The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1894-10-05
DEATH OF PROFESSOR SWING.

The death of Professor David Swing
removes from earthly activity one of the
largest minds OF the age, foremost friend
of humanity, and probably the first in
Enc ranks Of thought contending for
Iree religious thought. In the presence
of the memory of such an intellectual
giant, who used his strength with the
tenderness but firmness of a loving
parent, we are painfully conscious of in
ability to pay due tribute to such life.
1t might perhaps be enough to say; it
might sum up the whole result of his
great work to write simply the splendid
sentence: Though dead he lives and
his great works are his monument" ga
man of genius" said Froude in his mas
terly survey of the life OF Newman, sis a
spring in which there is always more be-
hind than flows from it.' In the fullest
meaning of that pregnant sentence we ap-
ply it to David Swing. AS the polished
historian continued, so may we say
Of Swing. HIS preaching, powerful and
commanding worldwide attention, was
but a part of him, and, great as it
was, 'inadequately realized him, for his
nature expressed itself with equal or
fuller completeness in his life, his con :
Tersation and his personal presence"
Moved and impressed for years by the
reading Of his sermons we have felt the
power and realized the courage of this
man even more in the reported converse
lions, and apparently effortless ''talks'
with which he favored those fortunate
and who had permission to give these
counsels to the world. We shall always
hold it TO be our misfortune never to have
heard this magnetic man, and have to
feel the influence of his presence.
He was essentially, transparently,
wholly, lovingly the friend of all human
lty, and the uncompromising foe of all
things and doctrines that cast the slight
est doubt, encouragement, or burden OF
wrong and error upon its nobility and
possibility. In the largest sense he loved
his fellowmen, and be it remembered
that to be such lover demands the larg-
est courage of which manhood is capable.
BE was foremost among the champions
Of free religious thought, and to be such
requires in this day Of contention between
creeds heroic and a perfectly balanced
man. David Swing was a son of Ohio, a
fact that State, which has given to the
Nation so many men who have become
famous, viii record among her proudest
annals. His boyhood was spent in farm
life, but the influence it had upon his
character was never lost. He was stu
dent of nature even in boyhood time, and
his love for all of natures gentle moods,
his reverence for her sterner temper, and
his regard for her tempestuous periods
were reflected in nearly all his mature
writing and preaching. Nature was to
him an open book, inexhaustible in its
store, to be constantly read and never to
be finished. We look upon the finest
periods he gave to literature as those
which had their inspiration in contem-
plations of the works of nature.
He was graduated at Miami University
in 1852 at the age of q, and very soon
gave rein to the bent of his mind in the
study of theology. at the same time he
accepted position in his Alma Mater as
Professor of Languages, an Office he
filled for twelve years, though at no time
faltering in his theological studies. Dur
ing this period he preached occasionally,
and his success drew upon him unusual
attention, not more because of his native
eloouence, unstudied and free, than fol-
his originality of thought and vigor o.
reasoning.
In 1866 he became pastor of a Presby.
terian Church in Chicago. That city a
once recognized the breadth, depth and
wondrous power of this apostle of the
truth. There grew about the church sucl
clientage as only the supremacy brave
and gifted command. 1t was not of tn,
rich and powerful alone, but 81 the lowly
and the poor it was composed. Under hi!
pulpit influence distinctions were no
known and classes had no existence fol
he preached to ana for all mankind.
His church edifice was destroyed by
fire in 1871 and for three years he preached
in McVicker's Theater and in STANDARD
Hall. The new church was erected il
1874. He had now for some time beer
preaching not over the pulpit alone, bu
through monographs and the columns o
the press, which reach so much large
an audience. As he explored the realm
of truth, creed and Interpretation drew
hard and fast lines and he was charged
with heterodoxy and finally with heresy
His trial in 1874 was one of the mos
noted of centuries and quickened interes
in religious thought the civilized worl'
over.
He was cleared. but he did not hesitat
To eut loose from the church TO enjoy tn
larger freedom in which he felt he coui'
alone do his full work for free thought