The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-12-16
Early AboIitiOnist
CoIonist Who Upbraided
His Rich Audience.


this country. The arc that sustends the
line Of thought from Samuel Hopkins to
Miss Catherine Sedgwick measures lSy
degrees. Berkshire has the honor Of hay
ine- been the residence Of extreme think
ers Of the Hopkins-Edwards type, ana
those Of the Sedgwick-Dewey order and
perhaps it may be said with perfect
truthfulness, that if we had never mad
FIoDkinsianism we would never have had
Unitarianism. Who, then, was this man
HOPKINS, and what was his system?
In general it may be said that he was
one Of the greatest theoiogians that New
England has produced. His system OF
theology dominated the creeds of Con-
gregaHonaI churches, and to certain
extent also the Presbyterian, for half
q century or more. He became after
leaving his twenty hve-year pastorate in
Great harrington the doughty foe OF
slavery in its then stronghold, Newport
where he was pastor thirty-three years,
until his death in 1893. covering the Rev
dictionary period and the trying times
in that exposed and beleaguered city.
Born in 1721 in Connecticut and gradual
ing at Yale in 1741 pastor at Great
Darlington, Mass, 1743-1769 period ex-
actlv synchronous with the early develop
ment Of Berkshire, and dying at g in
Rhode Island his long and eminent life
was known throughout New England.
The intimate friend Of Edwards, whose
pupil he was and whose biographer he
became. he differed in some particulars
from his great teacher, and in 1893 gave
70 the world his System Of Divinity
a work Of two volumes whose speculative
and dogmatic positions were designated
to be the most ultra reafirmation Of Cal
vinisn against a growing Arminianism.
Mrs. Stowe has made this man, Samuel
HOPKINS. the hero Of "The Minister'S
Wooing." and in her picture Of him
shows that a man may be better than his
creed Whittier in his essay on Hopkins
SAYS: There are few instances on
record of moral heroism superior to that
of Samuel Hopkins in rebuking slavery
in the time and place Of its power 1t
NAV well be doubted whether on that
Sabbath day the angels Of God IN the
wide survey Of His universe looked upon
a nobIer spectacle than that Of the min
lister Of Newport rising up before his
slave-holding congregation and demand
Ing in the name of the Highest the de
liverance Of the captive and the opening
of the prison doors to them that were
bound"
This was the man, then, who for TWEEN
ty-fve years was the pastor at Great
Darlington, and who is, next to Edwards,
the most prominent of the Berkshire
clergy. He was ordained, boy of
scarcely twenty-five, over the church Of
New Sheffield (now Great Darlington
on the day that the church was organ
lied. December %, 1913, having studied
theology between his graduation and
settlement with Jonathan Edwards at
Northampton. His salary 10 this frontier
settlement of the Berkshires was sos per
annum and almost twenty years after,
June 4. 1852, we find this entry in the
Great Darlington town records: voted
that ESQ lawful money shall be the an
nuaI sauery Csic) for the Revd. Samuel
Hopkins when the necessities are bot
and sold at the following prices (scale
named and As those necessities Of life
shall fall or rise, accordingly in proper
ton" Notwithstanding this advance in
Mr. Hopkins saary, it was not paid,
and in 1868 he brought suit against the
town to recover "arrearages for 1851, 1852,
1854 1865 and 1866 The town voting to
defend itself against the suit, Mr.. Hop
kins in 1863 resigned, and was dismissed,
because the church could not support
him. 1t was a goddess, frontier com
munity, and vice and RIGHTEOUSNESS were
prevalent. Five years after Mr.. Hopkins
soa IN, 10
parish and by the wisdom or unwisdo.n
of our forefathers' custom, large fam y
was the result, so that Mr. Hopkins was
obliged 10 support his household Of wife
and eight children by devoGng consider
able time to agricultural pursuits
Meantime he was a vigorous opponent
of the loose Halfway Covenant Of the
time and so dissenuon got into the
parish. One year the town cut down
his "sauery" to Gas. and decreased the
amount Of frewood, evidently trying 10
/ freeze him 5ut IL f1ore WAYS tha7 one
( His church, which at the first only con-
tanned thirty families, was weakened;
scarcely any one" he complained
comes to my house for instrcuion"; Il
+ etudv but little" Che was rising each day
/ at a. m. for sermon and other literary
/ work. land devote much time to my
+ worldly concerns. and on May s, 175l
( he records in his dairy: zone soul con-
verted through me: this is the first evil
/ dence I have had of the conversion Of
anyone since have been in this place.
and surely it is we'll worth while 70
/ preach seven years 10 pc ~ any "as ;
instrument III We 1o-', I'm -, ~
SOU me 7l p0' ~
/ Berkshire residence was me coming y
] St0ckorloge IN L'21 OF ms oid IIieAa anu