CHANNING, William Ellery, American Unitarian clergyman: b. Newport, R. I., 7 April 1780; d. Bennington, Vt., 2 Oct. 1842. Enter ing Harvard College at 14 he took his degree in 1798 and though at first inclining to the study of medicine, presently decided upon the profes sion of the ministry. After his graduation he spent two years in Virginia as a tutor, but in pursuance of his ascetic views regarding renun ciation and the necessity of subduing the ani mal nature, he endeavored to accustom himself to hardships during this period, even denying himself sufficiency of food and clothing. The result of this unwise course was to implant in him the tendency to disease that made him for the greater part of his career a semi-invalid. Returning from Virginia he took up the study of theology, making at the start a careful study of the evidences of Christianity, wishing, as he said, to know what Christ taught and not what men made him teach. In 1801 he was made re gent of Harvard, the duties of this office being light and the salary sufficient for his support while continuing his studies. In 1802 he preached his first sermon at Medford, Mass., from the text "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have, give I thee." In 1803 he was ordained pastor of the Federal Street Church in Boston and continued in that relation for the rest of his life. In the earlier years of his min istry the denominational spirit was not espe cially strong in him and with the ministers of the Trinitarian churches in Boston, he was on most friendly terms. His opinions were ripen ing during this period, however, and in 1819, at the ordination of Rev. Jared Sparks in Balti more, he preached a sermon in which for the first time he gave free expression to the princi ples of Unitarian Christianity, upholding the exercise of reason in religious matters; declar ing the Bible to be °a book written for men in the language of men and its meaning to be sought in the same manner as that of other books" He also objected to the doctrine of the Trinity, affirming his belief that Christ was distinct from and inferior to God, and sent to men as a great moral teacher, not as a medi ator between erring man and offended deity. This discourse gave rise to much controversy and fixed definitely the Unitarian position as distinguished from that of the Trinitarians. It made him, moreover, the recognized leader of American Unitarianism, and much as he dis liked controversy he never hesitated from ut tering what he believed to be true because of hostile criticism. His greatest dread was of becoming creed-bound and thus losing percep tion of new truths, and he even spoke of him self as "little of a Unitarian," and standing aloof "from all hut those who strive and pray for clear light, for a purer and more effectual manifestation of Christian truth." After 1824 Rev. Ezra Stiles Gannett was associated with him in the ministry of the Federal Street par ish and from this epoch his time was largely given to philanthropic and literary work, the asceticism of his youth having long since been supplanted by a more wholesome understand ing of life and its requirements and duties. He visited Europe in 1822 and became acquaint ed with Cokridge and Wordsworth. He was
one of the first to acknowledge the greatness of the latter, and save Shakespeare, he read no poet oftener. Channing was a fearless de fender of freedom and upheld Garrison when that great abolitionist was the most generally detested person in Boston. In the pulpit his mission, as he saw it, was to free men's minds from servile conceptions of God, to disabuse religion of its benumbing terrors and to show forth to men the real significance of their moral natures. His writings on theological, social and philanthropic themes have received the widest circulation and been translated into French, Italian, German, Icelandic, Russian and Hungarian. The most notable of them in clude 'Evidences of Revealed Religion' ; 'Es say on National Literature' (1823) ; (Remarks on the Character and Writings of John Milton' (1826); 'Character and Writings of Fine (1829); 'The Duty of the Free States' (1835); 'Negro Slavery' (1835); 'Self Cul ture) (1838). He had a life-long abhorrence of slavery, but in his 'Duty of the Free States' his feelings on the subject find fullest expres sion. His name, moreover, was associated with the most of the social reforms of his day and besides bearing a part in the great anti slavery agitation, he warmly sympathized in the temperance movement, was an ardent lover of peace and deeply interested in schemes for educational advance. He stood for intellectual and spiritual ideas and foresaw dangers both to nations and individuals In the spread of materialism, in the contented adoption of in adequate aims, complacent satisfaction with perishable interests. In an age when com paratively few religious leaders dared to think outside of narrow prescribed limits, Channing stood forth as the intellectual champion of freedom. Much of his influence may have been due, no doubt, to the singular sweetness of his disposition and his entire nobility of character, but more of it wag due to the fact that he spoke with utter fearlessness and thus inspired other men to free themselves from the fetters of dogma or of intellectual timidity. Although two generations have passed since his death, his name is still both familiar and beloved and his beneficent influence, far from lessening its hold upon men, has deepened and widened with the years. Channing s literary style, while not highly ornamental, was both clear and vigorous and his sentences were usu ally short and direct, though it is said that his personal preferences in the writings of others were for long and involved sentences. On 1 June 1903, a bronze statue of Channing by Her bert Adams was unveiled in the public garden in Boston, Mass., its site being opposite the Ar lington Street Church, the successor of the Fed eral Street Church, of which he was so long pastor. The statue and its monumental setting were the gift of John Foster to the city. Con sult 'Lives' by W. H. Charming and C. T. Brooks (3 vols., London 1848, and reprinted Boston 1880) ;