Brooks, Phillips

BROOKS, PHILLIPS: American preacher and bishop; b. in Boston Dec. 13, 1835; d. there Jan. 23, 1893. He was of distinguished New England ancestry, being descended on his father's side from John Cotton and on his mother's aide from Samuel Phillips, the founder of Phillips Academy, Andover. He was graduated at Harvard, 1855; studied at the Protestant Episcopal Theological School, Alexandria, Va., 1856–59; became rector of the Church of the Advent, Philadelphia, 1859; of Holy Trinity Church, Philadelphia, 1862; of Trinity Church, Boston, 1869; he was consecrated bishop of Massachusetts, 1891. He was one of the most eloquent, spiritual, successful, and highly esteemed clergymen of his time, and held this position both by intellectual power and an engaging personality. His preaching was preeminently the product of his own experience; he was of broad sympathies and tactful in his dealings with men. He was particularly courteous in cultivating cordial relations with those of other than his own denomination. He gave the Lyman Beecher lectures on preaching before the Yale Divinity School in 1877 (published as Lectures on Preaching, New York, 1877), and was Bohlen lecturer at the Philadelphia Divinity School in 1879 (The Influence of Jesus, 1879). He published five volumes of Sermons during his life (1878–90), and five have been added since his death (1893–1905). His Letters of Travel written to his family appeared in 1893, and a volume of Essays and Addresses, religious, literary, and social, edited by his brother, John Cotton Brooks, in 1894. Individual sermons, addressee, etc., have been printed in many forms and the number of books of extracts from his preaching is very large.

Bibliography: The best biography is his Life and Letters by A. V. G. Allen, 2 vols., New York, 1900, condensed into 1 vol., ib. 1907.