Brooks, Phillips

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

Phillips (1835-1893), an American clergyman. He was a native of Boston. His people were first Congregational, then became Unitarian, and landed finally in the Protestant Episcopal church . Young Brooks was educated at Harvard and then was sent to the Episcopal Theological Seminary at Alexandria, Virginia, where he qualified for the ministry. At Harvard he was at a center of abolition and Unitarian doctrines; at Alexandria, a center of slavery and Episcopal doctrine. In this way he learned to see more than one side of a question. During the Civil War he was a staunch supporter of the Union, yet held to his friendships with his old Southern classmates at the seminary. From the charge of a church in Philadelphia he was called to the rectorship of the Trinity Church of Boston, which he held from 1869 until elected bishop of Massachusetts. Aside from the powerful influence of his sermons on the private lives of his hearers, Bishop Brooks stood for the removal of sectarian prejudices. He objected to his own people's using the term "The Church," as though there were but one. He fellowed with the New England clergy and broke down much of the Puritan prejudice that existed against Episcopacy. He was respected at home and abroad. Visiting England, he was invited to preach before the queen. He delivered a series of sermons in Westminster Abbey less than a year before his death. See Episcopalian Patience and strength are what we need; an earnest use of what we have now; and all the time an earnest discontent until we come to what we ought to be. The care of the body and the care of the soul are not two duties, but two parts of one duty.