USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Trinity church in the city of Boston, Massachusetts : 1733-1933 > Part 7
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His Bohlen Lectures on "The Influence of Jesus" were per- haps his most original piece of work. To him religion was not a theological system, a creed or a church: its essential was the personal relation of the individual man to God. Hence these two volumes, each in its way, lay strong emphasis upon the essential character of the preacher, inspired, shot through with the Spirit of God; and Jesus, the very expression and incarna- tion of the character of God.
As University Preacher in Cambridge, England, he gave two lectures of marked originality on "Tolerance."
Almost every other summer he stayed at his post preaching every Sunday. He thus reached people who came to New England's coast from all parts of the country: and through them his message was distributed widely. Many persons made a point of passing a summer Sunday in Boston simply to hear Phillips Brooks. The alternate summers he packed his trunk and with a brother or friend went to Europe, taking a differ- ent route each time, and thus covering the continent as years passed. England was his second home, Arthur Stanley, dean of Westminster Abbey, his warm friend. He preached in country and city churches, in cathedrals, the Abbey, and at Windsor before the Queen. At Oxford he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Wherever he went and however great the social pressure or the invitations to preach, he gained his holiday, for he had a zest for travel, he enjoyed people, and had an enthusiastic interest in art and architecture. In southern France and Spain he took delight in discoveries of replicas of Trinity, Boston.
In 188 2, after thirteen years of such intense work, of excit- ing incidents, of heavy routine work week in and week out, year in and year out, of appeals to duty and to emotions, his friends and the vestry convinced him that he should break away for a year. He responded gladly, for no boy ever en- joyed his holidays with more glee and completeness than did Brooks. The climax of histrip was his visit to India, where, en-
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tranced with the scenery, art, and history of the country, he saw Christian missions at first hand. From his mother he had been saturated with missionary spirit: his foreign missionary sermon in the Epiphany season each year was a great event to himself and the parish. To find his hopes and expectations carried through by strong and devoted missionaries set for him the seal upon his preaching. Six years later, when the strain of his work was again noticed, he broke away and with his intimate friend Bishop McVickar went to Japan.
Returning, he again took up the pace, for with people hungry for his message and help he could not escape respond- ing with sermons, addresses, or interviews. Trinity still was crowded Sunday after Sunday ; requests for addresses, speeches, and sermons came upon his desk, and he responded with apparent enthusiasm, certainly with power. Those closest to him, however, could see or rather feel that even though he was only in the fifties his physical reserve power was weaken- ing, and some of the buoyancy and brilliancy of his thought and speech was fading. The routine was beginning to wear him down; and the special occasions were causing a strain.
Looking back, we ask ourselves what had been the domi- nant motives, purposes, and results of these twenty years of preaching. Had the people to whom he preached at the close of his rectorship been transformed in thought, faith, and char- acter from those of earlier days? and if so, in what respects?
During the twenty-five and more years of Phillips Brooks's ministry, the popular conception of the Christian Faith, the Scriptures, ethics, and the Church changed more, perhaps, than in the preceding thousand years. In the sweep, storms, and calms of that generation Brooks was one of the multitude of pilots who led many a soul out upon quiet seas into harbor.
The people to whom Brooks first preached, especially the older ofthem, were still under the shadow of Calvinism which was in theology that of the Middle Ages; their children were, however, breaking away into something they knew not what.
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With the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species in 18 59 and the whisperings of evolution, the movement began in the popular mind.
To the people in the churches, God was the Creator Who, having done His work, dwelt in the infinite distance. He was the Judge. To redeem men from sin His Son came and, inno- cent though He was, took upon Himself the sins of all and suffered for the elect. Personal religion was a matter of fear, penitence, forgiveness, duty, and preparation for death and the judgment. To those people's children who were guided by Brooks, God was their loving Heavenly Father whose spirit was in and with them, Who so loved them that He gave His only Son, Who by His life and death and resurrection, by His leadership, lifted them into light and life here and hereafter.
In the early years of Brooks's ministry the people had little conception of the unity of the universe, of natural law, and of the development of life, of ethics, and the revelation of God. The great witness to the presence and power of God was in the miraculous, the wonder working, in the storm, but with the still small voice unheard. The Scriptures were one flat record, every word inspired and of equal value. The history of man was the story of wars and not of his development through peaceful pursuits.
In the later years the young men and women to whom he spoke had caught the conception of God as a spiritual Father whose life entered into every part of His universe, Who lived within the hearts of men, who were not strangers but His very children. The former generation associated religious faith and life with anaemic saints, hyperconservative souls, and other worldliness. Brooks led the youth into the conception of reli- gious life as one of buoyancy, abundance, grateful service, and ever developing life and search for truth. His dominant note was the call of Jesus: "I am come that they might have life: and that they might have it more abundantly."
In the winter of 1890, when fifty-four years old, he seemed
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to gather all the forces of his personality into his work. A week of Lenten addresses in Trinity Church, New York, when all Wall Street seemed to press into the church already packed; Lenten noonday addresses for men in St. Paul's Church, Bos- ton, and in Faneuil Hall; a great speech before the National Chamber of Commerce, and later baccalaureate sermons at Harvard and the Institute of Technology, enabled him to speak from cumulative experience, wrought-out conviction, and a directness which swept men's emotions and doubts be- fore them.
On March 9, 1891, Bishop Paddock died, and as the Dioce- san Convention was to meet in five weeks, the time for the consideration as to his successor was short. Brooks's chief in- terests had been in preaching and the work of a pastor ; though not recognized as an administrator, the thriving condition of Trinity Parish and its various missionary, educational, and charity departments showed that he had the capacity to ad- minister or select men and women who could do so for him. Those who knew him and his tastes did not have him in mind for the office of bishop until a demand came from the people through the newspapers and common talk that he who had led in the great parish should be the spiritual leader in the state and commonwealth. The opening of this fresh opportunity for service, almost to the surprise of himself as well as his friends, appealed to him: and as soon as it became known that he would consider the office if elected, the clergy and laity of the convention elected him on the first ballot.
During the next three months Phillips Brooks went through a testing more severe than any other in his life. No sooner had he accepted the election subject to confirmation by the dio- ceses and bishops of the Church, than charges of heresy, rad- icalism, disloyalty to the creeds and the Church were made from various parts of the country ; it was to be expected, but not in such force. For with his New England inheritance, his independence, his spiritual leadership, he had spoken and
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written in a way that some others could not interpret as loyal. During these weeks Brooks, who was importuned by well- meaning friends to defend himself, said nothing: but stand- ing upon his record and character he humbly and patiently waited. His confirmation finally came: and on October 14, 1891, he stood in the chancel of Trinity Church amidst bish- ops, clergy, laymen and his own beloved people, officers of the commonwealth and representatives from a distance; and in response to the challenge of the Presiding Bishop said: "I am ready, the Lord being my helper. I will do so, by the help of God." He then knelt to receive consecration at the hands of the bishops. After the Benedicite, taking the arm of the old and stately Presiding Bishop, Williams of Connecticut, he walked down the aisle, no longer rector of Trinity Church, but Bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts.
For fifteen months a fresh mantle of consecration and spir- itual power seemed to be his as he went up and down the state preaching, confirming, out into the nation and even to England. Wherever he went, whether in a small village of the Berkshires or in Westminster Abbey or the cathedrals of England, the people gathered, hung upon his words, and went away refreshed. Happy it was for the Church and for the episcopate that he should have been a bishop for even such a tragically short time as fifteen months.
On January 23, 1893, when he was just past fifty-seven, after an illness of only three days, he suddenly fell asleep and left a people stunned with grief and, afterward, lifted by the in- spiration of his life.
Three days later, in Trinity Church, whose stones and up- building are his memorial, his body, carried on the shoulders of Harvard students, was laid in the chancel; hymns of victory were sung, the promise of the Resurrection was read. Outside in Copley Square, the populace, who had left the shops of the city shut for this hour, gathered about his body as it rested for a few minutes outside the church, and joined in hymn and
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prayer; then, after the funeral procession had passed through the Harvard Yard and between long lines of students, it was laid to its final rest in Mount Auburn beside those of his mother, father, and brothers. The people of Trinity Parish went to their homes and thanked God that a prophet and saint had been among them.
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V REV. E. WINCHESTER DONALD, D.D. Tenth Rector of Trinity Church 1892-1904
BY REV. WILLIAM H. DEWART, L.H.D. Assistant Minister of Trinity Church, 1893-1902 Rector Emeritus of "Old North Church," Boston
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E. Winchester Donald
S OMEONE must leap into this gulf. Why not I?" These were almost the first words of Dr. Donald after accept- ing the invitation to become the successor to Phillips Brooks in Trinity Church, Boston-Phillips Brooks who was loved and, in many cases may we not say, was almost idolized in the great congregation that he had gathered around him after twenty years as rector and preacher. Probably few preach- ers in the history of our American Church have ever entered upon a more difficult task than that which confronted the new rector. He was bound to be judged week by week by the Brooks standard.
In thinking of Dr. Donald it is well always to keep this in mind: had he seen the light of day a few years earlier than he did, he would have been born in Scotland. This is merely to say that he was born only a few years after his Scotch parents had emigrated and settled in Andover, Massachusetts. Through them he was quite near Scotch soil, and terribly Scotch he remained to the last day of his life. In pronouncing many English words he had "a burr like the crust on wine."
He was graduated from Amherst College. He afterward became a trustee of Amherst, and was the first Episcopal cler- gyman to receive from it the degree of Doctor of Divinity.
After college and after teaching for a couple of years, he turned to the Episcopal Church ministry. For his preparatory work he went first to an Episcopal Church seminary, but after a few months transferred himself to the Union Seminary (Presbyterian ) in New York City. This was a bit out of the normal, but Union Seminary at that time had a group of pro- fessors that made it the outstanding liberal theological school in America. The young student was eager for the best possi- ble training for his work. While still a student at Union Sem- inary he went one Sunday to read the service in the Church of the Ascension, New York City. "Who is this man?" said the
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senior warden. "Hereads mighty well; get him permanently." So he became the regular lay reader of the church. Evidently he made a good impression, for a little later, when the semi- nary course was completed, he was invited to become the as- sistant minister. After one year in this position he accepted the call to be rector of the Church of the Intercession, New York City, where he remained for six and one-half years. This must be the parish about which I recall one of his little pleasantries. Once he suddenly asked me how old I was; I replied that I was twenty-nine. "Good heavens!" he ejacu- lated, "when I was your age I was rector of a parish that had a debt of sixty thousand dollars." Later on, this particular par- ish, the Church of the Intercession, was taken over by Trinity Church, New York, as one of its chapels, and it still contin- ues to-day one of the vital parishes of the city. While there Dr. Donald married Miss Cornelia Clapp of New York, who later presided so graciously over the Boston home.
That Dr. Donald's work there was of a notable character may be inferred from the fact that he was now called back to the Church of the Ascension, the church where already he had served, first as lay reader, then as assistant minister. Here too was a church not only with a big debt, but also with a big problem. There is only space to say that his work here was quite outstanding. He not only paid off the heavy debt, but he enriched and beautified the church's interior, calling to his aid three of the greatest artists living at the time-St. Gau- dens, La Farge, and Stanford White.
One of the most interesting features of his New York ministry, said Dr. Huntington in the memorial sermon to Dr. Donald, preached at Trinity Church, Boston, in 1904, was his outreaching character, his success in establishing close rela- tions with persons whom the average minister seldom as much as touches. Round about the compact body of his parishion- ers proper was a wide fringe of those somewhat detached who loved him dearly and would have followed him any-
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whither. "Young men of business, strangers in the great city, struggling artists, budding journalists-I venture to say that the young rector of the Ascension had more of these and of the like of these under his wing than any other pastor of our communion, in New York." On the strength of his fine record made at the Church of the Ascension, Dr. Donald was called to Trinity Church, Boston- probably, as tradition says, with the strong recommendation of Phillips Brooks.
When he came to Trinity, in the last months of 1892, he was in the full prime of life and vigor, forty-four years of age. In personal appearance he was rather tall; rather slim; shoul- ders sloping ; head covered with a heavy thatch of dark hair, always parted in the middle ; eyes, dark and penetrating, arched over by heavy eyebrows; nose, well formed and shapely- Franz Hals would have loved to paint it. He wore a full beard, short, dark and bristly, parted in the middle, like Chief Justice. Hughes, "with a swipe to starboard and one to port." In his attire were no signs of conventional professionalism. Meeting him on the street one would involuntarily cast a second glance with the instinctive feeling that here was "somebody"- maybe a college professor, a judge, a painter, an architect, at any rate one who looked like a real man, a leader in whatever field of work he moved.
Always, from his early years as a young clergyman, he made his personality both felt and remembered. I can illustrate this by the following incident: In the first year of Dr. Donald's rectorship at Trinity, I had occasion to have several confer- ences with Edward Everett Hale, and invariably, after our little matter was disposed of, Dr. Hale would turn the con- versation to Trinity's new rector, sometimes drawing me out, more often himself talking about him. Once he said: "I well recall the first time I ever met Donald; it was many years ago. I was presiding at a college fraternity banquet; there were a couple of hundred young college fellows present ; champagne was flowing pretty freely and things were becoming quite
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hilarious when this young clergyman was called upon for a speech. By some happy remarks he won their immediate atten- tion; then he suddenly turned and launched into those young fellows like a Peter the Hermit, and at the end won from the criticized, themselves, a big hand of applause. The banquet went on," said Dr. Hale, "but it was different. Ever since that night Donald has been a marked man to me, and I was not at all surprised that he was the one chosen to take the place of Phillips Brooks."
It was about this same time, Dr. Donald's first year at Trinity, that Mr. Edward Potter told me this little story that is altogether characteristic. Older people will recall Mr. Potter, who for years was a devoted member of the parish. Mr. Potter was returning to Boston, after he had been away for a considerable time and was somewhat out of touch with affairs in the home town. He went into the smoking com- partment of the train where four or five others had assembled, manifestly strangers one to another. At first there was the usual silence punctuated by a disjointed remark here and there; but before long two of the men fell into a discussion on politics. They were on different sides and as they warmed to their subject the others present dropped out of the con- versation and the discussion became just a debate between the two. They quoted policies and authorities back and forth; they appealed to statesmen, living and dead; they disagreed; they argued; but all with the greatest courtesy and politeness on the part of each. The thing went on for quite some time, and my narrator always affirmed that never had he listened to a debate more sparkling or more brilliant. Had Mr. Potter come from the distant West or even from the Middle West, he never would have left that compartment without ascertain- ing, at least, the names of the two men. But, being a formal Boston man, he just could not-and did not! The next Sun- day morning in his pew at Trinity sat Mr. Potter to hear the new rector preach his first sermon in Boston, and what was
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his surprise to find, in the person of the new rector, none other than one of the debaters on the train.
Strongly individualistic, Dr. Donald had in his make-up unusual deposits of candor, openness, frankness; qualities that were reinforced by a robust, intellectual honesty. The thing he worked out at his study desk, the thing he really believed in his heart, was the thing he openly and frankly said in pul- pit or on platform. This led quite often to his being on the unpopular side of certain issues and oftentimes to his support of the "under fellow." It was he who first called my attention to Matthew Arnold's essay on "The Remnant," and it is pos- sible that just here in this essay he found the endorsement and the inspiration that put him so many times on the minority side. For example, in his early days at Trinity, there came one of those periodic upheavals against Tammany Hall. A good part of the nation was arrayed against it. Many great news- papers were printing slashing articles in condemnation, and it was at this moment that Dr. Donald, in a public address before a club, spoke up in defence of Tammany. This was not an iso- lated experience. Truth to say, there were not a few just such instances in those early years while Boston was still measuring and weighing the new rector at Trinity.
I recall one such incident: The young men of the parish were observing the second anniversary of the passing of Phil- lips Brooks; at the dinner maybe one hundred and fifty or two hundred were present. When the time for the speeches came, several of these young men, who had known Phillips Brooks just a little while before and still felt in their own lives the strange power of his personality, arose and one after the other lauded Phillips Brooks up to the very skies, all in perfect sin- cerity. Then Dr. Donald, as rector, was called upon as the last speaker. At first he spoke wonderful words of Phillips Brooks. But, he went on: "Phillips Brooks was human as you and I are human ; he had a temper as you and I have a temper. I have seen him in his big study in Clarendon Street kick his hat along the
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floor one way and then kick it back the other way. Mad! Mad clean through!" The dinner ended at a low temperature! A considerable time after, I chanced to meet upon the street one of the young men. I halted him, saying: "See here, I have not seen you at Trinity Club this long while." "No," he replied ; " it will be a long time before I get over that picture of Phillips Brooks kicking his hat up and down his study, and I don't propose to subject myself to a similar experience." The man was aggrieved. Dr. Donald had rasped him, rasped him by putting himself and his words against the popular drift and current of the evening.
Possibly some of my readers will recall this incident from Margot Asquith: In early childhood when out on the wild moors of Scotland with her governess, she used to meet an odd old chap walking sometimes in this direction, sometimes in that, and always with no apparent objective ahead of him. One day they stopped him and asked: "How do you shape your course? You seem to walk all day and go nowhere." To which he replied: "I always turns my back to the wind." Dr. Donald was the very antithesis of that man ; so many times he did not flow along with and agree with public opinion- rather he opposed it. Some there were in the old days who said Dr. Donald was lacking in tact. Let us readily admit that sometimes, maybe, he was not wise in his advocacy of certain causes, principles, and ideas; but, at least, he was straight- forward and honest, if sometimes blunt and even if sometimes his candor bordered upon rudeness.
It was about this same time, his first years at Trinity, that a Boston wife, over the teacups, said to her husband -a man of prominence in Boston and the Episcopal Church, and of most even disposition: "Do you know, I think Dr. Donald must be a very smart man?" "Why so?" asked the husband. "Because," she went on, "he is the only man in this big city who can make you mad."
I set these things down; I paint them in; for without them
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the portrait would not be Dr. Donald. Scotch honesty of speech, Scotch frankness of utterance, in almost any commu- nity, are apt to leave lacerated feelings behind them, and Bos- ton was no exception to the general rule.
This brings me to other and more winning characteristics. Manliness! He was a man's man. Priest of the church? Yes! but before that a man. "The Cup-bearer?" as Dr. Huntington described him in his memorial sermon. Yes, but back of that a man. It was a man who mounted the pulpit steps, a man who preached to other men-and men responded. In Boston, as in New York, men formed an unusually large proportion of his congregation.
Then, too, there is another trait which ought to be em- phasized: beyond most men he had the gift, the divine gift, of sympathy. I do not recall just when for the first time I heard a certain sentence fall from his lips, but I heard it multitudes of times as the years came and went. It is a simple little phrase, but as I look back to-day I cannot think of any other expres- sion quite so characteristic of E. Winchester Donald as is this one: "I am sorry for anyone in trouble." "In trouble " was the open sesame that admitted one into the richest part of his na- ture. His great sympathy flowed out over the troubled soul as water over a dry ground. It made him gentle in voice, help- ful, and friendly. To the troubled one, hope that had vanished began to revive and to come to life once more. People in do- mestic trouble ; people suffering bereavement ; people fighting disease, or liquor; people not formally connected with the parish-though many came out of the "afternoon congre- gation"; people from all walks of life, from school teacher to nowand then a Magdalene, from professional mantoreformed criminal; all these came in increasing numbers as the years went by, and with all alike he was patient and helpful, sharing their burdens and giving them a new grip on life. A very large part of his Boston days was given over, in Burke's fine phrase, "to remembering the forgotten and ministering to the neg-
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