USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Roxbury > Eliot memorial : sketches historical and biographical of the Eliot Church and Society > Part 22
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29
Health failing, he removed to his native place; and the first Lord's Day of July, 1857, was the last time that he attended public worship. The remainder of his life, two and a half years, was a period of almost uninterrupted suffering - much of the time severe suffering - night and day. It was, however, a period of meek resignation and uncomplaining endurance.
In an address at the funeral of Mr. Clap, March 30, 1860, the writer took occasion to say: "Why is it that such a man should have been subjected to such a dis- cipline? God no doubt had many ends in view, and one may have been to teach us that this is not a retributive state. If called upon to select in the wide circle of our acquaintance, one who from boyhood upward has been blameless, of transparent integrity, scrupulously con- scientious, truthful, guileless and devout, would our thoughts turn to any one sooner than to him whose re- mains are before us ? Now while the dishonest man, the profane man, the Sabbath breaker of this community has
365
NOTEWORTHY LAYMEN.
lived in comparative exemption from trials, upon what principle of equity was such prolonged suffering ap- pointed, if in this life demerit meets with a full relative penalty ? "
" Again, that last sickness was to him a season of much spiritual enjoyment, and through him of much spiritual refreshment to Christian brethren who came week after week to his bedside. Yes, within that coffin is a bound volume of 'Songs in the Night,' a gentle visi- tor to the sick and suffering, such as no hand this side of Heaven could prepare and send forth through the com- munity. It is a wide area around us on which the feeble and the distressed have now for years been taught lessons of uncomplaining endurance, by him who though dead yet speaketh, and will speak to us for years to come. You, my dear brother (Rev. Dr. J. H. Means), in the min- istry of reconciliation and consolation, have had a col- league such as few pastors are favored with. Your ver- bal testimony to the sustaining grace of God has been fortified by a living testimony which none can gainsay or resist. In the regions round about, we have learned as never before to
' Know how sublime a thing it is To suffer and be strong.'
"One invalid in a neighboring city, more than ninety years old, when told of the event that brings us here to- day, lifted up her feeble voice in the exclamation : ‘ He has suffered well, and now he has gone where he will re- joice well.'"
366
ELIOT MEMORIAL.
9. GEORGE DOMETT.
He had reached four-score, though we should not have thought it. Cheerfulness of spirit and countenance beguiled the advance of years, and we looked upon him as a youthful old man. Out of the whole population of our world it is estimated that only one in five hundred reach that age, and it takes but twenty-four such lives to measure the entire period since our Lord was on earth.
The last conversation that I had with Mr. Domett turned chiefly upon the subject of sudden deaths. There was nothing premonitory in that, yet it could not be otherwise than impressive that the very next thing which I heard regarding him should be, "He died suddenly." Martin Luther was talking on the same topic one even- ing, and before the next day he died. So, too, Julius Cæsar discoursed about it the night before he fell in the Senate House. When there is due preparation for the event, why should it not be accounted a mercy that this can be said, "He was not, for God took him?" Mr. Domett had been about the house as usual during the day, was sitting in his chair, turned his head on one side and ceased breathing. His end was peace; it was a com- fortable event; he simply left us, and nothing in his life was more beautiful than its close. Jewish Rabbis used to teach that the angel Gabriel comes and gently draws out the soul of a righteous man with a kiss. In this instance it was at evening, and being a little earlier than the usual hour for retiring, the venerable man omitted
367
NOTEWORTHY LAYMEN.
saying good-night. How sweet the name that Christ gives to the death of such an one, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth ! "
It was on Saturday evening that this, our friend, fell asleep -the evening of preparation for the holy Sabbath. What a different morning was his from ours who were tarrying here in the midwinter of sin, suffering, and doubt ! Our friend believed in the all-sufficient, atoning work of Jesus Christ; in our Lord's resurrection, the sealing event that is commended for a joyful celebration by every re- turning Lord's Day. He believed in regeneration by the Holy Spirit, evinced in the putting on of the new man which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness. As he believed, so he prayed, professed, and died.
IO. ABNER KINGMAN.
Henry Kingman, who came to this country from Eng- land in 1630, settled at Weymouth, Massachusetts, and was a representative in the General Court or Assembly for fourteen consecutive years. A great-grandson of his, Col. Abner Kingman, was one of the Minutemen in the Revolutionary War. His grandson, our friend -the third who bore the same name- was born in Providence, Rhode Island, February 5, 1814. The Kingmans were of the Puritan stock, decidedly religious, conservative, and much respected. Mr. Kingman's father was a deacon in the church at Providence for many years before removing to Boston. This son, in the days of youth and early man-
368
ELIOT MEMORIAL.
hood, before the commencement of a Christian course, maintained, in the midst of temptations, a correct life outwardly, shunning the theater and given to reading and to attending lectures. The books which attracted him were for the most part valuable, and it was his habit to make written abstracts of the same.
It was not till twenty-seven years of age that, after much deliberation, Mr. Kingman made public profession of religion, and became a member of the Essex Street Church, with which he remained about forty years till his death. In the meantime he had quarters in Roxbury for a period, and worshiped with the Eliot Church. In the matter of business he had a long apprenticeship that was not entirely satisfactory; but at length becoming a mem- ber of the firm of Gossler & Co., he met with success. For a quarter of a century he was known as a man of energy, of rare business sagacity, and of unbending integ- rity. After his retirement from the house of Gossler & Co. they named the only ship ever owned by them during their century and a-half of business, the Kingman, as a token of esteem for their late partner.
The home life of Mr. Kingman afforded a beautiful specimen of warm affection, Christian training, and domes- tic harmony. Ostentation had no place there; religious hospitality abounded. He was not a man of many words nor of any pretention. In numerous public benevolences and philanthropic institutions he had an interest and ad- ministrative position, such as the Young Women's Chris-
369
NOTEWORTHY LAYMEN.
tian Association, the Children's Aid Society, the Boston Dispensary, the West Newton Boys' Home, the Dedham Asylum for discharged female prisoners, the Provident Institution for Savings. For fifteen years he was a mem- ber of the Prudential Committee of the American Board; for thirty-two years he was on the board of managers of the Seamen's Friend Society; he was also a trustee of Liberia College, of Beirut College, of Oahu College, of Wellesley College, of Bradford Academy, and of the Female Seminary at Oxford, Ohio. In his abundant char- ities he was the farthest possible from everything like show. The left hand was kept in ignorance of what the right hand did. I was often made the medium of gifts which were to be communicated without the donor's name. Failing health marked the closing years of Mr. Kingman's life. Angina pectoris was the malady which preyed upon him, and after repeated paroxysms of extreme suffering he had a blessed release, November 1, 1880. His last effort at continuous utterance was the barely audible re- hearsal of one stanza of a favorite hymn :
" I love thy kingdom, Lord, The house of thine abode, The church our blest Redeemer saved With his own precious blood."
II. HON. JOSEPH S. ROPES.
Boston claims Mr. Ropes as one of her sons. He was born February 6, 1818, Mr. William Ropes and Mrs. Martha Reed Ropes being his parents. After attending
!
1
370
ELIOT MEMORIAL.
Gideon F. Thayer's school Mr. Ropes studied at the St. Petersburg Gymnasium and University, his father hav- ing removed to that city. Besides the two ancient clas- sical languages, Latin and Greek, he became familiar with the modern Russian, German, French and Spanish.
From 1845 to 1875 he was a member of the firm of William Ropes & Co., which had mercantile houses at St. Petersburg, London, New York and Boston; and he made numerous trips to Europe and back. Among the positions of trust held by him were presidency of the Congregational Club, membership in the Boston Board of Trade, the Free Trade League, and Prudential Com- mittee of the American Board, the latter for a term of twenty-four years. Products of his pen have appeared in contributions to various periodicals, especially the Con- gregational Quarterly, the New Englander, and the Bibli- otheca Sacra.
Mr. Ropes, like Mr. Abner Kingman, though a member of the Union Church, Boston, removed to Roxbury and worshiped a while with us; but when the Vine Street (now Immanuel) Church was formed, he cast in his lot as one of its original members. In that he held the office of Deacon, and for many years conducted a large Bible Class of ladies. A quick sense of right and of honor, the absence of self-assertion, and the presence of unusual refinement, are well-known characteristics in Mr. Ropes. One evidence of his remarkable memory is the fact that it carries over seven hundred hymns.
37I
NOTEWORTHY LAYMEN.
I 2. SYLVESTER BLISS.
The Eliot Sunday School has been greatly favored in its superintendents. After the quarter of a century services of Deacon Alvah Kittredge, came a brief term by Mr. Samuel Hall, followed by the longer one of Mr. Syl- vester Bliss, who held the headship for three years. He was born in Tolland, Connecticut, 1814; engaged in teach- ing one of the Hartford schools, and became a member of the Eliot Church in 1848.
Mr. Bliss was a man of much kindliness of disposition, of rare good sense, and of marked executive ability. These traits were exhibited not only in connection with the Sunday School, but as a member of the city school committee, and also as editor and in business affairs. For many years he was agent and treasurer of the American Millennial Association, being annually reelected editor of the Advent Herald with entire unanimity. In that posi- tion he exhibited unusual candor and skill in discussion, great familiarity with the Bible, and much acuteness in the interpretation of sacred scripture. By indefatigable perseverance and by methods all his own, he acquired such knowledge of the Hebrew and Greek, without regu- lar instruction, as enabled him to trace the usage of words in the Old and New Testaments effectively for purposes of original discussion. As a controversialist he held the pen of a cautious, able, and independent writer. While editing the journal above mentioned, he was an occasional contributor to weekly papers in Boston and Hartford;
372
ELIOT MEMORIAL.
and his works, larger and smaller, which were published separately, amounted to nearly thirty.
As a member of the church Mr. Bliss, without being in the least officious, was always ready for good words and work, whether in devotional meetings or neighborhood labor. Though very decided in his views regarding pre- millenarianism, he never obtruded them upon the Eliot Church. Its members differed from him on that subject; yet they respected him for his firm advocacy, in a weekly organ, of what seemed to him a true interpretation of prophecy, and at the same time honored him for the absence of all narrow, partisan and heated advocacy.
In Hartford he belonged to the Second Church, of which the Rev. Dr. O. E. Daggett was then pastor, who entertained a warm regard for him, and who communi- cated this incident: "Twenty years ago Mr. Bliss had a situation in the Hartford Post Office. He was at length informed that certain service would be required on the Sabbath. He resigned his situation, not having any other employment at hand, and being dependent upon his own efforts. He, however, immediately found a better situation, and since then has never been without employment and a fair measure of success." The funeral of Mr. Bliss took place in the Eliot Church, March 8, 1863, when the tears of a Sunday School and congregation bore witness to the general affection and esteem in which he was held.
373
NOTEWORTHY LAYMEN.
I 3. ROBERT MCMASTER CARSON.
Was he one of the prominent members of the church ? Perhaps not, to human eyes, but he was, we doubt not, to angelic eyes. In social position very lowly, in Christian worth he stood high.
Ancestors of his moved from Scotland to the north of Ireland in the time of Cromwell, and he was born at Donaghadee, June 14, 1815. After working at his trade as a shoemaker in Glasgow and Dublin, he emigrated to Roxbury in 1844. On becoming a member of the Eliot Church (1856), he stated to the pastor and church com- mittee that his sole reliance for pardon and life eternal was on the atoning righteousness of Jesus Christ, his belief being that whatever might be good in him was due to the Holy Spirit; that his highest interest and enjoy- ment were in efforts to do good. Thereafter his life con- firmed that testimony. No one could be more modest or apparently more conscientious. He was indefatigable in efforts to promote the salvation of operatives with whom he was associated, though extremely diffident, seldom allow- ing an opportunity slip to invite sinners to come to Christ.
In 1862, after much prayer, he became convinced that duty to his adopted country called him to enlist in the Union Army, and he carried himself as a Christian soldier. From Fairfax Station and Alexandria Heights, as well as from other points, he wrote in regard to re- ligious meetings and personal labors with individual men.
374
ELIOT MEMORIAL.
Sickness overtook him, and his last few days were spent in a hospital. The Chaplain wrote: " He was a man I loved to visit, for he loved the Saviour with an intense affection. His religion made him patient and happy ; it gave him a sweetness of spirit which endeared him to all around him. The surgeon told me there was some- thing about Mr. Carson so noble and good, that he felt as though he must not die; and the tears stole down his cheeks as he spoke these words." When the Great Cap- tain of our salvation shall order the muster-roll of nations, we believe this friend of ours will have honorable men- tion.
14. WILLIAM HENRY WARDWELL.
One of the deaths deeply deplored by the church, was that of Mr. Wardwell, who had been a member since 1859. He was born at Lyndeborough, New Hampshire, October 24, 1818, his father being Dr. Daniel Wardwell of that place. The Wardwells came from Ipswich, Eng- land. In boyhood our friend attended public schools and Phillips Academy at Andover. After engaging for ten years in the book trade and printing at Andover, he removed to Boston, and was successively associated with John P. Jewett & Co., also Grant, Warren & Co., out of which grew the firm of S. D. Warren & Co., with which his connection continued towards forty years. In these relations he was highly esteemed for strict integrity and careful attention to such business as came to his charge. The same was true regarding unpaid services
375
NOTEWORTHY LAYMEN.
elsewhere. In 1880 he was elected a Director of the Sun- day School and Publishing Society, and for a decade had the position of Chairman of the Finance Committee, at whose meetings he was punctually present. Safe and cautious counsel, efficient attention to financial affairs, and the bearing of a Christian gentleman, characterized his whole course in that connection.
Mr. Wardwell was a generous man, as the pastors and communities with which he had fellowship were well aware. It cost him no effort to give. Contributions in full proportion to his ability, for objects of benevolence - and especially those that are distinctly evangelical - were prompt and most cheerful. The smile on his face in such matters, and indeed uniformly, told of a heart in glad sympathy with the best things of the church and the
world. Modest and gentle, fond of quiet and simplicity, Mr. Wardwell seemed always to act under the control of religious principle. His Bible and the Lord's Day with its services were a delight, especially when the doc- trines of grace were clearly set forth. Whatever the dis- tance and inconvenience of a walk to the house of God, he would not avail himself of any public conveyance on the Sabbath. Seldom, if ever, is a man to be found less pretentious in manners, or more steadfast in religious con- victions. He was at once a model of delicacy and firm- ness. At the age of seventy-seven (September, 1896,) the great harvester gathered him like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season.
376
ELIOT MEMORIAL.
15. WESLEY IRESON.
It is not often that any church has a member so modest, so blameless, so punctual and so faithful in his sphere as was Mr. Ireson. The announcement of his decease, which was very sudden and unlooked for, March 26, 1897, occasioned a shock throughout the circle of his acquaintance.
Mr. Ireson, a son of the Rev. Joseph Ireson, was a native of Thompson, Connecticut, having been born there October 5, 1823. He left home early to prepare for business, and in Norwich came under the pastoral care of Dr. Alvin Bond. Young men and others in the same congregation formed a colony with whom Mr. Ireson cast in his lot, which resulted in the organization of the Broad- way Church. Dr. John P. Gulliver, one of our young men, became its first pastor. Mr. Ireson not long after made a public profession of his religious faith. Some years later the business house with which he stood con- nected removed to Boston; and notwithstanding heavy losses by the fire of 1889 he continued in the trade for fifty-five years. His reputation for strict integrity and gentlemanly bearing in all relations continued untarnished.
In private relations of life, Mr. Ireson was noticeably unassuming, gentle and cheerful. His tastes were simple. Among flowers and children he was peculiarly at home. Native temperament and disposition were favored by sin- gularly good health. During more than three-score and ten years he required medical attendance only on the day
377
NOTEWORTHY LAYMEN.
before his decease. For thirty-seven years he had not failed of attendance upon public worship on the Lord's Day; and for eight and thirty years he was the accurate, kindly, and ever-welcome Secretary of the Eliot Sunday School. Mr. Ireson was a man of few words, and no words of censure upon others. He took the Bible as his guide in life, and it afforded him unfailing light, peace and strength.
CHAPTER XXV.
YOUNG MEN.
IN no other country or age have young men occu- pied so conspicuous a place as in our land, and at the present time. Never before have they taken such a lead- ing part, especially in civil and religious movements. The young man as a reformer and legislator is often at the front. Among our young men there has been a gratify- ing proportion of Samuels and Josiahs. They are to be found not only in the professions, including educators, but in the business world. Offensive self-confidence, and the want of due respect, along with intoxication of free- dom - which are rather widely characteristic of those just emerging from the tutelage of home and school - have not, with one or two exceptions, been observable. Nor has there seemed to be on their part any intense endeavor to propitiate Mammon, or to secure other means of self-indulgence. Praiseworthy sentiments and high aims have, in the main, been entertained. In starting out on the voyage of independent life, they have evi- dently had in mind the difference between favoring trade- winds and the typhoon. At the funeral of certain young Athenians, Pericles remarked that the commonwealth in losing such loses what the year would if spring were to fail. It has sometimes seemed to us as if that charming season were gloomily overcast.
379
YOUNG MEN.
I. HENRY MARTYN HILL.
No young man, in the early days of this church, enjoyed greater respect than Henry Martyn Hill. He was the eldest son of Henry Hill, Esq., an officer of the church, and for many years treasurer of the American Board. Few are gifted with minds originally more active and in other respects more promising than his. A physi- cal infirmity, however, precluded collegiate and profes- sional studies; yet his attainments were highly respectable, and his example may well encourage the young who labor under special embarrassments. On a voyage to Singa- pore in company with missionaries, when eighteen years of age, he became experimentally acquainted with the truth as it is in Jesus. Thenceforward his growth in Christian character was marked, one evidence of which appeared in an unusual love of the Bible. The Epistle to the Ephe- sians, many of the Psalms, and other portions of sacred Scripture were hid in his heart. Manly, modest, blameless, his daily walk was a persuasive exhortation to young men to be sober-minded and earnest in serving the Master.
The malady (epilepsy) which long preyed upon him did not produce irritableness, or lead to unavailing com- plaints. He did what he could, and his Christian activity continued to the last. It required an effort to be re- signed to live; but the spirit of meek, submissive endur- ance was clearly manifest. An extract or two from his journal will indicate, in some measure, his caste and habit of mind. Speaking of a second voyage he wrote: "In my passage in the Montreal to Rio (1847), I accomplished the
380
ELIOT MEMORIAL.
careful perusal of Butler's Analogy. I finished it just when the severity of my sickness made me unable to read more than a page or two at a time, and felt its power to fortify me in the truth of Christianity, during the darkest and most painful hours of the succeeding illness. To my mind it brings exactly the consolation and sup- port that I have long and distinctly felt the want of, furnishing an argument in logical, tangible, practical form, why one should trust in revealed religion, and risk his spiritual interests thereon, on similar principles to those which govern men's actions under the constitution and course of nature."
" I trust that nothing I have done, or omitted to do, will bring reproach upon the cause of Christ. It has been difficult, from day to day, to know how to behave in the intimate company of a set of midshipmen, in the steerage of a man-of-war. In the first place I have not joined in their vulgarity or profanity. In listening to a vast deal of it, mingled as it has been with all their conversation, I have been exceedingly pained, disgusted, and desirous to speak in the way of disapprobation, or even of reproof."
" My own bark still at anchor rides Close to the shore where varying tides Now lift me high, then bring me low, And thus my weak dependence show. The shallow waters sometimes will Unto my downcast eye reveal The ground below; but every day,
And many a night makes rich display Of glories, which hope's upturned eye Through faith's bright glass can quick descry."
381
YOUNG MEN.
"I almost danced before the Lord, with my joy that I had been allowed to preach Christ to that young man. My prayers were earnest that God, for Jesus' sake, would send his Holy Spirit to that heart, and sanctify the means employed for his benefit." Among the last entries was the following: "I feel that 'sundown' may come to me any day; and then I will have to add, 'reached home - but what a sunrise !'"
A booklet, entitled The Yoke in Youth, relating to Mr. Hill, was issued over forty years ago. He died April 28, 1856, aged thirty-four.
2. JOHN J. CARRUTHERS, JR.
A son of the Rev. Dr. Carruthers of Portland, Maine, was a young man of elegant person, pleasing manners, and amiable disposition. Being a fellow boarder with him, I had opportunity for intimate acquaintance, and came to regard his Christian character as undoubted. He felt under deep obligations to the Rev. Dr. Wilkes of Montreal. It was by letter that he came into connec- tion with our church in 1848. But having a highly- strung nervous temperament, and imperfect health, he fell into despondency, and at length into extreme depression. Suspicion of friends, and, indeed, all about him, took pos- session of his mind, and return to Portland became necessary. On reaching his father's house indications of insanity were unmistakable. He could not wait for the door to be opened, but tried to force his way in, saying
382
ELIOT MEMORIAL.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.