George Zabriskie Gray, a Memorial Sermon: Preached at St. John's Memorial Chapel Cambridge Massachusetts on the Feast of All Saints, November 1, 1889 (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from George Zabriskie Gray, a Memorial Sermon: Pr...)
Excerpt from George Zabriskie Gray, a Memorial Sermon: Preached at St. John's Memorial Chapel Cambridge Massachusetts on the Feast of All Saints, November 1, 1889
The ancestry of george zabriskie gray foretells the man. On his mother's side the ancient Polish blood had intermingled with that of the French Huguenot and the Scotch and Dutch Protestant. Since his dutch-huguenot ancestor landed in America, about two hun dred years ago, a large number of ministers can trace their descent to him; and to-day there are more than a score of them preaching the Gospel. On his father's side, also, we find a stock of Presbyterians who emigrated to Ireland during Cromwell's Protectorate, came to this country in 1795 and settled on the Hudson, near Newburgh. They there re vealed the characteristics of the country gentleman, with tastes for art and verse, tempered, however, in the last generation, by a life of mercantile energy.
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This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
(Excerpt from The Cathedral: An Address
Reasonable doubts...)
Excerpt from The Cathedral: An Address
Reasonable doubts and questions are these, all worthy of consideration. The question that we want first to answer is whether most of these doubts have been due to the cathedral system itself or to certain traditions and conditions of the past which have prevented the cathedral idea from attaining its natural expression and result.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
(A very interesting autobiography of the Bishop of Massach...)
A very interesting autobiography of the Bishop of Massachusetts, including chapters on Harvard, 55 years at Mount Desert (Maine), and one on World War I. William Lawrence (1850-1941) was elected as the 7th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts (1893-1927). Lawrence was the son of the notable abolitionist Amos Adams Lawrence and a member of the influential Boston family, founded by his great-grandfather and American revolutionary, Samuel Lawrence. His grandfather was the famed philanthropist Amos Lawrence. He graduated from Harvard College, and earned his D.D. from Harvard Divinity School in 1897.
The Challenge to the Church, Vol. 12: A Sermon, Preached in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York at the General Convention of the ... of America, October 8, 1913 (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from The Challenge to the Church, Vol. 12: A Serm...)
Excerpt from The Challenge to the Church, Vol. 12: A Sermon, Preached in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York at the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, October 8, 1913
The population Of this country has leaped from fifty to one hundred millions: these millions composed Of people Of diverse tongues and races.
The wealth Of the country has massed in gigantic proportions.
Tides of migration have swept over the world's surface: the darkest Africa of 1888 is shot through with light. Wars in the East and in Eastern Europe have changed the boundaries Of nations. Japan and China, rising in their might, have tipped the balance of modern civilization towards the Pacific: and commerce through the Panama Canal will add its weight. The English language has spread throughout the world. This country is the great melt ing pot of civilizations and races.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
William Lawrence was an American clergyman. He was elected as the 7th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts from 1893 to 1927.
Background
William Lawrence was born in Boston, the fourth of seven children and younger of two sons of Amos Adams Lawrence and Sarah Elizabeth (Appleton) Lawrence. His ancestors were farmers. His two grandfathers, Amos Lawrence and William Appleton (1786 - 1862), came to Boston in their youth and became successful merchants; William's father increased his business to large proportions. William was brought up on the family estate in Longwood, Brookline, in an atmosphere of wealth, philanthropy, public concern, and deep personal religion. His father, a convert from Unitarianism to the Episcopal Church, was an admirer of John Brown and active in the effort to make Kansas a free state in the 1850's; Lawrence, Kansas, was named after him. The leading men of the day were often in his home.
Education
After attending the Brookline Grammar School and a private tutoring school in Boston, William entered Harvard College. He received the Bachelor od Arts degree in 1871 and stayed on for a year of graduate study in history. Lawrence's decision to enter the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church reflected both the religious character of the family life and the great influence of Phillips Brooks, then rector of Trinity Church, Boston. To broaden his background, Lawrence began his theological studies at a Congregational institution, the Andover (Massachussets) Theological Seminary (1872 - 1874); he continued them at the Episcopal Divinity School in Philadelphia (1874 - 1875), with a final three months at the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, where he received the B. D. degree in 1875.
He had the uncommon distinction of being the recipient of two Harvard honorary degress: Doctor of Sacred Theology in 1893 when he became bishop and Doctor of Laws. in 1931 when he resigned from the Harvard Corporation. Among his other honorary degrees were doctorates from Yale, Princeton, Trinity, Hobart, Lawrence, Williams, and the Episcopal Theological School, as well as from Cambridge and Durham in England.
Career
Lawrence was ordained deacon in June 1875 and priest in July 1876. From 1876 to 1883 Lawrence served first as assistant and then as rector of Grace Church in Lawrence, Massachussets, a textile-mill city with which his family had been intimately connected in a business way since its founding. These years in a large industrial center gave him an understanding of the problems of wage earners and people of small means. In advance of his time he protested against child labor, and warned some of his mercantile relatives about the shortsightedness of their labor policies. In January 1884 he returned to Cambridge as professor of homiletics and pastoral care in the Episcopal Theological School.
On becoming dean in 1889, Lawrence introduced the elective system and other reforms. By taking lessons in voice culture and reading the service he "induced some of the professors to do the same and thus aroused the students to their duty in reading and preaching acceptably the Word of God. " Thus he came to speak and preach effectively in direct and conversational tones. Upon the sudden death of Phillips Brooks in 1893, Lawrence was to his surprise and consternation elected bishop of Massachusetts, a post he was to hold for thirty-four years. In the church he was regarded as a liberal, but he held with deep conviction to the central tenets of the Christian faith. Although one of the ablest administrators of his time, he also had a deep pastoral concern for the clergy and peoples of the diocese.
Lawrence's belief in giving theological students large freedom of thought and action caused some conservative churchmen in the early years of his episcopate to consider that he was tainted by heresy. Throughout his long life he followed the belief that "liberty creates a sense of responsibility, and through liberty and reasonable variety the Church is led into larger fields of thought and action and appeals to a greater variety of men and women. " The need of enabling the different parts of his over-large diocese "to stand upon their own feet with self-government and self-respect" led him to propose in 1901 the creation of a separate diocese of Western Massachusetts, divided along the eastern line of Worcester County. Although the plan was opposed, Bishop Lawrence brought it about on generous terms that enabled the new diocese financially to stand upon its feet. When the diocese of Massachusetts received a bequest for the construction of a cathedral in Boston, Lawrence exercised self-restraint so far as architectural splendors were concerned. Rather than diverting large sums to building, he caused the diocese in 1912 to take over as its cathedral St. Paul's Church on Tremont Street, a church in the center of the city whose congregation had diminished, and convert this at modest cost into a vital spiritual center in the most frequented part of Boston. When the congregation of Christ Church, Salem Street (the so-called "Old North Church"), built in 1723, had lapsed into desuetude, Bishop Lawrence in 1911 took over as rector, raised the funds for the building's restoration, and persuaded various friends to transfer their allegiance to this parish. Thus before most Bostonians were concerned with historic preservation, he assured the continued survival of the oldest church building in Boston.
Lawrence's administrative talents made him a national leader in the Episcopal Church; from 1904 to 1910 he was chairman of its House of Bishops. Though a man of innate dignity and reserve, he genuinely enjoyed the raising of money, for he lost himself in the causes he represented and sincerely felt that he was doing a favor to donors in enlisting their support. As president of the board of trustees of Wellesley College at the time of the disastrous fire of 1914, he led in raising nearly two and a half million dollars for restoration and endowment. His greatest effort was the establishment of the Church Pension Fund to replace a variety of local funds and charities for the clergy of the Episcopal Church and their dependents. Granted leave by his diocese in 1916-1917, he secured an office in New York and organized a campaign to raise five million dollars for the Fund's initial reserve--a goal that was exceeded by more than three million dollars. This carefully organized drive, which made effective use of the press, free Western Union privileges, and the talents of the public relations expert Ivy Lee, rested primarily upon Lawrence's personal approaches to men with whom he felt at home and was personally congenial. The Fund was established on a secure footing in 1917, and Lawrence served as its president until 1931.
One of Lawrence's greatest interests was Harvard University. In one capacity or another he attended eighty commencements; he served the university as president of the alumni association, overseer (1894-1906, 1907 - 1913), and, from 1913 to 1931, as a fellow of the seven-member Harvard Corporation. It was he who secured in 1924 the five-million-dollar gift from George F. Baker which built the Harvard Business School.
On political issues, Lawrence's views were close to those of his friends Theodore Roosevelt and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, the latter one of his Harvard classmates. He strongly favored America's intervention in World War I and with equal strength opposed American membership in the League of Nations.
During his thirty-four years as bishop he found respite from his many duties in periodic visits to England, as well as in biographical writing. His autobiography, Memories of a Happy Life (1926), is written with the same graceful but incisive style which characterizes his biographies of his father and of Roger Wolcott, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Phillips Brooks.
Lawrence resigned as bishop of Massachusetts in 1927. His life was saddened that September by the death of his wife, but he remained active as an adviser to many people and causes. He continued until 1930 as chairman of the board of trustees of St. Mark's School, and until 1940--a full fifty-six years--as a trustee of Groton School, founded in 1884 by his friend Endicott Peabody. Lawrence won praise from liberals in 1927 for urging the governor of Massachusetts to appoint a distinguished panel to review the convictions of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, but was attacked from the same quarter when he endorsed the governor's eventual refusal to commute the death sentences of the two men. With considerable success, Lawrence approached public issues with openness and tolerance. At the age of eighty-five, testifying before a Massachusetts legislative committee, he urged repeal of a state loyalty oath requirement for teachers.
He died in Milton, Massachussets, at the age of ninety-one of a coronary thrombosis. After services in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston, he was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge.
Achievements
Lawrence was best known for founding the church pension system. He was also noted for his ability to raise large sums of money for worthwhile causes. One of his major efforts was a fund-raising campaign for a chapel at the Massachusetts General Hospital. While bishop emeritus, Lawrence was involved in an effort to proposition a new Book of Common Prayer to the Church of England.
(Excerpt from The Challenge to the Church, Vol. 12: A Serm...)
Connections
On May 19, 1874, Lawrence had married Julia Cunningham of Boston. Of this happy marriage were born eight children: Marian, Julia, Sarah, Rosamond (who died at an early age), Ruth, William Appleton, Elinor, and Frederic Cunningham. The two sons became, respectively, bishop of Western Massachusetts, 1937-1957, and suffragan bishop of Massachusetts, 1956-1968. Sarah's husband, Charles Lewis Slattery, succeeded Lawrence as bishop of Massachusetts in 1927.
