USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of the First church in Boston, 1630-1880 > Part 24
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been frequent collisions on former occasions, but the year 1815 marks the time when the struggle was first fairly defined. Eloquent preachers and vigorous writers then engaged in open opposition to the old dogmas of Orthodoxy; the stricter portion of the Congregational body marshalled all its forces to repel the attack, and the controversy was fully opened. The special causes which brought about this result need not here be mentioned. The issue involved a departure from what the stricter party defined as the traditional faith of the fathers. To the broader party, on the other hand, which now became known under the distinctive name of Unita- rian, the movement was simply a revival of the car- lier theology as opposed to implicit adherence to the old dogmas of Calvinism.
By far the larger part of the Congregational churches in this neighborhood were in sympathy with the less rigid doctrines. Of those in the Bos- ton of that day all save one, and that by no means a strong exception, were of the same mind. The same is true of many of the " first " churches in adjoining and distant towns. In these cases ministers, church members, and parishioners all yielded to the same influence. But in places where unanimity was not the rule, as in country parishes which, unlike Bos- ton and some of the larger towns, had not been supplied with liberal . preachers, divisions and law- suits were by no means uncommon in connection with the settlement of a new minister. Societies
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were formed, not as in Boston, from new material, but out of the disaffected portions of the old.
In his twentieth anniversary sermon, preached to First Church, March 15, 1835, Dr. Frothingham briefly alludes to the " Unitarian Controversy." He shows that while First Church strongly sympathized with all that was put forward on the liberal side, they did not see fit to take an active part in the struggle. To use his own words, " We remained almost at rest in that earthquake of schism. If we were sometimes affected by the agitating topics of the time, it was not often. Our words have been of brotherly love and mutual consideration. We si- lently assumed the ground, or rather found ourselves standing upon it, that there was no warrant in the Scriptures for the idea of a threefold personality in the divine nature ; or for that of atonement, accord- ing to the popular understanding of that word; or for that of man's total corruption and inability; or for that of an eternity- of woe adjudged as the punish- ment of earthly offences; or indeed for any of the peculiar articles in that scheme of faith which went under the name of the Genevan reformer. We have worshipped only One, the Father. We have recog- nized the authority of Jesus Christ as a divine mes- senger. We have maintained the accountability of man, and a righteous retribution, and a life beyond this. But in all these points we were adopting rather practical principles, and a ground of edifying, than tenets to be discussed. We have never pre-
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tended to understand all mysteries, nor to solve every question that a vain curiosity might propose. We have not sought to penetrate to what is beyond us; but have been content to leave many things in that sacred obscurity in which they are left by the written Word. And even upon subjects within the range of reasonable inquiry we have not favored a controversial tone. We have made more account of the religious sentiment than of theological opinions."
The sermon then proceeds to discuss the "prac- tice of the Church," especially in regard to topics of general interest in the community, and those move- ments which will at intervals arise and assume a transient importance. "Has this practice," says the writer, "a stranger might inquire, been in any de- gree peculiar? It has, and steadily peculiar. We have been singularly conservative in our customs; mistrustful of innovations, jealous of our liberty, fond of peace, refusing to be influenced by any gustiness of the times. We have loved to dwell within ourselves, and disliked to implicate our con- cerns with those of other churches, or with any associations of men. We have supposed that the exclusive objects of our association were to worship our Maker according to our consciences, and to maintain the sacred decency of Christian order. We have therefore been unwilling to mix up these objects with plans of a different, however important nature. We have been unwilling to take the stand
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of missionaries or propagandists in any shape. We have been unwilling to form ourselves into a Bible society, or a temperance, or an education, or a benevolent society ; or to appear as anything else than what we are, - a church of Christ, an assembly for social worship."
The new organ which was ordered to be made in England some time before, at last arrived in the ship Restitution, June 16, 1816; was received at the vestry the 19th, and was first used for public worship the 30th. The first committee on music had been chosen just a year before.
The years pass by without special interest.
In 1819 the church allowed a way to be made for foot passengers from Pond Street to Summer Street, through Chauncy Place.
The amount of real estate held by the church at this time is shown by the " First Financial Report " which appears on record. It mentions the brick meeting-house on Chauncy Place, a vacant lot of land adjoining the same, and four brick houses on Summer Street. The annual income derived from this property in 1821 amounted to only $3,746, and the expenditures to $2,682.20, leaving a balance of $1,064.16 to be applied towards the reduction of a debt of $11,870 incurred in the erection of the dwelling-houses.
The land in Chauncy Place, formerly known as the Hollingshead lot, had been in the possession of the church for many years. Title to this large
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property was derived through a deed from Richard and Ann Hollingshead, both making their marks, unto the deacons of First Church (of which they were members), dated the "seventeenth day of De- cember, Annº Dom' One thousand six hundred and eighty, and in the thirty-second yeare of the Reign of King Charles the Second over England." The premises are referred to as " Situate at the southerly end of the Town of Boston." The grantors of the property were aged paupers, and the consideration for the conveyance was that they should continue to be supported by the church for the rest of their lives. There is a tradition that when the church took the property it was doubted whether it would pay for the expense of drawing and recording the deed. When Dr. Chauncy was minister he occupied a parsonage house which stood on the premises, gable end to the street, with a large garden and orchard adjoining. Rev. William Emerson afterwards occu- pied the same estate.
Efforts were made about this time to encourage practice in singing, " in order to bring forward such persons as feel an inclination to succeed our present very excellent choristers, who may from time to time be obliged to leave the seats, and whose gra- tuitous and generous services " are warmly appre- ciated. For this purpose a singing-school was formed, in 1823, under the control of the Standing. Committee. The plan seems to have worked well, for a time at least, to judge by the report of the
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committee ; and shortly after a "scientific singer " was engaged to lead the choristers. In 1826 it was voted to introduce " some gentleman as a constant leader in the singing Loft," and that "the present female singer " have seventy-five dollars a year.
In the summer of 1826 the pastor received leave of absence to spend a year in Europe. During that period he assumed the expense of supplying the pulpit.
The Chauncy Place meeting-house was never quite satisfactory from the first. Extensive repairs and alterations were constantly in progress, the lat- ter for the greater part with a view of obtaining more light. During these intervals the society va- cated their own meeting-house, and accepted the kind invitations of Brattle Street and other churches to unite with them in worship. These favors on the part of sister churches, the record shows, were from time to time acknowledged.
During the ten years ending with 1825 the prog- ress of Unitarianism was very marked. The num- ber of new Unitarian churches in Boston exceeded that of any other denomination, and the support and attendance given them were commensurate with the increase. They attracted the most cultivated people, as well as the most active and prominent members of the various professions. The Amer- ican Unitarian Association was formed in 1825, with its headquarters in Boston. This establish- ment has sustained the various interests of the
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denomination, and has been widely recognized as its proper representative in all relations. It de- rives a moderate income from permanent sources, but depends largely for support on church contribu- tions. First Church has always helped to carry on the work of this association, but has thus far taken no steps to enroll its pastors or any of its con- gregation as members.
In 1826 the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches was formed; originating with Rev. Joseph Tucker- man, minister of Chelsea, the Rev. Henry Ware, of the Second Church, and the Rev. Dr. Gannett, of Federal Street Church. For a quarter of a cen- tury Mr. Tuckerman had "ministered at large " to the poor of Boston. Besides his labors there had been much home missionary work in the same di- rection, but no organized efforts to sustain the cause. Mr. Tuckerman devoted himself with great zeal to the undertaking, and as a result of his labors a per- manent ministry -at large was finally established. The range of membership is confined to the churches in old Boston, leaving out Roxbury and Charlestown, which pursue their own methods. The Fraternity has from that time on maintained several missionaries and four chapels, besides afford- ing aid in similar but more general ways. Although a constant contributor to the treasury of this organi- zation, it is nevertheless believed that there was no formal connection of First Church with the Frater- nity before the year 1853.
1815-49.] NATHANIEL L. FROTHINGHAM. 273
The 'baptismal covenant of the church, commonly called the " Half Way Covenant," was dispensed with by vote of the church, July 6, 1828. Senior Deacon James Morrill alone, " differing widely in opinion from his brethren " in the matter, entered his disapproval on the record. A new pulpit was ordered this year, and on Christmas day the congre- gation of Trinity Church used the meeting-house for services.
In 1829, four years before the famous amendment to the Bill of Rights was passed, the " Proprietors of the First Church in Boston " became a cor- poration. Before the " Religious Freedom Act " of 18II was passed, comparatively few religious socie- ties in Massachusetts had been incorporated. Sev- eral causes combined in that year to bring about numerous acts of incorporation. Before the law was changed dissenting religious societies, as they were called, such as the Baptists, Universalists, and others, suddenly found that they had no standing in court ; and even after it took effect some of them found it expedient to become specially incorporated, in order to make their position more secure as well as convenient. The effect of the new law was to un- dermine the security of the established churches and weaken the ties which bound them together. Any member of a parish was now allowed to leave the Congregational society and seek one of his own choice, provided always he constituted himself an actual member of the new society by contributing
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to its support. But the final blow to the old sys- tem was struck by the amendment to the Bill of Rights in 1834. This change brought about an entire separation between Church and State.
For two centuries public sentiment had favored the support of religion by the State. Every change, however radical, had always recognized this condi- tion. But now the old tie 'is broken, and churches of whatever name and wherever situated must rely upon themselves. The proprietors of First Church became incorporated by reason, apparently, of the refusal of the deacons to sign a deed of the vacant lot of land south of the church, which had already been sold by the Standing Committee. The dea- cons evidently declined to perform this act from a doubt (which has proved to be well grounded) as to the expediency of selling the property, and not because they would claim exclusive authority to make a deed. Not a little feeling betrayed itself on both sides; and the refusal was afterwards with- drawn at a meeting specially called by the deacons.
In addition to a weekly salary of twenty-five dol- lars, the pastor was furnished for some time with the parish dwelling-house on Summer Street and twenty-five cords of wood annually. `The supply of fuel was kept up until the year 1829, when the sum of one hundred and twenty-five dollars was substi- tuted in its place.
The two hundredth anniversary of the church was simply yet adequately commemorated by a sermon
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from Dr. Frothingham, preached Sunday, Aug. 29, 1830, and is now in print.1
The Sunday school is first mentioned at a com- mittee meeting, Aug. 13, 1828, when it was " Voted, That, if application be made for the Vestry, to be used for a Sunday school, the disposal thereof be left with the Minister and Deacons." From a report, which was written five years later by Dr. Frothingham, it appears that the Chauncy Sun- day School, as it was called, originated in a set-off from the Franklin Sunday School. The directors of the latter institution, finding that they could not accommodate all their scholars in one place, were allowed to use the vestry of First Church. The children of the society were invited to attend the school, and several of the ladies also were in- duced to teach. At the date of this report two thirds of the scholars and one half of the teachers belonged to the society. The school was supported by First Church, the chief item of the very trifling expense necessary to maintain it being for the sup- ply of books (a multiplication of which, says Dr. Frothingham, is deemed to be absolutely hurtful). During one year the entire charges of this institu- tion amounted to only thirteen dollars. The school, however, had done a good work, and the committee recommended that it be continued hereafter under the exclusive control and protection of the First
1 The Commemoration by First Church of the two hundred and fiftieth Anniversary, etc., 70.
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Church, at an annual expense of not over twenty -. five dollars.
Deacon James Morrill died April 3, 1833, at the age of eighty-two. He was a member of the church for fifty-four years, one of its officers for forty-three years, and presided at annual meetings for twenty years in succession. "He was devoted to the inter- ests of the society, and to the religion which he professed." The Sunday after he died, Dr. Froth- ingham preached his funeral sermon, an extract from which appears on the record.
About this time that type of philosophy known as " Transcendentalism " caused much discussion in this neighborhood. Ralph Waldo Emerson was held to have dissolved his connection with the min- istry, not from want of religious faith or fervor, but because the prescribed forms did not adequately " express his intuitions of spiritual truth." Rev. George Ripley, who continued to preach for sev- eral years longer, has been called the recognized " expounder and champion of the new theology, which may, perhaps, be best characterized as hyper- spiritualism." Professor Andrews Norton led the opposition. So far as this controversy, which was quite as much philosophical as'religious, concerned the churches, it dealt more with the evidences for the genuineness, authenticity, and authority of the New Testament writings than with the doctrines which they inculcate. This movement was to be recog- nized within and beyond the denomination, and has,
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undoubtedly, issued in decper and broader religion and in truer conceptions of the difference between the forms of truth and truth itself, as well as the fundamental distinction between faiths and the facts which sustain and illustrate them.
After 1838 fuel disappears entirely as a separate item to be taken into consideration in reckoning the amount of the minister's salary. It was deemed inexpedient in that year to sustain the Sunday school as then organized. But in the following year it was reopened on a new basis, and reported to be in a flourishing condition, with a membership of fifty scholars. A request to be allowed to use the meeting-house for an evening lecture on temperance could not be granted at this time from a lack of sufficient facilities for properly lighting the building.
The Fast Day afternoon service was abandoned in 1840. In 1841 Theodore Parker preached an ordi- nation sermon at South Boston, which opened a controversy of grave importance. The substance of his opinions consisted in a denial of the mirac- ulous element in the New Testament, while Christ was looked upon as a great moral and spiritual leader, without any attribute of the Godhead. His It
expositions were received with deep concern. was suggested by some that he should be asked to withdraw from the Boston Association, of which he was a member ; but he never was so approached. When, however, in regular order his turn came to preach at Thursday Lecture, the minister of First
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Church, in the exercise of that prerogative which, handed down from old John Cotton, gave him the right to select the minister, thought fit to make some other arrangement. His connection with the denomination and the ministry was never formally severed, and he was enabled to keep up a very limited intercourse with one and another of the body by pulpit exchanges. His preach- ing soon brought him from West Roxbury to Boston, and attracted large and interested gather- ings, which grew into a fixed congregation. He was admitted on all sides to be a man of fervent picty and deep devotion to the public good and morals. The effects of his broad Christianity are seen to-day in the liberalizing tendency common to the churches of every denomination in and around Boston, even to those of the straiter sects.
" First Church and its minister," writes the pres- ent pastor, "were much engaged to express their strong dissent from Mr. Parker's teachings, much, as was understood, to Mr. Parker's surprise, for he was scarcely able to see how one whose studies and even conclusions seemed to tend so much in the direction which he had so earnestly chosen could be pained and offended by his utterances. He failed to see that the ideas which the Christian story symbolized were of far more significance to Dr. Frothingham than any history, and that whether with or without sufficient reason he drew a broad, deep line between the preacher and the theolo-
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gian, and might even prefer to rest in illusions rather than join those who held illusions, however instructive and helpful, to be all one with delusions. , Perhaps his conflict was largely only with Mr. Par- ker's spirit and method; but it was sincere in its way, and emphasized in more than one sermon. Moreover, much which in Mr. Parker's understand- ing of Christianity had reached the stage of absolute denial was, to Dr. Frothingham, only a difficulty, a question, a matter to be considered, and not a part of his Gospel message to the great multitude. Mr. Parker was understood to. deny the miraculous ele- ment of Christianity, and, while he recognized in Jesus a transcendent religious inspiration and moral elevation, to withhold assent to the persuasions of the Christian world as to his intellectual infallibility, and to his absolute moral perfection. He held very strongly to a kind of natural supernatural- ism, and greatly prized the providential work of Jesus, while his own faith in God and providence and immortality was very. strong and deep and practical. He maintained that he was a Christian in the sense in which Jesus was a Christian, though he also taught that the words of the Saviour as they have been handed down to us bear the impress and color of his land and age, and are not without their limitations."
A collection of hymns, called the " Christian Psalter," prepared by Dr. William P. Lunt, of Quincy, was introduced in the services of the church
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on the second Sunday of February, 1842, in place of Dr. Belknap's " Psalms and Hymns."
During the year 1842 the proprietors made an in- quiry as to the funds held for the church as a body of communicants by the deacons. The reply shows that there were such funds, and that they were held for pious and charitable uses, and were not regarded as in any way subject to the supervision of the pro- prietors ; and no further action was taken in the premises. An account of these funds is annually given by the deacons to the communicant members.
The Chauncy Place meeting-house was remodelled in 1843. The alterations which were then made amounted almost to a reconstruction of the whole interior. The only stipulation was that the pillars which supported the galleries should not be dis- turbed. The ceiling of the church was set with sections of richly ornamented glass of varied hues, surmounted by what is now called a monitor roof, letting in the light at the sides. This plan, how- ever, did not issue satisfactorily, and the side win- dows, which had been walled up, were reopened underneath the galleries. When the work was com- pleted the Rev. Mr. Stetson, of Medford, a clerical brother and friend of Dr. Frothingham, on taking a view of the interior in company with the pastor, remarked, in his wonted humor, "Well, Brother Frothingham, so you have undertaken to raise Christians under glass!" The entrances to the church were altered, and the pulpit set back into
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a recess in the wall, and subsequently connected with the vestry by spiral stairs. The entire cost of all these changes, and others which were found necessary, in order to make the result more sat- isfactory, came to nearly twelve thousand dollars. Even after these improvements, the effect produced by the peculiar arrangement for admitting light could not be called brilliant ; and in addition to this drawback the ventilation was complained of, though perhaps without reason. With these exceptions, if such they were, the new plan of the interior was as pleasing and satisfactory as the plain style of archi- tecture in those days would allow.
During the interval which elapsed between the second Sunday in June and the fourth Sunday in November, 1843, when the alterations were com- pleted and they returned to their own meeting-house, the society availed themselves of a kind invitation to attend services in King's Chapel, which were con- ducted by Dr. Frothingham, in place of Dr. Green- wood, who was out of health. On their return the old organ was replaced by a new one, which was paid for by subscriptions and the proceeds arising from the sale of the former instrument.
At the annual meeting in 1844 the minister re- ferred to the case of several persons who attended the communion service and yet had never signed the church covenant, as showing the difficulty of decid- ing who should be called church members. The sen- timent of the brethren present was that such persons
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should make good their connection by signing the proper articles. The pastor was at the same time allowed "to receive the names of all those who were previously members of other churches, using only his own discretion, and without any other formality than that of announcing to the church the names so added." At the same meeting a new covenant, drawn up by the minister to conform more nearly to the original one (now in use), was presented and accepted.
At this period the fund for the society's poor, known as the " Charity Fund," was found to be greatly in excess of the amount needed to supply the beneficiaries, and some difficulty arose as to the proper disposal of the surplus, in order to avoid accu- mulation, which was agreed to be undesirable. The suggestion was offered, and favorably received, that a portion might be applied to the relief of certain per- sons who were not classed strictly among " the poor" of the society. Even this additional object did not entirely exhaust the yearly balance, which continued to increase until the enlarged form of Sunday school, going into effect nine or ten years later, provided a satisfactory remedy for the perplexity. During the remainder of this decade the meetings of the propri- etors were chiefly occupied with matters of business. The congregation gradually disposed of all the real estate on Summer Street, and, after paying off the debt and current expenses, invested the balance as a permanent fund. The result was a much improved condition of the financial affairs of the society.
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