The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 71, September, 1863: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and PoliticsVarious
Religion
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 71, September, 1863: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
Samuel D. Phillips was a young man of much religions feeling, though he
never advertised himself as having it, and a devout communicant of the
Episcopal Church. He was a gentleman born and bred, inheriting the
quality as well as adding to it by self-discipline. He had good
business-capacity, never complained of inconveniences, was humane, yet
not misled by sentiment, and he gave more of his time, otherwise
unoccupied, to teaching than almost any other superintendent. I was
recently asking the most advanced pupils of a school on St. Helena who
first taught them their letters, and the frequent answer was, "Mr.
Phillips." He was at home in the autumn for a vacation, was at the
funeral of Barnard in Dorchester, and though at the time in imperfect
health, he hastened back to his charge, feeling that the death of
Barnard, whose district was the same as his own, rendered his immediate
return necessary to the comfort of his people. He went,--but his health
never came back to him. His quarters were in the same house where
Barnard had died, and in a few days, on the 5th of December, he followed
him. He was tended in his sickness by the negroes, and one day, having
asked that his pillow might be turned, he uttered the words, "Thank
God," and died. There was the same grief as at Barnard's death, the same
funeral-rites at the St. Helena Church, and his remains were borne North
to bereaved relatives.
Daniel Bowe was an alumnus of Yale College, and a student of the Andover
Theological Seminary, not yet graduated when he turned from his
professional studies at the summons of Christian duty. He labored
faithfully as a superintendent, looking after the physical, moral, and
educational interests of his people. He had a difficult post, was
overburdened with labor, and perhaps had not the faculty of taking as
good care of himself as was even consistent with his duties. He came
home in the summer, commended the enterprise and his people to the
citizens and students of Andover, and returned. He afterwards fell ill,
and, again coming North, died October 30th, a few days after reaching
New York. The young woman who was betrothed to him, but whom he did not
live to wed, has since his death sought this field of labor; and on my
recent visit I found her upon the plantation where he had resided,
teaching the children whom he had first taught, and whose parents he had
guided to freedom. Truly, the age of Christian romance has not passed
away!
* * * * *
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