USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of the Second Church, or Old North, in Boston : to which is added a History of the New Brick Church > Part 14
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Nearly a year elapsed after the death of Mr. Welsteed, before the appointment of a successor. The unanimous choice of the church, and a very large vote of the congre- gation, selected for this office the Rev. Ebenezer Pember- ton, whose installation took place on the 6th of March, 1754.
Mr. Pemberton was son of an eminent clergyman, of the same name, who was for many years pastor of the Old South Church. In the earlier part of his life, he had been chaplain at Castle William. In April, 1727, he had received an invitation from the First Presbyterian Church in New York to settle as their minister, with the request that he should be ordained in Boston. Accord-
* See Appendix J.
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ingly, his ordination took place on the 9th of August, in that year; from which period he resided in New York, in the charge of the above-named church, for twenty-two years. Of the manner in which he discharged his duties in that city, I find the most honorable mention made in Smith's History of New York. It is there said of him, that he was a man of polite breeding, pure morals, and warm devotion; under whose incessant labors the con- gregation greatly increased, and was enabled to erect a spacious church in 1748. But, on account of trifling con- tentions, kindled by the bigotry and ignorance of the lower sort of people, he at length requested his dismission. There is preserved on our records a copy of a letter from the Presbytery of New York, signed by the father of the late Aaron Burr, as moderator, conveying the most honora- ble testimony of the Presbytery to Mr. Pemberton's " mini- sterial dignity, abilities, and success, and their cheerful recommendation of him as an eminently endowed and highly esteemed preacher."
As soon as this society heard of his intention to leave New York, they became eager to engage his services, as he was regarded at that time a gifted and powerful preacher. At the period of his settlement here, he enjoyed a degree of popularity such as had fallen to the lot of few who had ever stood in a Boston pulpit, and attracted to this house a crowded congregation. But he lived to expe- rience, even beyond what is usual in such cases, the pro- verbial fickleness of popular favor. In the latter part of his life, his congregation sadly dwindled. Instead of the throngs which used to gather before him, his eye looked
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down upon only a few familiar faces scattered about amongst almost empty pews. But the declension of his fame was not more attributable to any deterioration of his ability, than to the influence of political odium. The inhabitants of the North End, as is well known, were almost all of them stanch and uncompromising whigs. Dr. Pemberton was a warm friend of Governor Hutchinson, who was a worshipper at his church, and therefore fell under the suspicion of sharing his attachment to the tory interest. For this reason, doubtless, some of his congrega- tion left him.
As the war of the Revolution approached, Dr. Pember- ton's health declined, and the condition of his parish became feeble and discouraging. At no other period in its history were its affairs at so low an ebb. Efforts were made to settle a colleague who might redeem the credit of the church, - but in vain. Several distinguished young men were selected as candidates; - amongst others, Mr. Buckminster, the father of the lamented Buckminster of Boston, and Mr. Isaac Story, afterwards of Marblehead .* The former was most agreeable to Dr. Pemberton; the latter, to his parishioners. But the troubles of the year 1775 put an end to all the proceedings of the society. At the close of the month of April in that year, the inhabitants generally left Boston, and this house was closed.
The desecration of several of our churches by the British, during the blockade of Boston, is a matter of his- tory, with which you are familiar. Whilst the Old North was demolished, the Old South turned into a circus, and
* See Appendix K.
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the steeple of the West Church torn down, no violence was offered to the New Brick ; partly, it may be, for the reason, that its pastor had given no cause of offence to his country's enemies, and that its most distinguished worship- per was their ally and friend.
Dr. Pemberton resided, during the siege, at Andover. His health had been for some time feeble, and his pulpit had been supplied for several months before he left the town. Indeed, he had, for a long time previous, gene- rously relinquished his salary, and, from the beginning of February, 1774, never received any thing from the parish. I cannot ascertain, that, after the evacuation of the town, he ever appeared in the pulpit. It is probable that his increasing infirmities prevented him even from attending worship. No notice is made of him at this time on our records ; nor have I been able to ascertain any thing more concerning the circumstances of his death, than is con- tained in a single sentence in an old newspaper : “ On Tuesday morning last, September 9, 1779, departed this life, after a long confinement, the Rev. Dr. Pemberton ; his funeral to be attended this P.M, at three o'clock." His con- nection with the society was never formally dissolved, but gradually loosened, till at length it existed merely in name .*
But I cannot dismiss this brief notice of the ministry of Dr. Pemberton, without allusion to a single circum- stance, which is of too gratifying a nature not to be com- memorated on this occasion. The neighboring Baptist society, then under the charge of Dr. Stillman, in the spring of 1771, being about to build a new church, made
* See Appendix L.
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application for the use of the house belonging to our ancestors, till such time as their own should be fit for wor- ship. The request was unanimously and most cordially granted ; and, from June till December of that year, the two congregations worshipped together, the pastors of both officiating by turns. The texts, both of the first and last of Dr. Stillman's sermons, have been preserved on our records, with strong commendation of the discourses. What volumes of Christian sentiment do these texts convey ! Would that their spirit had never been departed from by the succeeding members of either or of any denomination ! His subject, on coming into the pulpit, was this, " Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" and, on taking leave of it, " Finally, brethren, farewell. Be of one mind ; live in peace, and the God of love and peace shall be with you." I mention this inci- dent with the greater pleasure, by reason of the recent and very friendly offer of hospitality which has been extended to ourselves from the descendants of those whom our fathers so cordially entertained. How beautiful are even the smallest acts of brotherly kindness, in the midst of the party divisions and sectarian prejudices which occupy so large a space in the religious history of our age! Our early records have no fairer page than that which is adorned with this wreath of love. And never, I believe, has the great Head of the church looked down upon this temple with a more approving smile, than when those two venerable ministers sat side by side in its pulpit, and their congregations were intermingled in its pews .*
* See Appendix M.
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I have now brought down the history of the New Brick Church to the period when it was incorporated with the Second, as recorded in the first part of this book. The bell of the Old North Church, which was larger than that of the New Brick, was hung in its place. A part of the com- munion-service of silver, belonging to the Second Church, as also their land and other property, which had become useless, together with the old bell of the New Brick, were sold to purchase a parsonage-house for Dr. Lathrop. The large Bible of the Old North was presented to the Second Church in Newton.
The New Brick continued to be occupied by the Second Church till 1844. On Sunday, March 11, services were held in it for the last time. A few paragraphs from the farewell sermons then preached, referring to the old edifice, and showing the feelings with which it was regarded, and the condition of the society at that period, are here added as matters of historical interest.
The sermons were from the text, Psalm xlviii. 12, 13: " Walk about Zion, and go round about her; tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces ; that ye may tell it to the generation following." The subject was introduced as follows : -
We meet to-day for the last time in this venerable house. It has stood a hundred and twenty-three years. It is the oldest temple in this city. Christ Church, its an- cient neighbor, is its junior by more than two years, and the Old South by nearly nine .* It has been an object of
* The corner-stone of Christ Church was laid April 15, 1723. It was first opened for worship on the 29th of December, of the same year. The
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sacred interest to many generations. Its image has been connected with the idea of God, in the minds of myriads who have been born and lived and died within sight of its spire. Hallowed associations gather thickly around it. Its walls are hung with the memorials of ancient days. Shadowy processions of the sainted dead seem to move along its aisles ; and a solemn chant, as of many voices, known and unknown, mingling in psalms and prayers, to swell beneath its roof.
It is a serious thing to demolish a house like this. It is a solemn act to destroy these time-hallowed walls. It is more, far more, than merely to take down the material pile, which hands, long since mouldered to dust, assisted to raise. These stones and bricks are inwrought with holy sentiments ; they are inscribed with honored names ; they are written all over with religious reminiscences; they en- shrine venerated images; they are memorials of the piety and faith of our fathers; they are largely and intimately connected with the spiritual life of past and present gene- rations. We may replace them with a more splendid edifice. We may tax architectural art for all the elements of grandeur and beauty it can furnish, to decorate the structure which is to be reared upon their ruins. But the sentiments and affections which consecrate this ancient house, no human skill can restore. A sacred, a spiritual fabric of hallowed memories and associations will be shat- tered together with these crumbling walls, - and fall never to rise again.
foundation of the Old South was commenced March 31, 1729. Religious services were attended in it for the first time on the 27th of April, 1730.
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But every thing must yield to the immediate wants and will of the living. The command of present use is in our day incontrovertible and supreme. Its sceptre sways everywhere. The marks of its empire are all around us. It takes down and builds up, and knows no veneration. The sacred and the beautiful are continually bowing before it. It has often pointed ominously at this old edifice. It has touched it now, and to-morrow it falls.
But it shall not fall unhonored. This old pile shall not be swept away for ever from the sight of men, without a becoming commemoration of its long and interesting his- tory. The rude hammer shall not strike its first blow against its walls, until our hearts have paid to it their parting tribute of affection and respect. We will not meet for the last time at this beloved and venerated altar, with- out such a valedictory service as it deserves from those who have gathered around it on so many hallowed occa- sions with gratitude and devotion, and found under its shade the peace of heaven.
The condition of the society, and the peculiar impres- sions of the occasion, were thus noticed in the close of the second discourse : -
We have passed together through changeful times ; through various periods of great and wide-spread excite- ment; through powerful agitations of opinion ; whilst, within the borders of our own little community, we have been blessed with uninterrupted peace, and not a single jar has disturbed our sabbath-home. All the concerns of the parish have been managed with commendable fidelity and wisdom on the part of those who have been entrusted with
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their charge. The number of our proprietors and worship- pers has increased. Accessions to the church have been of late greatly multiplied. New manifestations of social feeling and of spiritual life have strengthened our union, and refreshed our hearts. And now, through all the per- plexities and differences with which the question of de- molishing this old house of worship, and building a new, has been necessarily involved, we find ourselves sitting together for the last time around this beloved altar, with no sentiments, I hope and believe, which are uncharitable towards each other, or uncongenial with the spirit of peace and love.
I cannot express the satisfaction and the gratitude I feel at the condition of this parish in these last hours of our occupancy of this old temple. How sad, how bitterly reproachful, would be our reflections, if we were leaving it in discord and confusion and weakness! How deep and stinging would be our consciousness of shame, if, after all the pious multitudes whose care has preserved it to our hands, and whose prayers have consecrated it to our hearts, we were now compelled to feel that the years of our pos- session of it, the last years of its existence, had been stained with unworthy dissensions, and disgraced with faithlessness and neglect! Thanks, thanks be to God that we are spared such misery as that! Thanks that we leave it in no worse spiritual or temporal condition, as a society, than when it came into our hands! Thanks that its walls do not come down because we are a dwindling congregation, without heart or ability to repair the dilapidations of time! Thanks that it does not crumble around us because we are indiffer-
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ent or dead !- but rather because we are straitened by its bounds, and feel the stirrings of a growing life, which, in the order of Providence, prompts us to throw off its walls that a more spacious and beautiful structure may rise up in their stead.
Yet let there be no boastful nor ambitious feeling in our hearts. A more consistent emotion is that of wonder at the long-suffering mercy of our God. " My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. Not unto us, O Lord! not unto us, but unto thy name, give glory" for thy great compassion and forbearance towards us. For how poor have been our best offerings! how cold our warmest prayers! When we consider how many hallowed hours we have spent in these courts, what voices have here addressed us, what vows we have made, we cannot cer- tainly go out for the last time over that threshold with any other than a lowly step and a contrite heart. May God in his mercy pardon all our offences, and the offences of our fathers, that have ever defiled this sacred place; all formal worship; all unbrotherly sentiments; all comings before him with mind polluted, and heart unsanctified; all worldly thoughts that have mingled with our devotions; all evil hearts of unbelief; all grievings of his Spirit; all liftings- up of the soul unto vanity ; all high looks and proud hearts ; all mockings at his mighty word; all stubborn impenitence and resistings of his grace : for verily we have not always honored him with our sacrifices, but have too often wearied him with our iniquities.
But I should do injustice, no less to my own feelings than to those to whom this society has stood most deeply
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indebted, if I were to finish this sketch of our history without respectful and honorable allusion to those excellent men who, from generation to generation, have held up the hands of the ministers and stood as the pillars of this church. Time would fail me to enumerate them all, - though every one of their names is worthy of being registered in our remembrance. At the head of these stands Deacon John Tudor, -a man of no less sincere piety than sterling honor ; prudent in affairs, and systematic in all his arrange- ments. His labors for the good of the society, during his own day, were various and indefatigable. Nor was he unmindful of the benefit of those who should come after him. Nearly all the most valuable records of the church and society, during the eighteenth century, were fully and carefully kept by himself. If it were not for his careful and untiring pen, nearly the whole of the ministry of Welsteed, Gray, and Pemberton, would have been to us but little better than a blank. He was also a pecuniary benefactor of the society, and, treasurer for about forty-two years. In the same connection should here be recorded the long and valuable services of Deacon Samuel Parkman, whose loss to this society was deeply lamented, and whose many claims to its respect and gratitude received, at his with- drawal, heartfelt and substantial testimonials .*
I would gladly prolong the catalogue, even to our own day. I would gladly marshal before you the whole pro- cession of the stanch friends and supporters of this house, from its erection to its fall. There is not one of them whose memory I do not bless. There is not one who has * See Appendix N.
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done it good, or prayed for its peace, whom I do not thank and love. And especially do I, on this day, recall with renewed affection and gratitude the images of every one who, since the beginning of my own humble ministry, has lent his aid to the furtherance of God's holy work, or con- tributed to the honor and strength of this beloved congre- gation. The dead live in my remembrance, and the living shall never die from it. I feel their value now. I feel it every day. May God multiply to our society and our church the number of such wise and faithful men, - men who will stand by the altar, and lend their shoulders to the ark, - men who will love the very gates and walls of our Zion, for the sake of God and Christ, to whom our temples are consecrated, and for the precious interests of man's immortal nature and social well-being, of which they are the watch-towers, the nurseries, and the garrisons, from age to age.
And now, my friends, before this ancient landmark is removed out of its place, let us contemplate the lessons which it is calculated to impress upon the thoughtful mind. What changes have taken place around it since it first occupied this spot! what revolutions in this country and in the world! what mutations of opinion, of government, and of social life! what transformations on the face of the earth! what convulsions of empires! But the institutions and ordinances of the gospel still abide unshaken, - often attacked, but ever unharmed; in one period apparently sinking into neglect; at another, renewing their hold upon the reverence and affections of men; always striking their roots deeper into the heart of humanity, and spreading
-
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them wider beneath the foundations of society, from the agitations which heave, and the convulsions that overthrow the things that can be shaken; and always rising serene and majestic from the mists which obscure, and the floods which threaten to overwhelm them. Confidence, calm, entire confidence in their perpetuity, is a lesson which I read, as if it were inscribed in characters of light upon this hoary pile.
Even within our own day, we have seen the popular tendency apparently setting strongly away from the insti- tutions which our fathers loved. But we are also seeing the tide of opinion in our churches flowing back again with a fuller swell. It is a cause of heartfelt satisfaction, that no page in the records of this church affords such numerous evidences of devoted attachment to the ordi- nances of the gospel as the very last, and that similar indications are manifested in nearly all our churches. I believe it admits of demonstration, that at no period since the foundation of this house was laid, has the sabbath been more generally and properly honored, houses of worship more largely frequented, the Lord's Supper more fully attended, and the interests of true religion in a more pro- mising condition in New England, than at the present hour. And why, but in part for the attacks which the institutions of Christianity have in recent times sustained ? Why, but because the very progress of intellectual light, whilst it has dispersed much of the superstition with which they have been surrounded, has displayed more clearly to the illuminated mind their intrinsic advantages and claims ? Why, but for the very reasons which, a few years ago,
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awakened our apprehensions, - the onset of Rationalism, and the mistaken opposition of partial reformers ? We have made trial of what Philosophy and Rationalism can do for our spiritual edification ; and we have seen and felt the end of their perfection. We have proved the word and the power of those who would have persuaded us that the world has outgrown the holy ordinances of the gospel, and would have given us in their stead a religion altogether spiritual and imaginary, -disconnected from the pillars and the corner-stone of the visible church, which God, through his Son, has set up for the landmarks and bul- warks, and centre of union of the faithful, to the end of time. But the voices of these charmers, charm they ever so wisely, though they have beguiled many for a season, have not had the authoritative and divine tone of Him who spake as never man spake, nor can speak. The porter of the heart openeth not the door of its inner sanctuary, save to the true Shepherd. His sheep hear his voice, and follow him ; but a stranger will they not follow, for they know not the voice of strangers. And though for a time they may wander away from the fold of safety, after one calling sweetly from the tops of some cloud-covered mountain, or another piping musically in the enchanted fields of unre- straint; yet, having wandered up and down, and near and far, seeking rest and finding none, -by and by, they will hear the voice of their forsaken Saviour, floating through the shades of night that are gathering thickly around them, as he calls his wanderers home, with that well-known cry of resistless tenderness, " Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest;" and
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their tired feet will turn back to the pale of peace, to go astray no more. And so it will be through the ages that are to come. Ever hath the seeking sparrow found a house, and ever will the wandering swallow find a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of Hosts, my King and my God!
Another lesson is imprinted upon my soul with the image of this venerable structure, a lesson of hope for the generations that are to come, - glad hope for the unfolding destiny of mankind. For what progress has society made since the corner-stone of this edifice was laid! That "more light," of which the sainted Robinson prophesied, as he turned his calm and pure eye towards the glorious visions of the spiritual morning which God showed him to be about to break across the dark waters of the Western Ocean, has already broken upon these latter days. If one of those ancient men of God who watched the rising of these walls were to come back and mingle with ourselves who are about to take them down, what astonishment would strike him dumb! what gratitude, too strong for utterance, would swell in his heart! The battle of political and religious freedom, which he anticipated would by and by come on, and to which he looked forward with such anxious expectations, has already hopefully commenced. The seeds of reforms which he planted have sprung up. The prayers which he breathed for the generations to come, the things which he waited for, but never found, are has- tening to their fulfilment in our day, and beginning to be revealed to our babes. And we and our children, if we are but faithful to the mighty trust of the most glorious
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present which the world has yet seen, may turn our faces forward with a still more hopeful gaze, and expect that, ere the new temple which we are about to rear shall crumble with age, or be exchanged for a more spacious and beautiful house, its turrets shall be gilded by a yet more glorious light, and its worshippers rejoice in a yet more perfect manifestation of the kingdom of Hea- ven on earth.
And now, my friends, the time has come for us to take our last farewell of this beloved house. It is hard to realize that we shall never meet in it again; that the delightful and hallowed hours we have spent under its roof are ended, and shall never be renewed. It is painful to think, that, when another sabbath dawns upon the earth, our eyes shall seek in vain for its glittering spire, and our steps turn slowly and sadly to some other temple. But we have not parted from it without long consideration. We do not leave it without a pious regret.
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