USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Cambridge > Sermon on the re-opening of Christ Church, Cambridge, Mass. : preached on the twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity, November 22, 1857 : with a historical notice of the Church > Part 1
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Gc 974.402 C14hop 1822068
N. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00085 0823
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https://archive.org/details/sermononreopenin00hopp
A
SERMON
ON
THE RE-OPENING
OF
CHRIST CHURCH, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.,.
PREACHED
ON THE TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY,
NOVEMBER 22, 1857;
WITH A
HISTORICAL NOTICE OF THE CHURCH.
BY
THE REV. NICHOLAS HOPPIN, RECTOR.
PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE PARISH.
THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY CHICAGO
BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY IDE AND DUTTON. M DCCC LVIII.
1822068
1:
HOPPIN, NICHOLAS, 1813 ?- 1886.
.41
D 284414 A sermon on the re-opening of Christ church, Cambridge, Mass., preached on the twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity, November 22, 1857; with a historical notice of the church ... Published by request of the parish. Boston, Ide and Dutton, 1858.
79p.
SHELF CARD
NL 39-4473
18877
4
i it Rutfords bith
CHRIST CHURCH, Cambridge Muss, 1858.
4
Henne 1901
D254414
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by NICHOLAS HOPPIN, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
18877 XC
CAMBRIDGE : THURSTON AND TORRY, PRINTERS.
:
THIS sermon, delivered upon the Sunday following the writer's return from England, having been requested for publication, it was thought advisable to join with it a further sketch of the history of the Church. A careful examination made in London of the records and correspondence of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts brought to light some important facts; and, other information having been compiled from various sources, the whole is here presented to the friends of Christ Church.
CHRIST CHURCH RECTORY. Easter, 1858.
SERMON.
"LORD, I HAVE LOVED THE HABITATION OF THY HOUSE, AND THE PLACE WHERE THINE HONOR DWELLETH." Psalm xxvi. 8.
EXILED from kindred and country, from the society of God's people and the privileges of His holy worship, dwelling amongst the idolatrous Philistines, in the years of his youthful purity and integrity of heart, the sweet Psalmist of Israel had a deeper sense of the importance of God's ritual service and the sacredness of that chosen spot where the offerings of men were presented to the Majesty of Heaven. For the more solemn addresses to the Almighty could not then be accepta- bly made in every place; there was but one tabernacle, and that in Sion, where He deigned to have his special habitation amongst the sons of men; and therefore, . although the Psalmist might and did privately pour out his soul in prayer, as we see by this and many other Psalms composed under like circumstances, yet he longed to meet God in His appointed sanctuary, to enjoy a nearer intercourse with Him, and to realize the more special tokens of His benignity, power, wisdom, and holiness. " Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine honor dwelleth."
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" Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest and receivest unto Thee; he shall dwell in Thy courts and shall be satisfied with the pleasures of Thy house, even of Thy holy temple."
" But will God"- asks the son of the Psalmist, in the midst of that sublime prayer of consecration, in which he sets apart a magnificent structure to the ser- vice of the Almighty, " will God " - he stops short to inquire, as if smitten with a disturbing doubt - " indeed dwell on the earth ? Behold the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house which I have built." The same question no doubt has suggested itself to many with regard to the sanc- tuaries of Christian worship, which we are now free to establish wherever we choose, which are always accessi- ble to us, which consecrate our clustered habitations with the solemnity of religion, and crown our cities and villages with the best ornament and grace. Will God indeed deign to dwell on the earth ? Have we reason to believe that he adopts these places as his special habitation, where we may draw near to Him and He to us in the closest intercourse ? The answer, my brethren, is, undoubtedly He does. Though present everywhere alike by His nature and power, His obser- vation and government of His creatures, He does not everywhere give the same manifestation of His presence. Thus He is in reality no more in heaven than upon earth, yet He there more fully unveils His glories and im- parts a greater measure of felicity to His saints. So here on earth He attaches special honor to the shrines which we dedicate to Him, gives greater tokens of His regard and more favorable answers to our prayers in holy places. Our churches are in truth representations on
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earth, far inferior indeed in excellence, yet just repre- sentations as to the real nature of the thing, of the glorious sanctuary above; as Moses was directed to make all things pertaining to the earthly tabernacle according to the pattern showed him in the Mount; and the divine St. John, in the vision of glory, saw a golden altar before the throne of God, upon which was offered much incense with the prayers of all saints.
When the Psalmist says, "I have loved the habita- tion of Thy house," the words are not to be understood simply with respect to his own abiding there, but rather with respect to the Almighty Lord who had chosen it ' as His dwelling, and the consequent manifestations of His favor which devout worshippers might hope to receive. And this is confirmed by the parallel clause which forms the conclusion of the verse, " and the place where Thine honor dwelleth." Yes, brethren, God's honor is intimately associated with the temples where He is worshipped ; not only our honoring of Him by our attendance, by our adorations, by our reverent listen- ing to His word, His admonitions, His exhortations, His encouragements, and our devout celebration of His holy sacraments, but His honoring of us by lending a favorable ear to our services, by drawing near for a closer communication with our spirits and the bestowal of choicer blessings of His heavenly grace.
I am sure that all who have been accustomed to kneel devoutly in this place, to offer their homage to the God who made them, the Saviour who redeemed them, and the Holy Spirit who sanctifies them, have felt that it is indeed good for them to be here, that the sweetest hours are those which we spend in the sanctuary ; and have found that the warmest and ten-
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derest feelings become linked to the spot which is hallowed by so many improving and holy influences. Our constantly recurring celebrations of the Sunday festival, our enjoyment of these blessed days of the Son of man, our thanksgivings to Almighty God for the bounties of His Providence, our annual rejoicings for the Nativity, the observance of the high feast of Easter, the Ascension, the Pentecost, the memorial days of Apostles and Martyrs, the solemnities of our Saviour's Passion, and the humiliations of Lent and Advent, with the ministrations of Baptism, Eucharist, and other holy rites, conspire to render sacred and venerable even the material structure in which these holy services are per- formed.
No wonder that many of us were unwilling to have such associations disturbed, or the grave beauty and decent elegance of our place of worship impaired by any alteration. I had my own reluctances upon this point, and many a time, when kneeling in the stately cathedrals and minsters of our mother country, where so much magnificence and beauty is hallowed by the associations of antiquity, or joining in the services of her more ordinary churches and chapels, while sweet- toned voices were chanting the praises of the Redeemer, and all that the eye could desire was supplied for the outward attractiveness of worship, where well-decked altars, and white-robed choirs and priests, and storied monuments, and deep stained windows, enhanced the effect of the simple, grave, and reasonable service of the Church, the fear would arise that I might come back to feel no longer at home in the place of my ministrations, and be unable in our altered sanctuary to recover the cherished recollections of the past. But it
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is indeed a gratification to find so great an increase of convenience with so little change in the appearance of our Church, while there is such a decided improvement as to ecclesiastical propriety and general impressiveness of effect. It is too a matter of congratulation that nearly a century after its erection, this place of worship should have remained so well-preserved that we have been able to realize though late, what was certainly an original expectation of the founders of the parish. This will appear with other matters of interest from a brief survey of its earlier history.
About a hundred years ago there returned to his native country a youthful servant of Christ in Holy Orders, who had received his education at Cambridge in England, and who was then a Fellow of Jesus Col- lege, in that University. This was the Reverend East Apthorp, the first minister of this parish, and after- wards Rector of the Church of St. Mary-le-Bow, and Prebendary of St. Paul's, London. There were a num- ber of families then residing in this and the adjacent towns attached to the doctrines and worship of the Church of England, and the opportunity seemed favor- able for the establishment of a Church of that com- munion. Application was accordingly made to the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts for their assistance in the undertaking ; which was generously met by the appropriation of what was then a liberal salary for the support of a missionary ; which aid was continued (in addition to various other benefactions to our Church and to the University in this place1) for sixteen years.
1 On the destruction of the Library of the University in January 1764 by fire, the Society contributed a donation of books towards the restoration of it.
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I had the great satisfaction when lately in London to find in the archives of the Society, among the remnants of a destructive fire, the whole of the original corres- pondence (with the exception of a few letters preserved in our own records) relating to the foundation of our Church and its subsequent affairs, while its connection with the Society continued. The following is their account of the commencement of the undertaking : - " Several worthy gentlemen of the town of Cambridge, in the Pro- vince of Massachusetts Bay, members of the Church of England, having petitioned the Society to grant them a missionary, who may officiate not only to them and the adjacent towns, but also to such students of Harvard University who are of the Church of England, and are at present obliged at great inconvenience to go to Boston, for an opportunity of public worship according to the liturgy of the Church," (it will be remembered that the communication with Boston was then only by ferry, or eight miles by land,) " and setting forth in their petition, that the Rev. Mr. Apthorp, Fellow of Jesus College in
Mr. Apthorp then the Missionary wrote, March 12th, 1764, recommending the donation. "I think it an occasion of exerting that public and Christian spirit which has ever animated the Society, to contribute their assistance as they have formerly, by a present of books towards repairing this great loss to religion and learning, in a colony wholly unprovided of public libraries. I have only to add, that the library and other advantages of the College are distinguishing benefits to this mission, and that I am under personal obliga- tions to the Town and College for their favor to me in that and other in- stances." In a letter of thanks to the Society, President Holyoke says : - " The books you have sent are just such as we wished to have, and will al- ways be an evidence of the learning and judgment of the gentlemen who chose them." - Original MS. Papers, S. P. G. Vol. XVIII.
Whatever the mistakes of the English government, the thousands of bene- factions from societies and individuals, scattered throughout this country for a period of one hundred and fifty years, ought not to be forgotten, as evi- dences of the good will of the people of Great Britain towards their brethren in the Colonies.
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the University of Cambridge, England, is every way qualified for the advancement of religion among them, in Holy Orders, and on a visit to his friends in Boston, the Society, out of a peculiar regard to the merit and ap- proved abilities of Mr. Apthorp, which will enable him very much to promote religion and learning in that his native colony, hath appointed him their missionary to the Church of Cambridge, in the Colony of Massachusetts · Bay; and the gentlemen of that Church, by a letter dated November 20th 1759, return their hearty thanks to the Society for this appointment, and promise that they will neglect nothing in their power to render themselves worthy of its patronage. And Mr. Apthorp, who accepts of, and returns the Society his thanks for their appoint- ment of him to this mission, promises his best endeavors to make himself as useful as may be in the important charge he hath undertaken, and expresses his satisfaction that the Dissenters from the Church of England permit the design to go on without molestation, and have evi- denced a very moderate spirit on the occasion."
It should be mentioned to the honor of Mr. Apthorp, · that he refused to receive the salary voted him by the Society for the space of two years and a half, during which time the church was in progress, and while he was consequently unable to officiate in Cambridge ; and as it was standing to his credit in the Society's accounts,1 he requested it might be appropriated towards the expenses incurred in building the church; which request they readily complied with, and voted him their special thanks for his highly honorable behavior on that occasion.
In a letter dated August 30th, 1760, amongst other
1 About $600.
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matters relating to the Church, Mr. Apthorp informs the Society that " particular care has been taken to make the structure useful and durable as well as decently elegant, and in case of future accessions to the congregation it may easily be enlarged." It appears from our own records, that Mr. Apthorp was one of the building com- mittee, and there can be little doubt, I think, that he expresses in this the expectation of the whole committee, as he was their organ of communication with the Society, and that they had this possible need of an enlargement in view in the dimensions which they selected for the church, and proposed to the masterly architect whom they employed. He also says : "I have great satisfaction in being able to acquaint the Society, that it already promises to be one of the best supported and most flour- ishing Churches under their protection in America."
In 1764 he asked and obtained permission from the Society to visit England for the settlement of some pri- vate affairs, and never returned to this country. His removal was a great loss to the parish; but after being variously supplied for two or three years, they obtained in 1767 the appointment of the Rev. Winwood Serjeant, as their missionary, who continued eight years in the quiet and unaffected discharge of his duties. Though without the great learning and brilliant abilities and " reputation of Dr. Apthorp, the church seems to have reasonably flourished under his ministry. In one of his letters he says : "There is all the decency and regularity of compliance with the ordinances of the Church that the custom of the times will admit of. I would fain flatter myself that the Church of Cambridge may, in a few years more, become as respectable for numbers as it is now for peace and quietness, and propriety of conduct and beha- vior both in civil and religious life."
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But how fallacious, my brethren, are human expecta- tions ! How imperfectly do we reckon the contingencies upon which future prosperity depends ! The brightest prospects may be suddenly overcast, and we have had many an impressive lesson in our own experience not to depend too confidently upon the enjoyment of any earthly advantages, or the fulfilment of our most cher- ished plans and hopes. At the very time when all was going on in appearance so smoothly and promisingly, a storm was about to burst upon the country, which was to overturn the very foundations of social order, and, though fraught with future blessings and many reviving and healthful influences, was yet to arrest for a time the general prosperity of the land. The troubled years pre- ceding the war of the American Revolution, the period of the war itself, and many long years that followed, were apparently most disastrous to our Church. When the contest between this country and its rulers in Great Britain began, many of our clergy and laity were the adherents of the latter, conscientiously, and from that honorable feeling of loyalty to their mother land, which even oppression and unjust dealing could not speedily eradicate. Of this number was the missionary Serjeant, though he does not seem to have taken any active part in the contest, beyond that of continuing the use of the " customary prayers for the Sovereign and his government. There is something quite touching in his letters to the Society about this time, and in the frequent expression of his apprehensions that the hopes of our Church were gone forever ! " Pray Heaven !" he says in one, "to put an end to this dire contest soon by a happy accommoda- tion." In another : " This unhappy province is involved
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in all the horrors of civil war. Open hostilities com- menced on the 19th of April. Boston besieged with an army of thirty thousand provincials. The King's troops do not amount to ten thousand. Above a thousand killed and wounded in some late skirmishes. All com- munication with the country entirely cut off. No fresh provisions suffered to be carried into Boston these four months. The King's troops and the inhabitants rendered sickly from continual hardships. Ten thousand provin- cials stationed at Cambridge and quartered upon the inhabitants. The church converted into a guard-house. Families, however inoffensive, suspected to retain any loyal principles, treated with the utmost insolence and rigor. I was obliged to retreat with my family fifty miles into the country. - I have lost not less than £300 in household furniture and books destroyed and pillaged. Without some happy interposition of Divine Providence in a speedy accommodation, the Episcopal clergy and churches must certainly fall."
This was the dismal side of the picture, and the pros- pect was for a long time certainly gloomy and disheart- ening. But yet again, how short-sighted are human calculations, and how often are the greatest apparent calamities converted into blessings ! Though our Church was perhaps the one most averse at first to the separation from the mother country, yet of all the religious bodies in the land, strange as it may seem, it was the one most immediately and most extensively benefitted by the sepa- ration. God in his merciful Providence was preparing the way for its prosperous establishment on a permanent foundation. Before the revolution it existed in a very imperfect and precarious condition, without the Episco- pal order, authority and discipline amongst us, its growth
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regarded with an unfriendly eye, our communicants unconfirmed, our churches unconsecrated, our ministry but poorly replenished, and our candidates obliged to un- dertake a voyage of three thousand miles in order to be properly examined, ordained and commissioned to preach the Gospel. Though the Episcopal churches in this country were nominally under the supervision of the Bishop of London as Diocesan of the Colonies, yet at such a distance the discipline was necessarily lax and feeble, and it was little that he could do for the manage- ment of so vast a charge. Not a few unworthy ministers whose misconduct could be no longer tolerated at home, found their way to the colonies, to disgrace and injure the Church here as well; and good Bishop Sherlock com- plained of the weight of the responsibility, the unreason- ableness of the arrangement, and the uselessness of the attempt to regulate matters at such a distance from his pastoral care.1 But no sooner was the Independence acknowledged and peace finally established, than the way was opened for the settlement of our Church on its proper basis. The Church of England imparted the full measure of her divine gifts, and received us into fellow- ship as a sympathizing branch of the Church of Christ ; the things that remained were strengthened, the waste places of our Church were gradually restored, and a career of prosperity and usefulness was opened to her children.
1 " How the Bishop of London comes to be charged with this care, I will not now inquire ; but sure I am that the care is improperly lodged ; for a bishop to live at one end of the world and his church at the other, must make the office very uncomfortable to the bishop, and in a great measure useless to the people." - Letter of Bp. Sherlock to Dr. Doddridge, 1751. Hawkins' Missions of the Church of England, p. 391.
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Our particular parish however long felt the blow which it had received. For fifteen years the church lay desolate and neglected ; no voice of prayer or praise was heard within these walls, save when the illustrious Com- mander-in-chief of the American forces, whose head- quarters were then in Cambridge, at the request of his lady, who had followed him from Virginia to the scene of hostilities, seconded probably by other devout ladies of his household, who felt no doubt deeply at such a time the need of the Divine blessing, caused the church, as we have reason to believe, to be vacated by the soldiery, and the service to be read on Sundays by an officer of his army. I have a copy of the prayer which was then substituted in place of the one usually offered for the King and Royal Family, for which General Washing- ton and others present expressed their thanks to the composer; and who shall presume to say, my brethren, that that homage to the Supreme Arbiter of human destiny on the part of the head of the provincial forces, and the offering of that prayer for the divine blessing upon their arms at the beginning of the contest, might not have had its influence on the result ? We know that the battle is not always to the strong, and that the Almighty is the only giver of victory. And as they prayed for his blessing beforehand, let us not fail to give him thanks after the bestowal of his mercies, and under the enjoyment of our civil and religious privileges.
In 1790 the church was repaired and re-opened for divine service, and with a varied experience of hopes and discouragements on the part of the parish, and with repeated repairs and alterations at different times, has continued until now to serve the purposes of religion,
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and we trust, has not been without fruit to the glory of God. Surely, my brethren, we have great reason in many points of view, to rejoice in the present addition to the accommodations for worshippers. Architectural symmetry may be desirable, and I should be the last to underrate the importance of the external attractiveness of holy places ; but, after all, convenience and necessity must take precedence of embellishment. My thanks are most heartily due to the parishioners for the greater space and freedom to worship God which we now enjoy, as well as for the good judgment and taste with which the alterations have been conducted ; and particularly to those whose personal exertions and services have brought them to a successful completion. May they have the best reward, that of seeing religion prosperous amongst us, and the congregation increasing in devotion and earnestness of piety as well as in numbers. May we all be united with one heart and mind, striving together for the faith of the Gospel, the doing of our blessed Master's will, and the advancement of His king- dom ; and with regard to this, His sanctuary, may the text be always the sincere expression of our feeling : " Lord, we have loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine honor dwelleth."
I have worshipped in many a beautiful church, and in many a majestic fane, since I last met you in this place; and for that and all the other enjoyments of a delightful tour my warmest thanks are due to you and to the merciful Providence, which has guided me in all my wanderings, and brought me at length safely back to those whom I love. I shall always gratefully remember many sweet and holy seasons in the sanc- tuaries of our Mother Church. It was indeed a priv-
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ilege to worship at those altars, from which were transplanted long since to this western land the bless- ings of the common salvation. I shall never forget what I have seen of the order and beauty of her ministrations, and the laborious dovotedness of her clergy. God bless them and their work ! But here, my brethren, it is a still greater privilege to join in your prayers and praises, and here are associations to stir the deepest and holiest feelings of the heart. Your everlasting salvation ought to be and is, I trust, my chief desire, your advancement in the knowledge of Christ, your being incorporated with Him by faith, your growing up into Him in love, the great object of my endeavors. The longer I have lived, and the more I have seen at home and abroad of human life, the more I have felt the importance of the saving truths of the Gospel, of preaching Christ crucified as the source of spiritual strength, and the only hope of the world.
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