John White Chadwick

Today is the birthday of the poet, critic, and Unitarian minister John White Chadwick (1840-1904).  He graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 1864 (and wrote a hymn for the occasion) without having gone to college and was ordained later that year at the Second Unitarian Church of Brooklyn, where he served as pastor for the next forty years. Samuel Longfellow, a former minister of that congregation, participated in the ordination service and urged Chadwick to proclaim "the gospel of the immediateness of the Spirit" in his work there

Chadwick was eager to address the social and scientific advances of his day, and in his preaching, poetry, and other writing he often combined these "outside" concepts with his religious thought. He wrote of his desire "to reconceive the Bible, to reconceive the life and character of Jesus, to reconceive the universe and man and God, not with my own poor strength, but with the help of all the deepest, highest, noblest philosophical and critical and scientific thinking of the time." His sermon to the National Unitarian Conference in 1876 was titled The Essential Piety of Modern Science, and his book The Faith of Reason (1880) encapsulates much of his thought on these themes.

Several of his hymns also include these ideas, even this one for today,  written for an anniversary occasion, where he sets "truth" against the "bounds of sect and bonds of creed."

O God, whose perfect goodness crowns
With peace and joy each sacred day,
Our hearts are glad for all the years
Your love has kept us in your way.

For common tasks of help and cheer,
For quiet hours of thought and prayer,
For moments when we seemed to feel
The breath of a diviner air;

For truth that evermore makes free
From bounds of sect and bonds of creed;
For light that shines that we may see
Our own in every neighbor's need;

For this and more than words can say,
We praise and bless your holy name.
Come life or death, enough to know
That you are evermore the same.

John White Chadwick, 1889; alt.
Tune: WOOLMER'S (L.M.) 
Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley, 1861




Eight Years Ago: Emily Swan Perkins

Seven Years Ago: Emily Swan Perkins

Seven Years Ago: John White Chadwick

Three Years Ago: Claudia Frances Hernaman

Saint John the Evangelist

The life and works of Saint John, the apostle and evangelist, are celebrated today. John was present at many of the significant moments in the life and ministry of Jesus, mentioned in other gospel accounts beside his own.

John's gospel is the one that refers to the "beloved disciple," without specifically identifying who that was. In our time there are several differing opinions; possible candidates include Jesus's brother James, Lazarus, and even Mary Magdalene. However, John himself was the most commonly accepted bearer of that name for several centuries, and would probably be the one mentioned if you asked any random churchgoer.

This hymn by Reginald Heber, like many of his others, was first published after his death. He also refers to the beloved disciple without specifically supplying a name, but he did assign this hymn to St. John's feast day (the illustration below is from an 1870 edition of his collected hymns).

O Christ, who gav’st thy servant grace
On thee the living Rock to rest,
To look on thine unveilèd face,
And lean on thy protecting breast.

Grant us thy gift of mercy, still
To feel thy presence from above,
And in thy Word and in thy will
To hear thy voice and know thy love.

And when the toils of life are done,
And nature waits thy just decree,
To find our rest beneath thy throne,
And look in certain hope to thee.

To thee, O Jesus, Light of Light,
Whom as their God the saints adore,
Our strength and refuge in the fight,
Be laud and glory evermore.

Reginald Heber, 1827; alt.
Tune: WOOLMER'S (L.M.)
Frederick A. Gore Ouseley, 1861


One Year Ago: Saint John the Evangelist