshiped once at St. Paul s, once at
St. Pancras, once at St. Martin s-in-the-Fields, once at
Westminster Abbey.
How sad it is that, of many ages, so large a propor
tion are commemorated for great deeds in the art of
slaughter, for mere power, or for rank and title and
birth, so few for the greatness which Christ made
chief of all, faith, hope, charity, for character!
EDINBORO , May 19, 1894.
To J. I. T. C.
On the whole I think the image of what we saw
on Thursday will stay longest in remembrance the
views of Fountains Abbey, near Ripon, lying in
pathetic silence and majesty in a winding valley, remote
from all dwellings of men. The vine-covered walls
of the monastery itself help one to trace out measurably
the whole round of daily life of those extraordinary,
silent, praying, obedient recluses, scholars, toilers,
preachers, all gone forever. They covered a large
place in their domain, as they did in the world s his
tory. And now every day of summer, bands of trav
elers visit these memorials of the Past from all parts of
the world. We have seen them in every Cathedral,
gallery, palace, where we have been. Such is the spell
of years!
Traveling at the rate we do, we can only see the
surface of things, persons or places. One of the chief
effects is to make one feel more palpably and painfully
how little he knows. I want especially to read over
again the history of England and the English Church,
378 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
Montalembert s eloquent " Monks of the West, " and
Scott s novels. We are all quite ready to sail. It has
been the coldest May I ever knew, not one warm day,
not one when a fire was not needed since we left the
steamer, April 22nd. The fields don t seem to mind it,
or the lilacs, but we do. The Boston East wind blows
all the time. . . .
From London to Paris is indeed from grave to gay
cheery, sunshiny, light-hearted, good-natured Paris.
England thinks, France laughs. At the Boulevards on
Sunday afternoon, it might seem that there is no other
world than this. . . .
My ailments have yielded kindly to the influence of
rest and change, in a fair degree. Wliere there is a
constant sense of uncertainty in the body it is diffi
cult to escape depression of spirit. It is easy to say, as
everybody does, Don t think about it; but thoughts
are not so manageable. I can certainly do more than
before we left home. I have not the slightest doubt
of God s fatherly mercy and wisdom. I know He is
dealing graciously with me whatever the result. I
believe it is not faith that is wanting, or gratitude.
If He has more active work for me to do, I shall do it
gladly. If I can go through the push and pull of our
Convention and the Celebrations and other duties
of the second week in June, and get to Hadley, per
haps I may hope to take up the regular round in the
Fall.
On the margin of the letter is written, "God bless
the Diocese of Massachusetts."
Natural inclination and the depression of illness
led the Bishop to avoid all publicity. In private he
THE ROAD UPHILL 379
enjoyed meeting his valued friend Canon Benham,
and the bishops of London, Lincoln, and Ely. In
vitations to preach he was obliged to decline. This
was the more to be regretted because there were
many who would have welcomed with much en
thusiasm the author of " Christian Believing and Liv
ing," the volume which has had the widest circulation
across the water. On more than one occasion a ser
mon from this collection, delivered in an English
pulpit, was recognized by some American traveler
who heard it. During a meeting of the Congregational
Board, in Syracuse, there were so many strangers
to be entertained that hospitality was gladly extended
by the Bishop s household. He himself was unavoid
ably absent from home at the time. When the guests
arrived, one of them proved to be the Rev. George S.
Barrett, a distinguished Englishman. His first excla
mation when he learned to whose house he had come
was one of surprise and pleasure; for, as he said, the
Bishop s sermons had been among his treasured books
for years, a copy always lying on his writing-table.
Another pleasant occurrence was when a Syracuse
woman attended Sunday service at Westminster Abbey
and listened to a preacher who said, in the course of
his address, that those influences which had most
deeply affected his life he owed to the writings of an
American, mentioning by name the Bishop of Central
New York.
Among the few letters written on this journey
was one to a presbyter of Central New York, in
which he described his visit to the University of
Cambridge. Rev. Mr. Casey says, in reply: "I
am much pleased to hear that you were invited to
380 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
preach in St. Mary s pulpit, the most jealously
guarded one, I take it, in the whole of our English-
speaking world. It was an honor, no doubt, and the
fact that your invitation was for the 10th of June
made it all the greater, but unless I have mistaken the
temper of my fellow countrymen in general, and of
my fellow university men in particular, more than I
can easily conceive to be possible, they must have
felt, as I do, that it was one of the rare and happy
cases in which not to speak profanely, honors
were easy. "
A few lines penned hastily to an old friend express
the beneficial effects of the vacation :
WALNUT PLACE, June 5, 1894.
As to my health the trip seems to have been well-
advised and well-timed. We only arrived last evening,
and I am writing at an early hour, the only one astir
in the house, and with a vast pile of work before me.
The twenty-fifth anniversary of the consecration
of the Bishop of Central New York occurred on the
Sunday of the Good Shepherd, April 8, 1894. Sermons
appropriate to the occasion were preached on that
day in many churches of the diocese, and a united
service was held by the parishes of Syracuse at St.
Paul s on that evening, when the discourse was de
livered by the Rev. Joseph Morrison Clarke, D.D.
A more formal and very impressive commemoration
took place during the session of the Convention in
Syracuse, on June 13. Morning Prayer was said and
the Holy Communion celebrated, with a sermon
by Rt. Rev. Henry Codman Potter, Bishop of New
THE ROAD UPHILL 381
York. At the evening service addresses were made
by Rt. Rev. Arthur Cleveland Coxe, Bishop of Western
New York; the Rev. John Brainerd, D.D., rector of
St. Peter s, Auburn; with one written by the Rev.
Eliphalet Nott Potter, D.D., President of Hobart
College, and read in his absence by Rev. Henry R.
Lockwood, rector of St. Paul s, Syracuse.
In his address before the Convention the Bishop
made this reference to the journey from which he had
just returned:
"Looking reverently at twelve worshipful Cathe
drals, and sharing the stately but never florid wor
ship in several of them, where veneration is mingled
with thanksgiving, and admiration is surpassed only
by wonder, I can testify in all sincerity that a plain
service in any one of our least elaborate churches or
mission chapels of our own Diocesan domain touches
a tenderer place in my affections, and wakens a
warmer personal sympathy, than the pillars and
arches, the marble and the gold, the carvings and
memorial tablets of the grandest of them. History
and art, stones literally and visibly grooved by the
knees of adoring believers gone hundreds of years
ago to Paradise, the echoes of their anthems, the
fame of prelates and martyrs, are wrought into the
grace and majesty of those marvelous structures. Yet
I find something in myself, which the Lord of an
unseen glory has planted there, that makes every
humble sanctuary built and cared for by those who are
dear as a household, and on whose heads my hands
have laid God s gracious benediction, more precious
to my heart than any costlier temple where his honor
dwelleth."
382 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
The functions of the whole day were very solemn,
while a pleasant feature at the close was a general
reception, when the delegates and the church people
of Syracuse thronged to take the hand of their beloved
Bishop and to offer words of congratulation.
It was natural that the members of the city parishes
should testify a loyal devotion to one who had labored
among them for twenty-five years. Some belonged
to congregations which owed their existence to the
Chief Pastor, many had received the sacred rite of
confirmation at his hands, and to more still he had
repeatedly offered the bread of life and spoken words
of godly teaching. But through the community at
large, respect and honor were paid to him by those of
other creeds than his own who were wont to call him
"our Bishop." In the words of one who was almost
a stranger personally :
" He was indeed a reverend father in God, creating
a palpable atmosphere of purity, as he walked through
the streets, growing year by year dearer to the people
as his figure became bent and his step more feeble;
longing, as he expressed himself, for his Father s
broad acres. His searching eye, as it was plain to
the observer, glanced about him in judgment, as
well as in blessing, and his voice, in greeting, often
framed words which testified to his abiding con
sciousness of his position as a churchman; for ex
ample, on one occasion when he wished his passing
friend, instead of the conventional good-morning,
A happy St. Stephen VDay. " 1
The same writer uses a felicitous simile when she
speaks of the Bishop s influence as "an abstract
1 The Craftsman, October, 1904.
THE ROAD UPHILL 383
spiritual force working like a powerful chemical
upon the materialism of a commercial and industrial
centre." Through the press, in letters and inter
views, the subjects of the day wrongs, abuses, follies,
were treated with fearless rebuke, and yet all the
time a strong sympathy breathing through the un
sparing sentences made one feel that his heart was
with the community in which he lived. A prominent
woman wrote after his death: "I cannot express
how much we miss him and his fearless writings and
utterances. How strongly and grandly he would say
things, how he could make every word ring with
meaning." And another: "I shall miss keenly his
presence and example and the power he had of put
ting the right course of action plainly before the
public. In looking back it seems as if he had been in
a way the conscience of the city, and his words in
any time of perplexity carried a weight that none
else s could. Think of what he had done, just by his
individual opinion, in the way of keeping church
entertainments within proper bounds, and how
his letter about the Mormons appealed to every
decent person in the Community, no matter to what
church they belonged."
The incident referred to was the advertised notice
of a public meeting to be held in a convention hall,
in Syracuse, in the interests of the Mormon cause.
A good deal of notoriety had been given to the
proselyting efforts of certain emissaries from Utah,
and there was some agitation on the subject. A few
days before the date appointed, Bishop Huntington
sent a letter to a leading daily paper. In view of the
fact that the meeting would be attended by many
384 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
under the pretext that they only wanted to see what
was going on and hear what the Mormons had to say
for themselves, he wrote:
"A suggestion is made to one class of people, a
large class. Will it be altogether vain to ask them,
how they can best serve the cause of public purity,
domestic order, family welfare, the sanctity of wed
lock, a clean civilization, a Christian city and com
munity? One way, a very cheap way, is to express
correct sentiments, to denounce the superstition as a
sin or ridicule it as a folly. Anti-Mormon societies
may be formed with pious platforms and lofty resolves,
and a string of officers elected; petitions may be
signed, protests issued, sermons preached, missionaries
sent out.
" Very well. Let me recommend another way, more
simple, more effective, costing you, Christian man or
woman, nothing, unless, for the moment, it requires
the sacrifice of dubious and inquisitive inclination.
Leave the whole occasion to curiosity-hunters, gos
sips, idlers, those of your neighbors to whom time
and self-discipline and irreproachable associations
are of no account, and stay away."
The meeting did not take place, and the visiting
elders received no further attention.
The Bishop took a prominent part in enlisting
support for the Y. M. C. Association. His unwearied
labors for the forms of benefaction under his imme
diate care did not weaken his interest in other lines of
work. A number of his Theological students were ed
ucated at Syracuse University. He lived within sound
of its beautiful chimes, and his relations with the
institution were open and cordial. His near neigh-
THE ROAD UPHILL 385
bor, the chancellor, Dr. J. R. Day, recalls a visit
when he found the Bishop, as was usual in his later
years, sitting by the blazing logs of the hearth. "He
greeted me with the question, Were you reared be
fore a fireplace ? I suppose you were as you were a
New Englander. But turning to me rather abruptly,
as was his way of emphasizing the importance of the
subject in hand, sometimes, he said: We must do
something for the House of the Good Shepherd. We
must raise a large sum to put up a thoroughly ap
pointed hospital. But you are about to try to pay the
debts of the University; you plan new buildings. I
have watched the progress of the University ever
since I took up my residence here and it has a first
claim on this city, and I would do nothing to turn the
attention of the people from it at a time when you are
making an effort to secure its financial stability, and
provide for the rapidly increasing number of students. "
Sympathetic to every class of distress, that trait in
the Bishop s nature which led him to give credence
to all who came to him for help would have affected
his private almsgiving if he had not kept to principles
of relief worked out by him long before the days of
that inexact science known as " Charity organization."
To strangers at his doors he would not give money,
but provided a night s lodging and a railroad ticket
to any point of destination not far distant. He never
believed in small loans, preferring to assist the needy
in other ways, rather than to run the risk of breaking
down their self-respect by permitting them to incur
obligations so slight that they would not attempt to
discharge them.
Among the difficult cases with which, like all men
386 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
in his position, he had to deal, were victims of alcohol
and drugs, professional failures, clerical spendthrifts
involved in the entanglements of moral weakness.
Scrupulous to the smallest detail in his own money
matters, the Bishop helped many a disheartened de
linquent out of the entanglement of financial em
barrassment, sometimes sternly, but always with clear
business advice and prompt action. When a trans
gressor had lost character he readily lent his in
fluence to secure a renewed confidence, and oppor
tunity for employment. After he was eighty years old
he took two long journeys on successive days, in un
certain weather, in order to gain clemency from his
employers for a defaulter in exile and disgrace. Of all
sufferers he was most pitiful to children, and in later
years could not hear of such without emotion and
immediate steps for relief.
He was always good-natured to interviewers, specially
so in the comparative leisure of old age. One of them
related that being introduced into the study he found
its occupant buried in thought. "He rose and ex
tended his hand in friendly greeting. I have come to
get a sentiment from you on Thanksgiving, Bishop.
" He seated himself again and gazed into the fire
awhile and then said:
" Oh, I don t know. A long list of things. We are
thankful for about everything we have. It all comes
from above. I don t know what to select out of the mul
titude of causes for thanksgiving to especially mention.
" He mused awhile and then said:
" You might put it all in one sentence the Al
mighty does not deal with us according to our de-
servings.
THE ROAD UPHILL 387
Among the various applications which come to
public men, one of the most frequent is for a free and
impromptu expression of opinion on the great ques
tions of the day. Bishop Huntington was never in
any sense a political partisan. While willing to talk
about the movements of the time, giving attention
to progressive measures and the minds of those who
prompted them, he took no interest at all in the suc
cess of any particular party, whether in local or na
tional affairs. It was no doubt a peculiarity of his
nature to stand somewhat aloof, to view events in the
character of a prophet or a seer, rather than to take
sides in any political controversy. In behalf of civic
responsibility he spoke often and earnestly. On the
lines which divided the hostile camps, he advocated
free trade, and strongly opposed the acquisition of
the Philippine Islands. He favored the removal of
political disabilities from women, and was much
interested in the single-tax reform.
The following letter was written during the Bryan
Campaign.
To REV. J. O. S. HUNTINGTON.
The text seems to be " These ought ye to have done,
and not to leave the other undone." Is there any such
thing as a conscience that is not a social conscience ?
Can any soul be pious in a Christian sense, that is not
actively just, be holy without being serviceable ? Will
a devotional culture avail without a social and civic
usefulness ? Which must come first ?
Can the one go without the other? It is the ques
tion of the time for two parties seeking the kingdom,
and wishing to be saved.
388 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
What the Church as well as the world needs is to
get nearer to God. But what God ? What kind of a
God ? If it is the God in Christ, the answer seems to
be, Isolated religion is impossible. A revival or in
crease of personal piety cannot be had, and ought
not to be preached, without a distinct and a con
scious purpose to help mankind. I more and more
believe that here is where our strength as teachers and
preachers ought to be spent, on making all man
ner of humane work devout, godly, and all worship
practical for the world.
It is certainly interesting to observe, from day to
day, the course of the national debate, and the strange,
shifting, unexpected turns of the political struggle.
One thing is already established, the legitimacy of the
bolt. Parties are split to pieces, and the stanchest
partisans on both sides are mugwumps. Independent
voting is henceforth respectable. It would be a great
satisfaction if the real underlying interest, the rights
of labor, the equality of classes, the overthrow of the
money power, could have come before the country
unmixed with the squabble about money, so that one
could have had a chance to vote for a principle
irrespective of the chink of gold or silver, and the
financial problem that so few of us understand, and
about which men equally good and wise are hope
lessly divided. The contest of the war in the sixties
had a higher dignity and roused a nobler enthusiasm.
In his address to the Diocesan Convention in June,
1895, the Bishop made this statement:
" In February a suit brought against me as Bishop
to compel the admission of a Presbyter into this
THE ROAD UPHILL 389
Diocese and the Rectorship of a Parish, from the
Diocese of Western New York, came to a unanimous
decision by the Supreme Court, on appeal, adverse
to the Plaintiffs. The action complained of and the
defense rested on a purpose to maintain the honor of
the ministry and the law of the Church according to the
provisions of Canon 18, Title 1 of the Digest. Com
ment on events, expressions and measures connected
with the contention, which lasted more than two
years, is obviously needless, and is withheld. Names
and details, if wanted, must be sought elsewhere than
in official records. The Parish in question has re
sumed a position in loyal submission to constituted
authority, in harmony with its previous honorable
history. Our Diocese as well as the Church at large,
is under obligations of gratitude and esteem to the
Hon. A. H. Sawyer, of our own Standing Committee,
for an exhaustive and weighty argument, which
won him the admiration, and encomiums of dis
tinguished judges and lawyers, and which together
with the extended opinion of the Court, must be
recognized henceforth as conclusive in judicial pro
ceedings and tribunals affecting ecclesiastical govern
ment."
This was the only public allusion ever made by
Bishop Huntington to the train of annoying circum
stances which led to the litigation, and which forced
him into an official action he was reluctant to take.
With his peace-loving disposition it was a peculiar
trial to be at variance with any of his own people.
A community like that in which he lived has always
a considerable number who side with the complainant
of a grievance, whatever it may be; and there was a
390 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
popular outcry for the Bishop to defend himself
from the charge of ecclesiastical tyranny. This
affected him not a whit; but he did feel the unjust
and damaging comments in the press, almost be
wildered that such sentiments could be stirred up
against him. Besides this he resented the circulation
of a pamphlet containing anonymous letters de
rogatory to himself, and he was hurt by the fact that
business men, with whom he was on friendly terms,
could be connected with its publication and sale.
The documents preserved show how patiently he dealt
with the parties concerned, how slowly he came to
the final step of inhibition, how careful he was to
bring no unnecessary personal reproach. That he
cherished ill-will towards any concerned there was
no evidence from first to last. His joy and relief, when
the suit closed favorably and all unpleasantness was
ended, showed itself in the fact that among his papers
were treasured the many messages and letters of
congratulation he received from sympathizing friends
within and without the diocese.
Bishop Huntington attended the Triennial Conven
tion at Minneapolis in 1895, the last at which he was
ever present. He had hoped to be at the opening ser
vice in his old beloved Emmanuel in Boston in 1904.
In October, 1895, from Minnesota, he wrote to his son
a detailed account of the visit to Faribault, the scene
of George Huntington s early experience in teaching.
Of the proceedings he says: "The temper is amiable
and there is not a great deal of party-spirit. The old
party-lines have disappeared. Nothing is said about
ritualism, pro or con. Two tendencies appear, but it
is not easy to define them ; perhaps ecclesiasticism
THE ROAD UPHILL 391
and evangelicalism would do for terms. But the
lines cross, and the types mix. There is a queer hy
brid of Broad Church and Sacerdotalism, with a
leaning to titular fads and external display. The
worst of it is that the philosophy at the bottom of it,
if it has any bottom, is Pantheism, confounding Hu
manity and Deity."
HADLEY, Aug. 30, 96.
To HIS SON.
My dear James : Tuesday I drove to B. for a St.
Bartholomew Celebration in a tiny Congregational
Chapel for the sake of a few summer boarders. I
found the roads lovely along the north base of Holy-
oke, the stone walls picturesque, and the Pansy-
farm in Logtown brilliant in floral beauty.
D. is pathetically the same,- an unconscious
philosopher, an amiable pessimist. He asked about
you, regarding your life, I suppose, as a harmless
insoluble mystery.
It is one of the delicious, tender, still autumnal
Sundays the first faint touch of color on the woods,
a thin light haze along the hills, the veil deepening the
beauty and making it more fascinating, by mystery
imagination widening the narrow realm of know
ledge and sense. The cattle seem to dream, lying
in the pastures. This morning I took the service and
preached at Grace Church, Amherst, and now Mary
and I are going out to the five o clock Prayers after
I look for some forget-me-nots and cardinal flowers.
SYRACUSE, June 1, 1897.
To L. T. G.
Three weeks from to-day, D. V., we mean to ex
change our favored dwelling here, in the smart city
392 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
on the scene of my ever busy labors, for the blessed
stillness, deep breaths and invisibly peopled solitude
of the old Hadley Homestead, broken only by the
songs of many birds, the voices of cattle and the
farm, of my companionable and watchful mastiff and
St. Bernard, and the steam-whistle deliciously distant,
and the whispers and breezes in the elms.
Yesterday I traveled fifty miles, preached, con
firmed and traveled back late at night; got up this
morning before six, traveled twenty miles, preached
and confirmed again; traveled back and held a
service in the Hospital and visited patients and have
written several hours.
HADLEY, Aug. 22, 97.
To MRS. HUNTINGTON.
We are getting through the Second Sunday. All
days here are Sabbatic, but some nameless, inde
scribable, felt secret in the air makes the hour different
from all others. The Hatfield evening bell has sent
its tender notes across the river : the wood pewee is
singing his pathetic song in the orchard; the August
cricket is piping. A. is taking the vagrant dog to his
supper; all else is still after another thundershower.
That bell made me homesick for my mother when
I was a child; now for you.
Next Sunday I am to pray and preach at the old
Hadley Meeting-house, the minister being away.
At my north-window "fast falls the Eventide," and I
must say good-night.
SYRACUSE, Jan., 98.
To T. E. P.
To some extent it is true, I think, that as the years
go on all the Feasts have their interest and gladness,
THE ROAD UPHILL 393
chiefly in the light and gladness they bring to others
rather than ourselves. Life becomes such a serious
thing to us, suffering and dissatisfaction form so large an
ingredient in the cup; we find it wisest and best to seek
our pleasure and content in what we can do for those
around us, and in the particular duties near at hand.
SYRACUSE, Jan. 2, 1898.
To J. I. T. C.
The older I grow (and now I can say " next year"
of the eightieth) the more religion and the more
philosophy I discover in " living by the day." For the
rest we must wait till the promised conditions of
another and far better age of experience shall give
us a larger and closer vision and a deeper acquaintance
with the plans and purposes of God. This rule seems
to apply to the public affairs of the Nation and even
of the Church, as well as to the private experience. I
take it as a sign that you have a healthier spirit and a
finer faith than mine that you are able to look so
hopefully and cheerfully on the world as it is and the
times we are living in. Stoutly as I struggle not to
shiver among the pessimists, I confess it requires some
effort to see signs of increasing devotion, sacrifice,
faith, spiritual power. But the future is not ours.
And if you, who observe from your post of watchman,
see the condition optimistically, surely I, more kept in
the midst of the hurly-burly, ought not to despair
or even to despond. The future is not ours. "The
Lord reigneth." Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday,
to-day and forever. I give thanks for countless mercies.
" Dews in the vale are softly shed,
I hear the sheep-bells ring the chime.
394 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
O heart of mine, be quieted.
God will give rest at evening time."
March 18, 98.
To W. H. v. A.
My Fellow-Laborer together with God : Turning,
from your luminous exposition, at once comprehensive
and condensed, one finds himself asking, Why
is it that this fair picture of a righteous Society on the
earth, where justice and good-will, order and equity,
love and peace, are the governing principles of in
dustry and trade, commerce and government,
why is it that it remains a picture only, with no cor
responding original or reality, in any continent or
corner of the round world, sixty generations after
the Son of Man proclaimed His Commonwealth? It
is a hard question, a saddening question, an appal
ling question. It requires not only a disciplined faith
but stout nerves, a sound liver, and a good digestion
to entertain it without dark dismay. You have said in a
clear, consecutive, reasonable and fervent discourse
what ought to be said on the great subject, what
most needed to be said, and the greater part of what
there really was to be said. I am proudly glad that I
could put you in my own place in Cleveland.
In my youth I used to give Peace addresses. I don t
remember anything that I should want to take back.
We are disciples of the Prince of Peace. But Peace
has its price, Right must sometimes be fought for.
There are "wars of the Lord." The sufferings of a
single campaign or battle are justified if they give
emancipation and liberty to ages following. I think
a war against Spaniards in behalf of Cubans would
be approved of Heaven.
THE ROAD UPHILL 395
In his address to the Convention the following June,
the Bishop alluded to the subject referred to at the
close of the preceding letter.
" You may perhaps expect me to say something
about the war. There is much about it of which I
ought to say nothing, because I do not understand
it, and much that might be said has been well enough
said already. So far as the motive of the war is humane,
it presents a spectacle of national altruism well-nigh
unprecedented in history. Nobody but fools can
expect it to be ended till the Spanish despotism is
broken. Nobody but fiends can wish it to be pro
longed. Nobody but atheists can doubt that it will be
overruled by Almighty God. Nobody but traitors can
refuse to share patriotically in its sacrifices."
Some allusion has already been made to the un
happy separation of the parish of St. James, Syracuse,
from its Chief Pastor, during the months of dis
affection caused by his inhibitory letter to their min
ister. In the years subsequent he took a personal
interest in its reestablishment, but financial diffi
culties increased, consequent upon a heavy mortgage
incurred at the time when an attractive edifice on
James Street replaced the old structure destroyed by
fire. After making great efforts to retain the property,
it passed out of the hands of the wardens and vestry
by foreclosure sale. Through the courtesy of the pur
chaser the parish continued occupancy until the
autumn of 1898, when all hope for the future seemed
gone. This was the source of much distress to the
Bishop, who valued highly the history of the first
church in the diocese opened on the plan of free
will offerings, under such faithful rectors as Rev.
396 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
Henry Gregory and Rev. Joseph M. Clarke. Faith
and courage met their reward when in response to
the Bishop s appeals, mainly from three friends at a
distance, the whole amount necessary to redeem the
property was put into his hands. When a telegram
brought the last large subscription, on the eve of
actual abandonment, he came into the room where
his family were sitting, and, after a moment s silence,
remarked impressively, " I feel like saying, * Depart
from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. " The joyful
occasion of the consecration took place a few weeks
later, Nov. 22, 1898, and was of such significance
to the Bishop, who had now, by purchase, a place of
worship in the centre of the city, under his own care,
that he sent for his sons to be present and take part
in the services. With the full concurrence of all con
cerned, the title was vested in the Parochial Fund of
the diocese, a board of trustees appointed, and the
name changed to the Church of the Saviour. Hence
forth this was the Bishop s Church, although he
never called it a Cathedral.
SYRACUSE, Dec., 1898.
To M. C. M.
Here our busy life goes on and we can hardly
stop to think. The marvelous course of events that
brought the Church of the Saviour suddenly into
my personal ownership, and so transformed every
thing about it, is almost a new epoch in my long life,
as gratifying as it was unexpected. To have a Church
and services of my own, is indeed, delightful. There
are not many people, but we hope to gather a flock
by hard and patient work.
THE ROAD UPHILL 397
WALNUT PLACE, Dec. 22. 98.
To C. A. F.
Puritan Day and Church Day come near together
both, I trust, to the honor of Him who came to
bring Peace and Good-will on this disturbed and con
fused and too warlike earth. I find it difficult to ac
commodate my old ideas, in my eightieth year, to the
new notions. But old friendships and old friends
remain, in spite of armies and battles and politics,
and the wear and tear of time.
Our blessings are many. My unexpected resump
tion of Parish duties is both a joy and a care. H.
and the girls say it makes me ten years younger. But
they can t change the record of the Almanac and the
Family Bible.
I have read of the architectural changes at " Em
manuel." Of course it cannot be to me what it has
been. Nothing external is changeless. It would be a
sad thing to think of, if the inner traces of my nine
years service should be as evanescent as the fashion
of the building. Grateful for the Past we can count
it chief among our Christmas satisfactions that we
have " a building of God, not made with hands."
With affectionate remembrance of you all,
Faithfully,
F. D. H.
Jan. 22, 1899.
I have come in from Sunday service at the Church
of the Saviour, full of interest to me, where I preach
a good deal, but I have no time for Pastoral services,
and am therefore discontented. No Parish can prosper
without them.
398 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
SYRACUSE, March 10, 99.
To E. H. C.
My dear Brother : At your desire I will try to reach
Utica soon after three, and will go directly to the
Parsonage. There is no occasion for the formality
of meeting me at the Station. The special confirma
tion service on week-days is quite short. If I follow
my own preference I shall preach a sermon from the
pulpit. My idea is that, with present prevailing world-
liness and religious apathy, within the Church and
without, especially at this season, the voice of the
pulpit should be searching and solemn rather than
cheering and encouraging. Short addresses are well
enough, but they are apt, I fear, to leave an impression
that is fragmentary and superficial.
I hardly ever stay away from home now over night.
I do it, in this instance, on account of what I suppose
to suit the industries of the St. Andrew s people.
May the Holy Spirit bless your preparations, and
grant us a token of His presence and power.
With sincere affection and confidence, and joy in
your hearty good-will,
F. D. HUNTINGTON.
The relations of a bishop to his clergy and through
them to his flock are too manifold and often too per
sonal to be dealt with satisfactorily in a slight sketch
of a single prelate. Much of the labor for the parishes
seems like mere organization : the filling of vacancies,
the placing of substitutes, the provision for church
building, the hearing and settling of unimportant
differences between members of vestries, sometimes
between the minister and his people. But in all these
THE ROAD UPHILL 399
an element is introduced which requires patience,
consideration, and justice. In these qualities Bishop
Huntington was not wanting ; indeed, his concern for
the maintenance of good-will inclined him to give un
wearied attention to everything which affected the
harmony of a congregation. His sympathy for the
poorly paid incumbents of the country cures was
very great. It was a continual sorrow to him that the
resources of the Missionary Board and the low esti
mate placed upon the services of a preacher kept
salaries so low. Like other bishops similarly placed,
he endeavored as far as possible to ease the burden
through such gifts as he could make with the means
at his command. When he had occasion to rebuke,
it was with sternness, sometimes hastily, and in what
bore the appearance of an arbitrary temper. In old
age, trifles irritated him, especially in the line of his
temperamental prejudices. Some things he never
patiently tolerated, acts which he considered intrusive
in the conduct of worship, or marks of individual
deference which he deemed uncalled for.
Such an incident was related by one of his clergy.
"He was always ready with a certain quickness of
temper to resent any homage paid to himself; and
his disgust at being made an object of foolish ad
miration was always profound and sometimes ener
getic. I once heard him protest with a kind of whim
sical fierceness, very disconcerting to a maladroit
young clergyman, who sought to force him into an
eminence which he refused, Your Bishop, sir, is
neither a sage nor a hero, but only an old servant of the
Master, who amid many humbling limitations and
many humiliating failures is doing what he can. "
400 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
His own sensitiveness was easily wounded by dis
trust or want of confidence, and to a corresponding
extent he was ready to make amends if he found he
had done unconscious wrong or censured too severely.
When he had cause to make unsparing criticism,
either of the substance of a sermon or some ill-advised
action, he would take pains afterwards to express
commendation. Towards those from whom he
differed he strove to be perfectly fair, however strong
his predispositions to the contrary might be. An
illustration of this was given in one of the memorial
sermons preached in a Central New York pulpit
after his death. "His soul abhorred show, ostenta
tion, and pageant. This naturally extended towards
change or innovation in the matter of the text of the
ritual laid down in the Prayer-book, or established
by long custom. In the early days of his episcopate,
the revival of ritual and ceremonial in the Church
disturbed and annoyed him. Yet here the man of
integrity manifested itself." l The speaker then
referred to a " Pastoral " issued by the Bishop several
years before, in which he protested against the use
of wafers in the Sacrament, not only on the ground
that it was not a primitive practice, but arguing
that the material in itself was not bread. When
convinced by some of his clergy of his error in this
particular, he sent out another letter withdrawing that
form of his objection.
With only a few of his presbyters was he really
intimate, but with them he was very unreserved,
putting entire faith in their discretion. He was ex
ceedingly unwilling ever to suspect anything like
1 Rev. A. L. Byron-Curtiss.
THE ROAD UPHILL 401
double-dealing in those with whom he associated,
giving implicit confidence. No doubt this led to mis
takes which were ascribed to the weakness of indiscrim
inate sympathy, but were rather due to the habit of
attributing to others an honesty of purpose which was
a distinguishing trait of his own character. On the
loyalty and devotion of his clergy he had good reason
to depend, and it was a constant subject of gratitude.
He rejoiced especially in the progress of the young
men who studied with him, and was ready to advance
their interests even at a loss to himself. Although he
strictly exacted the service of the diaconate, he never
tried to retain a priest when a call came to a wider
field of usefulness. It was always a matter of pride
with him that he was largely instrumental in sending
one of his most trusted presbyters to a Missionary
Bishopric. Another, who exchanged a city parish
for one in an adjoining diocese, said in a memorial
sermon :
" The simplicity of his mode of living at once awed
and won. Here one saw the actual embodiment of
that high thinking and plain living so much extolled,
so rarely practiced even by bishops. The strength
and dignity of his conversation, redolent with wis
dom and lightened by flashes of humor, mingled with
strains of pungent shrewdness, attracted, stimulated,
and uplifted. You felt the touch of a widely observing
man, but chiefly realized the sanctifying power of the
man of God. In the homes of the clergy he left the
abiding benediction of a sane saintliness, and every
where he kept alive men s innate respect for religious
reality and the seriousness of life." 1
1 Rev. Wm. D. Maxon.
402 FREDERIC DAN HTJNTINGTON
In the same month as the consecration of the Church
of the Saviour, Syracuse, a similar ceremony took
place at St. Joseph s, Rome, almost as joyful to the
Bishop, who held close relations to the parish from
its beginning. In the autumn of 1876 a congregation
of Germans, under the Roman obedience, had become
alienated from their own communion and applied
to Bishop Huntington for a pastor. There was a good
property, although heavily encumbered. The whole
number, about fifty families, was received formally
by Bishop Huntington, and a German clergyman
placed in charge. Through many discouragements
the people held bravely together and the parish
prospered, a gradual accession of English-speaking
members taking place. The discharge of the in
debtedness was a matter of deep anxiety to the head
of the diocese, and its final accomplishment, in great
measure through his own persistent efforts, filled
him with thankfulness.
On the feast of the Annunciation, 1898, Bishop
Huntington preached the sermon at the consecration
of Rev. Henry Satterlee as Bishop of Washington.
Dr. Satterlee in asking this service wrote to him:
"As the question of Churchmanship was foremost
in my mind when I decided to accept the new Bishop
ric, I turn to you with almost a passion of longing,
and in the hope that the first seed of those new tra
ditions that will grow up in the new diocese will be
planted in your sermon. I think that many of the
clergy of Washington are going to be present. They
will be both in a receptive mood for the highest truths
of the Incarnation and for receiving their bishop as
the Witness of the Resurrection, and you are the
THE ROAD UPHILL 403
one of all others, to speak that word. Please do not
say nay."
HADLEY, Aug. 24, 99.
To L. S. H.
Our summer has been graciously ordered, with
about the usual amount of desired and needed stillness.
The position here, and our past, make the place one
of a great deal of coming and going, a kind of
social and kinsfolk Caravansary. But there has been
no sickness or accident. The atmospheres have been
singularly luminous; the sunsets so full of glow and
beauty as to make one wish that they might be fair
symbols of the final sunset that is in another Western
sky.
We have been a great deal in the open air. This
week all our children have been with us, and all
Ruth s children, with their father, and George s
daughter Catharine, a rich blessing. I have preached
but once, and then to a Congregational flock across
the river. Silence suits me best. Mary has gone
to-day to Boston with our friend Canon Benham s
daughter, from London, our visitor for a month.
SYRACUSE, April 1, 1901.
To HIS GRANDDAUGHTER, H. S. S.
Your description of the water and the land, and
sky and cloud, at the bridge, renewed my homesick
wish, that it was my lot to live in that Valley of beauty
and vision all the year round. I shall never have any
other "Home" in this world. To have been bom
there is one of my three chief blessings. To have open
eyes, bodily and mental eyes, for natural scenery,
404 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
for landscape and the shapings and light of clouds
you will find a lifelong source of delight, satisfaction,
and religious comfort. The writer who does most, I
think, to quicken and kindle that relish is Ruskin,
especially in "Modem Painters."
WALNUT PLACE, May 29, 1901.
To M. N. T.
There can be no question of the manifest superiority
of the hymn of Lampertus. I shall keep this version
among my hymnic treasures, with the Dies Irce and the
" Mother dear." Gilmore s " He leadeth me " (our 616)
always affects me, with the music, when I hear it sung.
You remember old " Hymns for the Church of Christ " ?
Last week some one sent me from Boston a copy of the
Programme of the great Unitarian Anniversary
Festival. To my utter surprise it appeared that a
hymn of mine, of which I had quite forgotten the
authorship or the existence, was sung in chorus by
the multitude. I take it as a proof of Edward Hale s
genuine liberality. The same mail brought me a
most cordial birthday greeting from our R. C.
Bishop Ludden, here. Can the Millennium be at
hand?
During the winter of 1902 there was the first ac
knowledged slackening of the Bishop s wonderful vi
tality. A few lines printed in the " Gospel Messenger,"
touchingly express his consciousness of enfeebled en
ergies. 1
1 The Gospel Messenger, November, 1902: "An Old Man s Old
Testament Petitions."
THE ROAD UPHILL 405
" Far on, from hill to hill, my road runs, O my friendliest Friend !
Less free my plodding feet, less sure my step, less keen my sight.
Yet in the fading West keep for me to the end
Thy morning pledge At evening-time it shall be light! "
SYRACUSE, April 2, 1902.
To M. C. M.
I shall not go this month to the meeting of the
House of Bishops, in Cincinnati. Limits are Provi
dentially set in the eighty-third year for hard under
takings. Mercies are abundant in home and Diocese,
but liberty and endurance are less. No, I was not of
any Millionaire s party, not I ! Some of my utterances
would hardly suit them, though I mean to be fair to
them. Money is a good servant, but a dangerous
master and worldliness is the anti-Christ of our
age and land.
The Willowdale Mission has already been men
tioned. The Bishop wrote of it: "When the time
comes for the whole story, it will need a rare biographer.
Probably I shall not be here to read it ; but my know
ledge of the woman, saturated and steeped in con
fiding love, is better." In a letter to her at Eastertide,
1898: "Whether there is peace or war among the
nations, on land or sea, there will be a holy happiness
with you. I expect to be with two or three Flocks
here. How many more Easters can an Octogenarian
expect to keep ? Will you not give an Athanasian greet -
ing to dear C. S. for me ? "
In 1901 he wrote, planning for his visit thither a trip
to include two confirmations and three drives, be
tween early morning and night: "I shall get a con
veyance in Geneva, and trouble nobody in mind, body,
406 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
or pocket. A rule of prudence requires me to pass
nights at home. I am bidden to confine my public
performances which will be daily and almost
continuous till Convention to the simple admin
istration of the Ordinance of Confirmation. Social
incidents, hospitalities, such as I have often enjoyed
under your roof must be set aside. These are signs
that I am traveling towards sunset."
And once more:
SYRACUSE, May 31, 1902.
To M. E. H.
My dear M., dearly beloved: The hurry-scurry
of this week and month is nearly over, and to-morrow
is Rest, and so is the Great To-morrow.
My journal shows a mixed record, but mostly
of good things, and all of God s mercies, six ordi
nations of Deacons, and one of Priests, and ever so
many confirmations. Bishop Walker has made me
a little visit, and evidently enjoyed his generous
service all around.
Pray for the perilous election of a Coadjutor.
At the Diocesan Convention in June, 1893, Bishop
Huntington signified his Canonical consent to the
election of a Coadjutor. Pending any further action
provision was made that he should have such assist
ance in Episcopal duties as should become necessary.
A sum was also set apart to afford him the aid of
a secretary. To this post he appointed Dr. Joseph M.
Clarke, a godly and esteemed presbyter, to whom he
was indebted for many valuable offices, although he
seldom found it possible to avail himself of help in
THE ROAD UPHILL 407
his correspondence. As the years passed, the bishops
of Montana and of Western New York both kindly
held confirmations at times when the Bishop of the
diocese was disabled, and the question of permanently
lightening the duties of the Episcopate, brought up
at succeeding Conventions, was finally left to the
Standing committee, awaiting further action of the
Bishop. In May, 1902, age and infirmity pressed so
heavily that with much reluctance Bishop Huntington
felt compelled to ask for relief. A notice was sent
by him to the clergy, parishes, and missions, an
nouncing his intention to request the election of a
Coadjutor at the coming Convention. Pursuant to
this decision, action was immediately taken to make
suitable provision for an assistant, and the solemn
choice was made on June 11, 1902, of the Rev. Charles
Tyler Olmsted, Vicar of St. Agnes Church, New
York, as Coadjutor Bishop of Central New York.
The event was one of unmitigated satisfaction to
Bishop Huntington, who had already learned to
bestow confidence and affection upon one who was
for fifteen years a presbyter of his own diocese, while
rector of Grace Church, Utica, and who in church-
manship and character approved himself as a faithful
watchman and shepherd of the flock.
The consecration took place on October 2, at
Grace Church, Utica, Bishop Huntington acting as
the presiding bishop.
SYRACUSE, May 29, 1902.
To M. C. M.
We hope to get off to Hadley before the 26th of June.
If the Convention elects a Coadjutor, there will be
of course unusual interest. Pray for us that there
408 FREDERIC DAN HTJNTINGTON
may not be prejudice, or partisanship, or needless
excitement. My need of relief and help is beyond
question, for the infirmities of age are coming on.
HADLEY, July 11, 1902.
To G. C. R.
Letters from all parts of the Diocese show a general
contentment with the election. The papers are in due
preparation and there seems to be no reason why the
consecration should not, D. V., take place towards
the end of September. All the appointments time,
place, Consecrator, Presenter, preacher are subject
to the direction of the Presiding Bishop or his Deputy.
On all these matters there is no voice of authority
except the omniscient newspaper. The rest is con
jecture.
The stillness here is delicious. We do not feel the
world s rush; certainly we do not hear its roar. Did
you see Jerome s sarcasm at the "Springfield Re
publican;" the Paper that holds that "whatever
is is wrong"? It has another maxim: "Whatever is
wrong is to be made right by being exposed or shown
up."
Haying is late. I spend most of my time in the
three R. s reading, writing, and riding, not " rith-
metic " with a liberal allowance for sleep. There
is some pain and I can walk but little.
I have myself an abiding belief that all classes of
sensible and thoughtful men keep, deep down in their
better minds, even the " men of the world " them
selves, respect for those ministers of Christ, preach
ers of the Gospel, and spiritual guides of souls,
who deny themselves some indulgences, avoid some
THE ROAD UPHILL 409
entertainments, abstain from some political contests,
just because they have a vocation to which they
are in honor bound, provided they do it in a common-
sense, cheerful, modest, manly fashion.
WALNUT PLACE, SYRACUSE, Sept. 27, 1902.
To M. C. M.
We have said a regretful good-by to the old Home,
the only home I can ever have in this world. The
blessings of the summer have been countless chil
dren and grandchildren coming and going, and all
upright; friends too, a limit set to pain, a long life con
tinued in peace.
You see I am to have an assistant to whom I can
assign my work that I am not equal to. His con
secration is to be at Utica next Thursday, D. V. If
you get this, pray for us specially. I believe he is a
true man and minister.
SYRACUSE, Nov. 19, 1902.
To C. H. T.
We have neither some distresses nor bewildering
exultations. My Assistant saves me the discomfort
and weariness of travel. Excepting a chronic and
painful lumbago, my endurance and strength enable
me to call myself well, and I am thankful and content,
as I rejoice to observe you are.
That is our ample estate, our wealth, our title for an
inheritance that fadeth not away.
I have just read Prof. James s " Lectures on the
Varieties of Religious Experience," but get no nourish
ment or foothold, only a discovery that he has no belief
of his own.
410 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
The merciful Father grant you patience, and con
tinue your peace.
Faithfully and cordially,
F. D. HUNTINGTON.
SYRACUSE, Feb. 18, 1903.
To J. M.
We shall be thankful when you shall have looked
long enough toward the Pacific sea and the Western
sky. Sunsets are well enough in their time and place ;
sometimes they are beautiful enough to be gateways
of glory, preludes to songs and splendors beyond; but
after all, their richest significance is that they are a
preparation and fore-token of another Day and a
Light to come. So if you tarry awhile in the country
of evening it is that you may be refreshed and re
cruited for a to-morrow of strength and labor where
labor lies and loving hearts are watching and waiting
for you. It seems long. It must seem longer to you,
without the Home and the home-faces and voices;
for voices and faces alike reveal the soul. You can
realize the line in Gray s immortal Elegy: "The
plowman homeward plods his weary way."
Your plowing has been in a large "field." Mine
has been small. I have never spent so inactive a
winter. On Sundays I generally find Sabba-day work,
but the other six days I am apt to be by my wood-fire,
or if I go out in the cold, I rarely get much further
than Salina Street. If somebody does n t stir me up I
shall get incorrigibly lazy. The daily mail keeps me
awake till bedtime, sometimes with sympathy,
sometimes with vexation.
THE ROAD UPHILL 411
Lent is coming and ought to put us in mind that
there is another world than this and a better one.
Most cordially and affectionately,
F. D. HUNTINGTON.
From Northampton, where Bishop Huntington
passed Easter, 1903, with his daughter and her family :
EASTER DAY, afternoon.
To MRS. HUNTINGTON.
" The Lord is Risen! "
G. met me this morning with Viking. The roads
everywhere are alive with people. I came back here
for the service. The valley is fine in the sunshine.
Hearing the various accounts of men and things,
and then passing out alone into the unchanged scenery
of the landscape, the contrast struck me between the
human and the divine, the mortal and the everlasting.
" Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all gen
erations." There, in the graveyard, was lying the body
of the oldest of my family: I the youngest moving
by it; many changes between then and now, and yet
all how transitory! But the Feast of the Resurrection
survives. One act, one Person, one Morning, changes
the history of the world and the character of mankind
as a race.
WALNUT PLACE, May 81, 1903.
To M. N. T.
The years multiply. The surface of life shifts, the
figures change. But friendship and affections abide
unaltered.
The last week, H. and I have been in Boston and
Hadley. We had but two days for talks and duties in
412 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
Cambridge and the neighborhood, except Sunday
at Emmanuel. It was much impressed upon me how
many of those I had well known and cared for had
gone how few are left.
The last time when the family, children and grand
children, were gathered together at the old home
stead was on Sept. 4, 1903, in honor of a rare event,
the sixtieth anniversary of the parents marriage.
Since the Golden Wedding ten years before no break
had occurred in the circle, and two little children, the
youngest grandsons, were added to it. The whole
number were together but twenty-four hours, but the
brief time passed in happy and grateful intercourse,
and the family prayers that morning in the Bishop s
study were a beautiful and solemn commemoration.
Another interest in the occasion, especially among
the older grandsons, members of the sixth generation
since the house was built, arose from the fact that in
that month of September, just one hundred and fifty
years had elapsed since Moses Porter raised the roof-
tree.
STBACUSE, Oct., 1903.
To A GRANDDAUGHTER, H. S. S.
It is almost a month since we were turned out of the
Hadley Paradise into the wide world. Perhaps your
school-scenery and school-life do not feel exactly like
the wide world. But we are better for some limitations.
They may be large or small, broad or narrow, but
God s Providence has so made us, and so arranged
the conditions of our life, that it is best for us to act, to
work, to expend our sympathies and interest and in
fluence, within certain bounds. To be sure, it is com-
BISHOP AND MRS. HUNTINGTON, 1895
THE ROAD UPHILL 413
mon to talk of "society" as if it were something so
advantageous and profitable that the bigger it is, and
the more one knows of it, the better. But then it is a
very mixed thing in itself everywhere; it is full of
excesses and follies and dangers ; it is apt to be super
ficial; it may hurt the independence and dignity of
individual or personal womanhood or manhood; and
all that we really need to know of it can generally be
learned in a refined family, in a school like yours,
or in a carefully chosen and guarded circle.
Some people think it is enough to conform de
cently to the popular standard, without considering
that it is every one s duty to help make the " popular
standard" what it ought to be. You will take your
principles and rules of conduct and opinions from
a higher source than the customs and fashions that
prevail about you. This trait, I am glad to believe,
is hereditary in the Huntington-Phelps blood.
SYRACUSE, Dec. 19, 1903.
To W. H. C.
My dear Brother : The language of Canon 17
seems to warrant you in asking and allowing any
devout person to read one or both of the lessons at
morning or evening Prayer, without ordination. This
privilege is not forfeited, I suppose, by the circum
stance that the lay-reader may have been made, or
has acted, as a minister, preacher, or pastor, of a non-
episcopal congregation.
If I am ever disposed to desire a large Episcopal
authority, it is in order that I may exercise a larger
liberty in setting aside some of the more minute
rubrical and ecclesiastical prohibitions and require-
I
414 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
merits which may be necessary, in their general opera
tion, to Church-order and regularity, but which do
sometimes come in conflict with reason or common
sense.
I wish you strength and peace, in Family and Flock,
at the coming Feast and always and evermore.
Affectionately and faithfully,
F. D. HUNTINGTON.
WALNUT PLACE, Jan. 5, 1904.
MY DEAR GEORGE : If all people that were
seeking the Truth had their faces set one way, all
moving in one direction, only at different distances,
and by various and devious routes, the sermon, which
I have just read, would be not only able but admirable.
I wish I could be sure that I understand it ; so far as I
do, it recognizes no such thing as false or dangerous
error, there is room in God s plan for every possible
kind and degree of heresy. In fact there is logically
no such thing as heresy. The line between Truth and
Falsehood disappears ; nobody can tell at all where it
runs. " The faith " is either an abstraction or a phan
tom. The Church is the world and everybody is a
Churchman, Sin is utterly ignored. Nobody is willing
or intending to do wrong, or to think wrong. Orthodoxy
is a phantasy or a dream. If there is Catholicity at all,
Doctrine, Dogma, is not an element in it.
The sermon ends with an open, distinct, unqualified
proclamation that the one only condition of admission
to the Kingdom of God is Love, which in my
opinion is the one perilous, destructive, plausible, wide
spread and spreading delusion of Christendom, the anti
christ that successfully tempts Unitarians, Universal-
THE ROAD UPHILL 415
ists, rationalists, Broad-Churchmen, neologists of every
description.
In the division of episcopal duties with his co
adjutor, Bishop Huntington retained, as his own
share, the ordination of priests, with visitations- in the
fourth Missionary district, comprising the city of
Syracuse, Onondaga and several counties adjacent.
Through the following season he was able to keep his
appointments in this limited area and to preside at the
annual Convention in June. During the summers
of extreme age he lacked sufficient strength to perform
public work, and, for the only time in his long life, did
no Sunday duty in the vacation, but was content
to worship with his wife and children at one of the
churches in the neighborhood either at Grace,
Amherst, or at St. John s, Northampton. The last
record of preaching in the Connecticut Valley was
one Sunday in August, 1899, when he was rowed
across the river, from his own meadow to the opposite
bank, and walked through the fields to the Hatfield
meeting-house, where he spoke to the assembled con
gregation.
Under that pulpit his grandfather s family had often
sat in the days of the Revolution; and its preacher,
in his own youth, Dr. Lyman, 1 was by marriage a
family connection. Associations with the past and the
1 Rev. Joseph Lyman, D. D. was born in Lebanon, Conn., in
1749. He graduated from Yale College with high honors, and served
as pastor of the Congregational Church in Hatfield for over half a
century. " He ascribed much of his pastoral success to his wife,
whose ruling aim seemed to be to promote his usefulness." She was
Hannah, daughter of Simon Huntington, of Lebanon. Simon s elder
brother Samuel was the grandfather of Rev. Dan Huntington, father
of Bishop Huntington.
416 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
sense of neighborly relations were of strong influence
upon the Bishop, who gladly responded to an oppor
tunity to carry the word of God to this flock so near
his home.
In the last winter of his life he confirmed in several
parishes near Syracuse, finding satisfaction in the
ability to continue his official labors. He preached
once at the Church of the Saviour, and held an Ordi
nation of Priests at Calvary ; and, in the absence of a
regular minister at the Church of St. John the Divine,
attended the services several Sundays, celebrating
the communion and taking charge of the affairs of
the parish. Excepting afternoon confirmations in the
city churches, and the accustomed Sunday vesper
services at the Hospital of the Good Shepherd, which
he never missed except in actual illness, these were
the only ministrations of the closing months of his life.
He continued each month to attend the meetings
of the Hospital trustees, business discussions often
trying and perplexing, through the many questions to
be settled, in all of which he felt a deep concern. He
also presided on the board of the "Shelter for Un
protected Girls " and at the monthly meetings of the
managers of the State Institution for the Feeble
minded. His sympathy for personal afflictions, es
pecially those of children, and his early friendship
for the founder, Dr. Wilbur, led him, when he first
came to Syracuse, to take an interest in this work.
From a similar feeling he was led to realize the neg
lected religious condition of the deaf-mutes, scattered
through his diocese, " the silent people of his
flock " as he called them, and he appointed a
priest to minister to them in the sign -language, and
THE ROAD UPHILL 417
secured a support through the Junior Branch of the
Woman s Auxiliary.
In February a sudden chill came as a premonitory
sign of failing strength, and though he rallied quickly,
other attacks followed, with a severe cold, which laid
him up through most of Lent.
SYRACUSE, Feb. 26, 1904.
To G. C. R.
After fourteen days indoors, with neuralgia and
some depression , I have been out relishing the invigo
rating air and sunshine. Winter kolds on, Spring
must be somewhere behind the hills. In how many
ways God teaches us that we are weak, and that only
He is strong! The "Shelter" and "Hospital" are
full.
You must find it needs a stock of spirits to keep up
cheerfully among the unhappy. Or are they all happy,
in their way ?
We have "Walks in New England," &c., &c., but
Nature always outwits the painters and story-tellers.
SYRACUSE, April 1, 1904.
To M. O S.
My very dear Fellow-Pilgrim : I hope this will
find you somewhere, and find you in health and peace.
It is not wholly a peaceful world or society; but we
have no real war, only confusion coming of wrong
desires and clashing interests and ungoverned pas
sions. Our business, plainly, is not to add to them;
Good Friday helps to that. Our winter, God s winter,
has been very merciful to us, and here we are, growing
old, and not accomplishing much, but praying for one
418 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
another, giving thanks and waiting* At Hadley I have
a change of farmers, a venture, Providence remains
there from year to year. We seem to hear less and
less from Berkshire, or "Berkshire Mary." The
grandchildren are fine.
Love forever,
F. D. H.
WALNUT PLACE, May, 1904.
To M. R. H.
You never forget the return of my birthday and
you faithfully anticipate the eighty-fifth. It is not easy
for me to realize that the years are so many, for my
endurance and activity continue and my faculties are
not much impaired. H. and our two daughters are our
housemates. Ruth with her three bright and good
children are at Northampton, and we see much of
them in summer. My sympathy with you in your
weakness is most sincere. May it be with you as it
was with the old English poet :
" The soul s dark cottage, battered and decayed,
Lets in new light through chinks that time has made."
The happy days at the South Congregational are
kept in mind.
Love and blessing for you, in whatever of life it
shall please God to grant us, to the end.
With thanks and confidence,
F. D. HUNTINGTON.
With the coming on of spring the Bishop was able
to take his daily walks, making his way slowly to the
Hospital, or across the park to the electric cars, and
through the city streets, to the bank, the bookstore,
THE ROAD UPHILL 419
the news-stand, chatting cheerily with those he met.
Much of the time at home, when not at his desk, where
writing became evidently more and more of an effort,
he would sit by the fire, with a book in his hand but
not reading much, or resting on a couch in the family
room. In the evenings he found diversion in playing
backgammon with a kind neighbor, for whose com
pany he would frequently send. A few times he spent
a half hour with his trusted adviser Rev. Dr. Babcock,
who had also grown enfeebled by age. Although he
talked of making one more visit to Utica, among the
friends there who were endeared to him through years
of affectionate intercourse, the energy for a day s
travel did not come. He could not carry out his in
tention to be present at the opening services of Holy
Cross House, at West Park, built by the Order of which
his son Father Huntington was Superior. He wrote to
Rev. George Huntington that he hoped to see him
there on that occasion, but they never met again in
this world.
On his birthday, in beautiful May weather, he en
joyed a short trip to Cazenovia with his wife, making
the journey to baptize a little grandson of his old
friend Bishop Stevens, in St. Peter s Church.
Although it seemed at one time very doubtful
whether he would be able to attend the annual Con
vention of the diocese in Rome, on the second Tuesday
in June, he made the usual preparation, and before
the time came his bodily strength returned remarkably.
Mrs. Huntington accompanied him thither to the
house of friends. He went and came without signs
of fatigue, leaving the business to be conducted by
Bishop Olmsted, the Coadjutor; and delivered his
420 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
address with all the power and animation of earlier
days.
After the statistical report he continued :
"Calling to mind the fact that we stand with the
best minds of the best thinkers and students, both of
the Hebrew monotheism and Gentile speculation, we
see that in the Church we are in the midst of the
ceaseless conflict between the divine and human, be
tween the natural and the spiritual, between what
God made man to be and what man has made himself
to be, and that we are as individuals responsible for
the issue of the struggle. By any mental measurement,
all the intellectual subtleties of the Athenian and
Alexandrian philosophy were overmatched by a
Nazarene carpenter and two fishermen on the banks
of the Jordan and the Lake of Galilee, with a tent-
maker from Tarsus. The voice from the Mount of
Olives and the Cross at Calvary sounds unaltered
from age to age, and we have heard it and we believe
it. Even the wisest of the Neo-Platonists were respon
sible for the paradox: This world is the best of all
possible worlds and everything in it is a necessary evil ;
and neither Pantheism nor all the Dualism from the
early Greeks to St. Paul has been able to reconcile
that contradiction. It is most impressive and most
pathetic to see nevertheless in history, how the in
wrought idea of a something, a power and a presence,
beyond all mortal forces or phenomena, has survived
in spite of all theological theories and systems. By a
few simple New Testament affirmations our foothold
is established and our place made secure. I came
forth from God and am come into the world; Except
a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth
THE ROAD UPHILL 421
alone, but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit ; This
is life eternal, to know Thee the only true God, and
Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent; My doctrine
is not mine but His that sent me ; I and my Father
are one." :
At the close he said: "The required work of my
calling has not been beyond my strength and endurance.
The relief afforded by the Coadjutor, always ready
and willing, is ample. There is room with me for re
flection and reasonable rest, with freedom from trouble
some anxiety. Spoken and written assurances and
tokens of confidence made the 28th of May bright
and cheerful for me and my family, as the earth and
sky were full of the blended beauty of spring and
summer. The inevitable mortal decline is gradual,
and so far is partial. All that is needful in the attention
and assistance of the clergy is offered and provided,
and the benefits are not wholly obscured by my keen
regret at having learned so little in a lengthened life,
by experience and study, and at having forgotten so
much of what I once knew. The Divine Providence
to Christ s ministers never fails."
CHAPTER XII
THE JOURNEY ENDED
" The pilgrim they laid in a large upper chamber, whose window
opened towards the sun-rising. The name of the chamber was Peace. "
IN all the thirty-five years of his Episcopate it was
Bishop Huntington s custom to close the year s work
after Convention with attendance at the graduating
exercises of St. John s School, Manlius, and for nearly
that length of time he had been present at those of
Keble School, Syracuse. This latter, in June, 1904,
completed its long and successful history, and sent out
its last class. The Bishop presented the diplomas,
with the same graceful and appropriate greetings
and words of Godspeed, as in the days of old.
The last entry ever made in the record of Sunday
ministrations, begun in 1842, was of confirmation at All
Saints Church, Syracuse, on the morning of June 19.
That afternoon the Bishop read Evening Prayer in the
chapel at the Hospital of the Good Shepherd, the
closing service of his Episcopate.
Once more only did he ever make utterance in public.
On Monday he and his family left Syracuse, reaching
the beloved Hadley home that evening after a long and
wearisome journey. In the mail waiting for him was a
pressing invitation to attend the Commencement
exercises the next day at Smith College, and make the
opening prayer. He arose at five o clock and, seated
THE JOURNEY ENDED 423
at his study-table, wrote out the petitions which he
offered that morning in the College chapel. One who
was present said of them after his death: "Bowed
with the weight of years, but with much of the old
resonance in his voice, his words had the authority
of a stainless life behind them; they bore the impress
of long familiarity with the best devotional literature;
they were nobly simple and inclusive of the widest
human interests." l
During the week that followed, the power and
associations of the past asserted themselves in spite
of failing attention and evident inability to read or
write. The Bishop drove once more through the
wood-paths of his farm, wandered in the meadow and
sat dreamily watching the haymakers. Even when his
nights were broken, he could pass the time out of doors
through the day, and drive about a little; one day
attending for a few minutes the graduation exercises of
Hopkins Academy, the school of his boyhood. On
Sunday he went to St. John s Northampton, having in
the seat with him the granddaughter who, since her
babyhood, had been his favorite companion. The
next morning, though manifestly more feeble, his
first thought was a promise to bring his daughter
and her children from their home in Northampton
to the house at Pine Grove.
As he drove down the valley and across the river,
he remarked on the perfection of the landscape under
a radiant June sky, the lights and shadows on the
mountains, the rich verdure of the meadows, and the
peace and restfulness of the countryside.
In the twilight that evening he sat for awhile under
1 The Outlook, July 23, 1904.
424 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
the old elm tree planted by his grandfather, the farm
dog on the grass at his feet. Two hours later one of
the sudden chills came on, which marked the begin
ning of some serious disorder, plainly connected with
the wearing out of the brain, for his mind wandered
from the first and became more and more clouded.
There was much pain and restlessness, but he was
comforted by the presence of his wife and daughters,
and happy to greet his younger son when he came
for a few days. He was quite unaware that the eldest
bom was lying ill at the rectory at Hanover.
At first there seemed reason to hope that the wonder
ful constitution which had stood the strain of eighty-
five years of activity would rally from this sharp at
tack, and the failure of strength was hardly per
ceptible. On Saturday, the morning of July 9, the
doctor asked him how he was, and he replied quite
clearly, "Purified as by fire." These were the last
articulate words, strikingly in accord with the spirit
of his verses written not long before:
" Come, when pain s throbbing pulse in brain and nerves is burning,
O form of Man! that moved among the faithful three,
These earth-enkindled flames to robes of glory turning;
Walk through the fire, peace-giving Son of God, with me ! "
Sight and hearing seemed to . fail after that, and
when his physician, a family friend, arrived from
Syracuse that evening, he could not recognize her.
Messages of love and sympathy, which multiplied
when the fact of his extreme illness became known,
never reached his ears; but the many prayers offered
from hearts all over the land surely brought peace
and sustaining strength to the departing soul. On
Monday, when the Commendatory prayers were read
THE JOURNEY ENDED 425
in the quiet sick-room by the rector of St. John s
Church, the soul was very near its release. All that
day the sweet breath from the new-mown hay was
wafted in at the open windows, and the sounds of
homely toil in the fields could be heard, but he who
had loved it all so well lay unconscious, as the tide of
life ebbed peacefully away.
Before the sun sank low in the west, that hour so
often dwelt upon by him with pathetic longing, the
light eternal shone upon his vision.
He was laid to rest beside his father and mother,
brothers and sisters, in the old cemetery where an
cestors for generations had slept. There was no op
portunity for pomp and ceremonial in the simple
country funeral, and it was what he would have liked
best. By a strange and mysterious dispensation Rev.
George Huntington, the older son, was taken away
suddenly, while suffering from a low fever, just two
hours after his father breathed his last; and his sons
brought him back to the homestead to be laid in the
earth at the same time. The old " Long room " had
been often the scene of holy rites, baptisms, mar
riages, and many a service of prayer and praise.
There the family, with two clergymen, the Bishop s
successor in office and his first assistant in Emmanuel
Church, recited the creed and listened to the glorious
Scripture lesson for the Burial of the Dead. At the
grave, clergy and choristers in their robes, from near
and far, with friends and neighbors, gathered for the
solemn Committal. The day was beautiful, full of
promise of the better world to come.
During the services a slight veil covered the sky,
but when the uplifted voices reached the sixth verse
426 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
of the hymn, " For all the saints who from their labors
rest," a brilliant shaft of light from the sinking sun
broke across the vistas of hillside and meadow,
kindling the vestments of those ministering into an
almost unearthly radiance, with a reminder to the
assembled worshipers of that other "golden evening"
which " brightens in the West" and of the "yet more
glorious Day."
"THEN i HEARD IN MY DREAM THAT ALL THE BELLS
OF THE CITY RANG FOR JOY."
APPENDIX
GENEALOGICAL NOTES
I. MOSES PORTER S grandfather, Samuel Porter,
was the first male child born in Hadley, and his great-
grandmother, Sarah Westwood, the first bride. She
married Aaron Porter, a son of Aaron, who accom
panied the Colonists from Dorchester, Massachusetts,
to Windsor, Connecticut; was active in the Indian
wars, a famous slayer of wolves, and, finally, a Major
under Governor Andros. He went with the settlers
to Northampton, at the special request of his minister,
Rev. Mr. Mather; built a homestead on the hill where
the Forbes Library now stands, and was buried in the
old graveyard. His name and deeds are commemo
rated by a handsome monument erected by a de
scendant, the father of the late Professor Josiah
Parsons Cooke, of Harvard College.
II. Rev. John Whiting was closely connected with
the Regicide judges, Goffe and Whalley, and is known
to have been the secret medium for their correspond
ence with Increase Mather.
His second wife, Phoebe, an ancestress whose mem
ory Bishop Huntington always cherished, was the
daughter of Thomas Gregson, an active member of
the New Haven Colony, and intimately associated with
its pastor, Rev. John Davenport. After her husband s
death, Mrs. Whiting became the third wife of his
428 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON
friend, Rev. John Russell, rightly called " the Hero of
Hadley," since it was through his courage, endurance,
and unflinching fidelity to the trust imposed in him
that the Regicides were concealed under his roof for
many years. Phoebe survived him, and spent the last
years of her life in New Haven. It may be worthy
of note that Rev. John Whiting was the ancestor of
General Ulysses Grant, whose line comes down
through the first wife.
III. Mrs. Pitkin s grave is to be found, with the
headstone marking it, in the Hadley burying-ground,
next to the raised sandstone tablet on which, in rude
characters, overgrown with lichens, is inscribed the
epitaph of her stepfather, Parson Russell. She died
in 1753, only a few months before the completion of
the old homestead.
IV. Connecticut traditions have preserved the story
of William Pitkin s sister Martha, who came from
England to visit him, and was persuaded by a com
pany of her admirers to remain and select one of
their number as a husband, her choice falling upon
Henry Wolcott of Windsor. The worthies of the
colony maintained that she ought not to be permitted
to go back to the old country, because " the stock was
too good." History seems to bear out their prediction,
since from this ancestress came a long line of distin
guished men, beginning with Oliver Wolcott, signer of
the Declaration of Independence, and including some
thirty judges and seven governors of states, the latest
being the lamented Roger Wolcott of Massachusetts.
V. Bethia Throop, the paternal grandmother of
Frederic Dan Huntington, was the granddaughter of
Dan Throop, whose wife, Deborah Church, was de-
APPENDIX 429
scended from Richard Warren of the Mayflower.
According to Connecticut traditions the Throops
came down from Adrian Scrope, one of the signers
of the death warrant of Charles the First. After the
execution of Scrope, on Tower Hill, in 1666, his son
William, it is said, emigrated to this country and
changed his name to Throop. Bishop Huntington
used to remark, playfully, that he was led to account
for two opposite strains of temperament in his own
nature by ascribing them to the mixture of Round
head and Royalist blood, through the Regicide judge
and a collateral ancestor, Samuel Huntington, captain
in King Charles s Life Guards. The brother of Sam
uel, Simon, sailed for this country and died on a ship
in New Haven Harbor; but his sons Simon and
Christopher were founders of the town of Norwich,
Connecticut, and from them, so far as genealogical
records show, are descended those of the name scat
tered over this wide land. William Huntington, who
married Bethia Throop, was the great-grandson of
Mary Fairbanks, born in the house in Dedham, Mas
sachusetts, which is preserved by the Fairbanks family
in America as an interesting historical relic. She mar
ried Michael Metcalf in 1644.
VI. The early history of Bishop Huntington s
birthplace, with that of his mother s family, may be
found in the little volume " Under a Colonial Roof-
tree," published by C. E. Wolcott, Syracuse.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PUBLICATIONS STILL IN PRINT
SERMONS FOR THE PEOPLE, 8th Edition, 12mo . . $1.00
E. P. Button & Co., New York
CHRISTIAN BELIEVING AND LIVING, twenty-five sermons
$1.20 net
E. P. Button & Co., New York
CHRIST IN THE CHRISTIAN YEAR AND IN THE LIFE OF
MAN, Sermons for Laymen, Vol. I, Advent to
Trinity, 12mo, 404 pages . .... $1.50
VOL. II, TRINITY TO ADVENT, 12mo .... $1.50
E. P. Button & Co., New York
CHRIST AND THE WORLD, Secularism the Enemy of the
Church paper, 25 cts.
E. P. Button & Co., New York
HELPS TO A HOLY LENT, 16mo .... $1.00
E. P. Button & Co., New York
FORTY BAYS WITH THE MASTER, 12mo
cloth, $1.00, white cloth, $1.25
E. P. Button & Co., New York
BAYS OF LENT, Selected readings by W. M. L. Jay,
12mo $1.25 net
E. P. Button & Co., New York
THE FITNESS OF CHRISTIANITY TO MAN : The Bohlen
Lectures of 1878, 12mo 75 cts.
Thomas Whittaker, New York
PERSONAL RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE MINISTRY AND IN
MINISTERING WOMEN, 12mo . . . cloth, 75 cts.
Thomas Whittaker, New York
GOOD TALKING AND GOOD MANNERS ; Fine Arts . $1.00
C. E. Wolcott, Syracuse, N. Y.
HOME-KEEPING A FINE ART .... paper, 35 cts.
C. E. Wolcott, Syracuse, N. Y.
HIGH MINDS AND Low .... paper, 35 cts.
C. E. Wolcott, Syracuse, N. Y.
UNCONSCIOUS TUITION .... paper, 15 cts.
C. W. Bardeen, Syracuse, N. Y.
INDEX
AGASSIZ, Louis, 111, 119, 120.
Amherst, 32, 38-43, 122, 225, 296,
375, 391, 415.
Anti-slavery Movement, 16, 127.
Brook Farm, 56, 68, 69.
Brooks, Rt. Rev. Phillips, 272.
Buliiuch, Rev. Stephen Qreenleaf ,
65.
Bushnell, Rev. Horace, 190.
C. A. I. L., 353, 356-358.
Carlyle, Thomas, 51-54, 56.
Channing, Rev. William EUery, 12,
14, 25, 46, 85.
Child, Francis J., 119.
Church of the Good Shepherd, 240,
242, 243, 287.
Clapp, Rev. Dexter, 39, 40.
Clark, Rt. Rev. Thomas M., 199.
Coleridge, Hartley, 127.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 51, 54.
Cooke, Josiah Parsons, 169.
Coolidge, Rev. James I. T., 72, 85,
94, 163, 200, 204.
Coxe, Rt. Rev. Arthur Cleveland,
201, 202, 273, 280, 381.
Cullis, Dr. Charles, 241.
Day, Chancellor James Rosooe,
385.
De Quincey, Thomas, 51.
Dwight, President Timothy, 3.
Eastburn, Rt. Rev. Manton, 169,
209, 212, 216, 218, 220, 247, 305.
Eliot, President Charles W., 118,
121.
Ellis, Rev. Rufus, 5, 62.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 29, 42, 54,
55, 69.
Emmanuel Church, 214, 217-220,
237, 242-245, 250, 273, 277, 278,
287, 288, 315, 350, 397, 425.
Felton, President Cornelius C.,
173-176.
Hale, Rev. Edward Everett, 3, 77,
84, 103, 108, 404.
Hall, Rev. Edward B., 30, 154,
155, 180.
Harvard University, 16, 18, 24, 46-
49, 103, 104, 107, 110-140, 168,
172, 173, 203, 204, 305.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 69.
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 206.
Hopkins Academy, 26, 423.
Hopkins, President Mark, 192-195.
Huntington, Elizabeth Whiting
Phelps, youth and marriage, 1-8 ;
birth of son Frederic Dan, 8, 9 ;
religious life, 12-29, 180 ; excom
munication, 12-16, 371 ; interest
in reform movements, 16, 127,
151, 253 ; letters, 20, 33, 89 ; ill
ness and death, 92 ; her jour
nal, 7-9, 93 ; recollections of , 180,
181, 302, 331, 392.
Huntington, Rev. Dan, youth and
marriage, 1, 3; early ministry,
8-16 ; removal to Hadley, 63 ;
434
INDEX
petition to Hadley church, 10 ;
letters from, 72, 80 ; letters to,
56, 209 ; family memorial, 143,
144 ; death, 233.
Huntington, Rev. George Putnam,
86, 120, 152, 206, 225, 229, 270,
280, 289, 297, 308, 309, 333, 335,
337, 366-368, 375, 419, 424, 425.
Huntington, Rev. James Otis Sar
gent, 100, 101, 289, 312, 333-336,
337, 838, 353, 375, 419, 424.
Huntington, William, 3.
Huntington, Rev. William Reed,
114, 138, 142, 218, 219, 244, 262,
263,425.
Huntington, Rt. Rev. Frederic
Dan, heritage, 1-8 ; boyhood,
1-32; reading in youth, 25, 26,
41. 42, 47, 51, 52, 54, 60 ; educa
tion, 17, 18, 23, 25-28, 30, 31, 32,
37-44, 50-53, 60, 66 ; early reli
gious influences, 14-17, 29, 30, 34,
36, 44-47, 53; college life, 32,
37-44 ; calling to the ministry,
44-47 ; Cambridge Divinity
School, 48-67 ; pastorate in the
South Congregational Society,
68-110, 140, 418; Boston resi
dences, 85, 218 ; the Roxbury
home, 86, 87-91 ; awakening to
the facts of sin and repentance,
93, 135-137, 258, 266, 414; the
Plummer Professorship, 103 ; in
duction at Harvard as Professor
of Christian Morals, 114-117;
life at Cambridge, 110-153;
change of religious belief, 93-96,
153-172, 176-183, 266, 359-362;
entrance into the Episcopal
Church, 194-201, 209-212, 221,
366 ; rectorship at Emmanuel
Church, 214-279; elections to
the Episcopate, 267, 273 ; conse
cration as Bishop of Central New
York, 280 ; spiritual influence,
79, 99, 123, 184, 188, 263, 269, 311,
314, 340, 344, 383; preaching,
61-64, 78, 138, 148, 244, 250-260,
296, 311, 313, 344, 355, 379, 388,
398, 415 ; observance of the
Christian Year, 92, 138, 139, 149,
195, 234, 248, 339; editorial
work, 39, 89, 154, 157, 263, 394 ;
acquaintance with religious po
etry, 101, 102, 139, 140, 188, 2(50,
261, 404 ; interest in the Peace
Movement, 16, 74, 151, 253, 254,
394; sense of social responsi
bility, 52, 67-70, 72, 84, 85, 106,
141, 143, 241, 306, 307, 324-327,
353, 358 ; labor on the farm, 21,
22, 32, 42, 59, 121, 235, 271, 369 ;
love of Nature, 22, 45, 91, 296,
318, 333, 369, 370, 391, 392, 403,
404; the Hadley home, 27-30,
34, 146, 234-237, 271, 296, 339,
369, 370, 391, 392, 403 ; writings,
text-book on the Book of Acts,
88 ; lectures, unpublished, 90 ;
Unconscious Tuition, 30, 122 ;
Divine Aspects of Human Soci
ety, 132, 142, 149, 352 ; Sermons
for the People, 140-143, 149, 166,
168 ; Christian Believing and
Living, 164, 169, 182-184, 200,
204-269, 379; Helps to a Holy
Lent, 304, 319 ; New Helps to a
Holy Lent, 319 ; Fitness of Chris
tianity to Man : Bohlen Lec
tures, 320 ; Christ in the Chris
tian Year and in the Life of
Man, Vol. I, Advent to Trinity,
320 ; Vol. II, Trinity to Advent,
266, 320; Forty Days with the
Master, 372 ; Miscellaneous, 39,
54-56, 123, 139, 155, 250-260,
264, 265, 353, 356, 371-373.
Keble School, Syracuse, 316, 317,
422.
INDEX
435
Litchfield, 4, 7.
Lyman, Mrs. Anne Jean, 41.
Martin, Grace, 6.
May, Rev. Samuel J., 96, 327.
Muhlenberg, Rev. William A.,
205, 208, 220, 261.
Northampton, 13, 14, 23, 24, 27, 30,
41, 42, 63, 64, 411, 415, 418, 423.
Olmsted, Rt. Rev. Charles Tyler,
407, 409, 425.
Palmer, Rev. Ray, 187, 188.
Parker, Rev. Theodore, 54, 55, 58,
68, 69, 88, 214.
Parks, Rev. Edward A., 191, 192.
Peabody, Rev. Ephraim, 118.
Phelps, Mrs. Almira Lincoln, 18.
Phelpa, Charles, Senior, 31.
Phelps, Charles, 2, 3, 7, 8, 370.
Phelps, Charles Porter, 2, 64.
Phelps, Nathaniel, 2, 6.
Pitkin, Nathaniel, 2.
Pitkin, William, 2, 428.
Porter, Moses, 1, 2, 412.
Potter, Rt. Rev. Henry Codman,
380.
Putnam, Rev. George, 17, 58, 62,
72, 83, 86, 103.
Sargent, Epes, 71, 76.
Sargent, John Osborne, 71, 76, 77.
South Congregational Parish, 68,
72, 74-79, 84-87, 103, 107, 108,
140, 418.
St. Andrew s Divinity School, 289,
312, 316, 346.
St. John s School, Manlius, 300,
301, 313, 422.
Storrs, Rev. Richard Salter, 43,
134, 189.
Sumner, Charles, 127-130.
Syracuse, 96, 282, 289, 308, 317, 324,
325, 334, 346, 347, 375, 382-386,
395, 396, 416, 422.
Transcendentalism, 53, 55, 57, 70.
Unitarianism, 11, 45, 56, 159, 160,
176, 361, 404.
Vinton, Rev. Alexander, 203-206,
213.
Walker, Rev. James, 53, 114, 161,
167, 173.
Ware, Rev. Henry, Jr., 49, 53, 55,
60,74.
Warwick, 46-48, 61, 340.
Whipple, Rt. Rev. Henry B.. 229,
232.
Whittingham, Rt. Rev. William
R., 302.
Willard, Mrs. Emma, 18.
Williams, Rt. Rev. John, 202, 203,
333.
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