July 7: “Nothing between my soul and my Savior…”

Do you know who this is?
-He was a founding father of American Gospel music
-He was known as the ‘people’s pastor’.
-He was largely self-educated.

Raised with slaves in Worchester County in the pre-Civil War border state of Maryland, considered free because his parents were a slave father and free mother, he would become the self-educated minister of a 10,000 member multi-racial Methodist Church – in an era where most churches were segregated based on race.

Charles Albert Tindley was born on the Joseph Brindell farm near Berlin, Maryland, on July 7, 1851 to Charles and Hester Miller Tindley. When he was less than five years old his mother died, and he would be raised by his sister. Because economic conditions were poor for the African Americans in the mid-19th Century, Tindley was ‘hired out’ as a young boy by his father, receiving pay for working in the fields alongside slaves – providing young Tindley with the experiences of working on a slave plantation, and his family with a much needed income.

As a youth Tindley would be denied the opportunity for an education. First: he was in the field helping his family during the day. Secondly, although he was considered ‘free born’, schools in his area were for white students – so he taught himself how to read and write.

When he was about seventeen, Tindley married Daisy Henry. He would move to Philadelphia with his family in order to better support them. Working during the day as a janitor and attending school at night, he strove to achieve the American ideal. He once commented “I made a rule to learn at least one new thing—a thing I did not know the day before—each day.”

Tindley had varied educational experiences. He put himself through night school. He earned a Divinity Degree through a correspondence course. He never graduated from a college or seminary. In his seeking the source of truth from the Bible, he studied Greek at the Boston School of Theology. In order to better understand the Old Testament, Tindley studied Hebrew through a synagogue in Philadelphia. He would ultimately be awarded two honorary doctorate degrees: one from North Carolina, the other from Maryland.

He was employed as a janitor from 1880 to 1885 at the Bainbridge Street Methodist Church in Philadelphia. The same church granted him a license to preach – and he would be assigned there as its pastor in 1902 after pasturing in Delaware and New Jersey. The church had 130 African American members when Tindley was appointed as its pastor, and the congregation would reach 10,000 members under his guidance – and would be a multiracial congregation that included African Americans, Europeans, Jews and Hispanics. He led his church in ministering to Philadelphia’s poor – by establishing soup kitchens and a clothing ministry - as well as advocating civil rights in the early 20th century. As a tribute to the accomplishments of the man who led the church for over thirty years, Bainbridge was renamed Tindley Methodist Episcopal Church in the 1920s - over the objections of Tindley.

Tindley was preached powerful messages, and – although technically musically illiterate - began writing hymns that reflected his background – music that later became known as gospel music, which was based on feelings engendered by a history of oppression. He would dictate the words and tunes to a transcriber who would write down the formal musical notes and words. Eventually he would write over forty-five hymns, and while he apparently did not intend for his music to be sung congregationally, some of his hymns wound up in the Methodist hymnal and are sung around the world today. Perhaps one of the most famous of his hymns is “Stand By Me”.

When the storms of life are raging, stand by me;
When the world is tossing me, like a ship upon the sea,
Thou who rulest wind and water, stand by me.

Other well-known hymns by Tindley include “We’ll Understand Better, By and By”, “Lord, I’ve Tried”, and “I Shall Overcome”. Many believe that the words and intent of “I Shall Overcome” was the basis of the anthem for the Civil Rights movement, “We Shall Overcome”.

While many of his sermons are lost, the messages found in his songs remain. These messages are based on his past, and the events occurring in his life, ringing true to us today – over seventy years after the death of their author.

From “We’ll Understand Better, By and By”:
We are often destitute of the things that life demands,
Want of food and want of shelter, thirsty hills and barren lands;
We are trusting in the Lord, and according to God's Word,
We will understand it better by and by.

Or “Nothing Between”, written in 1906 when the church was negotiating to buy a new site for its growing congregation.

Nothing between my soul and my Savior,
naught of this world’s delusive dream;
I have renounced all sinful pleasure;
Jesus is mine, there’s nothing between.
Nothing between my soul and my Savior,
so that his blessed face may be seen;
nothing preventing the least of his favor;
keep the way clear! Let nothing between.

Tindley would pass away on July 26, 1933, from a gangrene infection in his foot. He was 82 years old. It was at the deepest point of the Great Depression when Tindley was buried in Eden Memorial Cemetery in Collingdale, Pennsylvania, and the congregation could not afford a marker for his grave. The situation was rectified in 2002 when 3000 members of his church met in a memorial to Tindley that met, provided a headstone, and remembered Dr. Tindley.

LOCAL LIBRARY RESOURCES:

There are no biographies of Charles Tindley in our local library.

WEB RESOURCES:

Christian History Timeline
Cyber Hymnal
Lower Shore
Preparing for Eternity
Taylor House Museum
Thinkquest
United Methodist Portal
Wikipedia
World Wide Faith News

PHOTO SOURCES:

T 01. Charles Tindley portrait, Find a Grave, by Curtis Jackson
T 02. Charles A. Tindley, Cyberhymnal
T 03. I Shall Overcome songsheet, Thinkquest
T 04. Tindley Memorial, Find a Grave, by Curtis Jackson
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April 20: “I shall soon be in glory…”

Do you know who this is?
-He was a pioneer missionary to the Indians
-He was expelled from Yale
-His diary and journals are studied by missionaries today

His life would be a short one – he died at the age of twenty-nine – but it would be a life that became a dedicated Christian service which would open the Christian Gospel to the Native Americans living in frontiers of the English colonies in America. His personal ministry to the Indians would only last three years, but his diary and his journal – edited by Jonathan Edwards – would continue to be an influence on missionaries up through the present day.

David Brainerd was born on April 20, 1718 in Haddam, Connecticut to Hezekiah and Dorothy Brainerd. David was the sixth of nine children born to the couple – plus one more child that the widowed Dorothy brought into the marriage with Hezekiah. David’s family was both influential and devout. His grandfather had come to the colonies and became a landowner, commissioner for the General Court, a justice of the peace, and a deacon in the church. David’s father continued in public service, becoming a representative to the General Assembly, Speaker of the House, and a member of the Governor’s Council, as well as being a large landowner. David’s father was known for integrity, personal dignity, and self-restraint, with a strong Christian foundation.

Hezekiah Brainerd died when David was nine, and Dorothy died when he was fourteen. Orphaned, he lived for four years with his older sister Jerusha and her husband, Samuel Spencer. There he suffered from depression and loneliness, and even described himself later in life saying that from his youth he was "somewhat sober, and inclined rather to melancholy." When he was nineteen he moved to a farm in Durham that he had inherited from his father. While living and working on the farm he decided that he needed to obtain an education, and moved in with Phineas Fisk – the pastor of the church at Haddam – to pursue his religious interests. While there he committed his life to the ministry, and – in 1739 – enrolled in Yale.

He suffered from illnesses during his tenure at Yale. First, during his freshman year, he missed several weeks of classes due to the measles. During his sophomore year he was again sent home to rest and recover because he unaccountably began spitting up blood – probably an early sign of the tuberculosis that would eventually take his life.

When he returned from this second extended absence from his classes, David found that the Great Awakening and a visit from evangelist George Whitefield had radically changed the tenor of life and thoughts for the students at the college. While the students embraced the Great Awakening, the administration remained far more staid in their religious views. As disrespect grew between the two camps, the college trustees issued a statement saying: "If any student of this College shall directly or indirectly say, that the Rector, either of the Trustees or Tutors are hypocrites, carnal or unconverted men, he shall for the first offence make a public confession in the hall, and for the second offence be expelled."

During the winter of David’s third year, a freshman overheard David say in a private conversation that the tutor Chauncey Whittlesey had "no more grace than a chair." He was also reported as saying that he was surprised the Rector Thomas Clap "did not drop down dead" for fining students who became followers of Gilbert Tennent. David denied the latter, but refused to offer a public apology for the former, though he confessed his guilt. As a result, he was expelled from the college, though he stood at the top of his class academically.

David was greatly disappointed and depressed at his expulsion, but he continued his religious training, living with and being trained by several pastors, receiving a license to preach in 1742. He was asked to consider a ministry to become a missionary to the American Indians, and on Nov. 25, 1742, accepted the ministry, beginning what was to be a short but far-reaching ministry.

He began his work with the Indians at Kaunaumeek, located eighteen miles southeast of Albany, on April 1, 1743. There he slept on the ground until he built a rough shelter. He learned about the way of life of the Indians, won their trust, taught them English, and tried to teach them about Christianity.

He would write in his journal while on horseback, trying to use his time wisely. A 1743 entry read: “Lord's Day, December 29 ...After public worship was over, I went to my house, proposing to preach again after a short season of intermission. But they soon came in one after another; with tears in their eyes, to know, "what they should do to be saved..."

In 1744 he would be sent to Pennsylvania, arriving near present day Easton. He would be ill and weak from the increasing detrimental effect of tuberculosis for the duration of his stay there, but served as a pastor for the white settlers in the area, as well as traveling on horseback daily to preach, teach, and pray with the Indians of the area. He travelled extensively, travelling 340 miles on horseback in 22 days to visit various Indian tribes. Rain or shine, hailstones or snow could slow him down in his mission to spread the Gospel, but could not stop him.

Yet conversions to the Christian faith on the western frontier were rare. He wrote: “As to my success here I cannot say much as yet: the Indians seem generally kind, and well-disposed towards me, and are mostly very attentive to my instructions, and seem willing to be taught further.”

In 1745 he began to service the Indians in western New Jersey, as well as those in Pennsylvania. Finally he began to see the results of his work in the frontier. His translator, Tattamy, as well as his wife were both converted to Christianity. Soon after that David was preaching to sixty-five Indians, and would have a number of converts, baptizing twenty-five at the end of August. Indians – and white settlers – began to travel from miles around to see this young white preacher, and to respond to his call to the Gospel. By 1746 he had over 140 followers. That same year he engaged a schoolmaster to teach the Indians English, and provided primers for them.

But, his tuberculoses was weakening him. He wrote that he "...sweat much in the night, so that my linen was almost wringing wet all night, was exceedingly weak, so that I could scarcely ride; it seemed sometimes as if I must fall off from my horse, and lie in the open woods..."

He made his last visit to his Indian converts in March 1747, then traveled to New England to try and rest and recover from his disease. He never made it back to the wilderness and the Indians that he loved. He would die on February 14, 1748, while trying to recuperate while at Jonathan Edward’s home. His last words were: "He will come, and will not tarry. I shall soon be in glory; soon be with God and His angels."

David’s legacy is multifaceted. Factors such as overcoming loss of parents, ill health, expulsion from college, dealing with depression, and – finally - the realization that one’s life does not need to be long to leave its mark on history and people. His dedication to the Native Americans continued after his death: His replacement as a missionary was, at his request, his brother John Brainerd, who would labor in the mission field for the next thirty years.

LOCAL LIBRARY RESOURCES:

Our local library has no biographies on David Brainerd.

WEB RESOURCES:

Christian Biography Resources
Hyperhistory biography
Life and Diary of David Brainerd

Memoirs of Rev. Brainerd
Wikipedia

PHOTO SOURCES:

01. Color Portrait: Wikipedia
02. Preaching to the Indians Wikipedia
03. Grave site: Find a grave, by Mike Reed

February 12: Clergyman, Author, and Witch Hunter

Do you know who this is?
-He had a speech impediment (stuttering)
-He survived three wives and 13 of his 15 children
-He was a prolific writer, authoring over 400 books and pamphlets

He was the son and grandson of a clergyman and was born in Boston, Massachusetts on February 12, 1663. He himself would become noted not only as a clergyman recognized in is own right, but also a prolific author and – perhaps most notably – as one of the judges in the Salem Witch Trials.

Cotton Mather was the eldest child of Increase and Maria Mather. He was given his first name after the family name of his mother, who was the daughter of John Cotton who, in turn, was one of the most recognized American religious theologians of the day. Cotton knew as a child that he was expected to follow in his father’s footsteps. His father was the minister of the Second Church in Boston, an respected and loyal agent of England in the colonies, as well as the non-resident President of Harvard College. This expectation created a very serious child, dedicated to his studies, and whose fear of failing his parents showed up in a speech impediment: a stutter when he spoke. It would take years of practice before Cotton overcame his speech problem.

Cotton attended the Boston Latin School under its most famous 17th century headmaster, Ezekiel Cheever. He would enter Harvard College at the age of twelve, and would graduate from Harvard in 1678 at the age of 15. His father would hand him his first degree. At the age of nineteen Cotton would receive his master’s degree, and in 1690 was made a fellow of Harvard College and was involved in the affairs of the college throughout his life. He would begin studying theology, but because of his stuttering he was forced to give it up. He began studying medicine instead. Later he would conquer his stuttering, and would finish his preparation for the ministry. In 1681 he was elected the assistant pastor of his father’s church. In 1688, at the age of twenty-five, he was left in charge of the largest congregation in New England when his father went to England as an agent for the colony. Cotton would become the full minister of the Second (or North) Church of Boston upon the death of his father in 1723.

Cotton would marry several times during his life, each marriage ending in sadness. In 1686 he married Abigail Philips, having nine children by her before her death in 1702. A year later he married a widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Hubbard, by whom he had six additional children before her death in 1713. He married a third time in 1715 to another widow, Mrs. Lydia George. She would go insane. Of his fifteen children, only six lived to adulthood, and only two outlived him.

Perhaps Cotton is best known for his involvement in the Salem witchcraft trials.

During the 17th Century, the idea that New England occupied what was known as the Devil’s land established a deep-set fear and concern among the English Puritan settlers that the Devil would fight back against the invaders. They also feared a divine retribution from God over an apparently increasing lack of faith and piety among New Englanders.

This was the climate that existed in New England when the Goodwin children incurred a strange illness. Cotton saw this as an opportunity to explore the spiritual world and treated the children with fasting and prayer, writing a detailed account of the illness in a booklet titled Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions. In 1692 the same strange illness the Goodwin children had began appearing in others, and the cry of witchcraft surfaced. Massachusetts governor Sir William Phips established a court to try the suspected witches that had recently been arrested in Salem, Massachusetts. Cotton would not be a judge at the trials, although his influence, sermons, investigations, and writings had – in effect – caused the trials to be held, and he would attend several of the trials. However, his voice on the existence of witchcraft was heard through his sermons and his writings. Still, although he had urged strong punishment of the devil's work, he suggested much milder punishment than death for those found to be guilty of witchcraft (the use of magic). His approach was both religious and scientific. He separated himself from the trials as such and in fact warned the judges against "spectral [ghostlike] evidences". However, the judges did not heed his advice. In his Magnalia Christi Americana (1702) Mather declared his disapproval of the methods used in the trials, even though he did not join the public protest while the trials were being held. Later criticism of the trials would fall in part on Cotton because of his beliefs and stands on the spiritual world and his early involvement with the unusual occurrences in Salem.

Despite a loss in popularity after the trials, Cotton would continue to contribute positively to the New England colonies. He received a doctorate in divinity from the University of Glasgow in 1710, and was honored in 1713 by being elected to the Royal Society of London. He advocated the use of vaccinations against smallpox, and was threatened for doing so – with a bomb being thrown through the window of his house. He regularly wrote letters to various men of learning around the world, was active in church and community, and continued to pastor the North Church. He continued to write and publish, and many later American writers, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Thoreau, Harriet Beecher Stowe, James Russell Lowell, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow all acknowledged their debt to him. Even American icon Benjamin Franklin noted the influence of some of Cotton’s writings on his life and his beliefs.
Cotton Mather died on February 13, 1728, in Boston and was interred in Copps Hill Burying Ground, Boston.

LOCAL LIBRARY RESOURCES:
No biographries are available locally

WEB RESOURCES:
1911 Encyclopedia
Cotton Mather Homepage
NNDB
Notable Biographies
Wikipedia

PHOTO RESOURCES:
Library of Congress

Man of Faith, Man of Vision

He became the first American-born Catholic bishop
He became the first American archbishop

John Carroll was born on January 8, 1736, in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, the fourth of seven children born to Daniel and Eleanor Darnall Carroll. His father was a merchant and planter, engaging in the profitable tobacco trade of the era.

John was first educated at home by his mother, who had been educated in a convent school in France. When he was 11, John would be sent to a Jesuit school, then a year later he was sent to the Jesuit school of St. Omer in French Flanders. He would stay overseas for the next 26 years, mostly in France. John pursued his education and sought the priesthood, taking his final vows in 1771. Upon this achievement he became a chaperone for a young baron, toured Europe, with a goal of visiting Rome. John wanted to visit Rome because the pope was on the verge of suppressing the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). He arrived there – incognito - in the fall of 1772, and soon after received word of the suppression of a group that had been his mentor and teacher for a quarter of a century. John wrote to his mother:

"The greatest blessing which in my estimation I could receive from God, would be
immediate death."

He returned to America in 1774 – and a revolution. He would go back to Maryland, living with his mother in Maryland. As a result of laws discriminating against Catholics, there was then no public Catholic Church in Maryland, so John began the life of a missionary in Maryland and Virginia. He would found St. John the Evangelist Parish at Forest Glen, holding mass on a regular basis. In 1776 the Continental Congress would ask John to accompany Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase, and his cousin Charles Carroll to Quebec to try to persuade the French Catholics to join in the Revolution. While he questioned the propriety of a priest joining the committee, he also saw it as his duty as a patriot. The local Catholic bishop in Quebec tried to block his influence, and he would return to the colonies with an ailing Franklin in 1777.

His sympathies were with the revolutionary cause, which he saw as favorable to the future of the Church in the new nation. With independence ratified by treaty in 1783, he wrote jubilantly to an official in Rome that… "our Religious system has undergone a revolution, if possible, more extraordinary, than our political one." Also in 1783, he – and five other priests – began a series of meetings that established the Catholic Church in the United States. John worked hard toward establishing Catholicism in the face of discrimination. Only 4 of the original thirteen states included equality of religion in their constitutions – Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, and Maryland – with all but Pennsylvania having been regularly visited by John as a missionary.

In 1784 – based on a recommendation from Benjamin Franklin – John was appointed the Superior of Missions in the United States of North America, establishing the first Catholic hierarchy in the new nation. In 1789, Baltimore would be made the first diocese in the United States, and John Carroll was made its bishop.

He represented to Congress the need of a constitutional provision for the protection and maintenance of religious liberty, and doubtless to him, in part, is due the provision in Article Sixth, Section 3, of the Constitution, which declares that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States", and also the first amendment, that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..” To a Catholic critic in 1790, John wrote:

"Their blood flowed as freely (in proportion to their numbers) to cement the fabric of independence as that of any of their fellow-citizens. They concurred with perhaps greater unanimity than any other body of men in recommending and promoting that government from whose influence America anticipates all the blessings of justice, peace, plenty, good order, and civil and religious liberty"

In 1806, he oversaw the construction of America's first Catholic Cathedral, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore, Maryland The Basilica was designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe – who had been the architect of the United States Capitol. He became the first Catholic archbishop in the United States in 1808 when Baltimore was elevated to an archdiocese.

He died on December 3, 1815, almost reaching his eightieth birthday. His remains are interred in the crypt of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which can be visited by the public.

One man can have a profound influence on a nation’s history. He took a religion that was discriminated against, and made it a part of the American fabric. His influence in protecting all religions – in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights – is still felt today. His support of separation of church and state – in the intent and understanding of the founding fathers – was crucial to establishing that concept. The original intent was that there was to be no ‘state’ religion (as existed in most if not all parts of the world in the 18th century), which could discriminate and persecute against other religions as being ‘false’. The original founders never thought of a total rejection of religion by a government – or of a government controlled by (or controlling) a religion. His dedication to education as a great equalizer is still carried on today: he was part of the founding of Georgetown University, and has a Jesuit university (John Carroll University) named after him. He was a phenomenal man in a revolutionary era.

Web Resources:
America’s First Cathedral
Catholic Encyclopedia
Wikipedia

Local Library Resources:
No biographies are available