USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Memorial volume by the Essex street church and society, Boston, to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the installation of their pastor, Nehemiah Adams, D.D > Part 4
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" Sixteen years ago last July, you gave me the right hand of fellowship publicly and privately at the time of iny ordi- nation as Pastor of the Eliot Church. I had not been pre- viously acquainted in person with any minister within fifty or a hundred miles of Boston. Your cordiality and kind- ness did much to make me feel at home at once, and from that time to the present there has been, outside of my own parish, no charm to make the region seem attractive, like the near presence and frequent meeting of dear Brother Adams. I am not aware that for these many years, I have once thought of the city of Boston without thinking of your- self. In regard to our meetings of ministerial and other associations, of the Prudential Committee and the like, one of my first thoughts has been, . Will brother Adams be there?'
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When you have been absent during summer vacations, it has seemed as if the city were out of town ; and . I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother.' How many times have I been to you for counsel, and never without being aided and refreshed ! Your sympathy has been very precious to me, and it has shown itself in seasons of sorrow and of joy. You recollect it was said of Augus- tine and his friend Alippous, that they were Sanguine Christi conglutinati. A friendship so cemented subsists, I trust, between us.
"I need not tell you, dear brother, that my sympathies have gone out warmly toward you in the repeated and sore trials of these years, - trials domestic and public ; while in the covenant blessings to your household, and in your suc- cesses as Pastor and author I have rejoiced. yea, and will rejoice. Your words and example have done much to incite and cheer me. God grant that my path may never lie far and long from yours.
" In that path be thou near me, and while I aspire, Thou shalt calm all the thoughts that repine; One in blood, in belief, one in hope and desire, And the pinions that waft me are thine.
" In the desert that leads to the grave and its rest, Is thy friendship a moistening shower ; In the tempests which life's rugged pathway molest, Is that friendship a sheltering bower."
" Till our Lord shall come, and ever after,
" Your affectionate friend and brother," &c.
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From Rev. Joseph Tracy, Boston.
" I still remember my connection with you as a precious privilege, and I have never yet been able to feel that it had wholly ceased. I send this testimony of my affection and respect for
" THE PASTOR, 'Who noble ends by noble means attains,' and who steadfastly refrains from using means that are not noble ; never ' following a multitude,' nor suffering himself to be driven by a multitude, to 'do evil that good may come.' "
From Silas Aiken, D.D., Rutland, Vt.
" There is no one of my ministerial brethren with whom I have been on terms of greater intimacy, and taken sweeter counsel, and for whom I cherish a higher regard, than your beloved Pastor. The frequent and confiding intercourse of the twelve years that I was in Boston never knew an inter- ruption. The service he has rendered to the cause of evan- gelical truth and piety, in your city and elsewhere, is of a value not easily computed. He has been a burning and a shining light, and long may the favor of Providence permit you to rejoice in his light."
From A. W. McClure, D.D., Quincy, Ill.
" Long and intimately as I have known him, there is no man living who stands higher in my love and reverence than your Pastor. There is no place this side of heaven where I could wish to be more than in your company, on ' the twenty-fifth anniversary of his settlement.' As I think
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of you on that joyful occasion, I shall feel as Bunyan did, when he saw 'the shining ones,' and 'wished himself among them.' If my severe ailments did not forbid it, I might well be there, as I am myself an Essex Street boy ; for the old brick house in which I was born still stands at the corner of Essex and Kingston streets.
"May he live to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of his settlement in Essex Street Church, amid just such proofs as he is now receiving of the unchanging confidence and affec- tion of his people."
From E. L. Cleaveland, D.D., New Haven, Conn.
" It would give me pleasure to add my humble tribute of respect to that excellent man who has served you so long, so ably, and so faithfully in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I honor Doctor Adams for the eminent example he presents of ministerial usefulness, of steadfast adherence to the faith, of wise and firm resistance to radical and dangerous inno- vation, and of patient forbearance under the stormy assault of popular excitement. The moral courage, the heroic spirit of a true Christian conservative in days like these, are worthy of special praise."
From Henry Wilkes, D.D., Montreal.
" Such is my high regard for Doctor Adams, and such my estimate of the Church and Congregation under his pastoral care, that, had I been within reasonable distance of your city, I should certainly have availed myself of your kind- ness."
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From Austin Phelps, D.D., Andover.
" What a place that pulpit must be to you ! The most of us must look up to you as a miracle of grace, in being kept so long in one line of pastoral service. I remember when I first saw you ; you looked to me just as you do now. I can- not persuade myself that it is seventeen years ago, this week. I trust you have many years before you in that pul- pit, and many souls that shall yet be given to you within those walls."
From the Same, to the Committee.
" I learned very early in my own ministry to esteem the fraternal offices of your Pastor, and I am still instructed by his writings. You do not need to be told of the multitudes who rejoice with you in the success of his labors, and with him in the appreciation of them by a grateful people. To many of us, it is like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land to see in the Essex Street pulpit a representative of permanence in the pastoral office in the City of Boston."
From W. G. T. Shedd, D.D., Andover.
" I beg to join my congratulations with those of the Chris- tian public generally upon a union of such long continuance, and one that illustrates in such an eminent degree the worth of culture, character, and professional fidelity in the Pastor, and of affection and steadfastness in the People."
From Ray Palmer, D.D., Albany, N. Y.
"I united with Park Street Church during the great
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revival of 1822-3, in the course of which I heard often the earnest and devoted GREEN, then Pastor of your Church. I knew some of its leading Members. I have rejoiced to know that you were among the most prosperous of the tribes of Israel. I have had a kind and fraternal acquaint- ance with your gifted, faithful, and widely-honored Pastor for many years. I should be glad to unite with you in thanksgiving for what he has been enabled to do for the Church at large while specially ministering to you."
From John Richards, D.D., Hanover, N. H.
"I send my congratulations to Doctor Adams for the Chris- tian independence he has manifested in maintaining impor- tant principles amid a shower of public odium ; and in draw- ing from Mr. Theodore Parker a public avowal of his senti- ments, which cannot but redound to the best interests of true religion and the well-being of society." [The allusion here is to Mr. Parker's written avowal to Doctor Adams of the belief that Christ taught the doctrine of future endless punishment. See "Scriptural Argument," &c., by Doctor Adams, in the volume called " The Great Concern."]
From Rev. J. P. Gulliver, Norwich, Conn.
" Although my connection with it extended only over the period of my childhood, I retain vivid and delightful recollections of the Essex Street Church, and of those who were then connected with it. The countenance and voice of that most excellent man, the Reverend Samuel Green, are as fresh in my memory as though I had seen him yesterday. A very deep impression was made upon my mind by his 6
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appearance and words at the Communion Table ; and I have often, in the course of my ministry, taken occasion to refer to the benefit I then received, as an argument to induce parents to permit their children to witness that ordinance. I remember, also, the vestry over the vestibule ; the morn- ing prayer-meetings, the Sabbath School, of which the late David Hall was Superintendent, and the meetings for in- quiry, - all held in that room. I remember the meetings of the Maternal Association. The pleasant countenances and gentle words of those mothers left impressions that will never be effaced.
" Your present honored Pastor entered upon his work after I had left home to prepare for College. But his voice has been familiar to me from my earliest remembrance ; and I can heartily enter into the spirit which prompts you to gather around him with so much affection and respect on this joyous occasion."
From Rev. Constantine Blodgett, Pawtucket, R. I.
" It would afford me great pleasure to be present, that I might testify my high personal regard for the Pastor, and my hearty approval of the conservative and Christian course of the Essex Street Church, over which he has so success- fully presided."
From Rev. Erastus Maltby, Taunton.
"In these days of change, such an era in the ministry seems to demand some special recognition, and you do well in calling attention to that which, I fear, is fast be- coming obsolete in our churches."
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From Rev. Horace James, Worcester.
" May you add yet another twenty-five years to the sum of your ministerial labors. And especially may more such books of instruction and comfort as " Agnes and the Little Key," and " Bertha and her Baptism," fall from your pen. to quicken the faith of the Church respecting those themes, around which are clustered the hopes of the world."
From Rev. A. R. Baker, West Needham.
" I should gladly avail myself of an opportunity to show the respect which I feel for a church that has been steadfast in a relation to the same Pastor a quarter of a century, and that, too, in troublous times and in a place far famed as . the city of notions,' - a respect second only to that which I feel for your Pastor himself, an able defender of the faith once delivered to the saints, who during this long period has stood up like a mountain of granite in a stormy sea."
From Rev. J. H. Means, Dorchester.
" Will you permit me most heartily to congratulate you on the occasion. The earliest sermon which I can distinctly remember was one which you preached at the Old South when I was quite a boy, and I think I may add that the few other sermons of yours which I have been permitted to hear have each left a definite impression.
" May your semi-jubilee so cheer you, that you shall gird yourself with new strength for the many years of useful- ness which I trust remain."
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From George W. Hosmer, D.D., (College Classmate,) Buffalo, N. Y.
" DEAR CLASSMATE :
"I should very much enjoy being near you in hours so full of interest to you. Please accept my cordial sympathy with the spirit that prompts you to remember your Class- mates in the great days of your life. I am happy that you have so much to remember and to enjoy in the success and usefulness of your life."
From Cazneau Palfrey, D.D., (College Classmate,) Belfast, Me.
" I heartily congratulate you on all the happy circum- stances of such an interesting occasion. To have been per- mitted to dwell for a quarter of a century among the same people, is a privilege and blessing that can be appreciated only by one whom Providence has led through frequent changes. My last letter to you was dated from Cambridge, and addressed to Andover. The interval covers the main portion of our actual lives. Ever truly your friend and brother," &c.
From William M. Russell, M.D., (College Classmate,) Barre. " DEAR CLASSMATE :
" In these days of change, free-thinking, and radicalism, it is a great success to be able to commemorate a settlement over a people in the character of a Gospel Minister of a quarter of a century. To be able to achieve such a success, one must have some sterling qualities of virtue and charac- ter, something more than mere rhetorical display ; some
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Christian, life-inspiring goodness, that rises above and lives down political strifes and religious controversies.
" Although my views of Christianity differ from those held by the popular sect, I cannot shut my eyes to personal worth, nor withhold the meed of praise due to devotion to the cause of our common Redeemer, to faithfulness in one's calling, and to consisteney in holding to one's convictions of truth and right."
From William H. Fowle, A. M., (College Classmate,) Alexan- dria, D. C.
" I do not know when I have been more gratified than at the receipt, a few days ago, of a ' Classmate Ticket' to the commemoration of your Twenty-Fifth Anniversary. Your labors in the cause of Christ have not been unnoticed by me, and, though not a member of the same communion, not unappreciated. Yours, in the bonds of Christian love," &c.
From Rev. Robert Southgate, (Andover Classmate,) Ipswich.
" It would give me great pleasure to attend, both because of the interest connected with the exercises of the occasion, and also because of my high regard for Doctor Adams as an old-time classmate in theological study, and a true champion in the ministry since, for the truth of God."
From Rev. Caleb Kimball, (Andover Classmate - now for many years blind,) Medway.
" It would afford me peculiar gratification to be present at your contemplated social gathering, and look back with you upon all the way in which God in his merciful and
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gracious Providence has led you for a quarter of a century. It is certainly a matter of devout thanksgiving that your life and health have been spared so long amidst such varied and exhausting labors ; and that, during a period when min- isters have been often compelled to change their fields of labor, you have been able to sustain so long, and with so much ability and success, your present pastorate. The study and labor it has cost you, and the anxieties experienced in being the successor of such a holy man and able preacher as Reverend Samuel Green, are fully known only to your- self. What a vast amount of truth has been communicated in the twenty-five hundred sermons preached to your people during your ministry ! How many souls led to Christ ! How important and various the instructions communicated at weekly meetings, in pastoral labors, and in visits to the sick and the dying. I rejoice, too, in the uniform harmony and friendly feeling which has ever existed between you and your people ; in their high appreciation of your ministerial services ; in the ample support so cheerfully given, and in the large amount contributed by them to send that precious Gospel, which they so highly prize, to the dark and destitute portions of the world. These are some of the considerations which will cluster around and render the meeting a joyful occasion.
" Although I am sightless, and have been unable to read for upwards of thirty years, allow me to say that I have heard read with pleasure and profit most of your printed sermons ; and, were I able, would gladly possess and peruse every printed page which has proceeded from your pen.
" On account of feeble health, with which I have been
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afflicted for four years, I shall be unable to be present at the meeting in prospect ; but I hope to spend a portion of the day and evening in prayer to God that the services of the occasion may leave a deep and lasting impression on the minds of all who may enjoy them."
From Rev. Martin M. Post, (Andover Classmate,) Logansport, Indiana.
" Forbidden to be present, I am, in sympathy, with the projected occasion, and could very heartily partake of testi- monies of honor and esteem to Doctor Adams, and of thank- fulness to God for continuing him with you so many years, and with eminent advantage not only to the Essex Street Society and to Boston, but also to the interests of Christ's Kingdom throughout the world.
" Thirty years ago, well nigh, we sung at Andover our ' Parting Hymn,' an offering of Brother Adams's Muse. Since then, my position of a pioneer, where I now am. remote, has allowed me very rarely a glimpse of my old Classmate's person. But I have been a gratified observer of that chaste and benignant influence, and that substantial usefulness, steadily growing and ripening, of which the early elements of his character gave promise.
" Long may He who walketh in the midst of the golden candlesticks, and holdeth the stars of the Churches in His right hand, preserve to you the light of your beloved Pastor, even as one who turns many to righteousness, and shall shine as the stars for ever and ever."
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From Rev. S. H. Keeler, (Andover Classmate,) Calais, Me.
"It is the Anniversary not only of a Classmate but of one for whom I have ever cherished the highest esteem and the most fraternal regard. Cordially do I bless God, and congratulate both you and your people, my brother, in view of your protracted and successful ministry with your present charge. Yours has been a responsible post, and well has the grace of God enabled you to fill it."
From William Adams, D.D., New York.
" Compelled by special engagements to remain at home, I cannot forbear saying a word by way of expressing my admiration of your career in the Christian ministry. Our acquaintance began in the Seminary. Your influence over me, by your fine taste and gentle ways, began when I first heard you speak. We were afterwards settled near each other. In affliction, I was 'before you.' I have ad- mired your course, and feel greatly indebted to your exam- ple and your pen. You have had special trials of feeling within a few years past, not the less severe because unde- served. You will not only survive the aspersions of the unkind and the fanatical, but will deserve a larger honor because of them. Pardon me if I quote, in this connection, the words of Robert Hall : 'Distinguished merit will always rise superior to opposition, and draw lustre from reproach. The vapors which gather round the rising sun, and follow it in its course, seldom fail at the close of it to form a magni- ficent theatre for its reception, and to invest with variegated
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tints and with a softened effulgence the luminary which they cannot hide.'"
From William A. Stearns, D.D., President of Amherst College.
" What memories will this, your twenty-fifth anniversary recall ! - how many happy scenes and events -how many sad hours of bereavement and loneliness, and of official and personal trials. Many, many who were interested in your settlement have passed away ; - brethren and fathers in the ministry, fellow communicants at the table of Christ, respect- ed associates and dear old friends gone, - forever gone. You have had your trials, my brother, but after all few men in the ministry have been so greatly blessed. God has sig- nally crowned your endeavors and given you decided suc- cess. Now, though none of us have any thing but Christ to glory in, I do rejoice that he has made use of your agency, by your preaching, and your books, in converting sinners and greatly edifying the Church. It is a glorious work, this of the ministry. No employment on earth can compare with it. I trust God will give you yet many years to serve him in it; and though with you, as with me, the sun has crossed the meridian, it is my prayer for you that it may have a long and cloudless afternoon, and a glorious going down."
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It is consonant with the general tone of the Anni- versary Exercises that the highly esteemed " SCHOOL- MASTER," who added so much to their interest, should now be heard, on "review."
From Hon. H. K. Oliver, Lawrence.
" MAYOR'S OFFICE, Lawrence, April 5th, 1859. " REV. N. ADAMS, D.D., Boston :
" My Dear Sir, - Your very kind and gratifying note of the 2d inst. is at hand, and I thank you very earnestly and sincerely for its hearty tone and reciprocity. I assure you that I felt truly delighted that I was remembered by you in connection with your ' silver ceremonial,' and that I was privileged to be with you and your friends. Had I had a premonition of being called upon to say anything, I could have - as I have since done - recalled several interesting reminiscences connected with your boyhood and school-life. Your good chairman caught me 'non paratum,' and I felt awkward and confused. But if you and your friends are satisfied - si tu et amici tui contenti sitis, ego non minus.
"This matter of love and of friendship, - I mean when they are full of life and of vigor, - when they are of that sort that time neither wilts nor weakens, - that worldly interests do not chill -' perpetua viventes jurenta,' - that flourish in undying youth - that dilate the heart whenever the eye of the body catches a glance of the friend's face, or the eye of the mind recalls his absent features and form, - this matter of love and of friendship, of such sort, has always seemed to possess a sort of celestial origin and to
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be a spark of the divine mind kindling the dull fires and waking the ' sopitos cineres' of our poor mortality. I have always, from earliest boyhood, felt a yearning towards sym- pathetic and congenial hearts, and some few such I have en- joyed. Yet over most of them the grave has closed, though, thank God, with but a feeble bolt, which the first blast of the angel's trump of summons shall tear open, as it were but of straw. These men, the love of the world and the desire, the greed of gain, had not solidified. Though here, and of earth, their hopes, their aspirations, their certain and immutable faith were beyond earth, and in Heaven. With them, friendship was, as says Cicero, ' Non de vulgari aut de mediocri - sed de vera et perfecta qualis est corum, qui pauci nominantur, fuit. Secundas res splendidiores, et ad- versas leviores, facit talis amicitia.'
" Among these loved men, it has been a great satisfaction to me, to find those who, in their boyhood, were my pupils. For it is a good testimony in my behalf, that my instruction and my intercourse with them profited both head and heart. You, and R ****** , and B ****** , and K *** , and C ****** , et multi alii, were such, and as I meet them in the whirr and whirl of the world, a gleam of sunshine and of comfort darts through the cloud under which I have very often journeyed and do now journey. This sort of feeling, first springing up in youth, when the heart is tender and warm, - for age gen- erates no permanent loves, - keeps us young and sympathet- ic, and ready with deed and word to serve a friend, - . bond spe prælucet in posterum, nec debilitari animos aut cadere patitur.' You see that some vestiges of Cicero's beautiful treatise, ' De Amicitia,' still linger in my memory and drop
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from my pen. But where am I? The last page is reached and I must close. God bless us both, pardon our offences, (are they not many ?) and permit us an unbroken friendship here, to be enlarged, purified, and 'of all earthly drossness quit,' and rendered immeasurably and eternally holy in His own kingdom beyond the tomb.
" Sic vult et sic precatur, amicus tuus adhuc, ut antehac, et posthac in secula seculorum.
H. K. OLIVER."
The Pastor has seen fit to insist, in his turn, upon overruling the Committee ; and he takes the responsi- bility, while we insert, at his direction, the following let- ters :
" BOSTON, March 27th, 1859. " REVEREND NEHEMIAH ADAMS, D.D. :
" Dear Sir,-In the name and on the behalf of numerous friends of your Church and Society, who desire to improve the present interesting occasion of the commemoration of the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of your Settlement as our Pastor and Teacher, to bear testimony to the faithfulness of your ministerial labors, to the firmness and consistency of your character as a Minister and a man, and to assure you of our appreciation of your untiring labors for the spiritual benefit of ourselves and our families, and as a token of our affection, and a pledge of our support and aid, in all your efforts for the advancement of Christ's Kingdom on the
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earth,-we ask your acceptance of the inclosed check for eighteen hundred dollars.
" Most affectionately yours in our Lord Jesus Christ,
" CHARLES SCUDDER,
" In behalf of himself and other Contributors."
" BOSTON, March 26th, 1859. " DEAR SIR :
" By the bearer of this note I send you a new Seven- Octave Piano, which I shall be pleased to have you accept in place of your old Six Octave which you now have, if an exchange will be agreeable to you. And if the additional strings of the new scale, as they vibrate, shall add one note of joy and pleasure to your heart, may you also be reminded of the grateful love and esteem of myself and family to you, as a kind friend and faithful Pastor.
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