Mfl 



GCTHRIE, THOMAS. 



HALE, JOHN P. 



sentation of clergymen to their parishes by 

 patrons, without the consent and approval of 

 I lie people of the parishes ; and, one fine morn- 

 ing in May, Thomas Chalmers and Thomas 

 Guthrie led the way out of the General As- 

 sembly, and 462 ministers of tin s.-nttUli Kirk 

 followed them. This disruption meant, of 

 coarse, the giving up of their parishes, their 

 churches, their manses, and their means of 

 support. It was a grand movement, such as 

 could only have been made in a country like 

 Scotland; and, though there were many suf- 

 ferers for it, yet in the end the country was 

 greatly benefited, and the cause of religion 

 promoted by it. Here was a new field for the 

 exertion of Dr. Guthrie's great executive 

 ability. His congregation for the most part 

 followed him; hut a new church was to be 

 built, and a new organization created for 

 Christian work; and Dr. Guthrie was too 

 broad and large-hearted a man to rest satisfied 

 with caring for his own congregation alone. 

 On the contrary, he embraced in his active 

 sympathies all those who had come out from 

 the Kirk. There were new churches to be 

 built all over Scotland, new parishes to be or- 

 ganized; the aristocratic landholders, vexed 

 at the disruption, often refused to sell sites for 

 the new churches; and the people, amid the 

 inclement winters of North Britain, wero 

 obliged to meet for worship in the open air; 

 the ministers were turned out of their manses, 

 and had but little and very miserable shelter 

 for their families; and some perished from 

 the exposure. Dr. Guthrie was equal to the 

 occasion : he preached in the open air to some 

 of these congregations in the severest storms 

 of winter, and then, appealing to Parliament 

 for relief, so shamed and confounded the Scot- 

 tish lairds, that they made haste to sell, and, 

 in many instances, to give, sites for the free 

 churches. Traversing the entire island of 

 Great Britain from north to south and from 

 east to west, he raised, by subscription, in a 

 single year, the magnificent sum of $680,000 

 in u'old, to erect manses for the mfferinc min- 

 isters. He returned to Edinburgh with this 

 work accomplished, hut to begin other labors, 

 more local, but not less beneficent; but his 

 vigorous constitution had been overtasked, 

 and, from that time, he was troubled with 

 heart-disease. His zeal, however, knew no 



intermission. The death of Dr. Chalmers, in 

 1847, added greatly to his labors, as on him 

 came much of the public work which that 

 great man had done so well. For the twenty- 

 five years that followed, though often laid 

 aside by illness, Dr. Guthrie's labors were her- 

 culean. Though not in the strictest sense the 

 originator of ragged schools, he was the first 

 to establish them on a large scale, and to de- 

 velop their reformatory power. He was also 

 the first to adopt the plan of feeding and par- 

 tially clothing the children while they ere 

 under instruction. He took hold of the tem- 

 perance reform, of which there was great need 

 in Edinburgh, with the same resistless ci. 

 with which he had pushed other reformatory 

 measures, and had the satisfaction of knowing 

 that he had been the means of rescuing thou- 

 sands from a drunkard's grave. Both in E 

 land and England the great enterprises he w:;^ 

 carrying forward required him very frcqumtly 

 to address public assemblies of all descrip- 

 tions; and he had no superior in Great Brit- 

 ain as a platform-speaker. His eloquence, his 

 ready wit, his abundant and always apposite 

 illustrations, find his ample fund of facts and 

 statistics, made him always a popular orator. 

 Nor was he Jess ready with his pen than with 

 his extemporaneous addresses. Whether ho 

 \\.-is | Hitting forth his earnest "Pleas for Happed 

 Schools;" his pathetic delineations of "The 

 City; its Sins and its Sorrows; " his touching 

 and tearful "Plea for Drunkards;" drawing 

 word - pictures of matchless beauty in his 

 "Gospel in Ezckiel," or preaching from the 

 printed page in his " Discourses from Colos- 

 sians," "Speakinsr to the Heart," "The Way 

 of Life," "Man and the Gospel," or "The 

 Parables; " or writing those brilliant leaders. 

 Bible studies, mid wayside sketches, for the 

 <// Mn;i<i:!nf, of which he was for nine 

 years editor he was never dull, dry, or unin- 

 teresting. The man had evidently something 

 to say, and he had a faculty of saying it in 

 such a way as to charm and interest all who 

 heard or read his writings. He had traveled 

 extensively, and made good use of his travels in 

 illustratinphisdiscourses. Nearly all his works 

 have been republi-hed here, his autobiography 

 and memoirs as well as a collected edition of 

 his works, having been issued in New York 

 since his death by Messrs. Carter & Brothers. 



H 



HALE, .Ton* PARKER, LL. D.. an Ameri- 

 can Senator and diplomatist, l,rn in Uoohcs- 

 ter, Stafford County. N. II.. March 31, 180fl; 

 died in Dover. N. H., November 18, 1878. 

 He received his early academical training at 

 Phillip* Academy, Exeter, N. H.. when. 

 passed to Bowdoin College, graduating in 1827, 

 with high honors. He studied law at Dover, 

 nd was admitted to the bar in 1830. While 



in the enjoyment of a large practice, he was 

 d to the New Hampshire Legislature 

 by the Democrats, and at the expiration of 

 his term was appointed by President Jackson 

 I'nited States Attorney for the District of 

 New Hampshire. He held this position until 

 1841. when he was reuioxe.l hy President Ty- 

 ler. In March, 1843. the Democrats elected 

 him to the United States House of Reprcscnta- 



