USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Roxbury > Eliot memorial : sketches historical and biographical of the Eliot Church and Society > Part 25
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ELIOT MEMORIAL.
and Jane Lawrence Perkins, prominent members of the Eliot Church; and Boston was her native place (1829). Her public profession of faith in Christ was in 1845. At the time of her marriage to the Rev. Thomas S. Childs, he was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Hart- ford, Connecticut; then professor in the Hartford Theo- logical Seminary (1871-1878); afterwards he became pastor of the First Congregational Church, Norwalk. Later he entered the Episcopal Church, and by re-ordination entered its ministry. Their residence is in Washington, District of Columbia, and Dr. Childs superintends the home missions of that diocese.
9. 3 MRS. CAROLINE FORBES PENNIMAN.
Younger daughter of Edwin and Charlotte S. Forbes, and Roxbury the place of her nativity. She became the wife of Rev. H. M. Penniman, who graduated at Brown University ; and then at Andover Theological Seminary (1882). He was ordained, and installed pastor of the First Church, East Derry, New Hampshire, and after- wards ministered to the Tabernacle Church, Chicago, Illinois, and to the Congregational Church of Keokuk, Iowa. In 1895 he received appointment to the professor- ship of Christian Evidences in Berea College, Kentucky. Mrs. Penniman has met with the experiences of sickness, and other trials, as well as the enjoyments usually found in such colleagueship with the ministry.
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MINISTERIAL COLLEAGUES.
IO. MRS. ANGENETTE F. TINKHAM HAMILTON.
It is often said that a pastor should never wed within the limits of his parish. If all such cases resulted as did that of Dr. B. F. Hamilton, we should hear the converse maxim-let the minister always look within his church for a wife. A five years' acquaintance brought this happy union about on the twenty-first of June, 1876. Mrs. Hamilton, the only child of Capt. Benjamin C. and Cynthia Tinkham, was born in Middleborough, 1852, and for the remaining twenty-one years of Dr. Hamilton's pastorate approved herself as the devoted and discreet wife, mother, neighbor, and church member, faithful and efficient in various relations and local offices. She pub- licly confessed Christ at the same time as her father, join- ing the Village Church, Medway (1868), and uniting with the Eliot Church by letter, at the same time as both parents, March 3, 1871, eight months before the close of that period which has been specially under review in these sketches. Domestic life has not been free from trials in the line of ill-health and bereavements; but paro- chial life has been unusually free from criticism.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
YOUNG WOMEN.
IT is impossible to speak of them without deep emo- tion -the group was so large, so lovely, and nearly all of them exhibiting such well-defined marks of divine grace. More tears were probably shed over their removal than that of any other equal number belonging to any different class. We followed them, one by one, down to the valley, some of them faltering at times a little, yet in the main firm, as they found and leaned on the Beloved. How often have we looked over to the other side, and seen them walking along the banks of the river of life -their forms dilated to a heavenly stature, every movement in- stinct with celestial grace, every feature radiant with holy delight ! What strains of heavenly harmony we seemed to hear from them! Mothers in Israel have stepped forth to greet them. Rachel, long since comforted, and her tears all gone, has welcomed them. To the Elder Brother they have kneeled, saying, "All hail !"
Among them was many a Mary who had chosen the good part. Now and then a sudden summons was heard, " The Master has come, and calleth for thee." Several times I was reminded of a daughter of the excellent Bishop Lowth, presiding at the tea-table, and as she placed a cup on the salver, said to the waiting-maid, " Take this to the Bishop of Bristol," when her hand
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dropped, and she instantly expired. One such, for in- stance, was Elizabeth F. Morse, who left us suddenly (July 6, 1851), at twenty years of age. She had not put off the one thing needful. It was noticeable that for a month previous she often sang the lines :
" What is life? 'Tis but a vapor; Soon it vanishes away ;
Life is but a dying taper ; O my soul, why wish to stay? Why not spread thy wings and fly Straight to yonder world of joy!"
It was on a bright day and amidst a profusion of roses that she fell asleep. In the course of the two pre- ceding months six from the circle of our young ladies had fallen beneath the great mower's scythe.
I. MARIA ANTONIA MARTINA ECHEVERRIA.
She was born at Matanzas, island of Cuba, 1820. Her father was a native of Florence, Italy, and her mother, Sarah Newell, was a native of Marblehead, Mas- sachusetts. At six years of age she came to New England, and remained here twelve years, being educated in part at Bradford Academy. She made public profes- sion of her Christian faith, and united with this church at eighteen. After returning to her island home she twice revisited New England.
Miss Echeverria was a brilliant young woman, sprightly, and with a countenance peculiarly pleasing. But pulmo-
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nary consumption pays no regard to youth or beauty, and in 1844 (July 19) this young friend died at the Cafatal San Antonio. From the ranks of our young women she was the first to lead the way to "the land that is very far off." It is sad to think that the booming of hostile guns in our late war should have been heard over her resting-place in the cemetery of Carnarisca.
2. CHARLOTTE H. BAKER
Was one of the most faithful and devoted of our Christian young women. Her own decline began soon after the very sudden decease of her sister, Mrs. Dickin- son. Months of increasing debility and suffering passed before the time for final farewells came (1848). She prayed aloud for the family, for other friends, -mentioning each by name, -for her Sunday School class, her pastor, a perishing world, and last of all, for herself. In clear, sweet strains she sang the entire hymn :
" I'll praise my Maker with my breath ; And when my voice is lost in death, Praise shall employ my nobler powers."
Just as flesh and heart were failing she said to her class, who had come in a body to take leave: "This is to me a solemn day. I am expecting every day to launch into eternity. The world seems of little value ; my account is closed up. My sorrows here are over. What could I do now without Christ! I wish all my class to know
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YOUNG WOMEN.
that I die a poor, helpless sinner, looking to the cross of Christ as my only hope.
"' In my hand no price I bring, Simply to thy cross I cling.'
"I have not been faithful to you, and yet I have loved you and have labored and prayed for you, and dur- ing the last year have been more than ever anxious for the salvation of your souls. I consecrated myself to God to do everything for you if you would only become Chris- tians, and I had hoped to live to see you such. I warn you not to put off the time of repentance for a sick-bed. It is a poor place to prepare for death. I shall not meet you here again. When you next look upon me I shall be cold in death. But I expect to meet you at the bar of God, there to render up my account."
3. EMELINE SILSBEE + AND
4. CHARLOTTE R. STEELE.
Within one week in October, 1848, two young ladies, Miss Emeline Silsbee and Miss Charlotte R. Steele, finished their course. Each was the victim of the same fatal disease that baffled the skill of physicians and the assiduity of friends. To the former, two years, with their wearisome days and nights, were appointed. Patient Chris- tian endurance continued through the whole. Just as night, a dark and stormy night, closed in, she fell asleep.
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The second of those mentioned above, whose decease was so nearly simultaneous, came to us bringing decided symptoms of the same malady. She belonged to an ex- cellent religious family ; and with clearly intelligent trust, she committed herself, for time and for eternity, to the gracious Saviour. A written confession of her faith was communicated to the church, which welcomed her to its fellowship. The next Lord's Day, in an upper room, about the same number being present as when Christ instituted the supper, she received the emblems of his body and blood. The very next morning she rose, as we trust, to the personal presence of our glorified Redeemer, to exclaim, " Rabboni !"
In each of those upper rooms I caught from the faint and labored breathing a message for surviving young acquaintances. The marble lips bade me tell them: " The sick-bed is no place to prepare for death; it is a serious thing to live; it is a dreadful thing to live far from God, and to reject the great salvation. Oh, the love of God ! Oh, the love of Jesus !"
Each of the two upper rooms was apparently quite on the verge of heaven. I seemed to go hand in hand with those choice young friends to the gate of Paradise. As the gate opened and they passed in, I heard a voice saying, "Come and see!" So have I seen a bird escape from its cage, mount upwards, and carol, and clap its wings in joyful freedom.
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YOUNG WOMEN.
5. ELIZA HILL ANDERSON.
Her features, her mental endowments, and her traits of character were sure to attract attention and to awaken an interest more than usual. It was in the summer of 1847 that she made public profession of religious faith. It is not often that a miss of sixteen gives such decided testimony as she did. Though characteristically modest, she said in the presence of our church officers and in a clear, firm tone, "My chief aim is to serve God; My desire to become holy in heart and life is greater than any other." A little more than two years later and close upon her eighteenth anniversary of birth, she joined the assembly where the refrain of social worship is, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!"
The tree which she planted in front of the house, and which the family called "Eliza's tree," now casts its shadow into the upper room, where she gradually wasted under irremediable phthisis, and at length closed her eyes on the 12th of December, 1849. I have seldom, during the last fifty years, passed under that graceful tree with- out looking up at it as an emblem of the charming daughter who planted it there.
Conversations with her on many sacred subjects, with reference to many individuals, led me the next day follow- ing her funeral, in a sermon on the "Raising of Jairus' Daughter," to say to Eliza's companions :
" I cannot close, young ladies, without addressing a word specially to you. God speaks to you. He spoke
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to you last week; he has been often speaking to you. During the time of my pastorship, as yet brief, it has fallen to me already to attend the funerals of fourteen of your number. I must press upon your attention the fact that, once dead, you are to rise again - that you, you, my young friends, are to rise again; that each of you will hear Christ's omnipotent Talitha cumi sounding through the world of spirits, for 'All that are in their graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth.' That maid of Capernaum had two seasons of probation; you will have but one. When you come forth it will not be in your present homes. 'After death is the judgment.' " Some shall wake to shame and everlasting contempt.' Ponder it, ye gay, ye thoughtless ones, ponder it. A short time before her death, Princess Amelia penned these lines :
" Unthinking, idle, wild, and young, I laughed, and danced, and taught, and sung, And, proud of health, of freedom vain, Dreamed not of sorrows, care or pain, Concluding in these hours of glee, That all the world was made for me. But when the hour of trial came, When sickness shook my trembling frame, When folly's gay pursuits were o'er, And I could dance and sing no more, It then occurred how sad 't would be, Were this world only made for me."
Alas, that it had not occurred to her before! Turn now to the testimony of an accomplished daughter of
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Baron Cuvier: "I experience," she said, "a pleasure in reading the Bible which I have never felt before. It at- tracts and fixes me to an inconceivable degree, and I seek sincerely there, and only there, the truth. When I com- pare the calm and the peace which the smallest and imperceptible grain of faith gives to the soul, with all that the world can give of joy and happiness, I feel that the least in the kingdom of Heaven is a hundred times more blessed than the greatest and most elevated men of the world."
Hers is not a voice from a convent or an almshouse ; it is not the language of one whom the world had dis- appointed and who seeks consolation from religion because every other source of happiness has been cut off. No, it is the experience of a young lady at the very center of all that could dazzle the mind and fascinate the imagina- tion in the gayest, the most brilliant city of Europe ; whom the world, in the most alluring forms, was per- petually assailing and seeking to captivate.
6. MARCIA EVELINA ATKINS.
Peculiarly amiable and lovely, she had from child- hood maintained secret prayer habitually, and, so far as outward life furnished evidence, would be pronounced a suitable candidate for church membership. But when she came to scan herself seriously, she found, as such not in- frequently find, that she had a rebellious heart; that her sins were numberless; that she had no real love to God and no true penitence. The broken and contrite spirit
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followed, with entire reconciliation to the character and ways of God and a trustful looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Two years of church life wit- nessed sanctified amiability. But she was obliged to relinquish teaching in the Sunday School, and surrender to a wasting disease (1854). Spiritual experiences, how- ever, grew stronger and stronger. " You know," she re- marked, "what a very great dread I have always had of the grave, and of everything connected with it, apart from the solemnity of death itself. That is entirely taken from me, and although I have so much to live for, and should be so happy in life, yet the grave looks pleasant to me, and if God sees it to be best, I am perfectly will- ing to go." She spoke of dying as one would of going on a journey. Her cheerfulness, in view of all that re- lated to death and the grave, was the more remarkable, as in health she could never visit the cemetery without shuddering at the thought of being interred there. But she could, at length, say to her mother, "I want you to come often to my grave, and let your visits to it be cheerful, not sad; make it a resort in your happy hours ; do not come when you are sad." " Why do you weep ?" she inquired ; "I am going home."
7. ANN MARIA BOND.
It was in the early summer of 1853 that this daughter of Mr. Richard Bond - a prominent member of the church - at the age of twenty, bade good-by to the family and to me. She was the victim of a lingering con-
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YOUNG WOMEN.
sumption, during which the evidence of a saving change of heart came to light with more than usual clearness. To all appearance, penitent conviction of sin was un- mistakable, as also was justifying faith in Jesus Christ, followed by cheerful submission to the divine appoint- ment of sickness and early death. She had had excel- lent home instruction as well as in the Bible Class of Mr. J. S. Ropes.
Lord's Day morning, before her departure, she in- quired about the probable time of that event, and was told that the physician thought it might come at any time in the near future. " Then," said she, "I may spend the next Sabbath in heaven." Her last words were, " Dear father, precious mother, precious, precious Saviour!"
8. CAROLINE W. BOND.
Died suddenly August 20, 1857. She had been visit- ing friends at Conway, her father's native place; returned home of a Wednesday, and the next day entered the home on high. Miss Bond was an unusually conscien- tious young woman, free from frivolities, adhering firmly to principle, punctual to engagements, and respected as a consistent Christian by all who knew her. She was one about whom criticism never lisped. To her Sunday School class she was noticeably devoted. The last time that I saw her she was on the way to the Young Ladies' Prayer Meeting.
From near the earliest invasion of disease, typhoid
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fever, her mind wandered. Just before spasms began she broke out: "Glory to God in the highest ! Peace on earth; good will to men-forever and ever!" The last use that she made of the pen at Conway was to copy Mrs. Browning's impressive hymn on the words, "So he giveth his beloved sleep." Against the following stanza she drew a heavy pencil-mark in the margin :
" And friends, dear friends! when it shall be That this low breath is gone from me, - When round my bier ye come to weep, Let one, most loving of you all, Say -' Not a tear must o'er her fall,' - ' He giveth his beloved sleep.'"
9. ANN BELL.
A member of Mr. Walley's Bible Class, who died May 2, 1858. Her funeral was from the church. Two years before that she stood where the casket then stood, publicly professing faith in the atoning and risen Redeemer. Her recorded testimony was that she had no merit and no hope except through the interposition of Jesus Christ ; that the thought of him was peculiarly delightful to her; that her desire was that others should come to him, and find the same blessings she had found; that the Bible was the choicest of books; that daily prayer was her practice and her pleasure. Her Christian character and course were unobtrusive and unexceptionable. In sickness there were neither raptures nor fears, but she expressed
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YOUNG WOMEN.
complete acquiescence in the will of God, and maintained an abiding, quiet trust while sinking gently asleep in Jesus. And who are they "which sleep in Jesus?" They who have believed in him to the saving of their souls; who were justified through him, affianced to him, vitally united to him, and assimilated to him. The body being left in the great dormitory of earth, they pass beyond the portal of the grave, and bidding good night to all this side, they hear a good morning the other side. Dying is but a dim, brief trance between time and eternity. Worry, and weariness, and dreams are at an end.
As the first rays of a resurrection-day light began to brighten the firmament, amidst the solemn stillness of that hallowed dawn, broken only by the sweet matins of May birds, Miss Bell awoke, we doubt not, in the heav- enly home.
CHAPTER XXIX.
HONORABLE WOMEN.
OF these not a few. It is to be noticed that at the dawn of the present dispensation the first two visions of angels were in the experience of women; that the first two announcements of Christ's resurrection were made to women, and that after he left the tomb his first two appearances were also to women. In the fourth century of our era Libanius, though an enemy of Christians, exclaimed, " Ah! what wonderful women there are among the Christians !" With no less emphasis may the same be said in our day. In the Eliot Church, as in most other churches, the female membership is in the majority. Such was the case at first; of the fifty-one original mem- bers only twenty were males. In the year 1899 the female members of all Congregational churches in our country numbered well on towards twice as many as the male members, 416,041 against 212,193. In this church the predominance spoken of seemed the more noteworthy, as the parish was by day chiefly a parish of women, little business being done here, and the men, with few excep- tions, being in town between the morning and evening meals.
In previous chapters, which speak of missionaries, ministerial colleagues, artists, and deaf-mutes, are those belonging alike to the present category. Others not yet
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mentioned fall into representative groups. Here may be found the prayerfulness of Hannah, the devotedness of Ruth, the discreetness of Abigail, the devout waiting of Anna, and the self-forgetting fidelity of Mary. The Lydia at prayer meetings and the Dorcas of good works are here.
I. MRS. MEHITABLE GROZER KITTREDGE.
Early efficiency and growth of the church were due in no small degree not only to the senior deacon, Mr. Kittredge, but also to Mrs. Kittredge. Her untiring energy and cheeriness helped greatly to animate and brighten the enterprise. She was born in Truro, Barn- stable County, February 28, 1803. Her girlhood was one of gaiety; but the first general revival in Park Street Church (1823), which added about ninety converts to its number, recorded her and two of her sisters among them. Character and life took on a new form; and thence on- ward the kingdom of our Lord had a large place in her heart and her activities.
When the Eliot Church was organized, the council - pastors and delegates - were entertained at her home, where thenceforward a large hospitality was maintained. Theological students were frequent guests, among whom, for weeks, was Henry Lyman, afterwards one of the two missionary martyrs in Sumatra. Ministers and missionaries often found welcome there. Many a committee meeting, many a prayer meeting, many a Dorcas gathering were held there, as well as the Maternal Association, with an
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attendance sometimes of sixty persons. Of the fourteen hundred church members up to the time of her decease, no one had been more loyal to its interests, more uni- formly present at its gatherings, or taken active part more readily in its exercises. Mrs. Kittredge's married life lacked only one year of half a century; and during that period probably no one ever visited the home on High- land Street without finding it well ordered. On the Lord's Day was a secular book or paper ever seen in her hand, or on the table. Every morning and every night in the week, about nine o'clock, she retired for secret prayer. The final summons came in April, 1883, and for several preceding months one of her favorite hymns had been :
"I know not the way I am going, But well do I know my Guide ; With a child-like trust I give my hand To the mighty Friend by my side; The only thing that I say to Him, As He takes it, is hold it fast ;
Suffer me not to lose my way, And bring me home at last."
2. MRS. HARRIET L. DICKINSON.
Sometimes the pastor has a sudden midnight sum- mons. Thus was it in the October of 1847. A sharp outside rap on the house was followed by the startling appeal, " Do come down to our house; Mrs. Dickinson is dying." I was soon on the way, thinking how agitated must that friend be by this sudden call from another
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world to her in the meridian of life; but on reaching the house I found her the most self-possessed person in her upper room. The rest of the family, and one or two neighbors who were present, seemed bewildered. Even the physician, who had been called, appeared to be rather less calm than usual. Mrs. Dickinson was unruffled. On the little table beside her bed lay the familiar Bible which had been read, as was her wont, before retiring in appar- ent health for the night. That book had for years been her guide and her joy. At the female prayer meeting she was a glad attendant, and she was one whose cheerful countenance was always seen at the weekly prayer meet- ing also, whatever the weather might be. Her last social call was on a sister teacher in the Sunday School, whose tide of life was ebbing, and with whom she had sweet converse concerning their common Lord, who caused their hearts to burn within them. More than once in the course of this closing hour of her own life, she exclaimed, " What should I do now if it were not for Jesus Christ !"
Upon inquiring of the doctor how long she might expect to live, he replied, "Perhaps two hours." Her parents and one of two sisters being decided Christians, she devoted remaining time chiefly to the other sister, and to two brothers, pleading with them to choose at once the good part, alternating her appeals with silent prayer. Then, taking leave individually of all who were present, she laid her head upon the pillow, and before daybreak fell asleep in Jesus.
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ELIOT MEMORIAL.
It was a sweet and placid countenance that smiled in her casket, October 23, 1847. The emphatic, though silent message was, "Watch, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh; " " The night is far spent; the day is at hand."
3. MRS. CLARA STOWELL FRANKLIN.
Mrs. Franklin was a native of Guilford, Vermont, and March 4, 1813, was the date of her birth. Her father, a much beloved and respected citizen, was killed on his own premises by the fall of a tree, an event which very deeply impressed his daughter. Her grandfather was an officer in the Revolutionary War. She taught school in her native place, but upon marriage (June, 1839) came to Roxbury, and in the first year of my pastorate (Novem- ber, 1842) joined the church on confession of faith. At the time of her decease (1893) she stood nearly alone as the last of those in the congregation who were living when my settlement took place.
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