BELLOWS, HENRY WHITNEY: American: Unitarian; b. in Boston June 11, 1814; d. in New York Jan. 30, 1882. He was graduated at Harvard 1832, and at the Cambridge Divinity School 1837; was ordained pastor of the First Congregational Society (Unitarian), Chambers Street, New York, Jan. 2, 1838, and remained there till death; during his pastorate the church was twice moved, to Broadway between Spring and Prince Streets and the name changed to the Church of the Divine Unity, and again to 4th Avenue and 20th Street, where it took the name of All Souls' Church. Dr. Bellows was the organizer, president, and chief administrator of the United States Sanitary Commission (1862-78), and during the Civil War he superintended with rare efficiency the distribution of supplies valued at $15,000,000 and $5,000,000' in money; at a later period he was president of the first civil service reform association organized in the country. He was president of the National Unitarian Conference 1865-79. He wrote much for the periodicals of his denomination and was the chief originator of The Christian Inquirer (New York, 1846) and for five years its principal contributor. He also published a number of books, of merely personal and transient interest.
BELLS: The use of bells as adjuncts to
Christian worship was not without precedent in
pre-Christian times. Among the Jews the vestment
of the high priest was adorned with little bells
(Ex. xxviii, $3); and among the pagans the
priests of Proserpine announced the beginning of
the sacrifice by ringing bells. There is no evidence
of early Christian use of them to summon people
to prayer; this seems to have been done by word
of mouth, even as late as Tertullian and Jerome.