Lectures and sermons, ...

Contents

PAGE

Prefatory Note iii

Biographical Sketch v

Prefatory Note

The sermons included in this volume extend over the greater part of Mr. Potter's ministry, — from 1863, the date of "The Voice of the Draft," to 1893, when "The World's Parliament of Religions" was written. Nearly all of them were preached many times, and subject to such constant revision that the final form, as here printed, often differs materially from the original. For this reason I have not assigned a date to each sermon. The series of lectures on the Twenty-third Psalm, which he delivered in Boston and Worcester in the fall of 1893, had originally been given in part as sermons in New Bedford in 1892. These lectures it was my father's expressed intention to publish. In the selection of the sermons I have been guided partly by the frequency with which he preached them, thus following somewhat his own judgment; and, also, by suggestions kindly made by his friends and parishioners iv PREFATORY NOTE

in New Bedford. It is interesting to note that in many cases his own choice and that of his hearers seems to coincide. Many of these sermons, it may also be added, he carried with him and preached on his journey to the West in 1893.

Alfred C. Potter.

Cambridge, Mass., Dec. 10, 1894.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

BY FRANCIS ELLINGWOOD ABBOT.

To be noble in character is the supreme service which one man can render to his fellows. It is greater than any particular achievement, however splendid, because it is itself the achievement of achievements, the most useful and the most difficult of deeds. Single actions may easily command more gratitude and more praise, since they tax less the average man's faculties of imagination, comprehension, and appreciation. But to be from birth to death one long activity devoted to the highest ends, disinterested and lofty and pure, is to be more than a doer of dramatic exploits, however brilliant, because, while this is possible to few, that is to exemplify and encourage what is possible to all. When asked what improvement he could suggest in the actual constitution of the universe, a pessimist replied : " I would make health as catching as disease." In this reply there was more wit than wisdom ; for such is the actual order of things that, in the spiritual sphere at least, the contagiousness of good is even greater than that of evil. If it were not so, the world would scarcely hold together. And vi that it is so has been made clear to all, with the powerful persuasiveness of an example as beautiful as it is rare, in the life of William James Potter.

The story of this life is simple and short. Little is found for the recorder of it to tell. Its events were not such as to attract wide attention or to furnish the materials of an exciting tale. But its quality was such as to command the reverence and win the love of an ever increasing circle of those whose judgment is the judgment of the universal conscience. From beginning to end it was the self-consecration of a pure spirit to universal aims — the devotion of large intellectual powers, great practical wisdom, a strong but never aggressive will, and shy but tender sympathies, to the highest welfare of all. To have lived such a life, in luminous contrast and superiority to the melancholy self-seeking so common among mankind, is to have won the truest and grandest success which can crown any human career.

I

William J. Potter was born at North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, youngest of the nine children of William and Anna (Aiken) Potter. A curious doubt in his own mind hung over the year of his birth. On February i, 1848, he wrote in his journal: " Once more has time brought around my birthday

— the first day of my twentieth year." On February 1, 1850, he wrote: "My twenty-first birthday

— I am now legally a man^ a /ree-ma.n." These two entries fix the date of his birth as February 1, 1829.

vii

Yet in later times he habitually thought and wrote of the year of his birth as 1830. It does not appear on the town records, but in the records of the Friends at Dartmouth it is recorded as " 2 mo. 1st, 1829." Examination of these records, however, shows that they are not original, but were written at some subsequent time ; and, as their source is unknown, they cannot be considered final. The reader, therefore, is left to draw his own inference from the facts.

The original emigrant-ancestor of the Potter family, from whom William was descended in the seventh generation, was Nathaniel Potter, who came from England to Rhode Island, and died there prior to 1644. His son, Nathaniel Potter (1637-1704), who married Elizabeth Stokes, was born at Portsmouth, Rhode Island, but removed to Dartmouth, Massachusetts. In the third generation, Samuel Potter (1675- 1 748) married Mary Benton and lived at Dartmouth. In the fourth generation, Benjamin Potter, of Dartmouth, married Ruth Brownell in 1736. In the fifth generation, William Halladay Potter, of Dartmouth, who married Patience Thurston, was born in 1748 and died in 18 14. In the sixth generation, William Potter (1 784-1 870) married Anna Aiken in 1812; and their ninth child, William James, was born, as just shown, on February 1, 1829.

Other lineal ancestors were Adam Mott, of Cambridge, England, whose son, Adam Mott, born in England, came over to Newport in 1634, and was a prominent member of the society of Friends ; John Williams, who came from England to Scituate in

Vlll

1632 ; Captain Michael Pierce, who was born in England, lived at Hingham and Scituate, and was killed by the Indians in King Philip's War, 1676; Thomas Holbrook, of England, who lived successively at Weymouth, Dorchester, and Medfield, and died in 1677 ; Matthew Gannett, who was born in England in 161 8, settled at Hingham, was at Scituate in 165 1, and died in 1695; Anthony Dodson, who was at Scituate in 1650. All these were ancestors on the father's side, while among those on the mother's side are found the names of Aiken, Howland, Perry, and Hathaway. It appears, therefore, that William J. Potter came of good old New England stock, including original Quakers, and at least one Indian-fighter who laid down his life in defence of the colony. But no clergyman or minister has been thus far discovered among his ancestors.

II

The materials from which this sketch of Mr. Potter's life is drawn are extremely meagre. Four manuscript journals covering portions of the period from 1847 to 1858, a few miscellaneous memoranda of his own, a few notes by his son, and a few pamphlets and newspaper cuttings, — these are the only data which have been supplied to me. Out of these scanty materials it is impossible to construct a connected story, or even to outline the course of development which, beginning with the Quaker boy on an old New England farm, ended in one of the wisest and best of men and one of the foremost reix ligious reformers of our generation. Outwardly so peaceful and noiseless, inwardly so bold in thought and so rich in thought's results, his spiritual life flowed on like a river amidst the beautiful scenery of an old cultivated plain, yet brought down among the haunts of men an illimitable wealth of golden grains from the mountain fastnesses of his own being. All who knew him must rejoice that he lived *long enough to concentrate this wealth in so beautiful a form as that of the series of lectures in Boston in which his life as religious teacher came to a memorable culmination. And multitudes who knew him not will now discover that, when he died, they had been " entertaining an angel unawares."

The brief story of his outward career is easily told.

Born and brought up on his father's farm, Potter was educated in the district schools of Dartmouth and the Friends' school at Providence, Rhode Island. His home life was happy, and during his vacations he cheerfully helped his father in doing the farm work. In fact, it was his father's strong desire to see him make farming his life-work and carry on the old place as his ancestors had done, But William felt the stirrings of higher aspirations and capacities than could be satisfied by agriculture as a permanent occupation, and felt constrained to take up teaching as opening a field for their better development. In the end his father reluctantly consented that he should go to the Normal School at Bridgewater and fit himself for the life of a teacher. This school he entered, December 2, 1847, an ^ during his second

X term got some practical experience by instructing the entering class. On November 25, 1848, he began to teach a school at Kingston, and remained there till March 25, 1849 ; but he did not feel satisfied with his own success. While in Kingston, earlier desires to go to college were rekindled. May 1, however, finds him beginning a new school at Sandwich, with fifty scholars between the ages of twelve and seventeen. His stay was short ; the school committee were not satisfied with the discipline maintained, and he returned home, May 26, to fit himself for college without a teacher. This difficult labor he pursued with more or less success till October 5, when he received a letter from Henry B. Wheelwright, preceptor of the Bristol Academy in Taunton, offering him a situation there. The salary was small, but he was to have Mr. Wheelwright's assistance in fitting for college. The offer was accepted, and he remained teaching at Taunton till May 15, 1850, when he returned home to resume his studies more uninterruptedly in preparing for the college examination. After some quite heroic work, he passed the examination successfully, and was admitted as a member of the freshman class at Harvard College, July 16, without conditions. The result was very creditable to him under his difficult circumstances. In August he joined his class in Cambridge.

Under date of September 19, 1850, only about three weeks after he began his college work, I find his first mention of the ministry, as follows : —

" For several months my mind has been quite unxi settled again as to what is to be the business of my life, owing partly to my disappointment in teaching, and partly to a kind of mental attraction which I have for some time experienced towards the ministry. Of course, I feel my entire unfitness, both in talents and in depth of religious character, for such a work; yet I cannot blind myself to the very obvious inclining of my mind towards it. What is the motive of the movement is not so easily perceived. I have not yet been able to fully analyze this tendency of my feelings, so as to discover whence it springs, how composed, and how much attention it is worthy to receive. About all I can say is that it exists, and has existed for nearly a year, but that previously the bias of my mind was rather against the ministry as a profession for myself. Is it the voice of duty or of inclination ? Is it the natural, legitimate product of my own soul, to be heeded and observed, or is it a mere fluttering of fancy sent to try my judgment, and which is to be expelled as a hostile intruder ? These questions, though important, I cannot yet answer. When I look forward to such a work, I see numerous obstructions rising up in the way of my ever becoming engaged in it, and some of them apparently insurmountable ; yet the feeling haunts me still, and reason sets to work with imagination to devise means for clearing the path of all hindrances. Besides deficiency of talents and religious character, which alone seems sufficient to debar me from a profession now suffering from this very cause, there are other hindrances, arising out of the circumstances of my

Xll past life and the nature of my present sentiments, peculiar to myself. I have not yet outlived the influence of the Quaker element in my education. My mind still has a kind of repugnance to learning to be a minister, though my reason finds nothing objectionable in it. Again, I can scarcely reconcile the idea of my becoming a clergyman with my present views of theology, churches, religious rites, &c. And what society or sect must I go with, believing with none ? What creed should I preach, possessing none ? I have in my mind, it is true, an ideal minister different from any real one whom it was ever my lot to know. But have I any reason to hope I could approach more nearly my ideal of a minister than I have approached my ideal of a teacher ? Thus the matter comes to my mind, presenting arguments pro and con, and receiving replies ; but as yet there is no decision. In the meantime let me do present duty, and the future in due season will develop itself. More light will be afforded, as I use correctly present supplies."

During his freshman vacation, from December i, 1850, to February 28, 185 1, Potter kept school in Medfield, succeeding somewhat better than formerly in meeting the demands of his own exacting ideal. Probably he taught school more or less in the winter vacations of his later college years ; but no journal has been found which gives a record of his college life beyond the end of his sophomore year. He was appointed " orator " by " our class society " (Institute of 1770), and gave his oration to universal satisfaction at the close of that year. He became a xiii member of the Alpha Delta Phi and the Phi Beta Kappa societies, and was graduated in the class of 1854.

III

On June 1, not long before his graduation, Potter received the appointment of " Hopkins classical teacher " in the Cambridge High School, being the first to hold this position, and continued to discharge its duties till 1856, when he resigned it. During the year 1856-1857, he was a student in the Harvard Divinity School, but was never graduated there.

On August 9, 1857, he started from New York for Europe in the " Louis Napoleon," a German sailingvessel, together with Gerald Fitzgerald (Divinity School, 1859) an d Henry W. Brown (Harvard College, 1852, and Divinity School, 1857). Arriving at Hamburg on September 14, he immediately proceeded to Berlin, and on the 19th was matriculated as a student of philosophy at the University, engaging lessons in German at the same time from a private teacher. When the term began, October 22, he listened to lectures by Haupt on the Satires of Horace and Trendelenburg on the history of philosophy ; but he writes, " I scarcely understood a dozen words of both of them." Later in November, he heard lectures by Wuttke on the history of Christian dogma and on Hegel's philosophy and its relation to Christianity — by Michelet on the philosophy of modern history since 1775, — by Vatke on some metaphysical questions, — and by Althaus on Goethe's xiv

" Faust ; " and now, he writes, " I begin to discover a little progress in understanding the lectures." He remained at Berlin, studying, visiting the art-galleries, and observing German life, till March I, 1858, when he went to Dresden. Here he stayed about a month, devoting much of his time to the picture galleries ; then, passing rapidly through Leipzig, Bamberg, Nuremberg, Munich, Ulm, and Stuttgart, he repaired to Tubingen, April 13, where he remained to study, rooming with Mr. Brown. Here he heard Baur on an uninteresting subject, and Fichte on the history of modern philosophy (" the students here call him ' der wortreiche Sohn des geistreichen Vaters ' ") ; but the lecture courses were not sufficiently attractive to induce him to matriculate. On May 10, he writes : " Concluded to give up attending lectures and devote myself to study in my room. Still read Baur and his school of theology with great pleasure." On July 1 : " To-day we are packing for Switzerland. Our Tubingen race is run. Though we make it a short term, I feel that I have got much from it — much from my reading. I now see what Baur and his school have done, and am better able to give a scientific reason for my disbelief in the oldschool theology than I was before." And on July 2: "Left Tubingen at 12 o'clock in company with Brown and Brooks for Switzerland, by way of Baden and Freiburg."

The itinerary of the Swiss-Italian journey, which occupied about six weeks, can be made out to have been as follows: —

XV

July 2. Tubingen. Wildbad.

3. Baden-Baden.

5. Freiburg.

6. Schaffhausen.

7. Dachsen and the Rhine Falls.

8. Zurich.

10. Waggis, Kiissnacht, Lucerne.

12. Furka Pass, Grimsel.

13. Guttanen, Reichenbach.

14. Greater Scheideck, Faulhorn.

15. Grindelwald.

laken.

18. Neuhaus, Thun, Berne.

19. Freiburg.

20. Vevay, Chillon.

21. Geneva. 23. Chamonix.

26. St. Bernard Pass.

27. Aosta, Chatillon.

28. St. Theodule Pass, Breuil.

29. Gbrner Grat.

30. Zermatt, Vispnach.

31. Simplon Pass.

" 2. Pallanza, Lake Maggiore.

" 3. Magadino, Luvino, Lugano.

XVI

August 4.

Carpolago, Milan.

Sondrio.

Bormio

" 8.

Stelvio Pass, Mais.

Finstermiing Pass, Landeck.

" IO.

Innsbruck.

" II.

Kufstein, Rosenheim.

" 12.

Stock, Traunstein, Reichenhall.

" 13.

Berchtesgaden.

" 14.

Hallein, Salzburg.

" is-

Munich.

From Munich, where he stayed a few days, Potter went to Heidelberg on August 22, made a five-days excursion to Mannheim, Mainz, Cologne, and Coblenz, and returned to Heidelberg, where he remained studying until October 4. Then he started for Italy once more, by way of Frankfort, Carlsruhe, Strassburg, Basle, Zurich, Rapperschwyl, St. Gall, Ragatz, Coire, and the Spliigen Pass. In Italy he went to Chiavenna, Colico, Bergamo, Brescia, and Venice, where he stayed three days, — to Padua, Ferrara, Bologna, and Florence. The last entry in his journal is that of October 22, and ends abruptly, in the midst of a description of Florence by moonlight.

IV

During the winter of 1858-1859, after his return from Europe, Potter remained in Cambridge as a candidate for the ministry. He preached at New Bedford several times in July, 1859, and finally re-

XVII ceived an invitation from the wealthy Unitarian society there to become its minister. His ordination took place on December 28, 1859, tne ordination sermon being preached by Rev. Dr. William H. Furness ; and his first sermon as pastor, printed in the volume which he published in 1885 with the title, " Twenty-five Sermons of Twenty-five Years," was delivered on January 1, i860.

In the spring of that year, he began keeping house with his sister, Mrs. Ruth Almy, and her husband. In July, 1 861, he preached at Washington on the day of the first battle of Bull Run ; and he visited the camps in the vicinity during the terrible confusion that ensued. On July 23, 1863, he was drafted; and on the following Sunday, July 26, he delivered a sermon on " The Voice of the Draft," declaring his resolution not to disobey the call of his country in her hour of need. He tendered his resignation as minister of the Unitarian society, which, however, refused to accept it, granting him leave of absence for a year and giving him five hundred dollars. In the latter part of August, he went to Washington at the special request of Secretary Stanton, who had heard of his patriotic course, and who had written the following letter to Hon. John H. Clifford of New Bedford :

War Department Washington City, Aug. 9, 1863.

My dear Sir:

I am infinitely obliged to you for the sermon delivered by Mr. Potter. Such outpouring of a noble spirit cannot fail to do good. I have directed its xviii publication in the Army and Navy Gazette as the best exposition of the Enrolling Law that has appeared. I think he is right in the belief that the time has come for him to have a nearer view of the great movement of which the war is a development. For this reason I wish to see him. It cannot be otherwise than that he is drafted for no ordinary service — a service that needs not, nor can be excused by a surgeon's certificate. Please tell him I wish to see him, and give him my thanks for what he has already done. . . .

Yours truly,

Edwin M. Stanton.

The result of his interview with the great war minister was that, after preaching his farewell sermon on September 6, Potter was assigned the duty of "visiting and inspecting all the United States hospitals in and near Washington and Alexandria." This duty he faithfully discharged, making elaborate notes of the condition and needs of all the hospitals under his care.

Returning to New Bedford in November, on a furlough, he preached again to his society, and, on November 26, was married to Elizabeth Claghorn Babcock, daughter of Spooner and Lydia Delano Babcock of New Bedford. They proceeded at once to Washington, and in January, 1864, began to keep house in a little one-story hut in the Convalescent Camp, Alexandria, where he had been appointed chaplain. In May, he resigned his position as chaplain, and returned home with his wife. Leaving her xix there, he went back to the front, and served on the Sanitary Commission. He remained on duty in hospital during the campaigns near Fredericksburg, and was often under fire. In August, 1864, he returned home, his leave of absence having expired, and resumed his duties as minister of the Unitarian Society.

From 1866 to the end of his life, Potter was profoundly interested in the Free Religious Association, and his work in its behalf constitutes, in fact, his chief claim to public remembrance and gratitude beyond the limits of his society and the city of his adoption. He was Secretary of the Association from its birth in 1867 until 1882, and President of it from 1882 to 1893 ; he was familiar with its inside and outside history as no man could possibly be who had not given to it, as he had done, the faithful continuous service of twenty-six years ; and it is a cause of deep regret that he never took up, as I repeatedly urged him to do, the task of compiling an accurate and full history of the Association from the original records, interpreted and enriched by his own personal knowledge. Such a history would have been of priceless value hereafter ; and now it can never be written. He shrank from the task, yet was attracted by it, too ; and it is more than probable that he would have undertaken it, if his life had been spared ten years longer. What further I may have to say on this subject of the Free Religious Association and of Potter's connection with it must come later.

In the winter of 1872- 1873, his eyes gave out, and

XX his general health became impaired ; this obliged him to spend the months of March and April in the milder climate of Florida, where he recovered his strength.

In the spring of 1875, he spent a few weeks in Washington on account of his wife's health — a sad forewarning of the greatest sorrow of his life ; and again, in the winters of 1875-1876 and i8y6-i8yy f the same reason took them both South once more, first to Columbia, South Carolina, and afterwards to Kittrell, North Carolina. In June, 1877, still for the same melancholy reason, the whole family removed to Grantville, Massachusetts, now Wellesley Hills, which obliged Potter to travel to New Bedford every week in order to discharge the preacher's duty. His gentle and lovely wife died on December 7, 1879, leaving her husband alone in the care of their two young children. He returned with them from Grantville to New Bedford in May, 1880, but not to the old home. Over this sacred grief let the veil be reverently drawn. Enough to say that no father ever fulfilled his duty more conscientiously or more tenderly or more wisely than did this bereaved and great-souled man.

When "The Index" was founded in Toledo, Ohio, and its first issue appeared on January 1, 1870, Potter assumed charge of a special page devoted to the Free Religious Association, and edited it independently, as Secretary, during the first year of that weekly journal. At the end of the year, this special page was given up, but the leading officers of the Association, together with other invited writers, bexxi came henceforth "editorial contributors." This arrangement continued till July i, 1880, when the original editor of " The Index" resigned; and the Index Association, of which Potter was the President, gave to the Free Religious Association the entire property and goodwill of " The Index," valued at over five thousand dollars, on condition of continuing to publish the journal in the cause of "Free Religion." Proprietorship of "The Index" was now vested in trustees selected by the Free Religious Association, and Potter became editor, with an assistant, of "The Free Religious Index" — a name subsequently changed back to its original form. This function he continued to discharge, going to Boston weekly to supervise the " making-up " of the paper, till the end of the year 1886. At that time " The Index " was given up altogether ; and the Free Religious Association, ceasing to have a weekly exponent of its ideas, lost greatly in influence and power. During the entire seventeen years of its existence, "The Index" enjoyed the unwearied support and cooperation of Potter's mind and heart ; and in its columns are still to be found some of the ripest and richest products of his brain.

The twenty-fifth anniversary of his settlement as minister of the Unitarian Society was celebrated at New Bedford on December 28, 1884. His own anniversary sermon, together with the speeches of Thomas M. Stetson, Esq., and the Hon. William W. Crapo, may be found in the volume already mentioned, "Twenty-five Sermons of Twenty-five Years," which was published in compliance with the request

N xxii of " many friends " who desired a permanent memorial of their beloved pastor and preacher.

In the spring of 1887, Potter's health was again much broken by sleeplessness and impaired nervous energy, but was restored for the time by a month's trip to the South. In 1889, from January to June, he was compelled to take another and longer rest in Florida and South Carolina. So much discouraged did he feel at last, in consequence of these repeated failures of health, that he tendered his resignation in April of this year ; but his society, which was devotedly attached to him, refused to accept it, and insisted on lightening his labors by giving him a colleague. A young graduate of the Harvard Divinity School in whom he had become deeply interested, Mr. Paul Revere Frothingham, was invited to become his associate pastor, and, in accordance with Potter's own earnest wishes, was ordained as such on October 9, 1889.

But the long and faithful service was drawing to a close. In January, 1890, Potter was once more obliged to seek rest and recovery at the South ; and, feeling that his life-work in New Bedford had been fully accomplished, he sent in his final resignation on October 2, 1892. To all entreaties to withdraw it, he remained inflexible, and his decision was communicated to the society in the following letter : — xxiii

New Bedford, Sept. 27, 1892.

To the Members of the First Congregational Society in New Bedford:

My Dear Friends, — The time has come when I am constrained by a sense of duty to announce to you my desire and purpose to withdraw from the pastoral office which, by the kindness of this Society, I have held nearly thirty-three years.

I am moved to this action by no sudden impulse, nor is there need to assure you that it arises from no break in the harmony of our parochial relations.

For a considerable time I have contemplated such a step, — not with the view of retiring from the ministry, but that I may be free, after possibly a brief interval of rest, for a somewhat different kind of professional labor ; or, at least, for carrying elsewhere the religious message which these years have made so familiar to you. During the period of active work" which remains to me, and which I trust is not to be brief, I am convinced that I can use my resources to better advantage in a different field.

It is to be, I am aware, no easy nor pleasant incident thus to sever the various ties which bind us together — ties professional and personal, which, for many of you as for me, have been forming through the lapse of a generation. In bonds of sorrow and of joy, as well as by the interests of united religious endeavor, our lives have been knit into each other.

Nowhere else can I expect again to establish the home-feeling which has grown up for me among you, and in this place so near the spot of my birth and xx iv the homes of my ancestors and kindred, and I shall hail it as a kind fortune if I shall be permitted, after my working days are finished, to return hither to spend in this community the remnant of my life. But that time is not yet ; and meanwhile the voice of duty rather than sentiment is to be heeded. Believing that in the years immediately to come I can labor more advantageously elsewhere, I ask that you will grant me a friendly release from our compact.