King Pipin," and where he was obeyed, though "small and delicate," with more readiness than mere physical strength could ever have commanded.
Shortly after he went to reside with his uncle, his father died. This event, however, though it produced a great change in the circumstances of the family, was not allowed to interrupt the course of his studies. After the funeral he returned to the house of his uncle, where he remained till he had reached his fifteenth year, when he was removed to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and entered at Harvard College as freshman in 1794. Before leaving New London ho came under the influence of a religious revival which took place there, a circumstance to which he was accustomed to trace the commencement of a decidedly religious life.
The four years he remained at college seem to have been most profitably spent. Besides acquiring an extensive acquaintance with classical and general literature, he read largely and thought earnestly in the department of psychology and ethics. The books which appear to have exerted most influence upon his mind and opinions were Price's Dissertations, Hutcheson on Beauty and Virtue, and Ferguson on Civil Society. To the study of Shakespeare also (the interest in whose works was then newly awakened in that quarter) he owed much; and so deep was the impression made on him by the genius of the poet, that to the close of his life one of the greatest of his intellectual treats was furnished by recitations from his writings. By patient and well-directed assiduity he trained himself to the mastery of that copious and vigorous style of composition to which his subsequent position in the world of letters is in no small measure due, and at the same time also laid the basis of his success as a public speaker, by the formal Btudy of rhetoric, and by frequent practice in addressing assemblies of his fellow-students.
For a year and a half after leaving college in 1798, Channing was resident at Richmond, in Virginia, as tutor in the family of Mr David Meade Randolph. Here he had time for study, which he employed chiefly on theological subjects. In regard to many points, touching both the evidences of Christianity and its doctrines, his mind was burdened with doubt and anxiety; and so earnestly did he labour to attain satisfaction, that his constitution sank under the incessant toil. When, in 1800, he returned to Newport, his friends were shocked to find him changed to "a thin and pallid invalid;" and unhappily, at this time were sown the seeds of that depressed condition of health which continued through life his severest trial. He remained in the bosom of his family for another year and a half, engaged in the pursuit of his studies, and in preparing himself, by physical and moral as well as intellectual training, for the work to which he was looking forward that of the ministry. In 1802 he returned to Cambridge, having been elected to the office of regent in Harvard University, a situation which, without exacting from him any large amount of service, secured to him the advantage of independence, and an opportunity of prosecuting his studies within reach of a valuable library, and under influences favourable to success. In the autumn of 1802 he began to preach, having received approbation to do so from the Cambridge Association; and in the beginning of the following year he accepted the invitation of the Congregational Church, Federal Street, Boston, to be their pastor. To this office he was ordained in June 1803.
Channing entered on his ministry with a deep and almost painful sense of the responsibility of the office he had assumed, and with an earnest desire to acquit himself faithfully of its obligations. His theological views were at this time probably not definitely fixed. We have his own assurance that he was not a Trinitarian, but he had not at this lime severed himself from those holding orthodox views. In 1808 he took part in the ordination of the Rev. J. Codman, a well-known minister of the Congregational order, when he delivered a sermon which was afterwards published. In this sermon, though the language and sentiments are such as any evangelical divine might use, there is nothing that certainly indicates that the author held any of the views peculiarly distinctive of evangelical orthodoxy unless it be the application of the title "Divine Master"to Jesus Christ, and the use of such expressions as that the blood of Christ was "shed for souls," and that for man's salvation "the Son of God himself left the abodes of glory and expired a victim on the cross."It is not thus that Unitarians, in England at least, are wont to speak of Christ and his death. But Channing never identified himself with any theological party. He called himself a Unitarian, and so in a sense he was, but his views were Arian rather than what are commonly known as Unitarian. He reverenced in Jesus Christ not only a sublimely perfect character, but a nature higher than that of man. He believed in His pre-existence in heaven, and that He came down from heaven for man's salvation; and he taught that "the Scriptures ascribe the remission of sins to Christ's death with an emphasis so peculiar that we ought to consider this event as having a special influence in removing punishment, as a condition or method of pardon, without which repentance would not avail us, at least to that extent which is now promised by the gospel "(Sermon at the ordination of Rev. Jared Sparks). The truth is, that Channing was too much a lover of free thought, and too desirous to hold only what he saw to be true, to allow himself to be bound by any party ties. "I wish," he says, "to regard myself as belonging not to a sect but to the community of free minds, of lovers of truth, and followers of Christ, both on earth and in heaven. I desire to escape the narrow walls of a particular church, and to stand under the open sky in the broad light, looking far and wide, seeing with my own eyes, hearing with my own ears, and following Truth meekly but resolutely, however arduous or solitary be the path in which she leads" (Sermon at Installation of Rev. M. J. Motte). Thus refusing to be enclosed within the limits of party, and acting freely as respected religious association, he may be claimed as one whom men of all parties honour for his abilities, his integrity, and his work.
In 1814 Channing married his cousin, Ruth Gibbs, a union which brought him an increase of worldly substance, as well as a rich addition to his personal happiness.
"Inwardly and outwardly," his biographer tells us, "his lot henceforward was singularly serene." He was now fast rising in reputation, both as a preacher and as a public man. Interested in all that concerned his country and the cause of humanity, his voice was heard on most of the questions that came before the American public, and always with marked and growing effect. He had begun also to command attention as a writer for the press. His Address on War, some of his sermons, and especially his able tract on The Evidences of Christianity, had given him a position of eminence among the writers of his country. In 1821 he received the title of D.D. from Harvard University. In 1822 he undertook a journey to Europe, in the course of which he visited Great Britain and some parts of the Continent. When in England he made the acquaintance of some distinguished men of letters, especially Wordsworth and Coleridge, on both of whom he appears to have left a most favourable impression. Coleridge wrote of him, "He has the love of wisdom and the wisdom of love." On his return Dr Channing resumed his duties as a minister, but with a more decided attention than before to literature and public affairs. In 1824 he received as colleague the Rev. Ezra Stiles Gannett, at
