CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY FROM S.n.^umham Cornell University Library BX5995.B87 D898 Phillips Broolcs: the man. the preacher olin 3 1924 029 458 928 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029458928 PHILLIPS BROOKS. 11 PHILLIPS BROOKS IN HIS EPISCOPAL ROBES, Phillips Brooks: THE M/iN, THE PREACHER, AND THE AUTHOR. BASED ON THE "ESTIMATE" By NEWELL JDUNBAR. With an Introduction by Joseph Cqok, AND A SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER FROM The Ven. Frederick W. Farrar, D.D., Archdeacon and Canon of Westminster. to which are added SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF THE LATE GREAT DIVINE. PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED WITH PORTRAITS AND VIEWS OF THE SCENES OF HIS LIFE AND LABORS. BOSTON: JOHN K. HASTINGS. Office of "The Christian," 47 and 49 cornhill. 1893. m Copyright, 1891, Bv J. G. CUPPLES. Copyright, 1892, By J. G. CuPPLEs Company. Copyright, 1893, By John K. Hastings All Rights Reserved. PRINTED AND BOUND BV JOHN K. HASTINGS, BOSTON, U.S.A. UiiMM To the Admirers of this little volume is lovingly dedicated by the Author. arraatiKtiSj^^x^ata ^ PHILLIPS BROOKS. Great bishop, greater preacher, greatest man. Thy manhood far out-towered all church, all creed. And made thee servant of all human need, Beyond one thought of blessing or of ban. Save of thy Master, vifhose great lesson ran : — • " The great are they vfho serve." So now, indeed. All churches are one church in loving heed Of thy great life wrought on thy Master's plan ! As we stand in the shadow of thy death. How petty all the poor distinctions seem That would fence off the human and divine ! Large was the utterance of thy living breath; Large as God's love this human hope and dream; And now humanity's hushed love is thine ! MiNOT J. Savage. ---^ % ^cs-Siujc Uom i^luUips iVioolvS. I r.ooK round on the woi'k to clo, and I do not believe that eithei- Episcopa- lianism or Metlioilism or I'resb\'terian- ism or l-Japtism is L;"'iini;" to assert the victoi'y of Christianit)' over sin, the opeiiin^wif tile baiax-d citadel of wieked- ness in this our land. The Chmxh of Christ, simple, unini[)eded, armed [low- erfull\' because armed lightly, the es- sential Church of Christ, must make the first entrance. Then let us have up our methods of denominational go\x-rnment, and each, in the way that he thinks most divine, strive for the perfected dominion of our one e;reat L.ord. INTRODUCTION. I. OBERTSON. Raphael, Byron, Burns, died each at thirty-seven. Phillips Brooks had more years than Napoleon, or Schiller, or Abraham Lincoln. In the cathedral of Gods completed providences there are no unfinished or broken columns. Nevertheless, the pathos of Phillips Brooks's life was in its withheld comple- tion. He died at what had seemed to the world to be his mid-day. He was maturing to the last. His published pages are a precious and perpetual leg- acy. He probably performed as many hours of important labor in his fift\- seven years as most men do in seventy. His balanced soul was as remarkable for sense as for sensitiveness, for svm- IV INTROD UCTION. metry as for size, for humility and spir- ituality as for surcharge of life and aspiration. But he has left nothing be- hind him which represents adequately his magnificent depth of character, or his unexplored reserves of growth. II. Quantity of being, amplitude of nat- ural endowment, richness of emotional, intellectual, and spiritual power were what impressed men most in Phillips Brooks. He was in every way a large man, and in almost no sense fragmen- tary or fractional. An orator easily ad- dresses every side of human nature that he possesses. Phillips Brooks had a many-sided soul. It is the simple fact that he was especially skilled in the knowledge, because he was himself opu- lent in the possession, of the loftier and nobler sides of human endowment. A polygonal nature is usually a powerful nature ; but a spherical yet more so. Size without symmetry may mean mis- chief. Phillips Brooks had both size and symmetry, both sensitiveness and spirituality, and so was remarkable for quality as well as for quantity of being. Even his commanding physical presence was a palpable advantage to him in his INTROD UCTION. public work. He was unconscious of the fact, but others were not. Culture did what it could for him ; birth did more. Culture in the family, the Boston school, Harvard University, the theological hall at Alexandria, the toil of his life, did not make his size, nor his symmetry — they did not unmake them. III. As to the matter and manner of the most inspiring of the discourses of Phil- lips Brooks, their charm and power con- sist largely in the fact that he was a geographer of spiritual uplands. His delight in picturing the higher experi- ences of the soul was as profound as his skill in doing so was remarkable. He almost never spoke of himself, but he had in his own nature and experience the spiritual uplands which he described. His most characteristic sermons are maps of highlands of religious life and truth. But they are more than maps. He was an excellent, though not always a methodical, surveyor of these elevated regions, and could produce accurate out- line charts of them by a few bold strokes. But his discourses have their power, not so much in their outlines as in their sunlight and atmosphere. Ver- m INTRODUCTION. nal sunlight on spiritual uplands ; moun- tain ozone on spiritual uplands ; the gathering rush of April torrents on spiritual uplands ; the bursting glad- ness of May among forests clothing spiritual uplands overlooked by majes- tic mountain peaks — these phrases are to me the best description of his dis- courses and their atmosphere. His best sermons will bear to be read slowly, and many parts of them very slowly and repeatedly. But they produce, after all, their highest effect when the reader imagines them deliv- ered, as they were by their author, with a speed like the rush of mountain tor- rents. There were now and then lightning flashes from the peaks. His epigram- matic passages never have the air of being studied, but they often flash from some severe quarter of his sky with the suddenness and force of authentic thun- der bolts. These passages contain hun- dreds of sentences that ought to be translated into many languages, and are likely to live long in spiritual antholo- gies. In general, however, the sunlight of his spiritual May is not interrupted by passing showers. The sunbeams and the waters flash, but not the light- nings. INTRODUCTION. Vll IV. Phillips Brooks was the prophet of the Parable of the Prodigal Son. His discourses continually emphasize the organizing and redemptive doctrines of the Fatherhood of God, and the sonship of men. He was the apostle of the in- dwelling God. His watchword was not so much the Cross as the immanent Im- manuel. Every human being, although a prodigal, is yet a son, and may be ex- pected to return to his Father's house. Phillips Brooks did not often, but he did sometimes, emphasize the Scriptural truth that there are prodigals of whom we have no evidence that they will ever return. The reconciling kiss is not given to prodigals actually in rebellion. Of this latter fact Phillips Brooks said little, but there is, of course, no doubt that he believed it. (See his remark- able discourses entitled "The Law of Liberty " and " An Evil Spirit from the Lord.") Mr. Gladstone called Frederick Deni- son Maurice a spiritual splendor. John Stuart Mill said of Maurice that he was the only preacher he knew who had brains enough and to spare. Phil- lips Brooks often spoke of Maurice as VIU JNTRODUCriON. a theological author to whom he owed a vast debt. Every one familiar with Mau- rice's life and system of thought will see that he, more than any one else, except perhaps Stanley and Robertson, stood near to Phillips Brooks. Their views of broad church doctrine and polity were almost identical. Phillips Brooks's em- phasis, or omission of emphasis, on cer- tain doctrines is almost the same with theirs. Those who think the latter somewhat incomplete in their view of several vital Christian truths may think the former so. Although Bishop Brooks was an op- timist and a broad churchman, it is certain that he was a consistent Episco- palian. It is very unfair to assert that he held Unitarian or Universalist views of Christian truth. It has been well said of him that he was liberal-minded, but not a liberal. He had around him, as he himself said, four concentric circles — that of his own church nearest, but next that of Christendom, next that of religious hu- manity, lastly, that of the whole human race. In his native Commonwealth there was a sense in which he was Bishop of us all. INTRODUCTION. IX V. Let a statue be erected in Copley- Square representing Phillips Brooks in his preacher's robes, but let the posture and look of it be such as to lead all be- holders to think of his message even more than of the man. If we wish to act in his spirit, let us reverence the truths he, taught more than the teacher himself. The statue should look up- ward. No portrait of him that I have ever seen gives adequate expression to his best look — that solar light which came to his countenance in his most elevated and rapt moods. St. Gaudens, whose Puritan at Springfield and Liiicoln at Chicago are unmatched among Amer- ican statues, will succeed in such a work. On the four sides of the pedestal ought to stand words of his own, like these : — - On the North Side. "The freeing of souls is the judging of souls. A liberated nature dictates its own destiny." On the East Side. " Man is a son of God, on whom the Devil has laid his hand, and not a child of the Devil whom God is trying to steal." n INTROD UCTION. On the West Side. " That book is most inspired which most worthily and deeply tells the story of the most inspired life." On the South Side. "The Divine in us reaches upward, and the Divine above reaches downward, and the two mingle ; and that is a living faith in a living Christ." No statue can fitly represent Phillips Brooks unless in figure, face and at- mosphere it proclaims the Divine Immanence in the human soul, the Fatherhood of God and the brother- hood of men. Joseph Cook. Boston, Feb. 6, 1893. 11 % CONTENTS. PAGB iii 3 23 43 63 Introduction. By Joseph Cook I. Personality II. Biographical III. The Preacher .... IV. The Author V. What he stands for to-day in the " Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States OF America" .... VI. Death VII. Brooksiana 137 VIII. Influence with Business Men . 179 85 lOI 11 xu CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE IX. Phillips Brooks at Harvard . 187 X. Secret of His Success . . . 199 XI. In English Eyes. By Archdeacon Farrar 207 Selections from His Writings . 217 ILLUSTRATIONS. Phillips Brooks jn his Episcopal Robes Frontispiece A Message from Phillips Brooks, Facing p. ii. 14 28 44 56 70 %o 94 112 126 Phillips Brooks's Father . . . Phillips Brooks as a PIarvard Stu- dent Phillips Brooks in his Room at Alexandria Church of the Advent, Philadel- phia Phillips Brooks when Rector of Church of the Advent . . Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia Phillips Brooks when Rector of Holy Trinity Old Trinity Church, Boston . . Burning of Old Trinity Church, Boston XIV ILL USTRA TIONS. Trinity Church, Boston. Exterior, /i2irz«^/. 140 Trinity Church, Boston. Interior A Corner of Trinity A Once Familiar Figure on Bos- ton Streets Phillips Brooks and Canon Farrar Residence in Clarendon Street, Boston 154 168 182 194 Together ■with Head and Tail Pieces. PERSONALITY. m m NOTE. The first five chapters of the Biographical portion of this volumne are taken, by permission of the author, from "An Estimate of Phillips Brooks," by Newell Dunbar. They were written during the great preacher's lifetime, which accounts for the use in them of the present tense. Chapters vi., vii., viii., ix., and X. were written after his death. PERSONALITY. !i_n_j™itiL£i.^f^£ man (or woman) of this world has been spoilt by the world. He has given himself over to standards and methods of which the sum and sub- stance are selfishness, and has al- lowed himself to grow — to state the plain truth — into a repulsive mon- strosity. Himself he regards in the light of all but a deity to be wor- shiped ; upon his fellows he looks about to see how best he can make use of them. He has drifted far from PHILLIPS BROOKS. and reversed the healthy instincts of his childhood and of Nature. The scholar (signifying by that term the man or woman, who is not merely a receptacle for facts, but who has thought and aspired in those broader and deeper and more life-giving, if less exact, departments of intellect- ual endeavor — the theologies, the philosophies, the poesies, the aesthet- ics, of the intellectual curriculum — of which the prerogative is that they tend to decipher the meaning of life and to give it an unrest, a self-dissatisfaction, a distinctively human charm, and a worthy aim) has at least considered the "what ought to be," as well as the " what is." He feels its superiority. UMTrff >. ^Ji«HUMNl*UUIJM m PHILLIPS BROOKH. 5 When, as occasionally happens, he is true to his teaching, and is besides, in addition to being a scholar, a man of strong will and of virile powers, making up his mind he will never desert that which he knows in his heait to be the higher for what he equally by intuition knows is the lower, he achieves some appreciable measure ■of success in embodying the ideal in his own life, and in causing it to be embodied in the life about him. Such men constitute the flower of our race. And it is, in the first place, to be noted of them, that they represent normal and con- sistent growths of humanity, are not vitiated or warped, but such as M 6 PHILLIPS BROOKS. Nature intended huma.ii nature to be ; the man not contradicting the boy, but continuing him — contain- ing the boy — the boy grown up — a bigger boy — combining all the youth's simple, true, generous in- stincts, and all-embracing sympathies and affections, with the man's added stature, strength, polish, knowledge, culture, and wisdom. Says Novalis : " Tugend ist die Prosa, Uiischuld die Poesie." Such a man eminently is Phillips Brooks. Those who have had the privilege of knowing him intimately have often styled him a "big boy." The scholar, the high-bred gentle- man, the man of weight and of influence upon the community about PHILLIPS BROOKS. him, if not, indeed, in the world ; but beneath all simple, unaffected, modest, hopeful, trustful, unselfish and well-wishing. It needs but to see him upon the tennis-ground with children, or in his church on a " children's day," to recognize the peculiar aptness of the epithet alluded to above. Its truthfulness no doubt accounts in large measure for his influence with the young, especially with young men, it being a notorious fact that amongst preachers he is the darling of Amer- ican universities. Those who have beheld that vast surpliced frame in Trinity Church chancel drop upon its knees and lift up its voice in all the artless effusion of unques- * m PHILLIPS BROOKS. tioning prayer, have the key to the man. There is nothing studied, or affected, or done for effect, or sham, about him. He is natural and genuine, and fundamental (in the sense of clinging to and em- bodying the great underlying facts — the first principles — of life and of our common human nature), and true. That here is a genuine man, human through and through, and with all his elegance and cultivation at heart one with humanity, one with the people, no one could ques- tion after reading his sermon preached in the church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia, after the assassination of President Lincoln — it is so gloriously adequate to its high theme. PHILLIPS BROOKS. No one could so speak, no one could so appreciate the simple grandeur of character of that remark- able man, and not be himself com- pact of true manhood. In his Boston Latin School oration, he praises the school because its teaching has never been " the privi- lege of an aristocratic class, but the portion of an)' boy in town who had the soul to desire it and the brain to appropriate it." A fact that in- dubitably attests the authenticity of his metal is that, whenever he preaches or speaks to what might be termed the populace, the populace eagerlv listen to him. Just as the gipsies and poachers were Charles Kingsley's friends, styling him lO PHILLIPS BROOKS. their " priest-king," the lower ranks of American society flock to hear Phillips Brooks, whenever they get the chance, equally with the more critical classes. They seem to be equally abject subjects of his spell : and as' between reality and sham the populace in any country possess a very keen vision, that in the long run nothing spurious cheats. His " eye is single," — one evidence of this trait being his deliberate determina- tion to lead a celibate life, in order to devote himself the more com- pletely to his sacred calling. Mr. Drummond, in one of his recent books, speaks of the fine opportunity afforded by the Christian ministry for devoting one's self to a high ideal, SI 11 PHILLIPS BROOKS. II undistracted by the disturbing ele- ment of money, which is so potent a factor in most other callings. Narrowness of means, indeed, Bishop Brooks has been spared ; but no one can doubt it would have made no difference to his zeal, what- ever it might have done to his effect- iveness, if he had not been ; cer- tainly in choosing his profession he was not actuated by mercenary motives. To have his name in the mouths of the community, and to have the community's gratitude express itself in gifts, have fallen to him naturally ; but they have made no difierenci in the man. As it happens to almost evei) 12 PHILLIPS BROOKS. one in Boston, at onetime or another, to meet him with his burly frame and big eloquent eye upon the streets, where he may be seen hustled like any ordinary mortal by hack- men and porters, who are apparently perfectly unconcerned and uncon- scious that they are rubbing elbows with a great man (or, perhaps, even exhibit a somewhat overdone assump- tion and bravado of ignorance or of self-assertion, as is wont to be the way with the low-class American) ; or running across him occasionally in a book-shop, with his face buried in a volume in rapt and scholarly abstraction ; or finding him a near neighbor in the audience at some public place of amusement, or listen- w PHILLIPS BROOKS. 13 ing with fine modesty in the audience or congregation to the eloquence of another — even the most careless observer may notice in him a certain noble intentness of countenance, and a sober restriction of regard, that bespeak the genuine unspoilt nature, self-centred in the sense of being: loyally wedded to and humbly de- pendent upon the revelation of the highest within. Very characteristic of the man was a little scene the writer remembers to have witnessed, one evening in early summer, on the Commonwealth Avenue mall in Boston. The great preacher was sauntering down the walk in earnest converse with a friend, or at least acquaintance. 14 PHILLIPS BROOKS. whose hand he held in his, and was affectionately swinging as he talked — just as children swing hands and talk. His companion, who was known to the writer as a man noto- riously not all unworldly and a saint, though of average size, looked a mere boy beside his own heroic proportions. Brooks was expostulating with him in regard to some point on which he evidently wished to change him, and his big, convincing, zvinuing, "Non- sense — nonsense, Edward — put it aside — you know it is not so," sounded very hard to resist. It is not always argument with him, but oftentimes the pressure brought to bear of a well-nigh irresistible mag- netism and potent personality. WILLIAM GRA-i BROOKS- FATHER OF PHILLIPS FROOKS. PHILLIPS BROOKS. 15 It is amusingly told of -him (and it illustrates the modesty of the man) by one of his clergy, who is rector of a suburban Boston parish, and in whose church he frequently preaches — on which occasions the pews over- flow, settees are placed in the aisles, and all the available interstices are occupied by people standing — that always, after the service, he says, with the utmost good faith, " Grey, what a splendid congregation you have ! " It apparently never enters his head to imagine that that is not the usual condition of things in that church, when preachings are afoot. Another story told of him by his friend Archdeacon Farrar illustrates the same trait. When wonder was ■pw ^ji i MMgriB PHILLIPS BROOKS, expressed, during one of his English visits, by some of his English friends, at the generous, if unaccepted, offer made to him by certain members of his congregation at home, to send him abroad for a year, paying all his expens:: and those of a substi- tute during his absence, he answered laughing, " Oh, they were tired of me, and wanted a change ! " Any reference to the • personality of Phillips Brooks would be incom- plete without some allusion to his physique. To be not only big morally and intellectually, but well- nigh herculean bodily, constitutes a sort and condition of man that is eminently adapted for reaching all classes in the community — both PHILLIPS BROOKS. 17 those who appreciate the higher spirit- ual graces, those who delight mainly in hard-headedness, and lastly the more purely animal, upon whose low- ness of grade moral and mental adorn- ments are quite thrown away, but who recognize and respect good tan- gible thews and bulk when they see them. When the apostle of mercy and forbearance comes, it is well for him to come, if possible, equipped in this Milonian fashion : for one thing, he can scarcely then be sus- pected of preaching what he practices from necessity and from motives of interest. Like all thoroughly healthy natures, Phillips Brooks at once detects and hates flattery. Intelli- PHILLIPS BROOKS. gent appreciation is welcome to him, as it must be to every genuine man. The outside world exists for him as something to be benefited : for its adulation he does not seem to care, preferring for society that of his inti- mate friends, with whom he is sun- shine itself. Of himself he speaks little. His sense of humor is strong, as any one for instance may see by reading the delicious oration delivered at the celebration of the two-hundred- and-fiftieth anniversary of the found- ing of the Boston Latin School, which has already been referred to. Nobody seems to know when he does his work : he is always accessible and disengaged in the morning. He is very optimistic, believing in the PHILLIPS BROOKS. 19 intrinsic goodness of human nature. He thinks that the world makes steady progress in accordance with a fixed law. His principal regret is that he cannot live longer, since he is convinced that at about the time when the next generation shall have fairly taken its place upon the scene and settled down to work, there will occur a sudden blossoming out in the condition of humanity such as it has never before beheld. How shall the personality of Phillips Brooks be summed up ? Archdeacon Farrar calls him " every inch a man." To the writer recur the words Brooks himself spoke of Lincoln (so different from himself till you get down to the very core ill '^-j!^s^:^-x:Mmr''s3Z!9-y^'x-,^3!Si3aa 20 PHILLIPS BROOKS. of the two men) — " the greatness of real goodness, and the goodness of real greatness." BIOGRAPHICAL. 11 II. BIOGRAPHICAL. 'npHE Right Reverend Phillips * Brooks, D.D., Harv., Bishop of Massachusetts, and today doubt- less the greatest preacher in America or in England, if not of Protestantism and of the world, was born in Boston, December 13, 1835, and is consequently now in his fifty-sixth year He is in the full vigor of a regally-endowed manhood, and likely to be able to ■devote many years to come to the causes of religion and of educatijn VtrJSMffftKinQBVSI £3 ^A 24 PHILLIPS BROOKS. which he has held so dear. The original home of his family was North Andover. That his parents were devoted to Christianity, appears from the fact that of their six sons four, including him, became Christian ministers. When he was a boy, the family attended St. Paul's Church, in Boston, of which the rector was that admirable pulpit- orator, the Rev. Alexander Hamil- ton Vinton, whose polished elo- quence, it is not unnatural to suppose, may have had consider- able influence in arousing in young Brooks's heart that predominant ideal which so often makes the "•-ov in a great sense father of the nan. Dr. Vinton afterwards for mmtmssmamxtmia T^ PHILLIPS brooks: 25 a second time, as will be seen later, exerted a beneficent influence upon his young friend, and at a critical point in his life. Dr. Vinton, by the way, preached the con- secration-sermon at the consecra- tion of the new Trinity Church, Boston. Young Brooks fitted for college at the Boston Latin School, and in 1851 was admitted to Harvard University, by which famous in- stitution he was duly graduated in 185s, being then in his nineteenth year. It is on record that at about the time of his graduation — that criti- cal period in the lives of educated -■'outh — he was in doubt (as so 26 .^5fcs*si:sa«arj®ai»i!^M.'iiis i^mu PHILLIPS BROOKS. many such young men are) wi^at profession to adopt. When stiL a senior he consulted the President of his University on the point, and that learned gentleman, with all the omniscient insight of a very wise man, said ; " In deciding the difficult question of a choice of pro- fession, I think, we may always be helped towards a solution of the problem by eliminating, in the first place, the impossible vocations. This saves much trouble and loss of time, as it at once narrows the field, and restricts the mind to fewer points, from which to make its selection. Now, in your case, for instance, owing to the im- pediment in your speech, you could M IM PHILLIPS BROOKS. 27 never be a preacher, and we may as well therefore at the outset lay aside all thought of the ministry." Just what profession collegiate in- fallibility recommended its young applicant for advice to adopt, need not be recalled here : the irony of subsequent events has extracted the interest from the rest of the little oration. The advice given was no doubt sound, judging from the standpoint of probability, and weighing what seemed to be the chances. Moreover, the speaker, beyond a doubt, gave it with reluc- tance, as his preferences must all have been in favor of the pulpit. This very funny story, however, vrf^uld never have risen up and lived PHILLIPS BROOKS. to be told against him, if, classical scholar as he was, he had not been temporarily oblivious of the para- doxical case, upwards of two thou- sand years ago, of a certain somewhat famous man in Athens, named Demosthenes. The wreck of his prophecy only furnishes one more proof, what unforeseen and wonderful things a great personality, in " dead earnest," unaccountably manages to achieve. In spite of the well-meant ad- vice of the sagacious but human President, the future preacher de- cided to make the ministry his life- calling ; and, in order to prepare himself for it, betook himself to the Episcopal Divinity School a\. 11 Phillips Brooks as a Harvard Student. . jf-ffit-wf^'' JC \ ~.iCZ'i\ PHILLIPS BROOKS. 29 Alexandria, Va., graduating here in 1859. Many are the recollec- tions of his noble character and promise cherished by those who were his classmates here. Here it was that he wrote his first sermon, on " The simplicity that is in Christ," of which he himself ^ — his sense of humor being keen, even when he himself is the victim — re- counts that a classmate's criticism of it was, " There was very little simplicity in it, and no Christ." If graduating from college is the Saarbriick in a young man's career, graduating from his professional school is his Sedan. The perplexing question of establishing himself, and of making a start, then confronts ■"**■**?&* ^"TUS^JSft": 30 PHILLIPS BROOKS. him. In this respect, indeed, the young minister has the advantage- over the young lawyer and the young doctor. Unless the latter have some means of subsistence apart from their professions, the outlook for them is disheartening, indeed : in aU probability, it will be years hefore their position is secure, and their practice remunerative. The " starting " clergyman, on the other hand, as soon as he has secured a parish at all, at once secures with it a living, and a place for making himself felt. But with a young man of large possibilities, how great the importance where and what that first parish is ! If it be off by comparison somewhere in the back- woods, with a scant, commonplace and insignificant congregation, in all human likelihood, to be sure, he tL..«£v '^immk PHILLIPS BROOKS. 31 will work to the front, and win the position suited to his powers, in time ; but it will probably take him years^ to do so, and when the opportun- ity shall have been conquered, youth will have fled, and the momentum and keenness of his first onset have been dulled. Phillips Brooks's first parish was the Church of the Advent, in Philadelphia, of which he became rector in 1859. The story of his settlement here consti- tutes quite a little romance, — one of those fascinating romances of genius with which the biographies of emi- nent men present us. At the Ad- vent, his preaching and character at once made themselves felt; but, though in a general way it may be said that the intellectual grade of nearly all Episcopal parishes is high,, still by comparison the congregation 'i- *',:•>■'- ■»®t^]*M»^^a«« -I l^f&'-c'Kt.jMi&^i^^i^"' .^^'^•M^ad>»»«3i^i«Ka PHILLIPS BROOKS. was composed mainly of plain people, the church edifice was in an obscure quarter of the city, and the opportun- ity afforded for the rector to become widely-known was small. It was just at this point that Dr. Vinton — who had in the meantime become the rec- tor of the large, wealthy and growing Church of the Holy Trinity, in Phila- delphia — rendered the essential serv- ice spoken of above. He apened his pulpit to young Brooks Sunday after- noons : the results being that the Ad- vent presently began to overflow Sunday mornings with Holy Trinity parishioners, and that when Dr. Vin- ton removed to New York soon after- ward the rector of the Advent was invited to take his place. After being thrice asked, Brooks was installed rector of Holy Trinity in 1862 ; thus, with few tedious preliminaries, quickly j?.*«^,j!a»f".«atvja*i!.*!^E3LS«Kiia»* tf «li PHILLIPS BROOKS. ,, stepping into a first-rate position in a great and populous city. Here his fame as a preacher grew, and came to extend far beyond the warm- hearted Quaker City, and indeed beyond its State. In Philadelphia, he remained ten years, and departed thence greatly regretted, leaving be- hind him a memory such as it has been given to but few men to create. Whenever he returns thither on a visit, his welcome resembles that of I the prodigal son. i When young Brooks was seeking | his first parish, his native city of | Boston — in regard to whom, her critics have not been slow in point- ing out how frequently she has failed to know her greatest — some- | how or other did not seem burning with anxiety to furnish him a w 34 PHILLIPS BROOKS. foothold ; bui when the noise of him had gone abroad in the land, and it began to be said that Phillips Brooks of Philadelphia was the greatest preacher in the Episcopal Church, if not indeed in the country, Boston — if somewhat tardily — opened her eyes and heart (not for- getting her pocket), and concluded to take him in. Indeed , it has been further remarked by those extremely keen-sighted persons, her critics, that after driving her unrecognized geniuses from her door on penalty if need be of starvation, once let them become of mark elsewhere, and — thrifty Yankee that she is with eye ever roving for the "rising sun" — she hastens to wel- "■^-j*!^**?'-"* "; PHILLIPS BROOKS. 35 come them back. In 1869 the rector of the Holy Trinity, Philadel- phia, received and accepted a call to and became the rector of Trinity Church, Boston. His new parish, like the one he left, was a strong and influential one. Its church edifice, with " its battlemented tower, like a great castle of the truth," was at that time a conspicuous object in Sum-' mer Street. It was destroyed in the "great fire" of 1872. The parish at once proceeded to erect a new place of worship. The plans for it were drawn by that architect, of sweetness and light, Mr. H. H. Richardson, — whose untimely death was a loss to American art, — and Ka..:i^i -if-je*?,! 36 PHILLIPS BROOKS. by all odds the most complete, thoroughly-built and beautiful church- building in the United States, with a seating capacity of over two- thousand, situated on Boylston Street in the choicest residen- tial portion of the city, and costing over a million dollars, was the result. For architectural beauty it will compare with many of the famous places of worship, hallowed by time and by sacred memories, of green England. As one regards it in the bright morning or in the early evening light, fancy adds the soften- ing of outline — the mellowing and metamorphosis of tints — the more daring spread of the ivies — that are to come with the years, and the PHILLIPS BROOKS. ,7 heart, yielding a sigh of deep con- tent, confesses to itself : " It is enough ! " The new church was taken pos- session of in 1877, and from that time to this has been the home of Phillips Brooks's eloquence. The audiences it has contained have grown with the fame of its rector, till today it often scarcely suffices to admit the throngs that seek en- trance. In 1886 he was elected Assistant-Bishop of Pennsylvania, but declined. The offer of a Pro- fessorship in Harvard University was also at this time made him ; but neither did he accept this. He has at various times been a quite extensive traveler, having [> titssni*i^Biiss/e.^niS6iim*i>m 38 PHILLIPS BROOKS. visited no inconsiderable portion of the earth's surface, including India, Palestine and Japan : it may be added that he cherishes the hope of ex- tending his travels before he dies still further. In England his visits have been numerous, and he has made many friends and created a deep impression there. He preached at Westminister Abbey ; at both the Universities ; before the Queen, and before many of the first people in the Kingdom. It was and is the opinion of Arch- deacon Farrar, that his equal as a preacher and as a man does not exist amongst the clergy of the English Church. At the death of Bishop Paddock ia PHILLIPS BROOKS. jQ 1891, he was almost unanimously elected Bishop in his stead by the Diocese of Massachusetts. Ac- cording to the very singular, and it is thought wholly unprecedented, ar- rangement existing in the American Episcopal Church, however, in that church a diocese practically cannot elect its own bishop, the election not being valid until it has been rati- fied by a majority of all the bishops in the Church. The objections urged against him, the long contest over the matter, and all the sorry tale of innuendo, recrimination and partisan strife, need not be re- counted here. They are fresh in the minds of all, and are now happily ended. Even as you are 40 KKfsr^'^ 'rK^r^KYSVaesiaiisii^.'mrimnf'in^-^ PHILLIPS BROOKS. reading this little book its title has been justified, and Phillips Brooks is in fact Bishop of his native State. THE PREACHER. I'. '-.„~-!^"-.^-^--"S:i-X III. THE PREACHER. ONE need not be very far ad- vanced in life to remember the time when Curtis, and Willis, and Emerson, and Lowell, — and many another illustrious name of that mighty generation of writers and speakers, of which today the sur- vivors are, alas ! so few, — were utter- ing their philippics against the materiality and sordidness of Ameri- can life. American life, indeed, has 11 44 PHILLIPS BROOKS. advanced since then at a giant's pace ; it has expanded all round ; since its birth, money was never held by it in so high esteem as now ; but it has grown in other ways, too. It is not as yet much recognized, in our crude and semi- barbaric day, that, great as is its power, money does not give the best things, — though that is the fact, seen to be such by the more civilized and sharpest minds. It is an excellent adjunct and accompani- ment of the best, but furnishes a poor substitute for it. Did money, for instance, ever yet win a heart .'' Can it of itself bring happiness .■' Will it command health ? Is any- thing it ever bought to be com- m X g m PHILLIPS BROOKS. 45 pared with the joy of the artist, who, day by day, sees grow in visible embodiment beneath- his in- spired fingers some one of t-he dreams amongst which his soul habitually dwells, in regions the world? wots not of, save as occasionally he vouchsafes it a tolfen from them ? With the measureless content of an author, as he pens the last word of a work that he knows will move the hearts and decide the actions of his day, and, when those who make his day shall have van- ished, move hearts and influence destinies yet unborn ? What within its reach is comparable with the lofty existence, not like unto that of other men, passed by a music- 1 46 PHILLIPS BROOKS. composer — by Schumann, for in- stance — amidst celestial harmonies, whereunto only his ears, and those of the great tone-gods, are privi- leged to listen ? With the exultant sense of beneficent power that floods and fires the soul of a great mistress of song — of Christine Nils- son, say — as she stands before three thousands of her fellow men ^nd women, and knows there is not a tear in all their eyes, a drop of blood in all their veins, that is not her slave ? Or of an actor, who focuses the hearts, with the eyes and ears, of box, pit and gallery upon the quiver of an eyelash, the trembling of a tone ? Or of an orator, such as Kossuth, or Phillips PHILLIPS BROOKS. 47 or Gough ? And of all orators, what one can be likened for unique- ness of position (standing as he does between man and God), for dignity and momentousness of the issues involved, to the orator of the pul- pit— .the preacher? As a preacher — and that, beyond a doubt, is the capacity in which he is greatest — the quality that, in the writer's opinion, first strikes all Phillips Brooks's hearers, is what may perhaps be termed, for lack of a better word, his copiousness. He is like a colossal reservoir, that seems full almost to bursting, and well-nigh unable to restrain what it contains. He takes his place in the pulpit, and opens his mouth, Jl 48 PHILLIPS BROOKS. and without any accompaniment of manner (whatever may be the case with the matter) specially appro- priate to an exordium, just be- gins — right in the middle, as it were. The parting of his lips seems like the bursting open of a safety-valve by the seething thoughts and words behind, and out they rush, so hot in their chase the one of the other, that at times they ap- pear to be almost side by side ; and from then till the moment when he stops, with equal abruptness, he simply pours — pours — pours! out — out — out! It seems as if he could not possibly say enough, or begin to express what he has to utter. Just as in his writing, he is super- PHILLIPS BROOKS. 49 latively and superbly reckless in lavishing his treasures — apparently feeling that the difficulty is, not to find what to say, but to use a tithe of the material that throngs and beats and surges to be let out. He gives the best he has ; never speaking, any more than writing, down to the supposed requirements of auditors only partially developed ; not stopping to sort, but flinging his words out as they come, satis- fied that each hearer will appro- priate what belongs to him, and all will get something. Great torrents and waves, as it were, of appeal and aspiration and eloquence and thought rise and fall, and whirl and eddy, throughout the church, till they so PHILLIPS BROOKS. seem to become almost visible and tangible, and to beat upon the eyes and foreheads of his hearers as they do against their hearts. The audience, caught in the rush and swing of this fervid oratory, feel as if they were rocked upon the im- passioned bosom of an ocean of inspired speech. It is soul speak- ing to soul. Indeed, you have to pay the closest attention, and catch all he says only with difficulty. So rapid and thronging is his utter- ance that, as is well known, the English reporters, used to a more leisurely eloquence, were at first perplexed and even utterly baffled in their efforts at "taking" him, and finally succeeded in achieving PHILLIPS BROOKS. SI the ability to reach that end only by a sort of special education, ob- tained through chasing his excep- tionally " whirling words." It is to be hoped, by the way, this practice may have had some appreciable effect towards reforming the pro- fession of tachygraphy in Great Bri- tain. Bishop Brooks's oratory has been not inaptly compared to the headlong rush of an express-train. In point of fact, coolly consid- ered, Phillips Brooks exhibits as a preacher well-nigh every fault of delivery : but he does not leave you | time to criticise. There are in him a tremendous vitality, a vigor, an exhaustlessness, an irresistible onset of confident and ardent ear- fl 52 PHILLIPS BROOKS. nestness, that, whether you will or not, take you clean off your feet, and whirl you along — at their mercy, but pleased, and it is to be hoped benefited. It is not to be wondered at that when Samuel Morley was spending three months in the United States, he stayed over a second Sunday in Boston in order to hear Philli)'' Brooks preach again. As to the audiences attracted in his native city and elsewhere by this great American Preacher, they are composed of persons by no means all Episcopalians, but drawn from almost every denomination — some, indeed, having no very dis- tinct religious affiliation or belief of PHILLIPS BROOKS. 53 any kind. It seems to have been the case with all the historic preach- ers that their power has sufficed to break the bonds of denomination ■ — thus causing something Hke a re- turn to the primitive simpUcity — and of unbelief. There is something elemental about pulpit utterances of the first rank : they are the lava-stream melting and transfusing all it touches. One who has made a study of the matter is forced to confess that there is good reason for thinking that no inconsiderable number of those who go to hear Phillips Brooks go, less for the sake of any religious instruction or bene- fit to be received, or becausk.; they believe what the preacher says, 54 PHILLIPS BROOKS. than for the simple purpose of en- joying his oratory — just as they would go to a public place of amusement (a concert, for in- stance), or to any literary enter- tainment. Neither probably is this exceptional in his case. It is deeply to be regretted ; but looking at the subject inductively, as a matter simply of observation and experience, one is compelled to recognize the fact. This is unfor- tunately a sceptical and irreligious age, though Americans notoriously admire a man who preeminently " understands his business," and performs it perfectly. Doubtless, Chrysostom never converted all his hearers. PHILLIPS BROOKS. 55 If, however, any amongst the audience do not believe what the preacher says, it is simply impos- sible for any man, woman or child not to believe that the preacher be- lieves it. At those wonderful noon- day services in Trinity Church, New York, last year, not one of those clear-headed breathlessly-at- tentive Wall -Street operators — judges of men trained in perhaps the most sceptical school on earth, and some of them the kings and princes of iinance — but knew in his heart by intuition infallible that the speaker before them was a kingly man, who spoke kingly from his soul, and simply coidd not lie, palter, or pretend. They might S6 PHILLIPS BROOKS. not in all cases or at all points be able to understand him, but they instinctively knew him to be true. And after all it is impossible to say what chords are genuinely touched, what natures wakened, by pulpit oratory, in spite of them- selves, and sometimes even to their own hearts unconfessed. Only He who knows all knows this too. At any moment he who goes to listen from curiosity or to enjoy may find his conscience stung beyond con- trol. Of the English clergy and their sermons the verse runs — " They make the best and preach the worst." Charles Kingsley in the pulpit rested his arm upon or grasped CHURCH OF THE ADVENT, PHILADELPHIA. •I PHILLIPS BROOKS. 57 the cushion, meaning to avoid ges- ticulation ; but as he became aroused, his eye kindled, his whole frame vibrated, and with his right hand he made a curious gesture — which he seemed unconscious of and un- able to restrain — the fingers moving with a hovering motion like a hawk about to swoop upon its prey. Car- dinal Newman in the pulpit re- sembled a tall, unimpassioned, though piercingly earnest spectre from an- other world, with a silverv voice. Of Whitefield indeed Southev said his "elocution was perfect : he used to preach each sermon over and over again, till ever)- inflection and gesture became perfect. Frank- lin said he could always tell on 58 PHILLIPS BROOKS. hearing him, from the stage of its finish, how new the sermon was. Bossuet's delivery was dignified yet vehement. Jonathan Edwards stood motionless in the pulpit, one hand resting on it, and the other holding up to his eyes his little closely- written manuscript from which he read. The first sermon Whitefield preached after ordination to the diaconate drove fifteen people in- sane with fright. When Edwards preached the congregation at times rose to its feet unable to remain sitting, and people fainted. Great men are great in spite of their faults. Kingsley had an impedi- ment in his speech, — which disap- peared however as soon as he began M PHILLIPS BROOKS. jg to speak in the pulpit. Whitefield had a cast in one of his eyes. Bossuet's voice was too shrill. All these men succeeded as preachers, as Robertson succeeded, as Brooks suc- ceeds, because they were on fire with holiness to the bottom of their being, and back of their words lay their lives. E»" THE AUTHOR. II IV. THE AUTHOR. "X T TITH perhaps the single excep- ' ' tion of two ventures in verse and of his dispassionate paper on " The Episcopal Church " in the " Memorial History of Boston," Bishop Brooks's claims to be con- sidered as an author rest upon his published Sermons, Lectures, and Addresses. Though of course these were written for the purpose of be- ing delivered, since they have been made into printed books and given to the public, they may not improperly PWW««W«J(«*W!I|EC«||{J| ^ats^ihbmie'^e^iffiiJiSJst/it^ ^^if-M PHILLIPS BROOKS. be regarded as belonging to the prov- ince of authorship. Indeed, it might with some show of justice be urged that, when he writes any of his ser- mons or addresses, he is in that act a writer — it being only when he mounts the pulpit or the plat- form to pronounce them, that .he becomes the preacher. 'Amongst the strong and well-re- membered impressions that come back to one, on turning over the leaves of the five volumes of Ser- jnorls, of the Yale College and of ■the Bohlen Lectures, and of the rest, perhaps the best-remem- bered and strongest is that of rich profusion. Simile, metaphor, insight ; historic, scientific, theological and Sea PHILLIPS BROOKS. 6s literary allusion ; observation ; a deep knowledge of human nature — all the wealth of an opulent scholarship and of a teeming brain ; all the riches of an overflowing heart — are proffered without reserve. His learning is worn as a suit of mail-armor, never cramping or stiffening the natural play of his members. Pedantic he never is ; and whenever he employs what may perhaps be styled "library- facts," they have become delightfully metamorphosed : he has put more of himself into the statement than there is of the facts. Indeed he often plays with them — which Goethe thought to be a sign of the master. Especially apt, effective and beautiful are his illustrations, though they are U'-^JitJiiiii'iiSili'ttt 66 PHILLIPS BROOKS. never used for effect, but only as they should be to illustrate. Take one, where a hundred might be given : " We are like southern plants, taken up to a northern climate and planted in a northern soil. They grow there, but they are always failing of their flowers. The poor exiled shrub dreams by a native longing of a splendid blossom which it has never seen, but it is dimly conscious that it ought somehow to produce. It feels the flower which it has not strength to make in the half-chilled but still genuine juices of its southern nature. That is the way in which the ideal life, the life of full completions, haunts us all." ■j£A.*a.J4Jija J:««^M.;-iii" a wmms^^vimsmm.'si^m PHILLIPS BROOKS. 67 Such passages as this surely are what even an adversary terms, in the sermons of Luther, " oasis, pleins de fralcheur ei de po^sie, des pens^es nobles et d^licates, des mouvements pathHhiques et affectueux." His pages bristle with quotable expressions, phrases and sentences of the most striking aptness. As for example : " Faith is the king's knowledge of his own kingship." " A scramble for adherents rather than a Christ-like love for souls." " That first step which costs, we know, cannot be too costly, if it starts the enterprise aright." The curious thing about a ser- mon is that, though it is stated logically, the material composing it 68 PHILLIPS BROOKS. consists of feeling rather than of thought ; and in this respect of feeling logically handled Phillips Brooks is unexcelled. He takes a subject and expands it perhaps first, as it were, lengthwise ; then later- ally; then downwards; and finally upwards to its loftiest reach; adding room after room to the growing edi- fice, and ever and anon shooting rays of apocalyptic light through it diagonally in every possible direction, till the whole theme stands devel- oped and revealed, vibrating through all its lengtb, and palpitating as it were in all its pores, with a glory of prismatic hues ; so to speak, sounding and throbbing even with a music celestial. Sometimes a figure used at the outset of a discourse is PHILLIPS BROOKS. 69 repeated or referred to again and again, each reappearance casting a new and wonderful light upon the theme, and marking a fresh step in its growth : as for example the plant and flower illustration in the sermon on "Withheld Completions," or Edom and Judah in the " Con- queror from Edom," which, hinted at and persistently and in greater and greater fullness recurred to throughout, emerge in their com- plete and overwhelming splendor only at the very end — just as Gou- nod treats Margaret's apotheosis- theme in " Faust." The heauty and force of these repetitions, occurring often when least expected, and each time strangely like the familiar though changed voice of an un- i^ im m ^o PHILLIPS BROOKS. earthly bell knelling out of the ser- mon's progress, amount at times to- a revelation : they attack us in our most defenceless part, in the reason beneath reason, what may be called our "intuitional reason," irresistibly — our tears start, and we cry aloud ! He who has read one of the best of Phillips Brooks's sermons has gazed upon a cartoon drawn — list- ened to an oratorio composed — by a Great Master of logical and of artis- tic expression, and of the human heart. Having as it were wafted his reader for half-an-hour through the heavens on rose-tinted clouds, to close sometimes he brings him gently ^ to earth again — in vul- gar parlance, "lets him down easy" — in a way that occasionally seems to partake somewhat of anti-climax ; m Phillips Brooks. FROM A PORTRATT DURING HIS RECTORSHIP (IF THE CHURCH OF THE ADVENT, PHILLIPS BROOKS. 71 although doubtless whenever used it serves the good purpose of lead- ing the audience gradually into har- mony with their every-day surround- ings, while it at the same time leaves the splendors of the sermon's heights still ringing through their consciousness, to be afterwards re- called at leisure and in quiet (who shall say when or how often throughout the years to come, or indeed while life lasts ?). Some- times, on the very crest of the climax, he abruptly ends with a quick prayer to the All-Father, which of itself inextricably clinches in his hearer's heart the sermon's benign invasion. Reference has been made, in a pre- vious chapter, to his never writing down to the level of his readers. In 11 72 PHILLIPS BPOOKS. addresses composed for delivery be- fore students, theological or other, niggardliness of learning would not perhaps be expected: but in the Sermons, addressed to miscellaneous audiences, the case is not far from being as bad. His feeling in the matter would seem to be, it is best to give — only give: if each one does not grasp it all, he will some: and the. attempt to grasp — the attitude of reaching tcp — the effort to compre- hend what one has not as yet thor- oughly mastered — is of itself helpful (much preferable to the supine and indolent mental posture of one who is quite on the level of, or even a little above, what he reads). It is very noticeable in him that, whether writ- PHILLIPS BROOKS. 73 ing or speaking, he never seems satis- fied till the note struck is the octave- note. — that view of the matter in hand which is the highest his thought and life have yielded him — and every sub- ject he handles he seeks to lead up and attach to the loftiest he knows : he is never willing to rest till he has reached that theme. A loyal knight, everalert toduty. Dr. Lyman Abbott has recently remarked of him that he always preaches : any of his after- dinner speeches he might use the next Sunday in his pulpit. Not only is he complex, and instead of coming down to his readers invites them to come up to him : he is never afraid of giving full measure, heaped up and running over. Into every .vt^-fsur:: WbWi^itrasaByj'^HJEiwss-txcw 74 PHILLIPS BROOKS. address or chapter he puts material enough to make, if more thriftily spread out, four highly respectable ones. Every page scintillates with gems, not only gathered from widely- distant quarters of thought and of feeling, but packed into the smallest space. A discourse of his is like the " dark rich cloth bursting out into jewels from within," which serves him as an illustration in one of his sermons. He may be said to compose royally, as who has the storehouse of the Universe and of Eternity behind him, and nothing is further from his thoughts than an intellectual economy. Indeed, his resources and the activity of his brain are such, that it is probably easier for him mB»rm^^mmsx^sfitm/xmm PHILLIPS BROOKS. 75 to lavish than to withhold and dilute. It must be confessed, he knows how to feel his way to the deep places of the human heart led by an instinct infallible, and upon the corrupt and sore spots of the soul he lays the renovating and healing touch of a master. Carlyle, speak- ing of what used to be called " bil- lowy Chalmerian prose," says that "no preacher ever went so into one's heart" as Dr. Chalmers — but when did Carlyle ever state an opin- ion moderately.? In one of the Yale Lectures, if the writer re- members the place correctly. Brooks points out to his hearers, young men preparing for the Christian -■rssve^tmewtm 76 PHILLIPS BROOKS. ministry (and, through them, to students of religion at large), how wondrous and confirming, to the young priest who goes from his school out into life, is the revela- tion of finding that, the longer he lives, and the deeper he sees into the surrounding mystery of things, the more are the teachings of the Master and of the wise ones, which he studied during his years of pre- paration and accepted largely on trust, corroborated by the world, the more are they discovered to be applicable in the way of alleviation to the world. This revelation has clearly been made to him, — and he is moreover to be credited with noticeable originality of insight and PHILLIPS BROOKS. 77 of application. The " Lectures on Tolerance," for instance — mere suggestion, instead of the elaborate work on the subject that would have been so welcome, and he would have written so well, though they are — are of marked originality. Such production as this it is, that causes Dr. Abbott to indulge in the shrewd conjecture that Phillips Brooks thinks even more than he studies — adding that he entertains the suspicion that he prays. In no sermons recalled by the writer at this moment, are there in proportion to the whole a larger number that, once read, stamp themselves ineffaceably and forever upon the memory and heart, and are found to come up. 78 PHILLIPS BROOKS. throughout life — like some of Rob- ertson's, and one or two of the late Dr. George Putnam's — alike in our hours of revery arid of crisis, as it were, "with healing on their wings." It seems hardly too much to say that, in the bitterest advers- ity or affliction, he who has ever read the sermon on the " Consola- tions of God" will have had done for him the utmost that human means afford. His style is fitted for and at once suggests his delivery : the same abrupt start, quick getting under head- way, and sustained and out-pouring rush. It is like a high-bred racer : there is so much vitality in it, its speed cannot be kept down. Indeed, when- M PHILJ.IPS BROOKS. 79 ever you take up an address of which you do not know though you may begin to suspect the author, as soon as beneath the growing statement you hear the gathering rush you may feel sure you are reading Phillips , Brooks. The only prose of his the writer remembers that lacks this decisive trait is the " Memorial His- tory " chapter already referred to — without the signature it would never be known as his. Whatever he writes is written to be spoken. He has the extemporaneous instinct. The main thought or feeling he wishes to express is jumped at at once, and struck out first, leaving the details to fall into place afterwards. As Porson said of Charles James Fox, "he 8o PHILLIPS BROOKS. throws himself into the middle of his sentences, and leaves it to Almighty- God to get him out again." He often feels several times for the exact word he wants, just as one does in speaking, though each time his word of tentation is almost a blow. Nor does he make any extensive experi- ment's in the way of variety of man- ner. Lowell, to take a single instance, exhibited several quite dis- tinct styles, or veins, but Brooks is always Brooks — the same unchanged instantly-recognizable quality wher- ever met with. It is as if, having in the first place carefully studied a thing and learned to do it well, he had never cared to bother with excursions after universality of form, but just HOL> TRINITY PHILADELPHIA PHILLIPS BROOKS. 8i goes on doing the thing over and over again. His vocabulary is copious, pithy and choice. His sentences are short; each sentence and phrase contains its idea rolled into a pellet ; each pre- sents a totally new idea, generally drawn from a source widely-different from the last. They follow each other in almost breathless suc- cession, till all the marvelous com- plexity of the subject he is presenting has been built and welded together and driven home. WHAT HE STANDS FOR IN THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. V. WHAT HE STANDS FOR TODAY. IS it asked, what does Phillips * Brooks stand for today in the "Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America " ? It may be answered : Phillips Brooks in any church stands first and fore- most for the Fatherhood of God — the sonship of Christ and of man — the inspiration of the Spirit. If we, in the words of Arch- deacon Farrar, when speaking of him, " want to know something of 86 PHILLIPS BROOKS. Christianity as Christ taught it, be- fore it was corrupted," we may turn to him. He believes, above all things, as- regards both the Founder and the preachers of Christianity, in person- ality ; in life rather than doctrine ; in giving "not an argument but a man." He says : " If there has beer* one change which above all others has altered our modern Christianity from what the Christian religion was- in apostolic times, I think beyond a- doubt it must be this, the substitution, of a belief in doctrines for loyalty to- a person as the essence and the test of Christian life. . . [The gospels] had no creed but Christ. Christ was their creed." " Not from simple brain *J PHILLIPS BROOKS. 87 •to simple brain, as the reasoning of ■Euclid comes to its students, but irom total character to total charac- ter, comes the New Testament from -God to men." Again: "The king ■must go with his counsellors at his -side and his army at his back, or he makes no conquest. The intellect «nust be surrounded by the richness -of the affections and backed by the power of the will, or it attains no per- iect truth." "The method whic^ in- "Cludes all other methods must be in his [the preacher's] own manhood, in iiis character, in his being such a -man, and so apprehending truth him- self, that truth through him can come to other men." This comprehension -or intuition of the supremacy of per- ■HP-Tt'Vsen;:;^^!! 88 PHILLIPS BROOKS. sonality, for instance, it is that forces him, in his address upon " Biography," delivered at Phillips Exeter Academy, to confess that he would rather have written a great biography than any other great book, and that if he were going to be a painter he would by pre- ference paint portraits. Of his own words it has been said that, like the Master's, they themselves "are spirit and are life." Tb him, again, "religion presents itself . . . as an elemental life in which the soul of man comes into very direct and close communion with the soul of God." Everywhere his utterances, his character, and his life are full of this. In the sermon upon the "Knowledge of God," he IW*ICd«MUIKM3tfwl'! PHILLIPS BROOKS. 127 the listening multitude. As lie closed his booic-and stretched his hands toward the crowd, saying, " Let us all join in the Lord's Prayer," every head was bowed and every lip seemed to move in -prayer. It was a thrilling scene. Strong men, unused to any show of feeling, felt no shame at the big tears that splashed down their faces, and the only other sound besides the murmur of hushed voices was an occasional sob. The assistant rector then read the hymn beginning, — " O God, our help in ages past. Our hope for years to come, Our shelter from the stormy blast, And our eternal home," copies of which were distributed among the crowd. Three cornetists stood at the left of the officiating clergyman, and led the singing. Dr. Donald then pronounced a bene- diction, and the mourners came from the church to the carriages which very in waiting, and the crowd slowly — very slowly and sadly — dispersed. The carriages being taken, a proces- sion was formed which proceeded to Mount Auburn by way of the Harvard Bridge. Hundreds of people had col- lected along the line of its progress ; all 128 PHILLIPS BROOKS. places of" business passed by it were closed ; and no person gazed upon it but showed in his demeanor solemnity and respect. When, coming up Harvard Street, its head reached Beck Hall, Cambridge, a few minutes before two o'clock, the University bell began tolling, and the students gathered in great numbers. They lined up on both sides of the drive from University out to the west gat&, standing three deep, with hun- dreds of the town people who had assembled to witness the impressive demonstration, standing in the rear of the lines. The procession halted at the Main-Street entrance sufficiently long to enable students to get into position ; then it slowly passed into the yard. As the carriages filed by, every head was bared, and all remained uncovered until the last vehicle in the procession drove out of the gate. The scene was as picturesque as it was impressive, and what gave additional solemnity to the occasion was the chiming of Pleyel's Hymn from the belfry of Christ Church, and the tolling of the old college bell in Harvard Hall. The college flag was at half-mast. A large number of students followed the procession a short distance on its way to the cemetery. A funeral assembly of one hundred i J i PHILLIPS BROOKS. 1 29 or more persons was waiting at the cemetery when the procession arrived. Here the old-fashioned, black iron fence that still conservatively encloses the Brooks family lot was entirely covered with evergreen and flowers. In the centre, the mound formed by the earth thrown from the grave was surmounted by a broken shaft of lilies capped with carnations, white roses, sheaves of wheat, and ferns. The posts of the railing were hung with wreaths of ivy and violets tied with purple ribbon. In the rear of the lot was a large open book, inscribed " The Light of the World." Near it was a second shaft, encircled with an ivy wreath. There were a number of other wreaths lying about. In the lot are buried the bishop's father and mother, and his two brothers, Hev. Frederic and George. On a temporary platform before the lot the burial service was read. Those who had assembled before the funeral procession arrived gathered at the top of the hill in the rear while the proces- sion from the carriages gathered upon the platform. The young body-bear- ers from Harvard tenderly brought the coffin from the hearse and placed it beside the open grave. The service, which was brief, was read by the bish- I30 PHILLIPS BROOKS. op's two brothers — Rev. John Brooks and Rev. Arthur Brooks. At the close of the service there was a slight sur- ging toward the lot, and there was scarcely any one present who did not bear away with him some memento in the shape of a flower or a bit of green that had lain by the grave of their be- loved bishop. From twelve o'clock to two, during the funeral services, there was a general suspension of business throughout the city, even the stock exchange closing its doors; and the routes of many of the lines of street cars were changed, in order not to incommode the people who desired to congregate in Copley Square. In the First Baptist Church, across the way from the home of Bishop Brooks, a large congregation assembled at a sim- ple service at the same hour when the funeral was being held at Trinity. The proposed exercises in the Old South were given up to allow every one to be present at the out-door services. In the Church of the Advent two re- quiem services were held in memory of Bishop Brooks, the first a communion service at 7.30. At 9.30 o'clock the rector of the church was the celebrant [ at a full choral service. The church I was filled. \ A special service was held in mem- PHILLIPS BROOKS. 131 ory of Bishop Brooks in St. Augustine's Protestant Episcopal Church, Phillips Street, West End. Special memorial services were held at different times by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association and Young Men's Christian Union, by " clergymen of all denominations " in the Old South Meeting House, at Appleton Chapel, Harvard College, in the Chapel of Bos- ton University, and in the churches or halls of various cities and towns through- out New England and outside of it. In the service at the Old South Meeting House both Catholics and Protestants united, for the first time in the history of Boston. Bishop Potter, of New York, who had preached the sermon at the episcopal consecration, had intended to preach a memorial sermon in Trinity Church, Boston, on the Sunday follow- ing the funeral, but was prevented by illness. Organizations, societies and clubs of all kinds and denominations all over the country held commemorative meetings, or passed resolutions, and the list of meetings — business or convivial — that were adjourned out of respect to the memory of the great dead would be a long one. All Episcopal churches throughout the diocese removed their Christmas decorations, and replaced them with mourning drapings. The 132 PHILLIPS BROOKS. colored people of Boston passed res- olutions. At the memorial service celebrated at Appleton Chapel, Harvard University, Professor F. G. Peabody during his ad- dress said :■ — "The life of a great man has two sides. First, there is the public side, the official recognized life, the power, the eloquence ; and then there is the private side, the personal, the intimate life. " Sometimes the knowledge of a man's private life does not bring with it an in- crease of love, but when knowledge of the inner life brings more love with it, then we forget the greatness of the man in the thoughts of his graciousness. " It is our peculiar privilege here, while the world is honoring the public life of a great man, to honor his private life. "He came to us not as an orator, but as a brother, a father, a helper. He brought us all his spiritual gifts and a beautiful tenderness and simpleness, as though he found himself here in the trusted circle of domestic life. " In the little book we have in which our preachers record their impressions, there are many observations in his hand- writing about the privilege he felt he had in coming here. PHILLIPS BROOKS. 133 " In this chapel to-day there are many men who talked with him, perhaps only once or twice, but they feel they have lost a friend. As some of them have said, they went to him afraid of his greatness, and came away impressed with his kindness." A popular subscription was at once started for the purpose of erecting a statue to him in Copley Square, in front of the Trinity Church which he had loved so deeply and served so well. BROOKSIANA. VII. BROOKSIANA. T3ISH0P BROOKS, always an ex- •^ ceedingly hard-working man, after his ascendancy to the bishopric, had his energies taxed to their utmost ca- pacity. He was never, however, known to acknowledge that he needed rest. His duties as bishop of the diocese of Massachusetts were but a small part of his work. Not a day passed but letters and invitations asking his attendance at banquets, clubs, and other social func- tions were received, and it was his invariable rule to accept, if it was pos- sible for him to do so. Every letter of whatever nature received by him was scrupulously answered, a private secretary being required after he had assumed the bishopric to attend to his correspondence. He never used postal- cards for any purpose. Letters came to him on all subjects from all parts of the world. Once while abroad he received a let- 137 II \i^^&^msmmimwcmsSf»mM PHILLIPS BROOKS. ter from a woman in the South who desired to move to Boston with her two children. She wrote to ask the bishop if he would find some nice, moderately- priced boarding-house for herself and family. The bishop sent it back to his secretary, asking him to make inquiries and forward her the desired information. " Be sure," wrote Bishop Brooks, " and tell her that the answer was not delayed any longer than absolutely necessary. Explain to her that I am in Europe." This woman probably never knew the amount of trouble she had caused the bishop and his secretary by her one simple request. Soon after he was consecrated, the bishop received a letter from a widow in Minnesota. She had been married in Massachusetts and her husband had been killed in the civil war. As a soldier's widow she was entitled to a pension from the government, but this she was unable to obtain, although none disputed the fact of the husband being killed in an engagement and while fighting nobly. But the poor aflflicted widow could not prove that this man was her husband, as she had lost her certificate. So she wrote to Bishop Brooks, telling him of her condition and the necessity of re- ceiving a copy of her marriage certifi- cate. She only knew the name of the W ;s(^«>"**^P^:ws:?^i^--?~*-;<"'iSi7" PHILLIPS BROOKS. 139 minister who had married her, and he had died. The bishop of Massachusetts took a personal interest in her case, and worked hard to obtain evidence of the marriage, and was finally successful, and she got her pension. Then a man down in some Southern State wrote to him to say that he had got to go to New York to get a difficult surgical operation performed, and had no money. He wanted help. The bish- op told his secretary to write to the clergyman in his town to inquire about it, and say that if it was all right he would pay it. Then a man wrote to him to know if he could help him get a certificate of his baptism. All he could tell was that he was baptized in a high church in Montreal. The bishop showed it to his secretary and asked if he could do any- thing for him ; and he sent the appli- cant a list of all the churches in Mon- treal and the rectors of each one, that he might write to them. Fond mothers (and they were not confined to the Episcopalian fold) whose sons were leaving home to make for themselves a place and a name in the busy city, wrote to Bishop Brooks and asked him to keep an eye on their boys, little knowing what a multitude of cares rested upon his broad and massive shoul- n 140 PHILLIPS BROOKS. ders. And so on with many other cases. A friend who knew Bishop Brooks quite well entered his study one fore- noon. Before the great preacher lay a heap of opened letters. Turning in his chair he said, " Among all those letters which I have answered, or shall answer, not one appertains to my parish. All are from people outside the bounds of Trinity, and most of them from people outside of Boston. They are on all sorts of subjects, and several contain urgent appeals for money." He was very free with his money, al- though he never wasted a cent, and was continually doing good deeds with it. He did them quietly, and it was seldom that any one ever heard of it. He was always thoughtful of his brothers in the ministry, and his sympathies for poor clergymen were especially tender. On one occasion he received a check for a hundred dollars from a parish in whose church he had preached. When the check came back to the drawer through the bank it bore the indorse- ment of a poor clergyman in another part of the State to whom he had sent it. No one ever knew of it except by that indorsement on the check, which told the story of his generosity. An Episcopal chapel had been built 11 PHILLIPS BROOKS. I4I in one of the remoter suburban towns, and the debt upon it was a heavy bur- den. Some jesting layman, talking the matter over with Mr. Brooks — both having a little personal interest in the village — said to Trinity's pastor, " I will give as much as you will give toward the extinction of that debt." — " Very well," replied Mr. Brooks, " I will give five hundred dollars." And the debt was paid. Another incident in the great preach- er's life was mentioned as having taken place during a convention held in Bal- timore. Dr. Brooks had been invited to preach a missionary sermon in one of the churches. He consented, and the fact being advertised beforehand, the church was so crowded that it was impossible to take up the collec- tion. Hearing of this. Bishop Brooks went to the rector after the people had gone and said, "Well, my dear fellow, I am sorry to have spoiled your collec- tion, but if you can give me an esti- mate of about the amount you would have had, I will let you have my check for it." The young candidates for the clergy were his especial pride, and in their progress he had an active personal in- terest. He helped them pecuniarily, had them visit him, and corresponded 142 PHILLIPS BROOKS. with them. He helped many a needy young man through college. He said once to a friend during one of the very few times when he said anything, however personal, in any way connected with his good works : " When you spend a night at a clergyman's house you can generally find out a great deal." This was a very pregnant remark, and it in- timated a great line of his charity. It was his custom in making his visi- t-ations to notice the various little things needed in the homes of the poorer clergy- men where he was being entertained. He generally did find out a great deal, and what he found out he remembered. As a result, the poor churchman gener- ally received just what he had needed and had been unable to get, and at the ■hands of the bishop. About two years ago a printer em- ployed on one of the Boston daily papers fell sick. A subscription was raised among the men in his office to help him make a trip to California. One day the cashier in the counting-room called up through the speaking-tube to the foreman of the composing-room and said, — " A gentleman wishes to see you." "All right ; send him up. I would go down, but I can't leave my work." In a few minutes the foreman was as- PHILLIPS BROOKS. tonished to see the familiar face and form of -Boston's great preacher enter- ing the composing-room, four flights from the street, and there is no elevator there. Bishop Brooks said he had learned of what the printers were doing for one of their fellow-workmen, and made some 'inquiries as to the character of the man. He said this man's wife had attended his church, and he had learned of their misfortunes. Satisfied that it would be a kind act to a worthy man, Bishop Brooks quietly slipped a twenty-dollar note into the foreman's hand, and asked him to add that to the fund, refusing to allow his name to be added to the subscription list. His work among the poor and lowly was greater than one would dream of. People who had never entered his church, some of whom had never heard him preach, did not fear to ask him to officiate when death invaded the family circle, and they rarely asked in vain. He never refused if he had time at his disposal to grant the request. Once a gentleman who had met him, but who was not his parishioner and not a mem- ber of the Episcopal Church, lost his little child. The father and mother wished to have the great preacher, the tender, loving shepherd of the flock, read the burial service over the body of ; [ I m m I .-^ 144 . PHILLIPS BROOKS. the child. Mr. Brooks said, "I will do so, cheerfully, if I have time." He con- sulted his list of engagements for the day. " I have just half an hour that is not bespoken ; if you will make your arrangements conform to that time, I will gladly be present." A physician tells a story of a poor woman who had required his services and to whom he had said, after several visits, " You don't need any more medi- cine. What you need now is nourish- ment and fresh air. You need to get out." — "But I have nobody to leave with the children," she said. They were little ones, and the poor mother's anxiety about them had added to her illness. The doctor repeated, " Well, you must manage to get out,' somehow." A day or two later — being a sympathetic soul — he dropped in to see if she had found means to obey his directions. She certainly had. She had told her need to the man who cheerfully met all sorts of demands upon him. He was there taking care of the children while the poor mother went out for air and exercise. It was Phillips Brooks ! A visitor to the house in Clarendon Street waited in the hall one day while Bishop Brooks finished a little talk he was having with a workman in the li- brary. He went to the door with this In PHILLIPS BROOKS. 145 visitor, a middle-aged man, who wore a look of relief as if he had just had a bur- den taken off his mind. The bishop was saying, " Yes ; that will be your best way," and repeated some advice about the man's work and wages, evidently clinching advice already given. The man hesitated a minute, while the bish- op's hand was on the knob, then said, getting his hand towards his pocket, " Shall I — that is, how much would it be .' " with an evident feeling that there ought to be some sort of fee. And th6 bishop said, " Nothing at all — ■■ nothing at all," so heartily and cheerily that the man could not possibly have felt, even after going away, that he had made a mistake in offering to fee Bishop Brooks ! In the broad field of labor through which Bishop Brooks's interests were distributed, very near to his heart was undoubtedly the work of St. Andrew's Church on Chambers Street. This mission was organized about seventeen years ago, and was called the Chapel of the Evangelists. For two years the work was conducted under the direction of Emmanuel parish, and then it came fully under the ministration and care of Trinity. After a few years of progress two fine buildings were erected on Chambers Street, where Bishop Brooks's ideas could be more fully car- 146 PHILLIPS BROOKS. ried out. Not only did he seek the spiritual welfare of the people who came under his attention, but he always strove to solve the industrial problem ; and what has been accomplished there shows how energetic its laborers have been. It was here that the first girls' club in the country was organized, and its members will recall with much pleas- ure the many happy occasions when Dr. Brooks entertained them with bright talks about his travels in foreign lands. The dispensary work excited his warm- est interest, and it was through his ener- gies that it was kept open at night to answer calls from the sick and suffering — the first attempt in this city of a sim- ilar nature. Such a work as St. An- drew's has demanded a large outlay of money, and it was through his personal appeals and his own generous and fre- quent donations that its present success has been attained. The Vincent Hospital, too, was an- other branch of Trinity work in which he always manifested an unfailing sym- pathy. The Guild Hall of St. Andrews is hung with attractive pictures, which were given by Bishop Brooks, and on festival occasions, when the big family was gathered there, it was his great de- light to be present and join with the children in their merry-making. All [Tiinir luiiwif [i Hill III ii ■ iniii^imni mi J?J PHILLIPS BROOKS. 1 47 those who have given of their time and service to the carrying on of Trinity's missions can testify to the appreciation of their labors by their beloved pastor. Two young men who had been at- tending Trinity Church, but for some reason or other had ceased going, tell this story. They did not suppose they were known to thie rector even by sight. They were rooming at the top — in fact, in the attic — of an unusually high lodging-house in a not very aristocratic quarter of the city, when one afternoon came a rap at their chamber door. On opening it, they found Dr. Brooks stand- ing there, with his kindly smile, hand outstretched, and the following words issuing from his lips : "Well, boys, you did not expect to see me\itxt, did you.-"" As usual careless for himself, he had climbed all the long flights, instead of sending for them to come down to him. The talk that ensued made both the wanderers permanent attendants at Trinity. His attitude in respect to remunera- tion for his work was best exemplified at the diocesan convention after his election as bishop was consummated. Previous to this not a word had been said as to salary, and Bishop Paddock had been receiving six thousand dollars and a house on Chestnut Street, owned wtssmntmnmrnx 148 PHILLIPS BROOKS. by the diocese. At the convention ex- Governpr Rice moved that the salary be increased to eight thousand dollars, the amount Phillips Brooks received as rector of Trinity. The bishop at once got a friend of his to object to this, and ask an indefinite postponement of the matter; and in deference to his wishes it was done. His private secretary once said of him : — " Bishop Brooks was in the first place, what a number of clergymen did not believe he could be, a great administra- tor. He administered the affairs of the diocese in a broad and warm-hearted manner that endeared those to him who were previously opposed. " He always found time to talk with any one, but never longer than the sub- ject required. If it was a matter that necessitated a hearing for two or three hours, he would find time for it, but if it was only an invitation to attend some service, a minute sufficed to settle the matter. The bishop was a man who had a wonderful faculty for getting at the heart of a thing. You only had to make a few words of explanation, and he had grasped the whole matter with remarkable comprehension. " The bishop always seemed to have time for everything, although he was imiw ^.''■.»^j,-5m?in«&Hii»tf j;' Bf BBsamammmp u !«»?SeS«9Ka!Bir^.'?!S^'i!'';«^-/S«^-^»t.i PHILLIPS BROOKS. a great worker. I consider myself a pretty hard worker, but I could not pretend to accomplish the amount of work Bishop Brooks did, and he never seemed to be too busy, never hurried. He could always bear an interruption. Sometimes I would say, ' Bishop, I would like to talk to you about a matter when you are at leisure.' Looking up he would instantly reply, ' Well, now is the best time.' " His mind was like one great reser- voir, always full and never needing re- plenishing. Most clergymen have to labor on a sermon, but he nevfer did. Bishop Brooks wrote his sermons with- out any apparent effort, for his mind was full of great thoughts. He could write a sermon in six hours, at two sit- tings. " I recollect just before the first dio- cesan convention, when I observed that he was not working on his address. As most bishops would wish to have their first address a particularly good one, I asked him one day if he realized how near the time of the convention was. He replied 'yes,' and then I mentioned his address. ' Oh ! that will be all right,' he replied. "Sure enough, a day or two before the convention he showed me a bound manuscript, which was the convention ^»»aEraSS5E5«!!B3JWSSKRSaca!2BH!8a PHILLIPS BROOKS. address. He had completed it by work- ing an hour or so or less at a time on it. It was one of the grandest things I ever heard him deliver, I think. " People wonder how he stood such a round of Episcopal invitations and so much travelling. The travelling did not seem to tire him. It rested him. The time he spent on railway trains seemed to be a refreshment to him. I remon- strated with him once against the way he was driving himself, and told him he did not have any time to himself. ' Why, yes, I do ; plenty of it,' he said, with Ms cheery smile. ' I should like to know when and where,' I said. ' Why,' he replied, ' on the railway cars.' And that was about all the time he had to himself. " And yet, hard as he worked. Bishop Brooks was happy. His life was filled with happiness. He loved his work devotedly. It was not work to him, it was his enjoyment. "He was the most unselfish man I ever knew. He was always sacrificing himself for others. Not only did he never speak of himself, but he never even thought of himself." He was very careful in keeping any appointments, and absolutely sincere iij any expression. The response, " I will do it if I can," from Bishop Brooks did mamh^^^oesifis: PHILLIPS BROOKS. not mean, " I will do it if, at the time, I feel inclined," but meant the literal significance of the words. He never used the same sermon or address a second time, no matter how similar the occasions or in how distantly separated sections of the country they might be. Socially he was the simplest and most cordial and even jovial of men. Every man, woman, and child who ever came in contact with him in any of the multi- tudinous interests of which he was a liv- ing part must always remember how completely he practisedwhat he preached of the gospel of sincerity and simplicity and love. He was a type of the largest, broadest, most benevolent humanity, and had the keenest interest in all that was calculated to uplift. He thought of the whole human being, and studied him in all his various phases. He was easy and agreeable in his manners in the presence of ladies, but his meanest enemy — if the good man had one — would never accuse him of being a " ladies' man." On the contrary, Bishop Brooks treated a woman in the same frank, open manner he would if he were talking with a man, which was always gratifying to the intelligent woman, who was at once placed at her best in his society. 152 PHILLIPS BROOKS. In connection with Dr. Brooks's celi- bacy many amusing stories were told, intimating that his bachelorhood was, to say the least, not a matter of neces- sity. His treatment of all hints and remarks on the subject of the admira- tion alleged to be heaped upon him by female parishioners and friends in gen- eral, showed his innate modesty and avoidance of self-assertion. In tones of comic protestation he would say, " Talk about my being overwhelmed with slippers ! Why, often I haven't a pair to put on when I really need them." "Ah, I suppose that's a gift from some admirer, Phillips .■• " said his brother on one occasion, pointing to a handsome basket of fruit standing on the table. With an air of nonchalance, Dr. Brooks pushed the basket before his brother, saying, " They're good, aren't they .' Eat them, boy, eat them," and nothing more definite could be got from him. His love for children was well known. A group of children pleased him more than a group of elders. He could so easily enter into their joys. A child at the Church Home, South Boston, just fresh from reading "Jack, the Giant Killer," looking at his height, accosted him one day with these words, " Be you a giant .' " — "Yes, my dear," was the PHILLIPS BROOKS. reply. Others would take delight in climbing into his lap, and he would show them some relic from Japan, which he always carried, to their great amusement. Helen Kellar of the blind school was very dear to him ; he loved to talk with her about the Divine Being. After ser- vice in a church, if he knew she was there, he would go at once, after disrob- ing, from the vestry room, and with ex- tended arms most affectionately greet the afflicted girl. It is believed that a correspondence was kept up between Helen Kellar and Bishop Brooks up to the time of the latter's death. Bishop Brooks's simpli- city of faith was never better illustrated than in his beautiful letter to Helen when her alert mind began to consider the questions of the soul and immor- tality. It is told of the bishop that one time, at some informal meeting where there were a great many children, he felt a strange sensation about one of his knees — a queer, repeated jabbing sen- sation. And when it came the third time he realized that it was external, and looked down to see a tiny girl gravely sticking in a pin. " Well, well, little girl, what are you doing .' " he exclaimed; and she lisped, "I just PHILLIPS BROOKS. wanted to see if you's stuffed ! " His great size had impressed her ; her in- quiring turn of mind proved to be an introduction which greatly amused her new friend, who afterwards did a good deal for the child, whose mother too needed help. It was at the Christmas sale at Trin- ity Church. A little girl who had some dolls for sale begged the bishop to buy one from her table. Just to make talk with her, apparently, the bishop asked, " Now, what kind of dolls are you sell- ing .' " — " Brides," said the child. The bishop laughed. " Won't you have one .' " persisted the little girl. She was too young to know why the bishop laughed so much after her answer to his next question. "Now, what should I do with a bride .' " — " Why, you could give her away ! " Said a writer in the Boston Tran- script: ".I cannot help referring to Dr. Brooks's superb personal unconscious- ness, which was a rare and striking quality in so popular a man. I once witnessed a striking example of this quality. It was at an exhibition at the Kindergarten for the Blind — that blessed institution which Dr. Brooks had so special an affection for. Many people, men and women, filled the rooms. Dr. Brooks had taken up poor M Interior of Trinity Church, Boston. rnxmumwumvisi^miia^M m PHILLIPS BROOKS. 155 little deaf, dumb, and blind Tommy- Stringer, who had just come to the Kindergarten, and who knew nothing whatever, but who seemed somehow to be aware when he had come close to a kind heart. He clung tightly about the big man's neck, like a little old-man-of- the-sea, and the remarkable thing about it was that Dr. Brooks did not seem in the least anxious to dislodge him, or at all disconcerted by his persistent atten- tion. He went about with the poor boy clinging there ; he conversed with peo- ple without any sort of embarrassment, and also without that superior sort of condescension which almost any other great man would have exhibited under such circumstances. Afterward, speak- ing in Helen Kellar's behalf, he made an earnest appeal for Tommy." The same writer said again : " No one has yet fully explained the secret of Dr. Brooks's hold upon the great mass of people who were not Episcopalians, who never saw him in private life, and who, perhaps, had never heard him speak but once or twice. Thousands of such peo- ple felt a sharp pull upon their heart- strings when they heard of his death. Probably a little of a good many things went to make up this sentiment. There was the feeling that the bishop was not only a wonderfully good man, but also r. ; »SE;:s^'-»ai. i-i,-»/thll»iiMBI 156 PHILLIPS BROOKS. a man *of hearty human sympathies, and without cant or pretence. But that was more or less an abstract sen- timent. My idea is that a great part of Dr. Brooks's popularity came from the mere sight of the man on the street or in other public places ; and this is not in the slightest degree a depreciation of \ his greatness, for he would not have looked the man he did unless he had been the man he was. On the street he always had a certain splendid boyish unconsciousness — a natural and unaf- fected air of liking for the world and the people in it — which, joined with the magnificence of his stature, impres- sive to all except little men, made peo- ple's hearts warm toward him definitely and for all time. And when these same people saw him once or twice at a public meeting of some kind, and had seen his perfectly fitting bearing, and had listened to his perfectly fitting words so swiftly spoken, their liking was re-enforced by a strong admiration. Every one, Anglican or not, came to feel a sense of ownership in him. The influence which he wielded by reason of his peculiar and gifted personality made his episcopal office a little thing in com- parison." Bishop Brooks was only fifteen years old when he entered Harvard College, tt^rji^^^t-w^^^'F'-tjn^^^jpes^WE^ PHILLIPS BROOKS. 157 and at that time he was almost as tall as at any period in later life, although he had not developed into the magnifi- cent specimen of physical manhood which he presented in later years. Speaking of him, Mr. Robert Treat Paine said : " At college he cared little for sport, but preferred to read omniv- orously almost everything and anything that came in his way. His literary work was marked, even then, by the same incisive, thorough-going style that we have become familiar with in his published sermons, and was nothing less than a natural gift which he culti- vated at college to the highest point that wide reading would assist." Mr. J. S. Ropes remembers distinctly the college boy's appearance at the initiation of the class of '57's repre- sentatives into "Alpha Delt." The bishop-to-be was lounging on a cush- ioned window-seat smoking his college pipe and watching the novitiates quizzi- cally and quietly, till somebody had to break the ice. Then the big college student came down from his perch and charmed everybody with his frank, open personality. His manners were never made over to fit any new position he might attain, but were always the same from his college days. One of the stories told relates to PHILLIPS BROOKS. some of the Lenten services held by Phillips Brooks when he was rector of Trinity Church. His friend, ex-Gov- ernor Rice, met him one morning in the street-car, and said, "Aren't you getting a little weary with the Lenten services ? " Dr. Brooks's face brightened as he replied, " I guess I can stand it if the congregation can." When in England, he was " com- manded " to preach before the Queen, and was asked on that occasion if he felt afraid to do so. He replied : " No ; I have preached -before my mother." When he visited England after his elec- tion as bishop he was warmly greeted and honored. It was " My Lord Bish- op " here and " My Lord Bishop " there, and all the sturdy Americanism of Phil- lips Brooks rose in protest. " I am not .a lord bishop ! " he exclaimed ; " we have no such titles in our country, and you will oblige me by not using that form of address." The following is from Miss Lilian Whiting : — " When he entered upon the pastor- ate of Trinity Church he found his field to lie in one of the most conservative and intensely aristocratic parishes of America. The pew-holding is from a a peculiar system of title-deeds almost. mm a me i amm ^s^i^^ft PHILLIPS BROOKS. and the prevailing spirit was rather to resent than to invite the presence of strangers. A story is still told that on one Sunday a dame of high degree coming late to service found her pew occupied by two or three persons, al- though there was still room for her accommodation. But, to the dismay of the strangers, she waved them out, one by one, with a grand sweep of the ostrich feather fan which she carried, and left them to their fate standing in the aisle. The young preacher, from his desk, saw this performance and pon- dered upan its significance. My in- formant, who was also an eye-witness of the scene, tells me that a more in- dignant man than the rector at that moment could hardly be imagined. From that time he resolved that, al- though by the parish laws the church must still be one of rented pews, rather than free, it must still rise to the true spirit of Christian courtesy and hospi- tality. Nor were his efforts in vain, and for many years Trinity has been noted for its marked courtesy and gen- erous hospitality — a hospitality, in- deed, that so overflowed all considera- tions of the right of possession that it came to be laughingly remarked that the unfortunate pew-owners seemed to be the only persons who could not ^ I y i6o PHILLIPS BROOKS. be accommodated in Trinity. By the rector's desire a row of chairs was placed .all around the chancel, and sev- eral long seats placed in rows on either side, all free to the occupants ; ' and 'as many as can come and sit in my pulpit with me are welcome,' characteristically asserted the rector." He loved a good cigar. Many clergy- men smoke, but some do not. A cer- tain clergyman of this city made all the preparations for the bishop's visitation, but near the close of the service the thought came to him, as he was to en- tertain the bishop at dinner, no provis- ion had been made for cigars. He rushed along and dropped 'a quarter into the hand of one of the vestrymen near by, instructing him to get a few of the best cigars in the neighborhood. After dinner one of these was offered to the bishop, but whether or no he knew their history he refused, and that day denied himself this luxury. During his last visit to England, after he had become bishop, he was invited, or "commanded," to preach before the Queen at Windsor Castle, and pass the night there. After the sermon and dinner enfainillc with his royal hostess, he was conducted to his bedroom quite early in the evening, and left to his own resources. From the general " red- PHILLIPS BROOKS. l6l tapiness " and somewhat depressing effect of the castle atmosphere under the rigime of an aged lady of repressive tendencies, the only refuge available to him under the circumstances seemed to be man's natural friend in trouble — tobacco. Accordingly the bishop lit a cigar, and proceeded to mitigate his solitude. He had not, however, been smoking long when a knock came at his door ; on responding to which, he was informed by an awe-struck retainer that "Her Majesty was extremely opposed to gentlemen smoking ; all male inmates of the castle scrupulously respected her wishes in this respect, and would not his lordship be good enough to put his cigar out ? " This " his lordship," of course, at once did. But the picture of the comfort and freedom of his own room in his own London hotel arose before his mental vision, and he imme- diately left an apology for the punctili- ous royal chatelaine, and took train for town, without finishing probably the first night he ever (partially) spent beneath a royal roof. Said a writer in the Boston Globe : "I stood on the curbstone on Clarendon Street the morning of the funeral, watching the great long line of hu- manity, which was wending its way to the west porch of Trinity Church. By SfmsnaxumimsiSL'm^a 162 PHILLIPS BROOKS. % my side was an Irishman of perhaps I sixty years of age. Addressing me he I said, ' Well, he's gone, and Boston never saw a better man. He was a good man, generous, open, and liberal. I can well remember him as a young man taking his meals at the Parker House. This was twenty-seven years ago, and at that time I was a waiter at Parker's. Many a time I've served him. Did he remember the waiter "i He never forgot him, and his remem- brances were not those of a small soul, either. He was a lucky fellow who waited on Phillips Brooks.' " Bishop Potter once said of him : — " I first met Bishop Brooks while I was a student at the Alexandria Semi- nary. I had been there a year or two when he entered, and I recall a humor- ous incident of the time. He was quite a tall man. When he arrived there as a student he was placed in one of the rooms of the old building, the ceiling of which was so low that he could not stand erect. I heard of the awkward- ness of his situation, and exerted such influence as I possessed to secure his removal to a hall some distance off, which was known as St. John's in the Wilderness, and so he came to be es- tablished there. He made a very apt and striking reference to this incident PHILLIPS BROOKS. 1 63 a few years ago on the occasion of my consecration as bishop. He said he hoped that it would continue to be Henry Potter's business to see that men stood up straight in the world. " I recall an incident illustrating his simplicity. A member of the semi- nary, George A. Strong, was recorder at a parish at Medford, Mass., and upon one occasion Dr. Brooks and I were driving out there to see him. When we were crossing a railroad track one of the whifHetrees broke. I immedi- ately jumped out of the carriage to repair the damage. But Brooks never stirred. There he sat looking at me with apparently no more concern than a wooden idol might be expected to have until, with some degree of impatience, I ordered him to get out and hold the horses' heads while I was making re- pairs. It had never occurred to him that he could be of the slightest use. " I remarked to a gentleman after- ward, ' It is astonishing how little Brooks knows about horses.' — 'Well,' said the gentleman in reply, ' he spoke much more handsomely of you, for he told me he was amazed to see how much Henry Potter knew about horses.' " I watched him with great interest on the occasion of the recent conven- tion of the House of Bishops in Baltic n 164 PHILLIPS BROOKS. more. I knew how attention to details and the slow progress of legislation would weary him. His seat was far back among the younger bishops, as the bishops are always seated in the order of precedence with respect to the time of their election and consecration. I was not surprised, therefore, when pass- ing along the aisle near where he sat I felt some one pulling at my skirts. I looked around and saw it was Brooks. Glancing up at me in that peculiar pleas- ant way of his, he asked, ' Henry, is it always as dull as this .■' ' I leaned over and said to him, ' If you will be patient, my dear boy, you will find it animated enough.' " I was not surprised, in the largest sense of the word, to hear of his death. He had for so many years lived a life of regularity as rector, to change from that routine suddenly, to take up and dis- charge the duties of a large diocese, involved a tremendous physical risk. He went into his work with his whole heart." How fast the bishop talked is shown by the following interesting statement of the swiftest of English shorthand writers, Thomas Allen Reed, about his attempts to report the sermons preached by Rev. Phillips Brooks : " I have never, in a long and varied experience, listened 11 n^ PHILLIPS BROOKS. i6s to a public orator, whether in the pulpit, on the platform, or even in a law court, where perhaps the fastest speaking is heard, who kept up such a continuous, uninterrupted flow of rapid articulation. However large the building, the speed of delivery is the same. Even the open- ing sentences, which many habitually rapid speakers will utter quite deliber- ately, are jerked out with the most pro- voking glibness, and the reporter no sooner puts pen to paper than he finds himself dashing forward, belter skelter, his energies taxed to the utmost to get up and maintain the necessary speed. He is eagerly expecting the end of the first sentence, where he naturally antici- pates a pause. \'ain expectation ! The full stop is a grammatical expression ; it has no reality for the speaker or the writer. One sentence ended, the next begins, and, like the Dutchman's cork leg, the sermon 'goes on the same as before.' " Having recently had occasion to report Mr. Brooks, I have had the curi- osity to note his exact speed. The ser- mons were accurately timed (by two watches in each case), and the words, as they appeared in the printed report in the Christian World Pulpit, were counted. One sermon, preached at Caterham, lasted thirty-five minutes. and the average rate of speed came out at a hundred and ninety-four words per minute. But in a sermon preached in Westminster Abbey, Mr. Brooks ex- ceeded even the rate of the Caterham sermon. Notwithstanding the size of the abbey, and the effort needed to articulate with sufficient distinctness to be heard, the sermon, which lasted thirty minutes, came out two hundred and thirteen words per minute. I repeat, then, if any aspiring young shorthand writer wishes to meet a foeman worthy of his steel (or any other) pen or pen- cil, let him take an opportunity of attacking the Rev. Phillips Brooks of Boston, and the chances are that at the close of the encounter he will find the taking of a Turkish bath a superfluous operation. Fortunately for the short- hand fraternity on this side of the Atlantic, Mr. Brooks does not often visit these shores. If he did, I am afraid that, instead of being cordially welcomed, he would be received, at least by the knights of the pen, with the greeting of the Quaker in ' Uncle Tom's Cabin,' ' Friend, thee isn't wanted here.' " His rapid delivery was one of the chief characteristics of the man, and to take him verbatim usually in this country required the work of two sten- mixismf^mwBK PHILLIPS BROOKS. 1 67 ographers working in concert, the one filling in the gaps left by the other. It was in this way that the verbatim re- ports of his famous Lenten noon-day lec- tures at St. Paul's Church were made. His rapidity of speech was indulged in for the purpose of overcoming a lingual defect, and when he reached his topmost speed his effort was comparable to noth- ing except that of a steam-engine. In- deed, the phrase "a human dynamo," applied to another well-known clergy- man, would also fit Bishop Brooks's case as well. Despite the rapid gait at which he talked, however, there was nothing involved or hazy about his spoken ser- mon, and it was easy to follow his line of thought when one had once got used to his mannerisms. The memory of the stalwart figure standing in the pulpit, the rhythmic words flowing from his lips like a silvery cas- cade from a mountain, the face flushed, the eyes flashing, and the eye-glasses dropping downward with the uncon- scious twitching of the nose, will al- ways be a pleasant and abiding one with the scores of newspaper men whose duty called them to report his utterances. One of the swiftest of Boston's short- hand writers, and who has reported the bishop many times, said : — " Bishop Brooks was the fastest talker 1 68 PHILLIPS BROOKS. I ever reported. So many ideas on the subject under treatment would float to the surface of his mind in a second's time that the tongue seemed, as it were, too slow a vehicle to convey them to his audience, and with scarcely a com- ma's pause, the words would flow natu- rally forth, in a manner that suggested to the imaginative reporter undercur- rents of more crowded ideas, which must follow in rapid succession. An- other difficulty in reporting Bishop Brooks was the confidential tone he would assume, lowering his voice to al- most a whisper, and leaving the reporter to transcribe his meaning out of a sort of impressive, though one might say eloquent, rumbling sound, and quickly changing facial expressions, but which, to one in the habit of hearing him, were sometimes as translatable as words." One of the members of the Trinity Club, an organization composed largely of young men, tells the following, which he heard from Mr. Brooks's own lips as he narrated it in a moment of confidence. Speaking of his well-known rapidity of speech, he said that many people sup- posed that it was due to a habit of stam- mering when he was young, and that he avoided the defect by rapid utterance. Mr. Brooks said that the idea that he ever stammered or had any trouble A CORNER OF TRINITY, BOSTON. PHILLIPS BROOKS. 169 with his speech was entirely erroneous. When he was young, he said, and began public speaking, he was afraid that peo- ple would not hear him if he spoke at much length, so he used to get as much as possible into a short time, and this intentional fast speaking became by practice a permanent habit. Speaking of the dififidence he felt on entering the pulpit, he told his young friends that it was something he could not shake off ; when he thought what a great responsi- bility it was to preach to such a congre- gation, it gave him a feeling of dread and hesitation in the extreme. " It is something fearful " was the expression which he used. To the newspaper men of Boston Bishop Brooks naturally bore a very im- portant relation, and, in fact, he had done so for a great many years. He was easily the foremost preacher in this part of the country, and his sermons and addresses and social functions always had a conspicuous place in the printed news of the day. No one had more respect for him than the newspaper reporters, and yet he was one of the most unapproachable men from the standpoint of the inter- viewer. He would always treat a news- paper man in a pleasantly dignified way, but would seldom say anything for pub- 170 PHILLIPS BROOKS. lication, his nature seeming to rebel against this particular form of publicity. Before Dr. Brooks became bishop, his photographs, though much in de- mand, could not be had by every one. He was much averse to having them placed on public sale, and once, when he was asked to allow some to be sold at a fair in aid of St. Andrew's mission, he showed some disinclination to comply, and remarked that they would not real- ize much. This was met with the state- ment that it was expected that about fifty dollars would be the result of such a sale. The next day Dr. Brooks sent his check for fifty dollars to the managers of the fair, but the photographs were not forth- coming. At length he was prevailed upon to sit for his picture, and just be- fore Christmas in 1887 he sat to a pho- tographer in the Studio Building. Three positions were taken, and all were per- fectly satisfactory, but the picture which proved the most attractive to the public, and the one which his parishioners greatly admired and were eager to pos- sess, is the one showing the full face. During the eight months subsequent to the development and finishing of the negatives, more than three thousand photographs were sold. Two orders were for five hundred each. There has been a large sale ever since of all three M PHILLIPS BROOKS. I /I positions, but the one especially sought after is the front position. In June, 1 891, a private business arrangement was entered into with the photographer whereby a royalty was to be paid on each picture of the bishop soH, the pro- ceeds to be used for mission purposes. This arrangement has been carried out according to the wishes of the bishop and his associates. Whether a similar arrangement was entered into with the London photog- raphers, who secured two fine negatives of the bishop while in England last year, is not known. Probably not. One of the pictures taken by the London artists represents Dr. Brooks sitting in a chair, with an open book on his knee ; the other shows him standing. Both are considered good likenesses. Con- spicuous on each photograph are the lines, " The Lord Bishop of Massachu- setts, the Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks, D.D." In the August, 1891, number of Sim and Shade is a beautiful reproduction of a photograph of the bishop standing in his library, a copy of the picture taken by Dr. Mixter. A photograph from a painting of Dr. Brooks by Wallace Bryant, made in 1891, is published. There are undoubtedly other photo- graphs of the bishop, copies from origi- 172 PHILLIPS BROOKS. nals, etc., other than the above and those reproduced in this volume. One of the earliest incidents of Dr. Brooks's pastorate at Holy Trinity, Philadelphia, was the flurry of alarm in 1862 over the menace to that city from the near approach of the Confederate army. When the "three-months' men " \ were called out and the available forces remaining in the city were gathered together to protect the Quaker town, it was the stalwart figure of the young rector of Holy Trinity which was seen in the van of those marching out, shovel on his shoulder, to throw up protecting earthworks in front of Philadelphia. Bishop Brooks, before he was conse- crated to the episcopate, was generally known as a representative in Massachu- setts of the " broad-church " party as opposed to the " high-church " tenden- cies. One day Dr. Brooks was walking in a long procession of clergymen who were attending some church festival of considerable importance. Beside Dr. Brooks in the procession walked a short, thin priest, Dr. Spalding. Dr. Spalding was at that time an extreme high churchman. As the procession moved along and approached the robing- room, Dr. Spalding looked up at Dr. Brooks, who towered above him, and said : " You are, after all. Dr. Brooks, i'^.lv'?^i=*«'t.^BISi«W PHILLIPS BROOKS. IS 173 in some respects at least a high church- man." — " Yes," replied the rector of Trinity, glancing at his own enormous physique and then looking at the thin- chested man beside him, " but in no sense can you be called a broad church- man." Just after the close of the war, it will be remembered that there was a com- memoration meeting at Harvard Col- lege. Phillips Brooks was asked to de- liver the prayer. Colonel Henry Lee, the Harvard marshal for that day, said, "The services on that occasion were not equal to what men felt. Every thing fell short, and words seemed to be too weak. Phillips Brooks's prayer was an exception. That was a free speaking to God, and it was the only utterance of that day which filled out its meaning to the full extent. Low- ell's ' Commemoration Ode ' was great, and so was General Devens's speech, but Mr. Brooks surpassed them both." The eager inquiry of that day after that prayer was " Who is Phillips Brooks .■' " It was the first time that he had ap- peared before the most distinguished audience that could be collected in New England ; and from that moment the growing thought at Trinity Church was to call Phillips Brooks to be rector of that church. PHILLIPS BROOKS. The following characterization is from a brilliant article in the New York Trib- une, in 1884 : " He is a Brahmin of the Brahmins so far as the intellectual caste of the man is concerned ; and yet his individuality is crowded with perplexing contrarieties, for there is not a trace of his New England lineage to be found in an analysis of his springs of action or the outgrowth of his professional life. For while the New England cultus is cool, dry, crystalline, and rhythmic, his is hot, heady, effervescent, daring, spon- taneous. Boston is Scandinavian, dashed with Teutonic. Mr. Brooks is half Med- iterranean, half Oriental. He is severely scholastic in his discipline, but a tropical exuberance of glowing effervescences, with the hidden fire of compressed metaphors, pre-occupies and kindles his utterances. The New England ideal never loses sight of self, is always 'at home ' with a stately deference for the conventionalities of schools and society, while Mr. Brooks is verily possessed with an imperious and tremendous dae- mon, as Plato interprets, and so is ac- countable to no man or precedent." Said the Boston Transcript, in one of its editorials : " The famous John Cot- ton, minister in Boston in old England and New England, — in whose honor our city was named, — was a worthy ancestor 11 PHILLIPS EROOKS. 175 of Phillips Brooks ; the famous Phillips Academy was founded by another an- cestor ; the bequest from which have been made the statues of \Mnthrop and Samuel Adams was given to the city by another ancestor. But the greatest gift to the city from any of his family was Phillips Brooks — his own life and ex- ample, to which the good citizen, inde- pendent of city. State or national boun- daries, rising above all differences of religious creeds, pays universal homage to-day. Such homage proves that ma- tericdism has not swallowed up this people." INFLUENCE WITH BUSINESS MEN. M VIII. INFLUENCE WITH BUSINESS MEN. A MONGthemanythousandsof people •^*- who will regard the death of Bishop Brooks as a personal loss are the busi- ness men of Boston whose privilege it was to attend the noon-day services in St. Paul's Church during the penitential seasons of 1891 and 1892, when he de- livered two series of sermons remarkable alike for their fervent piety and for their adaptability to the every-day life of the busy men to whom they were addressed. All shades of belief were represented at these meetings, and many of the most interested listeners to the solemn truths he uttered probably had no settled reli- gious convictions. But so broad was the mantle of Christian charity which he offered them, that it is doubtful if even the most intolerant sceptic did not find them suited to his needs. If any M 179 PHILLIPS BROOKS. cavillers yet remained, the bold chal- lenge was sent forth in the most meek and modest mariner that the speaker himself would gladly listen to any ob- jections that could be made to the doc- trines which he taught, let them come from what source they might. He even went further than this in his famous declaration that he had as much respect for the opinions of the honest unbe- liever, and could regard him with as much toleration, as though he was a pro- fessor of his own faith. Little wonder was it, then, that men who seldom or never attended church flocked at the busiest hour of a busy day to listen to one who welcomed them as sons of the same Father and brothers of the same Redeemer. To many it was a revela- tion that the greatest bishop of a great church could so near approach his Mas- ter in meekness and humbleness of spirit. But these men were probably not more astonished and delighted than were those whose walks in life had been among the familiar paths of church dogma and creed. They learned — many of them for the first time — that the great repre- sentative of a church, which they had been taught to believe was made up of forms and ceremonials and rituals, cold and conventional, regarded all these ^tv^s^.S'pirwW'iaM ■Vimi^i^m^fi7<^iM.€^fi^s>2F'; >■-': \ •- .; '".r- ^ a PHILLIPS BROOKS. l8l symbols of little consequence as com- pared with the vital truths of Christian- ity. With an eloquence and fervor that carried conviction to every mind, he swept aside as of little consequence everything that had not for its essential the all-pervading love of the Saviour of the world for all mankind under what- ever circumstances or in whatever con- dition of life it might be found. All that was essential in Christianity was that there should be some one to re- ceive it. The Church was, to him, an organization through the medium of which revealed religion could be taught and disseminated ; a religion that could be found in all its integrity as readily in the humble little chapels of the primi- tive Methodist as in the great temples I of Episcopalianism ; in the rude bar- ( racks of the Salvation Army as in the I sumptuous cathedrals of the Holy City. I No wonder, then, that clergymen and I laity, churchmen and non-communicants, K believers and unbelievers, united in these i services, and approved of the great and ^ I unanswerable truths announced. He even went a step further in his broad and comprehensive liberalism and in his belief in the infinity and pres- cience of God. It was not necessary, he said, in the divine plan of salvation that the sinner should consciously seek 111 ■T -i^gftStt^^^i®. 'S.m^mr^Vii:M'^-^ i I82 PHILLIPS BROOKS. God. And to emphasize this belief of his, he used the startling and striking metaphor of the prisoner in a dungeon cell so completely shut out from the light that he knew not of its existence. It was then that Bishop Brooks, in a great burst of eloquence, described as only he could describe the desperate seeking for the light that was so ne- ces.sary for his very existence by the poor benighted wretch. He knew not whether it was night or day ; but there was that craving within him for the unseen light that with desperate energy he tore at the rough walls of his cell till the blood flowed from his lacerated fingers, and he sank exhausted, disheart- ened at the hopelessness of his ever reaching what his inner consciousness told him must exist, for it was essential for his growth and happiness. All this time, on the outside of these walls, the bright rays of the sun were seeking for the man who needed them so much. Every crevice between those great stones was filled with light and sun- shine, which insinuated its life-giving properties into the most remote place in that gloomy mass of rock. The light which the prisoner sought so blindly, unconscious that it even existed, was as persistently seeking him. Such, said the preacher, is the relative position of PHILLIPS BROOKS — A ONCE FAMILIAR FIGURE ON BOSTON STREETS. PHILLIPS BROOKS. the sinner and his God. Knowing noth- ing of the existence of the Divine Mercy so essential to his salvation, the poor outcast is not deserted, for his God, like the sunlight of heaven, is constantly and persistently seeking him. At such moments as these it seemed as though the great preacher was in- spired, and men looked at him and won- dered. Everything that he said evi- dently carried conviction to their souls. He pleaded with them only as a man thoroughly in earnest could plead, to lay aside their vices and tricky business methods, and become Christians. He pointed out to them the satisfaction and peace of mind that would come from leading a grander and better life. He told them it was no hardship to be a Christian ; it was a pleasure and a de- light, and his beaming, smiling coun- tenance, as he made these appeals, told how completely happy he himself was. Christ, as he described him in these discourses, was not a mean and humble appearing personage, but so grand and lofty and magnificent that should he walk through the busy marts of trade all men would recognize in him the Saviour of the world. During the two series of sermons St. Paul's Church was crowded long before the hour for the services to begin, and is; PHILLIPS BROOKS. the rapt attention that accompanied every word that was spoken was the strongest commentary that could be made on the earnestness of the speaker and the conviction that his words car- ried to the hearts of men. m m m\ " f* PHILLIPS BROOKS AT HARVARD. IX. PHILLIPS BROOKS AT HARVARD. T^HE following appeared in The Boston -*- Transcript : — To most men it would be a suffici- ent task to fulfil the exacting require- ments of such a pastorate as that of Trinity. Add to these requirements a wide range of philanthropic sympathies and endeavors, and also a very consider- able amount of literary work, and the most energetic of men might consider that his powers were fully exercised. Phillips Brooks, in addition to accom- plishing all this work, and accomplish- ing it most effectively, found time to make his influence felt at Harvard as no other preacher ever did. It is of this latter work that the writer wishes to speak. During his junior and senior years he became very familiar with the sight of Phillips Brooks, 187 m 1 83 PHILLIPS BROOKS. both in the chapel pulpit and upon the college campus. Many a morning, after chapel, one might see President Eliot and the great divine crossing the quad- rangle together, or coming down the avenue in front of Gore Hall. Presi- dent Eliot is himself a tall and stalwart figure ; but he was completely dwarfed by the great bulk and towering height of his companion. Clad in a volumin- ous ulster, with a large broad-brimmed silk hat tipped back a little on his head, and usually with a big walking-stick under his arm, Dr. Brooks strode along in Brobdingnagian ease, looking like a walking tower. His face in repose sug- gested benevolence and placidity rather than power, and irreverent college younglings used to comment wittily on his habit of keeping his mouth ajar as he walked along. He was usually wrapped in profound abstraction, often, it is said, passing his best friends with- out recognition. The system of "preachers to the uni- versity," which was established at the time referred to, was an attempt to supply what was felt to be a most seri- ous lack in Harvard life. Dr. Brooks was one of those who had implicit faith that plenty of spiritual life lay dormant in the college ; and he of all men did the most to call that spiritual ili PHILLIPS BROOKS. 1 89 life into conscious power and activity. The old notion that the students were like the inmates of Dotheboys Hall, and that the alma mater was a sort of Mrs. Squeers whose pleasant duty it was to call them up and dose them with the brimstone and treacle of compulsory religion, gave way at length to more enlightened ideas. Faith in the better nature of man, and in that craving for the bread of life which the husks of dogma will not satisfy, was the basis of the new movement. Compulsory pray- ers were abolished. A number of emi- nent preachers took turns in leading morning devotions, and the present system of university preaching was adopted. The system is merely this, that some well-known preacher is invited to con- duct morning prayers every day for a month, and during that month he also preaches each Sunday evening in Apple- ton Chapel ; and on every week-day dur- ing the month, from nine o'clock in the morning until noon, he may be found in a study set apart for that purpose, where any student who may desire to consult him on any subject will be sure of a cordial welcome and friendly coun- sel. During his month the preacher is said to be " in residence." Invitation is extended, in the college bulletin, to ■'i s^rrawK?^ 1 90 PHILLIPS BROOKS. all who choose to seek the acquaint- anceship or assistance of the preacher. Thus, as month follows month, and one eminent preacher follows another, an unusual and valuable opportunity is af- forded for students to get personally acquainted with men of wisdom and spiritual power. The students avail themselves freely of this privilege, and there can be no doubt that much good has resulted from it. The writer well remembers the day ■when he sought the comfortable, attract- ive parlor in old Wadsworth House and knocked at the door. A hearty "come in " responded, and in a moment he stood face to face with Phillips Brooks. A cordial grasp of the hand, a few sim- ple, kindly words of greeting, and the visitor felt quite at home. During the half-hour of conversation that followed much was said which will always remain with the student as both a pleasant memory and a valuable acquisition. Theological doctrines were the nat- ural subject of our talk. Suggestions of doubt and difficulty in regard to current dogma were met by sympathetic insight, by patient logic, by eloquent illustra- tions. " We all know," said Dr. Brooks, " that life is a tangle of mysteries, — that the simplest phenomena of nature n PHILLIPS BROOKS. igr baffle us completely when we attempt to explain them. Men differ, and al- ways will differ, about a thousand minor matters relating to religion and the Bible." " But difference is not tolerated in ecclesiastical circles," was demurred- " We are told that certain beliefs which we find revolting to our reason must be accepted, if we would be identified with Christianity and Christian people." The great brown eyes kindled, and a glow of enthusiasm lighted up the ear- nest face. " Christianity is reasonable, or it is nothing. It cannot conflict with reason j it is a supplement to it. The truths of salvation best appeal to the heart. Sweep away sophisms and intricacies and ask yourself. What is Jesus Christ to me and to ray life .'' " " But a belief in miracles is not a trivial matter, nor can the reason be ignored in examining it. We either believe them or do not believe them. Many of us find it impossible to accept them on any terms." " Miracles ! " he exclaimed. " How many stumble over them, yet how simple and natural they are, and how unim- portant ! " He clasped his knee and rocked back and forward, speaking at full speed, and PHILLIPS BROOKS. swaying his head as the torrent of words fell from him. "Miracles are marvels. Anything that we don't understand is a marvel; My power to produce fire by scratching a match is a tremendous marvel to any savage. From his standpoint I am actually possessed of the most unques- tionable power of performing miracles. Whence comes my power .' From my superior nature, from my higher devel- opment, from my better understanding of the laws of the universe. Given my higher development, and you would ex- pect to find me able to do things mirac- ulous, or marvellous, to the savage on his lower plane. So, given Jesus Christ and his vastly higher development, his immeasurable superiority to the wisest and best of us, we should expect to find that he had a grasp on laws of which we know nothing, and to be able to per- form things wonderful in our sight. A man is not saved by his belief in mira- cles — no fhan ever was — no man ever will be. Speaking for myself, the mir- acles of the Old Testament have very little significance to me ; I have no be- lief in them, and consider them of very little importance. The miracles of Jesus seem to me very reasonable and prob- able, though I cannot say that I con sider them of any vital importance. [M • ''i:ri-f>»Wti-^RS«ilBBMP l.*Kfcr'«^?'^-^3i';'?-'<'' v^.-' PHILLIPS BROOKS. 193 That Christ rose from the dead, I most earnestly believe, and I believe that he became the first-fruits of those who will rise to immortality and the presence of the Father. That is the vital question, my friend. What is Christ to you and your life 1 That Christ should work miracles is to me the most natural thing, in the world. But what are outer mir- acles compared with the wondrous mir- acle of transformation which he can and does work in poor, weak, sinful human hearts .'' Christ in us, and we in Christ, and the immortality of love and worship, these are the vital things. It is this co-relation of the human and the Christ- like which has made him the Redeemer of men. I have no patience with carp- ing criticisms, while the essential, vital, redemptive truth is wholly overlooked. But there is nothing coercive in Chris- tianity, no fettering of the best and highest thought of which we are capa- ble, no overriding of our common-sense, or manly freedom of thought and utter- ance. It chains us, not by force, but by attractiveness. It subdues us be- cause we yearn to be subdued by its power. The Divine in us reaches up- ward, and the divine above reaches downward, and the two mingle, and that is a living faith in a living Christ." To have omitted all the punctuation ':-.