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Please do not assume that a book's appearance in 'The Builder' library means it can be used in any manner anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe. The Webmaster 2 ^nnmse^ V MAY 31 191« /^ L.*'ViSie« BX 9869 .C7 H7 v. Holmes, John Haynes, 1879- The life and letters of Robert Collyer, 1823-1912 BOOKS BY JOHN HAYNES HOLMES THE REVOLUTIONARY FUNCTION OF THE MODERN CHURCH MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE IS DEATH THE END? NEW WARS FOR OLD RELIGION FOR TO-DAY THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF ROBERT COLLYER (2 volumes) HOBERT CoLLYER 1903 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF ROBERT COLLYER 1823-1912 BY y ^'lAY 31 191R JOHN HAYNES HOLMES ILLUSTRATED IN TWO VOLUMES VOLUME II NEW YORK DODD MEAD AND COMPANY 1917 COPYRIGHT, 1917, By DODD mead AND COMPANY. INC. TABLE OF CONTENTS VOLUME II CHAPTER PAOB IX The Civil War—Personal (1861-1865) 1 X The Summer in Europe (1865) . 41 XI Unity Church (1865-1871) ... 71 XII The Fire—AND After (1871-1879) .148 XIII The Call to New York (1879) . 199 XIV The Church of the Messiah (1879- 1896) 230 XV Looking Toward Sunset (1896-1912) . 277 XVI Sunset AND Afterglow (1912) . 332 XVII What is the Secret? .... 344 Appendix ...... 383 Index . ... 387 ILLUSTRATIONS Volume II Robert Collyer in 1903 Frontispiece »ACINO Church of the Messiah As it Appeared at the Time of Dr. Collyer's Call, 1879 198 The Messiah Pulpit From a Photograph by Hans Miller, taken on Christmas Sunday, 1912 230 Robert Collyer in 1893 ' From a Photograph taken at Rowayton, Conn., by George C. Marvin—A Summer Idyl! 264 Facsimile of Letter Addressed to Mrs. J. T. Fields 296 Robert Collyer and Rev. John Cuckson From a Snapshot taken at Plymouth, Mass., in the summer of 1902. A delightfully characteristic pose ! 302 Robert Collyer From a late Photograph, taken abQut 1905 332 Memorial in the Church of the Messiah Dedicated April 11, 1915 344 vii THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF ROBERT COLLYER CHAPTER IX THE CIVIL WAR—PERSONAL 1861-1865 "The church, I was glad to find, suffered no loss by the minister's absence at Donelson, Pittsburg Landing and Lawrence. We were as one fam- ily in our work and worship, and I was quite con- tent."—R. C. in "Some Memories," pages 152, 160. The Civil War was the chief thought and busi- ness of Robert Collyer's life during the fateful years from 1861 to 1865. Into the symphony of his days there came crashing this mighty and discordant theme which brooked no interruption, and all else for the time being was overwhelmed. Yet the gentler melodies of his life were only hidden, never lost. Their song is heard bravely, even if sometimes brokenly, in many a letter which came from his pen in these exciting times. 1 — 2 THE LIFE AND LETTERS Thus, the thought of Ilkley, hke "the tender grace of a day that is dead," is never far beneath the surface of his mind, at least when he is writ- ing Flesher Bland. "I had a paper from John Dobson yesterday," he writes, "the only one for a long time. He is a good fellow as ever lived. He did me a vast deal of good in my younger days. I do not see the Battys in the lodging-house list. I hope they are not dead yet. WiU you please ask William Bland if Richard Hannam is in Addingham yet? I see there is no other church o*r meeting at Ilkley besides what we knew, only there is a morning service at the chapel. Lately I got a volume of letters from Philadelphia, Plimpton cor- respondence from three or four centuries ago, 1460- 1551. It is curious, and in spots full of interest. There are notices of Addingham, Nessfield, Langbar, Skipton, Bolton Abbey, a letter to the Abbott of Kirkstate, an account of a fight at Otley fair in that far old time, a letter to an old gentleman at Bolton Abbey, and ever so much more." ^ And again "Here are the effigies of your old co-worker on the Addingham circuit. What a time it is since I first heard you preach when you were young, and a lot of young admirers came down with you. What a differ- * From letter dated June, 1861, OF ROBERT COLLYER 3 ent congregation there always was when you came down. I had to laugh at a short notice in a number of the Ilkley Gazette that strayed here directly from Ilkley. It was a description of the missionary meeting in the chapel. The writer, after telling about the meet- ing, said it was not so full as it ought to have been, owing to some trouble among the trustees. I said, Well done, Solomon, there is no new thing under the sun. Did you ever know Ilkley chapel when there was not some trouble among the trustees.'' I had a grand long letter from John Dobson the other day. He is ^ still the same good soul he ever was." Books, as always, constituted a theme of pe- rennial interest. Nothing, not even the cata- clysm of the Civil War, could quench this con- suming passion. Thus in June, 1861, he writes: "I have just completed the Encyclopedia Britannica, a grand work in 21 vols., begun in 1853. Also I have got a fine copy of Milman's 'Latin History,' of Bacon's works, of Burke, Addison, Junius, Virgil, Homer, De- mosthenes, and some others. I am reading Motley's 'Dutch Republic,' a book you ought to get by all means." In the midst of all the excitement and labour of his weeks in Washington, in the service of the Sanitary Commission in the late summer of 1861, •From letter dated February, 1862. 4 THE LIFE AND LETTERS he found time to indulge his passion. One ad- venture stirred his unfailing interest in the local history of Illdey. "I had the entree," he writes, "to a splendid library in Washington, in which I found an old book of Eng- lish Antiquities, containing an account of Ilkley written in the time of Queen Ehzabeth, with engravings of old' monuments of the Roman occupation, all of which have gone except that copy of an altar that stood down by Beanlands—giving also a tradition of the people, how that altar had aforetime stood down in the water, to- gether \rith another stone now built into the church steeple and almost defaced." The somewhat belated discovery of Dickens's "Pickwick Papers" was the occasion of a charm- ing note to Miss Baker, dated "2d washing day after Easter, 1862." "Dear Freind: ^ "Allow me to introduce my freind, Mr. Pickwick, a fellow of infinite humour, simpHcity and solid goodness. You will not find him intrusive and self-asserting, but modest and retiring, ready to open out and shut up, just as it may please you. You may call him at two in the morning if you want to hear a pleasant jest, and he will be as wide awake and ready as most jesters * The correct spelling of this word seems to have been a difficult thing for Dr. Collyer to master. OF ROBERT COLLYER 5 are after a good dinner, any time of the year. It will not be needful for you to do as the lady did who in- vited * to dinner, and, impatient at his dulness, sent her little daughter, who said, *Please, sir, mother sends her compliments and will you begin to be funny?' Mr. Pickwick will be always ready, and he will not need any dinner.