Now it happened to be the fortune of Alonzo Ames Miner to span, in his mature experience, these widely dissimilar epochs. His active ministry beginning about the year 1840, for a quarter of a century he was, so far as regard is had simply to his position as a minister in the Universalist Church, engaged in a hand-to-hand, for special periods incessant, conflict alike with the dogmas of the Calvinistic sects, and with others so far as they took from the older creeds their articles of belief. His work as a constructer and even leader in the polities, the organizations, and the institutions of the denomination of his love, certainly began before the year 1865, but for the years succeeding that date up to the hour of his decease, he was, by the cheerful acquiescence of his brethren, their great leader in the constant endeavor to adjust the machinery and scope of his denomination to the new conditions of thought and practical life; and during all of the three decades he was on terms of fellowship and fraternal cooperation with the churches still nominally Calvinistic. His seniors, of course, knew as well as he the animus of the sects at the time literally hostile, in many instances bitterly so, in their attitude towards the doctrines of Universalism and the people who took the name of Universalists. His juniors know the profoundly different feeling that, with here and there an exception, now pervades the nominally Orthodox communities; but they can never fully know, and with difficulty can form a conception of, the malign spirit that in the first half of the century thought itself doing God's service to speak evil everywhere of the sect which had for teachers and

champions Murray, Ballou, and their co-workers. But, despite the difficulty in any attempt to make impressive and distinct the sectarian bitterness of the earlier time, an intelligible portraiture of Mr. Miner's first twenty-five years' experience as a Universalist minister is largely contingent upon something of success in that endeavor. The hostility which he, in common with his co-workers, everywhere encountered, had in it distinct constituents which admit of a not less distinct elucidation.

First of all, and in the difficulty of dealing with it, is to be noted its almost malignant Pharisaism. The "I am holier than thou" was affirmed in was affirmed in every lineament of the truly Calvinistic face. As the great divine walked the streets there was that in every step which seemed to say: "If you would see a holy man you have but to look here!" Well does the biographer remember an occasion when, a noted revivalist having drawn to the church where he was to preach, a throng that overflowed into the street, the pastor having the service in charge gave a notice in these words: "The object of this meeting is that of reaching the sinners. Others are therefore requested to withdraw to the vestry where a prayer meeting will be held." The "others" had no difficulty in making the "differentiation," and on the instant withdrew; nor had the sinners who accepted the invitation to remain! It may be doubted if such a notice could at this day be given in any New England pulpit. Despite time and place it would evoke derisive laughter. But in 1840 it was so much in keeping with the "matter of course," that its audacious self-righteousness hardly entered any one's thought.

Dr. Miner never coveted the thrift that follows fawning. He suppressed nothing that he felt should be He made no avowals that did not express

spoken.
honest convictions.

He was made of glass, to be seen

to the core of his soul. He was read by thousands, and those who read him at once knew him. Even bigotry feels its littleness when it presumes to call black that which every one not blind sees to be white. And here, in the person of Alonzo Ames Miner, stood an unmistakable apostle of righteousness, in character as white as Paul standing on Mars' Hill. He stood on the loftiest pedestal America could give a minister of the Universalist creed. Ere long he was invincible. He asked no favor; he simply took his own. And he lifted all that he represented, in public respect. It has been conceded that the causes which have given to Universalism and its organization the position in Boston, in Massachusetts, in New England, in other not in all sections of the land which are theirs by intrinsic right, are many and various. It cannot be an erring judgment that, in accounting for the great advance and enlightenment of public sentiment, gives very conspicuous mention of Alonzo Ames Miner and his Boston ministry.

Good deeds, ever cumulative in their continuous influence, never die. Even if the agencies which set them in motion cease their activity, the deeds go on by a momentum of their own. The immediate may be temporary; the remote is impregnable. It is conceivable that Macaulay's traveller from New Zealand, may ere long, with pick and spade, dig deep to find

the traditional foundations that once supported a traditional Gilded Dome, and that a tongue as foreign to Saxon as Saxon now is to natives of the Orient, will preach in temples reared upon sites of ancient ruins. But the results that have been designated as "remote" have got beyond the hands of the spoiler. In them, part of which he was, A. A. Miner will live; by his deeds he will continue to speak.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE BOSTON MINISTRY-SPECIAL COMMEMORATIONS

AND RECEPTIONS.

A

LONG chapter could be filled with particulars of receptions and social gatherings, and yet restrict the account to those which were specially to honor the pastor and his wife. A A very brief mention must be made of a few of those happy occasions. In another chapter the visit of Dr. and Mrs. Miner to California has been sketched. A parting service preceded their going, and a welcome service immediately followed their return. The semi-centennial of the organization of the Sunday school connected with the Society was an event by no means to pass by without due commemoration. A well-planned programme was carried out on the evening of Sunday, the 3d of May, 1885, of course under the direction of Superintendent B. B. Whittemore. As there has been occasion to say, much of the help that came from the Lincoln family in the earlier days, and particularly of the time when the members of that family were friends indeed in that their friendship was urgently needed, it will not be invidious if it is noted here that three of them were present as officers at the semi-centennial - Mr. and Mrs. John M. and the veteran Albert L., John holding the