USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > Lives of the clergy of New York and Brooklyn: embracing two hundred biographies of eminent living men in all denominations. Also, the history of each sect and congregation, Pt. 1 > Part 19
USA > New York > New York City > Lives of the clergy of New York and Brooklyn: embracing two hundred biographies of eminent living men in all denominations. Also, the history of each sect and congregation, Pt. 1 > Part 19
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We take the following eloquent and highly original extraet from a sermon entitled "Seeds and Shells," preached in New York, No- vember 17th, 1861 : 208
REV. OCTAVIUS B. FROTHINGHAM.
"Some two thousand years ago a regenerating principle beeame embodied in the form of a young Galilean. Year after year it lay completely hidden in that germ of earth. The frame matured into manly proportions, and grew into manly beauty. The wealth of heaven and earth passed into it-the air, and the light, and the great benedietions of the skies; it collected about it the loveliest things ; friendships attached themselves to it ; love twined around it the fine web of affection ; it was moistened by the dew of tears ; the precious bloom of human associations gathered thiek upon it. Deeade after decade, the dear, handsome shell of mortality kept from harm the precious seeds of life it contained. The tempests of a wild earthly eareer blew it hither and thither about the world ; it was beaten up and down, from village to village, by wind and weather ; now for a brief space finding lodgment in some quiet nook, where the storm could not touch it, nor the tramping of busy feet molest it ; but speedily whirled away again by the gusts of eireumstance, and almost buried in the common dust of the highway. Very dear to a few loving hearts was that mortal casket of flesh ; men and women elung to it as to all that was precious to them in existenee. They thought it would be death to them, and a ealamity to the whole world if any fatal harm should befall it. Those merciful hands, those gracious tones, those benignant looks-how eould they lose them from human sight? They should all die in his death ; they should all wither in his blighting. Presently, however, violent hands tore that beautiful covering of flesh in pieces; in the very prime of its maturity, in the very bloom of its loveliness, it fell assunder, it perished ; the few who had been graced with a knowledge of its worth abandoned themselves to a comfortless grief. But, straightway, behold ! the divine thought, the treasured principle which that lovely easket was made to hold, and which had beeome full and rieh, so as to need holding no longer, assumes a new eovering, nobler and more expansive than the last. The inelosing eapsule that contains it now is not one man, but a body of men. The vital foree has passed into society : it has become a law of life in some hundreds of hearts; it has become a bond of union between them all ; it has collected a society ; it has founded an organization ; it has embodied itself in a chureh which is a new body of Christ, shaped, and molded, and animated by the celestial love that, while Jesus was alive on earth, could only fling its ray like a small candle into a thick night.
"And now, after a time, this new covering hardens ; it becomes a thick com- pressed erust around the quick spirit, beneath which it was at first so yielding. It is heavy with pendants and badges ; it is thick with symbols and rites; it is wrapped all about with the stiff parehments of statutes and creeds ; it is bound about with priestly orders ; it bristles with staffs of officers ; it is enervated with monasteries and churches ; it looks eternal with its towers and foundations, its constitutions, deeretals, rubries, its solid institutions and absolute weight of dominion. In this mighty shell of the church, the life that was first incarnate in Jesus lay inertly hidden all through the terrible ages of violence, when it must have perished had it been less stoutly protected. What tempests raved around it. All the elements of human nature were let loose upon it ; war beat npon it with its battle-axe ; fraud and rapine and power and ignorance bored into it with their bits and pried at it with their levers. These were the dark ages ; but the church protected the seeds of truth and goodness that were committed to it. Men said the church is eternal, the ehureh is unchangeable ; its amity cannot be broken ; its integrity will never be disturbed ; but the time eame for this 'corn of wheat' to fall into the ground and die ; the bands were loosened, great fissures opened in its sides, walls spring and fell in, and, in spite of cvery effort to preserve it by clamps and ligatures, the parts dropped asunder. There was a shudder, as if the world
209
REV. OCTAVIUS B. FROTHINGHAM.
was coming to an end. The truth was, the world was coming to a beginning ; the new world which had been waiting for the dying of the body, that it might feed on the spirit, which alone could give life. The principles of our modern civilization, the principles of our modern humanity, would never have been what they are, would never have been ours at all, but for the dropping and decay of that mammoth institution which for half a thousand years had been identical almost with the very existence of social order.
"This is the economy of nature ; seen alike in the rotting of seeds, the decay of fruits, the dissolution of human bodies, tie breaking up of customs, establish- ments, institutions, no matter what may be their dimensions or their character."
Mr. Frothingham is rather above the medium height, well pro- portioned, and altogether of an elegant, graceful figure. He stands perfectly erect, and there is about him everything, in the physical as well as mental peculiarities, to attract and to fascinate. His head is of large size, with finely molded features of the highest intel- lectual type. His brow is round and massive, his eyes are light and full of expression, and his whole countenance betokens rare and noble qualities of both manhood and mind. In his manners he is the polished gentleman. A proper dignity, a refined tone, and a genial kindness pervade his demeanor at all times.
Mr. Frothingham is one of the most brilliant minds of the day. His scholarship is thorough, and, more than this, he is a profound and original thinker. His learning and research are but the growth of a nature naturally refined, full of intellectual aspirations, and guided by the strongest mental powers. He was born for a scholar. Philosophy, logic, and sentiment are elements of his mental nature as much as the senses are of his physical. Hence he has matured into a thinker of rare ability. It is delightful to hear or read his written pages. They are couched in the purest and most elegant expressions of the English tongue, and they show a reach and an originality of thought which cannot but arrest the intelligent mind. Ile is progressive; he looks onward and upward in everything; and the unprogressive, and the timid, and short-sighted may feel alarm at his bold conceptions, his daring prophesies, and aggressive purposes. But he works with the forces of intelligence alone. As far as these will carry a courageous, ambitious spirit, so far will he go, and no further. He sounds out new channels of thought, he explores new paths of truth, and he delves into the very caverns of lore. Powerful to think, eloquent to declaim, elegant in gesture, he is as brilliant an example of intellectual power as the modern pulpit presents.
210
REV. JUSTIN D. FULTON, D. D.,
PASTOR OF THE HANSON PLACE BAPTIST CHURCHI, BROOKLYN.
EV. DR. JUSTIN D. FULTON was born at Sherburne, Madison County, New York, March 1st, 1828. When eight years of age, the family removed to Michigan. He had previously attended the public school of his native vil- lage, and his education was continued under many disadvan- tages, after the removal. At the age of nineteen, in 1847, he entered the University of Michigan at Ann Harbor, where he passed three years. He next entered the senior class of the Univer- sity of Rochester, then just founded, and was graduated with honor in 1851. Two years were devoted to a course in the Theological school connected with the University, and in 1853 he was ordained to the ministry of the Baptist church.
Ile immediately went to St. Louis, where he edited the Gospel Banner for two years. The slavery excitement finally broke up the newspaper enterprise. In 1855, Dr. Fulton became the pastor of the Baptist Church, at Sandusky, Ohio, and later, in the fall of 1859, he accepted a call to the pastorship of the Tabernacle Church at Albany, New York. Here he spent four years in a very successful ministry. In January, 1864, he was invited to the charge of the Tremont Tem- ple congregation, in Boston, where he remained nine years. When he went to Boston, he found the congregation much reduced, having but fifty members remaining, and the income was only eight hundred dollars a year. During his term of ministry, which was most efficient and powerful in the pulpit and out of it, the membership increased to one thousand, and the income to twenty-one thousand dollars. In 1872, Dr. Fulton was called to his present field, the Hanson Place Baptist Church of Brooklyn. This congregation was organized about twenty years ago, and formerly worshiped in Atlantic street. They at length erected a large briek church edifice in Hanson Place, and have since been a strong and influential body.
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REV. JUSTIN D. FULTON, D. D.
Dr. Fulton is an able writer, and has published a large number of books and pamphlets. Among others are " The Roman Catholic element in America ;" " Life of Timothy Gilbert, the Founder of the Tremont Temple ; " " The True Woman ; " "Rome in America. " A tract on the Sabbath had a sale of more than one hundred thousand copies. He has written a great deal on the subject of temperance, and, in fact, on all the reforms of the day. One purpose in his re- moval to Brooklyn, was to establish, through the aid of the congre- gation to which he was called, a paper to give currency to his ser- mons and writings on reforms.
We quote from another the following personal description of Dr. Fulton :
"The deportment of Dr. Fulton in the pulpit is entirely original, as distin- guished from that of any of the other leading preachers in this city. His dress is plain but neat. His step to and from the desk is elastic, and altogether devoid of any aim at formality. His voice is not subjected to any severe test by affected and unnatural efforts at false intonation, and yet, while his words roll fast and furiously after each other, as if each one of them was a rival messenger from a warm, zealous, and earnest heart, they are modulated in their rising and filling, but never at the expense of the speaker's fervor. In his manuscript, fine rhetoric abounds, but that is frequently deserted for the resistless impulse which the preacher obeys as he steps to either side of the desk, or springs back from it to pour forth his eloquent and thrilling practical appeals, or to cite his telling illustrations in support of them.
Dr. Fulton enjoys a wide reputation as an eloquent and impressive preacher, a fluent and pointed writer, and, in all labor, one of the most earnest and practical of men. Always an industrious student, his ability in scholarship is enlarged and thorough, while his gifts as an orator and writer are of that original and splendid kind, which can- not fail to command attention. In all his pastorships he has labored with great success, constantly widening the scope of his influence and the bounds of his fame. Peculiar, marked, and effective in all his characteristics, whether of the mental or physical nature, he occu- pies a position at once of prominence and power. For religion and reform he is ever a zealous champion, doing battle on every hand, without fear or favor. With a conscience keenly sensitive to the de- mands of duty, he has the talents, courage, and energy which make his efforts successful in whatever dircetion he feels called upon to de- vote them.
212
REV. HENRY M. GALLAHER,
LATE PASTOR OF THIE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, BROOKLYN.
EV. HENRY M. GALLAHER was born at Castlebar, Ireland, September, 11th, 1833. He came to the United States in 1850, and, after spending some time in the State of Connecticut, went to the West. In June, 1861, he was graduated at Shurtleff College, a Baptist institution, at Upper Alton, Illinois, where he had passed six years in prepar- atory and theological studies. He had been licensed to the Baptist ministry in 1857, and preached his first sermon at Springfield. Im- mediately upon his graduation, he settled at Quincy as the pastor of the Vermont street Baptist Church, which position he held for three years. He next accepted a call to the First Baptist Church, Brook- lyn, where he assumed his duties August 1st, 1864. Several years since, he accepted a call to the Broad street Church, Elizabeth, New Jersey.
Mr. Gallaher has written much on political subjects in the pa- pers. He is a popular lecturer throughout the country.
Mr. Gallaher is of the medium height, of good proportions, and erect figure. His face and whole appearance is very plain, and, while he looks altogether an humble-minded, unobtrusive person, there is a quickness in his eyes and a general intelligence about his countenance, which show him to be a man of thought and ability. He has a head of the average size, with regular features, and wears his hair combed behind his ears. He is affable and genial with all classes of people. A peculiarity about him, at all times, is a nervous impulsiveness, which often borders on excitement.
Entering the pulpit, he falls carelessly into a seat, runs his fin- gers through his hair, moves the books about, crosses first one leg,
213
REV. HENRY M. GALLAHER.
and then the other, and in many ways gives token of this ever-present nervousness. At the proper time, with a sudden start, he takes his place at the desk, and begins the services with nervous abruptness. Should he read a hymn, he holds the book by one corner, allowing the cover to fall, while with the hand that is free he fumbles the cor- ners of the Bible. In prayer his hands sweep all over the same book, sometimes between the leaves, and then over the pages, and occasionally he gives a turn to the hymn-book. Meanwhile a torrent of words is falling from him. There is no cessation- no pause-no breath-taking about it. As fast as he can speak- hurrying, crowding, lapping one word upon another - they are poured forth, rather than intelligibly articulated. These singular mannerisms, and this extraordinary volubility of speech weaken, but do not destroy the impressions of his prayer. His whole soul is in it, and ho evidently feels the inspiration of spiritual communion. It seems as if he could pray thus on and on for hours. There is no hesitation for a new theme of petition any more than there is a deficiency in words to express it. Topic after topic is taken up, all with the same carnestness, the same Christian love, and the same ardor of faith. At length, alone from exhaustion, he abruptly cheeks himself, opens his eyes, and proceeds to the other services with a continued nervousness. When he reads, it is with the same haste, speaking in a loud key, and then very low, in holy abstraction more than to give a correct elocutionary reading of the passage. Here again, notwithstanding his peculiarities, he is very effective- there is honest feeling in his tone, and the words which he wishes to press home to others have already touched his own sensibilities.
His sermons are written out quite fully, but his nervousness is such that he reads but little from the manuscript. He repeats a line or two, when he rushes to the front of the pulpit, and delivers him- self of the thoughts which crowd upon him faster than he can speak them. His self-possession, for a young man, is very great, and he speaks with the full power of the natural orator. He does not talk as rapidly as in his prayer and reading, but still he has an extraor- dinary command of language. You notice the accent of the Irishman very decidedly, and in his style of thought and emotional utterance there are to be found other characteristics of his nation. The order of his sermon is well preserved in his memory, and however much he may be carried off' into extemporaneous outbursts, the argument is logically maintained. He moves nervously from side to side of the
214
REV. HENRY M. GALLAHER.
pulpit; he places himself against the large gas-fixture, or he leans forward, looking into the very eyes of the people. Sometimes his hands are in his pockets, sometimes under his coat-tails, and some- times in his hair. His arms cleave the air in every gesture ever at- tempted, and his body assumes every attitude which can be made expressive of feeling. All the time he talks, and talks well. It is not mere declamation, mere wordy outbursts, mere eloquence, but it is comprehensive thought, practical religious instruction, and candid counsel. To be sure there is a want of polish and dignity in many of his ways, and his forms of expression are not always the most scholarly, but he stands in the equally noble proportion of an emi- nently common-sense Christian teacher. Neither crowds nor places put any restraint upon him. Dignity, and what he would call prud- ish refinements, give him no concern; but his desire is to seem, as he truly feels, no higher than the humblest. The conventionalities of the clerical life and the vanities of human nature do not disturb him, while manly uprightness and the lofty Christian character are his sole ambition.
Mr. Gallaher is an excellent singer, and it is his custom to join with his congregation, leading them in a manner not often seen on the part of a minister. We noticed another peculiarity in his trans- ferring himself from the pulpit to the lobby, where he shook hands with all passing from the building.
215
REV. THOMAS GALLAUDET, D. D.,
RECTOR OF ST. ANN'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH FOR DEAF MUTES, NEW YORK.
R
EV. DR. THOMAS GALLAUDET was born in Hart- ford, Connecticut, June 3d, 1822. His father was the Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet, LL. D., a Congregational minister, who founded the first Institution for Deaf Mutes in the United States, at Hartford, in 1817, and his mother, before her marriage, was Miss Sophia Fowler, a born deaf mute, and one of Dr. Gallaudet's first pupils. She is still liv- ing, and is the matron of the Institution for Deaf Mutes at Washing- ton, D. C. Dr. Thomas Gallaudet is the eldest of eight children, all living but one. He was graduated at Trinity College, Hartford, in 1842, and taught in Connecticut for one year. In September, 1843, he became an instructor in the Institution for Deaf Mutes in New York, and soon after a communicant of St. Paul's Chapel. He was admitted by the late Bishop Onderdonk as a candidate for holy orders, and pursued his theological studies privately. In July, 1845, he married Miss Elizabeth R. Budd, only daughter of the late Dr. B. W. Budd, of New York, and a graduate of the New York Institu- tion for Deaf Mutes. He was ordained deacon in the summer of 1850, at St. Stephen's Church, New York, by Right Rev. Bishop Whittingham, of Maryland, and here he preached his first sermon. For about a year he was assistant minister at St. Stephen's, though still teaching daily at the Institution for Deaf Mutes. In the sum- mer of 1851 he was ordained priest by Bishop Delancey, of Western New York, at Grace Church, Brooklyn. During 1851-2, he officia- ted mostly at St. Paul's, Morrisania, and had a weekly evening Bible class for educated deaf mutes in New York-first in the vestry-room of St. Stephen's Church, and then at No. 59 Bond street. Says Dr. Gallaudet, in a letter addressed to us: " I was called upon from time to time to act as pastor among these deaf mutes, residents of our city-baptizing some, presenting some for confirmation, and receiv-
216
Thomas Gallaudet
REV. THOMAS GALLAUDET, D. D.
ing some to the holy communion. At last the thought entered my mind that I would found a church in which the adult deaf mutes might find a spiritual home. The first services were held in October, 1852, in the small chapel of the New York University. The church was incorporated under the title of 'St. Ann's Church for Deaf Mutes.' In November, 1857, we removed to the lecture-room of the Historical Society building, corner of Second avenue and Eleventh street. In the fall of 1858 I resigned my connection with the Insti- tution, to give myself more exclusively to my duties as rector of St. Ann's. In July, 1859, we purchased our present property in Eigh- teenth street, near Fifth avenue, including the church and rectory, and the four lots on which they stand, for seventy thousand dollars. As is now well known, we have three services at St. Ann's Church every Sunday, the afternoon being for deaf mutes. At the other services, (conducted as in any other Episcopal church,) frequent in- terpretations by signs are given for the benefit of deaf mutes. Our church is entirely free, supported by the free-will offerings of the worshipers. As rector of St. Ann's Church, I strive to do all in my power to promote the temporal and spiritual welfare of the deaf mutes, residents of this great city and its suburbs. When they are out of work I get situations for them. I visit them and minister to their necessities in time of siekness and trouble. I have received many to the communion. The kind-hearted hearing and speaking persons, who have gathered around these our deaf mute brethren in parish re- lations, have assisted me greatly in my work."
Dr. Gallaudet received the degree of D. D. from Trinity College, in July, 1862, just twenty years after his graduation. He has pub- lished various pamphlets in relation to his church, and several ser- mons. He is the author of a popular Christmas Carol, entitled " The Day of Days." Through his instrumentality, monthly religious ser- vices were established in Boston and Philadelphia; and finally regular Sunday services in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Albany, and Boston. Occasionally they are held in other cities. St. Ann's is the only church in the United States which takes any special interest in the graduates of the various institutions for the deaf mutes. The deaf mute community of the United States number upward of twenty thousand.
Dr. Gallaudet and his deaf mute wife have been blessed with seven children (five daughters and two sons) having all their facul-
217
REV. THOMAS GALLAUDET, D. D.
ties. They have learned the signs and spoken language, so as to converse readily with both father and mother.
Dr. Gallaudet is about of the medium height, and has a fair com- plexion and light hair. His face is a likeness of his heart. It is truly benevolent in. every lineament, He has a fine brow, though the lower portion of the face is more long than broad. His eyes are soft and gentle, and his voice is ever kindly and sincere. No man could be better adapted for the duties of a teacher and pastor among such an afflicted class of human beings as the deaf mutes. One look at him is sufficient to awaken their entire confidence and love. There is a benignity which satisfies the longings of their saddened spirits, and there is a gentleness of manner which tells them of sympathy and regard. In his presence their hearts feel less desolate, and the golden sunshine chases the gloom from their paths. Recoiling from the eold-hearted, thoughtless world, they are made aware of a kind- ness which they lamented as extinet ; they are aroused to effort by friendly encouragement ; and they are invoked to repentance by a language which is in signs of their own.
There has been much to inspire Dr. Gallaudet to his constantly extending labors in behalf of the temporal and spiritual condition of the deaf mutes. It should be remembered that he is the son of a mother thus limited in her faculties, and yet devoting a great intelli- gence to the elevation and happiness of her class-the son of a father whose name is to be forever memorable by reason of the great phil- anthropy and varied talents which he devoted to the founding of the first institution for deaf mutes in this noble land, and the husband of a lady who is one of the crowning examples of the triumph of mind over misfortune. His efforts have been prompted by teachings al- most from the cradle ; and they have been encouraged by results which brought joy to those of his own love. Vouchsafed himself to hear and speak, he has made it his patient, self-denying task to in- struct those not similarly blessed in a mode of intelligent signs by . which art seeks to supply, in a measure, the short-comings of nature. HIe has worked earnestly, and with great success. Many afflicted beings, through his excellent teaching, have become educated mutes, and thus attained to a new and brighter existence. Their minds have been carefully cultured, they have been prepared for different oceupations of life, and the way once so dark and difficult has been made plain and happy. Much was gained, but Dr. Gallaudet felt painfully conscious that there was still a want unsupplied. The
218
REV. THOMAS GALLAUDET, D. D.
deaf mutes had no church organization ; there was no altar where they could gather understandingly ; no pastor who was devoted to their spiritual welfare. He resolved to found such a church, to ex- tend the Christian invitation from such an altar, and to fully assume the duties of such a pastor. The undertaking presented vast obsta- cles, and was only to be accomplished by faith in God's providence and by unceasing toil. Hopeful and courageous, he entered upon his darling scheme, and has persevered with that enthusiasm which deserves and generally obtains success. He finds that he has laid broad foundations for a great and good work, and that it prospers even beyond his most sanguine expectations. The congregation gains in numbers, a heavy debt is rapidly decreasing, and at an early period there will be a church free to deaf mutes and all others. Greater publicity is given to the cause of the deaf mutes, and their interest has become the concern of many new and powerful friends. All this is mainly due to the energetic, self-sacrificing efforts of Dr. Gallaudet, and justly entitle him to universal applause.
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