w $$& £ flu Wvco%,- a/ » f %>, *»* ft PRINCETON, N. J i&jenfea SOS 7 .SS^.. Divis Scctic Number With the Compliments of WILLIAM HAGUE'S CHILDREN AND OF THE AUTHOR Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library http://www.archive.org/details/discourseinmemorOOsmit DISCOURSE IN MEMORY OF WILLIAM HAGUE REV. S. F. SMITH D.D. BOSTON LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS 10 MILK STREET 1889 Boston Baptist Ministers' Conference, Tremont Temple, April 30, 1888. To Bev. S. F. Smith, D.D. : — My dear Sir, — The following Besolution, presented by Bev. C. H. Spalding, D.D., was unanimously adopted by the Conference : — " Resolved, That our thanks are due, and are hereby tendered, to Bev. S. F. Smith, D.D., for his able and appreciative eulogy on Bev. William Hague, D.D., delivered before us on the morning of April 16th; and we express the hope that the eulogy may be published as a worthy memorial of Dr. Hague." For the Conference, Bespectfully yours, WILLIAM O. AYEB, Secretary. MEMORIAL DISCOURSE It is a graceful act to commit to permanent record the memory of those who have been influential factors in the history of their times. Those who survive such persons are bound so to perpetuate the good work they have done. For every age belongs to every following age; and that which is great and good in every age is a contribution to the greatness and goodness of all the ages which come after. Even the most obscure lives leave an impress which is long in fading out from the lives of their succes- sors; how much more, those whose force and conspicuity have made them known to all men. The memoir of the life of Dr. Hague is rich and inter- esting, because his life touched many other lives at many points. His individual history is, to a certain extent, the history of his time. Events pertaining to his personality have, by a wide sweep, pertained to the record of his age, and of the Christian denomination of which he was a part, and to which his life is both a treasure and an honor. William Hague was born Jan. 4, 1808, in Pelham, 6 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. Westchester county, in the vicinity of New York city. His antecedents brought him into connection both with the Huguenots of France and the sturdy Presbyterians of England in the period of Oliver Cromwell. His grandfather, Rev. William Hague, was pastor for sixty years of the Baptist church in Scarborough, England. His father, Mr. James Hague, was captain of a vessel sailing from this country to the East Indies, from about the beginning of the present century. He became inter- ested in the English Baptist missions in Serampore and Calcutta, spending a portion of his Sabbaths in Seram- pore, and putting his hired house in Calcutta at the service of the celebrated missionary, Dr. Carey. The arrivals of Capt. Hague in New York were hailed with lively interest by the leading members of the Baptist church in Oliver-street, as an opportunity of learning of the progress of the mission, and of hearing details of the work, supplementary to the tidings received by letter. These communications, doubtless, proved to be a fruitful seed of the interest in missions ever cherished by the Baptists in New York, and since diffused throughout the United States. In the year 1813, at five years of age, the boy was placed for a season in a school in New Canaan, Conn., in company with a dozen boys, all from New York. Here he received the first rudiments of school education. In 1816, the household having removed to New York MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 7 city, he became a member of a school of more advanced character. Here the older pupils were fitted for college ; and here one of his fellow-pupils, always absorbed in study, and always foremost in rank, was William R. Williams, the son of his pastor, Rev. John Williams, of the Oliver-street church, and since, for many years, one of the most distinguished ministers of the Baptist denom- ination. After completing the course of study at this school, in 1820, he was still too young to enter with ad- vantage on a college curriculum; and his father, who was a man of much practical wisdom, marked out for him a course of training, both physical and mental, which proved to be, in all respects, most useful in its results. After ploughing the deep for a third of a century, he turned his attention to ploughing the land, and tempo- rarily hired a farm. His plan was that the young student should spend a part of his time, for the next three years, in a thorough review of his studies, and a part in the in- vigorating pursuits of agriculture; then he purposed to take him for a four months' trip to England; afterwards he was to resume his studies and carry them onward so as to be able to enter college in an advanced standing. This plan was successfully carried out. Its wisdom is, doubtless, vindicated by the long and vigorous life to which the young student subsequently attained. His fellow-pupils in school generally became students of Columbia College, New York. But young Hague was 8 MEMORIAL OP WILLIAM HAGUE. providentially induced to accompany some youthful com- panions to Hamilton College, Clinton, N.Y., which he entered in the third term of the Sophomore year. It was a year before he entered college, that he experi- enced that great change in which " old things are passed away, and all things are become new." At Paramus, where the farm leased by his father was situated, he attended the ministry of Dr. Wilhelmus Elting, pastor of the Reformed Presbyterian church. The words of this able and faithful minister of Christ brought to him effectually the message of salvation. The interesting account comes to us in Dr. Hague's own words : — On a beautiful Sunday morning in June, 1823, I entered the old Paramus Reformed Presbyterian church in a state of entire indifferent- ism as to the whole range of subjects appropriate 'to the day and the place. On that day, however, Dr. Elting was " at his best," as if under some exceptional inspiration. He drew his text from Christ's valedic- tory discourse (John xv. 23 : "If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin ; but now they have no cloak for their sin ") , and proceeded to set forth, as a characteristic of the Master's preach- ing, his method of appealing to every soul individually by a direct testi- mony, presenting himself as a Divine teacher and Saviour ; calling upon each to do one of two things : either to prove that testimony to be false, or treat it as true by a free act of choice, in a personal self-sur- render. Emphasizing that idea, he affirmed that this free act of self- surrender to Christ, in answer to his call, puts the soul into a new rela- tion to him; and, in this decisive choice, one " becomes a Christian." This act of faith on the part of the soul is just as intelligible, just as MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 9 simple, as was the poor leper's act of faith in regard to his body (Matt, viii. 1-3), placing it before Christ for healing, and thus coming at once into the new relation of a patient to the Divine Physician. There is no puzzling mysticism here. Did not that sick man act rationally? AVould you not have gladly done as he did, under like circumstances? In offering one's own soul to Christ, responsive to his invitation, the intellect, heart, and conscience act in unity, freely yielding to the high- est possible motive of action, namely, the loving appeal of the Saviour in "laying down his life,' of himself," a sacrifice for us; as he did, when he let sin have its own way in putting him to death on the cross of Calvary, and thus showed forth " the exceeding sinfulness of sin" in man, when left to act itself out according to its essential nature. Now, a human being, conscious of sin, accepting him as the self-sacrificing Son of God, having, as he proclaimed, " power on earth to forgive sin," in that veiy act joins with Jesus in " condemning sin" (as Paul's ex- pression is in Rom. viii. 3), rejects at once all other sacrifices or offer- ings of merit in the way of atonement, enters into a new relation with God, based upon a new groundwork of present acceptance ; and so, by this act of faith, or sympathetic union with Christ, becomes identified with him in the realization of "eternal life," through and with him, " the heir of all things." This change of relation is a real salvation for both worlds; because the subject of it, "having now received the atonement," recognizes within himself a grateful love to the self-sacri- ficing Redeemer, that is, of itself, a new poiver, "working in him to will and to do," and insuring ultimate victory in the long conflict with evil. In the delivery of this discourse, the doctor seemed to speak with an unwonted and touching earnestness. To one at least in that audience the Christianity of the New Testament disclosed itself in an aspect of simplicity unrecognized before, namely, a revelation of Divine love, creating a responsive love in the human soul as a new vital force, so that before the sun set on that day there was realized the consciousness 10 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. of a new love as a motive-power within, of a new relation to the king- dom of Christ on earth, and a new life-aim, that marked a turning-point of personal history. The young Christian was baptized the first Sabbath in June, 1825, in the city of New York, by Rev. Spencer H. Cone, colleague of Rev. John Williams, in the pastorate of the Oliver-street church. Mr. Hague's was the last relation of Christian experience to which the aged pastor ever listened. The interview with Mr. Williams by the young candidate for church-membership occurred on Sat- urday afternoon, at five o'clock; and at ten, on Sabbath morning, just as the worshippers were gathering in the house of prayer, the aged pastor was summoned to join f? the general assembly and church of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven." Mr. Hague's resolve to preach the gospel must have been nearly co-existent with the development of religious feeling in his soul, long before he united with the Oliver- street church. " It seemed always to be understood among us," writes his brother, " that he would be a min- ister. He was always preaching in some way, when a boy. He received almost at once, I think, his f license,' which he holds from the Oliver-street church. He was soon preaching around, and in, Hackensack, to which place the family had removed, and always when his vaca- tions permitted." And it had been the dream of his childhood that he MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 11 should some day preach the gospel. Once when he was at church with his mother in Oliver-street, New York, hearing the Rev. Mr. Williams, the little one, turning to his mother, excitedly whispered, " Mother, mother, I shall stand there and preach some day." That he should desire the ministry is not wonderful, seeing that he was always known as " a religious boy." The same brother writes of him as " a religious boy of eight years," and adds, " His character as religious was as marked at thirteen years of age as it ever was since, more developed and taught, as he grew in grace. But his sympathies and desires were with Christ and his peo- ple as far back as he was capable of thinking of these things." Before they left Hamilton College, several of the young graduates promised one another to meet again at the Theological Seminary in Princeton, in order to pursue study together with reference to the Christian ministry. After spending a year in that seminary, in accordance with that agreement, Mr. Hague providentially met in New York the late Nathaniel K. Cobb, of hallowed memory, one of the earliest patrons and friends of the Newton Theological Institution, then in its infancy. Through his influence Mr. Hague transferred his rela- tion from Princeton to Newton, where he finished his preparatory course of study in 1828. Here, under the influence of association with Francis Mason, after- 12 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. wards the honored and successful missionary to the Karens of Burma, his heart was stirred to inquire as to his personal duty to preach Christ to the heathen world. Should he give himself to the work of a Christian mis- sionary? Seeking counsel of the Mission Secretary, Dr. Bolles, he received the advice to wait a little while; and the suggestion also, that Providence would soon indicate to him a special work in the home-field, in a way that would leave him no room for hesitation as to the path of duty. While he was yet a student in the Newton Theological Institution, Mr. Hague received a call to the pastorate of the First Baptist church in Providence, which he mod- estly declined. The leadership of that large and historic church, where many persons of high intellectual training, including the officers and many of the students of Brown University, would sit at his feet for spiritual instruction, was too formidable an undertaking for a young man without experience, and whose theological views had not had sufficient time to become consolidated and mel- lowed. In such a community, a thousand difficult ques- tions would be likely to arise, giving anxiety to a young pastor. Men of years and wisdom might sometimes differ from him in judgment; and the dread of mistake or fail- ure would render him liable to commit the very mistakes which he dreaded. True, he had been the choice of the aged pastor, Dr. Gano; but that venerable man, in the MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 13 transition period between the slow and uneventful life of the old and the intense activity of the new, captivated by the eloquence of the young preacher, did not foresee the demands of such an age as was then opening. Mr. Hague was destined to hold that high position; but not yet. Instead of the First Baptist church in Providence, he became pastor of the Broad-street Baptist church in Utica, N.Y., and was ordained Oct. 20, 1829, being not much over twenty-one years old. The sermon on the occasion was preached by the revered Dr. Welch, of Albany, from the text, Acts v. 20 : " Go, stand and speak in the temple all the words of this life." A season of spiritual interest followed. Crowds attended the min- istry of the word at his lips, and thousands at a time witnessed, on the banks of the Mohawk and its tribu- taries, the baptism of rejoicing converts. The first con- vert baptized by him here was his own younger brother, afterwards the Rev. John B. Hague. His residence in Utica was a period of blessed harmony among Christians of every name, who, " walking in the fear of God and the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied." In the following year, 1830, perhaps owing to the infeli- city of his dwelling near the river, Dr. Hague's health began to be seriously impaired, and he was threatened with loss of voice. This led to the closing of his min- istry in Utica. He was invited at once to the office of 14 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. Professor of the Greek and Latin languages in George- town College, Ky. He accepted the invitation. The journey to the South, together with the change of climate, restored his vocal organs. This made him free to take up anew the work of preaching; which he did, by yield- ing to the call to become pastor of the First Baptist church in Boston. He came to Boston near the close of December, 1830, and was installed Feb. 3, 1831, — a worthy successor of the eloquent and revered Stillman, the gentle "Winchell, the massive and intellectual Wayland, and the zealous Cyrus Pitt Grosvenor. That was a transition period in the history of Boston, — the era of the opening of railroads, commercial growth and business prosperity. The air was full of excitement. Doctrinal controversies were at a white heat. People were ranging themselves with a new-born zeal on the orthodox, or the liberal, side. A few of the older genera- tion, who had heard and known Doctors Stillman and Baldwin, were still living, — a bond of connection between the then present and the past, — the exponents of the one, perhaps, inclined to be suspicious of the other. The religious activities of the new period were just starting into being. The anti-slavery agitation was gaining force, and the voices of the apostles of that reform were heard calling loudly upon the people for action. About the same time, the era of religious re-construction in the com- MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 15 munity came on ; the forces of orthodoxy and heterodoxy were marshalling themselves into distinct bodies, and the lines between faith and liberalism, which had been nearly obliterated by the theological methods of half a century, were again sharply drawn. Then, also, the influence of Mr. Emerson and his associates and followers was de- veloping itself in an idealism, which a few of his foremost admirers undertook in vain to make practical, — their experiment at Brook-farm ending, subsequently, in disas- trous failure. All this served to add to Dr. Hague's first pastorate in Boston both interest and difficulty. He was not a man of the study only. He was also a man of world-wide sympathies, mingling with the dominant forces of his times. He was on friendly and hospitable terms with the elder Dr. Beecher, Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Channing, Gannett, James Freeman Clarke, and others, both as a critic and a learner, appreciating all that was praiseworthy in them and their theories, and prompt to detect and condemn that which was mystical, unscrip- tural, and impossible; yet always with so gracious and graceful a spirit that those who differed from him still loved and honored him. The proximity of the church edifice of Mr. Emerson to his own — now both trans- ferred to other locations — brought these two young preachers often into contact in spiritual relations and official services. As men of similar age and profession they had much in common, and maintained towards each 16 MEMOKIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. other the most friendly relations. Mr. Emerson's radical ideas, however, on some theological subjects led to his withdrawal, at an early period in his pastoral service, from the pulpit and the Unitarian ministry. Mr. Hague, on the contrary, holding fast to the truths which he believed to be taught in the New Testament, and which he had espoused from the beginning, had entered upon a career which, like a star of the first magnitude, shining with a steady and assuring light, allured and guided many a weary wanderer into the paths of righteous- ness. Dr. Hague was pastor of the First Baptist church in Boston about six years. They were years of prosperity and growth. The congregation had removed from its ancient structure of wood in Salem street, honored as the sanctuary of their fathers, and reared a -new temple of brick, on the corner of Hanover and Union streets, which was thronged with attentive hearers. The older enjoyed this new era of life and prosperity. The young, particu- larly young men, were attracted by the eloquence of the youthful pastor, ever young and full of thought. They felt the magnetism of his sympathy. They accepted him, almost unconsciously, as their friend, and submitted them- selves to his guidance. The preponderance of dark male attire was a feature of his congregations. What a seed- time of good was that pastorate, whose fruit is partly still ripening, .and partly garnered ! MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 17 This brilliant and successful pastorate in Boston was terminated by a call, received by Dr. Hague, to the pulpit of the First Baptist church in Providence, in the year 1837. This church, which had desired his gifts at the beginning of his ministry, had not lost sight of him. The present invitation came to him under such circumstances as indicated to him the voice of Divine Providence, and he did not dare to decline it. His first sermon in Provi- dence, in this new relation, was preached June 25, 1837. During his ministry here, covering a period of three years, he crossed the ocean, and travelled extensively in Europe. The word preached by him was accompanied by the Divine- blessing, and many, as in the experience of his former pas- torates, were brought into the church. He won numerous friends, and added to his reputation as a faithful pastor, an instructive and eloquent preacher of righteousness. Shortly after his return from Europe, Dr. Hague was invited to the pastorate of the Federal-street Baptist church in Boston, afterwards known as the Rowe-street, and still later as the Clarendon-street church, — the growing demands of business compelling the church to be thus migratory. Dr. Hague characterized this period, and the four years following, as the period of intellectual awakening in Boston, leading preeminently to religious and philosophical inquiry. It was also a remarkable era of attention to the claims of personal religion, and " mul- titudes were added to the Lord." Day after day hun- 18 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. dreds flocked to the house of prayer, and many of them found it " the gate of heaven." During this period an interest in Christian doctrine and the plan of salvation through the atonement was awakened in Boston, which was altogether unexampled. The Rev. Dr. Gannett, the colleague and successor of Dr. Channing, — whose church was then in Federal-street, a stone's-throw distant from that of Dr. Hague, : — an- nounced from his pulpit his purpose to deliver a course of six lectures on " Christ and Christianity," on succes- sive Sabbath evenings. He said the Liberal pulpit for twenty years had been devoted chiefly to ethical teaching, so that a new generation had grown up, scarcely know- ing what to believe. These lectures excited the most lively interest in people hungry for truth suited to satisfy the wants of the human soul. Congregations of atten- tive listeners thronged the spacious church, filling even the galleries and aisles half an hour or more before the set time of service, and coming from every part of the city and vicinity. The first sermon, on the subject "Who was Christ?" was two hours in the delivery; yet none thought it too long. By a divinely ordered co-inci- dence of thought, Dr. Hague had been led, just at this time, to prepare a similar series of four sermons, which was already completed, and ready for delivery, when Dr. Gannett gave notice of his intended course. Dr. Hague delayed his series until Dr. Gannett's was concluded; and MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 19 then immediately followed on, while the public ear was still opened ; giving, under the identical title, " Christ and Christianity," — which he had selected and determined upon before Dr. Gannett's announcement, — a thorough exposition of the doctrine of " Christ and him crucified," setting forth clearly the atonement as the centre and core of Christianity. The series of sermons by Dr. Gannett had happily prepared the way. The church at every ser- vice was thronged long before the hour appointed, and in large proportion by the same audience which had attended the preceding course. " It was an inspiring assemblage," said Dr. Hague, " a marvellous scene, — this continuous flowing together of thinking men, social and denominational leaders mingling with younger classes of earnest listeners, all alike welcoming the most free and direct discussion of the central doctrines of Christian- ity. The like of it had never before been seen in Boston. And it has been truly said, perhaps, that the like of it has not been seen since, and may never occur again. The incidental talk of the streets took its tone quite notably from the themes of the pulpits, exceptionally free from the traditional harshness of theological controversy." Dr. Hague remained in the pastorate of the Baptist church in Federal-street nearly seven years, honored, beloved, and successful. During the latter portion of this period, the demands of business made serious encroach- ments on the locality of the church edifice, once sur- 20 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. rounded only by peaceful family homes. A committee was appointed by the church and society to select a new location, less objectionable on this account, and where it might seem probable that for many years the people, and, perhaps, their children and their children's children, would meet together to worship God. The place selected was on the corner of Kowe and Bedford-streets, from which the church acquired its new name, — the Rowe- street church. Here was erected — the pastorate of Dr. Hague, continuing till after the edifice was completed and dedicated, — a beautiful Gothic structure, of brown freestone, now, alas ! no more, but succeeded by the ele- gant brick church in Clarendon street. The Rowe-street edifice, whose entire ecclesiastical lifetime extended only to a period of about twenty years, was, for a season, de- voted to business purposes and then demolished, and the materials employed in the construction of the Episcopal church in Auburndale, Newton. The pastorate of Dr. Hague over the Federal-street church was followed by his removal to Jamaica Plain, Mass., where he remained for two years. Here, settled over an affectionate and appreciative congregation, by his persistent industry he found time to add to the labors of the ministry an official interest in the editorial depart- ment of " The Watchman," which required weekly con- tributions from his pen. Thus he widened indefinitely the sphere of his consecrated influence. MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 21 From Jamaica Plain he removed to Newark, N.J., in April, 1850, at the beginning of that wonderful era of church-growth and colonization in that city which has made Newark everywhere a name and a praise; and of which, it is not unfitting to say, Dr. Hague's eloquent ministry was the stimulus and moving cause. Mission after mission was originated during his ministry here of nearly four years, and nurtured into a vigorous life, ripening, in due time, into prosperous churches. One notable characteristic of his career, as illustrated both in Newark and New York, and elsewhere, was his activity in building up churches, and developing and perfecting new church organizations. Indeed, his ser- vices were repeatedly sought for special emergencies, and in many places for the performance of work in which he was peculiarly fitted to succeed. The experiment of these years in Newark proved that the climate of this part of New Jersey was unfavorable to the health of his family; and, resigning his pastorate in that city, Dr. Hague accepted a call to the Pearl-street Baptist church in Albany. Here for five years the ties of affection between a loving pastor and an attached people grew continually in strength and promise. But in 1858 providential indications of larger useful- ness, in an extraordinary emergency, led him to resign his place in the capital of the State, and to remove to the commercial metropolis. He began his work in New 22 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. York with the Lexington-avenue Baptist church, and in course of time he was not only instrumental in the organization of the new society in Madison-avenue, but their church edifice also, on the corner of Madison-avenue and Thirty-first-street, was begun and finished during his pastorate, under great and peculiar difficulties, produced by the disturbing influences of the civil war. Soon after the successful achievement of this enter- prise, yielding to the call of the Charles-street Baptist church in Boston, which had been for a considerable period in a state of chronic decline, he returned once more to the city of his early labors as pastor of an almost forlorn hope. His connection with this church was a brief one. He used his most faithful endeavors to w strengthen the things which remained ; " but it soon became evident to him that the upbuilding of the church and restoration to its pristine prosperity was a result not to be expected. Hence, in 1865, he accepted a call to the pastorate of Shawmut-avenue Baptist church. This church subsequently became one with the First Baptist church, with which he began his labors in Boston in his early ministry. A friend has written, " Review the work achieved by this one man in Newark, Albany, and in Boston, to say nothing of Providence and New York, and you behold results sufficient, in each place, to make a monument worthy of the exertions of a lifetime." Still three pastorates awaited him, — the University MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 23 church, Chicago, where he was an admired preacher, and also Professor of Homiletics in the theological depart- ment of the University; Orange, N.J., from 1870 to 1875, loved, honored, and successful; and, finally, Wol- laston, Mass. As a theological professor he was enthu- siastic, stimulating, magnetic, — drawing instruction from the deep wells of his own rich experience, and inspiring the students by his own example. At AVollaston his pastorate was mainly nominal, the congregation craving, in addition to an occasional sermon, the honor of his name and the benefit of his counsel. A colleague was soon introduced to take the labors of the office, and for the last few years he stood related to the church chiefly as Pastor Emeritus. Why did Dr. Hague change his official residence as a pastor so frequently? Why, in a career of fifty-eight years, was he pastor of thirteen churches, — an average of less than five years in each? Certainly, not through lack of ability to sustain himself longer in any one of them. Not because his friends were weary of his methods and desired relief. Not because he did not continue, even to the end of life, to be a vigorous stu- dent, keeping step with the age and always abreast of his times. He seemed to have the settled conviction that, whatever might be the duty of others, it was best for him to labor for the Master over a broad expanse, and to infuse himself into as many minds as possible. In every 24 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. place he left the impress of his personality upon many souls. In every place men and women, especially the young, were uplifted by his influence to a higher plane of thought and a nobler activity. As the rose shows by its lingering fragrance where it has blossomed, so in all the fields of his labor there remain proofs of his hallowed energy and his broad and loving spirit. The workman has departed, but the fields he tilled continue to mature fruits for the heavenly garner. Dr. Hague has given many 'contributions through the press to the literature of the country. ^Nearly twenty publications bearing his name have been issued at dif- ferent periods, including lectures, essays, commentaries, reviews, and commemorative discourses, which attest his learning, his profound thought, his historic spirit, his masterly sMll in the discernment and portrayal of char- acter, and his knowledge of mankind. His "Watch Notes," — contributions to " The Watchman," — running through many years, and embracing the stirring period of the civil war, were ever welcomed by thousands of readers. In several commemorative discourses he has preserved, by his keen analysis and attractive style, the memory of many of his brethren and others, — a choice legacy for all time. His " Life Notes" — the last work of his brain and hand — contain a great amount of valuable history and criticism, never before and nowhere else com- mitted to writing, — the matured thoughts of his latest MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 25 experience, an admirable grouping of the great epochs of the last fifty years, and the rich harvests of a long life of sowing and reaping, — grouped and arranged by the hand of the sower and the reaper. We have thus sketched the salient events of this long life of nearly fourscore years. And how impressive and beautiful was its close, with no intervening period of gradual decay; almost with "his eye .not dim, nor his natural force abated," in a moment, " he was not, for God took* him." He had brought the last proof-sheet of his book, the " Life Notes," to his publishers, that he might congratulate them on the satisfactory consummation of their mutual labors. It was on a calm and cloudless summer day, — the day after the Sabbath, whose ser- vices had been, as usual, a refreshment to his spirit ; and in front of the Tremont Temple, where, in the pulpit or on the platform, his voice had so often sounded. He was conversing with a ministering brother, as they stood on the threshold of the Temple, when, suddenly, it was no more to him the threshold of the earthly temple, but of the heavenly. It was not communion with a Christian brother in the flesh, but the beginning of everlasting communion with " the spirits of just men made perfect." The bustle of the street at noonday was exchanged for the songs of the redeemed. "In the twinkling of an eye " the conflict was ended, and the coming glory was revealed. Had we made choice for our brother of the 26 MEMORIAL OF WILLI AM HAGUE. time and mode of his departure, we could not have chosen more fitly. The editor of " The Watchman," in announcing the death of Dr. Hague, wrote as follows : — Dr. Hague was more fully identified with Boston than with any other city. Again and again he returned here, retaining his warm friendships and the highest respect of all who were privileged to know him. In the prime and fulness of his powers he was an eloquent and commanding preacher, and, whether addressing men with his lips or with the pen in his hand, he showed such command of his subject, and such fulness of knowledge, as gave weight to his words. A man of large and well- digested reading, a man of strong and well-trained thought, a man of ardent Christian and humane feeling, he was quick to see the demands of philanthropy, and early took an advanced stand on the slavery question. His review of Fuller and Wayland on '* Slavery " was an able contribu- tion to the ethics of that controversy. At the same time he was on terms of courteous acquaintance with men from whom he widely differed on important subjects, as with Emerson, Parker, and other leading Liberals, as he recalled in his " Life Notes." Having received the de- gree of Doctor of Divinity from Brown University, in 1849, it was again conferred by Harvard College, in 1863. To the last Dr. Hague kept up a warm interest in current discussions. He was averse to the teaching and spirit of what is called the " New Theology," and kept a vigilant eye on the course of events and of public discussion. When the last messenger arrested him, he was saying, " Baptists need no New Theology. The New Testament is not new " — when he fell, speechless. To the last he was firm and consistent in his faith. We shall miss his hearty encouragement, his strength of faith and unfailing constancy. He was a man to be loved and trusted, the most guileless, trusting, and trustworthy of men, " an Israelite, indeed." MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 27 So startlingly sudden was his removal, it is hard to make it real to our thoughts that we shall no more hear his cheery greeting or exchange thoughts with him in private, or see his face in our public assemblies. He served his own generation ably and faithfully. He is not, for God has taken him. With thankfulness to him for the gifts with which he endowed him, and for the length of years during which he permitted him to serve the churches, we reverently leave him to his rest, and lay our tribute upon his bier. It was in the heart of summer, on the fourth of August, 1887, while many of those who knew and loved him were scattered in their various retreats, notwithstanding, a goodly company assembled in the Tremont Temple, to attend the simple burial services. Appreciative remarks were made by Rev. Dr. Olmstead, Rev. Dr. Murdock, Rev. Dr. Lorimer, Rev. Dr. J. C. Stockbridge, Rev. Dr. Alvah Hovey, and Rev. Dr. S. F. Smith. The hymn K Rock of Ages " was sung, and after prayer by Dr. Mur- dock, and the benediction by Dr. William Howe, the remains were taken to the Boston and Albany station, to be buried in Albany. We bid farewell, with profound sorrow, to our brother and father in God, whose lithe figure and quick step had for so many years been familiar to us, and whose attentive eye, watching with fervent interest the tides of debate in our deliberative assemblies, had long been a prominent feature in them. We shall no more listen to that ringing voice, nor admire the facile elocution by which he used to hold the attention of his hearers, his personal magnetism 28 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. thrilling them as by some magic influence. But we are grateful to God that he allowed us to enjoy his presence and his influence so long. By his wise counsel and his eloquent speech he did much in shaping the career of the churches to which he ministered. His broad views, his capacity of comprehension and elimination, and his phil- anthropic zeal contributed not a little to direct the course of his denomination. The stainless memory which he has left behind him is a precious legacy to his children and to the church of God. We shall ever think of him as a blessed illustration of the words of holy writ, " Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season." In his preaching, especially in his later pastorates, Dr. Hague aimed to make his discourses exegetical and ex- pository, rather than ethical or theological-. In his prayer- meeting talks he opened up broad fields of truth and thought, teaching his hearers to look beneath the surface, and by a careful survey of the context to draw rich les- sons from the Divine word. It was a remark of one of his constant hearers, in one period of Dr. Hague's life, " It is astonishing how much he finds in a familiar passage, and how a text, oftentimes, glows under his manipulation." From the first he was much accustomed to preach with- out a manuscript. Yet his sermons were the fruit of earnest labor, and he set a high value on the " notes " which represented so much of his life. In conversing with one who spoke lightly of his preparations for the MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 29 pulpit after they had been once used, as " out of date," and " no longer exhibiting the preacher's later experience and cultivation," Dr. Hague said, "On the contrary, I always charge my family, in case of accident to my house in my absence, to save, first of all, my sermons and notes of sermons." His brother says, "At first he wrote a great deal in full ; but as he advanced in years, he used more and more a full- wrought sketch; and this was his favorite method. He liked to leave room for the freedom of extempore intervals, returning again to his manuscript." A new epoch in the style of sermonizing marked the commencement of Dr. Hague's ministry in Boston. In most churches there was a stereotyped style of preaching, which, because of its universality, and because it followed in the rut of custom, detracted somewhat from the force of the pulpit. The growing neglect of public worship on the Sabbath, by many persons, had been the result. The new stirring of thought demanded new methods. Dr. Hague introduced no new doctrines. He adhered fer- vently to the old truths, and, perhaps, did not discard the old philosophy, through which the gospel had been, under God, a saving power for hundreds of years. But, care- fully studying his texts and contexts, he drew from them in an original method the Divine lessons they contained; comparing Scripture with Scripture, he opened up from every passage which he touched broad fields of impressive thought and Christian instruction. His preaching was 30 MEMORIAL OP WILLIAM HAGUE. not so much on topics, as on the teaching, in every text, of the Divine word. Possessed of great fluency of speech, an attractive oratory and remarkable self-possession, he drew around him the young in great numbers. His min- istry was eminently popular. It stimulated and fed thought. It taught his hearers to use their own intellects on the high themes of religion. It showed them that religion is a most reasonable service, alone worthy of in- tellectual and thoughtful men. Dr. Hague was a diligent student. In the brief jour- nals which he kept for years, and which record chiefly the texts of his sermons, we also read often of his visiting the libraries in his vicinity, in search of more light on topics he was studying. Late in life, while recreating at the seaside, we find him for successive days reading Plato's " Republic." In his pulpit in the Baptist church in Shawmut-avenue he kept a well-used Greek Testament, that he might verify any chance idea or interpretation which might possibly occur to him in his reading of the Scriptures or in his expositions. When he resided in Providence a friend once met him on a train, bound for Stonington, as he said, " to get an opportunity to write a sermon free from care and interruption." In ]S"ew York, he hired a room in a part of the city remote from his home, and known only to his wife, that he might have a place for mental improvement, meditation, and study. Probably no person of literary proclivities ever investi- MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 31 gated more patiently, or understood more thoroughly, the mystical theories of Emerson than he. . His faithful work as a minister was not confined to the pulpit. He sought individuals in private, and alone. Often, before a public service or a prayer-meeting, find- ing at the entrance of the house of God one for whose soul he yearned, he ' has been known to spend so much time in pressing upon such an one the claims of the gos- pel, that the waiting audience grew impatient at his de- lay. They did not know that his congregation of one, like the Saviour's congregation of one at the well of Samaria, was more to him, for the time, than a multitude, and more important to him than meat and drink. Dr. Hague's mind was trained by study and thought to great delicacy of perception. He was sharp to dis- cern, and quick to appreciate; discriminating in detect- ing qualities and characteristics, and skilful in grouping details into a harmonious unity. He was eminently social in his propensities, and at the same time loving the hard and solitary work of the student. . It has been said of the celebrated essayist, John Foster, that in his ripest age his mind had become so keenly polished and refined, that he could scarcely express a thought without instantly adding some modification or qualification of it, which evidently affected his style as a writer and determined his mode of building sentences. The methods of his mind were indicated by the peculi- 32 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. arity of his style and the construction of his sentences. Dr. Hague, in his later life, — witness his " Life JSTotes," — had so accustomed himself to accumulations of thought upon thought and fact upon fact, illustrative or confirm- atory, as essentially to control his style. "He wrote in long sentences, sometimes, as in the " Life Notes," only three on a page ; and, the oft-recurring words significayice, exponent, unify and unification, organic, and organism, and others, remind one of Cicero's favorite termination of sentences in his orations by the words Esse videatur. These oft-recurring words show that the structure of his mind was philosophical, logical, historic, prophetic, scientific. Dr. Hague's " Life Notes " are not meant to be an autobiography, though they are so; but rather to pre- sent the characteristics of his times. He- had an extraor- dinary gift of discerning the salient points of succes- sive epochs, of detecting the drift and trend of the- public mind, separating the accidental and temporary from the substantial and constant, and by a philosophical generalization shedding light upon dark problems, and bringing order out of confusion. The work is remark- able as being at the same time an autobiography and not an autobiography. It is not a personal history, so much as a history of the times. And yet the history of the times embraces the history of a life. The narrower his- tory, pertaining to that which is personal, is subordinated MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 33 to that which is broad, and which concerns the public. But the latter is seen, at every step, to be the influence moulding and fashioning the individual, and determining its force and spirit. Hence the " Life Notes " present a vivid picture of a period of fifty years, — and those, wonderfully historic years. They exhibit the prevailing characteristics of the age, of the men who shaped the course of events, political and ecclesiastical, and the themes of discussion which chiefly occupied the public mind. Of and in all these he was a prominent part, — always eloquent, impartial, dignified, ready to hear and to learn, discriminating, logical to judge, charitable to the erring, and bold to maintain the truth. The influence of Dr. Hague on young men, of which I have already spoken in his connection with the First Baptist church, was remarkable. He had the faculty of attracting and winning them. Ever young himself in spirit, he sympathized with young men in their ambitions and their trials. He was skilled in finding access to their hearts. He seemed, more than most ministers, to be an apostle of influence and usefulness to them. They gathered around him as a friend. They confided in him as an elder brother. He knew how to approach them. He had the ability and the tact to lead them. With- out seeming to lead, he led. Without seeming to rebuke them, he reformed them. They felt that he was their friend. They saw it in the glance of his eye. They 34 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. knew it by the gracious tenor of his words. They felt it in the pressure of his hand. They had no desire to break away from his influence. Only the coming world, which reveals secrets, can tell how many, by his wise and loving methods, have been led into the green pastures and beside the still waters of salvation. Some of our most useful and noblest brethren, whose praise is in all the churches, are the fruits of his hallowed wisdom. Dr. Hague was eminent for his lifelong interest in education and educational institutions. From his earli- est manhood to the end of his life he was much con- cerned with schools and colleges. During his earlier pastorates in Boston, he was active as a member of school committees in that city. He was a trustee of Brown University for fifty years, and of Vassar College from its beginning to the time of his death. Both Brown University and Harvard University conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity, the former in 1849, the latter in 1863. He felt a deep interest in the work of missions to the heathen. The fire kiiidled in his student-days at Newton was never extinguished. His son writes : — His interest in missions was intense. He would talk by the hour of the spread of God's kingdom in the world, and every opening or opportunity, whether political, social, or commercial, that made the way MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 35 clear for Christ's messengers was hailed by him with joy. To his house missionaries were frequently and gladly welcomed. Judson, Oncken, Kincaid, Jewett, James, and others made the foreign field at- tractive in our home. He was especially interested in the mission work of Italy, France, and Germany, and made it a point to study and report upon the progress of evangelization. He believed that men full of American ideas and methods were not to be sent to overthrow the customs of a civilization different from their own, but rather that, through and from the people themselves, men regener- ated by the grace of God should be raised up in the spirit of apostolic missions, through whom the masses should be brought into the kingdom of God, as in the happy experience of our missions in Sweden, Germany, and adjacent countries. A high spiritual elevation was one of the distinguishing characteristics of the mind of Dr. Hague. " To his chil- dren in their younger years," I quote the words of one of them in ripened manhood, "his presence was always a stimulating and uplifting influence. And I may truly say that in his later years I rarely spent an hour in his com- pany without being impressed by the high range of his thought, and the wide difference existing between the na- ture of the things which occupied his mind and of those which engage the attention and energies of most men." Dr. Hague was always of a sunny disposition. A 36 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. casual acquaintance would imagine, from the ever warm grasp of his hand and cordial greeting, from his enthu- siastic words and looks of welcome, from his cheerful manner and hearty smile, that he had never known sor- row. But twice, at least, he drank deeply of the bitter cup, — once in the death of a son, twenty years and three months old, to whose memory he dedicated his volume of lectures entitled " Home Life." And, again, in the loss of his wife, whom he fervently loved and trusted, and to whose unwearied care he owed much of the happiness and the success of his life. She was as a guardian angel in his house, watching over his interests, thoughtful of his dress and personal appearance, and economical in the stewardship of his exchequer, — a department which, owing to his often unthinking and lavish generosity, she found no sinecure. This sketch would be incomplete if it did not embrace a tribute to this partner of his cares and toils, his joys and sorrows, who, as long as she lived, was his helper, shield, and ever judicious and un- failing friend. One of his sons records this testimony: " He was greatly influenced by his wife. Outside of his study she, in large measure, controlled and guided him. In all home and family matters she was supreme. In church, and social and religious work, her judgment was sought, her advice taken. In his early ministry her in- fluence on young people was very great, and in all things she was his counsellor and aid." MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 37 Dr. Hague was married to Mary Bowditch Moriarty, in October, 1831. She was born in Salem, Mass., Dec. 4, 1812, the second daughter of John Moriarty, a well- known resident of Salem, and for many years cashier of the Salem Bank. On her paternal side she came from Bowditch, and on her maternal side from Crowninshield ancestry, both well-known families in the early days of Salem. One of Dr. Hague's sons, to whom we are indebted for many facts giving value and interest to this sketch, gives the following testimony as to his father's personal habits : — He was very industrious. His habit was to be in his study by half- past six in the morning, always to walk in the open air before breakfast, and invariably to give the forenoon to study. His afternoons were given to pastoral and public duties, and by half -past nine he returned to his study, rarely leaving it before midnight. He was very fond of his children. Affectionate and very gentle, he was also very firm. Obedience was his first requirement. In our early days, he allowed no time to be lost. Besides the regular lessons of the schools, there were daily lessons in French, Latin, or history. Through- out our lives he has been an example and an inspiration to us. No hour could be lost ; no day, without its duty performed ; no year, without its aim at some high purpose to be accomplished. Thus he led, not only us, but our children on, and to-day his grandchildren are quickened by the memories of his words and his life-work. . . . His last years were quietly spent in study and writing. His home was wherever he chose to make it. The homes of his children were always open to him ; 38 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. and to whichever fireside he turned his steps, his presence was ever wel- comed by children and grandchildren as a perpetual benediction. He loved to move from place to place, to cross the sea, and to meet his many friends in other lands. He had no lonesome days. It was often diffi- cult for him to make an appointment, his work seemed so to engross him to the last. All his ways, however, tended in one direction. Ever and anon, he turned toward Boston. For nearly thirty years he had preached in the city and its suburbs. The faces were familiar. The friends of a lifetime were there. The libraries, the institutions, the streets, were home to him, and he would not stay long away. He often said he wished to die at his work. His desire was granted. Loving most affectionately his own family, he had a happy way of showing 1 his interest in others. This was often illustrated in his pastoral relations. It is related of him that once, in ]STew York, a fond mother brought out her young infant for him to see, and praise, and bless. Taking the little one in his arms, he said to it, " You look like an angel just come from heaven; tell us the latest news from the city of God." The mother never forgot the winsome pleasantry, and thirty years later she told it in praise of her pastor. His affection for those who were dearest to him some- times determined important movements in his life. For example, his pastorate and professorship in Chicago, that busy hive of life and excitement, to which he was, in some respects, eminently adapted, was cut short after a single year, the health of his wife having failed, and MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 39 warned him hastily to return to the Atlantic coast. Mrs. Hague died in Orange, N.J., Dec. 30, 1870, — an event which sanctified and exalted his pastorate in that favored locality. The mental developments of Dr. Hague were, in cer- tain respects, very beautiful. To one of these his brother calls attention, — his moral delicacy. He writes: "One characteristic I have seen alluded to by two persons since his death. As early as I can distinctly remember, — say to my eighth year, — he maintained what I would describe as a certain instinctive moral delicacy, which made what was vulgar and impure repulsive to him. And it is but the simple truth to say that, in all the long and varied life which we both lived, this was never lost. It was always with him like some spiritual presence." The acquaintance of Dr. Hague with distinguished characters was very extensive. Many of the most hon- ored men of his period — men exalted in church and state, in philosophy, literature, and philanthropy, in this and other lands — were known to him. He was accus- tomed to exchange thoughts with them on current issues, religious, moral, and political. In his " Life Notes " more than three hundred names are found of persons in various spheres with whom, during his ministry, he was brought into contact; and these probably represent but a small portion of his associates. " His range of reading was very extensive. History, 40 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. philosophy, poetry, all seemed to attract him. One day, in his diary, he notes his chapter of Carlyle; the next, the r Light of Asia ; ' and, again, an essay of Emerson, or the last work of Kingsley; with, shortly after, a note concerning some scientific discovery and its relations to the world at large. He was ever ready to take up and discuss any subject. He was ready to impart what he knew, and quick and apt at drawing information from others. And his last years were quietly spent in study and writing." Dr. Hague had his profound convictions, and acted up to them. In the intense period in which he lived, it was impossible that he should not have had such convictions ; and, fearless in maintaining what he deemed to be the right, he was bold to speak and act as he thought. Near the close of his first pastorate in Boston,- came the great discussion pertaining to the policy of the American Bible Society, which resulted in the separate activity of the Baptist denomination in the work of Bible-distribu- tion. In that discussion he bore a prominent and elo- quent part. In common with Dr. William R. Williams and a few others, he counselled union as far as possible without the sacrifice of principle. Dr. Cone, of New York, by whom Dr. Hague had been baptized in his youth, was enthusiastic in advocating supreme measures. Dr. Hague boldly, but kindly, advocated the opposite. Respect for age and ecclesiastical relations might have MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 41 seemed to demand at least a silent acquiescence on the part of the junior contestant. But, bold in his sense of expediency and of right, Dr. Hague, alluding gracefully to the fact of his baptism by " the old man eloquent," and to their present divergence of opinion, declining to bow to human authority, exclaimed : " I am glad that when you baptized me, I was baptized into the name of Jesus Christ, and not into the name of Spencer H. Cone." Yet their friendship was not broken. On the great question of anti-slavery, the problem of the age during the prime and manhood of his ministry, he was advanced in his ideas, but prudent, and, at the same time, fearless. " His speech at the capitol in Albany, when Sumner was struck down in the Senate, was his most pronounced political utterance; his oration at the funeral of Secretary William L. Marcy was one of his most finished productions." He prepared for the press an extended review of the "Letters on Anti- Slavery," by Drs. Wayland and Fuller, meting out praise to each of the disputants where praise was deserved, and pointing out defects in reasoning with an even-handed justice, without fear or favor. Again, during a period of intense religious excitement in Boston, many were drawn to favor methods and meas- ures which he could not approve. He believed in reviv- als of religion. He had been educated in this way; but he believed also in the efficacy of the ordinary means of 42 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. grace, under which he had been accustomed to see the church built up and multiplied. After a careful personal examination, he reported to his church that he could not conscientiously assent to certain prevailing measures. One of his most wise and judicious deacons, long since gone to heaven, not only approved the young pastor's decision, but added: " And I'll stand by you." Dr. Hague's great affability and transparent simplicity of character won for him the friendship of persons of all ranks and denominations. He was firm and uncompromising in his religious con- victions. He had derived his decisions from a personal investigation of history, exegesis, and the oracles of Divine truth, and allowed no compromise. It was his last recorded utterance, — the testimony sealed and con- secrated by his dying breath, — " The Baptists need no new theology." And his opinions were ever heartily respected, even by those who differed from him. Those who did not accept his theology could not withhold from him their love. Dr. Hague had a remarkable gift of remembering and recalling persons, events, and conversations. After the lapse of years, he was able to quote words and sentences which he had heard, and to give his own words and replies, and the words and replies of those with whom he had conversed. These, at least in many instances, were not reconstructed, but remembered. Attending, in 1828, MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 43 the commencement exercises of Harvard University, he treasured up some sentences in the oration of a graduate of the day; and, after many years, repeated them to the distinguished lawyer — Hon. George S. Hillard — from whose youthful lips they had fallen. He appeared to advantage on the arena of the world's activities, and equally so in conversation with the inquirer and the honest doubter. His wide reading and experi- ence, and knowledge of men rendered his mind rich in resources. His sincere interest in those whom he could help made him a universal friend. Though not of com- manding stature, he never lacked dignity of presence, nor failed to inspire respect. With the utmost affluence of speech, he was never betrayed into a thought or a phrase unworthy of his office, or an expression lacking in taste. To the simplicity of a child he added the greatness of a man, and the authority of a teacher to the affability of a companion. When he had ceased from stated ministra- tions in the pulpit, he listened, with a uniformly just ap- preciation, to the sermons of his brethren of his own and other denominations. He learned obedience to the will of God by the lessons which he taught to others, and in all vicissitudes submitted himself without questioning to the wisdom of the Divine plan. Could he have been notified beforehand that that Monday-morning walk would take him within the golden gates of the New Jerusalem, we are persuaded that he would have exclaimed trium- M MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. phantly, "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight ! " One of his friends said of him, after his departure, "What a finely-adjusted, harmoniously-related, symmet- rical, Christian life he lived! I never knew a man whose mental and spiritual characteristics were so exquisitely poised — so perfect and entire, lacking nothing." Thanks be to God for such a gift to the church and the world! APPENDIX. APPENDIX. TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OF DR. WILLIAM HAGUE. TRIBUTE OF REV. J. W. OLMSTEAD, D.D. At the funeral services for Dr. Hague, in the Tremont Temple, Rev. Dr. Olmstead, editor of " The Watchman," spoke as follows : — " The summons of death which came so suddenly to our beloved friend, and which from its surroundings has so startled the public, has a voice to the living which we cannot emphasize. William Hague was, first of all and preeminently, a minister and a preacher of the gospel of Christ. He was a man who, to a fine education, both at college and at the Theo- logical Seminary, added large thought and reading. His scholarship and literary culture, set forth in a style of rare clearness and beauty, were of the first order. An outline sketch of him, along with that of other Boston pastors, written by Prof. Heman Lincoln, and published in ' The Watchman and Reflector,' characterizes him as ' the Scholar Preacher.' Such he was forty years ago, and such he continued to be to the end of life. His mental habitudes of reading and research, of alert activity and inquiry, never went to decay with growing years. It seemed to be the reverse of this, instead. The latest articles contributed to ' The Watchman ' in his ' Life Note ' series — even those within a year past — exhibited the same comprehension, the same discriminating freshness and vigor, which had marked anything from his pen of the 48 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. former years, with perhaps an added, as natural, ripeness and ma- turity of thought. " Yet, allied to all this, Dr. Hague was a man, as all who knew him can testify, of the largest and the richest religious character. His sym- pathies were most readily enkindled, and were freely enlisted wherever, as well in the prayer-meeting as the pulpit, the experimental truths of the gospel were commended to men. The salvation of human souls as the result of the redeeming work of Christ, the renewing and the sancti- fying of the Holy Spirit, was the one subject which engaged and ab- sorbed the whole great energies of his being. Never was he more truly fired with earnest zeal, never did his words glow with more eloquent fervor, than when, as was so often the case, he was thus engaged. How many there are, in this city especially, who could stand up as witnesses to the truth of what I have here stated ! I say ' in this city,' where, of the several churches he so well served, as in other cities also, there was not one which did not grow in numbers and in strength during his pas- torate of each, leaving it larger in its membership, and richer in all the resources of true spiritual power, than he found it. " Dr. Hague was, as a Christian pastor, through a period of half a century, always the exemplary yet cheerful Christian gentleman ; exhib- iting himself, and seeking to cultivate in others, a piety alike cheerful and consecrated and earnest. He was especially, even in his most ma- ture ministry, winsome to young people ; and the number of young men whom he drew to his side, to be moulded by his counsels and by his life, was remarkable. He was, as a preacher and a theological teacher, well grounded in New Testament exegesis. No sentence, as we easily call to mind, oftener dropped from his lips than this, viz., ' What saith the Scripture?' It was this, perhaps, that gave to his thinking and to his convictions generally, to such an eminent degree, the type of the New Testament. It was this, as truly, that made him, with the intensity of increasing fervor to the last, the able expounder and the steadfast defender of the ancient and the changeless faith of the gospel of the APPENDIX. 49 Son of God. This gospel in all its primitive purity he believed in with all the great powers of his mind and heart. Thence and therefore he did evermore speak. " And these words, spoken through more than fifty years by lips now silent, are not dead. They are immortal, as the spirit of him who uttered them is immortal. Reenforced as these vital utterances by voice and by pen were, by a strong and by a stainless character, they will yet live on in the memories, to yield fruitage in the lives, of thou- sands of the living, as they have done the same thing for at least an equal number now passed on before. What consolation to his dear sur- viving children and family, and to his host of endeared friends, is there in such a contemplation ! Surely among those of our generation who have richly earned the plaudit ' Well done,' must stand high enrolled the name of William Hague. " While " ' His name is writ Where stars are lit,' there could be no more fittiug inscription on the tombstone built to his memory, than this text of the Scripture he so much revered and loved : ' They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.' " The appreciative remarks of Dr. Olmstead were followed by Dr. S. F. Smith, who, in closing, read as follows : — Gone, but not lost! the star of day, Merged in the morning radiance, dies ; But holds, unseen, its onward way, And walks in glory through the skies. The brilliant orbs that guard the night, Like priests around their altar fires, Quenched, but not lost, a living light, Are watching still, though night retires. 50 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. Gone, but not lost! the glowing sun Sinks, weary, 'neath the darkening west, But though his daily race is run, New worlds are by his presence blest. Gone, but not lost! the summer's bloom Lies sleeping 'neath the wintry snow ; But richer fruits spring from the tomb, — From dark decay fair harvests grow. Gone, but not lost! who lives sublime Lives beyond life, — he cannot die ; Born for all years, for every clime, His, a true immortality. Farewell! the reverend teacher sleeps, — Taken, alas ! yet doubly given ; His life, undimmed, its pathway keeps, One course, alike, in earth and heaven. We weep, as, one by one, we lay Our brethren with the garnered host; While gratefully the ages say, No saintly life is ever lost. TRIBUTE OF DR. HENRY M. KING, ALBANY, N.Y. In the autumn of 1853 Dr. Hague yielded to the entreaty of this [Emmanuel] church, then located on Pearl street, and became its pastor. He was forty-five years of age, in the very vigor of his manhood, and with matured powers and enlarged experience, competent, under God, to do an important work in this community. I cannot better express my appreciation of the importance and excellence of his service in con- APPENDIX. 51 nection with this church, than by quoting from my " Historical Dis- course," delivered at our late fiftieth anniversary. " His coming was the awakening of the church to new duties, and to a consciousness of its own strength, and his ministry was one of rare inspiration, sugges- tiveness, and helpfulness. He filled the pulpit. He unfolded his plans of benevolence and church-extension to the people, and they met with a cordial welcome and a generous response. The church-life showed signs of unwonted activity. The system of weekly offerings was adopted, which has been continued in the church down to the present time. A mission was opened and earnestly prosecuted among the Germans ; another on North Broadway, and a third at the Bowery. Missionaries were employed and put in the various fields. . . . The church assumed the appearance of a busy hive of workers. There may have been here and there a drone ; but there must have been many hearts enlisted and many hands engaged, to have carried on so multiform and so good a work." For fifty years he was a Trustee of Brown University ; for many years a Trustee of Newton Theological Institution, and also of Colum- bian University, in Washington, and a Trustee of Vassar College from its founding until his death, and an intimate friend and counsellor of its generous founder. In all these positions, as in many others to which his brethren exalted him, he was faithful to his important trusts, — wise in counsel, conservative in his judgment, broad in his sympathies, yet loyal to his convictions, courteous in his intercourse with all, and actuated by the highest impulses of an intelligent, open-hearted, broad- minded, Christian manhood. His voice was never heard but with atten- tion, and always carried weight ; and when he had spoken, there was left upon the mind of every hearer the impression of a man of strong indi- viduality, but of honest purpose and transparent character. As a preacher, Dr. Hague was largely given to exposition, and was 52 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. always instructive, helpful, and inspiring. He was a diligent student of the Scriptures, fixing his gaze not so much upon individual texts in order to make the nice distinctions of a grammarian, as upon the great, underlying principles, the advancing arguments, the broad, consecutive, and related truths which were in the minds of the inspired writers. He had the deep insight and the broad grasp of a born interpreter. Few men are able to unfold so clearly the line of thought in any given pas- sage of God's word, and show its application to the individual life, or to the moral and social problems of the day, as was Dr. Hague. His " expository lectures were always scenes of great interest, and were cal- culated to awaken in all minds a fresh zeal in the investigation of divine truth, and a fresh admiration for its beauty and power. His preaching was according to no model. He acknowledged no human master in the pulpit. Acquainted with the finest specimens of pulpit literature, as he undoubtedly was, he was a slave to none. Though original in his pulpit methods and unique in his way of putting things, he ever clung to the old truths of the gospel with a loyal and loving tenacity. His preaching was often brilliant, yet never with the flash of some meteoric novelty of error, but always with the pure light of revealed truth, as it kindled and glowed in his soul. His whole being seemed wonderfully responsive to the magnetic touch of great thoughts, especially if they were thoughts of God, his redemptive work in Jesus Christ, and the power and the coming of his glorious kingdom. As he himself was moved and swayed by the message which he uttered, so he moved and swayed those who listened to him. Having great readiness in speech and force in delivery, he often rose to genuine and impressive eloquence. When he was borne on by the tide of his rising thought, and his quick, nervous gesture corresponded exactly to his quick, nervous utterance, and eye and look and attitude added their combined emphasis to the tones of his voice, his very form seemed to tower aloft and rise to an unwonted height. As a platform speaker, Dr. Hague had few equals. He always rose to the greatness of the occasion, and, APPENDIX. 53 with a marvellous skill, he would seize the central thought of the hour, and in his own felicitous and graphic manner would present it in impres- sive and sublime outline. Though the pastorates of Dr. Hague were phenomenally brief, ranging from less than two to six years at the longest, yet such was the strength of his character and personality, as an aggressive leader, a vigorous thinker, and an eloquent and inspiring preacher, that he left, as few ministers have done, the impress of his mind and methods on the churches to which he ministered. In his removal, another of the few remaining links, which bind the past to the present generation of ministers, has been taken away, and a place left vacant which will not be soon filled. Beloved and greatly esteemed while he lived, he will be widely mourned and sincerely honored now that he is dead. The influence of his personal character, his persuasive eloquence, and his published writings will still abide among us, though we shall be charmed by his living words and see his face no more. — From the Memorial Discourse on Rev. William Hague, D.D., delivered at the Emmanuel Baptist church, Albany, N. Y., Sunday, Sept. 18, 1887, by the pastor, Rev. Henry Melville King, D.D. TRIBUTE OF THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, BOSTON. In August, 1887, the Reverend William Hague, D.D., pastor of the First Baptist church in Boston from 1831 to 1837, and of the Shawmut Avenue Baptist church (now united with the First) from 1865 to 1869, suddenly passed from this scene of his activities to the spirit-land of the blest, and with this event was closed the earthly career of a well-rounded life. 54 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. Dr. Hague was conspicuously loyal to the word of God. He illus- trated, in his own life, the value to the Christian minister of learning, scholarship, and acquaintance with social life, the study of modern thought and tendencies, and the habit of independent investigation. He was an eloquent preacher of the Gospel, a devoted servant of the Master, and a friend of the young, in whose education and welfare he showed a persistent interest. In grateful recognition of the purity of his character, of his faithful and eminently successful labors as a Christian minister, of his patriotic services as a citizen, and of the great aid he rendered to educational and benevolent institutions, the church directs this testimonial to be entered on its records, and a copy, duly attested by the clerk, to be sent to his family. A true copy of the Records of the First Baptist church, Boston. Attest: WILLIAM H. FOSTER, Church Clerk. TRIBUTE OF CLARENDON-STREET BAPTIST CHURCH, BOSTON. At a meeting of the Clarendon-street Baptist church, Boston, held on Tuesday, Dec. 18, 1888, the following resolutions were passed: — Resolved, That this church desires to record its sense of loss in the 3udden death of Rev. William Hague, D.D., connected with it as pastor in the days when it was known as the Federal-street Baptist church. Called to the pastorate at one of the most critical points in its history, he served it for eight years, from 1840 to 1848, with zeal and efficiency, and, by his eloquent preaching and faithful watch-care, brought it once more to a condition of prosperity. The church feels honored in numbering among its pastors one so APPENDIX. 55 widely known and admired, and whose long and able presentation of the Gospel, by voice and pen, has contributed so much to the success of the denomination and to the cause of Christ, and whose mantle of Christian consecration has fallen so abundantly upon his children and children's children. With them we mourn his loss to us and to the world, whose interests, in the truest and broadest sense, lay so near to his noble heart. Resolved, That a copy of the above resolution be sent to Dr. S. F. Smith for publication in the memorial volume upon the life of Dr. Hague. By order of the Church, THOMAS J. EMERY, Clerk. TRIBUTE OF THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, PROVIDENCE, R.I. The Church herewith orders to be placed upon its record the decease of Reverend William Hague, Doctor of Divinity, which occurred in Bos- ton, Aug. 1, 1887. Dr. Hague was its pastor from June, 1837, to August, 1840. Though it is fifty years since he took this charge, and though he had it for comparatively a short time, he has been kept in honored memory, as a faithful minister, who has done good service in the kingdom and patience of our Lord Jesus. He began his ministry when but a youth, and was allowed of God to abide in it to a green and fruitful old age. It was exercised in many places ; and in them all he left the fragrance of a good example, an affectionate and devoted spirit, as well as the memory of a very skilful and edifying dispensation of Divine truth. He was a very animated and stirring speaker. His gift of speech and writing was apt, incisive, and, often, elegant. It fell to him to deliver a commemorative discourse on the two hundredth anniversary of the for- 56 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. mation of this church ; and he performed the duty most acceptably, with good historical perspective, and in hearty sympathy with the sig- nificance of the event. His theology was scriptural, didactic, positive. His turn of mind and his training were literary and historical, rather than theological or philosophical. His spirit was humane, evangelical, catholic ; and so he became a shining light in his denomination, and was recognized as one of its principal orators. For nearly sixty years, he has been well known in our churches as one of our leading preachers ; and this church is' glad, as having shared in his ministrations, to join with them in doing him honor. TRIBUTE OF THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIAN UNIVERSITY. At a meeting of the Trustees of the Columbian University, held on Wednesday, September 21, 1887, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted : — Resolved. That in the death of the Reverend William Hague, D.D., the Corporation of the Columbian University has been called to mourn the loss of a wise friend and counsellor, who in the days of his profes- sional activity was equally remarkable for his oratorical gifts in the pulpit and for the acuteness and breadth of his perceptions as a philo- sophical scholar; who in the scope of his studies was wide, liberal, and catholic, while unflinching in the maintenance of his personal convic- tions ; who mingled among men of various opinions with a gracious affability, born of a refined and generous nature, and who always stood among his brethren as an acknowledged prince and leader. Resolved, That this resolution be recorded in the Minutes of the Board, and that the Secretary of the University be requested to trans- APPENDIX. 57 mit a copy of it to the family of our lamented colleague, as a token of our humble tribute to his beautiful memory. ROBERT C. FOX, Secretary of the Board. TRIBUTE FROM THE TRUSTEES OF VASSAR COLLEGE. The Executive Committee of Vassar College, having heard with pro- found sorrow the announcement of the death of the Rev. William Hague, D.D., who, since the founding of the college, has been a member of the Board of Trustees, desire to place on record their deep sense of personal loss in his removal, and their high appreciation of his pure character, his eminent ability, and his intelligent, active, and pro- longed devotion to the interests of this institution. It is not for us to speak in detail of his great reputation as an instruc- tive and eloquent preacher, of his position as an acknowledged leader in his own denomination, of the high esteem in which he was held among all Christian communions, or even of his active and honorable connec- tion with other institutions of learning, but only of his connection with the history and progress of Vassar College. Honored with the confidence and friendship of Mr. Matthew Vassar, he entered heartily into his plan of founding a well-endowed college for women, though at that time it was of the nature of an experiment. To him fell the honor and privilege of accepting, in behalf of the newly organized Board of Trustees, the munificent gift of the founder. This he did, in an address of remarkable beauty, comprehensiveness, and power, showing that he fully appreciated the greatness and significance of the new enterprise, or, to use his own words, " the nature, the dignity, and the scope of the great trust " which was then committed to their hands. From that hour until the time of his decease, Dr. Hague's 58 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. interest in the college was unabated. He was uniformly present at the meetings of the Board, and gave to the consideration of its impor- tant and often perplexing business the benefit of his practical wisdom, his large experience, his fine culture, and his ready sympathy. He found an ever-deepening joy in the realization of his cherished hopes for the prosperity and usefulness of the college, and predicted for it a career of still widening and far-reaching influence. Among his associates Dr. Hague was always dignified and courteous. Possessing engaging manners and rare conversational powers, by his urbanity and magnanimity inspiring the confidence and winning the warm esteem, he left upon the minds of all the impression of a refined Christian gentleman and scholar. In the removal of Dr. Hague, Vassar College mourns the loss of one of its warmest friends and wisest counsellors, and the Board of Trustees is deprived of the presence and cooperation of another of its corporate members, who, in obedience to a higher call, are rapidly relinquishing the trusts which they have administered with such distinguished fidelity. PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOSTON BAPTIST SOCIAL UNION. At the first meeting of the Boston Baptist Social Union after the summer recess of 1887, Rev. Dr. Alvah Hovey, President of Newton Theological Institution, was introduced to speak of Rev. William Hague, D.D., one of the four honorary members of the Union, at that date, two of whom survived, viz., the speaker and Rev. S. F. Smith, D.D., and two had departed, viz., Revs. R. H. Neale, D.D., and Dr. Hague. Address of Dr. Hovey. Mr. President and Brothers: By your action at different times, four clergymen have been made honorary members of this Social Union, and APPENDIX. 59 it is safe to say that all of them have esteemed their connection with you a high privilege. But two of them are no longer here. Eight year6 ago Dr. Rollin H. Neale was called to enter a greater and holier union above ; and, since our last meeting, Dr. William Hague has been ex- alted to the same blessed fellowship. Both are now, as we heartily believe, with " the spirits of the just made perfect," enjoying a com- munion more serene and satisfying than any which was known to them on earth. We cannot, indeed, with the eye of sense, behold them there with the Lord ; but with the eye of faith it is easy for us to catch a glimpse of their rest in glory. Of Dr. Hague, whom you all have known, and who passed with scarcely a moment's conscious suffering out of the seen into the unseen, I have been asked to say a few words this evening ; and they shall be few, though it would be pleasant to make them many. Dr. Hague was born on the fourth day of January, 1808, and was taken from this life on the first day of August, 1887, at the age of seventy-nine yeai*s, six months, and twenty-eight days. He was gradu- ated from College when eighteen, and from the Theological Seminary when twenty-one. The same year he was ordained, and from that time to the hour of his death was loved and honored as a true " man of God." Through more than half a century he was a public teacher of Christian truth, widely known and greatly esteemed in our denomina- tion. My acquaintance with him began forty-two years ago, when he was already in his prime, glowing with health and vigor, enriched by the experience of sixteen years of fruitful service, and sustained by the confidence and cooperation of a loyal church. His preaching, as I soon learned, was marked by many fine qualities. It was certainly Biblical, instructive, and eloquent. That it was Biblical could never have been a matter of surprise to any who knew the work- ings of his mind. For his confidence in God's written Word was un- wavering, and his recognition of the New Testament as the rule of our faith was constant. A sentence from the lips of Jesus was to him the 60 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. end of controversy. A principle or practice approved by the apostles was accepted by him as authoritative, — new enough to kindle enthusi- asm, old enough to satisfy reason, and sacred enough to bind con- science. It was his conviction that theology, in order to be true, must be drawn from the Bible, and that a Theological Seminary, in order to be useful, must be a school of Biblical interpretation. Four years after graduating from Newton, he returned to address the alumni, and then took occasion to say : " Those who study theology in the systems which men have made, instead of forming a system for themselves by a. care- ful induction of facts, as they appear in the Bible, may, indeed, pride themselves in the symmetry of their scheme . . . but, alas ! they will often find that the order and aim of Christian doctrines, as they appear in the gospel itself, will go directly athwart its nicely-drawn parallel lines, and set at nought its fictitious comeliness." And one of the last sentences which he uttered on earth was an avowal of the suffi- ciency of Christian doctrines as old as the New Testament. Naturally, then, his sermons were built on foundations laid by "holy men, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost," and were illustrated, to a considerable extent, by facts recorded in Scripture. Thus he wrought skilfully to fulfil his expressed desire, that "the day may soon come when the principle, that the Bible is the only rule of a Christian's faith, shall be exalted to a practical supremacy throughout Christendom." Men who listened to his preaching became, as a consequence, intelligent readers of God's Word, and many of them learned to reverence its authority. Morever, the Biblical character of his preaching rendered it instruc- tive. For there is no storehouse of Divine truth from which one can bring such treasures of things new and old, as the Bible. There is no well of water, springing up into life eternal, so pure and deep and re- freshing as this. But while Dr. Hague was a student of the Bible, and always ready to give it the first place in his teaching, he did not limit his search for truth to this august volume. His mind was logical, in- APPENDIX. 61 quisitive, observant, aud hospitable to truth from any source whatever. He read many books and periodicals ; he watched with keen interest the " signs of the times ; " he studied the ever-changing currents of thought and feeling in our age, and he enriched his discourse with facts, signifi- cant of principles, from every stratum of life. It was not in his heart to despise the stars, because he could look upon the face of the sun. Besides, he was solicitous to know the sentiments of men, in order that he might set before them, in the most persuasive way, the claims of God. Aud so, by all that I heard from his lips or have read from his pen, I am led to speak of his preaching as eminently instructive. In him the churches had a teacher, — one who brought to the sanctuary the bread of life, one whom they could respect as an interpreter of the sacred oracles, one who was really competent to assist them in coming to a knowledge of the truth. May there be many like him in this re- spect ! Paul declares that a bishop must be "apt to teach." Let us thank God for the true teachers whom he calls into our pulpits. Dr. Hague's preaching was also eloquent. There was in it a fluency, a brilliancy, and a variety, both of diction and of utterance, which can be described by no other word. Some of his sentences were delivered in an easy, rapid, conversational manner ; but they were commonly fol- lowed by others uttered with commanding energy of look and voice, aud often with a ringing emphasis on the last word or clause. His bearing in the pulpit was self-possessed and manly ; his motions quick, full of life, and, withal, graceful ; his elocution, original, distinctive, and gen- erally pleasing. His hearers were not likely to fall asleep while he was speaking. When he cried " friends ! " they listened to what he had to say. A true man was before them, inviting them to think, judge, decide, act, and it was difficult for them to parry the force of his appeals. Like Apollos, he was an eloquent man. And this was true of him on the platform as well as in the pulpit. Few questions pertaining to the welfare of the church, the nation, or the race, escaped his scrutiny, and few men could explain with more clearness or effect their 62 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. reasons for the views which they championed. In the storm of debate before a great assembly, and in the calm deliberation of a select Board, I have heard him speak with almost equal beauty and cogency. He loved our denomination, our schools of learning, and our American homes ; he loved our government, our people, and the strangers within our gates ; he was a friend of emancipation, of temperance and of reform, wherever evil exists. But, though decided and outspoken, he was singularly free from bitterness. The largeness of his nature, under the influence of Divine grace, preserved him from wrath, unless it were a holy indignation at wrong, which must be approved rather than de- plored. It is not, then, surprising that he was welcome to the platform as well as to the pulpit. A speaker with mind so bright, with knowl- edge so ample, with temper so just, with language so choice, with sym- pathies so generous, with aims so high, will command a hearing any- where. I need not say that Dr. Hague was one whom the people were always glad to hear. But he was a writer as well as a speaker, an author as well as an orator ; and it was the same cause — the cause of truth, of God, and of human weal — which he sought to advance in both forms of address. I say " forms of address," because in writing as well as in speaking he had before his mind living men whose hearts and consciences were to be moved. Permit me to read the title of some of his productions : " Eight Views of Baptism," " The Baptist Church Transplanted from the Old World to the New," " Review of the Rev. Messrs. Cooke and Towne's ' Hints to an Inquirer on the subject of Baptism,' " and " An Examina- tion of their ' Rejoinder ' to his ' Review,' " — all scholarly works ; "Guide to Conversation on the Gospel of John," — much in little; "Review of Drs. Fuller and Wayland on Slavery," — in which the positions of Dr. Fuller and certain concessions of Dr. Wayland are boldly controverted ; " Christianity and Statesmanship," — a topic after his own heart, — and "Home Life," which is treated with sympathy and discrimination. To these should be added several Discourses of APPENDIX. 63 great merit, published from time to time by request, and a great number of articles for the religious press, especially for " The Watchman," all of them being distinguished by the earnestness, literary taste, and prac- tical aim which characterized his life-work at every point. In regard to the length of his pastorates Dr. Hague was a law unto himself. They wei*e all brief, when compared with those of his ablest compeers ; yet not because his people desired them to be so, but because he deemed it wise and best to make them so. He left the churches which he served in good condition, hopeful and united. In a word, his public life, though distinguished for unity of aim, superiority of talent, enthusiasm for work, evenness of temper, and success in doing good, was "signalized" by more numerous changes of location than that of any minister of equal capacity whom I have known. Dr. Hague had a bright intellect, versatile as well as active, a judg- ment of his own, which, on almost every question, was independent, but not erratic, a spirit manful and self-respecting without vanity, a heart true and warm beyond the expression of his countenance or even the tone of his voice, and a courtesy which never failed in private inter- course or in the ardor of public debate. Moreover, he was habitually cheerful, without levity. I do not think his sense of humor was equal to his logical acumen. I doubt whether he paid much attention to the ludicrous side of conduct ; certainly, he did not undertake to represent it in public speech. He was no rival to his brother Neale in rehearsing an amusing anecdote. If he ever attempted to excite laughter by an after-dinner talk, I was not present to judge of his success. It may also be admitted that the tones of his voice were not specially favorable to pathetic expression. One needed to know him well in order to appre- ciate then* meaning. But of this, at least, every hearer might be sure, that they never suggested a deeper emotion than he felt. All was sincere. Of the domestic life of our brother I have no time, or indeed right, to speak. Yet from the few glimpses of that life which I was per- 64 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. mitted to have, long years ago, I am confident that it was pure, and sweet, and grateful to his spirit ; that his home was far dearer to his heart than the rostrum, the queen of his household more to him than any other earthly good, and the children about his hearth, jewels be- yond price. So when the wife and mother was taken awa} 7 , when the children, too, had made other homes for themselves, it is not strange that he sometimes walked apart from his fellows for a little, and mused on the loneliness of his lot. I cannot close this tribute to the memory of Dr. Hague with, more fitting words than he used of Dr. Neale : " A completed mission — a well-rounded life-work, in accordance with the design of the Creator, rich in the fruitage of Christian graces garnered up in personal character — is now, as of old, the one supreme good that meets the deepest need and the highest aspiration of which human nature is capable. Hence this song of promise, sung by one of the earliest Oriental poets, — ' Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his seasoii,' — sets forth the departure of a faithful man ' in full age ' as in perfect harmony with the nature and fit- ness of things, imparting to the close of his earthly course a radiance of festal beauty like the autumnal welcome of the ripe sheaf to its garner." MONODY, BY EEV. S. F. SMITH, D.D. [Read at the Boston Baptist Social Union. ] We emulate the path thy feet have trod, Brother, beloved of men, approved of God ; Thou of the brilliant speech and silver tongue, On thy dear lips have wondering thousands hung. APPENDIX. 65 Preacher and pastor, faithful, polished, mild, A man in stature, and in love, a child, Whose look was eloquence, his words, a power, His life, a magic force, — his faith, a tower, His memory vast, an unexhausted store, — His soul, a volume of historic lore ; Man of the people, whom he swayed at will, Man of the study and the polished quill, — All good he praised, he pitied where he scorned, And, wise as just, whate'er he touched, adorned ; Skilful expounder of the Sacred Word, Quick to discern, prompt to reveal his Lord ; Profound in thought, wise to observe the times, His mind, capacious, could embrace all climes, Lived in all ages, took in land and sea, The past, the present, and the yet-to-be ; His fervent heart no years could make grow cold, And age, advancing, never made him old; To the old standards of the gospel true, Nor spurned the old, nor pined for doctrines new ; Maintained the ancient truth with courage bold, That truth, forever new, forever old, And as he died, — heeding the Master's call, Pronounced that truth enough for him — for all. How nobly fitting was the parting hour ! One pulse, the bud — the next, the full-blown flower; One instant here, the next, beyond the skies, Now, earth's high noon — now, noon in Paradise ; This moment, bound by human woes and bars, The next, in peerless light, beyond the stars; From earth's high summer snatched, and blooming bowers. To heaven's immortal glow and fadeless flowers ; Now, on the threshold of the temple here, Now, bowed before the inmost altar there ; With what strange joy the conqueror upward rode, To worship, reverent, at the throne of God ! 66 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM HAGUE. Ascended brother, may the mantle blest That fell from thee, on many a prophet rest, Thy trumpet-voice still sound the loud alarm, Thy magic notes linger to rouse and charm, And, Heaven's high heralds, Heaven's high service done, Achieve the honors, brother, thou hast won. A beautiful and life-like portrait of Dr. Hague was presented to the Boston Baptist Social Union at their Monthly Meeting, Dec. 31, 1888, by Mr. A. N. Hardy, the artist, of Boston. THE PUBLISHED WORKS OF WILLIAM HAGUE. Historical Discourse, Two Hundredth Anniversary of the First Baptist Church, Providence, R.I. (Boston, 1839.) Eight Views of Baptism. (1841.) The Baptist Church Transplanted from the Old World to the New. (New York, 1846.) Guide to Conversation on the Gospel of John. (Boston.) Conversational Commentaries on the Gospel of Matthew. (1835.) Conversational Commentaries on the Acts of the Apostles. (1845.) Review of Drs. Fuller and Wayland on Slavery. (Boston.) Christianity and Statesmanship. (New York, 1855 ; enlarged edi- tion, Boston, 1865.) Home Life. (New York, 1855.) The Authority and Perpetuity of the Christian Sabbath. (1863.) The Self -Witnessing Character of the New Testament Christianity. (Philadelphia, 1871.) Christian Greatness in the Minister. (Boston, 1880.) Life Notes ; or, Fifty Years' Outlook. (Boston, 1888.) Dr. Hague was also the author of numerous Occasional Addresses and Orations, including Discourses on the Life and Character of John Quincy Adams and Adoniram Judson. 'wmmmwm