THE identification of Finney with the new enterprise at Oberlin was in itself an education to the world. Oberlin was henceforth to stand as the representative of those ideas and plans of work which had crystallized around the free church movement in New York city, as it had been fostered by Arthur Tappan and his associates, and as it was finally embodied in the Broadway Tabernacle Congregational Church. The movement was evangelical in its doctrinal basis, exalted in its conception of the attainable standard of Christian life, comprehensive in its employment of means and measures, and exacting in its demands upon all the activities of the human soul. From this it will be seen that Oberlin was as far as possible from being a place of one idea. The prominence which it at once attained as a centre of anti-slavery influence has prevented many persons from seeing and appreciating its equal or even greater prominence in other lines of activity. Finney himself was never forward as an anti-slavery agitator, but was a preacher of the gospel from first to last. Even writing and teaching were but an episode in his career. Anti-slavery agitation was hardly even that. We look in vain in his sermons for any formal discussion of the subject of slavery. His references to it, both in his preaching and in his writing, were frequent and forcible, indeed, but they were casual, and were brought in as illustrations, rather than as his main proposition. But he was as fearless upon this point as upon every other, and was openly and heartily in sympathy with Arthur Tappan, and with the whole anti-slavery movement as represented by the American and Foreign Anti-slavery Society, with which he and his associates were connected.

The conditions respecting the admission of colored students upon which Finney came to Oberlin were a lesson in themselves, infinitely more important as a testimony to a principle than as a practical means of accomplishing direct results. For at the time these conditions were formulated and accepted, there were no negroes clamoring for admission within college walls. One solitary colored student followed the Lane Seminary protestants to Oberlin.⁽³⁵⁾ "Others soon came, but not in large numbers. From 1840 to 1860 the proportion of colored students was four or five per cent. Soon after the war the ratio rose to seven or eight per cent, but fell again to three or four percent. No adaptation of the course of study to the special needs of colored pupils was ever made. It was not a colored school that was proposed, but a school where colored students should have equal privileges with others."⁽³⁶⁾

Nevertheless, the great end, so far as bearing testimony against slavery and caste is concerned, was attained, and it is difficult to overestimate the importance and extent of Oberlin's influence upon the anti-slavery sentiment of the country. In view of the events leading to the election of Lincoln, to the war, and to the abolition of slavery, Finney was amply justified in saying that in that contest Oberlin "turned the scale in all of the Northwest."⁽³⁷⁾ Yet, as already remarked, Finney's part in this work was largely incidental, as he himself and Arthur Tappan expected and intended it should be. Tappan had written to him: "I do not want you to spread an abolition flag, but carry out your design of receiving colored students upon the same conditions that you do white students; and see that the work be not taken out of the hands of the faculty, and spoiled by the trustees, as was the case at Lane Seminary. . Just let it be known that you thus receive students, and work your own way on, the best you can. Go and put up your building as fast as possible, and for whatever deficiency of funds there may be, after making efforts through your agents, you may draw on me, and I will honor your drafts to the extent of my income from year to year."⁽³⁸⁾ The year 1835 is conspicuous in the history of the anti-slavery struggle. On July 29th, when the United States mail-boat from New York reached Charleston, S. C., it was announced by the papers that the mail contained much incendiary literature for circulation throughout the South, and a call was made upon the people to take effectual measures to prevent its reaching its destination. This incendiary literature consisted chiefly of copies of "The Emancipator," "The Anti-slavery Record," and "The Slave's Friend," addressed to respectable free citizens, and really contained nothing contrary to the Constitution and laws of the United States, or designed to incite insurrection among the Southern slaves. In all cases, the address was, not to the slave, but to the master. Nevertheless, such was the excitement that an attack was made upon the post-office by a mob, and the postmaster took upon himself the responsibility of separating the proscribed newspapers and pamphlets from the rest of the mail, and of surrendering them for destruction. They were accordingly taken out upon the parade ground in front of the citadel, and burned to ashes in the presence of an immense crowd. This was at eight o'clock in the evening. "The effigies of Arthur Tappan, Dr. Cox, and W. L. Garrison were at the same time suspended. At nine o'clock the balloon was let off, and the effigies were consumed by the neck, with the offensive documents at their feet."⁽³⁹⁾ Upon the 3d of August, a committee of twenty-one, composed of prominent citizens, with ex-Senator Hayne at their head, were appointed to take charge of the United States mail. Meantime, the postmaster-general at Washington, Amos Kendall, was asked to sanction the course pursued. He replied that, as postmaster-general, he had no legal authority to exclude any species of newspapers, magazines, or pamphlets, and that any letter of his directing or sanctioning such exclusion would be void, and would not relieve them from responsibility. At the same time he had no hesitation in saying that he was deterred from giving the order only by want of legal power, and that, if he were situated as they were, he would do as they had done, adding: "As a measure of public necessity, therefore, you and the other postmasters who have assumed the responsibility of stopping these inflammatory papers will, I have no doubt, stand justified in that step before your country and all mankind;" whereupon he argues that it is extremely doubtful if the state laws prohibiting the circulation of such literature would not protect postmasters and mail-carriers at the South from indictment by the United States government for interference in such cases with the freedom of the mails.

Soon after this, President Jackson, in his Annual Message to Congress, recommended "the passing of such a law as will prohibit, under severe penalties, the circulation in the Southern States, through the mail, of incendiary publications intended to instigate the slaves to insurrection." A bill was accordingly introduced by Calhoun to accomplish the result, in defending which he says that in issuing these incendiary documents the abolitionists were not waging war so much against the lives of the slaveholders as against their character; and the editor of the "United States Telegraph" averred that what they had to fear from this abolition excitement was, not a servile war, but a discussion which would alarm the consciences of the weak and feeble among the slaveholders themselves, and diffuse among them a morbid sensibility on the question of slavery. In view of this state of feeling, and with the tacit approval of the postmaster-general, the postmaster of the city of New York took upon himself the responsibility of stopping all the publications of the American Antislavery Society mailed to persons residing in slave States, whether sent gratuitously or to regular subscribers.⁽⁴⁰⁾

About the same time a reward of $20,000 was offered for the delivery of Arthur Tappan upon the levee at New Orleans. During July, also, Amos Dresser, a Lane Seminary student and an inoffensive colporteur, was arrested at Nashville, Tenn., for selling a copy of Rankin's "Letters on Slavery," and for having in his possession copies of "The Anti-slavery Record" and of "The Emancipator" wrapped around copies of the Cottage Bible which he was selling. After an informal trial before a committee, - two of whom were preachers, and seven of whom were elders in the Presbyterian Church, - he was publicly flogged before a great crowd of excited people, and forced to leave the city upon the following day, also to suffer the loss of nearly all of the three hundred dollars' worth of books in his possession, which he was compelled to leave behind. Naturally Dresser came with the rest of the Lane Seminary students to Oberlin, and was himself a most instructive object-lesson.

Close upon these events came mobs thick and fast in various portions of the country. A call was issued for the formation of a State Anti-slavery Society in Utica, New York, on October 21st. Immediately the press began to thunder its anathemas upon the approaching meeting. Flaming handbills called the citizens of Utica together on the 8th of October, for the purpose of expressing their sentiments in anticipation of the meeting. This gathering was addressed by eminent men, - one of whom amid cheers declared that the calling of an abolition convention at Utica was "intended to degrade the character of the city in the esteem of the world, and to insult us to our faces. . . . We are to be picked out as the headquarters of Abolitionism in the State of New York. Rather than to have this, I would almost as soon see the city swept from the face of the earth, or sunk as low as Sodom and Gomorrah. Nothing is due to these men if they come here."⁽⁴¹⁾ On the 17th of October, there was another assembly convened to express hostility to the approaching meeting, when, though a majority of the common council had granted permission for the holding of the abolition convention on the 21st, it was resolved that the people would "not submit to the indignity of an abolition assemblage being held in a public building of the city, reared as this was by the contributions of its citizens, and designed to be used for salutary public objects and not as the receptacle for deluded fanatics or reckless incendiaries." This assembly adjourned to meet at the same place, day, and hour appointed for the anti-slavery convention.

When the delegates of the anti-slavery convention gathered in Utica on the 21st, they found the court-room, where they were to meet, in the possession of the "peaceable citizens" who had determined by the above mentioned means to frustrate the ends of the convention. The delegates, however, quietly retired and assembled in the Bleecker Street church. When they had proceeded so far as to complete their organization and to adopt a constitution, the transactions were brought to a sudden close by the arrival of a committee of twenty-five from the other meeting, who, with a great number of followers, crowded into the church and interrupted the business by a peremptory call for adjournment. At this, such an uproar was raised that it was impossible to proceed, and the convention adjourned; whereupon the mob went to the hotels and demanded the expulsion of the abolition delegates. As these were departing, their carriage wheels were held by the mob, and volleys of blasphemous oaths were poured out upon their heads. Not content with this, the mob, proceeded to the printing-office of the "Standard and Democrat," which had favored the convention, and sacked the building, throwing the type into the street.

On the same day, similar but even more revolting scenes were occurring in Boston. The Boston Female Anti-slavery Society was to have held a meeting on the 14th of October in Congress Hall, to be addressed by the celebrated English reformer, George Thompson. All the other halls and chapels had been refused, and upon perceiving the excited condition of the public, the owner of this refused his consent the day before the meeting, and the papers were full of inflammatory articles approving of any measures which should prevent Mr. Thompson's address. The ladies, nothing daunted, advertised a meeting for the 21st at the office of William Lloyd Garrison's paper, the "Liberator," No. 46 Washington Street. But Thompson's name was not mentioned in connection with the address, and, indeed, the ladies had determined not to have him present.

On the morning of the 21st, a handbill was extensively circulated through the city, announcing that, as "the infamous foreign scoundrel Thompson will hold forth this afternoon at the 'Liberator' office, No. 46 Washington Street, the present is a fair opportunity for the friends of the Union to snake Thompson out," and a purse of one hundred dollars was offered to the first one who should lay hands on him and bring him to the tar-kettle before dark. In response to this, about two thousand "highly respectable gentlemen" assembled in the vicinity of the "Liberator" office, and crowded all of the passages to it, shouting, "Hurrah for Judge Lynch!" The mayor entered, and begged the women to go home, as he could not protect them. Garrison had been in and had offered to address them, as he had often done before, but was advised not to do so now, and he had therefore withdrawn and secreted himself in a shop near by. But he was hunted out by the mob, his clothes were nearly torn from his body, and a rope was put around him preparatory to leading him to the Common, with the intention of giving him a coat of tar and feathers, and of ducking him in the Frogpond. But on the way he was intercepted by the mayor, who, to preserve Garrison's life, put him into a cab, in which he was hastily driven through the city and thrust into the jail, where he was kept over night. Upon the following day, he was privately taken out of the city, so as to prevent further disturbance.⁽⁴²⁾ But the meeting of the Female Anti-slavery Society was not prevented. The ladies met soon after in a private house, and the anti-slavery excitement, instead of being abated, was fanned to a flame by the action of the mob.

On this very day, also, Samuel J. May, whose assistance to Miss Crandall in Connecticut has already been referred to, while attempting to address a meeting in Montpelier, Vt., was unceremoniously interrupted by a mob of leading citizens.

It was in July of this same year that James G. Birney, subsequently the abolition candidate for the presidency, who a short time previously had emancipated his slaves in Kentucky, was driven from his home to New Richmond, Ohio, where he began the publication of a paper called the "Philanthropist," devoted to the subject of immediate emancipation. Upon removing to Cincinnati a few months later, he was waited upon by a committee of thirteen, having at its head a lawyer of eminence who had been Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio and United States Senator, and was warned to desist from the further publication of his paper, under threat of a mob which would endanger both his life and his property. On the evening of the following day, when it was seen that he did not comply with this request, the mob gathered, and, not finding Mr. Birney at his home, wreaked their vengeance upon various houses of poor colored people, then pillaged the office, scattered the type, and broke the press and threw it into the river.

Such were a few of the exciting scenes which marked the year 1835, during which Oberlin opened its doors to colored students, and Finney began his work there through the aid and support of Arthur Tappan. The advocacy of immediate abolition was freely spoken of as treason against the government, and, to cap the climax, the Abolitionists were denounced as "vilifiers of the good name of George Washington," who had lived and died a slaveholder.

The protesting students from Lane Seminary took up their quarters in Slab Hall, at Oberlin, in the summer. As the winter vacation approached, they, with others who had joined them in coming to Oberlin, added fuel to the flame of excited public sentiment by devoting the long winter vacation to lecturing upon the subject of slavery.

Under the auspices of the American Anti-slavery Society, of which Tappan was president, the larger part of them went throughout Ohio and portions of Pennsylvania, and did their utmost to expose the horrors of the American system of slavery. Everywhere the greatest interest was aroused. Friends rallied around them and cheered them by their sympathy, while enemies resorted to every device to harass, oppose, and discredit them.

These were times when there was special danger of alienation between the advocates of the anti-slavery reform and the leaders of evangelical thought and action. The influences were actively at work which led eventually to the dismemberment of the American Anti-slavery Society on lines which set its advanced members in antagonism to the churches of the land, and led to the formation, in 1840, upon a distinctively Christian basis, of the American and Foreign Anti-slavery Society, of which Arthur Tappan, again, was chosen president. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of Finney's influence through the agency of Oberlin in maintaining this alliance between evangelical Christianity and the anti-slavery movement, though, as has been remarked, Finney himself said comparatively little upon the subject. Occasionally he appeared and spoke at the anniversaries of the Anti-slavery Society; sometimes also he participated in the political meetings held in Oberlin, when distinguished speakers from abroad were present to make addresses, and always to the astonishment and delight of these visitors and the vast audiences assembled. It is related that upon one such occasion, after John P. Hale and Joshua R. Giddings had made their most effective addresses, Finney followed with a speech so comprehensive, logical, forcible, and eloquent as entirely to eclipse those of the great statesmen. But in the position occupied by Finney, he did not need to speak often, or to say much upon the subject. The Lane Seminary students were full enough probably too full of anti-slavery zeal. Finney, while not holding them back by any direct efforts, felt the importance of preserving the balance of forces, and devoted his main strength to supplying their lack, and to developing in them an adequate appreciation of the Central themes of the gospel, which give motive power and direction to every well-chosen effort at reform.

His position can be inferred from a sermon upon the relation of Christ to the believer, reported in the "Oberlin Evangelist," July 30, 1845, in which he inveighs with his characteristic force of utterance against the folly of making science and politics a substitute for Christ in preaching. It would seem that one of the theological students had been out lecturing on mesmerism and phrenology. At thought of this he exclaims, "Alas, I cannot tell you how much my soul has been agonized to think that there could be a theological student here who could do this! Oh, let him only be full of Christ, and he will lecture on something very different from mesmerism and phrenology. Let all these young men be filled with Christ, and this institution can shake the world." In still another paragraph he declares in the strongest terms that young men with their souls filled with the love of Christ will not go about lecturing on politics, and telling people how to vote for president.

So much misunderstanding was occasioned by a report of this sermon that, a few weeks later, Finney took pains to define his position in a letter, in which he says that his lectures on pastoral theology amply show that he is not opposed to sermons on politics at the proper time; that every department of human conduct is to come under review in the pulpit, and in its place be made the subject of discussion. But he maintains that "care should always be taken to put and keep the gospel right end foremost, so to speak; that is, that the truths of fundamental importance should always have the greatest prominence. . . . The thing which seems to me wise in ministers, in regard to their public teaching upon the subject of politics, is to hold forth in their public praying and preaching incidentally and by way of inference and remark, on almost all occasions, enough to keep the people's minds informed on all important points, and then it will never be necessary for them to leave their congregations or turn aside and give themselves up wholly to preaching and lecturing upon politics, on the Sabbath or on any other day."

As may be surmised, Finney came to Oberlin without a formulated system of theology in his mind. Guided largely by his own deep experience and diligent study of the Bible, and stimulated by the various emergencies of his revival efforts, however, he had firmly seized hold of the salient and central themes of the evangelical system. The character of his labors had naturally brought him into sympathy with what were called the New School Presbyterians of that day, and, up to a short time previous to his coming to Oberlin, his ministerial standing was in the Presbyterian Church. His transfer to the Congregationalists was not owing to any change in doctrine, but was due simply to his views respecting the mode of church government. The commencement of his teaching in Oberlin was the commencement, also, of his systematic study of theology.

In the class-room he identified himself with his pupils as himself a learner, seeking not only for the truth as it was generally formulated, but for its best statement and its most satisfactory foundation and defense. His method, therefore, was largely analytic and inductive. He set his students at work, much according to the modern so called "seminary method," to originate statements of doctrines and truths for themselves, after careful reading and study. These they would bring in to the class to serve as the basis for criticism and discussion.

From all accounts it would seem that he was a most inspiring teacher, and secured in his pupils a definiteness of opinion and a self-reliance rarely equaled in the class-room. One of his earliest pupils thus describes his methods: "A theme was assigned to each one, on which, after due preparation, he must discourse, and then 'be picked.' It set us all to thinking. The theme that at one time was given to me was Imputation, a doctrine which was then much discussed; and I well remember how I stood for three days and was questioned."⁽⁴³⁾ Another of this first class in Oberlin says: "Coming as I did from the statelier ways of New England, it was some time before I could make it seem natural to address him simply as 'Brother Finney.' . . . With all this freedom of intercourse, however, I do not remember any abuse of it on the part of his pupils, any impertinence of speech or manner. There was so much of true dignity in him, that he must be a very boorish or reckless person who could treat him otherwise than with the utmost respect."⁽⁴⁴⁾

Finney was very careful to give due credit to the students for any original statements of the truth which they might have devised. One of those early students relates how Finney came to his room one morning and waked him up, to inform him that he - the student - had been correct the previous day, and himself wrong, in the statement of some intricate theological proposition.

There was such naturalness about all this, that the simplicity of Finney's heart, as well as the strength of his mind, made a great impression upon the students. In their contact with him in those early days of his teaching, they seemed, as it were, to have an insight into the inner recesses of his heart, and beheld the interior processes of his thought. A member of the class relates that when Finney lectured to them upon the subject of the atonement, so vivid was the presentation that, before they knew it, all found themselves in tears, with their pencils motionless in their hands. A member of the first class in theology, which graduated in 1836, relates that at the close of the last term, when Finney came into the class-room and looked around upon its members, his eyes filled with tears as he began to offer the opening prayer. But instead of the brief sentences which ordinarily sufficed, his prayer was prolonged for half an hour, and then, as there was no disposition on the part of the class to rise from their knees, the whole hour was spent in devotion.

One of the class of 1838 records, also, that one morning, as the members were drawing toward the close of their course, and at the time when suspicion and detraction were most busy in opposition to Finney's influence, he began the introductory devotional services of the hour with nothing uncommon in his manner and words, but soon the great deep of his heart was broken up, and he poured out a mighty stream of supplication for the class, for his former co-laborers, for those whom he had won to Christ, for the ministry, for the church bought with Jesus' blood, and for a lost world. Sometimes he seemed to be leading us; again he seemed to be alone with God. . . . We remained on our knees a whole hour, and then rose and went silently to our rooms."⁽⁴⁵⁾

But in Oberlin Finney was still pre-eminently a preacher rather than a teacher, and, indeed, no small part of his teaching was done in the pulpit. From the beginning, it was the custom at Oberlin to have a sermon on Thursday afternoon in addition to those upon the Sabbath. This custom was maintained as long as Finney was living. He was ordinarily the preacher, and his preaching was always more or less didactic. It was in his sermons upon the Sabbath, and upon Thursday afternoons, that one would hear his most complete and effective presentation of the great themes of the gospel, and his pupils ever prized these occasions as an indispensable supplement to their class-room exercises. It was through these means, in fact, that his influence became most extended among the vast body of pupils gathered at Oberlin. So prominent was the doctrinal element in his preaching, and so completely did he illustrate, in his own example, the definition sometimes given of true eloquence as "logic on fire," that scarcely any of the twenty thousand students who from time to time came statedly under his ministrations failed to get the salient points of his theology.

The importance of this feature of his work was always fully appreciated by Finney. The theological classes constituted small part of the attractions of the field for him; but the great concourse of students in the literary departments constantly furnished him fresh, popular audiences, which he could indoctrinate in the great principles of theology, so that the whole period of his life at Oberlin was permitted to be almost one prolonged revival effort. The attendance of students increased from two hundred at the beginning of his labors in 1835, to five hundred, in 1840, to more than a thousand in 1850, and to an average of from twelve to fourteen hundred a little later. Mainly through Finney's reputation, also, the attendance had a cosmopolitan character unexcelled at any other school. As an illustration of this, it is on record that, while waiting in London in 1839 to set out upon his first missionary appointment, Livingstone forwarded his first quarter's salary to a younger brother in Scotland, urging him to take the money and go to Oberlin for an education.⁽⁴⁶⁾ The advice was followed, and his brother graduated at Oberlin in 1845.

The church and congregation increased to such a degree that in 1859 it was necessary, from mere lack of room, to form a second church. In 1845, a commodious church building had been erected, after the plan of the original Broadway Tabernacle, seating fifteen hundred. From that time on to the period just mentioned, it was the only church in the place, and the house was uniformly packed with eager listeners. Its membership had then reached about twelve hundred. To a remarkable extent, the church and community were kept united under Finney's preaching, and no serious divisions ever arose. For many years there was no lawyer in the place. Practically all the questions involving legal rights were settled by the pastor. Nearly all the people were church-members, and when there was a quarrel he always advised the parties to come to him, and tell their grounds of complaint, before either taking them to the church or going into court. This was of course a purely voluntary matter; but such was the confidence in him, and so judicious was his advice, that every case of variance for many years was settled in this informal manner. Finney would hear the respective stories of the aggrieved parties alone, and then, after questioning and cross-questioning them, would be able to give them advice which, from his legal knowledge and great practical sense, was sure to carry conviction by the very weight of the reason there was in it.

An account of Finney's theological system, and of the theological controversies in which he was engaged, will be given in a separate chapter. But it is in place here to speak of the channels through which the centres of public thought outside of Oberlin were reached. Finney came to Oberlin in the prime of life; and though he had been preaching but twelve years, so remarkable had been his career that many thousands of the most active members of the Presbyterian and Congregational churches in New York and New England had been converted under his ministry. Naturally, these now looked to Oberlin for further instruction and guidance. It was this class that rallied to the support of the "New York Evangelist" when it published Finney's revival lectures in 1834, and later his sermons preached in the Broadway Tabernacle to professing Christians. It was the same body of persons, also, that gave such wide circulation to various sermons published earlier, first in pamphlet form and afterwards in a collection entitled "Sermons on Important Subjects."

But as his system of theology took on more and more definite shape in connection with his class instruction, it was deemed best to establish a paper at Oberlin through which he could more directly and regularly reach the public interested in him and in his views. For this purpose, therefore, a bi-weekly periodical, entitled the "Oberlin Evangelist," was established at the beginning of 1839, and was maintained for the next twenty-four years. This was strictly a religious paper, and its leading feature during nearly all that period was a sermon or lecture by Mr. Finney. Usually, in addition to this, there was a letter or communication from him, discussing at length some other practical or doctrinal themes. Nearly everything afterwards published in book form appeared first in this paper. There was also much besides which has never been republished. As one turns over the pages of this unpretentious periodical, he is astonished at the amount and the high character of the communications. The circulation of the paper at once reached the number of five thousand, which for that period was large, and its influence in extending a knowledge of his views cannot be overestimated.

Finney's call to Oberlin in 1835 was to the professorship of theology, and this was the chair he held for the following sixteen years. But on the resignation of President Mahan in 1851, Finney was elected his successor, retiring from this position in 1866 only on account of advanced age. His election to the presidency, however, had little effect upon the range of duties to which he attended; for he never devoted much thought to the executive details of that office, but continued, as before, to give his energies to the theological lectures and to preaching. From this it is apparent that the success of the educational work at Oberlin was not solely dependent upon Finney, but was in large part due to a happy combination, in the faculty, of men diverse in character but harmonious in sentiment. A word is necessary, therefore, concerning these coadjutors.

Asa Mahan, who occupied the presidential chair for the first fifteen years, possessed many rare qualities for the position: he was a commanding preacher, a devoted student of philosophy, thoroughly in sympathy with the principles upon which Oberlin was founded, and a man of great independence of character and action.

John Morgan, who, as we have seen, was instructor at Lane Seminary, and incurred the censure of the trustees for his sympathy with the Lane Seminary protestants, was appointed professor of New Testament language and literature in 1835, and was a lifelong and most intimate associate of Finney, holding his chair until 1881. Morgan was a man of rare linguistic acquirements, and of a temperament the direct opposite of Finney, and the two men constantly needed each other to supply their mutual deficiencies. Finney always deferred to Morgan for the settlement of critical points respecting biblical interpretation. The two men came to see the truth as with a single eye, and were so much together that they will always be associated in the minds of the students of that period. Finney came to feel almost lost if he was in the pulpit without Morgan to assist in some part of the service; and when Finney was unable to preach, there was no one else so well fitted to supply the place as Morgan.

Henry Cowles was another of Finney's lifelong associates at Oberlin, being at first professor of the Greek and Latin languages in 1835, then of ecclesiastical history in 1838, and of Old Testament language and literature in 1840, and finally lecturer on prophecy from 1869 to 1881. Cowles was one of the most frequent contributors to the "Oberlin Evangelist" from the beginning, and subsequently became its editor. A large part of the sermons and lectures of Finney published in the "Evangelist" were reported by Cowles, and later in life he published an important commentary on nearly the whole Bible.

James H. Fairchild was one of the first students at Oberlin. He joined the institution in 1834, graduating from the college in 1838 and from the theological seminary in 1841. In 1842, he became professor of Greek and Latin and teacher of Hebrew. In 1847, he was elected professor of mathematics and natural philosophy. In 1858, he succeeded Finney in the chair of theology, and in 1866, as president of the institution.

James Dascomb, professor of chemistry, botany, and physiology, was upon the ground when Finney came to Oberlin, having entered upon his duties in 1834. He was a graduate of the medical school of Dartmouth College. As an instructor, he was very methodical and thorough, and, while in full sympathy with the spirit that animated the founders of Oberlin, he was by nature cautious and conservative. He occupied his professorship for a period of forty-four years. His wife was also an important factor in securing the successful inauguration and maintenance of the system of the coeducation of the sexes, being for twenty years principal of the ladies' department; during the whole period of her husband's professorship, she was also an influential member of the Ladies' Board, a body upon which comes the responsibility of managing the discipline in the ladies' department.

These six, - Finney, Mahan, Morgan, Cowles, Fairchild, and Dascomb, - differing in personal qualifications as much as possible, but entirely harmonious in their aims, are the ones who have given such remarkable continuity and character to the educational movement at Oberlin. It is no derogation of Finney to say that his work at Oberlin would have been impossible without the co-operation of these men, not to mention various other influences represented in the movement. But it is one of the highest excellences of the man that he could co-operate with such men. Marked as were the characteristics of his genius, and pre-eminent as were his abilities, he had a just sense of his own natural limitations, and could learn from the wisdom of others, and gracefully yield to the decision of the majority in minor matters.

When Finney had formulated his system of theology, his views upon the subject of entire sanctification became the object of sharp criticism, so sharp, indeed, that the phrase "Oberlin Perfectionist" became throughout the country almost as odious as "Oberlin Abolitionist." Deferring to a later chapter the exposition of Finney's views upon this subject, it is appropriate to remark here upon some of the incidental influences of the doctrine in shaping the course of things in the institution and community. The real gist of this doctrine consisted in magnifying at the same time the duty of entire consecration to God and the grace of Christ as an aid to the attainment of that standard of duty. It in no sense involved a letting down of the standard. It became, therefore, a characteristic of Finney's preaching to analyze human actions very minutely, and to apply his high conception of duty to every form of human activity.

As a natural result of this process, he ran the risk of making some erroneous applications of the law of duty. In the intensity of his convictions, he was likely for the moment to attach inordinate importance to the subjects temporarily in mind. That he was fully aware of the hazard of this process is evident from some passages in his own sermons; for example, in an address given at the ordination of fourteen young men, August 22, 1842, he thus speaks of the dangers attending those who act as agents of benevolent societies: "But I have long been persuaded that it is a very serious thing for a minister to leave the direct work of preaching the whole gospel for the purpose of engaging in an agency that will confine him almost exclusively to some one department of religious truth. One of the evils of such a course is to beget in his mind a monstrous development of that particular truth. He soon loses the symmetry and proportion of a Christian man; becomes too much a man of one idea; loses sight, in a great measure, of other branches of reform; and is in danger of becoming censorious towards all others in whose minds there is not the same monstrous development of that particular truth. This is a dangerous state of mind, exceedingly injurious to his own piety and usefulness, and dangerous to the church of God. Such men are found not infrequently to be loudly denunciatory in respect to all Christians and ministers who are not swallowed up, as they are, in that particular branch of reform. They go up and down through the churches lecturing, making their particular topic a test question, and measuring everything and everybody by the importance they attach to the particular branch of reform in which they are engaged. To them it appears that nobody else is doing any good, that nothing else is at the present time of much importance, and that little or nothing can be done for the salvation of the world until that particular branch of reform is perfected. These brethren seem not at all aware of the state of mind in which they are. They seem not to consider that they have so long dwelt upon the hearings and influence of one branch of reform, that it has in their mind grown out of all proportion as compared with other branches of Christian reform. I beseech you, brethren, take heed lest you come to be among the number of those of whom I am speaking.

"Do not understand me as speaking against agencies or agents, for no doubt these agencies need to be prosecuted. But I would earnestly warn you against being drawn away from the whole work of the ministry to engage in them, without a manifest call from God. And if you should be called to engage in them, I beseech and warn you to be on your guard against the tendencies of which I have been speaking. Without being at all aware of it, many of the lecturers of different societies have diffused a very unhappy spirit through the churches, and wherever they go they seem to plant a root of bitterness, and to get up a kind of faction, and to embitter the minds of certain classes of professors of religion against the church in general and the ministry, and, in short, against all who have not a single eye to that particular department of reform."⁽⁴⁷⁾

Finney and Tappan were agreed in their advocacy of total abstinence from spirituous liquors, and in their opposition to the use of tobacco. Of their positions upon these questions they never had occasion to repent; but on coming to Oberlin, Finney, in the line of portions of the original Oberlin Covenant, went to the extreme of opposing tea and coffee with somewhat the same vehemence that he opposed alcohol and tobacco. We find in the "New York Evangelist" for August 29, 1835, an account of a lecture upon temperance given by Finney at Oberlin, soon after his first arrival, in which the principles of total abstinence were applied to tea and coffee in connection with other stimulants; and it is said that, as a result, tea and coffee were swept from almost every table in the community. Occasionally, also, in his sermons and in his letters upon various subjects, we find the strongest language used in reprehension of these mild stimulants, and of over-eating in general. Yet it is just to Finney and his associates at Oberlin to say that they never enforced upon others any laws regulating diet, except in the matter of prohibiting to the students the use of alcohol and tobacco, - prohibitions which the authorities have seen no reason to remove in the advancing development of the school.

It should also be borne in mind that that was a period when extravagant views upon the subject of dietetics prevailed almost everywhere. President Hitchcock, of Amherst College, published a book upon the subject, and went as far in formulating rules for eating and drinking as anybody at Oberlin ever thought of doing. Nor can it be said that any evil results to health followed from the abstemious diet during the early years of Oberlin. The health of the place was then remarkably good, and the intellectual work performed on the part of teachers and students was of a high order. During the first eight years, the death rate at Oberlin was only five to the thousand, though the people lived under all the disadvantages to health connected with a freshly cleared opening in a dense forest, in a level and rather poorly drained clay soil. Dr. Hodge and others, with some good reason, made merry of the strength with which Finney indorsed the dietetic views of Dr. Graham; but a little later Finney came to the conviction that he was in error upon these points, and had the frankness to say so in one of his published letters.⁽⁴⁸⁾

The range of subjects to which Finney applied the great law of benevolence, and the minuteness of the application, was specially observable in his lectures on pastoral theology, which, because of the general desire to hear them, were usually given in one of the public halls. Though repeated periodically, they were never the same, being adapted in all cases to present emergencies. Many of these lectures were little else than the enforcement of the ordinary laws of good behavior and politeness, which, in the vivid light of his logic, seem to be essential constituents of the great law of benevolence. He did not deem it beneath his position to charge his pupils with the duty of keeping their nails clean and their clothes tidy; of sitting straight in their chairs, when in company, without tipping them back upon two legs; and so of the whole range of matters pertaining to good behavior. Fault was sometimes found with these instructions as being needless, because relating to things of which every one knows the propriety by nature; but Finney was probably wiser than his critics, and took the very best course to complete a much needed and neglected part of the education of no small portion of those who study for the ministry. He himself overlooked nothing because it was small, but was scrupulous in his own dress and behavior, and in everything showed the instincts and had the carriage of a gentleman. His public conduct in all these respects was itself an education to the school and the community.

Finney's doctrine of sanctification thus led him sooner or later to the discussion of almost every practical question, and to the consideration of almost every concrete form of sin. In one of his sermons on a seared conscience, which contained ninety-five subdivisions, describing the indications of that deplorable condition of mind, he laments the little pains taken in theological seminaries to quicken the consciences and sanctify the hearts of the candidates for the ministry. "Why, beloved brethren," he exclaims, "unless there is more conscience in the Christian ministry, - a broader, deeper, more efficient and practical knowledge of the claims of the law of God, . . . a greater abhorrence of every form of sin, a more insupportable agony in view of its existence in every form and in every degree, - the world, and the church too, will sink down to hell under our administration."⁽⁴⁹⁾

Finney would have the consciences of men so tender that they would feel an unutterable horror at the thought of committing the least sin against God or man. When properly educated, he avers, the conscience of the believer is so thoroughly awake "that the thought of sinning is to him as terrible as death, so that conscience will roll a wave of unutterable pain across his mind, and weigh him down with agony at every step he takes in sin." It will "agonize his soul, to a degree that will cause the perspiration to pour out from his body almost in streams, to fall into the slightest sin."

In a second sermon upon the same subject, we find eighty-four additional specifications of the ways in which the conscience becomes seared. Among the evidences mentioned is apathy concerning various questions of moral reform. Our consciences are seared, he goes on to say, when questions that concern our own well-being, or the well-being of others, are not regarded and treated as moral questions. For example, when the abolition of slavery, temperance, moral reform, politics, business principles, physiological and dietetic reform, - when these, I say, are not treated as moral questions, and as imposing moral obligation, the conscience must be in a seared state." Again, we find him saying, "When you can trifle with your health; go out in the snow or wet with thin shoes and hose, or in any way inappropriately clothed, unless you are under the necessity of doing so, your conscience must be seared as with a hot iron. When you can neglect to ventilate your room, see that you have not too little or too much fire, - in short, when you can in any way trifle with your health, that precious gift of God, without conviction of guilt, - your conscience is alarmingly seared."⁽⁵⁰⁾

He did not neglect to read his people a homily in this connection upon the sin of habitually borrowing tools. We quote the paragraph at length, as a characteristic specimen of his method of treating concrete sins: -

"When you can be in the habit of borrowing and using your neighbor's tools, without perceiving and feeling the injurious tendency of such conduct, and without realizing the pernicious principle upon which such a practice turns, it is because you have a seared conscience. Many persons act as if they supposed that conscience had to do with but one side of this question, - that it is the lender exclusively, and not the borrower, who is to look to his conscience, and see that he does not violate the principles of benevolence. But let us look at the principle contained in this. If you borrow money of a man, you expect to pay him interest, or at least to restore the same amount you borrow; but if you borrow a man's coat or tools, that are injured by using, it is the lender and not the borrower that has to pay the interest, and often a very high rate of interest, too. Many a man has lost his tools, and paid at the rate of twenty-five per cent. for the privilege of lending them. Now suppose a man has a hundred dollars in money. Money is scarce, and a hundred men desire to borrow it, every one in his turn. And now suppose each one should wear a dollar out of it. The man's hundred dollars are soon used up. But suppose a man should come to you and ask you to lend him money, and insist upon it that you should pay him interest, instead of his paying you interest, and you should say, "Why, I never heard of such a request! Do you ask me to lend you money and pay you interest besides?' Now any man would be ashamed, and would have reason to be ashamed, to make such a request; and his naked selfishness would in such a case be most manifest to every one. And who would think of accusing the lender of selfishness, in such a case, if he should refuse to let his money go for nothing, pay interest besides, and finally take the trouble to go after it? And yet this involves precisely the same principle upon which many persons conduct, in the neighborhoods where they live, in continually borrowing and using up their neighbors' tools, and perhaps compelling them to go after them, and that, too, without compunction or remorse. Now, so far are they from feeling compunction or remorse, and perceiving that they are actuated by the most unpardonable selfishness, that they would complain, and suppose themselves to have a right to complain, of the selfishness of a neighbor who should refuse to indulge them in acting upon such principles.

"By this I do not mean to say or to intimate that it is not proper and a duty, in certain cases, for neighbors to borrow and use each other's tools. But this I do say, that the practice as practiced is unjustifiable. Borrowing should not be resorted to, except in cases where a man might, without any cause for blushing, ask a man to lend him money, not only without interest, but also ask him to pay interest."⁽⁵¹⁾

With their opposition to slavery Tappan and Finney of course included opposition to caste, though, so far as the colored race was concerned, this by no means included amalgamation. During the riots in New York city in July, 1834, Arthur Tappan had deemed it necessary to post a handbill in different parts of the city, publishing in behalf of the Anti-slavery Society the following declaration, signed by himself and John Rankin: -

"1. We entirely disclaim any desire to promote or encourage intermarriages between white and colored persons.

"2. We disclaim, and utterly disapprove, the language of a handbill recently circulated in this city, the tendency of which is thought to be to excite resistance to the laws. Our principle is, that even hard laws are to be submitted to by all men, until they can by peaceable means be altered.

"3. We disclaim, as we have already done, any intention to dissolve the Union, or to violate the Constitution and laws of the country; or to ask of Congress any act transcending their constitutional powers, which the abolition of slavery by Congress, in any State, would plainly do."⁽⁵²⁾

The same principle which opposed the feeling of caste led the founders of Oberlin also to throw the door open to young women desiring a college education, and from the first they were admitted to the college classes and granted the college degrees. The first women to receive the degree of Bachelor of Arts were members of the college class of 1841. Being the only school where this privilege was allowed, Oberlin drew to itself in its early days a remarkable company of high-minded, independent, intellectual, and earnest young women, whose good behavior and vigorous application at once made co-education not only a thing to be tolerated, but a great and manifest success. Yet it is extremely doubtful if at that time it could have been successful except in the high moral and religious atmosphere that was secured throughout the community by Finney's presence and preaching. It was largely through Finney's influence, also, that Oberlin was prevented from running off into the general vagaries of a woman's rights movement.

From this summary of facts it becomes evident that, when the crisis came, it was not by accident that Oberlin went with the American and Foreign Anti-slavery Society under the lead of Arthur Tappan, rather than with the American Anti-slavery Society under the lead of Garrison.

It is easy to criticise a man of such strong and positive characteristics as Finney possessed; his very greatness exposes him to misunderstanding by those who take only a partial view of his work. One can readily collect from his numerous writings an indefinite number of statements which, by themselves, seem to be absurd, and, when compared with each other, contradictory. But when these are properly considered in connection with the man's own marvelous personality, both the absurdity and the contradiction will usually disappear, and nearly everything which he said or did will be found to represent important aspects of the truth, and to have been capable of being understood at the time. The very fact that he labored so long and so harmoniously with his associates at Oberlin is itself an answer to much of the criticism which has been passed upon him, and shows that he had great breadth of mind, and a delicate appreciation of the work performed by other men whose spheres differed from his own, and, finally, that devotion to Christ was the paramount motive of his life.

35. Oberlin: The Colony and the College, p. 74.

36. Oberlin: The Colony and the College, pp. 111, 112.

37. Letter to Arthur Tappan in The Life of Arthur Tappan, p. 421. For further particulars, see chapter ix.

38. The Life of Arthur Tappan, pp. 239, 240.

39. Charleston Courier, July 30, 1835, quoted in The Emancipator for September, 1835.

40. Third Annual Report of the American Anti-slavery Society (1836), p. 45.

41. The Emancipator, November, 1835.

42. Life of William Lloyd Garrison (New York, 1885), vol. ii. chap. i.

43. Rev. George Clarke in Reminiscences of Rev. C. G. Finney, p. 49.

44. Rev. Leonard S. Parker in Reminiscences of Rev. C. G. Finney, p. 45.

45. Rev. Leonard S. Parker in Reminiscences of Rev. C. G. Finney, p. 48.

46. Blaikie's Personal Life of David Livingstone, p. 104.

47. Oberlin Evangelist, vol. iv. pp. 153, 154. See, also, vol. vii. p. 83.

48. Oberlin Evangelist, vol. vii. p. 68.

49. Oberlin Evangelist, vol. iii. p. 74.

50. Oberlin Evangelist, vol. iii. p. 65.

51. Oberlin Evangelist, vol. iii. pp. 65, 66. For the immediate occasion of this exhortation, see p. 272, in the chapter on Personal Characteristics.

52. The Life of Arthur Tappan, pp. 215, 216.