The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-05-01
ANDREW PRESTON PEABODY.
Sermon Preached in the First Parish
Church by Rev. John Carroll Perkins.

sermon Preached In the F1rsI Earlsn
| Church by Rev. John Carroll Perkins.
Matt vi: SO, Seek We first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness.
/ choose these words for our text, first
because they are the words that con-
tanned the thought given to us here by
Andrew Preston Peabody on the occa-
sion of my installation, year ago last
| September, which occasion was also the
last time he ever spoke in this place;
and secondly, because they give the key
to much that is prominent in his charac-
| ter and life. The death of DR.. Peabody
last Friday morning at the advanced age
of so, for next Sunday will be his SIND
| birthday, has taken from our denomina-
ton and the religious life of the United
| States one whose voice was always heard
| in every cause of right and truth that has
moved the people of this country during
the last three-quarers of a century. A
man of worldwide interests and sympa-
thy, he has deserved and obtained the
confidence of people everywhere, never
failing to show in his life those qualities
that are eternal. His career has been a
remarkable one. Starting with broad
and liberal foundation, the structure of
his character has risen gradually with the
civilization OF this country; ever mani
Testing the same strong qualities and
ever displaying the same power, but new
er to the end giving evidence of mental
or physical failure. Until an accident
befel him the first week of last month,
he was as active as ever, his presence and
| voice were in constant demand Es-
pecially sought were his words of bene-
dlctlon or of Invocation in a great multi
| tude OF public gatherings, not only In
| Boston, but in all parts of New England,
| and even at more distant points. His
presence had come to mean somethin G
| like that of the ideal prophet who could
| speak to the world the secret purposes
of the most High. .
Believing in the communion of saints,
| it seems most eminently fitting and help
| full that our thoughts should be turned
| this day into the channels of life that
have been filled with his influence, and
| however inadequate our words, we can
| but live truer in the light Of such COM
munion.
Fifty years ago there was probably no
| family in our First Parish that did not
know DR.. Peabody personally. There
was perhaps no minister except those
whose lives were spent here, who was so
familiar to the wopshippers in this place.
Writing of DIR. Nichols in his list of Har-
ward graduates, he says: HE was sell
dom heard except in his own pulpit,
oftener in my church in Portsmouth
than in any other but his own" In such
exchanges with DR.. Nichols he laid the
foundation for a lifelong friendship
with this Parish, a friendship still dear
to those whose memory can 60 back to
the days of such intercourse. Thus it
was but natural that in 1878 May 1871,
when DR.. Hill was installed minister
here, DIR. Peabody should preach the
sermon of installation. In this he served
in two-fold capacity, doing honor to one
who had been president of the university
| in which he was then himself profess
| sor, and reviving the memories of the
days when he was in Portsmouth. Again
| it was but natural, though now quite
wonderful, that he should preach the
| sermon at my installation, eighteen years
| later. 1t is but an Indication of his phys
| ical vigor that on the Sunday before he
| had preached two sermons in this pulpit,
had returned to Boston Monday and
again came to Portland on Thursday for
the exercises of the evening of that day.
He was also on that occasion the moder-
| ator of the council, as he had been at the
installion Of DR.. Hill Thus in the years
that have passed this parish has known
much of his genial sincere nature.
DR.. Peabody was of course younger
than DIR. Nichols, of whom he wrote
Evenings with him were epochs in my
| intellectual life I considered such a
privilege cheaply purchased by twice
| fifty miles of tedious stage coach travel"
| He was contemporary and friend of DR..
| Hill and his ministrations in religious
service here are familiar to this people.
| He belonged to the type of minister that
no place but New England ever devel-
oped, the creation OF that intellectual
| spirit that swept over this part of our
country This spirit found first express
sion almost without exception through
the medium of the historic pulpits. But
hoW:many there were whofound the pulpit
too combining for their powers. We need
but recall the names of Emerson, of Hig-
ginson, of Pierce, of Palfrey, of Everett, of
Bancroft. all Of whom began life in Uni
tartan pulpits, but who yielded it's limi-
tations for the more free exercise of their
| intellectual powers. For the ministry
perhaps they were never destined, but
| they were ON the verge of great crisis
| in intellectual life; on the border line
| that separated an age in which all edu-
cation belonged to the ministry from an
age in which education became the COM
mon possession of ALL This truth they
themselves created by the sacrifice of that
| which had been dearest to their growing
lives. DR.. Peabody in his life has, as it
were, bridged over this period of transit
ton and writer of great merit in many
departments of learning, yet. his work as
preacher has never suffered a pause.
He was born March 10, 1911. We read
| in the Old Testament how parents dedi-
Gated their children to the ministry years
before they could know anything of the
characteristics of the children them
selves. Many New England parents have
had similar hope. Such were the parents
of DR.. Peabody. His father, who died
when the son was but three years old,
though a teacher in a public school at
| Beverly. Mass, had always hoped that
he himself might become minister.
Thus he charged the mother that the son
must be educated for the calling of his
own hope. The child's life was thus
marked out before him, but his own ten
denotes correspondent entirely with his
parents plan. In those days there was
no institution of learning to be thought
of in eastern New England except Har-
ward. Thither the boy was sent at the