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Smith, John Cotton, D.D.

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all eminent Protestant Episcopal clergyman, son of Dr. Thomas M., of Kenyon College, grandson of Dr. Leonard Wood, and a descendant of Cotton Mather, was born at Andover, Massachusetts, August 4, 1826. He studied at Phillips Academy, graduated from Bowdoin College in 1847, and from the Theological Seminary at Gambier, Ohio; was ordained deacon in 1849, presbyter in 1850, and the latter year became rector of St. John's Church, Bangor, Maine; in 1856 was assistant minister at Trinity Church, Boston, Massachusetts, and in 1860 rector of the Church of the Ascension, New York city, where he died, January 9, 1882. Dr. Smith was a man of great literary acquirements, and of broad and liberal ideas ill religion, without, however, overstepping the pale of the orthodoxy of the creed to which he belonged. He was remarkable not only for his pulpit eloquence, but as an after-dinner speaker. He was a prominent member of the University Club, and of other social and religious associations of the day. The Ascension Church Mission was one of his noblest charitable conceptions, to elevate the tenement-house population, and has been very successful. He was the author of a number of works upon theological and social subjects, among which are, The Charity of Truth: — The Liturgy as a Basis of Union: — The Church's Law of Development: — The Oxford Essays and Reviews: — The Homeric Age: — The Principle of Patriotism: — The United States a Nation: — Evolution and a Personal Creator. He was also the editor of Church and State, an Episcopal journal of high standing. His published works have all been collected in two volumes.