USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of the Old South church (Third church) Boston, 1669-1884, Vol. II > Part 59
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73
" That this church recalls with feelings of devout gratitude to God, the labors of Dr. Blagden, as a minister of the gospel, which covered a period of half a century in this city, and of thirty-six years in this church, which were marked by great fidelity and earnestness both in the pulpit and in every depart- ment of the pastoral work, and which were attested and empha- sized by a consistent and exemplary walk and conversation.
"That the recognized standing and acknowledged influence of Dr. Blagden as a Christian man and minister, and as a scholar, and his demeanor and deportment as a Christian gentleman, were all calculated to commend the religion which he professed . and preached to all who knew him in this community.
"That his long career of active service and usefulness was fittingly followed by a serene age whose conditions he accepted cheerfully and whose honors he wore gracefully, and was, in due time, beautifully crowned by a peaceful and painless depart- ure from life, when, like a shock of corn in its season, he was gathered to the heavenly garner.
" An honored life, a peaceful end, And heaven to crown it all."
CHAPTER XI.
1884.
PARTISANSHIP DEFEATED.
A DISTINGUISHED Scotch divine, Dr. Marcus Dods, is reported as having said, not many months ago, that it would be difficult to " pick out any term of twenty-five years in this world's history which had seen so little outward change, and such enormous inward changes, as these last twenty-five years." So far as the churches of New England were con- cerned, no man was better qualified than Dr. Manning to under- stand the nature and extent of this movement below the surface.1 Nor had he any fears in reference to what might be the result of it. He not only knew the age in which he lived, but he was in sympathy with it in all its aspirations ; and he was willing to trust the churches, - the people. He was able to discriminate between what is vital in theology and what is incidental, between the word of God and the teachings of men ; and he did not think that the foundations were giving way, because of the pre- vailing disposition to challenge the latter. He saw no occasion for the alarm with which some good people had been seized, for example, in connection with the doctrine of retribution, and he endeavored to counteract the influence of their gloomy fore- bodings. On the 29th of February, 1880, he preached from Jer. xxiii. 28 : "The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream ; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat ? saith the Lord." A few sentences will show the aim of the sermon : -
If they [evangelical ministers] have changed in any of their views, that change has not carried them away from but nearer to the gospel. They have departed to the faith once delivered to the saints, not from it. They are thinking more of the divine word and less of the human
1 What Augustus Hare has said of rustling of the wings of Time. Most people only catch sight of it when it is flying away. When it is overhead it darkens their view."
statesmen, in one of his Guesses at Truth, is true no less of clergymen : They "should have ears to hear the distant
552
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
dream, more of the wheat and less of the chaff. It has been freely charged, for instance, that but few Christian ministers now hold the scriptural doctrine of retribution for sin. But I believe they were never more eager to accept just what the Bible says on this whole subject, and abide by it, than now. It is not the Bible which they refuse to accept, but human theories born of philosophy and meta- physics. Scholastic thinkers, in ages of fierce religious controversy, have formulated their own partial and distorted views of this subject into standards which the hard-pressed church has for the time being accepted. To refuse to abide by those extravagant human standards is a very different thing from refusing to abide by the Bible. . I think you will all agree with me in the statement that such a doctrine of ret- ribution should be preached to the wrong-doer as will most tend to make him stop his wrong-doing, that nothing should be said to him about his future either in this life or that to come which will encourage him in his evil courses. That statement you are all ready to accept ; and it certainly covers everything the Bible has to say on the subject, however it may disagree with what speculative thinkers have said.
Dr. Manning's preaching was fresh, fearless, reasonable, help- ful, free from the trammels of the letter, instinct with spiritual power. It was not dogmatic, but it dealt with principles and with their practical application. It commended the truth as something not merely to be believed, but to be lived ; and as related primarily to character, and, in the issue, through char- acter to destiny. It was reverent in its attitude to the past, loyal in its sense of obligation to the present, and altogether hopeful in its look towards the future. These being the char- acteristics of the preaching to which the Old South congregation had become accustomed, and which it thoroughly appreciated, it is evident that in filling the vacancy caused by Dr. Manning's resignation, the controlling tendency would be towards progress and not towards retrogression. In the meetings of the com- mittee appointed to make a nomination, we doubt whether the words "old-school," "new-school," " conservative," "progressive," were once used, or even hinted at ; 1 - a pastorate in its duration is likely to outlive the parties of the day ; a pastor is or should be transcendently more than a party man ; - and yet it was almost inevitable that the choice should fall upon one whose thinking and preaching would be along the lines on which Dr. Manning had been so conspicuous and so successful.
At a special meeting of the church held on Monday evening,
1 This committee consisted of Alpheus Joseph H. Gray, Hamilton A. Hill, John Hardy, Samuel Johnson, Moses Merrill, L. Barry, Linus M. Child.
553
THE REV. GEORGE A. GORDON.
December 13, 1882, nine months after Dr. Manning's resigna- tion took effect and a week or two after his death, the nomi- nating committee reported the name of the Rev. George A. Gordon, pastor of the Second Congregational Church, Green- wich, Connecticut, with the recommendation that he be called to the Old South pastorate. The church voted unanimously to extend a call to Mr. Gordon, and, on the Ist of January, the society concurred. A joint committee, duly instructed, trans- mitted the call, and on the 10th of the same month, Mr. Gordon sent a reply, declining the invitation, in view of what he re- garded as the pressing claims of his work at Greenwich at the time. This answer was communicated to the church and society respectively, and, by both, the letter was recommitted to the committee, with instructions to confer further with Mr. Gordon, " with a view to bringing him to us as our pastor at the earliest practicable time."
Mr. Gordon was born at Oyne, Aberdeenshire, January 2, 1853. His father, George Gordon, died in 1881, his mother (Catherine), survives and lives in Aberdeen. He came to this country in his youth, and, a few years later, having determined to devote his life to the Christian ministry, he went to Bangor and took the prescribed course of theological study in the semi- nary there. He was ordained June 20, 1877, pastor of the Congregational Church, Temple, Maine, and remained there for a year. Wishing then to pursue a more thorough academic course, he went to Harvard College, and graduated there in the class of 1881. On leaving college he was installed pastor of the Second Congregational Church, Greenwich, Connecticut, and he had labored there nearly three years when he resigned to come to Boston.
It was a trial to the church, after having had to depend upon supplies for its pulpit Sabbath by Sabbath, not only since Dr. Manning's resignation but for some time before, to be obliged to accept the postponement of its hope for the settlement of a pastor ; but the members were not disheartened, and being thoroughly united in Mr. Gordon, they determined not only to wait for him for an uncertain length of time, but also to do their utmost individually to maintain the activity and usefulness of the church in the interim. The deacons, whose duty it was to arrange for the supply of the pulpit, continued to be, as they had been, successful in their difficult task ; and, in the summer of 1883, they were most fortunate in being able to secure the
554
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
services of the Rev. Professor Tucker, of Andover, for the coming autumn and winter. Dr. Tucker spent six months with the church, preaching on the Lord's day and on Friday evening, and his faithful and disinterested labors, both in the pulpit and on various occasions of sorrow and bereavement, won for him the respect and regard of all.
The call to Mr. Gordon was renewed in writing, January 4, 1884, and was accepted by him in a letter dated January II, the pastorate to begin on the first Sunday in April next following. It was at this point, if at any, that the church and the. pastor- elect should have invited an expression of opinion from the neighboring churches upon the "expediency" of proceeding further under the call which had been extended and accepted ; then, if ever, the neighbors should have been asked "to review the proceedings." To unsettle a pastor, to remove him from a field of activity in which he was happy and useful, to sunder the ties between him and an attached people, to bring him, and his family, perhaps, into a new and strange community, to open the doors of the parsonage to him and his effects, and then to sum- mon a council (in the language of the Congregationalist news- paper) to " examine and express judgment upon the candidate, and only when satisfied that he has fitness for the place, to pro- ceed to his installation," - all this, as it seems to us, is utterly preposterous. No church has a right to put a minister into such a position. It may be urged that in the large majority of cases, the proceedings of the modern installation council, although inquisitorial, are merely formal, and that the pastor- elect is settled almost as a matter of course. Undoubtedly this is so in times of peace, and during the last fifty years the system has worked with more annoyance than positive mischief ; but let the spirit of party appear in the denomination and in the councils, and the essential harmfulness of this tribunal which ecclesiasticism has imposed upon the churches at once becomes manifest. In the exceptional instances, what can compensate a pastor, who having been persuaded to vacate a pulpit and change his residence in order to accept an invitation elsewhere, finds the pulpit to which he has been called closed against him, because the settled ministers in the neighborhood to whom the " expediency " of his installation has been referred have voted against him? In such a case, the disappointed church, in due time, would find another minister; but how long might it be before the disappointed minister would find another church ?
555
MR. GORDON JOINS THE OLD SOUTH.
At the weekly meeting of the church, Friday evening, March 7, Mr. Gordon was formally received into the membership, in compliance with an ancient rule requiring that the pastor-elect shall become a member before his installation. A large con- gregation was present, and Dr. Tucker conducted the devo- tional exercises. Mr. Gordon presented a letter of dismission and recommendation from the Fourth Presbyterian Church, Boston, which he had joined soon after his arrival in this coun- try, and made a statement of his belief and experience. Dea- con Allen moved that he be received into the membership, and the brethren voted in the affirmative by show of hands. Dea- con Plumer then read an adaptation of the covenant, the mem- bers of the church rising, and, at the close, joining audibly in the benediction : "The Lord bless thee, and keep thee; the Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee ; the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." Mr. Gordon was now a "brother beloved " in the church ; he had entered the long succession of its membership ; it was but a step to the long succession of its pastorate.
Dr. Wisner says in his History : "At least since the settle- ment of Mr. Cumming [1761], the following has been the uni- form practice in this particular. The pastor-elect having sig- nified his acceptance of the call, attends a meeting of the church, where his testimonials are exhibited, and he declares his consent to the Confession of Faith owned and consented unto by the Elders and Messengers of the Churches convened at Boston in 1680 ; after which he is received a member of the church." This custom seems to have been introduced when the Old South for the first time called a minister from the Presbyterian Church. When Dr .- Manning was received into the membership previously to his installation, in 1857, he de- clared his consent to the Confession of 1680 in the sense in which the authors of that symbol would explain themselves, if they were then living. In arranging for the admission of Mr. Gordon, the church committee decided to make no reference to the Confession of 1680 in that service, but to leave the pastor- elect entirely free to make a statement of his belief in his own way, and this he did.1
1 The question has been agitated of late in more than one religious body, whether the confessions to which minis- ters are called upon to subscribe at or-
dination or institution should not be modified and modernized in order to make honest and intelligent subscription possible in all cases. Would it not be bet-
556
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
A few days later letters-missive were issued for the installa- tion. The form which these should take, involving, of course, a definition of the powers delegated to the council, had been talked over by some of the committee before it was certain that Mr. Gordon would be the choice of the church. Members of the committee had been appealed to more than once, in anticipation of the event, to return in this particular to the ancient and approved usage of the Congregational churches of Massachu- setts, not so much for the sake of the Old South, which, it was said, could take care of itself, as for the sake of churches less able, perhaps, to withstand pressure from without. In its let- ters for the last two, and perhaps three, installations, the church had conformed to the modern custom, but it was not bound by these precedents, if it saw fit to return substantially to the terms which the churches of its order in Massachusetts had employed for two hundred years. The issuance of letters-mis- sive is a sovereign act upon the part of the local church, which may fix the form, and vary this from time to time, accord- ing to its pleasure. It has an unquestionable right, if it prefers to do so, but only with the full consent of its pastor-elect, to use such language as the following : We request your attend- ance "to examine the candidate, review our proceedings and advise with us in reference to the same, and, if judged expedi- ent, to assist in the installation service." On the other hand, if a church considers itself competent to make choice of a pas- tor, and proposes to stand by its choice, it is also its unquestion- able right to draw up its letters of invitation in conformity with this conviction and this purpose.
On a comparison of the Old South letter of 1884 with sim- ilar letters to be found in these volumes, it will be seen that so far as it varies from them in terms, it does so in the interest of Christian courtesy and church fellowship. It says expressly : " The action of the church and society, and the correspondence in connection with the call, will be laid before you, and the pastor-elect will make a statement of his religious belief." Full information was promised ; but the council was not requested "to review the proceedings ;" the time for that, in the judg- ment of the church, had passed several months before. The letter was as follows : -
ter to allow these old confessions to stand in the form in which they have come down to us, as historical documents, and
to do away with the requirement of formal subscription in the churches and seminaries ?
557
THE LETTER-MISSIVE.
The Old South Church, Boston,
To the
SENDETH GREETING.
Dear Brethren :
The Great Head of the Church having graciously united our hearts in the choice of the Rev. George A. Gordon, now pastor of the Second Congregational Church, Greenwich, Conn., as our pastor and teacher, and he having accepted our call to this office, an Ecclesiastical Coun- cil for installation and recognition will be held on the afternoon and evening of Wednesday, the second day of April next. You are hereby cordially invited to participate, by your pastor and a delegate, in the proceedings of this Council, which will be convened in our Meeting- House, Boylston Street, Boston, on the day aforesaid, at three o'clock P. M., when the action of the Church and Society, and the correspond- ence in connection with the call, will be laid before you, and the pas- tor-elect will make a statement of his religious belief, preliminary to the usual public services in the evening.
In behalf of the Old South Church and Society,
AVERY PLUMER, ALPHEUS HARDY,
SAMUEL JOHNSON,
SAMUEL R. PAYSON,
RICHARD H. STEARNS,
JOSEPH H. GRAY,
HAMILTON A. HILL,
LINUS M. CHILD,
GEORGE R. CHAPMAN,
Committee of the Society.
Committee of the Church.
BOSTON, March 10, 1884.
By a few of the neighboring pastors this letter was not re- ceived in the spirit in which it had been sent. From their comments upon it one would almost have thought that it threat- ened to interfere with what they had come to regard as their just prerogative, their vested right of visitation in the churches, and that the control in matters of faith and polity, which they had assumed and for a long time had been allowed to exercise without challenge, was now in imminent danger. The Creed Commission had recently reaffirmed the ancient article, that the churches, "under the guidance of the Holy Scriptures and in fellowship with one another," might, each for itself, "appoint and set apart their own ministers." The letter-missive had been prepared, as was believed, in accordance with this utter- ance. The only question that could possibly arise was in re- lation to the meaning of the word "fellowship." The Old South committee had assumed that it meant - fellowship; of course, if it could be explained as meaning something else, - dictation, for example, there might be ground for serious mis-
558
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
understanding between those who sent the letter and some of those to whom it was sent.
We have been told, what would seem hardly credible, that at first it was proposed by some of the pastors to make the form of the letter-missive the subject of comment and of protest im- mediately on the assembling of the council, and to rebuke the church which had issued it. We can understand that ministers who had come from other denominations into the Congrega- tional body might be so ignorant of the polity which they had promised to maintain as to call in question in an ecclesiastical council the validity of the only document which gave them a standing there, or, indeed, by which the council had its exist- ence ; but it is difficult to see how any man who had had a Con- gregational training could fall into such a grave mistake. Fortu- nately for these critics, the weakness of their position in this regard was pointed out to them in time by some one wiser than themselves ; and the Old South, although fully prepared, was not confronted with the necessity of defending its letter, that is to say, itself, in the performance of a sovereign act. We do not think that the form of the letter was objected to publicly by any pastor in the presence of his church ; but if it had been, we venture the opinion that no church to which it was addressed would have voted to decline the invitation because of it. How- ever it may be with some of the pastors, the laymen in the sev- eral churches, for the most part certainly, are entirely willing to concede to each other the right of choosing their ministers, without interference and without dictation. We shall have occasion to refer again to the attitude of the leaders of the opposition to the letter-missive when we come to speak of the proceedings of the council.
Partisanship was now active and aggressive in the Congre- gational House, and it became more and more certain, day by day, that it would be present as a disturbing element at the in- stallation of Mr. Gordon. During the controversies through which the churches have been passing recently certain leaders have assembled in caucus from time to time, in anticipation of contests for which they have thought it necessary to make spe- cial preparation. It is true that these leaders have shown a good deal of sensitiveness about the word caucus, and would prefer that their private meetings, if spoken of at all, should be called conferences ; but clergymen who make up their minds to resort to political methods for the accomplishment of their
559
" COUNCILS OF WAR."'
plans should not, we submit, be too fastidious about the use of political terms. Of the ecclesiastical caucus the Old South Church had had some experience previously. When Mr. Wis- ner was ordained, in 1821, the men who broke up the harmony of the occasion had carefully matured their plans among them- selves beforehand. But "councils of war," sitting "without commission," had been known in the Massachusetts churches long before this. With great considerateness of reserve as to names, but with much plainness of speech as to acts, John Wise, in his criticisms upon the "Proposals " of 1705, said : " A council of war (by adjournment met, without commission) con- sulting the most plausible way to blow up the walls of our Zion. But where the place was, or the persons who were present in this rendezvous, shall never be told by me, unless it be extorted by the rack. And tho' I have endeavoured with freedom of argument to subvert the error, I will never stain their personal glory by repeating or calling over the muster-roll."
A week or two before the meeting of the council of 1884, pains were taken by some of the committee of arrangements to ascertain, if possible, what it was that had stirred the displeasure of those who, as it was expected, were to lead off in the opposi- tion. Certain personal feelings were hinted at, but these it is not worth our while to dwell upon. The letter-missive, also, was mentioned as a grievance ; this we have considered already. But the most serious charge brought against the church was, that the Andover professors, and those who were supposed to be their friends, had been invited to preach ; in other words, that in arranging to supply the pulpit under their care the dea- cons had not been under the influence of a partisan spirit. It was not denied that men of the most conservative opinions had preached at the Old South, some of them again and again, during the two years since Dr. Manning's resignation ; but the complaint was, in effect, that the officers of the church had not recognized party lines in the performance of their duty, and that they had not been willing to put their strength behind the dividing wedge which it was proposed by some to drive through the denomination. A complete list of the ministers welcomed to the Old South at this time would include several who, on either side, have been the most prominent in the recent unhappy difficulties, and many more, perhaps, who have not in any way been publicly identified with them. Forty years ago, when party feeling ran high in the denomination, both Dr. Nehemiah
560
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
Adams and Professor Park, and those whom they represented respectively, were freely invited to the Old South pulpit. If we were disposed to classify, it might be shown that the same spirit of comprehensiveness and catholicity, and, at least, in equal degree, characterized those upon whom rested the respon- sibility of providing for the supply of the vacant pulpit in these later and much more trying times.
On the 25th of March an ecclesiastical council met at Green- wich, Connecticut, and confirmed the action of Mr. Gordon in resigning his charge there, and of the Second Congregational Church and Society in their acceptance of his resignation. The Rev. R. B. Thurston was moderator of this council, and the Rev. H. Martin Kellogg scribe; the action, unanimously taken, was in the following form : -
In view of the resignation of the pastor, Rev. George A. Gordon, and the unanimous acceptance of it by the church and society : in view also of the conviction of duty on his part, and the conviction on their part of the leadings of Providence, we cordially approve their action.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.