USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Annals of King's Chapel from the Puritan age of New England to the present day > Part 20
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In April, 1854, Dr. Peabody again wrote to the Wardens, " suggesting whether it might not be on the whole more accept- able to the Society, and tend to a more improving observance of the day, to change the afternoon service to evening for a por- tion of the year," thus leaving the afternoon for the Sunday School. This letter was laid before the Proprietors at the Easter meeting, and was ordered to be printed and distributed in the pews, " the Vestry to report upon the plan at some future meeting of the Proprietors." 1
That the Parish was stirred by him to good works even the barest tables of figures show. During his ministry, the con- tributions to the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches steadily increased. From this pulpit proceeded the earliest impulses to some noble charities; and in others, both in and out of the pulpit, he was a most important helper. If we are rightly informed, the first public suggestion of sending a ship of pro- visions to relieve the Irish famine was in a sermon by him. In New Bedford, an Orphans' Home for which he pleaded "was established on a permanent basis." The Ministry at Large was especially near his heart. He understood its methods thor- oughly, and believed in them. In conjunction with his friend, Rev. Frederick T. Gray, he enlisted the sympathy of many young people in the evening schools held in Pitts Street Chapel, and from his tine dates the constant sympathy between this Church and that Chapel. The whole subject of pauperism he had studied thoroughly, and he had therefore the authority of an expert in laboring for the establishment of the Boston Provident Associa- tion, which testified its sense of his relation to it by recording after his death, that it " chiefly owes its origin " to him; " and to his exertions, his power of engaging others in its service, and to the public confidence in his judgment and good opinion, it is indebted for much of its subsequent success."
1 The question of having the after- noon service postponed till evening, and then having it of a somewhat different character from the usual Evening Ser- vice, having also been referred by the Proprietors to the Wardens and Vestry, it was now brought forward and dis-
cussed ; and after a free expression of opinion it was-
" Voted, That, in the opinion of the Vestry, it is inexpedient to change the hour for the second service in the Chapel from the after- noon to the evening."
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THE MINISTRY OF EPHRAIM PEABODY.
The historical order of events has already been traced by which the Church had come to take the ground of absolute in- dependence from all ecclesiastical organizations. This state of things commended itself to the judgment of the Society. Al- though it not only desired to remain in cordial relations with "all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity," but was in especially intimate relations, informally, with the Unitarian churches of Boston, it saw no cause to change its attitude in this matter. For this reason, the Church abstained from taking part in ecclesiastical occasions, such as the installation of a min- ister in neighboring societies, where, by so doing, it might seem to imply that it had a right to interfere therein. But special care was taken to make it evident that this action was not due to an exclusive or narrow spirit, and that it was possible to have as hearty a fraternal interest without the formal act.
Thus, being invited " to be present by pastor and delegate and assist in the installation " of Rev. Thomas B. Fox at the Warren Street Chapel (an event in which the Society had taken special interest), Nov. 9, 1845, the Wardens replied as follows :
" We rejoice with you in your prospect of having one for your minis- ter so tried and so successful in the good work of preaching the Gospel. . . . We heartily bid you Godspeed, and we assure you of our good-will and sympathy, and that it would give us joy to be helpers in confirming this new relation, and witnesses of your happy union and fellowship. But you are aware that we are without a Pastor, and that we do not consider any of our number as forming a church distinct from the con- gregation. We therefore cannot strictly comply with your invitation, and divers considerations move us to take no part in these your solemnities. We trust, however, that the feelings of kindness and friendship which have hitherto subsisted between the members of our Society and those of your number whom we have known as active in laying the foundations of your new Society, will prevent any doubts of our cordial sympathy in the events of this day ; and we hope that mutual respect and hearty kindness may always subsist between our respective Societies, and all who shall take part, in your Church and ours, in the service of God, and the promotion of good-will to men."
And, after Mr. Peabody had become their Minister, the Parish abode by this principle, even at the installation of his friend and former colleague at New Bedford, Rev. John H. Morison, as Pastor of the First Church and Society in Milton. On this occa- sion, the following reply was sent to the invitation : -
"CHRISTIAN BRETHREN, - It is doubtless known to you that the Church and Society of King's Chapel, now under the Pastoral care of Ephraim
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ANNALS OF KING'S CHAPEL.
Peabody, claim no authority whatsoever, advisory or other, in any ques- tion between any people and their elected or settled Minister and Pas- tor. But they do feel an interest in whatever concerns the happiness and Christian welfare of their brethren who profess to love and who de- sire to follow Christ ; and the Vestry authorize me, in behalf of ourselves and our Society, to make to you an affectionate expression of their friendship, to assure you of their sympathy with you on the joyful occa- sion of your obtaining as your Pastor a man towards whom they cherish the most kindly feelings, and for whom they entertain the highest respect. Praying that the union you are about to form may be ordered by the Giver of all good gifts to your highest and eternal good, and wishing you grace, mercy, and peace, they desire to remain and be held as your brethren in the faith and fellowship of the Gospel.
" For the Vestry,
"GEO. B. EMERSON, " Senior Warden.
" This will be delivered to you by our Pastor, and by R. B. Forbes, who come to you as friends of your Pastor, and yourselves."
Yet again, on an occasion which had special interest for them, April 21, 1853, they respectfully declined attending by delegate Rev. Rufus Ellis's installation at the First Church, although the two Societies and their ministers had long been, as they have since continued, in close relations of Christian friendship.
It should not be supposed, however, that this attitude implied indifference to the religious and moral welfare of other churches of the community. Such an inference is cheaply made, and easily pointed with a sneer; but nothing can be more unjust. It is due to the memory of the men who gave character to King's Chapel, and who shaped its policy during those years, to record that the Church took its part in the charities which in- terested other Parishes; and that its members were among the leading persons in every benevolent work in the community. In September, 1846, for example, when Rev. Mr. Fox's Society, which had increased to more than two hundred members, de- cided to build a chapel for themselves and appealed for aid, they received more assistance from King's Chapel than from any other Church.1
1 This Society was organized in order " to offer the privileges of public worship to those of limited means, as well as others, at a comparatively small ex- pense." The seats were to be rented at three dollars per annum. They built the Indiana Place Chapel, which suhse- quently became the property of the
Church of the Disciples, and was sold in 1868 partly to defray the cost of their present building. For a series of years, the Vestry appropriated $150 annually to aid this Society. They began in 1846 an annual appropriation for the Warren Street Chapel, which has continued to the present time.
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THE MINISTRY OF EPHRAIM PEABODY.
The good-will of the Parish to charitable objects was steadily quickened by the interest and appeals of their Minister. It was his conviction that -
" An eternal law has joined together the love of God and the love of man. To exist at all, they must exist together. Religious faith is to philanthropy what the roots are to the branches, - hidden, it may be the source of their life. Strip the tree each successive year of its foliage, and the roots will die. Cut off the roots, and the leaves will wither. Like the roots will be the religious faith which puts forth no branches laden with beneficent fruits ; like the foliage separated from the roots will be the philanthropy cut off from religious feeling and faith."
In its relations to the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches, the Parish was much affected by this attitude of its Minister. This membership it did not indeed resume, but in every way short of doing so the Church began to show a fresh interest in the cause of the Ministry at Large. In 1846, February 26, " A circular issued by benevolent men calling themselves an ' Exec- utive Committee,' being brought before the Vestry," it was voted, March 31,-
"That the contributions of the Church be placed in the hands of the Minister, who shall make such disposition thereof as he may deem most proper, giving from time to time some account of his distribution thereof to the Parish ; and that he may bring cases calling for charitable action before his people in such a way and time as he shall judge fit. And that contribution to the present object be left to individuals to act their own pleasure."
In December, 1847, the Vestry voted to address a circular to proprietors of pews, stating the call of the treasurer of the Be- nevolent Fraternity of Churches to aid their funds; and that a collection be taken in aid thereof. The collection amounted to $683.58, and subsequently one was taken nearly every year, with increasing amounts, till in March, 1855, it was voted to circulate a subscription paper for this object, in place of a col- lection in the church. Mr. Peabody was in the habit of preach- ing in behalf of the Ministry at Large on some topic connected with the subject of pauperism. He said : --
"The institution of the Ministry at Large, if fully carried out, would seem to come nearer the ideal system on our Protestant principles of religious faith, than any that has been proposed. It is founded in reli- gion, but has the remedy of human want for its primary object, and carries with it the authority on one side and the trust on the other, which religion inspires. It deals with men individually as well as collectively ; and deals with them not as so much accumulated though damaged capi-
512
ANNALS OF KING'S CHAPEL.
tal, but as immortal beings, who have souls to be saved ; while, through the ministrations of religion and the agencies which it can employ, it would dry up the great sources of pauperism and misery through the moral elevation and reformation of those whom it aids. It is not politi- cal economy, but Christianity dealing with the poor."
At this time, indeed, the Ministry at Large, including the Warren Street Chapel, had four places of worship, and em- ployed five ministers and two female assistants. A large In- dustrial Room connected with it employed nearly five hundred persons ; and besides the religious ministrations of its chapels and its sewing schools, it maintained free evening schools, at- tended during the winter by nearly a thousand pupils. More than two hundred young men and women were connected with it as teachers. Mr. Peabody himself led to these schools the young people of his Church, and from this time dates the spe- cial interest of King's Chapel in this good work.1 The Church, however, was not prepared to depart from its general rule of abstaining from formally associating itself even in this charity. In 1852 they received an invitation to join the Benevolent Fra- ternity, which being referred by the Vestry to the Easter meet- ing of Proprietors, was referred back to the Wardens and Vestry with full power to act as they should judge best, and was by them laid on the table, May 6, 1852.
Ephraim Peabody was " perhaps the principal founder " of the Boston Provident Association.2 He regarded it "as the only effective system which has ever been proposed for a large city ; " and to his advocacy of it, and the aid which his Parish gave to the plan, was due not a little of its successful begin- ยท ning. Yet he warned his people against thinking that he would limit their charity. . "We know," he said, "that we can never repent of having done a kind and benevolent act, provided we have done it considerately and with a good purpose. Money so invested leaves behind it no misgivings or regrets. To regret that we had not been hard-hearted and cruel is to regret that we had not lost our own souls." 3
1 These facts are gathered from a by the inveterate preference of the com- manuscript sermon by Mr. Peabody.
2 This admirable organization, whose object it is to do away with street beg- ging and diminish pauperism by a sys- tem of careful relief by voluntary visit- ors, directed from a central office with a trained head, has accomplished vast good, and has only been prevented from fully realizing all that was hoped for it
munity for multitudinous rather than concentrated charity. It was, however, the first and most successful attempt to grapple with the subject in our Ameri- can cities, and was organized on so wise a plan as not to need even now any es- sential modification.
3 Among the charities aided by the Church with subscriptions in these years
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THE MINISTRY OF EPHRAIM PEABODY.
In a community very slow to recognize authority in a new- comer (unless he dazzles by his genius or shocks by his extrav- agance), with frail health, and without neglecting the demands of an engrossing profession, Dr. Peabody had, in those few years, won the widest and never abated confidence for sound- ness of judgment, discriminating wisdom in charity, practical sense, and Christian insight. He used sometimes to say, that a man's ministry in a place ought not to last more than ten years, - that then he should begin afresh elsewhere. But his own experience here proved that the theory does not always hold, - as it never will hold where character is the basis on which a man builds his work. Certainly, the continued sta- bility of the Parish during the five full years which it remained without a Pastor, - a period almost unique for its length in the history of American churches, and one full of danger to the best interests of a church, - goes to show the power with which his ministry continued to bless his people, even after his visible presence was withdrawn.1
Those who do not know the real state of the case have some- times imagined that in King's Chapel the Minister might have found a place where there was little to do. But, in fact, Dr. Peabody was a hard worker. He was so by the very law of his being. His relations to the important charities just spoken of sufficiently show this. But besides, not only did he write an unusually great number of sermons, but his fresh, open mind, interested in a large variety of subjects, continually tracked knowledge in new directions, and brought back the fruits of his study in careful special preparations. It was his habit thus to group the reading of months round some central subject, and then to fuse the results into a lecture or review article. In this way he treated many questions of science or social morals, continually enlarging his own knowledge on many sides. For some time he was editor of the "Christian Register," in con- junction with Dr. A. P. Peabody and Mr. Morison, character- istically refusing the offered compensation for what he had done, because he thought that the owner of the paper needed the money more.
But the great and permanent power of Dr. Peabody is not so besides those above indicated, were the writing these words, how perfectly he "Clergymen's Festival," Rev. L. A. Grimes's Society (colored), the Provi- dent Association, and the Children's Mission.
1 Little did Mr. Foote realize, when VOL. II. - 33
was describing his own influence and power for good in this pulpit, which remained vacant for more than six years after the close of his own ministry. - EDITOR.'
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ANNALS OF KING'S CHAPEL.
much in what he did as in what he was. That undefinable power of personality, which we feel but cannot analyze or understand, was his to a remarkable degree. One felt it in the
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REV. EPHRAIM PEABODY, D.D.
quiet reserve of his silence, and in the weighty simplicity of his speech. It shone in the deep, dark eyes that seemed to read the soul with something of the knowledge, and with the charity, too, of the All-Judging One. A broad-brimmed Quaker in New Bedford, who never went inside his church, said that "he would pay to see that man walk the streets." A writer who knew him well, now a Minister of the Episcopal Church, wrote of him, -
"Peabody was .. . a man among men, with broad shoulders, and more of the spirit of the people [than Greenwood]. Both of them had
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THE MINISTRY OF EPHRAIM PEABODY.
faces never to be forgotten, and eyes that never lost their light for friends. . . . Peabody's eye opened to you the great ocean, under the gentle and solemn stars, in the deep yet loving darkness of the night. . .. An earnest, penetrative look, . . . his gaze searched the inner man."
The dignity and beauty of his personal presence, the sincere depths of tenderness and strength in his tones, the manner which was well said (by Dr. Bartol) to be " so gentle and so grave, it might be thought one of the old Puritans, leaving his austerity behind, and keeping all his righteousness, had appeared in our generation," - all these were the expression of the traits of a character high, true, loving, unselfish, which made him, as one has said, "a child to love, a giant to lean on." "In an intimacy so long," continues Dr. Bartol, "I confess I never discovered his voluntary faults."
There was in him a certain self-distrust which partly veiled the rocky firmness of his convictions; 1 but no power could have moved him from what he thought to be his duty. He had an independence which shrank from the very appearance of incurring obligations. In his early life in the West, at a time when straitened means had compelled him to sell even the wedding presents of his wife, a generous friend sent him a check for a large amount, begging him to use it as his own. Years afterward he received a letter from this gentleman, say- ing that he found an error in his bank account for that sum, which could only be explained by the fact that Mr. Peabody had kept the check unused.2 A young minister who came introduced to him from the West has told me how deeply he was impressed by the simplicity and unworldliness of his life, and that his one word of advice to him was, to be sure to keep his independence even from the most generous of friends.3
In April, 1851, the salary of Dr. Peabody was raised to $3,500, which was as large as any clergyman in the city then received, and at the same time the Parish voted " to express to him the warm sympathy which is felt for him by his people in his pres- ent illness." Three years later, a further increase was voted, buit was declined by him in the following letter : -
BOSTON, April 24, 1854.
MY DEAR SIR, - I desire to express to you, and through you to the members of the Society, my warmest thanks for their vote yesterday to
1 " Ile was ever entering into his closet and shutting the door." - BARTOL. 2 That unused check is still among the treasures of his family.
brought him fifty dollars just as he was leaving home, as small pay for Register articles ; but I saw Mr. Peabody give it back to him. I remember remonstrat-
3 " Mr. Reed, of the Chistian Register, ing." - Private Letter.
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ANNALS OF KING'S CHAPEL.
raise my salary to $4,000. I am deeply sensible of the friendly regard which prompted their action, and few things can be of so much value to me as the existence of that regard, and few things so gratifying as any expression of it. But while I say this in the strongest terms, for a variety of reasons, under present circumstances, I would prefer to retain all the kindness, but without the pecuniary advantage.
Let no one imagine that I do this from any trivial reason, and least of all that I do it from any insensibility to a good-will which is to me beyond price ; or because it is anything but a pleasure to have the opportunity of being grateful. I should think that I was doing as much injustice to the Society as to myself if I met their open-handed liberality in any spirit less frank than their own. I have, however, no fear of misunderstanding them, or of being misunderstood by them. But for reasons growing in part out of their own kindness, and in part because of more general rea- sons that relate to those general interests of religion which we all have at heart, and which may receive harm from the very liberality by which I might be benefited, I most respectfully and yet most gratefully decline taking advantage of their generous vote.
With great respect, most truly yours,
C. H. MILLS, Esq.,
Wardens. EPHRAIM PEABODY.
GEORGE GARDNER, Esq., )
Upon the receipt of this letter the Parish took action as fol- lows, on May 7th : -
Voted unanimously, The Proprietors of King's Chapel have received with feelings of sincere respect the letter addressed to the Wardens by the Rev. Dr. Peabody, and read at their last meeting. They fully appre- ciate the disinterested and delicate motives which have prompted their Pastor to decline the increase of salary which they were anxious to grant, and to which it would have afforded them gratification that he should have acceded. In a matter of such a nature they feel, however, that his wishes should guide their action ; but they cannot forbear to express their regret at being thus deprived of the opportunity of manifesting in a substantial form their affection for him, and their gratitude for his services.
The last years of his ministry were cast in an angry and stormy time, when the pent-up floods of our national trouble were already undermining the barrier that had restrained them so long. But at a time that so tried men's souls " he blew no trumpet before him but the Gospel trumpet, and could not be persuaded, like some, to turn that into the bugle or the fife." 1 The excited state of the public mind at that time is shown by the following incident : -
1 Dr. Bartol.
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THE MINISTRY OF EPHRAIM PEABODY.
Just before the breaking out of the rebellion, John T. Sargent preached [in the Second Congregational Church of Marblehead]. His fame as an anti-slavery preacher, and the excitement then existing on national affairs, called forth a large audience. Every seat was filled, and the sermon was one of the most radical kind from that most radical preacher. But the most remarkable thing to be noticed was that not one of the audience left till the services were concluded. After the services, the Deacon said to him, "Was not that a rather peculiar sermon, Mr. Sargent?" " I think so; it was written for and delivered at a disunion convention in Worcester, and I placed the text at its head after I came into the pulpit." The text was, " I see a seething pot ; and the face thereof is toward the North." 1
Of decided personal convictions for freedom and justice, Dr. Peabody yet hield, by the whole character of his mind, a moderate and peace-loving ground. He preached to his people that " the good citizen will regard the place where he casts his vote as scarcely less sacred than the pavements of a church ; " but he did not believe that the church was the place to discuss how he should cast his vote. He sought to help men to right action on the political and moral questions of the time by lift- ing them into that higher atmosphere of the fear of God, from which they could look at their duty aright. For this he was sharply spoken of.2 To say that Dr. Peabody felt such slurs, is to say that he was a man. He once wrote, -
" The course which I suppose to be the fitting one for the pulpit is often stigmatized as cowardly and time-serving. These are not pleasant words. They involve a charge easily made, and not willingly borne. I suppose the best way to prove its injustice is not by answering it con- temptuously, but by pursuing calmly a course which appears right."
And he closes a sermon on the subject with these words : -
" But is one to be silent on these great questions ; a dumb dog that never speaks ; a watchman that gives no warning? Silent? Certainly not. And who is there that needs to use the pulpit in order to utter aught that he may have to say ; and where are they who are not quite
1 S. P. Hathaway, Jr. The Second Congregational Church in Marblehead. Essex Institute, Hist. Coll. xxii. 99. Mr. Sargent was a class-mate, in the Harvard Divinity School, of Dr. Peabody. See ante, p. 469 and note.
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