Channing, WILLIAM ELLERY, a great American preacher and writer, was born 7th April 1780, at Newport, Rhode Island. He graduated at
Harvard in 1798, and in 1803 was ordained minister of a Congregational church in Boston, where his sermons soon became famous for their 'fervour, solemnity, and beauty.' Though never a Trinitarian, at first he had Calvinistic leanings, but gradually drifted towards what is now known as Unitarianism, although the name itself was repugnant to him, and he would gladly have seen liberal theology growing naturally outwards from within the church herself. His famous sermon, preached at the ordination of the Rev. Jared Sparks in 1819, was a fearless and plain definition of the Unitarian position. It involved him in controversy, a thing which he naturally loathed. To the end of his life he preserved a devoutly Christian heart, shrinking with the delicate instinct of a pious nature from everything cold, one-sided, and dogmatic, whether Unitarian or Trinitarian. As late as 1841 he wrote, 'I am little of a Unitarian, have little sympathy with the system of Priestley and Belsham, and stand aloof from all but those who strive and pray for clearer light.' He had sympathy for social and political as well as purely religious progress, advocated temperance and education, and denounced war and slavery with more than his accustomed eloquence. In 1821 he received the title of D.D. from Harvard University, and next year he visited Europe, and made the acquaintance of several great English authors, such as Wordsworth and Coleridge, both of whom were strongly impressed in his favour. Coleridge said of him, 'He has the love of wisdom and the wisdom of love.' Among his most popular works were his Essay on National Literature, Remarks on the Character and Writings of John Milton, the Character and Writings of Fénelon, his essay on Negro Slavery, and that on Self-culture. Besides these, he wrote a variety of other essays and treatises, all characterised by vigour, eloquence, pure taste, and a lofty tone of moral earnestness. He died October 2, 1842, at Bennington, Vermont. His works were collected before his death in 5 vols. (Boston, 1841), to which a sixth volume was afterwards added. The American Unitarian Association (Boston) has reprinted the whole in a single cheap volume. An interesting memoir of him has been published by his nephew, William Henry Channing (3 vols. Boston, 1848; new ed. 1880). There is also a short Life by Frothingham (1887).