USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of the Old South church (Third church) Boston, 1669-1884, Vol. II > Part 31
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283
THE NEW CHANDELIER.
The Mendon Association, of which Dr. Emmons was the most distinguished member, refused to have anything to do with the measure, for quite another reason. Its position was : " Associa- tionism leads to Consociationism ; Consociationism leads to Presbyterianism ; Presbyterianism leads to Episcopacy ; Epis- copacy leads to Roman Catholicism ; and Roman Catholicism is an ultimate fact."
"As was predicted by the liberal party," adds Dr. Clark, " (and probably expected by the other), the consummation of this measure was the beginning of a separation between the Con- gregational ministers of Massachusetts, founded on doctrinal differences which had long before existed, and which afterwards by degrees widened into complete non-intercourse. The sub- sequent history of the General Association discloses many acts of great moment in their relation to Christ's kingdom, though the danger early pointed out of treading upon ecclesiastical ground has not been avoided in all their proceedings. Not always have the fundamental principles of Congregationalism been kept in mind when business, more pertinent to churches than ministers, has come up in these clerical meetings." 1
The chandelier given by Mrs. John Sweetser, in behalf of her late husband, was put in position in November, 1802.
A large and elegant glass Chandelier is suspended in the centre of the Old South Meeting-House. It is a present from the late John Sweetser Esq. to the Society.
Tomorrow evening [December 5] a Quarterly Charity Lecture will be given at the Old South Meeting-House ; when the elegant Chande- lier lately hung therein will be lighted.2
Sabbath Day [May 1803]
A letter was communicated from the Church in Federal Street, de- siring the presence and assistance of this Church by its officers and such other members as it might chuse to appoint, at the Ordination of the Rev: W. E. Channing on the as Successor of the Rev: J.
Popkin dismissed.
1 Hist. Sketch of the Cong. Chhs. in Mass., pp. 237-241.
2 [Boston Weekly Magazine, November 13, December 4, 1802.
Mary Fleet says in her diary under date of November 6, 1802, that the cost of the chandelier was $800.
When the society disposed of the old
meeting-house, it reserved the chandelier, with other objects of special interest ; but, at the request of the present pro- prietors of the building, about two years ago, it entrusted it to their care to be hung in its old place. On the 23d of December, 1887, it fell to the floor with a crash, and was broken to pieces.]
284
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
The Pastor and Deacons, The Hon. Thomas Dawes Jun. and Mr. Jeremiah Bumstead were chosen to attend on the occasion.1
JOSEPH ECKLEY.
William Ellery Channing was a son of William Channing, a graduate of the College of New Jersey, and was born in New- port, Rhode Island, April 7, 1780. After graduating at Har- vard College, in 1798, he returned to his home in Newport, and pursued his theological studies there for a year and a half. At this time, he saw much of the Rev. Dr. Hopkins, " and received deep impressions from the influence of his character and doc- trines." His father's family belonged to the Second Congre- gational Church; but after Dr. Stiles, its minister, was called to Yale College, they attended for a time at the First Church, of which Dr. Hopkins was pastor. Speaking of this good man in after years, Mr. Channing said : "I need not be ashamed to confess the deep impression which his system made on my youthful mind. I am grateful to this stern teacher for turning my thoughts and heart to the claims and majesty of impartial universal benevolence." 2
In 1800 Mr. Channing resumed his residence in Cambridge, having received an appointment in the university, and continued his studies under the supervision of President Willard and Pro- fessor Tappan. His exceptional power was recognized, and the Brattle Street congregation would gladly have settled him as colleague pastor, and, after Dr. Thacher's lamented death in 1802, as his successor. He gave the preference, however, to a call from Federal Street. His ordination took place June I, 1803. The sermon was preached by Dr. Tappan ; prayer was offered by Dr. Holmes and Dr. Osgood ; the charge was given by the Rev. Henry Channing, of New London ; and the right hand of fellowship by a classmate, Mr. Tuckerman, of Chelsea.3
1 [Mr. Popkin was afterward professor of Greek and Greek literature in Har- vard College. He became an Episco- palian.]
2 Memoir of W. E. Channing, vol. i. pp. 136, 142.
3 Mr. George Ticknor, who went to this ordination with his father, Deacon Ticknor, then of Hollis Street Church, afterward of the Old South, has left an account of the impression made upon him as a boy, by Mr. Channing's appear- ance and manner : "The pale, spiritual looking young man, whose consecration
I had witnessed without really under- standing its purport, rose and announced the closing hymn. My attention was immediately fastened on him ; and par- ticularly on his visible emotion, when he came to the last stanza : -
"' My tongue repeats her vows, Peace to this sacred house ! For there my friends and kindred dwell; And since my glorious God Makes thee his blest abode, My soul shall ever love thee well.'
"His looks, the tones of his trembling voice, and the devout air with which he
285
DEATH OF SAMUEL ADAMS.
The young preacher -he had just entered upon his twenty- fourth year - at once drew to himself hearers from the other congregations in the town, and, among them, several from the Old South.1 Some of these returned in later years ; but one, Jonathan Phillips, became his life-long parishioner and very intimate friend. Mr. Phillips, son of Deacon Phillips the younger, joined the Old South December 14, 1800. He had been in college three years with Mr. Channing, but his health had not allowed him to graduate. His name first appears as a pew proprietor at Federal Street in 1805 ; he was a member of the building committee in 1809, and, afterward, a deacon.2 Another member of the class of 1798, Josiah Salisbury, son of Deacon Salisbury and brother-in-law of Jonathan Phillips, who transferred his attendance to the ministry of Mr. Channing, re- turned to the Old South, and, in 1817, was elected deacon, just a year before his father died.3
The tolling of all the church bells early in the morning of Sunday, October 2, 1803, announced to the people of Boston that Samuel Adams was no more.4 He was in his eighty- second year. His strength had been failing during the summer ; he was seen occasionally, walking in front of his house, but his steps were slow and feeble. He was perfectly conscious of his approaching dissolution, and he enjoined upon his family that there should be no parade or ostentation at his funeral. He was buried on the following Thursday, in the Granary burying- ground. The bells were tolled while the procession was in motion ; the shops were closed in the streets through which it passed ; the ships in the harbor wore their flags at half-mast, and minute guns were fired by the artillery companies and at Fort Independence. The Independent Chronicle, with its col- umns in mourning, speaking of Mr. Adams's death, said :-
repeated rather than read these lines, are still present to me whenever the scene comes up in my thoughts." - Me- moir of W. E. Channing, vol. i. pp. 171, 172.
1 On the other hand, Robert Wier came to the Old South from Federal Street, July 29, 1804. He was one of the "Proprietors' Committee" to give the call to Mr. Belknap in 1787.
2 For a memoir of Jonathan Phillips, see Memorial Biographies, vol. iv. of the N. E. Hist. Gen. Society.
3 Rebecca, daughter of Samuel Salis- bury, and first wife of Jonathan Phillips, joined the Old South, April 8, 1792, with her sisters Martha (Mrs. Stephen Hig- ginson) and Elizabeth (Mrs. John Lever- ett). It does not appear that Mrs. Phil- lips ever removed her membership to Federal Street Church. She died March 13, 1828.
4 It was noted with interest by the friends of Mr. Adams, that his birth, baptism, and death, took place on the Lord's day.
286
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
The foe of tyrants in every form ; the friend of virtue and her friends, he died beloved, as he had lived respected. Admiring pos- terity, penetrated by a just sense of his transcendent merits, will emphatically hail him as the undeviating friend of civil and religious liberty, and the Father of the American Revolution.
The Rev. Thomas Thacher, of Dedham (son of Oxenbridge Thacher, the younger,1 and brother of the Rev. Peter Thacher, of Brattle Street Church), preached a funeral sermon on the Sunday following, from the text : "A good name is better than precious ointment." We quote one paragraph : -
While we are employed in reviewing other laudable and distin- guished traits in the character of this great man, it would be highly blameable to omit his reverence for the Supreme Being, his belief in Divine revelation, and his attention to every religious duty. His mind was early imbued with piety, as well as cultivated by science. But his religion was rational ; it was free from bigotry as from ostentation. It was known by its best effects, i. e. a life free from vice, and pro- ductive both of benevolent affections and undeviating morality. As he supposed the institutions of religion and its practical precepts pro- duced this effect ; so no one was more uniformly steady than he in cultivating the practice of them. Accordingly, his family can attest the constancy of his morning and evening devotion, - the temple of the Most High God, his reverence for the Christian Sabbath, and the altar of Jesus Christ, his compliance with every ritual derived from the authority of Heaven. If he preferred the mode of divine worship in which he was born and educated to other religious institutions of an- tiquity, or to other forms in which Christianity has appeared, it was not from the prejudices of education, or mere mechanical habit ; but because he conceived our churches, when confined to their original design, were excellent schools of morality ; that they were adapted to promote the future happiness of mankind ; and because by experience he had known them a powerful auxiliary in defending the civil as well as religious privileges of America. In this mode of thinking he was instituted. The purity of his life witnessed the sincerity of his pro- fession, and with the same faith he expired. The last printed produc- tion of which he was the author has given unquestionable proofs of his belief in, and respect for, our holy religion.
The production to which Mr. Thacher referred - the last writing of Samuel Adams of which any trace remains - was a letter to Thomas Paine, who returned to America in the autumn
1 Thomas, son of Oxenbridge and Sarah Thacher, was baptized at the South Church, October 31, 1756.
287
MR. ADAMS TO THOMAS PAINE.
of 1802, after an absence of fourteen years in France, and who, it was understood, would use his pen, as he had already done, in attacking the truths of revealed religion. Mr. Adams began his letter by acknowledging the value of Paine's political writ- ings, for which he had esteemed him "as a warm friend to the liberty and lasting welfare of the human race." He con- tinued : -
But when I heard you had turned your mind to a defence of infi- delity, I felt myself much astonished and more grieved, that you had attempted a measure so injurious to the feelings and so repug- nant to the true interest of so great a part of the citizens of the United States. The people of New England, if you will allow me to use a Scripture phrase, are fast returning to their first love. Will you excite among them the spirit of angry controversy at a time when they are hastening to amity and peace? I am told that some of our newspapers have announced your intention to publish an additional pamphlet upon the principles of your Age of Reason. Do you think that your pen, or the pen of any other man, can unchristianize the mass of our citizens, or have you hopes of converting a few of them to assist you in so bad a cause? We ought to think ourselves happy in the enjoyment of opinion, without the danger of persecution by civil or ecclesiastical law. Our friend, the President of the United States [Thomas Jefferson], has been calumniated for his liberal senti- ments by men who have attributed that liberality to a latent design to promote the cause of infidelity. This, and all other slanders, have been made without the least shadow of proof. Neither religion nor liberty can long subsist in the tumult of altercation, and amidst the noise and violence of faction. Felix qui cautus. Adieu.1
Samuel Adams's life furnishes a connecting link between the earlier years of the Old South Church and the present cen- tury. His grandmother, Mary (Thurston), was received into the church by the Rev. Samuel Willard; he was born in the first decade of Dr. Sewall's long ministry, - eight years before the death of Judge Sewall, - and he lived until near the close of Dr. Eckley's. A mural tablet in the Old South now com- memorates the fact of his membership there, as well as the in- estimable value of his public services.2 Many years ago, before
1 [Wells's Life, vol. iii. pp. 372-375, 396, 397.]
2 Appropriate services were held after the erection of the tablet, October 26, 1884, when a very interesting address on Samuel Adams was given by the Rev.
Edward G. Porter, of Lexington. The tablet bears the following from James Sullivan's eulogy in the Independent Chronicle : "To give his history at full length would be to give a history of the American Revolution."
288
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts had sent a statue of him to Washington, or the City of Boston had erected one in its streets, Dr. Manning said, in closing a lecture upon his life and character : " The only fit monument to such a life is that which the friends of freedom are unconsciously building, -a vast temple of republicanism, its base the broad continent, and its dome the bending heavens ; equal laws inscribed all over its living walls, and its worship the multitudinous activities of a just and brave and Christian people."
Sabbath Day 16 October 1803.
At a meeting of the Brethren of the Church, after the public ser- vices of the day -
In consequence of the manifestation of a much greater attention to religion than had been observed for some considerable time preceed- ing, and of the desire of a number of members of the Church, in concurrence with the desire of the Pastor to encourage and improve so hopeful an appearance, it was proposed that a public Lecture should be held in this Church on the Friday Evening of each week through the insuing winter ; at which the Pastor should be requested to officiate, together with such Ministers of the Boston Association, and other clergymen who preached occasionally in this house, as might be inclined to render their assistance in the service proposed.
After much serious conversation on the subject, Voted to postpone the determination on the Question to the next Sabbath afternoon.
JOSEPH ECKLEY.
Sabbath afternoon 23 October 1803.1
The Brethren of the Church met according to adjournment.
The subject introduced at the last meeting was taken into consider- ation. A Vote of concurrence in the proposition was passed by a considerable majority of the members present.
JOSEPH ECKLEY.
Friday had always, we think, been the day on which the lec- ture preparatory to the communion had been preached. The action of the church recorded above we suppose to have been the first step towards the establishment of the regular weekly prayer meeting now held on Friday evening by the Congrega- tional churches in this vicinity.
Dr. Wisner tells us that in the autumn of 1803 there was a revival of religious interest in the two Baptist churches in Bos- ton, and that Dr. Eckley, who had been in the habit of ex-
1 [On this day, October 23, 1803, Henry Martyn was ordained in Ely Cathedral.]
289
DEATH OF WILLIAM PHILLIPS.
changing with Dr. Stillman and Dr. Baldwin, the ministers of these churches, in the lectures preparatory to the communion, attended and assisted in the special services now held by them. " As was natural, . . . to a man at heart devoted to the glory of God and the eternal interests of men, Dr. Eckley was desirous that the blessed influence of the revival should pervade his own congregation. With this view he endeavored to throw more energy and point into his preaching, and increased the frequency and fidelity of his visits among the families of his flock. And he had the happiness to witness some good fruits of these ex- ertions. But all was not yet accomplished, or attempted, which he desired. He was anxious that some of those special means might be employed, whose happy influence he had felt and wit- nessed among his Baptist brethren." 1 With this view, the meet- ing of the 16th of October was called by him, the result of which was the decision to hold a series of special Friday evening services.
On the 15th of January, 1804, William Phillips, the elder, " died in a good old age, full of days, riches and honor." For more than forty years Mr. Phillips had been eminent as a mer- chant, a patriot, and a Christian. During the Revolutionary period he was a member of almost every committee organized by the citizens in town meeting, or by the merchants as a class, in behalf of the popular cause. He was a member of the House of Representatives, both before and after the Revolution. In later years he was senator, councillor, and a member both of the convention for framing the Constitution of Massachusetts and of that for the adoption of the Federal Constitution. But he will be remembered in time to come, less for the high politi- cal positions which he held, less perhaps for the part he took in the Revolutionary struggle, than for his interest in the cause of education, and his benefactions to Phillips Academy, Ando- ver, which was founded by his family. He was in full sympathy with his older brothers Samuel and John, in all their plans for the establishment and endowment of this institution, and for a year or two he was president of the board of trustees, which office each of them had filled in turn. Of his interest in the Old South, which, with his wife Abigail (Bromfield), he joined in 1756, by letter from the church in Brattle Street, and of which he was a deacon for thirty years, these pages abundantly speak. This interest his only son, who bore his name and in-
1 Wisner's History, p. 46.
290
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
herited most of his fortune, had long shared with him, and was to continue to manifest for more than twenty years to come.1
A serious difference of opinion developed itself among the members at this time in reference to the right of the church as such to manage the property which, until very recently, it had regarded and treated as its own, for all purposes of care and control. This right was challenged by the pew proprietors, among whom were the deacons and the most influential mem- bers of the church, and was maintained by a minority who were church members, but perhaps not all of them proprietors of pews. Dr. Eckley sympathized with the latter, and prepared an elaborate statement of the case from their point of view. The first part of this paper, which we omit, consists of citations from the deeds and will of Mrs. Norton, and from the records of the church; the second half we print in full .. As we shall see, the matter remained in controversy until the summer of 1807, when an adjustment was reached, substantially in accord- ance with the claim of the minority.
. The foregoing Votes and other Documents afford the Proof that from the foundation of the Church for upwards of one hundred Years, the Land, Ministerial Houses, and Meeting Houses, have been claimed, managed and used by the Church as its own Property, and so acknowledged by the Congregation, with the exception that the Pews have been considered as the Property of the Purchasers and their Heirs, not however as Estate in fee Simple, or as giving any right to, or Prop- erty in the soil, but for the advantage of enjoying public worship on certain conditions ; which conditions when uncomplied with, they have reverted to the Church. Large sums of Money, on several occa- sions, especially when the Old Meeting House, and the present House of worship were built, were borrowed as well of the members of the Congregation as of the Church. Accounts were kept, with great ex- actness, of the monies thus borrowed ; and the Books, particularly containing these accounts, are now in Keeping. For the sums thus advanced and Borrowed, Pews were usually granted ; still however on certain conditions, as aforesaid, and in Fee, or under the right of the Church.
The Church and Congregation for many years last past, have met and voted together in temporal or pecuniary concerns ; monies con- tributed by the Members of the Congregation as well as the Church, give a right to both, as has been thought, to act together in matters of this nature. See the Church Vote to this effect 5th Augt 1735.
1 For a memoir of William Phillips 1722-1827, see N. E. Hist. and Gen. and William Phillips, father and son, Register for April, 1885.
291
A PAPER BY DR. ECKLEY.
When the Meeting House was repaired, after the destruction by the British Troops, the Church and Congregation voted in regard to the new Deeds of Pews, to use the Certificate or Instrument in use by the Society in Brattle Street.1
This Vote was in the year 1783. Note, the Brattle Street Society is founded professedly in a state of departure from the Cambridge or New England Platform ; which is not the case with the Old South Society. Each of the Deeds referred to (first introduced 22 years ago, and now continued in use) specifies that the assessments on each Pew, shall be passed and ordered by the major part of the Proprietors of the Pews, at regular meetings called for the purpose; and that when the assessments were not paid for a certain time, it should be lawful for the Deacons and Committee of the Church and Congrega- tion to sell the Pew, and the same should be considered as forfeited to the Deacons and Committee for the use of the Proprietors aforesaid. -- (See the whole Instrument or Deed, copied at length in the Book of Records.) By this act, there is at least the appearance of a change in the conditions of the whole property. Societies, even the most re- markable for care and judgment, are sometimes liable to mistakes, especially when there has been no occasion for ages successively, to consult the writings on which the terms for holding an Estate really depend. A question however immediately arises respecting the deed of Pews (introduced in the year 1783) viz : If the right of the Meet- ing House, with the Pews and the Land, prior to the time of this Deed's being Given, was in the Church, is it possible to Conceive this right to be alienated or lost by such an act? Or if the Property as described in the writings of the Donor, was originally given to the Church, and has been held by it for more than an hundred years successively, could even the Church itself transfer the right from the Members succeeding in a regular course, and convey it to another Body ?
It is to be noted that after the repair of the Meeting House A D 1782, the cost of said Repair was put upon the Pews, and each Pew, according to its local situation, was sold for no more than a propor- tionate part of the expence of said repair ; and one of the new Deeds was given with it. The price of the best Pews was $100 each. A question may be asked - With what propriety can a Person purchas- ing a Pew for only the proportionate part of the Repair of a Meeting House, be considered as a Proprietor, not of the Pew only, but also of the House and Land, when the fact is, that the said House and Land, are of vastly Greater value than the Pews? The cost of the Repair
1 [To understand this controversy fully, it is necessary to refer to the action of the church and congregation January I and July 29, 1782, and subsequently,
when the money was to be raised for the restoration of the meeting-house after the siege of Boston. See ante, vol. ii. pp. 213, 216.]
292
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
was certainly in no proportion with the value of the whole Estate. Proprietorship in the Meeting House and Land, cannot therefore be obtained, on any principle of equity, by the purchase of a Pew for the proportionate part of the sum expended in the mere repair of the House. This idea is also confirmed by what takes place in relation to the loss or forfeiture of a Pew. A person, we will say, who owns one of the best Pews, falls in arrears an hundred dollars. The Pew is sold for an hundred dollars, more or less, and he forfeits it. But does this imply the forfeiture of his right in the Meeting House and soil, which are worth so much more ? On the presumed plan, it must be answered, it does : And the idea must be defended on the. ground, Viz. that he purchased this supposed right by a rule which did not reach to it ; that is, for a less sum than it was worth ; therefore by the same rule, he must lose it.
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