USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Hartford > Centennial memorial of the First Baptist Church of Hartford, Connecticut, March 23d and 24th, l890 > Part 2
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After an interval of six years, during which the pulpit was supplied by Dea. Robins, the Rev. David Bolles and Eber Maffit, the church called as its second pastor the learned but eccentric, Rev. Henry Grew, who served from 1807 to 1811.
The next minister was the Rev. Elisha Cushman,
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from 1813 to 1825. He was very successful, and during his ministry the membership was increased from 90 to 268.
He was succeeded by the Rev. Cyrus P. Grosvenor from 1825 to 1827, and he by the Rev. Barnas Sears, 1827 to 1829. The latter became, subsequently, a professor in Newton Theological Institution, and later President of Brown University.
The above particulars are gleaned mainly from the able paper of Dr. A. J. Sage, in the " Memorial History of Hartford County."
Dr. Sears was succeeded by the Rev. Gustavus Fel- lowes Davis, who was called to the pastorate in 1829, at the age of 32, and remained until his death.
During this short period great changes were effected both in the church itself, and in its relation to the com- munity. Dr. Sage, in the article above referred to, makes this assertion, that the pastorship of Dr. Davis is regarded as marking the beginning of the substantial prosperity of the Baptist cause in Hartford. One import- ant change effected by the youthful pastor was the re- moval of the church from the house on the corner of Temple and Market streets to a new structure on Main Street, built on the ground where the Cheney Building now stands. The house was dedicated on the 23d day of March, 1831, just forty-one years after the formation of the church. The situation was central, the edifice con- venient, the choir celebrated, and the house was soon filled to overflowing. During the first year after the dedication over one hundred members were added to the church on profession of their faith, and in three years
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the South Baptist Church was formed, consisting of 55 members taken from this church. The period of Dr. Davis' pastorate was marked by a number of powerful revivals of religion, extending through the city, in which this church labored strenuously, and received an ample share of the converts. The pastor co-operated heartily with Dr. Hawes of the Center Church, and with the Rev. Mr. Linsley of the South Congregational Church. Meanwhile heavy responsibilities and outside work were laid upon him, as will appear more clearly in a brief sketch of his life :-
My father, Gustavus Fellowes Davis, was born in Bos- ton on the 17th day of March, 1797. He does not seem to have had any decisive religious impressions until his sixteenth year. Being in Worcester at that period, he was attracted to hear the Rev. William Bentley, a quaint and simple preacher settled over the First Baptist Church in that place.
Under his preaching he was converted, and in April, 1813, was baptized and united with the church there.
From the commencement of his Christian life he was profoundly impressed by the conviction that he was called to preach the gospel, but his youth, inexperience and lack of education, seemed to preclude so important a work, and the mental conflicts through which he passed during several months in relation to his duty in this re- spect were very severe.
In giving an account of this period of his life, Mr. Davis writes: " I had been turned out of house and home for having become a Christian and a Baptist, and I knew not of a single relative who was a Baptist. I had no
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funds and no relatives who would assist me to obtain an education with a view to the ministry in the Baptist denomination, neither did I know that there were bene- volent societies in existence to assist indigent young men like me."
Notwithstanding all these discouragements, at the age of seventeen he began to preach. Crowds in various places, attracted doubtless by his extreme youth, flocked to hear him, but it was a source of regret to him all his life that he had entered upon a profession so laborious and exhausting with so inadequate preparation. He did his utmost by severe and persistent study to repair the deficiency, but always sought to dissuade enthusiastic young men from following his example.
Having received a license from the church in Worces- ter, Mass., he found his first field of labor in Hampton in this state.
After a year he removed to Preston, and was ordained pastor of the church there on the 13th of June, 1816. After three years of service, he accepted an urgent call from the Baptist Church in South Reading, Mass., and was publicly recognized as pastor on the 23d of April, 1818.
Here, in addition to his pastoral labors, he began a systematic course of study in Latin and Greek, often walking to Boston, a distance of ten miles, to receive in- struction from the Rev. Mr. Winchell, and from an entry in his diary, it appears that he finished reading the Greek Testament some three years later with the Rev. Francis Wayland, Jr.
In the spring of 1829 he came to Hartford to assist the Rev. William Bentley, at that time laboring here in a
Doyle 1824
GUSTAVUS F. DAVIS, D. D.
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DEACON GUSTAVUS F. DAVIS.
revival of religion, and this circumstance led to his settlement in this place. The call from Hartford was earnest and cordial. The people here, who had been divided on the subject of a minister, were united in him. He felt it his duty to accept the call, and on the 29th of July he was publicly installed in the pastoral office. In assuming the ministerial duties of this church, Dr. Davis found at least three of the constituent members still living here-Deacon Bolles, Deacon Beckwith and Mrs. Sarah Fowler, also Joseph W. Dimock, Edward Bolles, Albert Day, Deacons Gilbert, Brown and Roberts, Rev. Gordon Robins and others, earnest workers in the Lord's vineyard; also those noble women-Mrs. Gilbert, Mrs. Canfield and Mrs. Robins, who, as the years passed by, came to be regarded as mothers in Israel. During the seven years of his pastorate the church prospered in every respect. He attended carefully to all details of organization and administration. He visited the people at their homes, labored incessantly in prayer-meetings and special revival services. He made much of sacred music, and did everything to encourage and improve the choir, but his principal strength was in the pulpit. It was as a preacher that he was best known both at home and abroad.
For the pulpit he prepared himself carefully, but preached either without any manuscript or from brief notes.
He had a tenacious memory, and as one of his hearers remarked, "the whole Bible was at his fingers' ends."
His sermons were always studded with Scriptural gems. He was pre-eminently a Bible preacher, and was
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singularly apt and sometimes amusing in his selection of texts. For example, on a stormy Sunday, when there were only eight persons present, he chose for his text. " Wherein few, that is eight souls, were saved by water." On another stormy Sunday, while he was yet a mere boy, he walked four miles to preach to a congrega- tion of ten persons, five men and five women. His text was, " Five of them were wise and five foolish."
Immediately after his ordination, at the age of nine- teen, he preached from the text, " And a little child shall lead them."
When the church was removed from the old place of worship in Temple Street to the new house on Main Street, he took for his text, "If thy presence go not with us, carry us not up hence;" and at the dedication of the new house, "So David went and brought the Ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with gladness." A Jew, under pretence of being a Christian convert, induced Dr. Davis to give him ten dollars-nearly all the money he had. Finding he had been duped, he consoled himself by preaching from the words, " He is not a Jew who is one outwardly."
Dr. Davis had all through his life an exceptional in- terest in education.
Having been denied the privilege of a university course, and knowing by experience how hard it was to do without it, he determined to 'use every effort to con- fer its benefits upon others. He strenuously endeavored to secure the Newton Theological Seminary for the town of South Reading, where he then lived, and failing in that, he secured the establishment of an academy there.
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He was the chief agent in collecting funds for the Connecticut Literary Institute at Suffield, and had the satisfaction of seeing it well established before his death.
He was Trustee of Brown University, Examiner at Wesleyan University, and by appointment of Hon. Lewis Cass, Secretary of War in 1836, a member of the Board of Examiners of the United States Academy at Westpoint; also in 1831 he was elected one of the Trustees of Washington (now Trinity) College. Water- ville College in Maine (now Colby University), and Yale College afterwards conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts. His degree of Doctor of Divinity was bestowed by Wesleyan University in 1835.
These particulars are recalled principally to show how widely he was known and esteemed outside of the limits of his own denomination. While a staunch Baptist, he was so courteous and so genuinely interested in all good works that his assistance was welcomed and valued everywhere.
In August, 1836, while on a visit to friends in Boston, he was taken sick, and his useful life was brought sud- denly to a close.
In his last sickness he was often heard saying in de- lightful submission, " Not my will but thine be done." At the last moment the words, "Grace-Grace," trembled on his lips, and as if parting from the body and borne aloft on invisible wings, he exclaimed "I mount." He died September 11, 1836, in the fortieth year of his age. His career was brief but extensively useful. During the twenty-two years of his ministry, he preached over
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ADDRESS OF DEACON GUSTAVUS F. DAVIS.
ยท 2,800 sermons, and baptized 388 persons on profession of their faith.
In closing, I think I may be pardoned in saying that although he has been dead for more than fifty years, his memory is still fragrant in this and other churches in this state.
A. J. SAGE, D. D.
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Isaiah lxiii. 7, 8-" I will mention the loving-kindnesses of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, according unto all that the Lord hath be- stowed on us, and the great goodness towards the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and ac- cording to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses. For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie ; so he was their Savior."
With the service of this morning begins the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the First Baptist Church in Hartford. This is an occasion of peculiar interest, not only to ourselves as members of this church, but to all the Baptists of Hartford ; for they share with us a common origin. Indeed, the interest extends beyond our city to all the churches of the state, and beyond the state, in various parts of our country and in distant lands are representatives of our church, to whom this is an event of unusual importance. The old church has always had a special power of attaching her members to her, so that happy and affectionate remem- brances cling to many hearts through time and change and distance.
We are one hundred years old, and we could think with complacency of our extreme venerableness, were it not for neighbors of ours, sister churches, that from the
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serene heights of a far superior antiquity look down and smile at our youthfulness putting on the airs of age. Their two hundred and fifty years calm the exuberance of our one hundred, and forbid our boasting. Yet in some respects it is an advantage to be so young, although so old. We can remember our origin. It is not lost amid the mists of remote years. There sits among us this morning one who was well acquainted with the founders of this church. One of them, always mentioned when our beginnings are referred to-Deacon John Bolles-can easily be imagined to be present with us. Somewhat severe of countenance, though kind in heart, strict in the moral code and the domestic economies, positive and unswerving in conviction, he, with the little group gathered about him, gave character to the Baptist movement in Hartford. It was he who rose early on many a Sabbath morning to walk to Suffield, that he might worship with those whose faith and practice he could approve, and returned in the same way at evening. He was the sturdy offspring of a stalwart age. The blood of the Puritans was in his veins, and the spirit of the Protestant in his heart and will.
Observe him calling on one of the young men of the little congregation in his room. As soon as he is seated he observes two candles burning. Silently he rises and blows one of them out. Such extravagance must be dis- couraged. Turning around he sees two sticks of wood on the fire. Without a word he takes the tongs and re- moves one of them. Thus does he train the youth to frugality. Why is it that one cold morning he is dis- covered floundering in a snow-pit in East Hartford ?
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There has been a heavy storm all the preceding day and night. The country is heaped high with snow. He has remembered a poor widow and her family who are likely to suffer, and he has broken a way to her house, with a basket of supplies. On his way back he tumbles into this snow-pit, and with difficulty clambers out and avoids freezing.
It is not a misfortune that the beginnings of our his- tory should be specially associated with a layman, that our first meetings should have been held in his house. It illustrates the democratic theory of our denomination. In one sense the ministry is before the church, for it is the preaching of the gospel that creates the church. In another sense the church is before the ministry, for the ministry is born of the church, comes forth from her heart, is subject to her discipline. There must be be- lievers before there can be a ministry; and believers, baptized or unbaptized, are the church. The church of God is a spiritual temple.
But soon the ministry comes to the front. Preaching services are instituted. Various supplies are obtained for the pulpit, and in course of time a pastor is selected. It was well for the future of the little band that the first pastor was a scholar and a gentleman, educated at Brown University in Providence-the Rev. Stephen S. Nelson.
The reception of the little church among the brethren of the established order was somewhat reserved, not to say cool. Pastors of the older churches attending the earlier services declined to enter the pulpit, and sat in grim silence at its foot. They were not altogether hos- tile in feeling, for when a super-zealous layman expressed
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himself with some warmth to the pastor of the Center Church-the First Church of Hartford-the answer was made that a movement which had John Bolles at the head of it need not be regarded with great suspicion. " It will be well," said the pastor, "if our hope of heaven shall be as good as his."
Nor is it strange that the established churches were shy of us. The controlling spirit of the times was averse to such movements of dissent as ours. To have welcomed us and bid us God-speed would have been an unhistorical act for the pastors of the standing order. Hartford, too, had been unusually conservative. She had given the cold shoulder to Whitefield, and had kept the Separatists far away. I cannot think, either, that in this she is to be sharply condemned. The times had been full of extravagances. Eastern Connecticut had been overrun with fanaticism. To this day in New London the judicious grieve for the consequences. This fanaticism had associated itself to a considerable extent with the name of the Baptists. The Separatists, many of them, became Baptists. The Rogerines practised im- mersion. Other sects, with various names and isms, flung out a banner like our own. Regulars and irregu- lars were all confounded. Hartford needed a little time to learn that the new interest was of the sober-minded, unfanatical earnest type of true religionists. I cannot help thinking that it was a piece of special good fortune- I might better say a token of God's favor-that out of all the extravagances which had marked that early period there came to this city a spirit representing the best results of the fervors of the eighteenth century, in an
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organization which has made its fruitfulness and spiritual power felt to this day. Hartford has at present all the conversatism that is consistent with health. For incre- ments of evangelical life she owes a debt to her Baptists and Methodists.
It were not difficult to bring to our imaginations a picture of those early Baptists in Hartford. We may assume at once that they were a plain people. It has been the glory of the Baptist churches that their special attraction is for the substantial middle class and the poor. Now and then there comes a Nicodemus or a Joseph of Arimathea, a Lydia with her purple, a Pris- cilla or other elect lady. But, as in the New Testament days, the more nearly the church conforms to the sim- plicity of the gospel, the less does it attract the worldly and fashionable, and the more does it abound in sterling character, the grace of which is inward rather than out- ward. They were earnest and intense in prayer, posi- tive in doctrine, fervent in public services, closely united as a small and separated band of brethren and sisters. They lived to a large extent in and for the church. That their zeal was not easily cooled appears in an inci- dent narrated by one who, baptized a number of years later, is still a member with you. He was immersed in the open air on a day so cold that when in his chamber he removed his clothing it was able to stand alone. When reclothed, he hastened back to mingle in the as- sembly of the saints. As he entered he found them singing a favorite hymn-
" Brethren, if your hearts are warm, Ice and cold will do no harm."
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As late as 1820, when Elisha Cushman, of the eloquent tongue, was their pastor, they were still a small body. So testified an honored Congregational layman who was accustomed to go to the frame church under the hill to hear the golden-mouthed orator. It was not till 1829, when Gustavus F. Davis became pastor, that they began to develop that aggressive vigor and popular power which have made the Baptists a prominent factor in the relig- ious and social life of Hartford. He was a man whose soul was open to impressions from many directions, at once receptive and diffusive, receiving largely and giv- ing forth copiously; a man to win men, to hold them and influence them, of full orbed mind and ready utter- ance, emotional, sympathetic, attractive to children and youth ; a man of substantial mental accomplishments, a vigorous friend and promoter of education, yet withal a man of practical sagacity and executive skill. He founded the institution at Suffield. He built the new brick church half a block south of the present edifice. He increased the church membership until it overflowed in a new organization-the Second or South Church. Of any other pastor it may be said, The church might have been what it is without him. But truth must be honored in the statement that, from a human point of view, the Baptist cause in Hartford could not have become what it is without the work of Dr. Gustavus F. Davis.
It is not my purpose to give more than a suggestion of the history of the church. I can only mention such honored names as Cyrus Pitt Grosvenor, conspicuous for literary attainments and zeal in moral reform; Barnas
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Sears, afterwards eminent as an educator; Dr. Henry Jackson, the Rev. J. S. Eaton. Fain would I linger at the name of Robert Turnbull, whom many of us hold in so tender and reverent remembrance. A man of child-like faith and fervid, mystical devotion; a man of marked power of spiritual intuition, piercing with an eagle's vision to the heart of a subject, and with facile and glowing expression, bringing it home to the hearts of his congregation; a man of special power in revival preaching, yet withal as gifted in the use of the pen as in the silver-tongued utterance; one whose books still afford, on many a brilliant page, many a passage of perennial interest. Surely beginning with Turnbull and looking backward, this church has reason to be thankful for the illustrious line of her ministry, composed, as it has been, of names all noble, and not a few of them eminent in our denomination, and even beyond; names, too, of devoted men, servants of God, preachers of truth, winners of souls, moulders of character, builders of the church.
Under their leadership has risen a line of laymen whose characters and lives it may well be our joy and pride to contemplate. John Bolles was the ecclesiastical ancestor of many sterling souls. Within the remem- brance of some of my auditors are such names as Phile- man Canfield, Deas. Brown, Gilbert, Braddock, Jas. G. Bolles and Wallace. Others still living are worthy of high and honorable places among those who have gone. The church owes a debt to her deacons, her Sunday- school superintendents, her many noble laymen without official place, which she cannot too gratefully recognize. 4
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One fact is deserving of especial mention as cause for peculiar praise and gratulation. In my personal know- ledge of this church during twenty-one years, and in my study of its history in records and in conference with its older members, some of them now gone, never have I heard the slightest suggestion of any dissension. No bickerings have left behind them unhappy remem- brances. No scars of conflict or controversy remain. It is remarkable that in listening to the historic record of a century we catch no echo of strife. What a testimony to the spirit of the fathers, thus transmitted and perpet- uated! What an occasion of thanksgiving to the God of all grace, who has enabled his people to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace !
I spoke of these hundred years as a comparatively brief period. Yet if we trace the record of events that have occurred within that period, if we reckon it by the deeds, not years, it will seem to us a long, long time. Think of the inventions and discoveries that have taken place. It is almost impossible for us to conceive what the times were in which this church was founded, so unlike were they to the present. No steamboat ever landed at the wharves in Hartford ; the only navigation was by sloops and schooners. No locomotive ever waked the citizens with its whistle. Travel was a slow and tedious process. Roads were defective, and a trip from here to Boston or New York might well occupy at least two days. Styles in dress were very different from those of the present, for cotton goods were rare and costly, and woolen goods were largely the product of the private distaff and spin- ning-wheel. The country was poor. The long and
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wearisome war of the Revolution had kept productive industries in abeyance. There was no frequent change of fashion in dress. Books were rare and precious. Newspapers were few and small. The information which they contained was meagre and old. No tele- graph flashed intelligence of important and exciting events. The post-office was a small affair. Postage was so costly as to make the receiving of letters a rare lux- ury. Events moved slowly. The community lived much within itself. Men's thoughts turned inward. Abstract questions occupied their minds to a great ex- tent. Religion was introvertive and self-inspective. It could not be otherwise. There was not enough outside to hold the attention. Preaching was abstract, argu- mentative, theological. Religious lines, lines of sect and creed, were drawn very sharply, and religious prej- udices were strong. Doctrine and discipline were severe. The French revolution was just breaking out, and the American revolution had not yet made its meaning understood. A hundred years ago Washington was President and about as far advanced in his administra- tion as is Harrison to-day. Republicanism was just beginning its great experiment. Washington's court was aristocratic. About him were gathered such men as Vice-President Adams, Hamilton, Knox, Edmund Randolph. The democratic simplicity of Franklin and Jefferson had not yet produced their full impression. To be a Baptist in those days was to be an exponent of ideas a half century or more ahead of the times. It was an unaristocratic thing, and it required strong conviction and moral courage in men and women who cared for
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public opinion. The rallying of the Baptists to the standard of Thomas Jefferson a few years later, the wide currency of the expression, "a democrat and a Baptist," and, still later, the journey of an eccentric Baptist min- ister, John Leland, to Washington to convey on a sled to President Jackson as a present a huge cheese, as big around as a cart-wheel, are all indications of the anti- aristocratic and liberty-loving spirit of the early Baptists.
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