MOHET.
Channel, the rendering in the Auth. Vers, in cer- tain passages of two Heb. words: p'^BK, aphih\ the M of a brook (2 Sam. xxii, 16; PaL^xviii, 15; laa, viii, 7 ; elsewhere " stream," " river," etc.) ; and nbaa, thihbo'lttk, a ttream (Isa. xxvii, 12 ; " flood," Pta.Uix,2,15).
Channing, William Ellebt, D.D., an emhient Unitarian divine and philanthropist, was bom at New- port, Bhode Island, April 7th, 1780; entered Harvard Univergity in his 14th year; graduated at the age of 18; spent a part of the ensuing two years as a private tator in Bichmond, Va. ; returned to Cambridge as re- gent (a subordinate office) in 1801 ; was settled as pas-
tor of Federal Street Church, Boston, in June, 1808$ visited Europe in 1822 ; began his celebrated essays on Milton, Napoleon, and F6n61on, which distinguish the commencement of his literary career, proper, in 1826; visited the West Indies in 1830 ; oonunenced his anti- sUvery labors in 1835 ; and died Oct. 2, 1842.
To the American community in general Channing is chiefly known as a theologian, while on the other side of the Atlantic his fiime is chiefly that of a literary man and a philanthropist. The common impression that he was the leader of the Unitarian movement in this country is false. By the publication of his cele- brated sermon at the ordination of Mr. Sparks, in Bal- timore, in 1819, the doctrinal position of Unitarianism was more generally made known in the American com^ munity than at any former date. By this accident, and still more, perhaps, by the.&ct that his literary repu- tation elevated him above all others engaged in the movement, he became recognised as its head, although it could boast of earlier advocates and abler polem- ics. He is perhaps rather to be classed with Samuel Clarke and Locke, as a high Arian, than with Priest- ley, Belsham, and the Sodnians generally. He is de- scribed by his biographers " as a member of the Church Universal of the lovers of God and lovers of Man." But he himself says that " he had long ceased to at- tach any importance to the rank or dignity of Christ, or to believe in the Trinity ; that the idea of Christ's death being a satisfaction is nowhere taught in Scrip- ture; and that evil spirits have no existence, Satan being merely a figurative personation of moral evil." Still, according to his peculiar views of religious faith and duty. Dr. Channing was a devout and serious man, who had a profound reverence for the authority of Scripture, and was accustomed habitually to view all things in connection with eternity. '
With Unitarianism as a system or movement, he unquestionably did not feel satisfied in his later years. In 1887 he wrote as follows : '' I feel that among lib- eral Christians the preaching has been too vague, has wanted unity, has scattered attention too much." In 1889 he thus expresses himself: ** I would that I could look to Unitarianism with more hope. But this sys- tem was, at its recent revival, a protest of the unden standing against absurd dogmas, rather than the work of deep religious principle, and was early paralyzed by the mixture of a material philosophy, and fell too much into the hands of scholars and political reformers ; and the consequence is a want of vitality and force, which gives us but'little hope of its accomplishing much un- der its present auspices or in its present form."
As a preacher Channing was pre-eminent, though he had very few natural oratorical qualities. His pres- ence in the pulpit was not commanding ; he was small in stature, exceedingly emaciated, and enveloped in a superabundance of dothing; his cheeks were sunken,' his eye hollow, and his voice feeble, though remarkably flexible. He generally read his discourses. Through- out his long ministry he was the most popular preach- er in Boston. In philanthropic enterprise he was the Chalmer;^ of America. His journals contain *'long lists" ot plans "for public works, benevolent .opera^ tions, special reforms." These plans indude, "Asso- ciations among Mechanics," a " Work to be written on ardent Spirits," "Fire Clubs," "Poor-houses," "Female Employment Societies," "Provisions of Wood on a large Scale," " Bake-houses for the Poor," "Associations for the Relief of the Sick, Old, Debt- ors," " Societies for the Advice of Emigrants, for the Reformation of Prostitutes, the Improvement of Afri- cans," etc. His liberality was not absorbed in detfie- ing plans of good, but his personal charities were great. His latest and maturest strength was devoted to the discnssion of American slavery, and no writer has treated the subject with more candor or more impress- ive eloquence. His literary reputation, especially in England, was scarcely parallded by that of any other
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American snthor of bis time. He possessed the best i sing), an ecclesiastical benefice or endowment to pro- elements of immediate success as a writer — a poetic | vide for the chanting of masses for the repose of the temperament, and a style of remarkable transparency . souls of the founders. Money was often left also for and power. The greatest faults of his style are repe- the building of a chapel in which the masses were to tition and expansion, the fine gold being often beaten be chantft, and hence the term was applied also to out into very thin leaf. Channing^s works were re- ' such chapels. They were sometimes buHt in or near viewed by Macaulay inthe Edinburgh Review (volAxix, | a church, but more usually were attached to an abbey p. 214), and a graphic sketch of him is given by Ste- ; or monastery, and were frequently very richly deco- vens in the Methodist Quarierly Review (Jan. 1849, art. j rated.