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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



independent. Though in the Church heart 

 and soul, he was not a blind partisan, but 

 saw the evils that w-ere near, and the good 

 that was beyond. Liberal in his ideas and 

 catholic in his sympathies, he was unsparing 

 in his condemnation of the selfish worldli- 

 ness that he encountered in his own sect, 

 and cordially responsive to all the noble 

 work of the age whether within or without 

 the pale of ecclesiasticism. 



There were a simplicity, modesty, and 

 intense earnestness in this man's nature, 

 such as are but rarely observed. Though 

 gifted as a preacher and capable of bril- 

 liant mental work, he never courted popu- 

 larity, nor sought conspicuous positions. 

 Often solicited to enter the higher sphere 

 of churchly recognition and influence, he 

 steadily resisted these importunities, pre- 

 ferring obscurity, and quiet, unobtrusive la- 

 bor among the common people that had not 

 been spoiled by affluence. He was very 

 radical in his convictions in regard to minis- 

 terial duty, as may be gathered from various 

 passages of his correspondence. In a pri- 

 vate letter written from Boston, in 1869, 

 he speaks very plainly : " This morning I 

 preached in an old wealthy and dead church. 

 To preach to such a people is like preaching 

 to a field of old stumps and about as hopeful. 

 ... I thank God that we are not rich, and 

 that our lot is not, and has not been, cast 

 with the rich. I tell you the rich can hard- 

 ly enter into the kingdom of heaven, wheth- 

 er they be clergy or laity. ... I feel that 

 we are all relying too much on money — great 

 stone churches, fine houses, large salaries, 

 etc., which have brought the Church to the 

 level of the world. I see the rich, full of 

 pride, taken up with vanity, soul all gone, 

 thinking their gain is godliness, no sympathy, 

 no true riches of any kind." 



Again he breaks out : " I am more and 

 more convinced that a hired ministry is a 

 great evil. To preach honestly under such 

 circumstances almost kills me; to preach 

 tenderly is almost impossible. To take pay 

 for preaching is base and unmanly ; I feel 

 it more and more every day. To be in the 

 position of a divine teacher and not preach 

 according to my conscience is impossible, and 

 so, what with one thing and another, the 

 difficulty of doing one's duty — the sense of 

 begging or being a hireling — almost drives 



me out of the ministry. I ask myself : Is 

 this all that eighteen hundred years can 

 accomplish for man by the Church, and in 

 the Church ? Italy could not be worse off 

 without her Church. How is it with the 

 United States ? " 



In regard to science Mr. Perinchief was 

 large-minded and sympathetic, although his 

 acquisitions in this direction were of course 

 Blender. Neither his early education in the 

 parish-school at Bermuda, nor his subse- 

 quent training at Anienia Trinity College 

 and the New York Theological Seminary, 

 could have been well adapted to inform him 

 of the great truths of modern science, or to 

 create any special interest in this line of 

 study. But the instincts of his liberal in- 

 telligence were true to the spirit of im- 

 provement and progress, and, as his mind 

 widened by observation and reflection, he 

 saw clearly enough that science is to be the 

 great renovating agency of modern times. 

 In this relation his biographer remarks : 

 " The scientists who wrote on evolution, as 

 well as those who uttered striking thoughts 

 in theology, literature, art, philosophy, or 

 statesmanship, he devoured with equal gus- 

 to ; and, discriminating between facts de- 

 monstrated to be true and those purely theo- 

 retical, he was always ready with a criticism 

 or decided opinion on the merits of what he 

 read. He accordingly saw nothing in science 

 to cause alarm, but welcomed it as a grand 

 agency of human amelioration, in emanci- 

 pating men from superstition, and in mak- 

 ing those great conquests of Nature that 

 have been so powerful in elevating mankind 

 from barbarism and carrying on the work 

 of civilization. Nor could he understand 

 how a deeper knowledge of the method and 

 mysteries of Nature can have any other ef- 

 fect than to exalt and purify the conception 

 that man forms of the Creator and Ruler of 

 all things. His faith was not of a kind to 

 be disturbed by any progress of knowledge. 

 He therefore held all true men of science 

 who dedicated themselves to the elucidation 

 of the works of God as promoters of religion 

 in its best and highest sense. He cheered 

 on the labor of scientists, commending their 

 single-minded and unswerving devotion to 

 the pursuit of truth, not in any skeptical 

 spirit, but as a simple dictate of Christian 

 principle." 



