The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1894-10-13
DAVID SWING.


unique and winning personality
and preacher of rare genius whose
fame is almost world wide. 1t is a
remarkable fact that here in this in
tensely practical and most material
of all cities,-a frontier wilderness
post less than fifty years ago,-there
should have arisen preacher capable
of holding large congregation for
nearly twenty years by the one dis
course which he gave each returning
Sunday morning. Professor Swings
Chicago ministry is the finest ex
ample this generation has had of the
power that is resident in Christian
thought and teaching, when rein
forced by gifts of nature, to attract
and hold the multitude without re-
sort to any sensational method or even
eloquence, as that term is commonly
understood.
There was nothing in Professor
Swings style of speaking to attract
the crowd or catch the ears of the
groundlings. Even those who simply
desired entertainment during the
Sabbath hour could easily have found
more attractive preacher. 1t was not
to such that Professor Swing minis
tered. He attracted men by the
power of his thought, expressed in
charming style, mingling of poetry
and philosophy which was peculiarly
his own. He was not pulpit Boaner-
ges or son Of thunder. His voice was
rarely raised above ordinary tones. His
elocution was faulty to degree. He
had none of the tricks of style nor
manner which mark the sensational
list. He rarely sought climax. He
wrote all his sermons in the quiet of
his study and delivered them in his
ordinary conversational tones. And
yet without what are called popular
gifts he held his vast congregations
in Central Music Hall year after year
and made for himself a name which
will live in the annals of the Amer
lean pulpit and be forever associated
with the city of his home.
1t is mistaken estimate of Profess
sor Swing that he owed his eminence
to the accident of the famous trial for
heresy. That undoubtedly fastened
public attention upon him and u]ti-
mately secured his throne of power in
Central Music Hall. The beresy trial
simply gave him his opportunity. II he
had not possessed the gift of attract
ing men to the spiritual and ethical
teachings of the Christian religion,
by his uplifting thought and win
some diction, and broad and catholic
spirit, his fame as a hereto would
have soon passed away. Professor
Swing, it should be remembered, sell
dom adverted to the circumstances
which separated him from the church
of his early manhood. That was
trial to him in more than one sense.
Although acquitted by his Presby-
terry, when DIR. Patton signified his
intention to appeal to the synod, he
bravely rendered his resignation and
departed honorably and unselfish-
ly from the church, not willing to
further embarass his associates by
personal contention. From that time
forth he was an "Independent,"
but he took no pride in that fact, al
though he assumed all it's RESPONSE
bilities.
Bishop Fallows informs us that
when a course of sermons was pro-
iected in the Bishops church on the
distinctive tenets of the various de-
nominations Professor Swing was in
vited to give one on the subject of
independency. In very kind man
ueT, DuI Will SICd1 oOul VI CoiAOoV
ness, he replied: 81 do not believe in
INDEPENDENCE, and therefore cannot
defend it. / am an independent not
of my own choosing. | would much
prefer to be in harmonious affilia-
ton with others in a church organi-
zation."
AS to the exact doctrinal opinions
of Professor Swing, especially on the
points which divide men into separate
camps, there is no defined consensus.
Undoubtedly he had outgrown the
Calvinism of his earlier years, and
had verged largely toward Broad
church opinions. He was in sympathy
with every large movement of the hui
man mind and doubtless partook of
the spirit of the age which has sent
to the rear all the harsh dogmas of the
church and rejoiced in what DIR. Gun
saulus regards as the keynote of his
Chicago ministry, "a sincere and
-. a..k;,o;sroV He haliava6 in