USA > Illinois > Winnebago County > Rockford > Golden anniversary exercises, historical record and manual of the Second Congregational church, Rockford, Illinois. November 7, 1849. November 7, 1899 > Part 3
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COMMUNION SERVICE.
NE of the most sacred and impressive ceremonies connected with the Golden Anniversary was the baptism and reception of mem- bers and the communion service at the close of the sermon by Dr. Woodbury on Sabbath morning. On that occasion the following mem- bers were received into church fellowship: By letter -- Mabel M. Clark, Mrs. Lillian G. Edwards, Mrs. Laura E. Northrup, Mrs. Flora F. Palmer, Robert E. Wood, Mrs. Eva Wood. On confession of faith-Anna Banks, Ernest Banks, Frank Burritt, Frank Woodbury Cutler, Frank Woodbury Dobson, William T. Palmer, Frederick Zumdahl, Mrs. Eraline Zumdahl.
The fact of so many of the older members being present, including several of the charter members, the presence and service of the beloved former pastor who for so many years had watched over the church like a shepherd, the tender memories that the scene awakened, coupled with the solemnity of the communion service, all combined to make it an hour never to be forgotten by those who were privileged to be present. We may well believe that many went out from that inspiring scene resolved upon a life of consecration and of service in the Master's vineyard.
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MEMORIAL ADDRESS.
LIFE AND SERVICE OF
WALTER MANNINO BARROWS, D. D.
BY DR. JOHN HENRY BARROWS.
TEXT-II Timothy 1:7: " For God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power and love and of a sound mind."
T HESE words, which naturally suggest a sermon on the religion of character, are a fine description of the manhood of him whom I am to speak of to-night. To Walter Manning Barrows God gave in large measure the spirit of courage, of power, of love and of noble wisdom. He had the courage which undertakes large things, he possessed the power which comes from great natural abilities, deep experiences, wide training ; he was filled with that love which bears bur- dens for others because inspired from the Christ whom it loves, that Divine affection which endures and suffers, which is tender-hearted and replete with forgiveness, which does not cherish anger or resentment and is strong both on the active and passive sides of this heavenly grace. And then he possessed a sound mind, perhaps the last stage of the evolution of Christian character. Men may have courage and misuse it; men may have power, even spiritual power, and abuse it; men may have love, which after all is the vital thing, and yet not be con- trolled by wisdom. I am aware that much which calls itself a sound mind
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WALTER MANNING BARROWS, PASTOR 1888 TO 1898.
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is allied with caution and cunning, prudence, reptile fear and short-sighted- ness. A sound mind should be identified with the largest attainable wis- dom, that wisdom which comes through every avenue of the spirit. True soundness of mind is impossible without faith, the vision which sees that what ought to be, is to be. Some element of vision, some gleam from the celestial world enters into all true wisdom. The soundest-minded man of our American history was a Virginia gentleman, farmer, surveyor, soldier, who, in the chaos which followed the revolution, had visions of a peaceful, prosperous commonwealth, taking the place of the jarring weaknesses and disorders which disturbed and pained his lofty spirit ; and, while small- minded men and timid men and foolish men dared not follow in the path which he marked out for our national deliverance and up-building, he walked bravely therein and led others into it. He saw the New Jerusalem in the heavens and with vigorous hands pulled it down to earth, to become the imperial commonwealth of Time.
That Walter Barrows illustrated the Pauline conception of Christian character, that he filled out in unusual measure the ideals which gleamed before the mind of the apostle, is already evident to those who knew him in this community, and will be shown still further in the biographical sketch which it is my sad privilege to make of one who was an ideal brother, as well as a nobly representative Christian minister.
Twelve weeks ago to-day he was buried, and preached on that day in the church of which he was then pastor, from lips that were dumb. perhaps his greatest sermon. In the fresh grief over their great loss, his people saw him surrounded as it were with heavenly light, and his beautiful character spoke to them with greater eloquence and power than ever before, now that he had gone to join himself
"With those just spirits that wear victorious palms."
In that solemn hour, fitting words were spoken and worthy tributes offered by those who knew him well, and whom he himself loved and trusted with a perfect confidence. His thirty years of Christian service were appre- ciatively described and his loveliness of character was sympathetically pic- tured. That blending of intense conviction and broad charity, of refine- ment and energy, of truthfulness and gentleness, of intellectuality and affec- tionateness, how vividly apparent it all is now that we think of him as passed into the unseen realms. His church, by the words of its members, his church and society by their official action, have, in noble and generous
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ways, made evident their love and appreciation, and what they have done has endeared them not only to the sorrowing family, but also to loving and afflicted hearts all over the land. From scores of letters that have come to me and from greater numbers that have come to her whose grief is heav- iest, I might weave a garland of honorable praise fine and fair enough for any saint of God. This man never thought of himself as a saint; he deemed himself a sinning member of a great household of brothers whom he tried to help, but his sainthood was real and of the attractive sort which men in this day most approve. I am glad that his final resting place is among those who so deeply loved and honored him. It is certainly fitting that his grave should be where it is, on a commanding hill-top, overlooking one of the finest scenes, in a region fanned by inspiring historical memor- ies, and beneath the shadow of a lofty and beautiful church. I doubt not he finds it
"Sweet to rest beneath the clover sod And take the sunshine and the rains, There where the kneeling hamlet drains The chalice of the grapes of God."
I find, among the records that have been kept of his church life, an unusual number of funeral discourses, wherein his generous heart loved to offer tender tribute to merit and Christian service of every kind, and in one of these sermons he said : "The traveler in passing through the country and looking out upon the landscape, often sees a strip of verdure greener than that which surrounds it. Upon examination he will find that there was once a brook there. It is now dried up, but its course is perceived by a more luxuriant vegetation, and so, as one has said, the place where a good man has lived and died is greener from the influence which he exerted over it." His parishioners there and here all believe that this will prove true of the life of Greenwich and Rockford. Each will be a more beauti- ful place to live in because of his irreproachable and vivifying and fruitful life. At the funeral of his father it was said : " Men climb mountain-tops to see the dying glory of day as it warms the eternal snows with roseate Alpine glow ; but we behold to-day an after-glow that finds no parallel in mountain scenery or in the colors of the canvas. For the dying Christian leaves behind a brightness supernal, a glory all his own." In another of his sermons Walter Barrows said : " Let us not be discouraged by the uncer-
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tainty of life in this world, but rather stimulated to greater fidelity, and while God's providences are often mysterious and we are under the neces- sity of walking by faith rather than sight,
'Yet, if we argue not Against heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot Of heart and hope, but still bear up and and steer Right onward'
We shall find in the end that God will be His own interpreter and He will make it plain."
What I am to say at this hour will be woven partly out of personal memories. You will easily believe that this sorrow has taken much out of my life. How much I dare not say. It is perhaps seldom that two broth- ers had so many things in common. A tender history of childhood togeth- er amid the fields and forests surrounding a western home is the beginning of our common life. In his earlier days he had much greater strength than I ; he was far more active in the sports of boyhood and I had sup- posed that he would outlive me. During the days when I saw his life hope- lessly ebbing away in my own home it seemed that I was living over all the blessed and varied years which had passed " since we had first clasped our little hands in love and roamed the daisied fields together." I have often thought of Emerson's tribute to his brothers in the beautiful Dirge, wherein he pictures himself as wandering up and down a plain filled with ghosts, beset with pensive shadows, the shadows of the holy ones who had trod with him the lovely Concord vale.
"Five rosy boys with morning light Had leaped from one fair mother's arms, Fronted the sun with hope as briglit .
And greeted God with childhood's psalnis."
The poet recalls how his noble brothers in their prime made this world for him the feast it was. How they learned with him the lore of time,
"They took this valley for their toy, They played with it in every mood, A cell for prayer, a hall for joy, They treated nature as they would, They colored the horizon round, Stars flamed and faded as they bade, All echoes hearkened for their sound, They made the woodlands glad or mad."
My brother Walter and I were nearly of an age. We had the same sports, went to the same rude schoolhouse, fished in the same stream,
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" played Indian " and hunted together; learned from the same books, were afterwards in the same college and class for seven years and studied for two years in the same theological seminaries. Later, we went to Kansas for a rough two years' outing to regain health which had been impaired, worked on the same farm, even preached in the same church. We had similar hopes, joys and enthusiasms. This companionship was so close that when we were theological students in New Haven and New York we scarcely felt the need of other company and doubtless associated less with our classmates than otherwise we should have done. When our lives sep- arated and we preached in different churches, the fellowship was scarcely less close, and in summers we were often together. There is a certain appropriateness that his last days should have been spent in my own home on the Island of Mackinac, which was very dear to him. One Sunday morning shortly after his death, I remember reading from Milton's Lycidias a poem which we had learned and loved together in our boyhood, these lines which seemed a fitting expression of our life-long intimacy :
"For we were nursed upon the self-same hill, Fed the same flock by mountain, shade, and rill; Together both, 'ere the high lawns appeared Upon the opening eyelids of the morn. We drove a-field, and both together heard What time the gray-fly winds her sultry horn,
Battening our, flocks with the fresh dews of night, Oft till the star that rose, at evening bright,
Towards heaven's descent bad sloped his westering wheel."
We shared similar views in regard to the Christian life, and were not separated in our thoughts about America and her relations to the Kingdom of Christ on earth. He was the most generous and appreciative of broth- ers as well as one of the most dutiful sons, and in the sadness of separation there is comfort in the thought that in his last days he had with him not only her who was dearest on earth, but also the brother, the physician and the brother, whose household desired to do everything that love could ac- complish for his relief.
There are many surprising fitnesses in the events gathering about his last days, and I think it particularly fitting that his body should finally rest in New England soil, for he came from the best New England stock, than which there is none better on earth. What a large debt the nation owes to the men and women who settled in Massachusetts and Connecticut colo- nies ! It was in 1637 that John Barrows came to Salem whence he re- moved to Plymouth, in whose Town House you will find records of a sale
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of land made to him by Governor Bradford. Walter Barrows was descended from a line of teachers, one of whom, his great-grandfather, was graduated from Harvard College. His grandfather was one of the first settlers of Troy, New York, and his father, Prof. John Manning Barrows, was a grad- uate of the Troy Polytechnic Institute, where he became an instructor in Botany and Chemistry. He was one of the favorite pupils of Prof. Amos Eaton, the father of Botanical Science in this country. Having an oppor- tunity to teach a private school in Georgia, my father went to that state and there imbibed a lasting antipathy to American slavery, a hatred which he lost no opportunity of expressing, in spite of the opprobrium which fol- lowed the declaration of his sentiments. A letter from Prof. Eaton still exists wherein the teacher severely reproaches his friend and pupil for hav- ing espoused the hateful and fanatical anti-slavery cause. It is not surpris- ing that John Manning Barrows was early drawn to Oberlin College, partly by reason of its anti-slavery position, and there he was brought under the tremendous spiritual power of President Charles G. Finney, the greatest of American evangelists. There he met, what he always deemed the great- est good fortune of his life, the earnest-minded woman who became his wife. In Walter Barrows were combined the strong traits both of father and mother. Catherine Paine Moore was a woman of remarkable intel- lectual vigor. She was born in Saratoga county, New York, and taught school at the age of fourteen, but realizing the need of a better education, she asked her father to give her some portion of the estate which might ultimately be hers, for she desired to make the long journey to Oberlin, where alone at that time women could gain what was then deemed a full education. The father and mother both shared in the ardent, tumultuous and spiritually exciting life of early Oberlin days. The mother learned Hebrew, Greek and French, but her greatest interest was in mathematics of which she afterwards proved herself a most successful teacher. The father became an itinerant home missionary, doing faithful and successful service in small places in Ohio and Michigan, but remaining a compara- tively short time in each, for he would let men know what he believed in regard to the sin of slavery. On this theme he spoke with tremendous earnestness. The late Prof. Esterbrook of Olivet, a leading educator in Michigan, has recalled the impression made by one of my father's anti- slavery sermons which he heard in the town of Clinton. " Never can l for- get the burning words that fell from his lips on that occasion. He saw with prophetic vison the awful doom that awaited his country if she refused Hist. Rec. 5.
-
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to let the oppressed go free. The inspiration that I received from that ser- mon has never left me. It entered my life and is fresh in my memory to- day." It must not be supposed from this that my father was a man of harshness and sternness. On the contrary, he was one of the most genial, humorous and companionable of men. One who knew him intimately said at his funeral, " There was one golden thread that bound every part of his life, and that was love. He was pre-eminently a lover of his home, of so- ciety, of men and of God." My father was teacher of Science in Olivet College, Michigan, and Walter gained from his father a love of the outdoor world which never forsook him. My brother was passionately devoted to the beautiful. His mother was a woman of great conscientiousness, of exacting faithfulness to the household, of utter self-sacrifice. She also had large administrative faculty. She knew how to manage so as to make a very small income avail for the decent and comfortable support of her chil- dren, to whom she gave herself with unsparing devotion. It was a home of poverty into which Walter Manning was born in the town of Franklin, Michigan, April 12, 1846, but it was a home filled with high ideals, full of the joys of faith and hope and work. It will give you some conception of the itinerant character of my father's ministry when I tell you that in 1846 one son was born in Franklin ; in 1847 another son in Medina, and in 1849 another son in Woodstock, all in same county in Michigan. In 1850 the family returned to Medina where it was the purpose of my father and mother to found a private school. A farm was purchased and an academy built to which students, young men and young women, flocked from twenty miles around. For several years my brother's life was associated with this academy and with the country district school. Then the family removed twenty miles south to West Unity, a village in northern Ohio, where my father and mother were invited to take charge of the town school. Here Walter made his first considerable start in learning. After four years the family removed to Olivet, Michigan. The parents were determined that the children should have the advantage of a college education and the only possi- ble way of securing it was by dwelling in a college town. Here Walter lived for seven years until he was graduated in 1867. He had no early liking for books. His inclination was toward the farm and workshop. He could do easily things that were to be done with the hand. He loved the out- door life and whatever had the tinge and temper of adventure, but he had not been long in Olivet before he was seized with the ambition of the stu- dent. He felt that life without learning would be a failure and applied him-
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self with the greatest diligence to his books and to the various tasks which at first were mastered with extreme difficulty. One of the teachers who influenced him deeply was Prof. F. P. Woodbury, whom he was to succeed in the pastorship of this church. Another of the teachers who influenced him most deeply was President N. J. Morrison, now of Fairmount College, Kansas, who has sent me an account of the impression which Walter made upon him by his extraordinary application and his wonderful faithfulness. President Morrison recalls his delight in listening to his prompt, fluent and accurate rendering of Xenophon into choice English, and the equally excel- lent work of turning English sentences and paragraphs into sonorous Greek. " As a boy and a young man, Walter Barrows was without stain, without reproach, without an enemy. . He never sowed any wild oats.' As he grew towards maturity he had no evil habits to throw off, no sins of his youth to atone for. His youth had been devoted to study, in the compan- ionship of the great men and women who survive in the world's best books, and in the society of a highly-cultured Christian family .. He was worthy of his environment. As I knew him in his youth and early manhood he was gifted, true, noble, manly-a prophecy of his most honorable career." My brother left a journal of his early life in which I find some sketches of very great interest. They help to explain the strength of his character and the noble achievements of his life. He refers to the school for colored youth opened by my father and mother in Woodstock in the year 1849, a missionary enterprise of the most self-sacrificing sort. The record says that during the winter "it was very hard living, and we might have starved had it not been for some friends." Walter writes of his early distaste for study. " I had rather stay at home and work all day upon the farm, and I very often did do so, as in the summer-time father would very often want help and I could ride horses, drive oxen and even plow, and John could do none of these things." He writes that his favorite books were Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson and Masterman Ready, which he took from the town library and never grew weary of reading. He says that in school his mind was anywhere except on his books. When he came to Olivet he re- solved to turn over a new leaf and to take hold with a will, " to do every- thing my parents wanted me to do. I studied at first merely to please them." But gradually the love of study came with his success in the class-room. He was particularly faithful to the rethorical classes and re- cords that one term he never missed a single exercise. He writes, " My articulation is naturally imperfect and I must have cut rather a sorry figure
1242276
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at first in speaking "-but years of practice began to tell. He recovered from his dislikes and rose rapidly to the front rank in everything. He re- cords the difficulty which he experienced in translating from Latin into English and he says, "It came very hard for me. I came very near get- ting discouraged." He writes of his study of French, "Like everything else it was very hard for me at first." But tremendous energy and fidelity won their way. He had one class at five o'clock in the morning. " At first it was quite hard for me to get up so early, but I soon became used to it and liked it because I gained an hour by it and could say something that . no other of my classmates nor even the teacher could say, that I was always on time." During vacations he spent most of his days in reading, studying a little and working at times with much energy. The journal says : "I sawed and piled fourteen cords of wood at twenty-five cents a cord." Early in his college life the great civil war broke out and Walter wrote : " I am unfortunately not old enough to enlist, although large enough in statute, being five feet eight inches high and weighing one hundred and thirty pounds." It brings back a thrill to read the following lines written in 1861: " The president had hardly time enough to call for 100,000 men before the capital was threatened. Thus they forced us into a war that will surely prove fatal to slavery. There is no party distinction. The north is almost entirely united." In the winter term he usually worked from five o'clock in the morning to nearly midnight and often for one hour beyond. He took no regular exercise except that which he gained from military drill. I know of no record for college fidelity which surpasses his. I am not surprised to read that in 1863 he writes of the winter and spring terms, "Part of the time my health was very poor. I thought once I should have to give up altogether, but my will held me up to the close of the term. I came to Olivet with no discipline of mind in the least and put myself down to study, but with no idea of ever taking a course. And now nothing could persuade me to give up a college education." I am leading you back to some of the sources out of which sprang the strong and great manhood which you loved.
Early in life Walter entered into the imperial society of good books, and he always kept company with them and thus enriched his public utter- ances from the golden treasury of the world's finest thought. If I were to mention the authors who had influenced him most, I should, I think, put Milton first of all, because Milton entered very early into his spirit and wakened in him the vibrations of moral energy and aspiration. The young
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student found it easy to come into sympathy with the heroic mind of the poet and with the majesty of his verse. At the noon-hour, when others were idle, he read the Paradise Lost and committed the first book of it to memory. After Milton, came Scott, whose novels he heard his father read aloud in the long summer days. It was characteristic of him that he was especially fond of biography and he made copious notes from the lives of Goethe, Lessing, Thomas Arnold and Charles Kingsley and others. He early read and re-read Macaulay's Essays and History, which appear to have in them a permanent vitality in spite of all criticisms and detractions, He became familiar with the best essays of Carlyle. His enthusiasm for Greek history was kindled by Bulwer's Athens. In his theological thinking and Biblical study he was much influenced by Paul, Frederick W. Robert- son, Bushnell, by Dean Farrar and Dean Stanley. Throughout his minis- terial life it was his habit to read carefully the new books of highest value. While he took every kind of knowledge to be his province and seemed equally fond of history and science, poetry and theology, he was perhaps most of all a student of the passing panorama of the world. His acquaint- ance with the Bible was large and intimate, and one friend writes of him, " He had more of the Bible at his tongue's end than any other man I ever met."
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