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[Front Cover]
IN MEMORIAM – Samuel Joseph May
[Inside Cover]
IN MEMORIAM – Samuel Joseph May
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SAMUEL JOSEPH MAY
Born in
Died in
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“And
I heard a voice from Heaven, saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which
die in the Lord from henceforth: yea saith the Spirit, that they may rest from
their labors; and their works do follow them.”
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Another
hand is beckoning us,
Another call is given,
And
glows once more with angel steps
The path which reaches Heaven.
* * * *
Sweet
promptings unto kindest deeds
Were in his very look;
We
read his face, as one who reads
A true and holy book;
The
Measure of a blessed hymn
To which our hearts could move;
The
breathing of an inward psalm,
A canticle of love.
* * * *
Fold
him, O Father, in Thine arms,
And let him henceforth be
A
messenger of love, between
Our human hearts and Thee.
Still
let his mild rebuking stand
Between us and the wrong,
And
his dear memory serve to make
Our faith in goodness strong.
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INTRODUCTORY
At a meeting of the members
of the Unitarian Congregational Society of Syracuse, held after morning service
in the Church of the Messiah, on Sunday, July 9th, 1871, a committee,
consisting of Rev. S. R. Calthrop, Mr. C. D. B. Mills, Mr. D. P. Phelps, Mr. H.
N. White, Mrs. Mary E. Bagg, and Mrs. Rebecca J. Burt, was appointed to prepare
and publish a memorial pamphlet embracing the funeral obsequies of the former
pastor of the Society, Rev. Samuel J. May.
In the performance of that
duty, the committee have not thought it advisable to use more of the very
abundant matter in their hands, than is included in the following pages. They
were inclined at first, to add some of the very many appreciative and glowing
tributes to Mr. May's life and character which his death spontaneously called
out, from both the religions and secular press.
The occasion seemed also to
invite a somewhat detailed account of his pastorate in
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with his people, if possible
stronger and more tender than before.
But upon reflection it was
felt, that a rounded Christian life like Mr. May's – so beautiful and complete
in all its full proportions, called at once for a faithful and loving
biographer, and that any attempt on the part of the committee to anticipate in
this memorial of his death and burial, any material part of that biographer's
proper work, would be inappropriate. By whomsoever the story of his life shall
be told, we may rest assured that his pastorate in Syracuse, and the noble work
which he here did for his parish, for the community about him, and for the
world at large, will receive the attention which it deserves.
And yet the committee have
deemed it very proper to go so far beyond the limitation thus marked out for
themselves, as to incorporate in this memorial, the very full obituary notice
of Mr. May which appeared in the Syracuse Daily Standard, on the Monday
morning after his death; a notice which for its brief comprehensiveness, its
thorough appreciation of the work he had done and of his exalted Christian
character, and for its loving tenderness of spirit and expression, seemed to
make it the fitting article for the place we give it.
The committee have also to
express their obligations to the several daily papers of the city, and to the Christian
Register of
The death of Mr. May was
quite sudden. Although he had been ill for several weeks, he felt much better
again,
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and spoke hopefully of
dismissing his nurse, and of visiting
His death occurred at so late
an hour on Saturday evening, that but few persons knew of it until announced,
as it was, in several of the churches after morning service next day.
These announcements were
generally accompanied by spontaneous, heartfelt tributes to his exalted
character and pure, noble life.
The whole community were
deeply impressed; and as soon as it became generally known, large numbers of
persons – people of all conditions in life – called at the house of his
son-in-law, Mr. Alfred Wilkinson, with whom he had lived, not only to express
their respect and sorrow, but that they might once more look upon that face,
which in death retained the same beautiful expression of love for all his kind,
which made it everywhere and always in life, a welcome presence, shedding
heavenly benedictions upon all around him. And so, to the day of his funeral,
friends from far and near, those who knew him well and those who
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only knew of him, came there,
impelled by a common sorrow, which had cast its dark shadow
only knew of him, came there,
impelled by a common sorrow, which had cast its dark shadow over all their
homes, and made deep wounds in all their hearts.
Gerrit Smith came from
Peterboro, notwithstanding his own illness, and also wrote: “Mr. May was the
most Christ-like man that I ever knew. He made Christ his pattern, and how
successfully, was proved by his never-failing gentleness, meekness and
sweetness. Heaven is more desirable to me now that my dear Mr. May is there.”
The city papers of Monday
morning, contained long and glowing tributes to his worth, one of which, from
the Daily Standard, we reproduce.
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SAMUEL JOSEPH MAY
Not in this community alone,
where the kindly face of our departed friend and teacher was so familiarly
known, and his reputation so tenderly cherished, but also in many different
sections of the land, where he had worked in holy enterprises, and attached to
himself zealous circles of friends, will the announcement of the death of
Samuel J. May be received with profoundest sorrow. In common with a host of
loving ones, impressed with the sublimity of the character we would depict, and
the worthlessness of words in its serene presence, we would offer our tribute
of respect to the memory of him who, through goodness, rose to greatness,
uniting the courage of a Knox and the ardor of a Howard with the dear
simplicity of the Vicar of Wakefield. The life we would sketch was unusually
prolonged and essentially earnest, crowed with activities and crowned with blessings;
and it is, therefore, difficult, in a limited space, to compass a comprehensive
survey of its usefulness, or even to detail many of the facts which gave it
significance; nor does this, indeed, seem necessary in a region which
sensitively vibrated to its touch, and is imbued with regard for its efficacy
and reverence for its spirit. We trust,
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however, that we may be
enabled, while outlining its course, to emphasize a portion of its virtues and
to extract there from something of the secret of its power.
Samuel Joseph May was born in
Joseph May, the father,
designed to study for the ministry, but was prevented from doing so by the
breaking out
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of the Revolutionary war. He
engaged in business pursuits, was Colonel of Militia in the famous “Boston
Cadets,” and Secretary, for forty years, of one of the earliest organized
Marine Insurance Companies in the country, and was highly esteemed for his
integrity, exactness and charitable energies. He lived until 1841, dying at the
age of eighty-one. As related to the religious bias and labors of his son, the
most interesting feature of his career was his connection, for nearly half a
century, with King’s Chapel, as one of its Wardens and most tenacious
supporters. King’s Chapel, left without a priest, by the flight of its tory
incumbent, invited the Rev. James Freeman to conduct, as a Reader, its
services. At the close of the Revolution, he was solicited to become its
Rector, but upon applying to the Bishop for ordination, was unable to subscribe
to the Thirty-Nine articles, as well as to certain observances of the Episcopal
establishment, and being tinctured with the reputed heresies of Priestley, was
denied the sacred rite. His congregation, nevertheless, endorsed his views, and
themselves installed him. Thus was instituted the first Unitarian Church in
America, to which Dr. Freeman ministered until his death in 1835, and Col. May
gave his consistent aid, and from which Samuel J. received inspiration and
instruction of the value of his early religious education Mr. May had the
liveliest appreciation. He held it as one of the chief blessings of his life
that he was not devoted to the tenets of a stern creed and the terrible
imaginings it imposes. He was a Liberal Christian, almost by intuition; and
hence experienced none of the pangs with which the conflict between the dogma
of vengeance and the gospel of love tortures so many souls.
Mr. May received his
education, preliminary to entering college, at the
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years in
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ical and devotional course of
reading; but they peremptorily dictated
nothing except personal purity and righteousness, the diligent improvement of
our advantages, and fidelity to our highest sense of the true and the right.
They enjoined it upon us to examine every subject brought to our consideration
thoroughly, and as impartially as we were able in the various lights thrown
upon it by the religious and theological writers of opposite sects, and to
accept such conclusions as should, after such an examination, seem to our minds
correct–remembering our responsibility to God alone, for the use we made of our
opportunities to learn, and of the powers He had given us to judge of the true
and the right.”
As indicative of the effect
of such counsels upon himself we continue our quotation from the discourse
delivered in the Church of the Messiah, in 1867, upon the occasion of his
reaching his seventieth birthday: “Thus encouraged I entered upon the inquiry
after true religion, fully persuaded
that it was the ‘one thing needful’ for all men; and longing to be a minister
of it to my fellow beings, so many of whom seemed to me to be ‘living without
God in the world.’ I was soon more than
ever convinced that Christianity was the true religion; but that a strange
theology had been foisted into its place in Christendom; substituted for it in
most churches. It seemed to me self-evident, that Christianity was to be learnt
from Jesus Christ: that he must be the best teacher of his own religion; that,
if he be, as most Christians profess to regard him, ‘the author and finisher of our faith,’ nothing should
be appended to the Gospel as he left
it; not even on the authority of Paul, Appollos, or Cephas; certainly not on
the authority of St. Augustine, John Calvin, or the Pope, should anything be
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prescribed as essential,
which is not perfectly consistent with the teaching of the Master. It seemed to
me then, as it seems to me now, the highest impertinence, and most egregious
presumption, in any Doctor of Divinity, Assembly of Divines (especially those
who believe that Jesus was a superhuman being, aye, the very God), to prescribe
a Creed, as comprising the essential faith, which is nowhere to be found in the
words of the Master.”
Thus holding to personal
purity of life, and placing himself in the attitude of a seeker after truth,
under the All-Father, he commenced the work of the ministry, serving as supply
at
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seemed to have many encouraging
prospects; but receiving a simultaneous call to
He lived in Brooklyn fourteen
years, bringing a feeble church into a state of efficiency, impressing his
personality upon his neighbors, and being prominently identified with every
good work to which he could put his hand. Besides fulfilling the ordinary
duties of his parish, he edited a paper called The Liberal Christian, was a member of the School Committee of the
town, and did much to raise the standard of education in the state, giving
lectures on the subject, and calling the first convention ever held to consider
the question of popular education. He early took ground in favor of a less
austere and more rational use of Sunday, against exclusiveness in the
administration of the Lord’s Supper, and against ritualistic methods in the
church, discarding in a short time after his ordination the gown and bands then
universally worn; but an aged man having scruples about baptism, and believing
on Scripture grounds that immersion was necessary to the validity of the rite,
he consented to gratify his desire by entering a river with him,
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but addressed the meeting on
coming out to the effect that a drop of water was sufficient to baptize a man
whose heart was really consecrated, an ocean otherwise having no potency. At
this time as always, his characteristic doctrine was that no form, or service,
or profession, makes a man acceptable to God, but only the denying of all
ungodliness and living soberly, righteously and piously in all the relations of
life–in an adherence, so far as possible, to the precept of the Golden Rule.
At Brooklyn Mr. May became
actively interested also in the various reforms to which he afterwards gave so
much of his thought and strength, and to which we shall hereafter allude, as a
biography of him without including something of them would be singularly
incomplete. On the first of June, 1825, he married Lucretia Flagge Coffin,
daughter of Peter Coffin, a merchant of Boston; Charlotte Coffin and had issue
by her as follows;–Joseph, died in infancy; John Edward, now in business in
Boston; Charlotte Coffin, wife of Alfred Wilkinson, of this city; Joseph,
minister of the Unitarian Church in Newburyport, Mass.; and George Emerson,
engaged in mercantile pursuits. The wedded life of Mr. May, was, we need not
say, beautiful in the blended being of kindred souls–redolent with the perfume
of affection, and blossoming in the sweetest charities. Mrs. May, known,
honored, and loved in this community, has but recently passed away. Gentle in
disposition, retiring in manners, yet highly cultured, firm in purpose, and
thoroughly sympathizing with the aims of her husband, her kindly influence was
felt in every circle in which she moved, and her supreme confidence in the
righteousness of his labors sensibly nerved him to persevere in their behalf.
He resigned from
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of general agent of the
Massachusetts Anti Slavery Society, in which he continued eighteen months,
lecturing, writing and arranging conventions. Late in 1836, he was installed
over the church at
In 1842, the position of principal
of the Normal School for female teachers at Lexington having became vacant
through the illness of the incumbent, Hon. Horace Mann, then Secretary of the
State Board of Education, urged the place upon Mr. May, and he accepted it,
removing immediately to Lexington and assuming control of the school; but,
within two years, the former principal recovering his health, Mr. May, though
honored and useful in, and attached to the position, resigned in his favor,
feeling it to be the right
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of his predecessor to be
reinstated. He was then invited to the charge of the
While Mr. May lived in
Lexington there arose, in Boston, the famous Theodore Parker, then the leading
thinker of the now so called Radical theologians. Parker was, as is well known,
though the minister of a Unitarian parish, completely ostracized by the clergy
of
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lief that every man must be
fully persuaded in his own mind and had a right to speak his thought. He wrote
to Mr. Parker, expressing his sympathy with him and proposing an exchange of
pulpits. Herein the broadness of that charity, which was the crowning grace of
our friend’s character, thus early declared itself. Only two other Unitarian
clergymen were as true to the principle of free thought as this. The result of
Mr. May’s proffer was a friendship close, affectionate and firm, which endured
so long as Mr. Parker lived.
At the conclusion of his
temporary engagement with the
In 1843, Mr. May made a
journey to
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candidate and then to become
its pastor–with what unanimity the following letter attests:–
Dear Sir:–The meeting, of
which we advised you, was held today, and, on the other side, is a copy of a
resolution which was unanimously adopted. In our society there is no diversity
of opinion in respect to yourself, and we hope that you may not see cause to
regret your coming among us. Will you be so kind as to advise us when we may
expect to see you here?
John
Wilkinson,
Hiram
Putnam,
Charles
F. Williston,
To Rev, Samuel J. May Trustees.
This call Mr. May accepted
and preached for the first time as pastor of the church sometime in the April
succeeding. The church, to which he was thus called, was as yet in its infancy,
although its membership embraced some of the strongest men of the village. It
was organized in 1837, embracing among its founders such names as E.F. Wallace,
John Wilkinson, Hiram Putnam, John Newell, Parley Bassett, Aaron Burt, Joseph
Savage, J.L. Bagg, D.P. Phelps, D.J. Morris, B.F. Colvin, C.F. Williston, James
G, Tracy, M.M. White, E.J. Foster, Coddington B, Williams, Stephen Smith, Jared
H. Parker and H. N. White. The Rev. J.P.B. Storer, a highly intellectual and
much loved clergyman, had been its pastor from 1839 until his death, of heart
disease, in the summer of 1844. Originally worshipping in a little wooden
chapel on East Genesee street, on or near the site of the present Seymour
Block, it had, in 1843, removed to a new and pleasant edifice on its present
lot which, with additions and enlargements, lasted until it was destroyed by
the falling of the spire in 1852, the present church being completed in 1853.
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It was not to be expected
that a new-coming Unitarian minister would receive a cordial welcome from the
clergymen whose opposition had much tried the less resolute heart of his
predecessor. Nor did he; but to such opposition he was already accustomed, and
for it was fully prepared. He took up his ministerial work with good heart, and
met the sermons occasionally preached in denunciation of his theological
position with pretty constant expositions of what he found objectionable and
abhorrent in the popular creeds; and it was not long before his utter geniality
conquered the hearts, if it did not change the convictions, of his Orthodox
brethren. With the late Dr. Adams, who had strongly denounced him, he, at last,
contracted a friendship, sincere if not very demonstrative, and the good
Doctor, upon his death-bed, sent for him and they had a long conference, a fact
to which Mr. May was accustomed to refer with truly Christian pride.
Of his pastoral labors we
need not speak at length. In the hearts of his hearers they are forever
enshrined. Under his watchful care, the church has steadily and gradually grown
into a power in our midst. He has gone out and in among its members for
twenty-six years, blessing their children, marrying their young men and
maidens, committing their dust to solemn sepulture–by all of them respected,
loved, venerated as it has been the fortune of few pastors, in this age of the
decadence of respect for the ministerial office, to be honored. Not a great
pulpit orator, he was yet a singularly clear writer, with terse and vigorous
sentences often infused into the plainness of a narrative style. He rose ever
to the eloquence of earnestness, and none might doubt the sincerity of the
thought which guided his pen. In every house of his parish he was a welcome
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guest; received rather with
the warmth of regard which marks the affinity of blood. Thus strong in the
pulpit and loved on the hearth stone, he filled the years of his usefulness in
the ministry until the lengthening shadows of his life compelled him to decline
its further responsibilities. On the 15th of September, 1867, he
tendered to the church his resignation, –which was accepted on the 7th
of October, with resolutions of the deepest respect and affection, a liberal
annuity being voted him to take effect when his successor should be installed.
This was accomplished on
“Thus it was, dear friends,
that an acquaintance commenced twenty-four years ago last month, which led to
my settlement with you in April, 1845, as your minister. What sort of minister
I should probably be, you were fairly warned, for during my visits, in 1843,
and again during the four weeks that I preached to you as a candidate, in
November and December, 1844, I lectured in the city twice on the immediate
abolition of slavery; once, on the paramount importance of an improved system
of popular education; and once, if I remember correctly, on the great
expediency, if not duty, of total abstinence from the use of any intoxicating
drinks. Therefore, if you have been much disappointed in the character of my
ministry here, you must blame your own want of discernment and not any
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concealment on my part.” It
may well be added that while it was a bold undertaking for a minister in this
State, a quarter of a century ago, thus unreservedly to identify himself with
these obnoxious reforms, in this church no root of bitterness was planted by
the efforts of its pastor; on the contrary he nurtured and tended the seed of
his own sowing within it, and from a fruitful soil it sprang up and bore
abundant fruit. No church can claim greater credit for efficient humanitarian
labors than the Unitarian Society of Syracuse. He educated it up to his own
standards.
We have said that any sketch
of Mr. May’s life would be singularly incomplete without an allusion to his
connection with the great reforms of the day. Herein he was a pioneer and
acquired a national reputation; his philanthropy was of the purest and most
enlarged type; but we may do little more than allude to it; for, even if our
space did not forbid a larger reference, we know that there are many intimately
associated with him in various progressive movements who will do him fuller
justice than we may hope to do, and who will be swift to bear their testimony
to the worth of his counsels and the completeness of his consecration. He was
among the apostles of the gospel of anti-slavery. His disgust at the abuses of
slavery, incited by personal observation of its enormities, developed, under
the inspiration of William Lloyd Garrison, into an undying hostility towards
the institution of barbarism. So early as 1830 he preached anti-slavery
sermons, to the annoyance of his good friends, Dr. Channing and the Rev. Henry
Ware, Jr., and to the alarm of his father. He defended Prudence Crandall
against an indictment, under a modern
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nearly two years of the
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men to whom, under God, the
nation is indebted for its deliverance from the burden of its sin.
Mr. May had become interested
in the question of peace while at College, by listening to addresses from Dr.
Noah Worcester, and steadily bore his testimony against the necessity of war according to the convictions he then
acquired. In 1826 he formed an Auxiliary Peace Society in Brooklyn, to
co-operate with that of Dr. Worcester; and being elected chaplain of a
Connecticut regiment, he declined the honor, telling the Colonel “he could not
pray that they might do the very thing they would be mustered to do–but only
that they might beat their swords into plow-shares and learn war no more.” The
first pamphlet he ever published was an “Exposition of the Sentiments and
Purposes of the Windham County Peace Society,” in 1826. It is believed,
however, that his sentiments upon this subject became somewhat modified when
secession culminated in treason and the nation rose to its feet to confront the
foe in its own household.
At an early day, also, he
became opposed to capital punishment. Being waited on by a sheriff to be
present at the execution of an atrocious murderer, he enquired if the condemned
desired him to attend, and upon being told that he was invited on behalf of the
State, he answered that he would not attend; he would go if the criminal
requested it, as the sympathizing friend of a very wicked brother, but would in
no way seem to countenance the State in doing what he thought the State had no
right to do. The conversation which followed so impressed the Sheriff that he
declined to act as the executioner. Against judicial murder Mr. May remained
constantly opposed during the rest of his life, preaching and writing against
its enormity.
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In May, 1826, he attended the
Boston Anniversaries and was present at a meeting of the Massachusetts
Temperance Society, as also at a meeting of Unitarian ministers called to
consider the subject of temperance. He had not previously regarded it as wrong
to drink wine in moderation, but was so
much influenced by these discussions that he determined to discountenance the
use of all intoxicants,–“lest he should cause his brother to offend.” Returning
home he received the hearty sympathy of his wife, and soon called public
attention to the subject. He personally visited every retailer of liquors in
the town, to ascertain the amounts of liquor sold, and from the overseers of
the poor, physicians and others, learned something of the disastrous effects of
the traffic. The result was the adoption, under his leadership, by many
individuals, of the rule of Total Abstinence and the formation of a society
having its principles in view of his labors in this city in this direction we
all know personally. He was one of the staunchest friends of this reform,
joining a number of organizations pledged to its support, and one of his last
public addresses was in its advocacy, before the Syracuse Christian Union, the
address being published by its request in this journal.
Latterly he had become much
interested in the demand of Woman for Suffrage and interested himself in its
enforcement with all the fire of his youth of the immense labor all these
reforms necessitated, of the travels, the correspondence, both foreign and
domestic, of the numbers of speeches delivered, we have no reliable data. We
know, however, that his activities were severely taxed to the very end, and
that he had laid out an amount of work, literary and otherwise, which would
have appalled an ordinary man of half his years. It is certainly to be
regretted that an autobiography, which he had in contemplation, remains in an
unfinished state. Mr. May had published much of a secu-
[Page 29]
lar and religious cast; but
little of it, however, in permanent form. His last publication was a pamphlet
entitled “A Complaint against the Presbyterians and their Confession of Faith,”
which is very perspicuously written and is valuable as giving evidence of the
maintenance of his life-long views of the goodness of God.
To write of Mr. May as a
citizen is a grateful task. He was a minister who came out of his pulpit to
mingle with his fellow men, bringing the meditations of the closet and the soul
of good-will to bear upon the social problems which beset us all. He came to us
when we were a village; he lived among us to see our population quintupled–a
fair and prosperous city. He was as public spirited as philanthropic. No improvement
but had his sanction, no charity but had his encouragement. The Franklin
Institute, the Historical Association, the Orphan Asylum, the Home, the
Hospital, all called him their friend. No differing creed could deter him from
giving his aid to a noble enterprise. At our public meetings he was often
present, whatever their object–provided only it was commendable. His charities
flowed in all directions–towards the Indians of our Reservation, the homeless
boys who wander along our great artery of inland navigation, the victims of
self-imposed or heaven-sent wretchedness at our doors.
We have spoken of Mr. May’s
interest in the cause of popular education, elsewhere; it was here signally
exhibited and, we believe, fully appreciated. Those of us, who were at school
twenty years ago, remember how often his genial face beamed in upon our
studies, and his words of advice encouraged us in our pursuits. Many of us then
learned to love him–a love which has not been diminished by constant acts of
kindness and of countenance since received. In 1864 he was elected, from the
fourth ward, member of
[Page 30]
the Board of Education and by
successive and unanimous re-elections continued therein for the ensuing six
years. During the last five years of his service he was President of the Board.
He was faithful in attendance at its meetings and judicious in his selection of
its committees. He was thoroughly acquainted with the discipline and the
studies of the schools, and with the character and qualifications of their teachers.
He gave much of his time to a personal inspection of the schools, not only of
his own ward, but also of the whole city, and his was ever a welcome presence
in the school room. He was greatly interested in the High School, and to him is
largely due the erection of its present magnificent building, and the
comprehensive range of studies there pursued. He strenuously opposed corporal
punishment, here as everywhere, and to no man in the country may greater credit
be awarded for the gentler modes of correction which have nearly banished the
fools cap and the birch from systems of education. As a memorial of his labors
the “May School” was named in his honor by his associates–and, we believe, he
would ask for no more suitable monument. Nor should we forget the interest he
manifested in the education of the very little ones, the “Kindergarten” system
particularly commending itself to his judgment, as a promising advance upon the
arbitrary methods yet in vogue.
And now, as we write our last
words, we would if possible have our pen touched, as by an angel, to fitly note
the gracious character itself of which the record we have sketched is but the
outward expression; but words are cold and speech is lifeless here. There was
no man of truer convictions, of more generous impulses, of a nobler
self-abandonment than he. His charities were as countless as the
[Page 31]
dewdrops glistening on the
meadows of morning; his sympathies as pervasive as the objects as the objects
towards which they could be directed. A zealot’s bitterness; a reformer, he had
not the reformer’s caustic tongue; a theologian of pronounced views, he had
none of the theologian’s regard for sect. True to his own flesh and blood, he
was yet everybody’s friend. Simple in his habits, confiding in his nature,
sometimes imposed upon through the very excess of his philanthropy, no man but
respected him for the possession of the most sterling qualities of head as well
as of heart. Now that the asperities of the conflicts in which he was engaged are
hushed in the triumph of nearly all the principles for which he contended, we
believe there is no man living who will cherish an envious or a hostile feeling
over this new-made grave. Utterly free from envy himself, he paid most generous
tribute to the talents and the good works of his fellows. In the fullness of
years, with intellect unimpaired, with affections undiminished, with a record
lustrous for its accomplishment and beautiful in its spirit, with the regard of
all who had heard of him, and the veneration of all who knew him, he has been
gathered to the fathers, and taken his place among that goodly company who “by
pureness, by knowledge, by long suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by
love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of
righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil
report and good report,” have entered into the rest of the faithful to use his
own words, he had learned life’s lesson, and had gladly turned the page to see
what there is on the other side. Upon us his life falls like a benediction,
gracious and gentle, from the hands of the Father Supreme. May it be given us
to live as in its presence, and to assimilate in our characters something of
its essence!
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SOCIETY TESTIMONIALS
MEETING of THE MEMBERS of THE CHURCH of THE MESSIAH
A very largely
attended meeting of the members of the Church of the Messiah and of that
Society, was held Monday evening July 3d, to take action in regard to the death
of the late Rev. Samuel J. May.
Dr. Lyman Clary was
called to the chair, and Mr. P. H. Agan was made Secretary.
Mr. C. D. B. Mills
moved the appointment of a committee of three to draft resolutions, and the
motion being carried, the Chair appointed Messrs. C. D. B. Mills, D. P. Phelps
and P. H. Agan as such committee.
The committee
subsequently reported the following series of resolutions:
Resolved, That in the death of Rev. Samuel J. May, our Society
has lost from our midst a widely-known, greatly gifted and loved religious
teacher; one endeared to us by many and most tender associations, who was,
through years reaching back to the very beginnings of our existence as a
religious society, its faithful, most affectionate and devoted pastor, and who
has laid us all under a debt never to be repaid, but always to be most
gratefully and tenderly remembered.
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Resolved, That in his death our community has lost one of
its most public-spirited, philanthropic and generously useful citizens,
magnanimous and self-sacrificing without end—and humanity itself the
world over has lost a warm and untiring friend of him it may be truly said, he
was a brother to all mankind.
Resolved, That the exalted virtues of our departed friend, so
marked, so bounteous and so rare, deserve well to be celebrated and kept in
perpetual record, and we rejoice that we may hold and commend these as the
legacy he has left us, inestimably rich and precious, the imperishable
possession and sacrament to be appropriated for quickening, before which all
may well feel incited to seek to attain something of that high self-sacrifice
and untiring devotion to human kind for which he was distinguished.
Resolved, That we tender our warm sympathies to the stricken
family, the descendants and all the kindred of our brother, invoking for them
the kind consolations and supports of Heaven in this their hour of sorrow, and
we point them not without joy to the assurance that a soul that has wrought so
faithfully and signally well, has, beyond peradventure, gone to its large
reward.
Resolved, That we hereby authorize and instruct the trustees of this
society, in conjunction with a committee of three, to be appointed to act in
concert with them, to cause to be placed in the walls of the church, a tablet
suitably inscribed to the name and memory of Mr. May.
Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed in behalf of our
society to take, after conferring with the family of the deceased, and in
consonance with their wishes, such steps as may be deemed requisite for
providing for the funeral services.
Before the resolutions
were put to vote, short and feeling addresses were made by Messrs. C. D. B.
Mills, C. B. Sedgwick, S. R. Calthrop, D. P. Phelps, and H. L. Green, of the
society, and on invitation, by the Rev. E. W. Mundy, and Charles E. Fitch.
While none of the addresses were labored, all bore testimony to the moral and
intellectual
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worth of the deceased,
a worth indeed whose eulogy cannot find expression in words. The following
committees were then appointed:
To prepare and
decorate the Church for the funeral:
H. N. White, J. H. Clark, O. V. Tracy, Mrs. Church, Mrs. E. A. Putnam, Mrs. E.
P. Howlett and Mrs. D. F. Gott.
On the tablet: Mrs. Dr. Clary, Mrs. W. B. Smith, and Mrs. O.
T. Burt.
To confer with the
family concerning the arrangements for the funeral: E. B. Judson, C. B. Sedgwick, C. F. Williston, C. D.
B. Mills and J. L. Bagg:
The funeral was
announced to take place from the Church of the Messiah, on Thursday, July 6th,
at 2 1-2 P. M., and the meeting adjourned.
SOCIETY of CONCORD
The
following resolutions, adopted by the members of a Jewish congregation, are so
honorable to them, and express so feelingly the common sentiment which pervades
all classes of the community, that we make them an exception, and give them a place in this
memorial.
At
a special meeting of the Society of Concord, in Syracuse, held at the vestry
rooms on the evening of July 5th, the death of the late Rev. Mr. May was
announced, and a committee on resolutions appointed, consisting of Messrs.
Jacob Straus, I. Henry Danziger and Bernhard Bronner. The committee reported
the following preamble and resolutions, which were unanimously adopted by the
meeting:
Whereas,
it has pleased our Almighty Father to call hence to a better life in heaven our
esteemed fellow citizen, the Rev. Samuel J. May, be it therefore
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Resolved,
That in the death of the Rev. Samuel
J. May, the State has lost one of its most eminent citizens, the community one
of its truest philanthropists, the church one of its most liberal pillars, and
mankind at large the noblest specimen of a man, who devoted his life to all
that is pure and holy in the eyes of God and man.
Resolved,
That while we bow in humble
submission to the decrees of
Resolved,
That this Society in a body, attend
the funeral obsequies of the lamented departed.
Resolved,
That these proceedings be placed on
our record and published in the daily papers of the city, and that a copy duly
engrossed be handed to the bereaved relatives of the deceased.
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FUNERAL SERVICES
PRIVATE SERVICES
On
the morning of Thursday, July 6th, there was a private service at Mr.
Wilkinson's house. Rev. Frederic Frothingham read appropriate passages of
Scripture. Rev. W. P. Tilden prayed, and Mr. A. Bronson Alcott made an address
of indescribable beauty, delicacy and tenderness. Not long afterwards the
household reassembled to listen to the reminiscences of Mr. George B. Emerson,
Rev. W. P. Tilden, and others. Mr. Emerson spoke of his early and ever-growing
love for Mr. May, of their college-life, and of the delightful Sunday evenings
which he had spent with him at
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REMAINS REMOVED TO THE CHURCH
In
accordance with a very generally expressed wish that it should be so done, the
body enclosed in a metallic casket, was, at 10 o'clock, removed to the Church
of the Messiah, which loving hands had fittingly decorated, and placed before
the pulpit, from which he had spoken so many faithful and earnest words. The
doors of the Church were opened, and from that hour until the time appointed
for the service, great numbers of persons of all classes, conditions and
creeds, came forward to take a last look of that benevolent, loving face, and
pay their last respects to the venerated friend.
Every
seat in the church that had not been reserved for the family and pall-bearers
was occupied some time before the hour appointed for the services. The porch
was crowded, and the stairway and yard outside were also filled with the old
and the young, the rich and the poor, all eager to join in doing honor to the
name and memory of the beloved dead. On either side of the alter were seated
the city and other attending clergy, and in slips in front were the members of
the Board of Education, of which Mr. May was for several years President.
Inside of the altar sat four aged pall-hearers, who were personal friends:
George Wansey, Captain Hiram Putnam, Joseph Savage and E. B. Culver. At ten
minutes before three o'clock the family and friends entered the church preceded
by the officiating clergy and other pall-bearers, -- Mayor F. E. Carroll, E. B.
Judson, C. B. Sedgwick, James L. Bagg, Dr. H. B. Wilbur, Hon. Dennis McCarthy,
Dr. Lyman Clary and N. F. Graves. The pulpit was occupied by Rev. S. R.
Calthrop, William Lloyd Garrison, Bishop Loguen, C. D. B. Mills and Rev. T. J.
Mumford.
SERVICES AT THE CHURCH
As the procession
entered the church, the organ, at which
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Prof.
Ernest Held presided, gave forth a voluntary, after which the choir sang
“Cast thy
burden on the Lord,
And He will
sustain thee and comfort thee,"
Rev. S. R. Calthrop
then offered prayer.
Infinite Father, God of light and love, we are
assembled here today to thank Thee for everything. We bless Thy name for the
beautiful world Thou has given us. We thank Thee for all the kindly relations
between man and man, and for the tender family ties that Thou hast given us.
Here, in the midst of tears, we bless Thee for death; for that beautiful angel
of Thine whom Thou dost send to each of us in turn, saying, with silent and
gentle voice, "Son or daughter, come up higher!" And so, O Father,
while many hearts shall feel a weariness today, and all shall feel that
something noble has gone out of the world, we, nevertheless, with the spirit of
him who lies here, bless Thy name that Thou hast received him to Thyself. He
loved Thee in this world, and did try with all the might that was in him to do
Thy will here. He saw Thy face here, and rejoiced in it, and would that all men
would rejoice in the same. Father we bless Thee for the benediction of his life
and thank Thee that Thou didst put it into his heart to be such a one. In the
name of him who lies silent before us, we bless Thee for the true and beautiful
influences that taught him to be a Christian and a true man. Above all, in duty
to him, we thank Thee for the beautiful manifestations of love that he saw in
Jesus Christ. We thank Thee for all that Jesus was to him personally. We thank
Thee that the shadow of that beautiful cross fell on his life, a mingled
command and benediction and that he took it up and carried it all his days. We
thank Thee, Father in heaven, that as Jesus was so he strove to be in this
world; with humble heart, never thinking that he had obtained, nevertheless,
pressing toward the mark ever. We thank Thee that Thou didst put it into his
heart to love the poor that Jesus loved; that he did take up the cause of the
oppressed as a precious legacy from the Master's hand; that he desired ever, as
Jesus did, to go about doing good; to put down the kingdom of wrong, and to
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establish the kingdom of right; to minister to the poor, the
fatherless, the oppressed and them that had no helper. We thank Thee for the
large, noble heart of this man, who said that all mankind was his brother. We
pray Thee, dear Father, that, as the light has been so plainly manifested
before us, we may be led to love it more ourselves, lest town and country may
feel shrunken because one just man has gone. O, Father, send down his spirit
upon us, and grant that we may take up the work just where he laid it down,
with thanksgiving to Thee that we are for Thy sake, and for Man's to do it. We
thank Thee for all these things, in the name of him who was the leader, the
teacher, the brother of him, who has gone up higher.
Rev. T. J. Mumford, of Dorchester, Massachusetts, one of Mr.
May's early students, read appropriate selections of Scripture.
The
Rev. Mr. Calthrop gave out, and the choir sang the 376th hymn.*
While thee I seek, protecting Power!
Be
my vain wishes stilled;
And may this consecrated hour
With
better hopes be filled.
Thy love the powers of thought bestowed;
To
thee my thoughts would soar;
Thy mercy o'er my life has flowed
That
mercy I adore!
In each event-of life, how clear
Thy
ruling hand I see!
Each blessing to my soul more dear,
Because
conferred by thee.
_______________________
*This
Hymn, and all the other Hymns read and sung during the services, were favorites
of Mr. May's, and were selected for the occasion on that account.
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40]
Addresses
were then made by Mr. C. D. B. Mills and others, as follows:
ADDRESS of MR. MILLS
We
are here together today, friends, to testify to one common grief. All are
mourners, each one carries in his bosom a sense of personal bereavement.
We have come, not as is often the wont, as outside
friends or neighbors, to gather around a stricken family in the hour of their
sorrow, to offer our respect to the memory of a deceased acquaintance, and
perform the last offices for one who, however well regarded or even in general
way esteemed, was of no near relation or special importance to us. No, we are
here ourselves as one bereaved family. Our several households have been
entered, our several circles broken, our community, society itself, has
suffered a deep, an irreparable loss, and every heart feels the pang of the
separation. All ages grieve, the children with the adults, for this brother was
not less dear to the heart of tenderest childhood than to the intelligence, the
affection of maturest years. If only those who were simply friends were to
speak on this occasion, sympathizers, not mourners, I think no lips would be
opened here to day. And beyond the bounds of this large congregation, there is
another, far larger, ungathered, unseen to the eye, but one with us in feeling,
in sense of the deep and overbearing sorrow.
For
a great soul has departed, one widely related and deeply knit to human hearts,
wherever seen and known. What a generous nature was his, that went out in
devotion and love to all his kind, that was friend to humanity, and drew in
warmest sympathy and ceaseless kindly office to all
[Page
41]
subjects
of suffering, or of want or of sorrow! His love was universal, and it never
chilled, never wearied. Nothing could discourage or alienate him, or reduce his
faith in the good possibilities. The instances of his fine benefactions, his
aid by counsel and by hand, for most part silent and unknown save to the
subject and himself, in our city alone, no one now can begin to enumerate, and probably
in full they will never be known to any. Many and many a one he has saved from
sense of friendlessness, from the hard pressures, from discouragement and
surrender to the fearful temptations. He kept open door, he spread bountiful
table, freely inviting all the poor and heavy laden, and none who came went
empty away. We hear that of the Indian Logan, chief of the Mingoes in the last
century, sitting quietly in his home, and refusing all participation in the
wars which his countrymen waged against the whites, the red men were wont to
say as they passed the cabin, There dwells the friend of the white man. I think
that through all these years, upon the door of that house on yonder slope,
might have been written, Here dwells the friend of all men.
This
man has left no real estate behind, but I deem the estate he does leave is far
more real than any lands or structures that earth affords. He has left no iron
safe well filled with bonds, with scrips of stocks accounted of such value
among men, but the stocks he transmits are far more precious and enduring,
deposited in stronger safe,--the human heart. So rich a man, leaving such
legacies of wealth, not for one or for few, but for all, has never died from
our midst before.
His
charity beginning at home and doing all possible in the humble every day
relations, did not stop there. His benevolence was diffusive and wide reaching
as the race.
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42]
The
broad humanities of his soul brought him inevitably into connection with the
great reforms of the time, particularly the Anti-Slavery, Temperance and
Woman's Rights. One of the very first to espouse the cause of the slave, as one
here present* doubtless will tell you, more fitly and fully than I can, he
labored with unswerving devotion and at great personal cost to the end. His
earnest unsparing appeals, his urgent, hearty incitements to duty, have been
among the most effective in this memorable anti-slavery conflict. And when at
length emancipation came, he was alert to meet promptly its responsibilities;
he gave freely his energies and his substance to provide for the education and
enlightenment of the newly freed. Any enterprise that sought the improvement of
man found in him a cordial friend and helper; he labored for prison reform, for
peace, for popular education, for the reclamation by kindliest methods of
juvenile offenders, for the interests of the working man, just wages to all, to
man and to woman alike for all faithful performance. And with all this he was a
most untiring and devoted preacher and pastor, an honor to the denomination to
which he belonged, a constant powerful worker everywhere in behalf of religious
enlightenment and emancipation, for a true and liberal faith, and most of all a
noble worthy life.
But,
a warm quenchless benevolence and spirit of generous self-sacrifice, were not
our brother's sole characteristic. He held in blending with them other
qualities which went to temper and perfect them, and built up one harmonious,
balanced, perfect character. With all the fine sensibilities, the tenderness,
affection, and deeply sensitive nature of woman, he united those traits, which,
essential to all strength
*
Mr. Garrison.
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43]
and
completeness, belong more particularly to the severer temperament of man. He
had stern, unblenching courage. He knew not shrinking or fear. In presence of
danger or overawing threat he could be, he always was, as upstanding and
unmoved as a soldier. In his urgent advocacy of the cause of the slave, he was
not seldom brought into relations of exposure, sometimes of imminent personal
peril, yet such a thing as intimidation or surrender was never in his thought.
I have seen him when assailed,
“Patient and meek he stood;
His foes ungrateful, sought his life—
He labored for their good."