?2547£ 
 
tihxavy of Che theological ^tminavy 
 
 PRINCETON . NEW JERSEY 
 
 FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
 ROBERT ELLIOTT SPEER 
 
 BX 9225 .P377 L4 1903 
 Levi Parsons, D.D. 
 

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 ^i^-iy—r v>L^>>^ ^^^^-T'^-^/, 
 
\2^oeicAL 
 
 
 PASTOR OF 
 
 THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, MOUNT MORRIS, N. Y. 
 
 1856- I9OI 
 
 A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE — FUNERAL SERVICES — TRIBUTES 
 
 OF ESTEEM-EXTRACTS FROM HIS SERMONS 
 
 AND ADDRESSES 
 
The Union Press, 
 AIoxjNT Morris. New York, 
 
"For tJion hast kept the faith ; tJiy soul nndaitiited. 
 Whatever storms might round thee rage and roll, 
 
 By one celestial passion still enchanted. 
 
 Has held its course right otn^'ard to the goal. 
 
 Thou hast not basely gathered thrift 7oith fa^cning. 
 Nor loom a laurel that thou hast not zoon ; 
 
 But, in thy rsenith hour as in thy daivning, 
 
 The good thy nature loilled thy hand has done. 
 
 On thy calm front the 7i.<aves of trouble, btoken. 
 Have backboard surged and left thee regnant still , 
 
 Nor tempests of the soul nor griefs unspoken 
 
 Have e' er had poiver to shake thy steadfast 7oiliy 
 
lEarlg ICtfr. 
 
 H 
 
 ALF a mile south of the "First Church," just outside the 
 village limits of Marcellus, stands a roomy old dwelling 
 known for many years, in those parts, as "The Farm." 
 
 It is a simple, unpretentious, rambling house with a story and a 
 half front, followed by a series of after-thoughts in the shape of wings 
 and lean-to's added to suit the needs of a growing family. Its broad, 
 low gable-end faces the road and overlooks a sloping meadow through 
 which a noi.sy creek threads its silver way. Dormer windows peer 
 sideways through the trees up and down the valley, catching 
 glimpses of an orchard on this side, the garden and distant village 
 spire on that. 
 
 The great central chimney gives evidence that within is the 
 " hospitable hearth " of ancient fame, whereon blazed cheery wood- 
 fires ; and indeed "The Farm" boasts a parlor which has never 
 known the profaning presence of a stove in all the ninety years of 
 its existence. Household furnishings are plain but comfortable, a 
 reflection of their owner's character and a revelation of ministerial 
 life in the early part of the nineteenth century. 
 
 In this house which he had recently built the Rev. Levi Parsons, 
 first pastor of the Marcellus Presbyterian Church, established him- 
 self with his young wife in the year of our Lord 1810, and here their 
 happy married life of nearly fifty years was spent. 
 
 He was a native of Northampton, Mass., and came of good old 
 Puritan stock as represented by Cornet Joseph Parsons who came 
 to this country, while yet a mere boy, from Devonshire, England, in 
 1635. History and tradition unite in attributing to this worthy 
 
"uncommon force of character." But the judicial ability of the 
 family first found expression in his son, Esquire Joseph Parsons, 
 whose name heads the list of Hampshire county judges, and is found 
 in connection with many other civil and political offices of the time. 
 Possibly this legal mind is an inheritance from the female side of 
 the family, for we learn that his mother. Mistress Mary Parsons, 
 having the misfortune to be the wife of the wealthiest man in town, 
 was (like many other ladies of substance in those days) accused of 
 witchcraft. Mistress Mary was the grand-daughter of a man who 
 had suffered imprisonment under Archbishop Laud. She was a 
 woman of resolution and had no mind to tamely submit. Accom- 
 panied by her mother she traversed the wilderness lying between 
 Northampton and Boston where the court was held, pleaded her 
 own case and was acquitted. 
 
 The men of the Parsons family were thrifty, industrious, honor- 
 able, and reliable. Their religion was of that practical sort which 
 gained them renown as good, peaceable neighbors rather than seats 
 in ecclesiastical circles ; but they were remarkably unanimous in 
 selecting wives from the daughters of godly men, and so it came to 
 pass that their descendants rejoice in tracing their lineage from 
 Elder John Strong whose reputation for sanctity stood hardly 
 second to that of the minister in the popular mind ; Deacon Jonathan 
 Hunt, and Deacon Josiah Clark whose grandfather bore the same 
 title before him and whose great-grandfather, Lieut. William Clark, 
 was one of the pillars of the pioneer church in Northampton. Of 
 these Clarks it is said "they maintained a regular /h';«z7j/ prayer- 
 meeting for a number of years." 
 
 With such a background it is hardly wonderful that Levi Parsons, 
 Sr., having graduated in September of 1801 from Williams College 
 at the age of twenty-two, decided, after teaching a couple of years 
 in an academy at Cornwall, Conn., and tutoring for a couple more 
 years at Williams, to enter the ministry. He studied theology with 
 Dr. Alvin Hyde, who for forty years ministered to the church of 
 Lee, Massachusetts. 
 
 10 
 
As a licentiate he was employed by the Berkshire Missionary 
 Society to traverse New York State, visiting especially new settle- 
 ments. On this tour he preached at Marcellus, the result being 
 that he was invited to become pastor of that church at a salary of 
 four hundred dollars a year. Here he was ordained and installed 
 September i6, 1807, being the second minister settled in Onondaga 
 county. This pastorate lasted thirty-two years, but his residence at 
 "The Farm " continued during life. 
 
 His marriage with Almira, daughter of Deacon Samuel Rice, 
 occurred October 9, 1809. To them were born eight sons and 
 daughters, of whom seven lived to maturity. The youngest, who is 
 the subject of this sketch, was born January 2, 1829. To him was 
 given his father's name of Levi Parsons. The reminiscences of his 
 early years show him to have been a thoughtful, conscientious, 
 affectionate child. The object of his especial idolatry was his 
 mother, a woman of mild but firm character, very prudent in speech 
 and charitable in judgment. Her children laughingly said that when 
 mother could find nothing else to say for a person she spoke of him 
 as "a clever body." She was most sensitively careful of everyone's 
 feelings, and took unwearied pains to impress upon her children the 
 obligation of courtesy to all, but especially to a stranger or one who 
 might be neglected. 
 
 Her health being extremely frail during a great part of her life, 
 household cares were early assumed by the daughters, and it was a 
 cardinal doctrine of the family that mother must be saved all unnec- 
 essary trouble. To her room gentle manners alone were admitted. 
 Her youngest son knew no greater treat than to visit in the sitting- 
 room with his mother, she seated by the chimney, he close beside 
 her on his little cricket, in friendly converse. No music, to his 
 childish ear, equalled her songs, the favorite being a hymn of Watts' 
 which had power to soothe every woe of mind or body — 
 " No burning heats by day 
 Nor blasts of evening air, 
 Shall take my health away 
 If God be with me there." 
 
 II 
 
Supreme authority was vested in the father who was eminently 
 "the head of the family." Never familiar with his children, never 
 permitting undue freedom toward himself, he was yet a tender 
 father, self-denying, and ever watchful for their best interests, reas- 
 onable in his demands. When his fiat had gone forth none dreamed 
 that it could be changed by teasing or coaxing, nor did one fancy 
 that transgression would escape merited reward however long- 
 delayed. Family government was administered with an impartial 
 justice which won the lasting respect of the children. 
 
 The Sabbath, beginning with Saturday night, was strictly 
 observed at "The Farm." Each child was expected to regularly 
 attend divine worship where reverent behavior was exacted, for the 
 minister had no intention of falling into Eli's errors. 
 
 In later years his son, Levi Junior, recalled an incident illus- 
 trating this feature of his father's character. The father was 
 preaching for a year in the neighboring church of Otisco. With him 
 were his two youngest children, Margaret, aged ten, and Levi, five. 
 Among the iDoy's most cherished possessions at that time was a 
 handkerchief stamped in one corner with the head of George Wash- 
 ington. The handkerchief was his "best," and as such, privileged 
 to repose in his pocket on Sabbath day in the meeting-house, where 
 an occasional glimpse of George was unspeakably refreshing to the 
 child, making him forget his weary, dangling little feet. 
 
 One Sabbath morning, as the two children sat together in the 
 square pew dedicated to the minister's family, it occurred to Levi to 
 relieve the tedium of the service by folding the edges of the hand- 
 kerchief around George in a coffin-like way, after which he buried 
 him in one corner of the pew, and so pleasing did these obsequies 
 prove that they were quietly repeated from time to time. Such a 
 pastime in these days might be considered gruesome but hardly 
 inappropriate to the house of God. In the early thirties other views 
 prevailed, as presently appeared on their return home, and thence- 
 forth greater heed was given to sermons and less to funereal rites. 
 
 No injunction of Holy Writ was more implicitly obeyed in this 
 
 12 
 
household than the one to "Use hospitahty without orudging; " and 
 indeed the traveUng customs of the day gave abundant opportunity 
 for the cultivation of this amiable virtue. "The Farm "diaries 
 record an endless round of visits. There were the morning visitors, 
 the evening visitors, and those who came "to spend the day," or 
 night. It was a joy to welcome a half-dozen unexpected guests to 
 the breakfast table, escort eight or nine out-of-town friends to the 
 family pew on Sunday, and entertain the "Female Benevolent 
 Society" whose numbers swelled from twenty in the afternoon to 
 an evening party of fifty or so. 
 
 The larder expected to be in readiness for any emergency calcu- 
 lated to produce famine, while that day which found "the spare 
 bedroom " empty provided most unusual news for the family chron- 
 icles. The appreciative tribute of one visitor was long cherished by 
 the children who heard him say to his wife, " This, my dear, is the 
 family of whom I told you as being so exceedingly well brought up," 
 from which we infer that even "the good old times " knew ups and 
 downs in child-culture. 
 
 It was well for the minister that he was versed in agricultural 
 lore and that his slender stipend was reinforced by the produce of 
 his fields, whose area gradually grew from ten to a hundred acres, 
 for his generous hospitality as well as the needs of a large and 
 growing family necessitated the greatest prudence, industry and 
 economy. Every child was expected to help, fixed tasks being 
 assigned each at an early age. However, sweets were mixed with 
 toil as will be seen from the following letter penned when the writer 
 was nine years old : 
 
 Dear Sister : 
 
 As Almira is now going to Geneva I will improve the time in 
 writing to you. I go to School as I said before, and I can parse a 
 little, this year I go after the harvesters and glean all that they 
 leave. Papa thinks that I shall gather a half a bushel and that will 
 be worth a half a dolar. Mr. frost has made Some winder blinds for 
 our front chamber. I have Watermelons as large as four Walnuts. 
 
 13 
 
our folks have new Potatoes. Mr. tcels has gon to Jail for abus- 
 ing his family. I have but little to say as I wrote not long since. 
 From your dear brother, 
 
 Levi Parsons. 
 
 It will be seen that his education was already begun. He was in 
 fact a scholar of several years standing, having entered the district 
 school at a tender age. The rudiments of learning gained, he passed 
 into his father's study to fit for college. The study was located in 
 the second story under the sloping roof. From its windows was an 
 inviting outlook over barn and field to a wood-lot skirting the west- 
 ern side of the farm, which furnished abundant supplies of fuel, 
 maple-sugar, berries, and nuts in their seasons. Within stood a 
 high desk, perched upon phenomenally long legs, where were stored 
 the minister's sermons and letters ; the plain little rocker and 
 "pegged" stand where he listened to recitations, and two long, 
 home-made tables supplied with stone inkstands and quill pens 
 around which gathered young folk in pursuit of "higher branches of 
 learning." Here Euclid and "the classics," Blair's Lectures and 
 Rollins' History held sway, while a host of ancient worthies looked 
 on from the book-shelves. 
 
 In all matters educational, Mr. Parsons took a keen interest. 
 He himself was regarded as a superior instructor. From the time 
 of his settlement in Marcellus, he had, after the fashion of old-time 
 ministers, increased his income, as well as his cares, by receiving 
 into his family pupils preparing for college or the ministry. As 
 years went on his own sons and daughters shared these advantages, 
 which were varied as family finances permitted by occasional seasons 
 at academies or female seminaries. Moravia Academy was chosen 
 for Levi Parsons, Jr., mainly because his sister had recently married 
 and removed to that village. A glimpse of him at fifteen is afforded 
 by a composition on "Patriotism as it Affects Our Country," written 
 at this time. The style, while rather more oratorical than youthful 
 essays of the present day, is characterized by simplicity, earnestness, 
 and well-chosen language ; while the boyish thought expressed in 
 
 14 
 
his treatment of the theme curiously foreshadows those productions 
 of later years bearini^ upon public affairs. A year later we find him 
 a Freshman at Hamilton College. His mother, whose education 
 had been "finished" there in the old days of Kirkland Academy, 
 simply notes in her diary under date of January 6, 1846: "Mr. 
 Parsons, Levi and Guy left this morning for Hamilton College, the 
 boys expecting to be left as members." 
 
 The Hamilton which welcomed the class of '49 was not a luxur- 
 ious spot ; but the boys did not mind, — they were used to sheet iron 
 heaters, candles, and rectangular buildings, nor dreamed that hard- 
 ship was connected with their use. For a year's residence on 
 College Hill, the most extravagant of upper classmen was not, 
 according to the catalogue, expected to make way with more than 
 $103.50, while frugal Freshmen need spend but $64.25, which 
 modest sum might be still further reduced by consultation with 
 the Faculty. 
 
 There was plenty of fun and frolic mixed with the regular curri- 
 culum (the age of "electives" was not yet), and no one more 
 thoroughly enjoyed that relaxation than Levi Parsons, Jr. 
 
 His genial humor and genuine friendliness soon won the affec- 
 tionate regard of his mates, while his thorough, accurate scholarship 
 gained their respect as well as the approbation of grave professors. 
 
 During the winter of his Junior year a term of teaching inter- 
 rvipted his college course. Under date of January 24 his mother 
 writes: "This morning two of our trustees called to invite Levi to 
 take the head of our union school — he had three hours for consider- 
 ation when he gave his answer in the affirmative." The following 
 morning his duties as schoolmaster began. This first experience in 
 managing humanity was not one of unmingled bliss ; however helpful 
 it may have proved in the development of his own character. 
 
 His position as "instructor of youth" was joyfully abandoned in 
 April in favor of college and the Junior Exhibition for which he had 
 carefully prepared during his absence, having also kept up with 
 regular class work in most studies. The opening of the term is 
 
 15 
 
described in a letter from which the following extract is taken : 
 
 Hamilton College, May 9, 1848. 
 Dear Father — 
 
 Since I left you at the embankment have been generally pros- 
 pered in my affairs as well as could be expected. Found students 
 enough before we landed at Oneida to make out a full load for 
 college. Had rather a raw time going over and found things looking 
 rather cold and disagreeable at college ; but at the same time there 
 were many familiar faces and fellows whom I was right glad to see. 
 As regards a boarding house, I found a place had been reserved for 
 me at Col. Barker's, my old boarding place, which I concluded to 
 accept. The price is as formerly which is as low as any place except 
 one — and most of them have 13 and 14 shillings. I occupy the 
 same room as when here before ; but have adopted a new chum. 
 His name is Russ — he is not quite so talkative as my other chum, 
 but is much neater about the room. I am quite pleased with my 
 new chum and am glad to be with some one who does something 
 towards keeping things in order, a quality which most of my former 
 chums have not possesed. The Exhibition came off in due time 
 and I performed my part to the best of my ability. I succeeded in 
 gaining good attention which very few were able to do — in fact my 
 piece was peculiar and entirely different from anything else on the 
 stage, and, if I may be permitted to say so, I got along very well. I 
 am going to have a first rate chance for studying this term. Three 
 other classmates besides myself intend reciting to Prof. D wight. 
 He is considered much better than the regular German teacher, 
 and the class being so small we shall have a good chance to learn 
 the pronunciation. 
 
 The "piece" to which allusion is made was an ardent exposition 
 of the superior advantages gained by the student in country institu- 
 tions, and its position upon the program evidently entitled the 
 speaker to some private rejoicings. 
 
 He graduated July 25, 1849, being then according to an onlooker 
 "a rather mature looking, old looking young man." Boys who have 
 since attained honorable rank in life were his classmates. Among 
 them may be noted John J. Knox, U. S. Comptroller of Currency; 
 
 16 
 
Levi Paksons, Jr., JEt. 19. 
 
Hon. James Woolworth, of Nebraska ; W. B. Ruggles, who held 
 prominent offices in New York State, and Rev. F. F. ElHnwood, 
 D.D., Senior Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign 
 Missions. With many, friendships were maintained which termi- 
 nated only with death. 
 
 The year succeeding his graduation was an important one — for 
 in it was settled his lot for time and eternity. He had decided for 
 law, a profession his gifts eminently fitted him to adorn, and intended 
 teaching his way to the Bar. The position of assistant in an 
 academy at East Bloomfield, N. Y., where legal studies filled leisure 
 hours, was the first step in this career. 
 
 At East Bloomfield Providence had located as pastor Henry 
 Kendall, a son of both Hamilton and Auburn, whose magnetic 
 Christian character was influential in bringing about the young 
 teacher's conversion. On September i, 1850, he united with the 
 Marcellus Plrst Church and soon after went to Michigan to teach at 
 Flint. When twenty-two years old he began the study of theology 
 at Auburn Seminary. Of this institution his father was a founder 
 and devoted friend, serving as its trustee from its incorporation 
 until his death — a period of forty-four years — during thirty-four of 
 which he was President of the Board. 
 
 Hardly was he well established when Hamilton College honored 
 him, as Williams had previously honored his father, by offering a 
 tutorship, which was declined. He was licensed to preach at North- 
 villc by the Presbytery of Cayuga the 21st day of June, 1853. Six 
 months later he received a communication which we give in full : 
 
 Hamilton College, 
 December i, 1853. 
 Dear Sir — 
 
 You are perhaps aware that since the beginning of the present 
 collegiate year the duties of the College Chaplaincy with us have 
 been discharged by the Rev. J. A. Brayton who also at the same 
 time in part acted as a Classical Instructor by hearing one recitation 
 each day. In consequence, however, of engagements into which he 
 
 17 
 
entered with the Home Missionary Society before coming here, he 
 finds himself unexpectedly obliged to leave at the close of the 
 present term. We are hence looking around for some one to take 
 his place ; as you were on a former occasion invited to a place in 
 our Faculty, we have thought it proper to renew the invitation at 
 this time ; and it is in accordance with the unanimous wish of my 
 associates that I now write. Our first wish is : that you should 
 accept the place which Mr. Bray ton proposes to leave vacant, in 
 which case it will become your duty to preach once on the Sabbath, 
 attend prayer-meeting Sabbath evening, and hear one recitation on 
 each of the other days of the week. The salary attached to this 
 position is $700. Should you be unwilling to assume the duties of 
 the College Chaplaincy we shall be glad to have you accept the post 
 of tutor, as before offered to you, in which case your salary will be 
 $450 for the first year, $500 for the second, &c., with duty usually 
 of hearing two recitations each day. Should you consent to this 
 proposal we shall desire you to join us at the opening of the next 
 term. I shall be glad to hear from you at your earliest convenience. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Simeon North. 
 Mr. Levi Parsons, 
 
 Auburn, N. Y. 
 
 This mark of confidence from his Alma Mater could not but 
 gratify so young a man. The position with its literary outlook was 
 tempting to one entering life. Wisely estimating his own abilities, 
 however, he chose to continue his studies and enter the broader 
 field of usefulness awaiting his future. 
 
 In 1854, five years after leaving Hamilton, he entered the 
 Christian ministry as a graduate of Auburn. 
 
 An early friend. Rev. Walter V. Couch, of San Diego, California, 
 writing of him lately says : " I knew him in college ; but did not 
 know him intimately until we met in the Seminary at Auburn. 
 Although scarcely any older, he was much more mature than I. 
 That was a characteristic that impressed itself upon me at the 
 beginning of my acquaintance with him — his ripeness of character. 
 He had a judgment that was almost faultless. That and his purity 
 
 18 
 
of character and steadfastness of principle gave him his great 
 influence over his brethren, and his weight in ecclesiastical councils. 
 His sterling character added force to his words in the pulpit as well 
 as in the judicatories of the church." 
 
 Soon after graduation, his ministerial life began in Otisco, N. Y., 
 where his funereal propensities suffered check a score of years 
 before. In early days this was a flourishing church ; now it numbers 
 but little over a hundred members. The edifice stood in the midst 
 of a modest hamlet, remote from railways and "madding crowds,'-' 
 surrounded by the picturesque hills and hollows of Onondaga 
 county. 
 
 To this secluded country parish he brought his bride, Mary 
 Wadsworth, daughter of Rev. Charles and Tryphena Isham Wads- 
 worth, of Richfield Springs, N. Y., to whom he was married 
 November 21, 1854. Her personal attractions, winning manner, 
 and Christian character secured the respect and love of those who 
 knew her. 
 
 After preaching as stated supply for about a year and a half at 
 Otisco, Providence opened for him a way to Mount Morris which 
 proved to be the scene of his life-work ; but he ever retained an 
 affectionate interest in the welfare of that first charge on bleak 
 Otisco Hill. 
 
 19 
 
Mmxnt MtivvxB faainrat^. 
 
 "The transcendent importance of the pastoral relation is only seen when viewed 
 in the light of eternity. " 
 
 — Levi Parsons. 
 
 IN these clays of frequent changes it is pleasant to note a pastorate 
 possessing a degree of stability and permanence. A relation 
 so important as that between pastor and people should gain in 
 power and richness with every passing year. Such a ministry was 
 that portrayed by the poet Goldsmith, whose description of the 
 village preacher, after the lapse of a century, still charms the imagi- 
 nation, still touches the heart — 
 
 "His ready smile a parent's warmth expressed. 
 Their welfare pleased him, and their cares distressed ; 
 To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given. 
 But all his serious thoughts had rest in heaven." 
 
 Such a life, such scenes are not the fancies of the poet's brain ; 
 rather are they the beautiful realities which rightly crown any 
 pastorate of many years. For by lifelong service in behalf of one 
 people, a pastor becomes so intimately associated with their joys and 
 sorrows, their hopes, their cares and aspirations, that a tie is formed 
 like that of a father to beloved children, to be terminated at last by 
 death alone. 
 
 In the matter of long pastorates Western New York has an 
 honorable record. Prominent among them is that of the Rev. Levi 
 
 21 
 
Parsons, D.D., for forty-five years pastor of the First Presbyterian 
 Church of Mount Morris, N. Y. 
 
 In December of 1855, he preached in Mount Morris as a candi- 
 date, which resulted in his engagement to fill the pulpit as stated 
 supply for six months. His term of service began on the first 
 Sabbath of the succeeding February ; three months later by a prac- 
 tically unanimous vote he was invited to the pastorate of the church. 
 One brother objected to his installation on the ground that he 
 looked like a sickly young man and might not live long ; but the 
 brother departed for another world thirty years before the "sickly 
 young man." 
 
 The call was made out and subscribed to by the members of the 
 session. It was as follows : 
 
 The congregation of the First Presbyterian Church in Mount 
 Morris, being on sufficient grounds well satisfied of the ministerial 
 qualifications of you, Mr. Levi Parsons, Jr., and having good hopes 
 from our past experience of your labors that your ministrations in the 
 Gospel will be profitable to our spiritual interests, do earnestly call 
 and desire you to undertake the pastoral office in said congregation ; 
 promising you in the discharge of your duty all proper support, 
 encouragement, and obedience in the Lord. And that you may be 
 free from worldly cares and avocations we hereby promise and oblige 
 ourselves to pay you the sum of seven hundred dollars annually in 
 regular quarterly payments, during the time of your being and con- 
 tinuing the regular pastor of this church. In testimony whereof we 
 have respectively subscribed our names this 28th day of April, A.D. 
 1856. 
 
 James Conkey, 
 Marsena Allen, 
 Stilwell Burroughs, 
 Milo H. Maltbie, 
 L. J. Ames, 
 
 Members of Session. 
 
 To the fact and doings above stated I hereby testify as Moder- 
 ator of the meeting. 
 
 Pliny ¥. Sanborne. 
 
 22 
 
The call being' accepted, household goods were removed to the 
 new home and life began hopefully, though the outlook for a young 
 man, barely twenty-seven, was somewhat formidable. 
 
 Of the fifteen predecessors who had ministered to the church 
 since its formation in 1814, but four had been regularly installed 
 pastors and only one had managed to remain as long as seven years. 
 The majority, after a more or less prolonged struggle, sought other 
 fields of labor. Permanence in the pastoral relation was the last 
 thing expected. The church was laden with a debt of three thousand 
 dollars as a result of building the present edifice, and there was 
 division in the fold. The prospect required courage, resolution, dil- 
 igence, and tact. 
 
 On the morning of July loth he was ordained and installed pastor 
 by Ontario Presbytery. The service ojjened with invocation and 
 reading of Scripture by Rev. J. R. Page of Perry. Prof. E. A. 
 Huntington, D. U., of Auburn Seminary, offered prayer. Dr. 
 Kendall, subsequently secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Home 
 Missions, preached the sermon from Rev. iv. 8-1 1. The moderator, 
 Dr. Barnard of Lima, proposed the constitutional questions and 
 offered the ordaining prayer. The charge to the people was given 
 by Rev. P. F. Sanborne ; that to the pastor, by his father. Rev. Levi 
 Parsons, Sr., then advanced in years. Of him Prof. S. M. Hopkins, 
 D. D., of Auburn, said: "In his character as a Christian and a 
 minister, there was happily blended strict orthodoxy with evangelical 
 charity, ecclesiastical enterprise with great personal modesty, sound 
 wisdom with marked simplicity, and he filled a long life with abun- 
 dant labors and activities." A portion of his impressive charge is 
 here given : 
 
 "An ordination occasion is always very interesting and solemn ; 
 but the present is to me peculiarly so. Having been engaged in 
 preaching the gospel for a period of fifty years, and as I am now 
 closing my ministerial labors, it is a very consoling consideration 
 that this my son now comes forward and consecrates himself to the 
 
 23 
 
work of the ministry, and with favorable prospects of usefuhicss is 
 this day placed over this people as their pastor. 
 
 " By appointment of Presbytery, it becomes my duty on this 
 occasion to give the charge to the pastor. 
 
 "My Dear Son — You having been, in the providence of God, 
 directed to this place, and having been set apart to the work of the 
 Gospel Ministry, by prayer and the laying on of the hands of the Pres- 
 bytery, and having been placed over this people as their pastor, I 
 would now, as your father, earnestly and affectionately exhort you, 
 and in behalf of the Presbytery, and in the name of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, under whose authority we act, I would solemnly charge you 
 to be faithful in discharging the duties of the holy ministry. 
 
 "In the first place I would exhort you to be faithful to your own 
 soul. Be eminently a man of prayer. Cultivate a spirit of ardent 
 and devoted piety. This is of first importance, as it respects your 
 usefulness in the ministry. In vain will you attempt to describe the 
 beauties of holiness, unless you are able to discern its beauties your- 
 self. In vain will you attempt to direct sinners to Jesus, unless you 
 are personally conversant with the way. If you would expect to be 
 a successful preacher, you must be a man of active and fervent piety. 
 In your intercessions with God, never forget that precious and 
 immortal souls are committed to your care. Commend them affec- 
 tionately to the God of all grace. 
 
 " Be a man of study. * * You will not be able for any length 
 of time to answer the expectations of this people, only as you pay 
 constant attention to literature. While you will pay suitable atten- 
 tion to the branches of science which are not strictly theological, it 
 is in sacred literature that we would exhort you to be a proficient. 
 If you would be an eminently useful minister, you must, by your 
 varied and extensive reading and your close attention to study ' let 
 your profiting appear unto all.' . 
 
 "It is the appropriate business of the minister to preach the 
 gospel. To this end it is necessary that you should clearly illustrate 
 and enforce the great truths of revealed religion. * * While you 
 
 24 
 
will carefully avoid being wise above what is written, or attempting 
 to fathom the deep things of God, you will at the same time plainly 
 preach the truth, as you find it revealed in the Holy Scriptures. 
 Remember, my dear son, you serve a holy and a jealous God, who will 
 not suffer his word to be handled deceitfully. You are to preach 
 the preaching which God bids you ; and though you find doctrines 
 in the Bible, offensive to the carnal mind, included in the general 
 commission to preach the gospel, still you will not find yourself 
 warranted in making exceptions. 
 
 " In your public preaching and in your more familiar intercourse 
 with your people ever be careful to avoid giving unnecessary offence, 
 either by harshness and severity of expression, or by invidious per- 
 sonalities. * * Address them tenderly and affectionately, as one 
 who takes a deep interest in their welfare, as one who loves them 
 and sincerely desires their salvation. 
 
 "In nothing seek the applause of men. Let motives of a higher 
 and nobler nature sway in your breast. Seek to please God ; seek 
 that honor which cometh from God only. In view of prevailing 
 errors, and especially such as are very dangerous and subversive of 
 the very fundamentals of the gospel, you, as a watchman for Zion, 
 must sound the alarm and at all times stand forth boldly in vindi- 
 cation of the truth. * * * 
 
 " Finally, in all things pertaining to the holy ministry, we 
 solemnly charge you to be faithful. Constantly keep in view the 
 responsibilities of your station. And let the consideration of your 
 high and holy vocation, and of the immense importance of the 
 ministry of reconciliation, involving the eternal interests of man, 
 draw forth the strongest, and the most devoted affections of your 
 soul. Remember, that you are laboring not for time merely, but for 
 
 eternity. 
 
 "Behold, My Dear Son — the congregation — the flock, over 
 which the Holy Ghost hath this day made you the overseer. Oh, be 
 faithful to this people. It is not their temporal welfare merely, but 
 it is especially their spiritual welfare, the eternal interest of their 
 souls, their final salvation, that you are to seek. 
 
 25 
 
" Reflect on the solemn account you must one day render to the 
 great Judge of quick and of dead, of the manner in which you dis- 
 charge the duties of the ministry. Therefore, be faithful, that 
 when the Chief Shepherd shall appear you may receive a crown of 
 glory that fadeth not away. " 
 
 All things seemed to smile upon the new relation, when sudden- 
 ly, after a brief illness, his wife was taken from him on the morning 
 of August 2nd, leaving a motherless little boy a few months old. 
 She had already endeared herself to the community, who evinced 
 the utmost respect for her memory and sympathy for the bereaved 
 husband. 
 
 The funeral services, conducted by Rev. Dr. Shaw, of Roch- 
 ester, were held in the church, which was filled to its utmost capac- 
 ity with sympathising friends from far and near. 
 
 This unexpected blow was a great shock to the young pastor, 
 who had entered upon his work with such bright anticipations of the 
 future, leading him to realize more deeply "how little we know what 
 the Lord may have in store for us." 
 
 In the first year of the pastorate a powerful revival swept the 
 country, resulting in a large addition to the church in Mt. Morris. 
 Two years later, following a great commercial revulsion, a second 
 very general revival occurred, which was promoted by the agency of 
 prayer meetings, there being very little preaching aside from that on 
 Sabbath. In this place daily union prayer meetings were held at 
 eight o'clock in the morning for six weeks in succession, and it was 
 amazing to witness the crowds that gathered. 
 
 The years 1864, '70, '78 and '96 were also especially blessed by 
 ingatherings, though few communion seasons passed without 
 additions. 
 
 His marriage to Harriet M. Pease, youngest daughter of Rev. 
 Lorenzo and Lucinda Leonard Pease, occurred September 14, 1858. 
 Mr. Pease was born at Hinsdale, Mass., in 1809, but removed to 
 Auburn with his parents in 181 1. He was a graduate of Hamilton 
 
 26 
 
College and Auburn Seminary. In 1834 he married Lucinda 
 Leonard whose parents were also early residents of Auburn. In 
 Auf^ust of '34 they sailed as missionaries of the A. B. C. F. M. to 
 the Greeks in Cyprus. Interesting records are still preserved of his 
 missionary work and archeological investigations on that island, 
 while an unfinished Greek grammar bears able testimony to his 
 scholarship. The work, which began happily and earnestly, was 
 terminated five years later by the sudden death of the young mis- 
 sionary. He was greatly beloved by the people to whom he had 
 devoted his life, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Lazarus, 
 Larnaca, with every mark of respect from priests and dignitaries, 
 amid general lamentation. Mrs. Pease returned to this country to 
 educate her two little daughters, sparing no pains to gain for them 
 the best advantages afforded at that day. The youngest daughter, 
 Harriet, becoming proficient in art and music, at an early age 
 taught the same in a school for young ladies at Hornellsville, com- 
 ing from there to take the responsible position of pastor's wife. 
 
 During the first six years of this pastorate the church, in accord- 
 ance with what was then the usual custom, held its second Sabbath 
 service at half past one in the afternoon. In addition to these two 
 sermons it was also expected that the pastor would lecture in the 
 evening excepting when the missionary concerts occurred. Very 
 little, however, was then expected of him in the Sabbath School 
 which, composed almost exclusively of children and their teachers, 
 met in the gallery under the superintendancy of Judge Hastings. 
 "After 1 861 the pastor co-operated with the school, and indeed 
 prior to that time was accustomed to hold Bible classes at private 
 houses during the week as well as to lecture in school houses in the 
 remoter parts of the parish. " 
 
 The prayer meetings were held in the draughty church vestibule, 
 the organ room, or a hired room in the old Empire Block until the 
 pastor desperately determined to gather funds for a small building 
 which might be more easily heated. This, known by the good 
 Presb)terian names of Lecture Room or Session House, was 
 
 27 
 
dedicated November 14th, 1861, in the early part of the civil war. 
 
 The fierce controversies of the slavery question which preceded 
 that strife, and the four years of terrible warfare were instrumental 
 in severing many a pastoral relation. "Those were days," as Dr. 
 Parsons once said, "when people honestly differing in opinion felt 
 very intensely, rendering it extremely difficult for a pastor to exer- 
 cise true courage in upholding the government, without giving 
 serious offence." That this pastorate was able to endure and come 
 out all the stronger for that prolonged strain, speaks volumes for 
 the mutual forbearance as well as for the mutual regard of both 
 parties. 
 
 During the war he went to the hospital at City Point, Va., under 
 appointment of the Christian Commission to assist in caring for the 
 wounded, and it was always a satisfaction to him that he could be 
 of use during that great struggle. He, himself, was drafted in '65, 
 but the svu'render which occurred soon after prevented his seeing 
 active service. 
 
 February 5th, 1865, he entered upon the tenth year of his 
 pastorate and at that time delivered an anniversary sermon, giving 
 a brief synopsis of what had been accomplished during his ministry, 
 from which we quote : 
 
 "On April ist, 1856, which was soon after I commenced my 
 labors, this church reported to Presbytery 168 communicants, while 
 by our recent report there are 251 members. * * As to the 
 relative numbers who may be regarded members of the congrega- 
 tion then and now, we of course have no accurate data, but probably 
 our congregations now are from a fifth to a fourth larger than at 
 that time. * * In respect of the temporalities of the church 
 also the past nine years have not been fruitless of progress. An 
 additional lot of land to enlarge the premises of the church has been 
 purchased, a convenient row of sheds has been built, together with 
 fences and walks, a heavy debt has been paid, a commodious lecture 
 room has been erected and an organ has been purchased. * * 
 During this period not far from $2,700 have been contributed for 
 benevolent purposes of a missionar}' character, not far from $6,000 
 
 28 
 
have been paid for extra congrcf^ational purposes and about $9,500 
 for the ordinary expenses of the con<^regation, making a total of 
 ;^ 1 8,200 or an average of about $2,000 a year. * * During the 
 past year on the 29th day of April this church entered upon the 
 second half century of its history. Of the original fourteen mem- 
 bers all have passed away by death. And of all those who were 
 members during the first twenty years, numbering about 300, only 
 twenty still retain their connection with us. * * Of the revival 
 during the past year, one of the happy fruits worthy of special men- 
 tion is a prayer meeting of lads about fifteen years of age, number- 
 ing some eight or ten and conducted by one of our Sabbath School 
 teachers, Mr. S. L. Rockfellow, which has been quite uniformly 
 sustained. This is one of the excellent methods of continuing the 
 precious influences of a revival. * * Nor in the revievi^ of the 
 past year would I fail to mention your care for me in several volun- 
 tary donations aside from my regular salary. The greatly increased 
 expenses of living have rendered this aid very acceptable in a 
 pecuniary point of view, but superadded to that my heart has been 
 cheered by regarding it as an evidence of your personal attachment." 
 
 His father's death occurred November 20th, 1864, during his 
 absence at City Point, and the following spring he was appointed to 
 take his father's place as trustee of Auburn Theological Seminaiy. 
 For eighty years no catalogue of that institution appeared without 
 the name of Levi Parsons on its Board of Trustees. 
 
 The growing esteem in which he was held, was again shown dur- 
 ing the same year by his appointment as member of the Board of 
 Councillors of Ingham University. Later he declined an urgent 
 invitation to become chancellor of that school. He was also a 
 trustee of the old Temple Hill Academy at Geneseo. 
 
 Those were the days of the Old School and the New School, 
 terms intelligible only to the theologically wise of the present 
 generation ; but of greatest consequence to our grandparents. The 
 reunion of these two branches after a separation of thirty-two years 
 made the year 1869 memorable in the history of American Presby- 
 terianism. As member of the Philadelphia Assembly the elder 
 Levi Parsons witnessed that parting and went the New School way ; 
 
 29 
 
his son, as delegate to the great New York and Pittsburg Assem- 
 bhes, assisted in bringing about the happy event which he jubilantly 
 mentions in his journal as "A Great Day for Presbyterians." 
 
 A general reconstruction of synods and presbyteries followed. 
 At the formation of Rochester Presbytery, which occurred at this 
 time, Rev. Levi Parsons, of Mount Morris, by appointment of synod, 
 convened the Presbytery and presided as moderator over its first 
 meeting, when he was elected stated clerk, which office he retained 
 until his death, a period of thirty years. His calm, good judgment 
 and thorough knowledge of church laws and usage placed him 
 among the valuable and influential men of his Presbytery, and made 
 its records the model of accuracy throughout the synod, while his 
 annual statistical reports to the General Assembly ranked among 
 the few perfect ones presented to that body. 
 
 In 1874 his Alma Mater, Hamilton College, conferred upon him 
 the degree of Doctor of Divinity, an honor which was a complete 
 surprise to himself and a matter of great satisfaction to his friends. 
 The pastor of one of the sister churches in the village only voiced 
 the popular feeling when he said in a communication to a local 
 paper: "While the much esteemed pastor of the Presbyterian church 
 is moving steadily on to consummate in a little, a score of years 
 spent in Mount Morris, a word is not out of place expressive of the 
 cfenuine and uniform esteem in which he has been held and is held. 
 Hamilton College did itself no discredit in giving our brother the 
 well earned title of D.D. With admiration and reverence we look 
 upon him, and shall take genuine comfort in calling him ' Doctor. ' 
 It will make no difference in the man, and he will never seem con- 
 scious of the dignity imposed upon him. With all a brother's heart, 
 a younger and inexperienced pastor desires to say, 'God bless 
 Doctor Parsons. 
 
 This clipping illustrates the amicable relations which ever 
 existed between Dr. Parsons and the other clergy of the town. In 
 the early days of his ministry, a regular weekly minister's meeting- 
 rotated between the studies of the Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian 
 
 30 
 
and Presbyterian brethren, beautifully exemplifying the doctrine of 
 Christian Unity, and although in later years this meeting was given 
 up, the graces of tolerance and fraternal intercourse continued to 
 flourish. 
 
 The twentieth anniversary of his pastorate was celebrated in 
 1876 by a reception, a brief description of which is given in a letter 
 to his sister : 
 
 " The New York Evangelist of week before last gives an account 
 of our 'surprise. ' It was indeed a great surprise to us both. Wife 
 and I went to Mrs. Hastings' in response to an invitation to take tea 
 with Brother Page, with the assurance that they would have their 
 tea in time for us to reach our evening service. I began to be 
 uneasy lest their tea should be too late, when Mrs. Hattie McNair 
 invited us to step into the dining room. On entering we found the 
 crowd and were soon met with congratulations on the twentieth anni- 
 versary of my pastorate. The rooms were decorated — one motto, 
 'Hitherto the Lord hath led us, ' and another 'Abide with us. ' 
 Brother Page had been secured to make the presentation speech. 
 Two large easy chairs, (one for wife) and a rich study gown were 
 presented, and some money was afterwards quietly handed wife to 
 get covers for the chairs and some memorials of the occasion for the 
 children. This was the week of the society meeting and as usual I had 
 been feeling quite depressed; of course the transition was very great. 
 The parish was quite generally represented, about two hundred by 
 actual count. Dr. and Mrs. Sprague were over from Geneseo. 
 The evening meeting was only in another place. " 
 
 In June of the following year Dr. Parsons .sailed for Scotland as 
 delegate to the first Pan-Pre.sbyterian council, whose sessions were 
 held in Edinburgh, the home of Knox, of Chalmers, of Guthrie, and 
 of many another brave defender of the faith. It was a goodly out- 
 ing for a country minister who had been busily engaged in culti- 
 vating his corner of the vineyard for one and twenty years. The 
 voyage over in company with that congenial band of forty brethren 
 of different Presbyterian stripes was in itself vastly refreshing, 
 intellectually as well as religiously. Not since his experiences in 
 the City Point hospital had he enjoyed so long a vacation as that 
 
 31 
 
which now opened before him. In the early days of his ministry he 
 took no vacation, the pulpit being filled always during his infrequent 
 absences by means of an exchange with some brother desirous of 
 visiting friends in these regions. August was then the time of all 
 the year for large congregations. And later, when the custom of 
 annual vacations grew more common, the church was never closed 
 for more than three Sabbaths of the year, so that this recess from 
 the numerous cares and responsibilities incident to his active life 
 was a welcome interval of rest, into the joys of which he entered 
 with an almost boyish zest. 
 
 "It hardly seems possible, " he wrote to his home friends 
 on landing, "that I am indeed in Old Scotland, the land which in 
 past centuries has witnessed so much strife and contention. I see so 
 much that is interesting that I am almost as much puzzled what to 
 write as though I had seen nothing. The atmosphere is a real tonic. 
 Poets in this land, breathing this air, ought to write the best of 
 poetry ; and preachers, to preach the best of sermons. The weather, 
 however, is not perfection, as the multitude of umbrellas seen on the 
 street attest. Even on a bright morning a man would almost as 
 soon go a mile without his hat as without his umbrella. Again ten 
 or fifteen degrees more of heat and an occasional subsidence of the 
 wind would not be unacceptable. The inhabitants here seem to 
 have the impression that it is summer, as they resort to the seaside 
 for bathing ; while we Americans with our flannels and overcoats 
 are inclined to question whether they have not lost their reckoning. 
 
 "On the morning of our arrival at Glasglow we lost no time in 
 taking the cars for Loch Lomond, and the subsequent trip by 
 steamer, coach and car to Loch Katrine, the Trossacks and Stirling. 
 These lakes are far famed for their beauty and deservedly so. The 
 mountain scenery with which they are surrounded of course adds a 
 grandeur which we do not find in our lakes of Central and Western 
 New York. The Trossacks, celebrated for its v/ildness, afforded us 
 with its smooth road and fine horses one of the most delightful 
 coach drives we have ever taken. They have a way of so construct- 
 
 32 
 
ing a coach with its inside out as to afford all the passengers the 
 privilege of deck passage ; a way too of putting their horses upon 
 a keen gallop that is suggestive of accident insurance policies. 
 
 "At Stirling the chief point of interest, of course, is the Old 
 Castle whose history is interwoven with that of Scotland itself. 
 But the interest of the place is not limited to historical associations. I 
 think I never viewed so rich a landscape as from the walls of the castle 
 was spread out before us in the broad valley, and all under a high 
 state of cultivation. Returning to Glasgow the same evening about 
 ten o'clock, we were still favored with daylight but concluded we 
 had seen enough for one day. The next two days we devoted to 
 Glasgow and neighboring points. 
 
 "July 2, 'yj. We came to Edinburgh on Saturday, June 30th, 
 passing through a very interesting agricultural portion of Scotland. 
 Yesterday, Sabbath, we heard Dr. Bonar, who has written some of 
 those sweet hymns to be found in our book. After the sermon we 
 went to the vestry and introduced ourselves. The church to which 
 he preaches discards the use of hymns. The quietness of the Sab- 
 bath and the church-going habits of the people are very noticeable. 
 I am assigned as the guest of Mr. Forbes, No. 5 Whitehouse Ter- 
 race, about two miles from Assembly Hall, with the expectation 
 of going there sometime to-morrow. Thus far I have been staying 
 at the hotel. The opening sermon of the Council was preached in 
 St. Giles church, famous as the place where John Knox made his 
 rousing appeals. 
 
 "July 5. Our Americans are doing splendidly in the Council. 
 I am proud of my countrymen. 
 
 "July 9. Yesterday in the afternoon I preached to a large con- 
 gregation in Moray church for the pastor, Mr. Glendenning, who 
 very politely invited me to dine with him, which I did. I am not 
 quite so much in love with the weather here as I was on first coming 
 to Edinburgh. It rains so much and clouds prevail, and to-day I have 
 worn my thick overcoat besides having on my flannels. The sessions 
 of the Council have been held in the large hall owned by the Free 
 
 33 
 
church and occupied by them for their yearly meetings, and capable 
 of accommodating about two thousand. Admission was by tickets 
 at about five shillings for the course, and large numbers were dis- 
 appointed in not being able to secure these tickets, so great was the 
 rush. The meeting was a success beyond the expectation of those 
 by whom it was projected ; many very able papers were read and 
 many eloquent speeches made. It was indeed a rich treat, which I 
 expect to enjoy all the more as in the quiet of my study I shall 
 review the proceedings. Have been delighted with my stopping 
 place in Edinburgh. Our memories of this most interesting city will 
 ever be all the more delightful as associated with the comforts and 
 luxuries of this Scottish home, whose bountiful hospitality we have 
 shared." 
 
 After seven days of conference, enriched with the wisdom and 
 spiritual thought of some of the world's most eminent scholars and 
 divines, the First Pan-Presbyterian Council adjourned July loth. 
 The following morning. Dr. Parsons in company with other members 
 left for Melrose and Dryburgh Abbeys. 
 
 "From thence we walked some three miles," he says in a home 
 letter, "to the residence of Lord Polwarth, where we were intro- 
 duced to his lordship, a very plain, unpretentious man, as well as to 
 Lady Polwarth, who is the mother of an interesting group of children. 
 It was in response to their invitation that nearly two hundred of the 
 Council and their friends met at their mansion for a Christian con- 
 ference. All these partook of a bountiful lunch on their arrival as 
 well as of supper just before their return ; while the people from the 
 neighborhood to the number of several hundred were provided with 
 refreshments in a pleasant grove not far from the house. The 
 grounds, located on the banks of the Tweed, reminded me of the 
 Murray place [Mount Morris], and though more extensive were not 
 as beautiful as the latter." 
 
 In company with Rev. Messrs. Gaston, Preston, Scovel and 
 Sanborne he started next day for London and a short continental trip. 
 They reached Paris on the evening of July i6th in a somewhat 
 
 34 
 
dilapidated condition, having undergone the usual vicissitudes con- 
 nected with crossing the channel. Of the sights, scenes and 
 experiences of the next five weeks we will content ourselves with 
 fragmentary jottings. 
 
 "Paris, July 20. This is a delightful city. The streets seem 
 more cleanly as a rule than any other city I was ever in. We have 
 been impressed with the spaciousness of the avenues and the extent 
 of the parks, gardens, forests and driving courses. Were you to 
 think of all Livingston county thus laid out I question whether your 
 idea would be much in excess of the reality which was spread out 
 before us as we took our stand on the top of the Triumphal Arch, 
 some 150 feet high, erected by Napoleon in commemoration of his 
 victories. As we see the people in the streets they are well behaved — 
 no rowdyism, not a drunken man have we met in Paris. 
 
 "We went with others to view the catacombs, which are said to 
 be better than those at Rome. The whole distance underground is 
 a mile. I am not sorry I went, though I think once will answer for 
 a lifetime. My conception of the catacombs up to this time has 
 been somewhat vague. Now it is altogether distinct and vivid. 
 
 "Our efforts to thread our way through the streets and to supply 
 our wants are sometimes quite amusing, inasmuch as we are quite 
 
 ignorant of the language. At one restaurant Bro. wanted milk 
 
 for his coffee and made various gestures to make the waiter under- 
 stand. At length the waiter seemed to say *I understand you now,' 
 started off and brought him a bottle of brandy. I leave you to 
 imagine the roar of laughter at the table. 
 
 "Turin, July 24. We have passed through a section of the far- 
 famed Alps. I had thought of the Alps as presenting a grand but 
 desolate appearance, but all along our route they seemed to furnish 
 a background to the social life of a rich agricultural region. In the 
 matter of grandeur I was surprised at the almost endless combi- 
 nations which were successively presented. * * You come to a 
 group of snow-capped mountains and as the sun shines upon them 
 you can hardly conceive of their beauty ; then you suddenly discover 
 
 35 
 
another, whose top is grey, towering to a great height and giving 
 character to the others, very much as the grey-haired man in a con- 
 gregation seems to give character to the congregation itself. 
 
 "Naples, July 28. Having been introduced to the minister of 
 the Scotch church here on my trip from Edinburgh, I find he has 
 been to the hotel to see me, and later has sent a note by messenger 
 asking me to preach for him to-morrow morning, to which I have 
 given my consent. 
 
 " Since dinner we have taken a drive in a cab, but the driver 
 whipped his horse so unmercifully that I think we should have 
 enjoyed a walk more. The inhabitants seem to be of all grades. 
 But I think we have seen more of squalor and filth than in any other 
 city thus far. Since coming to Italy I have been surprised at the 
 high order of intelligence indicated by many of the faces, especially 
 has this been so with quite a number of the military men. 
 
 " Florence, August 6. As there was no English speaking service 
 to be found, we had Brother Scovel preach us a sermon. Of course 
 there was not much in the atmosphere of the place like our Puritan 
 Sabbath ; and I can but think how sad it will be for our country if 
 ever the foreign element shall succeed in breaking down our Sabbath 
 institutions. Their absence here helps you to appreciate their 
 preciousness. 
 
 "Venice. As I sit here writing, I hear no rumbling of wheels 
 and clattering of hoofs as in other cities. This quietness pleases me. 
 After dinner we took a ride in a gondola. Our oarsman favored us 
 with some music, which was probably the best he could manufacture, 
 but I hardly think he succeeded in charming any of the fair ladies 
 of Venice. With the aid of a guide we have been visiting some of 
 the wonders. Had I not seen so many cathedrals I should probably 
 have been amazed at St. Mark's ; but that which amazed us most 
 was that so many of its precious things had been stolen from Jeru- 
 salem, Constantinople and other places. 
 
 "Of the thirty-seven days, which we had laid out for our stay on 
 the continent, only about fourteen now remain. Well, it is a very 
 
 36 
 
pleasant thought to me that we are now homeward bound. There 
 is no country which in my eyes is as attractive as the Genesee 
 Valley, and there are no scenes through which I pass which render 
 my home less precious." 
 
 From Italy the party passed rapidly through Switzerland down 
 the Rhine to the Low Countries, and thence to England and the 
 Emerald Isle, where they took ship for New York. After an 
 absence of nearly four months, Dr. Parsons reached home late in 
 September. His return was a matter for village rejoicing. The 
 satisfaction of his people found vent in a reception at the lecture 
 room, adorned for the occasion with autumnal foliage and flowers. 
 Here many of the citizens joined his parishioners in expressing their 
 hearty welcome. It was a season of that abundant "good feeling," 
 so dear to the pastor's heart, leading him to exclaim with the 
 psalmist, "Truly the lines have fallen to us in pleasant places ; yea, 
 we have a goodly heritage." 
 
 The pleasant day dreams indulged during the journey, of retro- 
 spective enjoyment with his family, were never realized. "A funeral 
 was waiting for me when I got home, and I have been on the go 
 ever since," he said in explanation. "I have about as much as I can 
 do to grapple with present duties and cares, and let the past take 
 care of itself. And so life whirls along and perhaps will continue to 
 whirl until I shall get through." 
 
 The Quarter Centenary of Dr. Parsons' pastorate was celebrated 
 at the residence of George W. Phelps, Esq., on the evening of Feb- 
 ruary 3, 1881. Notwithstanding extreme cold and uncertain 
 traveling, three hundred guests assembled to participate in the 
 exercises. Among these were Rev. Dr. Page of Rochester, who 
 assisted at the installation twenty-five years earlier ; Rev. Messrs. 
 Weed of Scottsville, Kittredge of Geneseo, Conklin of Lakeville, 
 Gutelius of Moscow, Best of Clinton ; also from the village Dr. 
 Massey of the Episcopal church and Rev. S. D. Moxley of the Bap- 
 tist. Dr. Ames in behalf of the congregation addressed Dr. Parsons. 
 He alluded to the pleasure of the church in commemorating the 
 
 37 
 
event, and, after dwelling appreciatively upon the pastor's faithful 
 labors during bygone years, presented twenty-five silver dollars, 
 "milestones to mark each year of work," and a silver tea set, belated 
 on the road by adverse weather. Several valuable gifts were like- 
 wise presented by members of the congregation and out-of-town 
 friends. Remarks were made by Dr. Page, Messrs. Weed and Best ; 
 extracts from numerous letters read, also a poem contributed by a 
 former pastor. Rev. C. H. A. Buckley, entitled 
 
 A CHURCH'S SILVER WEDDING SONG. 
 Sing we our " Silver Wedding " lay 
 
 Of jo}'s oft garnered up, 
 With him by whom our souls have long 
 
 Quaffed God's salvation cup; 
 Drink we from it with fullest joy 
 
 Out of Truth's living- stream, 
 Nor let the world, with Time's alloy, 
 
 Begloom its golden gleams. 
 
 Twice ten and five of toilsome years, 
 
 And yet a gladsome time, — 
 Their harmonies of hopes and fears 
 
 Ring out with sacred chimes; 
 Blest memories from afar they call, 
 
 To troop before our view, 
 Linked hand in hand with grief for all 
 
 The lost, the loved, the true. 
 
 Do not their spirits hover near, 
 
 A cloud of witnesses, 
 To greet him in our festive cheer 
 
 And swell our tide of bliss? 
 Were they not fed by him through life 
 
 To run the patient race? 
 Like them, shall we not bear the strife 
 
 And win the heavenly place? 
 
 Truths, bright as stars, he made to shine 
 
 Anew upon our way, 
 And fruits, shed from the tree divine, 
 
 Defying Time's decay 
 He brought to us — and told of love, 
 
 Of joy and hope in God, 
 For all whose feet, when fixed above. 
 
 The paths of pureness trod. 
 
 O Lord of light ! still may his bow 
 
 With us in strength abide, 
 And let his life in fulness flow 
 
 With love's undarkened tide; 
 Grant that we all his joy may share, 
 
 The topmost crown to place, 
 On us a spirit temple fair. 
 
 With shouts to it of " Grace." 
 
 38 
 
It was an event memorable not alone in the church annals of 
 Mount Morris. Throughout the State of New York there were at 
 that time (so far as is known) but Jiitic other Presbyterian ministers 
 who had occupied their pulpits twenty-five years and upwards. 
 Although in his early ministry he had aimed at permanency, he had 
 never anticipated so long a stay, ever realizing, in view of the con- 
 stant changes in the ranks of the village clergy' and those of the 
 neighboring churches, the necessity of being "ready to go at the 
 shortest notice, with the kindest feelings toward all, whenever the 
 interests of the church and especially its amity seemed to require it." 
 
 While all else had changed — the trees, which he had helped to 
 plant around the church, overtopping the eaves — the children grown 
 to adult years — his co-presbyters scattered to the four quarters of 
 the Union or gone to their final reward — one thing remained 
 unaltered: "The declaration which I then made," he said in his 
 anniversary sermon of that date, "the declaration of my belief in the 
 Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the word of God, and 
 that I received the confession of faith of this church as containing 
 the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures, is a declaration 
 which I still maintain with no less heartiness than when first made ; 
 while the vows which I then took to seek your spiritual welfare, are 
 vows which I have cherished, and which I can only regret have not 
 been more faithfully fulfilled." "Rooted and grounded in the faith," 
 his creed knew no wavering ; the truths learned in childhood stood 
 the test of a lifetime. 
 
 It is interesting in this connection, as showing his indebtedness 
 to early religious training, to read a letter written by him for the 
 eightieth anniversary of the Marcellus church : 
 
 October io, i88i. 
 My dear Brother Smith : — Could we only carry these bodies 
 from place to place as rapidly as our hearts go, I should not fail to 
 be one of your number at the approaching anniversary. No urging 
 is ever necessary to induce me to visit Marcellus. That village, with 
 all it surroundings, has been to me much the same as Mecca has 
 been to the Mohammedan, or Jerusalem to the Jew. No spot on 
 
 39 
 
earth can quite take the place in my heart which I have given to my 
 childhood home ; and I am glad to say that as years increase my 
 love for that home grows none the less. Sometimes when I am 
 weary and perplexed with cares, it even now proves a very pleasant 
 recreation to let memory busy herself in reproducing the scenes of 
 my childhood. There was a great deal of sunshine in those scenes, 
 but perhaps this is because I forget the clouds. Nothing as con- 
 nected with the sufferings of our late President so touched my heart 
 as the longing he expressed to be back on the "old sod " and to visit 
 a certain hill where he used to pick wintergreens. Childhood mem- 
 ories brought him more sunshine than all the honors of the Presi- 
 dency and splendors of the White House. The man was only the 
 grown-up boy. 
 
 I never can be too thankful that God gave me Christian parents 
 and surrounded me with the hallowed influences of a Christian 
 home. Much as I loved those parents while they were living, I love 
 them more to-day ; and this because of my increasing appreciation of 
 their real worth, and of what they did for me. When I meet them 
 in Heaven I shall want to tell them this. But of course no view of 
 my childhood home can possibly be complete excepting as seen in 
 connection with the church. God himself has so joined the two 
 together, that the highest excellence of each is only discoverable in 
 its union with the other. Some of my earliest recollections are of 
 attending church when I was about three years of age. That, of 
 course, was in the old meeting-house. My place was in the min- 
 ister's pew, which was a large square pew next to the pulpit on the 
 west. How plainly I can now see the interior of that church, with 
 its three aisles, its high pulpit, and its large galleries on three sides, 
 occupied by not a few of the young people. Edward Frost was my 
 first Sabbath school teacher, and Deacon Beach was the superin- 
 tendent. At five o'clock I would go with my father to a third 
 service on the south or east hills, or Falls, or the Captain Taylor 
 school house. The church conference was on Friday afternoon and 
 was attended by such men as Judge Bradley and Mr. Bingham. 
 Mr. Bingham was a notable singer. I think St. Martin's must have 
 been his favorite, as he used to give the peculiar warble of St. 
 Martin's to all the other tunes. His singing was to me the best part 
 of the meeting, attributable in part, perhaps, to the kind word 
 which he usually had for me as a child. The reason for holding the 
 meeting in the afternoon was to accommodate those living at a dis- 
 tance, there being very few church members in the village. Indeed, 
 
 40 
 
the strong infidelity which prevailed in the village was one of the 
 chief obstacles to the prosperity of the church. * * And as we 
 think of all these eighty years through which God has led our 
 beloved church, how encouraging the fact that an institution which 
 was thus founded in the wilderness, has survived all its founders, 
 and comes down to us with increased strength, freighted with so 
 many prayers, and labors, and tears, and rich in so many precious 
 memories and associations. We may presume that on that October 
 day, eighty years ago, the forests that, with the exception of here 
 and there a clearing, covered all those hills and valleys must hav^e 
 looked gorgeous in their autumnal robes, as that little band of 
 Christians gathered from different parts of the town to enter into 
 solemn covenant with God and each other in the church relation. 
 That must have been an interesting meeting. I think we all wonder 
 what were the hymns they sung, what the chapter they read, and 
 what the particular truth to which their attention was invited ; but 
 we cannot doubt their prayers reached down to us and to those who 
 shall yet come after us. Theirs was a noble work, they toiled hard, 
 they laid strong foundations ; but, one by one, they have fallen 
 asleep, they rest from their labor, and their works do follow them, 
 and because of this they are not lost to us. But in the very act of 
 taking up their work and carrying it forward we may be said to 
 belong to them, and they to us. 
 
 Among the literary productions which Dr. Parsons prepared, in 
 addition to his regular work as pastor, may be mentioned his address 
 before the Alumni at the commencement exercises of Hamilton 
 College, in 1885, on ''The Uses of Political Parties." On the request 
 of his friend and classmate, Hon. John Jay Knox, this address was 
 published in the New Princeton Review of May, 1887. 
 
 His most important work, "The History of Rochester Presby- 
 tery," was compiled from manuscript records of that ecclesiastical 
 body and the presbyteries formerly occupying the ground, and pub- 
 lished by Presbytery in 1889. As giving access to all matters 
 pertaining to Presbytcrianism in these regions, the work possesses 
 great value. In reviewing it the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle 
 says: "The volume gives a brief sketch of Presbyterian work from 
 the year 1795, when the first trace of any permanent church organ- 
 
 41 
 
ization is found in Western New York. * * The general infor- 
 mation in the work is invaluable. Dr. Parsons is entitled to the 
 gratitude of all students of church history for the care with which 
 the work is compiled, and that subjects ordinarily dry are so handled 
 as to be replete with interest." 
 
 "The Mount Morris Centenary," prepared in 1894 by Dr. 
 Parsons and Mr. S. L. Rockfellow, in addition to being a most 
 excellent record of the first century of the town's existence, shows 
 his earnest desire as a citizen to promote the development and well- 
 being of the place, and his interest in local as well as general history. 
 
 He was chosen Moderator of the Synod of New York and New 
 England at Albany, in 1892, and by virtue of this ofifice presided 
 over the Missionary Congress held in Saratoga the following year. 
 It was during this same year, '93, that he became President of the 
 Board of Trustees of Auburn Theological Seminary, and in this 
 capacity presented the keys of that institution to its first president, 
 Rev. Henry M. Booth, D. D., and to his successor, Rev, George B. 
 Stewart, D. D. The remarks of Dr. Parsons on this latter occasion 
 regarding the use of trust funds are of especial value. We give 
 the address in full : 
 
 " President Stewart : 
 
 My Dear Brother: — It has been made my pleasant duty, on the 
 occasion of your inauguration, as the second president of our beloved 
 seminary, to present you the keys of this sacred institution, which I 
 now do in the name of its Board of Trustees, which I have the honor 
 to represent. 
 
 This is not an empty form, but is rather significant of the power 
 with which you are invested, as the recognized head of this honored 
 school of the prophets. The charter has devolved upon our board 
 the more immediate care of the seminary, as to its curriculum of 
 study, the maintenance of discipline, the comfort of the professors 
 and students, the care of its buildings and grounds, and the manage- 
 ment of its finances. 
 
 42 
 
In the care of all these invested funds, we are impressed with 
 the greatness of our responsibility, when we consider that they are 
 not only trust funds, but especially sacred, as the offerings of God's 
 people for ministerial education ; many of whom though dead are 
 yet speaking, through the jDcrpetual power of their benefactions. 
 
 Nor do we forget that these funds represent, in part, the hard 
 earnings of the fathers and mothers, who were the pioneers of 
 Central and Western New York, and who transformed what was 
 then a wilderness, into these fruitful fields ; and who as they endured 
 privations, and built their own humble homes, made their 'deep 
 poverty to abound unto the riches of their liberality,' in the founding 
 of this seminary. 
 
 But our funds represent not only poverty but wealth. As God 
 has lifted our whole country to its present high position of power 
 and riches, in the sight of all the nations of the earth, our own 
 favored section has been a large sharer in this prosperity, as is 
 attested by the many enterprising cities and thriving villages which 
 are scattered so thickly over this part of our commonwealth. To 
 the small contributions therefore, of the pioneers, have subsequently 
 been added the hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands of 
 dollars, in gifts and bequests of the wealthy, which have served to 
 erect these massive buildings, to adorn these beautiful grounds, and 
 to increase the amount of our invested funds. 
 
 While therefore in the administration of our high trust, we must 
 seek only to do the Lord's will, yet we feel that in ascertaining what 
 his will may be, we are to have a wise reference to the views, the 
 tastes, and the habits of life, of those who contributed this prosper- 
 ity ; the rich as well as the poor, and the poor most certainly, as well 
 as the rich ; for we know that in God's sight the smallest contri- 
 bution may be the largest. 
 
 But this is not our most perplexing problem. As wealth abounds 
 in our land, it is not without its dangers to institutions, as well as to 
 individuals. To say nothing of conspicuous instances of the per- 
 version of funds from the express terms of charters under which 
 
 43 
 
they have been held, it is enough for us to know that churches, and 
 missionary boards, and educational institutions generally, are endur- 
 ing some of the most insidious temptations, as the god of this world 
 through the power of money is securing as many as possible to fall 
 down and worship him. In retaining the simplicity, the humility, 
 and the fraternity of the gospel, it is far easier ' to know how to be 
 abased, than how to abound.' 
 
 Wealth is a greater trial to grace than is poverty. The Bible 
 abounds in its warnings against the encroachments of worldliness. 
 
 The efficiency of our future ministry will be the fruit of the 
 consecrated spirit which now pervades our theological seminaries. 
 God is calling for ministers 'who shall endure hardness as good 
 soldiers of Jesus Christ ; ' and we shall be greatly to blame, if our 
 trust funds shall result in sending out men whose moral fibre has 
 been weakened by their love of ease and desire for luxurious living. 
 
 We think it quite proper, my dear brother, in recognizing your 
 headship of this institution in all its departments, that we should 
 thus indicate the nature of our duties as a board, and frankly confess 
 the dangers with which we are beset. After many losses and much 
 perplexity, owing to the unprecedented revulsion which has recently 
 prevailed in all commercial circles, we are happy to report our finan- 
 cial condition as both sound and hopeful. We are out of debt, and, 
 what is more important, have learned to keep out of debt. 
 
 Most cordially do we welcome you as our leader ; and it will be 
 our pleasure to aid you in carrying out all plans which you may 
 devise, for the strengthening, enlarging, and greater efficiency of 
 this institution. We shall invite you from time to time, as we have 
 your predecessor, to participate in our deliberations ; and we shall 
 rejoice to find that his mantle has fallen upon your shoulders. 
 Words fail us as we try to express our debt of gratitude for the six 
 years of his faithful, wise, sagacious and successful leadership. 
 Indeed his expressed approval of yourself, as his possible successor, 
 is your most happy introduction to our confidence. 
 
 And now it is oiu' prayer that our covenant God, the God of our 
 
 44 
 
fathers, may fill you with all wisdom ; and that the Holy Spirit may 
 use you as his own chosen instrument, in sending out year by year 
 successive bands of young men, who shall be 'able ministers of the 
 New Testament,' 'workmen who need not to be ashamed, rightly 
 dividins: the word of truth.' " 
 
 The fortieth anniversary of this pastorate was celebrated June 
 25th, 1896. It was one of those perfect days known only to the 
 month of roses. " Mount Morris, fairest village of the valley of the 
 Genesee, was at its best," says the Presbytery News, "and the 
 environment helped to make more glad a joyous anniversary. The 
 church auditorium was adorned with plants and flowers in rich pro- 
 fusion and chaste designs; the session room and parlors were turned 
 into a dining hall with tables laden with products of field and 
 garden." 
 
 The guests, including a large delegation from the Presbytery, 
 assembled from far and near to congratulate the church and minister 
 whose mutual vows had remained unbroken for two score years. 
 
 There was an elaborate program extending over afternoon and 
 evening sessions. After the usual preliminary exercises, the Rev. 
 H. H. Stebbins, D. D., of Rochester, as representative of Rochester 
 Presbytery, delivered the introductory address, closing with : "As 
 members of Presbytery we say, Blessed be God for the five and 
 twenty years of Dr. Parsons' continuance with that body. It has 
 never known but one stated clerk, and as stated clerk, what a record ! 
 I will not call him the father of Presbytery, for that he might con- 
 strue as a reflection on his age, and this is no time for reflections — 
 of that sort. But in the best sense of the word, and in a most 
 important, yea invaluable sense, he has been the Boss of the Pres- 
 bytery. * * What fidelity to the meetings from invocation to 
 benediction ! He has been the first to arrive, the last to depart. 
 What accuracy as a scribe ; what skill, entirely legitimate, that at 
 
 45 
 
Synod and Assembly, the Rochester Presbytery should have its full 
 quota of representation ! What intelligent and vigorous interest in 
 all the business ! What fraternal regard and tender consideration, 
 and gentleness. Blessed be God for the twenty-five years. May 
 his presbyterial function attain unto its fortieth year and as much 
 longer as God will let him serve in that capacity. * * The Pres- 
 bytery shares the joy, the honor, the grateful review, the sacred 
 memories inspired by this anniversary." 
 
 Rev. Dr. Kittredge, of Geneseo, followed, as representing the 
 neighboring ministers, and said in part : "Good friends, and friends 
 all ; especially, my friend Dr. Parsons. The members of this Pres- 
 bytery, and the inner circle of its members, have rejoiced that they 
 have a brother whom they can trust, a counselor. I am here to 
 speak of the wisdom and balance of this brother. Our inner circle 
 recognize what a good thing it is to have fellowship with such a 
 soul, a right royal soul ; we bless God that he has given us such a 
 head, heart, and soul to be our companion in His name." 
 
 John M. Hastings, Esq., then spoke for the congregation: "In 
 coming before you, I believe that I am speaking, not only to those 
 present here, but to a great congregation who have gone beyond. 
 Forty years have passed, and I believe that I can say, that year by 
 year our hearts have been knit closer and closer with our pastor. 
 It is not to our credit, but it is because our pastor has been patient 
 with us, almost beyond the patience of man. * * Had we a joy, 
 we gladly told it to our pastor. Had we a sorrow, then we to the 
 good Doctor came, a friend with ever ready ear ; and with mouth 
 closed but to that one who did confide. The Doctor has never failed 
 us. When there is any unusual occurrence in church or state, we 
 have a way of waiting to hear from Dr. Parsons. We know that he 
 never gets off his base ; a regiment of cavalry or artillery cannot 
 move him ; he is solid and has his reasons for what he says. * * 
 We have never had cause to fear the propriety of the utterance of 
 our pastor. We have never known what it is to come to church 
 with a doubt as to the spirituality of what we hear. When the 
 
 46 
 
Doctor tells us that anything is spiritually right, all the authors or 
 books in existence are at naught, and we are at rest." 
 
 In response Dr. Parsons said : 
 
 " Standing as I do today at the close of forty years' service as 
 pastor of this church and congregation, I wish most of all to express 
 my obligations to God for the way in which He has been pleased to 
 lead me and to give Him all the glory for any good whatever which 
 He may have secured through my instrumentality in this pastoral 
 relation. 
 
 I feel today that I am surrounded by friends ; and for forty 
 years I have had that same feeling. 
 
 This is my home where the Lord has permitted me to abide and 
 I can truly say "The lines have fallen unto me in pleasant places, 
 yea, I have a goodly heritage. " The whole valley of the Genesee 
 is renowned for its fertility and beauty, and certainly we can not be 
 blamed if we regard this as one of its most attractive spots. The 
 words of kindly greeting which have been so happily expressed by 
 representatives from the Presbytery, the neighboring clergy, and 
 the people of this congregation, have only reassured me of the 
 friendliness of my co-presbyters, the sweet fellowship of brethren 
 whose parishes join my own and the confidence and love of a people 
 who occupy a very warm place in my heart. 
 
 The friendship in these different relations, of which I have been 
 so many years the recipient, has been of a quality to overlook my 
 many defects ; for I am intensely conscious of my imperfections, 
 and could almost wish to repeat these years in the ministry, so as to 
 be more careful, more active, and more faithful. 
 
 This occasion is one of reminiscences, suggestive especially of 
 the meeting of the Ontario Presbytery in this house forty years 
 ago, when this pastoral relation was constituted. 
 
 The Presbytery of Ontario was with few exceptions, limited to 
 the county of Livingston, and was composed of brothers who were 
 bound together by very strong attachments. We were a band of 
 brothers ; our meetings were noted for their sociability, especially 
 
 47 
 
the summer sessions, when our wives were present and the collation 
 was the most attractive feature of the occasion. 
 
 Those, too, were days of disunion among Presbyterians, when 
 the terms Old School and New School were very familiar, and while 
 the bitterness which characterized the division at the first had 
 largely abated, yet the old battle lines were far from being obliter- 
 ated ; and as churches of both kinds were located side by side in 
 this territory, the friction here was greater than elsewhere. For 
 this very reason the Re-union in 1869 brought a great blessing to 
 the Presbyterians of Livingston county. The event was celebrated 
 by a large convention in this very church, the hatchets were all 
 buried, the best of feeling prevailed, and the meeting was little else 
 than one great love feast. 
 
 At this time of re-union the desire was very strong that as a 
 county we should be by ourselves and be known as the Presbytery 
 of Livingston ; but the demand for large bodies was so overwhelming 
 as to merge us with the metropolitan Presbytery of Rochester, and 
 thus largely obliterate our cherished traditions. The union, how- 
 ever, has proved most happy for these more than twenty-five years. 
 Our city brethren have treated us most courteously, and the parity 
 of the clergy has been not less happily exemplified by them than 
 it was on the floor of our formerly purely rural body. 
 
 The entire disuse of the terms Old and New School has only 
 proved how completely obliterated is every trace of that unhappy 
 controversy which divided our beloved Zion for more than thirty 
 years. 
 
 Of the clergymen of all denominations in Central and Western 
 New York, I know of none but Dr. Waith, of Lancaster, who 
 occupies the same position as he did forty years ago. For many 
 years Brother Hunter of Springwater, and Dr. Shaw of Rochester, 
 were conspicuous illustrations of the permanent pastorate, the one 
 celebrating his fiftieth anniversary and the other very nearly reaching 
 that mark. 
 
 As pn)ductive of prolonged pastorates this Genesee Valley has 
 
 48 
 
earned an enviable distinction. Dr. Barnard was thirty-eight years at 
 Lima, Rev. Thomas Aitken was more than forty years at Sparta, 
 and the following have had pastorates of twenty years or more : 
 Dr. A. G. Hall of Rochester, 3rd ; Dr. J. R. Page of Perry, Dr. S. A. 
 Freeman of Honeoye Falls, Dr. G. Patton of Rochester, 3rd; Dr. 
 C. B. Gardner of Rochester, Westminster ; Dr. C. P. Coit of 
 Rochester, Memorial; Dr. H. P. V. Bogue of Avon, Rev. G. K. 
 Ward of Dansville, and Rev. F. Gutelius of Moscow. The last four 
 are in the race with a fair promise of celebrating the fortieth or even 
 the fiftieth anniversary. The name of Dr. J. E. Kittredge, of 
 Geneseo, should properly be added to this roll of honor, as he is 
 already in the twentieth year of his pastorate. 
 
 But turning from these Presbyterial relations to the dear people 
 of my charge for whom I have offered so many prayers and from 
 whom I have received so many benefactions, not the least of which 
 have been the prayers they have offered up for me, I feel that if 
 any honor attaches to the fact of our having walked lovingly 
 together for forty years, that honor is largely attributable to your 
 patience, your thoughtfulness and your uniform kindness. While 
 it would be more than human to suppose that any minister could 
 preach even one year to any congregation, without awakening 
 some oppostiton, yet I can say that whatever of opposition there 
 may have been, you have been very carefvil to keep me in blissful 
 ignorance of it. 
 
 Years ago you gained my confidence, and you have never for- 
 feited it. You have made me feel at home, you have cheered me 
 with your kindly greetings, and you have sustained me with timely 
 assurances, that my ministrations were appreciated. 
 
 You yourselves have met with many changes, while the Lord 
 has kept me in the same place. He has with few exceptions taken 
 from me my former people, and supplied their places with others. 
 Of the one hundred and sixty-eight communicants reported in 1856 
 only sixteen remain, three of whom are non-residents, and four of 
 whom have changed their church relations and returned. In addition 
 
 49 
 
to these there are about forty, who then belonged to the congrega- 
 tion, many of whom were children, who are still with us, and mostly 
 communicants ; and there is perhaps no blessing so sweet to a 
 pastor's heart as when our covenant God permits the children to 
 take the places of the fathers and mothers who have fallen asleep. 
 
 Coming as I did to this place in my youth and inexperience, the 
 Lord was very good in surrounding me with a noble band of elders, 
 men of varied gifts but all of sterling character. One by one they 
 have left us until all have gone. But their places have been sup- 
 plied by worthy followers up to the present time ; men in whom I 
 have confided, and who have worked harmoniously for the interests 
 of the church. Indeed I have never felt that any of them, either 
 openly or secretly, were working against my ministry. And I am 
 happy to bear similar testimony as to the successions of deacons 
 and trustees, who have been true helpers. 
 
 I recall their names with tender interest, and cannot forget their 
 friendliness. This absence of opposition is all the more noticeable 
 when we think of the exciting experiences of the civil war. 
 
 The uniform good health with which the Lord has blessed me 
 has enabled me with but few exceptions, to meet my ordinary pres- 
 byterial, pulpit and parochial duties. I call to mind only two stated 
 meetings of presbytery from which I have been absent ; and few 
 indeed have been the Sabbaths, when sickness has kept me from 
 my accustomed place in the sanctuary. 
 
 Nor can I fail to bear testimony to the uniform friendliness of 
 the other churches in this village. With many of the pastors of 
 these churches, I have formed very strong friendships. The Lord 
 has enabled us to work together in love. Indeed in not a few 
 instances, our relations could hardly have been more confidential, 
 had we belonged to the same denomination. Similar testimony I 
 wish to bear respecting the people generally, irrespective of any 
 church relations. They have expressed their friendliness in ways 
 which have touched my heart. 
 
 I am glad the Lord led me into the ministry. Were I to live my 
 
 50 
 
life over ag-ain I would choose the same profession ; only I would 
 stri\'e to honor it more and make it more effective for good. The 
 ministry is a noble calling, appealing to the grandest motives and 
 furnishing rare opportunities for the development of a true manhood. 
 The I.ord greatly honors the man, whom he truly calls to proclaim 
 'The glorious gospel of the blessed God.' 
 
 I have tried to be faithful in preaching the truth, as found in God's 
 Holy Word, I have tried to discourage everybody from thinking they 
 could be saved, by their moral lives ; and I have tried to point all 
 alike to the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world. 
 
 Daniel Webster is represented as having said, that the one truth 
 which of all others most impressed him, was the fact of his personal 
 accountability to God ; and so may we not say that the transcendant 
 importance of the pastoral relation, is only seen when viewed in the 
 light of eternity. 
 
 When I was a boy I was much moved by reading a sermon, by 
 Jonathan Edwards, in which he reminded his people at Northamp- 
 ton that he must answer at the judgment for the way in which he 
 had preached, while they must answer for the way they had received 
 the word at his mouth ; and so, my dear people, pleasant as this 
 pastoral relation has been, helpful as it may have proved to us 
 mutually, let us not forget that it is all to be passed in review, by 
 that Judge who cannot err ; and that it is our privilege to be storing 
 up from day to day, its rich fruits among the rich treasures which 
 never fail. It is especially interesting to think of this anniversary, 
 in its relation to the recent revival, in which God has so greatly 
 blest this whole community, and permitted us as a church to be 
 enriched by so large a number of new recruits. We can think of 
 this large ingathering as a crown which God has placed upon our 
 mutual life as people and pastor. We have labored and prayed 
 together and God has not suffered us to labor and pray in vain. Let 
 us welcome this band of helpers, as full of promise for the future, 
 and let us with them, hand this church down to our successors. 
 
 51 
 
through the rich blessing of God, stronger and purer, and more 
 effective for good, than it has ever been before. 
 
 During all these forty years, we have been threading our way 
 through the wilderness, not knowing what a clay might bring forth — 
 living only a day at a time. In this respect, this glad anniversary 
 day of mutual congratulations, is just like every other day of the 
 forty years, in that we know not what shall be on the morrow. 
 
 A kind Providence will turn the leaves of our histories one by 
 one in the future as in the past ; and we shall only need to trust 
 implicitly in Him who has said, 'I will never leave thee nor forsake 
 thee.'" 
 
 Dr. Parsons then read the following poem which was written 
 for the occasion by Mrs. Parsons : 
 
 The way the Lord has led us ; 
 These forty checkered years, 
 
 'Mid doubts and fears, 
 'Mid smiles and tears 
 
 How short the time appears. 
 
 The way the Lord has led us; 
 Sometimes the clouds were dark, 
 
 But through the gloom 
 The light has shone 
 
 And we no fear have known. 
 
 In the misty halls of mem'ry, 
 The purpling shadows fall, 
 
 For nearly all 
 
 Who gave the call 
 
 Have passed the jasper wall. 
 
 The way the Lord has led us ; 
 A generation new 
 
 Has gathered 'round, 
 
 New friends we've found 
 
 And this is hallowed ground. 
 
 One family above, below, 
 United in one love, 
 
 We're pressing on 
 To join in song 
 
 With all the blood-bought throng. 
 
 In one unceasing melody, 
 Like sound of ocean surf, 
 
 With hope complete 
 Their joyous feet 
 
 Now tread the golden street. 
 
 I see the crimson banners 
 Of morning now unfold ; 
 
 Hail, day so bright ! 
 Dispel the night, 
 
 Arise, glad soul, 'tis Heaven's light. 
 
 The evening exercises, consisting of brief addresses by visiting 
 clergy, were enlivened by a tale of secret presbyterial proceedings 
 related by Rev. G. K. Ward, of Dansville, which was after this 
 fashion : 
 
 52 
 
" Mv DEAR Brother Parsons : I have a somewhat strange 
 story to relate this evening. 
 
 It is with rekictance that I make you acquainted with certain 
 facts that have come to my knowledge, but a troubled conscience 
 has driven me to commit to writing, so that my words may not be 
 misquoted, the confession, that within the past few weeks, a secret 
 correspondence has been carried on by certain members of the Pres- 
 bytery of Rochester, relating to one of its members. 
 
 Now this member being none other than the honored pastor of 
 this church, for many years the stated clerk of our Presbytery, who 
 keeps all the records, and at the same time keeps everybody straight ; 
 who is in fact the Boss of the Presbytery, as Dr. Stebbins has said, 
 I did not feel that it would be proper for me to withhold this informa- 
 tion from him, since, in his judgment, it ought properly to appear in 
 the minutes of Presbytery. The purport of the secret correspond- 
 ence referred to, was to the effect that the above mentioned brother 
 should be specially honored, in view of the fact that he had come to 
 the fortieth anniversary of his pastorate, as the Bishop of the Diocese 
 of Mt. Morris. In proposing the manner in which this should be 
 done, one brother wrote : Let our honored brother be arrayed in a 
 gorgeous robe, and a glittering crown — a la Mordecai in the reign of 
 Queen Esther ; let him be placed upon a richly caparisoned horse, 
 and led in triumph through the streets of Mt. Morris, while brother 
 Bristol, or some other horseman equally expert, proclaims, 'Thus 
 shall it be done to the man whom the Presbytery delighteth to 
 honor.' 
 
 This suggestion was considered quite unique, but there were 
 difficulties in the way. The Doctor's most intimate friends were 
 not quite sure he would look well in a robe and crown, never having 
 seen him with those appurtenances, and others said that the sight of 
 him upon horseback would be so novel as to provoke laughter and 
 spoil the effect, so that plan was given up. 
 
 Another brother suggested that we should present our brother 
 with a luxurious and richly upholstered armchair, with the names of 
 
 53 
 
his brother clergymen engraved upon it. But this was thought to 
 be too suggestive of retirement ; as though we were hinting that our 
 friend was becoming venerable and needed rest, so that scheme was 
 found impracticable. 
 
 Then some one wrote : Let us Doctor him. We had to send for 
 explanations, the suggestion being ambiguous. 'Doctor him?' 
 What does that mean .? Surely he was doctored years ago ! But 
 the answer put a new light upon the proposal : ' Let us give him 
 some pills, ' wrote the originator of this marvelous scheme ; and he 
 proceeded to outline his method and the reasons for it, which were 
 so cogent that his advice prevailed, and all the brethren said, Amen. 
 
 So it came to pass that your speaker was commissioned to pro- 
 cure the medicine to be administered to our dear brother upon his 
 fortieth anniversary. I had been furnished with the prescription by 
 Dr. Kittredge, who as you know is quite a physician in his way, and 
 I wended my way to the drug store. The proprietor looked at the 
 prescription carefully a moment, then glancing up, ' You will have 
 to have that put up across the way.' I looked toward the opposite 
 side of the street in a bewildered sort of way, and saw nothing but 
 the bank. 'Where do you mean,' I said, 'at the bank.?' 'Yes, that is 
 the place.' So with astonishment I went over to the bank, and 
 threw my paper down, in front of the paying teller, with the remark, 
 'Do you fill clerical prescriptions here.?' What was my surprise to 
 hear him answer, 'Certainly,' and he took up the paper, read it, and 
 disappeared, returning a moment later to remark, ' This presciiption 
 calls for forty 'gold cure pills,' but if the patient is a large man, I 
 think I had better make up heavier pills, and not so many of them.' 
 I said, 'That will meet the conditions exactly,' and in a few 
 minutes he handed me this pill-box, marked, as you will see, ' Cler- 
 ical Gold Cure, to be taken once a week or as often as required.' 
 
 So now, my dear friends, I have revealed this secret. One of 
 the brethren rather scoffed at the idea of the 'gold cure' for Doctor 
 Parsons, who never was known to take so much as a glass of beer 
 in his life. What an idea ! The last person in the world to need 
 
 54 
 
the gold cure ! ! But then, wrote another, Dr. Parsons is a gold 
 man for he is going to stand on the St. Louis platform this fall. 
 
 And similia similibus, you know, as the Homeopaths say. It 
 will be all right. So Doctor, here are the pills prescribed for you by 
 the Presbytery. Are you fond of taking pills .? No .? I assure you 
 these are not bitter, they are easy to take, and you must take them 
 anyway, for there was a unanimous vote in the Presbytery to this 
 effect, and you know you have never failed to obey the will of the 
 Presbytery. Take them with our best wishes. I trust that they 
 will do you good, and help to cure every heart-ache, in the sweet 
 remembrance that your brethren in this Presbytery love and honor 
 you." 
 
 The closing years of Dr. Parsons' life were fully as crowded with 
 cares and responsibilities as any that preceded, for his zeal in the 
 Master's work abated in no degree, while his genuine interest in 
 others aud desire to be helpful led him, as always, to enter heartily 
 into any cause that might promote their happiness or welfare. 
 
 Long usage never led to neglect of parochial duties. With his 
 wife he still continued to visit each home in his parish twice a year ; 
 and many were the calls in addition to comfort the sick, cheer the 
 lonely, or welcome newcomers. He was a faithful teacher in the 
 Sabbath school, and a regular attendant of the Christian Endeavor 
 society, where he was always ready to take some helpful part. 
 Moreover he was accustomed to prepare for each Sabbath one 
 written sermon and one extempore. During these latter years, also, 
 he held a third service once a month at Craig Colony for Epileptics, 
 which was a source of great comfort to himself because of the warm 
 gratitude expressed by those unfortunates. 
 
 Although involving much outside work and an extensive corres- 
 pondence, his devotion to ecclesiastical affairs never flagged. No 
 regular meeting of Presbytery found his name recorded among 
 the absentees, or lacked the guidance of his knowledge and fore- 
 
 55 
 
thought, while his appointment by Synod and General Assembly 
 upon important committees often necessitated long journeys to 
 attend extra sessions of the same. 
 
 Amid all these labors, the preparation of the Half Century 
 Annalist's letter for the class of '49 of Hamilton College, was no 
 small task. This is pervaded by that freshness of spirit and genial 
 humor, always a most lovable feature of his character, which time 
 never dimmed. We quote from its opening: 
 
 "This occasion may be sad or joyful, depressing or inspiring, 
 just as we may be determined to view it. As retrospective merely, 
 it must be sad, as a summing up of achievements for their own sake, 
 we cannot evade the conclusion that all is vanity ; but when we think 
 of the work we have done, and the victories we have gained, not as 
 past, but even now as a part of ourselves, and potential for our 
 higher development, and nobler, purer, and more complete charac- 
 ters, when we realize that we are only in the infancy of our existence, 
 then such a union is refreshing — stimulating and full of hope. 
 
 To the graduates of to-day, we probably seem as old men ; but 
 this is their mistake — their eyes are out of focus — a defect which 
 fifty years will correct. We know better, we know that we are still 
 but boys, in the preparatory department of God's great university, 
 hard at work as ever, in studying our first lessons, with interest not 
 only unabated, but increasingly intense. 
 
 It is pleasant indeed to call up the memories of our college life ; 
 those were happy days, and our advantages were exceptionally good. 
 Fifty years have not abated the respect which we then cherished for 
 our faithful teachers. We can now see them, as they occupied their 
 conspicuous seats in the chapel, at morning and evening prayers ; 
 President North, with Professors Avery, Mandeville, Catlin, Dwight, 
 North and Upson. They were scholars and instructors and gentle- 
 men. They knew how to manage boys, and have patience with their 
 infirmities. Those were not dull days — we managed to keep things 
 lively and give the faculty something to do. I am sorry to say, that 
 
 56 
 
with the most of us, we were not over-studious ; there was no danger 
 that "much learning would make us mad." In our opinion, the 
 most successful recitation was the one we got out of. X^at a pro- 
 fessor was sick, and unable to meet his class, was not regarded as 
 an unmixed evil, we were always quick to discover the silver lining 
 to the cloud. 
 
 In our transition from Freshmen to Sophomores, there was a 
 lightning rod affair, connected with rust ringing, that requires some 
 explanation. It was a fine illustration of unity in diversity. The 
 faculty and the boys were all after the same thing, only in different 
 ways. All alike were anxious for the honor of the college, and the 
 glory of Old Hamilton ; the faculty by maintaining order, sustaining 
 government and keeping up at least a show of authority ; while the 
 boys were zealous for the traditions of the elders, and cherished 
 those ancestral customs, which they had found as a part of the 
 college, and in their opinion perhaps even the more important part. 
 This difference became quite interesting, as rust ringing night found 
 the faculty occupying the entire lower part of the chapel, while the 
 boys were limited to the belfry. The two parties stood in the rela- 
 tion of besiegers and besieged, and the question was one of endur- 
 ance. The contest was proving quite unequal, for the faculty 
 presumably was fortified by pies, cakes and cold coffee, while we in 
 the belfry who were enduring the siege, were destitute of all the 
 provisions. But what about the lightning rod ? much every way, 
 but especially down. To Benjamin Franklin belongs the high honor 
 of discovering the utility of the lightning rod, as a conductor of 
 electricity, but to the class of '49, the hardly less honor, of discover- 
 ing its equal utility, as a conductor of boys ; yes, perhaps, we may 
 claim a greater honor, for lightning can take care of itself, but boys 
 have not always that ability. As we on that eventful night stood in 
 that belfry, having performed our last duty as Freshmen, and made 
 sure that the bell was free from rust, and according to all ancestral 
 usage, had pro\'ed ourselves worthy of the name of Sophomore, we 
 could have gone up a lightning rod or down just as the emergency 
 
 57 
 
might require. In the present instance there were three important 
 reasons, why we decided to go down ; the first reason was, that we 
 were already as high as we cared to be, there was nothing to be 
 gained by a farther ascent and there was everything to be gained by 
 a descent ; our second reason was, that it was then past our bed- 
 time, the most of us having been brought up in Puritan famiUes, 
 with the lullaby, 'early to bed and early to rise.' But our third, 
 and indeed our strongest reason for going down rather than up, was 
 to avoid the faculty. But why avoid the faculty when we all alike 
 were after the honor of the college and they were waiting to receive 
 us with open arms.? That was just the difficulty — it was the open 
 arms we were afraid of ; it was an instance of distrust of proffered 
 friendship. But to be brief in this description we retired to our 
 rooms that night just as usual, only we went byway of the lightning 
 rod. As to the subsequent movements of the faculty, of course our 
 testimony is not admissable. Presumably they held the entire 
 chapel as long as they cared to, or at least as long as the cold coffee 
 and other provisions lasted ; and whether they then formed in pro- 
 cession and marched away with their lunch baskets on their arms, or 
 one by one stole quietly to their homes, we shall never know. It is 
 a pleasant reflection that that was a night of victory all around ; the 
 faculty had its own way, kept up a show of authority, conquered the 
 whole of the chapel, held it as long as they cared to, and went home 
 when they got ready ; while the boys sustained the honored customs, 
 lifted themselves into unquestioned Sophomoric dignity, and proved 
 themselves superior to the faculty in strategy. Wherever on the 
 face of the earth a member of the class of '49 may see a lightning 
 rod he can afford to take off his hat ; for it always speaks hopefully, 
 assuring him that however tight may be the place he is in, there is 
 certainly a way out. " 
 
 It is pleasant to remember the tribute of affection given during 
 his last year by his townspeople in the " Closing Century Reception " 
 held at his home December 7th, 1900. Members of every denomi- 
 
 58 
 
nation assembled to express their love and esteem, leaving a valuable 
 souvenir of their visit. 
 
 His failing health had for several months caused much anxiety. 
 His family often urged the relinquishment of a portion of his work ; 
 but he refused, saying, "I wish to die in the harness," and again to 
 his wife, "I feel, 'Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel.' " 
 
 Though his physical powers were impaired, the powerful sermons 
 produced at this time show undiminished mental vigor and increas- 
 ing knowledge of spiritual things. Among them will long be 
 remembered the Thanksgiving sermon of 1899, the Closing Century 
 sermon, and the sermon commemorative of the death of Queen 
 Victoria. As the end drew near his themes became strangely pro- 
 phetic of the approaching change. 
 
 Sunday evening, March 31st, he stood for the last time in his 
 pulpit to preach to his people. His subject was the death of Aaron, 
 which he depicted with singular vividness, describing the ascent of 
 Mt. Hor at the command of the Lord, the laying aside of the priestly 
 garments, and the yielding of his spirit to his Maker. 
 
 The following Sunday was Easter. Dr. Parsons administered 
 the communion, and standing by the table, spoke earnestly from the 
 words, "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, 
 and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto 
 his death. If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of 
 the dead. " 
 
 That night the disease which had clung to him for many months 
 took an acute form. The duties which he accomplished with such 
 diligence, and such delight, were his to perform no longer. Instead 
 he was called to lie upon his bed of patient suffering. 
 
 He talked little, but his meditation was sweet. He expressed to 
 his wife great comfort in the abundant store of scripture which his 
 memory contained. Once when death seemed near, he repeated the 
 prayer learned at his mother's knee, " Now I lay me down to sleep." 
 
 The end, however, did not come till some three weeks later. On 
 the morning of Memorial Day, 1901, his spirit entered the home not 
 
 59 
 
made with hands, eternal in the heavens. "And I heard a voice 
 from heaven saying unto me, Blessed are the dead which die in the 
 Lord from henceforth ; yea saith the spirit, that they may rest from 
 their labors ; and their works do follow them." 
 
 Dr. Parsons is survived by his wife and eight children : Dr. 
 Stoyell C. Parsons, of San Angelo, Texas ; Levi E., of Marcellus, 
 New York ; Dr. Henry T., of Beech Creek, Pennsylvania ; Arthur 
 L., of Mt. Morris, and the Misses Elizabeth L., Mary A., Gertrude 
 W., and Annie C, who reside at the home. 
 
 Referring to Dr. Parsons the Mount Morris Union said : 
 
 '* To us who knew him, who have watched his every day life for 
 all these years, and who loved him for his manhood, his tenderness, 
 his Christian graces and his grand stability, the honors accorded him 
 by his church and college are but a feeble expression of the largeness 
 of the man. In our hearts he occupies the inner sanctuary, where 
 we cherish all that is best and highest in our experiences. At our 
 marriages, our christenings, our funerals, in society, in business, in 
 civic life, there has been this good man ; his cheerful, hopeful heart 
 has joined with us in all our joys, his pure spirit and unfailing trust 
 in God's supremacy and wisdom has been our stay in affliction, his 
 clear, cool, deliberate judgment has been our guide in business and 
 civic life. 
 
 Although always first Christ's Messenger, still Dr. Parsons' mind 
 was clear and his judgment safe on all business propositions and he 
 took a deep and intelligent interest in all that pertained to the busi- 
 ness and political world, and greatly enjoyed discussing these 
 questions with his friends. While at all times he kept abreast with 
 the advanced thinkers of the age, he was by nature conservative, and 
 rarely spoke or acted without due consideration, hence his utterances 
 bore weight, if not conviction to his hearers. 
 
 We cannot tell how many hundreds of sin-burdened souls have 
 been brought to the light of Christ under the ministrations of Dr. 
 Parsons. We only know that the number is very large, and that his 
 Master's verdict will be, "Well done, thou good and faithful 
 servant. " 
 
 60 
 
iEl)t ]fm\tV(Xl lExfrriarB. 
 
 ON the afternoon of June 3r(l, 1901, a brief service was con- 
 ducted at the family residence by Rev. W. A. Stirling, 
 rector of St. John's Episcopal church. Immediately after, 
 public services were held in the First Presbyterian church, during 
 which time the schools and all places of business in the village were 
 closed. The church was heavily draped in black, while many beau- 
 tiful flowers surrounding the pulpit testified to the regard of a 
 bereaved people. A throng of nearly eight hundred persons crowded 
 the building, showing the esteem in which Dr. Parsons was held, not 
 only by his congregation but by the community at large. About 
 fifty clergymen of Presbyterian and other denominations were 
 present. 
 
 The elders of the church officiated as bearers : Samuel L. Rock- 
 fellow and Miles B. McNair as honorary bearers, and Robert Craw- 
 ford, John M. Hastings, Henry M. Swan, Frank H. Mills, Joshua 
 C. Weeks and Jacob Knappenberg as active bearers. 
 
 When the casket had been placed before the pulpit, the choir 
 chanted "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord," after which 
 the prayer of invocation was offered by Rev. ¥. Gutelius of Moscow. 
 The scripture, selected and often used for the comfort of other 
 mourning hearts by Dr. Parsons himself, was then read by Rev. J.N. 
 Carmichael of Caledonia, and was followed by a sympathetic render- 
 ing of the hymn, "Jesus, still lead on." 
 
 Rev. Herman C. Riggs, D. D., of Rochester, then delivered the 
 opening address : 
 
 61 
 
"There is, for all who speak to-day, but one theme and thought. 
 Our utterances will weave themselves into a loving tribute to the 
 name and work and memory of our beloved brother, who for nearly 
 half a century has lived in this community, the pastor of many, the 
 friend of all. 
 
 It is to be my privilege to speak of Dr. Levi Parsons, the man. 
 And he was the thoroughly true and noble man. In every department 
 and feature of manliness he was admirable. Even physically he had 
 the marked advantage of a full development. He was a man of large 
 frame and fine bodily proportion. His physical presence was com- 
 manding. On the street, or in any assembly, he was a marked 
 figure. As he entered the homes of his people he carried into them 
 an atmosphere of power. In his prime he could have given delight 
 to the Greek in his enjoyment of physical perfection as an ideal. 
 He was gifted, too, with an unusual voice, strong and deep and 
 round and rich, an instrument for service in the ministries of his 
 life such as few possess or can possibly acquire. It could rise at his 
 command to the utterance of most forceful thought, it could tremble 
 with the soft sympathy and pathos of deepest feeling. 
 
 Dr. Parsons' mental equipment and furnishing were of high 
 order. In this regard nature had been generous to him. In his 
 physical frame, which many might covet and which all must have 
 admired, was enshrined a broad, active, vigorous, well adjusted and 
 balanced intellect. It was, moreover, an intellect disciplined by 
 education, refined by culture, enriched by patient and thoughtful 
 research. It enabled him to grow with each advancing year, into 
 broader mental attainments, into surer and safer knowledge, into 
 soundness of judgment, into clearness of comprehension, into careful 
 accuracy of discrimination and conclusion. 
 
 In all his mental operation he was industrious and earnest, serious 
 and thoughtful. He was a man of great energy and positiveness, 
 yet combined with, what is so often lacking in such natures, a wise 
 prudence and a liberal caution. He was a thinker and believer of 
 the old sort. He believed in the Bible as the one divine book of the 
 
 62 
 
world, and lie built strongly and rested peacefully upon its declara- 
 tions of truth. He knew that in these he had a sure foundation 
 which did not need to be relaid with ever repeated investigations, or 
 fortified with ever changing arguments. Nevertheless, his mind was 
 characterized by great candor. He was broadly and cordially open 
 to all truth, in its ever varying discoveries, and in its ever advancing 
 utterances. If he was slow to accept what presents itself as new, or 
 to change his once fi.xed convictions, this was not in him a sign of 
 sluggishness but only of carefulness. He was not ready to consider 
 a matter necessarily true or better because it is new, or necessarily 
 false or imperfect because it is old. But if the light was really 
 shining, in whatever quarter, from whatever source, he was glad to 
 see it and to give it' welcome. 
 
 All this wrought itself into his work as a preacher. He preached 
 the great Gospel doctrines unfalteringly : regeneration by the Spirit 
 of God ; conversion, as the decisive and final act of the soul in turn- 
 ing from sin unto righteousness, from the world unto God ; conse- 
 cration, as the soul's surrender of itself in absolute faith to Christ, 
 to be kept by Him, to be guided by Him, to be used by Him in His 
 work in the world. Compelled to believe in sin as a dire reality of 
 evil regnant in all men by nature, the doctrines of Grace exalted 
 themselves before his thought and glorified themselves in his teach- 
 ing. None could delight more than he in the beauty of the ethical 
 Christ. As the example of all that is pure and lovely, all that is 
 sweet and true, he rejoiced to present Him to men. But with all 
 his mind and heart he also believed in the suffering Christ. It was 
 of Him, and of the Christian's fellowship in His sufferings, he spoke 
 his last word to his people in that Easter communion service with 
 which his ministry closed. With all his mind and heart he believed 
 in the atoning death of Jesus Christ, that mystery deeper than the 
 sea out of which rises up all the beauty and music of His transcend- 
 ent life. With all his mind and heart he believed in the sure forgive- 
 ness of sin, through the believing sinner's acceptance of the 
 redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And so he preached for forty- 
 five years. 
 
 63 
 
Doctor Parsons was also a man of great heart. If he was serious, 
 just as truly was he cheerful. Genuine cheerfulness played through 
 the solid substance and stuff of his character like irridescence 
 through the opal gem. His sympathies were enlarged and liberal. 
 They were always ready to meet every demand. Without hesitation 
 those who needed counsel turned to him for it, assured that the 
 counsel he would give would be well considered and thoroughly 
 prudent. Without hesitation those who needed comfort, coming to 
 him with hearts beset and struggling and sore, knew that if there 
 were any healing branch for their bitterness, he would find it. His 
 friendliness was large enough to touch and bless with its recognition 
 all who came within the horizon of his acquaintance, in his congre- 
 gation, in the Presbytery, in the Seminary, of whose trustees he was 
 the honored and trusted president, in the State and Nation. We 
 have beautiful witness here to-day that, outside of his own congrega- 
 tion, among Christians of every creed and citizens of every class in 
 this community, his heart had an interest and a blessing for all. Yet 
 in his more intimate preferences and friendships he was strongly 
 discriminative. All were his friends, but all were not alike his 
 friends. There was love in his heart for everyone, but there was 
 selecting and special love for the few who gained access into his 
 heart's holy of holies. And toward these there was a charming 
 simplicity and wholeheartedness and constancy such as none but the 
 finest natures can show, such as in its own nature must be special 
 and selecting. 
 
 To those who in any true sense knew Dr. Parsons, it is needless 
 to say that he was a profoundly spiritual man. Christianity was 
 much more to him than knowledge and belief. It was also exper- 
 ience. The doctrine which he accepted intellectually, and over 
 which his wondering spirit hovered with studious search to entice its 
 meaning into manifestation, was also an enrapturing life to him. 
 His soul fed upon it as upon heavenly manna, and grew into the 
 strength and sweetness of the heavenly life. What all this meant 
 to him, in his personal life as a Christian man, is a secret with which 
 
 64 
 
none may intermeddle. But wherein its sweetness and life broke 
 through his sermons, and lighted up with wondrous illumination his 
 prayers, and trembled under the wisdom and pathos of his pastoral 
 ministrations, and glorified his face with the calm serenity of his 
 soul's peace, we all knew it and shared with him its blessings. 
 There have been times in the relation of many of us to him, when 
 consciously to ourselves he has led us very near to God. 
 
 And now into that immediate presence he has gone. Another 
 friend is added to the growing number whose blessed memory we 
 shall carry with us through our own future years. One after another 
 our homes and sanctuaries, united and beautiful in every loving and 
 sanctifying relation, are darkened by the coming in of death and 
 saddened by the going forth of some beloved and cherished one. 
 
 Brief indeed must be our fellowships were it in the power of 
 death to end them. But if these are fellowships and pastorates and 
 fatherhoods in Christ, this power cannot pertain to death. Our 
 loved ones go out from the daily intercourse and the face to face 
 communion, yet are they as truly one with us and we with them as 
 when they were here beside us. In the immaturity of his youth and 
 the overwhelming of his first great grief, Tennyson could only think 
 of death as the shattering of the sea against the cold gray stones, a 
 hopeless breaking up of the waves. But as later years brought to 
 him their ripening and mellowing experiences, and the time of his 
 own departing drew near, death seemed rather like the full tide 
 turning back in unbroken swell to the boundless deep from whence 
 it came. 
 
 Friends, humanity is one great, undivided sea, the waves that 
 break on the shore of time are the same that sweep back toward 
 eternity's shore at the turning of the tide. "Saints on earth and 
 saints in heaven but one communion make." 
 
 Our beloved brother Parsons has gone on in advance. But we 
 are following fast, and we will soon be with him again. We will find 
 him glorified, transfigured, his faith consummated in vision, his 
 power released for such service as we cannot now imagine. Thank 
 
 65 
 
God for what he was here ! Thank God for his strong nature, his 
 faithful hfe, his honorable work ! Thank God, even though we must 
 choke back our sobs to do it, and look out towards the glory through 
 blinding tears, thank God for the heaven into which dear Dr. 
 
 Parsons has gone. 
 
 Immediately after Dr. Riggs, Rev. J. E. Kittredge, D. D., of 
 Geneseo, spoke as follows : 
 
 " Looking upon the face of this beloved brother, our Doctor 
 Parsons, last Friday morning, how could one fail to note the impress 
 of the perfect peace that passeth understanding, or help exclaiming, 
 
 Servant of God, well done. 
 Rest from thy loved employ. 
 
 For fifty years he has been a servant of God, consciously, by 
 glad confession, and by a full manifestation to men. And all this 
 time he has been doing God's work well, doing it with conspicuous 
 fidelity, with a thoroughness and effectiveness that have been grow- 
 ing steadily with the years on to the end ; for as you know, the 
 best sermons of his life, he has been preaching in these recent years. 
 His wise counsel was never wiser and his spirit, which has always 
 been so gracious, has seemed recently just a degree more gracious, 
 if possible, than ever. He has gone from us in full-orbed strength. 
 
 It is just fifty years since God's call reached him. He was 
 at East Bloomfield, a teacher in the village academy, when the 
 awakening came through the magnetic touch of the pastor. Dr. 
 Henry Kendall. 
 
 Yet back of East Bloomfield and Dr. Kendall were Marcellus 
 and the Christian home. And extending back was a long line of a 
 godly ancestry — six generations of them — reaching to Northhamp- 
 ton, Mass., and the training school of that giant, Jonathan Edwards, 
 and yet back to the early Hartford settlement, in the year 1630. It 
 was a line abounding in men of the typical New England stock, 
 
 66 
 
men of brawn and brain, men of solid oak, men of sanest sense and 
 saintliness, men who kept the faith. 
 
 Our Doctor Parsons was born in Marcellus in 1829, the second 
 day of January. It is recalled as a feature of the boy that on the 
 farm he was fond "of putting things to rights," revealing the love 
 of order that always distinguished him and made him worth so 
 much to us all and to the church at large. He has always been 
 trying to put things right. He was prepared for college by his 
 father with some previous study in the village school and Moravia 
 Academy. Hamilton graduated him in 1849 with high honor, and 
 later, after twenty-five years, added his Doctor's Degree. To him 
 the Master's call meant the full ministry of the Gospel. So he 
 entered Auburn Theological Seminary, was licensed to preach by 
 Cayuga Presbytery in 1853, was graduated in 1854, and for nearly 
 two years had charge of the Otisco church, the largest and ablest 
 church at that time in Onondaga county. 
 
 Then it was in 1856 that he came to Mt. Morris and began his 
 memorable ministry of more than forty-five years. What he has 
 been to this community, in worth, no man can compute. You 
 cannot reckon up the value of a true Christian man in any com- 
 munity. He is a power for goodness, his presence a benediction. 
 
 Doctor Parsons has been here an eminent citizen, and this fact 
 will grow with you. He loved this village, as Paul loved Tarsus. 
 Every interest, of business, educational, moral, political, was dear to 
 him. You made him with propriety, your historian, and he gave 
 you, in 1894, your 'Mt. Morris Centenary.' He kept abreast of the 
 times, was alive to present problems with a mind broad as the 
 nation and the world. * * 
 
 Doctor Parsons, dear friends, will be missed in no ordinary way. 
 He really left us at toaster. That sermon on the day of Resurrec- 
 tion was his last. Only now and then, in the interval since, has he 
 been visible to any of us. Like his blessed Master, he was taken 
 up and a cloud received him out of our sight. He has dropped upon 
 us in the going, a benediction. Oh, there ought to be now a Pentc- 
 
 67 
 
cost following, a fresh Baptism of the Spirit of God. He has joined 
 the choir of the invisible. We feel the upward attraction anew, and 
 unite in the prayer, 
 
 O, may I join the choir invisible, 
 
 Of those immortal dead who live again 
 
 In minds made better by their presence. 
 
 Prof. Edward W. Miller, of Auburn Theological Seminary, then 
 said : 
 
 " Those who have just spoken, have referred to our departed 
 brother in his relationships as a friend, as a pastor, and as a fellow 
 Presbyter. * * It is because of a service of long and loving and 
 self sacrificing devotion to Auburn Seminary, rendered by this man 
 of God now gone to his reward, that I am given the privilege of 
 offering, on behalf of that institution, our tribute of grateful 
 appreciation. 
 
 Dr. Parsons' relations to Auburn Seminary were peculiarly inti- 
 mate. They were in a true sense a heritage. As far back as 1830 
 when the seminary was in its infancy his father became president of 
 the Board of Trustees. This responsible position he held until his 
 death in 1864. 
 
 The son, whose memory we to-day honor, entered the seminary as 
 a student in 1851, was graduated in 1854, and ten years later at the 
 death of his father was elected trustee as his successor. In that 
 capacity he served the seminary for thirty-seven years, or until his 
 death. So that the combined service of father and son covers the 
 long period of eighty years, the entire life of the seminary. Dr. 
 Parsons Jr. was in 1893 elected president of the Board of Trustees, 
 which position, like his father, he held until his death. 
 
 And now that God has called this noble servant of his to the joy 
 of his presence, we of the seminary he so long and faithfully served 
 unite with you, his parishioners and neighbors, in a deep sense of 
 loss and bereavement. 
 
 68 
 
For in the death of Dr. Parsons we have lost not only an admin- 
 istrator wise in counsel, and sedulous in devotion, but we have lost 
 a dear personal friend. He was a man who won the reverence and 
 affection of his associates. He grappled them to his large heart 
 with bonds stronger than 'hoops of steel.' 
 
 A colleague of his in the Board of Trustees, a prominent judge, 
 who but for illness would be here to-day, speaking with me yesterday 
 referred to Dr. Parsons in the terms of warmest affection, and spoke 
 of his death as a deep personal grief. He spoke of the grace and 
 dignity with which he presided in the board, of his wise counsel, his 
 sound judgment, his broad outlook, his keen prescience, and also of 
 the atmosphere of noble, generous thought and feeling which sur- 
 rounded him. He mentioned the beautiful prayers with which Dr. 
 Parsons invariably closed the meetings of the board — prayers so 
 reverent and simple and direct that they seemed to lead one into the 
 very presence of God. Every word and deed of his was an expres- 
 sion of his deep, calm soul life of faith and prayer. * * Hence 
 we his friends of the seminary which he served so long and nobly, 
 mourn to-day not only the loss of a revered and beloved friend. 
 We lament the removal from our midst of an inspiring example of 
 devoted Christian manhood. " 
 
 The concluding address was given by Rev. Loren Stiles, of the 
 M. E. church of this village : 
 
 * * "When Elisha, the prophet of God, was sick of the sick- 
 ness wherewith he died, Joash the king came and wept over his face 
 and said, 'O, my father, my father, the chariots of Israel, and the 
 horsemen thereof.' So standing beside this dear form this afternoon 
 I say, ' O ! my father, my father, the bulwark and strong defence of 
 Christ's cause in this community.' For nearly a half century his 
 noble form has been seen on these streets and in this pulpit ; his rich 
 and powerful voice has been heard in defence of the truth as 
 declared in God's word. * * * 
 
 69 
 
He has done a notable work for the Presbytery, for the Semi- 
 nary and for the church at large. They have recognized the value 
 of his work and have honored him again and again, but the very best 
 there was in that life has been expended for you. Your interests, 
 your uplifting, your salvation was always first in his thought and 
 effort. How fully was his life woven into the life of this com- 
 munity ! Not only has he moulded your thought by his clear and 
 forcible preaching of the truth, but he has been in your homes, at 
 your marriages, at the christening of your children, in the times of 
 sickness and sorrow and bereavement. His sympathy has never 
 been lacking, his words of consolation have always been exactly 
 suited to the needs of the hour. You will bear witness this after- 
 noon that his ministrations were just as freely given in the homes of 
 the poorest and most lowly as they were in the homes of the rich 
 and great. Like the Master he served, he was no respecter of 
 persons. A heart so great as his could not be limited in its interest 
 by the circumference of his own parish. He must reach out and 
 seek to win any who might be drawn to Christ for miles around. 
 Frequently during his ministry here he has arranged for services to 
 be held during the summer months, by the pastors of the village, in 
 the school houses lying out in various directions from the village. 
 
 Well do I remember that two years ago, when such a plan, was 
 proposed by Dr. Parsons and heartily entered into by the other 
 pastors, he said of the work : * We shall not get any money in pay- 
 ment for our services. We may not induce many to come regularly 
 to our churches, but if we can reach one individual who has been 
 indifferent to divine things, and turn that soul to God, we shall be 
 amply rewarded for our summer's work.' Such was his love for men. 
 
 It is a high privilege to be permitted to speak our words of 
 appreciation and love to our friends while they are still with us. I 
 had such a privilege about ten days ago, when I was admitted to 
 Dr. Parsons' bedside and took his hand and listened once more to 
 his words. I said to him, ' Doctor, I want you to know that the 
 people of this village appreciate your life and work among them. 
 
 70 
 
As I go up and down the streets almost every person I meet stops 
 me and asks about your condition and then expresses his high regard 
 for you and his hope that you may be spared to us yet many years.' 
 The tears came into the Doctor's eyes, and he rephed, * I am glad 
 to know that I am remembered. I thank them all. I should be 
 glad to work a little longer for them. I pray God to bless them all.' 
 That prayer, dear friends, was for you. The Doctor's voice is stilled 
 in death. In the flesh we shall never again hear him praying for us, 
 or speaking to us, but in truth 'he being dead yet speaketh.' * * 
 The lofty ideals that he has held up before our eyes will still inspire 
 us to proper living. The story of that noble life we will repeat to 
 those who come after us, that they too may reap some of its fruits." 
 
 Rev. Peter Lindsay, D. D., of Rochester, offered the closing 
 prayer, after which Rev. F. G. Weeks, of Gates, read "How firm a 
 foundation, ye saints of the Lord," a favorite hymn of Dr. Parsons, 
 which was sung by the entire congregation, standing, when the 
 benediction was pronounced by Rev. G. W. Woods, D. D., of 
 Geneseo. 
 
 To the mournful tolling of all the village church bells the funeral 
 cortege mounted the hill to the cemetery, where Revs. Edward 
 Bristol, Charles Coit, D.D., and Newton G. Conklin conducted the 
 simple burial service, and the mortal remains were laid to rest 
 awaiting "the resurrection through our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 71 
 
Sribut^a of Si^Bp^rt. 
 
 [FrofH the Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, N. K] 
 
 MT. MORRIS was Dr. Parsons' first and only pastorate, and 
 throughout the long years of his ministry he has been 
 entrenched in the affectionate regard of all denominations 
 as no other village pastor has ever been. His long term of faithful 
 service, consuming the best years of a true and high manhood, his 
 zeal as a public spirited citizen and his deep love for his fellowmen, 
 will make the announcement of his death a message of profound 
 sorrow throughout Western New York." 
 
 \From Rochester Presbytery Newsi\ 
 
 "Outside of his pastorate, as well as within, the Doctor wielded 
 a wide and beneficent influence, and held important positions, serv- 
 ing the church at large. * * He was always careful to know the 
 facts in any case, and then was faithful to those facts. He never 
 set out to find facts to suit some theory or prejudice. What he 
 always wanted to know was the truth, and by this he was ever 
 guided. Hence he became the strong character that he was, and 
 hence his influence. We knew him to believe in him, to trust, and 
 honor, and love him, for he was to us both a father and a brother in 
 a very blessed sense. We, therefore, know and realize why it was 
 that his tenure in the one pastorate was for life, and why he had 
 such an influence as the one great leader in all the community. It 
 was because he was a man of faith. He believed, and God's word 
 was his rule of faith and practice. His character rooted deep and 
 firmly in the "thus saith the Lord." 
 
 [From the Auburn Seminary Revieiv.'\ 
 
 "His sound judgment, sincere piety, unswerving loyalty to the 
 
 n 
 
interests of the Seminary gave him a deserved pre-eminence in the 
 councils of this institution. Auburn was very dear to his heart, 
 and he never failed to serve her faithfully and well. He was a true 
 minister of the Word, greatly beloved of his people and honored of 
 his Lord. He was a man of singular simplicity of motive, far-sighted 
 sagacity, gentleness of spirit, and purity of life. His power was 
 that of a man who lived close with God and knew the mind of the 
 Master." 
 
 [Ffom the Picket Line Post, Mt Morris.^ 
 
 "He loved the village of his first pastorate with the love of a 
 mother for her first-born, and his reward was the affectionate 
 regard of her people through all these years. In the local parish 
 over which he presided with such tact, ability and adroit adminis- 
 trative talents, he was ever a dominant spiritual force as well, and 
 the influence of his powerful personality became a radiant energy 
 for good. * * In the fullness of his powers before the twilight came, 
 while engaged in the work which God gave him to do in the world, 
 even as a son reports unto his father when his labor is done, Levi 
 Parsons has returned unto his Father's house. With zeal, with 
 humility, with courage, with love, he went about his Fathers' business, 
 steadfast unto the end." 
 
 {J. M. Hastings, Esq., in Mount Morris Enterprise!] 
 
 " It is no small thing for a man to maintain without friction, his 
 leadership of any body of people for so many years ; and of itself, 
 it is evidence of superior mental and spiritual attainments. What 
 our community revered, and will sorrowfully miss, was the strong 
 pure manhood, and the clear bright record of practical Christianity 
 that the Doctor exemplified. We knew him as men know each 
 other after daily intercourse extending over long years. Years of 
 trial, sorrow and care ; years of joy, success and fruition. And in 
 all these years, under all the varying circumstances, in joy or sorrow, 
 in success or disaster, he has been the same ; calm, deliberate, safe. 
 His faith in the eternal verities of God was unswerving, his confi- 
 dence in the justice, wisdom and love of his Heavenly Father was 
 absolute. Such a man and such a life must impress the moral, 
 social and religious character of any community fortunate enough to 
 have known them. 
 
 74 
 
No man ever heard a harsh criticism from the Doctor ; no man 
 ever heard an unkind remark made by him ; no man ever heard his 
 business integrity questioned ; no man ever heard his character 
 aspersed ; no man ever heard aught of folly from his lips ; no man 
 ever heard his Christian example questioned. These things are true 
 and known to all men. 
 
 Dr. Parsons' great strength lay in his unquestioning, complete, 
 confidence in the God he served. This it was that dominated his 
 life ; this it was that made his life strong, constant, even, and that 
 gave men implicit confidence in his integrity and good judgment. 
 
 During all the busy years of faithful work, no friend of Dr. 
 Parsons ever had to blush at his utterances or actions. A dignified 
 Christian gentleman at all times, with nothing sombre about his 
 mind or character, but sunny, cheerful, hopeful, always ready to see 
 the bright side of life and to show it to others. With a keen sense 
 of humor and a ready appreciation of innocent fun, the good Doctor 
 in his moments of relaxation, was a most enjoyable companion. In 
 his pulpit, his sermons were strong, full of the rich imagery of a 
 large and cultivated intellect, and dominated at all times by an 
 earnest desire for the welfare of humanity. Time and again his 
 delighted congregation have insisted that his sermons should reach 
 larger audiences through the public press. Such discourses as add 
 lustre to any printed page, have frequently flowed from his ready 
 pen. When the minds of men have been stirred by the unwonted 
 course of great events ; when great doings were being accomplished 
 in this or foreign lands, no truer or more judicial opinion was 
 expressed than that emanating from this great man. 
 
 Dr. Parsons was not only great in the pulpit, but outside ; his 
 strong, clear mind, and cogent, logical reasoning, compelled men to 
 see through his eyes and think as he thought. His conservatism 
 made him a safe counsellor, and his broad knowledge of the springs 
 of human action, enabled him to see clearly the ultimate results of 
 almost any business proposition. He was an active man, always 
 keeping all his varied interests in a high state of efficacy. Through 
 all his activities ran as a strong, steady, compelling current the 
 thought, 'How shall I best serve my Master.' In the last analysis 
 Dr. Parsons' great strength lay in the singleness of heart and mind, 
 his absolute devotion to his Master's work. It was this that gave all 
 men absolute confidence in him at all times. We knew with unerr- 
 ing certainty that his stand was always on the side of righteousness 
 and high spirituality." 
 
 75 
 
[Mrs. Mary Joslyn Smith in the Entcrprise.'\ 
 
 " Mount Morris must seem strange indeed without Dr. Parsons. 
 Long and tenderly he watched his village flock. ' They were dearly 
 beloved and longed for ' and a great multitude are his joy and crown. 
 
 I am pleased to quote from a letter of his own writing, concern- 
 ing the life and death of my beloved father and mother, (Dr. and 
 Mrs. Joslyn,) he spoke of missing them, then wrote: 'But it is 
 precious to think that these friendships abide, even though the 
 bodies pass away and that death is so powerless to destroy these 
 treasures which are laid up in Christ.' 
 
 So the memory of Dr. Parsons is precious to those who have 
 known Mount Morris. * * * It is almost impossible to analyze the 
 life of a friend, but some of the reasons for the successful life of Dr. 
 Parsons must be plain. 
 
 First of all he was an earnest disciple of the Lord Jesus. His 
 sincerity and honesty were marked. While he was decided in hold- 
 ing the tenets of his own chosen church, I am pleased to again 
 quote from his letter : ' I have earnestly tried to cultivate friendly 
 relations with the other churches, believing that the points of agree- 
 ment are far more in number than those of disagreement.' 
 
 Other calls came and alluring fields opened for his guidance in 
 the tillage, but to him Mt. Morris was that part of the garden of the 
 Lord in which he believed he was placed once for all, and nothing 
 moved him, nor allured him from this plain path of duty. 
 
 His financial ability in helping tide over hard places in the earlier 
 history of his ministry, led many to realize what a successful business 
 man he might have been, had he chosen to use his gifts in those 
 directions. He was full of tact too, and while he never swerved 
 from the right, he was careful to put no rock of offence in the way 
 of any. So there was in him the making of a politician, but he culti- 
 vated none of these gifts except as helps to his ministry. With him 
 it was always 'this one thing I do.' There has been no good thing 
 that pertained in any way to Mt. Morris in all the years, that has 
 not had the uplift of his influence. 
 
 Now at the close of his helpful and beautiful life, are not all 
 ready to say that he was wise in the use of his life } By enriching 
 the lives of those that came under his influence for forty-five years, 
 what a crown of rejoicing must await him. 
 
 Silver and gold are but dross when put in the balance against 
 such a self-denying life. And another of the beautiful things of that 
 life was, that he never showed by word or deed that he had ever 
 
 76 
 
made any sacrifice, and never did he seem to feel that he deserved 
 any word of commendation. 
 
 When he and Mr. Rockfellow had finished their labor of love in 
 preparing the 'History of Mount Morris,' after the century celebra- 
 tion, he said, ' I am very happy in the good feeling which the cele- 
 bration has produced, and if the book shall serve to perpetuate it, 
 that will be better than money.' 
 
 His interest in the schools, different phases of his life, come 
 vividly before me, but after all few words express it. He was Christ- 
 like, and the beneficence of such a life will remain with the people 
 for long years to come. " 
 
 [Prom Report of the Synod of New York and New England for igoi.] 
 
 " The death list of the Synod for the past year is exceptional for 
 its length and for the distinction of its members. The contempla- 
 tion of it stirs the heart with profound sorrow because of our 
 bereavement, while at the same time we are reminded of the way in 
 which God has honored and enriched our church in the gift of such 
 men and of such service. Tried veterans like Ezra A. Huntington, 
 George W. Wood, John C. Lowrie, L. Merrill Miller, Levi Parsons, 
 James Gardner, J. Jermain Porter remind us of spotless characters 
 and lifelong as well as distinguished service." 
 
 At its regular Fall meeting held at Avon, N. Y., on September 
 24th, 1 90 1, the Presbytery of Rochester adopted a memorial on the 
 death of Rev. Dr. Levi Parsons, from which the closing paragraphs 
 are taken : 
 
 " Dr. Parsons was a devoted pastor, an instructive preacher and 
 an invaluable presbyter. We have loved him and honored him 
 greatly. His wealth of information, his practical wisdom and fine 
 judicial sense coupled with a supreme modesty, for real greatness is 
 always modest, have made him a boon and a joy to our Presbytery. 
 For thirty-one years, its entire life, he has been its stated clerk. He 
 has served the church in many directions and in the able discharge 
 of many trusts. Repeatedly he has gone as commissioner to the 
 General Assembly, just as often as the Presbytery could induce him 
 to go. 
 
 He was pre-eminently a man of God. He lived in God, he 
 walked with God, he is not with us now because God has taken him. 
 And he was also eminently a man of men. The human instincts 
 and sympathies in him were universal. To the end he was keenly 
 
 77 
 
alive to every question and interest and movement and problem of 
 the day. By the testimony of his people no sermons he ever 
 preached were more vigorous and timely, and spiritually inspiring 
 and helpful than were his very last. He is a beautiful example to us 
 all that we should walk in his steps. " 
 
 [Memo?-ial of Presbyterian Ministers^ Association.^ 
 
 "The Presbyterian Ministers' Association of Rochester and 
 Vicinity would hereby put on record the deep sense of sorrow and 
 personal loss felt by its members on account of the death of our 
 honored and greatly loved brother, Rev. Levi Parsons, D. D. We 
 desire also to extend to the people of Mt. Morris, to his church and 
 congregation, and especially to Mrs. Parsons and all the members of 
 his esteemed family, our sincerest sympathy with them in their 
 bereavement. 
 
 On the records of his church, of the presbytery of which he was 
 a member, of the theological seminary of which he was a chief 
 officer, and of other bodies, we know that fuller statements regard- 
 ing his life and labors will be placed ; but here, in the Minister's 
 Meeting, it was our privilege to meet him from time to time in a 
 more especially social relation, and we wish to testify to the joy it 
 always brought us to have the honor of his presence and the advan- 
 tage of his always cheering and helpful converse. His was a strong, 
 harmonious, stable character. It did us all good to know him. We 
 rejoiced in his cheerful, hopeful heart, his pure spirit, his profound 
 wisdom and in his abiding and ever glad-hearted faith in God. 
 
 We esteem it an especially noteworthy tribute to the love and 
 respect in which Dr. Parsons was held that at the time of his funeral 
 all the places of business in his village, including even the saloons, 
 were closed. The auditorium of his church was crowded with rep- 
 resentatives from all classes of the community. At least fifty clerg)^- 
 men were present to do honor to the beloved minister, not alone 
 fellow members of his presbytery, but pastors and rectors and 
 priests from surrounding churches of other ecclesiastical names. 
 Forgetting for the time every separating fact these all joined in the 
 one witness that a pure and noble life had ended and that a true 
 friend of all mankind had passed away. G. B. F. Hallock, 
 
 n. j. conklin, 
 Edward Bristol, 
 J. P. Sankev, 
 Henry H. Stebbins, 
 
 Rochester, N. Y., June 17th, 1901." Committee. 
 
 78 
 
At a meeting of the officers of the First Presbyterian church of 
 Mount Morris, held June 3rd, 1901, appropriate resolutions on the 
 death of the pastor were adopted. These were placed upon the 
 church records and a copy of the same sent to the pastor's family. 
 
 [Sabbath School History 0/ Mount Morris Presbyterian Church/or ipo/.} 
 
 " 1901 will go down in the annals of our Sabbath School history 
 as a black letter year, for it marks the death of Dr. Parsons, our 
 dearly beloved pastor for forty-five years. All the events of the 
 year have been overshadowed and saddened by this one great 
 sorrow. How unreal it seems not to see his commanding presence 
 in our pulpit or before the Bible class, which for so long he taught ! 
 His sermons were during the last months of his preaching, sublime. 
 Indeed he was inspired to utter words that are indelibly fixed in our 
 memories. * * How faithfully did he minister to his flock! 
 What a friend he was to the poor and afflicted of all faiths and con- 
 ditions ! How genial in intercourse! How kindly in judgment! 
 How true to his principles ! And that last Communion Sunday, 
 how pathetically tender was his heart to heart talk to his people ! 
 Through it all we had a presentiment of impending sorrow, but what 
 blank despair took possession of us the first Sunday our pastor was 
 unable to leave his bed, and we realized the end was near! During 
 the weary weeks of sickness following, the whole community were 
 watchers with us, being gladdened by any change for the better or 
 depressed by unfavorable news from the sick room. At last, on 
 Decoration Day, the spirit of this valiant soldier of the cross left its 
 worn temple of clay, and returned Home. * * And so he rests 
 from his earthly labors, but his work ends not here, for so long as 
 love and memory endure, so long shall the influence of Dr. Parsons' 
 life remain with us." 
 
 Frederick H. McNair, Historian. 
 
 The following are extracts from some of the many letters of 
 condolence sent to Dr. Parsons' family : 
 
 [Frotn Rev. Byron Bosworth, Rochester, N. K.] 
 
 * * " Your dear husband's death came very near to me as we 
 were classmates in college and also in Auburn. * * His consci- 
 
 79 
 
entious, devoted, Godly life and work glow all along his path-way 
 with the abundant faithfulness and fruitfulness of an eminently 
 successful life for the Master. We shall greatly miss him ever}^- 
 where." 
 
 {From Rev. F. F. Ellemvood, D. D., Secretary of Presbyterian Board of Foreign 
 Missions, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York ] 
 
 "I was grieved to learn of the death of my highly esteemed friend 
 and college mate, Rev. Dr. Levi Parsons. * * Dr. Parsons was 
 one of the most genuine men that I have ever known. Free from 
 personal conceit and inordinate ambition, he stood for his convictions 
 and his sense of duty. * * Dr. Parsons had won a high place in 
 the esteem of the Presbyterian church." 
 
 [From President Stryker of Hamilton College.'\ 
 
 "It is with pain that we learn by your kind note of the death of 
 Dr. Parsons of our class of '49. A noble man, beloved and full of 
 ripe fruitage, has gone to his rest. All who shared in the influence 
 of his faithful life are poorer now. I can imagine how great the loss 
 is to his community and church." 
 
 [From Hon. Charles Dwight, Vice-President Board of Trustees, Aiibtirn Theo 
 
 logical Seminaiy.] 
 
 "His death is a serious bereavement to the Seminary, and to us 
 of the trustees, who have been associated with him for many years, 
 there is a sense of present loss. We revered the character and shall 
 cherish the memory of Dr. Parsons. " 
 
 [From Henry A. Morgan, Esq., Aurora, N. K.] 
 
 "During his long association as trustee of the Theological Semi- 
 nary at Auburn, N. Y., and a chairman of its board, he was ever 
 looked up to for his conservatism, clearness of judgment and lovable 
 character." 
 
 [From Rev. Charles P. Coil, D. D., Rochester.^ 
 
 * * "Words cannot express the personal loss we all feel ; and 
 then the loss to the Mount Morris church, the Presbytery of Roch- 
 ester, the Auburn Seminary, yes, and I may say the Synod and 
 General Assembly, is such as seldom comes. Measured at every 
 point of character and influence he was a great man." 
 
 80 
 
[From Rev. Theo. IV. Hopkins, Rochester, N. K] 
 
 "My own sense of the loss which our Presbytery has sustained 
 is so great that it almost seems as though the very judicatory had 
 passed away with him. To me Dr. Parsons seemed its very imper- 
 sonation." 
 
 [From Rev. H. P. V. Bogue, D. D., Alliance, Nebraska.'^ 
 
 " He has finished a worthy and honorable course, and fallen 
 asleep with the love and respect of the community and all who knew 
 him. As far as earthly conditions are concerned one could ask no 
 more." 
 
 [From Rez>. George P. Folsoni, D. D., Monnl Clemens, Mich.'\ 
 
 * * " How much I loved and enjoyed him. The dear old 
 Genesee Valley will not seem the same without him. I always feel 
 thankful that a kind Providence led us to Geneseo, and among the 
 sweetest memories of my ten years pastorate there are the social 
 and spiritual interchanges with him." 
 
 [From Rev. Samuel Jessup, D. D., Oneida. N. V.] 
 
 "There is no word that so well expresses my impressions and 
 recollections of him as the word good. It always did me good to 
 have him look at me and speak to me, there was such a friendly look 
 and tone about him. So thoroughly genuine and strong was he that 
 I always looked up to him and revered him, while he drew me with 
 a peculiar attraction of trust and friendship. Perhaps you will 
 remember tliat I was associated with him in the old Presbytery of 
 Ontario with Pasre and P"olsom." 
 
 [Ffom Rev. If. H. Roberts, D D., Stated Clerk of General Assembly of the 
 
 Presbyteria n Ch ii rch . ] 
 
 "Your letter informing me of the death of my dear friend, Dr. 
 Levi Parsons, of Mount Morris, N. Y., has been received. It gives 
 me deep sorrow to receive this news. The sadness of such an event 
 is, however, alleviated by the thought of the useful, prolonged and 
 distinguished services rendered by Dr. Parsons throughout his life 
 to the Presbyterian church and to the church of Christ in general." 
 
 81 
 
Brick Presbyterian Church, Rochester, N. Y. 
 The Hfe of a personaHty hke his is a real divine influence in a 
 community, and one of God's best gifts to any people. For sub- 
 stantial worth of character he stood eminent in this whole region. 
 
 W. R. Taylor. 
 
 Presbyterian Parsonage, Lancaster, N. Y. 
 My dear Mrs. Parsons — 
 
 * * I do not fail to remember how poor to you must seem all 
 words of even the best and most esteemed of your friends in the 
 midst of such bereavement as you have suffered. Still it is some- 
 thing to know that others are bearing part of the burden under 
 which we groan. =* * I am a mourner with you. The death of 
 your noble husband was a sad surprise and an affliction to me. I 
 loved the man, and there are none who stood higher in my esteem 
 for those admirable qualities of sincerity, fairness, charity, sound 
 judgment, high purpose, and unswerving righteousness and devotion 
 to our common Master than Doctor Levi Parsons. 
 
 William Waith. 
 
 [From Henry IV. Miller of the Bnptist Church, Mojint Moj-ris, N. Y.] 
 
 " Your family, the church and the community are under the 
 shadow of no ordinary loss. Personally Dr. Parsons was one of my 
 most cherished friends. We who remain return thanks to our lov- 
 ing Heavenly Father for his Christ-like example among us for so 
 many years. We thank God he is at 'rest from his labors and his 
 works do follow him.' " 
 
 St. Patrick's Church, 
 Mount Morris. 
 Dear Mrs. Parsons — 
 
 This note is to tell you that my sister and I heartily sympathize 
 with you and your family in your great bereavement. Your husband 
 was one of Nature's noblemen — broad-minded, charitable and sin- 
 cere. Of him many friends are saying and many more feel that "We 
 shall not look upon his like again." 
 
 James H. Day. 
 
 82 
 
As one of Dr. Parsons' boys I want to tell you that I am mourn- 
 ing with you that we shall see his face no more this side the river. 
 Not mourning for him but for ourselves; for he has been translated 
 to a higher and a greater and holier service. The sorrow is ours 
 because of the separation. * * As I have from time to time 
 thought of visiting the old home the very pleasing thought has come, 
 I shall see Dr. Parsons. What a benediction his greeting always 
 was ; all the world seemed brighter after it. * * 
 
 Henry D. Ames. 
 East Oakland, Cal. 
 
 Marcellus, Dec. loth, 1902. 
 Dear Sister — 
 
 My visit with you made quite an impression on me. It was 
 pleasant, it was sad. I never realized so fully that brother had left 
 us permanently as at this time. Sickness, death and the necessary 
 flurry connected with funeral arrangements, somewhat befog us in 
 regard to the realization of the occasion. But now the master of 
 the house was not to be seen. An occasional sound would (without 
 thought) imply his presence here and there, because in all of my 
 previous visits he was out and in. The house with all its arrange- 
 ments, the garden with its terraces, told of his handiwork, and the 
 hilltop where so many times we mounted, to look over the plain, and 
 the hills with their several villages ; but now his presence ceases any 
 longer to gi\-e enlivenment to the scene. Even the waiting at the 
 depot was without his cheerful face and social ways, and the always 
 good-bye shake of the hand failed to give the amen to the visit. 
 Sabbath day at the church I missed him, and also at the Sunday 
 school. The walk to the cemetery, bordered a portion of the way 
 by his plot of land, brought him vividly to mind, and at last, further 
 on, in the midst of his dear old flock, we found him lying in sweet 
 repose, and wonderful to tell, among his immediate surroundings 
 such a troop of Gospel Messengers. 
 
 Brother, thy work is done, well done. What a glorious morning 
 the resurrection morning will be, when all of God's chosen ones 
 shall come forth from those graves in the image and beauty of their 
 Savior and they shall see the King in his beauty. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 I. Parsons. 
 
 «3 
 
A CiiltmpB^ 0f tl|^ I|0m0 IdxU. 
 
 AFTER all, the story of no man is complete that fails to picture 
 his home life. If this is pure and strong and sweet, it gives 
 an added flavor to that which may be considered external or 
 public. 
 
 Brought up in a minister's home of the old New England type, 
 Dr. Parsons had the highest ideals regarding the importance of the 
 family life, as well as a strong love for his home. His boyhood's 
 home had been one where the rare principle of "high thinking and 
 plain living" was put into daily practice, where the greatest rever- 
 ence for all that was good and great and pure was inculcated, and a 
 profound respect for true wisdom and learning. A thrifty, busy, 
 hospitable home it was. How the hearts of its children were bound 
 to it. How they clung to the memory of its ancient wood, its 
 sparkling brooks, its sunny meadows, and the hills that stand when 
 those who loved them have passed away forever. How they loved 
 to gather about the glowing fireplace for long, long talks, and, as 
 their number gradually diminished, how that bond of love waxed 
 stronger, aye, ever stronger that held those hearts to each other and 
 the sad, sweet memories of the past. Going forth from such a 
 home, little wonder was it that each sought to found a home that 
 should in some fashion reproduce the one they loved so well. 
 
 It was in the second year of his life in Mount Morris that Dr. 
 Parsons purchased the house that was to be his home during an 
 unusually long pastorate. Such a purchase would be considered 
 peculiar if not rash in these days, for at the time the minister's 
 salary was but eight hundred dollars. However, he was economical, 
 
 85 
 
thrifty, ingenious, fond of planning ways and means, and this trait 
 which so often shone in the trustee meetings of later years was put 
 to immediate use. The house was remodeled, and afterwards 
 was frequently altered until at last it became a family joke that 
 " every seven years instead of changing pastorates, Father contented 
 himself with changing the house," adding awing, altering the piazza, 
 or making the interior more convenient. 
 
 The result pleased him. His home was to him a delightful place. 
 "The home-coming is the best part of the journey," he would fre- 
 quently say. His own sunny sitting-room was the pleasantest 
 room he found. His home was "his castle" in which he could find 
 a happy retreat from the besieging cares of life. He loved the 
 seclusion of it ; he loved the comfort of it. He loved in winter to 
 see the fire glow, for brought up in a home where wood fires 
 rollicked and roared up capacious chimneys he would never consent 
 to do away with all sign of fire, — an iron grating in the floor was no 
 equivalent. 
 
 The grounds about the home were to him a most important part 
 of it, and he spent much time in their improvement. In summer he 
 took the greatest satisfaction in the fruits that grew on the trees of 
 his own planting, the grapes from his own carefully trimmed vines, 
 and the early peas and lettuce of his own garden. Alas ! with what 
 hope did he plan out this garden each spring and plant the early 
 seed, leaving towards nightfall his study with its accumulations of 
 presbyterial work for this communion with nature ; and then with 
 what regret did he see the advantage gained by the weeds during 
 his series of absences at presbytery, at the Auburn commencement, 
 and possibly the General Assembly. The weeds might gain an 
 advantage, but he never yielded them the victory, stoutly persisting 
 in the unequal contest ; for the reward was, after all, great,— work 
 where music of birds and apple-scented air and even the bursting 
 clods of earth all spoke of life and growth, the reaching out towards 
 that which is above and beyond. 
 
 He loved this work in the open air, he loved country life and 
 
scenes ; and it was with no feigned interest that in his pastoral calls 
 he talked of the crops or various farm improvements. As he had 
 come to the door, he had remarked the condition of field and orchard, 
 had noted with pleasure the probability of a plenteous harvest, or 
 was ready with sympathy for the unfortunate. Of all classes of 
 men, none to him were to be more envied than the farmer, "who 
 might live like a king on the best of the land " he would say. 
 
 Doctor Parsons was himself a man of simple tastes and habits, a 
 firm believer in the value of early hours and abstemious living. He 
 had inherited from some Puritan forbear a taste for economy, an 
 aptitude for thrift, or was it the result of his early training.? But in 
 him this saving was merely that, as Emerson puts it, he might "spend 
 on a higher plane." A cent was never a small thing to him when 
 spent for a non-essential, a dollar never too large for a real comfort 
 or necessity, especially for others, for his economy was strictest in 
 regard to himself. Towards others he was generous, while in 
 expenditures for the church and for missions he was a worthy exam- 
 ple. His thrifty management of a small salary was sometimes com- 
 mented upon. "God must send his ravens to help the Doctor," 
 said one parishioner, but the ravens were prudence and economy, 
 with the added blessing promised to those who honor the Lord with 
 their substance. 
 
 It was always his delight to welcome guests to his home. Many 
 a gathering has the church had under his roof. Indeed it is to be 
 questioned whether, during his pastorate, anyone in Mount Morris 
 has entertained a larger number of people. He was a sociable man, 
 always interested in the little festivities of home or church life ; one 
 who enjoyed "a good talk" to which he contributed not a little of 
 wit as well as wisdom, for he possessed the art of telling a good 
 story and had a fund of humor which was not infrequently a surprise 
 to those who saw but the clerical side of his life. He was one who 
 enjoyed to its utmost contact with the sympathetic, the cultured and 
 bright, those to whom he might reveal his deeper thoughts and 
 experiences with surety of appreciation and responsiveness. 
 
 87 
 
I do not need to speak of his courtesy, — that was never faihng, in 
 private or in public. During his last illness when he spoke but little, 
 there was always a "thank you" for any little assistance given him. 
 He had always been appreciative whether the matter in question was 
 an "A No. i dinner," which caused him regretfully to wonder 
 whether "Queen Victoria had such good fare," or was some achieve- 
 ment of public importance. He was a firm believer in the duty and 
 value of commendation, even preaching a sermon upon this subject. 
 One peculiarity was his desire for counsel. " In the multitude of 
 counsellors there is safety," was a proverb frequently quoted by him. 
 Not only in matters of ecclesiastical importance but in those per- 
 taining to the home as well, not only when great interests were at 
 stake but even in the little things of life, not only of the wise ones 
 of the church but even of his children, would he seek counsel. How 
 often were they gathered in the study that he might gain the united 
 judgment of the family regarding some important letter, — and how 
 often did they feel that he would have depended on broken reeds 
 had their judgment been all. In connection with this he was accus- 
 tomed to refer to a little joke at his own expnse in regard to the 
 purchase of a horse. The seller being asked whether Dr. Parsons 
 had decided to take the horse, replied, " No, not yet, I believe there 
 is still one deacon to consult." 
 
 But if he were ready to ask advice, how ready, too, he was to 
 bestow it, how willing to turn from his work, though it was a sermon, 
 to listen to troubles or plans, and give the best of his wisdom. 
 There was ever a welcome to that study ; no "blue Mondays" there, 
 only a " royal welcome," a ready sympathy, the delightful assurance 
 that there was plenty of time for a little talk and that it was a 
 pleasure and a satisfaction to him. 
 
 His pleasure in his home and family seemed to increase with 
 years. The home-coming of the children was always a joy to him, 
 their departure a trial. Who can forget his fervent "may the Lord 
 bless you," as he bade farewell, or the letter that followed the 
 wanderer telling how he " walked home from the station with a 
 
heavy heart." How faithfully he followed the traveler in imagin- 
 ation through the hours of the journey, how eagerly he welcomed 
 each letter from the absent loved ones, how impatiently he gathered 
 the family so that all might enjoy it together. 
 
 He was at his best in the home ; he gave of his best. It was his 
 custom to bring the results of his reading to the table, and if wife 
 or children followed the apostolic injunction to ask for information 
 at home, they were quite sure to receive an abundant store. He 
 read but little fiction, and that little critically ; but his interest 
 in the events of the day was ever fresh. 
 
 The description of the home life would scarcely be complete 
 without some reference to its music, which is considered by a sweet 
 Southern poet as the one essential of a true home. 
 
 In the old Marcellus home there had been an enthusiastic love 
 for music, especially singing. People sang in those days, sang for 
 hours at a stretch when the inspiration was on, and the musical influ- 
 ence of his youth remained throughout his life. After a Thanks- 
 giving dinner, when most people would be ready for a siesta, he 
 generally called for "a little music," which comprised the old hymns, 
 although in his earlier days he enjoyed the secular songs and ballads 
 of the times. It was the delight of his children to hear his enthusi- 
 astic rendering of " Van's a used up man," "Trancadillo,," and 
 "Tramp, the boys come marching," enriched by his fine voice. But 
 he loved the old hymns best, and among those best loved and often 
 sung as the Sabbath twilight deepened, were " Softly now the light 
 of day," "Safely through another week," "Guide me, O Thou Great 
 Jehovah," and "Jerusalem, my happy home." He never seemed to 
 weary of singing, and it is beautiful to think that his eternal home 
 is filled with sweetest melody and praise. 
 
 During the last years of his life, his growth in spirituality became 
 more and more apparent. The outward man might perish but the 
 inward man was indeed renewed day by day. There was a precepti- 
 ble strengthening and ripening of all Christian graces and virtues. 
 To his faith was added meekness and humility, an increasing love 
 
 89 
 
toward all that was good and pure, a growing tenderness for the 
 faults and frailites of human nature, a personal interest in even the 
 little things that might make or mar another's happiness, the 
 gracious spirit of sympathy and helpfulness that so surely wins the 
 love and honor of all ; until at last when he passed from this earthly 
 home to the home all-glorious, not only his own children, but many 
 "another daughter," and those who called themselves "the 
 Doctor's boys," now mourn a father's loss. To them as to all comes 
 this message from the distant West : " You and all of us have a 
 most precious memory of a noble, honored, saintly life ; and the 
 more we dwell upon it the sweeter and holier and more useful will 
 our lives be." 
 
 90 
 
^If^plfrriibss. 
 
 In Memory of Rev. Levi Parsons, D. D. 
 
 [Published by pertnission of New York Evangelist.'\ 
 
 A SABBATH DAY of perfect rest and peace, 
 Of deep, abounding joy, alas, how rare ! 
 There may come days when in the praise of God 
 All nature joins, and sounds discordant, toil 
 And Strife are hushed, and earth, resplendent earth, 
 Radiant with beauty, all aglow with light 
 And love and joy, seems very part of Heaven. 
 And yet, methinks, the bluest skies may tinge 
 Of sadness wear, the sweetest earthly song 
 May leave some mournful thought, and ev'n in June 
 When, if at all, should come the perfect day, 
 The passing breeze may whisper soft of death. 
 Such Sabbath day was this. 
 
 At earliest dawn 
 The little birds their happy matins sang. 
 And as the sun climbed up the golden stair 
 To azure heights, louder the chorus swelled. 
 The insect world, a busy throng, beat low 
 And soft their monotone as basal note, 
 Above which soared exultant, carols glad 
 Of robins and melodious orioles ; 
 Tuneful and sweet the air, and full of peace. 
 
 But not until the sun has nearly reached 
 
 Its height, comes there to man, neglectful man, 
 
 The call to join in worship of the King. 
 
 Then slow the church bell tolls its solemn tone, 
 
 And at the summons to the house of God 
 
 The village people wend their way. Some pass 
 
 With gladsome heart, rejoicing in the day 
 
 The Lord hath made, a Sabbath day in June. 
 
 91 
 
But others walk with sad and downcast face, 
 And half reluctant mount the steps that lead 
 Up to the Holy Place. 
 
 Ah, can it be 
 That God's least creatures give him joyful praise 
 And we, the favored ones, our worship grudge ? 
 But hark ! the organ sounds a sobbing note, 
 A mournful melody insistent swells. 
 Then soft its anguish whispers till it sinks 
 Into some minor strain — a threnody 
 That causes hearts to beat in sad accord. 
 Aye, meet it is to tread the aisle with slow 
 And mournful feet, and banish all light thoughts 
 And every careless smile, for here are signs 
 Of grief, black draperies whose gloomy folds 
 Droop unresponsive to the gentle touch 
 Of summer breeze, which steals away abashed; 
 Nor ventures in the sunshine glad, but leaves 
 The place to shadow and to grief. Sad thoughts 
 Abound, deep sighs and tears ; for Death has dared 
 The fold and taken one much loved away. 
 The Shepherd of the flock, leaving instead 
 From his unwelcome train, mournful lament 
 And silent grief, grave care and anxious fears. 
 
 There is the sacred desk where he for five 
 And forty years did preach salvation free, 
 Warning the sinner from his downward way, 
 Pleading the beauty of the paths of p?ace 
 That he might win his flock to holy life 
 And lead them all at last safe home to Heaven. 
 
 There stands the massive pulpit chair now swathed 
 In black, where oft he sat, perchance in prayer, 
 Whilst anthems high ascended or the hymn 
 Of praise ; and there the Bible where his hand 
 Was wont to rest as earnestly he sought 
 To lead his people to the Mercy Seat. 
 To-day that hand rests in the silent grave. 
 That voice on earth shall never more be heard. 
 His work below is done ; and in his place 
 A stranger stands to preach the word of God. 
 
 And many list attentively, but some 
 
 Avert their eyes and give scant heed ; yet blame 
 
 92 
 
Them not, for even Holy Writ hath said 
 
 That stranger's voice the sheep will not obey 
 
 And some of these no other Shepherd's care 
 
 Have known. Strange eloquence attracts them not. 
 
 Let them alone. Shall not the child bewail 
 
 His father dead, or friend lament a friend ? 
 
 And he was friend to all and watched o'er all 
 
 With more than common father's love, and deep 
 
 Solicitude. And he was loved by all, 
 
 By all revered. The little children scanned 
 
 His face and knew him as a friend, for was 
 
 He not their minister, who talked with God, 
 
 And preached to them the words that God had said. 
 
 The aged ones, whose comfort he had been 
 
 As Death's remoiseless hand successive swept 
 
 Away their loved ones, all that made life sweet 
 
 And dear, now falter in life's dreary way, 
 
 And dread to pass the lonely shadowed vale, 
 
 And grieve that stranger priest their bodies shall 
 
 Commit unto the grave. And even those 
 
 Of other faith now mourn the good man gone, 
 
 Finding the world a lonelier, sadder place, 
 
 For one life vanished, whose mere presence was 
 
 A benediction. 
 
 A Christlike man was he, 
 Who sought to preach God's word in purity, 
 And by his own true life to show how near 
 Man might attain to that fair pattern set 
 By Christ. All marked him as a man 
 Of peace, meek, patient, full of charity, 
 And yet when 'gainst the weak and helpless gaped 
 The ravening powers of sin, or when within 
 The church strange doctrines rose and doubts were cast 
 Upon the inspired Word of God, ah, then 
 He fearless was as man of war with stern 
 Rebuke for aught that dared contend the right 
 And true. 
 
 For this all honored him and for 
 His thought profound, his insight keen in ways 
 And thoughts of men, his knowledge deep of truths 
 Which God alone reveals, his counsel wise 
 With wisdom sought of God and granted him 
 In measure full. Yet on that Sabbath day 
 
 93 
 
As midst the signs of grief his people sat 
 
 Methinks 'twas not of honor that they thought. 
 
 Nay, rather did each mutely grieve as child 
 
 Forsaken, missing the dear familiar face, 
 
 Longing to hear again that gracious voice 
 
 While Memory with a fad insistence dwelt 
 
 Upon some helpful word, some thoughtful deed, 
 
 Or whispered low of Eastertide when last 
 
 He broke the bread and passed the wine and preached 
 
 The blessed hope to all sad hearts God-given 
 
 Since from the dead the Saviour rose again. 
 
 Then blessed his people, from among them passed 
 
 Whilst troubled eyes did note with secret dread 
 
 The pallid face, the trembling voice and step. 
 
 Yes, from the Table, passed he forth, as passed 
 His Lord, to learn those last sad lessons which 
 A Heavenly Father sends, of patient trust, 
 Though led along the suffering way to death. 
 To death andjoy beyond ! while we are left 
 To mourn, to grope in darkness where once shone 
 The steady light of that pure, faithful life, 
 To wander in strange paths since he who knew 
 So well the narrow way, no longer leads 
 Our weary feet therein. Ah, helpless we. 
 And scattered and in sore distress ; we know 
 Not where to turn . Dangers assail, dark fears 
 Beset our path, and faith lies low and hope 
 Has sped away. 
 
 O God, our Father, Thou 
 Who didst remove our shepherd and our guide. 
 I^ook down with pitying eye. Bind up sore hearts 
 And pour the balm of consolation in. 
 Send faith with surer power, and joyous hope 
 Recall; and though we still may tread the rough 
 And saddened path, oh, grant that vision rare, 
 The vision of the perfect day, when grief 
 And sorrow shall have fled away, and we 
 With everlasting joy upon our heads 
 Shall in the Zion of our God with those 
 Who passed before and those who after come — 
 When we, thy church complete, shall all unite 
 In holy, perfect praise forevermore. 
 
 Mary Almira Parsons. 
 
 94 
 
Khhvts^tB. 
 
 The Uses of Political Parties. 
 
 [Delivered by Dr. Parsons before the Alumni at Hamilton College, July isi, 
 i8Sj. Published in The New Princeton Revietv, May, 1887'] 
 
 IN attempting to point out some of the uses of political parties, 
 we shall make no comparison as to their relative merits, nor shall 
 we trace their origin, nor the various changes which they have 
 undergone; it being our object not to vindicate any party or party 
 measure, but rather to meet the common objection that the influence 
 of party politics is demoralizing both to the Government and the 
 masses. 
 
 Admitting that the very terms, rings, caucuses, and political con- 
 ventions, have an unpleasant flavor, suggestive of trickery, rascality, 
 the buying and selling of votes, and the misleading of honest men 
 into the support of demagogues, we claim that all these evils are 
 attributable to the abuse and not the proper use of the political 
 party, which, so far from meriting condemnation, must be recognized 
 as furnishing important wheels in the machinery of our Govern- 
 ment which the fathers of the republic failed to provide, and through 
 whose agency alone the most obscure citizen can make his influence 
 so felt as to become a potent factor in the Government. 
 
 And here, in the opening of this discussion, we cannot fail to be 
 impressed with its importance when we consider the magnitude of 
 these parties. We think of them as filling the land; with not a 
 
 95 
 
township, a school district, or a hamlet but contains their ardent 
 admirers and firm supporters. These parties, as they stand confront- 
 ing each other face to face, far outnumber any armies which were 
 ever marshalled on the field of battle ; each is composed of its mil- 
 lions of free voters, while each represents still other millions of 
 women and children who feel hardly less interest in their success. 
 But these parties are not less marvellous for their extent and the 
 diffused power which permeates the masses, than for those agencies 
 by which that power is concentrated and rendered effective. For 
 these are organized bodies, and in their organizations they recognize 
 the principle of civil liberty, which is simply the right of every man 
 to his share and no more than his share in the Government ; he is to 
 bow to the will of the majority, and is to respect those rules and 
 processes by which that will is ascertained. Here, then, in the 
 party drill which is so common, are to be found the training-schools 
 in which men are fitted either to stand in the ranks as the uncom- 
 promising defenders of good government, or to execute the high 
 and responsible duties of office if called to the same by their fellows. 
 It is in these training-schools that men are taught how to work 
 together and how to combine their influence ; they are taught that 
 submission is the first duty of the citizen, and that only those who, 
 in obedience to rules and regulations, work in harmony with others 
 can ever be safely intrusted with the exercise of power. And cer- 
 tainly the drill of these great parties, by which the millions of their 
 adherents are brought into line and made to keep step, is a fact that 
 challenges our admiration, and all the more so when we reflect that 
 it is accomplished without the slightest compulsion. Think for a 
 moment of the interest which culminates in those quadrennial nomi- 
 nating conventions in which these parties, through their representa- 
 tives from every part of the nation, select their candidates for the 
 highest honors in the gift of the people ; think of the zeal of the 
 various factions, which rises to a white heat as they urge the claims 
 of their favorites — a zeal so intense in its antagonisms as to threaten 
 the very disruption of the party ; and yet, as the culminating point 
 
 96 
 
is reached and the one successful name is announced, how suddenly 
 does this turbulent sea become calm, how quickly do these discor- 
 dant notes change into one grand chorus of harmony. And shall we 
 give no credit to agencies which, without coercion, exert such power 
 to hold the selfish aspirations of men in check, and so concentrate 
 their influence as to render it most effective ? 
 
 Just at this point, however, we cannot leave unnoticed the agency 
 of the political press, with its postal and telegraphic facilities, in 
 promoting and securing this unity of action to which allusion has 
 been made. We yield our perferences in order to work in unison, 
 just because we have been counselling together through these mar- 
 vellous agencies by which mind is brought in contact with mind, 
 though widely separated all over these States and Territories. Our 
 Congress, our State Legislatures, and even our political conventions 
 are not the only deliberative bodies which we have ; the people 
 themselves, with the daily newspaper in hand, constitute the great 
 and controlling deliberative body of this country. At every fireside, 
 through means of the press, questions as to governmental policy are 
 thought out, discussed, and settled. Thus it is that public opinion 
 is wrought out into a definite and reliable form. No man can un- 
 derstand American politics without recognizing the leadership of 
 the press. These editorial chairs have come to be thrones of power 
 and centres of influence such as the fathers of the republic could 
 never have dreamed of. They have far more to do in moulding 
 public opinion and shaping the policy of the Government than all 
 the debates of Congress and other legislative bodies. But while 
 they are acknowledged leaders, it is a gratifying fact that they can- 
 not lead the people arbitrarily, but are themselves controlled b}' 
 the public opinion which crystallizes under their influence. 
 
 And the surprising tenacity with which people cling to the party 
 of their choice very naturally directs attention to the historical char- 
 acter of these parties. They are like large trees which cannot be 
 blown over, because of the years during which their roots have been 
 striking deeply into the earth. To become acquainted with either of 
 
 97 
 
the great polital parties of our land, you must trace its roots all 
 through those agitations which have followed each other ever since 
 the birth of the nation, and, especially, through that great conflict 
 which almost accomplished its disruption. These parties are what 
 they are to-day because they are not a fabrication, but a growth,and 
 therefore they cannot be taken apart and built up at will. When 
 we look at our mighty rivers and discover the large tributaries 
 which flow into them, we say that they are where they are and their 
 channels are broad and deep just because they have been obliged to 
 dispose of the waters which have come to them through these tribu- 
 taries; in like manner do we account for the deep channels which 
 these political parties have cut for themselves, and for the direction 
 of the current which flows through the same, by tracing them back 
 to those tributaries of influence in the past which have served to 
 define their policy and impart to them the character which they now 
 possess. We cannot forget that, in the years gone by, men who 
 have held high positions in our national councils, and who have been 
 respected for their disinterested patriotism, have counted it an honor 
 to enroll their names as members of these parties. The men of 
 to-day are not a little indebted to those worthy names as furnishing a 
 constant incentive to high-minded patriotism, and as constant a 
 rebuke to everything that is narrow, selfish and base. It is thus that 
 the best elements of any one age contribute more to the stream of 
 party influence than those of the opposite character. The former 
 live because they are cherished, while the latter die, being ignored. 
 
 Added to this we must not fail to notice how largely this party 
 zeal is the fruit of an ancestral spirit, and as such is worthy of being 
 cherished. We are accustomed to honor the children when we see 
 them following in the footsteps of their fathers and glorying in 
 their party banner because their fathers once carried the same. In- 
 stead of calling this a blind enthusiasm we rather commend it as a 
 noble sentiment, and discover in it a conservative power for good. 
 
 And this leads to the more general remark that the free institu- 
 tions with which we, as a nation, have been blessed for more than a 
 
 98 
 
century have furnished the very soil out of which these poHtical 
 parties have sprun<i;^, and by which they have been nourished. To con- 
 clude, therefore, that they are corrupt and demoralizing, would be 
 a very sad reflection upon the life of this republic. If, in the polit- 
 ical history of our land, we discover only a deteriorating tendency, 
 then are we forced to the conclusion that the spirit of liberty has 
 fallen in her own home, and is being destroyed by her own children. 
 For the masses who compose these political parties, with all their vir- 
 tues and with all their faults, are the product of the mighty and pro- 
 longed effort which has been made to establish upon these shores a 
 republic which shall be a model to the world. In all our criticisms 
 of these parties, and they deserve very severe criticism, let us never 
 forget that they are composed of none other than those who, with 
 not less pride than the ancient Roman, can each exclaim : "I am 
 an American citizen!" 
 
 We now invite attention to the relation which these parties sustain 
 to the Government; and we do this not with the design of engaging 
 in a general discussion of the subject, but, rather, that we may 
 point out our indebtedness to these parties for the protection which 
 they afford us as the bulwarks of civil liberty. Not that either party 
 is so pure that it could be trusted alone, but our safety is to be 
 traced to the attitude of antagonism in which we find them always 
 arrayed toward each other. And if to any it seems impossible that 
 this party hostility can be any other than an unmixed evil, if to any 
 the organizing of clubs, the wearing of uniforms, and marching with 
 torch-lights to the beat of the drum shall seem like a menace to our 
 liberties, let it be borne in mind that all this is but the arousing of 
 two giants to watch each other. Each is saying to the other, "Thus 
 far mayest thou come, but no farther." Each is ready to take ad- 
 vantage of the other's mistakes, and each is promising a better Gov- 
 ernment than the other has afforded. Neither could be trusted with- 
 out the other to watch it; and to suppose a collusion between the two 
 would be to suppose ourselves at the mercy of an oligarchy. For 
 there are bad men enough in either party to wreck the Government 
 
 99 
 
if they could; but they are powerless to accomplish their purposes 
 outside of party lines, and they are almost as powerless within 
 party lines, by reason of the check which these parties hold 
 upon each other. We know that the accuracy with which the 
 planets move in their orbits is the result of counteracting forces; we 
 know also, in mechanism, that the great strength of the arch is the 
 result of the opposition of its two sides. These two facts may serve 
 to illustrate how the reliability and accuracy of the great depart- 
 ments of our Government, which, like the planets, move in separate 
 orbits, are secured by counteracting political forces; or, to change 
 the figure, how the amazing strength of our free institutions is seen 
 when we think of our Government as an arch composed of these 
 two political parties which fill the land, each leaning against the 
 other. And if these illustrations have force, then the importance 
 of keeping these parties as nearly equal as possible must be obvious; 
 for the whole arch is weakened just in proportion as you weaken 
 either side. Those, therefore, who call for the destruction of either 
 or both of our present parties expose their ignorance as to the im- 
 portant service they are rendering. If it be said that they are 
 corrupt, it is quite obvious that they are not more corrupt than are 
 the people who compose them. And should they be abandoned, 
 and other parties organized in their places, unworthy and unscrupu- 
 lous men could not be kept out — they would be sure to push them- 
 selves to the front, if possible. In other words, the vicious element 
 of society cannot be eliminated by any manoeuvering. But an arch 
 may be reconstructed, section by section, without demolishing the 
 structure; and so a party may be readjusted to meet new issues, 
 while all the time it does better work in sustaining the interests of 
 the Government. The lessons of history are proof that parties 
 themselves do change, and, indeed, are very quick to conform to a 
 popular demand. The sudden abandonment of a political party is 
 analogous to revolution in a Government, warrantable only in ex- 
 treme emergencies. 
 
 This view of the case is also very suggestive as to the value of 
 
 lOO 
 
an opposition party when thrown out of power. We often think of 
 it as laid aside until it shall be again invited to assume control. 
 But this is far from the proper measure of its value. It is needed 
 incessantly as a check to undue legislation, which is one of our 
 greatest dangers; while, often, in positive work, and in shaping the 
 future policy of the Government, it exerts hardly less influence than 
 the dominant party. 
 
 But, interesting as is this view of the relation of the political 
 party to the Government, we claim for it even a still higher value, 
 when we consider its direct relation to the masses of the people as 
 an educational power. We have already directed attention to the 
 fact of its furnishing training-schools for those who are called to the 
 exercise of power, and also that it is itself the outgrowth of our 
 free institutions; the additional point which we now adduce is that 
 it stimulates the masses to think and study, and educates them to a 
 better appreciation of their privileges. 
 
 When we deplore existing corruptions, and question the expedi- 
 ency of permitting foreigners so soon to vote, and regard it as a 
 mistake that the freedmen were endovv'ed with the right of suffrage, 
 we do not consider how difficult a problem has been given our 
 nation to solve; which is nothing less than the assimilating of these 
 heterogeneous peoples to American usuages and American ideas. 
 The question before us is not how the descendants of the Puritans, 
 holding similar views respecting religion and government, shall fur- 
 nish for themselves the pleasantest homes, and live with the least 
 annoyance, but the far greater question is. What shall we do with 
 these people who worship other gods, and have every variety of 
 opinion as to morals and government .? And the only reply to this 
 question is, We must either Americanize them, or they will destroy 
 us. We cannot afford to repel them, and thus throw them into a 
 class by themselves ; but we must welcome them, we must win 
 them ; and this we must do by introducing them to the same rights 
 and privileges which we ourselves enjoy. And this is just what the 
 political party, compelled by self-interest, has ever been forward to 
 
 lOI 
 
do ; and, in so doing, has reached clear down to the very bottom of 
 society and brought up the lower classes, which have been neglected, 
 oppressed, and abused ; brought them up into the light and pure air 
 of our free institutions — a kind of sub-soiling process, which is not 
 less important in the interests of civilization than in successful agri- 
 culture. With our fastidious notions we have given but little credit 
 for this kind of work, and have called it demagogism, just because 
 too largely it has been inspired by unworthy motives. 'And yet the 
 fact remains that our great political parties have laid right hold of 
 these heterogeneous masses, and have done more in this work of 
 assimilation than any other one agency that can be named. Nor 
 should we underrate this as an educational work because it recog- 
 nizes neither text-book nor class-room ; any influence that awakens 
 a man to new life, so that he respects his own manhood, and feels 
 that no man, not even a king, has a right to tread upon him, is in 
 the best sense educational. And we know that this is just the influ- 
 ence that the political party exerts in securing recruits. Indeed, it 
 goes further than this ; it impresses each man with a sense of per- 
 sonal responsibility, and seeks to make him feel that there is a place 
 in the party which no one can fill but himself. 
 
 There is an educational influence, also, in those party agencies 
 which bring men together ; mind is brought in contact with mind. 
 Men are called upon to think, to discriminate, to answer objections, 
 and to invent means for the attainment of given ends ; and, when 
 brought thus closely together, each feels the magnetic current which 
 runs through the entire party. An additional point, showing its edu- 
 cational power, is the sense of proprietorship which is fostered by 
 this party spirit, making the man to feel that he not only belongs to 
 the party, but that the party belongs to him — a proprietorship which 
 renders him solicitous that his party shall fulfil its pledges in the 
 matter of honest legislation ; and no man can exercise this care and 
 feel this solicitude without being more of a man than he otherwise 
 would be. 
 
 The danger of giving the right of suffrage to the illiterate classes 
 
 102 
 
is usually exai^gcrated ; first, for the reason that even among the 
 educated only a portion are to be found who have so comprehended 
 the questions at issue, in any given election, as to vote independ- 
 ently ; all others simply follow what they regard as the better judg- 
 ment of those who have studied these questions ; and this is pre- 
 cisely what the illiterate voter does. But, again, the illiterate, as a 
 class, are impotent for harm to the Government, except through the 
 agency of political parties, and we have already seen the powerless- 
 ness of parties to do us harm by reason of the check which they 
 have upon each other. We concede that illiteracy is a serious ob- 
 stacle to good government, and therefore rejoice in the power of 
 the ballot, when placed in the hand of an ignorant man, to wake 
 him up to a new life and nobler aspirations, while it is his passport 
 to the political party which immediately helps him in securing his 
 rights. A man who was asked whether he did not think the play- 
 ing of children upon his lawn injured the grass, replied that he did, 
 but that he failed to see that it injured the children ; a reply not 
 inapplicable to the question before us. 
 
 But the powerlessness of the illiterate, as a class, to harm us, so 
 long as we are protected by these political parties, at once suggests 
 the still wider application of this same principle, as furnishing a 
 corrective for all those combinations which may threaten the per- 
 petuity of our free institutions. We are not fearing that a Caesar 
 or a Napoleon will capture the Government by the sword, and 
 establish a military despotism, for the reason that the tastes of the 
 people are agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing, rather than 
 military ; but fears are entertained lest our vast moneyed corpora- 
 tions shall come to be a power greater than the Government itself. 
 The fathers of the republic very carefully guarded the rights of the 
 smaller against encroachments by the larger States ; but we have 
 lost sight of that danger in the far greater one that threatens us 
 from our railroad, telegraphic, manufacturing, and other corpora- 
 tions, which, unrestricted even by State boundaries, have become 
 truly national, both in extent and influence. But, while the power 
 
 103 
 
of these corporations is incalculable, and their heartlessness pro- 
 verbial, we must not forget that their self-interest holds them largely 
 in restraint. First, for the reason that capital is very sensitive to 
 any governmental disturbance, it can ill afford to invite anarchy ; 
 and second, it is the true ally of the laboring classes ; those classes 
 must be conciliated in order to its own promotion and highest 
 prosperity. Still, after making all these allowances, it cannot be 
 denied that capitalists have tampered with our legislation, that 
 money has corrupted the ballot-box, and that these monopolies 
 are a constant menace to our liberties. A true self-interest does 
 not always control these corporations, for the reason that they are 
 blinded by their greed. And the point which we wish to make is 
 that our large and thoroughly organized political parties are needed 
 to protect us from these abuses ; they alone are competent for this 
 work. Were we divided into a dozen political factions, these 
 moneyed interests would rule us with a rod of iron. But, it may 
 be objected, do not these moneyed interests even now corrupt our 
 present political parties .? We answer, yes ; but they cannot con- 
 trol them, for the reason that neither party can afford the reputa- 
 tion of being the special friend of the capitalist. Both alike offer 
 the largest facilities for the laboring classes to organize a successful 
 resistance to all such encroachments of power. 
 
 Again, the different nations of the Old World represented on 
 these shores might give us untold trouble by making this their 
 battle-ground. We might find clan meeting clan, were it not for 
 the power of these political parties to neutralize these antagonisms 
 by dividing the clans. Happily for us, neither party takes all of 
 any one nationality, and therefore old issues and old feuds must be 
 forsaken. 
 
 The same is true of sectional interests and those divisions which 
 spring from the same. Our territory is very broad, and different 
 classes of people live in different sections, representing civilizations 
 so diverse that what is esteemed noble and honorable in one section 
 is sometimes regarded as mean and degrading in another. Our 
 
 104 
 
true policy as a nation, is not to permit such interests to crystallize 
 by themselves and squarely to clash ; and therefore we discover the 
 serviceableness of these parties whose platforms are broad enough 
 to invite men from every section, and thus prevent section from 
 being arrayed against section, as was the case in our civil war, which 
 was itself the result of the disruption of the parties of that day. 
 
 For a similar reason we may rejoice that our parties are large 
 enough tp prevent our cities, which are attaining marvellous dimen- 
 sions, from exercising such control over the rural populations as has 
 characterized the cities of the Old World. We want no such cen- 
 tres of power, with the corrupt influences which usually gather in 
 the same. 
 
 But of all the combinations which may endanger the republic 
 those of a religious character are the most to be dreaded. No 
 student of history can contemplate the possibility of a religious war 
 without a shudder. No tongue can describe the amount or degree 
 of human suffering which has resulted from the attempt to propa- 
 gate religion by coercion. The relation which these political parties 
 sustain, therefore, to the great religious and moral movements which 
 agitate the public mind is suggestive of questions replete with 
 interest, and demanding patient study and nice discrimination. Hap- 
 pily for us, our Constitution and laws proclaim religious liberty, 
 which is in perfect harmony with the spirit of a pure Christianity. 
 Both alike warn us against using this liberty as a cloak of malicious- 
 ness — it being a liberty to think as we please but not always to act 
 as we please — a liberty which is so restricted as to prevent one man 
 from making his religion to interfere with that of another man. Our 
 policy as a nation is, therefore, at war with every religion which does 
 not recognize this cardinal principle. Again, the spirit of Christian- 
 ity and the spirit of our institutions agree in recognizing a complete 
 separation between Church and State. These are co-ordinate insti- 
 tutions — both have been ordained of God, and each is amenable to 
 Him directly, while neither is amenable to Him through the other. 
 Whatever of religious restraint is imposed by the Government 
 
 los 
 
upon its subjects is done for its own sake, and not for the sake of 
 the Church ; its own health and prosperity being conditioned upon 
 its adherence to the principles of the Decalogue promulgated from 
 Sinai. Because the Government is non-sectarian it is not godless. 
 The State, however, has no right to interfere with the Church, nor 
 the Church with the State. The two, in their relation to the same 
 God, have separate functions, and are clothed with very different 
 powers. To the one, God has handed the sword, with the instruc- 
 tion that the magistrate shall not bear it in vain ; while to the other 
 he has said, "Put up again thy sword into his place, for all they 
 that take the sword shall perish by the sword." The one compels, 
 while the other persuades — the one applies its force outwardly, 
 while the other sets up its kingdom in the heart, and thus purifies 
 the very fountain of moral action. With such very obvious distinc- 
 tions, it must be equally obvious that our true policy, as a people, 
 will be found in a very strict observance of these lines of demarca- 
 tion. The Church should never attempt to wage its battles upon 
 ground belonging to the civil power. All it can ask of the Govern- 
 ment is simple protection. In its own department it wields a power 
 incomparably greater than that of the sword. In view of these dis- 
 tinctions we may greatly rejoice, as we study the composition of our 
 political parties, to find that they so largely disregard all Church 
 lines, and that men belonging to these various denominations, with 
 equally good standing in the same Church, are intensely at variance 
 in their political views. This is as it should be. We want no Protes- 
 tant party as opposed to a Romish party ; we want no one religious 
 denomination to mass itself in either party for the purpose of seizing 
 the reins of Government in its own interests ; and should it accom- 
 plish such an end, it would only be to its own injury. All our 
 interests, both religious and civil, are best subserved by having the 
 churches themselves divided in politics. When a Protestant and 
 Romanist find themselves standing shoulder to shoulder in the same 
 political party and working zealously for its advancement, they will 
 become better acquainted with each other, and as a result will lose 
 
 1 06 
 
much of that bitterness which is the fruit of ignorance and bigotry. 
 Thus it IS that the very churches themselves are compelled to give 
 credit to the political parties for having fostered that spirit of catho- 
 licity which has become so prevalent in our land, and which is the 
 pride of every true American. Similar considerations should restrain 
 us from inviting those extreme moral issues upon the arena of poli- 
 tics which will tend to drive all the dissipated and lawless classes 
 into a party by themselves. Our true policy is to divide their 
 forces. They are capable of inflicting incalculable harm. As with 
 the increase of wealth and luxury these criminal classes are on the 
 increase, they suggest some of the most difficult problems for our 
 statesmen to soh^e. The virtuous portion of society must restrain 
 them, and this can be accomplished far better through party affilia- 
 tions than through party antagonisms. 
 
 It is the narrow view of politics which disgusts us ; while it is 
 only by these broader views that we rise to a comprehension of the 
 importance of the political party as an indispensable factor in the 
 administration of our Government, and discover in the honorable 
 partisan the qualities of the true patriot. 
 
 Character Building. 
 
 {^Baccalaiireale Sermon preached by Dr. Parsons to the class of 'g^ of the 
 Mount Morris High School ] 
 
 I St Corinthians, xii : 31. ''But covet earnestly the best gifts'' 
 While the Greek word cJiarismata here translated gifts, often 
 refers to certain miraculous endowments, yet we do not here use 
 it in such a restricted sense, but rather extend to it that larger 
 
 107 
 
signification, which includes all those powers both of mind and 
 heart, either natural or acquired, for which the individual is indebted 
 to God as the great giver. And while we should ascribe all honor to 
 God, for these free unmerited gifts, we must be careful not to regard 
 them with a mere fatalistic spirit, as though they were distributed 
 without any reference to our own earnest desires and longings; and 
 willingness withal to co-operate in their future development ; in 
 other words we must be careful in this relation, not to assume a 
 merely passive attitude, but rather as our text would imply, we must 
 be very positive in our desires, and thus "covet earnestly the best 
 gifts." 
 
 The Greek word zahnite, here rendered covet earnestly, is of 
 the same root, from which our word zeal is derived ; and signifies 
 very intense desire after any thing ; which indeed is the happier 
 rendering, inasmuch as the word covet ordinarily expresses a desire 
 after things to which we have no right. 
 
 How we are to be intensely earnest without being selfish, and 
 how we are to make the most of our own powers, and render our 
 lives grand and successful, without holding others back, or in any 
 way trespassing upon their rights, is often in practical life a very 
 difficult problem. The apostle, however, in the connection in which 
 we find our text, would make its solution quite easy, as he makes 
 God's will so prominent a factor in our lives. Again and again he 
 refers to God, as the author of the powers, of which as individuals 
 we might be tempted to be proud. He says, "Now there are diver- 
 sities of gifts, but the same Spirit, and there are differences of 
 administrations, but the same Lord, and there are diversities of 
 operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all." Here 
 it is very obviously suggested, that in character building — in the 
 making the most of our lives, we are simply to strive to work out 
 God's plan with respect to us ; in our very faculties we are to dis- 
 cover God's gifts, in our opportunities — we are to trace the lead- 
 ings of his Providence, while the very obstacles which may seem to 
 hinder us, we are to welcome as only trials of strength. Nothing so 
 
 io8 
 
changes our views of human hfe and all its activities as this placing 
 of God first. What before was confused and distracting becomes 
 clear and orderly. Especially in this way are we relieved of all 
 those sharp antagonisms which have ever been so destructive of 
 happiness, because our efforts are not that we may realize superior- 
 ity to others, but rather that we may work out whatever plan God 
 may have arranged for us. Therefore there is nothing necessarily 
 selfish in the direction to covet earnestly. It is true that the church 
 at Corinth was unhappily divided by their rivalries ; but the apostle 
 would have them not a whit the less active — he would only have a 
 change of motives. 
 
 It is a false view of humility, that we are to suppress all ambi- 
 tion. Ambition can be pure and lofty and grand. Our powers 
 have been given us to be used ; and we should use them to the best 
 possible advantage, just because God himself has given them to us. 
 The noblest thing that can be said of any of us, is that we are God's 
 workmanship. 
 
 There cannot be a grander motive to call out our most intense 
 activities, than the fact that God invites us to co-operate with him- 
 self, in such a development of our own powers, and such a rounding 
 up of our own characters, as will render us in the future, objects of 
 interest and admiration to the very angels. 
 
 But in this work of self-improvement, we must not forget that 
 we belong to a sinful race, that we have perverted faculties, that 
 we have inherited from our ancestors unhappy tendencies, and that 
 therefore, as we take an inventory of what really belongs to us, we 
 have much that we need to throw away. Science, as well as the 
 Bible, assures us that we are the degenerate plants of a strange vine ; 
 while the Bible alone pomts us to the remedy for this otherwise 
 hopeless defect. To try to build character on merely natural 
 endowments, is like building a house upon the sand. Says the 
 apostle, "other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is 
 Jesus Christ." When we invite the spirit of the Lord, to direct our 
 energies, then and only then, can we feel that we are making a 
 
 109 
 
happy selection of material, and that what we construct will prove 
 substantial and satisfactory. 
 
 With these preliminary considerations, in reg'ard to coveting earn- 
 estly the best gifts, or in other words the development of useful 
 characters, let us now notice a few points which deserve special 
 attention. And first, we would urge the importance of magnifying 
 our individuality. Consider for a moment, what a fact it is, that of 
 all the countless myriads of intelligences, each in very important 
 respects, stands as much alone, as though God had never created 
 any other. It is not therefore selfishness for us to take an interest 
 in ourselves, that we do not, and cannot in others. We have a power 
 to direct our own energies, which we do not have over others ; we 
 have a responsibility for our conduct, which we cannot exchange 
 with our neighbor. Each can know his own heart, as others cannot 
 know it. Each has a consciousness which bars others out, and com- 
 pels him to live in a little world by himself. What that little world 
 is, must be of more consquence to him, than anybody else; for that 
 is his home, he must live there, whether it be agreeable or disagree- 
 able ; he cannot move away and leave it. And can there be any 
 thought more important, than that God has located us in his uni- 
 verse, and given us the power of self-direction and self development 
 so that no matter what may take other people, we can through 
 Christ be successful ; and that no one can hurt us only as we let 
 them. Personality is like a castle whose walls cannot be scaled — the 
 enemy can enter only as the door is opened from within. 
 
 Now we magnify this individuality when we take it just as we 
 find it, without any murmurings, or invidious comparisons, and feel 
 that in it we have our problem to work out. We are to be our- 
 selves, and not somebody else. As no two faces are exactly alike, so 
 no two individuals are exactly alike. God does not want them to be. 
 The unity he desires, is not made up of sameness but diversity. To 
 each he gives an entirely separate problem, which is simply to make 
 the most he can of himself. Says the apostle, "For I say, through 
 the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to 
 
 no 
 
think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think 
 soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of 
 faith. " That is to say, they were neither to exaggerate nor depre- 
 ciate their own importance, but they were to make a truthful esti- 
 mate of themselves. 
 
 Our next point in regard to the development of character is, 
 that we must do this with reference to others, who are doing simi- 
 lar work. Says the Savior, "Let your light so shine before men that 
 they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which 
 is in heaven." Says the apostle, "For ye are laborers together with 
 God." 
 
 It is a blessed thought that we can help others and be helped 
 by them. The view which we have been taking of individuality is 
 only one side of a great truth; it has its other side, which is not 
 inferior in importance, and which introduces us to the manifold 
 complications of social life. We are born for society — God never 
 intended that we should live alone. Says the apostle, "Ye are 
 members one of another." Indeed, it is one of the most vexatious 
 of problems, how to get along with others, how to adapt ourselves 
 to their peculiarities, how to develop our own characters, so as to 
 blend with theirs. Our life work as individuals, is something like 
 the fitting of different blocks of marble for some magnificent tem- 
 ple. The master workman wants to bring all these different pieces 
 of work together, in something that shall be grander than is even 
 suggested by any individual part of the same. It is this thought 
 that makes us unselfish; because we come to realize, how much we 
 need the work of others, in order that our own may appear to the 
 best advantage. 
 
 Again a point of the greatest importance in character building, 
 is the material out of which it is to be constructed. And here we shall 
 greatly err if we regard character as simply a piece of mechanism, 
 and its construction the mere putting together of parts, as in ordi- 
 nary building; character is a growth, it is like a plant which must be 
 developed; it needs to be fed with the proper food, in order to be 
 
 III 
 
strong, healthy and fruitful. And now let us consider that we 
 feed our characters, we supply the material out of which they are 
 to grow very largely by the trains of thought which we encourage. 
 We talk of education and we are impressed with the relative impor- 
 tance of this, that, or the other department of study; but none of 
 these subjects can have the practical importance to us, of that one 
 question, what are we thinking about .? This is more to us than all 
 schools and all courses of study. Says the Wise Man, "For as he 
 thinketh inhis heart, so is he." To know what we are, and what 
 we are to be, we must ask what are the hidden thoughts and what 
 are the trains of reflection which we encourage. No fact connected 
 with human existence can be more wonderful than that of the con- 
 tin uousness of thought. 
 
 In all our waking moments, think we must — we cannot stop 
 thought; we have only the power to say into what channel it shall 
 run. But this is enough. It is all we should desire. To be able to 
 determine what course of investigation we will enter upon, and what 
 train of thought we will pursue, is the power to determine what we 
 are to be and what kind of characters we are to develop. The 
 Psalmist says, "In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy 
 comforts delight my soul;" from which we conclude that he had a 
 choice in regard to what he should think about, and encouraged 
 such thoughts as were elevating and consoling. No matter where 
 we are, at school, at home, in business or in pleasure, in youth or in 
 old age, this is a part of our education which we never can afford to 
 neglect. 
 
 But next in importance to these trains of thought, as food for 
 character, we would name the books and papers which we read. 
 Reading is letting others do our thinking for us. We then think 
 their thoughts and make those thoughts our own, or not, as we 
 choose. In reading there is the widest range, from that which is 
 positively corrupt and debasing, to that which is pure, elevating and 
 Godlike. We must read with reference to enriching the mind, puri- 
 fying the heart, and elevating the aspirations. We cannot read every 
 
 112 
 
tliinc^, and therefore we are compelled to choose ; and here we 
 should heed the exhortation of the text, to "covet earnestly the best 
 gifts." We cannot be too thankful for this power of choice by which 
 we are enabled to brush away all that is vile, to refuse also that 
 which is vapid and characterless, and absorb only that which goes 
 to strengthen character and results in permanent good. And in 
 thus selecting food for character, we make no mistake when we 
 rank the Bible as supreme in all the range of literature ; not simply 
 as a religious book, but as having special value to the scholar and 
 the man of business. On this point the words of Charles A. Dana, 
 the editor of the N. Y. Sun, in an address to the students of Union 
 College on the subject of journalism will be pertinent. He says, 
 "There are some books that are absolutely indispensable to the kind 
 of education that we are contemplating, and to the profession that 
 we are considering ; and of all these, the most indispensable, the 
 most useful, the one whose knowledge is most effective, is the Bible. 
 There is no book from which more valuable lessons can be learned. 
 I am considering it now, not as a religious book, but as a manual of 
 utility, of professional preparation and professional use for a jour- 
 nalist. There is perhaps no book whose style is more suggestive and 
 more instructive, from which you leai^n more directly that sublime 
 simplicity, which never exaggerates, which recounts the greatest 
 event, with solemnity of course, but without sentimentality or affect- 
 ation, none which you open with such confidence, and lay down 
 with such reverence ; there is no book like the Bible. When you 
 get into a controversy, and want exactly the right answer, when you 
 are looking for an expression, what is there that closes a dispute 
 like a verse from the Bible. What is there that sets up the right 
 principle for you, which pleads for a policy, for a cause so much as 
 the right passage of Holy Scripture .? " 
 
 But again, we notice as food for character, those impressions 
 which we are receiving in our every day life from our fellow men. 
 
 The wide, wide world is bringing its contributions and laying 
 them at our feet, that we may choose what to take, and what to 
 
 113 
 
refuse. We may think of the busy world as a great university with 
 an elective course, in which we are permitted to select our own 
 teachers. We are told that President Garfield said that his idea of 
 a vniiversity was a pine bench with President Hopkins on one end, 
 and himself on the other ; which was only a strong way of express- 
 ing his appreciation of the power of all great educators of impress- 
 ing upon others their own personality. It does us good to be brought 
 in contact with men of large brains, and larger souls. We feel their 
 power, something as we feel the warmth of fire. In the realm of 
 thought they make us to be partakers of their victories, and they 
 impart to us that which makes them none the poorer nor the weaker. 
 This dealing with the world is an educational process to which 
 we are all subjected ; and we can, if we will, gain from our fellows 
 very much valuable material to work into our own characters. 
 
 But we remark again, that in this great battle of life, this effort 
 which we put forth to make the most of ourselves, we shall do well 
 always to bear in mind the difference between reputation and char- 
 acter. 
 
 Our reputation is what the world says about us, our character is 
 what we really are. The two may very nearly agree, or they may 
 be widely apart. We hardly need to be told that our own work is 
 the building of character; while we must leave to others the build- 
 ing of our reputations; nor need we be told that character is of 
 greater importance than reputation. Not that we ev^er should be 
 careless of our reputations by expressing indifference as to how 
 people regard us, for a good reputation is second only to the character 
 itself. The wise man says, "A good name is rather to be chosen 
 than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold." 
 The apostle says, "Let not then your good be evil spoken of," in 
 which it is implied, that a good action may be so ill-timed or unhap- 
 pily expressed as to make a bad impression, and that we ourselves 
 are responsible to a certain extent for the impressions which we 
 may make. Also in his injunction to Timothy, "Let no man despise 
 thy youth," he as much as tells him that he has it in his power to 
 
 114 
 
compel people to respect him. The public have rights in us which we 
 are bound to respect, and we never can afford to ignore their opin- 
 ions, or treat them with contempt. Indeed it is one of the very high- 
 est arts, in character building, so to build, as that our work shall 
 produce the best possible impression. 
 
 But we notice again, that in the development of our characters 
 we should enrich them with the very best material. Here if any- 
 where, we should covet earnestly the best gifts. Too often the 
 impression prevails that it is quite allowable to do as you please, 
 provided you do nothing that is positively bad. Our lives seem 
 to be made up of a succession of choices. In unnumbered little 
 things we are making selections, by taking this and refusing that, or 
 by doing this and refusing to do that, and our characters are the 
 products of these choices. Now while we admit that the most 
 important choice is between good and evil, yet the point which we 
 Avish here to emphasize is, that even among things that are good in 
 themselves there is always a preference, and that this preference 
 we cannot afford to treat as a matter of indifference. 
 
 The sale of the bu'thright by Esau for a mess of pottage illus- 
 trates this point. There was nothing wrong in the mess of pottage; 
 a hungry man is not to be blamed for securing food; the unspeak- 
 able wrong was that he prefered it to his birthright; that having a 
 choice, he should exercise it so greatly to his disadvantage. It is 
 just this defect that accounts for the many weak characters to be 
 found among good people, — people of no moral force, and who never 
 can be relied upon to meet important emergencies. 
 
 If we work poor material into the fabric of character, we only 
 cheat ourselves, and the fraud will surely he disclosed. We must 
 reap what we sow. "If thou be wise thou shalt be wise for thyself, 
 but if thou scorneth thou alone shalt bear it." What more can we 
 ask than the privilege of making our own selection, and then be 
 told to choose the best. 
 
 I am happy in the thought that our subject cannot be other than 
 appropriate to those who have honored me by asking that I should 
 
 II 
 
preach a sermon with reference to their graduation from our acade- 
 my. No subject can be more important to any one than this which 
 we have considered, and especially to those who are soon to assume 
 the more weighty responsibilities of active life. Already, my young 
 friends, you have been doing much in the formation of your char- 
 acters. These years of study and discipline now past have not been 
 in vain. Your self-denial, application, and earnestness, have been 
 making their contributions toward achieving the victory, which is 
 to be expressed in the diplomas which you are soon to receive. 
 You ha\'e been learning how to study, how to use your own mental 
 powers, and how to investigate the truth by separating it from error. 
 Both yourselves and teachers have cause for mutual congratulation 
 over work so happily accomplished. 
 
 Very properly you have regarded these years of study, as prepar- 
 atory to your life work; you have been getting ready to take good 
 positions in society. But you hardly need be told, that the whole of 
 this life is preparatory, — that at the best we are only learning how 
 to live, by correcting our mistakes, and trying to do better work 
 than we have done. While, therefore, you are to be congratulated 
 for your success, you are much more to be congratulated for the 
 grand possibilities which are before you. Human existence is 
 sublime, because it has the power of an endless life. 
 
 You are permitted to labor with God, to work out his plan, to 
 develop powers which he has given you. Do not be misled into 
 thinking you can be any thing you want to be. Very few ever 
 realize their childish fancies and youthful aspirations ; and doubtless 
 it is far better for us that we do not. Too often we are thinking only 
 of what others will say of us ; we are adopting earthly standards and 
 are trying to adjust ourselves to a worldly environment. God loves 
 us too well to let us have our way in these respects. In all our dis- 
 appointments he is remindmg us that he has better plans for us 
 than any which we can arrange for ourselves. It would be wrong- 
 to tell you that your lives are to be all happy and all joyous ; }-ou 
 will certainh" have )-our dark da}-s, as ha\-e all others who have pre- 
 
 ii6 
 
ceded you. But remember that life is a series of steps, and that it 
 is only one step at a time. A successful life is none other than the 
 faithful performance of every day duties. I'he Lord would have 
 our work easy and delightful ; it is our own pride that loads us 
 down with burdens grievous to be borne. You will find life to be a 
 battle ; and as the conflict shall deepen, remember that "The angel 
 of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and deliv- 
 ereth them," and that they that be for you are more than they 
 that be against you. 
 
 As you start out with high hopes and a bright future, we exhort 
 you to covet earnestly the best gifts. Make your lives grand by 
 making them useful ; and make them beautiful as crowned at last 
 with that benediction of the Master, "Inasmuch as ye have done it 
 unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." 
 
 God's Sovereign Power over the Nations. 
 
 [Pcliz'ered by Dr. J'ursoHS before ilie J. E. Lee Post, G. A. R., JMovnt 
 Morris, jX. ]'., May 2(jtli, /eS>S'.] 
 
 H.\G(;.\i II : 7. ''Ami I ivill shake all nations, and the desire of 
 all natiojis shall come and I "n'ill fill this house with glory, saith the 
 Lord (f hosts." 
 
 I have selected this text as expressive of God's sovereign power 
 over the nations of the earth, and the use which he makes of that 
 power in establishing the kingdom of the Redeemer. Ilaggai pro- 
 phesied after the return of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon, 
 and about 500 years before the coming of Christ. 
 
 117 
 
He was raised up for the encouragement of God's people, in the 
 rebuilding of the temple. The people had become neglectful of the 
 higher duties of religion, and were leading worldly selfish lives ; and 
 so we find this good prophet remonstrating with them for living in 
 their ceiled houses, and permitting the Lord's house to lie waste. 
 At the same time, he addressed them with words of generous ex- 
 hortation ; and as they were giving way to discouragement, because 
 the foundations of the temple they were then laying were insignifi- 
 cant as compared with those of Solomon's temple, he assured them 
 of the superiority of the future temple, because it would be glorified 
 by the personal presence of Christ ; which suggests that Christ sub- 
 sequently employed these very words "But I say unto you that in 
 this place is one greater than the temple." 
 
 The first thought to which we call attention in our text is God's 
 promise that he would shake all nations. The Jews, in their feeble 
 efforts to rebuild the temple, must have trembled in view of their 
 liability to be overpowered by the other nations of the earth. It 
 was true that Cyrus had favored their return ; but how could they 
 be sure of a continuance of his good will .? 
 
 But God answers all these distrustful questions by assuring 
 them that all the nations were under his immediate control, and that 
 however firmly they might seem to stand he had the power to shake 
 them. And let us stop right here and consider the sublimity of 
 this claim. How arrogant the nations of the earth have been, as 
 they have risen one by one in their might, to human appearance how 
 strong a front ha\'e they presented. Think of the Egyptian nation, 
 the Assyrian, the Persian, the Greek and the Roman, how they have 
 seemed to laugh at opposition and feel that they had an unlimited 
 tenure of power. And yet God claimed that he had the power to 
 shake them when they were at the zenith of their strength and 
 glory ; and one by one he has shaken them, and so fulfilled his own 
 promise ; so that we now look for them only upon the pages of his- 
 tory. They are no longer factors in the great problems which we are 
 now studying ; other nations occupy our attention, other nations are 
 
 ll8 
 
dividing up the earth's surface, other nations are busy watching each 
 other with jealous eye, each claiming for itself a glorious future, and 
 an almost unlimited supremacy ; but (iod's hand has still hold of 
 each; nor has he abated one whit of his claim, "I will shake all 
 nations." 
 
 What He has done He will do, — thus far He has controlled them, 
 and He will never cease to exert this control. He will not resign his 
 sovereignty, or cease to execute his eternal purposes. The history 
 of the world has been simply the unfolding of God's great plan with 
 reference to the race of Adam. 
 
 And can there be anything more sublime than this view of God's 
 raising up one nation and putting down another for the sake of 
 accomplishing his own purpose .? Isaiah says, "Behold, the nations 
 are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of 
 the balance ; behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. 
 * * * All nations before him are as nothing; and they are 
 counted to him as less than nothing and vanity." And the Psalmist 
 says, "The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take 
 counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed saying. 
 Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from 
 us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have 
 them in derision." 
 
 But we notice in the second place, that in 'shaking the nations, 
 God is not making an arbitrary use of his power simply for the sake 
 of displaying the same. In His own nature, His natural attributes 
 may be regarded as subordinate to his moral attributes. He does 
 not represent himself as essentially power, but He does represent 
 himself as essentially love ; his power therefore must be employed 
 to give expression to his love. 
 
 We should not be surprised therefore, that in using the nations 
 to work out His own great problems. He should teach them that 
 power is not the main thing, but that it is only a means to a nobler 
 end ; that it is to be used for the administration of justice, for the 
 defense of the poor and needy, and the uplifting of the fallen. 
 
 119 
 
Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon was taught a most impressive 
 lesson in regard to the subordination of governmental power for 
 moral purposes. In his arrogance he had said, " Is not this great 
 Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the 
 might of my power and for the honor of my majesty?" And for 
 this he was driven from among men, and was made to dwell with 
 the beasts of the fields, and to eat grass as oxen. But perhaps we 
 have not all thought how appropriate this punishment was to the 
 crime. He had magnified his lower nature in which he was allied to 
 the animal creation, he had deified brute force in the mere exhibi- 
 tion of power in itself, and thus he had made a beast of himself ; 
 and so God very appropriately in his discipline and humiliation, 
 classified him with the oxen and caused him to eat grass by their 
 side. 
 
 What an object lesson for all time to come for all governments 
 which may pride themselves in the exercise of mere power, uncon- 
 trolled by any moral considerations, is that same Nebuchadnezzer 
 as we see him in the field, eating grass by the side of the oxen ! 
 How impressively in this, are we taught what God thinks of the 
 perversion of governmental power to selfish purposes. 
 
 We come now in the third place, to advance a step further, and 
 that a very important step, and claim that God uses human govern- 
 ments as his agents for the purification of such nations as deserve 
 his rebuke, and the destruction of such as are proving only a curse 
 to mankind. 
 
 Old Testament history abundantly sustains this claim. We 
 know that God was very careful to instruct the Israelites, that it was 
 not on account of their own righteousness that they were to over- 
 throw the Canaanites, and dispossess them of their homes, but it was 
 on account of the exceeding wickedness of those nations — their cup 
 of iniquity was full to overflowing — justice called for their destruct- 
 ion, and the Israelites were simply God's executioners. 
 
 Then when Israel needed chastening, God appointed the Bab}'- 
 lonians to destroy their city and carry them away into captivity. In 
 
 120 
 
a similar way the Greek nation was overthrown, notwithstanding its 
 wonderful attainments in the realm of literature, philosophy, and 
 the fine arts ; and so the Roman empire with all its magnificence 
 was overthrown by other nations who acted simply as God's execu- 
 tioners. In both instances, these nations had forfeited all their 
 rights of existence. The Greeks with all their learning, were fairly 
 l^iitrid in morals ; and the Romans with all their magnificence 
 and renown were brutal to such a degree, as to provide enter- 
 tainment for the masses in butcheries too awful to describe. 
 Indeed to-day the very Colosseum of Rome, as it stands in its ruins, 
 proclaims the justice of God in calling the hordes of barbarians 
 to wipe from the very face of the earth a government which 
 could build such a structure, for a purpose so base and degrading. 
 As we think of such nations in their unrestrained power, trampling 
 upon all human rights and fairly gloating over human suffering, we 
 appreciate as never before, the spirit of the imprecatory psalms, and 
 in our agony we exclaim, " O Lord God, to whom vengeance belong- 
 eth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, show thyself, lift up thy- 
 self thou judge of the earth ; render a reward to the proud." And 
 then when God calls together his executioners to wipe such a nation 
 from off the face of the earth, with a sigh of relief we exclaim, 
 " Alleluiah: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." 
 
 And now we take another step, which is by far the most im- 
 portant of all, and claim that God employs human governments 
 for the upbuilding of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Our text 
 reads, "And I will .shake all nations, and the desire of all nations 
 shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of 
 hosts." 
 
 This looks like cause and effect as though the shaking of all 
 nations had something to do with the coming of the "desire of all 
 nations," which by the phraseology of the text, sustained by that of 
 the context, we conclude to have been none other than our Lord 
 himself. For 4,000 years, God had been getting ready for this most 
 important advent of Christ. The events of history had been con- 
 
 121 
 
verging towards this one objective point. Christ is represented as 
 coming in the fiUness of time; that is, the times were ripe for his 
 coming, and the nations had been shaken to make ready for the 
 coming of the King. The one kingdom to which all others are 
 subordinate v/as about to be manifested more distinctly. 
 
 This subordination of human governments to the interests of the 
 church, and for her special protection, is most abundantly taught in 
 God's Holy Word. Isaiah represents God as saying of Cyrus, "He 
 is my shepherd and shall perform all my pleasure; even saying to 
 Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple. Thy foundation 
 shall be laid." Again Isaiah writes, "Thus saith the Lord God, 
 Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles and set up my stand- 
 ard to the people, and they shall bring thy sons in their arms and 
 thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. And kings 
 shall be thy nursing fathers and their queens thy nursing mothers; 
 they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth and 
 lick up the dust of thy feet." And yet again he writes, "For the 
 nation and kingdom that will not serve thee (i. e. God's spiritual 
 kingdom or church) shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly 
 wasted." Daniel writes, " And the kingdom and dominion and the 
 greatness of the kingdom, shall be given to the people of the saints 
 of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all 
 dominions shall serve and obey him." The apostle Paul also teaches 
 that God hath made Christ, "to be head over all things to the 
 church." 
 
 These earthly kingdoms, these civil governments, are not to 
 exist just for themselves. However pure their morals, or effective 
 their administration of justice, their highest end is to be found in 
 their helpfulness in promoting the Redeemer's kingdom. They are 
 to anticipate the time when "The kingdoms of this world are to be- 
 come the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign 
 forever and ever." 
 
 In all our advocacy then of the separation of Church and State, 
 let us never count them as in necessary hostility to each other. 
 
 122 
 
I'hcy are made for each other, and Christ claims headship over both. 
 The church cannot use the sword to make converts ; she must per- 
 suade men in Christ's stead to become reconciled to God. But the 
 civil power can and should use the sword for the maintenance of 
 justice. Christ recognized this very distinction when he said, 
 "Render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and 
 unto God the things that are God's." 
 
 And the apostle instructs us that we are to be subject to the 
 higher powers, by which we may understand the civil magistrate, 
 who is represented as bearing not the sword in vain ; but rather 
 as God's minister "to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil." 
 The church ought to work for the government and the government 
 ought to work for the church. They have the same great head and 
 they have essentially the same great work — the uplifting of fallen 
 humanity. 
 
 It is now ^il years since our government called for soldiers to put 
 down the great rebellion, which then threatened the very life of the 
 nation. It is not therefore strange that, of the hundreds of thous- 
 ands who then responded to that call, only a minority now remains; 
 a minority which year by year is growing less, until the last shall 
 have passed away. The generation that since has come upon the 
 stage of life, delights to honor the names of those who laid down 
 their lives in battle, as well as those who survive to the present time. 
 From year to year the people manifest an increasing interest in 
 Memorial Day and Soldiers' Sunday. And now the cry of war is 
 again heard in the land. After a peace of more than thirty years 
 there is the call for volunteers ; and we find the people intensely 
 excited from Maine to California in raising armies and providing the 
 implements of war. Indeed we almost march with our soldiers and 
 sail with our iron clads, as from the daily press we read the graphic 
 descriptions of events as they are transpiring. But what does this 
 war mean.? This is not for the defense of our firesides which are 
 well protected; this is not for the support of our government, which 
 is rich and strong and prosperous; this is not for the acquisition of 
 
 123 
 
territory, for we now have more land than we need; this rather we 
 claim to be a war, in the interest of humanity. We are turning a new 
 leaf in our national history; we are looking outside our own borders 
 and directing another nation what she shall do in regard to her colo- 
 nial possessions. We have espoused the cause of a weak people, in 
 their efforts to break the oppressive yoke of Spain. And in doing 
 this we feel that we are discharging a very high and responsible duty, 
 that as a nation we are acting the part of the good Samaritan. 
 
 Our revolutionary fathers, in their declaration of independence, 
 presented facts as furnishing the reason for the course they pur- 
 sued, and so we simply appeal to facts, in the treatment which Cuba 
 has endured from Spain, as constituting the warrant which we have 
 for taking up arms. We, with other civilized nations, have had our 
 sympathies stirred to their depths by the prolonged cruelties to 
 which the Cubans have been subjected. We have endured all this, 
 hoping for better things, until patience has ceased to be a virtue. 
 
 Turkish atrocities towards the Armenians could be attributed to 
 religious hostility, it was the Crescent against the Cross; but this war 
 of Spain with Cuba reveals no such mitigation, where we find all of 
 one religious faith. Nor is this a single instance, an unhappy excep- 
 tion to Spain's general policy; truth rather compels us to assert that 
 it is but the continuation of centuries of misrule. Spain seems to 
 have learned nothing and to have forgotten nothing since the dark 
 ages. Her decline from the high position of a first class power four 
 and five centuries ago to her present degradation, is one of the sad 
 facts of history; and her decline is attributable to her tyranny, perse- 
 cution and unspeakable cruelty. Away back, as the discoverer of 
 this Western Hemisphere, her treatment of the aborigines was 
 shocking beyond description, and subsequently her notorious 
 Spanish Inquisition has been the horror of horrors. 
 
 The one fact, that her Sunday bull fights continue to be the 
 amusement of her populace at the present time, is indicative that 
 her disease is too deep seated for any ordinary reform and can be 
 cured only by the most heroic treatment. 
 
 124 
 
In these closing years of the 19th century, Turkey and Spain 
 stand impeached by the civihzed world, as unworthy a place among 
 the nations of the earth. The voice of rivers of blood drank up by 
 the thirsty ground, which has been shed by these monsters, cries 
 aloud to heaven for vengeance. As nations, they have been weighed 
 in the balance and found wanting. The verdict of humanity is, that 
 they are not fit to bear rule over men, and that they have forfeited 
 all those rights that justice is bound to respect. 
 
 Two years ago the world stood aghast at the massacres of the 
 Armenians by the Turks ; but people were not more shocked by the 
 atrocities themselves, than by the fact that the nations of Europe 
 were so paralyzed by their international complications as to prevent 
 them from going to the relief of the persecuted. Now that similar 
 atrocities are enacted on one of the fairest islands of this Western 
 Hemisphere, let us thank God that this nation finds it unnecessary 
 to ask permission of any power on earth to go to the assistance of 
 the down-trodden. 
 
 Certainly we are not without evidence, that God has given us our 
 great power, that he might use us for the humiliation of a nation, 
 that has too long resisted all reform and insisted upon filling up her 
 cup of iniquity to the very brim. 
 
 When in peopling this country centuries ago, God shook the 
 nations of Great Britain, France and Holland, it was that some of 
 the very richest, choicest, ripest fruit might fall on these shores in 
 the persons of the sturdy Dutch, the French Huguenots, the Eng- 
 lish Puritans and the Scotch Covenanters. The love for God and 
 civil and religious liberty, which they cherished and fought for, is 
 still a power in this land. They knew what it was to fight bigotry 
 and intolerance, and "being dead they yet speak." Yes, their voice 
 is heard from the mouths of Dewey's cannons, and we hope will 
 soon be heard again, not less emphatically, from those of Sampson. 
 
 But let us be careful not to be inflated by our victories. Let us 
 not be unmindful of the responsible position which we occupy. 
 
 If this with us is a holy war, then are we God's executioners, and 
 
 i2q 
 
as such should cherish no hatred, no revenge, no bitter fcchngs. 
 This is the time to walk humbly before God. 
 
 The sheriff should not hate the man he hangs ; nor should we 
 hate the Spaniards whom in God's name we chasten. 
 
 Grant did not hate Lee when he refused to accept his sword, and 
 made his humiliation in his surrender as light as possible. So we 
 must feed and clothe our Spanish prisoners and show them what 
 Christianity can do to mitigate the horrors of war. 
 
 We are fast making history, and apparently are on the eve of 
 great events. The fate of twenty millions of people on the Philippine 
 Islands, long crushed by the tyranny of Spain, now wavers in the 
 balance as we are suddenly confronted with the question of a future 
 colonial policy. What shall we do with our victory .? and greater 
 than this what does God mean we shall do with it ? are questions 
 which must be answered, and should be answered only on our knees 
 before God. Threatened complications with other governments, as 
 the peace of Europe is now disturbed, will severely tax the wisdom 
 of our most astute statesmen. 
 
 But, with all this confusion incident to God's shaking of the 
 nations, let us listen that we may hear the sweet voice of Jesus say- 
 ing, "Fear not little flock for it is your Father's good pleasure to 
 give you the Kingdom." 
 
 Prayer. 
 
 [OJ^ered by Rev. Levi Patsons, D. D. at tlie Sullivan Centennial , 
 Geneseo, N. V., September iSth, iS/p.] 
 
 Our Father who art in Meaven, we worship thee as God over 
 
 126 
 
all and blessed forever. Thou art the King, eternal, immortal, in- 
 visible, the only wise God, ruling throughout the immensity of thy 
 dominions, controlling all creatures and directing all events. We 
 approach thy mercy-seat at this time in the name of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, the Father of Mercies, to thank thee that under circumstan- 
 ces so auspicious we are permitted to gather here from far and near 
 to celebrate the deeds of our fathers and to cherish the memories of 
 those who in the infancy of our republic fought our battles for us. 
 
 We rejoice that while one generation passeth away and another 
 generation cometh, yet thou art the same and of thy days and of thy 
 years there is no end ; so that this day we are permitted to wor- 
 ship the same God whom our fathers worshipped and to cherish and 
 perpetuate the same institutions which in thy kind Providence they 
 planted and have been permitted to hand down to us. 
 
 We bless thy name that as the fruit of the hard toil of those who 
 have gone before us we are permitted to gather rich harvests from 
 the fields spread out before us ; so that, where was the wilderness 
 unbroken save by the foot of the savage, we now discover thousands 
 of happy homes. We rejoice that these homes have been illumin- 
 ated by the light of the gospel, and that in the early settlement of 
 oui" land religious and educational institutions were planted which 
 subsequently have grown with our growth and strengthened with 
 our strength. We rejoice also that we may trace thy guardian care 
 in all the way in which thou hast led us as a nation, so that from 
 small beginnings we now occupy a position of such influence among 
 the nations of the earth. 
 
 We thank thee that in times of darkness and distress thou hast 
 not forsaken us — in times when our sins have justly provoked thy 
 disj^leasure, thou hast indeed remembered mercy. And now we in- 
 voke thy blessing to rest upon us in the future while at the same 
 time we consecrate ourselves to thy service. 
 
 Defend us O Lord from the machinations of evil men. Defend 
 us from drunkenness, profanity, Sabbath breaking, and kindred sins. 
 Grant that our officers may be peace and our exactors righteousness. 
 
 127 
 
Incline us to the cultivation of that charity which thinketh no evil 
 and is powerful for the uplifting of the oppressed and degraded. 
 Help us to deal justly and magnanimously with the sons of the red 
 man who once occupied these lands which we call our own. Help 
 us also to welcome with true cordiality to these shores the oppressed 
 of all nations. 
 
 Incline us to cherish the principles contained in thy Holy Word 
 and to seek their diffusion throughout the earth. Grant us thy rich 
 grace, our Heavenly Father, that we may so fulfill all our duties that 
 our children and childrens children may rise up and call us blessed. 
 All which we ask in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
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