Charles Henry Parkhurst (1842–1933) was an American Presbyterian clergyman and social reformer. An eloquent speaker, he was celebrated for blowing the whistle on the political corruption and the associations between politicians, police officers, and others who violated the law within New York City’s Democratic Party-controlled government.
Born in Framingham, Massachusetts, Parkhurst graduated from Amherst College in 1866 and served for three years as the principal of Amherst High School. He studied philosophy and theology at Halle and Leipzig in Germany. After serving for five years as a Presbyterian minister of the Congregational church at Lenox, Massachusetts, Parkhurst was appointed the pastor of the Madison Square Presbyterian Church in New York City, a post he held until 1918.
Parkhurst’s sermons in 1892 condemned the political corruption of the New York City government, and he became president of the Society for the Prevention of Crime. His statements led to the exposure of political corruption in Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party political organization that unduly shaped New York City and New York State politics. Social and political reforms ensued after many civic organizations and newspapers joined Parkhurst’s endeavor. His preaching influenced the climate of reform in other American cities, as well.
For the next two decades, Parkhurst remained a successful minister, occasionally speaking about morals in government, but confining himself mostly to pastoral affairs.
Parkhurst died by sleepwalking off the porch roof of his home Atlantic City, New Jersey. His notable works about social and political reform include Our Fight with Tammany (1895) and My Forty Years in New York (1923.) His volumes of sermons are The Sunny Side of Christianity (1901,) A Little Lower than the Angels (1908,) and The Pulpit and the Pew (1913.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Charles Henry Parkhurst
Faith is the heroism of the intellect.
—Charles Henry Parkhurst
Topics: Heroism, Faith
The safest words are always those which bring us most directly to facts.
—Charles Henry Parkhurst
Topics: Words
Purpose is what gives life a meaning.
—Charles Henry Parkhurst
Topics: Aspirations, Goals, Purpose
Home interprets heaven. Home is heaven for beginners.
—Charles Henry Parkhurst
Topics: Home
The man who lives by himself and for himself is likely to be corrupted by the company he keeps.
—Charles Henry Parkhurst
Topics: Selfishness
The heart has eyes which the brain knows nothing of.
—Charles Henry Parkhurst
Topics: Perception
Christianity as an idea begins with thinking of God in the same way that a true son thinks of his father; Christianity as a life, begins with feeling and acting toward God as a true son feels and acts toward his father.
—Charles Henry Parkhurst
Topics: Christianity
Sympathy is two hearts tugging at one load.
—Charles Henry Parkhurst
Topics: Sympathy
Science has not solved problems, only shifted the points of problems.
—Charles Henry Parkhurst
Topics: Scientists, Science
Faith is a kind of winged intellect. The great workmen of history have been men who believed like giants.
—Charles Henry Parkhurst
Topics: Faith
All great discoveries are made by men whose feelings run ahead of their thinking.
—Charles Henry Parkhurst
Laboring toward distant aims set the mind in a higher key and puts us at our best.
—Charles Henry Parkhurst
Topics: Goals, Aspirations
Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.
—Charles Henry Parkhurst
Topics: Character
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Theodore L. Cuyler American Presbyterian Clergyman
Henry Ward Beecher American Protestant Clergyman
William Laurence Sullivan American Unitarian Clergyman
Thomas Merton American Trappist Monk
William Sloane Coffin American Presbyterian Clergyman
Frederick Buechner American Writer, Theologian
Hosea Ballou American Theologian
Edward Everett Hale American Unitarian Clergyman
Harry Emerson Fosdick American Baptist Minister
Maltbie Davenport Babcock American Clergyman