Maltbie Davenport Babcock - Ministry

Ministry

Upon receiving his degree in theology in 1882, Babcock became pastor of a church at Lockport, New York. He was described as having "an unusually brilliant intellect and stirring oratorical powers that commanded admiration, won for him a foremost place among the favorites of his denomination".

From 1887 to 1900, Babcock was senior minister of the prestigious Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, Maryland. While pastoring Brown Memorial, he was acclaimed for his oratory and use of colorful metaphors in his sermons. He also led a fund-raising effort to assist Jewish refugees from Russia who were victims of an anti-Jewish pogrom in the 1880s. Babcock was honored by a Doctor of Divinity degree from Syracuse University in 1896.

He was called to the Brick Church of New York City in 1900, where his annual compensation was approximately $30,000. So popular was he that many prominent Baltimoreans, including the faculty of Johns Hopkins University, unsuccessfully implored Babcock to remain at Brown instead of accepting the call to Brick Presbyterian Church. A 1910 biography said of him,

"Babcock was preeminently a preacher. He was a clear thinker and a fluent speaker, with a marvelous personal magnetism which appealed to all classes of people, and the influence of which became in a sense national. His theology was broad and deep, yet without a touch of present-day uncertainty. Added to the genius of spirituality he had the genius of work, and it was owing to his unselfish devotion to the great work of uplifting mankind that he literally wore himself out and died at the early age of forty-two. Noted for his impartial charity, he reached people in countless ways and exerted everywhere a remarkable personal magnetism. While he published no books he may be said to have 'lived, or sung his thoughts'.
"Nothing better gauges the tenor and spirit of the man than a sentence found on the fly-leaf of his pocket Bible after his death: 'Committed myself again with Christian brothers to unreserved docility and devotion before my Master'. He wrote a number of fugitive poems, said to resemble those of Emerson, which were published in connection with a memorial volume of extracts from sermons, addresses, letters and newspaper articles, entitled 'Thoughts for Every-Day Living' (1902). Dr. Babcock was a musician of rare talent and wrote some hymns of unusual beauty."