Memoir of the Rev. Samuel Barrett, D. D., with a selected series of his discourses

Front matter

TV

IARY

Qass lAN

Index

PAGE

DISCOURSES.

I. Character and Mission of Christ 71

II. The Unitarian Christian 86

III. Man : his Ability and Kesponsibility 106

IV. The Christian Life 121

V. The Power of Example 133

VI. Counsels for Young Men 147

VII. Counsels for Young Women 161

VIII. Counsels for Mothers 179

IX. Man, and True Manliness 192

X. A Good Old Age 204

MEMOIR.

MEMOIR.

THE character of a model clergyman — a minister, faithful and devoted, of the gospel of Jesus Christ — is one that must ever command admiration, and the most profound respect. A good man, a good preacher, a good pastor, he is at the same time a true lover of learning ; a genial friend of education, — secular as well as religious, for the young as for the old ; an advocate, by word and example, of private and public morals ; and, above all, a liberal, wise, and firm supporter of public, philanthropic, and religious institutions. When such a life is closed, some memorial of it seems demanded alike by a proper respect for the departed, and the highest welfare of the living.

It is the object of the following Memoir to contribute something to such a purpose. In the absence of correspondence, autobiography, and other like material, the design of the writer is, that the ministerial and other public labors of the l subject of it — his social, domestic, and religious feelings and principles as manifested in life — , shall be made to reveal, of themselves for the most part, the leading elements of the character which is here attempted to be portrayed, — the character of a model clergyman, and a faithful and devoted minister of the religion of Jesus Christ.

Samuel Barrett was born at Royalston, in the county of Worcester, Mass., Aug. 16, 1795. He was descended, we are told, from an excellent yeoman stock. His ancestor, on the paternal side, was Humphrey Barrett, who came from England, and settled in Concord, Mass., about 1640 ; and, on the maternal, of David Fiske, who lived in Lexington, and was born 1675.

His grandfather was Oliver Barrett, who, after his marriage, settled in Chelmsford, and removed to Westford about the year 1770. Subsequently, he entered the army, and died at Albany, in the service of his country, leaving seven children. He married Anna Fiske, a daughter of Ebenezer Fiske, of Lexington, who was the ancestor of the many respected families of that name ; among others, of Benjamin Fiske, the well-known merchant of Boston, recently deceased at Lexington.

The family of this Oliver and Anna Fiske Barrett consisted of seven children. Of these, Benjamin, the father of the subject of this Memoir, was the youngest but one. He was born in Chelmsford, 1770 ; married Betsy, the second daughter of Samuel Gerrish, an honored citizen of the town of Westminster during the Revolution. They were the parents of eleven children, only eight of whom lived to grow up; namely, seven sons and one daughter.

Of these, Samuel was the oldest.

Of his childhood and early years, we catch but here and there a glimpse. We learn however, incidentally, that he was extremely diffident. A portion of this diffidence was doubtless inherited ; but the most of it, as he always believed, was occasioned by the treatment he received from his father's apprentices, engaged in a large tannery. Taking advantage of his extreme natural bashfulness, they made so much sport of his feelings, that at length he came to lose all confidence in himself; and it caused so much of self-distrust, that more than usual encouragement was necessary in whatever he was called to attempt. We incidentally catch another glimpse of him at this early period of his life. It appears that his sensibilities at this time were so acute and of so much depth, that it was found difficult to direct him by reproof without producing so much disproportioned suffering as to lead to extreme indulgence by way of atonement. Governed by the affections, he became firm, prompt, and active, as well as gentle, docile, obedient, patient. A single glance of the eye was command, a smile was reward. But he was not without acuteness and penetration enough to feel " that praise undeserved was satire in disguise."

In 1803, when he was eight years of age, his parents removed from Royalston to Wilton, N.H. As their removal to this place had an important bearing on the after-life of young Barrett, it may not be uninteresting to remark, in passing, that Wilton is a quiet, secluded, and almost isolated farming town. Surrounded by an amphitheatre of hills, the township lies, as it were, in a basin, the surface of which is dotted over with hills of a lesser grade ; and these, gracefully rounded at their tops, slope away with a gentle, uniform declension, terminating in rich intervales. These hills and valleys, industriously cultivated, give many happy homes to a highly intelligent and moral population. It has long been favorably and widely known for its system of public schools, for its love of learning and religion, and as the birthplace of the Peabodys, the Abbots, the Burtons, the Livermores, and others, who have acquired no little distinction for their ministerial gifts and literary attainments.

On one of the hillsides described, stood the schoolhouse where Samuel, during the following seven years of his life, attending eight or ten weeks in each year, by unremitted diligence and application obtained more than one prize at the hands of the selectmen or school committee. Of these, the most valued of all, as he would sometimes playfully remark, as his chirography was none of the best, was " for having made the greatest improvement in writing." On the summit of another of these eminences stood the village church, of which the Rev. Thomas Beede, on whose ministrations he attended, and with whom, as we shall soon see, he was to be most intimately associated. On the summit of another stood the dwelling of this good pastor, overlooking the whole village, where, through his advancing days of youth, Samuel was to live, labor, study, and prepare himself for college ; and where yet may be seen, still flourishing, more than one ornamental or fruit-bearing tree, planted or grafted by his own hand. And here it was, surrounded by the wild and picturesque scenery and the population such as we have described, that he received his first and most enduring impressions of knowledge, virtue, and piety.

It was at a very early period that he began to dream of obtaining a liberal education, and to talk of becoming a minister of the gospel. But, as the time approached for a decision in the case, the circumstances and probabilities became discouraging in a high degree. In 1810, his father, who hitherto had been prosperous, met with a reverse. He continued to approve of his son's purpose and aim, but could give him no encouragement or promise of substantial aid. Samuel saw, therefore, that, if he would still adhere to his early choice, he must not look to others, but depend wholly on his own resources and exertions. In other words, it must be another instance of the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties.

But it so happened, that, at this time (1811), his father formed the resolution, for the purposes of business, to remove his family from Wilton to Springfield, N.Y. By this unforeseen occurrence, the way was unexpectedly opened for Samuel to gratify the one strong wish of his heart. A consultation on the subject having been held with their pastor, Rev. Mr. Beede, it resulted in an agreement with this good minister to receive Samuel into his family, stand to him in the relation of a father, with the distinct understanding, that, by personal instruction, Samuel should be well fitted for college in the course of the succeeding three years ; while the pupil, on his part, most gladly accepted the relation to him of a child, with all the duties and labors which such a relation implied. To this arrangement of sustenance, care, and instruction on the one side, and, on the other, of faithful study and labor conscientiously carried out by both, he often and gratefully recurred, as the means, under Providence, by which he obtained, not only the foundation well laid of a liberal education, but also a vigorous body and a healthy constitution.

He never failed to express the gratitude he cherished toward his foster-father and friend, Mr. Beede. On one occasion, he is found saying, " I have one friend : may God grant him happiness ! "What could induce Mr. B. to befriend me as he has ? He could not have done more for a son : few fathers do so much." On another, he makes use of these words : " I cannot pass over in silence the continued expressions of kindness of Mr. B. I shall never be able to repay him for his goodness. May I ever feel grateful to the Supreme Being for such a friend, and some time be able to reward him for his disinterested benevolence and undeserved affection ! "

It is hardly necessary to add, in this connection, that one so bent on obtaining a liberal education, and a responsible position in life, availed himself earnestly of every opportunity for improvement which the place and circumstances offered. At the suggestion of Mr. Beede, a " Literary and Moral Society " was formed in the town. It was, in fact, a lyceum, only under a different name, before the modern lyceum was known. Of this, Samuel was an original member ; and by the questions here discussed, orally or in writing ; by the use of the " Town " and " Ministerial Libraries," — both rare in those days, — and by other means there offered of mental and moral improvement, he acquired much valuable knowledge, and received impulses which enlarged his mind, and developed his whole nature, intellectual and religious.

In 1813, before the expiration of the prescribed term of years, he was prepared to enter any of the New-England colleges but Harvard. Before, however, settling definitely his future plans and course of action, he concluded, as his first and best step, prompted alike by duty and affection, to visit his parents at Springfield. Here, for the accomplishment of his ultimate purpose, he took charge of a small school ; and subsequently of another in the village of Conajoharrie, N.Y., on the Mohawk River, which he taught for the term of six months. In the mean while, he carefully reviewed the Latin and Greek authors before read ; and, as we have heard him humorously remark, " studied, with some considerable advantage, a leaf of human nature, — to him quite new, — in the life of Dutch farmers."

In 1814 he visited two of the colleges in the State of New York, — the Union at Schenectady, and the Hamilton at Clinton ; but, not satisfied with either of them, he returned to Wilton. There, under the tuition of Mr. Beede, after four weeks of additional study, he felt himself prepared to enter Harvard College. Accordingly, in the month of August, he visited Cambridge for the first time, was present at the Commencement exercises, and after the usual examination, having failed in nothing required, was admitted to the Freshman Class of the institution in which, from early childhood, he had desired to be educated.

An ambition most praiseworthy had thus brought him to Cambridge. His studious and correct habits had secured him an honorable admission to the College, and he was - cherishing a resolute purpose to prosecute his further studies with new persistency and vigor. But now it was, for the first time, that he found himself without the necessary means, or friends able to aid him on his course. Under these circumstances, but one way seemed open to him ; namely, to adopt the vocation of a teacher. This course he at once cheerfully and successfully embraced, and pursued it, not only through all his vacations while an undergraduate, but for a long time after ; so that, between the years 1813 and 1823, he had devoted to school-keeping enough months in the aggregate to make four full years in all.

When speaking on this subject, we have heard him remark, that, though the task was sometimes irksome, it yielded other than pecuniary benefits to the teacher, whatever chanced to be the proficiency of the pupils. To him, as to other teachers, it was a source of extreme satisfaction, in later years, that he could refer to not a few distinguished persons whom it had been his privilege and pleasure to instruct. Among others, we have heard him name such honored men as Judge E. R. Hoar, Rev. Dr. Stearns, Dr. E. Peabody, Warren Burton, Abiel A. Livermore, J. H. Abbot, Esq., Dr. Hosmer, Judge Luther S. Cushing, Professor Holmes, Hon. R. H. Dana, and others.

In 1817 he was elected a member of the Phi Beta Kappa, which, if any were needed, is sufficient evidence, we suppose, of his faithful and successful studies, and high standing in his Alma Mater. In 1818 he graduated, and received his first degree, A.B. For the occasion, the government had assigned him a forensic disputation with his classmate Walker ; but, in consequence of the illness of the latter, it was omitted. The question was, " Whether uncommon sensibility to the pains and pleasures of life be favorable to individual happiness ? " He prepared himself, with care, on the affirmative side of the question. " Give me," said he, " a fine sensibility to the objects of nature, to the emotions of friendship, to the sublimest, the tenderest feelings of pious devotion, and I can pity the world ; " a genuine outburst of his natural, unaffected feelings.

From Cambridge, by previous arrangement, he went directly to Concord, Mass., and commenced teaching the Grammar School of this ancient and distinguished town. Here he remained for a year, during which time he was superintendent of the Sunday school connected with the Rev. Dr. Ripley's society. This was one of the earliest Sunday schools established in the Commonwealth ; and it is not a little singular, that another of these schools had been opened in Wilton as early as 1816, while he was at college, which gave him an opportunity to witness the first dawnings of this beneficent institution, the knowledge of which left an abiding impression of its singular advantages to the youthful mind.

In 1818 he " began the year with the determination to live, in future, more devoted to God, more attentive to the duties of religion." Accordingly, at this time, — Jan. 1, — he joined the Church of Christ at Wilton, by receiving baptism, and assenting to the articles of faith. Not far from the same time, we find him prescribing to himself the three following rules : " 1. I will pray to God, who is my Preserver and Creator, every day. 2. Not a day shall pass without witnessing my reading a portion of Sacred Scripture, if it be practicable. 3. It shall be my continual exertion to govern my passions, and form habits of moral conduct and pious devotion." And, through life, no rules of the kind perhaps were ever more conscientiously observed, alike hi spirit and in fact.

In 1819 he returned to Cambridge, and entered the Divinity School. And here, again, it was a question of means, to secure which, he adopted the same method that he had previously found so advantageous. He began with a private school in Concord ; then, in 1820-21, he took the Centre Grammar School at Maiden, and, through the whole third year of his theological course, taught a select school at Cambridgeport, retaining his room at college, and keeping up with his class.

One who was a room-mate with him at this time, in writing to me, says : " We pursued together our professional studies, under the instruction of the elder Ware, equally revered and loved by us all ; of Professor Norton, who had no superior as a critic and interpreter of Scripture ; and of the lamented Frisbie, so earnest and eloquent, and whose early death left a void in the department of Natural Religion and Moral Philosophy which no one else seemed qualified to fill. To the faithful improvement made by our departed friend of these great opportunities, his classmates, his writings, and his ministry bear witness." With the termination of these studies terminated the obstacles with which he had had to contend ; and, if knowledge obtained under difficulties is to be regarded as the most thorough and practical, it is well illustrated in the present instance. In 1822 he received his second academic degree, A.M.

Having closed his studies at the Divinity School, he was soon after, according to a custom of those days, " approbated " to preach by the ministers of the Boston Association. He officiated for the first time in the church of the Rev. Convers Francis, of Watertown. His professional labors were in immediate and constant demand, — first at Barnstable, then at Medford, and afterward at Eastport, in the State of Maine. In 1823 he was requested to go to Philadelphia, and supply the pulpit of the First Unitarian Church there, and also to preach to the Society at Baltimore, the pulpit of which had recently been vacated by Mr. Sparks. By arrangement, he continued for six months to officiate for these two societies. By both he was invited to become their pastor ; but, in both cases, the invitation was declined. In 1824, he returned to Cambridge, and supplied various pulpits in that vicinity ; among others, the new society in Keene, N.H., whose invitation to settle he also declined.

In all these efforts and decisions, Providence — unconsciously to himself — seemed to be guiding his steps, and preparing him for some important sphere of duty. At the period now reached, a movement had just been made by the Liberal Christians of Boston to organize and establish a new church and society for their nascent denomination. Channing, Norton, and Ware, with other distinguished clergymen and laymen, were zealously engaged in the undertaking. To this end, a site had been selected at the extreme westerly part of the city. In 1824 the corner-stone was laid in due form, and the building brought rapidly to completion. It took the corporate name of the Twelfth Congregational Society in Boston. In October of that year, it was solemnly dedicated to the worship of God, and opened to the public for divine service on the Sunday succeeding the dedication.

In anticipation of an organized congregation, the proprietors of the church, for reasons satisfactory to themselves, authorized the building committee to engage at once a preacher, and to settle a minister. Rev. Alexander Young, a recent graduate of the Divinity School, Cambridge, was the first candidate for the new pulpit. After preaching for a few weeks according to agreement, he received a unanimous call ; but it was declined for another offered him at the same time. The State authorities had set apart a day, near at hand, for public thanksgiving (Dec. 2) ; and a preacher was needed for the occasion. It so happened, that the subject of this memoir, at that time a stranger to the people of Boston, had preached on the Sunday previous at Dr. Lowell's, in the immediate vicinity of the new church ; his services leaving a most favorable impression. The committee of the Twelfth immediately sought him out, engaged him to supply their pulpit for that occasion, and also for the three succeeding

Sundays. Mr. Barrett, having accepted and fulfilled the engagement to the entire satisfaction of the committee and congregation, who had listened to him with intense interest, was invited, with entire unanimity, to take charge of the new society, and to receive ordination as its first minister.

After mature deliberation, he accepted the call, saying, in his letter to the committee, that, " prompted alike by choice and a sense of duty to yield to your wishes so unanimously expressed, it is now my solemn determination, under the blessing of Heaven, to consecrate whatever my faculties are, or may become, to the promotion of the spiritual improvement and comfort of those who shall gather themselves around the altar at which you have invited me to minister."

On the 9th of February, 1825, his ordination took place at the church in Chambers Street, as the first minister of the Twelfth Congregational Society in the city of Boston. The churches of the denomination were largely and honorably represented. Dr. Lowell preached the sermon ; Drs. Walker and Ware, and Rev. Messrs. Palfrey, Green, and Parkman, assisting in the services. The exercises of the occasion fully sustained the reputation of those engaged in them for talent and Christian devotedness ; and they left a most favorable and deep impression on the minds of the community. A new day, they said, was dawning in the world of Christian thought and improvement. Among the churches invited, the one at Wilton had not been forgotten ; and no member of the council was more kindly and cordially received than was the Rev. Thomas Beede, the early friend and teacher of the minister elect, whose joyous and gratified feelings were manifest to all. To him was assigned the prayer of consecration; and it was alike appropriate and impressive.

The new minister entered upon the duties before him without delay. He foresaw they were to be arduous. The Unitarian controversy, so called, was at the point of its culmination. The church of which he was the chosen minister was the first erected in the city by Unitarians. The other churches occupied by the denomination had come into their possession by natural descent, and by changes in thought and opinion brought about by time and progress. There was good reason to think, therefore, that all the movements of the society, as well as his own, would be watched with jealous and scrutinizing eyes by opposing and surrounding sects. Moreover, a congregation was to be gathered, whose materials, wholly new, were to be harmonized, brought into affinity of feeling and belief, and a church to be built up and organized on a broad, liberal, and substantial foundation.

Upon this work he entered with energy and courage ; and it took but a short time for observing and discriminating minds to discern, that, in this case at least, " the right man was in the right place." The people who had gathered around him, drawn together from different denominations in the city, soon found that the pastor of their election was not a stripling, just from the walls of a literary institution, with an unformed character and purposes, but a man — a true and a whole man — with a large share of common sense, with talents eminently practical, and with a degree of knowledge and insight equal to any occasion or emergency which might arise in the discharge of his many and responsible duties.

In personal appearance, he was above rather than under the average height, indicating a good share of vital energy and activity. Compelled, from a defect in the eye or eyes, to the use of spectacles, there was, at times, seen through them or under them, by the most casual observer, a peculiar expression, which spoke of insight or meaning, more than could many words. Blending with these were firmness and dignity, with courtesy and conciliation of demeanor and manners, which won from his people and associates an almost immediate and implicit confidence. A short time only was required to understand that he was one of those rare persons who think for themselves, and therefore are always ready with sound and sufficient reasons for the measures they propose. Offered with frankness and directness, 2 they secured ready and cordial assent. "With these traits and others like them, there shone out a perfect integrity of purpose, and a high sense of honor. He scorned nothing more than meanness ; and the deliberate wrong-doer he repelled, if he did not wholly avoid. Later in his ministry, he preached a sermon from the text, " I am a man." It was much admired, and often repeated by request in other pulpits. It was a graphic delineation of the true man, without the slightest exhibition or consciousness of egotism. And yet, beyond a doubt, the moral elements within the preacher were, unconsciously, those from which the portrait was drawn. As he was at the first in this respect, so he was through life, even to the closing scene. His manliness never forsook him.

In the organization of the society, his first movement was in the formation of a visible church, according to ecclesiastical usage. In the presence of Dr. Lowell, who conducted the usual ceremonies and services, the pastor offered a covenant, which was signed, first by himself, and then by those present. To the reader of these pages, it may seem wholly needless and even impertinent to remark, that he who had drawn up and signed this form of faith was a Christian, — a Christian, not only by birth and education, but also from profound thought, and the deepest convictions of his soul. At the period, however, of which we are writing, under the violent throes of a long-continued and bitter controversy, it had become only too common for other denominations to deny the Christian name to those who belonged to this branch of the Church universal. But, as in all others, so especially in this particular instance, it was wholly unjust, and without the slightest foundation in truth.

This young clergyman, who had struggled so manfully for a liberal education, and to prepare himself for the Christian ministry, true to a sensitive conscience, and a mind logically inclined and trained, had not come to his work without reaching down to its foundation principles. His studies and exercises on the subject had been long and thorough ; and he never ceased his investigations until every doubt had been removed. After a comprehensive study of all the evidences, internal as well as external, he was led to the solemn conclusion, that there could be no mistake as to the authenticity and divine authority of the Holy Scriptures, or the truth of Christianity as a divine revelation ; not accepting these records, indeed, as verbally or plenarily inspired, but as containing undoubted revelations from God to men. Whatever, therefore, of moral and religious truth was distinctly taught in the Scriptures, and especially in the New Testament, authenticated still further, as he believed they were, by reason and intuition, he received, not only as true, but as the highest and most sacred of all truths, — God's. New theories, as they successively appeared, he carefully investigated and weighed ; but, while they doubtless enlarged and quickened his spiritual aspirations and views, they never caused him to waver, we think, for a moment, in his original conclusions.

In despite of parental education and his earliest prepossessions, these united him with the Liberal Christians of the Channing school. Like them, he rejected the doctrine of the deity of Christ, and, consequently, the doctrine of the Trinity, because, like them, he could find no authority for it in the Bible ; and if he accepted, as he did, the belief of the divine inspiration of Jesus, it was because he found it written there in letters of living light. One of the thoughts most familiar to his mind, and the one he was accustomed most frequently and energetically to express, was, that, if God had never broken the silence of the ages, — had never spoken to man, never revealed himself to the race, — then, of all creatures, we were the most miserable. In regard to all the other disputed doctrines of Christianity, he found himself, in like manner, coinciding with the earliest school of Unitarians. And with these intellectual conclusions were mingled feelings the most devout. In a diary kept by him at this period, the existence of which was not known, even to his own family, till after his departure, are to be found breathings and prayers of the truest piety.

In the covenant, therefore, which he had now offered and signed, were principles which had their basis alike in the teachings of the Bible, and the convictions of his own mind. The covenant was in these simple words : —

" We, whose names are undersigned, do solemnly declare, that we believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments contain the revelations of God to man ; that we have faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and Saviour of the world ; that we desire thankfully to accept salvation through him in the way presented in the gospel ; and we resolve, by the help of divine grace, to live in obedience to his holy commandments, looking unto the mercy of God unto eternal life."

He administered the rite of Communion for the first time in the month of April, 1825 ; and, from the beginning, it was made manifest that this was a service in which he felt, and was to feel, a deep interest. Though not gifted, as many are, with the natural power of extemporaneous speech, yet he always began it with a short address, — something rather new at that time, — which served to awaken deep feeling, and to leave impressions not easily forgotten. His prayers were short, but so earnest and sincere, that all hearts were borne up on the wings of devotion to the throne of grace ; and his whole manner was so serious and affectionate, so natural and so pleasant, that every communicant seemed, as it were, carried back to the very scene and hour when the command was first given, " Do this in remembrance of me."