Dr. Lyman Abbott is an illustration of the fact that a young man who is gifted with more than ordinary intellect and even genius need not be discouraged, even if his first intentions regarding his life work come to naught by force of circumstances or unlooked-for developments within himself. He was born December 18, 1835, in Roxbury, Massachusetts, being the son of Jacob and Harriet Abbott. Graduating from the College of the City of New York in 1853, he took a course at Harvard, after which, and in accordance with his prearranged plans, he took a law course, was admitted to the bar and began to practice. But his literary instincts and religious convictions resulted in his finally abandoning the law. After a good deal of writing for a number of publications and more theological studies, he was finally ordained a Congregational minister in 1860, being made pastor of a church at Terre Haute, Indiana, in the same year. Leaving Indiana, he came to New York and took charge of the New England Congregational Church in that city. In 1869 he resigned the pastorate in order to devote himself to literature. He edited the Literary Record Department of Harper’s Magazine and was associate editor with Henry Ward Beecher on the Christian Union. He succeeded Mr. Beecher as pastor of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, in May, 1888, but resigned in 1898 and is once more prominent in religious literary circles. On October 14, 1857, he married Abby F. Hamlin, daughter of Hannibal Hamlin, of Boston. He is the author of a great many works of a religious nature and of others which deal with social problems. At present he is editor of The Outlook, of New York city.

Theodore Ledyard Cuyler.

Theodore Ledyard Cuyler, the clergyman whose striking sermons have made him famous the world over, was born at Aurora, New York, January 10, 1822. He was educated at Manheim, New Jersey, and Princeton college, from which he graduated in 1841. After spending a brief period in traveling in Europe, he entered the theological seminary at Princeton, from which he graduated in 1846, and was ordained by the presbytery in 1848. His first charge was at a small church near Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, where he remained for six months. He was then called to the Presbyterian church of Burlington, New Jersey. In 1849 he became pastor of the Third Presbyterian church of Trenton, New Jersey, and in 1853 he was invited to the Market Street Dutch Reformed Church, New York city. He was one of the leaders in the great revival of 1858, and in 1860 he was called to the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian church, Brooklyn. This was a young church and was not in a very prosperous condition, but the new pastor infused life into it from the first, and, in 1861, his congregation commenced the building of a new church at the corner of Lafayette avenue and South Oxford street. This building was completed in March, 1862, and cost $60,000. In 1893 Dr. Cuyler withdrew from active charge of the church and determined to devote the remainder of his years to the ministry at large. Dr. Cuyler was married, in 1853, to Annie E. Mathist, of Newark, Ohio, and has two children. His writings and printed sermons have been widely circulated. Among them are: Thought Hives, Stray Arrows, The Empty Crib, The Cedar Christian. One of his most famous tracts, Somebody’s Son, had a circulation of over one hundred thousand copies. Many of his articles and tracts have been translated into several languages, and his contributions to the religious press have been more numerous than those of any living writer.

Edward Everett Hale.

Edward Everett Hale was born in Boston, April 3, 1822, and after passing through the public schools entered the Boston Latin school. He was graduated from Harvard in 1839, and for two years acted as usher in the Latin school, studying theology in the meantime. On October 13, 1852, he married, at Hartford, Connecticut, Emily Baldwin Perkins. He has been a prominent promoter of Chautauqua circles and was the founder of the “Lend-a-Hand” clubs. He has probably traveled as much and delivered more lectures than any other man in this country. The fact that the catalogue of Harvard university lists more than one hundred and thirty titles of books and pamphlets on varied subjects of which he is the author shows how prolific has been his pen. Fiction, drama, narrative, poetry, theology, philosophy, politics—all are treated by him in a masterly way. He is never dull or common-place, but invariably suggestive and practical. One of his masterpieces is A Man Without a Country, which was written in war time. This story alone would have given him lasting fame. Yet it is not as an author, a great scholar, a great teacher, a great orator, or a great statesman that Dr. Hale will be remembered, but, as William Dean Howells has said, his name will go down in history as “a great American citizen.”

Benjamin Fay Mills.

Benjamin Fay Mills was born at Rahway, New Jersey, June 4, 1857. His father was a clergyman. Educated in the public schools and at Phillips academy, Andover, he graduated from Lake Forest university, Illinois, in 1879. In the same year he married Mary Russell, and in the year following he was ordained pastor of the Congregational church at Rutland, Vermont. From 1886 to 1897 he acted in an evangelistic capacity and conducted meetings throughout the country. In 1897 he withdrew from the orthodox church and inaugurated independent religious movements in the Boston music hall and Hollis street theatre. Since 1889 he has been the pastor of the First Unitarian church, Oakland, California. He is eloquent, magnetic and convincing and has the gift of playing on the emotions of an audience in a manner possessed by few speakers within or without the church.

Henry Codman Potter.

There have been a great many clergymen in the Potter family, and doubtless the Right Reverend Henry Codman Potter, bishop of the diocese of New York, had an inclination for the pulpit which was an ancestral inheritance. He is the son of Bishop Alonzo Potter, of Pennsylvania, and was born at Schenectady, New York, May 25, 1835. He was educated at the Philadelphia Academy of the Protestant Episcopal church, and later at the theological seminary in Virginia. Graduating therefrom in 1857, he was at once made a deacon and one year later was ordained to the priesthood. Until 1859 he had charge of Christ P. E. church, Greensburg, Pennsylvania, when he was transferred to St. John’s, P. E. church, Troy, New York; for seven years he was rector of that parish. He then became an assistant of Trinity P. E. church, Boston, and in May, 1868, was made rector of Grace P. E. church, New York. For sixteen years he was identified with the affairs of that famous church. In 1883 he was elected an assistant to his uncle, Bishop Horatio Potter, who presided over the diocese of New York. A short time after entering on his duties as such, his uncle withdrew from active work and the care of the diocese fell upon the younger man. On January 2, 1887, Bishop Horatio Potter died and was succeeded by his nephew. His diocese is the largest in point of population in the United States. Eloquent, earnest and devoted to his life work, Bishop Potter commands the love and respect of all of those with whom he comes in contact.

William Taylor.

William Taylor was born in Virginia May 2, 1821. Reared on a farm, he learned the tanning business. He entered the Methodist ministry in 1842. Going to California with the “Forty-niners” as a missionary, he remained there until 1856. He next spent a number of years traveling in Canada, New England and Europe. After conducting missionary services in Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania, he visited South Africa and converted many Kaffirs to Christianity. From 1872 to 1876 he organized a number of churches in India and in South America. He also established mission stations on the Congo and elsewhere in Africa. He has written a number of books, the most interesting of which is, without doubt, The Story of My Life. In 1884 he was made missionary bishop for Africa.

John Heyl Vincent.

John Heyl Vincent, bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church and chancellor of the Chautauqua system, was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, February 23, 1832. He was educated at Lewisburg and Milton, Pennsylvania, and as a mere boy gave evidence of the religious trend of his nature. When only eighteen years of age he was a preacher, and many of his then sermons are said to have been both eloquent and convincing. After studying in the Wesleyan Institute of Newark, New Jersey, he joined the New Jersey Conference in 1853, was ordained deacon and four years later was made pastor. He had several charges in Illinois between 1857 and 1865, and during the next fourteen years brought into being a number of Sunday school publications. He was one of the founders of the Chautauqua Assembly and was the organizer of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, of which he has held office of chancellor since its inception. In 1900 he was made resident bishop in charge of the European work of the church with which he was associated. He is preacher to Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Wellesley and other colleges. As an author of helpful and interesting religious works, Dr. Vincent is well known to all students of American literature.