DECEMBER MEETING, 1904.

THE stated meeting was held on Thursday, the 8th instant, at three o'clock, P. M.; the President in the chair.

The record of the last meeting was read and approved, and reports were presented by the Librarian, the Cabinet-Keeper, and the Corresponding Secretary.

Charles Homer Haskins, Ph.D., Professor of History in Harvard University, was elected a Resident Member; and SirSpencer Walpole, K.C.B., author of a "History of England," was elected a Corresponding Member.

It was voted to transfer the name of Goldwin Smith, D.C.L., of Toronto, Canada, from the list of Corresponding Members to that of Honorary Members.

In view of the expected absence of the President, the following committees were appointed to report at the Annual Meeting: To nominate officers, Messrs. William R. Thayer, Thornton K. Lothrop, and Samuel S. Shaw; to examine the Treasurer's accounts, Messrs. Thomas Minns and Charles H. Dalton; to examine the Library and Cabinet, Messrs. Charles K. Bolton, Archibald Cary Coolidge, and Melville M. Bigelow. The PRESIDENT then said:

Again and the frequent recurrence of the duty is painful - it devolves on me to announce the loss of one of our associates. The Rev. Samuel E. Herrick, since the March meeting of 1891 a Resident Member of the Society, died at his place of residence in this city, Sunday last, the 4th instant. At the time of his death the name of Dr. Herrick stood twentieth in order of seniority on our roll, well in the first quarter, — a fact suggestive of the rapid process of change and renewal the Society undergoes. Dr. Ellis was President at the time of Dr. Herrick's election, having then filled the position for close upon six years; his predecessor for thirty years, Mr. Winthrop, still attended our meetings; and, distinctly recalling another generation, he and Dr. Ellis at the meeting in question united in paying tribute to their cotemporary, George

Bancroft, one who came in with the century, just then dead. The names of George Bancroft, Robert C. Winthrop, and George E. Ellis thus brought into conjunction have already a far-away sound. The death just announced is a reminder of the years that have elapsed since the youngest of the three declared Dr. Herrick one of our number. Since then he has been a constant and welcome attendant at our meetings.

Already a man of fifty when elected into the Society, and in no way specially identified with historical writing or research, Dr. Herrick never served on the Council, nor was he frequent as a contributor to our Proceedings. Indeed, twice only did he, I think, take part therein. In May, 1895, he offered a characterization of Hamilton A. Hill, whose death was then announced; and, in February, 1897, he contributed a paper on Melanchthon. In 1893 he was appointed chairman of the Committee to examine the Library and Cabinet, and as such drew up and submitted a report noticeable for its suggestiveness. The memoir of Hamilton A. Hill also, included in our Proceedings for November, 1896 (second series, vol. xi. pp. 188-196), was prepared by him.

In accordance with our practice, I will now call upon Dr. McKenzie, a professional brother and an intimate and greatly valued personal friend of Dr. Herrick, to offer a characterization of him.

Rev. Dr. ALEXANDER MCKENZIE spoke in substance as follows:

us.

I am grateful for the privilege of saying a few words regarding my friend whose death has just been announced. This would not be easy at any time, but it is made more difficult for me by reason of his recent and unexpected removal from We are old friends. For close upon forty years we have lived and worked side by side in the ministry of one church. In many ways we have been associated, until it is hard to think of going on without his companionship. There was an especial bond of union in that each was the son of a sailor, the master of a whaling ship. We have been proud of our descent, and have sometimes boasted that we were the only ministers here who knew what a gam is. The word has a rude sound in this room, but it has its place in the lexicon,

and to one who understands it is the synonym of a goodnatured fellowship.

Mr. Herrick graduated from Amherst College in the same year in which I graduated at Harvard. He studied at the Princeton Theological Seminary, where sound doctrine was taught. Soon after his ordination he was made the minister of a church in Chelsea, from which he was transferred thirtyfour years ago to the Mount Vernon Church in this city, as the associate of Rev. Dr. Kirk, one of the most influential clergymen of New England. The relation between the two ministers was like that of father and son. After Dr. Kirk's death Mr. Herrick remained the pastor. When the moving of the congregation made it necessary, a new house of worship was erected, and there this ministry was continued. He was in his place in the church last Sunday. He had been obliged by the state of his health to resign the chief duties of the pastoral office, and his last official act was to read the letter of acceptance from the man who had been chosen, with his full approval, as his associate and successor. He went to his home after the service, and in the evening his work here reached its end, and he was called to higher, perhaps not better, service. The time of his graduation had come when no one looked for it, yet the life was singularly complete and fully rounded off. A little before the last meeting of the Society I found him looking over the shelves of books in the adjoining room. We had a few pleasant words, but they meant more than we knew. "I get tired," he said; "I get tired." It was a strange condition for him. “I am not to be Pastor emeritus," he added, "but Pastor sine cura"; and after a moment he slowly repeated the words, "Pastor sine cura." It is even so. His influence will abide, and his people will be blessed in it; but it will be without the constant care which St. Paul reckoned among the burdens of a minister's life.

It was a manly presence which he brought to these monthly gatherings. We saw strength and gentleness in his face; it wore a serious look when in repose. The mind was at work. When you spoke to him the face brightened, a smile played around his lips, his voice was cheerful, and you felt his heart when you held his hand. As you talked with him he had the rare combination of virtues, for he was both interested and interesting. He was a man you wished to meet again

and often; he was a good talker; he told a story admirably; it was pleasant to be with him and to learn from him.

ous.

He was a good writer; his rhetoric was chaste and vigorHe used now and then a word to which the reader was not accustomed, yet never with pedantry, to display his learning. Some who are here may remember a report which he presented a few years since as the chairman of the Committee to examine our Library. The theme was dry and formal enough; but men's faces showed their surprise as they saw how much of imagination and humor could be used to enliven a prosaic subject.

He loved books; he liked to own books and to be in daily intercourse with them. He studied our New England history, and his library was well furnished with its literature. A book was to him a person, and his relation to it personal and friendly. He studied the religious movements of the centuries and lectured upon them; he liked to trace the advance of truth and thought. He published a goodly volume whose title suggests the time when it was made, and in the course of its chapters the man is recognized, always moving in and with the light. He called his book "Some Heretics of Yesterday." There were heretics then, in 1884. He gave the name to men who had long before borne it and escaped from it. The list begins with Tauler and the Mystics, and ends with John Wesley. It includes Savonarola, Melanchthon, Calvin, William Brewster, and others. He was tracing an advance and foretelling its continuance. "Every age that the world has seen so far has been prefatory; it is hardly probable that the present age is final." He knew what "the great Protestants," as he called them, had achieved. That was comparatively a small gain, "if they have not established for all succeeding ages the indefectible right to question even their authority, and the perpetual privilege of intellectual readjustment." "A traditional Protestantism has no more right to a claim of infallibility than a traditional ecclesiasticism." This was the temper in which he lived and wrought, and helped to make history. He had no more thought of stopping than his father had of anchoring his ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. He was alive and free. I do not know that his mind turned away from the standards of his church. I know that it did not, for if it had his honesty

would have carried him into other service. He would be honest at any cost.

His preaching was after this general pattern. He knew theology, but he taught it as it was related to life, with deep insight and a spiritual intuition. I always heard something I had not known. The thought was fresh, vital, forceful. It was of the highest order. I make allowance for my friendship; but for many years there were not more than two or three in the town who preached so well. He did not seek to attract a crowd, but to do his work as well as he could. Those who heard him carefully were the better for the hearing. They believed in the man. Those who best knew him in his work gave him admiration and affection.

He was entirely sincere. He was kind, patient, generous, abounding in sympathy, -giving himself like the Teacher he trusted and served. Hence he drew men, the best men, and held them. Yet he was not tame, merely submissive, merely good. He was quick to think and to act. He fulfilled the apostolic injunction, to be angry and sin not. His whole being was allied to virtue and the virtues. His mind and heart were pure, and this made his life simple and kindly and just. I have recalled the terms in which Mr. Webster described James Savage: "He would appear very awkward, if he were to try his best to think wrong or to feel wrong"; and these words written over the grave of a lawyer in Mount Auburn: "He had the beauty of accuracy in his understanding, and the beauty of uprightness in his character"; and these better words on the wall of Sanders Theatre, the words of the Hebrew prophet as they stand in the Vulgate: “Qui autem docti fuerint fulgebunt, quasi splendor firmamenti: et qui ad justitiam erudiunt multos, quasi stellæ in perpetuas æternitates."

I have gone as far as the custom of this place will warrant. I may not attempt to reveal his deepest life, the life which was immortal and divine. Yet I may venture one step further. The man lived until he died. His heart, which seemed to fail, kept its life and its rhythm to the end. I cannot better close these poor sentences of mine than with his last word, which was a confession and a hope, a biography and an expectation. There had been silence. Then quickly he breathed out his desire: "Come, Lord Jesus; come quickly "; and with that the longer silence began.