RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Adamnan Adamson
at the high schools of Providence, R. I., and Lowell, Mass., and at Tufts College (A.B., 1870) and Divinity School (B.D., 1872). He has held pastorates at the Newton Universalist Church, Newton, Mass. (1872-80); First Universalist Church, Lynn, Mass. (1880-84); St. Paul's Universalist Church, Chicago, 111. (1884-90); All Souls' Universalist Church, Brooklyn, N. Y. (1890-1901); and Church of the Redeemer, Hartford, Conn., from 1901 to the present time. He has been a trustee of Tufts College since 1880 and of the Universalist General Convention since 1895. In his theological position he is a pronounced Universalist. His works include The Fatherhood of God (Boston, 1888); Christian Types of Heroism (1891); The Leisure of God (1895); Nature Studies in the Berkshires (New York, 1899); and Life of William Hamilton Gibson (1901).
ADAMS, SARAH (FULLER) FLOWER: English Unitarian; b. at Harlow (25 m. n.e. of London), Essex, Feb. 22, 1805; d. in London Aug. 14, 1848. Her father was Benjamin Flower (1755-1829), printer, editor, and political writer, and, Sept. 24, 1834, she married William Bridges Adams (1797- 1872), an inventor and engineer of distinction, also a writer on political subjects. She was a highly gifted woman, much esteemed by a circle of friends which included, among others, W J. Linton, Harriet Martineau, Leigh Hunt, and Robert Browning. Inherited deafness and a weak constitution prevented her from following the stage as a profession, which she had chosen in the belief that " the drama is an epitome of the mind and manners of mankind, and wise men in all ages have agreed to make it, what in truth it ought to be, a supplement to the pulpit." She wrote poems on social and political subjects, chiefly for the Anti-Corn-Law League; contributed poems and articles to the Monthly Repository during the years 1832-53, when it was conducted by her pastor W. J. Fox (q.v.), and published a long poem, The Royal Progress, in the Illuminated Magazine in 1845. In book form she published Vivia Perpetua, a Dramatic Poem (London, 1841; reprinted with her hymns and a memoir by Mrs. E. F. Bridell-Fox, 1893), and The Flock at the Fountain (1845), a catechism. In addition, she furnished fourteen original hymns and two translations to Hymns and Anthems (1840), a collection for Fox's chapel at Finsbury, including her best-known production, Nearer, my God, to thee. Her sister, Eliza Flower (1803- 46), possessed much musical talent and furnished the original music for this hymn as well as for others in the book. Bibliography: DNB, i. 101; S. W. Duffield, English
Hymns, pp. 382-386, New York, 1886; Julian, Hyrnnol-
ogy, p. 16; N. Smith, Hymns Historically Famous, pp. 174-
182, Chicago, 1901.
ADAMS, THOMAS: English preacher and commentator of the seventeenth century, called by Southey " the prose Shakespeare of Puritan theologians scarcely inferior to Fuller in wit or to Taylor in fancy." Little is known of his life beyond what may be gathered from the title-pages and dedications of his books. He was preaching in Bedfordshire in 1612; in 1614 became vicar of
Wingrave, Bucks; from 1618 to 1623 preached in London; he was chaplain to Sir Henry Montagu, lord chief justice of England, in 1653 was a " necessitous and decrepit " old man, and died probably before the Restoration. He published many occasional sermons (collected into a folio volume, London, 1630), besides a commentary on the Second Epistle of Peter (1633; ed. J. Sherman, 1839). His works, ed. Thomas Smith, with life by Joseph Angus, were published in Nichol's Series of Standard Divines (3 vols., Edinburgh, 1862-63).
ADAMS, WILLIAM: American Presbyterian; b. at Colchester, Conn., Jan. 25, 1807; d. at Orange Mountain, N. J., Aug. 31, 1880. He was graduated at Yale (1827) and at Andover Theological Seminary (1830); was pastor at Brighton, Mass. (1831- 34); of the Broome Street (Central) Presbyterian Church, New York (1834-53); and of the Madison Square Presbyterian Church, formed from the Broome Street Church (1853-73). From 1873 till his death he was president and professor of sacred rhetoric and pastoral theology in Union Theological Seminary. He was one of the leading clergymen in New York in his time, and his influence was not bounded by his own denomination or land. Besides many individual sermons he published an edition of Isaac Taylor's Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, with a biographical introduction (New York, 1862); The Three Gardens (1856); In the World and not of the World (1867); Conversations of Jesus Christ with Representative Men (1868); Thanksgiving (1869).
ADAMS, WILLIAM FORBES: Protestant Episcopal bishop of Easton (Md.); b. at Enniskillen (70 m. s. w. of Belfast), County Fermanagh, Ireland, Jan. 2, 1833. He came to America at the age of eight, was educated at the University of the South, and was admitted to the Mississippi bar in 1854, but subsequently studied theology, and was ordained deacon in 1859, and priest in the following year. He was rector of St. Paul's Church, Woodville, Mass., from 1860 to 1866, when he was called to the rectorate of St. Peter's, New Orleans, but went in the following year to St. Paul's in the same city, where he remained until 1875. In that year he was consecrated first missionary bishop of New Mexico and Arizona, but was compelled by illness to resign. He then accepted the rectorate of Holy Trinity Church, Vicksburg, Miss., where he remained from 1876 to 1887, when he was consecrated bishop of Easton.
ADAMSON, PATRICK: Scotch prelate; b. in Perth Mar. 15, 1537 (according to another account, 1543); d. at St. Andrews Feb. 19, 1592. He was educated at the University of St. Andrews; preached for two or three years in Scotland; was in France as private tutor at the time of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew; returned to Scotland and to the ministry; and was made archbishop of St. Andrews in 1576. Thenceforth his life was a continual struggle with the Presbyterian party, and he died in poverty. His enemies have assailed his character, but all agree that he was a scholar and an able preacher and writer. He composed a Latin cate-
Adamson Adiaphora