History of the Christian church (Volume 5) online

andria, Va.

They also had seven colleges and universities,
with 1,886 students in college work, and 253 in pre-
paratory departments. The buildings of these insti-
tutions were valued at $11,381,000, and the endow-
ments at $16,936,000. -Columbia University easily
leads in this list. She had, in 1900, 956 students in
college work, 329 in post-graduate work, and 1,197 iii
professional schools. Her buildings were valued at
$8,200,000, and endowment at $13,265,000. In its
site and its library, Columbia University is unsur-
passed in America. Trinity College, Hartford, Conn.,
and Lehigh University, at Bethlehem, Pa., are well-
endowed institutions, doing effective work.

The Protestant Episcopal Church is doing good



654 History of the Christian Church.

work in its charities. Its deaconesses, sisterhoods,

hospitals, Homes for the Aged and Orphans, attest

its zeal and effort. Unfortunately this

Charities. , . , , ,. ^

work IS so largely diocesan that statistics
are not available. Its preparatory schools, like St.
Paul's at Concord, N. H., and Garden City, I^ong
Island, and its splendid St. Luke's Hospital in New
York, are examples of its best work. *

The Congregational Church in this era produced
men. Some of the chief of these have been noticed.
The congre- ^^^ there remain Dr. Leonard Bacon, from
gationai 1825 to 1 866, pastor of First Church, New
Church. Haven ; Joseph P. Thompson, pastor of the
Broadway Tabernacle, from 1845 to 1871, and others
like them in the pastorate.

In the schools were men like Mark Hopkins
(i 802-1 887), president of Williams College, and Pres-
ident Garfield's old instructor. Dr. Hopkins

Dr. Hopkins. , , ,^th- • ^ -r-r

was graduated at Williams m 1824. He
remained there as tutor, 1 825-1 827. He then studied
medicine, and in 1829 began practice in New York
City. In 1830 he was called back to Williams as Pro-
fessor of Moral Philosophy. Here he spent the rest
of his life; from 1836 to 1872 as president of the
College, and from 1836 to 1883 as pastor of the Col-
lege Church. He was "one of the most acute" stu-
dents of Moral Philosophy since Jonathan Edwards.
His teaching is set forth in his works, "Law of Love
and Love as a Law," 1869, and "Outline Study of
Man," 1873. ^^w men have exerted in that century
an influence equally wide and profound.

Austin PlKjlps ( 1 820-1 890) was, perhaps, the most
brilliant teacher of sacred rhetoric in America in these

*The Protestant Episcopal Church has large and finely equipped
Hospitals in New York and Philadelphia, and an excellent one in Al-
bany. There are many others, as well as Homes for the Aged and Or-
phanages under diocesan control.



Christian Church in United States. 655

years. He was the husband of oue gifted authoress and
the father of another. Born in Massachusetts, he was
graduated from the University of Pennsyl-

. . ^ ^ r \ ,. , Dr. Phelps.

vania m 1837, and afterward studied at
Andover and Union Theological Seminaries. He was
pastor at Boston, 1 842-1 848. Then he began his life
work as professor at Andover, 1 848-1 879, and from
that time he was Professor Emeritus until his death.
He is known from his books, " The Still Hour," 1858;
"The New Birth," 1867; " The Theory of Preaching,"
1881; "Men and Books," 1882; and "English Style
in Public Discourse," 1883. Seldom has such a man
of genius had the mission of training men for the
Christian pulpit.

With these men in the schools wrought those
sturdy defenders of the Congregational faith and
polity, Dr. Henry Martyn Dexter and Dr. Alonzo H.
Quint.

Henry M. Dexter (i 821-1890) was graduated at Yale
in 1840, and at Andover in 1844. He served as pastor
at Manchester, N. H., 1844-1849, and at ^ ^ ^

J > Tt T7» p^ Dexter.

Berkeley Temple, Boston, 1 849-1 867. The
Co7igregationalist was founded in 1849, and Dr. Dex-
ter was editor from 1851 to 1890; also with Drs. Clark
and Quint, of the Co7igregationalist Quarterly, 1859-
1866.

Dr. Dexter is the author of "Congregationalism;
What is it?" 1865, "The Congregationalism of Three
Hundred Years as seen in its Literature," 1880, a
monumental work of great interest and value ; also of
"As to Roger Williams," 1876, and "The Story of
John Smyth," 1881. He was unsurpassed in his
knowledge of early Congregational history.



656 History of the Christian Church.

Dr. Alonzo H. Quint (i 828-1896) contributed four
hundred articles on Antiquities of Congregational
history. He was graduated at Dartmouth
in 1846, and Andover in 1852. As pastor,
he served at Roxbury, 1 853-1 863. As chaplain he was
at the front with the Second Massachusetts Infantry,
1 861-1864. He was pastor at New Bedford, 1865-
1873. He was member of the I^egislature of New
Hampshire, 1881-1882, and member of the Massachu-
setts Board of Education, 1 855-1 861. He edited the
Congregationalist Quarterly, 1 859-1 876. Dr. Quint
served as secretary of the Massachusetts General As-
sociation, 1 856-1 88 1, and of the National Congrega-
tional Council, 1871-1883.

The Congregational Church Building Society was
organized in 1853, and ^ " Congregational Year-Book"
was published from 1854. The Congregational
Library Association was founded, 1 851-1853, and in
187 1 came into possession of its new home in the
Congregational House in Boston, 1871.

In education this Church, in these years, remained

true to its traditions. The Chicago Theological

Seminary was founded in i8s8: that at

Education. ^ , , - .

Oakland, Cal., in 1869; Washburn College,
Topeka, Kan., began its career in 1865; Carleton
College, Northfield, Minn., in 1867; Doane College,
Crete, Neb., in 1872; Drury College, Springfield, Mo.,
in 1873; Colorado College, Colorado Springs, in 1874;
Yankton College, Dakota, in 1881; and Whitman
College, Walla Walla, Wash., in 1883.

Two things specially marked the conciousness of
Church life which this Church shared with the other
Christian Churches, — the formation of a bond of



Christian Church in United States. 657

national union among the Congregational Churches,
and the splendid support it has rendered to the
American Board of Foreign Missions.

The year 1886 marks the beginning of serious con-
troversy in the Congregational Churches of America
with regard to the hypothesis of a proba-
tion in the future life for those to whom cont7ove"8ie8.
the gospel message has not come in the
present world. The storm-centers of this controversy
were the American Board of Commissioners for For-
eign Missions, the Foreign Missionary Agency of the
Congregational Churches, and Andover Theological
Seminary, the oldest divinity school of the Church.

The Rev. R. A. Hume, a returned missionary from
India, had expressed the opinion that the hypothesis
of a future probation for those who had not heard the
gospel in this life might bring relief to the minds of
converts from heathenism, who were troubled as they
thought of the future of relatives and friends who had
died in heathenism before the message of Christ could
be brought to them. On account of the utterance of
these views, Mr. Hume's application for reappoint-
ment as a missionary to the field in India, where he
had formerly labored, was not granted until a long
and significant delay had occurred.

At the annual meeting of the Board following this
action, in Des Moines, Iowa, October, 1886, the issue
was sharply joined between the liberal and conserva-
tive elements in the Church as to what theological
tests should be applied to candidates for missionary
service. For several years the Prudential Committee
rejected all candidates for missionary service who in-
clined toward the disputed doctrines. After long de-
42



658 History of the Christian Church.

lay, Mr. Hume was reappointed as a missionary on
account of his excellent record of service, and in view
of the fact that his statements with regard to a future
probation did not involve a declaration that he posi-
tively accepted the doctrine. As other candidates for
service in the foreign field who looked favorably upon
the hypothesis were uniformly rejected, the dissatis-
faction of the liberal party in the Church continued,
and each recurring annual meeting of the Board was
clouded by this controversy. As a result, interest in
foreign missionary work decreased, contributions fell
off, and it seemed as if the organization of another
Foreign Missionary Society would be inevitable.

The Rev. W. H. Noyes, whose application for ap-
pointment as a missionary had been rejected by the
Prudential Committee because he held that the doc-
trine of a future probation was a permissible hypothe-
sis, was sent to Japan as a missionary by one of the
leading Congregational Churches of Boston, the
Berkeley Temple, with the co-operation of other
Churches opposed to the policy ^f the Board.

Happily, however, at the annual meeting of the
Board in October, 1893, a basis of agreement between
the opposing elements in the constituency was
reached, and the necessity of a permanent division of
the denomination in its foreign missionary interests
was avoided. The Board requested the Prudential
Committee to appoint Mr. Noyes as one of its staff of
missionaries in Japan. The Des Moines resolution
against the doctrine of future probation was not re-
scinded, but the decision to appoint to missionary
service a man who had before been rejected on ac-
count of his apparent sympathy with this doctrine



Christian Church in United States. 659

indicated a marked modification of the policy that had
governed the Board since 1886. Since this action was
taken, the Board has received the undivided support
of the Congregational Churches.

In the discussions relative to the doctrine of a
Christian probation in the future life, certain profess-
ors in Andover Theological Seminary took a leading
part. In the Andover Review, and particularly in a
series of papers entitled " Progressive Orthodoxy,"
these professors set forth in outline a system of theo-
logical opinions closely akin to the systems of Dorner
and other theologians of the school of Schleiermacher.
Charges were preferred, before the Board of Visitors
of the seminary, that Professors Egbert G. Smyth,
William J. Tucker, J. W. Churchill, George Harris,
and Edward Y. Hincks were teaching doctrines con-
trary to the creed of the seminary, to which all mem-
bers of the Faculty were, by the terms of the charter,
required to subscribe.

The Board of Visitors decided that the charges
were sustained in the case of Professor Smyth, the
president of the Faculty, and that therefore his rela-
tion to the seminar}^ as president and professor should
cease. The Board of Trustees, however, refused to
accede to this demand, claiming that the Board of
Visitors did not have the original, but only appellate
jurisdiction, in such cases; that the charges should
have been presented to the trustees rather than to the
visitors, and that, on independent investigation, the
trustees had reached the conclusion that the teachings
of Dr. Smyth and the other professors had been within
the limits of liberty allowed by the creed of the semi-
nary. Professor Smyth appealed from the decision of



66o History of the Christian Church.

the visitors to the court of Essex County, Massachu-
setts. The opponents of the accused professors were
unsuccessful in their efforts, and the controversy re-
sulted in vindicating and permanently establishing the
right of the members of the seminary Faculty to
Christian liberty of thought and instruction.

The American Board Controversy, which at times
threatened to divide the denomination, served indi-
rectly to deepen the sense of denominational solidarity,
by bringing the missionary agencies of Congregation-
alism under the direct control of the Churches. The
boards and societies through which American Congre-
gationalists had conducted their missionary enterprises
at home and abroad, were independent, self-governing
bodies. They had been founded, not b}^ the Churches
as such, but by individuals interested in the special
departments of missionary work that the several
societies were doing. As the denomination had not
created these organizations, it could not control them.
The American Board controversy called attention to
the powerlessness of the denomination in the matter
of the control of its missionary agencies, and an urgent
demand arose that such changes should be made in
the organization of these agencies that the Churches
sustaining them should also control them. These
changes have gradually been made, and the Congrega-
tional Missionary Societies are now composed of repre-
sentatives elected or nominated by the contributing
Churches or by the district and State organizations of
Churches. This joint responsibility of the Churches
for the support of their missionary enterprises and
the management of their missionary agencies has
greatly strengthened the bond uniting the Churches
to one another.



Christian Church in United States. 66 r

During the past decade, Congregationalists have
been true to their history as a college-building denom-
ination. Dr. D. K. Pearsons, of Chicago, has made
generous gifts to many colleges and academies, prin-
cipally in the West and South, conditional on their
raising such a sum as will make the united gift suffi-
cient to carry them to a vigorous life.

The National Councils, meeting every three years
since 1865, have been a bond of increasing union.
The great International Council of Congregationalists
held its second session in Boston in 1899. Represent-
atives were present from the United States, Canada,
Great Britain, Australia, Norway, Turkey, India, China,
Japan, Africa, Hawaii, and Micronesia.

Churches, 5,650; clergy, 5,560; communicants,
635,791. This is a gain, since 1850, of 3,679 churches,
3,873 clergy, and 438,997 communicants.
Sunday-school scholars, 671,743, and 186,-
448 in Societies of Christian Endeavor. Benevolences,
$2,201,161 ; Current expenses, $7,497,930.

In 1900, the Congregationalists gave $697,371 for
foreign missions, and $1,699,074 for home missions.
Their successful missions in Turkey, In-
dia, China, and Oceania deserve a history ^^^"flistg*'**"'
of their own They made Christian Hawaii.

In 1900 the Congregationalists had seven theolog-
ical seminaries. These had 323 students, buildings
valued at $1,042,000, and an endowment of
$3,386,000. Those most largely attended ^rk."*
were : Yale, Hartford, Oberlin, and Chicago.
The last had the largest endowment, nearly a million
of dollars.

The Congregationalists lead all American Churches



662 History of the Christian Church.

in the amount of money invested in colleges, and in
their renown. This is but natural ; they inherited more
than the others at the beginning of the century.
They have 22 universities and colleges among the
white people of the United States. These had, in
1900, 7,480 college students, with 3,009 in prepar-
atory departments. The buildings of these institu-
tions were valued at $14,346,000, and their endow-
ment was $17,062,000. Besides these, there were
six colleges among the colored people, with property
worth over a million of dollars, and nearly a thousand
students. The three chief of these institutions were :
Atlanta University, which has also a theological de-
partment; Fisk University, at Nashville, Tenn.; and
Straight University, at New Orleans, I^a. The strong-
hold of Congregational education is still in New
England, though they have large schools at Oberlin,
O. ; Jacksonville, 111. ; Beloit, Wis. ; Grinnell, Iowa ;
and at Colorado Springs, Colo. In New England they
have Yale, Dartmouth, Williams, Bowdoin, Amherst,
and Middlebury. These are all famous names. In
1900 they enrolled 3,439 students; their buildings
were valued at $6,775,000, and their endowment at
$10,914,000. The three Women's Colleges of New
England— Mt. Holyoke, Smith, and Wellesley — had,
in the same year, 2,300 students; their buildings were
valued at $2,537,000, and their endowment was
$1,541,000. Together, these institutions had 5,755
students, with buildings worth $9,387,000, and an en-
dowment of $12,465,000. Five-sevenths of the stu-
dents, and over two-thirds of the wealth, were in New
England. Yale, of course, led the list, with 1,719
students in college work, 137 in post-graduate studies,



Christian Church in United States. 663

and 430 in professional schools. Her buildings were
worth over $4,000,000, and her endowment was
$4,942,000.

In the higher education of women, this Church
maintains her superiority. Next to her Women's
Colleges, the best in the country, in 1900, were:
Vassar, Bryn Mawr, and Baltimore ; together, these
had 1,263 students, with buildings worth $2,511,000,
and $2,414,000 endowment. The united effort of
Baptists, Methodists, and Friends in these institutions
do not, on the whole, equal her work in New Eng-
land for the higher education of women.

The Friends in these years made a slow growth,
but with a gratifying, internal development. They
fell into line with the great Sunday-school ^^^ ^^^^^^^
movement. The Orthodox Friends sing
Gospel hymns, and the Conference in 1887, at Rich-
mond, Ind., introduced a pastorate for the churches.
They have been earnest and wonderfully successful
in mission work among the Indians in the United
States, and in mission work in Alaska. In 1865 their
first foreign mission was begun at Ramleh, near Jeru-
salem In 1893 their Board of Foreign Missions was
organized, and it had, at the close of this period, mis-
sions in Japan, Syria, and Mexico.

In education they have distinguished themselves m
the last half of the century. Besides sustaining several
thoroughly-endowed secondary schools, g^„^,t,„„.
they had seven institutions of higher edu-
cation at the close of our period. All but two were
founded after 1850, and those two were refounded.
The leading institutions were: Haverford College,
Pennsylvania; Earlham College, Richmond, Ind,



664 History of the Christian Church.

Wilmington College, Ohio; Bryn Mawr, Pennsyl-
vania, founded in 1885, among the Orthodox; and
Swarthmore, founded in 1869, among the Hicksite
Friends. In 1900, in the college work of the Friends,
was reported 1,028 students, besides 305 in the
preparatory departments. These institutions had
property in buildings valued at $2,268,000, and an
endowment of $2,535,000. This is certainly a fine
showing for the size of the communion. In 1900, in
the United States, there were reported among the
Orthodox Friends, 1,279 ministers, 830 churches, and
92,468 members; among the Hicksite Friends, 115
ministers, 201 churches, 21,992 members; all other
Friends, 49 ministers, 62 churches, 4,700 members.
This is a total of 1,443 ministers, 1,093 churches, and
119,160 members, a gain, since 1850, of 24,160. The
Orthodox gained 22,468 ; the Hicksite lost 3,008.

No Church has been a better or more influential
friend of the American Indian.

The Moravians continue to be one of the smallest
of American Churches, but also one of the most zeal-
ous in missionary effort. These years saw

Moravians.

great changes in the internal organization
of the Church, which might well have come earlier
for the growth of their communion. In 1857 the
General Synod granted home self-government to each
province. In June, 1850, the Provincial Constitution
of the American Church, North, was adopted at Beth-
lehem. The sum of $11 6,000 was given from the real
estate to the Sustentation Fund, and the publishing-
house was removed from Philadelphia to Bethlehem,
Pa. This Church has always been zealous in missions
among the American Indians. In 1895 it counted



Christian Church in United States. 665

among them 12,000 communicants, besides 20,000 ad-
herents. Their mission in Alaska dated from 1885.

The Moravians have but one college, and that is
located at Bethlehem, Pa., and has but 28 students,
with property valued at $215,000. They g^^^^,^^
support, also, a Young Ladies' Seminary at
Bethlehem, Pa., and Nazareth Hall and Linden Hall,
all three institutions dating from the eighteenth cen-
tury. In the West they have Chaska Seminary in
Minnesota, for boys, founded in 1864, and Hope Sem-
inary in Indiana, for girls, founded in 1866. Perhaps
their most distinguished minister was Bishop Edmund
de Schweinitz, the Church historian, who died in 1887.
In 1900 the Moravians in the United States numbered
117 ministers, 122 churches, and 14,817 members.

This Church has increased slowly in this period.
Its ministers are better trained, and it has become
much more Trinitarian in belief and senti-
ment. Its leading institution of learning is christians.
Antioch College, in Ohio. In 1900 the
Church numbered 1,151 ministers, 1,517 churches, and
109,278 members. Of these, 84,838 formed the Chris-
tian Connection, and 24,440 were known as Christians,
South.

The Adventists in the United States in 1900 were
divided into six divisions. In all, they embraced i ,505
ministers, 2,286 churches, and 88,705 mem-

- Tlie

bers. In 1850 they reported 40,000 mem- ^dventista.
bers. The Seventh-day Adventists were
the most numerous of these bodies. They reported
386 ministers, 1,494 churches, and 54-539 members.
They had one institution of higher education at Col-
lege View, Neb. It is called Union College, and had



666 History of the Christian Church.

113 students, besides 413 in preparatory work. It
was founded in 1891 ; its buildings were valued at
$200,000, and it reported no endowment.

Of those in the United States there were,

Tne

piymoth in 1900, four divisions, with 314 churches,
Brethren. ^^^ ^^^^^ members.

These progenitors of all the modern Baptists, re-
tain many of their old-world and old-time customs.
There are twelve branches of them, diflfer-
Mennonites. ^^^ largely in the strictness with which
they adhere to these customs. In all, in
1900, in the United States, they numbered 1,112 min-
isters, 673 churches, and 58,728 members.

Of these German Conservative Baptists,

TheDunkards. , . , ^^ . , ^ ^

m 1900, in the United States, there were
four branches, with 2,987 ministers, 1,081 churches,
and 112,194 members.

A branch of the German Reformed Church of God

was founded in T830 by John Winebrenner. They

The Church of ^^^^ ^^ immcrsion, feet-washing, Church

God (Wine- care of the poor, and evangelistic services.

brennarlans). ^^^^ ^^j^^^ ^^^ Calvinistic doctriue. In

1900 they numbered 460 ministers, 580 churches, and
38,000 members. They have a small college at
Findlay, Ohio.

Church of the In this Communiou there were in the

^^ ^ill^n- United States, in 1900, 143 ministers, 173

borgians.) churches, and 7,679 members.

The Salvation Army in the United States, in 1900,

was reported as having 2,361 ofl&cers, 663

Army!" statious, and 19,490 members. This is,

however, but a slight indication of the

work or its influence.



Christian Church in United States. 667

The Unitarians had during this period some able
men; such preachers as Thomas Starr King (1825-
1860), and Robert Laird Collier (1837- y^j^^^,^^^^
1890) — who went to them from the Meth-
odists in 1866 ; such leaders in Boston as James Free-
man Clarke (1810-1888), author of "Ten Great Re-
ligions," and foremost in every philanthropic enter-
prise ; and Edward Everett Hale, still among us and
greatly revered. They had also, at Harvard College,
such a saintly soul as Andrew F. Peabody, and such
a representative of the best culture as Frederick H.
Hedge (1805- 1890) ; to say nothing of the influence of
Harvard University, the most famous institution of
learning in America, as it is the oldest, under the
brilliant and successful administration of Dr. Charles
W. Eliot.

In this connection may be mentioned Dr. Orville
Dewey (1790-1882), who stands next to Channing
among Unitarian leaders in the United ^^ ^^^^^
States. Dr. Dewey was graduated from
Williams in 1814, and from Andover in 18 19. He
had been a Calvinist, but now became a Unitarian,
and served in the pastorate at New Bedford, 1823-
1833. In that year he visited Europe, and again in
1842-1844. He was pastor of Second Church, New
York City, 1 835-1 848. Then, on account of his
health, he went on a farm at Sheffield. He delivered
two courses of Lowell Lectures, which were published,
one on "The Problems of Human Destiny," and the
other on " The Education of the Human Race." He
was again in the pastorate one year at Albany, two at
Washington, and four years at Boston, when he finally
retired to his farm, after a pastorate of thirty years.



668 History of the Christian Church.