USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of the Old South church (Third church) Boston, 1669-1884, Vol. II > Part 55
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In this day of disaster and disruption, when national harmony is disturbed, when the beautiful order of the republic is broken up, and the dearest interests of ourselves and our posterity are in peril, the standing committee of the Old South Society, with the pastors and officers of the church, have deemed it eminently proper for them to unite with their fellow-citizens, in expressions of loyalty to the gov-
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HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
ernment, in its efforts to restore order, peace and justice throughout the land. . . .
Thus true to the memories of the past, and devoted to the country, whose glory must not pass away, the Old South to-day gives our na- tional flag to the breeze, - bearing upon it the motto, True to our Revolutionary principles, - and declares to the world that good men will cheerfully put themselves forward to protect it.
Mr. George Homer presided, Dr. Blagden offered prayer, and Mr. Homer, Mr. Manning, and Dr. Blagden made addresses, speaking from a platform which had been erected by the side of the tower. The addresses of the associate pastors fairly repre- sented the two classes in the society and in the community, which, with equal sincerity and earnestness, united for the sup- port of the government at this crisis: those who looked for- ward to the restoration of "order, peace and justice throughout the land " without disturbing, necessarily, existing institutions, and those who, believing that the peace of the nation had been disturbed and its disruption threatened by the assumptions and encroachments of the slave power, looked forward to the eman- cipation of the slaves as a measure not only demanded by every consideration of right and justice, but as indispensable to the restoration and perpetuity of the national prosperity. In his prayer, Dr. Blagden said : -
Bless thy servant, the president of our Union, and those immedi- ately connected with him in the administration of our government. Be with them in those solemn moments, when the lives and the happi- ness of multitudes may hang on their decisions. Render them firm and energetic in action. We pray that the spirit of the gospel of Christ may prevail in all the acts of the government ; and that thy grace may preserve us a united people, under the constitution through which we have acquired and enjoyed so much.
O Lord, if this question must be settled by the shedding of blood, go with our hosts in action. Yet, if it be thy will, so guide the minds of our erring countrymen, that this issue may be avoided. But, if thou hast otherwise determined, grant that we, who sustain the gov- ernment and the laws of the country, may be united, and be blessed, and be made successful by thee.
To the same effect, Dr. Blagden said in his address : -
We are united in eternal truth : For we meet to sustain just govern- ment. The powers that be are ordained of God. The magistrate beareth not the sword in vain. This truth is mighty and will prevail. The flag we have raised is an emblem of it, and of a free government,
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"THE ENSIGN OF THE FREE."
from which men cannot secede but by rebellion. . . . They who have left us did not appreciate the blessings and the protection they, with their property, enjoyed under our constitution. We may say of them, that they went out from us, but they were not of us ; for, if they had been of us, they would, no doubt, have continued with us ; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that they were not all of us. They have made a great mistake.1
Mr. Manning's anticipation of the prevalence of actual free- dom throughout the land as the grand result of the war showed itself in every sentence of his glowing speech. He said : -
God's temple welcomes the star-spangled banner to-day, - for that banner has ceased to be the sign of corrupt fellowship, or of subser- viency to wrong, and has become the symbol of justice and loyalty to human rights. There floats the ensign of the free. We hail it with patriotic shouts, for it signals to us divine order and the brotherhood of men. Those stripes of crimson and pearl, and that constellation on its field of blue, are thrilling twenty millions of hearts while I speak. ... All that beautifies and blesses American society, asks to sit in the shadow of the dear old flag ; only that which is hateful and destructive would drag it from the sky, and rend and trample it. The African, out of his ages of bondage, is peering, with a strange thrill of joy, at these stars and stripes ; to him they are an auroral vision, - the early twilight, with its streak of flame, telling him that the day of redemption draweth nigh. Into this shadow flock those who would honor the mighty past, and secure a mightier future. Hither come loyalty, order, goodness, civilization, the arts, philanthropy. And now, Christianity, divine mistress of the earth, bids her temples bear up this glorious ensign, as if to consecrate it to its new and holy mission, and thus signify what banner it is, which she will entwine with her own, when the kingdoms of the world shall become the king- doms of the Lord.
The first mention of the war in the church records is as fol- lows : -
Sabbath Day, August 18, 1861. After the morning service a letter was read from the Harvard Congregational Church, Brookline, invit- ing an Ecclesiastical Council this evening, and the attendance of this church thereon by pastors and delegate, to examine and ordain Mr. Edward L. Clark, as a minister of the Gospel, he having been ap- pointed as chaplain of a regiment of the United States.2
1 [Two of Dr. Blagden's sons served in the army of the Union.]
2 [Mr. Edward Lord Clark graduated at Brown University in 1858. After serving as chaplain of the 12th Regiment
Mass. Vol. Militia, he completed his the- ological studies at Andover. He has been for many years pastor of the Church of the Puritans (Presbyterian), New York.]
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HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
Voted to comply, and James G. Blake was chosen delegate.
Attest, GEO. F. BIGELOW, Clerk.
Memorandum. The examination and ordination services were held in the Old South Church in the evening, - sermon by Dr. Blagden.
Late in the summer of 1862 the government ordered the im- mediate draft of three hundred thousand men to serve for nine months ; this was in addition to a call issued not long before for three hundred thousand men to serve for three years or dur- ing the war. It was an anxious time. General Mcclellan's campaign in the peninsula had not been successful, and there had just been some desperate fighting at Culpeper or Cedar Mountain. Enlistments in the Commonwealth had been aver- aging a thousand a day under the first call, and it was necessary to make a vigorous effort in order to raise the additional quota by voluntary offers of service, and, if it might be, to avoid an enforced draft. More than five hundred firms in Boston agreed to close their places of business at two o'clock in the afternoon through the week beginning on Monday, August II, and a series of public meetings was arranged for the purpose of pro- moting enlistments. One of the first and most enthusiastic of these popular gatherings was held in the yard of the Old South, the use of which the standing committee had given to the au- thorities for recruiting purposes. The bell was tolled, a band of music was in attendance, and the concourse of people in the street was so great that traffic at that point was suspended for the time. The Hon. Samuel Hurd Walley presided, and the mayor of the city, Mr. Joseph M. Wightman, and others, made patriotic speeches. In eight weeks one thousand and nineteen men volunteered and were examined in the porch of the Old South, and it was said in one of the newspapers : "It is very proper at this time to inform the public that the opening of these grounds has given an impetus to patriotic feelings and actions to a greater extent than any other one movement that has been made in Boston."
One of the regiments raised at this time, the forty-third, Colo- nel Charles L. Holbrook, many of whose men had been recruited under the shadow of the Old South, was very anxious that Mr. Manning should accompany it as chaplain to the seat of war. A special meeting of the brethren was held in the chapel Octo- ber 6, at which the following letter was read : -
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MR. MANNING IN THE WAR.
To the members of the Old South Church,
Dear Brethren,
Having been designated as chaplain of the 43rd Regiment M. V. M. raised for nine months, and not feeling that it would be right for me to decline the service except for very urgent reasons, I now beg leave to submit the matter for your action, hoping that you may see fit to grant me the necessary absence, and assured that you will look to the Great Head of the Church for guidance to a right decision.
Very truly and affectionately,
Your brother and pastor, J. M. MANNING.
At the same meeting, a letter from Dr. Blagden was read, in which he said: -
I shall with pleasure accord with the brethren and members of the Church and Society, should they see fit to comply with Rev. Mr. Manning's request, and in thus acting with them I beg leave particu- larly to ask that they will provide such a minister as they shall approve to perform in connection with me the same pastoral and pulpit duties which have been expected of the Rev. Mr. Manning. My deep con- victions of what is for the highest good of the Old South Church and Society, and of the Church and Congregation in Chambers Street, as well as my own greater usefulness, prompt me to make this special request.
The church, and afterward the society, granted the desired leave of absence to Mr. Manning, continuing his salary, and paying for a supply. The Rev. Swift Byington was engaged to fill the temporary vacancy.1
On Wednesday, November 5, the 43d Regiment came in to Boston from Readville, and marched to the Common, where a set of colors was presented to it by the Hon. Robert C. Win- throp, in behalf of the officers and members of the Boston Light Infantry, under whose auspices it had been raised. It then embarked, in company with the 45th and 46th,2 on board the steamers Merrimac and Mississippi. The ships remained at anchor in President Roads for several tedious days, during which there was a very severe snow-storm, and, at length, on the
1 Mr. Byington graduated at Yale been pastor of the First Church, Exeter, College in 1847, and at Andover Theo- N. H. logical Seminary in 1850. He had been 2 Mr. Edward C. Johnson, a son of Mr. Samuel Johnson, was an officer in the 44th Regiment, which also went to North Carolina. pastor at West Brookfield, and acting pastor in Woburn, before coming to the Old South. He has for several years
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HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
following Monday afternoon, proceeded on their voyage to the coast of North Carolina.
Of Mr. Manning's devotion to his country at this time, and of its consequences to himself personally, Dr. Taylor thus speaks, in the memorial sermon from which we have already quoted : -
When the war broke out men knew where to find him; and on numerous occasions, at flag raisings and on national holidays, his eloquent words of earnest devotion to the nation and to freedom kindled enthusiasm in all who listened. But in the climax and crisis of his country's agony he was not content to give his voice alone ; he gave also himself, for when he was appointed, in 1862, to the chap- laincy of the Forty-third Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, and his people consented to his acceptance of that offer, he went with an ardor which still burns through the printed words of his sermon on "The Soldier of Freedom,"1 and shared the privations and the hazards of the men to whom he ministered. With his experiences among the soldiers many of you must be familiar through the letters which he regularly sent to one of the Boston newspapers at the time ; 2 but, as helping to show the sort of man he was, I must be allowed to quote the following sentences from one who was a daily eye-witness of the manner in which he performed his duties. After describing the tent which, by the liberality of friends, had been furnished for the religious services of the regiment, the writer proceeds : "By the efforts of the chaplain a choir was gathered of men of the regiment, which included many excellent voices. The attendance of the men at the Sunday services was not compulsory ; the officers and privates were simply requested to assemble in the tent at a fixed hour, when the drums gave the proper signal.
" A more sedate or orderly audience could seldom be found in any New England congregation than the one gathered in that tent, which was generally well filled Sunday after Sunday. The services were short, simple, and interesting. Oftentimes the chaplain became very earnest and eloquent in his remarks as was proved by the sympathetic looks or moistened eyes of his hearers. . .. Dr. Manning was post- master of the regiment as well as chaplain, and the duties of that office were often quite onerous, but were always discharged to the satisfaction of every one interested. He also gathered from his friends at home a large amount of instructive and entertaining reading matter, in the form of the magazines of the day, and other cheap but good
1 [On Sunday morning October 5, 1862, Mr. Manning preached a sermon in the Old South, before the officers of the regiment, from Eph. iv. I : " I there- fore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech
you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called."]
2 These letters appeared in the Boston Daily Journal, and were signed "Old South."
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MR. MANNING'S SICKNESS.
books, and thus the chaplain's tent became, as it were, a circulating library room, which was eagerly visited by all of the officers and men. These things gave him many opportunities for private, moral, and religious work, whose influence will never in this world be fully known. . . . As might have been expected, he carried his temperance principles into army life. This was particularly manifested by two incidents : first, by his agreement with two other staff officers before they reached Newbern, that they would not, on their arrival in North Carolina, mess with the other officers, field and staff, unless a rule should be adopted that no intoxicating drinks should ever be placed upon their common table. To the credit of the mess it should be stated that this was the rule, and it was never violated. The other incident was this : The surgeon of the regiment believing that the. daily use of whiskey by the men under his care would be positively hurtful, at the first and always refused to sign the requisition for whiskey, which the army regulation allowed to the men, because that regulation required him to 'certify upon honour that such whiskey is absolutely necessary.' In this way he incurred the hostility of most of the officers of the regiment, and the sympathy of very few ; but the chaplain generously and heartily supported and encouraged the sur- geon in this stand, and so the 'Tiger' regiment demonstrated the fact that soldiers could do as much marching and hard work without whiskey rations as those did who received them."
But all this activity and exposure were at a fearful ultimate cost. His health, indeed, was good for months, but, in June, 1863, he was seized with malarial fever, and after being for a short time in the hos- pital, near Hampton, he was brought home on the 5th of July, in a state of great weakness. For two months his life trembled in the balance, and the report even went out that he had died, but at length recovery was granted to him, and on the 13th of December, standing once again in the Old South pulpit, he preached that wonderful ser- mon on " Sickness and its Lessons," which no one can read without the deepest interest, not only for the earnest piety by which it is pervaded, but also for the philosophical acumen shown in the analysis which it gives of the delirium of disease. We have heard of medical men chronicling the symptoms of maladies under which they were suffer- ing, but nowhere else have we met with an argument like that which he draws from his own experience of delirium for the immortality of the soul. I speak of it now because it indicates character. In itself it is valuable, as a contribution to psychology, but that he should have been thinking of such a subject in the days of his convalescence shows the philosophic habit of his mind.
He rose from his sick-bed with a heart full of gratitude to God ; but he was never the same man again. The surgeon of the regiment gives it as his deliberate opinion that he never recovered fully from the
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HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
effects of his long illness, and that it was, without doubt, the cause of his last and fatal sickness. In any case, his constitution was seriously undermined, and many believe that he gave his life for his country as really as if he had fallen on the field of battle.
In the closing days of the war, as at the beginning, the people flocked to the Old South, to give utterance to the feelings with which their hearts were charged. Intelligence of the surrender at Appomattox reached Boston in the evening and following night of Sunday, April 9. The joy of the people knew no bounds. Men sang doxologies in front of the bulletin boards on the Merchants' Exchange, as the dispatches came in giving the full particulars of the great event. A strong desire was ex- pressed for a service of praise to be held at the Old South, and on Monday at noon the standing committee opened the meeting- house for the purpose, - the old meeting-house in which Thomas Prince preached his memorable sermon, "The Salvations of God in 1746." Mr. George Homer presided, Dr. Blagden offered a prayer of thanksgiving, Mr. Manning read from the Scriptures and spoke, and other addresses were made by the Rev. A. A. Miner, the Rev. William S. Studley, and the Hon. Richard H. Dana, United States district attorney. The large congregation was most responsive and enthusiastic.
On the following Sunday the meeting-house presented a very different spectacle. President Lincoln had been murdered, and the North had experienced a more terrible revulsion of feeling, perhaps, than any nation had ever known before. From a pulpit draped in black, and before a heart-stricken audience, Mr. Man- ning preached a sermon appropriate to the hour. His text was from Deut. xxxiv. 4, 5 : " And the Lord said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed : I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord." 1
1 The sermon was printed in a volume with the sermons of other prominent min- isters of Boston on the same day. On Wednesday, the 19th of April, the day of the funeral services at Washington, all the churches in Boston, as elsewhere, were open, and were crowded by earnest listeners. At the Old South " there was not even an inch of available standing
room within hearing of the voices of those who actively participated in the services." Mr. Manning made an address of great power, in which he sketched the life and character of Abraham Lincoln, and spoke of " the providential results which might be expected in favor of union and liberty, from the fact and circumstances of his death."
52I
THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF 1865.
In 1865 a national council or synod was assembled in Boston, and its first session, on Wednesday afternoon, June 14, was held in the Old South meeting-house. "The circumstances of the country, emerging as it was from the war by whose success the existence and safety of the nation were to be assured, had led to a wide-spread feeling that the Congregational churches of the United States ought to consult together upon their du- ties and opportunities." A preliminary meeting had been held in New York a few months before, and a committee of arrange- ments appointed. To this committee, Dr. Stone, Dr. Kirk, Dr. Blagden and others, in behalf of the Congregational churches of Boston, addressed a communication asking that the council might meet in this city, and expressing the desire that the open- ing services might be held "in the Old South Church, on ac- count of its association with the sacred memory of the elders who 'by faith obtained a good report.'" The meeting was called to order by the Rev. Dr. Stone, on whose motion Deacon Stoddard was chosen temporary moderator. A permanent or- ganization was effected by the election of Governor Bucking- ham, of Connecticut, as moderator, the Hon. Charles G. Ham- mond, of Illinois, and the Rev. Dr. Joseph P. Thompson, of New York, as assistant moderators, and the Rev. Dr. H. M. Dexter, of Massachusetts, and others, as scribes. It had been arranged that the opening sermon by the Rev. Dr. Sturtevant should be preached from the Old South pulpit, but it became apparent almost as soon as the council had come to order that the noise of the traffic outside would compel an adjournment to a quieter place. Among those who complained most emphat- ically of the want of adaptation in the building for the purposes of the council was the Rev. Dr." Bacon, of Connecticut, who said : "Those who are in the gallery cannot hear those who are on the floor, and those who are near the pulpit cannot hear those near the door." When the motion to adjourn to the Mount Vernon Church was carried there was loud applause all over the house, which pained the regular attendants there, who thought such an expression of disapprobation with the building on the part of the delegates unnecessary and uncalled for. The remembrance of this temporary inconvenience must have passed from the thought of some members of the council, when, seven years later, they used all their influence against the brethren of the Old South, in their efforts to escape from the
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HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
perpetual experience of just such inconvenience by the aid of appropriate legislation.1
The objects of the council were thoroughly practical, and eight or ten days were profitably employed in the consideration of the great questions of church extension and home evangeli- zation. In reference to polity, the prevailing sentiment seems to have been opposed to ecclesiastical centralization, and to any influence which would tend to weaken the responsibility or en- danger the liberty of the local church. Dr. Sturtevant struck the keynote on this subject when he said : -
Consistently with the conditions which the Pilgrim Fathers brought with them to the shores of New England, consistently with the funda- mental principles of our social life, they [persons living in each other's neighborhood] will organize those societies, independent of all dicta- tion or control in discipline, worship, and doctrine, except that of the one divine Head of the Church of God. Had not our fathers ac- cepted a home in this great and terrible wilderness, that they might enjoy the doctrine, the discipline, the worship, which they approved? And should they now construct any authority of bishop or council or presbytery, empowered to interfere with their enjoyment of this dear- bought privilege ? And why should any society of Christian men and women, associated for these religious purposes, subject themselves to any such control of human power and invention? They want reli- gious teaching ; are they not competent to select their own religious teachers in the fear of the Lord? . .. They want a doctrine and a worship conformed to the divine word; must they not themselves prove all things, and hold fast that which is good? Can they dele- gate the judgment of these matters to other fallible men like them- selves ? Does not their individual allegiance to God imply their indi- vidual right to try the teaching they hear, and the worship in which they engage, by the standard of God's revealed will, and themselves to judge what is right? What bishop, council, presbytery, synod, can decide for them ?
When the project for a Congregational House was under consideration, the sensitiveness of the council in reference to every suggestion of centralized power in the denomination, whether ecclesiastical or institutional,2 manifested itself in the report of a committee, wherein it was said : -
1 See Dr. Manning's testimony at the hearing before Mr. Justice Colt, in 1876, p. 107. It is there said that the society had ordered a quantity of tan-bark, to be spread on the streets in front and on
the side of the meeting-house, and had engaged an extra police force to divert some of the heaviest traffic.
2 Institutionalism may be defined as ecclesiasticism plus a treasury.
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THE BURIAL HILL CONFESSION.
With the understanding that the money shall be raised chiefly from persons in New England, and particularly in Massachusetts, who are able to contribute large sums, and that the Congregational House shall not be a " House of Bishops," nor the source of a centralized power for the control of Congregational bishops or churches, but a home for all the brethren, to form or renew acquaintance, promote Christian fellowship, and the interests of the great denominational family to which we belong, we commend the American Congregational Association and its enterprises to the confidence and cooperation of our churches.
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