His pastorates were in New Hartford, Clinton, Albany, and Buffalo, N. Y., and Philadelphia, Pa. He was born in Albany, in 1788, and died in Buffalo, in 1850, aged sixty-one. It was truly said of him at his death, "But one individual in the denomination can expect higher or more heartfelt tributes of love and reverence." His eloquence in the pulpit was often compared with that of Henry Clay in the halls of Congress. It was the delight of the writer to hear him three times at meetings of the United States Convention, the last in Boston in the School Street Church, from the text, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." The discourse was radiant with the truth, and electrifying with the spirit and power of the Gospel.
J. A. J. Wilcox, Boston.
Sylvanus Cobb.
A sturdy theologian, as well as a conscientious Christian was that stalwart man from one of the villages of Maine, the Rev. Sylvanus Cobb. The title "D. D.," when conferred upon him, was significant. He was an able theologian. His words in discourse were weighty, his sentences often as ponderous as those of Dr. Johnson, and if called to controversial work, Longfellow's "Village Blacksmith" was an illustration of him:—
"You could hear him swing his heavy sledge
With measured beat and slow."
If warmed up in exhortation or appeal, he was grandly fervent. He never evaded the toughest theological problem proposed to him for consideration, but seemed always in readiness to attempt a solution of it. His "Compend of Divinity" is an elaborate work, his "Commentary on the New Testament" an excellent helper in the family and Sunday-school, and his discussions with Dr. Nehemiah Adams and Rev. C. F. Hudson, involving the questions respecting endless punishment and the annihilation of the wicked, are highly creditable to him as a Christian theologian. As editor of the "Christian Freeman" for twenty-five years, and as a temperance and anti-slavery reformer, he waged a good warfare for the right. He was pastor in Waterville, Me., and in Malden, Waltham, and East Boston, Mass.
During the three years of his service as a lecturing agent of the Middlesex County Temperance Society, he was entertained more or less at the houses of clergymen. On one occasion, in Dracut, at the house of a Presbyterian minister, he was thus questioned by his friend: "I have been thinking, my dear sir, about your doctrine, and it seems to me, even if it is true, it is hardly expedient to preach it, for all men will finally be saved, whether it be preached or not. But if it should prove to be an error, the consequences of believing it will be terrible." "You have reasoned erroneously," replied Mr. Cobb, "from having assumed that my doctrine exerts not so good a moral influence as yours. Here is your mistake: you believe that we are here forming characters for eternity, and that we carry with us into the future life and retain there the moral dispositions and affections which we cultivate in this life. Now if this doctrine of yours proves true, I shall be an eternal gainer from the faith I cherish here, because it produces supreme love to God, sweet reconciliation to his government, and a cheerful, happy state of mind. I would greatly prefer to bear through eternity the mind and character formed by my religion, than such as yours must naturally produce. Yet I am not expecting the heaven of eternity as a reward. I am more than paid for loving and serving God here; I feel that I am God's poor debtor; and I trust in his grace forever." "I was not expecting such an answer as that," was the sole reply of the questioner.
Mr. C. departed this life in East Boston in December, 1866.