Carleton was a typical free churchman.
He was not only so by inheritance and environment,
but because he was master of the New Testament.
His penetrating acumen and power to read rightly historical
documents enabled him to see what kind of churches
they were which the apostles founded. With the
open New Testament before him, he did not worry himself
about the validity of the ordination of those who should
preach to him or administer the sacraments, though
there was no more loyal churchman and Christian.
He believed in the kind of churches which were first
formed at Jerusalem and in the Roman cities by the
twelve whom Jesus chose, over which not even the apostles
themselves ventured to exercise authority; but rather,
on the other hand, submitted to the congregation,
that is, the assembled believers. In the New
Testament, Carleton read that the members of the churches
were on the same level, all being equal before their
great Head and risen Lord, no member having the smallest
claim to any kind of authority over or among his fellow
members. In such churches, organized to-day as
closely as possible after the New Testament model,
he believed, and to such churches he gave his heartiest
support, while ever deeply sympathetic with his fellow
Christians who associated themselves under other methods
of government.
His strong faith in the essential
right and truth held by independent churches in fraternity,
never wavered; and this faith received even increasing
strength because of his trust in human nature when
moved from above. He believed in the constant
presence of the Holy Spirit, as leading Christians
unto the way of all truth. He thought the centuries
to come would see a shedding off of many things dogmatic
theologians consider to be vital to Christianity, and
the closer apprehension by society of the meaning
of Christ’s life and words. He believed
not only that God was, but that he is. Though
reared in New England, he had little of that provincial
narrowness which so often mars and cramps the minds
of those who otherwise are the most agreeable of all
Americans, the cultivated New Englanders.
No sermon so moved Carleton, and so kindled responsive
radiance in his face, as those which showed that God
is to-day leading and guiding humanity and individuals
as surely as in the age of the burning bush or the
smoking altar. He believed that neither the ancient
Jews nor the early Christians had any advantages over
us for spiritual culture, or for the foundation and
increase of their faith in God, but rather less.
He heartily approved of whatever pierced sectarian
shams and traditional hypocrisies and revealed reality.
Hence his coolness and impartiality
in controversy, whatever might be his own strong personal
liking. His profound knowledge of human nature
in all its forms, not excepting the clerical, professional,
and theological sort, especially when in
the fighting mood, enabled him to measure
accurately the personal equation in every problem,
even when masked to the point of self-deception.
His judicial balance and his power to see the real
point in a controversy made him an admirable guide,
philosopher, and friend. His vital rather than
traditional view and use of the truth, and his sunny
calm and poise, were especially manifested during
that famous period of trouble which broke out in that
noble but close corporation, the American Board of
Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
Through all the subsidiary skirmishes
connected with the prosecution of the Andover professors,
and the great debates in the public meetings of the
American Board, Carleton was in hearty sympathy with
those opinions and convictions which have since prevailed.
He was in favor of sending men and women into missionary
fields who showed, by their physical, intellectual,
and spiritual make-up, that they were fitted for their
noble work, whether or not their theology stood the
test of certain arbitrary standards in vogue with a
faction in a close corporation.
Carleton was never averse to truth
being tried on a fair field, whether of discussion,
of controversy before courts, or, if necessary, at
the rifle’s muzzle. He was not one of those
feeble souls who retreat from all agitation.
He had once fronted “a lie in arms” and
was accustomed to probe even an angel’s professions.
He knew that in the history of man there must often
be a storm before truth is revealed in clearness.
No one realized more fully than he that, among the
evangelical churches holding the historic form of Christianity,
the part ever played and perhaps yet to be played by
Congregationalists, is that of pioneers. He knew
that out of the bosom of this body of Christians had
come very many of the great leaders of thought who
have so profoundly modified Christian theology in
America and Europe, and that by Congregationalists
are written most of the books shaping the vanguard
of thought in America, and he rejoiced in the fact.
In brief, Charles Carleton Coffin was neither a “mean
Yankee,” nor, in his general spirit, a narrow New Englander. He was not a local,
but a genuinely national American and free churchman. He believed that the idea
of the people ruling in the Church as well as in the State had a historical, but
not absolutely necessary, connection with New England. In his view, the
Congregational form of a church government was as appropriate to the Middle and
Western States of our country, as to the six Eastern States. Ever ready to
receive new light and to ponder a new proposition, he grew and developed, as the
years went on, in his conception of the origin of Congregational Christianity in
apostolic times, and of its re-birth after the release of the Bible from its
coffin of dead Latin and Greek into the living tongues of Europe, among the
so-called Anabaptists. Through his researches he had long suspected that those
Christians, whom prelates and political churchmen had, besides murdering and
attempting to exterminate, so vilified and misrepresented, were our spiritual
ancestors and the true authors in modern time of church government through the
congregation, and of freedom of the conscience in religion. He often spoke of
that line of succession of thought and faith which he saw so clearly traced
through the Lollards and the weavers of eastern England, the Dutch Anabaptists,
the Brownists, and the Pilgrims. He gave his hearty adherence to what he
believed to be the demonstration of the truth as set forth in an article in The
New World, by the writer, in the following letter, written February 27, 1896,
only four days before his sudden death and among the very last fruits of his
pen. Like the editor who prints “letters from correspondents,” the biographer is
“not responsible for the opinions expressed.”
Alwington, 9 Shailer
Street, Brookline, Mass.
Dear Dr. Griffis: I have
read your Anabaptist article, once
for my own meditation, and once for Mrs. Coffin’s
benefit. I am glad you have shown up Motley, and
that toleration did not begin with Roger Williams.
Your article historically will dethrone two saints, Williams
and Lord Baltimore. You have rendered an
invaluable service to history. Our Baptist
and Catholic brethren will not thank you, but
the rest of the world will. It is becoming clearer
every day that the motive force which was behind
the foundations of this Republic came from the
“Lollards” and the “Beggars.”
I hope you will give us more such articles.
Having been for many years an active
member of the Congregational Club, of Boston, Carleton
was in 1890 elected president, and served during one
year. This parent of the fifty or more Congregational
Clubs scattered throughout the country was organized
in 1869, and has had an eventful history of power
and influence. Some of the topics discussed during
his administration were “Relations of the Church
to Politics,” “Congregationalism in Boston,”
“Bible Class Study,” and “How shall
the Church adapt itself to modern needs?” It
was under his presidency, also, that the Boston Congregational
Club voted unanimously, February 24, 1890, to appoint
a committee to obtain the necessary funds and erect
a memorial at Delfshaven in honor of the Dutch Republicans
and the Pilgrim Fathers, both hosts and
guests. When the suggestion to raise some such
memorial, made by the Hon. S. R. Thayer, American
Minister at the Hague, was first read in the meeting
of the Club in October, 1889, and a motion made to
refer it to the Executive Committee, Carleton seconded
and supported the motion with a speech in warm commendation.
He was among the very first to make and pay a subscription
in money. The enterprise still awaits the happy
day of completion, and the responsibility of the enterprise
lies, by its own vote, upon the Boston Congregational
Club. The Forefathers’ Day celebration
of the Club was of uncommon interest during the year
of Mr. Coffin’s presidency. A leading feature
was the display on a screen of views of Pilgrim shrines
in England which Mr. Coffin had obtained on a visit
two years before.
Except his membership in the various
historical and learned societies and in religious
organizations, Mr. Coffin was not connected with secret,
benevolent, social, or mysterious brotherhoods.
He did not believe in secret fraternities, but rather
considered that these had much to do with weakening
the Church of Christ, and with making men satisfied
with a lower standard of ethics and human sociability
than that taught by Jesus. He held that the brotherhood
instituted of Christ, in an open chapter of twelve,
and without secrets of any kind, was sufficient for
him and for all men. More than once, when going
abroad, or travelling in the various parts of his own
country, which is nearly as large as all Europe, he
was advised to join a lodge and unite himself with
one or more of the best secret fraternities, for assistance
and recognition while travelling. All these kind
invitations he steadily declined. He was not even
a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, though
often invited to join a Post. He never became
a member, for he did not see the necessity of secrecy,
even for this organization, though he was very often
an honored guest at their public meetings. The
Church of Christ was to Carleton an all-sufficient
society and power.