USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of the Old South church (Third church) Boston, 1669-1884, Vol. II > Part 44
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William Jenks was born November 25, 1778, and graduated at Harvard College in 1797. For several years he was pastor of the Congregational Church in Bath, Maine, and then re-
1 Perhaps Lydia (Lathrop), wife of Aaron Porter Cleveland, who died May
29, 1818, aged twenty-five. His first wife, Abigail, sister of Deacon Josiah Salisbury, his partner in business, died July 17, 1814. Mr. Cleveland and his brother Charles were sons of the Rev. Aaron Cleveland, and great uncles of Grover Cleveland, president of the United States from 1885 to 1889. The Rev. Aaron Cleveland, whose mother was a daughter of the Rev. Aaron Porter, of
Medford, wrote some humorous lines, beginning : -
Four kinds of blood flow in my veins, And govern, each in turn, my brains, From Cleveland, Porter, Sewall, Waters, I had my blood distinct in quarters.
2 [See Daily Advertiser, August 7, August 12, 1818. On Sunday, July 4, 1819, four hundred persons were present at the seamen's services. - Col. Centinel.
Mr. Jenks was chosen chaplain of the House of Representatives, May, 1819.]
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ORDINATION OF MISSIONARIES.
ceived a call to settle at Portsmouth, as the successor of Dr. Buckminster, and, at the same time, an invitation to Bowdoin College, to take the professorship of Oriental and English liter- ature. He accepted the latter. In 1818 he moved to Boston, and opened a private school. His labors in the interest of the seamen of the port were carried on under the auspices of the Society for the Moral and Religious Instruction of the Poor. He was afterward, for twenty-five years, pastor of the Green Street Church, whose meeting-house, in 1847, came into the possession of the Church of the Advent.1
At a meeting of the Old South Church Lord's Day October 25 1818 a letter was communicated from the Prudential Committee of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions requesting the assistance of the Church by its pastor and one delegate at the Ordination of Messrs Pliny Fisk, Levi Spaulding, Miron Winslow, and one or two others as the case may be, at Salem Wednesday 4. November 1818.
Voted to comply with the request, and Deacon J. Salisbury was chosen to attend with the Pastor on the occasion.
JOSHUA HUNTINGTON Pastor.
The ordination of the missionaries named above, and of Mr. Henry Woodward, took place at the Tabernacle Church, Salem. Professor Stuart preached the sermon, Professor Porter offered the consecrating prayer, Dr. Worcester gave the charge, and Mr. Huntington, the right hand of fellowship.2 The Rev. Alfred Finney, who had been ordained previously, and who was under appointment to a mission among the Chickasaw Indians, received the charge and the right hand of fellowship with his brethren.3
1 In the latter part of his life Dr. Jenks worshipped at the Old South, and occupied a seat in the capacious pulpit. His venerable appearance- white hair, benignant face, and scholarly bearing - as he sat there, with his ear-trumpet opening towards the preacher, is vividly remembered by the writer. He fre- quently assisted in the devotional exer- cises.
2 The Prudential Committee at this time had no policy of its own apart from, much less in opposition to, the churches, whose servant it knew itself to be. At the meeting of the American Board at Springfield in 1887, some of the officials presented a lengthened report in which
they attempted to show that it would be utterly impracticable to do now in a few " difficult cases " what in the earlier years of the board was done in all cases. The members of the committee were selected until recently with reference rather to their business qualifications than their doctrinal preferences; and, everything else being satisfactory, they would no more have thought of overruling the judgment of a council or a presbytery in its approbation of a clerical candidate, than of casting aside a diploma of the Harvard Medical School presented by a candidate for a medical appointment.
3 Mr. Spaulding, Mr. Winslow, Mr. Woodward, and Dr. John Scudder, sailed
of d 0
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HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
"At the close of the exercises, the Lord's Supper was adminis- tered to a great number of communicants, who had convened on the occasion from many churches."
In a letter dated December 20, 1818, Mrs. Huntington men- tions that two missionaries (Mr. Fisk and Mr. Parsons) were expecting to sail in the spring, on a visit of exploration to Pales- tine, to ascertain what encouragement existed for the establish- ment of a mission station in Jerusalem, and she adds : -
All the information we receive respecting the Jews, both in Asia and in Europe, seems to indicate, most clearly, that the present is a time in which they are expecting something remarkable, in a political and religious view, to be done for their nation. Nothing seems to give such a spring to missionary exertion, as an increased attention to the Jews, for we know that their ingathering will be as life from the dead to the Gentiles. Park Street Church and ours have agreed to unite in the observance of the Monthly Concert of Prayer, and at each Concert to take up a collection for the support of one of these Missionaries to Jerusalem. Both churches have also determined, severally, to educate at least one young man for the ministry, agreeably to the plan pro- posed in the pamphlet, entitled "The Claims of Six Hundred Millions of Heathen."
Lord's day Decr 20th. after divine service P. M. a proposal was made by the pastor, that the Church should, by the voluntary contri- bution of the members, defray the expense of educating one or more young men of promising talents and piety for the Gospel Ministry. After some deliberation, it was
Voted, that the subject be referred to a Committee, who should report at some future meeting of the Church. The Pastor and Dea- cons, with brother Elisha Ticknor, were chosen for this purpose.
The Committee met at the Parsonage, the Friday following, decided that the object was important ; and voted, that it should be recom- mended on the ensuing Sabbath, to the attention of the Church, and also, that the Society should be requested to furnish or make a grant for the same purpose from their funds, should the Church see fit.
Lord's day Decr 27th, the Church staid after divine service P. M. when the report of the Committee was communicated by the Pastor. Whereupon it was
Voted, that the report be accepted. And the Pastor and Deacons were chosen a Committee to open a subscription, receive contributions
from Boston for Calcutta, in the brig Indus, Captain Wills, of Newburyport, June 8, 1819. In the Centinel, May 29, there is an earnest appeal for donations
to the missionaries, signed "James." See the Panoplist for an account of an interesting revival of religion on the voy- age from Boston to Bengal.
-
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AN ADDRESS ON MISSIONS.
from the members of the Church and Society, and select one or more suitable objects for the charity. JOSHUA HUNTINGTON Pastor.
The first day of the new year, 1819, was devoted to the anni- versary exercises of the Boston Foreign Mission Society. A business meeting was held in the forenoon, in the hall of the Massachusetts Bank, at which the following officers were chosen : president, his honor, William Phillips ; vice-president, Deacon Josiah Salisbury, in place of his father, the late Deacon Samuel Salisbury ; secretary, the Rev. Mr. Huntington ; treasurer, Mr. Jeremiah Evarts ; auditor, Mr. Charles Cleveland. In the after- noon, a public meeting was held in Concert Hall ; and in the evening, a sermon was preached at the Old South, by the Rev. Mr. Gile, of Milton.1 It had been advertised that at the after- noon meeting seats would be provided for ladies ; and that this was something quite new, we infer from a remark made by one of the speakers, congratulating the ladies on their being present. Addresses were made by Mr. Evarts, and the Rev. Messrs. Jenks, Huntington, and Dwight. From Mr. Huntington's ad- dress, we make the following extract : -
I will not believe that those who are erecting hospitals for the sick and the insane ; who are supporting by their annual contribution, alms- houses for the poor, and asylums for the orphan, would have no bowels of compassion for the helpless infant sacrificed by its parents to Gunga ; or suspended in a basket from the limb of a tree, to perish with hunger, and be devoured by birds of prey ; - or for the aged decrepid father, abandoned by his children to perish miserably by famine ;- or for the widowed mother, hurried by the violence of her own son into the funeral pile of her deceased husband ; - or for the deluded victims, who are annually crushed to death under the wheels of the modern Moloch.
Much less can I suppose that those who prize their Bibles, their Sabbaths, their hopes of immortality, could see (without emotion, and without at least the attempt to save them,) these thousands hurrying their passage to the bar of God, unwashed, unjustified, unsanctified ; - to the bar of Him, who hath said, "The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God;" and who hath solemnly pronounced idolaters, of every description, without excuse.
Let me not be misunderstood. I do not say, that the guilt of those who die in heathen lands is commensurate with that of those who perish from under the gospel. Guilt, other things being equal, is in
1 After the sermon, a collection was anniversary of 1820, but before the year taken up, amounting to $208. Mr. Hunt- came round, he had passed into a higher ington was appointed preacher for the
and wider sphere of being and of service.
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HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
proportion to light resisted, and means abused. I do not say that the heathen are answerable for unbelief, -the rejection of a Savior of whom they have never heard. "God is not an hard master." But I do say; and I say it on the authority of eternal truth, and of un- questionable facts, that they are destitute, the great body of them at least, of that " Holiness without which no man can see the Lord," - that they are enslaved to passions, and polluted with sins, which utterly disqualify them for that world, into which there shall in no wise enter anything that defileth ; - that they have no meetness for the society, the employments, or the pleasures of heaven ; and that, therefore, they are excluded, not less by necessity, the very nature of things, than by the decision of Jehovah himself, from that holy place.
Thus situated, they call upon us ; - 'tis the language not of their lips ; for alas ! they know not what they do, or whither they are going ; 'tis the language of their miseries and their sufferings, - to come over and help them ; - to impart to them the blessings of that gospel, which is "good tidings of great joy unto all people." 1
Mr. Huntington evidently believed in the doctrine of the ir- revocable doom of the heathen who die without a knowledge of the gospel, and he had the courage of his convictions. He did not shrink from the logical results of his belief, or endeavor to find a method of salvation for heathen souls by "some other way " than Christ and his atoning work.
Lord's day Jany 9th [? 10th] 1819, the Church staid after Divine service P. M. when a letter was communicated from "a company of Believers," requesting the assistance of the Old South Church by its Pastor and one Delegate, in their organization as a Church, and in the Installation of their Pastor, the Revd. James Sabine, late of St Johns, Newfoundland - Whereupon it was
Voted, that the request be complied with ; and that brother William Homes attend with the Pastor on the occasion.
JOSHUA HUNTINGTON Pastor O. S. Chh.
This congregation had been worshipping at the south end of the town, in Boylston Hall. The recognition of the church, and the installation of Mr. Sabine as its minister, took place on Wednesday, January 27. President Allen, of Dartmouth Col- lege, Dr. Worcester and Mr. Jenks offered prayer ; Mr. Codman preached the sermon; Dr. Morse gave the charge, and Mr. Dwight the right hand of fellowship. Land on which to build a meeting-house was bought a few months later in " Rowe's Pas- ture," now the corner of Essex and Chauncy streets ; and the
1 [This speech is given at length in the Panoplist for February, 1819.]
.
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ESSEX STREET CHURCH.
corner-stone was laid on Wednesday, June 23, with an address by Mr. Codman, and prayer by Mr. Huntington. This was probably Mr. Huntington's last appearance in public, outside his own pulpit.
Mr. Sabine came from England to Newfoundland in 1816. After the fires in the autumn of 1817, which impoverished many of the business men of the island, he removed to Boston, under the patronage, if not at the instance, of Mr. Nathan Parker, and Mr. James Melledge, who had been in business at St. John's, and members of his church there, but were now living here. He arrived at midsummer, 1818, and soon after began to hold ser- vices regularly in Boylston Hall, with the encouragement of the ministers and members of the Old South, Park Street, and some churches in the vicinity. Mr. Parker and Mr. Melledge were chosen deacons of the new church. The former was a wealthy man, and advanced large sums of money for the purchase of the land and the erection of the meeting-house, so that when the latter was completed the society was heavily in debt to him. Mr. Sabine and several of the members of the church became dissatisfied with the financial policy upon which he insisted for his own protection, and this, as will appear shortly, led to pain- ful divisions, and to the withdrawal from the society of the pastor and a majority of the church.
Mrs. Huntington wrote, March 14, 1819 :-
With respect to educating a Heathen child, we have long had a quarterly collection, the avails of which have been appropriated to this object. We originally intended that it should be devoted to the sup- port of a female in India ; but in consequence of the difficulty of ob- taining such subjects of this character there, we recently determined to devote it to the education of a female of the Cherokee nation of Indians. We hope the time is not far distant, when the degraded women of the East will be so far emancipated from their present abject condition, as to be suffered, with their fathers and brethren, to stretch out their hands, and lift up their voices, in supplication for the blessings of the Gospel." 1
Boston March 23. 1819.
At a Meeting of the Brethren of Church and Congregation being pew proprietors, as notified by the Rev. Mr. Huntington, from the Desk, (by desire of the Standing Committee,) March 21. 1819.
A Remonstrance was presented by Thomas Vose against the legality of said Meeting's proceeding on the business for which they were
1 [ Memoir of Mrs. Huntington, pp. 190, 191.]
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HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
notified, signed by fifteen persons said to be members of the Church, four of whom are Pew Owners.1 After considering thereof it was agreed it should be committed to the following Gentlemen as a Com- mittee, Josiah Salisbury, Benjamin Whitman, Thomas Vose, Samuel Davis and Francis Welch, they to report at some future meeting.
The Meeting being called to consider of a Recommendation of the Standing Committee respecting the purchasing an Estate of Mrs. Driscoll which is adjoining the Vestry in Spring Lane,2 motion made and seconded, it was
Voted, That the Deacons, Hon. William Phillips, Josiah Salisbury and Edward Phillips, be a Committee to purchase the same, and they are requested and directed so to do, if it can be obtained for $3000, which sum they are not to exceed.
Hon. William Phillips was chosen Moderator.
True Copy
JNO. WINSLOW Clk.
Boston, April 1. 1819
At a Meeting of the Brethren of the Church and Congregation being pew proprietors, as notified by the Rev. Mr. Huntington from the Desk this day [Fast Day], Hon. William Phillips was chosen Mod- erator.
John Winslow was chosen Clerk of said Society for the year.
The Committee chosen in April last year, to take the direction and care of all the Temporal Concerns of the Society, request leave as the time for which they were chosen has expired, to make Report of their doings while in Office.
They have expended in various repairs on the Meeting House, Par- sonage House and Stores, Three hundred, ninety four Dollars, Eighty one Cents, have also expended nearly four Hundred Dollars, in sup- port of the Singing - this Sum includes the Expences of a School, in which has been employed a Master of first rate talents and respecta- bility. The Committee invited all the members of the Society, who wished to be instructed in sacred musick, to attend said School, up- wards of One Hundred young Gentlemen and Ladies availed them- selves of the Opportunity. Their progress may be judged of, as they have filled the singing seats, and taken the lead, for the last three months, in that part of public worship. And the last summer they [the Committee] made a grant of two Hundred Dollars to our Revd. Pastor, for the purpose of enabling him to travel for the improvement of his health. They have let all the Gallery Pews and collected the Taxes thereon, amounting to $398.48, which sum has been paid to
1 [We have not found this paper, but 2 [Mrs. Driscoll, as we suppose, was the widow of John Driscoll "lemon dealer," 17 Dock Square, house in Spring Lane.]
we suppose that the grounds of the remonstrance were the same as those of the remonstrance of November 26, 1806.]
419
THE OLD SOUTH CHARITY SCHOOL.
your Deacon [sic], they have also let the easterly parsonage house, for one year, for $750. and the Cellars under the Meeting House for $230. - the Stores were let on lease of five years which will not expire until the year 1821. The Committee have great satisfaction in being able to say that the rents have been regularly paid, all which is re- spectfully submitted.
p. Order FRANCIS WELCH Clk to sd Committee.
The Sub Committee appointed to inquire into the present state of the Old South Charity School, so called, have attended to the duty assigned to them and ask leave to make the following Report.
Your Committee have waited on some of the Managers of this School, and find from conversation with them, many interesting par- ticulars relating to it; they have received a Statement in writing on the Subject ; from these sources the following facts may be stated. - That this School has existed for nearly five Years, by the exertion of Ladies, exclusively of our Society, that during this period One Hun- dred and three Children have entered, most of them at the time ignorant of the Alphabet, that fifty four of these have been fitted for the Town schools, that seven have gone into families, two have died, and thirty four remain at school.
The Committee will pass over the first four years, and confine their statement of the expences of the School for the present year, ending in May next, the funds which have been at the disposal of the Man- agers. The expences consist in the hire of a Room, in the support of a Mistress and for fuel, the whole amounting to the sum of $250. The yearly subscription, which are the only funds that can be con- sidered in any way permanent, amount to one hundred, ninety three Dollars, leaving a deficiency of $57. A Meeting of the Ladies was called previous to the end of the third quarter, to determine whether they would make further efforts for the support of the School, or give it up for the remainder of the year. They preferred the former course, and have since obtained donations to cover a part of the above men- tioned deficiency. The Committee would here observe, that these children are taken from a class of people, who usually employ them in begging from House to House, and it has been only by personal appli- cation to the Parents of these Children that [they] have been induced to permit them to attend the Schools. The Ladies have also been under the Necessity of furnishing them with Clothes to appear in, but in this part of their Charitable labour they have been assisted by the Fragment Society. To afford some Assistance to the Ladies in their laudable endeavours to give instruction to some of the most necessi- tous of the rising generation, your Committee would propose that this Board should recommend to the Society at their next meeting, to pass the following Vote - That this Society make a Gift of One Hundred Dollars to the Managers or Directors of the Old South Charity School
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HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
so called, which has been supported for the Five Years last past by a number of Ladies of this Society, in order to afford them some assist- ance in their praiseworthy and Charitable work, and that the Treasurer be requested to pay the same forthwith to Mrs. Mary Mason the President of the Association.
DAVID W. CHILD & FRANCIS WELCH Committee.1
The foregoing reports having been read, it was moved and seconded, they be accepted.
Voted, To accept the reports, and that the Treasurer be directed and requested to pay over to the president One Hundred Dollars, for the use and benefit of said School.
Voted, We now proceed to the choice of a Standing Committee for the Year, to manage the Temporal Concerns of the Society, and that Mr. Hunting, Mr. Lane and Mr. Mclellan be a Committee to receive count and sort the Votes - who reported the following Gentle- men to be chosen, Vizt. Hon. William Phillips, William Homes, Samuel Coverly, Benjamin Whitman, Edward Phillips, David W Child, [A.] P. Cleveland, Pliny Cutler, John Winslow, Abraham Wild, Francis Welch and Samuel Davis.
The Committee chosen at our last meeting, 23 March, to attend to a remonstrance, reported they had one meeting, but had not agreed, and they were to meet again on said business.
Voted, said Committee be allowed further time.
Voted, That John Winslow, David W. Child, Samuel Coverly, Josiah Salisbury and James Pickins, be a Committee to examine the Treasurer's Accounts, and that they report as soon as may be. 39 members present at the meeting.
Motion made and seconded that this meeting be dissolved, and it was dissolved accordingly.
True Copy JOHN WINSLOW.
April 4th after divine service P. M. a letter was communicated to the Church from the Church and Society in Hollis Street, requesting the assistance of the Old South Church, by its Pastor and Delegates, at the ordination of Mr. John Pierpont, on the 14th inst. Some objec- tions having been made to a compliance with the request, chiefly on the ground of the difficulty which was anticipated in obtaining satis- faction with regard to the sentiments of the candidate, and so, of acting understandingly on so important an occasion, a Committee was appointed to take the subject into consideration, and report to the Church the next Sabbath.
J. HUNTINGTON Pastor.
April 11th. The Church met after Divine service, when the Com- mittee appointed the preceding Sabbath, consisting of the Pastor,
1 [Mr. Child and Mr. Welch were directors in the State Bank at this time.]
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MR. PIERPONT'S ORDINATION.
Deacon Phillips senr. Deacon Salisbury, and brothers Ticknor, Homes and Whitman, reported by a majority of one, in favor of complying with the invitation from Hollis Street. After considerable debate, it was Voted, not to accept the report ; and that the Pastor be desir'd to communicate the result to the Church and Society in Hollis Street.
J. HUNTINGTON Pastor of O. S. Chh.1
1 [Mr. Aaron H. Bean has kindly copied for us the following extract from the Hollis Street Church Book of "Church Meetings and Doings," pp. 279-281 : ---
1819. Sunday April 18th. The breth- ren were stayed after divine service in the evening; when Deacon West, the Chairman of the Committee, consisting of the three deacons appointed to " con- fer with Mr. Pierpont and agree on the Churches to compose the Council for his ordination, and to sign the letters mis- sive for that purpose," stated to the Church that twenty one Churches had been invited to attend by their pastors and delegates, and compose the ordain- ing Council : that of these twenty one Churches, twenty were represented in the Council : that the remaining one, viz. the Old South Church under the pastoral care of the Revd Joshua Hunt- ington, had not appeared either by pas- tor or delegates : but that, previous to the Ordination, the Committee had re- ceived a letter from the said pastor, stat- ing the determination of his Church to decline the invitation contained in the letter missive. The letter missive was then read, as was also the reply of the Revd Mr. Huntington. In that reply no reasons were assigned why the invitation to unite with the ordaining Council was not accepted. And lest it might thence, at some future period, be inferred that the refusal, on the part of the Old South Church to unite with the Church in Hol- lis Street on this occasion, must have been occasioned by some unchristian ex- pression, or offensive allusion in the letters missive, or by some invidious dis- tinction between the letter addressed to the Old South Church and to the other churches invited, (all which letters were of uniform tenor,) Voted that the Pastor
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