The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-02-21
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
GREAT PREACHER SET OUT.
Report of u Committee Appointed by
the indianapolis Liter
airy Club.

divine hatred for all forms of injustice and
3fPpresslon; and a dIXlne sympathy Tor in ,i al
and lineage. His ancestors fought in the
war for independence, in the war of 1872,
and he was a soldier in the war of the Union
from 1861 to 1865. He was q. soldier all his
life, and 1t might be said of him as Heine
said Of himself, that a sword and not a
wreath was the fitting emblem to be laid
upon his tomb. When a lad in New England
he passed under the influence of such pow
erful and persuasive minds as Theodore
Parker, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Wendell
Phillips and Thoreau. Later he came into
touch and sympathy with Carlyle, Burns,
Dickens, Hawthorne, Ruskin and other such
kindred spirits. BY these aids his mind was
cleared and strengthened and his sympathies
quiclened. Blu more than all these COM
bined his personal experience wrought pow
erfully upon him.
Usually reticent upon matters touching
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friends the key that gave access to his inner
life. The same love of liberty which marked
his entire career manifested itself when he
was a mere boy, His spirit was FESTIVE and
resented all sorts of restraint. In a fit of
independence he broke with parental au-
thority and absented himself from. home for
several years. These were years of trial and
privation. A wanderer, he found himself on
q bitter winters night on the streets of the
city of New York penniless. hungry and
thinly clad. He sought shelter and employ
ment and met with many rebuffs until he
agreed to take him for a seasons fishing on
the banks of Newfoundland, where he had
MS snare OF the hangers ana ndfuSnlpS OF
such a life. Coming back, he applied to
Horace Greeley for work, and that be-
nignant philosopher gave him a letter to the
Republican state central committee at AL
bany, by whom he was commissioned to
traverse the State, organize clubs and dis
tribute campaign documents. In this en-
plOyment he began to exercise his gifts of
speech and found that he was listened to
with attention. Next he was a reporter for
the Buffalo Express, and, drifting West, was
by turns a school teacher, a farm laborer,
a law student, a theological student, a
preacher, a soldier and then a preacher again
for the remainder of his life. His gifts as a
preacher Of righteousness became manifest
early in his ministerial career. Those who
knew him then remember how he charmed
ms hearers with his unique personality, the
originality of his thought and his remark
able literary style.
HIS NOTION OF A MINISTER.
His notion Of a minister was that he was
commissioned to teach-that he was to do
his own thinking and deliver his message
without suggestions or restraint from any
one. More than once he was asked by some
of his best friends to modify the radical
views he had publicly expressed, and his
answer was always the same: While 1
serve you as a teacher my speech shah be
free; when my services are distasteful you
may dismiss me. 1 can speak no mans
mind but my own His public utterances
were always and everywhere absolutely
by any considerations of his
personal interest. Differ from him as you
might-yOu were forced to respect him for
his manly independence. He would not
stoop to make friends with the mammon of
unrighteousness. He had no ambition for
promotion in any ecclesiastical organization.
He cared little for creeds. theology or
church standards. He uttered his vigorous
protest against what he regarded as a prac-
tical reputation of the. gospel by so-called
Christian teachers who looked upon the SER
mon on the Mount and the precepts of
Christ as barren localities. as imperfect and
unsafe guides for Christian conduct. He
lost friends and made enemies by saying
over and over again that the plain lessons
Of the New Testament were binding upon
the conscience OF everyone who professed
the Christian faith. That there were lapses
In his own conduct did not in his estima-
ton weaken the force of the obligations.
While insisting upon the highest ideals,
none knew better than himself the difficulty
of realizing them. He conceived it to be one
of the missions of a Christian society to
Danish all suffering which is superfiuous,
and which results from social laws. He
greed which dominates political, commercial
and social life; nor did he ever deem 1t a
part of a preachers functions to administer
a sleeping potion to the well-to-do, comfort
able pewholders. He was ready to say with
Sir Thomas Browne, IF gold is God, 1 am
an atheist From our point Of view he
seemed too insistent. too radical; but what
right have we to judge him in this matter?
More than any preacher Of his time, he
spoke as one having authority; and his Sc
verest critics, smarting under his reproof,
were forced to own his power. Many fell
away from him because of his plain. speak
ing. He did not abate one Jot of his indie
pendence on that account. Those who
thought to curb and punish him by with
holding their pecuniary support, discovered
hat Persecution of that sort only furnished
him an incentive for a more vigorous and
Unsparing denunciation of what he thought
character, and of how his former support
ers had left and ostracized him. Rabbi
friedman, who pronounced an eulogy at
his funeral, said that Myron Reed was a
true martyr to his principles.
FASHION CAST HIM OUT.
"When he entered upon his duties as
pastor of a wealthy, influential and fash
ionable church in Denver, he proclaimed
that one of his chief missions was to plead
the cause of the poor. When Robertson,
of Brighton, was told by a member Of his
church that his courageous Christian teach
ings were unpalatable to many of his in
fluential friends, he answered, L don't
care and being asked if he knew what
happened to Don't Care replied He died
on Calvary Myron Reed was that kind
of a man. With such gifts as he pos
sessed, with his great attachments, he
could easily have acquired a competence, If
not wealth. had he chosen to play the
was not in his nature to do this. He was
fond of repeating the story Of Wendell
Phlllips, who, on leaving his home to go and
race a Boston mob composed or the best
citizens, was admonished by his wife, who
said: Wendell, whatever you do or say,
don't shilly-shally.' When it was borne in
upon Mr.. Reed that he had a message to
deliver there was no shilly-shally in his
talk. Facing a great congregation I'm Den
Yer one Sunday night. while a miners
strike was on and the militia were shooting
down the strikers, he shocked his people
by saying, in a voice choking with emotion,
tonight my heart is with the miners at
Bull hill That was the end of his pas
torate at that church, whose influential
members denounced him as ar Anarchist.
We are not justifying or apOlogizing for
Mr.. Reeds course. He took no counsel
OF any man, nor Of his own fears, if in
deed he was capable of fear of any sort.
Differ from him as we may, we are forced
to admire the manlinesS of the man.
Severed from his church relations, cast
out of the synagogue for his plain speak
ing. his faithful friends rallied to his sup
port and organized the Broadway Taber-
nacle Association, where he preached till
the beginning of his fatal illness in Decem-
Der laSt-not under the auspices of any
church synod or assembly but, as he under
stood 1t, under the auspices of the Founder
of the Christian Church. In one of his
sermons he said that when once embarked
upon his mission the feet of Jesus were
never still until they were nailed upon the
who wish to work revolutions in the world
for the good Of the race that they never
sleep quietly until they are in their graves.
This divine spirit of unrest dominated the
whole life of Mr.. Reed.
1T is fitting here 10 say a brief word OF
Mr.. Reed as u literary man. jeffrey, after
reading one of Macaulay's essays. said:
Tom, where did you get that style?' The
question would have been apt If put to
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