Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/271

 CHAINING 263 18 months after leaving college as tutor in a private family at Richmond, Va., where his time was passed in agreeable social relations and in study, chiefly of political and theological subjects. His health suffered severely from his anxious examination of speculative doc- trines, and in 1800 he returned to Newport to continue his studies. There he used to al- ternate between the public library and the seashore, on which he afterward affirmed that he had passed his hardest spiritual struggles. In 1801 he removed to Cambridge, having been elected regent in the university, and devoted himself to theological study and spiritual dis- cipline. He was intimately connected Avith Dr. Samuel Hopkins, the disciple of Jonathan Edwards, whom he warmly esteemed ; and when in 1802 he received from the Cambridge association the usual approbation to preach, it was supposed by many of the ministers that he would enlist on the side of extreme orthodoxy. Yet, as he subsequently stated, he was at this time an Arian, though tinged with ethical opin- ions derived from Dr. Hopkins. His preaching at once attracted attention for its fervor and solemnity, and both the Brattle street and Fed- eral street societies in Boston sought to obtain him for their pastor. Diffident both of his health and abilities, he chose to settle over the smaller society in Federal street, and was or- dained June 1, 1803. His congregation in- creased with his reputation for eloquence and devotion, till in 1809 the old church was taken down to give place to one larger. His whole spiritual energy became concentrated in his la- bors as pastor, in sermons so exhausting that he was nearly prostrated at their close, in at- tending prayer meetings and Sunday schools, and in ministering to the sick and mourning. By the custom of exchanging with other clergy- men he became widely known throughout New England, and it was said of him and his friend, the younger Buckminster, that they had intro- duced a new era in preaching. When the disa- greement in doctrine between the "liberal" and the " orthodox " Congregationalists burst fortli into the Unitarian controversy, Dr. Chan- ning was the acknowledged head of the liberal party, and took an active part in its defence. Opposed to the Calvinistic scheme and the doctrine of the Trinity, he was even more at variance with the views of Priestley and Bel- sham. He blended in his system views which have generally been deemed discordant; and without checking himself by dialectic diffi- culties, he threw over his complex theology the charms of imagination and sentiment, and link- ed it with schemes of moral and social reform. During the period of most vehement debate his pure and earnest character won the con- stant admiration of his opponents. In 1814 he married, and soon after obtained some ac- quaintance with the master minds of Germany. From Kant's doctrine of the reason he derived deeper reverence for the essential powers of man ; by Schelling's intimations of the divine life everywhere manifested, he was made more devoutly conscious of the universal agency of God ; and he was especially delighted with the heroic stoicism of Fichte and his assertion of the grandeur of the human will. But for his greatest pleasure and best discipline he was now indebted to Wordsworth, whom he es- teemed next to Shakespeare. From this time he began to engage more actively in political and philanthropic movements. He delivered, June 15, 1814, a discourse on the overthrow of Napoleon and the " goodness of God in deliver- ing the Christian world from military despot- ism." He early gave his sympathy and support to the peace movement in this country ; and in 1816 he preached a discourse on war before the convention of the Congregational ministers of Massachusetts, which was printed and widely circulated, and prepared the way for the for- mation of peace societies in several of the states. Temperance, reform in penitentiary discipline and punishments, missions, and Bible distribu- tion all received his encouragement. His church was always thronged when he preached, and by various public discourses, among which were sermons occasioned by political crises, a sermon on the Unitarian controversy delivered at Baltimore in 1819, and his Dudleian lecture on the "Evidences of Christianity," delivered at Cambridge in 1821, his celebrity was extend- ed throughout the country. In 1822 he made a European tour, saw Wordsworth and Cole- ridge in England, the latter of whom wrote of him, " He has the love of wisdom and the wis- dom of love," and visited France, Switzerland, and Italy. On his return he resumed his pas- toral labors with more than his former energy, till in 1824 he received as colleague the Rev. Ezra Stiles Gannett; and from this tune his efforts were more in the general field of litera- ture and reform. His remarks on the character and writings of Milton, his two articles on the life and character of Bonaparte, and an article on F6nelon, published between 1826 and 1829, attained a very wide celebrity, and brought him into correspondence with several of the most eminent literary persons in England and Amer- ica. His writings are most characteristic and effective when treating questions of Christian philanthropy and social reform. In behalf of peace, temperance, education, and freedom, he repeatedly came before the public, and he ex- amined with sympathizing respect and anxious scrutiny every movement which promised more happy social relations. Without accepting ab- solutely the doctrine of non-resistance, he rem- onstrated against war, reviewing its crimes and miseries, in 1835, when there was danger of a rupture with France, and in 1839, when there was a prospect of conflict with Great Brit- ain. The wide scope which he gave to educa- tion is seen in some of the most valuable of his lectures, especially that on "Self-Culture," de- livered in 1839, and the series on the "Eleva- tion of the Laboring Classes," in 1840. His attention was specially turned to the subject