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PROPHETS OF THE SOUL JOSEPH M. M. GRAY I like a prophet of the soul. Emerson THE ABINGDON PRESS NEW YORK CINCINNATI CHICAGO CONTENTS PAGE FOREWORD 7 I. THOSE MATHERS AND THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 9 II. JONATHAN EDWARDS, His GOD . . . . 37 III. G-EORGE WHITEFIELD AND His MASTERS VOICE 63 IV. METHODIST ITINERANTS CREATORS OF CLIMATE 91 V. WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING A THEO LOGICAL HAMLET Ill VI. HORACE BUSHNELL THE BELOVED HERETIC 139 VII. PHILLIPS BROOKS A PROPHETIC GOOD NESS 161 VIII. GEORGE A. GORDON THE MAGNIFICENT REBEL 191 IX. WASHINGTON GLADDEN AND APPLIED CHRISTIANITY 215 X. WHAT OF THE LIGHT 241 FOREWORD THE biographical chapters herewith presented are not intended to be complete either as delinea tions o character or expositions of theology. But two aspects of the contemporary scene would appear to excuse the publication of the volume. The first is that this generation does not hold the pulpit in the high esteem with which in other times it was regarded. This is not simply because religion has come to be too much considered merely one of the enterprises of life, an option rather than, as formerly, the inescapable impera tive but also because other agencies of informa tion and intellectual stimulus seem now to be more vital and reliable, and more vitally and reli ably related to the actual world. The second aspect of contemporary life is that of the conflict between those who want religion more liberal ized and those who, disillusioned by the apparent bankruptcy of liberalism in politics and theology alike, would carry it back to an extremely conserva tive theology which, while not openly avowing Calvinism, involves conceptions of Necessity no less fatal to spiritual recovery becauseconcealed under impassioned, to say nothing of cryptic, phrases. I have wanted, therefore, to show, even though it should be done only far too sketchily, the part taken by preachers, as such, in the progress of liberal thought in American Protestantism. My hope has been not only that some renewal of 7 8 FOREWORD respect for the pulpit may be born in those who read this volume, but also that the younger preach ers shall regain that sense of the primacy of preach ing which will recall them from the various pre occupations they have substituted for devotion to the prophetic pulpit. Only such devotion will justify their vocation in a society which turns to the precisions of the expert for its scientific and social information, but religiously is pretty well content with echoes of its fathers faith heard faintly from a disregarded past. The book lists follow the chapters not to give the volume an air of erudition which it does not deserve but to suggest to any readers who may desire them sources of much ampler knowledge of the men and their periods than the chapters offer. For counsel and suggestions in respect of the lists I am indebted to my colleague, Professor Wesley M. Gewehr, whose volume on The Great Awaken ing in Virginia could not be omitted from any bibliography of the subject. My thanks are also due to Bishop William F. McDowell for helpful criticism o the manuscript to the ministers in many summer schools, whose reception of some of the lectures which were the basis of the volume encouraged its publication and to an unusual degree to Dr. Allan MacRossie for his stimulat ing interest both in the lectures and in the book, and for a personal friendship which has enriched many years.. M. M. G. The American University I THOSE MATHERS AND THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH THOSE MATHERS AND THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH THERE were three of those Mathers, Richard, Increase, and Cotton, and for us the line begins with Richard. He was born in England in 1596 and had education enough when he was fifteen years old to be the schoolmaster in a village near Liverpool...

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