DR. MALTBIE DAVENPORT BABCOCK
(CHC-EFB-A)
Rev. Maltbie Davenport Babcock, D. D., was born at Syracuse, N. Y., August 3d, 1858. He was the eldest son of Henry Babcock and Emily Maria Maltbie. Her father was the Rev. Ebenezer Davenport Maltbie, son of David Maltbie and his wife Nancy Davenport of Stamford, Conn., who was the lineal descendant of Rev. John Davenport of New Haven, Conn. Emily Maria Maltbie’s mother was Mary Ann Davis, daughter of Rev. Henry Davis, D. D., and Hannah Phoenix Tredwell.
There were many generations of the most prominent, refined and cultivated men and women behind Dr. Babcock and he went forth to his life work from an ideal home. His maternal great grandfather and his grandfather were both Presbyterian clergymen. He was the eldest of seven children, and his mother’s widespread religious, and her beautiful life still speak in many of the influential circles of his native city. Here he was educated, taking his classical course at Syracuse University, and his theological course at Auburn Seminary. In both of these institutions he won highest honors and hosts of friends.
Dr. Babcock received immediate recognition in the front rank of his denomination, his first settlement being at Lockport, N. Y. If was not only his brilliant intellect and his stirring oratorical powers that commanded admiration, for his ministry was ideal and no pastor in the land was more beloved. The man was everywhere regarded as a personal friend, so cordial, so frank, so cheerful was he always and so thoroughly unselfish. His influence became in the best sense national. His theology was like his vocal delivery, simple and direct. It was one soul speaking to another. His prayers voiced the cry of a man who wanted help from his Father.
Dr. Babcock could not do anything just as anyone else would. “To divide burdens and centralize responsibility is the ark of accomplishment.” This was his rule in doing his varied work, and it gave him his almost supreme executive ability. Perhaps there was no greater tribute to his power and consecration than the fact that he was invariably turned to, as a sort of last resort in the attempt to bring a wandering soul to Christ. Often men said, “Let us get him under Dr. Babcock’s influence; he can surely reach him.” Dr. Babcock was a very versatile man; exceedingly attractive in physique, pleasant in manner, with a soul that reflected God.
Dr. Babcock was a clear thinker, and a fluent speaker. He was noted for his broad and impartial charity and his vast array of friends among the young men of his country. He reached the people in so many ways. His personal magnetism was marvelous. Those who heard him were entranced and he was called to speak at all great religious gatherings, from one end of the country to the other and crowds, young and old, hung upon his lips. Taught of the Spirit, he revealed to them the open door to heaven and the message of the Jehovah.
Dr. Babcock never published a book. He lived or sang his thoughts. He was a great lover of music, played many instruments extremely well, improvised delightfully and also wrote many songs and hymns which have been published and have won instant recognition as splendid work. But the watchword of his life was: “This one thing I do,” to honor his Master and to save souls. His poems are of unquestioned excellence and have been said to resemble those of Emerson. They have been published in connection with a memorial volume of extracts from sermons and addresses gathered by his grief stricken widow, entitled “Thoughts for Every Day Living.” His foreign letters, written while last abroad, to the men of the Brick Church in New York City, were also published.
What Dr. Babcock’s work was in Baltimore it is single impossible to estimate in a article as brief as this or to speak of the breadth and reach of that wonderful pastorate in New York. His acquaintance was cosmopolitan, and it knew no denominational bond, and was met by a distinguished hospitality to which his wife, the daughter of a prominent Poughkeepsie lawyer, added both beauty and charm. What Dr. Babcock was in his home only those who lived with him and loved him, upon whom his devotion was showered can tell. At the time of his death, at Naples, Italy, May 18, 1901, in his forty-third year, the papers, both religious and secular, teemed with statements proving in every way his remarkable power.
One who knew Dr. Bibcock intimately said: “The only relief in the mystery of his untimely death it seemed to me, was in the fact that his character and work were of such potency that they must reproduce themselves in the living.