USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > An address delivered on the two hundredth anniversary of the organization of the First Baptist church, Boston, June 7, 1865 > Part 2
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titute of a regular pastor. They wrote to England for one, and to Mr. Screven of South Carolina, but without success. Mr. Screven replied, " that, if the Lord did not please to supply them in the way they had ex- pected, they should improve the gifts they had in the church, as they had done from the beginning. Brother Callender," he said, " and John Russell, Jr., have gifts that may tend to edification if improved. I think you should call one or both of them to it." The church followed this advice, and called Mr. Ellis Callender. He was ordained in 1708. Like most of his predecessors in office, he had not been educated to the clerical profession. But, like them, he had long been a member of the church, had shared their sufferings and joys from the beginning, and thus possessed the inesti- mable advantage of being confided in as one who nat- urally cared for their state. He performed the duties of a pastor for over ten years ; and had the great pleasure in his lifetime of seeing his son Elisha Callender in- ducted into the same office. Elisha was a young man of much promise. He had graduated at Harvard Col- lege, in the class of 1710. He united with the church about three years after, and, having given satisfactory evidence of his qualifications for the ministry, was ordained as pastor of the church, May 21st, 1718. " This," says Mr. Winchell, " was an event of great joy to the father. Like Elijah of old, having courageously and faithfully vindicated the honor of his Master in
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' troublous times,' he saw, in departing, his beloved Elisha, his own son in the faith, who had been edu- cated in the school of the Prophets, invested with the office which he had himself sustained, and rejoiced in the prospect that the mantle of the father, even a double portion of his spirit, would fall upon the son."
But besides the circumstance of being successor to his father, the ordination of Mr. Callender was an in- teresting event on account of its having been attended by those ministers who a few years before had used their influence to drive the Baptists out of the colony.
" It was a grateful surprise to me," says old Dr. Increase Mather, "when several of the brethren of the Antipedobaptist persuasion came to me, desiring that I would give them the right hand of fellowship in ordain -. ing one whom they had chosen to be their pastor. I did (as I believe it was my duty) readily consent to what they proposed, considering the young man to be or- dained is serious and pious and of a candid spirit, and has been educated in the college at Cambridge, and that all the brethren with whom I have any acquaintance (I hope the like concerning others of them) are, in the judgment of rational charity, godly persons." This language to us has a patronizing air, making it not quite so palatable as it might be; but it was doubtless graciously intended.
Dr. Cotton Mather preached the ordination sermon, and entitled it " Good Men United." He made direct
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reference to the persecutions which the Baptists had suffered from the ruling powers, and, in Old Testament style quite common at that time, he says, "Cursed the anger for it is fierce, and the wrath for it is cruel, good for nothing but only to make divisions in Jacob and dispersions in Israel."
The venerable father of the candidate lived eight years after his son's ordination, and occasionally as- sisted him in his work.
The following record is on the church books (May 5, 1721) : " Voted, that if Providence at any time pre- vent our elder or pastor from coming forth on the Sacrament day, then his father shall proceed to admin- ister the ordinance as formerly."
The senior Mr. Callender died in 1726, when he must have been about eighty years of age. His son Elisha continued in the pastoral office for twenty years. He was much beloved by his people, and the church prospered under his ministry. " Although his constitution was feeble, he not only discharged the duties of his office at home to great acceptance, but frequently preached in neighboring towns, and as far off as Springfield and Sutton, Leicester, Marshfield, and Salem, in most of which places several persons were baptized and became members of the church." But in the midst of life and usefulness he was arrested by disease, which terminated in his death, March 31, 1738. The "Boston Evening Post," a journal pub- lished here at the time, thus refers to his death : -
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" On Friday morning last, after a lingering illness, deceased the Rev. Mr. Elisha Callender, minister of the Baptist Church in this town, a gentleman universally beloved by people of all persuasions for his charitable and catholic way of thinking. His life was unspotted, and his conversation always affable, religious, and truly manly. During his long illness he was remarkably patient; and in his last hours, like the blessed above, pacific and entirely serene; his senses good to the last. 'I shall,' said he, 'sleep in Jesus,' and that moment expired, very much lamented by all that knew him."
Rev. Jeremiah Condy was the next pastor. He was a graduate of Harvard College, in the class of 1726. He was ordained as pastor of the church, February 14, 1739, and remained in this office until 1764, a period of twenty-five years. There is something of a cloud resting upon his memory, but for what reason it is difficult to ascertain. Mr. Winchell records that he was a man of unblemished character. His continu- ance with the same people for a quarter of a century is itself a recommendation. He left them of his own accord, and with the strongest assurance, on their part, of unabated confidence and love. He was called an Arminian; but this charge, from the lips of those who were in sympathy with Dr. Gill, requires considerable abatement. Few additions, it is said, were made to the church under his pastorate. This
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may have been his fault, or it may have been owing to circumstances beyond his control. In the early part of Mr. Condy's pastorate an extraordinary relig- ious excitement prevailed in New England, known as the " Great Awakening," under the preaching of Whitefield and Edwards, and the Tennents. Like some other Massachusetts divines, Mr. Condy may not have fully sympathized with the unusual proceed- ings of that day. He may have been deficient in energy and spiritual life. But if his ministry had been attended with none of these deficiencies, it prob- ably would have been eclipsed by the splendor of the light that soon arose. A letter full of confidence and love was given to Mr. Condy, at his resignation. He continued to reside in the city, and preached in different places until his death, in 1768.
The now familiar and venerated name of Samuel Stillman is the next on the list of pastors. He was born in Philadelphia, February 27, 1737. In his boy- hood his parents removed to Charleston, South Car- olina, where he remained until he entered the ministry at the age of twenty-one. He had received a good classical education, and studied theology under his pastor, the Rev. Mr. Hart. He commenced preach- ing on James Island, near Charleston. But the sea air being unfavorable to his health, he soon left the island and spent the two following years in Borden- town. New Jersey. He then visited New England,
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and was invited to pass a year with the Second Church, since known as Baldwin Place, as an assist- ant to the Rev. Mr. Bound. While there, he was called to the pastoral care of this church, and was installed January 9, 1765, just one hundred years after the church was formed. Here he continued till his death, a period of forty-two years. No pastor before or since was ever more beloved by his church. His popularity was uninterrupted, and greater if pos- sible in his old age than in his youth. A few individuals who sat under his ministry and who were quite young when he was an old man, still survive and are present with us to-day. They never weary in talking about him, and even now speak of this as Dr. Stillman's church. They looked at the vener- able pastor not only with the profoundest respect, but with the observant eye of childhood. They noticed and remembered everything in his external appearance, his wig and gown and bands, his horse and carriage, and negro-man Jephtha, - how he walked, how he talked, how he baptized, the pecul- iar manner in which he began his prayers: "O thou Father of mercies and God of all grace."
Dr. Stillman's affectionate hearers never wanted their pastor to exchange pulpits of a Sunday, and were impatient of his absence from an evening meet- ing. "The Doctor is coming," was a common expres- sion of gladness as they heard his familiar voice and foot-fall at the head of the old plank pathway, leading
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from the main street down to the church. Dr. Still- man was loved not alone by his own people. He was a universal favorite. He was regarded by the whole community as a man of more than ordinary talent, of great kindness of heart and perfect purity of moral character. Habitually pleasant and cheer- ful, he was welcome in every circle. He never assumed professional airs, but was always the gentle- man and the dignified clergyman. He was probably the most popular pulpit orator of his day. Strangers visiting the city, made arrangements to hear him at least a part of the Sabbath. The most distinguished men in the Commonwealth were often present at his public services. The elder President Adams was a delighted listener to his sermons. Governor Hancock became, in the latter part of his life, a regular member of his congregation. Persons who cared nothing for his theology were attracted by his fame as a public speaker. A stranger gentleman of this class was one day present at church, and seemed restless and uneasy under the strong doctrines of human depravity, divine sovereignty, and future retribution that were often on the preacher's lips. On the present occasion, his denunciations of sin had been unusually pointed and scathing. "Really," the gentleman remarked, as he went out of the sanctuary, " the Doctor makes us all out a set of rascals, but he does it so gracefully and eloquently that I am not disposed to find fault.
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Dr. Stillman's eloquence was of a peculiar kind. It had a resistless charm; not mighty, but fascinating. Not like the rushing storm of ocean, sublime and aw- ful; but like a June morning, healthful and inspiring. Young people flocked in crowds to his Sunday evening lecture. The late Dr. Pierce, of Brookline, said, that in his boyhood he had walked many a time from his home in Dorchester, to get a standing-place in Dr. Stillman's meeting-house. "Stillman's Sermons," as we now have them, give but an imperfect idea of what he was in the pulpit. There was a power, a beauty, - a fire, in his spoken address, which it was impossible to transfer to paper. His best thoughts came while speaking. As he caught inspiration from his theme, the left his notes, his spectacles were taken off, and [ then the people looked for his most stirring appeals. He would move about in the pulpit, not with theatri- cal starts, but as if on silver springs. Every nerve [ was in full and easy play. His eyes beamed with light, and his voice, increasing in volume and sweetness, seemed like the music of heaven, and his words came like flakes of feathered snow, "that melted as they fell."
Dr. Stillman's ministry was exercised during a period of great national interest. The revolutionary war, the change of the colonies into independent States, the adoption of the Federal Constitution, the presidency of Washington, Adams, and Jefferson, all occurred while he was a pastor in Boston. He was
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a deeply interested observer of these events. He was an enthusiastic friend of General Washington, and the conservative principles of the first administration. In the exciting political conflicts of 1801, he obviously sympathized with the Federal party ; nor did he hesi- tate, on what he deemed suitable occasions, to utter his sentiments from the pulpit. It is really refreshing to know that the good, judicious, the eminently con- servative Dr. Stillman, did preach on politics. Persons then, as now, complained, and thought he had better preach the gospel, and leave worldly affairs to worldly men. But he thought it his duty, he said, as a Chris- tian minister and a Christian patriot, to warn the peo- ple against the influence of French infidelity and those principles which, in his opinion, would tend to anarchy and disunion. There was no bitterness, however, in his preaching. He was always on the best of terms with Dr. Baldwin, whose sympathies, it was well known, were of the Jeffersonian school. These good men and their churches loved each other as brethren, and strove together only for the faith of the gospel ; though it is said, that, on Thanksgiving and Fast Days, the Federalists naturally went to Stillman Street, and the Democrats to Baldwin Place.
During the first years of the present century, there was a remarkable revival of religion in the First and Second Churches. This, no doubt, tended to moderate the political differences which prevailed at that period.
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The grace of God is a wonderful healer of discord. The pastors were as brothers, and the churches as one body. Religious meetings were held on the Sabbath, and during the week. The congregations were large, and many conversions occurred. Dr. Stillman was in his element on such occasions. The inquiry from anxious hearts, "What shall I do to be saved ?" touched his tenderest emotions. His counsels were wise and peculiarly appropriate. He would endeavor to understand each case, - would try to remove every difficulty, and check such as appeared too forward; would speak an encouraging word to those who were inclined to despond, and always made religion appear attractive. Dea. James Loring, in his advanced years, often spoke to me of these personal interviews. He recollected particularly one occasion, when he and other young people were present in the pastor's study. The Doctor conversed with all in the room, took each one by the hand, and seemed to compre- hend their unuttered thoughts. Most of those present had expressed in words, and more clearly in their countenances, that they had experienced the first impulses of the new life. The pastor discovered it as if by intuition. He looked around most affection- ately upon the youthful circle, and with a smile of delight, said, "My dear children, what a wonderful thing religion is! How happy it makes us!"
Dr. Stillman was very tender-hearted. He sympa-
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thized strongly with human suffering. The sick, the poor, the bereaved, were sure of his pastoral visits. He never forgot to pray for the sailor. Many of this class were frequently in his church. He would occa- sionally address them directly, and did this with such a look and tone of kindness that they would often rise up, as an expression of their interest and grati- tude. Prisoners, and criminals under sentence of death, were accustomed to desire his presence. They were often benefited by his timely counsels, and found relief and hope in his Christ-like spirit. Like his Mas- ter, he sympathized with the guilty, as well as with the sufferer. He put on no airs of superior sanctity, but spoke of himself and them as alike dependent on the mercy of God in Christ. He was especially wel- come in the house of mourning. He had been him- self deeply bereaved, and could feel for the afflicted, and knew how to comfort them, "by the comfort wherewith he himself was comforted of God."
Dr. Stillman possessed an eminently catholic spirit. He was a lover of good men, and was loved by them in return. Christians of other denominations were regu- lar attendants upon his ministry, and recognized him as their pastor. Among these was the father of a well-known and much esteemed clergyman of this city. Dr. Stillman was invited on one occasion, by the anxious parents, to the bedside, as they supposed, of their dying son. He sympathized with them in
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their distress. The pastor prayed earnestly and with moistened eyes for the child's recovery, and also that he might live to be a useful man in the Lord's vine- yard. William recovered, as the parents thought, and as the child, now the venerable Dr. Jenks, still thinks, in answer to the " prayer of faith." He was afterwards called in the family the little minister. And to this day he refers to that memorable prayer as being not only the means, under God, of saving his life, but as the prayer of consecration to his Master's service.
It was Dr. Stillman's frequently expressed wish, that he might not outlive his usefulness. This wish was gratified. At threescore years and ten, his eye was not dim, nor his natural strength abated. The last time he appeared in the pulpit, two weeks before his death, he preached with more than his usual power. Dr. Stillman loved his people as a father. He feared they might suffer from a decline of his own strength, and unwilling that, in the event of his death, they should be even temporarily without a pastor, he de- sired that they would settle a colleague with him in the ministry. The church, not, indeed, sharing his fears, still respected his wishes, and complied with his request. Rev. Joseph Clay, of Georgia, was called to this posi- tion; but before the new minister had entered upon his labors, the venerable Stillman had joined the church on high. He died on the 12th of March, 1807. His funeral was attended on the 17th of the
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same month, by his bereaved people, and a large con- course of sympathizing friends. Dr. Baldwin preached on the occasion from 2 Timothy iv. 7, S. " I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." " I have a distinct recollection," said Dr. Pierce, " of the funeral. All the members of the society appeared with badges of mourning, the women with black bonnets and handkerchiefs. If the pastor had been removed in the bloom of youth, his people could not have been more deeply affected." The line in the elegy,
" Though the voice tremble while we sing,"
was literally fulfilled on that occasion. Sobs and tears were mingled with the plaintive music.
" There is a stream whose gentle flow Supplies the city of our God ; Life, love, and joy still gliding through, And watering our divine abode."
Mr. Clay now became sole pastor of the church, and was installed in August, 1807. He had passed his early manhood in the practice of the law, and had risen to eminence in his profession. For several years he was judge of the United States Court for the District of Georgia, his native State. The late Attorney General, John M. Berrien, was a student in his office, and speaks of him as an able lawyer and a most estimable man. Mr. Clay had naturally a warm Southern temperament, and after the change
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in his religious feelings, he abandoned his legal pro- fession, and gave himself with more than youthful ardor to the work of the ministry. But his career as a minister was brief. He preached to the church only a little over a year, when, his health failing, he resigned his charge. Both himself and people hoped for his recovery, and the renewal of the rela- tion between them; but his health continued to decline, and he died on the 11th of January, 1811, in the forty-seventh year of his age. 1988966
The church was now without a pastor, and re- mained so for a period of five years. They suffered in consequence many of the evils which Dr. Stillman had anticipated. It was a period for numerous can- didates, and of course for a diversity of opinions and varied preferences. Some were for Paul and some for Apollos, and some for Cephas. The celebrity of Dr. Stillman had made the church more than ordina- rily fastidious. They must have an able minister ; a young man; a scholar. He must be eloquent like Dr. Stillman, and a logician like Judge Clay. In their view, there was no man in the ministry quite equal to so eligible a place as the pastorship of the First Baptist Church of Boston. I have been told there was some talk of sending for Andrew Fuller ; but he was the main support of the Baptists in Eng- land, the Secretary of the Foreign Missionary Society, and could not be spared from the church at Kettering.
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Thus the people lingered on, with little prospect of obtaining the minister of their united choice, or of being long satisfied even with him.
Meanwhile, a modest young man, a member of a Baptist Church in Northeast, N. Y., was pursuing his studies at Union College, and expecting to graduate at Schenectady. He was a diligent student, but no visionary or day-dreamer, and had no high-raised ex- pectations in regard to the future. This was James Manning Winchell. Dr. Nott was much attached to his pupil, and with a magnanimity characteristic of the man, advised him to spend the last year of his collegiate course at Brown University, thinking, as he was a Baptist, it might be more favorable to his future usefulness. The young student followed the counsels that were given him, and soon became an equal favorite with Dr. Messer and Dr. Gano at Providence. He graduated in the class of 1812. After preaching a year for the Baptist Church in Bristol, R. I., he was invited to come as a candi- date to this church. Had he been a man of worldly ambition, or very sensitive in regard to his ministerial reputation, he probably would have de- clined the honor. He would not have ventured upon a race with so many competitors, where, though all should run, only one could receive the prize. But Mr. Winchell had no personal anxieties. He was in- vited to preach, and accepted the invitation, not
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caring to inquire whether he was to become a pastor or only a candidate. If he failed he would only share the fate of older and, as he thought, much better men. He came, and the result is known. His ap- pearance in the pulpit produced a very favorable impression. The people liked him, - they scarcely
knew why. Certainly not on account of any care- fully prepared " trial" sermon; for his sermons were not elaborate, and his preaching, even in the circum- stances, seemed no trial to him. There was no show or pretence ; no straining for effect; no apparent thought even of the delicacy of his position. He neither astonished by his depth, nor carried the people captive by his brilliancy. He stood before them an unsuspecting youth, anxious only to do the service of his Master. What could they say? Criticism was disarmed. He was so different, too, from Clay or Stillman, that there was no room for comparison. They took him at once to their confidence; called him the " beloved Winchell;" and he goes by this name to the present day.
Mr. Winchell's manner in the pulpit was peculiar. There was no air of defiance, not even of self-confi- dence. Nor was he diffident or embarrassed, but had a subdued look, as of one that feared God. His people never boasted of his extraordinary talent or overpowering eloquence. Such boasting indicates no healthful pastoral relation. He stood higher than this
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in their estimation. He was a man of God, "the beloved Winchell," " our pastor," "and a good minis- ter of Jesus Christ."
Mr. Winchell was installed March 30, 1814. The favorable impressions made at first were deepened by acquaintance. No remarkable events or stirring scenes occurred under his ministry, and he never sought to create an artificial excitement. No large additions to the church were made at any one time. Neither was there a period of dearth, but a steady and continuous advance in religious knowledge and spiritual life. Mr. Winchell was very fond of singing. Hle could sing with the spirit and the understanding also. He was acquainted with the science of music. He had a sweet voice, and could " set the tune " him- self: a happy talent for a pastor. It prepared him to give interest to devotional meetings, and made him always welcome in the social circle. His large and well-trained choir was a prominent feature in his congregation, and an efficient element of power. He met with them frequently at their rehearsals, and many of them became members of the church.
He edited the hymn-book, familiarly known as " Winchell's Watts," and which for many years was universally used by the Baptist Churches of New England. The Psalmist has now taken its place, edited in part by my life-long friend, Rev. Dr. Stow, and by another, the Rev. Dr. S. F. Smith, whose
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own sweet, heavenly, and patriotic strains, are among its chief attractions.
Mr. Winchell had great influence with young men, especially with students preparing for the ministry. They sought his society, and were always welcome. Professor Ripley has told me how pleasantly he used to speak to him in the street, and how grieved Mr. Winchell was on one occasion of apparent neglect by his young friend, who, being near-sighted, seemed not to know him. The late Dr. Davis, of. Hartford, then recently settled at South Reading, was fond of telling how he used to come into the city once or twice every week to recite his lessons in Greek and Latin to the Boston pastor, and to have at the same time, as he said, "a good talk with brother Baldwin." Dr. Rufus Babcock has given interesting reminiscences of this youthful minister :- of the prayer he offered at his father's house in Colebrook, Conn., on his way to Boston; the manner in which he gave the hand of fellowship to one who had been his fellow-stu- dent; how he preached in the pulpit of Dr. Gano at Providence, and the impression produced on the students ; the kindness of Mr. Winchell to himself in bereavement, especially in preparing the memoir of his deceased brother, Cyrus Babcock, for the Maga- zine, and other incidents illustrating his kindness of heart. Dr. Sharp often spoke of the pleasure he en- joyed in Mr. Winchell's society. There was a broth-
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