USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Roxbury > Eliot memorial : sketches historical and biographical of the Eliot Church and Society > Part 4
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Two compliments came to me from such quarters the same day. I was told that an Irish member of the church, who had died shortly before at the age of ninety-two, prayed every day during my absence in Europe that I might live to return and attend her funeral. A Scotch member of the church, aged ninety-six, on hearing some favorable remark about a sermon which I had preached, observed, " Ah, he's the boy to do that!"
While there is sometimes a pride that looks up as well as a pride that looks down, flowering plants never
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ELIOT MEMORIAL.
seem so attractive as in the windows of a tumble-down cottage. Never can I forget the sweet expression on the countenance of an impoverished widow as, looking out upon the well-kept lawn, and grove, and shrubs, and vines of a neighboring estate, she said, " My Father made them all." Nor can I forget the look of heavenly contentment on the face of another in her solitude, who would never admit being alone, but said, " My dear Elder Brother is always with me." There comes to mind the radiant ex- pression on the face of a woman thirty years ago. She was ninety, blind, feeble, dependent, and at the time sick withal. As I spoke of the loving-kindness of God, she raised her emaciated hands, exclaiming, "Praised be my Heavenly Father for all he has done for me; for all he is doing to me !" Pastoral visits disclosed now and then what seemed to be the conversion of a church member, not a second conversion, so called, but the initial experi- ence of saving grace. One instance may be mentioned, that of a professional man in a lingering decline, who was intensely desirous of recovery, being very timid in view of suffering and death. At length there came an overwhelm- ing sense of sinfulness, and he passed through a severe spiritual struggle. He obtained and retained a most sat- isfying view of Christ as the atoning Saviour. Christian patience, and meekness and joy in a marked degree fol- lowed.
A widow in her eighty-third year said to me - she was from the north of Ireland, and had an original way
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PARISH CALLS.
of expressing herself -" Nigh twenty years ago I was in a great consternation of mind and body. I lay awake one night feeling like a sparrow alone upon the house-top. I prayed God he would send some one to teach and help me. The next day who should come in but you yourself. You prayed with me; but you first repeated the hymn, -
"' Jesus, lover of my soul, Let me to thy bosom fly.'
That was just what I wanted. The peace of God has kept me ever since." After that she joined our church, making no use of a musty certificate.
Among the memorabilia of sick-rooms was the case of a church member, who sank under a cancerous tumor in the throat, which occasioned great suffering. She could speak only at considerable intervals and could articulate only two or three words at a time. Between paroxysms of distress she would say, " God is good " -" He is good " -" Thanks for mercies "-" He strengthens me "-" His will be done "- " Christ is precious "-" All is peace." Silent endurance simply is impressive; but such victory over pain, such irrepressible pæans through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ are sublime and more effective than any didactic volume of Evidences. Upon decease there is no long flight of the soul to follow, but simply a step to the other side of the veil. And let who will go forth prospecting for precious metal, or searching the sky for undiscovered luminaries, I would far rather listen to the
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ELIOT MEMORIAL.
dying testimony and catch the light in the eye of a de- parting believer. And that, too, although pastoral pres- ence was now and then sought when impossibility seemed to stare me in the face. Owing to a two-days' sick head- ache, I was obliged to write one Thursday night on a pre- paratory lecture for the next evening. Indeed, it was after two o'clock Friday morning when I retired to rest. The clock had not struck three before I was called up by an agitated son, and hastened to the bedside of his dying mother. She was the senior member of our church at that time, being in the eighty-sixth year of her age. Her pains were great but her peace of mind still greater. At another time I was called up past midnight to go and see a sick woman, who had just learned suddenly that her ex- pectation of recovery must be given up, and who was in extreme agitation. She was living in a court not particu- larly reputable, and I took a policeman with me. Other calls were made by daylight till the wretched sufferer's last fearful groan was uttered. In 1865 died Mrs. Sarah A. Rogers, who for years suffered from an extreme palpi- tation of heart which shook her whole frame and the chair in which she obtained only imperfect repose. After join- ing the church she was unable to attend public worship, and never but once received the emblems of Christ's dying love. At length she passed out of the apartment of suffering and of shadows into sunlight. During all that period of wearisome months and even years of pant- ing, no complaint escaped her empurpled lips. Cheerful-
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SECOND SETTLEMENT.
in the pulpit and listened to the solemn words of consecrat- ing prayer, can never be forgotten. Indeed for many weeks, and especially amidst ministerial duties, there seemed to be a distinct sensation that the hair had not risen from be- neath those venerable hands. Dr. Burgess felt a peculiar interest in the formation of this church; had contributed pecuniarily to its growth; but had no thought that the " hands of the Presbytery " were being laid on the head of one who, some thirty years later, would become his son-in- law. It is a coincidence not unworthy of mention that by the courtesy of the Eliot Society my family have unwit- tingly occupied the pew which was originally owned by him. At the close of the service Dr. Codman shook hands with me most cordially and said, "Make use of my library." He had an unusually large and valuable collection of books. I never availed of his offer, nor ever forgot the kindness of that hour, a kindness that continued without interruption till the last hour of his life.
Between the organization of the Eliot Church and the second installation of a pastor, 1842, there had been no very marked general developments in the religious condition of Boston and its vicinage. Individual occurrences, however, of considerable significance took place. Emerson's noted sermon before the Cambridge Divinity School was delivered in 1838. The next year came Professor Andrews Norton's address on "The Latest Form of Infidelity." Theodore Parker, who was settled at West Roxbury in 1837, preached his famous South Boston discourse in 1841, the subject
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ELIOT MEMORIAL.
being the transient and permanent in Christianity. That may be accepted as inaugurating the era of a form of bald infidelity in these parts. But its progress was slow. It scarcely touched the Eliot congregation. The good people of our congregation did not desire combativeness in the pul- pit, and as little did they desire avoidance of the great dis- tinctive facts and truths of evangelical Christianity. Opiate divinity had no charm for them. It was far from my thought to play the role of belligerency; I do not recollect ever to have referred publicly and by name to Unitarians or Universalists ; but it was soon perfectly understood what position the young pastor held. Fill the bushel with wheat, and chaff will have small chance.
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CHAPTER VI.
THE PULPIT.
A PEDESTAL, a throne, on which concentrated light is cast - such is the pulpit. To stand there the object of all eyes, open at all points to criticism, challenging respect and confidence, though fully conscious of insufficiency - what an occasion for trembling ! What a morning for one young man was that of July 31, 1842, the first Lord's Day in a momentous relation that was to continue indefinitely. The shrinking and tremor would have been overpowering but for the Saviour's last promise, "Lo, I am with you." This pre- sented itself as the minister's own promise. It gave strength and calmness; and from that day to the present I have sel- dom gone to the sacred desk without pleading this precious pledge.
The morning's sermon that day was on " The Christian Embassy," from the words, "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." In the afternoon the subject was, " A People's chief duty to their Pastor " (Hebrews 2 : 2, 3). But there sat Rev. Dr. Ander- son, Rev. David Greene, besides other clergymen and well- educated laymen, men of large experience in public affairs. There were women, too, of a superior type, mothers in Israel and daughters of Judah, mature and refined. The audacity
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ELIOT MEMORIAL.
of a young man rising up as teacher and guide in such a presence seemed prodigious. Lack of adequate mental capacity and furniture was not the chief source of anxiety. The religious welfare of a congregation weighed like a mountain. What Augustine says about angels being un- equal to the burden' came to mind. But for a strong hand from on high, collapse would have come. The people, how- ever, were kindly considerate. Attention was all that could be desired.
In the earlier years of my ministry there was one in the congregation, Dr. Nathaniel S. Prentiss, whose specially eager attention could not fail to attract notice. He sat at an angle from the pulpit that made it particularly easy and natural for the speaker's eye to rest on his noble counte- nance. His love of scripture truth was intense. If now and then there was some one apparently in the same condi- tion with Malchus after Peter had used his sword, Dr. Pren- tiss more than made amends for such. His portly person, his large eyes, his riveted attention seemed enough for a half side of the meeting-house. One of the deacons, a very grave man, who sat in the pew behind the doctor, said that as a sermon proceeded, the old gentleman, with both hands on the top of his gold-headed cane, would unconsciously work forward on his seat; and the observer was often anxious lest he should land on the floor. He weighed con- siderably over two hundred pounds.
As for criticisms, there must have been many and
' Onus Angelicis humeris formidandum.
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THE PULPIT.
deserved, though it was seldom that one came to my ear. I can recall but a few instances. It was my practice to re- write whenever I preached a sermon the second time, except when there came a request for repetition. In one instance, having no time to recast a manuscript, I delivered a dis- course word for word after an interval of seven years. As the congregation were retiring, an individual who had joined us in the interim remarked with a deep flush on his face, " That sermon was all aimed at me." Another case was this : In due course of exposition it became necessary for me to say something in regard to divorce, though not know- ing that a divorced person was present. It appears that one of the quartet singers belonged to that class, and was moved to talk violently about the sermon. But for that, it might not have become known that there was anything disreputa- ble in her history. Sometimes just the opposite of fitting personal application took place. "Where did you get that sermon last Sunday, Mr. Thompson?" was put to me ear- nestly. " Well, the text was in Numbers." " Ah, you hit the nail on the head; " and more to the same effect. If any head was hit, his, by general consent, was the one. But he proceeded to speak of Mr. Blank as engaged in bogus stock operations, etc. One female hearer, not afflicted with self- distrust, would now and then give advice touching sermons, and once complimented herself by saying that she noticed I always preached better after her conversations with me.
The appropriateness of certain subjects and sermons is not usually seen by all. After discourse one Sunday fore-
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ELIOT MEMORIAL.
noon on the Pharisee and Publican, a good clerical friend in the congregation kindly suggested the inquiry whether cer- tain paragraphs relating to the prayers of the impenitent were quite in place at that time. Before night a theologi- cal student, a member of our church, called, after conversing with another young man, who was well informed on general subjects but a Pharisee in his religious views and ways. He had said to the student, " Why did you tell Mr. Thompson my confession to you yesterday? " His friend replied, “ I did not see Mr. Thompson till after the sermon this morn- ing." The young man, who had been a gay New Yorker, remarked, " It was the closest and most pertinent sermon I ever heard."
After a discourse on the " Efficacy of Prayer," one good woman sent me word indirectly that she did not need such an argument. Before the next Lord's Day another excellent Christian women thanked me very heartily for that sermon, saying it was just what she needed. A wise and kind elderly member of the congregation expressed doubts as to the expediency of introducing into the pulpit a certain sub- ject which had just been handled on the Sabbath. Within a few days I heard of a hopeful conversion resulting from that sermon.
In the matter of pulpit preparation and pulpit occu- pancy most pastors have an experience of trying exigencies, and more particularly in their early official years. A share fell to my lot. In several instances, owing to illness or a succession of funerals and other interruptions, it became im-
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THE PULPIT.
possible to commence usual preparation before Saturday, and that, too, when body and mind were jaded. Hours were spent in trying to secure an exchange with different neighboring ministers, but unsuccessfully. Returning home, a wearied and possibly somewhat wiser man, I would spend most of the night in necessary writing instead of needed sleep. Twice within my first three years an agent of some benevolent society had agreed to meet me of a Sunday after- noon at the church door and occupy the pulpit in present- ing his cause, but failed to appear. Each time the disap- pointment was partly relieved by my being able to summon up a discourse previously committed to memory. When such trials work faith, there is compensation to the preacher if not to the hearer.
Can the pulpit be long out of a minister's mind any day of the year, and year after year, be the pastorate a long or a short one ? What subject most needed next ? how shall it be so treated as to be most effective? are questions con- stantly recurring from January first to December thirty- first.
Of about one thousand sermons a classified synopsis of subjects shows the following proportions : -
The Bible -characteristics and claims, 24; the several books, 7; exposi- tion of whole books or chapters, 231 ; Scripture characters, 28.
God - character, works, and government, 36.
Christ - attributes, offices, life, 118.
The Holy Spirit - attributes and offices, 26.
Man - character, ways, needs, duties, destiny, 102.
The Christian - characteristics, duties, privileges, destiny, 285.
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ELIOT MEMORIAL.
Revivals, 28.
The Family - Periods of Life, Classes of Persons, 73.
Death and the Future, 69.
Special Occasions and Miscellaneous, III.
Memoranda show that in twenty-three instances I preached at the ordination or installation of foreign mission- aries or home pastors. As some written sermons were at different times destroyed, and as some were never com- mitted to paper, it is impossible to find the exact number that were delivered from the Eliot pulpit. Memoranda show that for somewhat over a thousand discourses, 359 texts were taken from the Old Testament, and 703 from the New Tes- tament. In no instance was a passage employed simply as a motto ; nor garbled by employing an incomplete sentence or some single phrase. Occasionally I tried the expository method, dwelling on half a chapter at a time, not, however, without careful preparation, and it was gratifying to hear of much satisfaction being expressed by members of the con- gregation. Never was a mere verbal or fanciful analogy made the basis of a discourse. Imitation of the method or style of other men was never attempted. Simeon's volumes of plans I never saw. But I once read in public another man's discourse. It was from a volume of sermons on "Christ the Great Subject of Gospel Preaching," etc., by Ebenezer Thayer, pastor of the Second Church, the one in West Roxbury over which Theodore Parker was after- ward settled. The discourse was one of twelve, clear, scriptural and forcible, on the person and work of Christ. This was done at an evening meeting in the lecture-room,
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PARISH CALLS.
ness reigned throughout all. My calls were frequent, and all the while that palpitating heart
" Like a muffled drum, was beating Funeral marches to the grave."
Pastoral life became a vibration between joy and sor- row. So frequent was the demand upon ministration to the sick and bereaved that I was kept almost uniformly in the border-land, and I seemed to have become janitor to the unseen world. A request would come for me to communicate sad intelligence - that there was no hope of recovery ; or that the remains of some member of a family were unexpectedly about to be brought home. One morn- ing I was sent for to inform a man who had been violently sick for two weeks, that his wife, taken down after him, died a week ago, an event which could not safely be made known sooner. How could tears be restrained on meet- ing a man, during whose absence of a few months his entire family had been buried !
In almost numberless instances the last pastoral visit was made just at the close of a parishioner's life; and good- bys to the departing had, as a general thing, little sad- ness in their tone. Recollection is stored with such cases. In 1869, for example, being sent for with great urgency, I hastened to the bedside of a sick woman. Passages like the twenty-third Psalm and certain words of our Saviour were repeated, as well as the hymn, "Jesus, lover of my soul." She expressed firm trust in him and smiled sweetly
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F
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ELIOT MEMORIAL.
at every mention of his name. After a prayer she asked to be turned in bed, and within less than half an hour ceased to breathe. Another sister in the church, long time a sufferer, exhibited a rare combination of strong desire to depart and complete acquiescence in the divine will. A frequent exclamation of hers was, "I long to go home! O, I want to be at home with Jesus!" At the bedside of another who had lived a decidedly Christian life, I repeated, "Rock of Ages, cleft for me," and she accom- panied me in a low concurrent voice. When the stanzas were finished, she whispered, "Nothing, nothing, but the mercy and the merits of Jesus Christ!" and at once her " eyelids closed in death." A deaf-mute member, in a rather dark apartment and on the verge of departure, in- dicated her idea of the brightness of heaven, to which she was bound joyously, by bringing a hand over her eyes as if shading them from the effulgence.
Specially memorable was the loft of a rude workshop - without lath or plaster, the rafters covered with soot, not a single object of comfort in sight -where dwelt per- haps the most cheerful saint in Boston. Never did a lisp of complaint or an allusion to surroundings escape from her lips. But climb up there and speak of the Saviour, you would see her sallow face glow at once, and she seemed transfigured. That dreary, smoky apartment became a ves- tibule of heaven.
There were cases where the pastor found husband and wife unequally yoked together, the former devoid of
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PARISH CALLS.
sympathy in things religious; the latter discreet, faithful, prayerful, and able quietly to maintain a controlling influ- ence over the household. The Christian nurture of chil- dren resulted in a sterling character. No instance of desertion or of divorce occurred in the congregation. It was deeply interesting to observe the refining and enno- bling influence of genuine piety, often independent of other sources of culture. Not a few such cases come to mind. I recall one which will serve as a specimen - the sick-room of a Protestant serving-girl from the north of Ireland. She was dependent and friendless, save a sis- ter, who relinquished her own most eligible place of serv- ice that she might minister to her in a long decline. She would moisten the invalid's parched mouth, caring for her in every way tenderly night and day. As the last hour approached, she said to her, " Sister, shall I give you a little water now?" "No, thank you," was the answer, "I'll drink no more till I drink at the fountain."
John Brown, with his well-ordered family, came from the north of Scotland and occupied a small house, then almost a solitary one, near the Milldam. He sank under a gradual invasion of disease, which baffled the healing art; but at every call I found a beautiful spirit of patience and cheerfulness. His thoughts dwelt a good deal the other side of the ocean and also in that world where is no more sea. Over and over he sang hymns taught him by a godly Highland mother. At last he desired Scotch friends who stood round his bed to sing a favorite one,
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ELIOT MEMORIAL.
which the sainted woman used to sing in his childhood. His own feeble voice at length joined the rest; but with the last word and last note he ceased to breathe. The words were: -
"Hark, the glad sound ! The Saviour comes, The Saviour promised long ; Let every heart prepare him room, And every voice a song."
I think of him as joining at once in the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb. The funeral service over, the widow and daughter has- tened back to Aberdeen.
2. Extra-Parochial Service.
The longer a minister remains in one place, the more is he liable to be called upon for service outside of parish lines. If his sphere of labor is in a populous community, and if he remain at home during the heated term when an annual dispersion of people takes place, he is sure to be called upon for ministrations in behalf of the sick and be- reaved who are strangers. I have repeatedly made a sug- gestion that groups of neighboring ministers enter into an agreement by which, in rotation, one of them shall be at home during the vacation season. Many years ago upon the death of a prominent church officer in Boston, whose house had long been a home for ministers, not a Congre- gational pastor was to be found in the city, and the family
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EXTRA-PAROCHIAL SERVICE.
had to scour neighboring towns in search of some one to offer prayer at the funeral. In two instances when I had been already engaged for such service at a specified hour, application has been made from other quarters for the same purpose. In one case the applicant seemed to be so dazed as not to appreciate the impossibility of a man's reduplicating himself and being in two places at the same time. Great embarrassment results not infrequently from the habit of engaging an undertaker and perhaps announc- ing in daily papers the hour of a funeral before a minister is called upon.
Time and again came a request from some remote family of which I had never heard, to attend a funeral. It became necessary to hire a carriage for the purpose and no thanks were expressed. This was due doubtless to faulty education, for children sometimes grow up without ever being taught to say, Thank you. Service may be cheerfully rendered, though such omissions cannot fail to be noticed. I have thus come into fuller sympathy with our foreign missionaries, who often fail to receive any token of gratitude for their gratuitous labor.
Just fifty-one years ago parents, with two daughters and a son, sailed from Belfast, Ireland. The father and mother died at the quarantine, Quebec. The son Andrew, a lad of fifteen, went to New York to find a brother who had preceded the family four years before. Finding that the brother had come to Boston, Andrew followed. Here he was soon run over by a carriage and taken to a hospi-
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ELIOT MEMORIAL.
tal. No brother being found, he appealed to me. There was no small joy in befriending such an orphan. His gratitude was ample.
Utterances painfully suggestive were sometimes heard. A widowed woman spoke of her husband's departure as a translation, though it was understood he had come home intoxicated nearly every day for years, ardent spirits being the occasion of the accident by which he lost his life. The ravages and relics of intemperance in the surround- ing community brought melancholy scenes to light. The older of two sisters married a widowed father, and the younger married his widowed son. The next day after the funeral of a step-daughter of this second wife, the step-mother's sister fell down stairs and remained uncon- scious till her death took place. In obeying the summons from strangers to a marriage service in an alley, dark even at noon-day, and also an urgent request for a call at midnight, I took a policeman with me and found the pre- caution was warranted.
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