Life and writings of George Edward Flower

Preface

PREFACE.

The Biographical and Historical Lectures which form the larger portion of this book were originally delivered from the pulpit, with a view to cultivate in the hearers, and especially in the young, a taste for reading and study. The interest they awakened, and their influence in leading many to the formation of studious habits, led to their publication in the Christian Standard, the readers of which manifested a lively and constantly growing interest in the series. It was the intention of the author, in the light of this general and hearty approval, to add three lectures — one on Whitefield, one on the Wesleys, and one on Alexander Campbell, and then publish the completed series in a book; but death came before this purpose was accomplished. In response to a widely-expressed wish, it has been decided by those most directly concerned in honoring his memory and perpetuating his usefulness, to fulfill his purpose of publishing these Lectures, even though the series is incomplete, and to accompany them with a brief sketch of the life and character of their author. Being honored by his family with the task of preparing this biography, and editing these writings, I accepted it as a labor of love due to the memory of one to whom I stood for many years in

4 PREFACE.

relations of intimate personal friendship, and whose character and work I , greatly admired. I have discharged my trust as best I could — the thoughts and sentiments of my heart always so far exceeding the skill of my pen, that with great diffidence I submit my imperfect work to the scrutiny of the public. It has, however, the merit of sincerity and of faithful endeavor. The simplicity of taste and the severe truthfulness that belonged to the character we have attempted to draw, forbade all labored eulogy, and all exaggeration, even had I been prompted to these by the warmth of my friendship or the fervor of my admiration. The value of a biography is in its entire truthfulness. Without this, its lessons will be valueless, and may be mischievous. We have sought to make this sketch as true to life as possible, in color as well as in outline. If there are no serious blemishes or deformities in the picture, it is because they were not discoverable in the original. We are not without hope that, because of its naturalness, it will speak with power to many hearts, and lend inspiration to many lives. With this in view, we send it forth on its mission.

Our author left enough miscellaneous essays and addresses to make another volume. Of these we have only space in this volume to furnish two specimens — enough to give an idea of his style, spirit and aim in his numerous writings.

PREFACE. 5

We are Indebted for numerous and valuable memorabilia to Mrs. Olive Flower, now of Evansville, Ind., Alfred Flower, of Paris, 111., and James A. Huston, of Paducah, Ky. To Mrs. Flower we are under obligations for the manuscripts and journals of her lamented husband, as well as for much other valuable information ; to Alfred Flower for the journal of George Flower's travels, the valuable History of the English Settlement at Albion, 111., and many interesting items of family history; to James A. Huston for a knowledge of many interesting particulars concerning the work of George E. Flower in Paducah, Ky. The names of others who have furnished us with information will appear in their proper places.

Isaac Errett.

Cincinnati, Dec. 25, 1884.

GENERAL CONTENTS.

GENERAL CONTENTS.

LIFE.

Chapter. Page.

I. Ancestry of George E. Flower .... 9-23

II. Childhood and Youth 24-34

III. College Life 35-44

IV. The Young Evangelist 45-58

V. The Pastor 59-76

VI. Last Days 77-87

VIL Conclusion 88-101

WRITINGS.

Lecture.

I. John WyclifFe 105-118

II. Gutenberg and the Printing-Press . , . 1 19-126

III. Savonarola, or the Dawn of the Reformation . . 127-134

IV. Savonarola 135-143

V. Life and Times of Martin Luther .... 144-151

VI. Life and Times of Martin Luther . . . 152-157

VIL Life and Times of Martin Luther .... 1 58-163

VIII. Life and Times of Martin Luther . . . 164-171

IX. John Calvin 172-179

X. John Calvin 180-187

XL William of Orange 188-195

XII. William of Orange 196-203

XIII. William of Orange 204-210

XIV. William of Orange 211-216

XV. William of Orange 217-223

XVI. The Huguenots . . . , . . . 224-231

XVII. The Huguenots 232-239

XVIII. The Thirty Years' War 240-246

GENERAL CONTENTS.

Lecture.

XIX. The Thirty Years' War XX. John Knox and the Puritans XXI. Life and Times of Cromwell XXII. Life and Times of Cromwell

XXIII. Life and Times of Cromwell

XXIV. Life and Character of Milton XXV. John Bunyan

What the Bible has done for Children

Some things about Lying

LIFE OF GEORGE EDWARD FLOWER.

Chapter I. Ancestry

Importance of the question of Ancestry — Law of heredity — Birth of George Edward Flower — His father, Alfred Flower — His mother, Elizabeth Flower — The Oranges and Luntleys — The home of the Flowers — -George Flower, his Life and Character — Richard Flower — Edward Fordham Flower — Benjamin Flower — William Flower, the Martyr — ^The Fordhams.

We do not know that George E. Flower had any pride of ancestry. If he had, it was never manifested, either in his bearing or in his conversation. Although he might have said, with some justice, to those who indulge in that kind of boasting, **If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more," we are not aware that he ever showed even a gleam of consciousness that he was ** propped by ancestry " of more than ordinary merit and distinction. Had he been interrogated at this point, he would, we judge, with Tennyson, have ** smiled at the claims of long descent," and said:

Howe'er it be, it seems to me

'T is only noble to be good.

Kind hearts are more than coronets.

And simple faith than Norman blood.

It was N. P. Willis, we believe, who compared those whose chief distinction is found in their illuslO LIFE OF GEORGE E. FLOWER.

trious descent, to the images of stars in the waters — * * deriving all their glory from their bright originals in heaven." "Do you know, sir," said a vain and blustering mediocre lawyer to a sensible and shrewd old gentleman, "Do you know, sir, that I am a direct descendant from Miles Standish?" " Is it possible?" replied the old gentleman. " What a descent!''

Yet the question of ancestry is not unimportant. Though, in some of its phases, its value has been absurdly exaggerated, and ridiculous as well as unrighteous assumptions of special privileges and honors have been based thereon, the common sense of mankind has yet shrewdly recognized a knowledge of one's ancestry as an essential factor in working out the problem of his character. The researches of modern science support and enforce this judgment. There is a biological law of heredity, "by which all beings endowed with life tend to repeat themselves in their descendants." Whatever may be the antiquity of the human race, it is clear that much of the " old Adam" is seen to-day in all his children, and no regenerating power has yet been sufficient to stamp it out.

Character is, in part, a heritage. It falls not within our sphere to discuss this question in its scientific or theological bearings, but simply to note the fact of heredity as necessarily entering into a just and enlightened estimate of any human character.^ While it is true that the apostle Paul's boast that he was "of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews," was surrendered as worthless, so far as

* Those who are interested in this question, and yet have but limited means of investigation, will find a valuable, though brief, discussion of it in B. A. Hinsdale's " Schools and Studies," in the first Study, entitled " The Origin of Character." James R. Osgood & Co., Boston, 1884.

it had been supposed to warrant any ground of boastings or any basis of acceptance in the sight of God, it still remains true that Paul's character can be profitably studied only in the light of his ancestry, and that, when occasion served, he was not slow to affirm that he was not only a Pharisee, but **the son of a Pharisee " (Acts xxiii. 6). When the doctrine of heredity is pushed so far as to make it all-controlling in the formation of character, and man is but the inheritor of virtuous or vicious tendencies over which he has no power, it becomes a mischievous falsehood. On the other hand, when we ignore all pre-natal influences, and entirely exclude the operation of the law of heredity, we put it out of our power to understand ourselves, or to form a true estimate of our fellows. In either case we take but a partial view of the forces that play upon the life ; our premises are too narrow, and our conclusions must be false. We deem it proper, therefore, in attempting to furnish the materials for a just estimate of a life and character in some respects quite remarkable, to pay suitable attention to this question of ancestry.

George Edward Flower was born near Albion, Edwards county, Illinois, October i6, 1847. ^^ was the son of Alfred and Elizabeth Flower — the first of six children, namely: George E., Richard C., William F., Alfred H., Benjamin, and Elizabeth. This family circle has been broken for the first time in the death of George.

His father, Alfred Flower, the eldest son of George and Eliza Julia Flower, was born near Albion, 111., July 8, 1822, and grew up amid the rugged experiences of western pioneer life, inured to toil, fond of sports, especially of hunting, and trained to the self-reliance and energy without which that frontier Hfe could not have prospered. In his seventeenth year — ^June, 1839 — he devoted his Hfe to Christ, and became a member of the Christian Church in Albion. Seven years later — August, 1846 — we find him entering the Christian ministry. On the 31st of October, 1846, he married Miss Elizabeth Orange, the eldest daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth Orange, also a native of Edwards county. For twenty-four years we find him combining the callings of farmer and preacher — the preachers in a new country having to depend largely on themselves for support. This called not only for constant activity, physical and mental, but for rigid economy and much self-denial. Only where the religious sentiment Avas in supreme control could such a double life of toil and care be cheerfully accepted alike by husband and wife. His life has been one of temperance, frugality, physical and mental activity, and spiritual devotion. He has ever been held in high esteem as exemplifying in his life the virtues and graces, domestic, social and civic, of the religion he teaches. His ministerial labors have been not only acceptable, but largely fruitful, alike in conversions and in the education of Christians in the lessons of righteousness and holiness. He is still active and energetic. He now resides in Paris, Illinois, and ministers acceptably to the Christian Church in that city. Daniel and Elizabeth Orange, the parents of Mrs. Elizabeth Flower, mother of George E., were among the early emigrants from England to the English Settlement in Edwards county. 111., in 18 18. They, with their eldest son and daughter, under the ministry of Elder Elijah Goodwin, were the founders of the Church of Christ in Albion, in the summer of 1842.

We have but limited information of their family lineage and history. Daniel Orange was descended from a Huguenot family. His grandmother, when about twelve years of age, was taken away secretly from France to England by her mother, to prevent her being sent to a nunnery for life — which was one of the devices of Roman Catholic persecutors to effect the annihilation of the Huguenots. Mrs. Elizabeth Orange was a Luntley, and the Luntleys, for several generations, had been devout Baptists. She and her husband were, however, never identified with the Baptists. They joined the Christian Church in Cincinnati, under the preaching of Alexander Campbell, at the time of the Campbell and Purcell debate, in 1837, and were immersed by Elder D. S. Burnet. But the strong faith that dwelt in her ancestors dwelt also in Mrs. Flower. She yet lives, and the time has not yet come to say all that may be justly said of her lovely character. For our present purpose it will suffice to say that, according to the standards of female education then prevailing, she was liberally educated, and this education has been steadily supplemented by reading and study. A mind of superior natural endowments has been diligently cultivated; a heart naturally warm and generous has been, from girlhood, swayed by a faith of unusual strength and steadfastness ; a life so surrounded as to encourage and almost compel the development of courage, patience and self denial, has been disciplined into gentleness, perseverance, and an implicit trust in God : the result is a character of rare strength and beauty. Without cant or affectation, her life Is intensely religious. Her character In her own home combines motherly tenderness with gentle dignity. Her Intelllgence, her affection, her self-control, her practical wisdom, and, above all, her ever-peaceful trust in God, have given her a peculiar sovereignty over her children, by whom she has always been greatly reverenced and beloved, and by none of them more devotedly than by her eldest born, George, the subject of this sketch.

We must add here, that while the home of the farmer-preacher, Alfred Flower, was, like most western pioneer homes, the abode of honest poverty, void of many of the ornaments and luxuries that adorn and enrich even the ordinary farm-house of to-day, it was, in one important particular, an exception among the western homes of that period. Richard Flower, the grandfather of Alfred — an anti-trinitarian, and for many years an intimate associate of Dr. Priestley, but a broad-minded, warm-hearted, pious man — when he came to this country from England, brought with him Avhat was at that time a very large and costly library, largely historical, biographical and theological. It was large in its scope, for its owner, though rather unorthodox in faith, had a general intercourse with the various orthodox denominations ; his home was open to ministers of all persuasions, and his reading spread over the entire field of theological literature. His library was as wide in its range as that of his own free spirit of inquiry. The principal share of the biographical, historical and theological books passed into the hands of Alfred Flower on the occasion of his marriage — so that his otherwise humble home was enriched with rare intellectual treasures, to which his children had access from their earliest years.

To go farther back, w^e find some remarkably strong characters among the Flowers. George Flower, the grandfather of George E., and Richard Flower, his great-grandfather, were EngHsh gentlemen of wealth and culture, who, in consequence of political troubles in their own country, and their strong republican tendencies, were induced to leave their fine estate in Hertfordshire, England, and emigrate to Southern Illinois in i8i8 and 1819 — George going two years in advance to prepare the way for an English Settlement. We have now lying before us a volume of manuscript, containing George Flower's diary or journal of travel, from the time he left Liverpool, June 11, 1816, until he reached Virginia in December of that year. Landing at New York, he passed on to Philadelphia, and thence, on horseback, to Pittsburgh ; from Pittsburgh, across Ohio, to Cincinnati ; thence through Kentucky to Nashville, Tenn. ; and through Tennessee to Virginia, where he made his home for some time with Mr. Jefferson, at Monticello. His intention was to settle in Virginia, but his abhorrence of slavery overruled this purpose. His journal reveals a man of strong affections, suffering keenly at the thought of breaking the ties that bound him to his native land, yet ruled by a high purpose to confer a lasting benefit on multitudes by opening homes for them in a new country. His notes of travel are brief, but exhibit keen business insight, quick and accurate observation of men and things, great power of endurance, and a lively interest in the growth of society under a republican government. There is not the slightest trace of egotism, and there seems to be a careful avoidance of any expression of sentiment on religious questions.

In 1882, the Chicago Historical Society printed an octavo volume of 402 pages, written by George Flower, entitled **A History of the English Settlement in Edwards county, Illinois, founded in 1817 and 18 18 by Morris Birkbeck and George Flower," which contains an abridgment of the written journal already referred to, and continues the history of the founding and growth of the English Settlement to i860. From the Preface to that deeply interesting volume, we extract the following tribute to the character of the author, written by Dr. Barry, then librarian of the Chicago Historical Society, and published in the Chicago ** Tribune" of March 22, 1862:

A great and good man has recently passed from us. English by birth, American by choice, for near half a century he has lived among us — so long that the tide of events and the rush of adventurers had buried from general notice the silver-haired veteran who once was known, esteemed and loved in both hemispheres — the honored founder of a prosperous colony, the enterprising agriculturist, the philanthropist of large and noble aims, the strong, true-hearted and upright man.

Born in Hertfordshire, England, in affluent circumstances, after gaining some distinction in his native land by continental travel for the benefit of British husbandry, he came to America in 1816 (about thirty years of age) as the associate of Morris Birkbeck in founding the English Colony at Albion, Edwards county, in Illinois.

It was no mere sordid impulse that moved either of these noblehearted men' in their scheme of colonization. Republicans from deepseated sentiment and conviction, the Great American Republic drew them hither as to a congenial home; and here they jointly established a thrifty and successful colony, transplanting on our virgin prairies the arts and improvements of the old mother-country. The large wealth possessed by Mr. Flower gave him a commanding, a responsible, and, we may add, a laborious position in the new colony. His spacious mansion, of rare extent and furnish in a new settlement, was the scene of frank and elegant hospitality. Strangers of distinction sought it from afar. Improved husbandry, with the importation of the finest fleeces of England and Spain, followed the guiding hand of the master-mind. When the history of the Albion Colony is written, it will form the truest and best eulogium of its founders.

The calm and philosophic wisdom of Mr. Flower, united with a rare benevolence, has left bright traces upon our Western history. In the eventful strife which accompanied the daring attempt in 1823 to legalize African slavery in Illinois, no one enlisted with a truer heroism than he. We of the present day, and amidst the dire commotions of civil war, can but poorly comprehend the ferocity and the gloomy portents of that struggle. So nearly balanced were the contending parties of the State, that the vote of the English Colony, ever true to the instincts of freedom, turned the scale — a handful of sturdy Britons being the forlorn hope to stay the triumph of wrong and oppression, whose success might have sealed forever the doom of republican and constitutional liberty in America.

The failure of that nefarious plot against our young and noble State, led to an outburst of persecution and wrong against free negroes and their humane protectors, transcending even the insidious hostility of our so-called Black Laws, and Constitutional Conventions. This wanton and vindictive display of inhumanity it was, which gave birth to Mr. Flower's plan for the colonization of free negroes in Hayti, in which he had the confidence and cooperation of President Boyer, and which attracted an approving notice throughout the Free-states of the North. Although but partially successful, its necessity being from the pressure of subsequent events less urgent, its conception and management reflect the highest honor upon its author, whose name will merit a place among the benefactors of mankind.

Mr. Flower was one of that class of men whose fine insight, large views, and calm force, raised him above all claimants to popular favor. In his early maturity he numbered among his friends and' correspondents such personages as our American Jefferson, Lafayette and the Comte de Lasteyrie of France, Madame O'Connor (the daughter of Condorcet) of Ireland, and Cobbett of England. By these, and such as these, his superior tone of mind and character was held in true esteem. In the depths of our yet unfurrowed prairies, and amidst the struggle and hardship of a new settlement, a mind and heart like his might fail of a just appreciation by his contemporaries. This sad realization he doubtless felt. But now that he has passed from the scenes of his voluntary exile, let it not be said that a true and gifted manhood was here, and we knew it not. There are those, now and to come, who will keep green his memory, and take pleasure in recovering the traces of a noble mind, that lived, thought and acted only for human good.

It needs to be added that George Flower's wealth was exhausted in his heroic efforts to build up this English Settlement, and his last years were spent in poverty. The following paragraph, from his own pen, closes his book of History :

The last three years of George Flower's life in Illinois were marked by pecuniary difficulties and disasters. His home, flock and farm, sold at a low price, passed to the hands of a stranger. In the year 1849, himself and wife, his two youngest sons and youngest daughter, left Illinois, never more to return as residents. They crossed the Great Wabash with household furniture and some family plate, with two dollars and fifty cents in cash, to begin the world anew in the pleasant town of New Harmony, Ind. In i860 he is residing in the town of Mt. Vernon, on the banks of the Ohio, seventy-four years of age, possessed of a sound constitution, and in the enjoyment of good health. From deafness, much increased within the last ten years, deprived thereby of the solace of conversation, he has to draw more largely from the resources of book, pen and pencil. In poverty, but not in destitution, happy in his children, and blest in the companionship of the dear partner of his life, who has shared with him the toils, anxieties, and happy days of the past, they both enliven the last stage of life's journey by cheerful reminiscences of the past and enjoypient of the present. Accepting the prerogative accorded to age, of extracting happiness from a multitude of minor sources unheeded by youth and overlooked by middle age, they probably gather more flowers in the evening of life than they did in the noonday of existence. Resting on the shady side of the road, spectators of scenes in which they once took a part, they watch the pilgrims toiling in the path they once so zealously trod, sometimes a little weary of their journey, ready to lie down to sleep.*

In January, 1862, Mr. and Mrs. Flower, while visiting at Grayville, 111., were both taken sick on the same day. They had often expressed the wish that they might pass away together. Mrs. Flower died at dawn, January 1 5 ; Mr. Flower in the evening twilight

* Hist. Eng. Settlement, pp. 359-60.

of the same day. They sleep in one grave at Grayville.

Richard Flower, the father of George, and the great-grandfather of George E., we have already mentioned as coming to this country, bringing with him a large and costly library. It will give an idea of his wealth when we state that he sold his dwelling and lands in Harden, near Hertford, for ^23,000, or i^iiS,- 000. Though called a Unitarian, and enjoying intimate relations with the celebrated Dr. Priestley, he was rather an Arian, and accepted Unitarian theology only as less difficult than the Trinitarian. He was never fully satisfied concerning the Divinity of Christ. But he was a deeply pious man, and in England had extensive intercourse with ministers and public men of various persuasions. He sacrificed much in the struggle to abolish the slave-trade, and slavery in the West Indies. At the English Settlement he was one of the most prominent of several persons in conducting public religious services ; and when he became too infirm to travel from his residence to the town, he held public religious meetings in his library every Lord's day, for his family, relatives and near neighbors. He took an active part in opposition to the introduction of slavery into Illinois, and was widely known for his princely hospitality. No better comm^tary on his reputation for wisdom and integrity is needed than the bare statement of the fact that when George Rapp, the head of the New Harmony settlement of German Lutherans from the kingdom of Wiirtemberg, thought of selling out the concern, he sought the counsel of Richard Flower, and finally commissioned him to go to Europe to offer the entire New Harmony property for sale. Mr. Flower accepted the commission, returned to England, and effected a sale of the property to the celebrated Robert Owen, who, in 1824, purchased the Rapp village and twenty thousand acres of land for 1^150,000, and established the colony of New Harmony, which became so famous as furnishing a practical test of Mr. Owen's godless social philosophy — the utter failure of which completely squelched this pretentious infidel theory of human nature and human society.

Edward Fordham Flower, brother of George, also came, when a lad, to this country, but returned to England in 1824, to be educated. He settled in England, and rose to wealth and honor. M. D. Conway, in a letter to the Cincinnati *' Commercial Gazette," dated March 29, 1883, says:

He was a good speaker, full of shrewd sense, humor and tact. He was an excellent Magistrate in Warwickshire, five times Mayor of Stratford-on-Avon, and, if he had not been digusted at the amount of dirt candidates had to eat, would have sat in Parliament. ... In the many years of his mayoralty at Stratford-on-Avon, Mr. Flower and his wife entertained the most eminent Americans, and with some of them — Emerson, J. T. Fields, and others — formed intimate friendships for life. ... If the visitor to that town now finds the relics of Shakespeare preserved, his house in perfect order, a public-spirited interest in the associations of the place prevailing, a Shakesperian library and museum, he need only inquire into the facts to learn that these things are due originally to the generosity and energy of Edward Fordham Flower and his family.

One of the special phases of this gentleman's benevolence and public spirit, was seen in his earnest, persistent and largely successful efforts to do away with the bearing-rein by which horses were so cruelly tortured. At first these efforts were met only with ridicule and insult ; but he persisted until he revolutlonized public sentiment and concentrated a powerful opposition to this form of cruelty. We have now before us a pamphlet of fifty-five pages, written by him on this subject, abounding in facts, arguments, instruction as to the proper harnessing and managing of horses, and graphic pictorial illustrations of the cruel and needless suffering inflicted on this noble animal by the bearing-rein. The public spirit, the benevolence and generosity, the scorn of a false public sentiment, the fearless and persevering advocacy of unpopular truth, and the intellectual and moral force, which we have found in his brother George, were equally manifest in Edward, though developed in other fields, and under widely different circumstances.

Of Benjamin Flower, the uncle of George and Edward, Mr. Conway says, in the same communication :

The family stock that remained in England showed that all its vigor was not transplanted. In England, old Benjamin Flower was a resolute radical in both politics and religion. He was editor of the *' Cambridge Independent," a paper which almost alone ventured to publish in full the persecutions and trials of Hone, Home Tooke, Richard Carlile, James Watson ; insomuch that the files of that paper are now of historic importance. His daughters, Sarah and Eliza, were nearly the first ladies of culture and refinement who devoted themselves to advanced ideas ; Sarah (who married Mr. Adams) wrote some beautiful hymns, among others, "Nearer, my God, to Thee;" and Eliza set them to music. They were left wards of the celebrated orator, William Johnson Fox, M. P., who was the Theodore Parker of London, and Eliza was the organist in South Place Chapel, for which that famous hymn, and others now widely used, were written.

Finally, to complete our view of the Flower ancestry, we quote George Flower's own statement :

Our ancestors were men of strong and impulsive feeling. One of them, William Flower, is recorded in print and picture in " Foxe's

Book of Martyrs," folio edition. He is there represented tied to the stake ; the fagots piled around him ; refusing to recant ; but offering his hand, which the executioner has lopped off, and is holding on a pike, as an atonement for an act which he acknowledged to be wrong — striking a priest with a wood-knife whilst officiating at the altar. My mother lived some years after my father, at Park House. She was the daughter of Edward Fordham of Kelshall, a village on the borders of Hertfordshire, near the town of Royston. Clustering around the bleak hills of that district, in the villages of Sandon, Kelshall and Therfield, the family of Fordhams have long resided. In the wars of the Protectorate, they were as numerous as they are now. With a company of some seventy or eighty men, all blood relations, and of one name, they joined Cromwell's army. Ordered to ford a river, there stationed to check the advance of the royal troops, they were all killed but one man, and he left on the field badly wounded. From this one man, the seventy-three uncles and cousins — all Fordhams — that made me a farewell visit at my house at Marden before I sailed for America, all sprang.*