Home Influence

I pity you if in the circle of your home there is not some warm, loving nature which is your fire; your cold, dark candle-nature, touched by that fire, burns bright and clear.  Wherever you are carried—perhaps into regions where that nature cannot go—you carry its fire and set it up in some new place.  So the man in the counting-house is the candle of the woman who stays at home, making her soft influences felt in rough places of trade where her feet never go.

-       Phillip Brooks[1]

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[1] Phillips Brooks was a noted American clergyman and author, born in Boston in 1835. Religion and learning were important themes in his family’s home—his father descended from the Reverend John Cotton; his mother from the founder of Phillips Academy. Phillips attended school at Boston Latin, then graduated from Harvard in 1855. In 1856 he went to study at the Virginia Theological Seminary.  Ordained an Episcopal priest upon graduation, he became rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Philadelphia. A large, tall man (6’4”), his physical presence combined with his moral character made an impression; he began to gain a reputation as a preacher and a patriot.

In 1869 Phillips was made rector of Trinity Church, in Boston, before which a statue of him can be seen today. Large crowds came to hear him preach, particularly after the church’s rebuilding project was finished in 1877. He was an overseer and preacher at Harvard. In 1891 he was made Bishop of Massachusetts.  When he died in 1893, his funeral was a major event. One observer reported: “They buried him like a king. Harvard students carried his body on their shoulders. All barriers of denomination were down. Roman Catholics and Unitarians felt that a great man had fallen in Israel.”

Phillips published writings on religious themes, and his published sermons fill many volumes. Today, he is probably best known for authoring the Christmas carol O Little Town of Bethlehem. (Source: Wikipedia)