slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.

PHILLIPS BROOKS

(1835-1893)

Phillips Brooks was born in Boston, Massachusetts, December 13th, 1835,
and died there January 23d, 1893. He inherited the best traditions of
New England history, being on the paternal side the direct descendant of
John Cotton, and his mother's name, Phillips, standing for high learning
and distinction in the Congregational church. Born at a time when the
orthodox faith was fighting its bitterest battle with Unitarianism, his
parents accepted the dogmas of the new theology, and had him baptized by
a Unitarian clergyman. But while refusing certain dogmas of the orthodox
church, they were the more thrown back for spiritual support upon the
internal evidences of evangelical Christianity. "Holding still," says
the Rev. Arthur Brooks, "in a greater or less degree, and with more or
less precision, to the old statements, they counted the great fact that
these statements enshrined more precious truth than any other."
Transition to the Episcopal church was easy; the mother became an
Episcopalian, and Phillips Brooks received all his early training in
that communion. But heredity had its influence, and in after-life the
great Bishop said that the Episcopal church could reap the fruits of the
long and bitter controversy which divided the New England church, only
as it discerned the spiritual worth of Puritanism, and the value of its
contributions to the history of religious thought and character.

Such were the early surroundings of the man, and the subsequent
influences of his life tended to foster this liberal spirit. For such a
purpose, Boston itself was a good place to live in: it was too large to
be wholly provincial, and it was not so large that the individual was
lost; and at that time it was moreover the literary centre of America.
When Phillips Brooks entered Harvard, he came into an atmosphere of
intense intellectual activity. James Walker was the president of the
college, and Lowell, Holmes, Agassiz, and Longfellow were among the
professors. He graduated with honor in 1855, and soon after entered the
Episcopal theological seminary at Alexandria, Virginia.

The transition from Harvard to this college was an abrupt one. The
standards of the North and South were radically different. The theology
of the Church in Virginia, while tolerant to that of other
denominations, was uncompromisingly hostile to what it regarded as
heterodox.

When