Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 November 1905 — A BLACKSMITH PREACHER. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A BLACKSMITH PREACHER.

Rev. Dr. Collycr the Famous Unitarian Who Is Now 82 Years Old. Thirty-four years ago Rev. Robert Collyer, standing on a dismantled pillar on the ruins of Unity Church,

when nearly-ail of Chicago had been swept away by the terrible fire of 1871, preached a sermon which echoed all over the country, so full was it of bright hopes for the future. Its keynote was a rebuke to those who had seen in the disaster a judgment against

the city because of the ungodliness of the people, and it served to arouse the flagging courage of those who had lost their all.

Rev. Robert Collyer, now a vigorous and hale old man of 82, has seen his predictions more than realized, and had the gratification of knowing that the splendid example of courage and buoyancy of spirit he set at that time was not in vain. He retired from tho pulpit of the Church of the Messiah in New York but a short time ago and recently paid a visit to Chicago, when he delivered a sermon ait the now Unity Church on the North Side. There were but few members of his old congregation present on the ruins of the old church, but those who recalled it have since realized a hundred times the ring of truth which inspired, his audience to rise above the misfor-i tune which seemed to have overt; whelmed them.

Dr. Collyer was born in England in 1823. He attended school until he was* 8 years old, and then, as his father, who was a blacksmith, earned only $4.50 a week and had a large family to support, Robert and his brothers and two sisters were put to work in, a linen factory a few miles from his, home. After working In the factory until he was 14 Ills father apprenticed him to a man at Ilkley to learn the blacksmithing trade and he then had the advantage of two winters’ instruction in a night school, which finished the curriculum of his schooling. He completed his apprenticeship when ho was 21 years old, but continued to work at his trade much longer. In 1848 he experienced a genuine oldfashioned Methodist conversion. The Methodists thought he was a pretty smart young man and licensed him right away and he began to preach. In 1850 he came to America, where he worked at his trade nine years and preached every chance he got as a local preacher. As he "did not believe in eternal damnation nor in total depravity and w'as shaky In regard to the trinity,” as he states it, his license was not renewed and he became a Unitarian. He started a mission in Chicago in 1859 and his career since has ben a notable one.

REV. DR. COLLYER.