Enoch Fitch Burr Quotes

Enoch Fitch Burr was a theologian and astronomer who lectured extensively on the relationship between science and religion.

Born in Westport, Connecticut to Zalmon and Mary Burr, he spent a year in the Yale Theological Seminary and two years in scientific study in New Haven. Owing to the failure of his health he was at home for the following three years, after which he devoted himself to study of the higher mathematics and physical astronomy under Professor Lyman in New Haven for three or four years.He was licensed to preach in 1842, and October 3, 1850, was ordained pastor of the Congregational Church of Hamburg, in the town of Lyme. He married Lyme native Harriet A. Lord on August 12, 1851. With his wife and brother, Rev. Zalmon B. Burr, who was also his classmate, he went abroad in 1855, and spent nearly a year in travel. Burr continued in his pastorship throughout his life, until infirmity forced him to attempt to resign his pastorate in April, 1907; the church voted not to accept his resignation, but to continue the relationship of pastor as long as he lived.Outside of his parish he was widely known through his scientific lectures and his numerous volumes. From 1868 to 1876 he was Lecturer on the Scientific Evidences of Religion at Amherst College, and he also lectured at the Sheffield Scientific School, at Williams College, and in New York and Boston. The substance of his lectures before the Seniors of Amherst College was printed in his "Pater Mundi". He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Amherst College in 1868.Of some twenty separate volumes, including sermons, verse, and fiction, his first, "The Neptunian Theory of Uranus", was published in 1848. His "Ecce Coelum, or Parish Astronomy", which was probably his best-known book, appeared in 1867, and was followed by other astronomical works.Burr died at his home in Lyme at the age of 89, survived by his wife, son, and daughter. Wikipedia

✵ 21. October 1818 – 8. May 1907

Enoch Fitch Burr: 5 quotes0 likes

Famous Enoch Fitch Burr Quotes

“I know of no condition worse than that of the man who has little or no light on the supreme religious questions, and who at the same time is making no effort to come to the light.”

Enoch Fitch Burr

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 608.

“Eighteen centuries have passed since the Bible was finished. They have been centuries of great changes. In their course the world has been wrought over into newness at almost every point. But, to-day, the text of the Scriptures, after copyings almost innumerable and after having been tossed about through ages of ignorance and tumult, is found by exhaustive criticism to be unaltered in every important particular — there being not a single doctrine, nor duty, nor fact of any grade, that is brought into question by variations of readings — a fact that stands alone in the history of such ancient literature.”

Enoch Fitch Burr

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 35.

“If we would gain light either on the theory or the practice of religion: i. We must sincerely desire the light. 2. We must use the light we already have. 3. We must patiently seek light in the double way of prayer and rational inquiry. Never, as long as the world stands, will any religiously benighted soul thus patiently desire and pray and labor for the break of day, without at last seeing the eyelids of the morn unsealed, and the painfully dusky east gradually redden into the sun.”

Enoch Fitch Burr

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 389.

“Dying visions of angels and Christ and God and heaven are confined to credibly good men. Why do not bad men have such visions? They die of all sorts of diseases; they have nervous temperaments; they even have creeds and hopes about the future which they cling to with very great tenacity; why do not they rejoice in some such glorious illusions when they go out of the world?”

Enoch Fitch Burr

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 182.

“At the conscious approach of death, faith in the Biblical Religion, with its God and Christ and written Revelation, never weakens, but almost or quite always strengthens, and very often advances to a splendid assurance; while unbelief under the same circumstances never strengthens, but almost or quite always weakens and falters, and very often fails utterly.”

Enoch Fitch Burr

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 608.

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