The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-12-16


ton TO an ingenious and scholastic form.
and had the merit Of bringing those doc
trines to the test Of reason and phil0so-
ply" It viii be remembered in the
popular mind longest with the question
which it propounded to all candidates
for the church: Are you willing to be
damned for the glory OF G0d?" a cues
ton which was seriously asked far into
the present century. It was the highest
reach of the submissive spirit to be able
to answer that question afirmatively:
then regeneration might be expected TO
take place It was on par with all
the grosser features of the reigning Puri-
tan teology.
The movement sof religious thought in
New England are interesting and pro
f0undly instructive TO trace; from the
Mathers to Edwards and Hopkins, with
the variations Of Emmons, Bellamy, Tay-
Tor, and Dwight; the mighty cleavage Of
Channing's protest; the reconsTuctive
system Of Bushnell, in whose footsteps
we are walking today. It is a hundred
years since Hopkins system" appeared,
and it reactonary conservatism was des-
tined to be only the leading OF a for
Torn hope" Hopkins was hated and
fought in his day. but he was trium-
plant if that can be called a triumph
which in crushing an enemy does not
subdue his spirit Hopkinianism spread
through eastern New England, and now
nothing is left of it but a name. The
breath Of the progressive spirit passes
over it, and it is gone.
OF Hopkins as man enough cannot be
said. Read Mrs. Stoves beautiful por-
traiture of him in 1.-The Minister'S Woo
ing" After his dismissal at Great Bar
rington he regrets that he went away,
considering the unhappy consequences
Of that people by my leaving them; and
in 1894 he revisits his Berkshire parish
only to find the most pltiable religious
restitution: no minister, the meeting
house the resort Of bats and sheep and
the Sabbath given over to horse-racing,
sitting in taverns, and not enough inter
est in religion to even fit up a place
in which to hear their old pastor preach.
Whittier says that on leaving Great Bar
rington he "sold a slave whom ne had
himself owned" but assuredly the great
heart of Hopkins was touched and stirred
to deepest hatred Of the slave-trafic, and
even the money which he received for
his slave he devoted to the support and
education of a negro. He was the prOto-
abolitionist of America, and he only con-
scented to the constitution Of 1889, which
granted the right of existence to slavery
for twenty years because he preferred
that to anarchy STILL he said, Il
fear" Hopkins was a man. said jon
athan Edwards the younger. "of immeas-
urable influence over men," yet ne was
meek, always prefering others to himself
/ seeking the advancement OF Edwards,
when it would have been to his own
claims for the Stockbridge parish on
! Sergeant's death. Mrs Stoves story is
/ founded on a true fact in the early love
! experiences Of DIT. Hopkins. whose con-
duct in the affair was so honorable as
to have suggested to the novelist her
charming romance. He refused "calls"
away from his Newport parish, and
stayed on "one-ffth of what the Boston
ministers were receiving, and refused to
/ take up collections for his support. but
lived on what was given him He was
swift to apologize for errors in his own
conduct and out of his meagre pittances
gave generously to all good causes. His
novelist-biographer Mrs. stowe, says
that little child once described his
/ appearance in the pulpit by saying I
1 saw God there and was afraid. ."
/ Others saw God in the man, and loved.
because they. saw love and sympathy and
/ benignity.
A magnificent parsonage, costing $780,
/ 600, known as the Hopkins Memorial
Manse." has been erected in Great Bar
rlngton and presented to the church Of
which DR.. Hopkins was the first pas
/ tor. It is palatial and worthily honors
! his memory. R. DEWITT AIALLARY.