USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of the First church in Boston, 1630-1880 > Part 23
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We note a transition from ancient to modern usage in the issue of special cards of invitation to the ceremony of ordination. Instead of a general participation in that observance, as was the custom when Church and State were blended, the growth of population and increase in the number of churches of other denominations had combined to diminish its glory as a public occasion, and to give to the ceremony more of the nature of an assembly of those who were in special sympathy with it.
1 Corporation Records, Vol. I. 16.
1815-49.]
NATHANIEL L. FROTHINGHAM. 251
THE COMMITTEE of the FIRST CHURCH AND SOCI. ETY in Boston request the favour of your company at the
ORDINATION
OF
MR. N. L. FROTHINGHAM, ON WEDNESDAY, the 15th inst.
The Services will commence at 11 o'clock, A. M. After the Solemnities of the Day, your company is requested, to dine with the COMMITTEE, at CONCERT-HALL.
JAMES MORRILL. WILLIAM SMITH,S
Committee .
Boston, March 6, 1815.
ADMIT
To the dinner provided for the REV. COM. GREGATIONAL CLERGY, at Concert Hall, on THURSDAY, 1st June.
JAMES MORRILL, BENJAMIN WELD, Committee THOMAS K. JONES.
Dinner on 'Table at 2 o'clock.
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FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON. [1815-49.
LIFE OF FROTHINGHAM.
Nathaniel Langdon, son of Ebenezer and Joanna (Langdon) Frothingham, was born in Boston, July 23, 1793. In early boyhood he showed scholarly tastes and unusual intellectual promise. He. en- tered the Boston Public Latin School in 1803 with Edward Everett, Charles P. Curtis, William T. Andrews, and Edward Reynolds. After pursu- ing the regular course at that institution in a highly creditable manner he was admitted to Harvard Col- lege in 1807 at the age of fourteen. His college life is thus described by his classmate and friend, Rev. Dr. Allen, of Northborough : -
" Dr. Frothingham was one of my most intimate friends in college, and our intimacy and friendship lasted through life. He was one of the younger members of the class; and although from the first a diligent student and a good scholar, it was not, I think, till his third year that he gained a high rank among his fellow-students. But at the close of his college course he was surpassed by very few; and as a reward of distinguished merit an English Oration - out of the usual course - was assigned him for Com- mencement. He was an elegant classical scholar, a fine writer in prose and verse; and in elocution he was sur- passed by none of his classmates, not excepting Ed- ward Everett. He was a great favorite - almost a pet -of Dr. McKean, the Professor of Rhetoric, who seemed to regard him as a model orator. Through his college life he maintained an irreproachable character, and was highly esteemed by his classmates, who, without jealousy or envy, watched his progress, and were proud of his fame."
N. L. Frothingham.
+ 1 /
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1815-49.] NATHANIEL L. FROTHINGHAM.
After graduating in 1811, and serving as usher in the Boston Latin School until May, 1812, he ac- cepted the appointment of preceptor of rhetoric and oratory at Harvard, an office for which his fine tastes and large acquirements in that department eminently fitted him, although then only nineteen years of age. His duties in this capacity were not exacting, and did not interfere with the pursuit of those studies which were to fit him for a more devoted calling. He received the degree of A. M. in course in 1814, and his connection with the College ceased with the call to First Church in 1815.
The first entries on his " Ministerial Record " are as follows : -
" Jan. 23, 1815. By an unanimous vote of the mem- bers of First Church of Christ, in Boston, I was invited to become their pastor.
" Jan. 26. By an unanimous vote of the Brethren of the First Church and Congregation I was chosen for their pastor.
"Feb. 12. My answer accepting the charge, to which the preceding votes had called me, was read by the Rev. Mr. Lowell to the First Church and Congregation.
" Eleven weeks elapsed between my invitation to preach at Chauncy Place and my call to settle there. During this time I supplied the desk and preached in that church six- teen discourses. In the interval between my invitation and my ordination I supplied the pulpit by exchange."
In 1818 Dr. Frothingham married Ann Gorham Brooks, sister of the late Peter C. Brooks, who, like
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FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON. [ISI5-49).
his distinguished father of the same name, was a lifelong and honored member of First Church. His wife was also a sister of Mrs. Edward Everett and Mrs. Charles Francis Adams, the latter of whom is the sole survivor of her generation. After a long and singularly devoted ministry, relieved in the ear- lier part by a year of foreign travel, Dr. Frothing- ham, finding his bodily strength would no longer bear the strain, made a second visit to Europe in 1849. On his return the same year, with health still much impaired, he found it necessary to re- sign his charge. Though relieved of all ministe- rial responsibility, his connection with the society as a parishioner was never severed. His friendly advice was sought and given on all occasions, though he took part in the public services of the church in only one instance. The present minister thus re- calls this memorable occasion : --
"Sunday morning, on the 22d of June, 1862, Dr. Froth- ingham came once more into his old pulpit, to the great satisfaction of his former parishioners. I Cor. vii. 29, 30, 31, supplied the text. . Time and Eternity' was the sub- ject. We measure life, in the body and out of the body, by what we do and bear, by what we endeavor and suffer and enjoy. 'I see no clock,' he said, 'in that Divine House' The sermon was exquisitely tender, the language such as fell, according to my experience, from no other lips, - for, as I have often had occasion to say, there were words and phrases of this preacher and talker that have perished with him; to use one of the old ecclesiastical phrases, as there was a 'Use of Sarum' or of ' Canter- bury,' so there was a ' Use of the Minister of First Church
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1815-49.] NATHANIEL L. FROTHINGHAM.
from 1814 to 1850" which was characteristic and peculiar. Dr. Frothingham by this time was almost blind; and his sermon was not read, though it was written upon paper, - a transcript, I suppose, of what had already been written upon the inner tablets; just as he would fasten the stanza of a German hymn in his mind, and carry it with him in his morning walk with his faithful companion, sure to bring it back in musical English verse. Dr. Frothingham, wonderful talker as he was, and rich in resources of learn- ing and thought and imagination, would not trust himself to extemporaneous preaching. He once told me that he ' always dreaded to face an audience ;' and he could not add to his discomfort the dread of falling into some cru- dity or slovenliness of speech, which, however, would have been least likely to have befallen him of all men. If he could have been persuaded to have burned his ships be- hind him, and put out to sea, I am sure that his preaching would have gained in popularity without losing any of its intrinsic value. It was over fine, sometimes, for daily use, and he was hindered by the manuscript behind which he tried to shelter himself. Many persons who have read his sermons since they heard them have been surprised to find how much they missed while they only listened. The sermon of which I am writing was all the more effective because the preacher was compelled, by his poor vision, to preach it. The minister's rare taste appeared, as during the years of his pastorate, in the hymns and the music. The sermon was repeated on the two Sundays following, first at West Church, and then at King's Chapel. Dr. Frothingham was all these years as faithful a parishioner as he had been minister; and, as all know, in this world of diversities of men's judgments, and changes in ways and means, it is not easy to pass gracefully from the pul- pit to the pews, and resign your work to less skilled hands. Until disease had put his mind beyond his reach and con- trol he had a wonderful faculty of keeping his own coun-
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[1815-49.
sel when he was unable, as he often must have been, to assent and sympathize. What he was to the minister during his earlier years in the neighborhood of street and city, and afterwards while this destined successor was at best a boy preacher, that he continued to be when, largely under his auspices and at his suggestion, he was called from Northampton to undertake the charge of the old church at a time of denominational transition and even controversy between new and old, and right wing and left wing. Although the new house of worship was for the old minister too much a 'cathedral,' and too little a 'meeting-house,' he was none the less ready to con- tribute a beautiful hymn for the service of .laying the corner-stone.
"His last appearance in the pulpit was at the impromptu meeting in Hollis Street Church on the day of the assas- sination of President Lincoln. His remarkable prayer on that occasion will never be forgotten by those who heard it. Beautiful, fitting, and appropriate in itself, his blindness gave added pathos to his heartfelt devotion."
After his retirement from public life Dr. Froth- ingham devoted himself to literary tasks, producing at this late period some of his most finished per- formances. In 1852 he sent to press a volume en- titled "Sermons in the Order of a Twelvemonth," "containing some of the best of his professional discourses, all of which breathe a lofty strain of Christian thought and sentiment," and are beauti- fied by that singular grace of diction so character- istic of his writings. In 1855 appeared a volume of his poems under the title of " Metrical Pieces," which, in spite of their modest designation, places the author on the higher level of American poets.
£
257
1315-49.] NATHANIEL L. FROTHINGHAM.
In the spring of 1859, accompanied by his family, he made a third and final visit to Europe, returning, after an absence of a year and a half, in November, 1860. He had scarcely reached home when his eyesight, never perfect, began seriously to fail ; and marked "symptoms of glaucoma," which had afflicted other members of his family, seemed to fore- bode an entire loss of vision. This unhappy condi- tion was realized four years later, following close upon a sad bereavement which deprived him of his dearly cherished wife. The effect of a painful oper- ation on his eyes, performed in the summer of 1864, instead of enlarging his feeble vision, as was hoped, hastened on the pending gloom, and finally left him for the last six years of his life in utter darkness.
But five at least of these "darkened years " were not devoid of intellectual vision. With the help of one who well performed the varied offices of secretary, friend, and nurse, he continued his labors, arranging his papers; dictating - poems, translating German hymns, and composing material for a second volume of " Metrical Pieces," which, however, did not go through the press until the workman had become incapable of all interest in the work. His declin- ing years were cheered and lightened by "troops of friends." Nothing was wanting which might help to relieve the burdens of old age. He en- joyed "the sound of familiar voices when familiar faces beamed on him in vain," and conversed "with unimpaired faculty and zest until nearly the last
17
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FIRST CHURCHI IN BOSTON. [1815-49.
year of his life." "In my frequent visits to him," writes Dr. Allen, "in the 'evil days' which came upon him after the external world was shut out from his sight, I always found him bright and cheerful, fond of recalling the scenes of our college life and the memory of departed classmates and friends, and thankful for the blessings that still remained." The same writer, alluding to "a prominent trait of Dr. Frothingham's character," says: "I have per- sonal knowledge of his kindness and generosity, for I have been the almoner of his bounty; and I know that some- I believe that many -recall his acts of kindness and bless his memory." The last few months of his life were burdened with a load " which leaned too hardly on his weakened frame, and shut out every prospect but that of the great Beyond." He died on Monday, April 4, 1870. The following extract is taken from an obituary notice by the Rev. T. B. Fox, which appeared in the Boston Transcript on the same day : -
" Rev. Nathaniel Langdon Frothingham, D. D., died at his residence in Newbury Street, Monday morning, at two o'clock, receiving thus a blessed relief from a protracted and painful sickness. Though for several years he has been a sufferer in the seclusion of the sick-chamber, and out of the sight of all but a few friends and those who ministered to him with unwearied, filial devotion, he has not been out of the minds and the hearts of the many who highly esteemed and greatly loved him; and sincere sor- row will be mingled with the feeling that his departure was ordered in mercy.
19.] NATHANIEL L. FROTHINGIIAM. 259
Quietly devoted to his professional duties, Dr. Froth- im's life was uneventful, for it was the life of the stu- and the man of letters. His learning was various and sate; and he was honored for his acquirements, as as for the high order of his intellectual gifts. In so- converse he was the coveted teacher and companion ir best thinkers and scholars. His interest and delight crary pursuits continued unabated when others, suffer- rom infirmities and pains like. his, would have aban- 'd their books and pens, and felt that even to listen to ing 'was a luxury to be given up. Whilst sickness ved him to work, he was never idie.
Dr. Frothingham published several volumes of prose poetry ; and to the Christian Examiner, the North erican Review, and several other periodicals, he fre- ntly contributed articles of rare excellence, both as to r substance and their form. Ilis style was singularly e and rich, showing a finish and correctness in eloquent agraphs and exquisite sentences quite unrivalled. Ilis ction and fastidiousness as a critic of the writings of ers were severely applied to his own productions; and ce the polish, crudition, solid brilliancy, lofty sentiment, thoughtfulness, which have put them among the best cimens of American literature.
Of Dr. Frothingham as a man it is hardly necessary to ak, in this community, to those of his own day and ieration, or to those younger than himself, whose privi- e it was to meet him and enjoy intercourse with him. urteous, genial, hospitable, liberal in his conservatism, holic in his judgments, free from all petty envies and lousies, without ostentation, and scorning loud or mere ofessions, there was about him a winning charm that ide his presence and his speech ever welcome to all."
The following resolutions were adopted as an ex- ession of the general feeling of sorrow and sym-
لا
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FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON. [1815-49.
pathy called forth among his old parishioners by his decease : -
Inasmuch as it has pleased Almighty God to take to himself, after an unusually protracted season of privation and extreme bodily suffering, their late beloved Pastor, Rev Nathaniel Langdon Frothingham, the Standing Com- mittee of the First Church, feeling most desirous of putting on record an expression of their loving sense of his in- estimable worth, and of their tender sympathy with him during the years of suffering in which he has been with- drawn from personal communion with most of them, do hereby
Resolve, That in the decease of Dr. Frothingham the Christian church in Boston has lost an able, carnest, and eloquent disciple.
Resolved, That as his immediate associates we deplore his loss as of an eminently social and genial companion, a kindly sympathetic friend and Christian teacher, but re- joice to find consolation in his own beautiful words, -
" He's gone before, where pain is past, Nor danger threats, nor grief corrodes ; And joy is full, and treasures last, In those immortal . many abodes.' "
Resolved, That during the long hours of irremediable pain and mysterious trial which have clouded the last years of our departed friend, the hearts of the congregation have been constantly turned in tender sympathy towards him, only too conscious of their inability to offer him any other alleviation.
Resolved, That by the decease of Dr. Frothingham the literary world has been deprived of "a scholar, and a ripe and good one, exceeding wise, fair spoken, and per- suading," and a sacred poet, whose melodies will long preserve his memory among men.
1
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IS15-49] NATHANIEL L. FROTHINGHAM.
Resolved, That we will attend the funeral services in honor of our departed friend at the First Church this afternoon.
Resolved, That these Resolutions be placed on the Rec- ords of the First Church, and that a copy be transmitted to the family of the deceased, with the assurances of our most affectionate sympathy in this hour of their great bereavement.
Signed, N. THAYER, S. L. ABBOT, T. SARGENT,
Committee.
In a letter, dated April 3, 1870, and read. from the pulpit to the church and congregation on the Sunday before his departure for Europe, the present pastor thus refers to the recent death of Dr. Frothingham : -
" I had written so far, and had reached, as I supposed, the end; but presently the word came to me that one, for more than thirty years your minister, after a long and ex- ceedingly trying illness, had laid down the burden of age and infirmity and passed into the Light. Let me grate- fully bear my testimony to many offices of love, my expe- riences of his genial and affectionate nature, from. the time of my earliest manhood to the years when the pastor became a parishioner, upon whose loyalty in word and work I could always confidently rely. Many to whom he ministered in this congregation have passed on before him, but there are those who fondly recall his long day of service, and rejoice for him that years which had become labor and sorrow are ended. Taught beyond most in his chosen profession, he was a lover of all good learning, ancient and modern; a man of a reverent and trustful spirit, seeking the things which make for peace, not using the words, that came so apt from his lips, for criticism, but rather to discharge the debt of love."
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FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON. [1815-49.
Funeral services were held in First Church on the following Wednesday (April 6). Selections from the Scriptures were read by Dr. Gannett; and Dr. George E. Ellis offered the prayer in the' ab- sence of the pastor, who was prevented by illness from attending the services. Dr. Hedge, the me- morialist of Dr. Frothingham, also delivered a funeral address. He was buried in Burlington, Mass.
The Journal of the Massachusetts Historical So- . ciety (1869-70), of which Dr. Frothingham was a member, contains tributes to his memory by the president, the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, and by the Rev. Dr. Walker.
In allusion to his pastoral labors Dr. Hedge says, in his memoir of Dr. Frothingham : -
" Of his success in this connection there are many wit- nesses. He attached to himself a strong and united parish, to which he ministered long enough to see one generation of worshippers pass and another take their place; long enough to teach the children of those whom as children he had taught and baptized. His 'congregation at the First Church,' says one of the notices that followed his death, 'included a large number of scholars and writers, among whom were Edward Everett, William II. Prescott, George Bancroft, Joseph T. Buckingham, Henry T. Tuck- erman, Charles Francis Adams, and Charles Sprague.'"
In his funeral sermon Dr. Hedge, referring to the same subject, says : -
"To the duties of that [pastoral] office he gave the strength and marrow of his life, suffering no literary avo- cation - though a lover of letters .-. to divert his thoughts
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1815-49.] NATHANIEL L. FROTHINGHAM.
or disengage his affections from the work of the ministry, -subordinating all other tastes and pursuits to that su- preme call."
" As a preacher," Dr. Hedge continues in the same dis- course, " he could hardly be said to be popular. Exces- sive refinement, want of rapport with the common mind, precluded those homely applications of practical truth which take the multitude. Nor did he feel sufficient inter- est in doctrinal theology to satisfy those who craved sys- tematic instruction in that line. His reputation, therefore, was less extended than intense. The circle of his admirers was small; but those who composed it listened to him with enthusiastic delight. When, occasionally, he preached to us students at the University from the pulpit of the col- lege chapel, there was no one, I think, to whom we listened with attention more profound, and, for myself I can say, with richer intellectual profit. The poetic beauty of his thought, the pointed aptness of his illustrations, the truthi and sweetness of the sentiment, the singular and sometimes quaint selectness, with nothing inflated or declamatory in it, of the language, won my heart, and made him my favorite among the preachers of that day. I will not mis- praise him when dead, whom, living, I could not flatter. I am well aware, and was even then aware, that the preach- ing of our friend did not satisfy the class of minds to which Channing, in his way, and Walker and Ware and Lowell so ably ministered in theirs; but preaching has other legitimate and important functions besides those of unfolding the philosophy of religion, or stimulating the moral sense. There are 'differences of gifts,' and there are 'diversities of operations;' but the same spirit goes with all earnest effort in the service of truth, and is justified in all."
His memorialist then alludes to what he justly esteems a most excellent work of Dr. Frothing-
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[1815-49.
ham. As coming from one so abundantly able to testify, the opinion, which is here quoted, has pecul- iar weight. He says : -
" One service Dr. Frothingham has rendered to the Church and the cause of religion, in which he is unsur- passed by any preacher of his connection, - perhaps I may say by any American preacher of his time. I speak of his hymns, which will live, I believe, - I am sure they deserve to live, - as long as any hymns in our collection. His musical tact, his intimate knowledge of the exigencies of vocalism, combining with his poetic faculty, have added, in those hymns of his, to devout aspiration and pure relig- ious sentiment, the perfection of melody."
" As a scholar," says Dr. Hedge, " he had in his profes- sion no superior, scarcely a rival. A learned theologian. familiar with the Latin and Greek classics, well versed in the modern languages and their literatures, - in richness and extent of intellectual culture he stood pre-eminent among his brethren."
Few professional men have attained to such ex- quisite finish in their style of composition as Dr. Frothingham brought to all, even the most trifling subjects. He had a rare faculty of shaping his thoughts so as to "express with unerring fitness the thing most fit to be expressed." In his own poetical productions, as well as in translations from German authors, this exquisite taste is displayed to the best advantage. " His best thoughts took on a poetical form, and could vent themselves in no other way." "His versions from other tongues, and especially from the rich stores of German song, are acknowl- edged by competent judges to be the most success-
1815-49.] NATHANIEL L. FROTHINGHAM. 265
ful attempts in that kind." His original productions are, many of them, " such as the best esteemed poet in the land might be proud to own." 1"
The late beloved minister of this church began his duties at a time of intense religious excitement. On all sides the forces were, preparing for that struggle which ended in the partition of the Con- gregational body. The time to hold back from a dread of disturbing the peace of the churches had gone. by.
" Non sunt orandi ista sed litigandi tempora."
Chauncy and Mayhew had prepared the way in a former century, but now the dawn of a new era saw young men taking up the calling of preachers with added enthusiasm and distinctively practical aims. Who can say what the result "might have been " had Buckminster, of Brattle Street Church, and Thatcher, of New South Church, lived to increase and expend their rich abundance! But both were cut off in early manhood. Buckminster died in 1812, when only twenty-eight years old, and Thatcher, his friend and memorialist, in 1818 at thirty-two.
Others were soon found, however, more ready and eager to advance the liberal cause. There had
1 Dr. Frothingham left a large family of children, of which Octavius Brooks Frothingham, the distinguished preacher, lately of New York, and Miss Ellen Frothingham, an accomplished translator of German poetry, are members. The memoir, which has been so freely made use of in this ac- count, may be found in Mass. Hist. Soc. Procced., 1869-70, 371.
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