William Watson Andrews : a religious biography

Preface

THE peculiar religious position held by the subject of this Memorial makes the presentation of his life one of much difficulty. To a large number of Christian people in this land the work in which he spent the greater part of his life is wholly unknown, and by almost all others imperfectly understood ; but to give a full history of it, and a statement of the grounds on which it rests, would be inconsistent with the purpose of this book as a personal biography ; and yet without a knowledge of it, much in his position can be only partially apprehended. But the reader who desires to know more can now easily get access to sources of correct information.

It has been a very ungrateful task to show by some quotations the attitude of unreasoned hostility taken by some parts of the Church to the work represented by Mr. Andrews, and to repeat some of the coarse terms of condemnation, and of derision, used by some individual writers respecting it, and by implication of himself as its advocate. But these cannot be wholly passed by in silence, for they give a clearer insight into much of the current religious iv Preface

thought of that day, and its intolerance ; and show how strongly it denied not only the reality, but even the possibility, of any loss of spiritual grace, and the need of any Divine interposition. They also testify to the patience and calmness and brotherly love which marked Mr. Andrews' conduct, under circumstances which for long years of misrepresentation tried his faith to the utmost.

The nature of this biography as a religious one, and its limitations as to space, necessarily keep out of sight some aspects of Mr. Andrews' life which might otherwise be spoken of. During its many years he made the acquaintance of not a few persons whose friendship he highly valued, and with some of whom he had much correspondence. Of those not already spoken of in the Memorial may be mentioned his classmates, John M. Clapp, editor of the Charlestoji Mercury, and the Rev. Alexander Sessions; and, of later years. President D. C. Oilman, of Johns Hopkins University, the Rev. Dr. T. S. Childs, and the Rev. C. C. Starbuck. To the home of Richard Fellows, at New Haven, an old friend of many years, he was always welcome ; and he found in the continual marks of affection and confidence, shown in many ways, of President T. D. Woolsey, the Hon. Henry Barnard, and of his classmates, Rollin Sanford, Alpheus S. Williams, and James S, Sanford, not to mention others, great comfort and support.

A number of extracts from his letters and addresses on topics of general interest, selected for publication, have been necessarily omitted.

S. J. A.

A CATHOLIC CONFESSION

{From the Apostles' Liturgy)

O Almighty God, who art greatly to be feared in Thy holiness, we are ashamed of our manifold iniquities ; we confess unto Thee our sin. We offend continually and grievously in deed, in word, and in thought. Our fathers have transgressed against Thee ; and we, our children, and our brethren, do fill up the measure of their iniquity. Thy people, from generation to generation, have resisted and turned from Thee. We have abounded in false doctrine, heresy, and schism. The priesthood have sinned, and all the people. We harden our hearts, and are impenitent ; we are proud and rebellious ; we are high-minded, and refuse to be humbled. We have rejected Thine ordinances, and have chosen paths of our own. We have lived in strife and confusion, and have not desired peace. We have loved lies and vanity, hypocrisy and deceit. We covet and lust after the things which perish, and seek not Thy heavenly kingdom. We confess the sin of all Thy people, the members of Thy One Catholic Church. We have received Thy truth with our minds, but have closed our hearts against Thee. We have sat in judgment on those whom Thou hast set over us, and we judge not ourselves. We have loved the ways of disorder in which we have lived, and have been slow to learn reverence and humility. We have caused Thy truth to be rejected of the heathen by our foolishness and our sin ; and have brought reproach upon Thy Holy Name. By our hardness of heart and unbelief we have grieved and quenched Thy Holy Spirit. We are a burden unto Thee, hindering Thy purpose of grace to others ; and we have forsaken our own mercies.

We confess unto Thee, O God, the sin of all kings, princes, and governors ; the sin of all ranks and estates of men. From the highest to the lowest, we have all transgressed against Thee. (And as dwellers in this land, we especially acknowledge before Thee the sin of this nation and people.) For all these our manifold offenses and iniquities we do beseech Thy mercy. We have sinned wilfully and grievously ; yet have pity on us. We have presumed on Thy long-suffering ; yet deal with us in mercy and in truth, and forgive us our sins : through Thy Son Jesus Christ, our only Redeemer. Amen.

Chapter I.— Ii.— III

IV.—

VI.—

VII.

VIII.—

IX.—

XI XII.— XIII

Early Years — College Life — Ordination. i8io-

Pastorate at Kent — Current Religious Beliefs

1834-1842

Pastorate at Kent — (Continued). 1834-1842

The Evangelist Ministry — Its Nature and Dif

ficulties. 1856

Evangelist Ministry — Its Early Stage — Dr

Bushnell's "Vicarious Sacrifice." 1857-1874 Evangelist Ministry — Smith Trial — Liturgical

Club — Windsor Locks Council. 1875-1883 Death of Dr. Atwater — Sickness in England —

Dr. N. J. Burton — The Old Christianity

1883-1889

Closing Years. 18S9-1894 ....

Last Years and Death. 1895-1897 Funeral Address of the PvEV. Dr. Samuel Hart vii

13 26

43 56

92 103 136

167 177 197

Vlll

Contents

Appendix

PAGE

1. Statement of Reasons to Consociation . . .201

2. Farewell Sermon on Withdrawal from Congrega-

tional Ministry, 1849 206

3. Anniversary Address at Kent, 1894 .... 242

4. Extract from a Discourse on " Christian Nurture." 266

5. Genealogical Notes 274

6. Published Writings of W. W. Andrews . . . 276

7. Index 279

CHAPTER I

EARLY YEARS — COLLEGE LIFE — ORDINATION

WILLIAM WATSON ANDREWS was born February 26, 18 10, at Windham, Connecticut, and was the eldest son of the Rev. William Andrews. His father — a descendant in the direct line from William Andrews, one of the settlers of New Haven in 1638 — was a graduate of Middlebury College, Vermont, in 1806, was ordained pastor of the Congregational Church in Windham, August, 1808, and was married May, 1809, to Miss Sarah Parkhill, a native of Massachusetts. Seven children were born to them, six sons and one daughter. (For family details, see Appendix.) Mr. Andrews removed to Danbury, Connecticut, and was installed as pastor of the Congregational Church there, in June, 1813. The descendants of WiUiam Andrews, the settler at New Haven, continued for the most part to reside in Connecticut, and may be regarded as, in the fullest sense, children of the soil. In religion they were strict Puritans ; mostly farmers, and not holding any prominent positions in civil or military life.

William Watson, the subject of this Memorial (the second of these names being that by which he was generally called), while not in any sense precocious, gave early proofs of high intellectual endowments. He was prepared for admission to Yale College, according to the standard at that tim.e, at the age of fourteen, but his father thought him too young. Another reason for delay was the want of money, for a clergyman's meagre salary made the closest economy necessary, and often the young student must first earn for himself something to help meet his expenses. This was the case with Watson Andrews. In his fifteenth year he taught a district school in an adjoining town ; and later became an assistant in an academy at Fishkill, near the Hudson River. It was at this time that he made the acquaintance of Miss Given, who became his wife some years later.

In the autumn of 1828 he entered Yale College as a sophomore,' and, though standing in all departments of study among the first scholars, was especially distinguished in English composition and

' In the account which in 1893 he prepared for the life of President Porter i^Noah Porter, a Memorial by Friends, New York, 1893), he mentions the names of many of his classmates, and gives some particulars of their after career, showing that as a body they were of more than average ability. "Out of a class of eighty-one, thirtytwo or three have been clergymen, of whom two [Thomas M. Clark and W. I. Kip] are bishops in the Protestant Episcopal Church ; three have beeia professors in colleges and theological

Early Years — College Life 3

debate. From early youth he had been interested in debating clubs, and the two great societies of Yale, " The Linonian " and " The Brothers in Unity," furnished a good field for this form of intellectual exercise. He had a sympathetic and musical voice, though not of great compass, which at once attracted attention ; a ready command of language, and the ability to state his propositions clearly, and put them in a logical order. He was a member of the " Linonian," and of his part in its debates his classmate. President Porter, at a meeting held April, 1879, ^^^ ^^e reorganization of the society, said :

" There was a man in college here when I was in college, a man who entered sophomore year. He wore a gray round jacket, his hair hung on his shoulders, he could not have been more than eighteen years old. A Linonian, I am happy to say, he swept the field, swept the seniors all away by the wave and power of his truly eloquent debate. And I would like to say another thing in regard to that man. I found out that while fitting for college in the country, he somehow or other had got high ideas about classical literature and study. He showed me in manuscript " Demosthenes on the Crown," written out by himself in the Greek ; parallel to it he had written the translation ; and after a week had elapsed he disciplined himself by writing back the English into

schools ; two have been foreign missionaries, two governors of States, two members of Congress — one of the House of Representatives, the other of the Senate ; three have been ministers from our government to foreign countries ; one a major-general in the late Civil War ; one a Secretary of State ; sixteen have been lawyers ; eight physicians ; two teachers of the deaf and dumb ; and others private teachers, editors, bankers, and merchants."

Greek ; and that discipline gave him efficient, thorough power in debate. The opening address of the President of the Linonian Society and of the Brothers in Unity, was, when I was in college, the great occasion of the year. I have somewhere preserved the first address, the opening address, delivered by this classmate of mine in our senior year. If I had had time I should have hunted it up, and brought it here, and read portions to authenticate the truth of my remarks."

It was said by one of his contemporaries that it was an argument used by the members of the Linonian Society to induce the freshmen to join it, that it was Watson Andrews' society.

In his junior year he wrote a tragedy, " Talbot Castle," for the Linonian Society, which was acted by its members, and which, it is said, received warm praise from the poet Hillhouse. At commencement he gave an oration on " The Age of Sense," in which he contrasted this with the age of beauty and the age of religion. Of this oration an accomplished woman of New Haven remembered long afterwards how the students themselves checked the hum of conversation when he came upon the stage to speak, and how the hush of expectation fell upon the crowded church in which they then assembled.

Among- Watson Andrews' classmates were two with whom he formed especially close relations of friendship, which continued through life. These were Noah Porter, afterwards a tutor, then a professor, and finally President of Yale; and Lyman Hotchkiss Atwater, afterwards Professor of Logic and Political Economy in the College of New Jersey. In the article just referred to on Dr. Porter's student

Early Years — College Life 5

life at Yale, Mr. Andrews speaks of the influence which the stirring movements of the time had on their youthful minds: " A new spirit was in the air. It was eminently a time of hope and sanguine expectations. We were dreaming of great possibilities in the future." The poetry of Wordsworth and Coleridge had already begun to attract attention in the country, and philosophy was asserting vigorously its claims. In philosophy, especially as presented by Coleridge, Mr. Andrews and his friends were greatly interested. He writes: " The Aids to Reflection W2is repubhshed during our college course, through the influence of President Marsh of Burlington University. It was, I think, towards the close of our junior year that I bought the first copy of this book which was sold in New Haven . . . and it soon became the text-book of a little circle, in which Porter and Atwater were conspicuous for their enthusiasm." *

Naturally thoughtful and reflective, he early meditated much upon his relations to God and Christ, but he did not when he entered college regard himself as a member of the Church. The Calvinism of that day did not recognize the membership of the baptized children till they had passed through a period of conviction of sin, and had entered into a covenant with the local church. They were then admitted to the Lord's table, and regarded as under the watch and care of the Church.

Of his religious history while in college he speaks

' It was related by one who was present at Mr. Andrews' marriage, that while he and Atwater were in the dressing-room preparing to go to the ceremony, their talk was of Coleridge and his philosophy.

in his account of President Porter's student life. " The years 1830 and 1831 were remarkable in many countries for rehgious and spiritual as well as political movements. It was in the beginning of our senior year that the college felt the new life which was then stirring England and Scotland as well as our own land. Our class was greatly moved. . . . As a fruit of this religious movement, a large number of the class were brought to make a public profession of the Christian faith, and to become communicants at the table of the Lord." From this time on his thoughts were directed to the Christian ministry, although his early choice had been the law.

It was in 1831, after leaving college, that his attention was drawn through the newspapers and magazines to a religious movement then beginning in Scotland, and which has its development in the " Catholic Apostolic " congregations of to-day. Of this movement, which powerfully influenced all his after life, we shall here speak only to show how it affected his studies for the ministry, leaving a fuller consideration of it to the later period when he identified himself with it.

The beginning of this movement was in certain spiritual utterances — tongues and prophesying.' There were also some remarkable cases of healing. At this time, also, much interest in the prophetic

' It is impossible within the scope of this Memorial to speak in detail of these spiritual manifestations, or of the proofs they gave that they were the true utterances of the Holy Spirit. Those who desire to know the history of the movement in its beginning may consult a book, Creation and Redemption ; also. Restoration of Apostles and Prophets; the article by Mr. Andrews in Bibliotheca Sacra, reprinted in pamphlet form ; and a Narrative of Evetits.

Early Years — College Life 7

Scriptures was awakened in many quarters by the preaching of Edward Irving and others on the Second Advent of the Lord. Mr. Andrews, referring to this period of his Hfe, writes: " It was immediately after leaving Yale, in the autumn of 1831, that my attention was arrested by a letter taken from Eraser s Magazine, giving an account of the utterances in tongues and prophes}angs by holy men and women of the Kirk of Scotland; and I felt that here was a phenomenon worth looking into. I resolved to study the New Testament, and find out what it said of spiritual gifts, and of the Lord's advent. This was the beginning of my interest in this religious movement."

Two questions were now brought before him : first, as to the Lord's return to the earth, the place which it held in the Divine purpose of redemption, and whether it was or was not an object of hope and prayer, and something to be preached as an incentive to the Christian life ; secondly, whether or not the gifts of the Spirit as mentioned by the apostle (i Cor. xii. 1-7) were given to abide in the Church. These were purely Scriptural questions, and it was by the teaching of the Scriptures that they must be decided. The question as to the utterances in Scotland, and later in England, whether they were the utterances of the Holy Spirit or not, and as to the reality of the supposed miraculous healings, were matters of fact, to be decided only upon sufificient evidence. And in the matter of the Lord's advent, the Scriptural teaching respecting it was to be distinguished from the interpretations of Mr. Irving and others, and from any speculation as to the time. These were points for his subsequent examination, and it was not till some years later that his beliefs became clear and firm. But his study of the Scriptures, from this time carried on most diligently, was opening to him new questions, and impelling him to the consideration of points respecting the constitution of the Church, its relation to its Head, and its ministries and ordinances, then almost wholly ignored in New England theology.

The autumn months of 1831 were spent at his home in Cornwall, in a romantic valley amid the hills. A favorite place of resort he found in a secluded glen a little way from the village, of which he writes in a letter: " Half a mile from our house is a glen, where in the hot summer months I have often sought coolness and solitude. It is walled in by high, broad-breasted rocks on one side, and a steep, thickly wooded hill on the other, and through it, over many a tiny precipice, dashing and foaming, runs a small mountain stream. At the upper end the mossy rocks rise irregularly, one above the other, building up rude seats for this sylvan amphitheatre ; and in the leafy summer the trees form a canopy overhead, through which the blue heavens look down in scattered glimpses."

The year after his graduation was, as is often the case when college life is ended, and its stimulus and support are taken away, one of much mental depression. In a letter written to Porter, October, 1831, he excuses himself from writing a comedy, which he had been invited by the Linonian Society to prepare, on the ground of ill-health and low spirits.

Early Years — College Life 9

He was then siiffering from an inflammation of the eyes which prevented much reading or writing; and to this was added the feeling that he was constitutionally unfitted for vigorous and aggressive labor. In a letter of December, 1831, he speaks of himself as having " awakened from the ambitious dreams of his academic years, to poverty and embarrassment, and to the still gloomier consciousness of entire unfitness for the duties and responsibilities of active life." This sentiment often reappears in the letters of this period. Even of the comparatively quiet and uneventful life of a clergyman, he writes: " From the weighty, the crushing responsibilities of such a life, and its fatiguing, ceaseless round, I shrink in fear and dread ; and the same love of silent thought, and the same aversion to active life, will in these noisy and bustling times make me a world-shunning recluse." But there is no hint of any religious doubt or of disquiet as to the great truths of the Christian faith.

In letters written about this time to his friend Porter, he speaks of reading to divert his mind: " I console myself when downhearted with John Norris and Thomas Aquinas — two of the likeliest old gentlemen I am acquainted with. I conclude with the wish of old John Norris: ' May God give us light, and when we have found that, humility ' ; or, as I would amend it, ' Give us humility, that we may find light.' I am now busy in deciphering the enigmas, and phantasies, and devotional flights of Jacob Bohme."

Being in debt at the end of his college course, it was necessary for him to find some immediate lo William Watson Andrews

employment. He was very soon after his graduation offered a place in the newspaper office of Mr. Duff Green, publisher of the Telegraph, at Washington, D.C. ; but he had no taste for political journalism, and declined it. The only work immediately available was that of teaching, and in the winter of 1831-32 he taught in an academy in Washington, a town a few miles from his father's residence.

After his school work in Washington was ended in the spring of 1832, he spent a little time in New Haven, and later returned to his father's at Cornwall. In May he accepted an invitation to teach in a private family near Warrenton, Fauquier Count}', Virginia. He went there in June and remained till October. In writing to his father, he says: " My situation is as favorable on many accounts as I could desire. Nowhere could I see more genuine hospitality, or have a better opportunity of becoming acquainted with diversities of character. No house in this part of the State is more noted than Oakwood, or in the summer months the scene of more festivity and gayety." But the religious conditions he found very unlike those then existing in New England. Bishop Meade was endeavoring to lead his people into a higher Christian life, but many looked upon his efforts with disfavor, and Mr. Andrews adds: " I occasionally hear those halcyon days lamented, when parsons led out a dance, and were the jolliest wine-bibbers and whist-players in the country." Something of the same spirit, though under differing forms, might be found in the clerical life of New England during the last century.

This residence in Virginia, though brief, was of

Early Years — College Life n

great advantage to Mr. Andrews, as to both body and mind. Although still subject to moods of depression, he rose to the consciousness that he could do little good in the world except as an active member of society. Writing to Porter, he reaffirms his purpose to enter the Christian ministry as the field of labor in which he " could best combine active labor with peaceful study. . . . No one is so favorably situated for happiness as a clergyman in the country. My purpose is to qualify myself as speedily as possible for the unambitious, yet weighty, and often perplexing, duties of a parish minister; and if my talents and attainments shall enable me to be useful in the most obscure congregation in the Church of the Lord, and a blessing to my friends, I shall thank God, and go on my way rejoicing."

The winter of 1832-33 was spent at Washington, teaching in the same academy as in the previous year. In a letter to Porter he says: " With many pleasures, there is one disadvantage attending popularity rn a country village. You are a homo piibliciis, and are expected to attend religious meetings of all sorts, lyceums, temperance meetings, and besides be sociable among the people, leaving one little time for private study or correspondence. I have just slipped my head into a new noose, that is, I have engaged to deliver a series of lectures on the Prophetical Books of Daniel and The Revelation." The immaturity of his preparation for such lectures he himself recognized in later years.

In a letter he expresses the hope that Porter and himself can make an arrangement (never effected) to spend six months together in the study of theology and philosophy. " Nothing," he writes, " would be so beneficial to my mind and heart as daily intercourse with a tried, wise, and affectionate friend."

The early summer of 1833 was spent in Cornwall at his father's house. He was married July 24, 1833, at Fishkill, N. Y., to Miss Mary Ann Given. He was licensed September 25th of the same year, at Norfolk, by the North Association of Litchfield County, in the usual form, to preach for the term of four years. The winter of 1833-34 was spent in Cornwall, lie carrying on his theological studies, and preaching occasionally, and also assisting his brother Warren in his school.

Early in 1834 he was invited to become the pastor of the Congregational Church in New Hartford, a town not far from his father's home, but he declined it. About the same time he received an invitation from the Congregational Church in Kent, and this he accepted, and was ordained there on the 2 1st of May. His ordination was according to the usual Congregational forms. A Council was convened of the ministers and lay representatives of the consociated churches of the vicinity, who, after an examination of the candidate, and his approval, ordained him by prayer and the laying on of hands; his father in this case preaching the ordination sermon. Although well known to all to be deeply interested in questions of the constitution of the Church, and of prophecy, no objection, so far as is known, was made by any to his ordination.

Chapter II Pastorate At Kent — Current Religious Beliefs

THE ordination of Mr. Andrews and the beginning of his ministry presents a fitting opportunity to consider the several influences acting upon him, and which from the first gave to this ministry a peculiar character. These influences were, the prevalent theology of New England in which he had been educated, and its effect upon the religious life of the people; the philosophic principles of Coleridge ; and the new germinating beliefs as to the Church and its ordinances and endowments, which the religious movement in Scotland and England presented to his mind.

As more than sixty years have passed since his ministry in Kent began, and there has been in many points of religious belief a great though gradual change, we must go back and note the nature of the change. It will be understood that we speak here primarily of the Congregational churches of New England, though what is said is applicable in great part to the Baptists and Methodists. There were then no Roman Catholic churches except in the larger cities, and only a few weak and scattered Episcopal congregations.

The New England churches of that day were for the most part doctrinally orthodox, holding fast to the Trinity, to the Divinity of Christ, to the Inspiration of the Scriptures and their supreme authority, to the sinfulness of human nature, to the sacrifice of Christ as the basis of our salvation, and to the necessity of personal repentance and faith.

But though the Divinity of Christ was firmly held, the wide-reaching significance of the Incarnation was little apprehended ; and though the facts of His Resurrection and Ascension were articles of faith, their bearings upon His present priesthood and upon His future kingship were only dimly seen. Very little was said of Him as the living and ruling Head of the Church, or of His present intercession, or of His return. The great doctrinal topic of the pulpit was the way in which His death was related to the forgiveness of sin, joined to the question of man's ability to obey God. The work of the Holy Spirit was much dwelt upon, but He seemed often to be regarded as the Head of the Church, rather than as sent to testify to Christ as the Head. The great channel of His operations was the preached word, not ordinances or sacraments. The sermon was, therefore, the centre of interest, and the other parts of the service were regarded as introductory and subordinate. It was the general belief that the world would be converted to Christianity by the preaching of the Gospel, and much interest was felt in missions. The more ardent expected to see great and immediate results, — nations born in a day, — seeing a type of this in the Sandwich Islands.

As regarded the sacraments, Baptism was scarcely more than an empty form. The baptized children stood only in a nominal, not vital relation to Christ, and in a merely external one to the Church. It was generally held that at the Lord's table the communicants ate and drank as a mere commemorative act — a vivid way of bringing the Lord and His work to remembrance. But there was a form of consecration used by many which showed a feeling that there was more than a mere commemoration. A common formula was a prayer that " so much of the bread and wine as should be consumed, might be separated from a common to a sacred use." That which remained of the bread, usually a large portion of the loaf, was not looked upon as consecrated, and was taken by the deacons or the pastor, and consumed at the evening family meal.