USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Roxbury > Eliot memorial : sketches historical and biographical of the Eliot Church and Society > Part 11
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ELIOT MEMORIAL.
a month's recreation in Virginia; and in 1862 a broken arm kept me the same length of time from preaching, till I was able to go into the pulpit with the invalid member in a sling. Three-fourths of the next twelve months (1864-1865) were lost to official labor by reason of a slow fever and neuralgia. A similar invasion of subsequent weakness led to a month's loss of working time. In the aggregate, two years' time was thus given up to invalidism. If a complete though unsavory enumeration of ailments were to be given, mention would have to be made of pleurisy occurring twice, of frequent rheumatism, of chills and fever after exposures west of the Mississippi, and even an undignified whooping cough. A paroxysm would come on just before and just after, but happily never in the midst of a public service.
A serious embarrassment resulted from weakness of the eyes. This seemed to be owing to the minute poison- ous dust which was encountered when crossing the Afri- can desert in 1854. Persistent inflammation of the eye- lids followed for years. It became necessary to employ an amanuensis, though an expensive luxury. For the last forty-six years most of my manuscripts, letters included, have not been in my own hand. Hence a good deal of undeserved credit has been imputed to me on the score of caligraphy.
In a few instances sudden illness interrupted public services. Once in September, 1849, I was taken so ill in the midst of a morning's discourse as to be obliged to
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leave the pulpit and to be carried home. In two other instances, having occasion to deliver by request sermons on special subjects, I had to stop midway in the delivery. But each time Rev. Dr. J. O. Means, being in the pulpit with me, proceeded with the discourse, till by the use of smelling-bottles and other devices faintness so far yielded that I was able to resume preaching.
At length came the consummate trial of professional life. It was not so much bodily suffering as a medical injunction enforcing silence in the pulpit. Sciatica had become excruciating. A Boston expert, in whose hands I had been for two months in the early part of 1871, wrote me: "From long experience in such cases, I must tell you that it is my opinion that you probably will not get rid of it while you continue your mental labors. I believe it is not a simple local sciatica but a manifestation of deranged nervous system that absolutely calls for rest, protracted rest for the nerve centers, such as a long sea voyage could do, or some such absence from study, library and pulpit." After a thorough examination in May of that year by consulting physicians, Dr. John Jefferies gave his own, which was also a joint opinion : " He has an important disease of the nervous system, the nature of which renders it impossible that he should be restored to future usefulness, without an entire freedom from all men- tal labor and other exciting causes for an indefinite period of time. The tendency of his complaint is to in- crease, and it certainly will do so if he continues in those
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occupations which have occasioned his present illness. I consider perfect rest from ministerial labors and from study as absolutely requisite for his recovery." An ab- sence of fourteen months ensued, during which the ablest physicians in Edinburgh and elsewhere were consulted. A violent bronchitis set in. At one time while in Geneva, Switzerland, I gave up expectation of being able to return home. Meanwhile, as had been arranged with my hearty approval, Dr. B. F. Hamilton was installed colleague pas- tor, and on my return home anxiety regarding the pulpit was at an end. A finality also seemed to be reached when Dr. Bowditch, upon repeated examinations, advised me never to attempt preaching again, and that every winter should be spent in Florida, or some other latitude not less mild.
It would be an unpardonable omission if there were a failure to speak of the kindness shown by the Eliot congregation during that third of a century. It was prompt and generous. There was a special overflow of kindness connected with seasons of suffering and debility. There were abundant tokens in flowers, in delicacies, in oral and written messages, in provision for pulpit sup- plies, and in pecuniary relief. The heartiness of greetings upon each return after an extended absence was memor- able. One instance occurs to me with special distinct- ness, when at a public reception an original hymn was sung, entitled, " A Welcome to our Beloved Pastor," be- ginning : -
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" Thanks, O Father! for thy mercy ; Here beneath thy temple-dome,
With united voice we praise thee, Who hast led our loved one home ; Friend and Shepherd - Friend and Shepherd, To our souls' embraces come."
The time will never come in this world or in the future world, when the good will and tenderness shown year after year can cease to awaken lively gratitude.
CHAPTER XIII.
COLONIAL CHURCHES.
I. Vine Street Church.
THE existence of a Mission Sunday School and then of the Eliot City Missionary Society not unnaturally sug- gested the practicability of a new Congregational Church. I had come to entertain very decidedly the opinion that in every growing community there should be church sittings in advance of demand, and I urged this upon certain leading men year after year, arguing that two churches would grow as fast as if there were only one; that an enterprising spirit is both an element and an earnest of blessing; that it would be disastrous for us to rest con- tent with a snug little Zion of our own. The imperative need of a movement became at length obvious, for our place of worship was full. Within the six months pre- vious to the formation of a new church more than twenty unsuccessful applications were made for sittings. At that time there were thirteen cities in Massachusetts. On the score of valuation Roxbury stood next to Boston. Prop- erty averaged over nine hundred dollars per capita, yet in regard to orthodox church accommodations we were at the bottom of the list. Ecclesiastically we were the weakest of the thirteen. Formal action first took place at a meeting of the church, February 6, 1857, by the ap-
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pointment of a committee to consider the expediency of the proposed measure. At the next meeting it was unani- mously agreed to set apart the following Friday as a day of special fasting and prayer in behalf of a deeper spiritual life and of a blessing upon the contemplated enterprise. Public services were accordingly held on that day, fore- noon, afternoon and evening. At one of them a back- slidden brother made confession, frank and evidently peni- tent, of his delinquencies. Such an act usually furnishes evidence of the Holy Spirit's special presence. A large committee was then designated to take the steps required for constituting a new Christian brotherhood on Mt. Pleasant. That was a time of evidently growing religious interest among us; and it has since been an occasion for gratitude that the Vine Street, now Immanuel Church, was born and baptized amidst a revival. May that feature of its origin prove an augury of its abiding character !
Appropriate preliminaries were soon completed. Twenty-six members of our church - a choice band, and including our most prominent office-bearer - formed the nucleus. In the letter dismissing them to a council, called for the purpose of recognizing the organization, there were honest words of tearful regret at the parting, and also the assurance of warm affection and a clear con- viction that the proceeding was demanded in the provi- dence of God. Said council met in our church ; there, too, the installation of the first pastor, Rev. J. O. Means, took place a little later. The Articles of Faith and the Covenant of this mother church were adopted.
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Soon after came an extended letter, " By vote and in behalf of the Vine Street Church:" "We thank you for your kind expressions of Christian love in connection with our dismission from your communion, and for the cor- diality with which you took part by your pastor and dele- gate in the doings and deliberations of the Council. We can never forget the tender farewell spoken to us by him whose ministrations it is your privilege still to enjoy; and our earnest prayer is that those ministrations may long be continued to you, and be blessed to your great spiritual enlargement and prosperity, and to the in-gathering of many precious souls now without hope and without God in the world."
Never did a church of Christ come into being under circumstances of greater harmony or warmer recipro- cal good-will. A rich blessing came at once to those who bade Godspeed to departing friends. Within three months from that withdrawal the same number as had been set apart for the new undertaking were welcomed to the Eliot Church. When the first anniversary of the new brotherhood came round, more additions had already been made to the older of the two than the former has contributed all told to the latter. The growth, harmony and efficiency of the Immanuel Church have been a con- stant delight to friends on Kenilworth Street.
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HIGHLAND CHURCH.
2. Highland Church.
The gradual growth of the Sunday School and con- gregation on Parker Street occasioned great gratification, while it added not a little to my own cares and labors. Frequent visits were paid to that neighborhood, and especially to the center of operations. The reception given me at the Sunday School concert in September, 1864, recognized happy relations. There was a salutation with the singing of four stanzas which some one had com- posed for the occasion, the first of which opened, -
" Welcome, welcome, Pastor dear, Welcome ever, welcome here; Welcome to our homes and hearts."
After the employment of an ordained city missionary commenced, one Sunday service with preaching was main- tained for the most part, successively in each of the two sections where city-mission work was carried on. Each of the two chapels built by the Society became the early home of a new church. Midway in 1868, Rev. Charles Mills, a wise man, a faithful and acceptable preacher, was engaged to conduct services on Parker Street. He soon gave his written opinion that the time had come for the organization of another church. Early in 1869 one of our prayer meetings was specially devoted to the sub- ject. At nearly the same time the Eliot City Missionary Society adopted a resolution that whenever a church is duly organized in connection with the Parker Street Chapel,
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the Executive Committee will recommend to the Society to transfer the property on that street to the new enter- prise. February 17, a letter requesting dismission to an ecclesiastical council was presented to the Eliot Church. It bore forty-three signatures. All the petitioners had been received during my pastorate, eighteen of them on con- fession of faith, and three I baptized in infancy. Mr. Moses Henry Day, whose name headed the list and who for eight years had been one of our deacons, spoke warmly in behalf of himself and others, of affection for the church and its pastor, the only pastor he had ever had. He re- peated a remark of a female friend who was in the orig- inal membership of the Vine Street colony, to the effect that her leaving was the greatest trial of her life. He could now say the same. One of the older and more prominent men in the retiring company expressed the same sentiment, stating that this was the sixth church with which he had been connected during a period of more than fifty years, and that this had proved the pleas- antest of all. In that group of two-score there were six nationalities represented, Norwegian, Irish, Scotch, Eng- lish, German and American; and seven religious denomi- nations, Old Kirk and Free Kirk of Scotland, English Wesleyan, Lutheran, German Reformed, and Congrega- tionalist, besides one individual who had been a Roman Catholic. Such diversity, however, seemed not to interfere with harmony, at least there was no discord. Before the council met, one who had signed the request for dismis-
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WALNUT AVENUE CHURCH.
sion, Mr. Andrew H. Murk, died and his widow sent a request for remembrance in public prayer, as was then customary. The council for recognizing the church met March 3, and at the evening service I preached by request on the fundamental principles of Congregationalism.
The Eliot Church had now again an experience of being weakened, and by the withdrawment of a larger number of members than in the previous movement. There was a mother's mingled feeling of satisfaction and of sadness, as when a beloved daughter gives the good- bye kiss on leaving for her new home of independence and larger responsibilities. The Highland Congregation and Sunday School began at once to increase, the latter enrolling over four hundred scholars and thirty-nine teach- ers. Rev. Albert E. Dunning was installed September 29, 1870, and remained pastor till December 25, 1880. His successor, Rev. William R. Campbell, came to the pastorate October 12, 1881.
3. Walnut Avenue Church.
The first swarm of bees is usually slow in leaving the hive. The next two swarms are more prompt. As re- gards the sentiment and movement of colonies the Eliot Church has found this true. We had been growing for nearly a quarter of a century before a kindred organiza- tion was formed on Mt. Pleasant. The sacred number of seven years thereafter had hardly gone by when I be-
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ELIOT MEMORIAL.
gan to talk about another movement of the same kind. Our city mission work and the growth of our mission Sunday School on Parker Street naturally suggested a result similar to that on Vine Street. In 1865 the matter became one of a good deal of conversation, and the ques- tion was, Shall the next church be started on Parker Street or Walnut Street, since known as Walnut Avenue? It was not long before a question arose, Shall there not be two new churches? The latter was advocated at more than one of our regular weekly meetings in the year just named. In December the matter was referred to a com- mittee, which reported, on the 22d of that month, for substance that the population of Roxbury already ex- ceeded twenty-eight thousand; that since the Vine Street Church was opened there had been an increase of about seven thousand; and that in each of the two places of Congregational worship there were only a few sittings to be had; that a Christian readiness to meet any new exigency by hearty and self-sacrificing cooperation would be a pledge of continued divine favor toward us. Three resolutions favoring church extension were adopted, one of which is the following : " Resolved, That while we should regret to part with so valuable a portion of our membership, we still hold ourselves ready, whenever mem- bers feel prepared to ask dismission with a view to being organized into a new church, to grant the same cordially bidding them Godspeed, pledging our sympathy and prayers, and feeling assured that we in turn shall enjoy
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their kind and unfailing interest." This was something over three years before the Highland brotherhood - the first of two then in mind - received organized form. The favoring sentiment of the Eliot Church and a readi- ness to aid continued.
In the meantime, indeed almost simultaneously, a sec- tion of our members were arranging for a similar move- ment on Walnut Avenue. It was inevitable that the pas- tor of any church should, under such circumstances, con- jecture that his continued presence was at least one occa- sion for such an unprecedented exodus in two directions. Prominent individuals were consulted. A written state- ment, avowing readiness to resign, if that would be for the interest of the Eliot Church, was submitted to a meeting of the deacons, and a perfectly frank expression of opinions solicited. The conference resulted in an indi- vidual and collective assurance that universal respect and nearly universal affection was felt for the incumbent; that there was no reason why he should retire, and that such a step would bring disaster. One of the calmest and most conspicuous members said to me privately that if I re- signed he should sell his property and remove from the city, and that he was not alone in that conviction.
In the Spring of 1868 a committee, appointed six months previously, reported recommending votes in favor of a church on Walnut Avenue, suggesting as a locality, "Near Munroe Street," and further that we would dele- gate some of our members, as well as invite the Vine
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ELIOT MEMORIAL.
Street Church to do the same, in furtherance of the measure. In the autumn of 1869 the daily papers an- nounced meetings that had reference to a Congregational Society in the neighborhood of Walnut Avenue. There was not only no quarrel, but there was no schism and no unfriendly feeling. We had repeatedly taken action ex- pressive of interest in the matter and of readiness for such church extension. Public worship was begun in Highland Hall on the first Sunday of October, 1870. Eighteen of the thirty-one teachers in our Sunday School, together with the superintendent and ninety of the schol- ars, and many others - among them the clerk and treas- urer of the pew proprietors, as well as six out of seven on the Prudential Committee - withdrew to the place named. It had privately been made known that the new enter- prise would "in no sense be a colony from the Eliot Church, and that no communication would be made to the church by those engaged in the movement, till they should ask for letters of dismission." An infelicity in the initial manner of this movement failed to interrupt our expectations and prayers for its success. December 9 seventy-one of our members were dismissed to a council called for the nineteenth of that month. At the afternoon session of the council Dr. Rufus Anderson made a state- ment that to the three younger brotherhoods of Boston Highlands the Eliot Church had dismissed a total of one hundred and sixty-six members, of which ninety-eight had been received by letter, and sixty-eight on confession of
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faith, all of whom were received during the pastorate which began in July, 1842; that the admissions since that date had been five hundred and thirty by letter and four hundred and eighty on profession, in all ten hundred and ten; that dismissions were also made to the Shawmut Church, Boston, the Harvard Church, Brookline, and the Church of Jamaica Plain, when they were organized, as well as subsequently to each of them; but that notwith- standing these losses the Eliot Church and congregation were still larger than at the date before mentioned. The annual report of the Examining Committee of the Church for the year 1870, stated that while the superintendent, with more than half of the teachers and a large number of scholars in our Sunday School, were a part of the migration to Highland Hall October first, yet the subse- quent attendance had been the same as for the whole year; and further, that the attendance at our weekly church meeting during the same three months had not been below what it was for a considerable period previously. It was added that amidst the recent trial of parting with so many valued friends the tone of feeling in our church was of a gratifying character; that noteworthy hopeful- ness and harmony existed. Of the three hundred and eighty-five in our remaining membership more than one hundred and fifty were either non-residents or not worship- ping with us, thus leaving a virtual membership of only about two hundred.
The aggregate of removals within less than two years
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ELIOT MEMORIAL.
was larger than ever left any church of our faith and order in the commonwealth in so short a period. It is also without parallel that, in the course of thirteen years any church of the same denomination in Massachusetts, if any one in the land, had sent out bodily three new churches, each a good-sized, vigorous band, giving promise of efficiency and success such as have followed. This is the more worthy of note, as between the years 1842 and 1871 fifteen of our Congregational churches in Boston and the immediate vicinity had lost separate existence. It should be added that the relations of the Eliot and the Walnut Avenue churches have been cordial, that no pastor was ever more heartily welcomed to the neighbor- hood, or ever showed himself more worthy of universal affection than our Dr. A. H. Plumb, whose pastorate now exceeds a quarter of a century.
Being requested to take part in the services of the twenty-fifth anniversary of that church, I was glad to re- spond, and, at the close of an extended address, was glad to say what might be said of each one in the four that compose our goodly Highland fellowship:
For flattery I have no words; for congratulations, many words. In view of the prosperity and the reputation of this brotherhood, I give thanks, and bring cordial saluta- tion. It is understood that you are social without being socialistic ; that you favor Christian union without the infusion of unchristian elements; that you are not eager to put on imported garments, some of them soiled, and
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WALNUT AVENUE CHURCH.
some fatally infected. You know how to be courageously firm without being belligerent; you propose to maintain " unity of spirit in the bond " - not in the bond of sand- rope laxity ; not by assimilating the reputed excellencies of destructive criticism, or the supposed good things in Brahminism, Buddhism, and Mohammedanism, but “ en- deavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace." Numerous as are the tribes of God's true Israel, each has a standard of its own, and also a blessing pecu- liar to itself; yet there is but one law, one altar of sac- rifice, one mercy-seat. You hold to a present universal priesthood of believers, not to sacerdotalism. You are not in the habit of limiting the grace of Christ to sacraments, nor of extolling the sacraments above the grace which may, and may not accompany them. Thank God this is a Church which does not concentrate thought exclusively upon itself ; a missionary Church that recognizes as neighbor the man who launches his boat on the Colum- bia or on the Rio Grande, on the Nile or on the Congo; on the Ganges or on the Euphrates.
CHAPTER XIV.
FELLOWSHIP - ECCLESIASTICAL AND MINISTERIAL.
WHILE every Congregational Church claims parity of rights for each of its members, and its own parity of rights with every other church, it accepts as fundamental the right and need of fellowship between churches. No particular brotherhood can suitably administer its internal affairs and carry on its evangelistic work without regard to others of the same faith and order. There is a com- munity of interests and aims that makes a certain amount of fellowship obligatory as truly as fellowship within an individual church. No less true is it that if one member in a denominational group suffer, all the members suffer with it. The brethren at Antioch are sure to have need sooner or later of sending to the breth- ren at Jerusalem for counsel. If it is true that secular corporations have no souls, here is a sacred body that should be all soul - in quick sympathy with its fellow Christian bodies. Congregational churches in a given vicinity constitute by their very existence an Evangelical Alliance. Each is a divine society, controllable by no out- side authority save the authority of Him who is head over all things, yet each is under bonds, recognized though invisible, to maintain such fraternal intercourse as obvious relations require. Each separate organization is an eccle-
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FELLOWSHIP.
siastical individual supposed never to stand in conceited isolation, but gladly recognizing that "In the multitude of counsellors there is wisdom." Such cooperative pro- cedure is consistent with all reasonable independence. Each of the twelve tribes has its own distinctive standard and character, while there is but one host, one tabernacle, one altar and one mercy-seat.
In the Eliot Church there has never been any seri- ous division and still less any quarrel. During the period now specially under review (1842-1871) there was no occa- sion to call a council except for the ordination and instal- lation of the second pastor. The church was, however, invited to one hundred and thirty councils - nine for the organization of churches; four for such organization and settlement of a pastor; one for disbanding a church ; seventy-one for settlement of pastors; thirty-three for dis- mission of one pastor and settlement of another; twelve for other purposes.
This church has shared regularly and profitably in organized fellowship, such as has been furnished since 1861, at the semi-annual meetings of the Suffolk South Conference. At an earlier date there were less formal occasions of spontaneous neighborhood fellowship, which were a delight as well as decidedly helpful. For example, toward the close of 1866 the Vine Street Church joined us by invitation in a eucharist, recognizing the special grace of God to us that year. Just one hundred mem- bers had been added to our number that twelve month,
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