Rev. D. K. Lee, D. D.
REV. THOMAS F. KING was a minister of rare qualities. He came up from the humble walks of life, and by hard study and the improvement of every opportunity for mental culture, became a scholar of excellent acquirements. He was an enthusiastic believer in the Gospel, and one of its most eloquent preachers and defenders. He was especially acquainted with the evidences of natural and revealed religion, and well prepared to present them for the consideration of sceptical minds. His voice was rich, deep, and musical, and as a reader he could hardly be excelled. This, aside from their intrinsic merits, made his discourses strongly impressive. An instance is cited of a disaffected hearer who had concluded not to attend his meetings any more, finding himself at the door of the church one morning, after the service had opened, in expectation of hearing a stranger preach. Mr. King was there, reading the Scriptures,—the invitation in Isaiah's prophecies, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters," &c. The hearer stood still, listened, attempted to leave, and was held fast. Again he started, but the words reached him, "Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live!" Further resistance was useless. His place in the sanctuary was taken again, and held afterwards while he lived. Mr. King had a large, warm, sympathetic heart, and made the joys and sorrows of his people his own. He was the life of the social circle, and his fund of anecdote and good humor usually insured him a warm reception everywhere. He had an unusually rich bass voice in singing. His pulpit services were pervaded with a profound reverential spirit. He was pastor in Hudson, N. Y., Portsmouth, N. H., and Charlestown, Mass., in which last-named place he departed this life, Sept. 13, 1839. His death was a Christian's triumph.
Of his eminent son, Thomas Starr King, what can we say that most readers do not already know? and yet the man and his life will always bear noting and will never fail to be admired. He was born in the city of New York, Dec. 17, 1824. He early manifested singular aptitude for study and deep conscientiousness. His education was desultory, but with his quickness of apprehension he acquired Latin and French at an early age. At fifteen, on the death of his father, he became the head of the family, and worked for their support as a clerk and school-teacher. In the mean time he was an untiring student of metaphysics and theology. One of his historians, Mr. E. P. Whipple, writes of him:—
"He mastered the results of the great German and French critics of the Bible. To many of our present young students exegesis practically means exit Jesus; but King, in all his eager quest of truth, and dutiful acknowledgment of the service which the great German theologians had rendered to the rational interpretation of the Scriptures, never lost his original hold on Christ Jesus as the express image of God,—as the Son who reveals to us the Father,—as the ideal embodiment of a perfected Humanity. Such a person had a natural call to the ministry."
His first sermon was preached in Woburn, in the autumn of 1845. In the summer of the next year he was invited to the pastorate of the Universalist Church in Charlestown, then made vacant by the removal of the Rev. E. H. Chapin to Boston. He accepted the call, and enjoyed a busy and happy ministry there, until his urgent call to become the minister of the Hollis Street (Unitarian) Church in Boston. The first invitation he declined, and made a voyage to Fayal to recruit his health which had been impaired by his incessant labors. The invitation was renewed on his return home, and he was installed in his new place in December, 1848. This course on his part was not agreeable to many of his Universalist friends, but they had no doubt that it was conscientiously taken by him, and most of them always retained their good will and heart-fellowship for him. They knew that his work would be mainly in the right direction always; and they were not disappointed. As a public literary lecturer, he was among the foremost in the land.
In April, 1860, Mr. King took charge of the Unitarian Church in San Francisco, Cal. He saw a field there which he deemed it an opportunity to occupy, both as a Christian minister and an American patriot. He entered with his whole soul into the defence of the national cause and in opposition to the traitorous intent of the secession conspirators. In the pulpit and on the platform he vindicated the national honor and pleaded for the maintenance of the national Union. As his biographer, Mr. Whipple, writes: "As far as regards the keeping of California loyal to the Union during the civil war, he ranks at least in the first file of its eminent citizens. His reputation was not confined to the Pacific coast, but extended over the whole country."[45] He literally wore out his life in this great and glorious field of exertion. Diphtheria came finally, and he passed into the higher life, March 4, 1865. His words at the last were: "I feel all the privileges and greatness of the future."
One of our ablest theologians and most devoted ministers was Rev. Abel Charles Thomas, born in Exeter, Berks Co., Pa., July 11, 1807. He was of Quaker lineage, his grandfather Abel having been a distinguished preacher of the Society of Friends during fifty-six years. It was of Rev. A. B. Grosh, then of Marietta, Pa., that he received his first knowledge of Universalism. In 1827 he went to Philadelphia as a printer, and was there encouraged by resident ministers, Rev. S. R. Smith, and Rev. T. Fisk, to enter the ministry. He preached his first sermon in the Lombard St. Church in November, 1828. In the following January he became publisher and co-editor with Mr. Fisk of the "Gospel Herald and Universalist Review" in New York city, writing editorials, putting them in type, conducting the correspondence, and as he says, "writing his sermons on a pine board by night," for he had begun his ministerial labors April 5, 1829, preaching in a small frame meeting-house on Grand St. In less than a year from the delivery of his first sermon, he responded to a cordial invitation to become pastor of the Lombard St. Church, Philadelphia, which connection continued with mutual interest of pastor and people for ten years. In 1834 and 1835 a discussion took place between Mr. Thomas and Rev. Ezra Stiles Ely, D. D., which was afterwards issued in book form, and has probably been more widely circulated and had a more permanent interest and usefulness than any other theological discussion in our country. It gave to Mr. Thomas a fame which will always be connected with his memory. Visiting New England after the discussion had closed, he received a most cordial and enthusiastic welcome, and preached in many places to large and deeply interested congregations.
Mr. Thomas removed to Lowell in the autumn of 1839, and took charge of the Second Church. Here he and his co-laborer, Rev. T. B. Thayer, started the "Star of Bethlehem," a vigorous weekly publication in support of the Universalist faith. While living here, he established the "Lowell Offering," a new movement for that time, and which elicited much interest in this country and in England. After three years' active and efficient work in Lowell, and after a few months' travel for his health, he went to Brooklyn, N. Y., where he organized a society and was one of eight men who built the first Universalist church in that city. From Brooklyn he went to Cincinnati, O., in 1844; but declining health and overwork obliged him to resign his charge in 1847. After a year's rest he returned to his old parish in Philadelphia. Twelve years later he was induced to go out as a missionary of Universalism to England and Scotland; the required funds were promptly raised, and accompanied by his family, in May, 1852, he sailed for England. His time was spent chiefly in London and Edinburgh, though he preached in all the principal cities of the United Kingdom, and made careful investigation of the religious aspect of affairs there. At the close of a year's labor he was joined in London by his co-worker in Lowell, Rev. T. B. Thayer, and wife, and for six months they travelled together on the Continent. He then returned to Philadelphia, and resumed his labor there.
During the late war, with its manifold excitements and fatigues, the visiting and caring for the sick and wounded in the hospitals, and his active interest in assisting the soldiers constantly passing to and fro, made serious inroads on his long-enfeebled frame, so that he was obliged to resign his charge in 1863. He removed to Hightstown, N. J., where he preached two years, one sermon a Sunday, as a labor of love. He then spent two years in Bridgeport, Conn., preaching in Danbury and other places as his strength permitted. In the spring of 1867 he purchased a farm at Tacony, Philadelphia, which was thenceforth his home.
Mr. Thomas was the author of several volumes besides the "Ely and Thomas Discussion;" his "Autobiography," "The Gospel Liturgy," "The Songs of Zion," "A Century of Universalism," &c. He wrote also some very useful and popular tracts,—among them "213 Questions without Answers," which has had a wider reading and attracted more attention than any other tract ever issued from our press. It has had a circulation of at least a million copies. The questions are strong, awakening, and searching.