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BIOGRAPHY 
 
 REV. DANIEL PARISH KIDDER, D.D„ LLD, 
 
 BY HIS SON-IN-LAW 
 
 REV. G. E. STROBRIDGE, D.D. 
 
 ' Gentle to others, to himself severe ' 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 
 RINTED BY HUNT & 
 
 EATON 
 
 1894 
 
 
 ■£> 
 
 
 1 (M; 1! 
 U |.i 1 V i i . 
 
 V 
 
 1 ' : ' ■ 
 
 N 
 
— /-^ / ,/ 
 
 A- 
 
 /i 
 
 Copyright, 1894, by 
 G. E. STROBRIDGEl, 
 
 POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y. 
 
 (l/> 
 
TO 
 
 UNFAILING IN AFFECTION, IN HELPFULNESS SELF-FORGETFUL, 
 
 PRACTICAL IN AFFAIRS, UNFLAGGING IN PATIENCE, 
 
 IN COUNSEL READY AND SAFE, OF A TIMELY 
 
 CHEERFULNESS, AND, BEST OF ALL 
 
 (I AM CONCEITED ENOUGH 
 
 TO SAY), 
 
 THIS BOOK IS 
 DEDICATED. 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 A DISTINGUISHED man, a bishop in our Church, 
 said not long since to the writer : " I am sorry that 
 you have undertaken to prepare a biography of your 
 father-in-law. If I could have seen you in time I would 
 have advised you against it. Methodism in this country, 
 during the last fifty years, has not produced any man 
 great enough to have his life written." 
 
 One difficulty in the way of accepting this deliverance 
 is that the speaker himself is an emphatic passage of evi- 
 dence in rebuttal. 
 
 But even were the statement true, the right of this 
 book to be rests on another foundation. The question 
 is, not whether Methodism is a failure in the production 
 of great men, but has she lost the art of producing good 
 men ? Mr. Wesley published biographies because the 
 subjects were good, and it was his thought that the 
 record of their lives would abound as a blessing to those 
 who should follow them. 
 
 This work is a modest venture with the same intent. 
 It is offered to the public with a conviction (which it is 
 believed the readers will share) that it will prove helpful 
 to all those who are striving to build for themselves such 
 a character as means consecration here and coronation 
 hereafter. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Ancestry, Birth, Childhood, Youth, - 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Early Traits and Habits, 1 8 
 
 CHAPTER 111. 
 Conversion, 27 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Joining the Church — Call to the Ministry, 39 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Wesley an University — Professorship in Amenia Seminary — 
 
 Licensed to Preach, 54 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Preaching as a Supply — Joining Conference, 67 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 First Pastorate, 77 
 
 CHAPTERS VIII-X. 
 Missionary Life, 87-109 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 The Sad Return Home. 122 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 Pastorate at Paterson, 136 
 
8 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 Pastorate at Paterson — Pastorate at Trenton, - - 149 
 
 CHAPTERS XIV-XVIII. 
 Secretary of the Sunday School Union, 161-204 
 
 CHAPTERS XIX, XX. 
 Professorship in the Garrett Biblical Institute. 217-230 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Leaving Evanston — Professorship in the Drew Theological 
 
 Seminary, 244 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 Secretary of the Board of Education, 254 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 Literary Work, 269 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 Interest in Missions, 284 
 
 CHAPTERS XXV-XXVII. 
 Characteristics, 299-323 
 
 CHAPTERS XXVIII, XXIX. 
 Words from the Students, - 333-340 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 At the Last, ... 349 
 
BIOGRAPHY 
 
 OK 
 
 DANIEL PARISH KIDDER, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Ancestry, Birth, Childhood, Youth. 
 
 A T East Grinstead, Sussex, England, was born in 1663 
 '*■ Richard Kidder, who became Bishop of Bath and 
 Wells. He is described by Macaulay as " a man of con- 
 siderable attainments and blameless character." He be- 
 longed to an ancient family with records dating back to 
 the thirteenth century. 
 
 A kinsman of his named James, also a native of East 
 Grinstead, and born in 1626, was the first of the family 
 who settled in this country. He married Anna Moore, 
 in Cambridge, Mass. Among his children was a son 
 named Enoch. To him belonged a cane, ornamented 
 with a silver band, on which was engraved " Enoch Kid- 
 der, 1664." The tradition is, that this cane was to be 
 handed down through the youngest son. Accordingly 
 it became the property of Francis Kidder, born in 1703 ; 
 John Kidder, born in 1749; Selvey Kidder, born in 
 Braintree, Vt., March 21, 1792; and he passed it on to 
 his only child, the subject of this biography, Daniel 
 Parish Kidder, born October 18, 181 5, at South Pem- 
 broke (now Darien), Genesee County, N. Y. 
 
 Selvey Kidder, with two or three brothers, emigrated 
 
lO I5IOGRAPHY OF 
 
 in i8i2 or 1813, to what was then known as the " Hol- 
 land Purchase," in the western part of New York. Re- 
 turning to Vermont in 1814, he married on the last day 
 of October, and took to his home in the then far West, 
 Mehetabel Parish. She was the daughter of Jacob and 
 Mehetabel Parish, and was born in Windham, Conn., 
 December 16, 1786. She was a refined Christian 
 woman, belonging to one of the best families in New 
 England. When her son was but ten months old she 
 died. 
 
 In accordance with her last request the son was taken 
 to Randolph, Vt., to live with his uncle, Daniel Parish, 
 whose wife was sister to the boy's father. His maternal 
 grandparents also lived in the family. This uncle and 
 aunt having no children, Daniel, as though their son, 
 became the light and joy of their home. The father 
 married again in the latter part of 1 8 18, but as he had 
 no other children, it may be said that the hopes and sym- 
 pathies of four doting parents were centered upon this 
 favored boy. 
 
 Amid a large circle of uncles and aunts and cousins, 
 his childhood days were spent in this Vermont town, 
 pursuing his studies and enjoying the healthful recrea- 
 tions of a farm life. From the district school he passed 
 into the Orange County Academy, now the State Nor- 
 mal School. Here he began his classical studies, and 
 here he remained until he was fourteen years of age. 
 
 A relative, giving his recollections of those early years, 
 says that " even in his childhood he was apt and for- 
 ward, learning to talk with readiness. He acquired 
 easily, and before he was ten years of age was quite a 
 scholar. He was popular with his teachers and a favor- 
 ite with his associates." Among his schoolmates were 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. II 
 
 B. Griswold, missionary to Africa, and W. H. Bissell, one 
 of the bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He 
 was of a very agreeable disposition, and the pet of the 
 whole family. He had an exuberance of boyish spirits 
 and jollity, but with no bluster and roughness. He de- 
 lighted in out-of-door sports, was particularly fond of 
 gunning, had his own rifle, became a good marksman, 
 and often brought in rabbit, partridge, or squirrel. 
 
 His young life in Randolph left behind a long and 
 pleasant memory, and the Vermont Gazetteer, in an edi- 
 tion of recent date, has this notice : " Rev. D. P. Kidder, 
 D.D., so long connected with the Methodist Book Con- 
 cern, at New York, and one of the authors o{ Brazil and 
 the Brazilians, was once a boy at home on these hills. 
 It is with honest pride that all the churches unite to do 
 him honor whenever he visits this scene of his boy- 
 hood." 
 
 In being taken to be reared by his uncle and aunt, it 
 was with the understanding that his father should convey 
 him again to his own home whenever he thought best. 
 The day of separation came, and the uncle writes : 
 "September 17, 1829. Brother Selvey Kidder and wife 
 set off from our home early this morning with our 
 nephew, Daniel P. He has lived with us over twelve 
 years. This parting is very trying, but we hope it is for 
 the best." His stepmother was fond of him and faithful 
 to him. Her counsel at critical periods in his life was 
 helpful, and he records gratefully his recollections of the 
 wholesomeness of her influence in the formation of his 
 character. 
 
 Arrived at Darien he was requested by the trustees to 
 assume charge of the district school at that place. Thus 
 as early as his fourteenth year he took hold of the re- 
 
12 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 sponsibilities of life in tlie same manner as many other 
 men who have risen to prominence. This school was 
 continued for three months. The following February 
 he taught a school at Darien Center. The highest 
 attendance at these schools was between thirty and 
 forty, yet they were large enough to tax the resources 
 of one so young, and all the more for the reason that, 
 being without an assistant, the entire charge, including 
 organization, management, discipline, clerical work, and 
 instruction fell on him alone. That he was at all equal 
 to it and conducted his school with success, as the trus- 
 tees were glad to testify, argues an endowment and man- 
 liness far beyond his years. 
 
 About noon, of one sharp winter's day, the snow 
 being more than a foot deep, the schoolhouse caught 
 fire ; and, as he expresses it, " for a few seconds we 
 thought her gone." But the neighbors rallied in true 
 rural fashion and saved the premises without much 
 damage, and with the simple interruption of half a day's 
 session. 
 
 While he was a teacher he was also a scholar in the 
 most valuable of schools — human nature — as furnished 
 him in the old-time practice of "boarding around." 
 
 Here, then, was a youth fourteen years of age, who 
 must display the ready adaptability of a congenial guest 
 in a variety of homes, who must maintain in undisturbed 
 equilibrium the dignity of one of the most important 
 personages in the community — the village schoolmaster 
 — and who must not be lacking in that fertility of inven- 
 tion and strategy, or that impressiveness of authority 
 which will enable him to control two score of boys and 
 girls, many of them his equal, and even more, in size and 
 age. To endure as he did the strain of these severe 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 
 
 13 
 
 tests, requires that there be united in one an elasticity of 
 intellect, a certain fine fiber of character, a generous 
 mental outfit, and a quiet and unpretentious, but none 
 the less genuine masterfulness of will. All hail the " Lit- 
 tle Red Schoolhouse," maker of men in the teacher if 
 not always in the scholar, and conspicuously fortunate 
 in this instance in working upon material not only re- 
 sponsive, but rich in results ! 
 
 During this period he began keeping a journal, a 
 record of his daily life. Although, like all healthy and 
 hearty boys, he enjoyed the sports of his age, yet his 
 daily work each day was the task of a full-grown man, 
 and the sage comments and reflections scattered at this 
 time over the pages of his diary show the sobriety and 
 balance of the adult. He records almost in the dialect 
 of a physician his impressions of the case of a young 
 lady whose abnormal mental condition was then attract- 
 ing much attention in the neighborhood. He speaks of 
 the " satisfaction " he derived in talking by means of a 
 slate with a deaf-mute. " I was greatly amused," he re- 
 marks, in an entry under another date, "with hearing 
 Cole, a sailor, recount many of his adventures in foreign 
 lands — a most depraved character, who cares for naught 
 but grog, and will tease for it as food. He is naturally 
 a sensible man, and when sober will reason like a philos- 
 opher on the depravity of drunkards." The pages of 
 this journal also give traces of an early development of 
 the observing faculties, and entered with his boyish 
 hand are records of the changes of the weather, fit al- 
 most, in accuracy and fullness, to be preserved among 
 valuable meteorological archives. 
 
 The kind of reading with which he employed his leis- 
 ure shows the maturity of his tastes. Among the books 
 
14 moCRAlMIV OF 
 
 mentioned by him vvc find the two volumes of Rollins's 
 Ancient llistoiv. 
 
 With the close of his school he st;iitctl for Wyo- 
 minf^ Seminary, now known as Middlebmy Academy, 
 N. Y., walking part of the way. His studies were 
 English, Natural Thilosophy, Algebra, and Latin. He 
 finished the Aiiici<i and began Cicero. lie was not so 
 absorbed in his class work but that he coukl take in a 
 good share of sport. Ball playing, hunting, blackberry- 
 ing, and swimming were among his amusements. He 
 was nearly a man in stature, for at sixteen he records that 
 his weight was one liundred and forty pounds. 
 
 During the August vacation of the }'ear i83i,he m.idc 
 the experiment of mercantile pursuits, and took a clerk- 
 ship in the store of Collins & Sadler, at Brockport, N. Y. 
 A httle more than two weeks of this was, however, 
 enough to satisfy him that this sort of occupation was 
 not to be his calling in life, and he returned to Wyom- 
 ing to engage in the more congenial work of the student. 
 At this time he began the study of Greek. 
 
 The following winter found him at Byron, in charge of 
 his third public school, at $15 per month. This school 
 he closed March 7, 1832, with the expressed approval of 
 the officers of the district, and, as he remarks, " a glow- 
 ing speech " by himself. 
 
 His spare time and evenings wire employed during 
 this period in reading such books as I'ollock's Course of 
 Time, Goldsmith's History of lliii^laiid, The History of 
 South America, Geori^e Barnwell, Munt^o Park's Travels, 
 The Vicar of Wakefie/il, and the Laiiy of the Lake. 
 
 His scholarly ambitions were now thiiroughly arousetl, 
 and in casting about for an institution of curriculum 
 more enlarged than any he had as yet attended, his 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 1 5 
 
 attention was turned to the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, 
 at Lima, N. Y., " upon whose records," it has been said, 
 " first and last have been enrolled more celebrated 
 names than any other institution our Church can show." 
 Even before this, when the seminary had been only pro- 
 jected, but not yet opened, he had written for informa- 
 tion to the Rev. J. Laning, the agent. During the 
 winter of 1831-32 the matter was frequently canvassed 
 in the family. His father, having no sympathy with the 
 religious or denominational character of the school, was 
 at first disposed to object. But he finally consented 
 because it was supposed that the new and generously 
 advertised institution would afford the best educational 
 advantages available in that region. 
 
 This favorable decision having been reached, he spent 
 the two months of his vacation at home in preparatory 
 study, especially of Greek, going regularly, sometimes on 
 foot, to the town of Attica to recite to a Mr. Goodell, 
 taking time also to read Shakespeare's more important 
 plays. 
 
 May 7, 1832, he reached Lima. Here he remained 
 until September 27, 1833, when he was graduated. His 
 vacations he spent at his home in Darien. During this 
 time he began the study of Hebrew. Shortly after leav- 
 ing Lima he made up his mind to attend Hamilton Col- 
 lege, Clinton, N. Y. 
 
 He says : " My decision to enter Hamilton College 
 was reached in a spirit of compromise. My preference 
 would have been to go to the Wesleyan University. 
 But for this my parents were not prepared. They had a 
 fear of the sectarian influence suggested by the name 
 Wesleyan. Hamilton was nearer and under another 
 class of influences. My fellow-student at Wyoming, J. 
 
1 6 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 S. Fancher, had entered there, and was urgent to have 
 me join him. Besides, although the college year had 
 considerably advanced, he assured me of my being able 
 to enter Sophomore." Accordingly, in November, 1833, 
 he presented himself at Hamilton College, passed his 
 examinations without trouble, and was admitted to the 
 Sophomore class. In December he began the study of 
 French. He remained at the college during the Christ- 
 mas vacation for special study. 
 
 Toward the close of this school year he again became 
 anxious to go to Wesleyan, and so communicated with 
 his father. But in answer his father still objected and 
 said: " It looks shiftless to see persons moving about too 
 much, besides subjects to heavy expenses in many par- 
 ticulars. It has been with you thus far in the process 
 of your education as with me in the ordinary pursuits of 
 life, situations entirely free from embarrassments are 
 only found, if found at all, in the imagination." He 
 then, to turn his son, if possible, away from what seemed 
 to be his set purpose, proposed a compromise and said : 
 " If you should determine on leaving Clinton, I hope 
 that you will go to Schenectady [Union College]. It 
 will be very convenient for us on many accounts. I do 
 not wish to be dogmatical, but I am far from following 
 visionary schemes." It was a depressing message for the 
 ardent, and as we now know, divinely directed youth, to de- 
 scribe as " imagination " what was really inspiration, and 
 to call that a " visionary scheme " which was, in solemn 
 fact, the plan of Providence. But like that other Daniel, 
 to whom the lions were child's play after the battle with 
 the pulse, the victory in favor of Lima became a vantage 
 ground for Middletown, and during the summer vacation 
 at home, with a determination that had nothing unfilial 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 1 7 
 
 in it, and with a persistence that was all the more per- 
 suasive because it was always gentle, he prevailed ; and 
 on September lo, 1834, he set off on his long journey, 
 as it was in those days, for Wesleyan University, to 
 enter upon a new, and as it proved, critical epoch in his 
 
 life. 
 
 2 
 
BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Early Traits and Habits. 
 
 T must be clear to the reader that we have been travel- 
 ing in company with one who, although by his youth 
 entitled to that franchise which the average young man 
 seems to claim, namely, the luxury of throwing away his 
 days and nights in pleasure and frivolity, was yet the 
 rather consumed with a regard for the value of time and 
 was conscientiously industrious. In an oration, one of 
 his first efforts at Lima, he severely condemns " mental 
 indolence." " It has long been proclaimed," he said, 
 " that ' there is no royal road to learning,' and yet how 
 many of the present day think to make a life of study 
 that of ease and indulgence ! How many, instead of 
 confining their minds to close culture and profound 
 science, suffer them to remain untutored and satisfied 
 with superficial and limited views ! How many, instead 
 of imitating examples of true worth and merit, allow 
 themselves to be puffed up with pompous and extrava- 
 gant notions of greatness and glory ! How many can 
 pronounce eulogies upon the eloquence of Demosthenes 
 and Cicero, the style of Addison, the patriotism of 
 Jefferson, but how few are willing to make the sacrifices 
 to become orators, authors, or statesmen! How many 
 can scribble and declaim, but how few can think !." 
 After dwelling upon the possible achievements of intellec- 
 tual activity, he asks, " Who with such prospects opening 
 before him can be satisfied with shallow and imperfect 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 19 
 
 investigations, and cast himself upon the shoals of error 
 and prejudice? Who can be content to stifle these 
 immortal energies and close in with the low and sensual 
 promptings of indolence and ease?" These sentiments 
 were spoken not for effect, but were the deliverance of 
 his cherished and controlling convictions. He was in 
 the world, not for gratification, but for labor ; the accom- 
 plished fact, not the aimless pursuit, was his purpose; 
 and Hfe, he was brave enough to think, was the raw 
 material to be wrought into achievement. 
 
 He was always an early riser, and was often up and at 
 his tasks by half past four o'clock. He divided his time 
 by a carefully adjusted plan, but found as has been a 
 common experience with those who have sought to stand 
 guard over their working hours, that an unbroken regu- 
 larity in these matters is all but impossible ; and there is 
 perceptible just the least trace of murmuring in his con- 
 fession that he is unable fully to accomplish his ambitions 
 because of his many interruptions — the day's tale of 
 bricks must often be catalogued as unattainable, so many 
 hindrances filch away the straw. He did his best, how- 
 ever, to preserve sacred the time allotted to his study, 
 and he had no hospitality, even for friendship, when it in- 
 truded upon the hours thus devoted. Sickness was not 
 allowed always to break the current of his application, 
 and Sunday was also with him a day of labor. Not only 
 was he constant in his attendance upon religious services, 
 but formed the habit of taking notes of the sermons 
 which he heard, and then wrote them out in full. 
 
 He found exhilaration in music, was very fond of sing- 
 ing, and on the notes of his flute often blew dull care 
 away. He was social in his temperament. To make 
 friends he thought one of his most valued acquisitions. 
 
20 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 On leaving Lima he says: "A year and a half ago I 
 entered this institution an entire stranger; since that 
 time I have formed an acquaintance more or less intimate 
 with probably three or four hundred persons of various 
 situations and residence." He frequently availed himself 
 of the rigidly regulated privilege of making calls in the 
 ladies' department of the seminary. But to all others lie 
 preferred the company of men older, wiser, and more ex- 
 perienced than himself. By their conversation he felt 
 that he could be instructed and stimulated. The reflec- 
 tions he has left show how appreciative he was of these 
 interviews, and how keen and correct was his estimate of 
 men. He valued particularly the opportunity of visiting 
 with Dr. Luckey, the principal of the seminary. No turn 
 in his affairs which he thought acute enough to be a crisis 
 was he willing to pass without seeking the doctor's advice. 
 Their talks together were frequent and lengthened, and 
 the after years continued and richly ripened the intimacy 
 which then sprang up. 
 
 A man even then of one work, it was his purpose that 
 his social enjoyments, like everything else, should assist 
 him to yet better results in his studies. After an early 
 evening spent in a refreshing visit with some of his friends 
 he retired to the quiet of his room in trim for a night of 
 hard work with his books. He writes: " I desire to feel 
 an anxious, persevering determination to be instant in 
 season, to perform every work which is before me. Ac- 
 tion is oratory, said Demosthenes, and it may be added 
 with as much propriety and correctness, it is religion, it 
 is everything." Even thus early had he learned 
 
 " To scorn delights and live laborious days." 
 Along with the regular and never-neglected demands 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 21 
 
 of his classes he found time also to study stenography. 
 He attended writing school, and began the formation of 
 that clear, correct, compact handwriting which long 
 after was properly compared to " copper-plate printing." 
 
 He still set a high estimate upon the value of whole- 
 some reading, and during this period he fed his growing 
 intellect upon such substantial fare as Locke's Essay on 
 the Understanding, Bacon's Essays, Chalmers's Discourses, 
 Roman Antiquities, Chalmers's Evidences, Scott's Life of 
 Napoleon, Life of Franklin, Good's Book of Nature, 
 Stewart's Pliilosophy, Aids to Reflection, Zimmerman on 
 Solitude, Mason on Self-knowledge, Maury on Eloquence, 
 Byron's Works, Abercrombie's Lntcllectual Philosophy, 
 Campbell's Poems, Robertson's History, Paradise Lost, 
 Hale's Lectures, Volney's Ruins, and Foster's Essays. In 
 his journal abound notes and comments on these works, 
 showing that he read not for speed or pastime, but 
 thoughtfully and for assimilation and strength. 
 
 Some of this reading was carried on during his vaca- 
 tions. With him to be at home for vacation was appar- 
 ently to be still at school, and an entry in his diary may 
 be noted here as characteristic. On the very day in which 
 he reached home he records : " Unpacked trunk, took out 
 books, wrote in journal, and by noon was prepared for 
 study." 
 
 The program of his vacation also covered work about 
 the place, doing the chores and helping his father in the 
 store. His business qualities were not cheap. He was 
 successful as a salesman and accountant, and at an age 
 when boys are an increasing burden to their parents he 
 was a positive help, took a man's place, a partner's in- 
 terest, and, with a confidence it is impressive to note, his 
 father relied upon his judgment and sought his counsel 
 
22 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 in important transactions. His abilities in this line were 
 also seen and appreciated at Lima, and during a good 
 part of his stay there he was employed as the bookkeeper 
 for Rev. Loring Grant, the financial agent of the semi- 
 nary. In this manner he was able to defray in part his 
 expenses, a result highly gratifying to his natural inde- 
 pendence of spirit. 
 
 As a teacher, too, his worth was soon recognized, and 
 in his second month at Lima he was employed to con- 
 duct some of the classes of the president during his ab- 
 sence. Later on, the professor of ancient languages 
 failing in health, he was elected to fill the vacancy, and 
 at his graduation he was at once a student and a member 
 of the faculty. 
 
 His fondness for writing showed itself in almost con- 
 stant literary exercises. Besides the essays regularly 
 called for in his course, he was generous in his contribu- 
 tions to the periodicals issued by the students, and was 
 among the original projectors of some of these magazines. 
 
 The Young Lady's Albiun, with its decorated margins 
 and duly distributed prints, mostly of flowers, too in- 
 tensely bright to bloom anywhere else, was in those days 
 a modest but important estuary from the sea of literature. 
 For additions to its volume he was constantly in demand. 
 As elsewhere, so here, he was ready and accommodating, 
 dispensing sentiments wise and refined, and in the flush 
 of his surplus afflatus he attempted even the difficulties 
 and delights of verse ! 
 
 But he preferred public speaking. He met readily the 
 customary demands for original orations, and soon came 
 to the front as a popular declaimer. As often as twice in 
 a week he would appear on the platform. Because of 
 his elocutionary abilities he was frequently selected to 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 23 
 
 read on public occasions the compositions of the young 
 ladies, the relentless modesty of that age protesting 
 against the appearance of the fair authors before an 
 audience. At one exhibition, besides making an original 
 address, he read eight of these productions, having in 
 advance but two hours to look them over. At Wyoming 
 he was active in establishing a Lyceum among the 
 students. At Lima he assisted in the literary celebra- 
 tion of the Fourth of July. And he carried off one of 
 the prizes for declamation at Hamilton College. His 
 maiden attempts at extemporaneous address were made 
 at this time, and he was much sought after as a temper- 
 ance speaker. His earliest recorded effort for this cause 
 was at West Mendon in February, 1833, and his speech 
 was of so much merit that he was requested to furnish a 
 copy for publication in The Cliristian Advocate and Jour- 
 nal, of New York. 
 
 Debates, as they were conducted in the societies of the 
 students, were his delight. At Wyoming and Lima he 
 was one of the founders of such a society. That at 
 Lima was called the Amphyctionic, and having carried 
 on its rolls many names widely and worthily known, it 
 flourishes still, an opportunity for mental athletics eagerly 
 seized by the young. These debates were so much en- 
 joyed by him that he often arranged for extra trials in 
 his room. In his journal he would argue and amplify on 
 some subject that had just been handled. 
 
 One of the questions with which these ambitious 
 gymnasts had wrestled was as follows : " Is reading a 
 greater source of improvement than observation ? " This 
 question, he notes, was " barbarously decided in the 
 afifirmative ! " In this criticism he spoke from convic- 
 tion. High as was his estimate of reading, he also 
 
24 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 reckoned at generous rates the importance of observation. 
 He practiced it constantly. He loved nature as much as 
 did Wordsworth, and with something like his religious 
 sensitiveness. All his byplay was out of doors, reveling 
 among fields, flowers and trees, hills and vales, of whose 
 variety and beauty he constantly speaks with delight and 
 discernment. In every place through which he passed in 
 his journeys to and from school, he makes the most of the 
 opportunities furnished by the deliberate mode of travel 
 then prevailing, and gives himself up to the detailed 
 description of a gazetteer. Nothing striking escapes the 
 notice of his eye or the record of his pen. On his last 
 trip from the seminary he takes a roundabout route, 
 enjoys a long ride on a canal packet, examines with in- 
 terest the system of locks at Lockport, has his first sight 
 of Lake Ontario, takes in the view from Brock's monu- 
 ment, and is ravished with the glories of Niagara. All 
 these places he describes with fullness and charm, but his 
 setting forth of the wonders of the great cataract is so 
 apt and complete that this page from his journal may 
 well be copied entire : 
 
 " October 2, 1833. I am now in the dominion of his 
 majesty, William IV, sitting upon the Table Rock which 
 overhangs the mighty cataract of Niagara, within six feet 
 of the current which sweeps past me with an incalculable 
 rapidity. I am on the edge of this rock, which projects 
 some twenty feet over the stream beneath, and from this 
 point I have the finest view possible of a scene which has 
 astonished the world, and will remain till the consumma- 
 tion of time a magnificent display of eternal power. Before 
 me the whole channel of the river, half a mile wide and to 
 an unfathomable depth, seems to be excavated from the 
 solid rock, which on all sides from the water slopes 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 25 
 
 frightfully inward. This excavation is believed to be the 
 work of the stream itself, which in the progress of ages 
 has worn its way backward from Lewiston, the distance 
 of seven miles, where originally it rumbled its rugged 
 way down the sides of the mountain. But here the 
 yawning chasm finds a boundary, and over its brink pours 
 the torrent of Lake Erie. 
 
 " For a mile above, the current begins to foam and 
 whiten on the rapids, from which its slope downward is 
 very apparent. Just on the edge of the precipice it 
 sobers down to a transparent green and in an instant 
 plunges into the abyss below. At the foot of the fall an 
 unwasting column of spray arises, so thick as to obscure 
 a distant view of half the falling water. Ascending to 
 the horizon, this mist moves backward, and at the dis- 
 tance of a quarter of a mile appears like a light, fresh 
 cloud, which is observable to the traveler in any direction 
 long before he reaches the place of its formation. 
 
 " At the bottom, all is foam of the most exquisite 
 whiteness, the waters pitching and convolving together. 
 A few rods at my left is the most magnificent rainbow 
 ever beheld. It completes a semicircle very nearly. Far 
 beyond are the lower falls dashing out in startling gran- 
 deur from the forest and shrubbery which cover the bank. 
 Here and there along the steeps of the precipice are 
 dropped down spiral staircases which, being tightly in- 
 closed, prevent the passenger from the fright to which a 
 knowledge of his actual situation would expose him. 
 But the attention is drawn from those distant objects by 
 the rising wind which gives additional roughness to the 
 current and elasticity to the spray. An occasional gust 
 dashes the latter over me, while at the distance of a few 
 rods toward my left there falls a constant shower. 
 
26 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 " The eye rests for a few moments upon the picturesque 
 scenery of the island before me, the tottering bridge 
 which the boldness of some adventurer has caused to 
 extend quite over the edge of the falling water, again 
 upon the spectators wandering here and there, like my- 
 self, all wrapped in silent wonder. The scene outranks 
 every idea of the sublime that ever entered my concep- 
 tion from any source, and the situation inspires enough 
 of awe to make one y>^/ what he sees. All things seem 
 trite compared with the plunging and the roaring of the 
 mighty waters. They are beautifully terrible ! In their 
 presence language is insignificant, conception is frozen, 
 thought is dumb ! " 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 27 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Conversion. 
 
 IT was during his second year at Lima that the great 
 * change took place which colored and shaped his 
 whole future. He was converted, and, too, after the 
 time approved Methodist fashion, and with the genuine 
 Methodist results. His parents and friends did not con- 
 template any such issue from his attendance at the 
 seminary. There was in it no satisfaction for them. 
 They viewed it with regret, if not with disapproval. 
 
 " They regarded it as a deathblow to all their am- 
 bitious hopes for him. And when subsequently he 
 decided to enter the ministry, it seemed more than his 
 father could endure, ' to have his son a beggar,' as he 
 expressed it. It was no light trial for the son thus to 
 encounter the prejudices of all his relatives, and thwart 
 the wishes of those who had hitherto lavished on him not 
 only their fondest affections, but the means that had 
 contributed to his success and enjoyment. He was en- 
 abled, however, to be true to his convictions and, at the 
 same time, conciliate his friends." 
 
 His father had no sympathy with the Methodists. 
 The son had had no association with them, nor had he 
 any respect for what he supposed were their religious 
 teachings. His more recent opinions were formed 
 among Unitarians and Universalists, with whose views 
 his father, not a member of any church, openly 
 agreed. 
 
28 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 The son had been taught to read his Bible, and, in ac- 
 cordance with a promise made to his mother when he 
 left home for school, this had become with him a daily 
 habit. The occasional repetition of the Lord's Prayer 
 was his only additional religious exercise. He had also 
 been trained to attend church on Sunday. But the Sab- 
 bath was not as sacredly hedged about as in his prac- 
 tice it afterward became. Scripture and other reading 
 especially appropriate to this day were readily and with- 
 out any twinges of conscience displaced by Shakespeare, 
 the newspapers, and even Tom ^-aXv^^s Age of Reason. 
 The quiet of the day, and its intermission of other duties, 
 rendered it with him a fortunate opportunity for writing 
 compositions and addresses. On this day he drew up the 
 Constitution and By-laws of a fire engine company, and, 
 during one of his vacations, he did not scruple to spend 
 all its hours in marking goods in his father's store. 
 
 Such religious training as he had received rendered 
 allowable to him many pleasures which his moral sense 
 afterward rigidly quarantined. Card playing, the the- 
 ater, and horse racing had for him successful allure- 
 ments. But his especial passion was the dance. To its 
 indulgence he would give the entire night, and, a leader 
 among his young associates, he would organize dancing 
 parties, being frequently the master of ceremonies. 
 
 And yet during all this time there was an undercurrent 
 of virtuous thought — a serious resolve — which saved 
 him from the vapid career of " an earnest trifler.'' Both 
 by descent and training he was correct in his morals and 
 reverent in his spirit. Loving hands had already laid 
 polished stones in the foundation of his future Christian 
 character. Li the home of his uncle in Vermont there 
 was thrown around him the atmosphere of a pronounced, 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 29 
 
 if not demonstrative, piety. The grandfather, Jacob 
 Parish, of beaming, good-natured face, beloved by all, 
 was a patriarch and priest in this household. Among 
 the old-time customs he maintained was the practice of 
 saying grace at the meals with all the family standing 
 around the table. 
 
 Inherited tendencies were also in his favor. On his 
 father's side he was born to high ideals of truth and 
 honor, while from his mother he came into the posses- 
 sion of a refined religious temper. The father was a man 
 as correct in his dealings as he was erect in his person, 
 of imperious integrity, impatient even to irritation with 
 all shams and hypocrisy. His mother died with a quiet 
 faith in the Redeemer she had long trusted. A letter 
 written by her a year before her marriage shows the 
 exuberance as well as the maturity of her piety, and 
 uncovers a heart entirely given up to God. When the 
 prospect of maternity was before her she expressed the 
 desire that her child, if a son, might be a minister. As 
 far, therefore, as nature should be credited, with a work 
 which only grace can accomplish, the statement of 
 another is correct : " His sweet, gentle, and noble life 
 may be attributed in great part to his descent." 
 
 In one thus sprung we might look for a sober balance, 
 and need not be surprised to read in his journal the 
 record of his religious musings even in the artless terms 
 of a child. On the New Year's following his fifteenth 
 birthday he writes: "Rapidly and imperceptibly time 
 rolls on, and we heed it not. Sometimes the beginning 
 of a year causes us to reflect on the past more than 
 usual, and well it should. Still we ought to observe 
 every day with the same reflections — every day, be it 
 attended with unusual events or not, assists us to com- 
 
30 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 plete our probation, and hereafter let us hope to profit 
 by daily reflections." His New Year's entry two years 
 later was as follows : "I wish to realize my dependence 
 upon the Author of my being for every mercy, and pray 
 to him in fervency of soul to endow me with judgment 
 and strength to do his righteous will and walk in wis- 
 dom's paths, which are those of pleasantness." 
 
 This latter extract, written amid the hallowed in- 
 fluences of Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, would hint 
 that he was at this time in the enjoyment of a religious 
 experience. But such was not the fact, and he would 
 have been surprised, if not offended, at the suggestion. 
 He had no sympathy with a Christian profession. He 
 considered himself an unbeliever, and in a proud, cold 
 manner criticized those of his associates who claimed 
 that they enjoyed religion. " I attended a prayer meet- 
 ing of the students in the chapel," he writes ; " some of 
 them strove quite hard in the Spirit, but I imagined 
 that it was as much for the sake of making long, sonor- 
 ous prayers as anything else." 
 
 Miss Frances E. Willard * writes : " During a large 
 portion of his sojourn at Lima the religious sentiments 
 and practices of the Methodists were an unfailing source 
 of amusement to our young friend. He delighted to put 
 their advocates on the defensive, and to puzzle them 
 with the standard questions of Universalism and infidel- 
 ity. Nevertheless, the generally consistent conduct of 
 those professing to be Christians did not fail to impress 
 his mind favorably respecting a form of religion with 
 which he had not previously come in contact, and of 
 which he had learned through its enemies alone." 
 
 * Sketch of Dr. Kidder in The Ladies^ Repository^ Octoh&x^ 1871. Acknowledgments 
 a.e also hereby gratefully made for other extracts from this beautifully written article. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 31 
 
 In the fall of 1832 he was called to wait upon a 
 student who was sick. He took all care of him, and 
 when he died attended to his burial, arranging the plans 
 for the public service, collecting funds for the funeral 
 expenses, and communicating with the father. He was 
 also appointed a committee to draft resolutions. These 
 were published in the Advocate. This communion with 
 sickness, this waiting upon death, affected him. The 
 night watches by the bed of one of his own age were 
 seasons for the growth of heavenly thoughts, and in the 
 presence of the coldness and the stillness of death pur- 
 poses that were divine came to the flower. He was 
 also deeply moved by the funeral sermon preached by 
 Dr. Luckey. 
 
 Thus was Providence working in him a preparation 
 for the crisis. This came the following spring during a 
 great revival in the seminary. There had been a pro- 
 found spiritual movement -in the neighboring town of 
 Pittsford. Many of the students attended, but he did 
 not go. On March il he says: "The people returned 
 from Pittsford, and a protracted meeting commenced at 
 Lima in the Methodist chapel." Under this date he 
 enters in his journal this remark: " Had some reflections 
 upon religion." Still he kept away from the meetings at 
 the beginning, conceiving the idea that there was a pur- 
 pose among the leaders to make a Methodist of him. In 
 this course he felt justified, because, a public examination 
 being near, his studies were unusually urgent. 
 
 "At length," quoting again from the writer just 
 referred to, " one afternoon a student, whose Christian 
 character had compelled his respect, invited him to go 
 to the meeting appointed for that evening in such a man- 
 ner that neither politeness nor a sense of courage to in- 
 
32 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 vestigate truth allowed him to decline. He pledged 
 himself to go. That promise was the turning point of 
 his destiny. Once made, it suggested a train of reason- 
 ing which convinced him that if he was ever to investi- 
 gate, practically, the truth of the Christian religion, the 
 time had come. This point gained, good thoughts and 
 influences, which had before floated about him without 
 positive results, seemed to focalize in favor of a prompt 
 and right decision of the mysterious questions involving 
 the welfare and destiny of the human soul. 
 
 " When the resolution was taken to attend the meet- 
 ing it was, before evening, followed by one far higher 
 and more decisive — to make one sincere effort to know 
 and do the will of God. Before entering the church his 
 mind was made up to put himself in the way of any 
 good influences which might then and there be manifest. 
 The sermon was not specially adapted to his mental 
 condition, and while listening to it he was tempted not 
 to act as he had proposed, lest he should appear to be 
 influenced by what had, in fact, made less impression on 
 him than the kind word of his friend. But a better 
 thought prevailed, and, to the surprise of all who knew 
 him, he was one of the first to go forward and kneel at 
 the altar of prayer as a suppliant for wisdom from on 
 high. From this beginning of a sincere religious life the 
 most decisive results ensued. Plans of worldly ambition 
 gave way to an ardent desire to live for the glory of God 
 and the welfare of men. Study, instead of being pur- 
 sued wholly for the pleasure and profit it might bring, 
 was thenceforth most highly valued as an agency of 
 preparation for a life of Christian activity, and the 
 Church, before despised, was regarded with a warm and 
 pure affection," 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 33 
 
 The Story, as told in his own modest way, is as fol- 
 lows : "I felt disposed to attend meeting, went in the 
 evening, and was found among those who desired to 
 know the truths of religion, and willing to show their in- 
 terest by doing the will of God. This step was one 
 which perhaps would seem incongruous with the opinions 
 I have heretofore held. But by some agency those 
 strongholds which I have striven to fortify are removed, 
 their strength appears to be weakness, and I am con- 
 vinced that there needs to be a subjection of the human 
 understanding to the will of God and his revelation. 
 That I may make this lawful submission, be enabled to 
 see clearly by the light which cannot be hid, and to cast 
 my influence upon the side of piety and virtue, has been 
 my sincere prayer. May God hear and grant ! " The 
 next day, after remarking that he recited all his lessons 
 well, he observes : " I felt my mind occupied with the 
 thoughts of religion and a desire to know the truth as it 
 is in Jesus." On this day he is, however, tempted to 
 draw back and yields in a measure. He writes : "Al- 
 though earnestly solicited, I concluded not to attend 
 meeting. I conversed with a friend upon the subject 
 who did not profess to follow Christ. I was strength- 
 ened in my determinations, read the Bible." But the next 
 day this interruption — this fatal compromise, this attempt 
 at half way measures — is checked, the evil reaction is 
 broken, the fate of Lot's wife is escaped. He goes to 
 the church and hears a timely sermon from the Rev. 
 Mr. Ferguson upon the text, " My Spirit shall not al- 
 ways strive with man." At the close of the prayer 
 meeting which followed the sermon, he says, " I spoke 
 a few words signifying that I felt diff'erently disposed 
 toward the subject of piety, and was determined to ob- 
 3 
 
34 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 tain it." He heard the next day a sermon by the Rev. 
 Wilbur Hoag, which he describes as " most interesting 
 indeed." "The speaker's flow," he adds, "was easy, 
 simple, and elegant ; his argument close, critical, and 
 perfectly satisfactory." The text was, "Strive to enter 
 in at the strait gate." The next day, Sunday, was 
 religiously full and delightful for him, beginning with a 
 prayer meeting in Elder Grant's sitting room. Three 
 sermons and prayer meetings with crowded altars fol- 
 lowed this. The next day he says: " My mind is con- 
 stantly occupied with religious thoughts; everything 
 that I ever held as an evidence that religious professions 
 and delights were merely the offspring of delusion 
 seemed to crowd upon me to persuade me that I was 
 making myself a dupe to the same whims that I had so 
 long ridiculed and despised. But something tells me 
 that I am just beginning to be wise or rational when I 
 forsake these hiding places (which have been hunted out 
 by pride and vanity, but, most of all, for boasting com- 
 petition), and determine to take refuge in the Rock of 
 our salvation, to subject my weak judgment to the 
 standard of all truth. Elder Grant and Rev. Mr. Hoag 
 solicited me to write a communication to The Christian 
 Advocate and Journal of the progress of the work in this 
 place, saying it would be read with more interest from a 
 subject. But what ! my name to be found in a Methodist 
 newspaper confessing to the whole world that I am a 
 proselyte! What indeed will my acquaintances say? 
 I can anticipate each individual remark, wherever I have 
 been, wherever I am known. One will say, ' Silly fel- 
 low ! ' Another will be glad he is converted, but will 
 feel worse through fear that he will become a Methodist. 
 But I might make hundreds rejoice who should become 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 35 
 
 acquainted with the circumstances. That, however, 
 comes in for a show of vanity, and I think that I shall 
 not attempt it." 
 
 These were delicate balancings. Properly was he 
 governed by a regard for the approval of his friends and 
 relatives. Their good opinion had in his estimate the 
 weight of a moral obligation. And what is more, he 
 would have dealings with himself only on terms of the 
 strictest honesty. He would rather a slighted good 
 should stand against him, than that his personal vanity, 
 like a bird of prey, should frighten away the dove of 
 peace. 
 
 Fortunately also for him, at this time he was taught 
 by a simple incident the supreme importance of planting 
 an Ithuriel guard against religious self-conceit, pious self- 
 complacency, that foe of many disguises and shrewd 
 insinuations. He was in attendance upon one of the 
 prayer and testimony meetings of the revival, and ob- 
 serves that " in attempting to say a word, I found my- 
 self under the influence of my old desires to do some- 
 thing nice and pleasing. It being a very beautiful 
 morning, the snow melting and the sun beaming in 
 splendor, the thought struck me that I might bring in an 
 apt illustration and expatiate upon the cold, dark 
 burdens which the Sun of righteousness was melting 
 from our souls. I was endeavoring to arrange this iigure 
 properly in my mind, so that it half occupied my 
 thoughts during prayers. But my turn to speak came 
 second, and I was as yet unprepared. I faltered and 
 blundered along, till I was perfectly ashamed and sat 
 down. Moral : henceforth, Let your answer be. Yea, 
 yea! Nay, nay ! " On the witness stand for Christ, and, 
 by a legitimate application, in the pulpit, not the " de- 
 
36 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 sire to say or do something nice and pleasing " (rags, 
 these are, from the old Adam's wardrobe) is essential and 
 imperative, but the truth ; not rhetoric, but experience ; 
 facts, not figures of speech ! In these matters whatso- 
 ever spreads itself outside of the scant covering of the 
 " Yea, yea ! Nay, nay ! " is sin. 
 
 On this same day he received a letter from a very dear 
 friend with whom he had been long intimate, but who 
 was an unbeliever, and he remarks: " What shall I do? 
 endeavor to persuade him from his infidelity, or keep 
 silence and peace? " Two days after he adds : " I wrote 
 a letter to H.,.told him frankly of the change I had met, 
 and invited him to an unprejudiced examination of the 
 subject." About this time he persuaded two of his friends 
 to attend the meeting, and remarks : " O that the Lord 
 would strengthen them and bring them wholly from the 
 weak defense of reason to put their entire trust in the 
 divine Spirit ! " Coming away from another meeting, he 
 writes : " I felt a pleasure in associating with the meek 
 and humble followers of Christ. I determined then to 
 call off my thought and affections from the things around 
 me, and to pray humbly for this meek and lowly spirit of 
 Jesus. O that God would be with me and make fast 
 my determinations ever after to do his will and be will- 
 ing to bear his cross; that he would. guide and enlighten 
 my understanding, and give that peace which passeth 
 all understanding ! I desire that resolution which shall 
 enable me in every circumstance of life to confess with 
 my mouth and show with my actions that I wish to be a 
 Christian, and am willing to sacrifice all else to live and 
 die in the enjoyment of his mercy and blessing." 
 
 Now for the first time he attended a Methodist class 
 meeting. " Most of the converts," he adds, "joined on 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 37 
 
 probation. I refused for the present. It would be too 
 much for our people to learn that I have not only be- 
 come a convert, but a Methodist. This, however, is a 
 poor excuse, and I must examine the subject and its 
 claims." 
 
 There was at this point no long halting between two 
 opinions, and the next day he writes : " I joined the 
 class." This was Monday, March 25, 1833. It may be 
 that he was influenced to this prompt decision by a let- 
 ter which he received at this time from one of his school- 
 mates at Wyoming, informing him that he, too, had 
 been converted. 
 
 The following September he records : " Six months 
 have now elapsed since I gave my name as a probationer 
 in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and I am called 
 upon for a determination whether to accept membership 
 or not. I ought, perhaps, to charge myself with neglect- 
 ing to investigate the subject in all its bearings as fully 
 as I might have done. Yet it has often occupied my 
 mind and occasioned prayerful solicitude. Should it 
 appear obviously my duty to make any such association, 
 I have determined that I should have no excuse to de- 
 cline from any circumstances of a trifling nature that 
 might seem to forbid. I have thought it would be bet- 
 ter for me to see more of the world and of Christians 
 before making a decision of that iinportance. I con- 
 cluded, however, to receive the holy ordinance of bap- 
 tism. The reasons for this scarcely need repetition here. 
 Suffice it to say that the New Testament contains 
 numerous and plain examples and injunctions upon this 
 subject. Repentance and baptism are frequently con- 
 nected, so it seems a necessary duty in consecration of 
 one's life and hopes to the Lord." That evening, in 
 
38 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 company with three young ladies, he was baptized. He 
 says: " It was the most interesting scene of the kind I 
 ever witnessed. My own feehngs were wrought up to a 
 high sense of the sanctity of the privilege, and all present 
 seemed to join most heartily in offering petitions to God 
 that the form of godliness might be attended by the 
 power. I believe that those fervent prayers ascended to 
 a throne of mercy. May I never forget this evening! " 
 This was September 22, 1833, his last Sunday in Lima. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 39 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Joining the Church— Call to the Ministry. 
 
 'T~'HE humility and carefulness with which he pro- 
 ceeded in these early steps appear when it is 
 known that it was fully eight months after the events 
 recorded in the close of the last chapter, or con- 
 siderably more than a year after his conversion, that he 
 ventured to partake of the Lord's Supper. He says : 
 " The season was impressive. I spoke a few words signi- 
 fying the great satisfaction I felt in thus renewedly and 
 publicly dedicating myself to the love and service of God. 
 This day abounded in testimony to my own soul of the 
 truth of practical religion, and calls for the warmest as- 
 pirations of gratitude to God for the consolations of the 
 Gospel of Christ." 
 
 At length, on Sunday, March 23, 1834, while a student 
 at Hamilton College, his former scruples against Metho- 
 dism having been removed, he was taken into full con- 
 nection in the Methodist Episcopal church at Lairds- 
 ville, a small appointment near the seat of the college, 
 there being no Methodist church at Clinton. Instead of 
 writing and informing his father of this step, which he 
 knew would encounter his most obstinate objections, he 
 waited until his return in the following vacation. Then 
 he took the first opportunity in a long conversation to 
 explain the whole matter and announce his membership 
 in the Church. There were present also, on a visit from 
 Vermont, the uncle and aunt who brought him up, so 
 that to the two fathers and mothers he narrated the 
 story of the great change. Referring to the interview. 
 
40 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 he says : " Many interrogatories were put." And then 
 he adds: " O, may I show by my actions that I am a 
 member of thine eternal Church, and at all times appear 
 and be one of the ransomed of God ! " His account 
 closes with this short but touching sentence : " This 
 was a deep trial of feeling.'' A trial, it may be added, 
 that meant disappointment to the father and taxed the 
 heroism of the son. 
 
 During this time he never relaxed in the severe fidelity 
 with which he scanned his inner thoughts. " I somehow 
 find myself dull and stupid upon matters of the greatest 
 interest. I cannot enlist my feelings and energies to 
 grasp and desire for divine truths as I wish. O that 
 God would illumine this dark soul and stamp his image 
 on this heart ! " More commonly, however, his testi- 
 mony is that of a joyful and placid spirit. " This has 
 been a day," he writes of one of his Sabbaths, " of much 
 inward satisfaction to me. I trust that God has shed 
 abroad his Spirit more abundantly than I have ever felt 
 it before. O, heavenly radiance, beam still brighter on 
 my soul and wrap me up in visions of eternity ! I now 
 begin to know that the King of kings will condescend to 
 commune with the Spirit of the Church, and that this 
 communion infinitely transcends all earthly pleasure. 
 Whatever friends or foes may think, I believe it my dear- 
 est, my highest felicity, to serve my heavenly Master, 
 to strive to perform his will upon earth. I see my being, 
 my hopes, my all, proceeding from his eternal goodness, 
 and shall I refuse my heartfelt gratitude to the hand that 
 sustains me? No ! 
 
 "' I'll praise my Maker while I've breath. 
 And when my voice is lost in death. 
 Praise shall employ my nobler powers.' 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 4I 
 
 " With a religion thus unfettered and sincere I go into 
 the world in full confidence and an undisturbed reliance 
 upon the source of infinite mercy to guide me aright and 
 to guard from all delusion, and finally to bring home my 
 ransomed spirit. O, I long for thy wisdom to lead me 
 into all truth, for thy strength to enable me to preserve 
 a Christian character spotless and pure, for thy power 
 that I may perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord ! 
 
 " I feel a constant inquiry going on in my bosom, ' Am 
 I right?' Reason tells me, 'Yes,' in every form in which 
 I put the question, and the word of God follows with a 
 broad affirmation : ' Remember thy Creator in the days 
 of thy youth.' ' They that seek me early shall find me.' 
 And have I found my Creator ? I have prostrated my 
 soul. I have called on him — on the name of Jesus, whose 
 blood cleanseth from all unrighteousness, and the verity 
 of heaven is pledged that I have been heard. Yea, in 
 my own breast I feel a serenity of soul, a devotion and 
 purity of heart which testifieth, ' My Redeemer lives.' 
 May this continue ! It is thy will, O Lord ! I have 
 prayed more earnestly for pure and undefiled religion 
 than any other thing, and, through the grace of God, I 
 believe I know more about it now than I ever before 
 did." 
 
 The benefits he received from attendance at prayer and 
 class meeting are frequently referred to by him, and the 
 band meeting, which had not yet become in Methodism 
 a departed glory, he found particularly helpful. To this 
 service he often opened his own room. Of one such 
 meeting he says : " It was much needed and no less 
 beneficial. The feelings will sometimes, though imper- 
 ceptibly, become alienated from Christ, and then they 
 need an honest scrutiny and exposition." 
 
42 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Private prayer was his greatest enjoyment. These are 
 some of the expressions in which he refers to it : "I was 
 much blessed in prayer." " I had great enjoyment in 
 calling upon God." " I find relief for a troubled spirit in 
 prayer." " In my evening prayer I had a manifestation 
 of the Spirit of God such as I never before felt." 
 " Praises eternal be to his glorious name ! I cannot sing 
 as I would his praise ! I long for an angel lyre! " 
 
 His devoutness, his fidelity to the social meetings, and 
 his attention to his private duties kept him secure amid 
 all surroundings and solicitations. While at Hamilton 
 College he writes : " Christian friends complain that the 
 atmosphere of college is pernicious to piety. I believe 
 as yet I have not been infected, although exposed to the 
 influence of sin and folly in many ways. There is but 
 one antidote, and I pray God that his Spirit may ever be 
 effectual ! " The dedication and prayer with which at 
 this time he began a new volume of his journal is the 
 open speech of his heart: "As the journal of my future 
 life, a record of actions and the motives which may 
 prompt them, I would humbly dedicate this yet unsullied 
 volume to my heavenly Master, the only true and wise 
 God, the searcher of all hearts ; praying that through the 
 death and suffering of Jesus Christ, the character of its 
 unworthy author maybe wholly transformed to his right- 
 eous will ; that my every thought, word, and deed may 
 be wisely influenced by the fear and love of God ; that 
 he may give me grace and wisdom sufficient for every 
 allotment of providence, and finally bring me to the en- 
 joyment of that eternal rest prepared for those that love 
 him." 
 
 The forming and fixing of his religious principles were 
 accomplished to a great degree by the authors with 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 43 
 
 whom he kept company during this interval. Buck's 
 Theological Dictionary, Dick's Ftiture State, and Paley's 
 Natural Theology had been carefully read by him a year 
 before his conversion. But the book that was particu- 
 larly blessed to him was the Life of Dr. Adam Clarke. 
 He found it very stimulating to intellectual effort, but 
 especially did it impress him religiously. " I was much 
 delighted with it, and hope to improve greatly from it." 
 " Noble-hearted, liberal, and pious in every action, I 
 would emulate his virtues." He read also Baxter's 
 Saint's Rest, and the Memoir of John Urquhart. On 
 this latter his comment is: " By the blessing of God it 
 has in some degree put to flight my languor in his cause. 
 I long for the missionary spirit of Paul, the spirit of my 
 Saviour." The Life of James Brainerd Taylor was 
 another book that worked powerfully on his soul. He 
 regrets that he did not note down at length some of the 
 peculiar exercises of mind which he experienced while 
 reading it. " Suffice it now to say," he adds, " that my 
 faith was greatly strengthened, vows renewed, and firm 
 determinations made to strive toward perfecting holiness." 
 But for profit and enjoyment nothing took the place of 
 the Bible. He read it regularly in course, and carried 
 along with it a daily reading of the Greek Testament. 
 " The Scriptures seem to me more fruitful than they 
 ever did before. Every sentence appears to contain some 
 great and striking truth." 
 
 How shall they be converted except they hear, and 
 how shall they hear without a preacher?" Our subject 
 was converted largely through the instrumentality of the 
 preaching of the Gospel. Always a good listener to ser- 
 mons, this time he was also a doer of the word. It was 
 his fortune to sit under the preaching of Dr. Luckey. 
 
44 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Of his sermons he always took and wrote out copious 
 notes, and repeatedly he refers to them as " able," " ani- 
 mating," " instructive." In the historical register of the 
 New Jersey Conference, in answer to the question, 
 " Under whose ministry were you converted ? " he has 
 written, "Rev. Samuel Luckey, D.D., Loring Grant, and 
 others." The sermons of Rev. Schuyler Seager, D.D., 
 whom he first met at Lima, who was his roommate at 
 Wesleyan University, and his lifelong friend, he often 
 refers to as very helpful to him. It was also his provi- 
 dential blessing to hear, while he was a student at Hamil- 
 ton College, a sermon against Universalism by that giant 
 of the heroic period of Methodism, Isaac Puffer. The 
 sermon was preached on a week evening in the Presby- 
 terian church at Clinton. He records : " It was power- 
 ful and convincing. I had previously heard so much and 
 so plausibly of that doctrine that my mind was greatly 
 embarrassed by its fallacies. But those fallacies were 
 swept away as by the breath of a whirlwind by his over- 
 whelming Scripture argument. The completeness and 
 efficiency of his work in that sermon were rendered more 
 apparent to me when the Universalist preacher of the 
 place tried to answer him and miserably failed." In a 
 note added many years later, he observes : " Although 
 I did not speak with Mr. Puffer at the time, I always 
 cherished a deep sense of gratitude to that good and in 
 several senses wonderful man, for the service he rendered 
 me in that sermon. Subsequently, when residing as 
 Sunday School Editor in New York, I had an oppor- 
 tunity of expressing that thankfulness by inviting him to 
 the city, entertaining him at my house, and introducing 
 him to the pulpits of the metropolis." 
 
 The diligence already observed in Mr. Kidder as a 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 4$ 
 
 student appears now as a trait strongly emphasized in 
 his religious conduct. Duty rather than ambition pre- 
 sided over his labor, and work was a large share of the 
 grateful tribute which he was happy to lay at the feet of 
 his Master. An entry characteristic of his feelings at 
 this time was the following: " So the day passed agree- 
 ably, especially as I had the satisfaction of doing my 
 duty." 
 
 Every opportunity was to him now an occupied and 
 cultivated field. Religion was his favorite theme of con- 
 versation. He talked with his parents about the impor- 
 tance of family prayer, and, what was yet more difficult, 
 having gained their consent, he conducted these services 
 in their presence. Many years after, his mother wrote 
 him : " Although you have left us, we forget not to kneel 
 at the family altar, and have found happiness in not 
 neglecting the duty." Visiting the sick was made to 
 him a particular blessing always. He was also full of 
 public spirit, and threw himself heartily into the temper- 
 ance cause. While yet an undergraduate, he was sent 
 as a delegate from Livingston County to the State Con- 
 vention at Utica. But it was the Sunday school which 
 earliest enlisted his interest, and in this field, where he 
 afterward accomplished such significant and permanent 
 results, he was unsparingly active. At Lairdsville he 
 assisted in the organization of a Sabbath school, laboring 
 in various departments and working hard to secure it a 
 library. At this date he announced that he intended to 
 make this interest of the Church a large share of his life 
 work. 
 
 Seek first the kingdom of God, and all other things 
 shall be added unto you. Before the ship of conduct puts 
 out to sea, adjust the compass of character. Get into 
 
46 BIOGRAPHV OF 
 
 right relations witli God, before the tasks among men 
 are undertaken. This is the program of wisdom, and 
 this is that dictum of prudence which experience under- 
 writes. Unless Christ's " Seek first " enters into the 
 solution of the question of our calling in life, it will re- 
 main an impossible problem; and a dismal eternity will 
 be occupied in traversing, but not correcting, the mis- 
 takes we have made. 
 
 In studying the features of the critical religious change 
 through which we have followed Mr. Kidder, we have 
 been made familiar with a spirit careful and conscientious, 
 a judgment patiently convinced, a heart thoroughly con- 
 verted, and a life entirely consecrated. The effect of this 
 remodeling of his character appears now in his choice of 
 a field for his future activities. He had long been per- 
 plexed with the question, " What shall be my life 
 work?" In plan and experiment he had canvassed 
 several schemes, with the single result of deciding that 
 he was more than ever undecided. 
 
 Although he had shown marked ability in mercantile 
 pursuits, they were with a brief but sufficient trial dis- 
 missed as uncongenial. A military career had been at 
 one time seriously considered, and some preliminary 
 steps taken toward an appointment as a cadet at West 
 Point. But in consequence of investigations which he 
 made, this project was marched in double-quick time 
 and out of sight across the field of his outlooks. He was 
 also seriously affected with the fever of emigration then 
 rife, and studied maps and guidebooks, and then again 
 he was found balancing toward the bar. He had in him a 
 propelling power; he meant to do something and some- 
 thing worthy, but what? This was the tangled puzzle 
 that clung about his thoughts and clogged the wings of 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 47 
 
 his endeavor. He writes: " The old subject is hanging 
 around with tenfold earnestness. My mind for several 
 days has been seriously occupied in relation to a course 
 of future life." 
 
 And again: "The week past I have been constantly 
 meditating about what course I should next take, or oc- 
 cupation determine upon for life." 
 
 But happily now, coincident with his conversion, an 
 end to these buffetings is revealed. The misty envelope 
 which had so long obscured this question was blown into 
 shreds, and out of chaos rolled his duty, a well-defined 
 and sunlit thing ! His soul had felt the touch of Deity ! 
 Never again could it come down to the pursuit of mere 
 secular ends, nor stoop to a motive so low as either fame 
 or wealth. " Fame," he insists, " is but a bauble, and 
 those who gain it often realize that it is a worthless 
 one." And concerning money-making it was his ex- 
 pressed opinion, that " when a young man engages in 
 the accumulation of property the perplexities and cares 
 of business soon absorb his attention, thought, and time, 
 and by degrees he is led on to a still closer connection 
 with what is deemed his interest, so that the opportunity 
 of cultivating his mind and those powers which would 
 elevate him as an intellectual being is lost, and his life 
 must ever after be confined to the same toils and per- 
 plexities of which there can be little melioration. It is 
 admitted on all hands that the more one becomes in- 
 volved in the possession or pursuit of wealth, the more 
 avaricious and discontented he becomes, and it is rare 
 that anyone rests satisfied with a competency." All 
 other considerations being thus ruled out, there was left 
 to him the one sublime purpose of living for the benefit 
 of others, of imitating Him who went about doing good. 
 
48 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 " Should a man's object," he asks, " be in choice to pro- 
 mote his own happiness or the good of others ? Would 
 it not be a happy coincidence if both were connected?" 
 Of course, to a nature thus ardent and wholly given up 
 to God and the welfare of his fellow-creatures, it was 
 natural that the ministry, and even the missionary work 
 with its larger sacrifice, would open up as particularly at- 
 tractive. " My mind," he writes, " has been constantly 
 occupied with the subject of the Gospel ministry." Fre- 
 quent conversations with Dr. Luckey also pressed his 
 convictions in the same direction. 
 
 His delicate sense of filial obligation however forbade 
 that he proceed a step farther in this momentous deci- 
 sion until his father is informed and his consent is se- 
 cured. " I am resolved to communicate with my father 
 on the subject." A few days after this entry he wrote 
 the following letter: 
 
 " My dear Father : — I now address you upon a subject 
 which has for some time burdened my mind ; it relates 
 to that of which we have often conversed together, 
 namely, choosing a profession for life. 
 
 " You will recollect that when we have heretofore dis- 
 cussed the various conditions and situations of life, there 
 has been one which invariably, and perhaps I" may say 
 wisely, has been left out of consideration. It is the Gos- 
 pel ministry. 
 
 "What your thoughts in relation to this may have 
 been I know not ; mine have very seldom reverted to 
 it, and when they have I have always dismissed the sub- 
 ject as one with which deliberate choice had little or 
 nothing to do. During some portion of the summer of 
 1833 this rather indirectly occupied considerable of my 
 mind, but was afterward dropped, and I believe I am 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 49 
 
 safe in saying that until within a few weeks past I have 
 never contemplated that task as one which would de- 
 volve upon me. 
 
 " Perhaps any person in determining upon an occupa- 
 tion would avow that to be the object of his choice in 
 which he could be most useful to his fellow-beings and 
 himself, could that be ascertained ; and especially every 
 sincere Christian would feel bound to devote himself to 
 that calling in which he would best subserve the inter- 
 ests of the Redeemer's kingdom. 
 
 " It seems that the declaration of our Saviour was 
 never more emphatically true than at present, ' Verily, 
 the harvest is great, but the laborers are few.' From 
 the islands of the great Pacific, and the Rocky Mountains 
 of our own continent, even to China and the farther 
 India, there is one unceasing cry for that word of life 
 which was sent for the healing of the nations. We are 
 commanded to " Pray the Lord of the harvest to send 
 laborers into his vineyard,' but with what faith or what 
 sincerity can we pray when we ourselves sit idle ? We 
 hope, too, for the dawn of millennial glory, but how 
 heartless must be those hopes when we ourselves are 
 willing to suffer no inconvenience for the sake of hasten- 
 ing its approach. The parting command of Jesus rests 
 upon Christians with all the force of a summary, a dying 
 injunction, ' Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
 Gospel to every creature.' And it surely proves that 
 we are none of his if we do not his commandments, 
 but wish to throw them all upon the shoulders of other 
 men. 
 
 " You are aware that no motives of human expediency 
 
 would lead me for a moment to think upon pursuing 
 
 such a course of life. And it is well for the cause of 
 4 
 
50 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Christ that he has made no promises which can tempt 
 worldly ambition ; he has rather taught his disciples to 
 expect persecution and hatred from the world. The 
 servant of Christ must take his life in his hand and go to 
 do his Master's will (I speak not of such as call them- 
 selves his servants and go to court the favor of men) ; he 
 must go relinquishing ' all that can flatter, all that can 
 please ' the earthly mind ; to sustain responsibilities at 
 which humanity would shudder were it not for the heart- 
 cheering promise, ' Lo, I am with you alway, even unto 
 the end of the world.' 
 
 " If, perchance, at this unlooked-for intelligence from 
 me, you should feel a harassing and almost insufferable 
 disappointment to your expectations (for I know not 
 what other terms to employ), you may form some idea 
 of the emotions which filled my mind on first considering 
 this as above described. What, to leave all to follow 
 Him ! To relinquish prospects, which dawn with all the 
 charms of promise upon the youthful mind ; and that, 
 too, for the humble office of winning souls to Christ! 
 And yet in him I hope for eternal life. He it was that 
 suffered and died, that whosoever believeth on him might 
 not perish, but have everlasting life. But I have since 
 considered all these things cautiously, and weighed the 
 sneers of 'worldly wisemen,' which I know will fall upon 
 me and perhaps upon my friends. I trust, too, that I 
 have prayerfully considered the injunction and promises 
 of the word of God ; the result is that as far as human 
 reason can perform its office this appears the path of 
 duty ; and as far as love to God and hope in his glorious 
 promises can impel me to action, it is to spend and be 
 spent in his cause. 
 
 " We are both aware, my dear father, of the impro- 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 5 1 
 
 priety of any person enlisting in any pursuit for life where 
 he cannot engage with animation and zeal, although 
 many powerful considerations may incline him toward it. 
 This has been the chief reason why the kind proposals 
 which you have so often made me, and which I am con- 
 vinced were offered with a sole reference to my good, 
 have never been accepted. I could not accept them, be- 
 cause my taste, my feelings, I cannot say what else, have 
 forewarned me that I could never be happy in calling 
 forth all my exertions, in spending my life in the course 
 they would direct. But here is a cause in which I can 
 lay out every energy, and when all is gone, weep, not 
 like Alexander ' that there was not another world to 
 conquer,' but that I have nothing more to sacrifice for 
 my Redeemer. I do not know that you will appreciate 
 these motives, I do not know but you will attribute these 
 workings of my mind to a false enthusiasm, but I will not 
 deny myself the illusions of hope if such they must prove ; 
 I can but think that your judgment will approve my 
 resolutions and your prayers sustain them ; I can but 
 believe that you will be willing and more than wilHng to 
 relinquish even an only son to the service of Him who 
 hath ' died for all, that they which live should not hence- 
 forth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for 
 them, and rose again.' If you are not so, let me entreat 
 you to ask counsel and wisdom of Him who giveth liber- 
 ally and upbraideth not. Do search the Scriptures and 
 see if these things be so ; see if the awful warnings and 
 blessed promises are not directed to us, even us, if we 
 will but receive them. 
 
 " I am very thankful for the full assurance which I feel, 
 that although such a providence may seem afflicting for 
 the present, yet we shall all one day have reason to re- 
 
52 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 joice on its account ; and if the time come no sooner, it 
 will at least be 
 
 When the dreams of life have fled, 
 When its wasted lamps are dead, 
 When in cold oblivion's shade, 
 Beauty, wealth, and fame are laid. 
 
 " I shall wait with the greatest anxiety to receive 
 counsel and advice from you. I remain, as ever, your 
 affectionate son. 
 
 " Hamilton College, April i8, 1834." 
 
 In sending this beautiful, impressive; and, as we would 
 think, sufficient letter, he prays, " May the Holy Ghost 
 attend that silent and speaking messenger ! " 
 
 Two weeks after, the following answer came : 
 
 " My dear and affectionate Son : — Your letter was re- 
 ceived, and its subject fully considered. In answer to the 
 important question which you refer to my judgment, I am 
 ready to acknowledge my insufficiency for these things. 
 I wiH not deny that I have been much perplexed on ac- 
 count of the profession that you might select ; but as far 
 as I am able to speak I have ever been willing that your 
 inclinations and desires should govern without being 
 influenced by my opinions. 
 
 " I have long been satisfied that for a person to be use- 
 ful in any calling his taste ought to be gratified, other- 
 wise a want of zeal and animation in the prosecution of 
 his tasks would render the incumbent a drone rather 
 than a profitable member in society. 
 
 " Choosing a profession for life, no doubt, is a criticfil 
 act for you, and I must say is an anxious one for me. I 
 had flattered myself that you would not have deemed it 
 important to select a vocation until you had graduated at 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 53 
 
 college. Though I had reason to believe that you had 
 many trials on your mind in relatibn to preparing for the 
 ministry, yet knowing that our minds are susceptible of 
 change, and considering the length of time that would 
 intervene, I always dismissed the subject without much 
 reflection. You now inform me that after deliberating 
 on the matter and weighing all the consequences, the 
 result of your thought is that you must preach the Gos- 
 pel, and you desire my advice. I have endeavored to 
 exercise all my rational faculties in this delicate situation, 
 and I would so communicate my sentiments as not to 
 wound the cause you espouse. I consider the preaching 
 of the Gospel an appointment from heaven learned in 
 the school of Christ, and not a profession to be acquired 
 of man. If I know my own heart I desire your happi- 
 ness and would not influence you to relinquish a calling 
 that, as you see it, would add to your usefulness and en- 
 joyment. I therefore leave the matter with you and the 
 God of us both. In him and in his government let us 
 put our trust. That good health and the consolations of 
 the Gospel of Christ may attend you is the ardent wish 
 of your father. 
 
 "Darien Center, N. Y., April ■it, 1834." 
 
 Upon the receipt of this loving and considerate mes- 
 sage he remarked, " I believe my prayer has been heard. " 
 
 The following August, while home on a vacation, he 
 records : " I had a long and most interesting conversa- 
 tion with my mother on the subject of my calling. She 
 expressed her perfect willingness that I should go forth, 
 and her belief that it would be for the best. The Lord 
 is merciful ! This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvel- 
 ous in our eyes ! My soul shall praise him ! " 
 
54 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Wesleyan University — Professorship in Amenla Semi- 
 nary — Licensed to Preach. 
 
 " T BADE adieu to my beloved parents and friends 
 *■ again to sojourn among strangers." This record 
 in his journal refers to his departure from Darien for 
 Middletown, Conn. With purpose in life finally fixed, 
 with plans for preparation clearly defined, with con- 
 science at rest, and with a glad heart, he set out for his 
 new college home. 
 
 At half past four in the morning he took the stage, 
 September lo, 1834. That evening he reached 
 Rochester. His route from there on was to Utica and 
 Schenectady by packet on the canal, by rail to Albany, 
 by steamboat to New York, and to Middletown by 
 Connecticut River steamer. 
 
 At Utica he was the guest of Rev. Mr. Paddock over 
 Sunday, hearing him preach and enjoying a class meet- 
 ing at his house. " Thus Providence threw me in the 
 way of what I most needed. It was delightful after the 
 dissipation of mind attendant upon traveling to join in 
 the songs of Zion. Truly an antepast of heaven ! " The 
 trip down the Hudson and a day spent in New York 
 and Brooklyn were a great treat to him. At the Book 
 Room, the scene of his future labors and successes, he 
 met Revs. L. Clark, F. Mason, and Dr. Fisk, President 
 of Wesleyan University. To the latter he presented his 
 letter of introduction from Dr. Luckey. He had also 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 55 
 
 another letter from Dr. Luckey, giving him directions 
 for this his first visit to the metropolis. On account of 
 the names and allusions of historical interest it contains, 
 a few extracts may be ventured. It directs him to go 
 first of all to the Book Room, 200 Mulberry Street, 
 where he will meet the Rev. Mr. Holdich, and adds : 
 " This is quite uptown ! " The letter continues : " On 
 entering the city your nearest place among friends will 
 be Mr. TBenjamin Mead's, Joseph Mead's father. Joseph 
 will be glad to see you, and the family will make you 
 welcome. They live on Pearl Street, between Whitehall 
 and Broad Streets, on the left-hand side — name on the 
 door. Dr. Fisk usually puts up at Mr. Mark Disosway's, 
 in Stone Street, near Mr. Mead's. Further uptown 
 eastwardly. Cliff Street, near Pearl, you will find the 
 Harpers." 
 
 The young student must have overdone somewhat his 
 sight-seeing in the great cities, for in the evening, on the 
 boat going up the Sound, he was not well. "I was 
 very sick, seasick or something nearly as bad. I did not 
 know but the deathly hands of the cholera were on me. 
 I got my berth about eight o'clock, and slept about two 
 hours. I was very near the tremendous water wheels, 
 which gave me no rest, dreamed over the whole train of 
 steamboat accidents, expected every minute the boiler 
 would burst and I should find myself swimming. I 
 spent a very unhappy night." But joy came in the 
 morning with his arrival at Middletown, the greeting of 
 former acquaintances, and the opening of his much 
 loved tasks. He was generously received, and soon felt 
 at home. The warmer cordiality of the professors and 
 students, and the religious sympathy deeper than at 
 Hamilton College, were observed by him. In the same 
 
56 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 class with him were Davis W. Clark, afterward Bishop, 
 and Henry Bannister, later his associate at Evanston. 
 
 At once he plunged into close and continuous appli- 
 cation, for he found his classes about three weeks ahead 
 of him. This labor, however, was the rather an exhilara- 
 tion, and such was his capacity for work that he added 
 to his regular tasks the study of German. During the 
 fall his friend, Mr. Seager, arrived, and they roomed to- 
 gether. He went with him one Sunday to Cheshire, 
 where Mr. Seager preached at the dedication of the rjew 
 church. They were charmingly entertained by Governor 
 and Mrs. Samuel A. Foote, the parents of Commodore 
 Foote. 
 
 Soon after coming to Middletown he conducted a 
 searching self-examination, humbly confessed his un- 
 worthiness and instability of experience, and then wrote 
 out the following covenant : 
 
 " May the privileges of this year be sanctified to the 
 good of my soul. May every root of bitterness be torn 
 from my heart. May the Christian graces bloom and 
 flourish there. May the infinite perfections of Jehovah 
 awaken a holy emulation to be conformed to his image 
 and assimilated to his likeness. To this end I entreat 
 his blessing upon me in the observance of the following 
 rules, which shall be in force until altered upon the con- 
 viction of sound judgment and the enlightening influence 
 of the Holy Spirit : 
 
 " I. To spend two hours daily in heading the Scriptures 
 and devout prayer. 
 
 " 2. To watch for and check every rising of self- 
 esteem. 
 
 " 3. To use constant and unrertiitting endeavors to 
 restrain my habitual wanderings of mind both in devo- 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 57 
 
 tion and study, and acquire a habit of close attention 
 and patient thought. 
 
 " 4. To devote two hours, and no more, to each of my 
 lessons. 
 
 " 5- To spend one hour or more in vigorous exercise. 
 
 " 6. To leave my studies at a proper time at night and 
 rise upon first awaking." 
 
 Toward the close of the year he writes : " My outward 
 circumstances here are in every way agreeable. My soul 
 is daily blessed with the love of God and a sense of his 
 forgiveness. I have determined by the aid of my Master 
 to act up to Taylor's maxim, ' Forgo everything else 
 rather than the baptisms of the Holy Ghost.' Blessed 
 Jesus, assist me to perform my sacred vows ! Thy 
 service is more delightful than ever, and I hope never to 
 forsake it." On the last Sunday of this year he at- 
 tended the funeral of a fellow-student, whom he describes 
 as a true Christian, and closes a tribute to his worth 
 with the prayer that his last end may be like his. 
 
 He attended a watch-night service for the first time. 
 "Another year is ended," he exclaims, " and I am in 
 the enjoyment of everything necessary to human happi- 
 ness. Perfect health and opportunities for study give 
 me what I most desire as to earthly good, and the Spirit 
 of the blessed God gives me happiness more substantial 
 
 than these. 
 
 " ' O, for a thousand tongues to sing 
 My great Redeemer's praise ! ' 
 
 " ' Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me 
 bless his holy name ! ' " 
 
 The college year ended July 12, 1835. He made an 
 address at the junior exhibition. His subject was Com- 
 mon Sense. The period had been a very busy one. He 
 
58 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 had been interested in a theological class conducted 
 weekly by Dr. Fisk, and for this had prepared several 
 papers. He had been a constant attendant at the mis- 
 sionary lyceum, and active in its exercises. He had also 
 spoken at Middletovvn and the neighboring places on 
 temperance and missions. 
 
 " My studies have been pleasant and profitable, and 
 my health has never been better. I have been deficient 
 in no college duties and absent from but one recitation, 
 which was on account of an engagement. 
 
 "My peace of mind and joy in believing have been 
 uninterrupted. 1 liave attended upon all the stated 
 means of grace with regularity. I have read the Scrip- 
 tures more and been more regular in my private devo- 
 tion than ever before for so long a time. Morning, 
 evening, and at noon I have practiced calling upon 
 God. In connection with my beloved roommate, I have 
 read more or less in the Greek Testament, and by re- 
 deeming a little commonly wasted time .we have now 
 read about two thirds of it in course. Since the year 
 began we have also followed Stowe's Guide to the 
 Regular Perusal of the Holy Scriptures, reading four 
 chapters daily." 
 
 The six weeks' summer vacation he spent with his 
 Vermont friends and amid the scenes of his boyhood 
 years. In traveling up the Connecticut valley and 
 about New England, that he might the better see the 
 country in its geological and other features, he made a 
 good share of the journey on foot, and was often both 
 weary and footsore. He visited all the institutions of 
 learning both in and out of his way. East Windsor, 
 Amherst, Dartmouth, Burlington (Vermont University), 
 Middlebury, Andover, and Harvard. A little later 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 59 
 
 than this he visited Yale College, and at the theological 
 seminary he heard Dr. N. W. Taylor lecture. He also 
 visited and studied the larger towns, being particularly 
 interested in the manufacturing centers. Boston was to 
 him as a great university itself. At Salem he enjoyed 
 the museum of the East India Marine Company. 
 
 Although this New England trip was profitable to 
 him, in many respects he confessed that it had been in- 
 dulged with a loss to his spiritual growth and enjoy- 
 ment. " My religious feelings during vacation had been 
 seriously affected. By degrees I had seemingly relaxed 
 the hold of that faith by which I ought to have stood. 
 Never during my whole religious course had I suffered 
 so powerful temptations, such painful struggles of soul. 
 This undoubtedly was owin^ tomsufficieTit watclifulness 
 against the evils attending the circumstances in which I 
 was thrown and which were so different from those in 
 which I had so long been. Again, I omitted taking my 
 Bible, thinking it would be too much inconvenience 
 when walking, and sometimes I was unable to procure 
 a copy when I could use it for several days in succession. 
 The regularity of my devotions was also often disturbed 
 (seemingly by necessity). I began to give way to solic- 
 itude about the future, to doubt of its being my duty to 
 preach the Gospel, and even of the truth of religion and 
 the reality of its sacred joys. I could from the bottom 
 of my soul say : ' O, wretched man that I am ! ' And 
 yet the Lord did not forsake me or suffer me to betray 
 my weakness by outwardly omitting any duty. I found 
 myself endeavoring to walk by sight and not by faith. 
 Blessed be God, who again received the returning wan- 
 derer, and caused the light of his countenance to shine 
 upon him ! " 
 
6o BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 During his last year at college, in November, Mr. 
 Kidder was licensed to exhort by the Rev. Bartholomew 
 Creagh, and the following watch-night, at Middlefield, he 
 delivered his first pulpit address. His subject was 
 " Watching." Of all his studies at this time he most en- 
 joyed his Hebrew Bible. As he must soon leave college 
 and take up his life work, he became intensely interested 
 as to where might be its field. But Providence unraveled 
 all complications and answered all his questions before 
 they grew perplexing. In January he was strongly urged 
 to take the position of Professor of Ancient Languages 
 in Amenia Seminary, at Amenia, Dutchess County, 
 N. Y. He was highly recommended for this chair by 
 the faculty of the university. 
 
 This position, besides being a most honorable distinc- 
 tion, would assist toward his support. Yet, it was in 
 response to purely unselfish motives that he accepted it. 
 His only aim was to do good. He writes : " I yielded 
 to a very urgent solicitation to accept the office of 
 teacher in Amenia Seminary, engaging only for the re- 
 mainder of the college year, thinking that perhaps by 
 extra effort I might accomplish my quotum of study and 
 be of some benefit to others, while in the meantime I 
 might be improving in the knowledge of men and things, 
 and be doing and getting some good in a moral sense. 
 Had I sought my own intellectual improvement or my 
 own ease or gratification, I never should have left my 
 room and privileges in college. I endeavored to decide 
 the question as a matter of duty and not to give self the 
 preference in a case in which the interests of men were 
 concerned." 
 
 On Monday, February i, 1836, he started in company 
 with the principal of the seminary. Rev. F. Merrick, and 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 6l 
 
 "passed through Hartford and Farmington, stayed at 
 Bristol, the famous village of clock factories. Tuesday, 
 passed through Plymouth, Northfield, Litchfield, and 
 stayed at a genuine temperance tavern. Wednesday, 
 passed through Sharon, Conn., and reached Amenia, 
 N. Y., in the evening, having had a tedious ride over 
 drifted roads in the most severely cold weather of the 
 winter. The following day I entered upon the duties of 
 the school, which will be laborious. I do not find my 
 situation just as I expected. The school is not in a 
 state of forwardness, to compare with any academy or 
 seminary I have ever attended. But the materials are 
 here, and the wants are felt, which renders labor encourag- 
 ing and changes inconvenience into a sort of self-denial 
 which is agreeably met. Had I come with any other 
 motive than that of sacrificing my own comforts for the 
 good of others, I should have been discontented ; but 
 with this to direct me I found no room for despondency 
 or opportunity to exercise any other than the feelings of 
 the purest benevolence. My classes in Greek, Latin, 
 French, and mathematics were numerous, filling up the 
 working hours of the day. Besides attending to them 
 all in their turn I continued my college studies by im- 
 proving the early morning hours." After a time he was 
 interrupted. This four o'clock work of winter mornings 
 told severely on his eyes, and they became inflamed. 
 But resting them a while, he went on again and finished 
 his course, presenting himself at the college for examina- 
 tion, passing successfully, graduating with honor in a 
 class of sixteen, August 24, 1836. His commencement 
 oration was on Skepticism, and he was so full of his sub- 
 ject that he says he " wished to go on and speak in favor 
 of the claims and truth of religion." 
 
62 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 During the preceding spring vacation he took a trip 
 through Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. In 
 Philadelphia, for the first time, he saw a Methodist Con- 
 ference in session ; in Baltimore he preached in Wesley 
 Chapel, and at Washington he heard in the Senate the 
 three giants of those days, Webster, Clay, and Calhoun. 
 " Washington as a city has disappointed me. Consider- 
 ing its superior location and advantages, it is positively 
 afflicting to see the want of enterprise and downright 
 negligence which characterize its appearance. The pub- 
 lic buildings, upon which many millions have been ex- 
 pended by the government, form a marked exception to 
 this censure. The Capitol, perhaps, as such exceeds my 
 preconception of it. There is a magnificence in its style 
 and extent which charms me. I love to linger among 
 the massive pillars that adorn its domes and arches." 
 
 On his way from Amenia to Middletown, for his 
 graduation, he spent a Sabbath in New York, and, the 
 pastor being sick, he was asked to preach in Seventh 
 Street Church, called then Bowery Village. Also, in the 
 evening, in the Allen Street Church, he preached to an 
 audience of near a thousand, " the largest assembly I 
 ever addressed. Dr. Luckey sat in the pulpit and the 
 Rev. S. Marvin in the altar. Notwithstanding these em- 
 barrassing circumstances the Lord gave me liberty. My 
 text was John 17. 20: 'Neither pray I for these alone, 
 but for them also which shall believe on me through 
 their word.'" These were his first pulpit efforts in the 
 metropolis. 
 
 His appointment to a professorship at Amenia occurred 
 most opportunely in confirmation of his purpose to 
 adopt the work of the Christian ministry. He had been 
 apparently weakening in his choice of this calling. A 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 63 
 
 week before he accepted the invitation to Amenia he 
 makes this record : " I find that for a long period I have 
 partially let slip the definite object of preparing specific- 
 ally for the active work of the ministry of the cross, 
 which on former occasions fired my soul with animation. 
 I had by degrees taken it for granted that it would be 
 best for me to enter some situation for instruction, and 
 perhaps connect its duties with studies and labors as far 
 as convenient. Anticipation would not be at rest, but 
 was constantly figuring out the best of circumstances, 
 and laying plans to secure them. Thus at times a train 
 of unholy anxieties would rush through the mind, tram- 
 pling in the dust the humble plant of unwavering afld 
 childlike reliance upon the direction and subjection to 
 the will of God. I began to think of honors and digni- 
 ties, and the face of God was often hidden with thick 
 clouds from my soul. 
 
 " In answer to my father, who had written wishing to 
 know what course I should adopt, I was about to write 
 and mention some plans which I thought pretty well 
 concerted. But I concluded first to seek the counsel of 
 my heavenly Parent. I did so, believing that if any man 
 lacketh wisdom, by asking of the Almighty he will be 
 directed. I was conscious of a nearness of access to 
 which I had long been a stranger, and which brought 
 peace to mj^ soul. In v/riting I endeavored to set the 
 advantages of each course clearly forth so that I might 
 decide between them. They seemed to preponderate in 
 favor of preaching the Gospel directly and without em- 
 barrassment. And in again looking upon the sacrifices 
 of the cross, its burdens and its joys, my heart was glad." 
 
 God's method in answering his prayer for wisdom was to 
 call him to Amenia. Here, besides teaching and studying, 
 
64 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 he was soon busy with public speaking in missionary and 
 temperance meetings, and what was still more to the 
 purpose in settling the future for him, he was, ere he 
 was aware of it, engaged in leading class meetings, con- 
 ducting public services, and giving exhortations, speaking 
 occasionally three times in one Sunday, his services 
 being held not only in Amenia, but also in neighboring 
 places. All the while he was disposed to be an honest 
 critic upon himself. " Having endeavored to speak 
 twice I was enabled to make some observations upon 
 myself and my manner that I hope will be of service. 
 One thing must hereafter be regarded as indispensable — 
 preparation ! And this I hope will remedy repetition of 
 thought and language." 
 
 Very early in his stay at Amenia he became engaged 
 in revival work. The meetings were absorbingly interest- 
 ing. " Seldom and perhaps never before have I felt so 
 deep an anxiety for the souls of others." A list is still 
 preserved of the names of those converted during this 
 meeting. The first names are of two young ladies — 
 daughters in a family who had as little respect for Metho- 
 dists as had his own friends. One of these afterward 
 became his wife, and the sister went as a teacher in the 
 same mission where he was employed. 
 
 Permitted thus to gather seals to his ministry, all his 
 doubts as to God's will concerning his appointed life 
 work were dispersed. Having spoken at one time in 
 the chapel of the seminary on the Commission of the 
 Prophets, he remarks : " I had made preparation with 
 study and prayer, and God was pleased to assist me. If 
 I could always feel my dependence upon him, and have 
 my heart closed to sinful desires, then by the aid of his 
 Spirit I might, by warning the wicked, deliver my soul 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 65 
 
 from their blood. May God ever keep me humble and 
 give me souls for my hire." As showing that there vi^as 
 now in him no thought of variableness on this question 
 of his work, he observes: "I had frequent solicitations 
 to engage in the services of the sanctuary. I did not 
 feel at liberty to refuse. The official members of the 
 church and the preachers took measures to procure me 
 a license in the interval of the Quarterly Conference. In 
 entering thus upon what I had long believed my duty if 
 Providence should thus direct, I found great satisfaction 
 as well as spiritual and mental improvement, for which, 
 as well as his assisting grace, the glory shall all be given 
 to God." 
 
 He was duly licensed as a local preacher, March, 1836, 
 by Rev. Ebenezer Washburn, of the New York Confer- 
 ence. The same month he received from Dr. Luckey a 
 letter, in which he strongly counseled him to give him- 
 self to the work of preaching rather than that of teach- 
 ing. The first sermon which he preached after receiving 
 his license was at Sharon, Conn., March 27. The text 
 was Neh. 4. 20, " Our God shall fight for us " — an eager 
 challenge from one who hoped to be a good soldier of 
 the Church militant. He read at this time the Life of 
 Summerfield, and was disposed to make comparisons un- 
 favorable to himself : " I was much reproved ; his tender- 
 ness of conscience, my callousness ; his devotion to 
 Scriptural study, my indifference." Whatever disposi- 
 tion toward self-flattery he may have had was rigorously 
 suppressed, and as he took the field toward which con- 
 science had been calling him and Providence pressing 
 him, he was determined to recognize only the approval 
 that came down from above. 
 
 His license was not to lie in a dormant hand. It had 
 5 
 
66 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 come to him as a sword whose challenge was, " Advance 
 a step ! " With energies keyed up, with faculties poised, 
 and with zeal as it were on tiptoe, he strained forward, 
 waiting for the sign which should give direction to that 
 step. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 6/ 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Preaching as a Supply — Joining Conference. 
 
 /^NE of the preachers on the Amenia Circuit failing 
 ^-^ in health, Mr. Kidder was asked to take his place, 
 and did so, as a supply under the presiding elder, Rev. 
 Marvin Richardson. He took his turn in visiting the 
 five charges of the circuit, namely. North East, Sepa- 
 rate, Oblong, Washington, and Sharon. He had been 
 urged to this work as soon as he received his license, 
 and immediately after his graduation at Middletown he 
 made his arrangements to give himself more undividedly 
 to it. Meanwhile he continued his duties as professor 
 at Amenia until the end of the school year, which was 
 the 23d of the following October, when, as he said and 
 supposed, he " terminated his career of teaching." "It 
 has been a pleasant task," he adds, " and I trust not a 
 profitless one to myself and others." He resigned his 
 chair in favor of his classmate, Davis W. Clark. 
 
 He was the more willing to undertake these high 
 duties, even while finishing his course as a student and 
 still occupied as a teacher, for the excellent reasons, as 
 he puts them, that " I find that I shall enjoy superior 
 facilities for learning the usages and becoming ac- 
 quainted with the institutions of our Church in the 
 place where Methodism has been so long and so pros- 
 perously in operation. What is very gratifying, I have 
 the assurance of being cordially received by our people, 
 and of having both their prayers and their cooperation 
 
68 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 in every effort to do good. Since I have formed the 
 purpose of taking up regularly and exclusively the work 
 of the ministry, I find my feelings in behalf of the work 
 to have gained a pitch and a permanency they have not 
 before had. I feel an ardent desire to be engaged in the 
 labor for souls, and earnestly pray that I may be fully 
 qualified by spiritual gifts for working effectually." 
 
 His release from teaching must have been very grati- 
 fying to him, for a revival was already prevailing on the 
 circuit, and all his time and strength were needed for his 
 special work. His religious enjoyments were of a high 
 order. He practiced fasting with profit, and was filled 
 with a burning desire for holiness. 
 
 During the week in which he met the other preachers 
 on the circuit and gave them his consent to go at once 
 as their colleague and take appointments, he wrote to his 
 father concerning his purpose, and also addressed a let- 
 ter with a like message to the uncle in Vermont who 
 brought him up. In his communication to his father, 
 besides seeking his approval upon this plan, he asked 
 him for a horse and outfit, so that he might travel his 
 circuit. 
 
 While awaiting an answer he received from his father 
 a letter dated a day in advance of his own, containing 
 the tenderest sentiments regarding his approaching 
 twenty-first birthday. " You are now," he wrote, " about 
 arriving at that age in life when custom has made the 
 child in some degree free from the control of the parent, 
 and consequently has discharged the parent from many 
 of his obligations to the child. This age will, I suppose, 
 make no material change to you, yet it is an eventful 
 period to you and to me, one that ehcits many hopes 
 and fears. I think much in subsequent life depends 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 69 
 
 upon a good beginning. I am satisfied that I have 
 given myself unnecessary concern on your account, and 
 perhaps injured your feelings, but you will attribute all 
 to good motives and allow me still to continue to follow 
 after you with ardent affection, whatever may be your 
 business or calling. The future is now, as it has been 
 before, fully submitted to you, and I am most of the 
 time quite happy in such a reflection, and I flatter my- 
 self that 1 shall never regret the great sacrifice I have 
 made ; most certainly I shall not should you continue 
 respectable and happy. You will avail yourself of an 
 early opportunity to acquaint us with your circum- 
 stances, prospects, and determinations for the future." 
 
 These affectionate expressions most naturally en- 
 couraged the son to look for a favorable response to his 
 request. But, instead, the answer when it did come 
 sorely dashed his hopes, and for the first time his father 
 seemed cold. In part he said: "You will recollect that 
 my advice to you when at Amenia was for you to spend 
 a year or two in teaching after graduating, so that you 
 could supply yourself with library and such other ap- 
 pendages as would be indispensable. This appeared to 
 me reasonable and proper. But in case you could not 
 submit to that course, but must go immediately upon a 
 circuit, I concluded you would come home and I could 
 assist you to a horse and such other articles as would 
 be necessary, without serious inconvenience. But your 
 change of purpose has rendered such an accommodation 
 out of my power, and has subjected me to disappoint- 
 ment, but not to despair. I hope there is some way for 
 you to get along well ; but it is hid from me. I have 
 counted the outfit for the first year, horse and equipage, 
 carriage and harness; these will require $250. Your 
 
■JO BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 salary of $ioo may cover your incidental expenses, but 
 your outfit will bring you immediately in debt without 
 the means of discharging it. I know of no way I could 
 send you a horse if I had one. Besides, it is inconsistent 
 to my mind that a society of men should permit ayoung 
 man that had spent eight or ten years, besides his 
 thousands of dollars, to qualify himself, to labor in their 
 moral vineyard for the mere pittance of a hundred dol- 
 lars a year ! I look upon it the same as upon a Southern 
 planter who gets faithful services from men without 
 rendering an equivalent. But I presume you have duly 
 considered all these things and are satisfied that all will 
 be well, and think it strange that I do not view the sub- 
 ject as you do. I would not wish to dictate to you in 
 religious matters, but I hope that in such affairs as the 
 above you will allow experience to have some weight. 
 My subject is unpleasant to my mind, and I presume 
 will be to you ; I will therefore close." 
 
 Undiscouraged by this depressing message, the young 
 itinerant, by some means and at his own expense, pro- 
 vided his needed equipment, or, as he styled it, his" rig, 
 horse, saddle, bridle, and martingales," and set out. 
 
 But hardly was he fairly under way when he received 
 a letter from his mother, summoning him home on ac- 
 count of the illness of his father. Making arrangements 
 for the supply of his appointments during his absence, 
 he hastened home. He found his father better, and, 
 what was most gratifying to him, greatly changed in his 
 views toward his son's course. There was much religious 
 conversation between them, and in a letter written at 
 this time he says : " I have had the happiness, which I 
 did not know would ever be mine, of seeing my father 
 kneel at the altar with me." The beautiful earnestness 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 7 1 
 
 of the son, his sincerity, and the quiet enthusiasm with 
 which he described his devotion to duty made a pro- 
 found impression upon the father, and when he left to 
 return to his work, he was fully supplied with all that he 
 had asked, and more. Quoting from the mother's 
 diary : 
 
 " Daniel came to spend a few days with us. His visits 
 are always a period of pleasure, and more especially 
 have we enjoyed his company at this time. He appears 
 to be deeply pious, converses freely with his father, at- 
 tends to family devotions constantly. He seems like 
 an angel of peace, sent to comfort us in this our day 
 of trial. O Lord, keep him under the shadow of thy 
 wing ! We have given him to thee in everlasting cov- 
 enant. O, fit him for the great work in which he has 
 embarked ! So guide him in all his ways, that he may 
 glorify thee in winning many souls to Christ as a crown 
 of rejoicing ! " A little more than a week after, she 
 writes: "He said good-bye to us this morning. We 
 have had an excellent visit. We have fitted him out 
 with every article of comfort — horse, buggy, and every 
 appendage thereunto, and he has left us in good spirits, 
 trusting in God. May the blessings of heaven rest upon 
 him ! " 
 
 Thus furnished, he set out in his own conveyance for 
 his field of work in the east. On his way he stopped at 
 Canandaigua, where the Genesee Conference was in ses- 
 sion. Here an event occurred that entirely changed his 
 course. "On going up to the church," where the Con- 
 ference was being held, he says, " I was met with the in- 
 telligence that the day before my name had been pre- 
 sented to the Conference, and I had been received as a 
 member. The air of satisfaction (of some sort) that 
 
72 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 greeted me on every countenance, as well as their 
 words, told me it was true." 
 
 He was astonished and embarrassed, as he had made 
 up his mind to join the New York Conference. In July, 
 after due examination, he was recommended to the 
 Genesee Annual Conference for admission on trial. He 
 also at this time engaged in some correspondence with 
 some of the members of that Conference relative to that 
 step. But afterward, as he supposed, the matter had 
 been dropped. In August, while in New York on his 
 way to Middletown for graduation, he says, " I had pro- 
 posals made me to take my appointment as a preacher 
 on Long Island — Jamaica and New Utrecht. From the 
 many things brought to my mind by the suggestions of 
 others and my own reflections, I was led to think 
 seriously of uniting with the New York instead of the 
 Genesee Annual Conference. Although I had been 
 within the bounds of the New York Conference for two 
 years, the thought had never occurred, or at least been 
 harbored a moment, of remaining. Nor should I have 
 conceived it at all but through the counsels of those 
 whose judgment I value more than my own. A prophet 
 is not without honor save in his own country. These 
 words may perhaps apply to one who is less than the 
 least of all saints. The principle pointed out by the 
 Saviour is certainly of general application, and ought 
 not to be disregarded by me. That honor alone is to be 
 sought which cometh down from God. I would have 
 before me none other than the question of duty, Where 
 can I be most useful ? not. Where can I enjoy the most 
 ease or mingle most in the society of my kindred ? This 
 question occupied my mind during my whole journey 
 much more than did commencement or anything I saw." 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 73 
 
 The appointment to the Amenia Circuit coming to him 
 at this time, settled the matter, as he thought, and all in- 
 dications pointed to his entering the active work in the 
 New York Conference. 
 
 The sudden change of field to the west was therefore 
 to him a surprise, and the action of the Genesee Con- 
 ference threw him into a state of deep anxiety. And yet, 
 in a measure, he had been forewarned ; for he found dur- 
 ing his visit to his father, that there was a disposition 
 among the preachers in that region to censure him " for 
 not being prepared to stay with them. They had laid a 
 great many plans, expecting my services," he wrote, 
 " and now regard their failure as a disappointment. I 
 trust, nevertheless, that all will yet work for good." 
 
 What decision he should now adopt was, for a time, 
 a trying perplexity, and his mind worked with fierce 
 rapidity, as he sat there in the Conference room. " I 
 found myself in a strange dilemma. By some turn in 
 the Conference there had been some speaking and con- 
 siderable excitement raised in regard to my case from 
 the idea that the New York Conference wished to de- 
 tain within its own precincts such young men as they 
 chose. I had been recommended by the Quarterly Con- 
 ference in Canandaigua in compliance with a request to 
 that effect sent to the preacher in August, which I had 
 supposed would not be acted upon, as I had not con- 
 tinued correspondence respecting it, and especially as I 
 had not designed being in the region at all until sud- 
 denly and providentially called there. I had but a few 
 hours for making a decision. It was reversing entirely 
 my expectations and arrangements to stay, and to go 
 would be to hazard an excitement which might perhaps 
 injure me, and certainly would the Church and her in- 
 
74 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 stitutions. I decided to suffer any inconvenience my- 
 self if the proper authorities thought I ought to take the 
 course and would be responsible for it. The bishop, B. 
 Waugh, advised me to stay, assigning several reasons, 
 among which were: i. The good of our institutions. 
 2. The belief that I might be more useful in the west. 
 More remained to be done here, and a more important 
 theater of action than western New York he did not 
 know. He believed there would be nothing other than 
 satisfaction with, and approval of the course, among my 
 friends east, when the circumstances should be explained. 
 This he would take upon himself as far as consistent, 
 and the leading members of the Conference would draw 
 up a letter to my colleagues and presiding elder, freeing 
 me from the embarrassment of excusing myself." 
 
 According to this promise, a committee was appointed 
 by the Conference, consisting of Glezen Fillmore, J. 
 Chamberlayne, A. Abell, Loring Grant, and Wilbur 
 Hoag, who addressed to his colleagues on the Amenia 
 Circuit the following letter : 
 
 " Dear Brethren : — The design of this communication 
 is to acquaint you with the circumstances under which 
 our esteemed friend and brother, Daniel P. Kidder, was 
 admitted on trial at our Conference. Sometime in 
 August last he forwarded to Brother Hoag a certificate 
 of his standing as a local preacher, as a transference of his 
 membership and standing to Canandaigua, with a request 
 that he might have a recommendation to our Annual Con- 
 ference. Subsequently, as we understand, in pursuance of 
 polite solicitations from you, he consented to engage in 
 some labor within your Conference, and supposed that 
 by that means his case would be prevented from coming 
 to our Conference. This, however, did not result, and 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 75 
 
 before his arrival here he was actually admitted. Under 
 these circumstances, by our advice and solicitation, he 
 permitted his name to remain here, although he is ap- 
 prehensive that he will disappoint expectations which he 
 has authorized. This, however, he must do in any event, 
 as we were as confidently expecting his services as you 
 could have been. 
 
 " We will add one other reason why we cannot doubt 
 you will approve his remaining here. That is that he 
 originally belonged here, his home and his friends are 
 here, and if his having graduated at Middletown should 
 result in our loss of his services, it cannot fail to caution 
 us against recommending to anymore of our young men 
 the Wesleyan University. Anything which would tend 
 to such a result we are sure you would deprecate. We 
 presume that you will blame nobody in the premises, 
 but if you do, blame us, not him." 
 
 The Conference adjourned on the day of his arrival, 
 and that evening his name was read off for Rochester, 
 Rev. J. Copeland, his colleague, in charge. In a letter 
 written the following morning, he says : " The Conference 
 adjourned at 1 1 o'clock in the evening. The preachers 
 are this morning separating to go in all directions preach- 
 ing their Master. It is an example of the noblest mag- 
 nanimity to see them toiling through the business of a 
 laborious session, and ready at its close to break up any 
 attachment and go wherever the voice of the Church 
 directs. How does this compare with the pride and 
 ease and luxury of a pampered, moneyed priesthood ? " 
 Then, referring to his own situation, he adds : " What 
 can I do in the circumstances in which I am thrown ? 
 Nothing has been of my seeking or according to my 
 wish. For I have not allowed personal choice to have 
 
76 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 any influence on my mind. These things are placed— 
 may I not say crowded ? — upon me. If by the hand of 
 God, he will sustain me. In his strength alone I trust. 
 The coming year will be one of unremitting labor and of 
 responsibihties greater than I can bear." 
 
 Proceeding at once to make arrangements for his new 
 field and future, he sent back to his father the horse and 
 buggy he had so kindly provided, and by more expedi- 
 tious means he proceeded to Amenia, settled his affairs 
 there, gathered up his effects, shipped his library, and 
 said his farewells. 
 
 On Wednesday evening, November 9, at Salisbury, 
 Conn., by the Rev. O. V. Ammerman, he was married 
 to Miss Cynthia Harriet Russell. The wedding trip 
 was a departure the next day to Rochester. Going by 
 way of Poughkeepsie, they proceeded by steamboat to 
 New York, where the following Sunday he preached in 
 Greene Street Church in the morning, and on a sudden 
 call from Rev. Robert Seney, who was afflicted with in- 
 fluenza, preached in the afternoon in the Mulberry 
 Street Chapel, " the second pewed church in New York, 
 and as genteel as any other." The Friday after found 
 them in Rochester. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. •]■] 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 First Pastorate. 
 
 " IT is natural to pause," he says, " and indulge a few 
 ^ reflections upon an event like this, my first entering 
 upon the more responsible duties of the Christian minis- 
 try. I stand in astonishment when I look upon the 
 providences of God, which have placed me where I am. 
 One year ago my present situation was as foreign from 
 my expectation as it could possibly have been. Nor 
 have I since taken a single step which had a design, or, 
 to my knowledge, a tendency to produce it. I had in 
 October, by the advice and solicitation of friends, received 
 a license as exhorter from the Quarterly Conference at 
 Middletown. I did not hesitate to do this when called 
 upon by the Church, inasmuch as the great question of 
 my course in life had been long settled and acted upon. 
 This license was never transcended by a formal attempt 
 to preach until I was called upon by the proper author- 
 ities to receive license as a local preacher. In both these 
 capacities I held myself obedient to the service of the 
 Church, in no case occupying any spot until urged to do 
 so on the ground of duty, and never deeming myself at 
 liberty to refuse, or seek for excuse, from any service 
 which thus seemed necessary or proper. 
 
 " I had by previous effort secured to myself nearly half 
 of my time during the last college year for extra and 
 private studies. It was with reluctance that I surren- 
 dered this, and the delights I had anticipated from it, for 
 
78 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 the laborious employment of teaching. But while I did 
 so I brought upon myself additional cares equally ar- 
 duous and more absorbing, namely, those of preparing 
 often for public speaking. During the last quarter of my 
 services in Amenia Seminary, I had taken the place of 
 Rev. Mr. Ellsworth, and thus had regularly performed 
 the duties of the circuit. From the time I first com- 
 menced preaching there had scarcely been a Sabbath 
 vacant of duties, whether at home or abroad. Now, by 
 the grace of God, I am what I am, and I trust I may as 
 truly say, By the providence of God I am where I am. 
 
 " I find on looking over my minutes that I have 
 preached just fifty sermons up to the present time. I 
 need not comment on this circumstance as a proof of my 
 inability to occupy the station I am called upon to fill. 
 Proofs of this stand thick around me on every side, and 
 it will be happy for me if they produce the proper effect 
 of making me feel my weakness and cause me to put my 
 trust in Him who is everlasting strength." 
 
 Rochester was a circuit with two preaching places, on 
 opposite sides of the Genesee River, each having an outfit 
 of Sunday school, prayer and class meetings. His first 
 Sunday, November 20, was a busy one, beginning with a 
 visit to the Sunday school at 9 A. M. His first sermon 
 was from the text, i Cor. 2. 3 : "I was with you in weak- 
 ness, and in fear, and in much trembling." There was a 
 sermon again in the afternoon and another in the even- 
 ing, followed by a prayer meeting with seekers at the 
 altar. Something like this was the program of all his 
 Sabbaths : never less than three sermons, with prayer 
 meetings and altar services, and frequently after the 
 morning sermon there was a class meeting. No matter 
 how full the day was otherwise, this conscientious young 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 79 
 
 pastor was always found in the Sunday school, sometimes 
 attending two in one day, and he gave joyfully to this 
 department that attention which showed the just esti- 
 mate which he placed upon it. 
 
 After one of these busy Sabbaths he says : " Thus the 
 day was filled up with labor, and I could wish with use- 
 fulness. Lord, hear the prayers of thy servant and 
 people ! " 
 
 In common with all ministers he had his dull Sundays. 
 Of one such he records : " A stormy morning, thin 
 congregations, hard work in the afternoon, somewhat the 
 same in the morning. I had all the trouble I would 
 suffer myself to have about it. In the evening I did 
 better. There were five at the altar, and two professed 
 conversion." 
 
 Such, however, was his enthusiasm that he was affected 
 but little by depression, and even sickness could not 
 check his ardor. Although suffering at one time with a 
 cold, which disturbed his whole system, he preached to 
 full houses. " In the evening I was aided and blessed 
 particularly in my own estimation and feelings, which 
 were very low in the morning." He chants the vespers 
 of one of his busy Sabbaths in these words : " I seldom 
 ever passed through the same amount of labor with more 
 ease to myself." Here is the order of one of his sample 
 Sundays : " Rose at 4:45 A. M. My mind was clear and 
 devotional. I attended and opened the Sabbath school 
 on the west side and closed that on the east side, 
 preached three sermons, attended class meeting, inquiry 
 meeting, and closing prayer meeting, each about an hour. 
 I enjoyed the prayer meeting better than I have any 
 other on the east side. One soul was happily converted. 
 Many more were at the altar. Throughout this day I 
 
8o BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 was blessed with the presence and aid of the Most 
 High." 
 
 During the week also he often preached, sometimes 
 traveling into the neighboring towns. This year he 
 delivered his first Fourth of July and Thanksgiving 
 sermons. 
 
 It was with him a rule to make some pastoral calls 
 every day. The sick and the troubled were the objects 
 of his special attention. In his honest purpose to do 
 his work well he slighted no detail. In each family the 
 servants were inquired after, and, if possible and proper, 
 they were brought in to share in the religious devotions 
 with which he closed every call. He writes: "In the 
 afternoon visited nine families, conversed with them on 
 religious subjects, and prayed for them. In several 
 houses I found not more than one professor of religion. 
 In these cases where there is no guarantee for their dis- 
 position toward us or the cause we would promote, it is 
 the greatest cross to ask permission to pray with them. 
 Yet, in each of these instances, I had grace to do it, and, 
 I trust to my own profit, if not to that of others." 
 
 When he went through a street in the discharge of 
 this duty it was with the thoroughness of a reaper and a 
 gleaner combined. There was no threshold where he 
 did not ask the privilege of saying, " Peace be unto this 
 house." And his loyalty to the obligations of this de- 
 partment of his work took him into many places from 
 which the average minister considers himself excused. 
 His fidelity in thus associating constantly with his 
 people in their everyday life was in part rewarded by 
 the many incidents that came to him furnishing him 
 facts and illustrations from the ever fresh pages of hu- 
 man nature. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 8 1 
 
 He visited one who on his dying bed gave signs of 
 sincere repentance, but afterward, being flattered with 
 the idea of recovery, abandoned his seriousness and went 
 into another world with oaths and blasphemy on his 
 lips. There must have been an accent of prevailing ur- 
 gency in the young pastor's voice as, with this circum- 
 stance fresh in his mind, he called upon sinners to seek 
 the Lord while he may be found. We can imagine, too, 
 how at this time it must have been like an added strand 
 in the cable of his faith to receive the testimony of a 
 dying physician whom he visited, and who said : " I 
 have never seen nor heard of an instance in which the 
 desire for life was overcome but by Christian principle. 
 Infidel philosophy which I have examined and proved 
 is, in many instances at least, a species of self-deception 
 willfully practiced." 
 
 Of this part of his work he wrote : " Every time I go 
 out for this object I am impressed with its absolute im- 
 portance. By this means a minister can make a noble 
 application of the precept of Aristotle, ' Let no day pass 
 without making a friend.' " 
 
 His mornings were spent in study and his afternoons 
 were devoted to visiting, but the demands of his pastor- 
 ate also absorbed his evenings, and there is a record run- 
 ning all along of his attendance upon trustees' meetings, 
 leaders' meetings, Sunday school boards, Bible classes, 
 and singing schools. 
 
 Each week, too, finds him in one or more of the class 
 meetings. Having learned while a student the benefit 
 of the band meetings in the development and training of 
 Christian experience, he organized these helps among 
 his own people. He also established and carried on a 
 course of week-evening lectures on biblical subjects, de- 
 6 
 
82 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 signed more particularly for the benefit of the workers 
 in his Sunday schools. 
 
 That no moment might be allowed to go to waste he 
 gave to the press the fruit of his busy pen, writing for 
 the Advocate and other papers. 
 
 Always scrupulously careful in the use of his time, he 
 is now, if anything, more than ever religiously impressed 
 with its proper division and employment. " I am deeply 
 convinced of the necessity of mending my habits, partic- 
 ularly with respect to early rising and exactness in re- 
 deeming the time." Rising early meant five o'clock in 
 the morning, for with him the injunction of the Discipline 
 thereto had not fallen into its modern contempt. In 
 order to secure regular and early rising he procured an 
 alarm clock, that strident monitor of easily pricked con- 
 sciences. The general division of his time was simple, 
 and, as one would think, sufficient : six hours' study, six 
 hours' pastoral duties, five hours' exercise and recreation, 
 seven hours' sleep. Under this arrangement he divided 
 up the several hours of the day by a plan, to which he 
 prefixed the following preamble : " Whereas, much of 
 my time has run to waste, and I find habits of sloth and 
 effeminacy ready to fasten upon me to the destruction 
 of piety and all hopes of usefulness ; and, whereas, without 
 determined exactness in the disposal of every moment 
 of time the interests of time and eternity are both 
 hazarded ; and, whereas, the providence of God has placed 
 me in circumstances of high responsibility, in which with- 
 out the most vigorous and untiring exertions I am liable to 
 forfeit his honor and the welfare of immortal souls ; 
 therefore, it is incumbent upon me to practice more self- 
 denial than I have ever done, and as far as lieth in me to 
 observe scrupulously these rules. In planning my course 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 83 
 
 of studies I wish to be mindful of present good and future 
 usefulness. Theology in its length and breadth is before 
 me. It will be my object to investigate with care every- 
 thing which can be rendered of practical service, keeping 
 in view that toward which all other knowledge should 
 point, and at which terminate, the knowledge of Christ 
 crucified. I hope to redeem every moment of time and 
 to make everything tell upon the improvement of the 
 mind and heart. Blessed with every facility at present, 
 if health is spared, it must be criminal to do otherwise 
 than accomplish much in study the coming winter." He 
 laid it down as a principle as nearly inflexible as might 
 be, that for nothing were his study hours to be inter- 
 rupted. 
 
 The preparation of his sermons was a matter in which 
 his conscience urged him to extreme care and an unre- 
 mitting faithfulness. His method was to study with 
 thoroughness his subject, and then devote Saturday to 
 the arrangement of his skeleton, for up to this time he 
 had never written out a sermon in full. In addition he 
 adopted a little later the practice of writing out during 
 the week, at greater or less length, one of the skeletons 
 from which he had preached the preceding Sabbath. In 
 all, however, he was careful not to depart from his rule 
 of depending entirely upon the Holy Spirit, and he was 
 never negligent in gratefully recording instances of divine 
 help. " Again delivered three discourses and was more 
 than usually assisted by the Lord and his free Spirit." 
 That his preaching might be effective in producing its 
 legitimate results was his special anxiety ; he ardently stirs 
 himself up to this end and writes: '' I have resolved to 
 amend both in preaching and practice. I fear I have been 
 too easy in preaching, too much disposed to content my 
 
84 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 hearers with their present amount of religious enjoy- 
 ment. I hope henceforth to tell the whole truth, severe 
 as it may be." The next Sunday, he observes, " I preached 
 a more plain and pointed sermon than I was ever enabled 
 to do before." A revival was his consuming desire. 
 " Lord, may thy work grow," is the entry with which he 
 closes the record of a Sabbath in which there were sixteen 
 persons at the altar. Finney's Lectures on Revivals were 
 re_ad by him at this time, with the comment that "They 
 contain as much practical Methodism, under a garb 
 slightly modified, as any book I have read." The Church 
 in a state of revival, the tree of life changed into a burn- 
 ing bush, was his idea of Methodism. 
 
 In the protracted meeting which made his first winter 
 at Rochester full of encouraging fruits, he preached every 
 night of the week except Saturday night, which time he 
 set apart for a converts' meeting, a most happy arrange- 
 ment, as he found. From time to time he refers to them 
 as " pleasant," " profitable," " delightful." 
 
 But he is least of all satisfied with his fullness of 
 service, and often scourges himself round the altar of 
 duty. " Having had occasion to review my own feel- 
 ings and course of action, I mourn that I have done so 
 little for Christ. From many considerations I have re- 
 solved to be henceforth more diligent in my Master's 
 service. My solemn convictions are that henceforth I 
 ought to be studious and more holy." Upon reading 
 Payson's Memoirs, he reflects, " I was enabled to see my 
 own astonishing dullness in private devotion." He also 
 gave a careful reading to Wesley's Plain Account of 
 Christian Perfection, in order that he might again preach 
 upon the subject, and that he might enjoy all that God 
 would vouchsafe to one so unworthy. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 85 
 
 On the occasion of his first watch night as pastor, he 
 recalled with grateful emotions the fact that just a year 
 before he first ascended the pulpit. 
 
 During his first year in the pastorate he preached at 
 Wyoming, where he attended school, and a pious woman 
 at whose house he had boarded, taking his hand, ex- 
 claimed, " What hath God wrought ! " He visited 
 Brockport and preached three times to a pleasant, at- 
 tentive congregation. " This place was the scene of my 
 residence and commencement of business six years ago. 
 It has changed but little. But, O, what a change hath 
 God wrought in me ! Then I was a thoughtless youth. 
 I recollect once attending the Methodist church as a 
 matter of curiosity, now I endeavored to preach Christ 
 crucified." 
 
 A journey to his father's house and a trip to Lima, 
 preaching among his old friends and enjoying the special 
 exercises connected with the close of the spring term, 
 varied the routine of his work. He also visited the 
 Canadian Conference at Toronto. He was introduced 
 to the Conference by the Rev. Dr. E. Ryerson, preached 
 on Sunday, addressed the missionary meeting, and spoke 
 at a tea meeting held in the interest of the Sunday 
 school. On this occasion he introduced two resolutions 
 which were unanimously passed after he and others had 
 spoken to them. Coming from one who afterward rose 
 to be a leader of the Sunday school work in his Church, 
 it may be interesting to read these words, as setting 
 forth his earliest sentiments upon this subject. They 
 were : " Resolved, i. That the magnitude of the work in 
 which we are engaged and the number of difficulties 
 which everywhere present themselves, should lead us to 
 unite our exertions and our prayers with a fixed de- 
 
86 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 termination to extend the conquests of divine truth 
 through the whole extent of our land, until all the 
 wanderers in our western territory bow to the authority 
 of our divine Lord. Resolved, 2. That the benefits of 
 Sabbath schools which have already resulted, should 
 stimulate us to renewed exertions in this holy cause." 
 
 In January of this year he received an invitation to be- 
 come principal of the Troy Conference Academy, at West 
 Poultney, Vt. The request, from a member of the Com- 
 mittee on Correspondence, was expressed in assuring 
 terms, with glowing allusions to real and prospective at- 
 tendance, the promise of a full corps of assistants, and 
 description of an ample building in process of erection. 
 The argument was persuasive, and was the first of many 
 pressing calls to a similar work. But he declined it. His 
 heart was fixed and contented in the pastorate. The future 
 in his thought and plan projected no horizon beyond this 
 field. And yet, ere he was aware of it, the curve of duty 
 had swept him into another and widely different orbit. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 87 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Missionary Life. 
 
 POURING Mr. Kidder's earliest reflections upon the 
 *-^ ministry, the sacrifice and service of the missionary 
 had been often present as the duty which might after all 
 engross his future. He felt that a call to preach the 
 Gospel embraced this — that his credentials could not be 
 reckoned as genuine unless they included the terms "all 
 the world " and " every creature." Nor did he consider 
 this any hardship. The rather he had always been eager 
 in his yearnings toward the heathen, and the one whom 
 he would love as himself was his neighbor at the utter- 
 most parts of the earth. 
 
 To him the cry of distress that broke upon his ears 
 from afar was louder than any call from the favored 
 ones about him. And now, giving up a pastorate rich 
 in the love of his people and fruitful in every sign of 
 prosperity, abandoning the opportunities for study so 
 dear to him, and surrendering the prospects of a growing 
 popularity, he resolved to devote himself to the ex- 
 posure, toil, and obscurity (as not known in these days) 
 of a Christian missionary. 
 
 In keeping with the openness of all his conduct, he 
 took his church into his confidence, and requested their 
 prayers that he might be directed aright. 
 
 Early in August, 1837, he received a letter from 
 Bishop Waugh, appointing him as missionary to Rio de 
 Janeiro. " I regret," says the bishop, "your leaving the 
 
88 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Genesee Conference, but I rejoice that you are going to 
 a region where you will be more needed. May the 
 spirit and power of Christ, your Master, go with you and 
 give you great and glorious success ! " 
 
 A week after he received a letter from his father on 
 what he termed " the engrossing and painful subject of 
 our departure." Only by slow and reluctant stages had 
 the father come on far enough to give his consent that 
 his son should enter the ministry. Of late, however, the 
 prominence of that son, and his growing fame in the pas- 
 torate of the largest city of the neighborhood, had quite 
 conquered all parental discomfort and supplanted it with 
 a real and justifiable pride. It was therefore all the more 
 a crushing affliction to dismiss him from home and 
 native land perhaps forever, and let him go forth to 
 confront the hardships of a missionary life under a trop- 
 ical sky. 
 
 His missionary enthusiasm did not render him stoical, 
 and this renewed and deeper disappointment of his father 
 and the separation from his friendscaused him unspeakable 
 distress. His mind being, however, made up, he re- 
 garded this as a situation in which to love father and 
 mother more than Christ was not to be worthy of him, 
 and he proceeded in his usually calm and orderly way 
 to make the adjustments necessary to a departure for the 
 field where already his heart was gone on in advance. 
 Referring to a good-bye visit from his friends, he says : 
 " We considered ourselves as having parted for a long, 
 long time remove. We need not say it is painful and 
 the mind shrinks a little under it, yet we see not reason 
 either to despond or to waver. God is our trust, and 
 shall be our portion forever." In his farewell visit to his 
 father's house he went to his mother's grave. By that 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 89 
 
 low mound he consecrated himself anew to his sacred 
 calling with a devotion that included its holiest, most 
 Christlike sacrifice. 
 
 Repairing to the seat of the Conference at Perry, 
 N. Y., he was, under the missionary rule, ordained deacon 
 by Bishop Hedding, in a class of twenty-eight. This 
 was on Sunday, September 24, 1837. The afternoon be- 
 fore he had assisted the bishop in preparing the parch- 
 ments. " The sermon by the bishop," he says, " was 
 peculiarly solemn and impressive." The following 
 Monday evening he was ordained elder. Of this he says: 
 " Without consulting me the Conference had con- 
 summated my election to elder's orders, although I had 
 repeatedly expressed to members of it my own im- 
 pressions and choice to the contrary. Bishop Hedding 
 said if I declined they would not urge it, but the 
 counsel and judgment of that body fixed it and I sub- 
 mitted, trusting in God to fulfill his righteous designs 
 when I am truly given up to his will." The ordination 
 services took place in connection with the anniversary of 
 the Conference Missionary Society. Dr. Bangs made 
 the regular address, the report of the treasurer was read, 
 then a collection of $200 was taken up toward the pro- 
 spective missionary's salary. Following this the bishop 
 conducted the ritual. In a letter to his wife Mr. Kid- 
 der says : " The bishop took occasion to change some 
 part of the service, adapting it to the special circum- 
 stances of the case, thus rendering it, if possible, still 
 more impressive. When it was closed and the bishop 
 had given a parting charge, I spoke a few words to the 
 Conference. The scene of separation was sufficient to 
 melt the heart. I cannot begin to describe the interest- 
 ing and painful event of parting with that band of noble- 
 
go BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 hearted brethren who now committed to the care of God 
 the first foreign missionary from their body. You 
 should have seen it to know how deep a concern they 
 take in us — so unworthy." Hastening to Rochester, 
 the next evening he preached a farewell sermon to a 
 crowded house, and " adieus were given to friends who, 
 with tearful eyes, renewed their respects and promised 
 tp commend us to God. Scenes of tenderness and 
 power equal to these I have seldom witnessed and sel- 
 dom expect to enjoy. But they are past only to live in 
 a warm and affectionate remembrance." 
 
 Leaving Rochester, the time intervening until he 
 sailed was occupied in visiting friends in New England, 
 in making the necessary preparations and purchases in 
 New York, in diligently seeking information about his 
 new field, and in studying the Portuguese language. He 
 was busy also in preaching and in addressing missionary 
 meetings. In Boston, from which port he sailed, he for 
 the first time administered the communion on the even- 
 ing of November 5, in the Blossom Street Church. 
 
 At length, on Monday, the 13th, he set sail for Rio in 
 the Avon, a bark freighted with government stores. 
 There were only nine passengers. Of these, four con- 
 stituted the missionary family, there being associated 
 with Mr. Kidder and his wife, Mr. McMurdy, also a 
 missionary, and Miss Marcella Russell, sister to Mrs. 
 Kidder, who was sent out by the Board as a teacher. 
 " The parting exercises," he says, " were solemn and ap- 
 propriate. By appointment, our friends having gathered 
 together, it was found that there were too many to be 
 accommodated in the cabin, so we removed to the 
 steerage, which was filled with persons standing. Rev. 
 A. D. Sargeant addressed the company, expressing with 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 
 
 91 
 
 much simplicity and eloquence the objects of these fare- 
 well exercises. After singing, Brother Scudder led in 
 prayer. Singing, and the benediction by Brother Knight, 
 of Charlestown, closed the devotional services, when our 
 friends passed up the companion way, taking us each by 
 the hand. In a few minutes came the signal for casting 
 off. The wharf was crowded with friends of the crew and 
 passengers, who stretched their eager eyes as long as 
 they could be mutually recognized. The vessel moved 
 away reluctantly, and while we were still on the quarter 
 deck the captain gave his farewell signal and the crowds 
 began to disappear toward their homes." 
 
 January 10, 1838, found the missionary party in the har- 
 bor of Rio de Janeiro. The voyage of fifty-six days was for 
 the most part very pleasant, although during its earlier 
 stage there was stormy weather with a very high sea, so that 
 all were more or less affected with the usual tnal de mer. 
 Mrs. Kidder suffered severely, and on her account there 
 was at one time considerable anxiety. She grew so weak 
 that she could neither go on deck nor be carried there, 
 and " she became emaciated and almost helpless with 
 such unparalleled exhaustion. Some of these were in 
 one sense as dark days as we had ever seen. The gloomy 
 predictions of our friends came up in sad retrospect be- 
 fore our minds. We had, however, expected sufferings, 
 and the only reasonable ground for disappointment was 
 that they were so light. An unshaken conviction of 
 being in the path of duty was infinitely more valuable 
 than an exemption from a little present inconvenience. 
 Our greatest trouble was on the score of apprehension, 
 not knowing when these things might terminate. But 
 we endeavored to confide ourselves in the hand of God, 
 who, we trust, has directed us and will rule all things 
 
92 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 well." A change in her condition occurring, the spirits 
 of the little party greatly revived, and on Thanksgiving 
 Day, of which he makes note, he says, " We had reason 
 to commemorate it." 
 
 At the invitation of the captain he conducted religious 
 services on the successive Sabbaths. The days of the 
 week he gave largely to a study of the Portuguese. The 
 sight of passing vessels, an occasional whale, schools of 
 flying fish, some of which lighted on the deck of the 
 ship, and the catching of a shark diverted the monotony 
 of the voyage. One night the sea was all on fire with 
 a splendid phosphorescence. On December 30 they 
 crossed the equator. One evening, as they were cruising 
 in latitudes where several vessels had recently been 
 plundered, they were alarmed by the sudden appearance 
 of a suspicious looking craft bearing down upon them. 
 All on board were apprehensive, and some to a serious 
 degree. He speaks of himself as prepared to indulge 
 some commotions of mind, as he had just been reading 
 Conrad the Corsair, and was in a condition for " imagina- 
 tions dire." " Nevertheless," he adds, " the ladies pre- 
 served the best courage of all, and very sensibly gave 
 themselves no alarm. This was the best course even if 
 the danger had been real. Presence of mind always be- 
 comes the Christian. He has less to fear than other 
 men. He knows where his trust is, and there he should 
 rely. He then can discharge his duty like a man, and 
 leave the result with God." 
 
 Monday, January i, 1838, he writes: "Far from our 
 friends we wished them a Happy New Year, the begin- 
 ning of which we really enjoyed as our bark rode gayly 
 on under the balmy winds of the south, which tempered 
 the heat of the tropical sun." 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 93 
 
 Before the evening of January 8 land way sighted ; 
 the third day after quarantine was passed in the harbor 
 of Rio, and by two o'clock of that day the gentlemen of 
 the missionary party were in the palace square of the 
 city. Finding the residence of the Rev. Mr. Spaulding, 
 the superintendent of the mission, and making the 
 necessary arrangements, the ladies were brought on 
 shore before evening. Speaking of his first impressions 
 he says : " The blacks, the mules, the style of buildings, 
 and streets, but especially the barbarian cries which fill 
 one's ears to deafness, were all inexpressibly strange. 
 But the Gloria was the admiration of all. Its luxuriance 
 and the exquisite green of its foliage surpassed every- 
 thing we had conceived. To have been brought thus far 
 through so many dangers, and kept not only in perfect 
 health, but in perfect peace, seemed to call for our deep- 
 est gratitude. We endeavored to feel our dependence 
 and give the glory to God." 
 
 He and his family were for the time established with 
 Mr. Spaulding, whose house was charmingly situated 
 near the Gloria, and the room of the newly-arrived mis- 
 sionary commanded a view of wonderful range, including 
 fine buildings, streets, the mountains, and the harbor, 
 with the vessels of all nations riding at anchor. On 
 January 21, the second Sunday after his arrival, he 
 preached his first sermon in South America. 
 
 Brazil is a land well worthy of earnest, aggressive, and 
 persistent missionary labor. The religion of the land, 
 by reason of its settlement from the south of Europe, is 
 Roman Catholic. From the beginning Protestantism 
 has attempted to plant a pure Gospel there, it being a 
 fact well worthy of note that the very first missionary 
 effort of the Church after the Reformation was from 
 
94 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Geneva to Brazil. But in modern times the credit of the 
 first mission to Brazil belongs to the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, which sent the Rev. Justin Spaulding to Rio de 
 Janeiro in 1836. It is to be regretted that the financial 
 pressure of the times led to the abandonment of the mis- 
 sion and the return of Mr. Spaulding in 1842. 
 
 Until he was able to talk with the people, Mr. Kidder 
 busied himself chiefly with the distribution of Bibles and 
 Testaments. He remarks : " The circulation of the Holy 
 Scriptures in the vernacular of the country was a primary 
 object of our mission. Hitherto nothing like a system- 
 atic effort had been made for the extensive distribution 
 of the Bible in this vast and interesting country. Al- 
 though several hundred copies of Bibles and Testaments 
 from the British and American Bible Societies had been 
 previously introduced by means of consignments to 
 gentlemen engaged in mercantile affairs, and although 
 the Bible had never been proscribed in Brazil otherwise 
 than in the usual regulations of the Romish Church, yet 
 in the lack of all effort on the part of the priesthood to 
 give it currency, it was so far as the vulgar tongue was 
 concerned, an effectually excluded and unknown book." 
 In a record made a little later he continues : " For a 
 day or two there has seemed to be a great interest ex- 
 cited among the citizens in regard to our books or Tes- 
 taments. They have been coming for them incessantly. 
 The Salia has been thronged with persons of every age 
 and condition of life, from the gray-headed man to the 
 prattling child, from the gentleman in high life to the 
 poor slave. Most of the children and blacks brought 
 notes from their masters or parents. The notes were 
 couched in the most respectful and often in beseeching 
 language. One or two were from poor widows who had 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 95 
 
 no money to buy books for their children. Among the 
 gentlemen who called were several proprietors and 
 directors of schools, and also students of every age. 
 They wished for French, many of them, and some for 
 English as well as Portuguese. We dealt out the sacred 
 volumes to them according to our best judgment, with 
 both joy and trembling. Such a movement was aston- 
 ishing to Brother Spaulding as well as to us. We were 
 at times disposed to think that it was a concerted plan 
 to get the books destroyed or to get us into trouble, but 
 every circumstance seemed to contradict this, and all 
 who came listened with the profoundest attention to the 
 few broken words we could make them understand 
 about Christ and the Bible. At any rate, judging from 
 the past, we could not suppose that so much divine 
 truth could at once be scattered among the people with- 
 out a commotion being produced by their jealous 
 padres. Nevertheless, there was one of that class among 
 the applicants. He received copies of the Testament in 
 English, French, and Portuguese, and on going away re- 
 marked, ' They did not do such things in this country.' 
 Another sent a note in French, asking for L Ancien et 
 Nouveau Testament." The supply of books, after a little 
 while, gave out, but the messengers continued to come 
 for them until, as he says, " after about two hundred 
 had come within three days, we concluded that about 
 four times as many more had been called for." 
 
 For the sake of recreation and refreshment he varied 
 his studies and missionary work by expeditions into the 
 neighboring country. The scenery, the mountains, the 
 rich verdure, the tropical foliage, the rare fruits and 
 flowers, were very interesting to him and furnished many 
 opportunities for the exercise of the vivid powers of 
 
96 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 description with which he fixed the results of his keen 
 observation. 
 
 Part of his work on the Sabbath was a service and 
 sermon on board the United States man-of-war or some 
 of the merchant vessels in the harbor. This was kept 
 up by himself and Mr. Spaulding all the time of his stay 
 there, and developed into a regular Bethel service. By 
 issuing circulars and taking special pains to invite an at- 
 tendance, the congregation would, in some instances, 
 approach rather respectable numbers. "Nothing," he 
 observes, " could exceed the order and solemnity of the 
 assemblies which gathered together each Sabbath morn- 
 ing on the deck of some noble vessel at whose mainmast 
 the emblem of peace and mercy was floating in the 
 breeze. We generally found the vessel, designated for 
 the time being as the Bethel ship, arranged and decorated 
 in the most tasteful manner, with seats to accommodate 
 all who might choose to come to worship God. How de- 
 lightful it was to see boatload after boatload of seamen 
 coming alongside for this noble object, men who, but for 
 such an opportunity, would be seeking recreation on shore 
 exposed to all the temptations of vice and the snares of 
 sin ! How sublime were the sentiments inspired by such 
 a scene in such a place ! The brilliant sky, the lofty 
 mountains, and the swelling ocean could not fail at any 
 time to impress the thoughtful mind ; but when, sur- 
 rounded by these objects, it was our privilege also to 
 witness in a company of seamen the attention of the 
 soul fixed upon eternal things and indicated by the 
 heaving breast, the falling tear, and the unconcealed re- 
 solve, ours was no ordinary pleasure." It was also the 
 custom of the missionaries to hold Sabbath evening 
 services at the residence of the superintendent. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 97 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Missionary Life. 
 
 T ARGE and important as was the work in which he 
 '-^ was thus engaged, it seemed hardly sufficient to his 
 aggressive and enterprising spirit. His idea of the duty 
 he had undertaken impelled him to a wider field than 
 Rio, although it was the capital of the empire, and he 
 soon began to plan for a study of the outlying ter- 
 ritories in different directions. During the time of his 
 stay in the country he went out on three excursions, ac- 
 quainting himself with the people in the interior and 
 along the coast, from the Tropic of Capricorn to the 
 Amazon, the first Protestant minister to explore these 
 regions, the Livingstone of South America. 
 
 " With the primary object of circulating the Scriptures, 
 in the Portuguese language, the chief cities and im- 
 portant towns were visited, the traveler making himself 
 familiar with the social, civil, moral, and religious con- 
 dition of the empire, and frequently holding free and 
 full conferences with leading minds of the country." 
 
 As a first, or trial trip, he set out on a Christmas ex- 
 pedition with Mr. Spaulding, to visit some of the vil- 
 lages situated on the upper borders of the bay of Rio de 
 Janeiro. This trip occupied him for only a few days 
 and served so to intensify his desire for further quests 
 and wider travels that by the middle of the following 
 January he went alone to the province of San Paulo, 
 distant south from Rio, by the course taken, about three 
 7 
 
98 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 hundred miles. Passing back from Santos, the capital, 
 by the only means of conveyance possible, a horse or mule, 
 he traversed the province, covering more than two 
 hundred miles. In this tour he had reason frequently 
 to acknowledge the providence of God in directing him 
 to persons who had the power and the disposition in a 
 greater degree than any others to advance the object of 
 his mission. In a letter to his father he speaks of this 
 journey to the south as an extremely interesting one in 
 every respect. Although two hundred years had elapsed 
 since the discovery and settlement of the province, and 
 it was one of the oldest parts of Brazil, still he was in- 
 formed by the people that he was the first Protestant 
 minister that had visited it. 
 
 The most important of these expeditions was, how- 
 ever, the last, which he also made alone. It was to the 
 north, and detained him from his family for six months. 
 "My voyage," he says, "along the northern coast of 
 Brazil was undertaken at an interesting and favorable 
 epoch. Up to the year 1839 there had never existed 
 any means of regular and rapid communication between 
 the capital and the extreme portions of the empire, par- 
 ticularly the far north, and not infrequently political in- 
 telligence was received at the seat of government, by way 
 of England and the United States, earlier than by direct 
 dispatches. Such, moreover, were the difficulties inter- 
 posed by the regular trade winds and strong currents 
 that set to leeward of Cape St. Roque, that they could 
 be overcome by no enterprise short of steam navigation. 
 
 " To meet so important an exigency the Brazil Steam 
 Packet Company had been organized under the patron- 
 age of the imperial government. The St. Sebastian, 
 one of the boats of this company, had just returned 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 99 
 
 from her first trip, successful in every way, and had 
 been advertised to leave again for the northern ports on 
 the first day of July." 
 
 Provided with numerous and valuable letters of in- 
 troduction in English, Portuguese, and French, he took 
 passage. In turn he visited the cities of Bahia, Maceio, 
 Pernambuco, Itamaraca, Parahiba, Cerea, Maranham, 
 and Para, stopping a greater or less length of time in 
 each and exploring the contiguous country. At Per- 
 nambuco in consequence of missing the regular boat he 
 was detained thirty days over his time. The second 
 day after his arrival at Para, on the Amazon, was the 
 Sabbath, and through the courtesy of the captain it was 
 arranged that he should hold a Bethel service on the 
 steamer. " Some American seamen were present, and 
 several persons came off from the shore. These, together 
 with the ship's company, formed an audience of about 
 thirty, to whom," he says, " I announced the tidings 
 of the kingdom of God. The occasion was very favor- 
 able for divine service, and I felt truly grateful for the 
 opportunity, probably the first ever enjoyed by any Prot- 
 estant minister, of attempting to preach Jesus and the 
 resurrection upon the wide waters of the Amazon." At 
 Para he spent nearly two months, taking in all the points 
 of interest in the city proper and making wide excursions 
 into the interior. His entrance into the river he thus 
 refers to in a letter to his wife : " Yesterday was a very 
 interesting day from the circumstance: of our ascending 
 the Amazon. We passed the'banks and shoals which lie 
 at the entrance of tfet mouth commonly called the Para 
 River abottf fen A. M., just as the flood tide was setting 
 ugr 'The color of the water had already changed to a 
 muddy hue and erelong became quite yellow. The 
 
lOO BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 swell behind us was very heavy, and between wind and 
 tide and. steam we made nearly ten knots per hour. I 
 came on shore after breakfast and presented my letters 
 to Charles J. Smith, United States consul, who received 
 me with that urbanity and true kindness which I have 
 uniformly experienced at the hands of our countrymen 
 during my travels in Brazil." In this connection it is 
 proper to refer to his generous treatment by our consul 
 at Pernambuco, Mr. Joseph Ray, " who not only received 
 me," he says, " in the most cordial manner, but gener- 
 ously insisted upon my making his house my home; and 
 a most hospitable home I found it during a sojourn of 
 nearly two months in that city." 
 
 At Para he preached every Sabbath either on board of 
 an American vessel or in the private house of a friend. 
 Turning his face homeward he made the journey by the 
 regular steam packet line as far as Bahia. Here he re- 
 mained for about three weeks. 
 
 From this point down to Rio he had the opportunity 
 of a trip as unexpected as it was interesting. He re- 
 ceived the invitation, and accepted it, of a free passage 
 on board a French ship called L'Orientale, a large vessel 
 constructed originally for the merchant service. She 
 wore now a pennant, and, mounting eight or ten guns, had 
 the appearance of a respectable sloop of war. The ship 
 was then on a voyage round the world, having on board 
 a polytechnic school of sixty pupils, who, aided by com- 
 petent professors, were thus to travel and receive their 
 education at the same time. The enterprise was a pri- 
 vate one projected by the commander of the vessel, and 
 conducted on his account, although it had received the 
 sanction of the French government. The pupils were 
 chiefly the sons of the nobility and titled families of 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. lOI 
 
 France and Belgium. Many of them also planned to 
 devote themselves to the navy as a profession, and were 
 thus taking their first lessons in seamanship. " It was 
 truly a novel thing," Mr. Kidder observes, " to see counts, 
 viscounts, barons, and marquises knocking about in red 
 woolen shirts, duck trousers well tarred, barefoot, going 
 aloft, standing at the wheel, rowing boats, etc. Some of 
 them, however, did it with an admirable spirit and per- 
 severance, though the majority, I think, make rather poor 
 sailors." Of his experience on board this vessel he says : 
 " I shall long remember the week which I spent as a 
 passenger in her, as one of peculiar incident and pleas- 
 ure." At night of the 23d of December the vessel came 
 to anchor in the harbor of Rio, and he writes : " So strong 
 were my feelings at the thought of being, after such a 
 scene of wariderings, once more brought back so near to 
 my family, with the hope of meeting them on the morrow, 
 that sleep almost forsook my eyelids. I waited with all 
 patience until the captain was ready to set me on shore, 
 which he kindly did at an early hour, with all my bag- 
 gage. I hastened home, and in addition to the great joy 
 of finding my own and the mission family well, had the 
 satisfaction of giving them a complete surprise." 
 
 The thorough methods of observation adopted during 
 these tours made more than ever clear the imperative 
 need of just such evangelical work as our missionary was 
 planning and had to some extent already carried out. It 
 had been part of his original instructions to make a tour 
 of investigation through the principal provinces of the 
 empire with a view to the introduction of the Scriptures. 
 In executing these orders with his customary complete- 
 ness, he discovered everywhere a sad want of the Gospel 
 in its enlightening and refining power. 
 
I02 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Indeed, in one way of looking at it, it might appear that 
 the people were not capable of an intelligent apprecia- 
 tion of the claims and truths of a genuine religion, for 
 not only were their minds sodden with superstition, but 
 their ignorance also was oppressively dense. In one 
 place there were no schools at all ; one gentleman as a 
 matter of favor gave instruction to a few boys. The 
 statement was made by a tabelliao, or notary, that scarcely 
 one person in thirty could read, and although he was a 
 native of the province he had never known of a govern- 
 ment school. The region where this information was 
 gathered was in the immediate vicinity of Rio, the cap- 
 ital, the supposed seat of the culture and refinement of 
 the empire. At another place, only six miles from the 
 capital of one of the northern provinces, the missionary 
 held the following conversation with a lad fourteen or 
 sixteen years of age : " Have you any school in this 
 vicinity?" "Yes, one." " Where is it ? " " In the pal- 
 ace." "How many attend it?" "I do not know; 
 about three benches full." "Do you go at present?" 
 " No, sir; I finished last jear." " Do you know how to 
 write?" "No, nor to read either." "What did you 
 learn at school?" "Nada!" (Nothing at all!) The 
 ignorance and stupidity of the priests were, if anything, 
 still more conspicuous, and provoked the sharpest ex- 
 pressions of contempt from the leading men with whom 
 the missionary conversed during his travels. 
 
 As might be supposed, the morals of the country were 
 found to be deplorable. Tales of assassination and vio- 
 lence were frequently related to him. One benefit, it was 
 admitted, from the recent wars, was the drafting of the 
 indolent and the vicious into the army. And yet on the 
 other hand, because of these same wars, it came to pass 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 103 
 
 that in some of the provinces both life and property were 
 especially insecure. A common question every morning 
 was, " How many were stabbed last night?" The an- 
 swer usually was, " Five or six." 
 
 More desperate, however, and deep seated than even 
 the spirit of violence and murder, was the licentiousness 
 that everywhere prevailed. This Mr. Kidder described as 
 the abomination of desolation in this land, and it was so 
 prevalent that to a great extent it had lost in the minds 
 of the people its heinous character, so that he had dif- 
 ficulty in making clear its sinfulness to a cultivated gen- 
 tleman with whom he was talking, and this person ex- 
 pressed the greatest astonishment when at the mission- 
 ary's request he read Rev. 21.8. At the foundling hos- 
 pital in Rio from thirty to fifty. infants were received 
 every month. These unfortunate little creatures were to 
 a large degree the children of female slaves. Their mas- 
 ters did not want the trouble of bringing them up, and per- 
 haps wished the mothers to serve as wet nurses. Fully 
 two thirds of these victims of lust died shortly after they 
 were brought in, and one of the physicians declared the 
 whole affair to be " one great butchery ! " 
 
 The worst feature was that the clergy, by their exam- 
 ple, served rather to encourage than to check this cor- 
 ruption. Their reputation for licentiousness was notorious. 
 In one village was found a priest with a growing family 
 of at least five children. A gentleman occupying a 
 prominent position as an educator, a Portuguese by birth, 
 and a Catholic, said : " There are three hundred padres in 
 Rio, and probably not more than a dozen good ones 
 among them." By this he meant men of good moral 
 character. A French gentleman present at the same 
 time said : " Here the padres have no shame. When 
 
I04 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 they enter a store or any public place they speak no other 
 language but that of obscenity. They openly have large 
 families, and do not hesitate to provide publicly for their 
 children every necessary article. Such things are done 
 in Europe, but under cover." A native said that he did 
 not allow his children to go to confession ; he had a daugh- 
 ter seventeen years of age vi'ho had never yet confessed 
 to a priest, and should not till the eve of her marriage. 
 The greater part of the padres were so immoral that 
 instead of fulfilling the proper designs of their office as 
 ministers of religion, they perverted their opportunities 
 of privacy to instill into the minds of young females 
 ideas which they ought never to learn. Another Bra- 
 zilian said in the presence of this gentleman that his 
 children were brought up to confess annually, for which 
 purpose he sent them to a confidential priest. "Ah ! " 
 said the former, " you are a fortunate man if you have 
 found a confidential priest ! " Yet another gentleman of 
 culture, who had frequent and free conversations with the 
 missionary, had begun to study and prepare for the priest- 
 hood. But he turned aside and took up instead the law, 
 lest in entering the ranks of the discredited clergy it 
 should be said to him, " Physician, heal thyself! " This 
 person was strong in the impression that the clergy 
 should have the power to marry, for they were, de facto, 
 much worse than married, with immense scandal to re- 
 ligion. 
 
 There was but little in the teachings of the Church in 
 Brazil to correct, and much the rather to confirm, this 
 state of moral degradation. One friendly critic, being 
 himself a Catholic, insisted : " There is no religion here 
 at all. Nothing affecting the soul ; it is all for show ! " 
 The religious services were largely of the processional 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 105 
 
 order with banners and fireworks, turning the Lord's 
 Day into an opportunity for gross sensationalism. In a 
 letter Mr. Kidder says : " You would hardly credit my 
 words were I to attempt to picture the glaring abomina- 
 tions which here prevail under the name and cloak of 
 religion, but which destroy morality and degrade human 
 nature itself." And another, a business man from abroad, 
 who had spent many years in that country, writes : " I 
 am anxious to get once more into a Christian country, 
 where images and idolatry are abhorred, and where peo- 
 ple are educated and not mere animals. One living 
 among a set of superstitious idolaters is apt to turn hea- 
 thenish himself. I have much need to go north to recover 
 from the baleful influence of bad example." 
 
 What preaching there was rendered the pulpit a rostrum 
 from which to sound the praises mainlyof the Virgin Mary, 
 and from a typical sermon were gathered such sentences 
 as these : " The glories of the Most Holy Virgin were 
 not to be compared with those of creatures, but only 
 with those of the Creator." " She did everything which 
 Christ did but to die with him." " Jesus Christ was in- 
 dependent of the Father, but not of his mother." The 
 sermons were commonly delivered memoriter, and the 
 speaker did not scorn the offices of a prompter, who in 
 turn did not hesitate to stand, manuscript in hand, in 
 full view of the congregation. 
 
 " A large part of the object for which the churches are 
 built seems to be the displa)^ of images. Frequently in 
 front of the churches platforms M'ere erected for the par- 
 ticular exhibition of decorated idols. In sickness or 
 drought prayers were offered to them, and there was 
 published in the country about this time a long list of 
 saints who presided each over a different part of the body 
 
I06 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 and mind, and who were to be sought unto in any case 
 affecting these special organs or faculties. The beautiful 
 Indian names once spread over the country had been 
 nearly all driven out by the names of the saints, and one 
 of the priests insists that it was of the devil that the 
 land was named Brazil and not called, as once proposed, 
 the Holy Cross. As it is, the provinces, cities, towns, 
 villages, estates, forts, batteries, theaters, streets, etc., 
 are called after the saints, and every person, black 
 or white, must be baptized in the name of at least one 
 saint. There was a kind of rivalry or party spirit among 
 the saints, some persons having great confidence in one 
 saint and some in another. In praying to these saints 
 for help or healing it is customary among the lower 
 classes to promise a candle or something like that in case 
 the prayer was heard. When the result was recovery 
 or a fortunate issue the saint was supposed to have 
 wrought a miracle. 
 
 " The people, too, have great confidence in wonder- 
 working medals which are distributed in large numbers 
 by the priests and preaching friars. This low form of 
 superstition is not limited to the ignorant, but the culti- 
 vated are also careful at once to adorn and protect their 
 persons with these miraculous toys." Talking at one time 
 with one of the most intelligent of the gentlemen whom 
 he met, Mr. Kidder asked him if he had any confidence 
 himself in these medals, and he answered: "The fullest; 
 I carry one with me constantly ; I put it under my pil- 
 low at night and kiss it every morning. Moreover, I am 
 taking some of them home as the choicest presents for 
 my family." 
 
 A religion intellectually and in other respects so low 
 down, had in it, we may be pure, no lifting power of any 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 107 
 
 kind. It could not even hold the people where they were 
 but their morals steadily sank, and they were, moreover, 
 burdened with a depressing unbelief. " It is not to be 
 concealed," he writes, " that a large proportion of the 
 thinking people are already infidel, and that from the 
 very fact that their honesty leads them to despise the 
 useless ceremonies in which they have been educated, 
 and they know of nothing else which can be called re- 
 ligion." There was really no regard for the faith as it 
 was presented to them. The people generally assented 
 to the dogmas of the Church, but.seldom complied with 
 its requirements except when obhged to do so by their 
 parents, in the case of the young, or prompted by the 
 immediate fear of death. Infidel books were common, 
 and at the auction sales of books which were frequently 
 held in the cities, the works of Voltaire, of Volney, and 
 of Rousseau were offered to the highest bidder, and bid- 
 ders were always found. In a conversation with a thought- 
 ful and conscientious padre, Mr. Kidder asked him if things 
 were growing better or worse. "'Worse,' he replied, 
 ' worse continually ! ' ' What means are taken to ren- 
 der them better?' 'None. We are waiting for the 
 interference of Providence.' I asked him what report 
 I should give to the religious world respecting Brazil. 
 ' Say that we are in darkness, behind the age, and almost 
 abandoned.' ' But that you wish for the light ? ' ' That 
 we wish for nothing. We are hoping in God, the Father 
 of lights.' " 
 
 Beautiful beyond compare to our exploring missionary 
 was this land in all its natural features. He claimed 
 that one must roam wide to find its equal in loveliness 
 andvariety of scenery. But he mourned its moral darkness 
 and deformity, and cried out: " How infinitely would be 
 
I08 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 augmented the charms of a land like this were it the seat of 
 a stable government and a pure religion, were it the abode 
 of justice, peace, and righteousness ! It avails nothing to 
 say that the people are honest and know no better. The 
 time has come when they must know better or do in- 
 finitely worse. The land was literally covered with 
 crosses, crosses set up by Portuguese explorers, crosses 
 in front of churches and where religious ceremonies have 
 been held, crosses to decoy Indians into captivity, crosses 
 to mark the spot where a murder had been committed, 
 crosses as a protection against wild beasts, and crosses 
 whose origin must be left to conjecture, so that as Henry 
 Martyn said, ' Crosses there are in abundance, but when 
 shall the doctrines of the cross be held up?' Indeed, it 
 is a spot over which the angel spirit of that faithful mis- 
 sionary might sing with the same propriety as when he 
 paid it an accidental visit on his voyage to India : 
 
 ' O'er the gloomy hills of darkness 
 Sit, my soul, be still and gaze ! ' 
 
 O that the day were come in which as Martyn seemed 
 to anticipate some happy missionary should be instru- 
 mental in turning this people to the pure and faithful 
 worship of the living God 1 " 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 109 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Missionary Life. 
 
 IF there was not moral character enough in the priest- 
 hood to correct this infidelity and vice there was. at 
 least malicious energy enough to oppose the missionary 
 in his work for a reformation and the revival of a pure 
 religion. He writes: "A formal league was organized 
 to counteract our influence. Into it a great many were 
 initiated, particularly of the old Portuguese, and every 
 means was used to excite their alarm and inflame their 
 prejudices." The Jesuits were so stirred up that they 
 became pious in self-defense, and, as one instance of their 
 abnormal zeal, they opened for public worship a church 
 which had been closed for seventy or more years. 
 
 The confessional was set to work under high pressure, 
 and within its professedly sacred precincts the priests 
 were directed to inquire of the subjects who presented 
 themselves whether they had been corrupted by the 
 Methodists, and to warn the faithful, and on pain of non- 
 absolution to swear man, woman, and child to an eternal 
 enmity against reform. By reason of an episcopal cir- 
 cular, preaching to the natives was rendered for the time 
 impracticable. At one place Mr. Kidder was presented 
 with a copy of a document issued by one of the arch- 
 bishops, " for the warning of the people against a noted 
 heretic who, as it appeared from the name repeatedly 
 given in Italics with particular notices of an index hand 
 on each side, was no other," he writes, " than my humble 
 
no BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 self. Said person is represented as a daring adventurer 
 come to disturb public order, to trample upon the laws, 
 insult the religion, abuse the hospitality, disdain the 
 civilization, and offend the dignity of the nation. Volu- 
 minous reasons are given why he should in no way be 
 tolerated; and not only the authorities of Church and 
 State are challenged to be on the alert against him, but, 
 as the circular states, one writer volunteers to lead a 
 crusade against his person." 
 
 This was not the only threat of personal violence. At 
 one place it was intimated that if he landed he should not 
 come off alive. The intelligence of this plot was not 
 communicated to him until after he had visited the peril- 
 ous locality, completed his work, and gone elsewhere. 
 Upon his being informed of the conspiracy he concluded 
 that possibly its dangerous plan might be carried out 
 when he returned to that place as he contemplated. 
 "And what then?" he asks. "Am I to shrink from 
 duty ? Even were it certain that a cowardly and igno- 
 minious assassination were planned for me, what have I 
 to fear? Cannot God deliver me from the snares of the 
 wicked ? But if it please him that I become their victim 
 it will still be well and in some way will promote his 
 glory. I have reasons to thank him that I have been 
 delivered from the fear of death." The president of one 
 of the provinces that he visited issued an order for his ex- 
 pulsion addressed to the resident United States consul. 
 This was couched in terms of due and formal emphasis, as 
 follows : " Most Illustrious Sir ! — I have complaints that 
 the American citizen, the Rev. D. P. Kidder, recently 
 arrived in this city, has manifested intentions of gaining 
 proselytes and of instructing its inhabitants in religious 
 principles different from those which are generally fol- 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. m 
 
 lowed in it and in all Brazil, and I am even told that 
 he has already distributed some small tracts which, be 
 their contents what they may, demonstrate those inten- 
 tions ; and as the quiet of the province, whose late dis- 
 orders had religious opinions as one of their causes, re- 
 quires that any individual should be separated from it 
 who may give a pretext, and above all a religious pre- 
 text, for their renewal, it is my duty to declare to you, 
 that you may make it known to the said Mr. Kidder, 
 that I will cause him to leave the province immediately 
 if these facts shall be certified to me on evidence by the 
 police through whom I order them to be investigated." 
 This was carrying repressive measures a little too far, and 
 the governor was apparently ashamed of his action, for no 
 process toward the carrying out of this order was issued. 
 The missionary remained in the province prosecuting his 
 work two whole months, and, upon departing, received 
 without difficulty from the same governor a passport. 
 
 Concerning this whole question of menace and mach- 
 ination he writes: " Of all the intimations of danger 
 and threats of violence which I have so repeatedly heard 
 during this voyage I can say that none ofthese things move 
 me. Conscious of pursuing a course approved of God 
 and honorable in the sight of all men, why should my 
 life be dear unto me if it be required either as a sacrifice 
 to the wicked jealousies and manifest alarms of a corrupt 
 priesthood, or as a testimonial to the truth and power ot 
 these principles by which I have through divine grace 
 been actuated ? God forbid that I should swerve to the 
 right hand or the left from the path of duty, let men do 
 what they may ! Death shall have no sting and the 
 grave no victory, thanks be to the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 who giveth us the victory ! " 
 
I 12 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 As a reinforcement to the arm of the law the resources 
 of the press were summoned to the fray. Not only was 
 the archepiscopal circular already referred to widely 
 scattered and conspicuously posted, but the newspapers 
 were enlisted. Mr. Kidder says : " A series of low and 
 vile attacks were made upon us in a certain newspaper, 
 and in immediate connection a periodical was started 
 with the avowed object of combating us and our evan- 
 gelical operations. It was an insignificant weekly of 
 anonymous authorship." Through the columns of these 
 and other papers the authorities were loudly called upon 
 to see if the conduct of the missionaries was not culpable 
 under the criminal code of the country. It was declared 
 that the distribution of Bibles and tracts would work for 
 the destruction of Catholicism. Other charges still more 
 virulent were brought, and in one case the old accusa- 
 tion against the apostles was revived against the mission- 
 aries, that they were drunk ! 
 
 To submit tamely and in quiet to these slanderous 
 attacks was too much for the courage which is born of 
 the truth, and so, paying for his communication at the 
 regular rates for advertisements, he inserted an article in 
 reply and exalted the advantages to be derived from the 
 reading of the Scriptures. -This, however, did not end 
 the controversy, but provoked a rejoinder hotter and 
 more intemperate. 
 
 In its opposition to the spread of the truth, more ob- 
 stinate, if not more demonstrative, than the hostility of 
 the priests and the attacks of the press, was the prejudice 
 of the people. What training they had received seemed 
 to render them incapable of attaching any idea of sacred- 
 ness to the Bible. In their minds it seemed to bear no 
 evident connection with the religion which they had 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. II3 
 
 been taught. He writes : "You would be surprised to 
 hear a man speak of the Bible as a neiu book. Yet such 
 was the reason which a gentleman assigned for his mak- 
 ing repeated applications to us for one, and he a public 
 functionary, and a person of as much apparent intelli- 
 gence as I have seen. This fact shows something of 
 what the case must be with the great majority of the 
 people. Hundreds of them never heard of such a book. 
 What, then, can they know of Christ, and what sort of 
 Christians can they be?" Biblical training, it was also 
 given out, was dangerous, as it would turn the children 
 into Jews ! 
 
 Three several times Mr. Kidder was disappointed in 
 his efforts to have some of his writings put into the cor- 
 rect Portuguese idiom, because those to whom he had 
 committed the task feared lest they might do wrong if 
 they thus assisted in the spread of Protestant doctrines. 
 
 It was an imbedded and current opinion, even in the 
 minds of the educated among this people, that no matter 
 in what religion a man might be born he should remain 
 in it and die in it. One of the best informed and most 
 liberal of the natives remarked to Mr. Kidder, that " it is 
 a very dangerous thing to change religion or govern- 
 ment. Religion is like a vast river ; it is perilous to stop 
 it or alter its course." On the other hand, as a rare ex- 
 ception to the incorrigible prejudice of these people on 
 religious matters, he met a young Brazilian who seemed 
 to give a true measure of the capacity of his countrymen 
 for the reception of the Gospel truth when he said, that 
 " it was his decided conviction that missionary opera- 
 tions would be of little or no use in this land unless 
 promoted by the colonization of Protestants." 
 
 In all this dismal recital, and much more like it that 
 8 
 
114 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 might be dealt out, there was large reason for the dis- 
 couragement of the ardent and enlightened missionary, 
 and his feeHngs came forth in the following strain: 
 " How feeble is human force toward removing such a 
 mass of error even were there no other obstacles than the 
 perversity and blindness of the human heart. But now 
 that a powerful influence is exerted to sustain the love 
 of error and the practice of false principles, who can fore- 
 tell when righteousness shall here flow as a river?" 
 
 The impression, however, would be not only unfortu- 
 nate, but also unfair, if only the above facts and inferences 
 were left to tell their story, for in one sense they are the 
 background whose somber shade serves all the more to 
 emphasize the bright and encouraging colors in which 
 the picture proper is to be presented. 
 
 The opposition which he met with, as well as the low 
 state of morals and the corruption of religion, made it 
 clear that there was great need of a reformation and 
 the spread of a pure Gospel. So far, therefore, from 
 being discouraged by the gloomy outlook, he was the 
 more nerved as by the call of an unrelenting necessity. 
 He writes home to his father : " The longer we stay here 
 the more plainly are we convinced that we have been 
 sent of God and have a work to do, which, although it 
 may bring persecution and opposition of the bitterest 
 kind, yet is one in which angels would delight." In ad- 
 dition to this he found encouragement to duty and even 
 to heroism in the fact that above and beyond the ani- 
 mosity displayed in some quarters the people of all 
 classes, the ignorant and the well-informed, the masses 
 and the officials, cheered him with their hospitality and 
 inspired him with their liberality. Ofone place he says : "I 
 met with a reception as cordial as I ever received among 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 1 15 
 
 strangers at home." Again he says : " I have been every- 
 where received in the character of a Protestant clergy- 
 man with the utmost kindness of manner and HberaHty 
 of feehng." At times he was almost encumbered with 
 the warmth of his welcome and the profusion of his en- 
 tertainment. In one place his letter of introduction was 
 addressed to a Catholic priest, and he remarks : " It affords 
 me unfeigned satisfaction to say that the hospitality 
 which I received in his house was just what the stranger 
 in a strange land would desire." In one of his letters he 
 makes the statement : " As to boarding houses, I have 
 not been in one since I left, but have in every place re- 
 ceived the generous hospitality of those who would have 
 felt injured by the idea of compensation for any kindness 
 shown me." 
 
 In all he was gratified to observe the most friendly 
 opinion of his native land. At one time when he was 
 presented as an American, the response was, "Ah boa 
 terra I " (A good country !) A native of the northern 
 province exclaimed : " Ah, what would not Para be if it 
 were in the hands of those North Americans ! " Every- 
 where and without hesitation they gave him the entree 
 of their homes and apparently of their hearts. 
 
 He enjoyed the greatest freedom of conversation, and 
 his surprise was certainly no less than his gratification 
 to find on the subject of religion a widespread and pro- 
 nounced independence of thought and almost a reckless- 
 ness of expression. This it must be admitted was in 
 keeping with the toleration of the constitution. Al- 
 though it made the Roman Catholic apostolic religion 
 that of the State, yet it allowed all other forms of re- 
 ligion to be held and practiced save in buildings " having 
 the exterior form of a temple." To quote his own 
 
Il6 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 words : " I will here state that in all my residence and 
 travels in Brazil in the character of a Protestant mis- 
 sionary, I never received the slightest opposition or 
 indignity from the people. A few of the priests at- 
 tempted resistance, but the fact that they were unable 
 to excite the people showed how little influence they 
 possessed. On the other hand, perhaps quite as many 
 of the clergy and those of the most respectable in the 
 empire manifested toward us and our work both favor 
 and friendship. From them, as well as from the intelli- 
 gent laity, did we often hear the severest reprehension 
 of abuses that were tolerated in the religious system and 
 practices of the country, and sincere regrets that no more 
 spirituality pervaded the public mind." From San Paulo 
 he writes : " I have been furnished unhesitatingly with 
 official documents respecting all subjects, civil or eccle- 
 siastical, concerning which I had curiosity to inquire, 
 and have been presented to some of the most distin- 
 guished men in the place, including some who may be 
 considered as holding high positions in the empire, as, 
 for instance, the ex-regent." In this province also he 
 was introduced to many members of the Legislature. 
 " From all of them," he says, " as a Protestant clergyman 
 I received warmest expressions of civility and kind 
 wishes." A young Brazilian lawyer, while declaring 
 himself a Catholic, regarded Protestants as Christians 
 and brethren, and confessed that they were generally 
 more actuated by the spirit of Christianity than those 
 of his own Church. Another rejected the idea that 
 there was no salvation out of the Church, scouted the 
 dogma of the real presence, and thought that the cup 
 was an essential part of the sacrament, and yet all the 
 while he insisted that he was a firm Catholic. Still 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 11 7 
 
 another declared himself halfway between Catholics and 
 Protestants. Although he did not approve of the Bible 
 being used as a universal book, he thought that the 
 practices and religious exercises of the Protestants were 
 the best. This man also claimed that there was a great 
 deal of actual idolatry in the worship of the images 
 which is winked at by the priests. One of these inde- 
 pendent thinkers, who was hearty in his accord with the 
 plans and work of the missionary, volunteered to inter- 
 view the bishop. He corrected certain erroneous views 
 which the bishop entertained of the missionaries, assur- 
 ing him that their object was good, being only to preach 
 the Gospel, which every minister ought to do. One 
 priest refused to wear the full canonical dress, and 
 another pronounced against the persecutions and intol- 
 erance of past ages. He said that the unlimited power 
 of the pontifcx originated in the fanaticism or idolatry 
 of the people. He laughed at the idea of the pope's in- 
 fallibility, and said that no Catholic would assert so 
 absurd a thing, else what the need of councils? 
 
 The press, too, after a time, seemed to show a better 
 temper, and the paper in whose columns had appeared the 
 attacks on the missionaries agreed to open its pages to 
 a defense of Methodism and the work of spreading the 
 Scriptures. Another editor, whose paper had been the 
 most violent, informed Mr. Kidder that there would be 
 no more attacks from that source against the Protestants 
 or their principles. He also stated that the writer of 
 the offensive articles, who was an emissary from Rome, 
 and whose communications had made the paper ridicu- 
 lous, had now dissolved his connection with their office. 
 These articles had certainly brought the paper that pub- 
 lished them into disrepute. There were many who gave 
 
1 1 8 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 expression of their contempt for these effusions, and one 
 gentleman, a lieutenant in the national navy, having 
 called to obtain a Portuguese Bible, expressed great sat- 
 isfaction that no attention had been paid to " the trash 
 of a paper which had been publishing articles against 
 their distribution. He thought it must be an unprinci- 
 pled man who would endeavor to disparage such a book 
 or hinder its circulation, especially in a new country like 
 this, where so much depended on the diffusion of cor- 
 rect moral principles and religious knowledge." 
 
 After all, the most significant index of the encourag- 
 ing temper of the people was the avidity with which 
 they received and even sought for the religious litera- 
 ture which the missionary furnished. Only in one case 
 was a tract refused ; priests and nuns even accepted 
 them, and the former were in some instances seen read- 
 ing them as they walked in the streets. In one of the 
 larger cities he visited on his northern tour he was de- 
 sired by the directors to furnish a quantity of tracts for 
 distribution as premiums at an anniversary which was 
 celebrated with great splendor in the most flourishing 
 college there. As already related, Bibles and Testa- 
 ments were immensely popular, and the opposition to 
 their circulation only rendered them the more sought 
 after and widely read, so that, as Mr. Kidder writes, 
 " The truths of inspiration found free course to hundreds 
 of families and scores of schools, where they might be 
 safely left to do their own office upon the minds and 
 hearts of the people." Wherever he went the distribu- 
 tion of these sacred books, both by gift and sale, was his 
 chief occupation, and his only embarrassment in spread- 
 ing them abroad was the limit of his supply. There 
 were cases where persons seemed to be almost desperate 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 119 
 
 lest they should be overlooked. Often there was what 
 might be called a " rush " for them. In one of the out- 
 of-the-way places, having seen a Portuguese Bible, he 
 asked the owner if he liked the book ; he answered : " O, 
 yes; I am very fond of reading it, it is so instructive 
 and consohng ; but the trouble is I cannot keep it at 
 home. My neighbors love to read it, too, and they are 
 continually borrowing it from me. I have loaned it to 
 go great distances in almost every direction ; but now it 
 is at home, and I think I shall not let it go any more." 
 The missionary gave him a new copy on the condition, 
 to which he agreed, that this one should continue its 
 good work of traveling around among his neighbors near 
 and far. 
 
 One of those who expressed gratification upon the re- 
 ceipt of a copy of the Scriptures was the ex-president of 
 the province and a member of the legislative assembly. 
 This man, the ex-president of another province, and 
 others equally distinguished favored the spread of the 
 Scriptures all over the land, and announced themselves 
 as glad to distribute books and tracts, not only in their 
 own towns, but in the regions beyond, where religion 
 was still less thought of. The observation was made 
 that if Brazilians once understood the object of the 
 friends of the Bible, they could not but appreciate them 
 in the most grateful manner. On all sides he found 
 those who were willing to assist him in the dissemina- 
 tion of the word of God. Even priests were among 
 these volunteer colporteurs, and one who had been 
 trained to serve at the altars of the Church accepted the 
 agency of this work and expressed the hope that he 
 might some day become an evangelist. This instance 
 of generous and efficient aid coming thus unexpectedly 
 
I20 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 filled our missionary with the warmest gratitude, and he 
 broke out : " I was overwhelmed with the goodness and 
 providence of God in thus showing himself better than 
 our fears, and directing my footsteps to the person, per- 
 haps out of hundreds, best calculated both by circum- 
 stances and disposition to promote our great work." 
 
 Going beyond the gift or sale of the copies of the 
 Scriptures to individuals, Mr. Kidder conceived the idea 
 of introducing them into the public institutions. The 
 hospitals accepted them gratefully, and his offer to make 
 a donation of Testaments to one of the schools having 
 been gladly welcomed, he entertained the plan of having 
 the Bible distributed as a reading book in all of the 
 schools of that province. In one of his letters he says: 
 " We are encouraged to know that there is a general 
 desire for an acquaintance with the Scriptures. The 
 Bibles and Testaments have been introduced into scores 
 of schools as reading books, and the priests have no 
 authority to prevent their circulation to any extent 
 whatever." He was agreeably surprised on account of 
 the favor with which the scheme for a general distribu- 
 tion was received. Prominent men, the members of the 
 Legislature, and the Bishop of Rio gave it their warm 
 approval. The President of the Assembly said that it 
 caused him happiness to reflect that their province might 
 be the first to set the example of introducing the word 
 of God to its public schools. A bill for the purpose was 
 presented in due form to the Legislature of the province 
 directing the teachers of the schools to receive the 
 books for use. Immediate action on the bill was pre- 
 vented by the discussions which the sharp political dif- 
 ferences of the period provoked, and which consumed 
 all the time of the session, but the prospect of its adop- 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 121 
 
 tion at the following session was full of hope and en- 
 couragement. This expectation, however, was disap- 
 pointed through the machinations of a busy English 
 Catholic priest, so that the proposition was reported 
 unfavorably, although to the credit of the province it is 
 to be said that it was never formally rejected. 
 
122 BIOGRAPHV OF 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The Sad Return Home. 
 
 A LTHOUGH Mr. Kidder was thus interested in his 
 ^*- work and thoroughly given up to it, he was all the 
 while severe in his self-criticism. 
 
 "A silent court of justice in himself, 
 Himself the judge and jury, and himself 
 The prisoner at the bar." 
 
 In one of his accounts of self-examination he charges 
 himself: i. With the want of a greater sense of the 
 responsibility and infinite importance of the work of 
 God, and consequently of greater devotedness to it. 
 2. Too great a delight in worldly studies to the dispar- 
 agement of the pure and holy word of God. " How 
 little have I understood and practiced my ordination 
 vows ! " 3. Too great a neglect of a careful and laborious 
 preparation for that awful place — the pulpit. " I have 
 offered the Lord what has cost me nothing and rny min- 
 istrations have been unblessed ! " 4. Too little of the 
 spirit of fervent prayer and constant devotedness of heart 
 to the glorious service of my Master. Again he says: 
 " I have recently had some painful, but not to be mis- 
 taken, evidence of a partial decline in spirituality. Among 
 the long-continued efforts necessary (and I fear some- 
 times too much prompted by ambitious feelings) to ac- 
 quire the languages of the babbling earth, I have been 
 too neglectful of the language of heaven. My prayers 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 1 23 
 
 have become languid and formal, and, O ! where shall I 
 stop were I to enumerate the inconsistencies of Chris- 
 tian character of which I am conscious? How many 
 more are marked by Him who knoweth the thoughts of 
 the heart! I have been for some time resolving: i. To 
 give more attention to a devotional reading of the Scrip- 
 tures, my present reading being too much for the sake 
 of the words of the language [Portuguese] and not the 
 meaning. 2. To let no day pass without reading more 
 or less in some work calculated to promote practical 
 piety. I must now add, 3. To give more time to my 
 regular periods of private devotion and precede them, 
 certainly at morning and noonday, with one or both of 
 the above kinds of reading. How little meditation has 
 preceded, how little reflection has followed these exer- 
 cises which of all others ought to be considered the most 
 solemn and important ! I will endeavor to consider I 
 am going into the presence-chamber of the King ! what 
 gifts can I carry, what offerings can I make which he will 
 deign to accept ? Thy sacrifices, O God, are a broken 
 heart and a contrite spirit. What am I in need to ask 
 at his hand ? Is it not that pride, my besetting sin, may 
 be removed from my heart ? that fear and love of the 
 world may be removed ? that sinful tempers may be sub- 
 dued ? that wandering thoughts may be repressed ? that 
 every root of bitterness may be extracted, and that love, 
 perfect love to God and man, may fill and rule my heart ? 
 My expressions in prayer are too general and unmean- 
 ing. I am persuaded that much of what I am lamenting 
 has grown out of endeavors to redeem my time. So 
 prompt is evil to come out of good ! Lord, have mercy 
 upon me ! " At the opening of the year in which he 
 conducted the last of these missionary expeditions, he 
 
124 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 writes : " I hope to be more diligent, more active, more 
 believing, and more prayerful during the year to come, 
 or any portion of it which may be mine. While faithful 
 I have the most confident trust in the guidance and 
 blessing of Him whom I serve. Let this, then, be my 
 great business, to prove faithful, and all will be well." 
 
 In these ingenuous disclosures we are permitted to view 
 the inner life of one whose whole object was to study to 
 show himself a workman approved of God that need not 
 to be ashamed. Returning to his home after his long 
 absence, coming back to his young family who sadly 
 missed him, he had a right, doubtless, to bring with him 
 the reflection that he had fully covered his work, and yet 
 it was his conscience and not his conceit that listened for 
 the " Well done, good and faithful servant ! " 
 
 The work which he accomplished in these expeditions 
 was not such that it could be displayed in a table of 
 statistics. It was, in the main, as it was intended it 
 should be, a prospecting excursion ; or, as it might be 
 styled, a reconnoissance, important, indeed essential to 
 the after attack and invasion ; an attack, an invasion 
 which should be the more certainly successful for Christ 
 and his cause because through the information thus 
 gathered it would be intelligent. 
 
 And yet he understood his task to be one also of seed- 
 sowing, and diligently prosecuted it in this direction. " All 
 providential openings for doing good were gladly em- 
 braced, and arrangements were made to establish the 
 Scriptures on sale, with tracts for gratuitous distribution. 
 It is to be presumed that the numerous copies of the 
 Scriptures and scriptural publications thus furnished to 
 the reading community have not failed to exert a most 
 happy influence in promoting general tranquillity and the 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 1 25 
 
 practice of virtue." Nearly ten years after it was re- 
 ported tiiat these metiiods for the spread of the Gospel 
 were still at work. 
 
 Summing up the results of these expeditions, he says: 
 " We now had correspondents along the whole coast. 
 During my tour I was enabled to put in circulation many 
 copies of the Holy Scriptures and about sixty thousand 
 pages of religious tracts. Besides this I left Scriptures 
 for sale and tracts for distribution in the principal places. 
 Thus by the establishment of depositories in the mar- 
 itime towns where the Scriptures could be procured by 
 persons from every part of the interior between San 
 Paulo and Para, a great step was taken toward offering 
 the word of God to the entire nation, and inviting the 
 inhabitants generally to receive it." 
 
 Brief as was Mr. Kidder's stay in South America, his 
 influence was long felt, and permanent good followed the 
 evangelical journeys which he made. Fifteen years after- 
 ward a missionary of another denomination " became 
 acquainted with a prominent Brazilian gentleman, whom 
 he found was an experimental Christian, his life exempli- 
 fying the Gospel teachings, which he sought everywhere 
 to diffuse, and who, when asked what had produced this 
 great change in his character and creed, answered, ' I 
 owe it all to a Bible left with me by Padre Kidder many 
 years ago.' " 
 
 Having completed these important missionary tours, 
 gathered the information essential to a wise prosecution 
 of his further work, and set in train operations and influ- 
 ences which he justly judged would be lasting and far- 
 reaching in their benefits, he settled down again to an 
 earnest prosecution of the tasks immediately at hand in 
 the missionary headquarters. 
 
126 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 On his first Sabbath at home he preached on board an 
 American vessel to a congregation of eighty seamen. 
 About this time he organized a temperance society 
 among the seamen, and was greatly encouraged by its 
 immediate popularity and rapid growth. 
 
 Right in the midst of his unceasing labors he was 
 brought to a check by an attack of severe illness. His pain 
 was violent and he was prostrated with extreme debility. 
 "Thus it seemed good to Him who has kept me as in 
 the hollow of his hand during a long period of exposure 
 and peril, now when least expected, but at the same time 
 when I am best prepared for it, to send on me this light 
 affliction." The evening before he was taken sick he had 
 gone to the place of worship, having made preparation 
 to preach from the text, "Cut it down ; why cumbereth 
 it the ground?" He adds: " I desire to kiss the rod, 
 and take it as a most solemn warning that I am the cum- 
 berer of the ground, and that the ax has been most justly 
 laid at the root of the tree ! " 
 
 In a little less than two weeks he was ready again for 
 duty and preached twice, in the morning on the Bethel 
 ship, and in the evening on shore. 
 
 His wife, whose spirit all through was that of the con- 
 secrated missionary, now became urgent that he should 
 give more especial attention to his work among the 
 people in their own tongue. He was already a good 
 reader and writer in the Portuguese, and had read the 
 Bible through in that language, but he had not yet at- 
 tempted to preach in it. He writes: "After some con- 
 versation with my dear wife on the subject of our calling 
 and duties, I feel deeply impressed with the necessity of 
 devoting my time and efforts more exclusively toward 
 a preparation for evangelical labors in the Portuguese 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 127 
 
 language, inclusive of preaching. I fear that I have been 
 too indifferent to this subject and have given my per- 
 sonal studies and engagements too much of my time, for 
 surely I have not often been unemployed, or triflingly 
 employed. 
 
 "Incessant occupation the first year with the Portuguese 
 language ; the second, with traveling and the necessary 
 preparations, have prevented me from giving that atten- 
 tion to my theological studies which I would desire and 
 which the Church reasonably exacts. On my return 
 from the north I was disposed to give them greater 
 prominence, and they, together with the necessary writ- 
 ing which devolved upon me, filled up my whole 
 time. I have made no special efforts toward preparing 
 tracts or sermons in Portuguese. This, however, must 
 be the order of every day, and I must let nothing divert 
 me from the speedy and perfect acquisition of a tongue 
 through which nearly all efforts for the spiritual ameliora- 
 tion of this country must be made. I must lay aside all 
 ambition to be a theologian and delight to be in all 
 things a faithful missionary, in which may God help 
 me ! 
 
 During this period he received from his father a letter 
 commending his course in choosing the self-denying serv- 
 ice of Christ. He wrote : 
 
 " My dear Son: — I cannot tell you how thankful I now 
 am that you have followed, undeviatingly, your convic- 
 tions of duty, without turning aside for any objections 
 made by me." 
 
 This letter contained also another message, which 
 awakened a still deeper joy. It told the news (good 
 news, indeed) that the father had become converted. 
 The son's personal pleadings had not been for naught. 
 
128 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 His prayers had been answered. The father had found 
 the pearl of great price. In this inteUigence there was 
 for the missionary an added incentive to earnestness. It 
 came like a new girding of his purpose. 
 
 But alas ! the zealous young missionary whose spirit 
 was constantly urging him to fresh endeavors for Christ, 
 whose enthusiasm was all the while moving him to 
 minify the value of his past labors, was now, all unknown 
 to himself, walking into the depths of a shadow whose 
 chill fell like a frost upon his budding plans. 
 
 Sunday, April 5, 1840, he enters in his journal this 
 simple line : " Mrs. Kidder was not well enough to be 
 present at the evening service." This was the beginning 
 of sore trials, the collapse of all his missionary hopes. 
 
 Her disease was at once met with medical treatment 
 — the best that the science of the time and place could 
 afford was generously appealed to. Several physicians 
 were in consultation, and the duties of nurse he assumed 
 himself. " I gave up my whole time to her from the 
 first, thinking it little enough that I should make every 
 possible effort for her comfort, only regretting my ex- 
 treme incapacity for the delicate and soothing attentions 
 requisite for a sick bed. 
 
 " These times of trial are those which show us how 
 much our hearts and happiness are bound up in those we 
 love. But of all other priceless blessings which we enjoy 
 on earth, what can be greater than a virtuous, affection- 
 ate wife, or a fond and devoted mother! What a be- 
 reavement the loss of their society even by sickness, how 
 much more by death ! But yet our stronghold is the 
 Almighty. He knows what is best and can give us 
 grace to acquiesce in his holy will." 
 
 With one fugitive passage of improvement in her 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 1 29 
 
 symptoms she grew steadily worse. The faithful watcher 
 at her side during the long nights began to be tortured 
 with the thought of her possible death. " It was during 
 these anxious hours," he says, " that I first seemed to 
 realize that I could lose her. I had thought of it as a 
 mournful possibility. I had apprehended it from the 
 frank and timely warning of the physician, but to think 
 that it would be so I could not, until the glassy eyes, the 
 fixed and vacant stare, the faltering nerve, and the wan- 
 dering mind convinced me that, except by a miracle of 
 divine mercy indeed, it must. Bitter and frequent were 
 the tears shed over her during the hours of that restless 
 night. Her thoughts seemed to dwell among her kin- 
 dred, several of whose names she mentioned, besides those 
 of her children. Thursday, the l6th, about four o'clock 
 in the morning, she turned over, extending her arms to- 
 ward me as if to embrace me, and said in her own sweet 
 and afiectionate manner, 'My dear husband!' These 
 were among the last intelligible words she uttered. 
 Remaining quietly, as if in a sleep, for about three hours, 
 at a quarter past seven in the morning, her spirit fled 
 without a struggle or a groan or the least indication of 
 her great change, save that she ceased to breathe ! " 
 
 Here now was trouble for the widowed husband, left 
 in charge of two young children. His crushing sorrow 
 broke forth: " How impotent is language, how incapable 
 ofdescribing the anguished feelings with which a husband 
 must behold a scene like this, the partner of his joys and 
 hopes, the mother of his children, the dear object of 
 his dearest earthly affections separated from him at once 
 and forever ! But it is done, the silver cord is loosed, 
 the golden bowl is broken, the pitcher is broken at the 
 fountain, and the wheel broken at the cistern, and the 
 9 
 
130 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 dust is made ready to return to the earth as it was, but 
 as the consequence of this the spirit has returned to God 
 who gave it. ' The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken 
 away ; blessed be the name of the Lord ! ' O, that he 
 would enable me to think of the infinite gain and glory 
 which her ransomed spirit has acquired by being thus 
 early set free from the cares and sorrows of this unsatis- 
 fying world, and not to repine at my unspeakable loss, 
 or sorrow as others without hope." In another place he 
 writes thus of her death : " She was cut down in the 
 midst of a field of usefulness, for which she had become 
 peculiarly qualified. Her willing and faithful services 
 in the work whereunto she was sent were suddenly and 
 fatally checked by the unlooked-for approach of death. 
 But she died as she had lived, a humble, devoted Chris- 
 tian, and in her final hour triumphed over the last 
 enemy by falling asleep in Jesus — that Saviour 
 
 ' For the light of whose smile in the heaven of love ' 
 
 her warm heart continually aspired. Her precious mem- 
 ory will be long and fondly cherished upon earth, but 
 her record is on high." 
 
 Friends were not failing in their attentions, and the 
 remains, lovingly cared for, were, according to the custom 
 of the country, removed the same evening. They were 
 taken to a house in the English cemetery to remain until 
 the burial. " O, the loneliness of that lonely night ! " 
 was the cry of his heart. " I slept soundly, perhaps from 
 fatigue, till midnight, when I arose and thought of walk- 
 ing out in the still and lovely moonlight, but concluded 
 not to forsake the place rendered doubly dear to me by 
 sorrow. I, therefore, walked my room for about two 
 hours and again sought rest." 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 131 
 
 At four P. M. on Good Friday the interment took 
 place, and although the place was somewhat remote and 
 an opportunity had not been afforded for an extended 
 notice, still there was a large number of friends present 
 near a hundred, including Americans, English, German, 
 French, Portuguese, and Brazilians. 
 
 The burial service was read by his associate, the Eng- 
 lish clergyman, the German minister also being pres- 
 ent. "When the cold earth was heard to rattle upon 
 the coffin," he adds, "we turned away and sought our 
 homes in silent grief In parting, however, most of the 
 company came one by one to give me an affectionate 
 shake of the hand. 
 
 " The next day I remained at home in my room. It 
 was Hallelujah Saturday, the termination of Lent, the day 
 of rejoicings, the hanging of Judas, etc." His soul kept 
 no holiday. The day following, however, the Sabbath, 
 delaying not his Master's work to build an altar to his 
 grief, he attended the Bethel service, and, as he describes 
 it, "attempted to preach from Amos 4. 12 : ' Prepare to 
 meet thy God.' " 
 
 It being plain that his work in this field, for the present 
 at least, was at an end, he began to make preparations 
 to take his motherless children to their friends in the 
 United States. 
 
 "This bereavement," he writes, "like the untimely 
 winds of autumn, swept many tender blossoms of hope 
 and promise forever away. It imposed upon me the im- 
 perious necessity of a speedy embarkation for the United 
 States as a hopeful means of preserving the life of an in- 
 fant son. The great change which has come over all my 
 prospects, and indeed everything which relates to my 
 future life, fills me with astonishment and unutterable 
 
132 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 emotions. I do not endeavor to banish the thoughts or 
 feelings to which, connected with this subject, my mind 
 constantly recurs. No, it is not with regrets, but with 
 fondness, that I cherish the remembrance of my lamented 
 partner both in her life and in her death. Thus will I 
 ever cherish her sacred memory and our plighted love, 
 believing that her angel spirit will closely accompany me 
 through all the varied windings that remain before me." 
 
 The following Sabbath Rev. Mr. Spaulding preached 
 the funeral sermon from I Cor. 15. 26: "The last enemy 
 that shall be destroyed is death." " The room was never 
 before so crowded with hearers. The most profound at- 
 tention was observed, and it is to be hoped that good 
 and lasting impressions were received by many." 
 
 During the interval that was occupied with the com- 
 pletion of his preparations for embarking, he was also 
 continuously busy with his regular duties, preaching 
 on the Sabbaths and holding meetings during the week. 
 Attending their services at this time was a Lieutenant 
 Foote, son of Governor Foote, of Connecticut, an officer 
 of the American sloop of war then in the harbor from a 
 cruise around the world. This young officer took part in 
 the meetings, and, from his account of the various mission 
 stations he had visited, he greatly cheered and refreshed 
 the spirits of these toiling and sorrowing heroes of the 
 cross. 
 
 At length the hour of departure arrived, and he em- 
 barked on board the ship Azelia, Saturday, May 9. 
 " After the children were at rest I had leisure to walk the 
 deck of the vessel in silent meditation. I gazed upon 
 the starlit canopy above, upon the giant mountains, the 
 great city, the enchanting scenery still more lovely under 
 the mellow light of evening, and upon the hushed waves 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 1 33 
 
 and glassy waters around me. But all these failed to 
 soothe the anguish of my heart. I could but contrast 
 my condition with what it was a few months before, when, 
 returning from a long voyage, we lay at anchor near the 
 same spot. How high then did my heart beat with ex- 
 pectation when I saw myself after perils by sea and by 
 land so nearly restored to the bosom of my family. How 
 anxiously did I watch for the flight of hours till morning 
 came, when I could leap on shore and hasten to the em- 
 brace of my wife and children ! But alas, what a change 
 has come over me and mine ! My wife is no more, and 
 my children are orphans ! I am again embarked, it is 
 true, but the laden vessel only awaits freedom from her 
 anchorage and the spreading of her canvas to bear me 
 far, and perhaps forever, away from the dear remains of 
 her who has been the partner of my joys and the solace 
 of my sorrows. She sleeps in a foreign grave, no more 
 to hear the voice of affection from husband or child. 
 But her spirit, freed from earthly clogs, will follow us — 
 me, indeed, to the land of our birth, but our offspring to 
 a land of strangers ! " 
 
 The nurse he had engaged being brought down at 
 once with seasickness, he was obliged to begin the voy- 
 age by taking care of the little ones himself. The pas- 
 sage was unusually rapid and prosperous, and within less 
 than thirty-four days out they cast anchor at Staten 
 Island. He reported promptly to the Missionary Board. 
 A resolution was passed, approving of his return as 
 " necessary and expedient." He was requested to hold 
 meetings in the interest of the cause in the principal 
 towns and cities through which he should pass during 
 his visits to his friends, and he was directed to return 
 to the same field after a due interval. 
 
134 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Reaching the home of his wife's parents in Connecti- 
 cut his sorrow broke out afresh. " O, what bitterness 
 and grief are caused by the tender associations which 
 hallow this spot. But the loved one is no more to 
 return. The children can never supply her place, but 
 still they will ever remind me of her, and I hope may 
 live to remind me of her virtues as strongly as they will 
 of her person." 
 
 But stronger than his grief was his loyalty to duty, and 
 his sorrow was not. as sacred as his obedience to the 
 command that called him to be again about his Master's 
 business. Breaking away from his little ones, forgetting 
 the things behind which clung so to his heart, he began 
 at once to take up the task which the Mission Board 
 had assigned him, of presenting the cause of missions in 
 the various Conferences and to as many congregations as 
 he could reach. In this way he made a tour of New 
 England and eastern New York, and in the fall started 
 for the far West. 
 
 At Middletown he was elected on the joint Board of 
 Trustees and Visitors of the University and received his 
 degree of A.M. The following Sunday he preached in 
 New York at Willett Street. That week, upon invita- 
 tion, he went with a party to Staten Island. Rev. George 
 Peck and Rev. Charles Elliott, of Cincinnati, were in 
 the company. The object of the excursion was to make 
 observations and collections in various departments of 
 natural history. 
 
 The second week of September, 1840, he attended the 
 session of his own Conference at Lyons, N. Y. " The 
 Conference was opened with the usual solemnities. The 
 scene overwhelmed me with inexpressible emotions, 
 especially when we sang the hymn, 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 1 35 
 
 " ' And are we yet alive 
 And see each other's face? ' " 
 
 Having passed the required examinations he was ad- 
 mitted to full connection in the Conference. He helped 
 to organize a literary and theological society, drafting 
 for it a constitution and reporting it to the Conference. 
 
 A ilying visit to Darien, the home of his youth, 
 followed this. 
 
 The Mission Board having concluded for the future to 
 maintain but one missionary in Rio, he reported to the 
 bishops for further direction. He was transferred from 
 the Genesee to the New Jersey Conference, and stationed 
 at Paterson, June 2, 1841. Hastening east for a brief 
 visit to his children, he entered again upon his work as 
 pastor. 
 
136 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Pastorate at Paterson. 
 
 r^R. LUCKEY having declined the office of Mission- 
 '-^ ary Secretary, to which he had been elected, Dr. 
 Charles Pitman was chosen. He was at the time Pre- 
 siding Elder of the Trenton District, and Rev. D. Parish 
 was taken up from Paterson and appointed to the dis- 
 trict ; Mr. Kidder, as has been related, was assigned to 
 Paterson. 
 
 The account of this pastorate might be styled, The 
 Story of a Great Revival. The church was in a state of 
 continual fervor and growth, and each of the two winters 
 he was there, there were protracted meetings of the old- 
 fashioned type, continuing in each case until the time 
 when the happy young pastor must hasten to report the 
 good news to Conference. 
 
 This was not accidental, but the result of well-consid- 
 ered and faithfully applied means. His method and 
 success intimate a close attention on his part to the 
 Rules of a Pastor, given in the Discipline, and emphasize 
 the fact that a Methodist church operated as a Methodist 
 church is of necessity warm, aggressive, and prosperous. 
 From the outset he began, and without relaxation to the 
 end, he pursued the work in hand with his characteristic 
 zeal, enthusiasm, system, and thoroughness. His church 
 was his kingdom, his world. Every part and department 
 came under his constant supervision, his personal activ- 
 ity was a pressure felt upon its entire machinery. He 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 1 37 
 
 showed also the faculty of inspiring others with his own 
 passion for labor ; he multiplied himself in the willing 
 contribution and fruitful efforts of many hearts and 
 hands. 
 
 His first Sunday was June 13, 1841. He preached 
 morning and evening, and held a general class in the 
 afternoon. " This first Sabbath in my station pnssed 
 pleasantly, and I trust profitably. We have here a fine 
 church and most interesting congregation. O Lord, ren- 
 der thy servant useful to all for whom he shall labor in 
 thy name! " Of his second Sabbath he says: "I vis- 
 ited the Sunday school twice, met one class and preached 
 twice, enjoying the duties and labors of the day much 
 through divine assistance and grace." 
 
 All his Sabbaths were thus filled up. The Sunday school 
 is never neglected, and there are always three services 
 besides. His first communion was July 4. " I admin- 
 istered the sacrament to nearly four hundred." A shep- 
 herd faithful to so large a flock as that had need to meas- 
 ure himself clear across the full meaning of the "instant 
 in season and out of season." 
 
 These busy Sabbaths were the boundary lines for la- 
 borious weeks. Besides his study and regular pastoral 
 work, as a sample of the manner in which his time was 
 taken up, he mentions for one week's engagements, a 
 funeral, two class meetings, a prayer meeting, one even- 
 ing given to a lecture, and one to attendance upon a 
 temperance meeting. This weekly temperance gathering 
 was established when he reached Paterson, and found in 
 him at once and always an interested worker. He deliv- 
 ered frequent addresses, and assisted all he could in its 
 special labor of reforming inebriates. Sunday school 
 board meetings, leaders' meetings, official board meet- 
 
138 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 ings, and the weekly prayer meeting left but few even- 
 ings to himself. Even these he would not appropriate 
 to that quiet and study which he would have found so 
 profitable and congenial, but gave them up to the service 
 of the Church, so much so that in arranging a division 
 of his time into periods and tasks, he entered opposite 
 to his evenings, " Meetings." Having found Thursday 
 a free or open evening in the schedule of the church, he 
 set it apart for special instruction and preparation of the 
 Sunday school teachers for their work. " I delivered a 
 lecture in the church and organized a class of thirty-five 
 persons, teachers and others, interested in the objects of 
 the Sunday school instruction. I propose, if duly en- 
 couraged, to continue a series of lectures with a view to 
 calling out the talents and enlisting the energies of the 
 youth of our congregation." He found opportunity also 
 during the week evenings to visit the classes in the 
 church, which he did with fidelity and regularity. One 
 evening he led one class and dropped into two others. 
 He had also each week on Wednesday afternoon a pas- 
 tor's class. 
 
 During all this time he was constant and thorough in 
 his pastoral visiting from house to house. " I distributed 
 the various families of my charge into twelve pastoral 
 districts according to the streets, to promote con- 
 venience in visiting." This arrangement, with the 
 names of the streets and the names of the families 
 written out in his neat style, is still preserved among 
 his papers. The sick were the objects of his partic- 
 ular and loving attention, being visited by him two and 
 three times a day. Pious and beautiful deaths made a 
 profound impression upon him. Coming away from a 
 home where a young mother had just departed leaving 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 1 39 
 
 two children unconscious of their loss, he writes : " O, 
 that scene of grief was but too much the counterpart of 
 mine own so vividly remembered ! " 
 
 In all the above we can readily see some of the 
 subsoil plowing and seed-sowing which resulted in the 
 revivals he had, phenomenal even for those times. From 
 the outset he expected such results as legitimate if not 
 necessary. As early as August he began having prayer 
 meetings after the Sunday evening sermon. On one even- 
 ing he notes with regret that a visiting brother occupy- 
 ing his pulpit preached so long that the prayer meeting 
 was crowded out. The first Sunday evening in Septem- 
 ber there were penitents at the altar, and so from that 
 date on. 
 
 As the season advanced his sermons became more and 
 more intense and urgent. Having preached on Repent- 
 ance and Regeneration, he followed these up with a 
 series of sermons on Future Punishment, which were 
 delivered to crowded evening congregations. 
 
 At length, when all seemed ripe for the desired and 
 quietly contemplated forward movement, he adopted the 
 wise plan of consulting the officers of his church in the 
 matter. "At our leaders' meeting I proposed the ques- 
 tion whether we should engage in an extra effort for the 
 conversion of souls. The answer was unanimously 
 affirmative. We also agreed to observe Monday as 
 a season of special prayer for a preparation of heart and 
 a blessing from the Lord." The Sunday following he 
 relates : " The question of an extra meeting and the 
 pledge of concert in prayer for it, as well as the promise 
 of an attendance upon it, was proposed to the society. 
 It met a unanimous response." This was in the morn- 
 ing. In the afternoon a love feast was held, and at 
 
140 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 night the altar was at once filled with penitent seekers 
 of salvation, one or two of whom found the pearl of 
 great price. 
 
 Thus was the revival sprung upon them, and every 
 night (except Saturday nights, which were reserved for 
 special conversation and prayer with young converts 
 and penitents) from New Year's until March the work 
 went on with marvelous power. 
 
 The second Sunday was a great day. " I had liberty 
 of speech when addressing the people in the morning on 
 the ' Convenient Season.' In the afternoon at half past 
 one the classes met, and at three o'clock a general prayer 
 service was held at which several lay brethren from New 
 York were the principal assistants. The evening was a 
 time of power; about forty persons knelt at the altar 
 and seats in front. Several professed conversion." Every 
 Sunday morning during the progress of the meeting he 
 gave opportunity for the new converts to join the church, 
 and at each invitation new names were added to the list 
 of probationers. Frequently he was disappointed dur- 
 ing the week nights in not receiving promised help from 
 his ministerial brethren. " But," he adds, " the Lord 
 continued with us and great good was done in his 
 name." 
 
 On the Sunday which closed the first month of the 
 meeting the house was full both morning and evening. 
 His subject for the evening was The Judgment. "Just 
 as I was concluding an alarm of fire was started near 
 the door, which threw the congregation into excitement 
 for a moment. I endeavored to turn the circumstance 
 to as good account as possible, but fear the enemy got 
 some souls by the trick. The altar was again filled and 
 three or four found peace." 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 141 
 
 At this stage of the meeting he formed a society 
 among his members for the distribution of tracts, start- 
 ing off with a hundred names. Through their aid he 
 sent abroad into the community a large quantity of this 
 kind of religious literature. 
 
 Having preached one Sunday evening from the very 
 opportune text, " Do thyself no harm," he says : " The 
 penitents came to the altar without inviting." 
 
 These continued and exhausting labors were at the 
 expense of great fatigue, and, writing of one of his busy 
 Sabbaths, he says : " I preached twice, attended a funeral, 
 and also a general class meeting. I found myself com- 
 pletely worn out, but my heart was cheered by witness- 
 ing the conversion of four souls. To God be all the 
 glory! " 
 
 This remarkable revival, closing his first year, added to 
 the church one hundred and twenty-two probationers. 
 
 From the very outset of his second year the impetus 
 of this great spiritual movement was felt. The Sunday 
 following his return from a camp meeting in the neigh- 
 borhood he records : " I had wonderful liberty in preach- 
 ing. The love feast in the afternoon was deeply inter- 
 esting, and promised so much good as to induce the 
 appointment of extra meetings on Monday and Wednes- 
 day evenings which were well attended. The Spirit of 
 the Lord was manifestly present." This was in August, 
 and as in the preceding year, so again in September at 
 the prayer meeting after the Sunday evening sermon, 
 there were seekers at the altar. 
 
 Branching out in his evangelical zeal beyond Paterson, 
 he established a Sunday school in a neighborhood two 
 miles distant called Oldham, and opened a Sunday after- 
 noon preaching service, "with a prospect of good." He 
 
142 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 also held protracted meetings for two weeks every even- 
 ing except Saturday and Sunday evenings, at a place 
 several miles away called Red Mills. He had already 
 organized there a class of six persons. The meetings 
 were held in a new barn. " In this neighborhood a sim- 
 ilar effort in behalf of perishing souls had never before 
 been made. Prejudices were understood to be numerous 
 and strong against Methodism, but they gradually gave 
 way, and a most happy influence is believed to have been 
 exerted upon the community in general. On the whole 
 the spirit which pervaded this meeting was a most de- 
 lightful one. I trust that the fruits of the labor will be 
 seen in a coming day. The immediate results, although 
 not as great as we could have wished, vi'ere perhaps 
 as great as under all circumstances could have been ex- 
 pected." 
 
 The troublesome tide of the Millerite excitement 
 now rolled in his direction. " Mr. Miller's tent having 
 been in Newark, some of our people went to hear the 
 lectures on the Second Advent of Christ. Opinions ap- 
 peared to be as various as the prepossessions of the vis- 
 itors. Three lectures on the subject involved in the theory 
 were delivered in the Free Presbyterian Church on as 
 many week evenings." This unhealthy sensation, however, 
 instead of being a diversion of himself and church from 
 the one commanding work to which they were called, 
 was so wisely seized upon by him, as that it was made 
 to contribute toward the spirituality of his people and 
 the salvation of souls. Under date of November 12 he 
 says : " Having reflected fully on the subject I believed 
 it my duty to take up the subject of Prophecy, and give 
 the result of my investigations in a series of discourses 
 to begin the next Sabbath." Accordingly he began on 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 143 
 
 that morning by preaching on the Example of the 
 Prophets, and in the evening his topic was The Burden 
 of Babylon, with an introduction to the course. " The 
 church was filled to its utmost capacity, and probably 
 contained fifteen to seventeen hundred persons." The 
 prayer meeting following was full of interest. In due 
 order followed the sermons on the Jews, The Messiah, 
 The Destruction of Jerusalem, The Second Coming of 
 Christ, The Kingdom of God, Boast not Thyself of To- 
 morrow, as applied to the Second Advent of Christ, and 
 The Judgment. This last one in the course was preached 
 on watch night. Of this service he has left this record: 
 " The work of the Lord which was already begun in 
 power seemed now gloriously to widen and extend. The 
 altar was no longer large enough to contain the pen- 
 itents. Benches were placed in its rear, and the first row 
 of seats were cleared all around to make room for the 
 mourners in Zion. Many souls were blessed. The prayer 
 meeting continuing until near twelve o'clock, the entrance 
 of the new year was awaited in silent prayer. The church 
 remained crowded to the last. 
 
 " The work of the Lord so gloriously begun continued 
 in mighty efficacy for a series of weeks, devolving on me 
 such an amount of labor and care in endeavoring to seek 
 the lost and keep the found, as I never sustained before. 
 The labors although responsible and arduous, neverthe- 
 less abounded in the sweetest consolations. Many in- 
 cidents of deep and thrilling interest occurred. One 
 characteristic of this revival was that a large number of 
 its earlier subjects were men, of whom I have received a 
 greater number into the church than were members of 
 it before. Great pains were taken to enlist their zealous 
 efforts to bring in their friends and companions which 
 
144 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 the Lord enabled them to do with marked success." 
 Among the names of those mentioned who assisted him 
 in pulpit labors is that of the late Rev. William P. 
 Corbit. 
 
 In a letter written this spring he reports : " Our extra 
 meetings commenced on Christmas and continued till 
 March, almost three months, every night. As a part of 
 its fruits I have received about three hundred on proba- 
 tion. The pastoral visiting necessarily due to these, be- 
 sides the originally large numbers of my flock, has been 
 sufficient to require all my time save the fragments I 
 could snatch for preparing sermons. You can scarcely 
 form an idea of the glorious scenes witnessed within and 
 around our altar for weeks in succession. From sixty to 
 one hundred were seen kneeling nightly, imploring par- 
 don for their sins, and scarcely a night during the whole 
 meeting was undistinguished by the conversion of some 
 
 In 
 s. 
 
 He closes this letter with the following views on the 
 subject of Millerism : "I have always considered the 
 scriptural doctrine of the Second Advent as divinely cal- 
 culated to do good to the souls of men, but I am con- 
 strained to deprecate the presumption by which many 
 have of late pretended to fix upon those 'times and sea- 
 sons ' which God hath put in his own power. And. all 
 honest people deprecate the prevarication with which 
 these teachers change from time to time their calcula- 
 tions when compelled to do so by their disappointment. 
 I do not believe the Gospel of Christ needs any adventi- 
 tious aids or improvements, and with us the results have 
 so proved. From all the discourses delivered in this 
 place by Millerite lecturers we do not know of a single 
 conversion, whereas, through the old-fashioned way of 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 145 
 
 preaching Christ and him crucified, there have been 
 added to the different churches some four or five hundred 
 souls." 
 
 Continuing the story of the revival in his journal, he 
 says : " Among the results of these wonderful meetings 
 were increased efforts in some of the sister churches, 
 which resulted in many accessions to their several com- 
 munions. 
 
 " Among those added to our membership was a class 
 at Acquackanonk [now Passaic], where the work of the 
 Lord broke out through the instrumentality of a few 
 private individuals without a single sermon being 
 preached. A Methodist lady from New York came up to 
 visit her sister, a young lady lying at the point of death, 
 but unconverted. Hearing of a pious young man, a 
 member of my charge, who had recently moved into the 
 place, she sent for him to pray with her sister. The 
 young lady was converted and died happy. The neigh- 
 bors had been present, some had become awakened, and 
 the meetings continuing, a few became converted. At 
 this stage of affairs I was applied to to take charge of the 
 meetings, which I did by sending leaders to conduct them. 
 A class having been organized, it was immediately pro- 
 posed to build a church in the place, there being none 
 save two Dutch churches. A neat small chapel, worth 
 about $1 ,000, was all that was needed, and I was instructed 
 to head the subscription in behalf of Mrs. Holsman, one 
 of our members residing near, with $500. 
 
 " About the same time a successful subscription was 
 put in motion to build a church at Red Mills. The land 
 was given at both places, and it is proposed to have the 
 corner stones of both laid before Conference. 
 
 " Our congregation, moreover, had so much increased 
 10 
 
146 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 in Paterson that it became very desirable to have a sec- 
 ond church, which no doubt would have been imme- 
 diately undertaken but for the heavy debt still resting 
 on the present edifice, and the very great difficulty of 
 raising money by any means or for any object at this 
 juncture. We have filled up the old classes, and organ- 
 ized four new ones, in some cases with very promising 
 members." 
 
 Of these three months he says : " They cover the most 
 important and happiest period of my life thus far. My 
 health has been perfectly good, and I have been greatly 
 prospered and blessed of the Lord in every relation I 
 have sustained whether to my family, the Church, or the 
 world." 
 
 On his last Sabbath he preached in the morning, Psalm 
 137. 5, 6, " If I forget thee, O Jerusalem," etc. In the 
 afternoon, he says, " We held an extra general class meet- 
 ing at which the lower part of the church was crowded 
 with church members. In the evening I preached on 
 the Final Judgment." 
 
 The fruitfulness of these two years appears in that 
 they added to the church four hundred and sixty-five 
 probationers. As an incidental result of the spiritual 
 strength and healthfulness of the church there were cer- 
 tain temporal improvements, such as the refitting of the 
 Sunday school room and the substantial reduction of the 
 oppressive church debt. No wonder the impressions of 
 this remarkable pastorate left a glow that lingered long 
 after in his heart. As late as 1861 he makes this entry 
 concerning it : " The period of my pastorate in Paterson 
 is vividly remembered as one of constant labor and en- 
 couraging success. Throughout its continuance I was 
 brought into close contact with the people of a manufac- 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. I47 
 
 turing town. They represented various nationalities, but 
 affiliated agreeably with each other and the church. It was 
 my custom to visit indiscriminately and often all the 
 members of my congregation. I thus became greatly 
 identified with them, and secured a warm place in their 
 sympathies and affections. All such advantages I en- 
 deavored to use diligently and earnestly for the cause of 
 Christ, and I am thankful to say with most encouraging 
 results." 
 
 His duties in this interesting church were not, however, 
 so absorbing but that he found time to pursue as a sort 
 of mental relaxation those literary employments in which 
 he took such a delight. Indulging a conscientious pur- 
 pose to redeem his time, he carefully divided each day 
 into schedule periods. " Having made a trial of my new 
 division of time and arrangement of study," he says, " I 
 am persuaded that it will work well. The twenty-four 
 hours are divided into three equal portions. The first is 
 devoted to study, writing, and reading, occupying the 
 earlier part of the day. The second, occupying intervals 
 together with the latter part of the afternoon and the 
 evening, is set apart for devotion, exercise, recreation, 
 pastoral visits, and religious meetings. The third, as 
 nature requires, for necesary rest and repose. If health and 
 the divine blessing enable me to carry this arrangement 
 into effective operation during the year, I may reasonably 
 anticipate that great advantages will result not only to 
 myself personally, but also to the work in which I am 
 engaged." 
 
 In addition to his regular theological reading he gave 
 Bunyan's Pilgriiii s Progress a careful perusal, and took 
 up Wesley's Journal for a thorough study. " I have 
 commenced reading Mr. Wesley's Journal in course. I 
 
148 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 have not only found it interesting, but deeply instructive 
 on several points of the greatest practical importance 
 concerning which I have long felt the need of informa- 
 tion without knowing where to seek it. I have also re- 
 commenced Watson's Life of Wesley to keep pace with 
 his own diary. O, that I might follow him as he followed 
 Christ ! " 
 
 During this interval he was also quite generously oc- 
 cupied in delivering lectures and addresses. He spoke 
 on Female Education and repeatedly on Temperance. 
 Before the Lyceum Education Society, of New York, he 
 delivered an address on the Moral and Literary Aspect 
 of the Empire of Brazil. There was present in his audi- 
 ence Mr. Robert H. Morris, the mayor of the city. 
 
 Current events, however, turned his attention at this 
 time more particularly to the subject of Mormonism, and 
 we have records of his having spoken on this topic fre- 
 quently and with telling effect in different places. At 
 one of these appointments a circumstance occurred which 
 has an interest of its own. " According to previous in- 
 vitation and arrangement I went to Little Falls to lec- 
 ture on Mormonism. I gave the facts respecting that 
 system of delusion for about an hour and forty-five min- 
 utes. At the close a Mormon preacher who was present 
 asked if he might speak. I replied that I had no objec- 
 tion, but the people hissed him down two or three times 
 in succession. It was very evident that his work was 
 done in that place." 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. I49 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Pastorate at Paterson — Pastorate at Trenton. 
 
 TN all these exacting engagements, putting every 
 moment of his time at a premium, he did not forget 
 his obligations as a parent, and from the hills of Con- 
 necticut he felt the tug upon his heart of two little 
 motherless children. He made flying visits to clasp 
 them in his arms and freshen his desolate spirit with 
 their guileless love. He always found them contented, 
 well, and happy in the tender care of their mother's 
 parents. But every time the parting was more painful 
 to him, his heart, too, was hungry for a home. He 
 would have a refuge where the excitements and ex- 
 actions of the pastorate might not enter to weary and 
 wear. 
 
 Accordingly toward the close of March, 1842, he 
 hastened away for a long journey, as it was then, to the 
 West, and reaching Worthington, O., was there married, 
 April 6, by the venerable Jacob Young, to Miss Harriette 
 Smith, Principal of the Worthington Female Seminary. 
 This was for him in every sense a most fortunate alliance. 
 His orphan children fell into hands loving and competent, 
 and as time went on she added to his household three 
 children of her own — two daughters and a son. She still 
 survives, having tenderly ministered to his comfort in 
 his failing years, and having added to the usefulness and 
 luster of his active life by the grace and dignity with 
 which she brightened his home, the genial and generous 
 
150 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 manner in which she entertained strangers, and the un- 
 common faculty she displayed of transacting affairs. A 
 masterful soul was hers, often asserting itself over a feeble 
 body, dragging uncomplainingly the heavy chain of 
 pain as she hastened to the delights of self-sacrificing 
 tasks. East and West the circle of her acquaintances is 
 large, esteem for her readily ripens into love. All who 
 know her will be happy and hearty in their indorsement 
 of the following tribute : " She was a lady whose remark- 
 able talents, great executive abilities, and genuine Chris- 
 tian hospitality have rendered her ' a helpmeet ' to her 
 husband to a degree rarely seen, even in our favored 
 times ; and whose tireless philanthropy has linked her 
 name to institutions which will hold her memory in 
 grateful reverence long after she has closed her beneficent 
 career." 
 
 The return from Worthington after the marriage was 
 made according to the fashion of those times by modes 
 of travel remarkable for variety if not for speed, carriage, 
 canal packet, stage, steamboat, and railroad. A passage 
 in this itinerary cannot fail to be interesting, as reciting 
 in detail and with fidelity of description the manner in 
 which they crossed the Alleghenies a half century ago. 
 " From Pittsburg," he says, " our course was by the 
 Express and Pioneer Line on the Pennsylvania Canal. 
 Our route lay up the streams tributary to the Allegheny, 
 which at various intervals afforded slack water naviga- 
 tion. The ordinary rate of travel is only three miles per 
 hour in the canal, but in the streams is five. We passed 
 under one very large hill by a tunnel eighty feet in 
 length. The course was continually ascending by locks. 
 At Johnstown the western section of the canal termi- 
 nates. Here both freight and passengers are transferred 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 151 
 
 to a railroad. This is composed of eight inclined planes 
 with respective intervals extending to Hollidaysburg. 
 Up and down the planes we were moved by a stationary 
 engine, and in the intervals by locomotives and horses. 
 Thus ' the mountain was made a plane and the crooked 
 places straight.' On these mountains we passed 
 through another tunnel nine hundred and one feet in 
 length. The last four miles were traveled by the simple 
 force of gravitation. At Hollidaysburg we took another 
 boat of the eastern section of the canal, in which we 
 were excessively crowded. Reaching the junction of the 
 Juniata River with the Susquehanna, we crossed the latter 
 by means of a towpath on the side of the long bridge on 
 which the horses passed. Before this we had crossed 
 the Juniata by a rope ferry. Daylight of the fourth day 
 out from Pittsburg found us at Harrisburg." 
 
 The close of this deliberate and variegated wedding 
 tour brought them to Camden in time for the session of 
 the New Jersey Conference, at which he was returned to 
 Paterson for his second year. A month later the chil- 
 dren were brought on, and the parsonage was lighted 
 with the glow of a completed and happy family. 
 
 No part of the return trip was more enjoyed than the 
 stay in Cincinnati. They were actually taken into the 
 arms of that hospitality for which the Queen City has 
 been ever famed. But this visit was memorable in the 
 history of the Church as leading directly toward the 
 founding of the Cincinnati Wesleyan College, the first 
 institution of a collegiate grade in our denomination 
 north of the Ohio and west of the AUeghenies, and the 
 first chartered college for women in the world. 
 
 During an evening spent by Mr. and Mrs. Kidder at 
 the residence of Dr. Elliott, Editor of the Western Chris- 
 
152 
 
 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 tiari Advocate, a conversation upon the higher education 
 of women made so strong an impression upon Dr. Elliott's 
 mind, that in the morning he greeted his guests with the 
 announcement that the one place to plant such an insti- 
 tution was right there in Cincinnati, with its three thou- 
 sand Methodists, a city with advantages in healthfulness, 
 central location, and attractive features unsurpassed. 
 Besides, Cincinnati having been selected as the place for 
 the publication of the Ladies' Repository, had already- 
 become a sort of emporium for female literature. 
 
 The matter was at once presented by Dr. Elliott to 
 the ministers and representative laymen of the city, and 
 secured their immediate and hearty concurrence. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Kidder were pressed to assume the charge of 
 the enterprise. He replied that he would give the prop- 
 osition favorable consideration, intimating that he 
 would be free to take hold of the movement in the en- 
 suing spring. 
 
 It must be admitted that he was warmly inclined 
 toward it. He says : " I have hitherto uniformly refused 
 all such applications, but such are the peculiarities of the 
 institution now contemplated, such is the demand for 
 its existence, and such apparently will be the field it will 
 open for both myself and wife to be useful, that I have 
 thought best to make the experiment, if Providence shall 
 so direct. In connection with the pastoral charge of the 
 pupils I shall have opportunity for preaching and general 
 usefulness in the city. Whatever I may be able to do in 
 writing will be in close connection with the Western Ad- 
 vocate press ; and at Cincinnati, more than any other 
 place, I think, an individual may do something for the 
 great valley of the Mississippi. Teachers need to be 
 raised up there. The moral and religious character of 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 1 53 
 
 women needs to be better developed and more thoroughly 
 trained. Perhaps the present scheme will enable me in 
 some good degree to subserve these various and impor- 
 tant interests. One thing is sure, I have never been ac- 
 quainted with any that promised fairer. I have in no 
 way sought it out for myself, and my constant prayer 
 shall be that God will direct me there or elsewhere 
 according to his own will." 
 
 He was particular, however, to stipulate, as a condition 
 of his acceptance, that the Cincinnati people should pro- 
 ceed at once to put up the necessary college buildings. 
 With a foresight that after events literally fulfilled he 
 claimed that they could raise the money for the build- 
 ings much more easily while the need for the school 
 was felt, and he predicted that if they began the work 
 of the institution in rented premises, it would be 
 twenty-five years before the college proper would be 
 built. 
 
 This was the very mistake made. Upon his return to 
 Paterson he was in receipt of newspapers giving an ac- 
 count of public proceedings in Cincinnati with reference 
 to the Female Institute. Communications were also 
 sent to him, one of them signed by Bishop Morris, L. L. 
 Hamline, and William Nefif, as a committee, informing 
 him that a building would be rented, and asking him to 
 accept the presidency, and come on in the fall to open 
 the school. Such a departure as this from what he con- 
 sidered the fundamental conditions of success changed, 
 in his judgment, the whole outlook of the experiment, 
 and he declined, saying that in any event it was not 
 possible for him to leave before the coming spring. " I 
 replied that it was inconsistent, in view of many reasons, 
 to leave my present appointment until its time regularly 
 
154 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 expired, and signified their freedom to make choice of 
 any other principal." 
 
 For the present at least his heart was manifestly taken 
 up with the work of the pastorate. In November of the 
 year preceding he declined an invitation to the pres- 
 idency of the Wesleyan Seminary at Albion, Mich. 
 
 At the close of his second year in Paterson three of 
 our leading ministers of that day, among whom was 
 Bishop Janes as he was after known, requested him to 
 become agent for the American Bible Society for the 
 State of New Jersey. This also he declined, and pre- 
 sented himself again at Conference to accept gratefully 
 the uncertain (as it was then) but always hopeful future 
 of the Methodist itinerant. 
 
 His next appointment was at Greene Street, the only 
 Methodist church at that time in Trenton. Upon his 
 arrival some of the officers of the church met him at the 
 station with a carriage, and he and his family were 
 driven to the home of Mr. Richard J. Bond, with whom 
 they were to remain for a few days. Some of the mem- 
 bers of the church kindly assisted him in unpacking his 
 goods. The parsonage, which he describes as excellent 
 and well situated, was deficient in furniture, but at a 
 meeting of the stewards it was agreed that if he would 
 purchase the necessary articles, they would take them 
 off his hands as soon as they could. Upon these gen- 
 erous terms he was happy in seeing his family soon 
 comfortably settled. 
 
 " My first Sabbath," he says, " was agreeably spent, 
 and from the appeardnce of the large and attentive con- 
 gregation I was convinced that my lot was in the midst 
 of an ample field of duty, if not of usefulness." He is 
 affected, however, by different emotions on the occasion 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 155 
 
 of his first communion. He writes : " I was surprised and 
 grieved to see so small a number out of so large a mem- 
 bership partake of that holy ordinance." But this dis- 
 covery was not allowed to discourage him. Instead, with 
 his characteristic disposition to strive at once for the cor- 
 rection of every evil which stood in the way of the pros- 
 perity of the church, he made this neglect the subject of 
 a sermon, taking for his text, " This do in remembrance 
 of me," and he adds: " I had the happiness of seeing the 
 sacrament of the Lord's Supper attended by a much 
 larger number of persons (perhaps double) than partook 
 of it last month." 
 
 One sermon that he preached during this year caused 
 quite a flurry of excitement, although without any such 
 purpose on his part. His entry is as follows : " Preached 
 to a crowded house on religious exclusiveness, especially 
 that of (apostolic) succession. This circumstance pro- 
 duced a great commotion in Trenton, as there happened 
 to be (quite contrary to my knowledge or expectation) 
 a large number of High Church people present, some of 
 whom thought proper to get angry and say very hard 
 things. This feeling, moreover, was aggravated by the 
 satisfaction which others saw fit to express at the event. 
 Another minister in the place invited me to repreachthe 
 sermon in his church, but I did not comply with the in- 
 vitation." 
 
 His relations with the pastors of the fraternizing 
 churches of the place were most interesting. Having at 
 one time exchanged pulpits with the Presbyterian min- 
 ister, he adds: "This exchange of pulpits was the first 
 that has taken place in Trenton, and it is mutually hoped 
 will be introductory to a kinder state of feeling among 
 Christians of different denominations." 
 
156 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Millerism obtruded itself also into this field, and he 
 felt it his duty again to give attention to it. " The Mil- 
 lerite lecturers having started some excitement with their 
 wild theories, I found it necessary to preach to our 
 people on their duty to the Church. The effort appeared 
 to be owned of the Lord." Some time after this, find- 
 ing that these disturbers of Zion had been busy among 
 his people and had made some impression upon a num- 
 ber of persons in a little community near Trenton, where 
 some of his members lived, he again preached upon the 
 subject with much plainness, showing in three sermons 
 their errors respecting the Kingdom of God, The Times 
 and the Seasons, and The Practical Tendencies of the 
 System. " As the result," he says, " two or three left us, 
 but the rest were cured." 
 
 At the very outset it was plain to him that he had 
 come into a field where the most thorough and unspar- 
 ing labor must be laid out upon the pastoral department. 
 Within the first month after his arrival, besides all the 
 work connected with putting the house and grounds of 
 the parsonage into a proper condition, and providing 
 many needed , articles of furniture, he adds, " I have 
 copied out the entire Church Record in a manual form, 
 and have obtained the statistics of sixteen classes, so that 
 I now know the situation in life and the residence of a 
 majority of the church members. I expect next week 
 to commence visiting in order and in earnest. Thus 
 alone shall I be able to accomplish what duty will re- 
 quire toward the flock over which the Holy Ghost has 
 made me overseer. I find considerabledifferences between 
 the customs of the people here and of those whom I 
 have left. There are also equal differences in our cir- 
 cumstances in many particulars. These differences, how- 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 157 
 
 ever, balance themselves, and leave on the whole but lit- 
 tle to choose. We have whatever we desire as essential 
 to comfort and improvement and, we trust, the means 
 and the disposition to be useful." 
 
 In his arrangement of time and work he gave three 
 hours each during four afternoons a week to pastoral 
 visiting. Closing one week he writes : " I have visited 
 ten to fourteen families per day since Monday. Having 
 promised to visit all the families in the society if pos- 
 sible during the first six months, I found it necessary to 
 double my diligence in order to get through in time. I 
 moreover concluded that it would be much better for my 
 health to abandon books for a while and give myself up 
 to visiting the people. I found them much scattered 
 through Trenton, Lambertville, Morrisville, and the sur- 
 rounding country. I was enabled at the second quarterly 
 love feast to report myself as having gone through the 
 society once to the best of my ability, having visited 
 during five months, notwithstanding sickness and ab- 
 sence, about two hundred and seventy-five families." 
 
 In November, thinking the field ripe for definite and 
 continuous work in the effort to save souls, he began to 
 hold "extra meetings." His first movement was in the 
 outlying neighborhoods, where were some of his mem- 
 bers and a few of his classes. 
 
 On Christmas he opened the revival services in Tren- 
 ton, commencing liis first meeting at the unusual but 
 Wesleyan hour of five o'clock in the morning. The ex- 
 periment was a great success, for the attendance com- 
 pletely overflowed the basement of the church. The pro- 
 tracted meeting thus begun continued for more than 
 five weeks, and forty persons joined the church on pro- 
 bation. 
 
158 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 During February he had the joy of preaching the ded- 
 icatory sermon of the new and beautiful church at what 
 is now known as Passaic. This church was part of the 
 fruit of the revival at Paterson. It was also his great 
 pleasure to be at Paterson and witness the reception into 
 full membership in the church of one hundred and fifty 
 of the converts of that same great revival. 
 
 He took a trip to Rochester, planning to enjoy a little 
 rest and refreshment among the many friends of his first 
 pastoVate, but he was taken seriously ill, and ended his 
 visit in just sufficient strength to reach home. 
 
 Being appointed by his Conference a member of the 
 Visiting Committee for Dickinson College, he reported 
 accordingly and found himself the only member from 
 three Conferences present for the examinations, so that 
 the labor of preparing the report fell to him, although 
 the other members came on in time for the commence- 
 ment exercises. During this year also he made the 
 address before the trustees and visitors at the annual ex- 
 hibition of Pennington Seminary. 
 
 The close of the year finds him busy in making prep- 
 arations for the entertainment of the Conference which 
 met in his own church. He describes an experience often 
 duplicated when he says : " I had but little difficulty in 
 finding the requisite number of lodgings for the preach- 
 ers, but to arrange them all satisfactorily for both parties 
 was something of a task. However it was accomplished, 
 and a complete list published." He was returned to 
 Trenton, and was furthermore appointed on the com- 
 mittee to print the Minutes, an office, he adds, " which 
 devolved on me about a week's work." 
 
 Preliminary to the session of the General Conference 
 of 1844, the bishops held their meeting in Mr. Kidder's 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. I 59 
 
 ■house. This was their last before the division of the 
 Church. There were present Bishops Redding, Waugh, 
 Morris, and Soule. Bishop Andrew did not report. 
 Bishop and Mrs. Soule were the guests of Mr. and Mrs. 
 Kidder. 
 
 Under date of June 10 he makes this entry in his 
 journal: " Mrs. Kidder arrived from New York in com- 
 pany with several delegates on their way home, bringing 
 news that the General Conference had adjourned late 
 Monday night, and also that in their afternoon session 
 they had elected me to the office of Editor of Sunday 
 School Publications and Tracts, an office newly instituted 
 for the especial purpose of improving and enlarging our 
 Sunday school literature. 
 
 " This intelligence was very unexpected to me, and 
 seemed to excite considerable commotion among our 
 friends in Trenton. As, however, I have never disobeyed 
 the voice of the Church, but always counted it joy to 
 enter upon her hardest service, so now I do not feel at 
 liberty to shrink from the duty to which she has as- 
 signed me, although I am well aware that it will be more 
 laborious and responsible than any I have hitherto un- 
 dertaken. May I not also hope that in attempting to 
 provide for the mental and spiritual instruction of the 
 five hundred thousand children of our Church, I may be 
 more than ever useful. I will trust in God for this result, 
 and use my best endeavors." 
 
 At the close of the month he writes: "I now consider 
 my pastoral labors here brought to a close, although I 
 have resolved to remain in Trenton over the fourth of 
 July on account of a Sabbath school anniversary which 
 has been appointed for that day. Having had the train- 
 ing of the scholars, I thought it best to conduct the ex- 
 
l6o BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 ercises, that they might have the better opportunity to 
 do justice to themselves and their undertaking." 
 
 Reviewing his pastorate in Trenton, he says : " I have 
 now filled this station fourteen months. During this 
 period the Church has enjoyed general quietness and 
 prosperity. During the revival of last winter about 
 seventy were received on trial. The finances of the 
 church have improved in every department. The Sab- 
 bath school has grown greatly. A fine infant school of 
 seventy to ninety pupils has been fully established in 
 connection with it, and in fact no single wheel of our 
 machinery has stood still. I have enjoyed great peace 
 almost without interruption, and in preaching the word 
 have often found sweet comfort applied to my own 
 heart. On the whole, I can never expect to enjoy my- 
 self better in any situation in life than I have almost un- 
 iformly done as a pastor of the Church of Christ. If I 
 can be more useful in any other relation, I will be 
 content." 
 
 It must be granted that this election threw a grave 
 responsibility upon one who had but lately passed his 
 twenty-eighth birthday. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. l6l 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Secretary of the Sunday School Union. 
 
 HP HE twelve years (1844-1856) spent by Mr. Kidder 
 * in the service of the Church as Editor of Sunday 
 School Publications and Tracts, and Corresponding Secre- 
 tary of the Sunday School Union, have been described by 
 another writer as " of a valine that it is hardly possible to 
 overestimate." 
 
 The Sunday School Union, which had been established 
 in 1827 and reorganized in 1840, and the Tract Society, 
 which had been founded 1817, had practically to be re- 
 modeled ; the Sunday School Advocate, as to its literary 
 excellence, its mechanical execution, and the extent of 
 its circulation, must be conspicuously improved ; Sunday 
 school libraries, as to the number, the variety, and the 
 merit of the books, must make a wide departure ; Confer- 
 ences must be visited, Sunday school conventions and 
 institutes held ; the Church must be roused and in- 
 formed concerning the religious instruction of the 
 the young, and permanent sources of needed and en- 
 larged revenues must be opened — in short, the young 
 secretary and first General Conference officer of this 
 name and grade must signalize his appointment, must 
 emphasize the wisdom of his selection by the accomplish- 
 ment of a task that should of itself mark an era in the 
 history of the Church, and by its very success fix at 
 once the permanence and growing importance of his 
 office. 
 
 11 
 
1 62 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 It was during the week beginning July 7, 1844, that 
 he assumed his official duties in the Book Concern, then 
 located on the historic spot, 200 Mulberry Street, New 
 York. 
 
 It soon became apparent to him that a large share of 
 his work must be done elsewhere than before his desk ; 
 he must go out into the open field of the widely scat- 
 tered Conferences, and distribute by personal presence 
 and address such information concerning the mission 
 and needs of the Sunday School Union as would rouse 
 the inspiration and quicken the activities necessary to 
 the prosperity of his department. 
 
 He began by visiting all the Conferences in New 
 England and those about New York city, going as far 
 west as the Genesee, holding its sessions in Buffalo. 
 Here he was the guest of Hon. (afterward President) 
 Millard Fillmore. He was a busy man during each one 
 of these visits, addressing the Conference, speaking at 
 the Conference anniversary of the Sunday School Union, 
 meeting with the Sunday School Committee, and assist- 
 ing them in the preparation of their report. In the 
 interims of the Conferences he visited different places, 
 speaking and preaching in the churches and assisting 
 the pastors in taking their Sunday school collections. 
 
 Laborious as these journeys were, he found them to 
 be of great advantage to his work. " My visits to the 
 Conferences and churches in different sections of the 
 country have given me opportunity for learning the act- 
 ual state of Sunday school education and the means 
 necessary to be provided for its more general promotion." 
 
 One of these trips took him out to Galena, 111., to at- 
 tend the sessions of the Rock River Conference. At 
 that time this was not the holiday excursion it is now. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 163 
 
 There was a measure of relaxation and exhilaration 
 in these expeditions, these opportunities of feeling the 
 throb of energy, the thrill of enterprise in these new and 
 far-off countries, and, as a rule, he returned refreshed 
 and keyed up for yet more vigorous work. But he 
 found always (to his dismay had he been less courageous 
 and systematic) a mass of accumulated matter piled up 
 for him to dispose of. To this, he says, " I now ad- 
 dressed myself with a good zest and a determination to 
 put all to rights in due time." At another time of pro- 
 tracted absence for a like reason, he writes on his re- 
 turn : " I found at the office that an immense amount of 
 labor had collected, requiring my individual and most 
 strenuous efforts for a long period. I set about the task 
 I had to perform with industry and zeal. A vast num- 
 ber of letters were on hand requiring answers, and the 
 miscellaneous business needing attention was greater 
 than I had had at any previous period." Taking into 
 account his labors in conducting his correspondence, re- 
 vising and editing books, reading manuscripts for new 
 books, editing the Sunday School Advocate, writing cir- 
 culars, preparing addresses for Conferences, and compos- 
 ing his annual report (this alone cost him always many 
 days of painstaking labor for weeks), we need not be 
 surprised to read often in his diary such entries as these : 
 " Hard work," " Full day's work," " Overwhelmed with 
 business." 
 
 And yet, with all this press of public and office work, 
 he always attended the sessions of his own Conference 
 and took part in its deliberations, performing all the 
 labors belonging to it, besides representing the interests 
 with which he was officially charged, and, as a rule, 
 writing out for the Conference its Sunday school report. 
 
164 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Added to all his other obligations he was also regular 
 in his attendance upon the meetings of the Book Com- 
 mittee, and in the monthly and often special meetings of 
 the Board of Managers of the Sunday School Union. 
 
 During a portion of this period he was a good deal 
 embarrassed by frequent and sometimes severe attacks 
 of illness. It would seem that the new style of life, the 
 frequent and wide journeys, and the interruption of the 
 regularity of his habits hitherto maintained, as well as 
 the anxiety pressing on his mind in the development of 
 what was really a new department of Church work, told 
 heavily upon his strength and for a while periled his 
 health. But the vigor of his constitution and the superior 
 nursing of which he was the fortunate subject, always 
 brought him through, and becoming more and more 
 adapted to his work, he continued and increased in his 
 labors. 
 
 It soon became apparent to all the observing that Dr. 
 Kidder (for about this time McKendree College, in 
 Illinois, honored him with the doctorate, and a little 
 later his alma 77iater complimented its discernment in 
 the same way*) was the right man in the right place, and 
 that the new departure which the Church was then ex- 
 ploiting would under his conduct reach the consummation 
 of a marked and abiding success. He was seen to be a 
 man of broad views, original ideas, and aggressive 
 methods, while his careful attention to details left scarcely 
 any margin for mistake, and his fidelity to labor shaped 
 all plans into performance. 
 
 Addressing the Church in the opening of his first 
 annual report, he grasped at once the scope and pur- 
 
 * During the latter years of his life the degree LL.D. was conferred upon him by the 
 U. S. Grant University. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 165 
 
 pose of the organization he represented. " The Sun- 
 day School Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church," 
 he writes, " is an institution peculiar in several of its 
 features. It is not an isolated and independent or- 
 ganization, but a part and parcel of the Church herself. 
 Like a wheel within a wheel, its proper function is to act 
 under the auspices of the Church, to move in the same 
 orbit, and to promote the same great ends. In our Sun- 
 day school work heretofore our exertions had not been 
 so systematic and well directed as was desirable. There 
 was no common center around which we could rally, no 
 visible bond of attachment connecting our efforts, no 
 agency for receiving contributions for this cause and dis- 
 tributing their avails to the destitute, no provision for 
 collecting and arranging statistics, and, in fine, no author- 
 ized and efficient organization designed to deliberate 
 upon the great interests involved in this department of 
 Christian labor or to devise means for their promotion. 
 To supply these obvious and njanifold deficiencies the 
 Sunday School Union was called into being by the 
 unanimous voice of the Church. Its organization was 
 such as to embrace all existing Sunday schools as aux- 
 iliary members of the Union without formality or delay. 
 
 " A publishing institution it was never intended to be, 
 but was the rather to aid the Book Concern in making 
 proper selections for this department, and also in giving 
 currency and circulation to its books, while at the same 
 time its patronage should tend to reduce the prices. 
 But its great and peculiar office was to listen to the calls 
 of the destitute and supply their wants." 
 
 These objects, thus comprehensively and clearly stated, 
 he claimed were with any enlightened Christian a 
 sufficient argument in proof of the necessity of this 
 
1 66 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Union. For the Church to neglect the purpose aimed at 
 by this organization was "to neglect the means of her 
 own establishment and perpetuation, and to leave souls 
 without number in the road to death." Furthermore, 
 he urged, " We have hundreds of ministers and many 
 missionaries engaged in toilsome and self-denying labors 
 at home and abroad, who need nothing so much as Sun- 
 day school books for the children and people to whom 
 they are sent. Strike this Union out of being, and they 
 have no institution to which they can go with any claim 
 for relief. Support it liberally, and it is competent to 
 supply all their wants." 
 
 All these considerations he strengthened with these 
 closing words : " Nor is it now optional with us whether 
 to act or not. The demands of the time are imperative. 
 We must go forward, or surrender all claims to spiritual- 
 ity and enterprise. In self-defense and in defense of our 
 holy religion we must act, and we must act efRciently." 
 
 Feeling justly that the importance of the cause he rep- 
 resented was such that all that was necessary was foi" 
 the people to have the needed information concerning it, 
 and they would gladly and generously rally to its sup- 
 port, he took all pains and spared no expense to secure 
 the distribution of this information. Although postage 
 was not the matter of moderate charge it is now, still he 
 regularly mailed two copies of his annual report to each 
 charge, one for the pastor and one for the superintendent, 
 recommending that portions of the report be read in the 
 Sunday schools of the Church. Besides this, when he 
 found that his office duties were such that he could not 
 make his regular visits to the Conferences he sent a care- 
 fully prepared circular, giving the most recent facts in 
 full, thus among other excellent results making the work 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 167 
 
 of the Conference committees on Sunday school adequate 
 and satisfactory. 
 
 He was also particularly urgent in the matter of the 
 holding of anniversary exercises of the Sunday School 
 Union in connection with each session of every Confer- 
 ence. And in a circular still extant, over his own signa- 
 ture, addressed to the pastor of the church where the 
 •Conference is to be held, he says: 
 
 " I take the liberty of requesting you to see that ar- 
 rangements are made for an anniversary meeting in behalf 
 of the Sunday School Union of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, to be held during the approaching session of the 
 Conference. Various circumstances combine to render it 
 desirable to have timely arrangements made in advance. 
 The object which this institution has in view in asking 
 for public anniversaries at the several Conferences is not 
 so much the raising of funds as the awakening of a deeper 
 interest and a more active and enlightened zeal in the 
 practical work of Sunday school instruction. While, 
 therefore, a collection may be taken to accommodate all 
 who wish to give we desire that the arrangements be 
 planned with more especial reference to diffusing infor- 
 mation respecting the character, designs, efficiency, and 
 claims of our Sunday School Union, and arousing the 
 conscience of both preachers and people to more earnest 
 and self-denying labors in behalf of the children of the 
 Church, the nation, and the world." 
 
 In another place he says : " That such anniversary ex- 
 ercises, including the addresses delivered, and the action 
 taken have already done much toward diffusing and in- 
 creasing the spirit of the Sunday school enterprise 
 throughout the land, we have conclusive evidence. We 
 therefore express the hope that henceforward a Sunday 
 
l68 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 school meeting will be considered an indispensable part 
 of the public exercises of each Annual Conference." 
 History was being made in these words. They were an 
 exhortation and a call to a practice that has long since 
 settled into a custom, and the fulfillment of the hope 
 above expressed has, with the regularity of the recurring 
 sessions, found a place on the program of every Confer- 
 ence of the Church. 
 
 Spreading, as our Church was in those days, over large 
 tracts of sparsely settled countries, it was constantly con- 
 fronted with the question whether it should join with 
 other denominations and establish what were termed 
 Union Schools, or husband what resources it might have 
 in any place, and found a school that should be entirely 
 its own and under the control of its Discipline. This 
 problem the secretary discusses in the following terms : 
 "Shall the Church surrender its identity? Should.it 
 merge its individual responsibility in some general ar- 
 rangement with others ? We wish emphatically and 
 once for all to say that we cordially approve of union 
 efforts wherever they are called for. We would always 
 hold denominational preferences in abeyance to the grand 
 principles of Christian charit)-. We would always and 
 everywhere enjoin upon our friends to cooperate freely 
 with Christian brethren of whatever name in all efforts 
 that promise the greatest good. Having said thus much 
 we are prepared with equal emphasis to sa\- that we do 
 not feel called upon to abandon a good and efficient 
 school or the prospect of one among ourselves, even 
 though it be small, to accommodate the views of a few 
 individuals who would prefer to unite with us tempo- 
 rarily on another plan." In much more that is strongly 
 and well said he calls attention to the fact that under 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 169 
 
 the best of circumstances there is in these union measures 
 a tendenc}' to instabihty, if not to uneasiness and dis- 
 satisfaction ; a suspicion springs up that one class of 
 workers is gaining an undue advantage, or it really 
 happens that one sect or class of sects gains control of 
 the organization, and what was designed for the promo- 
 tion of a true catholic union moves with a long stride 
 toward sectarianism. So that his conclusion is: " With 
 our own proper flag floating over us we launch our vessel 
 upon the widespreading ocean, to succor ever)- wreck of 
 humanity and pick up ever)' sinking soul that may be 
 reached by our lifeboats. And in pursuing an inde- 
 pendent course we claim to be respected not onty in our 
 rights, but in our choice." We can fancy the influence 
 these ringing and sensible utterances must have had in 
 those times, and Methodism has had half a century of 
 phenomenal growth and covered the great West with es- 
 tablishments as stable as they are numerous, largely be- 
 cause under the guidance of such counsel as this she 
 founded her own constituencies and was saved from 
 frittering a«a}- her energies in spasms of sentiment. 
 
 Discovering with an acumen of which he wished al- 
 ways his Church to have the first fruits, that the per- 
 manence of our Sunday schools in any place, and their 
 growth eventuall}- into a church membership, depended 
 largel}- upon the care and system with which the}- were 
 organized, and that our connectional system called for 
 uniformity in this important matter, he devised and pub- 
 lished a form of constitution defining the duties of 
 officers, teachers, and scholars of Sunday schools. This 
 constitution has remained in force ever since, and, with 
 modifications of greater or less value, is still the organic 
 law of the thousands of schools of Methodism. 
 
170 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 In still further bringing his department to that com- 
 pleteness of outfit and work for which it has since been 
 so justly celebrated, he felt it his duty at the opening of 
 his administration to call the attention of the Church to 
 the need and the great importance of a thorough and 
 uniform method of collecting statistics. In his published 
 report he says: " Hitherto there has been but little uni- 
 formity in the reports of different Conferences respecting 
 their Sunday schools. In hope of promoting greater 
 uniformity and also of securing more complete returns 
 on several points, the Union has drawn up a new form of 
 report and submitted the same to the Annual Confer- 
 ences. The new form has been everywhere approved." 
 This blank form was sent to all the preachers through 
 their presiding elders. " The necessity of some formula 
 to aid in the collection of our statistics has long been 
 felt, and we are now gratified with the belief that the 
 very thing wanted has been fixed upon." This we of 
 these modern times can believe, inasmuch as it is the 
 same form, with but slight changes, that has been ever 
 since in use and at present prevails throughout the whole 
 Church. 
 
 There was need not only that an exceptional and com- 
 prehensive form should be adopted, but there was also, 
 as he found, a task before him in educating and influ- 
 encing the preachers and others concerned to give atten- 
 tion to this matter and take pains to fill out these blanks. 
 He says with urgent earnestness : " We are deeply 
 anxious to avoid every neglect or lack of effort which can 
 possibly occur to mar our statistics, and we would like 
 to impress on the mind of every preacher and every Sun- 
 day school secretary the fact that an omission on their 
 part to report faithfully does inevitably affect the aggre- 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 171 
 
 gates of the Conference to which they belong and finally 
 those of the whole Church. 
 
 " In collecting statistics an omission to count one causes 
 an error just as great as an overcount of one. Both 
 errors should be avoided. 
 
 "Accurate statistics, connected with the benevolent en- 
 terprises of the day, no less than with commerce, agri- 
 culture, and general education, are becoming more and 
 more valued. In no department of Christian benevo- 
 lence can they be of more importance than in that of the 
 Sunday school. Yet up to this time in the whole history 
 of our enterprise, there has been a great lack of well- 
 authenticated statistics. Nothing like a general exhibit 
 of what is going on or has been done in England or the 
 United States, for example, can anywhere be shown. 
 Some prominent Sunday School Unions make no efforts 
 to collect statistics, others are so limited in their opera- 
 tions as to render their aggregates of but little general 
 use." This seems a surprising statement to us, made 
 familiar as we are with the fullness, the system, and the 
 accuracy of the figures gathered in every department of 
 government, trade, and religion. Quoting further, we 
 read : " In these circumstances we are called upon to be 
 more careful and persevering, in order to carry ours 
 to the highest state of perfection. Our system is fully 
 competent to this, and if all will do their part we doubt 
 not that the body of statistics we shall be able to publish 
 will be more complete than any hitherto offered to the 
 world." This prediction has been to the letter fulfilled. 
 The exceptional and justly enviable fame of our Church 
 in these matters has long since been established and un- 
 deviatingly maintained. It holds an acknowledged pre- 
 cedence in the good opinion of those whose duty or 
 
172 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 convenience it is to study and collate statistics. It is 
 for us, therefore, gratefully to remember those whose 
 genius devised and whose patience pressed into popular 
 use those plans which have made possible our present 
 satisfactory position in these respects. And we are not 
 likely to do violence to our nobler emotions by forgetting 
 the tribute due to him whose methods, as we have seen, 
 have not only the merit of priority, but the still greater 
 worth of a perfection in detail struck out, as it were, at 
 one blow. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 173 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Secretary of the Sunday School Unioii. 
 
 IT was part of the work of the Sunday School Union 
 to assist new and struggling schools by grants of 
 books and other supplies. At that time there was no 
 home missionary work more pressing in its call than 
 this. A young nation was being molded in those 
 Sunday schools. Large outlays of money could alone 
 meet the demands. Funds were wanted in regular 
 flow and generous amounts. One of the earliest tasks 
 laid upon the secretary was the perfection of a plan by 
 which the needed income might be secured. It was 
 necessary also that this plan should be advertised 
 throughout the whole Church, and urged with a fervor 
 and wisdom that should rouse a general movement 
 toward a much needed benevolence. 
 
 He writes : " It is a circumstance no less mortifying 
 than true, that our actual receipts from all sources dur- 
 ing the five years of the existence of this Union have 
 been less than $700. It is difficult to assign satisfactory 
 reasons for this slow progress. The Sunday school 
 cause does not indeed contain those elements of excite- 
 ment and romance which give eclat to certain other 
 topics. But it is none the less important on this ac- 
 count. On the contrary, its intrinsic importance ap- 
 peals to the faith, the hope, and the charity of every 
 Christian." 
 
 This inadequate support of the cause of the Sunday 
 
1/4 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 school by the Church was one of the reasons which 
 moved the caUing of a convention of Sunday school 
 workers and friends in the city of New York just before 
 the session of the General Conference that created the 
 office of the Secretary of the Sunday School Union and 
 elected Mr. Kidder. In his first report he thus refers 
 to this convention : " The deliberations and resolutions 
 of that body had an influence on the action of the Gen- 
 eral Conference which was in session at the same time, 
 and may be said to have resulted indirectly at least in 
 two important disciplinary changes. The one provided 
 for the appointment of an Editor of Sunday School 
 Publications and Tracts, who was ta reside in New York 
 for the specific purpose of superintending these de- 
 partments of our literature. The other established 
 periodical collections to be taken up in all our Sunday 
 schools wherever practicable, to aid the funds of our 
 Sunday School Union." 
 
 The convention alluded to had recommended the Gen- 
 eral Conference to " direct that each preacher having 
 charge of a circuit or station rnake a collection at each 
 of his appointments once a year, for the general Sunday 
 school cause, and transmits the same to the Treasurer of 
 the Sunday School Union of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, to enable the Board of Managers of said Union 
 to supply needy and destitute places with Sunday 
 school books." The General Conference saw fit to mod- 
 ify the recommendation by assigning the collection 
 specially to the Sabbath schools. 
 
 This was narrow and short-sighted, based largely upon 
 the idea that prevails now in some churches, that the 
 Sunday school should be supported financially by those 
 who are already giving their time and labor to its con- 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 175 
 
 duct and maintenance. Dr. Kidder saw tliat this was a 
 mistake, but he was loyal, and accepted the plan. He 
 hoped that it might " have a fair trial," and said, " Ex- 
 perience will doubtless demonstrate whether this waS 
 the wisest arrangement that could be made." Experi- 
 ence did its work punctually and after its usually 
 thorough fashion. Another and wiser General Confer- 
 ence adopting the suggestion of the convention afore- 
 said, put the collection where in all reason and right it 
 belonged, on the church and not on the Sunday school. 
 
 Meanwhile in every way he pressed the claims of the 
 Union upon the attention of the Church. 
 
 Quoting again from his first annual report : " This 
 Union is dependent for funds upon voluntary subscrip- 
 tions and donations. It has no salaried collecting agent 
 whatever. It casts itself with its claims upon the 
 sympathies and liberality of the Church and her mem- 
 bers, and the Church has seen fit to recommend quar- 
 terly collections to be made in its behalf in all our Sab- 
 bath schools, not that the Union is to be dependent 
 upon the slender means of children only, but that be- 
 ginning in the Sunday schools, we should teach our 
 children to do right — a task which would be ill dis- 
 charged unless we gave them a consistent example. 
 
 " Our cause will probably be always subject to em- 
 barrassments, owing to carelessness and lack of interest 
 on the part of those who ought to be its active friends. 
 What we particularly solicit is that the subject be not 
 overlooked, but that every school will at least do some- 
 thing." 
 
 In a circular addressed to the Church by a Committee 
 of the Board of Managers of which he was chairman, he 
 says : " In the past, instances often occurred of small 
 
1/6 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 and feeble schools belonging to our Church, in vain mak- 
 ing application for aid to any institutions we had, and 
 consequently going to other Unions for assistance. It 
 is but just to say that in such cases other Unions 
 promptly and liberally rendered the aid required. While 
 we thank them for so doing, we appeal to our friends 
 and brethren throughout the land to save us from such 
 indebtedness in the future. We do not attempt to con- 
 ceal the mortification that a Church having more than a 
 million of members and ability second to that of no 
 other in the land, ought to feel in being dependent upon 
 sister denominations for the relief of one of her Sabbath 
 schools. We assert that it is wholly unnecessary, and 
 therefore radically wrong. True it is but recently that 
 we have had a proper organization for attending to this 
 work. And we believe it would be better still to have 
 no such organization than, having one, that it should be 
 sickly and insufficient. 
 
 " We should be unfaithful to the trust confided to us 
 if we could consent to give the Church rest until she 
 does what she may and ought to do, by placing this 
 Union upon an elevated and permanent basis. There 
 can be no excuse for neglect. We are doing nothing for 
 ourselves or for the world that can justify us in indiffer- 
 ence to this enterprise." 
 
 About this time, in answer to many pressing invita- 
 tions to perform pulpit service in various directions, he 
 issued a card in which, after alluding to the absorbing 
 nature of his office duties, he expresses his hearty will- 
 ingness to accept all such invitations wherever feasible, 
 but suggests that his acceptance of such appointments 
 must be contingent upon the service to the Union which 
 he may be permitted thereby to render. One of two 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 1 77 
 
 objects he states he would like always thus to cover. 
 " The first is the increase of the subscription of the 
 Sunday School Advocate, a.nd the other is the collection 
 of funds for the aid of new and destitute Sunday schools, 
 or in other words to replenish the treasury of our Sun- 
 day School Union. Either a pledge of one hundred new 
 subscribers or the offer of a collection for our Sunday 
 School Union under favorable circumstances, although 
 of no personal interest whatever, yet would be a con- 
 sideration so congenial and so weighty in itself as 
 always to assist materially in deciding upon what minis- 
 terial engagements it will be consistent to make." 
 There can be no question, judging from these words, 
 that here was a Church officer thoroughly taken up with 
 his department, his vision covering but little besides or 
 beyond its obligations and opportunities, and making its 
 growing duties the beginning and the end of all his ex- 
 ertions. 
 
 The steady, though never sufficiently expansion of the 
 receipts for this cause, showed that these and other ap- 
 peals had not been without avail. 
 
 Not only was the rapid spread of the Sunday school 
 throughout the land uppermost in the mind of this ag- 
 gressive secretary, but also, as of equal importance in 
 his thought, the advance of its rank as a teaching insti- 
 tution, and the improvement of its methods of instruc- 
 tion. 
 
 He argued strongly for the principle of graded 
 schools, the separation and arrangement of the schools 
 according to the ability of the scholars. " There should 
 be regular gradations of advancement from the simple 
 teachings of the infant class to the higher walks of bibli- 
 cal study. Scholars of every age should have some- 
 12 
 
178 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 thing before them to invite onward their most active 
 progress." The present distribution of the members of 
 the school into the three departments, now so univer- 
 sally adopted — primary, intermediate, and senior — is, in 
 the words just quoted, set forth in a shape more definite 
 than a suggestion. 
 
 His was also the early call to a systematic and 
 thorough study of the Scriptures. " Instead of being 
 content," he says, " with a partial and confused idea of 
 Scriptural truth, the scholars should be induced to seek 
 and aided to acquire a comprehensive knowledge of the 
 Bible." Herein we have a foreshadowing of that con- 
 nected and course study of the word which has since 
 been dignified by the names Berean and International. 
 
 But he saw still further and was clear in his impression 
 that it is the teacher that gives character and standing to 
 the school. " The office of the Sunday school teacher 
 must be more highly appreciated. The public mind is 
 not habituated to a more glaring and absurd mistake than 
 that of placing a low estimate upon the dignity and im- 
 portance of the services rendered by Sunday school 
 teachers. That an unworthy estimate of the character 
 of these services quite too generally prevails is proved by 
 the fact that a ilcficiency of regular and competent 
 teachers is the GREAT DIFFICULTY with which our 
 cause has to contend. Sunday school teaching requires 
 the best talents, the highest attainments, and the most 
 devoted piety of the Church." Feeling deeply these 
 truths which he thus put so vigorously, he was constant 
 and emphatic in pressing upon the Church the impor- 
 tance of a special training of teachers for their work. He 
 would have this a business, to which one should be edu- 
 cated as for his life work, making it, so to speak, one of 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 1 79 
 
 the learned professions. "Teachers must be educated 
 and trained for their work. Several years of instruction 
 and practice are thought necessary to learn the art of 
 making a shoe, a hat, or a coat. How absurd, then, to 
 suppose that the art of instructing the young in things 
 pertaining to the kingdom of God can be taken up at a 
 moment's warning, or even tolerably performed without 
 some special instruction in the duties of the office and the 
 best method of performing them ! The Church should 
 provide every necessary means for enabling teachers to 
 secure the best qualifications. Among the first of these 
 means is a suitable teachers' library. Another is a 
 teachers' Bible class. A third is an annual course of lec- 
 tures upon topics of special interest to teachers. The 
 best results may be expected where teachers with a sin- 
 cere desire for improvement have access to the proper 
 means of securing it." 
 
 In his second annual report he speaks with such a far- 
 sighted wisdom on this subject, that his words (of rare 
 historic value) may be quoted at length: "In addition 
 to the means hitherto employed to advance the cause of 
 the training of teachers we think it time to ask whether 
 a system of Normal Sabbath school instruction may 
 not be established. Schools thus designated have been 
 founded by several States of this republic, for the ex- 
 press purpose of training and qualifying teachers for 
 common schools. Besides the regular institutions 
 founded and supported by the States, voluntary organ- 
 izations called Teachers' Institutes have been formed 
 with a kindred object in many of the counties, espe- 
 cially of the State of New York. At these institutes, 
 which are of only brief duration, the time is devoted to 
 mutual improvement by means of lectures, reviews, ex- 
 
l8o BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 aminations in different branches of study, and explana- 
 tions of different modes of teaching and governing. 
 Such meetings of teachers, if judiciously conducted, can 
 hardly fail to be profitable ; and they give occasion to 
 ask why Sunday school teachers may not have similar 
 means of improvement ? Perhaps a basis for them is al- 
 ready established in our district Sunday school conven- 
 tions and in the courses of lectures often delivered to 
 Sunday school teachers. 
 
 " Why may not these be rendered more practicable and 
 consequently more interesting? Even if all the teachers 
 of the district could not meet during a sufficient length 
 of time to take a complete series of lessons on the best 
 methods of Sunday school instruction, those who could 
 if representatives of the different schools, might return 
 and impart the knowledge they had received to their 
 several associates. In cities, if the spirit of the enter- 
 prise sufficiently prevailed, normal classes of Sunday 
 school teachers might be organized whenever the serv- 
 ices of a competent person could be secured to conduct 
 them. Who can tell what an amount of good might be 
 accomplished were some dozens of our most successful 
 and competent laborers in the cause of Sunday schools 
 to devote a portion of their time annually to training 
 teachers on the plan now suggested ? Could they suc- 
 ceed by such means in elevating the general character of 
 Sunday school instruction ; could they give a new im- 
 petus to one of the greatest benevolent movements of 
 the age ; could they by moving upon the minds of some 
 hundreds of teachers influence the hearts and characters 
 of thousands of children, would they regret any sacrifices 
 necessary to accomplish such glorious ends! " 
 
 In these utterances the observing will recognize the 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. l8l 
 
 predictions of a seer and the proclamation of a herald, 
 announcing as near at hand those Sunday school insti- 
 tutes and various Chautauqualike movements, which 
 have since attempted if not entirely fulfilled his ideal. 
 Even in that early and incohate day he saw more than 
 the Church has since built. And even now we must take 
 up his lament of nearly fifty years ago : " We confess that 
 we fear that the day is distant when the Church will 
 occupy as high ground on this subject as that already as- 
 sumed by several States of this Union, namely, that in 
 order to promote general education most effectually, in- 
 stitutions must be provided for the special instruction 
 and training of teachers." Evidently his was a mind 
 large enough to comprehend the magnitude of the enter- 
 prise which he was championing, and equally was he 
 clear to see that the Sunday school must at once ally it- 
 self with the forces which were beginning even then to 
 urge the march of improvement into its present quick- 
 step. " Why shall we not everywhere aim at the high- 
 est results and spare no efforts to accomplish them? 
 Availing ourselves of the enlarged experience and the 
 multiplied facilities which are constantly accumulating 
 in connection with this enterprise, why may we not in 
 our efforts to do good keep pace with the spirit and im- 
 provement of the age ? What might not be done if 
 every Christian competent to do the work would heartily 
 engage in it, and everyone engaged in it were emulous 
 to excel ! " 
 
 By the terms of his election. Dr. Kidder was made re- 
 sponsible for the. reading matter furnished to the Sunday 
 schools, including the fitting out of the Sunday school 
 libraries. His ideals here were at once pure and progress- 
 ive. He proposed, if possible, to protect as well as inform 
 
iSJ BIOURAl'HV OV 
 
 and interest the ininds of the j'oung, and to this end 
 asked the cooperation of tlie authorities of the various 
 schools. " Of what use," he asks, "will it be that the 
 best authors are employed to write, and that unwearied 
 pains are taken to secure all real improvements in the 
 publication of Sunday scliool books, if officers of Sunda)' 
 schools, instead of appreciating these results and availing 
 themselves of these adv.intages, are disposed or persuaded 
 to fill their libraries with other books! Other books can 
 be found of more showy exterior, and of more amusini^- 
 contents ; since those who publish them feel at libert\' to 
 address the vulgar passions, if b\- so doing the\- can pro- 
 mote their own interests. Who is to guarantee the moral 
 and religious character of their contents? Evidently the 
 purchaser cannot. It is with him but the work of half 
 an hour to buy an amount of trash and error that will 
 not have been purged away from the minds of its readers 
 when half a century will have passed awa)-. 
 
 " A large class of books and reading may be good and 
 appropriate for secular purposes, but not at all adapted to 
 teach religious truth. 
 
 " There is no place in which a book of bad or doubtful 
 character can do more harm than in a Sunday school 
 library. 
 
 " The guarantee ui s/iis/ii/i/iii/ Uuth shmild be required 
 both in the publication and purchase of Sunda)- school 
 literature. This rule is a liberal one. It does not 
 rigidly or superstitiously insist upon literal fact when un- 
 important substitutions or combinations are called for. 
 It does not exclude imaginary illustrations, allegories, 
 parables, or dialogues. It opens a door wide enoui;h to 
 admit an ample variety both in subject and style. It 
 will enable us to use books of biography, histor)-, natural 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 1 83 
 
 history, mission miscellany, and narratives of fact and 
 travel. 
 
 " A little reading calculated to promote thought and 
 mental discipline is much more likely to be useful 
 than a library of books which merely occupy the time 
 and please the imagination, exciting the emotions, but 
 enfeebling the intellect. 
 
 " Departing from this ground we strike down the last 
 barrier between a religious and healthful literature and 
 that rising flood of trashy, corrupting issues of the press 
 which threatens to deluge even the sanctuary of the liv- 
 ing God. Although this may rage around us let us 
 stand firm upon the rock of truth, let us inscribe truth, 
 substantial, eternal truth, upon our banners, and we may 
 yet live to prove that ' truth is mighty and will prevail.' " 
 
 A glance over the early catalogues of the Sunday 
 School Union's publications will show that all the books 
 offered by it were safe and instructive. The healthful 
 in entertainment and the reliable in fact were abundantly 
 furnished, but obliquity in morals and slang in diction 
 were rigorously shut out. 
 
 The steady increase of the demands for the publica- 
 tions of the Union showed that both the spirit and the 
 practice of the secretary and editor met with the ap- 
 proval of the Church. The sale of books rose from 
 seventeen and a half millions of pages in the first year 
 to more than seventy-nine and a half million pages in the 
 second year. The happy idea of a five-dollar library, con- 
 taining fifty volumes at an average price often cents each, 
 which was originated at this time, and which has been 
 continued ever since in one shape or other, also largely 
 enhanced the bulk of the sales. 
 
1 84 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Secretary of the Sunday School Union. 
 
 A S editor of the Sunday School Advocate he felt the 
 '*■ pressure of his responsibilities and also the quicken- 
 ing influence of his inspiring opportunity. His election 
 was in contemplation of a purpose to elevate this editor- 
 ship to a rank equal with that of the other organs of the 
 Church. 
 
 The first entry in his journal upon his taking posses- 
 sion of his desk was : " I found but little doing in the de- 
 partment of Sunday school books. That together with 
 the editorship of the Sunday School Advocate, although 
 nominally under charge of the editors of The Christian 
 Advocate and Journal, had been for a long time confided 
 to the management of an assistant in the office." 
 
 The subscriptions to the Advocate numbered at this 
 time 10,000, and, what to him was not a very cheering 
 fact, he discovered that by the regulations of the pub- 
 lishers the most of these subscriptions would be discon- 
 tinued at the end of the current volume, in two months. 
 
 In his salutatory he said in part : " Whatever may be 
 expected by some of his friends, the new editor has no 
 disposition at this time to enter into a discussion of his 
 plans and prospects. It will be enough for him to say 
 that he enters upon his duties conscious that they are 
 vastly responsible and at the same time difficult satisfac- 
 torily to discharge. These duties, however, were allotted 
 to him without any desire or expectation of his own, and 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 1 85 
 
 he finds placed before him the alternative of doing the 
 best he can to fulfill them or of doing what he never yet 
 has done, namely, shrink from any requirement the 
 Church has made of him. 
 
 " It will not be without embarrassment that he can bid 
 farewell to his personal identity by assuming the editor- 
 ial WE, but as this must needs be done hereafter, he 
 takes this occasion to speak a word for himself and ex- 
 press to his readers of all classes an anxious desire to 
 serve them acceptably and profitably. Errors and mis- 
 takes will doubtless be associated with his best endeavors, 
 but whenever they shall be made known to him, it will 
 be his chief pleasure to correct and avoid them." 
 
 The modesty of these words is as impressive as their 
 sincerity, and the conduct of the paper during the three 
 quadrenniums that it was under his control showed no 
 departure from the temper and purpose with which he 
 assumed it. 
 
 The improvement of its patronage was the immediate 
 task that confronted him. By the action of the Sunday 
 school convention already alluded to, it had been recom- 
 mended that the price of the paper should be reduced. 
 This measure was resolved upon at a joint meeting of 
 the editors and the Book Agents. Also, as a fruit of his 
 visits to the Annual Conferences, he states that " arrange- 
 ments have been made for the more extensive circula- 
 tion of the Sunday School Advocate." But the improved 
 make-up of the paper itself both in appearance and mat- 
 ter was the cause mainly of the rapid growth of its sub- 
 scription list. Frequently was he encouraged by spon- 
 taneous words of approval that came to him from all 
 quarters. One writer said : " Its circulation has diffused 
 a new life in our Sabbath school." Another writes : 
 
l86 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 " The best encomium which I am capable of bestowing 
 on this excellent periodical is that the subscribers say 
 that it grows better and better." Another: "Our excel- 
 lent Advocate is very highly appreciated in our Sunday 
 school in this place. I scarcely know what we should do 
 without it." Another still: "You have the thanks of 
 many, both old and young, for the useful and interesting 
 variety with which you fill up the Sunday School Advo- 
 cate." And to quote from yet one more : " Your 
 Advocate is just what we want. We find it positively, 
 comparatively, and superlatively good ! " 
 
 The growth of the patronage began at once, and one of 
 his earliest entries for this period was the statement: 
 " The increase of subscribers to the Sunday School Advo- 
 cate is very encouraging, exceeding the most sanguine 
 expectations." During the first eight months the rate 
 of increase was 5,000 per month, and in two years the 
 constituency of this periodical had expanded from 10,000 
 to 85,000. 
 
 There was here great cause for thankfulness ; coinci- 
 dent with it was the growth also of the membership of 
 the Sunday schools of the Church. In his annual report, 
 issued January, 1847, ^e announces that as compared 
 with the statistics of April, 1845, there had been an 
 increase of 1,103 schools, 13,728 teachers, and 81,682 
 scholars. 
 
 After a little more than a year of labor he expresses 
 himself in the Advocate as follows : " We are grateful to 
 be enabled to say that during the past year the cause of 
 Sunday schools in our Church has been decidedly pros- 
 perous. New zeal has been manifested, and new efforts 
 have been put forth in various places, and they have been 
 crowned with encouraging success. From the statistics 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 1 8/ 
 
 of almost every Conference a handsome increase in the 
 number both of teachers and scholars is apparent. The 
 amount of good reading, both in the form of books and 
 of Sunday school periodicals, that has been put in circu- 
 lation is greater by three or fourfold than what was sent 
 out from our press during any previous year. 
 
 " On the whole, we look forward to the labors of another 
 year with confident hopes of more enlarged success. 
 We have an immense work before us. We have only 
 begun it as yet and no time is to be lost." An entry 
 during the same time in his journal gives us an insight 
 into his private emotions with regard to his work and its 
 conspicuous prosperity. " I feel greatly encouraged," 
 he wrote, " and deeply humbled with a sense of God's 
 goodness in enabling me to be in any degree useful in 
 mj' present responsible position." 
 
 With such plans and such results — results encourag- 
 ingly suggestive of further and yet more notable success 
 — the secretary closed his first quadrennium in office. 
 Two General Conferences, that at Pittsburg and that at 
 Boston, by a unanimous vote, gave him the indorsement 
 of a reelection, and for eight years longer he was contin- 
 ued in this congenial, inspiring, and yet laborious field. 
 
 He was a delegate from the New Jersey Conference to 
 the General Conference held at Boston. It was for him 
 a busy session. He was on three Standing Committes : 
 the Sunday School Union Committee, the Tract Com- 
 mittee, and the Committee on the Book Concerns. The 
 reports of the two former were prepared and presented 
 by him. 
 
 By the action of the General Conference held at Pitts- 
 burg he was to a large degree released from the labor 
 and the consumption of time involved in the visiting of 
 
1 88 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 the Annual Conferences. He was thus left in the enjoy- 
 ment of more freedom for the attention necessary to 
 carry on the work of his office, which was steadily grow- 
 ing both in detail and importance. About this time he 
 refers to an immense amount of labor in his office 
 which would require his undivided labors for a long 
 period. He adds: " I set about the task I had to per- 
 form with industry and zeal." His correspondence was 
 large and increasing, and, as he says, " the miscellaneous 
 business needing attention was greater than I had known 
 at any previous period." His department was taking on 
 the proportions of a vast machine, and its operations 
 were impressing the whole Church, so that his fidelity, 
 instead of relieving, increased his burdens, made his 
 duties more toilsome, and called for yet greater diligence. 
 Only by following the bent of his mind and adopting a 
 rigid system in the pursuit of his work and the division 
 of his time was he able to cover his tasks. 
 
 His order for October, 1848, was as follows: i. Pe- 
 riodicals read and marked ; 2. Manuscripts on hand to be 
 examined ; 3. Descriptive Catalogue to be prepared and 
 published; 4. Tract list to be revised; 5. An edition of 
 new tracts to be published; 6. An edition of Sunday 
 school tracts to be published ; 7. Sunday School Union 
 Report to be prepared and published ; 8. Sunday school 
 circulars to be issued ; 9. English books to be read and 
 revised as they arrive. There were no crumbs to be 
 swept up under the table where this omnivorous indus- 
 try indulged but never cloyed its appetite. 
 
 Early in his second quadrennium he received instruc- 
 tions from the Book Agents to decline all manuscripts 
 and other publications which were not essential to his 
 department. "This," he says, "is the first real check 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 1 89 
 
 that has been laid upon my working ad libitum in the 
 preparation and issue of books. I confess it is a relief, 
 and yet, although it may lighten a certain class of my 
 labors, will still leave me enough to do." 
 
 During this period the scope and work of the Sunday 
 School Union took on such proportions that it was ex- 
 tensive enough to engage the entire attention of one man, 
 and therefore he presented a memorial to the General 
 Conference of 1852, for the reorganization of the Tract 
 Society. His suggestions were adopted, and a new and 
 separate tract organization was created. He was thus 
 left free to apply all his attention to the demands of the 
 Union, his special and chosen work. 
 
 Unwilling to be so bound to his desk that he should 
 be out of the mind even if he was out of the sight of the 
 ministers of the Church, he adopted the expedient of 
 issuing circulars addressed to the several Conferences as 
 they came up to their annual sessions. " Experience," 
 he says, "has taught me that whether I can visit the 
 Conferences or not, it is important to communicate with 
 them directly on the great interests of the Sunday school 
 enterprise. The official circulars of the secretary become 
 then, as a matter of course, Conference business and are 
 referred to committees to whom they suggest important 
 courses of action." 
 
 His anxiety to be in touch not only with the pastors, 
 but with the Sunday school workers all through the 
 Church, prompted him to undertake the herculean task 
 of preparing a post office directory of all the Sunday 
 schools under his care. 
 
 " By means of this," he says, " the moment any docu- 
 ment is published we can send it out simultaneously to 
 every part of the country with confidence that it will 
 
igo BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 find its way into the right hands. The Union would 
 then be able to advise its auxiliaries of the best methods 
 of conducting their operations, of the issue of valuable 
 books or tracts, and in short of everything necessary to 
 their keeping pace with the times and with the onward 
 progress of this great enterprise." 
 
 He was unwilling to be isolated from the host of 
 workers out in the field, who were carrying forward the 
 plans which had originated in his fertile mind. He 
 seized eagerly upon every scheme that could establish a 
 connection between them and him. The remotest mem- 
 bers of this great body were made conscious of the throb 
 of the heart and the pulse of the brain that were in 
 sleepless action for them. 
 
 As far, too, as he could find release from his editorial 
 duties he continued his visits to the Conferences, jour- 
 neying from Baltimore to Illinois and Michigan — the 
 distant West — enduring the inconveniences and fronting 
 the dangers which in those days constituted the romance 
 of travel. 
 
 In 1852 he carried out a purpose which he had been 
 maturing, namely, a trip abroad. His entry is as 
 follows : " Having resolved to make, in accordance with 
 a plan for some time cherished and already officially rec- 
 ommended by the managers of the Sunday School 
 Union, a tour of observation upon Sunday schools in 
 Europe, I began to make preparations in various ways." 
 With his characteristic carefulness he left no item of his 
 official- duties unprovided for. " It was arranged that 
 the publication of Sunday school books should be in 
 great measure suspended till my return, save that of re- 
 prints which I might send duly edited across the Atlantic. 
 The plan of the new volume of the Sundaj/ School Advo- 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. I9I 
 
 cate was duly fixed upon, and several numbers prepared 
 in advance. The principal parts of the ensuing annual 
 report were prepared, and everything in the office an- 
 ticipated as far as possible for months to come." 
 
 This tour occupied him from October until the follow- 
 ing June, and comprised a thorough study of the points 
 of interest in the principal cities of England and Scot- 
 land, France, Italy, and Germany. 
 
 As a representative of Sunday school interests and the 
 officer of a great and growing Church in the wonderful 
 Western world, he was cordially received and was plied 
 with invitations, particularly in England and Scotland, 
 to attend Sunday school and temperance meetings, where 
 his words were listened to with interest and appreciation. 
 Many facts and points pertaining to his work at home 
 were noted by him for future suggestion and application, 
 while a description of his trip in detail enlivened the 
 current columns of the Sunday School Advocate. 
 
 One object aimed at by his trip abroad was to make 
 provision for the future supply of his Sunday school 
 libraries. He secured contributions from many accredited 
 writers of the Old World. 
 
 The high estimate which he put upon the influence 
 of this share of his duty moved him to such contagious 
 zeal that an increasing number of authors of talent were 
 stirred to activity also in this country, and his embarrass- 
 ment was the necessary choice among a multitude of 
 rarely good manuscripts. 
 
 In 1848 Sunday school books were printed also in 
 German at Cincinnati. The next year there was issued 
 what was styled a Descriptive Catalogue of the publica- 
 tions of the Sunday School Department. It was an octavo 
 pamphlet of 183 pages, and contained a classified list and 
 
192 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 description of everything issued from the Book Concern 
 designed for the use of the Sunday schools. About the 
 same time steps were also taken to establish depositories 
 for the distribution of Sunday school books and supplies at 
 different points and distant from the few centers where 
 up to this time they could be found. These intelligently 
 aggressive measures began at once to show their good 
 fruit, and in the next year the sale of Sunday school 
 books was larger than any previous year, amounting to 
 $60,000. 
 
 He urged again the grave importance of carefulness in 
 the selection of books for the Sunday school libraries. 
 His words even in this day would be recognized as 
 timely : " A frothy flood of light and fictitious literature 
 is deluging our land, and thousands of minds are becom- 
 ing so corrupted or enfeebled by it that they have no 
 longer any relish for reading what is solid or useful. 
 Even in Sabbath school libraries works of a more than 
 doubtful character are beginning to be common. Persons 
 actuated by inferior motives may succeed in other kinds 
 of authorship, but it is doubtful whether a strictly good 
 Sunday school book was ever written by a person whose 
 ruling motive at the time was anything less than to 
 glorify God by enlightening, instructing, and blessing 
 those who might read. We would encourage no person 
 to write a line for this department who would not con- 
 sider it a high and honorable achievement to produce a 
 good Sunday school book, and who would not be willing 
 to labor long and hard toward the attainment of such an 
 end." 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. I93 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 Secretary of the Sunday School ITnion. 
 
 TN addition to the publication of the books that enter 
 ^ properly into the composition of the Sunday school 
 library, four important works were undertaken and ac- 
 complished during this period. They were a Condensed 
 Commentary, a Sunday School Manual, a Sunday 
 School Hymn Book, and the compilation of a new 
 Catechism. 
 
 The Condensed Commentary grew out of a series of 
 Question Books on the various books of the Bible, 
 which had been prepared for the systematic study of 
 the Scriptures. In referring to the need of such a work 
 he says : " It is indeed not a little remarkable that in the 
 whole history of Sunday schools up to this time there 
 should have been so little comprehensive study of the 
 Scriptures, the very kind best adapted to the wants of 
 the masses. According to the usual plan of studying the 
 books of the Bible, few pupils, if any, have time to pass 
 through the sacred volume, and consequently most of 
 them fail to secure connected and comprehensive views 
 of sacred history, and of the complete record of inspira- 
 tion. The first great object these books are designed to 
 secure is the consecutive reading of the word of God, 
 with such attention on the part of the reader as may en- 
 able him to pass an examination upon the subject and 
 language of each section as he progresses." 
 
 Enjoying as we do in these favored days the prepara- 
 13 
 
194 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 tion of Sunday school helps which carry the student en- 
 tirely through the Bible within a given time in a system- 
 atic course and with intelligent and thorough-going 
 methods, we may be happy in the gracious duty of feel- 
 ing and expressing our gratitude to him whose fore- 
 sight opened the first approach to the path at present so 
 pleasantly and so generally traveled. 
 
 The Sunday School Manual was a volume designed, as 
 he says, for general circulation among the ministers of 
 the Church and others. Its title \va.s,A Brief Exposition 
 of the Character, Operations, and Claims of the Sunday 
 School Union. It embodied all the most important in- 
 formation respecting this institution. It was his desire 
 to place this in the possession of every teacher and 
 every family in the land, interested to peruse it and act 
 upon its suggestions. The principle upon which he pro- 
 ceeded was that the heartiness and activity of the people 
 in this cause would be in proportion to the amount and 
 clearness of their information upon it. He therefore 
 thought no labor or expense ill applied that was given 
 to the business of furnishing them with facts. 
 
 The General Conference of 1848 having directed the 
 preparation of a new Church Hymn Book, he was ap- 
 pointed a member of the Committee on Revision. An 
 entry in his journal reads: " In addition to my usual en- 
 gagements I was occupied for a week or two in the revi- 
 sion of the new Church Hymn Book in connection with 
 the other editors." The beginning of the following month 
 he writes : " Met with the editors and Book Committee 
 in joint session upon the Hymn Book. As a subcom- 
 mittee we selected fifty hymns for youth and children, 
 to be inserted in the appropriate place in the Hymn 
 Book, in addition to ten or twelve placed there by the 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. I95 
 
 committee." The next day his entry is as follows : 
 " Spent the da}- in the same labor of re\ision, and the 
 evening to a late hour in discussing the propriet}- of in- 
 troducing the children's hymns, that measure being 
 strenuously opposed by the Hymn Book Committee." 
 Continuing the next day, he writes: "A compromise was 
 agreed to, committing to me the preparation of a Sup- 
 plement for Sunday Schools, and Youth, and Children." 
 Two or three months after this we find the following : 
 "A portion of my time was occupied in a correspond- 
 ence with Dr. McClintock respecting the arrangement of 
 the Sunday school hymns in the new Church Hymn 
 Book, the Hymn Book Committee having refused to sur- 
 render the few hymns which thej' had originally reported 
 to be placed in the Supplement. I demanded those 
 hymns for the Supplement on the score of congruity and 
 of right, and also on the ground that they had been 
 voted to me for that use by the bishops. Unfortu- 
 nately Dr. McClintock was away, the bishops were gone, 
 and the Hymn Book Committee, having the direction 
 of the printing, had the book set up as they wished and 
 an edition printed, before the error was discovered. The 
 correspondence was protracted, and the delay likely to 
 grow^ out of it so long, that the Agents saw fit to take 
 the responsibilit}- of going on with the work before the 
 question of difference could be officially decided. I had 
 some doubts whether under such circumstances I ought 
 to furnish the Supplement for publication, or be in any 
 way a party to such a manifest perversion of propriety 
 and of the expressed will of the proper authorities. The 
 Agents, however, pledged themselves to print the Sup- 
 plement in all the forms of the Hymn Book, so that it 
 might be furnished to all who might desire it as a part 
 
196 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 of the Church Hymn Book proper. By this means the 
 desideratum for which I had contended was sustained, 
 and the incongruity of having two sections in different 
 parts of the book devoted to Sunday school hymns was 
 left chargeable to those who caused it. 
 
 " This affair, as a whole, caused me no little labor and 
 anxiety. In the outset I never dreamed of opposition 
 to my request in behalf of the 400,000 children of our 
 Sunday schools, that they should have a suitable portion 
 of hymns provided for them. And when the question 
 came to an issue I had the satisfaction of having my 
 views corroborated by the bishops, editors, and Book 
 Committee generally. Two members of the Book Com- 
 mittee, who unfortunately represented the whole com- 
 mittee, opposed the addition of more Sunday school 
 hymns than they had originally reported, until their op- 
 position threatened the veto of their whole report. 
 Finally, having assented to a compromise, they were un- 
 willing to give up the paltry collection (only six hymns 
 for children) even to allow them to be transferred to 
 their appropriate place in the book ! The result was 
 that in the end the Hymn Book was made to contain 
 nearly ninety hymns for youth and children, whereas I 
 and those whom I represented proposed in the first 
 place to be satisfied with fifty inserted in the body of 
 the book." Later still a distinct hymn book for the 
 Sunday school was prepared by him. 
 
 In congratulating the Church upon the preparation 
 and i.ssue of this collection of hymns for the Sunday 
 schools in connection with the regular Church Hymn 
 Book, he said : " It was always deemed proper that the 
 children should become familiar with the standard 
 hymns, bath as helps to devotion and as a means of in- 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. I97 
 
 struction in Christian doctrine. By the double use, 
 therefore, of this issue in the school and church, our 
 children are fast becoming familiar with the very hymns 
 they will sing in mature life and in old age. 
 
 " Such matters may appear insignificant to some ; in 
 fact, all our efforts in behalf of the young are despised 
 by many on account of the small importance they as- 
 sume in comparison with the bustling events of the 
 world. Persons, however, who consider youth as the 
 period in which character is formed, who know the con- 
 trolling power of early associations, and especially the 
 influence of music and devotion on the tender suscepti- 
 bilities of childhood, will never deem it unimportant or 
 an ordinary occasion that allows of furnishing the right 
 kind of hymns to hundreds of thousands of the children 
 of the Church. If the character of nations is influenced 
 by the patriotic songs taught to their children and sung 
 by them in after years, surely the character of a Church 
 and the welfare of her membership will be improved by 
 having the songs of Zion made familiar to her children 
 and taught again to her children's children. 
 
 " Nor is the fact of uniformity to be overlooked. It 
 is desirable that our children in the East and West, the 
 North and the South, sing out of the same book and 
 have the same; hymns." According to the way in which 
 some observers describe the present condition of Sunday 
 school singing, there is need again that some words of 
 an intelligence and clearness like to these just quoted 
 be given the force of an official utterance. 
 
 The great work, however, which he accomplished dur- 
 ing this period was the preparation of a new Catechism 
 in three parts, of advancing grades, January I7,:i849, he 
 writes: " The Book Committee rnet, and I subrnitted to 
 
igS BIOGRAPHY OK 
 
 them the business of revising the Catechisms of the 
 Church." In his report for that year he says: "The 
 General Conference having directed the revision of our 
 standard Catechism, that work is now in progress. The 
 Catechisms hitherto used among us were compiled many 
 years ago for the Wesleyan Methodist Church in 
 England. Although correct in doctrine, they have not 
 been found well adapted to the use of our people, 
 chiefly on account of containing many hard words and 
 phrases not easily remembered by children. It is 
 now proposed to revise these. Some of the most ven- 
 erable and distinguished divines of our Church have 
 been invited to cooperate in the preparation of this 
 Catechism." 
 
 At intervals, as he could command the time, this work 
 occupied him until the next General Conference. One 
 of his entries is: "I find this a heavy task, but one of 
 great interest." Again he writes : " Dr. McClintock, by 
 my invitation, very kindly assisted me in this important 
 matter. After due consideration it was seen that no 
 mere revision would answer the important purpose de- 
 signed. The ]Vesleyan Catechism No. 2, which had been 
 prepared by Rev. Richard Watson, was found on careful 
 analysis to be little more than a recast of the Westmin- 
 ster Catechism, with such changes of phraseology as 
 would conform its teachings to Wesleyan views. With 
 all their excellencies neither of the above-mentioned 
 Catechisms was prepared in such a view of the tastes 
 and wants of the young as had been clearly suggested in 
 later years by the Sunday school experience of the 
 Church. Hence it was determined to write out the 
 whole with the greatest care." This he did. 
 
 Having completed the work so far as to submit it to 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. I99 
 
 the judgment of those prepared to pass upon it, he 
 repaired to Poughkeepsie, N. Y. "The principal 
 object of my visit," he says, " was to submit the draft 
 of the new Catechism to the venerable Bishop Hedding 
 for his criticism and approval." 
 
 Speaking of the bishop, he adds: " Although in feeble 
 health, his mind was active and his judgment both 
 profound and acute. He seemed quite equal both to 
 the theological and the literary questions involved in 
 such an examination, and it afforded me no small satis- 
 faction to find that my labors upon the Catechism in the 
 main, if not in every particular, met with his hearty ap- 
 proval as well as official sanction. Two hours of close 
 conversation on these topics exhausted his strength so 
 far in the morning that I took leave to allow him to rest, 
 and returned in the afternoon to complete our task. I 
 left him at evening with a deep consciousness of having 
 been privileged above the common walk of virtuous life 
 in having enjoyed a day of rich communion with a Chris, 
 tian patriarch quite on the verge of heaven." 
 
 Afterwards to Drs. Olin and Bangs, members of the 
 Committee for the Revision of the Catechism, " I sub- 
 mitted the same matter that had been read carefully to 
 Bishop Hedding, and with a similar result. Both these 
 great and good men were in health and vigor, and gave 
 personal and continuous attention to the matter in hand. 
 At the close of their examination, in connection with 
 Dr. Holdich, they cheerfully signed the recommendation 
 of the work to the General Conference and the Church. 
 Finally, at the proper time, I met the Book Committee, to 
 whom I submitted the action of the Committee to exam- 
 ine the new Catechisms, and was instructed by the former 
 to present the same to the ensuing General Conference." 
 
200 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 This body having also approved of the work, the fruit 
 of his long-continued and painstaking labors w^as issued 
 the following July (1852). In a subsequent report he 
 speaks of the "revised Catechism of the Church " as 
 " containing not only the form of sound doctrine which 
 our children and youth should be taught, but also the 
 covenant virtually made by Christian parents in behalf 
 of their children at baptism, and which in due time they 
 should be taught to make their own. Thus whatever 
 zeal may be awakened on this subject need not die out 
 for lack of a proper direction. Indeed, the more general 
 study of the Catechism in our Sunday schools and 
 families is one of the most hopeful indications of the 
 present period." Even with this encouragement, how- 
 ever, there was yet apparent to him such need of im- 
 provement in this direction that he was constrained to 
 continue as follows : " The custom of infant baptism is 
 very general, not to say universal, in the Church. But 
 what proportion of those parents who consecrate their 
 children to God in this holy ordinance follow up the act 
 of consecration with faithful and conscientious instruction 
 and training, in the idea that as they have been initiated 
 into the Church in infancy, so they are obligated to be 
 Christian children, and to spend their lives as consistent 
 members of the Church of God ? The answer is that 
 very few thus teach and train their children. 
 
 " Let it not be supposed that parents only are at fault. 
 If the question is asked. What proportion of ministers 
 who admit the children of believing parents to the or- 
 dinance of baptism fully and solemnly explain to those 
 parents the nature and extent of their obligations to 
 train up those children in the nurture and admonition of 
 the Lord ? the answer must again be, Very few. Scores 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 20I 
 
 of baptisms take place without any allusion to these 
 practical matters." 
 
 After referring to the salutary rule of the Discipline on 
 this subject he adds : " The truth is, we are le.ss in need 
 of rules than of practice, and yet it may be safely said 
 that some pertinent exposition of the full duty of minis- 
 ters, churches, parents, and children, with reference to 
 this important subject is greatly needed." Yet further 
 amplifying the subject, he dwelt upon the importance of 
 an early association of the baptized children as probation- 
 ers in the Church, the arrangement of them in classes 
 under the care of " leaders skilled in discerning character 
 and imparting appropriate instruction to the young." 
 
 Under such intelligent direction and urged by such 
 energy, it was to be expected that the Sunday School 
 Union would prove at once one of the most progressive 
 institutions of the Church and, in truth, its advance in 
 usefulness and power was a wonder, conspicuous even 
 among the many marvels that marked the growth of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church. Its only serious embar- 
 rassment, that which alone checked its progress, was the 
 old difficulty which has all along hindered the work of 
 the Church, namely, the lack of funds. 
 
 Although the receipts had grown annually, the in- 
 crease part of the time having been sixty per cent and 
 the resources of the society in every way steadily ad- 
 vancing, still the income was far from sufficient to meet 
 the demands which the vigor and aggressiveness of the 
 Union had itself created, and a debt was soon the con- 
 sequence. 
 
 Often the collections in the churches were depressingly 
 small, and frequently they were not taken at all: "Year 
 after year," he says, "passes by and large NUMBERS 
 
202 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 of our ministers and churches report absolutely nothing 
 at all to aid the Sunday School Union." 
 
 This debt was cleared away before his term expired. 
 
 In discussing the economy of the Sunday school in 
 one of his reports he claims : " This year we have not 
 devoted fifteen cents, or the price of a medium sized 
 Sunday school book, to each scholar. In any possible 
 light in which it may be regarded the Sunday school is 
 one of the most economical as well as the most efficient 
 means of promoting evangelical influences, the good of 
 communities, and the salvation of souls. The unparal- 
 leled cheapness of Sunday school education arises from 
 the simple but glorious fact of gratuitous teaching. If 
 our hundred thousand teachers were to be paid for 
 their services at the rates of common labor, say at the 
 average of a dollar a week, our Sunday school would cost 
 us the additional sum of FIVE MILLIONS OF DOL- 
 LARS per year. Not only do Sunday school teachers 
 make this immense donation of time and labor to the 
 cause of God, but in many cases they, to a very great 
 extent, meet the expenses of the schools by giving gener- 
 ously of their money." 
 
 The Iowa Conference in 1853 availed itself of a provi- 
 sion of the Discipline, and appointed an agent who trav- 
 ersed the entire State, carrying in his wagon books and 
 other requisites for the establishment of schools, and in 
 one year he organized one hundred. We may find in 
 this movement one cause of the preeminence of Metho- 
 dism in that State. 
 
 The lack of means was particularly trying to the sec- 
 retary, because he was not only alert to seize every ad- 
 vantage, but also acute to discern the thinnest shadow 
 of an approaching opportunity. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 203 
 
 He saw that the political revolutions of 1848 in Eu- 
 rope would occasion an increase of emigration to this 
 countr}-. " Emigration from the Old World to the New 
 has been rapid for years past. It is now likely to be 
 more rapid than ever before. Herein may be seen the 
 importance of the Sabbath school enterprise in the econ- 
 omy of God's providence, and also the important relation 
 we sustain to it. If this country is to be filled up with a 
 people who know not God and read not his word, better 
 were it that America had never been discovered. But 
 we hope for better things. Agencies are already insti- 
 tuted for the evangelization of both our native and im- 
 migrant population. Among these agencies the Sabbath 
 school, little as it may be known to many who are aim- 
 ing to control human events, is to be regarded as by 
 no means the least powerful." 
 
 Again he says : " We want to make Sunday schools as 
 free to the poor as the air they breathe ! We designate 
 the following objects as calling for systematic and gen- 
 eral effort : The multiplication of Sunday schools, and 
 the increase of teachers and scholars in schools both new 
 and old ; the better qualification and greater efficiency 
 of teachers ; a more complete supply of the best kind of 
 text-books, reading books, and periodicals ; a more gen- 
 eral attention to scriptural study, and the knowledge of 
 the Bible as a book; the conversion of souls.' 
 
204 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 CHAPTER XVIIl. 
 
 Secretary of the Sunday School Union. 
 
 /^NE of the plans adopted to encourage the formation 
 ^-^ of schools was the offer of a premium of five dollars' 
 worth of books to every new school organized. Not 
 only, however, to increase the number of the schools, 
 but also to improve their grade, was a fixed purpose of 
 the Union. The secretary never for a moment wavered 
 in his conviction, already and early proclaimed, that the 
 rank of the school was in every case determined by the 
 average intelligence of the teacher. And in one year out 
 of fifty-nine titles of tracts issued twenty-six were for the 
 benefit of the teachers. 
 
 He insists: "The most pressing demand now in the 
 Sabbath school is for intelligent and faithful teachers. 
 The Sabbath school teacher must as necessarily fit him-' 
 self for his office as the minister of the Gospel, and for 
 the very same reason^success and souls depend on it." 
 
 Impressed with the importance of a thorough training 
 of the teachers, he returns to his recommendation of > 
 normal schools, conventions, and institutes. These last 
 mentioned "are neither more nor less," he says, "than 
 an application to the Sunday school of the idea taken 
 from that of the common school teachers' institutes as 
 known in the States of New York and Massachusetts. 
 These institutes are neither more nor less than meetings 
 of the school-teachers of a county, held at some conven- 
 ient place for periods varying from one to three weeks. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 205 
 
 The object of the meetings is mutual improvement. 
 The means employed are lectures, recitations, discussions, 
 examinations, essays, criticisms, etc. Such meetings 
 when judiciously conducted have always proved profit- 
 able, so much so, indeed, that the States alluded to have 
 appropriated sums of money to aid in defraying their ex- 
 penses. In our report of 1847 we asked, Why may not 
 Sunday school teachers adopt similar means of improve- 
 ment ? " 
 
 With regard to conventions he writes : " We are 
 pleased to see that our favorite idea of Sunday school 
 conventions is extending and becoming popular in all 
 directions. In addition to city, county, and district con- 
 ventions, we are beginning to have State conventions, in 
 which all denominations are represented." 
 
 Addressing himself again to the topic of normal 
 schools, he asks : " Why should it be thought a thing ex- 
 travagant if we were to urge that a great Church like 
 ours ought to have at least one well-located, well-estab- 
 lished school for the particular object of specially and 
 thoroughly training persons for the great work of Sunday 
 school teaching? Several States of our Union have 
 founded normal schools, at great expense, for the purpose 
 of training and qualifying teachers for their common 
 schools. Are common schools more important to the 
 State than Sunday schools to the churches? 
 
 " Again, having already numerous colleges and semi- 
 naries in successful operation, why might not some or all 
 of these institutions open Sunday school departments, 
 with lectures upon the theory and experiments upon the 
 practice of Sunday school teaching, in addition to suit- 
 able instruction in biblical science ? " 
 
 As an echo of the above sentiments so urgently and 
 
2o6 BIOGRArilY OF 
 
 logically put, the following, signed by the present secre- 
 tary of the Sunday School Union, is interesting and 
 apposite : 
 
 " Normal Teachers and Superintendents. 
 "The demand is imperative for better teaching, and 
 hence for better equipped teachers, in our Sunday 
 schools. There is but one way whereby this demand can 
 be met, and that is by the establishment of normal classes 
 for the training of Sunday school teachers. We propose, 
 therefore, the more complete organization of the normal 
 department of the Sunday School Union. The registra- 
 tion will begin on January 2, 1893." 
 
 Dr. Kidder also originated a scheme to secure from the 
 colleges and seminaries of the Church a body of edu- 
 cated and consecrated youth to man the Sunday schools 
 of the Church. " Recently," he says, " some experi- 
 ments made in visiting institutions of learning, and pre- 
 senting to the minds of students in a direct form the 
 claims of the Sunday school cause upon their personal co- 
 operation and service, has led to the issuing of a circular 
 to the presidents and principals of all colleges, academies, 
 and seminaries under the patronage of our Church." 
 
 In this circular he remarks : " The great desideratum 
 of the Sunday school enterprise at the present time 
 is a sufficient supply of competent and persevering 
 teachers. In my inquiries as to the possible methods of 
 enlisting and qualifying the requisite teachers, my atten- 
 tion has rested with peculiar hope upon our literary in- 
 stitutions. I therefore venture to address you, as the 
 official director of one of those institutions, a few sug- 
 gestions and inquiries. 
 
 " Could you not deliver, or cause to be delivered, one or 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 20/ 
 
 more lectures calculated to fix the attention of your stu- 
 dents upon this subject, and to exhibit to them at once 
 their privileges and their duties in connection with this 
 promising mode of doing good ? Can you not establish 
 and maintain normal Bible classes in which both by ex- 
 ample and precept your students will be taught to teach 
 religious truth? Can you devise and experiment updn 
 any other plan calculated to accomplish the object pro- 
 posed and communicate the results for the benefit of 
 other institutions ? Will you be kind enough to write 
 me freely and fully your views and impressions upon this 
 subject, informing me whether in your judgment there 
 may not be and ought not to be some general and con- 
 certed action in our literary institutions designed greatly 
 to increase the number and efficiency of Sunday schools 
 in all parts of the country? 
 
 " There can be but one opinion as to the great desir- 
 ableness of interesting as extensively and as deeply as 
 possible in the promotion of Sunday schools the increas- 
 ing and influential class of educated youth." 
 
 The strengthening of the element of culture, impor- 
 tant as it was, never for a moment obscured his vision 
 of the spiritual purpose and mission of the Sunday 
 school. In the tables of statistics no item gave him so 
 much enjoyment as the figures reporting the conversions. 
 
 " On reaching the topic of conversions in the schools 
 no Christian can fail to pause with devout thanksgiving 
 for such an evidence of the divine favor." And yet he 
 is not satisfied, and no wonder, for great as the number 
 was, and in one report double that of the previous year, 
 he noted that the average was only two conversions for 
 each school ! — about one for every ten of the teachers ! 
 " Where are the nine ? " he asks. " When compared 
 
208 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 with the whole number of scholars, the total number of 
 conversions indicates that less than one in forty have 
 been the subjects of converting grace." He closes this 
 study of results with the appeal, " Let us attempt great 
 things for God and expect great things from God ! " 
 
 " We recommend every Sunday school within our 
 bounds to devote one session per month to the exercises 
 of a prayer meeting. We recommend all our churches 
 and congregations to observe the second Monday even- 
 ing in every month in a concert of prayer in behalf of 
 Sunday schools, and for the revival and extension of the 
 work of the Lord in and by means of them." 
 
 The anniversaries of the Sunday School Union were 
 great occasions, held in different cities and commonly in 
 the spring or fall, although the one held in Wilmington, 
 Del., made the wide departure of selecting as its date 
 July 3 and 4, and the arrangement proved a success. 
 The one held in Cincinnati, the first west of the Alle- 
 ghenies, was opened with a parade of the Sunday school 
 children of the different Methodist churches. They 
 marched to Wesley Chapel. " Though this is the larg- 
 est church in the city it could not contain the thousands 
 of scholars which crowded every seat, aisle, vestibule, 
 and stairway, leaving no room for spectators, hundreds 
 of whom went away being unable to obtain admission." 
 The Rev. Dr. (afterward Bishop) Simpson was called to 
 the chair. The first address was by Dr. Kidder, who 
 was introduced as the Corresponding Secretary of the 
 Sunday School Union. Considering the scene before 
 him, his theme was most happily chosen, "The Sunday 
 School Army," and with fitting illustrations and im- 
 pressive figures, he showed it was an "army of defense, 
 of invasion, and occupation." 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 209 
 
 This meeting of tlie children was followed by the open- 
 ing of the anniversary proceedings proper in the after- 
 noon of the same day. At this session the corresponding 
 secretary spoke again. In the evening was held the 
 meeting for the general public. This time the secretary 
 spoke to the topic, " A General Exposition of the Plan, 
 Adaptation, and Power of the Sunday School Union of 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church." 
 
 His labors did not end here. These Western people 
 made him do heroic service the following Sunday. He 
 spoke at six different Sunday schools, being kindly con- 
 ducted, as he says, from one to the other by Dr. Simpson 
 in a buggy. In the afternoon he preached to the chil- 
 dren in Wesley Chapel, and at night in the Ninth Street 
 Church he preached to the Sunday school teachers. 
 
 The anniversary at Boston occurred during the session 
 of the General Conference in that city. The children's 
 meeting in connection with it was held in Faneuil Hall. 
 In his address Dr. Kidder began with some allusions to 
 the hallowed and patriotic associations of the place and 
 proceeded to show that the bulwark of our national 
 safety and the true glory of our country were the prac- 
 tice and maintenance of public virtue, strengthening his 
 argument with numerous facts and illustrations. The 
 necessity of the Sunday school as a means to this great 
 and desired end was well illustrated by comparing its 
 infancy with the original size and beginnings of Faneuil 
 Hall, in which American liberty was born. As the na- 
 tion progressed the hall became enlarged, till at the 
 present moment it was of the most extended dimensions. 
 So in regard to the Sunday school, the institution is now 
 in its infancy, but with God's blessing it was destined to 
 spread its influence and auxiliaries all over the world. 
 14 
 
2IO BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 In conclusion, he commended the cause to the labors, 
 the prayers, and the fond expectations of all who would 
 see this world made purer and better. 
 
 All his addresses on the great theme that fully occu- 
 pied his heart, delivered both to children, to teachers, 
 and to preachers, at anniversaries, conventions, institutes, 
 and Conferences, although uttered with a conscientious 
 regard for propriety and a rigid ruling out of everything 
 that might smack of sensationalism, were instructive and 
 impressive, and the testimony of one of his listeners may 
 be properly introduced here: "I wish, especially to 
 thank you for a speech which you made some years 
 since. I have sometimes thought it was that speech 
 which made me an advocate for the Sunday school cause, 
 or if I was already prepared for the work, and waiting 
 with those outside the vineyard because no man hath 
 hired us, yet it seemed to need your voice to speak with 
 authority to my heart, saying. Go ye also into the vine- 
 yard. 
 
 " By the memory of that blessed hour, I expect to 
 recognize you, my brother in Christ, when we meet in 
 our Father's house. I never expect to see you on earth, 
 but I hope to have the privilege of sitting down beside 
 you in the kingdom of God, and telling you the thoughts 
 and feelings of my heart while listening to your appeal 
 in behalf of the Sunday school, and also of the blessed 
 effects which followed the teachings of that hour. The 
 Sabbath school has seemed like a charmed place to me 
 since that day." 
 
 Thus in labors more abundant the happy years sped 
 away. With the approach of the session of the General 
 Conference of 1856 he decided not to present his name 
 for reelection. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. ill 
 
 Without detriment to any interest of the Union he 
 could now retire. Every department was in working 
 order. His labors had established this institution. It 
 was carried beyond the experimental phase. It was as 
 much a fixture, a member indissoluble of the body of the 
 Church, as the Missionary Society itself. 
 
 The steady growth of the Sunday school under its 
 guidance had reached the outer edge of the continent, 
 and the people everywhere touched by its beneficent 
 and active spirit had come to recognize its worth. 
 
 A brief summary in figures of the results during his 
 incumbency, while it can give no adequate idea of work 
 done by him, is in place. The collections for the Sunday 
 School Union during the five years preceding his first 
 report, as already noticed, amounted to less than $700. 
 But from the report issued January, 1857, we learn that 
 these collections had during his last year amounted to 
 more than $12,000. 
 
 The number of books published rose from a beginning 
 hardly worth counting to nearly 1,000 separate volumes, 
 edited or revised by him personally, printing more than 
 70,000,000 pages that year, and binding nearly 2,000 
 volumes each working day of the year. The schools 
 had increased in this period from 5,000 to more than 
 10,000 ; officers and teachers from 50,000 to more than 
 114,000; and the number of scholars from 300,000 to 
 more than 600,000. 
 
 The Sunday School Advocate continued up to the last 
 of his editorship to expand its well-earned popularity. 
 The attention and labor with which he addressed him- 
 self at the outset to its improvement never flagged. 
 Merit in matter and taste in appearance were his constant 
 thought. The heading, at first severely plain, was 
 
212 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 changed three times, the last being the most attractive 
 in design and finish. 
 
 Each bound volume had a different picture on its title- 
 page, either a copy from sacred geography or a historical 
 scene from the Bible, or an allegorical representation of 
 some truth. 
 
 A study also of the other engravings scattered over 
 its pages, as they appeared in the successive numbers, 
 would prove an interesting history of the progress of 
 that art. In every respect the management, while accept- 
 ing first ventures, was persistently bent upon reaching 
 and appropriating last results. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Elliott, Editor of the Western Christian- 
 Advocate, Cincinnati, a most discriminating critic, be- 
 stows this generous estimate upon the Sunday school 
 organ : " After comparing our Sunday School Advocate 
 with all the most valuable issues of the press of like 
 sort, we are led, honestly, to conclude that the Sunday 
 School Advocate stands clearly at the head of the whole 
 list, and is superior to them in many respects. The 
 number published, and the great advantages of the 
 Methodist Book Concern, have placed this periodical at 
 the head of its class." 
 
 Not only did this periodical call forth high praise from 
 our own people, but it was also a valued visitor to an 
 outside constituency. In one year fifteen thousand of 
 its subscribers were of other Churches. And the retiring 
 secretary left it with a subscription list of 105,526. 
 
 In the last number edited by him he addressed to his 
 readers the following farewell : " At the end of twelve 
 years' service in the department from which we now 
 retire, it becomes us to take official leave of our numer- 
 ous readers and Sunday school friends. And, first of all. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 21 3 
 
 we have to express our sincere acknowledgment for the 
 kindness and charity with which our humble efforts have 
 been received. Next to the gratitude due to God for 
 the prosperity with which he has deigned to crown the 
 cause in which it has been our lot to labor, we cherish a 
 sense of obligation to the Sunday school public of our 
 Church for the unvarying kindness and Christian regard 
 which we have experienced in the prosecution of our 
 duties. Wherever we have gone throughout the bounds 
 of the Church, we have been welcomed as the represen- 
 tative of a favorite interest dear to the hearts of ministers 
 and people, old and young. 
 
 " We have done what we could to advance that inter- 
 est, and have often regretted our inability to do more. 
 Nevertheless, we have not been without encouragement 
 that our labors have not been in vain in the Lord. 
 
 " Although connected with the Sunday school depart- 
 ment of the Church at a most important period with 
 reference to its literature and system of operations, yet 
 ours has been chiefly a work of faith and not of sight. 
 Whatever of fruit has been manifest, we trust that still 
 more will be apparent hereafter, and especially in another 
 world. 
 
 " In the many millions of pages which we have been 
 instrumental in placing in the hands of the Sunday school 
 scholars and youth of America, we are not aware that 
 there is a single line which, 
 
 " ' Dying, we would wish to blot." 
 
 Indeed, we trust that, when we shall have passed away 
 from earth, those immortal pages will be speaking to the 
 hearts and consciences of generations that shall live 
 after us." 
 
214 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 But the most gratifying feature in this final review of. 
 his work was the steady growth of the number of con- 
 versions in the schools, the total falling but little short 
 of the entire addition to the church membership for the 
 same period, the proportion being as six to seven. 
 
 The General Conference, at its session in 1856, passed 
 the following resolutions : "i?^j^/j'^^, I. That we highly 
 appreciate the services of our respected brother, Rev. 
 Daniel P. Kidder, as Corresponding Secretary of the 
 Sunday School Union of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church during the last twelve years, and that the pros- 
 perous condition of our Sunday school work is largely 
 indebted under God to his valuable labors. 
 
 " 2. That we hereby tender to Brother Kidder our 
 sincere thanks for his services and our earnest wishes for 
 his future welfare." 
 
 At the July meeting of the Board of Managers the 
 following resolutions were unanimously adopted : 
 
 " The Board of Managers of the Sunday School 
 Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church deem this 
 first meeting of the Board after the retirement of the 
 Rev. Dr. Kidder from the office of Editor of Sunday 
 School Books and Corresponding Secretary of the Sun- 
 day School Union, a suitable occasion to record their 
 sense of the valuable services which he has rendered to 
 the Sunday school cause in connection with our Church 
 during the period of his official connection therewith. 
 Therefore, 
 
 " Resolved, That the Rev. Dr. Kidder, in the exer- 
 cise of a discriminating judgment and an enlightened 
 enterprise in the publishing of Sunday school books, 
 has placed the publishing department of our Sunday 
 School Union in a position of great importance to 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 215 
 
 the Church, and of usefuhiess to the Sunday school 
 cause. 
 
 " Resolved, That by his untiring energy and zealous 
 devotion to this department of Christian effort he has 
 largely contributed to draw toward it the attention and 
 sympathies of the Church, and to establish it in the im- 
 portant relation which it now sustains thereto. 
 
 " Resolved, That the thanks of the friends of Sunday 
 schools are eminently due to the Rev. Dr. Kidder for 
 his services in their behalf, and we hereby tender to 
 him the assurance that, as members of this Board, we 
 cherish a lively sense of their value and importance, and 
 that our best wishes will follow him into whatever field 
 of future usefulness he may be called to enter. 
 
 " William Truslow, Recording Secretary." 
 
 The Christian Advocate and yournal of that date had 
 the following announcement : " Dr. Kidder has labored 
 during several years as Secretary and Editor of the 
 Methodist Sunday School Union. He may indeed be 
 considered the founder of that important department of 
 the Methodist Book Concern. It has grown up vigor- 
 ously under his care, and will be a permanent monument 
 of his ability and usefulness." 
 
 About this time he received a letter containing an ex- 
 tract which may be quoted as expressing doubtless the 
 feelings of many with respect to his retirement : " May 
 I not tell you how sorry we are to see the last Advocate 
 which will be sent out by you. For ever since our eyes 
 were opened to discern spiritual things we have been in- 
 debted to you for spiritual help through its columns. 
 Tears will come thick as I write the little word Good- 
 bye ! May the God of heaven be with you always ! 
 
2l6 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Good-bye ! " And from across the waters were these 
 words of affection and appreciation: "Allow me to ex- 
 press my regrets at your retirement from an office for 
 which you seemed so admirably fitted and in the dis- 
 charge of which God made you so eminently useful." 
 
 Thirteen years after, Dr. (now Bishop) J. H. Vincent, 
 then Secretary of the Sunday School Union, wrote to 
 Dr. Kidder in the following cordial strain : " No Sunday 
 school worker on the continent has such a record as your- 
 self. I am brought face to face with your work every 
 day in the Union. Its foundations, broad and deep, 
 were laid by yourself, and to you is due the preemi- 
 nence which our Union enjoys to-day. I think and 
 speak of this fact often." 
 
DANIEI, PARISH KIDDER. 2r 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Professorship in the Garrett Biblical Institute. 
 
 A LTHOUGH engrossed with the exacting details of 
 ^*- his office, Dr. Kidder never for a moment lost his 
 interest in the other enterprises of the Church, particu- 
 larly that of education. As secretary, his enthusiasm 
 was due largely to the fact that he considered the Sun- 
 day school an educational institution of vast power and 
 unlimited capacity. The thirst for knowledge which 
 took him from his home when a college course was not 
 the fashion that it now is, and his enjoyment in teach- 
 ing, not only remained with him, but grew with his 
 years of diligence and observation. 
 
 His awakened attention never slept or dozed ; he was 
 always on the lookout for new ideas and studying the 
 work of established institutions. His thought was busy 
 sifting the practical from the theoretical, and seeking the 
 fittest for his Church. As opportunity offered he visited 
 model public schools. He comments on a call he made 
 at Union College, where he was entertained by Dr. Nott. 
 He made an address to the students. He spent a Sun- 
 day at Wilbraham, as the guest of Dr. Raymond, listen- 
 ing to Gilbert Haven, the pastor, and adds, " I was 
 much pleased with the privilege of visiting this first of 
 our Church academies, ever associated with the memory 
 of Wilbur Fisk." 
 
 Called by his official duties to frequent and wide 
 travels in the Northwest, he saw at once its strategic 
 positions for educational enterprise. As early as Sep- 
 
2l8 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 tember, 1852, he speaks of an interview with Dr. Hin- 
 man, at Niles, Mich., concerning the educational inter- 
 ests of the Northwest — an interview which he calls " im- 
 portant." In this conversation some of the details were 
 discussed with regard to the founding of a university at 
 or near Chicago, for which the charter had been recently- 
 obtained. A few days after, Dr. Hinman wrote to Dr. 
 Kidder respecting a meeting he had held with the pro- 
 jectors of the enterprise in which he says, "Your plans 
 were generally carried out." Also at this time letters 
 passed between him and Judge Goodrich with regard to 
 the plans for the necessary buildings. At his request Dr. 
 Kidder furnished him with a sketch of the arrangement 
 thought to be desirable. A little later the judge in- 
 formed him that the university project was " booming." 
 
 Dr. Hinman, the first President of the Northwestern 
 University, located at Evanston, 111., died in 1854. But 
 without a halt the plans moved on to maturity, and in 
 1855 the classes were opened. Dr. (now Bishop) R. S. 
 Foster was president from 1856 until i860, and for nine 
 years thereafter the institution was under the efficient 
 management of Professor H. S. Noyes, A.M., acting 
 president. 
 
 But Evanston was to be honored also as the seat of min- 
 isterial education in the Northwest, and in this founda- 
 tion the unobtrusive but effective activity of Dr. Kidder 
 was an originating and determining factor. At Chicago, 
 September 17, 1853, while representing the Sunday 
 School Union at the session of the Rock River Confer- 
 ence, he was questioned by Judge Goodrich as to the 
 best direction of the property which Mrs. Eliza Garrett 
 was then planning to devise to the Church for educa- 
 tional purposes. The doctor's answer was prompt. " I 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 2I9 
 
 suggested a b'blical institute as the grand desideratum 
 of our educational enterprises in the West." A specially 
 trained ministry, he thought, was a need that called for 
 provisions which should be no longer delayed. 
 
 At that time he went out to take in the situation at 
 Evanston, known then as the site of the Northwestern 
 University, but " occupied," as he says, " by the original 
 inhabitants." Returning to Chicago, he had by appoint- 
 ment a further interview with the judge respecting the 
 drafting of Mrs. Garrett's will, she being present. 
 
 Mr. Garrett had died in 1848. It was some time be- 
 fore she came into possession of her property. She ob- 
 tained it by setting aside his will, he not having allowed 
 her what was her right under the law. As soon as she 
 obtained it she determined to use it to promote the in- 
 terests of the Church in some of its departments. It 
 was her thought to turn the gift into some of the edu- 
 cational hnes of the Church. Dr. Kidder, having re- 
 marked that the Church was already aroused to the 
 importance of providing schools and colleges, but not 
 awake to the necessity of ministerial training, urged 
 that this was the greatest need of the hour. 
 
 Judge Goodrich was prepared to know in advance 
 that this would be the advice of Dr. Kidder, for a year 
 before this he had written to the judge recommending 
 the founding of a theological school coincident with the 
 establishment of the new university, although, as he ex- 
 pressly stated, it should be under the care of a distinct 
 corporation and with a separate charter. 
 
 One month after the above interview with Mrs. Gar- 
 rett, the judge wrote to Dr. Kidder inquiring about par- 
 ticular features of the will and the chief provisions of 
 the charter. 
 
220 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 " Would it not be right," he asks, " to have it called 
 ' The Garrett Theological Institute of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church?' How many trustees ought we to 
 have ? What particular provisions in the will or charter 
 would you suggest ? Please make any suggestions which 
 may occur to you." In reply the doctor affirmed again 
 his judgment of the wisdom of a separate charter, and 
 suggested that the name be " The Garrett Biblical Insti- 
 tute." He advised nine as the best number for the 
 trustees, "a fair medium," he observed, "between too 
 large and too small a body of trustees." He then adds : 
 "As to special provisions of the will and charter, the 
 most important matter will be to s&zmxq sufficient gen- 
 eral poivers. It is impossible to foresee many contin- 
 gencies that will be likely to arise in the future. Hence 
 our confidence must be in the good sense of those whom 
 the Lord will raise up to direct interests designed for his 
 glory. In some of the foundations of English colleges 
 it is expressly enjoined that beer shall be made and 
 furnished the students. Many other awkward arrange- 
 ments of the olden time the corporations manage to get 
 around or improve upon. I allude to such matters as 
 illustrating numerous changes that may occur in the 
 conditions and habits of society which it is useless to at- 
 tempt to anticipate or prevent. 
 
 " Besides the founding of theological institutions is a 
 new thing with us, and the whole subject should be 
 gravely and cautiously studied by a competent board of 
 trustees and faculty, endowed with ample powers to 
 adopt such regulations and means of usefulness as they 
 may determine by inquiry and experiment to be 
 best adapted to the great objects in view." 
 
 Matters had thus far progressed, a theological institu- 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 221 
 
 tion had been dejermined upon at Evanston, the will of 
 ]\*rs. Garrett was being drawn with reference to it, and 
 the charter was in process of formation, when Dr. Demp- 
 ster passed through Evanston on his journey farther 
 west to establish a like institution at Bloomington, 111. 
 The projectors, however, of the educational foundations 
 at Evanston told him that not Bloomington, but Evans- 
 ton, was the place for such a plant, and the objections to 
 the former place and the special advantages of the latter 
 were set before him with such clearness and earnestness 
 that he needed only a trip to Bloomington to render him 
 a thorough convert to their views. 
 
 Dr. Dempster's return to Evanston, was, as had been 
 predicted, with the conviction that Evanston rather than 
 Bloomington was the place for the future theological 
 school. And now that Mrs. Garrett's will had been 
 made (although the fact had not yet been announced, 
 nor were any of the funds likely to be available for some 
 time) the projectors of the enterprise felt encouraged to 
 persuade Dr. Dempster to begin his school in Evanston. 
 
 They made arrangements with him to that effect. The 
 building was erected in 1854, and early in the following 
 year the school was opened. Dr. Dempster, after his re- 
 turn to Concord, wrote to Dr. Kidder, expressing the 
 hope that he might have him as an associate in the 
 enterprise just arranged for at Evanston, and observed 
 further, that his counsel in the movement would be im- 
 portant, and that he would deem it a special favor to 
 have any suggestions from him. 
 
 In the matter of the charter for the Garrett Biblical 
 Institute Dr. Kidder and Judge Goodrich were in con- 
 stant communication, and the document was the product 
 of their joint labors. 
 
222 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 At the time Mrs. Garrett's will was drawn she was not 
 yet fifty years old, and in good health. Of course she 
 might change her mind in regard to the disposal of her 
 property, so no extensive financial responsibilities could 
 be assumed on such a basis, but in November, 1855, she 
 died suddenly. Judge Goodrich, writing of the event to 
 Dr. Kidder, says : " Her personal mission is done, but 
 look away down the track of time and see what an im- 
 mortality on earth she has. How her influence or the 
 influence of her beneficence will widen and widen until it 
 shall circle and pervade the earth. Consider this provi- 
 dence and your connection with it, and see what ought to 
 be done or you ought to do. I suggest this to you with 
 more freedom because you made the suggestion to me to 
 try and induce her to make this disposition of the estate 
 God had given her, although God had likewise put it 
 into my heart and she had previously proposed to do so. 
 So many minds meeting upon this subject at about the 
 same time, it seems to me that God intends some great 
 results from this event." 
 
 The death of Mrs. Garrett called for the immediate 
 action of the trustees, and Judge Goodrich was in con- 
 tinual correspondence with Dr. Kidder, consulting him 
 as to the disposition of the property, the question of the 
 president and faculty, the character and location of the 
 building, and asking him on all other subjects connected 
 with the enterprise to favor him with his views and sug- 
 gestions. 
 
 The institute becoming now an established certainty, 
 the matter for consideration next in importance was its 
 proper recognition by the representatives of the Church 
 at the General Conference meeting in May, 1856. Dr. 
 Kidder and Bishop Simpson had already had more than 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 223 
 
 one interview in regard to it, and were in happy accord 
 as to its organization and the best manner of gaining its 
 indorsement at the General Conference. Under date of 
 April 13 he writes : " Bishop Simpson took tea with us 
 and spent the evening with me. We talked over at 
 length the affairs of the Garrett Biblical Institute. A 
 principal object of the consultation was to make a judi- 
 cious plan for securing the recognition of the institute in a 
 fitting manner from the ensuing General Conference. 
 As the result of our conference I prepared and sent out 
 several documents bearing on the subject in the course 
 of a few days following." 
 
 He also drew up the memorial to the General Confer- 
 ence, and meeting the Chicago gentlemen at Indianapo- 
 lis, he was actively and influentially engaged with them 
 in pressing these proceedings to a successful conclusion. 
 
 Thus does Dr. Kidder appear as an initial feature in 
 all these important movements. The project maturing at 
 Evanston dwelt constantly in his mind, taking on many 
 of the proportions of its great future. Its frame and 
 order were molded in the interims of his office work, and 
 in his home, both with the members of his family and 
 the visiting representatives of the Church, it was the ab- 
 sorbing theme of conversation. 
 
 Furthermore, as a sign of his belief in the rectitude of 
 the undertaking and his confidence in its success, he 
 bought large quantities of land in the vicinity of the 
 university grounds. The trustees had assumed as much 
 responsibility as they dared, but they wished to have 
 the adjoining property in friendly hands. For this 
 reason their agent, as he could get hold of the small farms 
 of the old settlers, purchased them, Dr. Kidder agreeing 
 to take them. 
 
224 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 For some time his thought had been shaping toward 
 the conviction that he should terminate his office as Secre- 
 tary of the Sunday School Union and devote his future 
 to the cause of ministerial education. When he was en- 
 tering upon his third quadrennium he had been ap- 
 proached in a confidential note relative to his taking 
 charge of a theological department about to be opened 
 for one of our growing Western universities. Toward the 
 close of the year 1854 he writes : " During the past year 
 I have had a strong impression upon my mind that it 
 may hereafter become my duty to devote myself to the 
 enterprise of ministerial education. I have been in cir- 
 cumstances to observe that there is a growing desire on 
 the part of the Church for higher qualifications on the 
 part of her ministry and in many young ministers and 
 candidates for the ministry a desire for better opportu- 
 nities of study and special training. Conjointly with these 
 things is the natural interest I feel in the result of the 
 movement to found a biblical institution near Chicago, 
 concerning which I was consulted at an early moment 
 and have been in correspondence ever since. 
 
 " Now while I shall calmly and patiently await the 
 openings of Providence with reference to any duty of 
 this kind that may hereafter devolve upon me, I am dis- 
 posed in conformity with my personal tastes and my ob- 
 vious duty as a minister to improve any opportunity I 
 may now have for more enlarged study. I therefore 
 propose to renew my old habit of a division of time, and 
 as far as possible to redeem four hours each day for bib- 
 lical studies and systematic reading. 
 
 " I now find myself in my fortieth year, a period of life 
 in which I can no longer consider myself, as I have 
 always hitherto felt, a young man. Having been enabled 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 22$ 
 
 by the divine blessing already to accomplish sundry im- 
 portant objects of life in the several capacities of minister 
 of the Gospel, missionary, editor, author, Sunday school 
 secretary, and traveler, I can now with propriety devote 
 myself, with the hope of less interruption than heretofore, 
 to those studies and labors which are in accordance with 
 my taste and with the grand and settled purposes of my 
 life. With these intentions and a confident trust in the 
 divine blessing and guidance, I commit myself to God 
 and the future, fervently hoping that his glorious will 
 may in me be fully done." 
 
 With the opening of the year 1856 he received a letter 
 from Judge Goodrich in which he said : " I do not know 
 as the Church will be willing to release you from your 
 present position or as you would feel at liberty to retire 
 from it. Although your present position is one of im- 
 measurable importance, yet cannot some one be found 
 who could fill it who yet would not possess the same 
 requisites for this place as yourself? There can be no 
 doubt of your election if you are willing to accept. All 
 the trustees desire it." 
 
 Many of his trusted friends were opposed to his leaving 
 the Sunday School Union, among them the veteran 
 editor of the Advocate, Dr. Bond, who said to him: " The 
 Father will whip you if you give up the Sunday school 
 work." Nevertheless his mind was finally decided, and 
 at the proper time he sent the following note to the 
 General Conference : " Dear Brethren : — Having been 
 thrice elected to the office of Sunday school editor and 
 secretary without solicitation or urgency on my part and 
 without competition on the part of others, and having 
 at the end of twelve years' service strong inclinations 
 to enter a somewhat different field of labor (not within 
 15 
 
226 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 your appointment), I take occasion respectfully to inform 
 you that I prefer not to be considered a candidate for 
 any office." 
 
 This conclusion to accept the unsought opening at 
 Evanston was not reached by him until after many 
 balancings in his mind as to whether, after all, it might 
 not rather be his imrrtediate duty to enter again the pas- 
 torate. With his customary carefulness and thorough- 
 ness he traverses the whole subject in the following 
 paper: 
 
 " I. Shall I enter the Biblical Institute at Evanston? 
 
 " I. I feel, and have for some time felt, a strong attrac- 
 tion to such a work, an impression that such would be 
 my ultimate duty. 
 
 " 2. I am thoroughly convinced that the future welfare 
 of the Church depends in no small degree on the thorough 
 and appropriate training of our rising ministry. 
 
 " 3. I think that such a field of labor would be highly 
 congenial to my tastes and habits, and that I should 
 find great delight in pursuing the studies and engage- 
 ments appropriate to such a calling. 
 
 "4. My acquaintance in the West and familiarity with 
 its customs and wants are not unfavorable to the arrange- 
 ment. 
 
 " 5. The providential connection I have had with the 
 founding and early history of the institution indicates a 
 propriety in my devoting to it my labors if not my life. 
 
 "II. Granting that I ultimately purpose going, should 
 I go now or after one or two years in the pastorate? 
 
 " I. Having been a long time (12 years) out of the pas- 
 torate it would be useful to me to renew my pastoral 
 habits and get on the ministerial harness. 
 
 " 2. The studies and cultivation which would be ap- 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 22/ 
 
 propriate to me as a minister would be in direct line of 
 preparation for the other field of labor, and the experience 
 I should acquire would be valuable. 
 
 " On the other hand, i. While in the pastorate there 
 would necessarily be much time and labor spent in local 
 duties that would not be preparatory, although they 
 might be useful. 
 
 " 2. By delaying and being otherwise occupied I might 
 afterwards less easily adapt myself to the work of a 
 teacher. 
 
 " 3- ^y going ''^ow I may devote myself at once to 
 special preparation for my future duties. 
 
 " 4. I may have an appropriate influence in organizing 
 and modeling the institution. 
 
 " 5- Some person must do the work of organizing, and 
 perhaps in this direction I have some special gifts." 
 
 At this juncture some words from those whose counsel 
 and judgment he particularly valued determined his 
 mind toward the field at Evanston. Dr. Hannah, one of 
 the visiting delegates from the British Wesleyan Confer- 
 ence to the General Conference, said to him that he 
 thought that it would be just the thing for him. The 
 same day that he received the official tender of the 
 professorship Bishop Simpson expressed himself in 
 opposition to his thought of taking a pastoral relation 
 and argued for the necessity of his going immediately 
 West. The day following, in an interview with Bishop 
 Janes, he was unequivocally advised to accept the chair 
 offered to him. In this connection he adds: "The more 
 I reflect upon this call and consult with my friends re- 
 specting it, the more it appears like a providential open- 
 ing for my future labors ! " 
 
 At length, having gone on to Evanston to inquire 
 
228 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 personally into the state and prospects of the institution, 
 and having had an interview with the trustees, in which 
 he proposed certain radical changes in the organization, 
 and these modifications having been adopted so that all 
 was arranged to correspond with his views, he accepted 
 the chair of Practical Theology, to which he was unani- 
 mously chosen, and began to make his preparations for 
 removing to Evanston. 
 
 That he was the right man to be officially and efficiently 
 identified with the opening of this scheme so important 
 to the Church may be gathered not only from what has 
 been already recorded, but also from the contents of the 
 following paper drawn up by him six months before his 
 election : 
 
 " A biblical institute for the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church — What it should be and require 
 
 " I. It should be eminently practical. It should be so 
 planned and conducted as to forestall competition in all 
 the West, in our own Church at least. Thus alone may 
 we avoid the evils of subdivision so sadly seen in our 
 college operations. 
 
 " 2. It should be organized after no existing model, 
 but in view of the wants and circumstances of our Church, 
 with due reference to the experience and mistakes of 
 others. 
 
 " 3. It should provide for the wants of those who have 
 had few advantages as well as those who have had many. 
 And why may it not plan its courses of instruction so as 
 to secure other pupils than those of our own Church, and 
 thus aim at influencing the whole theological character 
 of the Northwest? 
 
 " 4. It should make a thorough examination of the 
 wants and qualifications of each candidate, and seek to 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 229 
 
 make its instructions specific in small things as well as 
 great. 
 
 "5. Its standard of graduation should be high. And 
 yet its facilities should be freely offered to suitable per- 
 sons who could not take the full course. 
 
 " 6. It should instruct by study and thorough drill, 
 more than by the superficial plan of lectures. 
 
 " 7. Every effort should be made to keep the students 
 warm and active in the enjoyment and practice of religion. 
 
 " 8. Also to instruct them in all the details of minis- 
 terial duty, such as Sabbath schools, missions, tracts, etc. 
 
 " 9. They should be examined on the state, economy, 
 and agencies of the Church. 
 
 " 10. Every effort should be made to guard them 
 against effeminacy of body, mind, or heart, and to culti- 
 vate the esprit du corps of the itinerancy. 
 
 "II. Great attention should be paid to manners, 
 system of life, habits of study, etc. 
 
 " 12. Where text-books of the right kind are not in 
 existence they should be prepared." 
 
230 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Professorship in the Garrett Biblical Institute. 
 
 'T'HE i8th of September, 1856, found him and part of 
 * his family established in the home of Professor 
 Noyes at Evanston. Here he remained during the 
 winter, his own house being in process of erection. 
 
 Under date of September 22 he writes : " I had my 
 first official meeting with my associates in the faculty." 
 These were Dr. Dempster, Dr. Bannister, and Dr. John- 
 son. It was the policy of the trustees to elect no 
 president ; Dr. Dempster, as senior professor, was acting 
 president. 
 
 September 24 the institute opened. " Owing to the 
 inorganic conditions of affairs," he writes, " recitations 
 were dispensed with." The number of students was 
 small, "and many of them but poorly prepared for an 
 enlarged course of theological study. The faculty, 
 however, sought to adapt their efforts to the necessities 
 of the case and to lay a good foundation for the time to 
 come." Two o'clock, September 25, he heard his first 
 classes in elocution and Church history. His record is : 
 " Not finding any class prepared for my department 
 proper, I volunteered to take a class in elementary 
 rhetoric and another in ecclesiastical history. An elocu- 
 tion class I assumed as belonging properly to me, and 
 by arrangement gave a course of weekly lectures to the 
 school." Under the date last mentioned he writes 
 further : " We have been one week in Evanston, a week 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 23 1 
 
 of anxiety and labor, but nevertheless a pleasant one. 
 We all think the place beautiful and are pleased with its 
 scenery. As to my prospective duties, they appear 
 pleasant to me and I have now before me a more invit- 
 ing outlook of study than I have enjoyed before for 
 years. Reviewing the intellectual pursuits of former 
 years is especially exhilarating to me, and also the oppor- 
 tunity of extensive collateral reading." 
 
 The last day of this month he refers to a meeting of 
 their faculty, held that date, in company with the faculty 
 of the Northwestern University, to consult respecting the 
 establishment of a reading room. On the 7th of October 
 he gave his first lecture to the students. It was delivered 
 extempore and was an exposition of the rules for a 
 preacher's conduct. 
 
 At this time, in keeping with his anxiety to do all he 
 could for the benefit of the students, he instituted a 
 Bible class for them, conducted by himself each Sunday 
 morning. 
 
 The following month Dr. Dempster was called to New 
 York, and, both his remaining colleagues being sick, Dr. 
 Kidder had sole charge, and in one day, besides his own 
 recitations in rhetoric and ecclesiastical history, he heard 
 three classes in Greek and two in Hebrew. All this time, 
 too, he was superintending the building of his house. 
 Of this he says : " My studies during the autumn of '56, 
 as well as for some months following, were somewhat in- 
 terrupted by the necessity of taking measures to build 
 me a house, which enterprise, in the absence of a sufficient 
 number of competent mechanics and all the conveniences 
 of a larger place, devolved on me no little care and ex- 
 pense. 
 
 '' During the first year the duties of the faculty to the 
 
232 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 students were not heavy, but no inconsiderable amount 
 of time was necessarily spent in planning a course of 
 study for the future and making such arrangements as 
 were necessary for the proper organization of the institu- 
 tion. The closing year finds me in the enjoyment of 
 excellent health and of unnumbered blessings, for which 
 I desire to record my sincerest gratitude to God the 
 giver. 
 
 " On a review of the present year I see little to regret, 
 except the loss of time incident to the changes in my 
 circumstances and the necessity of so much contact with 
 the world and its cares and business. 
 
 " I have felt conscious of intellectual and spiritual loss 
 as the result of so much diversion from my more con- 
 genial employments, but I have submitted to it only as 
 an unavoidable necessity against the effect of which I 
 have endeavored both to watch and pray. I have all 
 along been cheered with the promise of ' grace suffi- 
 cient for the evil day,' and also with the hope of greater 
 advantages following. 
 
 "As to the great change in my manner of life and 
 public engagements, it may be too early to form a cor- 
 rect judgment. Nevertheless I rejoice to be still clear 
 in the conviction of providential guidance and support. 
 My mind and feelings for some time in advance had 
 been undergoing a preparation for my present position 
 and duties for which I cannot account on natural prin- 
 ciples. I trust that it, as well as the change itself, is of 
 the Lord. Indeed seldom during my life have I had 
 more clear and satisfactory convictions of duty with ref- 
 erence to an important change in my course or position. 
 
 " I regard the institution with which I have become 
 connected as a great and hopeful experiment connected 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 233 
 
 with the urgent wants and dearest interests of the 
 Church. What good I may be able to do in connection 
 with it I know not, but I am impressed with the convic- 
 tion that I have a most responsible work to perform 
 here. Not so much indeed with reference to the present 
 moment as to the future. 
 
 " I see clearly, and have done so from the first, that 
 it is to be a work of faith, and that years must elapse be- 
 fore we can reasonably expect the complete establish- 
 ment of such an institution as the Garrett Biblical Insti- 
 tute ought to be. In order, however, to such a result, 
 distant though it be, some persons must zealously and 
 faithfully labor and plan. 
 
 "To this work I have in my mind freely consented, 
 and surrounded as I am by worthy colleagues, I find 
 much satisfaction in laboring on in hope. 
 
 " We have at present only some twenty-five students, 
 and many of them but poorly prepared. Still they are 
 generally laborious and hopeful, and what we do for 
 them seems to be appreciated. 
 
 " The studies which I have in hand give me a fine op- 
 portunity for review, and the comparative leisure which 
 I enjoy gives me occasion to prepare for future duties." 
 
 A later extract from his journal reads as follows : 
 
 " In the early part of 1857 the result of the delibera- 
 tions of the faculty was embodied by myself as a com- 
 mittee in a pamphlet entitled A Mamial of Information 
 Respecting the Garrett Biblical Institute. As our num- 
 bers only reached thirty-seven in the aggregate, we pub- 
 lished no catalogue but issued the Manual in the stead 
 of one. 
 
 " The first anniversary occurred on June 23 of this 
 year. Some of our students of the more advanced 
 
234 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 grades delivered orations on the occasion. Our greatest 
 embarrassment during this year arose from the irregular- 
 ity in the attendance of our students, but few of whom 
 remained with system through the year from beginning 
 to the end." 
 
 During the vacation he moved into his new house. 
 Shortly after he was taken severely ill with a disease 
 that resembled cholera and which brought him, he says, 
 "very near the unseen world." He was sufficiently re- 
 stored to visit the Rock River Conference, to which this 
 year he was transferred. 
 
 The second year the institute was opened with a 
 senior class of six. " I was consequently called upon," 
 he says, " to teach in the studies properly belonging to 
 my chair. But in addition to them I taught a large 
 class in Angus's Handbook of the Bible. This year we 
 were encouraged with a large number of students, fifty- 
 three in all, and with a more regular attendance upon 
 their duties in the institution ; also in finding our plan 
 of studies and the general management to work satisfac- 
 torily. The second year passed by in a remarkably 
 noiseless manner, with fewer incidents of note to mark 
 its flight than any other that I can remember. We had 
 become accustomed to our position in the West, and re- 
 mained quietly to enjoy it, yet fully occupied with useful 
 labor." 
 
 September 22 the third year of the institute opened 
 with fifty students, and only three in the senior class. 
 The class in homiletics was, however, enlarged by the 
 addition of several students of the partial course. 
 
 The anniversary sermon this year was preached by 
 Dr. Kidder. His theme was " The Enemies and Arms of 
 Christianity." The Nortlnvestcrn Christian Advocate, in 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 235 
 
 its report, described it as "an able sermon, full of noble 
 thoughts and worthy utterances. It was eminently a 
 sermon for the times." 
 
 In the fourth year, in addition to his regular work, 
 he took a class in Hase's Ecclesiastical History. He de- 
 livered also a series of lectures on bibliography and a 
 general course on homiletics. 
 
 During this year a change was made in the arrange- 
 ment of the term, so that the long vacation would occur 
 in iiie winter months instead of the summer. In the 
 summer Evanston was not only a beautiful place on ac- 
 count of its undisturbed growth of forest trees, but, be- 
 cause of the cool lake breezes, was also most enjoyable. 
 As a consequence of this new adjustment of the school 
 year, the students would be saved the expense of fuel, 
 the item for lights would be reduced, and the winter 
 would be left open for them to accept opportunities to 
 teach country schools, and thus make necessary pro- 
 vision for their expenses. The plan was an admirable 
 one, and deservedly popular ; the school year was from 
 March to November. 
 
 The year i860, he says, " opened under fine auspices." 
 As his extra work he gave a course of lectures in oratory 
 and enlisted the school, dividing it into classes which he 
 met for the most part in the church. 
 
 The school year of 1861 he described as " one which 
 as a whole proved quite the most interesting and satis- 
 factory of any thus far spent in the institute. The num- 
 ber of students was eighty-five, well proportioned among 
 the classes. The senior class, being large and well qual- 
 ified, claimed my most hopeful labors in a more com- 
 plete course of homiletical lectures than I had before 
 given. I had a class also quite as numerous in ecclesi- 
 
236 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 astical history. The number of students having in- 
 creased, I necessarily had increased labor in attending 
 to their elocutionary and written exercises. This year 
 more than before we were able to realize the full design 
 and power of the institution, the former years' labors 
 having been preparatory to this result. Although 
 troubled with some absences and irregularities in at- 
 tendance, yet this class of drawbacks was fewer in num- 
 ber than heretofore. There was also developed this year 
 a plan whereby the arrangement for the work of the: 
 students in the home missionary field of Chicago was 
 brought to perfection. 
 
 "The anniversary for this year was held in Clark Street 
 Church, Chicago. The day, October 31, proved fine, the 
 audience was good, and the exercises seemed to interest 
 and, indeed, to delight the people generally. Many and 
 unequivocal were the expressions of satisfaction made 
 by our friends, and we all felt at the close of the serv- 
 ices that an important epoch had been reached in the 
 history of the institution. Of our class of seventeen 
 graduates, fifteen were already admitted to Conferences 
 and had received important appointments to which they 
 went forth immediately." 
 
 One of the faculty being absent at the beginning of 
 the next year, the remaining professors had each about 
 an hour a day of extra work. " Notwithstanding the ex- 
 citement and partial interruption," he says, " caused by 
 the terrible civil war with which our country is deso- 
 lated, the scholastic year has been, on the whole, a suc- 
 cessful and happy one, for which I feel truly thankful. 
 A class of fourteen was graduated, who entered at once 
 upon the work of preaching the Gospel in five or more 
 different Conferences." 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 237 
 
 The latter part of November, 1863, Dr. Dempster 
 died. " This unexpected event threw no little gloom 
 over our community, and made it necessary to devise 
 new plans with reference to the institution." Dr. Kidder 
 became senior professor and acting president. 
 
 At the opening of the school year they had an en- 
 couraging number of students, and as usual from widely 
 distant parts of the country. By an especial arrange- 
 ment Dr. Bannister and himself conducted all the 
 classes. This pressure was relieved by the election and 
 arrival of Dr. Raymond in the latter part of July. He 
 says : " Having surrendered to Dr. Raymond logic and 
 Angus, I was enabled to accomplish more satisfactorily 
 my instruction in ecclesiastical history and my own 
 proper department." About this time the work on 
 homiletics which he had prepared was introduced as a 
 text-book, and he remarks that he found it a great 
 practical convenience to himself, and apparently a great 
 help to the students. 
 
 Until the very last of his stay at Evanston he contin- 
 ued his practice of doing much work that belonged 
 really outside of his department. Church history was 
 almost continuously in his hands, and he carried on 
 without interruption a course of lectures on various 
 topics. 
 
 As the centennial year of 1866 approached, attention 
 was turned toward making it the occasion for the en- 
 largement of the facilities for the work of the institute. 
 Circulars were sent out to the Conferences of the West 
 and Northwest, and as a consequence more ministers 
 were present from the patronizing territory. The need 
 of a new building for dormitory and recitation purposes 
 was very much felt, and steps were taken to secure the 
 
238 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 necessary funds. An agent was appointed to take col- 
 lections. An association of ladies was also organized in 
 the latter part of 1865. In the fall of 1866 Miss Frances 
 E. Willard, the corresponding secretary, being called to 
 Lima, N. Y., Dr. Kidder's daughter, Kate, was chosen 
 to her place, and performed constant service until the 
 building was finished and furnished. This society 
 raised $30,000. As the structure was an adjunct to an 
 institution which had its foundation in a woman's gift, 
 it was properly determined to name it Heck Hall, after 
 the woman who gathered the first Methodist congrega- 
 tion on this continent, Barbara Heck. 
 
 The claims of the institute, the doctor adds, " seem to 
 be well received, and its friends cherish lively hopes of its 
 more rapid and successful progress in the future, al- 
 though well content with its usefulness in the past." At 
 length " the plans of a new building having been duly 
 canvassed and determined on, ground was broken in 
 June of the year 1866, and the next month the corner 
 stone was laid with appropriate ceremonies." 
 
 Further on he relates: "As our centenary building ap- 
 proached completion it devolved on me to devote con- 
 siderable thought, time, and effort to suitable prepara- 
 tions for a public dedication on the fourth of July, 1867. 
 Through the divine blessing, that event occurred under 
 most favorable and encouraging auspices and with 
 pecuniary results that astonished everybody. Money was 
 pledged for the furnishing of the building in amounts 
 practically sufficient, and with an enthusiasm that was 
 most opportune." 
 
 "The last week in October," he writes, "witnessed 
 our anniversary, which was well attended by visitors from 
 abroad. The examinations were spirited, and the 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 239 
 
 graduating class of twelve contained young men of ex- 
 cellent promise. By appointment I delivered the anni- 
 versary sermon. Thie subject was, 'The Responsibilities 
 of the Christian Ministry.' By request of the joint board 
 of trustees and visitors the sermon was published first 
 in the Northwestern Christian Advocate, and afterwards in 
 pamphlet form for free distribution particularly among 
 young men. Its practical suggestions proved useful to 
 many, and the demand for it continued during my con- 
 nection with the Garrett Biblical Institute." 
 
 The school year of 1868 opened in the commodious 
 appointments of the building dedicated the summer be- 
 fore. During the vacation the doctor had revised and 
 republished the rules of the institute, with a students' 
 pledge attached. 
 
 During May of this year he attended the sessions of 
 the General Conference in Chicago, being a delegate from 
 the Rock River Conference. 
 
 On the 23d of May the General Conference visited the 
 institute and held an enthusiastic meeting in front of 
 Heck Hall. 
 
 The two following years in the history of the institute 
 were uneventful, but full of work. But in the year 1870, 
 one of the professors having returned from abroad, dis- 
 cussions arose in the faculty meetings in reference to a 
 proposed change of terms and vacations, the project be- 
 ing in Dr. Kidder's judgment unduly pressed. October 
 12, at a trustee meeting held in Chicago, a change of 
 term and vacation was urged and finally carried, as he 
 says, against his earnest protest. 
 
 It early became a part of the doctor's regular duty to 
 travel about over the patronizing territory and visit the 
 Conferences in the interest of the institute. Concerning 
 
240 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 these trips he says frankly: " I find less pleasure in visit- 
 ing Conferences than I once did, perhaps owing to a 
 greater fixedness of studious habits. Yet it seems to be 
 at least an occasional duty to go abroad and represent 
 our institution and confer with the ministers of different 
 sections of the country." Instead of finding it an occa- 
 sional, it became an increasingly frequent duty, occupy- 
 ing much of his time and carrying him over large tracts 
 of territory. Besides his regular professional employ- 
 ment he also did a great amount of clerical work for the 
 institute. Preliminary to the centennial year he was 
 busy and spent a considerable time with architectural 
 plans. His entry under this head is as follows : " Through- 
 out the year, in addition to my regular duties in the in- 
 stitute, I was more or less occupied in perfecting plans 
 for the purpose of building, together with improvements 
 on the original building." The preparation and sending 
 out of circulars in the interest of the institute seemed to 
 fall entirely to him. 
 
 As acting president it was laid upon him to preside at 
 the commencements, address the graduates, and confer 
 the degrees. This task he always performed with the 
 quiet grace peculiar to him. His last address as reported 
 was, in part, as follows : 
 
 " The doctor said that he had chosen the motto, ' Be 
 Representative Men,' from which to address them. He 
 congratulated them on the successful issue of their stud- 
 ies, and spoke eloquently of their future mission. Men 
 like them would always be wanted. The Conferences 
 had thrown their doors open wide to receive them, and 
 they were all now under appointments and had authority 
 as pastors of churches. They would go to five different 
 Annual Conferences and to four of the great Northwestern 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 24 1 
 
 States, where they would be brought into contact with 
 hundreds of ministers and thousands of people. They 
 were, therefore, now called of God to be representative 
 men. All ministers were in a sense representative men. 
 They would be severely criticised and meet with many 
 obstacles, but he urged them not to shrink from the re- 
 sponsibility of being representative men, and to recog- 
 nize it in all they should be called upon by God to do. 
 
 " In conclusion, he spoke some touching words of fare- 
 well in such affectionate terms as to move the audience 
 to visible marks of feeling." 
 
 Dr. Kidder was not so much an acting president as 
 that he was any the less a careful and painstaking pro- 
 fessor in his special department. His feeling was that 
 he could not be honest with himself unless he was hon- 
 est with his pupils. One of the Conference visitors 
 writes : " I will speak first of Dr. Kidder's department — 
 ' Homiletics and Pastoral Theology.' The young men 
 possessed a correct knowledge of these branches that are 
 so important to a Methodist minister and showed that 
 they had carefully studied the Discipline. 
 
 " At this examination the class, with remarkable unan- 
 imity, commended extemporaneous preaching. Dr. Kid- 
 der is thoroughly Methodistic and will never contribute 
 to the bondage of the pulpit by favoring the practice of 
 reading. Careful preparation was urged as essential to 
 successful extemporaneous discourse, and special promi- 
 nence was also given to the fact that our most efficient 
 ministers are those who go from their closet to the sacred 
 desk. If all our young ministers could receive instruction 
 in this department of theological study they would be 
 more useful in their pulpit ministrations." 
 
 Dr. Kidder sought also to promote in every way the 
 16 
 
242 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 religious standing of the institute and encourage the 
 spiritual growth of the students. At the time that theo- 
 logical schools were in their formative state in our 
 Church one of the stock objections was that the improve- 
 ment of the young men in intellectual training would be 
 at the expense of their piety, and the ministry would re- 
 ceive its accessions in the shape of well-adjusted mental 
 machines without the requisite spiritual motive power. 
 But thanks to the godly men who stood about the 
 cradle of the Garrett Biblical Institute, this charge, so far 
 as it is concerned, has never had the vantage ground of 
 fact. The religious services regularly maintained by the 
 students, always encouraged and often attended by the 
 faculty, and especially the love feast which was held at 
 each anniversary, showed that the old fire had not died 
 out and also kindled afresh its flame. 
 
 The love feasts were particularly memorable, recalling 
 the incidents that made Pentecost famous, and lingered' 
 like a rare illumination in the recollection of those 
 favored with their enjoyment. One present writes: 
 
 " Many conscientious persons in our Church, while ad- 
 mitting the intellectual advantages of theological schools, 
 claim that they send out ministers who seldom have the 
 divine unction. This may be true in some instances, 
 but the defect is in the individual and not in the influ- 
 ence of these institutions. If these objectors could have 
 been with me in the annual love feast of the students, 
 held in Heck Hall on Tuesday evening, their prejudices 
 would have disappeared. Nearly all the young men 
 spoke, referring to their present religious experience and 
 their views of the holy office to which they had been 
 called. The testimony of each was clear and scriptural 
 and was given with such warmth and power that the 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 243 
 
 large audience responded with sliouts and amens. It 
 was a real ' old-fashioned ' Methodist class meeting, and 
 among the happiest of the throng were the professors 
 and other prominent ministers." 
 
 To this may be added the testimony of another : 
 " The spiritual side of student life in the Biblical Insti- 
 tute, as indicated at the students' love feast, is full of 
 promise ; it is healthy, individual, hopeful, and aggres- 
 sive. And if there is any charm in old familiar terms — 
 it is evangelical life ; it is ' old-fashioned Methodism ; ' 
 it is ' full salvation,' in doctrine and experience." 
 
244 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Leaving Evanston— Professorship in the Drew Theolog- 
 ical Seminary. 
 
 "T^HE residence and service of Dr. Kidder in Evanston, 
 * so delightful, so abundant in labors, and so fruitful in 
 results of good to the Church, was now about to close. 
 Many reasons readily appear why it should have contin- 
 ued until the paralysis of death (nothing less) should 
 check the busy toiler, but it might not be so. 
 
 It will be remembered that the terms of the institute 
 year were so changed as to throw the long vacation into 
 the summer. This Dr. Kidder thought to be a mistake, 
 and for the disadvantage of the students, but still con- 
 tenting himself with his protest expressed in the proper 
 way, he yielded to the majority vote of the trustees and 
 faculty. But scarcely had the school year of 1871 opened, 
 when another event occurred, which not only surprised 
 him, but resulted in the dissolution of his official connec- 
 tion with the institute. 
 
 This he recites in the following terms : " About the 
 middle of April the faculty was called to Chicago to 
 meet with the trustees and a committee of the trustees 
 of the Northwestern University, to consider a scheme 
 for the unification of the two institutions, the most strik- 
 ing feature of which appeared to contemplate the 
 subordination of the Garrett Biblical Institute. On call- 
 ing a meeting of the faculty at my library, on the evening 
 of the second day after, I found my colleagues so far 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 245 
 
 committed to the scheme referred to as to indicate that 
 they were the abettors, if not the authors of it. From 
 such a state of things I at once perceived that some 
 decisive steps were necessary to prevent the consumma- 
 tion of a serious injury to a great interest of the Church. 
 
 " Two courses appeared open to me : either (i) to hold 
 my position and contest the contemplated project ; or, 
 (2) defeat it by a flank movement which might be an easier 
 and a more effectual mode of showing the bearings of so 
 ill-judged a scheme. 
 
 " Feeling ready and prepared for either course, I never- 
 theless sought not to be guided by impulse, but rather 
 by the spirit and providence of God. My first wish, 
 therefore, was to ascertain whether I might not be 
 needed in some other equally important field of labor. 
 Having about that time received a catalogue of the Drew 
 Theological Seminary from Dr. Foster, I thought proper 
 to write to him inquiring as to a candidacy for the va- 
 cant chair of Dr. McClintock. So cordial was Dr. Fos- 
 ter's answer that I assented to become a candidate for 
 the post at Madison, and on the i6th of May I received 
 a telegram announcing my election to it." 
 
 In accordance with this situation, on the day of the 
 anniversary for that year, June 29, his resignation was 
 presented to the trustees and accepted by them in a 
 series of resolutions. The letter of resignation and the 
 resolutions were in the following terms : 
 
 " Garrett Biblical Institute, Evanston, ) 
 
 June 29, 1 87 1. ) 
 " To the Trustees : 
 
 " Dear Brethren : — For reasons that seem to me to 
 be weighty, I hereby offer my resignation of the profess- 
 
246 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 orship of practical theology, to take effect on the 1st of 
 August next. 
 
 " Although called to another field of labor, you may 
 well believe that after fifteen years of close personal 
 identification with this institution I shall not cease to 
 cherish an ardent desire for its highest welfare and largest 
 usefulness in all time to come. Yours sincerely and fra- 
 ternally, Daniel P. Kidder." 
 
 The trustees adopted the following resolutions : 
 
 " In accepting the resignation of D. P. Kidder, D.D., 
 as professor, in this institution, of practical theology, we 
 cannot suffer the .severance of his official relation to this 
 institution to occur without expressing our sincere regret 
 and our high appreciation of his earnest devotion and 
 faithful labors for fifteen years, and since its chartered 
 existence, to promote the usefulness and elevate the 
 character of this institution ; and also our acknowledg- 
 ment of his cordial and efficient cooperation with the 
 trustees, and successful efforts in prosecuting and carry- 
 ing out all their plans for the welfare of the institution 
 and the elevation of ministerial character and educa- 
 tion. 
 
 " Resolved, That we tender to Dr. Kidder our most 
 ardent wishes for his usefulness and success in the new 
 and important post to which he has been called in a 
 kindred institution and field of labor, and pray he may 
 be equally and more abundantly a blessing to it than he 
 has been to the one he is now leaving." 
 
 This year there was an unusually large number of 
 the alumni present at their general reunion. Suitable 
 resolutions were passed by them expressive of their 
 appreciation of his very efficient services as their for- 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 247 
 
 mer instructor, and of the loss to the institution in his 
 resignation. 
 
 " A step so important in my history," says the doctor, 
 " seems entitled to a brief note of personal explanation. 
 For the general principles by which it was governed I 
 can refer to several paragraphs in my work on the pas- 
 torate, written in the advocacy of the itinerancy and in 
 the tenor of my long-established convictions. When 
 writing those paragraphs I did not specially think of 
 their application to myself, having for a considerable 
 time, more particularly since the death of Dr. Dempster, 
 regarded myself providentij^lly called to remain in the 
 post I held in the Garrett Biblical Institute. 
 
 " The first serious thought of leaving as a possible 
 duty was .suggested by the circumstances already related. 
 The almost immediate and striking coincidence of an 
 ofificial call to a professorship identical in character with 
 my own in a section of the Church to which I had strong 
 attachments and where I believed that my field as a 
 preacher of the Gospel would be greatly enlarged, made 
 a deep impression on my mind. In fact, never in my 
 life had the vocation interna and extera been more 
 strikingly correspondent. According to my former 
 belief the usefulness of this institution for some time to 
 come is likely to be diminished by an arrangement 
 adopted against my protest and with which I cannot co- 
 operate heartily. Not feeling in any way responsible for 
 a diminution of interest forced upon me by measures 
 which I resisted conscientiously, but could not control, I 
 nevertheless felt a great sense of relief in being provi- 
 dentially excused from continued work under their de- 
 pressing influence. Corresponding with this there sprang 
 up in my mind a new ambition to be useful by a legiti- 
 
248 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 mate use of my talent and experience as a teacher of 
 young ministers in a section of the Church where formerly 
 I had done so much preliminary work as a preacher and 
 Sunday school editor. 
 
 " With these views and feelings my course was plain, 
 and when properly comprehended did not cause me a 
 moment's hesitation. I moreover had the satisfaction 
 of being confirmed in my own impressions and judg- 
 ments by the disinterested advice of all, or nearly all, the 
 intelligent friends with whom I thought proper to con- 
 sult on the subject. While they uniformly expressed 
 regret to have me leave, their judgment seemed as uni- 
 formly to correspond with my own. Indeed, I had my 
 own regrets at the idea of leaving, especially at the 
 thought of becoming severed from my long and agree- 
 able associations with Judge Goodrich, with whom I had 
 acted so pleasantly and hopefully in the foundation and 
 development of the Garrett Biblical Institute from the 
 day when its idea first dawned upon the mind of Mrs. 
 Garrett. Nevertheless, as that association must some 
 time be severed, I believed that occurring now and in the 
 circumstances it did, it would strengthen the judge and 
 his associate trustees in taking measures for the future 
 good of the institution, perhaps even more than by my 
 continuance as heretofore. In this belief I became fully 
 confirmed before leaving Evanston by various circum- 
 stances, not the least significant of which was the entire 
 abandonment of the project of making a common presi- 
 dent of the Northwestern University and the Garrett Bib- 
 lical Institute. Corresponding to this was a well-defined 
 development in the minds of the trustees of the latter of 
 a purpose to elect their own president hereafter, and thus 
 set at rest various sources of agitation and irritation." 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 249 
 
 Distance, however, did not diminish his love for his 
 first field of professional labors. Shortly after his de- 
 parture the institute suffered its great loss by the Chicago 
 fire. The income was reduced $7,000. In response to 
 the call for assistance he promptly reported by a generous 
 subscription. 
 
 Drew Seminary opened in November of 1867. For 
 some time before this Dr. Kidder had been in corre- 
 spondence with Dr. McClintock, answering his inquiries 
 as to the ends to be accomplished in such an institution 
 and the means of attaining them. In a letter still pre- 
 served, dated March 18, 1867, Dr. Kidder argues strongly 
 for the elevation of the standard of scholarship requisite 
 to an entrance upon the curriculum to the seminary. In 
 part he says : " Our ten and one half years of experience 
 in this institution [Garrett Biblical] have been a con- 
 tinual struggle to elevate the standard of preparation for 
 theological study in our Church. For a long period the 
 great majority of students seeking the advantages here 
 offered were not only nongraduates, but very indifferent 
 academic scholars. They supposed that a short course 
 of study in a theological institution was all they needed 
 — a supposition encouraged by the flattery of injudicious 
 friends, often by the urgency of presiding elders, and 
 sometimes by persons of still higher positions in the 
 Church. The same class of advice, seconded by the in- 
 fluence of many college officers, operated to urge gradu- 
 ates of colleges directly into Conferences without pre- 
 viously studying theology. 
 
 " Against all this we have succeeded in establishing a 
 fine esprit dii corps in favor of collegiate graduation prior 
 to entrance upon our regular course, so much so that 
 many who thought at first that they could only take a, 
 
250 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 partial course have paused in the midst of it to make up 
 a collegiate course as essential to graduation in the 
 Garrett Biblical Institute. Thus it happens that a large 
 majority of those we have catalogued under preparatory 
 studies are now actually pursuing a college course at the 
 Northwestern University and other colleges. 
 
 " I dwell upon this point because i-t was only after con- 
 siderable experimenting that we found it to be the key 
 of our difficulties. By the course we are now taking we 
 strengthen the colleges and have a right to demand their 
 hearty cooperation." 
 
 His interest in Drew Seminary from the very beginning 
 of its history, and the fact that he was called to occupy 
 the chair of his lifelong friend, Dr. McClintock, rendered 
 his coming to the seminary a matter of gratification to 
 him. His welcome was assured and warm. Dr. Foster, 
 the president, wrote him : " I need hardly say that it 
 gives me great pleasure to congratulate you and the 
 seminary on your election." Dr. Strong wrote : " I need 
 hardly repeat what you have already learned, that we are 
 all highly gratified at your appointment here. Let me 
 ask that you will bring your family directly to my house, 
 until your own arrangements for housekeeping shiU be 
 completed." This offer was accepted gratefully. 
 
 He first met with his fellow-professors on the evening 
 of September 13, 187 1. " This meeting," he says, " was 
 suggestive of excellent promise. I am greatly pleased 
 with my associates, their evident competence, their 
 friendly spirit, their earnest purpose." 
 
 The year proved to be one of solid work and no little 
 interest. His department required organization and 
 received it. The classes were not large, but contained 
 some men of promise who appreciated their advantages. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KINDER. 25 I 
 
 " I had occasion to prepare some new lectures, but 
 as the topics had been well studied the labor was not 
 taxing. Professorial Hfe in a theological institution 
 is necessarily one of routine. That routine, however, 
 always had for me a charm. I can truly say that the 
 quiet years spent at Drew Theological Seminary were to 
 me as full of interest as they were of work. 
 
 " In addition to my regular tasks I also, by special 
 request of the trustees, took charge of the library and 
 did no little work in arrangement, classification, and 
 cataloguing. Later on I incorporated the library of the 
 late Dr. McClintock with that of the institution." 
 
 In 1872 there was a change in the presidency, Dr. 
 Foster being elected bishop. In 1876 occurred the 
 failure of Mr. Drew and the cutting off of the resources 
 of the seminary. " This calamity," he adds, " gave the 
 faculty no little anxiety and extra work." 
 
 To Dr. Kidder there fell the special labor of taking 
 charge of the accounts of the Janes Memorial Professor- 
 ship. He conducted all the correspondence for this 
 fund, prepared and sent out the circulars, receipts, and 
 certificates. This taxing labor was continued by him 
 through four years. At this period, too, much of his time 
 was occupied with the correspondence that usually falls 
 to the president. 
 
 He also, with the other members of the faculty, took 
 the president's classes, so that he might be free to travel 
 about in the interest of the crippled endowment. In 
 addition to this he transacted with the students the en- 
 tire loan business of the seminary, disbursing the funds 
 of the Board of Education, the New York Educational 
 Society, and the McClintock Association. 
 
 Without question he allowed himself to be overworked. 
 
252 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 His zeal for any task laid upon him by his Church, his 
 loyalty to duty which made it instinctively impossible 
 for him to shirk, and his unwillingness to decline the tax 
 always imposed upon ability — all this conspired to heap 
 upon him labor so great that there was left to him but 
 a remnant of time and strength for the preparation 
 necessary to a proper appearance before his classes, and 
 had he failed in the least in his attendance, attention, or 
 thoroughness as an instructor, there would have been an 
 adequate cause. But he did not. 
 
 It was not made known to him directly or even by in- 
 timation that there was the least dissatisfaction with 
 either his methods or the results that appeared in his 
 department. Indeed the rather, when at one time a 
 measure was mooted that might have disturbed the 
 tenure of some of the faculty, he was confidentially in- 
 formed that the scheme was not at all aimed at him. So 
 far as he knew, or had any opportunity of knowing, the 
 students, the faculty, the trustees, and the friends of the 
 seminary were pleased with his work. As well as he 
 could judge from word or sign he rendered competent 
 service. Had it been otherwise, had he been favored 
 with the least hint that his work did not meet the es- 
 tablished test of usefulness, his prompt resignation would 
 have relieved the trustees of the necessity of an act which 
 is sufficiently characterized in its recital. 
 
 Under date of June 8, 1880, Dr. Kidder makes this 
 entry in his diary : " I received a startling piece of news ! " 
 This was nothing less than the communication to him of 
 a plan arranged in secret, whereby a majority of the 
 Board of Trustees had committed themselves to the 
 purpose of displacing him at their approaching annual 
 meeting and electing his successor. Outside of the 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 253 
 
 faculty there were four gentlemen, who afterward attained 
 to the episcopacy, who took a position or expressed an 
 opinion with regard to this act. One of them conveyed 
 to Dr. Kidder the information of this plot, which other- 
 wise would have burst upon him with all the surprise 
 designed to crush an unsuspecting victim. Another, 
 giving personal attention to the animus and details of 
 the movement, wrote to him that " the work of disaffec- 
 tion had been well done." A third, in a manner yet 
 more public, visited the whole affair with his unsparing 
 strictures. While yet another, over his own signature, 
 quoted the sentiment of a high official of the Church 
 to the effect that the action of the trustees was " an 
 outrage." 
 
 Seven days after the first announcement to him of this 
 " startling piece of news," Dr. Kidder sent the following 
 note to the Board of Trustees : " Brethren : — I hereby re- 
 spectfully tender my resignation as Professor of Practical 
 Theology, to take effect on the adjournment of the New 
 Jersey Conference in March, 1881, or sooner should a 
 duly elected successor be desired to occupy the chair." 
 
 He continued his instructions in the seminary as before 
 until the opening of the following spring. " Early in 
 March, 1881," he writes, "I closed my lecture courses 
 and instructions in Drew Theological Seminary and pro- 
 ceeded to meet the New Jersey Conference, at the ad- 
 journment of which my resignation of the chair of Prac- 
 tical Theology had been planned to take effect. I thus 
 rounded up a full quarter of a century of continuous 
 service to the Church as a theological professor." 
 
2 54 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 CHAPTER XXll. 
 
 Secretary of the Board of Education. 
 
 (~\^ leaving Drew Seminary it was Dr. Kidder's ex- 
 ^-^ pectation to enter again the pastorate. But his 
 career as a public official in the Church was not yet 
 closed. On November 9, 1880, he was unanimously cho- 
 sen Secretary of the Board of Education. He accepted 
 the office with the intention of performing its duties 
 gratuitously, so long as he held his chair at Drew. 
 
 Within a week after his election he took possession of 
 the papers of the Board, and by an arrangement with the 
 Book Agents, he was provided with desk room at the 
 Book Concern, 805 Broadway, New York. 
 
 His choice for this position was widely hailed as one 
 of the fittest that could be made, and the spirit and sys- 
 tem with which he began his duties showed that it was 
 his intent that this interest, in some respects the most 
 important which he had been called to serve, should be 
 favored in every respect with a healthy stimulus and a 
 thorough improvement. A correspondent wrote thus to 
 one of the Church papers: " During our recent visit to 
 New York we had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Kidder, 
 Secretary of the Board of Education of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church. We were greatly pleased to find him 
 entering upon his new field of labor with zeal and pur- 
 pose to accomplish more through this agency than has 
 been done heretofore. He is making himself familiar 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 255 
 
 with the details of the office, and good results may be 
 expected from his labors. There are more demands 
 upon the Board for assistance than its present resources 
 will meet, but he hopes to devise means by which addi- 
 tional aid may be obtained. Dr. Kidder will make him- 
 self felt in this neglected department of Christian labor." 
 
 About this time he was chosen one of the eighty dele- 
 gates to represent the Methodist Episcopal Church in 
 the Ecumenical Conference to be held in London the 
 following September. But burdened as he was by labors 
 in two important fields, judging, too, that it was not best 
 to absent himself from his new office, he declined. 
 
 His first work of a public character was to prepare for 
 the Church Manual such matter as belonged to his de- 
 partment. 
 
 " From this time forward," he says, " my leisure or un- 
 occupied time was diligently employed in correspondence, 
 circular writing, and other duties of my new and con- 
 genial office." It was congenial, it may be added, in 
 large part, because he felt toward the Board of Educa- 
 tion the interest the father has in his child. His effijrts 
 toward the systematic assistance of young men preparing 
 for the ministry — efforts dating back to the beginning of 
 his incumbency at Evanston — were really the inspiration 
 and origin of the association of which he was now so 
 properly the active officer. 
 
 Under the title " Board of Education," Bishop Simp- 
 son's Cyclopedia of Methodism has the following: "The 
 General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
 of i860 appointed a special committee to report and de- 
 termine a plan for an Educational Board. No action was 
 taken until 1868, when the Committee on Education re- 
 ported a plan for the organization of a Board to consist 
 
256 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 of twelve trustees, six of whom should be ministers (two 
 of them bishops), and six laymen, of which number five 
 should be a quorum." This is interesting, but it is not 
 sufficient. It is history, but not ancient history. 
 
 In his letter to Judge Goodrich, laying out the needed 
 plans for the proposed institute at Evanston, Dr. Kidder 
 says : " It must be projected on a large yet practicable 
 scale, and be made as strong as possible to aid indigent 
 young men who are called to preach. Thus alone can it 
 compete with the urgency of presiding elders who hurry 
 young men into the field prematurely." This was in 
 January, 1856. 
 
 Two years after this, under date of July 5, we have 
 this interesting entry in the doctor's private diary : " I 
 spent my morning in a faculty meeting, in which action 
 was taken in favor of organizing a Ministerial Education 
 Society." The latter part of the same week he writes : 
 " I met on a committee to form a constitution for a 
 Ministerial Education Society." Ten days later he re- 
 ports another meeting for the same purpose. The work 
 of writing the constitution fell to him. On the fol- 
 lowing day he enters, " I devoted the morning to the 
 preparation of the constitution for the Ministerial Edu- 
 cation Society ; " and the day after his. record is, " I 
 finished the constitution." Four days after this it is 
 noted, " I read the life of Cornelius and gathered some 
 valuable liints for our Ministerial Education Society." 
 On the fourth of August following there was a conven- 
 tion in Chicago in behalf of ministerial education which 
 he attended, and describes as passing off " hopefully as 
 well as pleasantly." The third day after this he says : 
 " I met in Chicago the committee on constitution for 
 Ministerial Education Society. We had a pleasant 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 257 
 
 interview and unanimous action was taken agreeing to 
 call a convention at the time and place of the next ses- 
 sion of the Rock River Conference." The next item of 
 interest in this connection is to the effect that he pre- 
 pared an article on this subject for the Northwestern 
 Christian Advocate. 
 
 The convention above referred to was held at Wauke- 
 gan, 111., on the afternoon of August 27. This he at- 
 tended, and he observes that it resulted in the organiza- 
 tion of a society. That evening, he says, " I spent in 
 writing a circular to the Conferences concerning this soci- 
 ety." The next day at 8 A.M., he adds, "I met the 
 Board of Ministerial Education Society." These early 
 allusions contain yet another reference to the circulars 
 prepared by him for distribution to the Conferences. 
 
 Thus fully ten years before the organization of the 
 Board of Education as related in the Cyclopedia, a strong 
 Western movement in the same direction was developed 
 and launched. It had been born also to live and grow, 
 and in the year 1867, during the summer, Dr. Kidder 
 writes : " I gave my personal attention and no small pro- 
 portion of my time to the inauguration of efforts to raise 
 funds to aid worthy young men called to the ministry in 
 prosecuting their education. For this object I accepted 
 the Corresponding Secretaryship of the Ministerial Edu- 
 cation Society, of which I had been a director from the 
 first, wrote and printed circulars, visited several Confer- 
 ences, and advocated the cause by my voice and pen as 
 extensively as opportunity offered. Notwithstanding 
 somewhat .serious obstacles in the way, good results fol- 
 lowed directly and became a hopeful augury for still 
 greater success in the future." The next year we find 
 him again engaged in the same work, and in the follow- 
 1^ 
 
258 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 ing year, in the report of the Garrett Biblical Institute, 
 he speaks strongly and at length on this subject, as fol- 
 lows : " The only thing now lacking to the complete 
 success of the enterprise committed to our charge is an 
 adequate provision of funds to aid worthy candidates for 
 the ministry and missionary work who need assistance to 
 enable them to accomplish the requisite studies promptly 
 and thoroughly. Up to this time the educational 
 benevolence of our Church has been chiefly directed to 
 the establishment of institutions of learning of various 
 grades. Now that this object is so far attained that we 
 have a complete system of seminaries, colleges, and 
 theological schools, it would seem that we ought, as the 
 next object of connectional effort, to provide means for 
 enabling young men among us moved of the Holy Ghost 
 to preach the Gospel, however poor, to have access to the 
 full advantage of our entire system of Church institutions. 
 We would not in any case recommend aid to an extent 
 that will render personal exertion unnecessary. But 
 knowing that many worthy young men feel compelled to 
 abandon their studies prematurely, and that many more 
 think it impossible to commence a theological or even 
 classical course for lack of means, we would plead with 
 the Church to come to their aid. We would stimulate 
 their own highest exertions by timely encouragement 
 given in so generous a manner as to cement the affec- 
 tions of struggling young men to the Church which needs 
 their services and yet promises but a limited pecuniary re- 
 ward. The activity and liberality of most other churches 
 in this matter is a wholesome example to us." These 
 words were addressed to the General Conference which, 
 as related at the outset of this sketch, organized the 
 Board of Education of our Church. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 
 
 259 
 
 This action of the General Conference was the out- 
 growth of the movements set on foot during the year 
 1866, the centenary year, commemorating the hundredth 
 anniversary of the introduction of Methodism into the 
 United States. Dr. Kidder had been appointed a mem- 
 ber of the committee to arrange for a proper celebra- 
 tion of this event. "Toward the end of January, 1865," 
 he writes, " I was occupied with revising and printing 
 the by-laws and general scheme of the Ministerial Edu- 
 cation Society, so as to have it in readiness for the con- 
 sideration of the Centenary Committee, of which I had 
 been appointed a member." 
 
 Two sessions of this committee were held, one in 
 February in Cleveland, one in New York in November, 
 1865. He attended both of these meetings and reported, 
 " They were full of interest and responsibility, involving 
 very earnest discussions, but resulting in a harmonious 
 plan for the exercises and efforts of the centenary 
 period." 
 
 In the General Conference of 1868 he was a member 
 of the Committee of Education. As already related, 
 this was the committee which reported the plan for the 
 organization of the Board of Education. 
 
 The peculiar gratification he felt may then be 
 imagined as he took into his hands the activities of an 
 institution whose urgency he had been one of the first 
 to voice, whose germ he had helped to plant, whose 
 growth had been under his fostering attention, and 
 whose completion into a connectional department re- 
 ported in conspicuous lines the shaping impress of his 
 thought. 
 
 " In January, February, and the early part of March, 
 1881," he writes, " I did double duty, (i) in completing 
 
26o BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 my year's instruction and general work in Drew Theo- 
 logical Seminary, and (2) in preparatory work in behalf of 
 the Board of Education. Neither branch of effort seri- 
 ously interfered with the other. With the duties of the 
 first I had become familiar during twenty-five years of 
 consecutive experience. For those of the latter I had 
 been in some measure prepared by my twelve years of 
 connection with the headquarters of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church as Sunday School Editor and Corre- 
 sponding Secretary of the Sunday School Union and 
 Tract Society, and also by my experience in organizing 
 the Ministerial Education Society of the Northwest, 
 which, in point of fact, led directly to the organization 
 of the Board of Education. Furthermore, my exten- 
 sive and continuous correspondence and intercourse 
 with candidates for the ministry from 1856 downward, 
 had enabled me especially to appreciate the circum- 
 stances and wants of the youth of the Church, who are 
 and ought to be aspiring to qualifications for public use- 
 fulness. 
 
 " In such ways, if not by natural tastes, it seemed to 
 me that I had been providentially prepared for the new 
 and responsible duties to which I was at this period 
 called. I therefore gladly, if not efficiently, devoted my 
 leisure to the preliminary work which was found to be 
 necessary to a proper development of an interest of the 
 Church which up to this time had not received the at- 
 tention it deserved." 
 
 In March, 1881, having finished his engagement at 
 Drew Seminary, he writes, " I commenced an active 
 term of service as Corresponding Secretary of the Board 
 of Education, adding to my previous and preliminary 
 work the visitation of Annual Conferences for the pur- 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 261 
 
 pose of publicly explaining the claims of the Board and 
 enlisting efforts in its behalf." 
 
 The next month he began the preparation of his pro- 
 gram for Children's Day. This was a new departure in 
 the arrangements for that important and increasingly 
 popular anniversary. Heretofore the Church had issued 
 no official program, and as a consequence many enter- 
 prising publishers had entered the field with the effect 
 of selling large numbers of Orders of Service, each one 
 with independent views. There was, therefore, no 
 unanimity of thought, no one plan was carried out, the 
 meaning of the day was obscured, its mission was not 
 presented at all, or in an insufificient or distorted man- 
 ner. The performance left behind no impression that 
 was of special value to the Church. 
 
 Thus was the day in many quarters diverted from its 
 appointed purpose, and its pecuniary results with in- 
 creasing volume were flowing into channels outside of 
 the treasury of the Board. The failure to correct this 
 must not be longer tolerated, so Dr. Kidder thought. 
 Not, however, by advising, lecturing, or scolding his con- 
 stituency did he attempt a remedy, but by the better 
 method of a substitute — an improved program, with the 
 imprint of the Church. In this way it was his aim to 
 emphasize the object of the day, explain the mission of 
 the Board ot Education, and recommend its work, 
 giving in an attractive form such facts and figures as 
 would make the occasion a memory of information and 
 inspiration, and secure for the cause it represented the 
 hospitable thought and cordial support of all the lovers 
 of Christ and Christian education. These official pro- 
 grams at once became popular ; they were a new strand 
 in the connectional bond that united a great Church. 
 
262 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 On the same day all over the world the young united in 
 the same service, were taught in the same beautiful and 
 impressive manner the same lessons. The Board of 
 Education became at once one of the best known insti- 
 tutions of the Church,; although one of the youngest, so 
 that even the Missionary Society, that had contentedly- 
 jogged along in its dignified conservatism, gave incohate 
 indications of desiring also a special day and a prepared 
 program ! Beginning with this his first year, these pro- 
 grams were continued during the entire period of Dr. 
 Kidder's incumbency with improved features, and result- 
 ing from the first in enlarged collections. 
 
 Their preparation cost him a vast amount of thought 
 as well as labor. He sent out and asked for informa- 
 tion and hints for the coming Children's Day, and more 
 than six months in advance he would examine this 
 correspondence in making up the forthcoming Order of 
 Service. 
 
 He labored with the problems involved in the theme 
 to be developed (for each program had a special subject 
 or title which it unfolded, in songs, addresses, and rep- 
 resentations, leading in each case up to the central pur- 
 pose of the Board and its work), the matter to be used, 
 and the character of the music. This task grew to be 
 with him each year more serious, for the reason that he 
 wished in each case to make the past a point of departure, 
 going on toward something better. Thus we read in his 
 diary : " Engaged most of the day in perfecting details 
 of the program which in view of its objects and the num- 
 bers to be printed, I am seeking to make as perfect as 
 possible." Again we read : " I grappled with the task of 
 preparing my program, which I find by no means an easy 
 one on account of the high standard I wish to maintain." 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 263 
 
 With his usual fertility in expedients he conceived, 
 during the summer of 1883, the plan of having a medal 
 struck off both in silver and in gilt in commemoration of 
 the approaching centennial of Methodism. These medals 
 were to be distributed as a feature of the next Children's 
 Day services. He concluded that the sale of this medal 
 would bring in large returns to the Children's Day Fund. 
 Upon consulting with Bishop Simpson and others, the 
 project was approved. At once he set about its prep- 
 aration, and the circulation of information concerning it. 
 In due time the medal appeared. The program for that 
 year also brought out the centennial feature of the epoch, 
 and both went everywhere, until the medal became as 
 familiar as current coin, and the centenary of organic 
 Methodism in the United States was imbedded as an 
 imperishable record in the minds of millions of the 
 young. Financially the project was a success of phe- 
 nomenal proportions, the receipts amounting to an excess 
 of $56,000, making the income of his office since he 
 took it $116,000. Conceiving that a second crop was 
 possible for the Church from this fervid soil, he issued 
 announcements of the sale of the medals for Christmas 
 of that year. Concerning these he reports that there 
 was a great demand. In short, the medal abides still as 
 the sensation of that period, and is of itself a monument 
 to his quiet but effective genius fordoing good. 
 
 The original ideaof the projectors of the Board of Educa- 
 tion had been to create a fund from the income of which all 
 loans and gifts should be distributed. Dr. Kidder was con- 
 vinced that this was not the best way, that the people who 
 furnished the collections would be better satisfied, and the 
 more certainly could be trusted to continue and increase 
 their annual gifts, if they saw that the entire amount 
 
264 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 each year, after paying legitimate expenses, was dis- 
 bursed to relieve the largest number of worthy students. 
 This opinion urged convincingly by him prevailed, and 
 became the practice of the Board. 
 
 Although he was now approaching a time of life when 
 travel had lost for him much of its exhilaration, and home 
 and the undisturbed opportunities for reading and study 
 were proportionately attractive, still he never relaxed 
 his practice of visiting the Conferences in the interest of 
 his work. He recognized the fact that the society he 
 represented was not only comparatively young, but that 
 there was not a clear view of its objects and plans 
 among the preachers and churches. He therefore traveled 
 widely through the bounds of our Methodism, address- 
 ing the preachers in Conference session and the people 
 at the anniversaries, besides meeting with the Committees 
 on Education, and assisting them with facts and figures 
 and points in the making up of their reports. Every 
 spring and fall during his term of office he made these 
 tours throughout the connection. 
 
 Thus it came to pass when he let these responsibilities 
 fall from his weary hand this society was one of the best 
 understood in its mission and method. 
 
 The composition and copying of his annual reports 
 was very laborious. Besides this his pen was all the time 
 busy in contributions to the Manual, in the preparation 
 of circulars to bishops, presiding elders, to Conferences, 
 to pastors, to Sunday school superintendents, circulars 
 for collections, Children's Day circulars, letters to the 
 children — all written out by his own hand, and proofs 
 personally revised. So also were the Children's Day 
 programs in almost every case. The toil of these 
 tasks and the weariness of their details he was willing 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 265 
 
 to endure, being convinced of the value of this kind 
 of work in advancing the popularity of his cause with 
 a reading public. 
 
 There were besides letters to be written in great num- 
 bers. This was a task of unceasing pressure. A large 
 part of this correspondence related to the proper distribu- 
 tion of the annual appropriations for loans to students. 
 "While some of the duties of the office," he writes, 
 " especially those of receipting and accounting for funds 
 paid could be appropriately transferred to assistants, I 
 never felt at liberty to surrender to anyone the investi- 
 gations necessary to determining to whom loans should 
 be made and in what amounts. Besides I found the loan 
 accounts in so chaotic a state, that I saw the necessity 
 of personal experiment and study as a: means of devising 
 and perfecting some easy yet effective system of accounts 
 specially adapted to the nature of the business to be 
 transacted, including its relations both to individuals and 
 to institutions." 
 
 His disposition to be scrupulously correct in dealing 
 with the money of the people given for a special pur- 
 pose was not always generously seconded by those hold- 
 ing responsible positions in the Church. He had dif- 
 ficulty in securing the statistics necessary to make a com- 
 plete task of his reports and estimates under this head. 
 With all his press of other work he was compelled to 
 write more than once to those in charge of our educa- 
 tional institutions, sometimes to as many as fifty at a 
 time. We can readily imagine the annoyance such 
 looseness and carelessness must have caused him, ac- 
 customed as he was to consider accuracy and promptness 
 architectural lines in the structure of conscience. 
 
 At the very beginning of his taking office he was en- 
 
266 BIOGRAPHV OF 
 
 countered by an evil practice that was rapidly sapping 
 the vitality of the society, and making the hope of its 
 usefulness a vanity. The situation may be best stated 
 by one who gave the unpleasant facts to the open air of 
 public print. He says : " The Children's Day collections 
 which find their way to the treasury are inexplicably 
 small, amounting to less than a thousand dollars. Where 
 collections are taken year by year, they are in most 
 cases retained for the purposes of a particular school or 
 applied to some local institution." This practice of mis- 
 appropriating in whole or part the funds raised on Chil- 
 dren's Day, this pious pilfering from a sacred trust, 
 pained Dr. Kidder like an affliction, and by circulars, 
 communications in the Church press, consultations with 
 the bishops, by addresses at Conference sessions, and 
 urgent appeals in the Committee of the General Confer- 
 ence, he opposed it. His success in his office made this 
 resistance yet more necessary, for as the fund under his 
 management rapidly increased, it became proportion- 
 ately popular, and was eagerly plucked at by those who 
 (to be charitable) forgot that by explicit legislation 
 these moneys were dedicated to a given and connec- 
 tional object, namely, the assistance of young men pre- 
 paring for the ministry. 
 
 The corresponding secretary never relaxed his vigi- 
 lance nor slackened the vigor of his opposition to these 
 spoliations. And although one of the champions of the 
 sectional and exigent theory charged him with " undis- 
 ciplinary proceedings," his victory was finally complete. 
 This very one, who embellished his speech with Italics, 
 acceded to the wisdom of accepting a revised position, 
 and these perversions of the Children's Day Fund be- 
 came as unpopular as they were illegal. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 267 
 
 As at the beginning of his term of office he met with 
 a practice which periled the usefulness of the Board of 
 Education by the misappropriation of its funds, so at the 
 close he encountered a proposition which in his judg- 
 ment menaced its future by abolishing its individuality. 
 
 This was a plan styled " The Unification and Consoli- 
 dation of the Church Benevolences." It contemplated 
 the combining together of some of the societies and the 
 practical absorption of others, the Board of Education 
 being merged into the Freedmen's Aid and Southern 
 Education Society, and the office removed to Cincinnati. 
 This scheme he regarded as worse than wild, and fraught 
 with untold mischief to all the great benevolences of the 
 Church. 
 
 Being appointed by the General Conference (1884) a 
 member of the commission to consider this plan, he pre- 
 pared a paper expressive of his views. By those who read 
 it his argument was pronounced complete, sweeping, 
 and irrefutable. This document was passed into the 
 hands of his successor in office, and was unfortunately 
 lost. A loss indeed ! as otherwise some of its facts and 
 reasonings might be profitably quoted as an antidote 
 against any future symptoms of a like dementia. How- 
 ever,the plan with a sonorous title perished in the proc- 
 ess of incubation, and is not likely to disturb the future 
 with anything more substantial than its memory. 
 
 It was in the latter part of 1886 that he prepared 
 this paper, and it was the opinion of his friends that 
 the effort of its composition, added to incessant labors 
 long continued, was too much for his strength. The 
 indefatigable toiler, unsparing of self in the service of 
 his Church, began to show signs of breaking — signs 
 that even his brave spirit was constrained to recognize. 
 
268 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Restless nights following days of relentless work hin- 
 dered the needed repair of brain and body. From fre- 
 quent entries in his diary, brief but significant, it was 
 plain that all the horrors of insomnia were upon him. 
 He maintained the unequal conflict as long as he could. 
 With a purpose unflinching, but with a trembling frame, 
 he held himself up to his task, until he found that it was 
 not worth while to mount guard any longer over a 
 treasury empty of force and effect. The dreaded time 
 had come. His office as held by him no longer repre- 
 sented full service wrought, and he resigned in July, 
 1887. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 269 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 Literary Work. 
 
 p^R. KIDDER became early a writer of books. His 
 '-^ record in this department parallels well his work 
 as professor, secretary, and editor. 
 
 Upon his return from Brazil and while traveling 
 through the West, he fell in with Joseph Smith, the 
 prophet of Mormonism. His attention was thus turned 
 to the study of this superstition, and the result was his 
 first book, in 1842, entitled Mormonism and the Mormons; 
 an Historical Review of the Rise and Progress of the 
 Sect Self-styled Latter-Day Saints. The press notices of 
 this book from every quarter were unvaryingly favorable. 
 " This book is better adapted to check the progress of 
 Mormonism among those who read it than any other 
 publication which has hitherto met our observation." 
 " All who desire to know the truth and the whole truth 
 with respect to Mormonism will find it here condensed 
 into a volume lucidly written and carefully compiled. 
 This is by far the best work we have seen on the subject 
 of which it treats, and hence we commend it to our 
 readers without reserve or qualification." "The author 
 shows himself fully competent to the work he took in 
 hand, and has embodied in these pages that kind of in- 
 formation which should be disseminated through the 
 churches far and wide." " A searching and vigorous ex- 
 posure of the blasphemies, impostures, and evil practices 
 of the Mormon leaders, and of the absurd infatuations of 
 
270 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 their deluded followers." " The author has given us a 
 full-length likeness of the Mormon monster in the West, 
 knowing that to be induced to shun the father of lies we 
 have only to see him in his detestable deformity." These, 
 selected from among testimonials of different denomina- 
 tions in and out of the country, are specimens of the 
 general approval of the author's object and the compli- 
 mentary estimate of the manner in which he had executed 
 his purpose. This work was quoted as a standard up to 
 the date of its last issue, 1882. 
 
 During his residence in Brazil he came across a work 
 which he deemed of sufficient importance to give to the 
 larger patronage of an English reading public. He 
 therefore published it in 1844, under the title, Demonstra- 
 tion of tlic Necessity of Abolishing a Constrained Clerical 
 Celibacy ; exhibiting the Evils of that Institution and 
 the Remedy. By the Right Rev. D. A. Feijo, Senator 
 and ex-Regent of the Empire of Brazil, Bishop-elect of 
 Marianna, etc. Translated from the Portuguese, with an 
 Introduction and Appendix, by the Rev. D. P. Kidder, 
 A.M. "A bold but unsuccessful effort was made soon 
 after the organization of the present form of government 
 in Brazil to abolish clerical celibacy. The author of the 
 work before us took an active part in this endeavor and 
 published this treatise, for a translation of which we are in- 
 debted to the accomplished Editor of the Sunday School 
 Advocate. It is a production distinguished for its force 
 of reasoning and extent of authorities cited, and discusses 
 boldly the very important question of clerical celibacy 
 in the Roman Catholic Church." This extract is from 
 one of the many notices given of this book by the press 
 of that time. Another states : " The book was printed 
 for private circulation and would probably have been 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 27 1 
 
 lost to the world had not the Rev. Mr. Kidder, a mission- 
 ary of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United 
 States, during his residence in Brazil become acquainted 
 with its author, and received from him a copy, from 
 which he has made the translation before us. ' The 
 Roman Catholic,' says Mr. Kidder, ' will here find 
 a frank and fearless discussion of an important branch of 
 his Church polity,substantiated at every step by venerated 
 names and acknowledged authorities.' " By a subcom- 
 mittee, appointed to examine the work, it was warmly 
 recommended for publication to the Book Committee of 
 our Church. From all directions, in the most emphatic 
 terms of approval, this work was received by a light-loving 
 public. All the religious papers of different denomina- 
 tions noticed it favorably, and in many and warm terms 
 Mr. Kidder was commended for his enterprise in issuing 
 the book. 
 
 The next year our author gave to the press a work en- 
 titled Sketches of a Residence and Travels in Brazil ; em- 
 bracing Historical and Geographical Notices of the 
 Empire and its several Provinces ; in two volumes, 8vo, 
 with illustrations. In the preparation of this work he 
 drew not only upon his own observations in South 
 America, but was also furnished with documents by the 
 Brazilian consul in New York, and consulted original 
 sources at Washington. 
 
 This was a new field of labor, not only for the pen of 
 of a Methodist preacher, but also for an American author. 
 " No book was more required by the wants of the age 
 than this." So says one enthusiastic reviewer. He con- 
 tinues : " Here we have two volumes replete with well- 
 assorted facts, giving a distinct view of the origin, history, 
 and present condition of the empire of Brazil. The whole 
 
2/2 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 is absorbingly interesting, and we take pleasure in rec- 
 ommending the book to the attention of others." In a 
 Hke strain and with lengthy comments it was noticed 
 and reviewed by the religious press on both sides of the 
 ocean. 
 
 All the New York papers gave it prominent considera- 
 tion, some of them, like the Commercial Advertiser, in 
 more than one issue, and with extracts, comments, and 
 complimentary notices that filled more than a column. 
 The leading journals of other American cities heartily 
 indorsed it. In the first year after its issue it went 
 through three editions. It was the subject of the leading 
 article in the Princeton Review, covering twenty pages ; 
 the Methodist Quarterly Review gave it nearly thirty 
 pages ; and it was discussed in two succeeding papers in 
 the United States Magazine. 
 
 Its reception in England, however, was, if possible, 
 even more friendly. The London Critic noticed it with 
 four pages closely printed. The Londojt Athenceum, The 
 Journal of Belles-Lettres, and The British Quarterly Ad- 
 vertiser all followed suit. The London Atlas said : " It is 
 the best work we have on Brazil.'' By the Spectator it 
 was welcomed as an addition to the British Library. 
 The Brazilian minister at Washington was particularly 
 pleased with the work, and so expressed himself in an 
 autograph letter to Mr. Kidder. 
 
 None of the good things said about the work so much 
 pleased the author as the following remark in a review in 
 the Religious Spectator by Dr. Sprague : " It is fitted in- 
 directly to be an efficient auxiliary in the great cause of 
 truth against error, holiness against sin." In reply to this 
 Dr. Kidder wrote to Dr. Sprague : " Had I not intended to 
 give my work such a character I should not have been jus- 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 273 
 
 tified in writing it. Had I failed in my design the book 
 might have pleased certain critics more, but in my judg- 
 ment had better never have seen the light." 
 
 As to the literary merit of the work, it may suffice to 
 quote the closing words in the Princeton Review : " In 
 point of style the work is highly meritorious. The 
 natural transparency of the diction presents nothing to 
 interrupt our easy progress ; and on some occasions the 
 author rises with his subject to what we consider the 
 best manner of simple narrative. The book is worthy of 
 a place among the more elevated productions of our 
 national literature." The illustrations in this book, it 
 may be added, were nearly all from original sketches by 
 the author. 
 
 An edition in reduced size was issued for the specific 
 object of supplying the district school libraries of the 
 State of New York. This was done in answer to a 
 request from those prominent in charge of them 
 and who urged upon the publishers the importance 
 and feasibility of such a venture. The Superintendent 
 of Common Schools for the city and county of New 
 York wrote : " I take pleasure in recommending this as a 
 work well adapted for introduction into our district 
 school libraries, where it will be sought after by the 
 multitude of our youthful readers with avidity and read 
 with entertainment and instruction." From the office 
 of the State Superintendent of Common Schools at Al- 
 bany came these words : " I have perused with great in- 
 terest and pleasure your valuable Sketches of a Residence 
 and Travels in Brazil, and most fully concur in the com- 
 mendations which it has received from the periodical 
 press of every class in our country. The character of the 
 work in all respects is such in my judgment as to render 
 18 
 
2/4 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 it a valuable accession to any library." Still further. 
 The well-known Josiah Holbrook expressed himself in the 
 following glowing terms : " From fifteen to eighteen years 
 ago I wrote much and spoke more to give an impetus to 
 school libraries, and am hence interested in everything 
 respecting them, especially the selection of books. The 
 deep interest and rich instruction I have received from 
 perusing and reperusing Sketches of Travels in Brazil, 
 by Rev. D. P. Kidder, have impressed me with the entire 
 fitness of this work in subject, spirit, and style, for this 
 important class of libraries. I would most gladly con- 
 tribute my small mite to give this excellent work a place 
 in all such collections through our country." 
 
 The work was superseded only by itself in a different 
 form. In 1857 the author was associated with Rev. J. 
 C. Fletcher, a missionary of the Presbyterian Church, in 
 the preparation of the book under the title of Brazil and 
 the Brazilians. It had a .large sale, and went rapidly 
 through successive editions until the ninth, in 1879, 
 revised and brought down to date. " It is regarded as 
 the best authority extant upon the subject. Much of its 
 contents is embodied in one of the Blue Books of the 
 British Parliament." 
 
 A year or two of instruction in his department at 
 Evanston convinced Dr. Kidder of the great want of a 
 compact and comprehensive text-book on homiletics, and 
 he says : 
 
 " According to a plan I have for some time medi- 
 tated, and which has been encouraged by all whom I 
 have thought proper to consult on the subject, including 
 some of the bishops and book agents, I at this period 
 commenced the systematic preparation of a text-book 
 on homiletics. I found that the task was highly agree- 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 275 
 
 able and directly in the line of preparation for my regular 
 duties in the institute." 
 
 This was in the winter of 1859-60, the first winter 
 vacation of the institute, and he spent it for the most 
 part in New York, busy in the Astor Library, the libra- 
 ries of the New York and Protestant Episcopal Semi- 
 naries, and the library of the Book Room, consulting 
 authorities and collecting material. He spent a day 
 some time after this with Professor Fisk, of Chicago, 
 listening to a rehearsal of Fitche's lectures on homiletics, 
 and in conversation on kindred topics. 
 
 He had many interruptions, and was forced to confess 
 that " bookmaking does not proceed rapidly." 
 
 It is finished at last, and we can imagine the thrill of 
 gratification with which he made the following entry : 
 " Having by hard and constant labor up to the middle 
 of February (1864) completed my manuscript, I thought 
 it best to go to New York and attend to at least the 
 commencement of its publication." 
 
 It was favorably received by competent critics on 
 both sides of the water. Among the English comments 
 maybe quoted the following: "This is a systematic 
 work, embracing every branch of the subject, and is 
 without exception the most thorough treatise we have 
 ever met with." 
 
 Another: "In the work before us the author ap- 
 pears to us in a new character, and to greater advantage 
 than before. The examination of it has given us a satis- 
 faction almost amounting to delight. It is both 
 Christian and scholarly ; without pretense, and without 
 ostentation, solid but not cumbrous, and full without be- 
 ing tediously minute." 
 
 From the American comments : " In its plan, spirit. 
 
2/6 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 and execution we know of no better treatise on 
 preaching than this. The author has clearly enough 
 maintained his own individuality as a thinker, and there- 
 fore we find in this useful treatise very much that is 
 fresh, not a little that is new, and some reflections of a 
 practical character worth more than any theories however 
 beautiful." 
 
 Another says : " Suggestiveness is the controlling 
 feature of this work. You are in a state of wonderment, 
 when once through it, at the immense field traversed, 
 with gratitude inexpressible at the grand views in 
 regions beyond, to the verge of which you have been 
 delightfully led by a hand so loving. On sermon-mak- 
 ing proper, the author is a Saul among all the giants. 
 The sixth, seventh, and eighth chapters are worth all the 
 Claudes, Sturtevants, etc., gone before. If with this 
 book the main difficulties of preaching do not disappear, 
 it were wisdom for anyone to retire to private life." 
 
 Dr. McClintock wrote : " The preface to this book 
 modestly gives as its aim ' to aid clerical students and 
 junior ministers in preparing for their life work.' Con- 
 sidered with reference to this proposed end, I know of 
 no rival to the book, nor indeed any that approaches it in 
 excellence. It exhibits all the essential requisites of a 
 good text-book for students : simplicity of arrangement, 
 comprehensiveness of outline, directness of statement, 
 and fullness of illustrations, along with necessary brevity 
 and compactness. The young men of this generation 
 who commence their study of the art of preaching under 
 the guidance of this book have greater advantages than 
 any generation of their predecessors. But Dr. Kidder 
 has far transcended the modest aim of his preface. His 
 book is not only an admirable text-book for students. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 277 
 
 but it is also one of the most complete historical, scien- 
 tific treatises on preaching that have appeared in any 
 country. He has thoroughly mastered the subject, not 
 only in its nature, but also in its history and literature, 
 and has digested his ample material into a compact and 
 pregnant treatise, covering both history and practice. 
 This commendation may seem very strong, but I think I 
 am fully entitled to use it. Some years ago I contem- 
 plated the preparation of sucli a book, and gathered and 
 studied all the leading writers on the subject. The 
 opinion which I offer is, therefore, not a random judg- 
 ment. I trust that Dr. Kidder's book will find its way 
 not merely into the hands of students, but of all our 
 ministers." 
 
 Some years later, when Dr. Kidder had removed to 
 Madison, during one of the lecture courses at Drew, Dr. 
 William M. Taylor, of New York, spoke on the " Best 
 Methods of Preparing a Sermon." In the course of his 
 remarks he said that in his judgment the most satisfac- 
 tory work on that subject yet written had been prepared 
 by one of their own denomination, Dr. Kidder. At 
 once the audience broke into a storm of applause, led by 
 the students. Dr. Taylor did not know that Dr. Kidder 
 was at that time a professor in Drew Seminary, nor that 
 he was then, with the other members of the faculty, sit- 
 ting behind him on the platform. 
 
 On being introduced to Dr. Kidder at the close of the 
 lecture. Dr. Taylor stated that the unusual vigor of the 
 applause which greeted his remark, and which surprised 
 him at the time, was now explained, and he felt sure 
 that his praise of the Homiletics would be regarded all 
 the more sincere, in that he was not aware, when he 
 spoke, of the presence of its distinguished author. 
 
2/8 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Nearly thirty years after the work was first published 
 an editorial in our leading Church organ observed that 
 this book " was when issued, and still remains, accord- 
 ing to the discriminating testimony of such men as the 
 late Leonard Bacon, the best work on homiletics in the 
 English language." 
 
 Dr. Kidder found that still another text-book was 
 needed, and accordingly he set about its preparation. 
 On November 14, 1868, he writes: "I commenced 
 systematic work on my proposed book on the pastorate." 
 
 The book appeared in the spring of 187 1. It was 
 entitled The Christian Pastorate, and so rapid was its 
 sale that in July of the same year he was called upon by 
 the publishers to prepare for a new edition. 
 
 Like his other books, it called forth many and favor- 
 able notices. A few may be cited. 
 
 " Dr. Kidder is well known as a successful author, 
 preacher, pastor, and teacher. Out of the wells of his 
 large and rich experience, and from the abundant stores 
 of his reading and observation, he has drawn the 
 materials for this excellent treatise. It grasps many 
 themes with a strong hand, and will hold the attention 
 of a thoughtful reader to its hot and earnest words." 
 Another writer observes : " This contribution to our 
 literature is of peculiar interest from the fact that it 
 presents not the views onlj-, but the actual methods of 
 the author's own pastoral work, and is, more truly than 
 any other of his writings, a reflex of his habits of study 
 and labor." Yet another critic remarks : " It is a work 
 of rare excellence, thoroughness, and simplicity. Every 
 thought seems to fall into its proper place, and to be 
 clothed in the most fitting words. There is no attempt 
 to appear profound by reason of obscurity. Depth of 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 279 
 
 learning and thought are there, but as the ideas of the 
 author are clear and definite, so also is their impression 
 on the mind of the reader. Above all, a spirit of Chris- 
 tian devotion pervades the whole, and every truth is 
 shown to be founded on Scripture and experience." 
 
 While he was finishing his work on the Christian 
 Pastorate YiQ writes: "I conceived about this time the 
 plan of another book, to be entitled Helps to Prayer." 
 At this date, however, he did nothing more than to 
 sketch briefly its plan. Quoting from an entry during 
 his first year at Drew, he says, " I made some beginnings 
 of preparation for my intended Helps to Prayer" and in 
 July, 1874, he writes, " I so far completed my book as to 
 place the manuscript in the printer's hands." 
 
 In the title it was described as "A Manual Designed to 
 Aid Christian Believers in Acquiring the Gift and in Main- 
 taining the Practice and Spirit of Prayer in the Closet, 
 the Family, the Social Gathering, and the Public Con- 
 gregation." 
 
 The following are some of the kindly notices it re- 
 ceived : " This is a precious volume, a treasure, a jewel. 
 Such books of devotion are worth their weight in 
 pearls." " It contains a plain, methodical, and scrip- 
 tural treatment of the subject." " It is full of sugges- 
 tions, and may be a well-chosen companion for the daily 
 devotions of the pious." 
 
 The author received many letters thanking him for 
 giving this work to the public. Among them was one 
 from his ever-loved friend. Judge Goodrich, of Chicago, 
 in which he said : 
 
 " I am sure your book will tend to promote the habit 
 and spirit of prayer, especially of family prayer, which 
 is so much needed. I hope it will have a wide circula- 
 
28o BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 tion, and be the instrument of abundant blessing to many 
 hungry souls." 
 
 Dr. Kidder was a voluminous writer for the periodical 
 press, beginning with a communication to The Christian 
 Advocate and Journal as early as his seventeenth year. 
 His teacher and friend, Dr. Luckey, observing his faculty 
 in this direction, encouraged him. He continued his 
 contributions to the Advocate, discussing with spirit and 
 intelligence various topics, including scientific. When 
 but twenty-one years of age a series of six articles from 
 his pen does much credit to his mental furnishing. 
 While pastor at Rochester he wrote often for the Auburn 
 Banner. Throughout his life current topics were treated 
 by him in the religious press. 
 
 Nor were the secular papers neglected. During the 
 latter part of 1861, pending the excitement occasioned 
 by the capture of Mason and Slidell, and the threatened 
 rupture with England, he sought to allay by his writings 
 any outbreak of ill-timed zeal. He says : " The period 
 was full of heat and absorbing concern respecting a 
 threatened war with England. To aid in calming the 
 public excitement, I wrote several articles for the press 
 which practically anticipated the action our government 
 subsequently adopted." 
 
 He took part in several controversies, the most nota- 
 ble of which was his discussion with some members of 
 the Committee on the Revision of the Hymn Book, in 
 reference to the second line of the first verse of Hymn 
 246. He sought, as he had tried many years before, to 
 have it read : " Everlasting King." His opponents pre- 
 ferred to retain "Galilean King." The debate, with the 
 impressions made by the arguments, pro and con, be- 
 longs to history. It resulted as most of those tourna- 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 28 1 
 
 merits do, with both riders still in the saddle, at least in 
 their own opinion. And inasmuch as the committee had 
 what counted for more than arguments, namely, votes, 
 the hymn stands as'it does. 
 
 In the preparation of his Annals of the Methodist Pul- 
 pit Dr. Sprague was assisted by Dr. Kidder, who col- 
 lected much valuable material for it, and also wrote two 
 of the biographical sketches contained in it. When the 
 work was published, he prepared an article on it for the 
 Methodist Quarterly Review. 
 
 In Kiddle and Schem's Cyclopedia of Education he 
 wrote on Sunday Schools and Theological Education. 
 For McClintock and Strong's Cyclopedia he prepared the 
 articles on Homiletics, Leaders, Leaders' Meetings, 
 Local Preachers, Logic, Lay Preaching, Missions, 
 Ordination, Pastor and Pastoral Theology, Polity, 
 Sacrament, Sermonizing, Sunday Schools, and Tracts 
 and Tract Societies. 
 
 During the interval from 1845 to 1856 the Hterary 
 labors of Dr. Kidder were chiefly those of editor of 
 books for Sunday school libraries, writer of editorial and 
 other matter for the Sunday School Advocate, and writer 
 of tracts. Besides he had the preparation of his annual 
 reports, which together filled almost one thousand four 
 hundred pages octavo. 
 
 As editor of Sunday school publications, besides 
 numerous question books on different parts of the Bible, 
 catechisms, lesson books, and catalogues, there were of 
 bound volumes (exclusive of tracts and books in paper 
 covers) nearly a thousand, all revised and edited by 
 him. 
 
 Concerning the rule governing the entrance of his 
 name upon the title-page of these books, he says : " I 
 
282 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 have never allowed my name to be placed on any book 
 as editor which I have not personally examined, and 
 actually both revised and corrected, sentence by sen- 
 tence, as occasion required. I have not supposed that I 
 could secure the objects of my appointment by the 
 General Conference with less labor than this ; and my 
 only fear has been that too many mistakes would occur 
 after I had done the best I could to prevent them." 
 
 Many now in middle life will doubtless appreciate the 
 impressions so happily expressed in the following ex- 
 tract : " I don't know how far back in the century your 
 life race was begun, dear reader, but it was at a period 
 now dismally remote if the name of D.P. Kidder fails to 
 awaken pleasant memories. 
 
 "To me they are the ' open sesame' to more Sunday 
 afternoons than you could string on the whole circle of 
 the year. How plainly I can see the garden seat under 
 the fragrant cedars ! How pleasant the awakened mem- 
 ory of silence and impenetrable shade, twin charms of 
 my dear ' forest home,' the drowsy hum of Sabbath- 
 breaking bees, the cow bell's idyl, from the tranquil 
 pastures by the river bank, and in my hand a book 
 brought home from Sunday school in a town three miles 
 away, and ' revised by D. P. Kidder! ' " 
 
 There was less renown perhaps in literary work of 
 this kind, laborious as it was, than in that of writing 
 books that should make his name famous, but his fidel- 
 ity and patience in these modest undertakings have 
 proved incalculably fruitful for good. They have affected 
 with an influence of abiding power the lives and works 
 of scores of preachers and writers who are giving emi- 
 nence to the closing years of the century. 
 
 In February, 1880, he engaged to prepare a weekly dis- 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 283 
 
 cussion of the current International Sunday School Les- 
 son in the.Golde7tDays,dLn illustrated weekly paper for boys 
 and girls, then for the first time introduced to the public by 
 Mr. James Elverson, the publisher of Philadelphia, who, 
 when a boy in the Sunday school at Newark, had often 
 seen Dr. Kidder and listened to him with impressions 
 lasting and helpful. This was an opportunity to preach 
 Christ and salvation to a vast and increasing congrega- 
 tion of youth, which any lover of children such as he 
 might well covet. For seven years (during which time 
 his comments ran through the entire Scriptures) he failed 
 not to appear with attractive, instructive, and animating 
 words to the young and eager listeners that ranged 
 themselves each week before his invisible pulpit. He 
 enjoyed and gave expression often to the reflection that 
 no sermons were addressed to so large a congregation 
 as his, and few could challenge the expectation of so 
 great results. 
 
 This was a fitting termination of the literary labors of 
 one whose earliest official occupations Were in the inter- 
 est of the young, and whose affection for childhood and 
 youth had never ceased to grow and glow. 
 
284 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 Interest in Missions. 
 
 SPEAKING of our work in China, Dr. J. M. Reid, in 
 his book, Missions and Missionary Society of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, says: " In April and May of 
 1835 the Missionary Lyceum of the Wesleyan University 
 at Middletown, Conn., had been discussing the propriety 
 of establishing a mission in the interior of Africa, which 
 led to a discussion of a broader question, ' What country 
 now presents the most promising field for missionary 
 exertions ? ' The Chinese empire was warmly advocated, 
 and the Lyceum resolved that the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church should send missionaries and a press at once to 
 that field. A committee, consisting of B. F. Teft, D. P. 
 Kidder, and E. Wentworth, were appointed to prepare 
 an address on the subject to the Church. This paper 
 appeared in The Christian Advocate of May. 15, 1835, 
 occupying three columns with a very full exhibit of the 
 field and its claims." 
 
 It was written by Mr. Kidder, who was one of the 
 original members of the Lyceum and its corresponding 
 secretary. This document produced results. China 
 became the absorbing topic of missionary meetings, and 
 Christian gentlemen, enthusiastic and generous, sub- 
 scribed funds for an immediate beginning. 
 
 This was not Dr. Kidder's first public effort in the in- 
 terest of missions. In December of the previous year 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 285 
 
 he had delivered an address before the Lyceum upon the 
 " Character of the Christian Missionary." 
 
 Speaking of this Lyceum he says : " I have attended 
 it regularly. I have acted as corresponding secretary. 
 The duties have been laborious, but pleasant and advan- 
 tageous." Under the same date we have this entry in 
 his journal : " Lord, here am I, send me ! if it be thy will. 
 But nothing. Lord, but thy grace can be sufficient for 
 me. The love of country, of home, of friends, of study, 
 and a thousand other attachments which seem to have 
 entwined themselves into my very existence, rush into 
 my mind and plead indulgence. This struggle of mind 
 has, I trust, taught me something of my own heart. I 
 feel now perfectly resigned and can say in sincerity. Lord, 
 thy will be done. May I ever feel this calm submission, 
 and when the moment for action comes, be found girded 
 for the conflict." His miscellaneous reading, at this 
 time, he speaks of as including subjects connected with 
 the missionary enterprise. 
 
 While he was still a student at Middletown there 
 appeared another communication in the Advocate from 
 him. It was entitled " A Dialogue Between a Christian 
 and Self on the Duty of Becoming a Missionary." Self 
 argued the case with strong pleadings, but the final con- 
 clusion of Christian was that reason. Scripture, and con- 
 science left him no refuge, the inexorable " Go " was 
 upon him. This " Dialogue " was a disclosure of his own 
 convictions and struggles. 
 
 In 1837, running from April to August, he published 
 in the Advocate a series of eight articles, averaging each 
 a column and a half, over the signature Palermo, entitled 
 " Means for the Conversion of the World." Concerning 
 these another has said : " They present a singularly clear 
 
286 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 and comprehensive view of the Gospel plan in its various 
 applications to the greatest work of which humanity is 
 capable." 
 
 As the time drew near for his departure to a mission 
 field he says : " I sent a letter to Rev. Dr. Bangs inquir- 
 ing respecting the wants of our missions in South America 
 and intimating a willingness to go if needed. While 
 worldly enterprise of every stamp is leading men to the 
 ends of the earth, I cannot endure that the enterprises of 
 the Gospel should linger for want of anything I can 
 devote to them." At this time Dr. Fisk wrote to him : 
 " I am glad to find that the missionary spirit is still 
 glowing in your heart. I hope and pray it may prompt 
 you to go into that door, wherever it may be, that Pro- 
 vidence shall open for you." Dr. Luckey also wrote 
 him : " Your missionary heroism I cannot but admire, 
 and hope the God of missions will open your way and 
 make you a great blessing to the Church and the world." 
 
 Concerning his wife (who was to fall an offering upon 
 this altar) he writes : " She has been as ready as myself, 
 and we have tried to keep our minds prepared to meet 
 any sacrifice. Our friends remonstrate not only with the 
 protest of strong and authoritative affection, but also with 
 arguments which we cannot an.swer, at least to their 
 satisfaction. All we have to wish or say is. May the 
 Lord direct ! " 
 
 It would appear that these feelings, his decision, and 
 departure all found their immediate cause in a communi- 
 cation that he read in the latter part of May in this year 
 (1837), from Rev. Mr. Rule, Wesleyan missionary at 
 Gibraltar. He writes of this : " Our Advocate brought a 
 Macedonian appeal for missionary aid in behalf of Spain 
 from W. H. Rule, Wesleyan missionary at Gibraltar. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 287 
 
 My mind seemed peculiarly open to impression. Having 
 the previous week had my attention directed to southern 
 Europe, and the many dependent upon the languages of 
 those countries for instruction in things relating to 
 another life, and those languages destitute of Christian 
 books and almost destitute of Protestant teachers, I felt 
 my spirit stirred within me in behalf of the many now 
 without the Scriptures and suffering under the supersti- 
 tions of monkery and the withering influence of papal 
 dominion, I therefore determined immediately to say to 
 Dr. Luckey, editor at New York, that if there were none 
 more worthy offered, I would respond to the appeal. 
 The same being the disposition and desire of my wife." 
 Later still, when his decision had been reached and his 
 preparations were being made for sailing, he wrote his 
 acknowledgments to Mr. Rule in the following terms : 
 " I have in a number of instances read letters from you 
 which have been published in this country. Immediately 
 on the perusal of your later appeal to American Chris- 
 tians in behalf of Spain, I offered myself to our Board to 
 go to Gibraltar. They do not see their way clear to 
 commence operations on the Peninsula at present, but 
 have given me a destination somewhat similar on the 
 Catholic soil of South America. I am directed by an 
 official letter from Bishop Waugh to repair to Rio 
 Janeiro as soon as practicable." This message to Mr. 
 Rule he signed as his " affectionate though unworthy 
 laborer for the conversion of the world." 
 
 When he was in Brazil he did not forget the Lyceum at 
 Middletown, which had been of such benefit to him while 
 a student. He maintained his interest by letters and by 
 sending contributions of curiosities for its museum. 
 
 The crushing providence which suddenly and effect- 
 
288 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 ively closed his personal labors in the field he had en- 
 tered with such high hopes, and where he had prosecuted 
 his work with such judgment and enthusiasm, did not in 
 the least quench his zeal for the cause to which he con- 
 sidered his life dedicated. His interest, if anything, 
 seemed intensified, particularly for the country which he 
 had just left. 
 
 And such was his ardor that the Board appointed him 
 to make a tour through the country and stir up the 
 Church. Beginning in August, 1840, he canvassed some 
 of the Eastern States, and leaving Buffalo in the latter 
 part of September he came on to Detroit, by the way of 
 the lakes, and traversed Michigan. 
 
 Crossing Lake Michigan by steamer, he reached 
 Chicago. From there he went to Rockford, then to 
 Beloit, Wis. Next we find him in Dixon, 111. Thence 
 his course brought him to Fulton city, which he describes 
 as a small village on the banks of the great Mississippi, 
 which " I here saw for the first time." 
 
 Davenport and Rock Island he speaks of as delight- 
 fully situated, and promising to become large towns. 
 Passing the confluence of the " two mighty rivers of the 
 West, Missouri and Mississippi, a scene," hesays, " com- 
 bining the grand and the picturesque on a magnificent 
 scale," he reached St. Louis at four o'clock in the after- 
 noon of the eighth day of his trip down the river! 
 
 Closing his mission in St. Louis, he proceeded down the 
 river, passed Cairo, and entered the Ohio. On the boat, 
 at the request of the passengers, he gave an address on 
 Brazil, for which he was warmly thanked in written res- 
 olutions drawn up by a committee appointed by the 
 audience. After a stop at Louisville he passed on to 
 Cincinnati. Giving attention to his commission here, 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 289 
 
 among other opportunities he addressed an immense 
 mass meeting in Wesley Chapel. He then proceeded 
 to make a- thorough canvass of the interior towns of 
 Ohio, with long and difficult rides by stage, the only 
 mode of conveyance. 
 
 Leaving Ohio, he met with Rev. E. R. Ames, then 
 Western missionary secretary (afterwards bishop), at 
 Wheeling, and held missionary meetings with him at 
 this place, at Pittsburg, and at Allegheny City. Parting 
 with Mr. Ames, he came on East, stopping at various 
 places until Baltimore was reached. At Washington he 
 spoke with Dr. George Cookman at the missionary anni- 
 versary, and after paying his respects to President Van 
 Buren, and hearing some of the great ones of that day 
 in the Senate and House, he went on to Philadelphia 
 and, with a run by rail from nine in the morning till 
 three in the afternoon, he reached New York, January 
 30, having been occupied with his tour nearly six 
 months. 
 
 " On reviewing, step by step, the long and interesting 
 journey which I have accomplished since last August, I 
 cannot forbear to record my devout sense of gratitude to 
 the great God who has guided my footsteps and 
 brought me thus far safely through many wanderings and 
 not a little running to and fro, that knowledge might be 
 increased. I was everywhere received with Christian 
 courtesy and with a kindness I can never forget, while 
 by the circumstance of forming personal acquaintances 
 with the residents of most places I visited, I had the 
 best opportunities of learning all that was interesting and 
 important concerning the regions through which I trav- 
 eled. In my tour I have been in some portion of fourteen 
 States, two Territories, and the District of Columbia. I 
 19 
 
290 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 have traveled 3,424 miles, preached 50 sermons, and de- 
 livered 40 missionary discourses and addresses ; $2,320.05 
 have been collected and pledged at different missionary 
 meetings, and 27 persons constituted life members of the 
 Parent Missionary Society. During the whole period 
 I have scarcely suffered an hour's illness." 
 
 It was at this period he conceived of the plan of con- 
 tributing annually for the Christian education of a 
 heathen girl and boy. This project he carried out some- 
 time afterwards, and although now the giver is dead, his 
 works do follow him, and the boy grown to manhood 
 and bearing his name is accomplishing success as a 
 Methodist preacher to his own people in India. His 
 presiding elder, in a communication appearing in the 
 Advocate a year or two since, writes: 
 
 " I have just visited one of Brother U. P. Kidder's 
 schools. These schools are doing great good. Kidder 
 is one of our best workers, true and faithful. He plans 
 his work, and does it equal to any man we have." 
 
 So deeply were Dr. Kidder's services to the cause of 
 missions appreciated, and so valued by the Board were 
 his counsels, that in his appointment to the pastorate, 
 instead of being sent to Bordentown, as it seemed he 
 might be, he was located at Paterson, in order to have 
 him nearer the headquarters of the Missionary Society. 
 
 The time having come for the founding of our mission 
 in China, he was asked to take charge of it. " I have 
 been repeatedly spoken to on the subject of going to 
 China to superintend the commencement of a mission in 
 that empire. Although I trust I have lost neither the 
 spirit of missionary effort or consecration, yet I have not 
 felt it my duty to offer for this work, chiefly owing to 
 the relations I sustain to my aged parents and my three 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 29I 
 
 young children. Still I take a deep interest in the 
 establishment of that mission, and hope to be able to do 
 something toward its promotion." 
 
 On the i6th of December, 1846, he writes : " I attended 
 a regular meeting of the Missionary Board. I introduced 
 a resolution recommending the bishops to appoint two 
 young brethren as missionaries to China, reserving the 
 future appointment of a superintendent of more mature 
 age, if that shall be recommended by the General Mis- 
 sionary Committee. After a fair discussion, the resolu- 
 tion passed unanimously." 
 
 He was appointed chairman of the committee to ar- 
 range for the opening of the Chinese Mission, and to col- 
 lect information concerning that empire. With thorough- 
 ness he studied all available authorities, and reported as 
 the conclusion of his investigations that Foo-Chow was 
 the point most advantageous for the location of the mis- 
 sion. His report was accepted, and this place was 
 chosen. 
 
 In May, 1847, he says : " I was in attendance upon the 
 sessions of the General Missionary Committee, and made 
 it my special business to vindicate the claims of India 
 and China." 
 
 In October of this year he writes : " On the 4th I ac- 
 companied our friend and brother, George Loomis, out 
 to sea on his embarkation for Canton as seamen's 
 chaplain, an appointment I had been instrumental in 
 procuring for him." 
 
 Two years after he prepared a memorial to the bish- 
 ops on "The Superintendence of Missions," which was 
 approved and signed by the officers of the Missionary 
 Society. He was appointed a committee to look up a 
 principal for the Oregon Institute. The next year the 
 
292 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 health of Dr. Pitman, the missionary secretary, declin- 
 ing, he wrote part of his annual report, particularly that 
 relating to China. 
 
 The resolutions relative to the resignation of Dr. Pit- 
 man, and presented by Dr. Bangs, were also prepared 
 by Dr. Kidder. At a following meeting he had the 
 pleasure of nominating his old friend and college chum. 
 Dr. Seager, as one of three candidates for missionary sec- 
 retary. 
 
 He seemed to be the special confidant of the mission- 
 aries, had a large correspondence with them, and their 
 letters, carefully preserved by him, are a treasury of 
 pathos and trust, disclosing the freedom with which they 
 recited to him their wants, their difficulties, and their 
 sorrows. 
 
 In this connection it is appropriate to quote from a 
 communication furnished by him some time before to 
 the Advocate, in which he urges Christians at home to 
 write often and regularly to the missionaries abroad. It 
 is entitled " Reasons Why the Correspondents of Mis- 
 sionaries Should be Punctual." Among the reasons 
 given are : 
 
 " Because justice as well as friendship requires it. 
 Because by so doing only can correspondents fulfill 
 the golden rule. Because their failing to be punctual 
 often subjects those in question to an involuntary ex- 
 pense of feeling, which ought never to be called for, and 
 which exerts no happy influence over the missionaries 
 or their work. 
 
 " By punctuality is not meant waiting to answer let- 
 ters, but writing regularly and upon fixed times, whether 
 an opportunity of forwarding is known or not, and 
 whether anything unusual occurs or not. In waiting for 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 293 
 
 opportunities many are lost, and at lengtii a long course 
 of events is generally chronicled as, ' nothing remark- 
 able.' 
 
 " If one were called upon to specify what more than 
 anything else is capable of aggravating the pain of sep- 
 aration from country and friends, it would not be the 
 impossibility of intercommunication, for that could be 
 borne ; it would not be the receipt of unhappy tidings, 
 for whatever comes from the hand of God is to be ac- 
 quiesced in with thankfulness ; but it would be ' hope 
 deferred,' suspense protracted, and final disappoint- 
 ment in expectations based upon friendship or religion. 
 Reader, if you have a friend far absent on the errands of 
 his heavenly Master, ask yourself, first, have you been 
 faithful in your remembrance of him and his work in 
 your closet ; and, secondly, if you ought not to endeavor 
 to hold up his hands and cheer his heart by friendly and 
 frequent communications. 
 
 " Recollect, moreover, that unless your letters are di- 
 rected aright and the postage paid, they will seldom reach 
 their place of destination." 
 
 At the time of his going to Evanston he was desired 
 for the superintendency of our mission in Central 
 America. It was felt, too, that it would be a loss to the 
 working force of the home office to have him removed 
 from its councils. One closely and officially associated 
 with its operations wrote him as follows : " Dear 
 Brother: — If it seem presumptuous in me, you'll some- 
 how dispose of the matter and try to believe that I intend 
 all for the best, when I say that I do not see how you 
 can be spared from the missionary work." 
 
 But his going to Evanston did not by any means im- 
 ply that his interest or activity in this department should 
 
294 
 
 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 cease, or in the least decline. The rather, he appreciated 
 the increased advantages he would have in important di- 
 rections for the encouragement of this cause. He would 
 be in direct contact with young men preparing for the 
 ministry with a view to the possible sphere of missions. 
 It would be his rare privilege so to guide and instruct 
 them as that no mistake be made, and that the inspira- 
 tion in the case of those certainly called to this field 
 should not wane through lack of proper counsel and 
 fostering care. 
 
 During his first year in the Garrett Biblical Institute 
 the students were organized by him into a sort of home 
 missionary society, preached regularly, and held meet- 
 ings for evangelization in the suburbs of Chicago and 
 within a radius of twenty miles about Evanston. There 
 was need of it, for when the institute was opened there 
 was not in the whole distance of thirty-five miles between 
 Chicago and Waukegan and the distance of twelve or 
 more miles westward from Lake Michigan, a single 
 Protestant church or a regular ministry. Of this organi- 
 zation Dr. Kidder was the president, and he gave one 
 morning of each week to inquiries and reports respecting 
 the labors of the foregoing Sabbath and to practical 
 remarks. 
 
 Early in the history of the institute there was a defi- 
 nite proposition of the trustees made to the General 
 Missionary Society, looking toward the special education 
 of missionaries at the institute on terms of a most gen- 
 erous character. 
 
 Shortly after this the bishops visited the institute and 
 conferred with the faculty and trustees respecting its in- 
 terests, and especially respecting the education of 
 missionaries. " Following the episcopal visit," the doc- 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 295 
 
 tor writes, " several of our students were appointed 
 missionaries, three being set apart for India, namely, J. 
 Baume, J. R. Downey, and J. W. Waugh." 
 
 In June of this year, 1858, he writes: "I participated 
 in the services of a Missionary Sabbath in Chicago and 
 preached in the evening the last sermon in the brick 
 church of Clark Street. Before the next Sabbath me- 
 chanics had commenced taking down the building prepar- 
 atory to a reconstruction in the form of the Methodist 
 Church Block, for which on the 4th of August I was 
 called upon to lay the corner stone." 
 
 At the session of the Rock River Conference in the 
 fall of 1 861 he preached the Conference missionary ser- 
 mon. 
 
 In June, 1869, he addressed a communication to the 
 editors of The Missionary Advocate, as follows: "Dear 
 Brethren : — I have just read your recent article asking, 
 ' Where are the young missionary men of the Church ?' 
 and expressing the painful apprehension ' that the mis- 
 sionary spirit and zeal of our young men of talents are 
 abating.' 
 
 " It has fallen to my lot within the past twelve years to 
 have personal knowledge of the experiences of some 
 three or four hundred young men believing themselves 
 called of God to the ministry, many of whom are now in 
 the ministerial office. 
 
 " Of these I may safely affirm that a goodly propor- 
 tion had the foreign mission field early and definitely 
 associated with their first impressions of ministerial duty. 
 A certain other proportion would readily have devoted 
 themselves to the foreign work had a specific call of the 
 Church been made to them at a proper period of their 
 education. 
 
296 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 " Presuming that these cases of my acquaintance are 
 fairly representative of others in greater numbers through- 
 out the Church, I feel free to express the opinion that 
 any lack of qualified laborers for our mission fields results 
 more from a want of system by which proper candidates 
 fail of encouragement and training at the proper time, 
 rather than from any abatement of the missionary spirit 
 among our young men. 
 
 " If the Church is in earnest about missionary work 
 she must know that missionaries will be wanted from 
 year to year during a long period to come, and she must 
 be not only willing, but anxious to have competent and 
 devoted young men in ample numbers constantly study- 
 ing to prepare themselves for foreign fields. On this 
 plan, whenever the want may arise, trained and tested 
 candidates are on hand at a short notice. No skillful 
 general goes into action without a corps de reserve, and it 
 is bad generalship on the part of the Church militant to 
 omit timely and far-seeing provisions for her future 
 service abroad. 
 
 " This is a warfare on which no man goeth at his own 
 charges, and hence the Church has no moral right to re- 
 quire instant service without previously giving suitable 
 notice and encouragement. 
 
 " For lack of this, two classes of embarrassments arise : 
 I. Many young men, in every way suitable candidates 
 for foreign missionary labor, become disheartened in the 
 effort to acquire a thorough education, and fall ;short of 
 the just requirements of the Missionary Society; while 
 others who persevere unaided, having to devote years df 
 valuable time to earning- means to complete their courses 
 of study, become, while doing so, too old for the success- 
 ful acquisition of difficult spoken languages. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 297 
 
 " 2. Many worthy and devoted brethren whose highest 
 early aspirations were to be qualified for the missionary 
 work and to be employed in it, not having been suitably 
 encouraged, turn their thoughts to the home field, make 
 corresponding plans and engagements, which cannot be 
 disrupted on sudden emergencies. 
 
 " In view of such facts I think that the lack of candi- 
 dates is to be attributed to our own lack of provisional 
 arrangements in reference to this very matter, rather than 
 to any defective action of the Holy Spirit or insufficient 
 zeal on the part of our young men. Hence I am, as I 
 have been for some years, anxious to have suitable 
 measures adopted to prevent similar results in future." 
 
 This article produced an impression. Dr. Durbin 
 replied : " We have received your communication on the 
 subject of ' Training Missionaries for the Foreign Work,' 
 and have read it with deep interest. We thank you for 
 it. It indicates a zeal with knowledge." 
 
 Dr. Durbin then asked some questions bearing upon 
 the matter and said : " The more plainly and the more 
 frankly you write to us on this subject the more we shall 
 be gratified, for we wish to serve the Lord Christ." In 
 answer to this Dr. Kidder wrote at once and with such 
 satisfactory statements and explanations that Dr. Durbin 
 responded as follows : "I have carefully reread your 
 letter and am satisfied that it ought to be published, and 
 I propose to give it in Tlie Missionary Advocate or issue 
 it in tract form, and send it privately by mail to the 
 preachers, bishops, and seminaries. If you have any 
 preference in regard to one of these two modes of pub- 
 lishing, please advise me." 
 
 In going to Drew Seminary his undying love for this 
 work went with him. He writes : " Beyond the particular 
 
298 BIOGRAPHY OK 
 
 duties of my chair, I was charged with the special re- 
 sponsibility of counseling the young men in reference to 
 missionary enterprise and duty. As a result, more or 
 less direct, of what I said and did in that line, the year 
 1873 (the sixth year since the opening of the seminary) 
 was marked in the history of the institution as witnessing 
 the first departure of missionaries from its halls to foreign 
 lands, two to Japan and one to China — forerunners of a 
 greater number in following years." 
 
 What, therefore, could be more appropriate, and what 
 to him more gratifying, than that in his last official posi- 
 tion he was permitted to be especially helpful to this 
 cause, to which in the beginning he had dedicated his 
 life? It was his duty, but still more his pleasure, as 
 Secretary of the Board of Education to dispense moneys 
 for the assistance of young men studying in preparation 
 for mission fields. Thus through him the Church carried 
 out the desire and plan he himself had suggested more 
 than ten years before in his letter above quoted to the 
 Secretary of the Missionary Society, namely, that pro- 
 vision should be made so that young men would not be 
 required to devote years of valuable time to the earning 
 of the means necessary to carry them through their 
 courses of study. The loving Master rewarded his serv- 
 ant by giving him the joy of working out his own scheme. 
 
 Disastrous as seemed the calamity that called him 
 back from his chosen work on a foreign shore, one may 
 well conclude, after a careful study of his life, that, after 
 all. Dr. Kidder's services in the cause of missions have 
 been far more valuable than if his entire life had been 
 spent in distant lands. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 299 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Characteristics. 
 
 CROM the amount of work done by Dr. Kidder, and 
 ■*■ well done, it might be readily judged that he was a 
 man of large and vigorous physique. But such a con- 
 clusion would be a mistake. He was slightly built. The 
 following description is from one who saw him at Drew 
 Seminary: " In form he is tall, slender, and erect. His 
 features are of classic mold, clean cut, and incisive, 
 aptly typifying the character of his mind ; the lips are 
 thin and compressed, expressive of decision and firmness ; 
 his utterances are somewhat rapid, but distinct ; his 
 mind is literal rather than ideal, practical rather than 
 speculative. His manner is grave and dignified, but at 
 all times affable and courteous." 
 
 Although his attention to duty was never interrupted 
 by any long-continued illness, still in the latter part of 
 his life he was subject to attacks which not only took 
 him suddenly, but rendered him at once unconscious. 
 Other men with this ailment might think themselves in- 
 valid and proportionately excused from serious activity, 
 but he kept himself in tone and at the working point by 
 careful observance of an appropriate diet and the system- 
 atic practice of exercise. 
 
 In his attention to this latter he never relaxed. While 
 a member of the General Conference at Boston he pur- 
 chased a ticket for the gymnasium, and spent a part of 
 each day in practicing on its bars and rings. It was his 
 
300 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 rule also to have some simple apparatus for athletics al- 
 ways in his study. Out-of-door exercise, however, he 
 greatly preferred, and when permitted by the weather he 
 was either working in his garden, riding horseback, or 
 taking long walks. His Evanston and Madison friends 
 will recall him dashing along on his pony, riding with 
 the ease and grace of a courier. When living in New 
 York it was his custom to walk one way each day be- 
 tween his office, Broadway and Eleventh Street, and his 
 boarding place. West Fifty-fourth Street. Frequently 
 he would lengthen this trip by a saunter through Central 
 Park. He was never weary praising the beauties of this 
 loveliest of public gardens. Almost daily he reported with 
 delight the discovery of unexpected paths and nooks. 
 
 He sought by all legitimate means to keep himself in 
 trim and pose for the fullest of successful endeavor. He 
 considered himself consecrated to unreserved diligence 
 in the cause to which he had joyfully dedicated his life. 
 His industry was a passion. Work was his habit. Time 
 was his eagerly seized opportunity. It was husbanded 
 and righteously appropriated. Each day was portioned 
 off and its hours allotted. Each evening justified the 
 satisfaction that belongs to the review of work well done. 
 He operated his life by a schedule. His will, quiet but 
 firm, was the train dispatcher of duties that left on care- 
 fully determined headway — duties that without collision 
 came through to accomplished tasks. Because his 
 method was to " plan his work and work his plan," he 
 was never in a hurry although he was always busy. 
 
 His effectiveness was not due to the fact that he 
 wrought only on old lines. He was aggressive, inventive, 
 venturesome. No preconceived notions nor conservatism 
 served to chill the welcome with which he entertained 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 30I 
 
 new schemes and new systems. Yet his plans were wise, 
 they were thought out with patience. His enthusiasm 
 was not so rash as to disturb his deliberation. And as his 
 projects were treated always by the tests of honest work 
 they expanded from theory into results, and remain still 
 fruitful in benefits to the Church. 
 
 His record is that of an original and wise builder. He 
 was the right person to be in at the beginning of things. 
 He was beforehand with the idea of the mission to China. 
 
 At the date of this writing (the latter part of 1893) a 
 communication, a column long, from the president of one 
 of our Western colleges has appeared in the New York 
 Advocate, pleading for the endowment of a lectureship 
 on " Christian Missions " in his college. More than 
 thirty years ago, in a paper formulated by Dr. Kidder 
 and addressed first to the Missionary Society and after- 
 wards to the bishops, the Garrett Biblical Institute 
 offered to provide such a department for the Church free 
 of expense. Again, in 1869, Dr. Kidder addressed a 
 communication to the missionary secretary urging sub- 
 stantially the same arrangement as that now proposed. 
 The college president says : " Is it not remarkable that 
 while American colleges are training men and women for 
 almost every vocation in life, while Harvard boasts even 
 a department for the training of veterinary surgeons, 
 there is not in any American college any suitable provi- 
 sion for training men and women for this most important 
 field of Church activity, for this highest work in Christian 
 civilization?"^ This reproach would not to-day lie 
 against Methodism had the far-seeing wisdom and re- 
 peated appeals of Dr. Kidder prevailed. 
 
 As Sunday school secretary he made the Catechism an 
 available text-book, provided the schools with their own 
 
302 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 hymnal, developed the system for raising funds for the 
 support of the Sunday School Union, simplified and sys- 
 tematized the method of gathering statistics throughout 
 the Conferences. By his graduated question books he 
 opened the way for the uniform lessons now so generally 
 adopted. The Sunday school convention and institute 
 were elevated into commanding ideas by him. The nor- 
 mal school was from the beginning his earnestly advocated 
 thought, and a Sunday school library, carefully revised 
 and steadily growing, is one of his gifts to the Church. 
 
 Three years before the Garrett Biblical Institute took 
 form it was his uttered conception, and his urgent and in- 
 telligent counsel must not be forgotten when we are seek- 
 ing to discover the guiding minds which gave direction 
 to the timely beneficence that made the project possible. 
 
 It is to the unpretentious entries of his diary we must 
 go to find the early shaping of the idea of the Board of 
 Education. Afterwards, as its secretary, he was on hand 
 in time to rescue its accounts from chaos. By his 
 thorough readjustments he made its bookkeeping prac- 
 ticable. His suggestion that the volume rather than the 
 income of the collections should go direct to the bene- 
 ficiary work of the Board, made it at once a growing 
 power for good. The introduction by him of the official 
 program of service for Children's Day is one of the long- 
 est levers in the hands of our boasted connectionalism. 
 When he resigned from this office Bishop Ninde wrote 
 to him : " I am sincerely glad and grateful for the invalu- 
 able work you have accomplished during the past six 
 years. You have succeeded in making the Board of 
 Education a power whose influence is felt for good 
 throughout the whole extent of our beloved Zion. I 
 have been honored with a somewhat intimate knowledge 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 303 
 
 of your feelings and plans, and am thus the better fitted 
 to appreciate your great service to our educational work. 
 I have sought to second your efforts as opportunity 
 offered and am glad to know that your policy is so 
 thoroughly established that it will continue to bear 
 beneficent fruits even if the hand that shaped it is laid 
 aside." 
 
 He has left his generation in possession of results as 
 permanent as they are beneficial. The monuments still 
 stand, and are likely to remain, which testify to the fact 
 that the Church did a good thing for herself when she 
 captured the love and gained the services of that quiet, 
 earnest, thoughtful, and diligent young man of western 
 New York. 
 
 He was modest. Sufficiently affirmative and aggres- 
 sive for the cause he had in hand, he was retiring when 
 his own advancement was contingent. He showed none 
 of the talent for seeking office. He withdrew and gave 
 space to others when the strife for eminence was on. A 
 place to work was his definition of position, and in his 
 thought usefulness was fame. He strove the better for 
 his Church because for himself he never strove at all. 
 
 Loyalty to duty was his escutcheon. Obedience to 
 the nobler calls was his inspiration. He could conceive 
 of no dignity higher than faithfulness. Integrity was his 
 method, accurate business habits and attention to details 
 he reckoned among the credentials of honesty. It would 
 cost the effort of a difficult, if not impossible, argument 
 to persuade him that carelessness was not criminal. 
 
 He never unbraced his resistance to the encroachments 
 of intellectual feebleness. He was determined to pre- 
 serve if possible to the end his mental agility. He ob- 
 served that the drift of officialism was toward narrowness 
 
304 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 and dullness. Such a consequence he counted a calamity. 
 He would not degenerate into a functionary, but purposed 
 to hold himself to the steady upward movement of a 
 student. He said: " Even in vacation, if you lay down 
 the sledge, be sure and keep the littk hammer always 
 going." This was his practice. Music was always spurt- 
 ing from his anvil ! " Seize the moment of excited 
 curiosity for the acquisition of knowledge. ' '- This aphor- 
 ism he often urged upon the attention of his students. 
 It had proved profitable in his own case, and aided him 
 in the formation of the habit of gaining information, as it 
 were, on the wing, for the pressure of his professional and 
 official duties often robbed him of the delights of quiet 
 and connected study. But when he could earn a respite 
 from these engagements his one indulgence was his 
 books. For these he never lost his relish. After he had 
 been working ten years in his office of Sunday school 
 secretary, with no time for anything outside, he writes : 
 " I have been toiling away incessantly at my official duties 
 as in the preceding years, scarcely giving myself any 
 leisure even for private reading or study. As this year 
 has advanced, however, I have found so many of the 
 heavy duties of my office disposed of, that almost without 
 expecting it I am in possession of considerable time for 
 reading. All such time and opportunities I intend to 
 turn with God's help to good account the coming year. 
 On even a slight indulgence I find my long-cherished 
 fondness for books to revive in great strength, and I 
 begin to be more than ever sensible how much I have 
 denied myself during the last ten years in devoting my 
 time so exclusively to the hard work of my office." 
 
 So anxious was he to husband every moment that he 
 adopted the practice of reading in the cars in his many 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 305 
 
 journeys at the risk of his eyesight, but with the result 
 of covering many important books. While living in New 
 York toward the close of his public career, he kept up 
 his studious habits, was constantly attending lectures on 
 astronomy and other sciences at the Cooper Institute 
 and elsewhere, visiting picture galleries, and reading 
 books, both new issues and the standards. Among the 
 last books he read, or rather reread (for often during this 
 period he read over again some book that had been 
 among his favorites when young), were Pilgrhn s Progress 
 and Paradise Lost — good books those for a pilgrim who 
 was so near to his paradise regained ! 
 
 Thus almost up to the end did he keep his mental 
 force unabated. Long after fifty was passed the " dead 
 line " for him was not yet in sight. At sixty-six he 
 wrote concerning the establishment of a theological sem- 
 inary on the Pacific coast, outlining a plan, suggesting 
 methods, and giving counsel with a clearness and fullness 
 that showed his perception to be as correct and his 
 judgment as trustworthy as when he was communicating 
 his valuable advice in the matter of the founding of the 
 Garrett Biblical Institute. He was past sixty when he 
 conducted his famous controversy with regard to Hymn 
 246, and whatever may be the views of anyone as to the 
 merits of the question involved, all will agree that logic 
 and rhetoric were no dull blade in his hands, and who- 
 ever may have been the Pyrrhus, he was no aged Priam. 
 In his seventy-first year, traveling among the Confer- 
 ences to an extent that would weary a young man, and 
 making addresses constantly in the interest of the Board 
 of Education, he was particularly complimented in one 
 instance by the presiding bishop upon the fullness, point, 
 and force of his speech. 
 20 
 
3o6 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 This same year he preached before the New Jersey 
 Conference his sermon in commemoration of the fiftieth 
 anniversary of his entrance into the ministry. His theme 
 was, " Fifty Years of American Methodism." He kept 
 himself out of sight in the glory of his Church, although 
 with truth he might have said, " Part of all these things 
 I have been." The sermon in its arrangement of facts 
 and figures, and its generalizations, showed that it was 
 the product of a mind to which the years had brought 
 ripeness, but as yet no frost. By request it was repeated 
 in Philadelphia and New York, and was published in The 
 Christian Advocate. 
 
 Rev. Dr. J. A. Roche addressed him the following : 
 
 " Dear Brother : — I write to express my personal 
 thanks for the noble tribute you pay to Methodism in 
 your sermon on ' Fifty Years of American Methodism.' 
 It is comprehensive, minute, and just. The facts 
 furnished, the reasoning indulged, and the conclusions 
 reached ought, I am sure, to give it a more permanent 
 place in the literature of the Church." 
 
 Dr. Kidder was very fond of preaching, and never de- 
 chned an invitation. Often was he called upon to 
 deliver special sermons, as at dedication aad commence- 
 ment occasions. Conference and missionary sermons, 
 memorial, centennial, anniversary, and watch-night ser- 
 mons. In his earlier day scarcely a week passed in 
 which he was not filling some pulpit in the neighborhood 
 of his home. Sometimes he would preach as often as 
 three times a day. An entry in his journal alludes to 
 his weariness in preaching so often, but he adds that he 
 is comforted in the hope that good may be done. 
 
 In Newark where he resided while Secretary of the 
 Sunday School Union, he took charge of a movement 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 307 
 
 that grew into the organization of the Central Church. 
 For some time he served its pulpit every Sunday. While 
 at Evanston he enjoyed an opportunity for a partial re- 
 turn to the pastorate. Rev. J. H. Vincent was pastor 
 in Rockford, 111. Leaving for Europe and the East, he 
 engaged the doctor to take his charge in his absence. 
 He says: " I found the Court Street Church a pleasant 
 and promising field of labor, and that I could attend to 
 its Sabbath duties regularly with nearly as much con- 
 venience and with little more loss of time than the mis- 
 cellaneous appointments I have been accustomed to fill. 
 By going out Saturday mornings I gained most of the 
 afternoon for visiting among the people, which I im- 
 mediately commenced on a systematic plan, and so far 
 accomplished in a few weeks as to feel at home among 
 the principal members of the church and congregation. 
 
 " The resumption of the pastoral relation, even in a 
 modified form, after an interval of many years, proved 
 agreeable from the first, and induced me to put forth 
 extra efforts to accomplish duties at once so promising 
 and congenial. While I have good hope that this ar- 
 rangement will prove advantageous to the cause of God 
 in the interesting town of Rockford, I also hope to de- 
 rive benefit from it in view of my responsibilities to the 
 young ministers under my instruction in pastoral 
 theology. I trust that by renewed practice I may make 
 my department vaoxQ practical \.\\2.\-\ ever." 
 
 In the fall, as the institute year drew toward a close, 
 and his labors were in consequence increased, he writes : 
 " Between the duties at the Court Street Church and the 
 institute, the month of October was a very busy one, re- 
 quiring all my time and energies. But God gave me 
 strength and fine health to meet all the just requisitions 
 
308 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 made upon me, including those of our annual examina- 
 tion and anniversary." 
 
 During two months of the following winter vacation 
 he lived with his family in Rockford. " By this arrange- 
 ment," he says, " I was able to identify myself thor- 
 oughly with the pastorate and people, and to labor more 
 for the religious good of the community." Revival 
 services were held at the church. He had expressed 
 himself more than once as regarding "the simple work of 
 the pastor to be, after all, the grandest and most pleas- 
 ant work in which any minister can engage." We can 
 imagine how he relished this taste of his old-time joys. 
 
 Practicing as a rule what he always recommended in 
 his class room, the delivery of the sermon without a 
 manuscript, he showed a readiness in preaching when un- 
 expectedly called upon. At a District Conference in 
 Kingston, N. Y., he thus took the place assigned on the 
 program to one of our best known ministers. 
 
 According to the average standard Dr. Kidder was 
 not a taking preacher. His sense of the proprieties of 
 the pulpit was a conscience, and served to check that 
 freedom in illustration, expression, and action com- 
 monly depended upon to furnish a current popularity. In 
 his thought, as a condition of his preaching at all, his 
 manner as well as his matter must be truth. If in 
 listening to him the object sought was entertainment, 
 the rousing of emotions, deep perhaps but evanescent, 
 then without doubt disappointment was the hearer's 
 usual reward. But if to open the mind of the Scripture, 
 display doctrine with a clearness that was itself an argu- 
 ment, define duty with such plainness that one might 
 carry it away like a memorized formula, and, with a 
 warmth too honest to be extravagant, to so urge that 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 309 
 
 duty that the hearer was uncomfortable if he did not 
 carry it away — if this be the office and mission of the 
 sermon, then Dr. Kidder was a successful preacher. 
 
 At the great meeting in international assembly of the 
 Evangelical Alliance in New York city, he was appointed 
 to read a paper on " The Best Methods of Preaching." 
 His place on the program came in between Dr. Joseph 
 Parker, of London, and Henry Ward Beecher, who also 
 discussed the same subject. A facetious writer, furnish- 
 ing a report of the occasion, observes: 
 
 " No contrast could possibly be stronger than that 
 between the style and delivery of our excellent Dr. Kid- 
 der, and that of Parker before him or Beecher after him. 
 On the printed page Dr. Kidder is at no disadvantage 
 with his contemporaries of the hour, and his work will 
 profit by comparison with that of either, whether it be 
 in the matter of breadth, order, or finish. But in the mat- 
 ter of delivery and popular effect, I conjecture the 
 doctor felt very like a mill pond between two cataracts ! 
 But let him be content; there's safer swimming, broader 
 sailing, and deeper fishing in the mill pond than in both 
 the cataracts together ; though thunder and rainbows are 
 scarce there, likewise, happily, shipwrecks, which cannot 
 always be said of cataracts." 
 
 Furthermore it may be noted, that while the cataract 
 represents force, the mill pond represents resource. The 
 cataract will soon clatter itself dry unless it can lean 
 back upon the mill pond or its equivalent. To take the 
 depth and dimensions of the mill pond, is to measure 
 the usefulness of the cataract. And usefulness ! — all there 
 is in preaching outside of that ought to be locked up in 
 a parenthesis ! 
 
 Dr. Kidder was unwilling to intrude himself into the 
 
3IO BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 phenomenal opportunities of this distinguished program 
 unless with the assurance that whatever other qualities 
 his paper might lack, it should not be found wanting 
 when measured by the standard of usefulness. 
 
 Upon the mind ofa thoughtful listener Dr. Kidder made 
 the impression that he was a deeply religious preacher. 
 He was willing to undertake the sermon only with the 
 assurance that he was divinely aided. Among his 
 private papers are some prayers written out by himself 
 for his own particular profit and guidance. There is one 
 entitled " Prayer for aid in selecting subjects and in 
 preaching the Gospel." A few extracts will show his 
 spirit in approaching this solemn duty : " O God, I thank 
 thee that unworthy as I am, thou hast not only called me 
 from darkness to light and made me partaker of the 
 grace of salvation, but hast commissioned me to preach to 
 my fellow-men the unsearchable riches of Christ. Once 
 more the duty devolves upon me of standing before the 
 people to proclaim thy word of truth. O forbid that 
 with languid indifference I should content myself with 
 the mere formality of preaching ; rather may I rise to the 
 highest conception of the greatness of the responsibility 
 and of the eternal interests which ever depend upon the 
 right and faithful discharge of so momentous a duty. O 
 give felicity and power of thought, readiness and force 
 of utterance, convincing speech and the demonstration 
 of the influence of the Holy Ghost. Deliver me, O Lord, 
 from wanderings of thoughts, from the intrusion of worldly 
 interests or cares or influences, but especially from all 
 vanity of mind or the slightest disposition to seek the 
 applause of men. When I enter the sacred desk let 
 thine overshadowing presence be round about me, and 
 let me and the people feel that God is there." 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 3 II 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Characteristics . 
 
 'X'HE cultivation of his religious life, to which he gave 
 * so much attention in the early part of his experience, 
 remained until the last a carefully cherished habit. The 
 honest searching of his heart was his frequent practice. 
 His self-examinations were not only strict, but at times 
 severe. Never resting in present attainments, he was 
 constantly stirring himself up to higher stages. Laying 
 down for himself rules for better living, he promised to 
 be more diligent and devout, that he would speak and 
 write more for God, and would commit more Scripture 
 to memory. 
 
 He particularly enjoyed the social meetings, in all 
 weathers he was at the weekly prayer meeting. He was 
 also one of the old-fashioned sort that attend public wor- 
 ship twice on Sunday. At Evanston he organized a 
 class meeting, chiefly of students, to meet at his house. 
 Of this he says: "The attendance upon and conduct of 
 this class proved an interesting and profitable exercise." 
 
 His expressions of thankfulness in closing up the year, 
 in noticing his birthday, and in returning from his fre- 
 quent journeys, have always running through them a 
 strong devotional trace. " I would here record," he 
 writes, " a devout sense of obligation to my heavenly 
 Father for the providential care which he has extended 
 over me amid the uncounted exposures of travel by land 
 and water during a series of years. Thus far, in every 
 
312 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 variety of circumstances, I have been mercifully preserved 
 from either suffering or witnessing an accident to life or 
 limb." 
 
 On his fiftieth birthday he was presented by the stu- 
 dents with a handsomely bound copy of .Webster's Un- 
 abridged Dictionary. In alluding to this in his journal 
 he makes it the occasion of appropriate reflections. "On 
 opening the services of the institute I was surprised by 
 an address on the part of the students and a present 
 commemorative of my fiftieth birthday, of which they 
 seemed to have become aware before I did myself. My 
 attention having been called to the fact of my having 
 crossed the line of half a century of human life, I found it 
 suggestive of many and impressive reflections. Up to 
 this time I have considered myself young. To-day I 
 cherish the feeling that I am not old, and yet I see my- 
 self passing the meridian of my earthly hfe. May I be 
 more diligent to redeem the time and apply my heart 
 unto wisdom ! " 
 
 One of his entries at the close of the year is as follows: 
 " I feel thankful to God for an unwavering confidence in 
 the great atonement and for a constant witness of the 
 Spirit that I am a child of God. O that I may grow in 
 grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ!" 
 These annual reviews are to him particularly gratifying 
 when he is permitted to consider work well done— service 
 faithfully rendered. 
 
 " I closed up," he writes, " a healthful, a laborious, a 
 happy, and, I trust, a useful year of my life." Again his 
 entry reads : " On reviewing the year now closing I per- 
 ceive clearly that the goodness and mercy of the Lord 
 have followed me from the beginning to the end. I 
 have been able to do full service in every department of 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 313 
 
 effort to which my responsibility has extended. I hope 
 I may yet be able to do good and effective work for my 
 divine Master during the year about to open." 
 
 With him life was worth living so long as Christ and 
 the Church wanted his work. To be happy only as use- 
 ful was in his view the Gospel in practice. In all that 
 came to him as duty he sought to deliver his goods in 
 honest weight rather than in decorated forms. As a 
 preacher he was anxious for the hearer's soul, not his 
 applause. At one time, delivering his message among 
 his old acquaintances where he knew that the larger 
 number were not in sympathy with his straight-edge 
 views, he writes : " Nearly all the families were present 
 and many old neighbors, and heard, I trust, truths they 
 will remember with profit." 
 
 The work he could put into life, not the enjoyment he 
 could get out of it, was his motive. Visiting in the 
 East, the place of his childhood, he observes: " I spent 
 several days among the scenes and friends of my boy- 
 hood, an occasion this for grave and profound reflection. 
 Such, however, is the pressure of practical duties that I 
 have time neither for poetry nor sentiment, save the 
 sentiment of deep gratitude to God for enabling me to 
 live and strive to be useful, while others are dead, or 
 sickly, or, what is worse, worldly-minded." 
 
 This dedication of his powers to well-applied endeavor 
 continued clear across his active years. As with his 
 mental vigor, so with his working faculty, it suffered no 
 abatement from old age. On his seventieth birthday he 
 writes : " I occupied the day and evening with meditation 
 on the goodness of the Lord in bringing me so favorably 
 to this advanced period of life and still prolonging my 
 capacities of work and enjoyment in the cause to which 
 
314 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 my days have been consecrated. The theme is both 
 vast and pleasing, and the gratitude it inspires is immeas- 
 urable. Yet I trust it may find at least partial ex- 
 pression in future activity in the cause of Christ." Dr. 
 Kidder's one object, unbroken by any considerations of 
 self, unfretted by any ambitions for place and honor, was 
 to do good, to be of service to his Church, or to benefit 
 some person. In one place he writes: "Nothing is so 
 grateful to me as to be exclusively devoted to my one 
 business." His duty was savory to the degree that it was 
 salted with self-sacrifice. With a quietness that ruled 
 out all affectation, a goodly proportion of his best activ- 
 ities were for the profit of other people. An entry in his 
 diary reads thus: "Intensely occupied all day at my 
 office, with various duties of my own and other people's." 
 In another place he speaks of his own work being delayed 
 " on account of doing the duties of others." It would 
 seem that he had on hand nearly all the time some case 
 of need which he was managing with patience and kind- 
 ness to work out to helpfulness. Strangers were sought 
 out in the hospital and cared for, beneficiaries were for 
 months at a time the inmates of his house, and others 
 were rescued from difficult situations and assisted at 
 school. 
 
 One whom he had aided in business writes in the fol- 
 lowing grateful strain : " I cannot allow this opportunity 
 to pass without endeavoring to express in some slight 
 degree the deep sense of gratitude which I entertain for 
 the many exhibitions of kindness toward me on your 
 part, and for the manifold interest which you have ever 
 taken in my welfare, from the period when you so gen- 
 erously extended a fostering care to a comparatively 
 new beginner up to the present hour. From my present 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIUDER. 315 
 
 standpoint of temporal prosperity I look back upon the 
 past and recognize yourself as one of the chief instru- 
 naents under Providence in enabling me to arrive at my 
 present successful position in life. I find no language at 
 my control which can express my gratitude." 
 
 Among his letters are many from those whom he had 
 in various ways favored, and from parents abroad whose 
 sons he had assisted to acquaintance and position in this 
 country. 
 
 To those contemplating the ministry he was eagerly 
 and promptly helpful, and he was always ready with his 
 friendly counsels. Many a young man has been saved 
 to a cultured ministry in the Church through the weight 
 of his advice in competition with the pressing argu- 
 ments of presiding elders and even bishops. His word 
 in substance always was : Take time, tax every endeavor 
 to gain high intellectual attainments, and resist quietly 
 but resolutely that influence from whatever quarter it may 
 come which would urge you to a plunge into the pastor- 
 ate so premature as to doom your future to mediocrity 
 if not failure, to obscurity if not depression." 
 
 To one who is now a successful missionary he wrote: 
 " It is highly important for all young men designing to 
 enter the holy ministry at this period in the world's 
 history to lay a broad foundation of general knowledge 
 and of mental cultivation preparatory to the more 
 especial study of theology." To another, who is now a 
 bishop, but who then was struggling with the problem, 
 " Shall I continue in the pastorate, or go to the theolog- 
 ical seminary ? " — a problem complicated by counsel 
 coming from the highest quarter and advising against 
 the seminary — Dr. Kidder wrote : " I return you here- 
 with the letters of your friends which are in the highest 
 
3l6 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 degree affectionate and consistent with their views. I 
 doubt the propriety of my giving you any specific advice, 
 since I could hardly do so without arraying advice versus 
 advice. 
 
 " If I were to advise it would be on the basis of opin- 
 ions honestly entertained, but which are entitled to no 
 weight on account of their honesty unless they be also 
 correct. 
 
 " It seems to me that the whole series of arguments in 
 the oldest of the letters you sent me, although plausible, 
 is fallacious. It proceeds on the idea that human char- 
 acters are fixed quantities, and that Wesleys, White- 
 fields, Summerfields, etc., are called of God as such, 
 whereas, when called of God, they were inexperienced 
 young men, and only became what they ultimately were 
 by long years oi t/i^oxt, study, prayer, and labor. I doubt 
 not that scores having as good natural talents as they, 
 and as true a call from God, have buried their talents by 
 indolence and remained in insignificance and narrow 
 spheres of usefulness, when they might have done much 
 more for God and the world. 
 
 " In your case, I think you should yield to no despond- 
 ency. For my part, I do not see why you have not as 
 good reason to suppose that your intense longings for 
 improved qualifications for the ministry are as much 
 prompted by the Holy Spirit as your desire to enter the 
 ministry at all. Hence I have still good hope that away 
 will open for their gratification in such a manner as both 
 you and your friends shall ultimately acknowledge to be 
 of the Lord." 
 
 How like a fresh breeze to one all but fainting in an 
 unfriendly atmosphere was this prudent and encouraging 
 letter ! 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 317 
 
 His students, remembering his patience in deliberation 
 and wisdom in advice when they had occasion to confer 
 with him, and recalling also his kindness of heart 
 toward them, always felt free after they had gone out 
 into their fields to communicate with him respecting 
 any difficulties in their work, or any personal or family 
 troubles. And such loving words as these from one of 
 them, " I always feel as if you stood in a very close rela- 
 tionship to me spiritually ; I have never forgotten the 
 kindly interest you manifested in me during and after 
 my stay with you," might be repeated in substance from 
 many other like sources. 
 
 So much did Dr. Kidder feel under obligation to pro- 
 mote the welfare of his fellow-creatures that he never 
 yielded to the tendency of the student and professional 
 man to become a recluse. He was public spirited. He 
 was active always in forwarding movements that looked 
 to the social good and the religious improvement of Lis 
 times. 
 
 He was present at the initiatory meeting of the Evan- 
 gelical Alliance in New York, was appointed one of the 
 committee to draft a constitution, and became sometime 
 later one of its officers. 
 
 As might be expected, he never lost his interest in the 
 prosperity of the Sunday school. He writes that he 
 took much pleasure in cooperating with his friend. Rev. 
 J. H. Vincent, in the establishment of Sunday school 
 institutes. 
 
 December, 1874, he says: " I participated in the ex- 
 ercises of the joint anniversary of the Sunday School 
 Union and Tract Society. The three only secretaries 
 those societies have so far had were present, namely, 
 Drs. Wise, Vincent, and myself." His sermon on that 
 
3l8 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 occasion, "A Reading and a Working Church,*' has been 
 published as a tract. 
 
 He felt it his duty, wherever he lived, to contribute as 
 he might to the advancement of the place. At Newark 
 he became interested in the establishment of the New- 
 ark Wesleyan Institute. For this he gave a great deal 
 of time, traveling, as he could find leisure from his office 
 engagements, to solicit stock for the building and en- 
 dowment, meeting with trustees and committees night 
 after night, studying plans, arranging courses of study, 
 and selecting teachers, visiting the school often during 
 its sessions, attending always its examinations and com- 
 mencements. For eight years he was president of its 
 Board of Trustees, and had the reward of seeing the 
 institute become one of the most flourishing schools in 
 numbers, influence, and grade in the State, one of the 
 most cherished objects of the city's local pride. It was 
 his ambition that it should become " the grand central, 
 model academic institution of the Church." So com- 
 pletely, however, was it dependent upon his originating 
 and organizing faculty, and the presence of his tireless 
 and well-guided energies, that even his absence in 
 Europe crippled it sadly, as he found to his grief upon 
 his return, and his departure for Evanston was coincident 
 with its collapse as a Methodist institution. 
 
 At Madison he served as an officer of the Morris 
 County Temperance Alliance. To this he says he de- 
 voted considerable time. In Evanston, stirring with 
 the pulse of Western enterprise, every forward step 
 taken found him efficient in encouragement and aid. 
 Another describes him as " actively bearing his part 
 in the varied public enterprises of the new and thriv- 
 ing community." His services unselfishly rendered were 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 319 
 
 often at the expense of serious breaks into his literary 
 duties. During one of his vacations his principal occu- 
 pation was work upon one of his books ; " subject, how- 
 ever," he adds, " to many interruptions from claims 
 upon me in connection with the new church enterprise 
 and various local matters from which I cannot well de- 
 tach myself." 
 
 To the new church here mentioned he gave freely of 
 his time and thought, being a trustee and a member of 
 the Building Committee. He also made a generous sub- 
 scription. He had the satisfaction of seeing it well 
 along before he left Evanston. On his last Sunday there 
 he preached in the old church, and the following even- 
 ing the grateful citizens gathered in the new church to 
 give him a farewell reception. As a current report de- 
 scribes it, " Evanston turned out en masse to testify 
 respect and regard for one of its most estimable families 
 about to leave for another field of labor. L. L. Green- 
 leaf, Esq., made a farewell speech, and presented to Dr. 
 and Mrs. Kidder on behalf of their townsmen an elegant 
 clock of Italian marble and bronze, with vases to match. 
 Dr. Kidder replied, dwelling on his past life here, and 
 observed that wherever he might go his affection for this 
 ' town of towns ' should be unchanged." 
 
 To this may be added the tribute of Judge Goodrich, 
 Dr. Kidder's friend from the first, who could not be 
 present at the reception : " No one entertains a higher 
 respect for Dr. Kidder than myself. No one appreciates 
 more fully the inestimable services he has performed for 
 the Church, or more sincerely regrets the loss the insti- 
 tute will suffer in the severance of his connection with 
 it." 
 
 In leaving Evanston a matter of concern with Dr. 
 
320 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Kidder was the disposition of his house. He had four- 
 teen years before built it with a taste, an elegance, and a 
 convenience that made it at the time the finest residence 
 in Evanston. And with all the wealth and improve- 
 ment that have lifted the incipient village into the am- 
 bitious city, the house does not find comparison odious. 
 It has needed no outside changes to sustain its archi- 
 tectural standing alongside the many stylish houses 
 since erected. 
 
 It faced west, was two stories high with a broad ve- 
 randa extending along the entire front. The grounds 
 were cultivated to the highest degree, abounding with 
 selected fruit in bush and tree and vine. 
 
 Here the doctor wrote his books and prepared his 
 lectures, working at his standing desk in the northeast 
 corner of the large study and library built around with 
 glass-covered bookcases. Opposite, on the south side 
 of the ample hall, was the parlor. Here one daughter 
 was married, the doctor celebrated his silver wedding 
 amid a host of congratulating friends, and often had it 
 been thronged at receptions and commencement re- 
 unions. Above, on either side of a central hall, were the 
 guest chambers and family rooms. 
 
 Sunday evenings were spent in Christian song in the 
 cheerful sitting room back of the parlor, with bay win- 
 dow opening south, and back still of this was the dining 
 room, with long table always full. For the doctor and 
 his accomplished wife had the very soul of a courtly hos- 
 pitality, and welcome was the presiding genius of the 
 house. Bishops, college presidents and professors, sec- 
 retaries, missionaries, and representative men of the 
 Church, native and foreign, were among the constant 
 stream of guests. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 32 1 
 
 Also, in the beginnings of the population of Evanston, 
 it was a practice with the doctor and Mrs. Kidder to in- 
 vite every newcomer and every family that settled in the 
 place to spend an evening with them. " Be not forget- 
 ful to entertain strangers," was written on the door- 
 posts. 
 
 But a feature of this hospitality which the young men 
 since scattered in all lands have carried away and 
 treasure among their happiest recollections, was that 
 whereby they were made to feel at home. He originated 
 and maintained the custom of inviting the students from 
 the various classes in companies of a number convenient 
 for accommodation at the table, to take supper and 
 spend an hour or two in pleasant social converse with 
 the family before proceeding to their evening studies. 
 Thus the professor was also the friend. Homesickness 
 was a malady impossible, and the influence of this 
 practice seemed to pervade the entire community, so that 
 cordiality to strangers and especially students became in 
 the primitive Evanston a fine art, rendering it in tliis re- 
 spect honorably peculiar among college towns. 
 
 Dr. Kidder had a particular fondness for young people. 
 Among all his guests none were more cordially received 
 than the young men and young women who had sought 
 Evanston as the shrine of culture, and who were then 
 carrying on the unnoticed but critical battle with pov- 
 erty and obscurity. One who is now enjoying deserved 
 fame on both sides of the ocean thus expresses herself: 
 
 "Across the way from the snug cottage where I write, 
 almost concealed by clustering trees, is a commodious 
 mansion — Dr. Kidder's home. As my eye follows the 
 winding gravel walk that leads to its hospitable door, my 
 heart stirs at thought of all I owe to those who dwell 
 21 
 
322 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 there, who welcomed me, a lonesome schoolgirl to their 
 fireside years ago. It was of incalculable benefit to us, 
 whose opinions were then forming, that the Kidder home, 
 with its large library lined with well-filled bookcases, its 
 roomy parlors, and its broad piazza, on which we de- 
 lighted to promenade when summer nights were fair and 
 sweet, brought to our young hearts the conception of 
 Christ and Christians as a social force. From some of 
 our hearts, at least, the heavenly vision has never faded, 
 and no • society,' after the stratified regulation pattern, 
 has ever had one charm for us since then." 
 
 In short, here was a house which had been from the 
 beginning the home of a typical Christian family. On its 
 altar the flame of a simple worship had never died out. 
 Refinement, comfort, rest, peace, congenial labor, and 
 happiness were its pervading atmosphere. Sorrow here 
 was decent, tempered with grace, and enjoyment was 
 pure, unmarred by extravagance. It had been blessed 
 with the presence of Christ, and the doctor could not 
 tolerate the thought of surrendering its ownership into 
 irreligious hands. He says : " The question of leaving 
 Evanston having been determined, I thought it best 
 to offer my homestead for sale, and deemed myself 
 fortunate, after comparatively little effort, in finding a 
 purchaser. Our whole family and many of our friends 
 had felt anxious to have a house which from the first had 
 been consecrated to the highest forms of religious socia- 
 bility occupied by a family that loved the Church and 
 its institutions. In this also we were gratified." The 
 title passed into the possession of a Christian gentle- 
 man, who at this writing still resides in the house. 
 
) 
 
 DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 323 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 Characteristics. 
 
 T IKE his home in Evanston, his residence in Newark 
 ^ was also delightfully situated, surrounded with cul- 
 tivated grounds, and was abundant in the ministries of 
 hospitality. It was the stopping place of missionaries. 
 They made it their home while fitting out for their de- 
 parture or recuperating on their return. What he wrote 
 to one missionary he said in substance to all, " Come di- 
 rectly to my house and bring your company with you." 
 
 The house was seldom without a guest. Many of the 
 notables of the Church were at some time under his roof. 
 Bishops and others held important meetings in his par- 
 lors, and there were social gatherings of ministers and 
 their families. Nor were his associates in the Book Room 
 overlooked. The employees in groups were from time 
 to time invited out, and so also were the book agents, 
 editors, secretaries, and their wives. 
 
 In cherry time the heads of all the departments and 
 their families spent an afternoon and evening with him. 
 The fruit was unusually plentiful and luscious. The 
 guests took possession of the grounds, climbed the 
 trees, and helped themselves at will. Supper was 
 served. Toasts and speeches followed, and the not-to- 
 be-forgotten ice cream closed an entertainment which is 
 still talked about by those that remain. 
 
 Among those who enjoyed the hospitality of the 
 
324 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Newark home was Mr. Elie Charlier, just arrived from 
 France. He established in New York a boys' and young 
 men's French school, and continued it for twenty-five 
 years. Terminating his connection with it on account 
 of failing health, he wrote to the doctor to be present at 
 its closing exercises, and said : " My dear Dr. Kidder : — 
 Thirty-three years ago I spent a happy summer under 
 your roof. Now I am going to quit public life. I should 
 be glad if you would be with me. Come if possible. 
 Yours as ever." 
 
 At Madison an open house was again the rule. When 
 the Rev. Dr. J. F. Hurst (now bishop), the successor to 
 Professor Nadal, came on from Germany, Dr. Kidder 
 gave him, his family, and attendants a cheerful accom- 
 modation until the house selected for him was put in 
 readiness. 
 
 At Drew the residences of the professors are part of 
 the general outfit, and are within the grounds of the 
 seminary. Dr. Kidder was assigned to the house for- 
 merly occupied by Dr. McClintock, the first president, 
 he taking Dr. McClintock's chair in the faculty. 
 
 Dr. Kidder says: " There need not be (if there could 
 be found) in this world a place more perfectly and 
 agreeably adapted to rational and Christian living. 
 
 " In all my surroundings I am constantly reminded of 
 my lamented predecessor, whom I had known as a dear 
 friend for many years, and with whom I was intimately 
 associated for eight years — 1848 to 1856 — when we were 
 both editors in the Book Room at New York. From 
 the period of his call to organize this institution, he had 
 repeatedly consulted me by letter. In the spring of 1870 
 he passed away. Little did I then think that I should 
 be called to be his successor in this particular sphere of 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 325 
 
 labor. But so it is, and I sincerely hope that I may be 
 enabled ever worthily to fill the chair vacated by his 
 death." 
 
 The place having been unoccupied for about a year 
 the grounds had suffered much from neglect. But with 
 his customary attention to such matters, at consider- 
 able expense and with labor in which he did not hesitate 
 himself to take a share, he had in the course of six years 
 brought the garden and orchard to a high condition 
 of forwardness, and was indulging the just expectation 
 of a prolonged and uninterrupted period of returns. But 
 in 1877 he was informed that the house and grounds 
 were wanted for the president. Dr. Kidder had read, 
 " Follow the things that make for peace." He had read, 
 " In honor preferring one another." And venturing, at a 
 modest distance to follow Him who "pleased not himself," 
 he moved out, exchanging houses with the president. 
 
 Dr. Kidder never failed in the cheerfulness with which 
 he took the long and repeated journeys in the interest of 
 the causes he was appointed to represent. Those who saw 
 him starting off with springing gait and quick step, carry- 
 ing his old-time leather traveling bag, will ever recall him 
 as one who, though weary often, as well he might be, was 
 none the less happy in his tasks. But when he was thus 
 going away, his heart was always traveling back on itself 
 and hovered still about the circle at home. In one of 
 his letters he writes : " Thus far the time has passed 
 rapidly and pleasantly, for I have been much engaged, 
 and yet my mind has wandered homeward hour after 
 hour toward the dear objects of my affection. My 
 anxieties for you and the children are strong beyond ex- 
 pression, but my confidence in our almighty Protector 
 is unwavering, hence I leave you calmly in his hands." 
 
326 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 When his long circuit was completed and he was back 
 again with his family his joy was as exuberant as that of 
 a child, and his expressions of thankfulness to God for 
 the safety and health of his loved ones during his absence 
 were unbounded and repeated. 
 
 He found relaxation from his public obligations in the 
 entertainment and instruction of his children. He 
 assisted them in their studies, particularly their Latin 
 and French. His Sunday afternoons and evenings were 
 given up to them in Scripture study, religious counsel, 
 and the singing of hymns. Along in his late years one 
 of his children wrote to him : " I wish I could give ex- 
 pression to my feelings as I think over all you have been 
 to me, in childhood so tender and loving, in my wayward 
 youth so patient and so lavishly kind, in my maturer 
 years never ceasing in your care and attentions, and 
 always ready to help and advise. You have been a per- 
 fect father ! I often feel deeply that I am not worthy of 
 you and of all you have bestowed upon me, but I hope 
 you will overlook my shortcomings in the abundance of 
 my love." 
 
 In sickness he was a faithful, untiring, and competent 
 nurse, and when, out of repeated and serious attacks, his 
 wife was marvelously brought back to health his heart 
 labored with inadequate words of praise. One of the 
 eminent ladies of Evanston's former day writes : " I have 
 a heart full of grateful memories of my kind and faithful 
 friend — most kind and generous when I most needed 
 kindness. In my family for ten months, and my neighbor 
 for fourteen years — later having my only home in his 
 family — I never heard an unkindly word or saw in him 
 aught but cheerful, considerate kindness for all the in- 
 mates of his house." 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 327 
 
 In the same line are the beautiful and earnest words of 
 another : " It would be doing violence to the spontaneous 
 admiration with which one prominent trait of his charac- 
 ter has ever inspired the present modest biographer, 
 were that trait to be passed over in silence. Unhappily 
 it is not of such frequency in those whose exhausting 
 mental pursuits are, perhaps, an apology for their pro- 
 verbial 'nervousness,' as to divest its mention of a quite 
 refreshing novelty. 
 
 " I refer to the sweetness of manner and of disposition 
 that characterize the home life of my honored friend. 
 To those brought nearest him by ties of blood or sym- 
 pathy, those most dependent on him for encouragement 
 and help, he unvaryingly displays a gentleness of manner, 
 of word, and of deed, that command the loftiest esteem 
 of all who are cognizant of them. There are deeds 
 recorded of him in the secret annals of living hearts, as 
 well as of those that have long since ceased to beat, 
 which for gentleness and delicacy might shame the 
 knights of old, and, after all, it is such memories as 
 these that shed a sweeter fragrance than the widest fame." 
 
 One of the early entries in the doctor's diary runs 
 thus : " As a family we are highly favored. Our circle has 
 remained unbroken for a series of years. We enjoy as a 
 rule excellent health. All at home." But this was not 
 always to be. Twice in his lifetime was the circle broken, 
 death carrying off two daughters, the eldest after a linger- 
 ing illness, and the other, his youngest child, the beauti- 
 ful Eva, " rare and radiant," many years after snatched 
 away with startling suddenness. These strokes he en- 
 dured with his characteristic fortitude, but the iron, es- 
 pecially in the last case, went deep into his soul. 
 
 He never forgot a grief; even to the last he recalled 
 
328 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 with pain the fierce blow that struck down his young 
 wife at his side in a mission land. Forty years after he 
 writes to a brother missionary bereaved in like manner : 
 " Having been similarly afflicted while in a foreign field, 
 I know too well the bitterness of the cup you are called 
 upon to drink to think of attempting to mitigate your 
 grief by any other consolations than those afforded by 
 the glorious Gospel of our risen Lord. But I rejoice 
 that such consolations abound to the faithful in Christ 
 Jesus in the deepest bereavements through which they 
 are called to pass." 
 
 Dr. Kidder's erect bearing, quiet dignity, moderate 
 tone in speech, and manner of deliberation and reflection, 
 doubtless made upon many the impression that he was 
 reserved and cold, that he held himself so well in hand 
 that he was undisturbed by his own sufferings and that 
 the troubles of others did not move him. But those knew 
 better who knew him better. Although as to outward 
 expression, both concerning himself and others, he was 
 surrounded by a shore line of decorum, yet he was all 
 the while approachable, sympathetic, responsive. The 
 sorrows and difficulties of others made immediate and 
 large drafts upon his pity. He loved to touch his fellow- 
 men, and when permitted to touch, he clung. No one 
 was fonder or firmer in his friendships. He never lost a 
 friend. He never disappointed confidence; he never 
 wounded affection. Carefully right, he was not painfully 
 rigid. If you admired correctness you would like him, 
 if you were pleased with gentleness you would love him. 
 He was a good man. This was the impression he made 
 upon his friends. When he was leaving his associations 
 in the East for his new life in the West, one who had 
 been closely connected with him in church work and for 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 329 
 
 years had had his office near his, wrote in the following 
 tender and quaint style : " I part with your presence with 
 regret. A good man's example is never removed, having 
 once been known, and his personal presence must be 
 valuable alike to all sections of the country. I am grati- 
 fied that you are Jesus Christ's man wherever you go, 
 and therefore there must be to you ever, as I desire and 
 pray, good luck in the name of the Lord." 
 
 When the news of his election to Drew got abroad he 
 was cheered by many words of greeting. " I rejoice," 
 wrote orie, " to learn that you have been elected to so 
 important a chair. By all means accept. Your many 
 friends in the East will give you a cordial welcome. The 
 Lord be with you and yours ! " He was invited to join 
 the Philadelphia and Newark Conferences, and was affec- 
 tionately welcomed into the New Jersey Conference, to 
 which he presented his transfer. Speaking of the agree- 
 able change in coming East he says : " I was able to 
 preach not a little, and took pleasure in revisiting 
 places and churches where I had officiated in former 
 years, and also in visiting old friends in new places." 
 
 While visiting the Conferences in the interest of the 
 Board of Education he was gladdened by meeting here 
 and there his former students, now doing valuable work 
 in the pastorate. At one time it was his pleasure to 
 assist in the ordination of some of those who had sat in 
 his recitation room. 
 
 These were those to whom he had given his best when 
 he was at his best. Their appreciation of his services as 
 a teacher, and their love for him as a friend, had intensi- 
 fied with the years since. Whenever they met him they 
 enjoyed talking over the days spent at Garrett and 
 Drew — days of confidence, fellowship, and affection. 
 
330 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 While he was still at the seminary one of the Conference 
 visitors wrote : " Though I was present but a few days, I 
 learned to understand and share the feelings of his 
 students, who showed their deep love and respect for 
 him as a man and a Christian brother as well as a faith- 
 ful teacher." 
 
 When he came to leave Drew, and his work as a 
 theological professor was to end forever, this devotion of 
 the students took on an expressive form — a farewell 
 meeting, with the faculty and the students, and a pre- 
 sentation from the latter. His own allusion to it is brief 
 and unassuming. After referring to the addresses of the 
 members of the faculty, he writes : " M. E. Ketcham, in 
 behalf of the students, made a fine address, presenting 
 me at the close with an elegant and costly study table. 
 The whole occasion put my modesty to the severest test, 
 and my hoarseness prevented my making much reply." 
 
 The event in detail was thus described in the local 
 newspaper : " After the usual chapel service at Drew Sem- 
 inary last Tuesday morning, at which all the students, 
 the faculty, and their families were present, the president 
 of the seminary. Dr. Buttz, announced that an hour would 
 be devoted to, as he termed it, ' a love feast,' on the 
 occasion of Dr. Kidder's leave of the seminary, according 
 to the terms of his resignation. He particularly referred 
 to Dr. Kidder as a paternal counselor to the students. 
 Dr. Strong said that it is difficult to fill the chair now 
 made vacant by the resignation of him who has elevated 
 the department of practical theology to the high posi- 
 tion it occupies in the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 
 " Dr. Miley said that he felt like congratulating Dr. 
 Kidder in his high appointment ; and that likely no 
 other man, unless it be Bishop Simpson, had held a Gen- 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 33 1 
 
 eral Conference appointment for so long a time — thirty- 
 seven years. 
 
 " Dr. Crooks referred to Dr. Kidder as an eminent 
 example of fidelity and thoroughness in every position 
 the Church had honored him with. 
 
 " Rev. C. R. Barnes, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal 
 church in this place, said that when but an errand boy 
 he called on Dr. Kidder in Mulberry Street, New York, 
 related to him how that he felt he was called to preach, 
 and how he received advice and consolation which did 
 much to influence his course in life. 
 
 " At this time the students sang the familiar hymn: 
 
 " ' Blest be the tie that binds 
 Our hearts in Christian love,' 
 
 after which they presented Dr. Kidder with a handsome 
 study table. 
 
 " Mr. M. E. Ketcham, of the senior class, spoke in 
 part as follows : ' We shall ever associate your name with 
 acts of warmest sympathy and cooperation in all that 
 was for our interest, and with many worthy works for 
 the Church and for the good of mankind. We desire to 
 evidence our real sentiments of regard toward one who 
 has been so true a friend to us. I have, therefore, the 
 honor, in behalf of the students of Drew Theological 
 Seminary, of presenting you with this study table. While 
 it may remind you of pleasant scenes at Drew, and of the 
 warm friendship here formed, we trust that it may also 
 be of practical service to you in your new work, and that 
 you may have occasion to use it for many pleasant years.' 
 
 " In response to this, after referring to the words of 
 the other professors, Dr. Kidder said : ' I accept this 
 present, not so much for its intrinsic worth — beautiful 
 
332 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 and valuable as it is— but as an evidence of the goodwill 
 and kind regards of the students who have so generously 
 given it.' He alluded to the pleasure it had given him 
 and Mrs. Kidder to entertain the students at their house 
 from time to time. He was now entering upon a new 
 work ; it had opened up very unexpectedly and seemed 
 to be in the line of duty. 
 
 '" Dr. Buttz said, in closing, that Dr. Kidder, by his books 
 and teachings, had virtually founded the department of 
 practical theology in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He 
 said that while in the Protestant Chapel in Paris he met 
 Dr. William M. Taylor, of New York, who told him that 
 in preparing his Yale lectures on preaching. Dr. Kidder's 
 book on Homiletics had been of more service to him than 
 any other." 
 
 Rightly had the genial Dr. Buttz styled this episode 
 a " love feast." It was a festival of hearts that had 
 ever been true to each other — hearts that might be 
 locally separated, but never spiritually divided. Al- 
 though the honored guest of this banquet of souls has 
 departed, the students still talk about him in their old- 
 fashioned way, the " love feast " is prolonged, and in 
 the following chapters we are invited to enjoy yet more 
 of it. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 333 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 Words from the Students. 
 
 \ 17 HEN the present work was under contemplation, 
 circulars were addressed to as many of those who 
 had been under the doctor's instruction as could be 
 reached, asking them for any letters from him they 
 might be willing to lend, and also a brief statement of 
 such incidents and impressions as they might think fit to 
 communicate. The response was generous. Much val- 
 uable matter was sent, for which grateful acknowledg- 
 ment is herewith made. The utterances, too, of affec- 
 tion were so warm, and the estimates of character were 
 so honest and discriminating, that no valid explanation 
 could justify the omission of copious extracts. They are 
 given without name, without regard for order of date, 
 and without note or comment. 
 
 " In Garrett Biblical Institute I was a student under 
 Professor Kidder. As a teacher he was painstaking and 
 thorough ; his scholars must not only understand, but re- 
 member ; he was a driller. 
 
 " He took a personal interest in the students. They 
 found him approachable, self-denying, judicious, brotherly, 
 almost fatherly ; and, let me add, they found also in 
 Mrs. Kidder a fountain of Christian sympathy and prac- 
 tical encouragement. 
 
 " I occasionally called on Dr. Kidder in his study, 
 looked through his large library, and asked him concern- 
 
334 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 ing his methods of indexing, arranging papers, and sav- 
 ing knowledge, and I found him one of the most orderly 
 of men." 
 
 " In my course of five years at Drew Seminary, these, 
 among other excellent features, in the character of Dr. 
 Kidder attracted my attention particularly: 
 
 " I. His thoroughness in everything he undertook. 
 
 " 2. His unswerving fidelity to duty. Faithfulness in 
 his office, turning neither to right nor left by fear or 
 favor. 
 
 " 3. His wonderful facility in remembering and calling 
 by name the large number of students, even those who 
 had been upon the grounds but a short time. 
 
 " Dr. Kidder impressed me as constantly toiling in 
 sight of an immortal, invisible crown, with an eye single 
 to the glory of God, and not as a man pleaser." 
 
 " Dr. Kidder impressed me as a minute and laborious 
 worker. He had a pigeonhole for every article in use, 
 every line of thought or branch of business which fell 
 within his range of work, and he knew where to find it. 
 His wide range of reading made it possible for him to 
 give instantly most reliable and valuable advice to one 
 in the selection of books, either for a general library, or 
 on special subjects. Nine years' experience on the mis- 
 sion field has shown me that his suggestions as to the 
 kind of books, bindings, etc., to be chosen for use in 
 Asiatic countries were equalled by those of no other. 
 
 " One always felt in the presence of Dr. Kidder that 
 he was a thoroughly dignified Christian man. He was 
 never caught off his dignity, never stooped to rehearse 
 anything of doubtful propriety in speech or thought, in 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 335 
 
 order to make lecture or conversation agreeable to a cer- 
 tain class. He was not repulsively formal in his dignity, 
 and could enjoy the humorous, but that humor must be 
 intelligent, manly, and clean. 
 
 " As I look back upon Dr. Kidder's work there comes 
 prominently the feeling that he was preeminently a safe 
 man. The interests of the Church were safe in his hands ; 
 so were those of the individual. By many he will be 
 lovingly remembered when the dashing, vociferating 
 teacher has been quite forgotten." 
 
 " He was one of nature's gentlemen, intensified and 
 brightened by the power of Christianity, who was ever 
 intent on fulfilling his obligation to God, the Church, and 
 the world." 
 
 " I had the great privilege of spending two years at 
 Drew while Dr. Kidder was still professor, and during 
 that time enjoyed his instructions. He it was, perhaps 
 more than any other man, who turned my thoughts 
 toward the missionary field. I have the most fond and 
 loving remembrance of him." 
 
 " For three years I was permitted to share the benefits 
 of his instruction at the Drew Theological Seminary. 
 My recollection of him as a teacher is that he was al- 
 ways imbued with a sense of his responsibihty ; nothing 
 in his department showed the slightest tendency to 
 carelessness, but all his work manifested completeness. 
 I remember that at times there was a desire to criticise 
 his method of instruction as rigid and exacting, but 
 maturer reflection revealed the wisdom of his course. 
 He was the representative type of men who unite in 
 
336 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 them the ennobling powers of scholarship with the graces 
 of a truly Christian profession. No one could doubt the 
 deep sincerity of his piety ; it impressed me day by day. 
 It was not of the impetuous, enthusiastic character, but 
 more of the steady shining of the sun, the mild and 
 gentle flow of the clear, placid stream which ever glad- 
 dens and beautifies the plain. The impressions in re- 
 calling the repeated hospitalities I enjoyed at the home 
 of Dr. Kidder are of the most exalted character. He 
 was a true friend, a wise counselor, a good man in the 
 broadest sense." 
 
 " It was to Dr. Kidder among the first to whom I con- 
 fided the fact that I believed myself called to mission 
 work, and at all times I found him a safe confidential 
 adviser and a sympathetic friend. He had a thorough 
 knowledge of all literature bearing upon the subject he 
 taught so many years in Evanston. 
 
 " He was a good financier, and the Garrett Biblical 
 Institute owes much to his wise management in this re- 
 spect. 
 
 " He was a good administrator, and while always genial 
 and kind commanded that respect which insured obedi- 
 dience." 
 
 " My memories of Dr. Kidder, dating back to my first 
 acquaintance with him, are clear, vivid, and, I trust, per- 
 manent. Certainly there are no memories of him that I 
 should wish to forget ; they are all pleasant, and all of 
 an edifying character. When I entered Garrett Biblical 
 Institute I found Dr. Kidder the first to receive me and 
 advise me as to my best course to pursue. I think every 
 student who entered the seminary can attest this fact, 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 337 
 
 that it was from our revered and beloved Professor Kid- 
 der that we all received our first hearty welcome and our 
 first valuable suggestions, and subsequent instructions, 
 regarding our course of study as well as our plan of life." 
 
 " There were no compromises with negligence on the 
 part of a student, and absolutely only true merit availed 
 anything in the classes of which he had charge. Know- 
 ing this, the students always had a high motive for 
 study. 
 
 " He lived for genuineness, usefulness, not the imag- 
 inary, but some tangible good." 
 
 " I knew him in 1859-60. We students were a rough 
 set of diamonds, and, whether of the ' first water ' or 
 not, we needed the polish Dr. Kidder was eminently 
 fitted to give. Whether in his hospitable home, or rid- 
 ing on his horse up to the old institute building, or sit- 
 ting in his chair before us as teacher, he was always the 
 same faultless and lovable man." 
 
 " He hated shams, and fearlessly denounced wrong of 
 every kind. In more instances than one he rebuked 
 conduct in students which he felt was unministerial or 
 ungentlemanly, but in such a way as not to incur 
 enmity. 
 
 " He was also quite ready to notice and to commend 
 excellences which he discovered in men, and to use them 
 to good effect as occasion offered. As a particular 
 friend to the married students who were struggling 
 along financially, or who had sickness in their families, 
 his kindly deeds will long be remembered. He went 
 about doing good. 
 22 
 
338 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 " He was a man of great dignity of bearing, which was 
 sometimes interpreted as egotism. This impression soon 
 disappeared upon closer acquaintance. 
 
 " He was never so reserved or so much occupied that 
 he could not courteously and kindly listen to any appeal 
 for assistance made by any of his students, whether 
 relating to books, to preaching, or to financial mat- 
 ters. 
 
 "He was very careful not to overencourage ambition 
 in students when he felt that there was a lack of capacity 
 behind the ambition, but instead of discouraging one he 
 would suggest such lines of procedure as he felt assured 
 were safe to follow, and by such advice many men have 
 succeeded fairly well who by adopting the other course 
 might have ignominiously failed. 
 
 " There is no doubt that Dr. Kidder had the most 
 intense hatred of rum and tobacco, as every class under 
 him can testify. 
 
 " I well remember a day when the class waited in ex- 
 pectant silence for some startling revelation, as indi- 
 cated by his face soon after he entered the room. 
 
 " He laid down his usual armful of reference books, 
 arranged and rearranged them on the table before him, 
 adjusted his glasses, looked up at the class and then 
 down again upon the table, drew out his handkerchief, 
 suppressed a slight cough, arose and opened the window 
 as though suffocated with impure air, and began his re- 
 marks to the class with an apology for taking the time 
 of the class, and proceeded to give a dissertation upon 
 the filthy use of tobacco, finally startling the class, 
 especially those nearest to him, by the remark : ' My ol- 
 factory nerve is so extremely sensitive that I detected 
 the presence of tobacco almost as soon as I entered the 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 339 
 
 class room, and it is now so very near me as to be posi- 
 tively offensive.' 
 
 " Then followed a kindly exhortation to the brethren 
 to repent and sin no more, intimating that he could 
 never conscientiously recommend to any position any 
 brother who was addicted to the habit of using tobacco. 
 There would be but two or three perhaps in a whole 
 class of thirtj' who had previously acquired the habit, 
 and to their credit be it said that most of them aban- 
 doned the habit before graduating from the seminary." 
 
340 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 Words ftom the Students. 
 
 " l\TO man I ever have met impressed himself more 
 ^ ^ fully upon my life than Dr. Kidder. His influence 
 was gentle and kind, and yet very deep. No man in his 
 generation did more to elevate and ennoble the ministry 
 than did he." 
 
 " It was especially difficult for me to build the out- 
 line of a sermon, so when we came to that part of homi- 
 letics I asked him to allow me to continue submitting 
 outlines to him for correction, and he did. On one out- 
 line he wrote : ' You show marked improvement ; this is 
 as good as any you have made.' I was much pleased, 
 but in a few days he wrote on another outline : ' Any 
 verse in the Bible would have fitted this sermon as well 
 as the one you have used.' This brought me down to 
 my level again. 
 
 " He, however, gave me a good outline for the text I 
 had used, which proved very helpful. 
 
 " I could not help but notice how perfectly self-pos- 
 sessed he always was. In the winter of '74 and '75, I 
 
 think Dr. M was pastor of the Methodist Episcopal 
 
 church in Morristown. There was a great revival in 
 progress. Some of us students went up to hear the 
 doctor preach one Sunday A. M. Dr. Kidder was in 
 the congregation. During the singing of the first hymn 
 the pastor spied him, and coming to his pew invited him 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 341 
 
 into the pulpit. Dr. Kidder offered the prayer, the 
 pastor read a Scripture lesson, and after the second hymn 
 announced that owing to the fact that he felt himself 
 greatly weakened, having spent the previous night in 
 prayer, he had asked Dr. Kidder to preach in his place. 
 
 " The doctor then arose, and without one word of 
 apology or explanation, delivered a most masterly ser- 
 mon, full of historical facts and dates, as well as numer- 
 ous quotations of poetry. 
 
 " It was a marvel to us all how he could have done it, 
 not having any manuscript with him and no warning 
 that he was to preach." 
 
 " Dr. Kidder took me often into his own home, 
 showed me the consideration which won my lasting 
 gratitude, and inspired me with confidence that patient 
 fidelity to duty would compel success. 
 
 " I came to admire him for the versatility of his tal- 
 ent and the thorough consecration of his life. Nothing 
 which he undertook was slighted, but he did honest, 
 thorough work in a very wide range of service. To have 
 known him and loved him, I prize among the treasures 
 of memory." 
 
 " He was untiring in his efforts for the welfare of the 
 students while under his care, and none the less inter- 
 ested in their success in the work after leaving the 
 school. 
 
 " He set in motion influences for good which are des- 
 tined to live for all time and bear much fruit in eternity." 
 
 " During my student days it was my privilege to enjoy 
 a more than ordinary degree of intimacy with Dr. Kidder. 
 
342 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 On my arrival in the country he had been kind enough 
 to receive me into his house and treat me as a member 
 of his family. I had become much attached to him, and 
 felt very thankful for the kind consideration and Chris- 
 tian courtesy with which he always treated me. Some 
 of the best lessons of my life I learned while in his 
 society. One was to utilize time and so systematize my 
 life as to make the most of the opportunities granted me. 
 " Dr. Kidder took a warm interest in those who were 
 preparing for work in the mission fields. Missionaries 
 in many lands have reason to remember with gratitude 
 the sympathy and help received from him." 
 
 " I wrote a letter to Dr. Kidder telling him my wish 
 to be a student at Evanston, to prepare for the ministry. 
 He sent me a kind reply, encouraging me in my purpose. 
 
 *' When I met him he made me very welcome. He 
 always had a pleasant word of recognition for the young- 
 est student. 
 
 " He was very particular about etiquette — but he had 
 reason to call attention to the subject in those days— and 
 yet his reminders were administered without hurting any- 
 body's feelings." 
 
 " It was my pleasure to recite to Dr. Kidder for two 
 years— the last he spent at Drew. He was a friend to 
 all the boys, and specially so to those who found it 
 necessary to borrow money with which to complete their 
 course." 
 
 " I have the recollection or the impression of a man 
 with a kind heart and much interested in the welfare of 
 the students. 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 343 
 
 " He was in the best sense of the word ' a man of the 
 world,' and his hints and suggestions were of much value 
 to young men who had not seen much of life. He lived 
 so completely by method, that 1 doubt whether he ever 
 did an uncharacteristic thing in his life," 
 
 " I sometimes found myself approaching him timidly, 
 and was invariably put at ease as soon as I began to 
 speak to him. He was emphatically the students' friend, 
 and his influence gave shape and character to the lives of 
 many under his charge. I cannot express the reverence 
 which I now feel toward him." 
 
 " He took a special interest in students from foreign 
 countries, inviting them to his house during the Christ- 
 mas vacation, and trying to make their stay in the semi- 
 nary as pleasant as possible. I have received many acts 
 of kindness from him which I can never forget." 
 
 " I hold Dr. Kidder next to my own father as a teacher 
 and friend. My acquaintance with him began when I 
 entered Drew. In the summer he was forced to exchange 
 residences with the president of the seminary. But he 
 quietly and gracefully submitted. 
 
 " I was at the seminary without any apparent way of 
 meeting the expenses of further schooling, and in no 
 small distress over the fact, and he at once entered into 
 a series of plans and operations which completely relieved 
 me of all embarrassment. 
 
 " Three marked characteristics of Dr. Kidder were 
 especially impressed upon my mind : i. His patient, for- 
 giving spirit. 2. His painstaking industry. 3. His re- 
 markable conscientiousness. 
 
344 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 " The first was most conspicuous in the above-men- 
 tioned exchange of houses. The good doctor, without a 
 murmur, to my knowledge, stepped down and out. Not 
 only was he patient, but he was forgiving and obedient 
 to the dominant party, for all the next year, if not longer, 
 he did gratuitously the seminary correspondence which 
 belonged to the president. 
 
 " With reference to his industry it may safely be said 
 that scarce ever was Dr. Kidder seen but he was either 
 on his way to work or hard at it. When he took special 
 exercise, which was almost daily, it was usually in some 
 garden or household toil. 
 
 " The secret of Dr. Kidder's excellences, I think, lay in 
 his remarkable conscientiousness. All he did was just as 
 near right as he could do it. So prominent was his con- 
 scientiousness that it overflowed into conscientiousness 
 for others. 1 once wrote and handed him a caustic essay 
 on hypocrisy. He suggested that it might be taken as 
 vindictive, and that I had better tone it down. My chum 
 had an ungainly swing in his walk. The conscientious 
 doctor called him aside one day and so explained and 
 illustrated that my chum was cured instantly. Who 
 would not have been horrified to have seen the dignified 
 Dr. Kidder affecting awkwardness? Chum said it nearly 
 killed him. But since he only had to take one dose he 
 survived and has ever since been the better for it. Dr. 
 Kidder had withering sarcasm when perfectly proper for 
 faults, but never for people. Surely, no one ever heard 
 him denounce any person, living or dead. 
 
 " Dr. Kidder was a good, cheerful, thoughtful, un- 
 selfish, zealous, friendly man of God. His memory to 
 to me is fragrant and ennobling." 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 345 
 
 " His life was eminently serviceable to his Church and 
 his generation, and not the least part of that service was 
 the merit and sincerity of his Christian character. He 
 was never at his best in his service at Drew. There was 
 too much of the administrative work put upon him in 
 the absence of the president." 
 
 " Dr. Kidder was the most considerate, inspiring, and 
 delightfully remembered instructor of all my early 
 years. I always found him the same cheerful, noble- 
 spirited follower of his Master." 
 
 "He always set before his class a higher standard than 
 that of becoming learned pedants. He sought rather to 
 impress upon them a high ideal of manhood. The stu- 
 dents always believed in him — to them he was the imper- 
 sonation of a true man. His instruction was a benefit, 
 his example an incentive, his approval a benediction, and 
 his memory a delight." 
 
 "My student life at Drew Seminary, as I look back 
 upon it to-day, is a picture of beauty and happiness. 
 My life there was an ideal one, and Dr. Kidder helped to 
 make such a life a blessed reality. He has enlarged and 
 ennobled my life, and I bless God that it has been my 
 great privilege to sit at the feet of this beloved teacher 
 of Drew." 
 
 " It seems to me that too much stress cannot be laid 
 upon the fact that for the truest Christian courtesy Dr. 
 Kidder was justly noted. It was not the courtesy which 
 so often passes current for that grace — not the veneer 
 which comes of familiarity with artificial rules of eti- 
 
346 BIOGRPAHY OF 
 
 quette — but a profound consideration or considerateness 
 of others, in which alone true courtesy consists. 
 
 " I cherish his memory as of one who impressed me 
 with his sterling goodness of heart as well as his great 
 intellectual balance." 
 
 " Dr. Kidder was ever on the watch for opportunities 
 by which he might secure the interests of the Church. 
 My own case is in point. I was employed in a store in 
 Pittsburg. At one time Dr. Kidder made a brief visit 
 to the family of my employer, a former New York 
 friend. I was present. By my name he recognized a 
 former Conference relationship with my father. 
 
 " Soon he had drawn from me a sketch of my life, 
 and learned my convictions of duty concerning the min- 
 istry. 
 
 " His kindly spoken truth and exhortation fell as 
 from heaven upon my heart, and I was moved to prom- 
 ise that if any way should open before me to the minis- 
 try of the Church, I would look to God for help to enter 
 the open door. The door opened in due time, and Dr. 
 Kidder presented the offer by which I was enabled to 
 begin a course of study at Garrett Biblical Institute. 
 
 " I will ever remember his words of encouragement 
 and his wise suggestions as I toiled for success, and my 
 thankfulness is ever alive with praise to God that a com- 
 pletion of the courses of study was at last chosen instead 
 of the partial course which had been thought of. 
 
 " In my humble opinion the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church never had among her sons and fathers a more 
 diligent and sincerely devoted servant, or one who with 
 more of uniformity secured the success of the interests 
 of the Church which were committed to his care. In all 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 347 
 
 his career he gave greater prominence to his work than 
 to the workman, so that while his work has ever been 
 most valuable for the welfare of the Church, the man 
 himself has to a very great degree been hidden from 
 sight. 
 
 " I wish not to accuse the Church of unworthy par- 
 tiality for more highly favored men, but yet I think that 
 careful consideration of his life and service will show 
 that none have been more worthy of honor and praise, 
 and also that few have toiled on to the last with more 
 heroic consecration to the work at hand, unaffected by 
 the fortunes of honor and praise. And yet I cannot but 
 think that the worth of Dr. Kidder has not been appro- 
 priately appreciated by the Church to which he gave the 
 toil of a long and useful life." 
 
 " He took great delight in aiding any student in his 
 work who showed any appreciation of such help, and he 
 possessed remarkable facilities for doing so, far beyond 
 what anyone had any idea of who neglected to avail 
 themselves of his assistance. 
 
 " He was always ready to preach for the students at 
 their appointments, and his sermons were always in- 
 teresting, and often wonderfully comforting and in- 
 spiring. 
 
 " He preached a sermon for me from the text, ' But 
 now we see through a glass darkly,' etc. I shall always 
 remember it, and it is talked of to this day by the people 
 who heard it." 
 
 " One year after I had graduated from Garrett Biblical 
 Institute, and had joined Conference, Dr. Kidder visited 
 our Conference and was taken very ill. 
 
348 • BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 " When the news reached me I went to his room, 
 found him very sick, but quiet and restful in spirit. 
 
 " After other friends had left I remained with him for 
 some time, during which he experienced another and 
 severer attack of the disease, and seemed for a few min- 
 utes to be sinking. 
 
 " When, in response to his request to raise his head 
 from the pillow, he whispered, ' If I should go now all is 
 well,' this gave me anew the assurance that his life 
 was always witnessing that he lived ready to depart and 
 be with Christ." 
 
 " As a humble but heartfelt tribute to the memory 
 of Dr. Kidder, permit me to say that the blessed 
 fruitage of his pure, thoughtful, methodical, and conse- 
 crated Christian life will abide and increase, and never 
 be fully measured until the great day of God's final 
 reckoning. The two years at Evanston under his tuition 
 will ever remain in memory as the most sacred and help- 
 ful of all my life." 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 349 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 At the Last. 
 
 pvR. KIDDER, seeing that bis work was done, that 
 '-^ he must pass the remainder of his days, be they 
 many or few, in retirement, yielded reluctantly, although 
 gracefully, but not until he had put in one more stroke 
 on the side of good works. His library, after certain 
 selections had been reserved, he gave — in number about 
 two thousand volumes — to the Gammon School of The- 
 ology at Atlanta, Ga. There was also a large number of 
 valuable pamphlets. 
 
 After several attempts at restoration by repairing to 
 health resorts, he concluded, in the fall of 1887, to make 
 his home in Evanston. Here reminiscence would itself 
 be like a bracing atmosphere, and here even after nearly 
 a score of years there survived many of the friends of the 
 early and heroic days. The local paper noticed his 
 arrival in these words : 
 
 " Dr.and Mrs. Kidder have come back to Evanston, and 
 we hope to claim them long as neighbors in the growing 
 suburban city that was but a hamlet when they knew it 
 first, and owes to them as much, certainly, as to any 
 other single force, the more celestial aspects of its life." 
 
 Although he had withdrawn from the field of his hon- 
 orable activities, and could lay no claim by his services 
 to the contemporaneous notice of his Church, yet he was 
 not forgotten. The General Conference of 1888 made 
 him Honorary Secretary of the Board of Education. His 
 
350 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 brethren, too, in one way and another gave him evidence 
 of their unfailing and grateful recollection. Dr. Merrick, 
 of Delaware, O., who had known him ever since the 
 days at Amenia, wrote : " There comes to me in these 
 days a wonderful I'eviving of early friendships. Toward 
 yourself and your dear companion I feel especially 
 drawn. 
 
 " The good Father may see it to be best that we be 
 called aside for a time from our ordinary vocations that 
 we may give the more thought to whatever of further 
 preparation may be needful to fit us for our new and 
 higher mode of being. I trust we shall all sweetly ac- 
 quiesce in whatever he appoints, assured, as we must be, 
 that he doeth all things well." 
 
 Rev. Dr. R. S. Maclay, first Superintendent of the Mis- 
 sion to China, wrote : " You were so intimately associ- 
 ated with the establishment of our China Mission, and 
 have always taken such a deep interest in the entire 
 work of our foreign missions, that your absence from 805 
 Broadway is especially noticed and regretted by all who, 
 Hke myself, have had the pleasure of being associated, in 
 any capacity, with you during past years. 
 
 " Your career has been an honor to the Church and 
 highly creditable to yourself. You have faithfully dis- 
 charged the duties of every position in which you have 
 been placed. You have never shirked hard work or failed 
 in the hour of trial. The Church has trusted you and 
 has never been disappointed. I am thankful that it is 
 your privilege to pass the evening of life free from 
 anxiety and care in the scene of some of your important 
 labors — a place where you are known and loved. May 
 God be very gracious to you, and crown you at last in 
 his glorious kingdom ! " 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 351 
 
 The following telegram was sent to him from Mil- 
 waukee, Wis. : 
 
 " The Sunday School Union and Tract Society, in joint 
 anniversary assembled, send to the first Corresponding 
 Secretary of the Union hearty greetings, and the expres-. 
 sion of their desire that God may grant him in his retire- 
 ment from active life a continuance of divine favor and 
 of spiritual strength." 
 
 The New Jersey Conference, through a committee, 
 addressed to him a letter containing these among other 
 loving words : 
 
 " We recall with great pleasure the years when you 
 were with us in full strength. And we count it no small 
 honor to have had you associated with us in Conference 
 relations. 
 
 " We are persuaded that your dilligent hand set in 
 motion waves of influence, which have already contrib- 
 uted greatly to the upbuilding of the Church of our 
 mutual choice and fellowship." 
 
 The students in alumni meetings, and in personal let- 
 ters, addressed to him words of affection and expressive 
 of their lasting appreciation. 
 
 The following item appeared in the New York 
 Advocate : 
 
 " The Rev. Dr. D. P. Kidder will be seventy-five 
 years old on Saturday, October 18, 1890. His vast num- 
 ber of friends and former pupils will be glad to know 
 that his mind is clear and active, that he attends religious 
 meetings, visits friends, enjoys his letters, and is looking 
 serenely forward to the final ' welcome home.' " 
 
 This brief passage stirred up tender messages by tele- 
 gram and letter from far and near. 
 
 Comforting, however, and helpful as these communica- 
 
352 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 tions were, his greatest and his unfailing consolations 
 were, as might be supposed, in spiritual sources. 
 Anything concerning religion and his Church roused 
 and interested him. The weekly visit of the Advocate 
 was eagerly looked for. Until his last illness he never 
 missed his attendance at the church and prayer meeting. 
 
 He was attentive, as heretofore, to his religious growth, 
 and was careful not to decline in spiritual strength. His 
 inner life and ruling thought appear in this covenant and 
 prayer, written at this time and found among his papers 
 after his death : 
 
 " O, infinitely great and glorious Lord God, my Maker, 
 Preserver, and almighty Friend, condescend for the sake 
 of my great Advocate and Mediator, the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, to accept a renewed consecration of my soul and 
 body to thee and thy service. 
 
 " In new circumstances of great trial and affliction, I 
 feel more than ever my need of mercy and spiritual man- 
 ifestation from thee, and also a pressure of obligation to 
 be more watchful, prayerful, and believing. I specially 
 feel the need of all those gifts of the divine favor by 
 which my heart may be wholly purified and sanctified. I 
 therefore pray for the baptism of the Holy Ghost in ac- 
 cordance with the provisions of thy grace and the high 
 privilege of thy people. To this end I pledge increased 
 supplication, earnest pleading, and corresponding efforts 
 of faith, to take thee at thy word and rely calmly and 
 confidently on thy promises. In this I plead for help 
 that I may pray aright and be fully prepared by divine 
 influence and grace to rise above all temptation and sin- 
 ful proclivity, and thus to be placed in the position of a 
 truly penitent seeker of the highest gift designed by God 
 for humanity, but which is only to be found at the Re- 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 353 
 
 deemer's feet. I therefore humble myself beneath thy 
 mighty hand, that thou mayest raise me up. Let there- 
 fore thy blessing come to me speedily in that form which 
 thou seest will be best. Let me more clearly perceive 
 thesupreme excellency of my Saviour's character and aton- 
 ing merit, and let my love to him glow with a warmer 
 and purer flame. Let my sense of contrition for past 
 neglects in the religious life be more intense, and my 
 purpose to be faithful and obedient be more unwavering. 
 Also I pray that my faith may be clear and scriptural, 
 bringing the merits of my Saviour home to my soul in 
 continual appreciation and unswerving reliance. While, 
 therefore, I renounce all trust in myself, or anything that 
 I can do, I claim with all my heart the benefits of his 
 saving grace and promised intercession. So may I live 
 that he may be within me continually the hope of glory, 
 and that the Holy Ghost may occupy my body and 
 spirit as his living temple. To this end may every evil 
 thought be excluded, and every right and pure affection 
 be exalted, and may the hallowing influence of divine 
 power be felt in every faculty of my soul ! Inspire and 
 then answer my fervent and believing prayers. Thus 
 may I speedily attain to all the mind that was in Christ 
 Jesus my Lord, and may my soul, body, and spirit be 
 made and kept blameless until transferred to the home 
 of the glorified in the heavenly world. Amen." 
 
 Nothing so interested him as the Bible. He never 
 tired of reading it or of having it read. It was the book 
 he wanted first and last. Often, when his wife was read- 
 ing some other book, he would say, " Now let us have a 
 little more of the Bible." Many portions of Scripture 
 he repeated in the intervals of reading and in sleepless 
 hours of the night. 
 23 
 
354 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 He had made it a practice all his life to commit 
 Scripture to memory, and it was always a feature of the 
 evening family devotions in his house that each one 
 present should say a passage from the Bible, so that 
 now in this period when especially the word of the Lord 
 was precious to him he was never without his portion of 
 daily manna. Traveling, as he was, through the wil- 
 derness, it was his solace to live by every word that pro- 
 ceeded out of the mouth of God. 
 
 As his strength failed there were chapters that he 
 could recall only in part, and he would ask that they be 
 read over to him. 
 
 Thus passed away four uneventful but gently ripening 
 years. He had very little acute suffering. Much of the 
 time he was unable to read for himself, but listened to 
 reading with the same pleasure as in his more vigorous 
 days. This duty of reading to him fell in the main to 
 Mrs. Kidder. Her tender, strong, patient, and tireless 
 spirit was an unfailing support and an unfading cheer as 
 weakness fell on him and dimness gathered about him. 
 His decline was so gradual that the change could scarcely 
 be recognized, and even in the last two weeks, when con- 
 fined to his bed, he seemed like one quietly going to 
 sleep, till finally there was no awakening after midnight, 
 July 29, 1891. 
 
 The funeral services were held at the family residence, 
 418 University Place, on Friday afternoon, July 31. 
 
 Dr. W. S. Studley and Dr. Miner Raymond read ap- 
 propriate passages of Scripture, after which Dr. Sylvester 
 F. Jones delivered a few remarks relating to Dr. Kidder's 
 later years. He said in part : " His was an old age 
 crowned with glory and honor, and cannot fail to win 
 the admiration of all. His character was the outcome of 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 355 
 
 heroic toil and endeavor. He was always in his accus- 
 tomed place in the sanctuary when his health permitted. 
 The energetic persistence of his spirit continued to 
 be the distinguishing feature of his life to the end. The 
 most beautiful thing in this world is a serene, pure, godly, 
 and saintly old age. God keeps old people here below 
 to let their light shine. Shining is being, not doing ; 
 it is character, not reputation. They shine in the ripe- 
 ness of their wisdom, in the light of past achievements, 
 in glory and honor attained, and in good works done and 
 registered among men. There is not a cry so glad, a 
 shout so joyous, as the ecstatic heartbeat of a soul as it 
 leaps across the threshold of heaven. Such was the 
 peaceful and triumphant death of Dr. Kidder." At the 
 close Rev. Dr. Boring offered prayer. The interment 
 was in Rose Hill Cemetery, near Evanston. 
 
 The news of his departure called forth from the press 
 of the Church and the country generous comments, with 
 summaries of his life. The religious papers, particularly 
 of his own denomination, discussed his character and 
 work in appreciative editorials, and all the organizations 
 of which he had been a part passed resolutions express- 
 ive of their estimate of the value of his services. The 
 Board of Education put on record the following : " Dr. 
 Kidder found the affairs of this Board in disorder, and he 
 immediately reduced them to form and efficiency. It 
 may be safely said that his wise, careful, and prompt ad- 
 ministration of the secretaryship laid the foundation of 
 the present increasing growth and usefulness of the 
 Board. He was a man of God, a sincere philanthropist, 
 an unfailing friend of children and youth." 
 
 Dr. H. B. Ridgaway, President of the Garrett Biblical 
 Institute, wrote : " It has fallen to few men to have 
 
35*5 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 lived so usefully, to have been connected so long a time 
 and in so many ways with great movements calculated 
 to advance the kingdom of God. When a young man 
 he helped to mold the minds of children and youth ; 
 then in his middle life he assisted in fashioning the young 
 ministers of our Church, and later on he was called to 
 give system and effectiveness to our Board of Education. 
 He has gone, and his works do follow him. A wise and 
 good man, full of faith and the Holy Ghost." 
 
 Bishop Vincent sent this tribute : " Dr. Kidder was 
 an early and faithful friend of mine, giving me wise 
 counsel in the very beginning of my ministry, and always 
 taking an interest in my work and success. He was al- 
 ways kind and candid as a brother, and I had great con- 
 fidence in his judgment. Dr. Kidder was a man of lofty 
 ideals, of calmness and dignity, ofsincerity and consistency. 
 He was a success in every position to which the Church 
 called him, and his contributions to the cause of minis- 
 terial education should never be forgotten by Methodists. 
 
 " In Sunday school work he had foresight and com- 
 mon sense. His organizing power was displayed in his 
 early efforts in behalf of the Sunday School Union of 
 our Church. He was a quiet and humble Christian, very 
 wise in speech, cautious, and full of kindness." 
 
 The allusion in this letter to the Sunday school cause 
 recalls an interesting and impressive incident, namely, 
 that during the very month in which Dr. Kidder passed 
 away the Sunday School Union received a donation of 
 $25,000— the largest gift at one time in its history. A 
 hint this was, nay more, an assurance, that the cause to 
 which he had given so large a share of his best years, 
 was not only to remain a permanent department of be- 
 neficence in the Church, but was to continue in a man- 
 
DANIEL PARISH KIDDER. 357 
 
 ner yet more marked in its career of expansion and 
 power. 
 
 Some given to tracing such coincidences would pause 
 to note that the very page of the New York Advocate 
 which pubHshed with comments the first news of tliis 
 phenomenal gift, contained in the same column an edi- 
 torial upon Dr. Kidder. As this was the first periodical 
 which gave encouragement to the doctor's fruitful pen, 
 the fitness of quoting a part of this editorial as the final 
 word will be readily apparent : 
 
 " Dr. Kidder was an indomitable worker. It may 
 be said of him truthfully that he filled five distinct 
 spheres with general efficiency — missionary, pastor, 
 Sunday School Union secretary, theological professor, 
 and educational secretary. 
 
 " No one ever heard of his doing or saying anything 
 inconsistent with his moral character and religious pro- 
 fession. 
 
 " He belonged to the class of men always laying founda- 
 tions, working by a plan, and as sailors say, sailing with 
 an even keel. If nothing starthng was to be expected 
 from him, everything solid grew under his busy trowel. 
 He deserved well of his age, and received high honor 
 from it. The work of his hands has been established, 
 and everything that he ever touched in this country is 
 strong and still growing." 
 
 The End. 
 
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