USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Roxbury > Eliot memorial : sketches historical and biographical of the Eliot Church and Society > Part 6
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and saw a beautiful boy expire, the son of young parish- ioners whom I married a few years previously, and who seemed to find it impossible to be reconciled to their loss. Only a fortnight before that I attended a large and expen- sive party beneath the same roof. Thence I went to a wedding the same day as that of the death.
It was at a later date that two brothers, men of mature years, died in the same house sumptuously fur- nished, where skilled nursing and the most skillful physi- cians were in attendance. One of the two brothers came to his end after a brief sickness, resulting from excess on a festive occasion. There was opportunity for only a single visit to him. "Can you not look penitently and trustingly to our Heavenly Father," I said, "and implore forgiveness ?" "I fear not," was his reply; and the power of utterance soon ceased. The surviving brother was long confined to his room, and at length to his bed. Though a consistent church member, he was constitutionally reti- cent and undemonstrative. Some would have pronounced him frigid. But as disease progressed he softened, and finally talked freely of his religious experience. One day as I sat close to his pillow, he drew my face down to his and kissed me. It was the first time in my life that any man gave me that token, and from no other member of the congregation would it have been more surprising.
In these circumstances there was nothing remarkable perhaps, but a sudden change from one deep emotion to another produces an exhausting revulsion. Extreme and
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unanticipated joy or sorrow sometimes occasions death. It is very pleasing to sing about "The soul's calm sun- shine and the heartfelt joy," and it is perfectly easy to recommend self-control, but less easy to exercise it, espe- cially when the nervous system is highly sensitive. For many persons absence of the startling is necessary to presence of mind. The foregoing instances of contrast present coincidences also, as among the latter there is more or less of contrast.
It is an occasion of grateful remembrance that the congregation was uniformly and noticeably attentive. This afforded not a little encouragement. From the first onward, I never saw but two persons in the audience sleeping. One of them, laboring under an infirmity which made it almost impossible to resist drowsiness, told me that he would sometimes thrust a pin into his own flesh to keep himself awake, though unsuccessfully, but that one Sunday he observed the head of the other sleeper thrown back over the top of a pew, his enormous mouth wide open. The shock was such as to cure himself of drowsiness. One other case was reported to me by a friend some time after it occurred. A man who occu- pied a pew near my informant said to him on their way from church : " Mr. Thompson didn't preach this after- noon." " O yes; he preached as usual." " But he didn't take any text; I wonder if he isn't well." "I did not notice any appearance of illness." "It seems singular that they should only sing a couple of hymns." The fact was,
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as my wakeful friend had noticed, the man dropped soundly asleep in the course of the first singing and waked up during the last.
Closed eyes are not always proof of drowsiness, but it naturally awakens suspicion. Owing to the weakness of that organ since 1854, I have uniformly shut my eyes while listening to sermons, and yet have not consciously fallen asleep during divine service. Speaking of this to Mr. Charles Stoddard, a native of Northampton, he told me that Governor Strong was supposed to be in the habit of sleeping at meeting. A spinster, something of a busy- body, noticing that he covered his eyes during the ser- mon, called one Monday and lectured him on the subject. He asked quietly, " Were you at meeting yesterday morn- ing ?" " O yes." "And what was the text?" "Really it has escaped me." " Perhaps you will give me an outline of the discourse." The good woman confessed she could not. The same questions and answers passed regarding the afternoon sermon also. Governor Strong then gave her each text and a full analysis of the sermon, adding that for many years he had suffered from weak eyes which obliged him to protect them from the light.
Family surprises were sometimes revealed. A young man starting for Sunday School fell and broke his knee- pan. He nearly perished with cold before relief came. A good lady ran and apprised his father of the accident, but was so agitated as not to give the name distinctly. The father remarked that he was not much of a nurse
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himself and regretted that his son, a strong young man, should have just left the house. Putting on his overcoat rather deliberately, he went over in a neighborly way and found that the sufferer was that very son.
Certain other incidents belong to the ample category of simultaneous bereavement. On the same day in August, 1862, that the telegraph brought word of the death of a member of my family, a gentleman and his sister called to announce the death of their father, and almost imme- diately I fulfilled a preengagement to marry a couple. The translation of a Christian may be more joyous than any wedding march. At Newton Centre I attended the funeral of a former member of our church. For five years she had not been able to go to the house of God. When the doctor announced the near approach of death, she said to her sister, " Have you heard the good news?"
" No; what is it?" " I'm going home." Just as she was sitting down at the marriage supper of the Lamb I hastened back to attend a marriage service in our church, and thence to one at my house. Two brides that day went away from home. One of two widowed sisters, whose husbands died at nearly the same time, returning from Kansas, whither she had removed, called to say that her only son, aged twenty-one, died of injuries by an ac- cident and that the only son of her sister was almost at the same time killed on the Fitchburg Railroad.
Under one roof in 1859 were the two widowed sis- ters of Dr. N. S. Prentiss, one aged seventy-two, the
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other eighty-five. The older sister had been deaf from childhood, and now while lying beside Mrs. Weare, whose tender care she had enjoyed for half a century, she fell quietly asleep never to wake again in this world. Her noble-hearted sister, being told what had occurred, said, "My work is done; I shall soon follow," and in less than twenty-four hours she, too, fell asleep in Jesus. The funeral service and interment of the two took place at the same time.
In three instances I found unexpectedly two caskets instead of one. The last was at Newton Centre, where friends assembled, thinking to look for the last time only on the face of Mrs. Albert Bowker. But side by side with her casket was that of her husband. In death they were not divided, and there was companionship in burial as well. Neither of them, it should be said, had any con- nection with the Eliot Church. The coincidence though striking, has conspicuous parallels. Some years since, the Rev. Dr. Milledollar of New York died at a good old age; the next day his wife also, and they were buried in the same grave. Crossing the Atlantic, we find that the Rev. George Burder and his wife were interred the same afternoon. Yet earlier, a relative of Lady Sutherland hastened to Bath to attend the funeral of Lord Suther- land, but found two hearses at the door, one of them for her ladyship.
I remember with great distinctness the first call which Mrs. Bowker made on me one-third of a century ago.
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She came to confer in regard to a Woman's Board of Foreign Missions. It was the presence of a superior woman revolving a noble theme, a theme growing into grandeur. She was becoming transfigured by it. Not a word of conceit or of self-seeking in any form dropped from her lips. She brought with her a most evident im- press from the mercy-seat. It was that elevation tem- pered with meekness, which can be had only by the Holy Spirit's illuminating and energizing presence. Mrs. Bow- ker was moved to organize the womanly sympathies and energies of Christian hearts in behalf of those whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen hundred years. For a quarter of a century she labored indefatigably in their behalf. Thousands of heathen women have been ele- vated, hundreds of heathen homes ameliorated. Bowker Hall of the Mission School at Bombay, and Bowker Hall of the College for Girls at Scutari, on the Bosphorus, are her fitting monuments.
Another class of coincidences come to mind. Out of a considerable number a few will serve to illustrate. One morning in 1859 the German Methodist minister of this city called, desiring aid for his church which was in debt. I was then unable to render assistance. Toward evening a minister from Litchfield, Connecticut, presented himself. In my boyhood he was a teacher in my native place. He was now aged and in poor health. I had just returned from making five calls, at no one of which was the subject of giving mentioned. On retiring from the
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last house visited, the good lady placed in my hand a bank-note of no small denomination. It was evidently designed by Providence to be divided between the two clerical callers of that day. At a certain juncture it be- came a question with me whether, owing to an inevitable increase of expenses, I was not called upon to diminish my subscriptions to benevolent objects. I could not per- suade myself to retrench in that direction. Almost imme- diately there was disclosed a small mine which accrued to my benefit. Again, in 1856, I was very desirous, after returning from a visit to missions in India, of doubling the amount previously given to the American Board. Within three weeks and before the time for payment, a good woman connected with another church and entirely unacquainted with the circumstances, handed me the exact amount for my private use. The next year, while there was for some days a similar hesitation as to the duty of giving, the same lady asked for my written opinion regard- ing spiritism. When that was communicated, she sent me a check for one hundred dollars. Just before the time to subscribe to foreign missions, in 1859, this generous friend died, and on her death-bed had directed her executor to hand me two hundred dollars, which amount was most opportune.
6. Peculiar Persons and Proceedings.
A Tamil proverb asks, "Are all stones rubies ? " The pastor may expect to find some paste pearls in his congre-
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gation. Every city pastor at least will have experience with cranks and impostors. In country villages and towns there are few dark courts or dark corners. In our cities there are resorts underground or shaded by high build- ings where the sun's rays never, and the police seldom, penetrate. If churches were gathered on a strictly elec- tive affinity basis, diversities would soon be developed. In the Eliot Church there was such a predominance of stable, sensible men and women, that occasional obliqui- ties created no serious disturbance. They called forth no remark; silent pity and sometimes a little sanctified amuse- ment followed. In the course of thirty years there was a succession of exceptional members - usually but one or two at a time - whose peculiarities were no doubt needed to help on the perseverance of saints.
One good man abounded in devices. He would bring forward this proposal and that proposal, yet scarcely ever showing good judgment, or securing concurrence. The only way was to practice a discreet disregard; to listen courteously and then by a wholesome evasion of direct antagonism keep on in the path of common sense. He always took it kindly. Another man had a genius for obstruction. Let almost anything in the way of change be suggested with two good reasons, and his fertile con- servatism would conjure up three objections. This habit was so well understood as by reaction to help almost any wise measure.
The ideal of self-satisfaction was embodied in a mem-
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ber of another church, who worshiped with us for a time. He was effusively ready to aid in all religious meetings. He kept on such excellent terms with himself that no hint could disturb the equanimity with which he poured forth the treasures of limitless talk. The uncharitable thought would sometimes creep into the minds of listeners that there was a little parade of Christian activity. In a street-car, crowded with gentlemen returning home bur- dened with the fatigue of the day, he happened at one time to be sitting next to me. Taking out a package of tracts he remarked, "We laymen must be on the alert to do good," and passed around, distributing to all who would receive. Two or three of the leaflets were put into pockets; some went on to the floor and under the boots, while some went out of the windows.
Louis, second son of Charles V of France, founded an order called, " The Order of the Porcupine." One of our number appeared to have been initiated. Quills were always ready to fly. A most uncomfortable habit of petu- lance had been cultivated till it seemed as if neither any- body nor anything could please. There was more than one prominent and worthy member of the church who might rise to offer prayer or offer remarks, and this brother would at once leave the chapel till the member sat down. There was no lemon to which he would not add a little acid. Fraternal labor with the malcontent seemed to be of no use, and at length he was let severely alone. If there is any nuisance greater than such an
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affrontable man, it is the man who has a supreme knack at misunderstanding coupled with a persistent inability to accept explanations. Dr. Chalmers relates ' that a Pro- fessor at St. Andrews said to his students, “Gentlemen, there are just two things that never change. These are the fixed stars and the Scotch lairds." There is also a third small class. Among the hundreds in our fellow- ship there was one, and never but one such. His coun- tenance was a mirror to the disposition. As he went out from the store of an acquaintance a customer re- marked, " That face is a libel on Christianity."
A city church is liable to the incursion of ecclesias- tical Bedouin, men wandering about and attaching them- selves nowhere. Among the transient there was a some- what pretentious family, who came from a remote part of the country. The father and husband was reported to be a judge. Our Sunday School needed a superintendent, and the inquiry went round, is not Judge Blank the man ? All of a sudden the family were missing. No one knew where they had gone. It became evident that the man was indeed a judge of good living at the expense of others, for livery-stable men, marketmen and grocers found that heavy bills remained unpaid.
This leads to a notice of one form of a pastor's ex- tra-parochial experience. The better informed impostors seem to understand that ministers are particularly fair game. Professional training is usually conducted under
1 Life of Dr. Thomas Guthrie, I, 54.
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circumstances not suited to make them acquainted per- sonally with the ways of unprincipled men. Their very position seems to invite the wiles of accomplished knav- ery. One of the more common types is the footsore pedestrian, who professes to have been robbed or to have lost his portemonnaie, and desires to reach a given place as soon as possible. He has been summoned on account of the sickness of a mother, or perhaps a brother is at the point of death. The fare is only a dollar or two and will be returned promptly by mail. Not less than nine such have applied under a variety of pleas, often upon the alleged recommendation of Mr. So-and-So, who spoke of my great kindness and readiness to help the unfortu- nate. Particularly well do I remember a smooth-faced, precocious rogue, who called of a morning and asked for aid to get to Kenyon College, Ohio. He produced a forged letter of commendation over the name of a pro- fessor in Union College, stating that this was a "young man of great promise, indeed a genius." He evidently was a genius on one line. The evening paper of that day reported him as in the hands of the police for obtaining goods under false pretenses.
Undeserving beggars when baffled would sometimes pour out vials of wrathful reproach on the ministry. A female who came in, fawning and flattering unsuccessfully, left an odor of brandy that lasted longer than her free lecture to me on Christian charity. Then there was the tribe of aristocratic peddlers. A gentleman particularly
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well-dressed was announced as Mr. Harris in the parlor. Thinking it might be Dr. Harris of England, I left a sen- tence of my sermon unfinished and on reaching the par- lor received a hearty shake of the hand. " Dr. Thompson, can't I sell you a few cigars? I have extra fine Havanas which I myself brought from Cuba. I supply the clergy almost exclusively. Dr. Putnam took a quantity and thought you might like to buy." I had understood that Rev. Dr. Putnam did not smoke. Besides never having had but one cigar in my mouth, and that for only two minutes in boyhood, I was not prepared to invest. The distinguished gentleman retired. At another time a card was sent up. A man portly and dignified enough for an alderman, cane in hand, stated that he called in behalf of his wealthy friend, Mr. Robinson of Brooklyn, New York. Mr. Robinson, a retired merchant, was about removing to Boston or vicinity, and having a family of children, would locate where the best schools were found. I was able to make very satisfactory representations regarding our schools, public and private. The gentleman thought his friend, Mr. Robinson, would undoubtedly locate here, and would of course attend the Eliot Church. Thanks were courteously expressed. On rising to retire, " By the way, I have called at the wholesale stationery establishments with a superior article of gold pens. I have only one box remaining. I always discount largely to ministers. I am just returning to New York, and if you would like this, you can have it for five dollars." I happened to be sup-
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plied and did not care to buy even in consideration of a rich prospective parishioner. It afterwards appeared, from similar calls on our pastors, that Mr. Robinson was ready to join nearly all the Boston churches. Such are a few specimens of numerous peculiar classes of men and women who resort to their wits for a livelihood and who prey upon the clergy. The circumstances give little opportu- nity for attempts to do them good.
The wandering troubadour is a nuisance still, as some- times in the thirteenth century. There comes to mind a peripatetic poet - he called himself a poet - who in- sisted on reading a Christmas poem more than fifty years ago. I tried to excuse myself from the pleasure of listen- ing to his performances, being in the midst of urgent pul- pit preparations, but to no purpose. Sit he would, and with provoking deliberation read foolscap page after page, spoiling the greater part of a forenoon. Not one line of genuine poetry did he get off; and all the compliments he got were before the rehearsal.
But there is another class that occasion pain. It is no unusual thing for strangers laboring under some hallu- cination to present themselves. As often as once in six months for two or more years a man from out of town called on me, whose morbid conscience allowed him no rest and to whom plain common-sense suggestions brought no abiding relief. In other cases it might be a chimerical scheme for securing wealth, or for remedying a public abuse. Some fantastic notion would soon reveal a marred
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intellect, and there are gradations from a simple in- firmity of judgment down to the farthest stretch of absurd- ity. Reasoning with them was of no avail; kindness will not cure. The disordered visionary is a candidate for the lunatic asylum; but it is no part of a minister's business to pronounce upon cerebral disease. His sympathies, how- ever, will be painfully stirred. Letters came to me, from which the following are extracts: " God has set me up as a perfect moral example in all respects to all men on earth "; " Note every word I say as coming from God himself "; " As a true ambassador of Christ, and by the grace and wisdom of God, I declare to all men that dam- nation rests upon every soul that gives money to the poor, or to the missionary, however he professes the name of Christ, or gives money to the Bible cause."
At one period there was a wanderer who would go into the prayer-meetings of our Roxbury churches, seldom more than twice in immediate succession. He was weak, ignorant, conceited and fanatical, claiming to have direct communication from God and also power to work miracles. If ever ranged, he was then undoubtedly deranged. As soon as opportunity offered, he would rise and either talk or pray indefinitely and incoherently. Two of our devo- tional gatherings had thus been spoiled. Upon his third appearance I took occasion to occupy the entire hour my- self, and the pitiable rover never put in an appearance again.
There are two classes of vagrants, neither of which
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can be suspected of insanity or idiocy, that will bear pretty careful scrutiny, the boastfully philanthropic and the volubly pious. Specimens of each present them- selves not infrequently. The case of some church or in- stitution - it may be at the extreme south or on mission- ary ground - for which personal sacrifices are alleged to have been made, will be pleaded. Perhaps a mortgage is about to be foreclosed. Adequate vouchers are wanting, or if produced, suggest forgery. Thirty years ago a man, announcing himself as the Rev. Mr. - , solicited funds in this neighborhood in aid of an orphan asylum for chil- dren of loyal citizens at Osceola, Alabama, if I remember rightly. Upon inquiry, it appeared that no such man was known there, nor any such institution; that of the three trustees whose names he gave, two died ten years before, while the other had never been heard of. Some years later a richly-dressed woman, hailing from Savannah, Georgia, drove to my door in a handsome carriage. She was importuning for funds to buy herself a house, under the plea that she befriended Union prisoners at Ander- sonville.
An individual professing to belong to a church, a Congregational church in a neighboring state, called a second time, after an interval of two or more years, with the same story about his prayers and his Christian hope- fulness. He seemed to have forgotten that he had ever been to my house before. I wrote to the pastor of the distant church and promptly received the following reply :
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"There was formerly a man connected with our church by the name of He was dropped from our roll for non-attendance and general neglect of covenant obligations. I think he is a thriftless fellow."
It is better to be imposed upon occasionally than to have one's kind feelings and habit of helping the needy absolutely checked; but caution is as much a duty as beneficence. The presumption is not always in favor of roving mendicants. That generation, ingenious and bold, seems not to be dying out.
CHAPTER VIII.
CHURCH FUNCTIONS.
I. Sacramental Services.
HALLOWED as are these seasons, and deeply as they are enjoyed on alternate months through the year, not a great deal need be said of them. The sacred supper is too profoundly yet plainly significant to be much talked about. For adoration and gratitude there will indeed be endless scope. No other event, from creation to the final conflagration, can compare with the death of Christ. That was something more and other than martyrdom, something else than an event in the natural course of things, a result of mere development. It was specially designed by infinite wisdom; it was the provision of in- finite love, indispensable to the salvation of sinners. Christ came "to save that which was lost; " and " With- out shedding of blood is no remission." The bleat of sacrificial innocence had for thousands of years prefig- ured this offering of the Lamb of God. No mortal ear before or since ever caught so weighty an utterance as "It is finished." Atonement was then accomplished. The most blameless being on earth was the greatest suf- ferer earth ever saw, and not one pang was deserved by him. All was for guilty men. By his own free choice the scourging fell on him instead of us. Here is the
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crowning miracle of all duration; here the basis of for- giveness; here the heart of the Gospel. Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, he put himself in the place of sinners. Christ's body was broken, his "precious blood " " shed for the remission of sins."
The only alternative now is pardon and life eternal through Christ, or else sinners unforgiven and unsanctified; it is Calvary or the other side of the impassable gulf. " He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." So saith the faithful and true Witness. If I believe him I must believe on him. We have "Peace through the blood of his cross " alone. The rending of rocks was not so wonderful as the broken heart of the crucified thief and the assurance to him of salvation that very day. The cry "I thirst," signified there need be no vain cry for a drop of water to cool the tongue of any one "tormented in this flame."
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