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 5
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" That the only discord among us may be a discord of metal strings, which will only need a little tightening occa- sionally, is the sincere prayer of your friend,
" GEORGE H. DAVIS."
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MEMORIAL VOLUME.
The importance and difficulty of the subject of Sacred Music, in connection with the affairs of a Religious Soci- ety, justify the insertion, here, of the following letter :
From Edward Hamilton, Esquire, Worcester, for several years Conductor of the Singing at Essex Street Church.
" WORCESTER, March 29th, 1859. " REVEREND DOCTOR ADAMS :
" Dear Sir,-Indispensable business engagements at home will deprive me of the pleasure of meeting you at your house, with your parishioners, this evening. It is a most welcome duty to acknowledge the receipt of the kind note with which you have favored me, and to express to you, in return, a grateful sense of the uniform courtesy and kind- ness which you have so unremittingly extended to me during the eight years of my connection with the Essex Street Society. Without making invidious comparisons, I must be allowed to say that never, during a service, in similar rela- tions, extending over a period of nearly twenty-seven years, have I been so uniformly happy in respect to my intercourse with the Pastor. For the first time, I have found the dig- nity and importance of sacred music appreciated, as, in my judgment, it deserves to be; and it is greatly to be desired that this were, elsewhere, more generally the case. When, after a solemn chant by the choir, the clergyman rises and invites the people to commence the worship of God, I feel as if the office of praise was undervalued, and that, in that Society at least, it would not be likely to become a means of edification to the worshipping assembly, however brilliant
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CORRESPONDENCE.
and skilful, as an artistic performance, it might happen to be. I have often, in other places, had reason to regret this indif- ference on the part of the Minister, but never, I am happy to say, at Essex Street.
" For your unwearied efforts to assist me, in every way in your power, to know the tastes and wishes of the people ; for your ever friendly and candid communication of your own preferences, made without any of that spirit of dictation which might, perchance, sometimes wound the self-love of the leader of the choir ; and for your constant care to save me unnecessary trouble and embarrassment, by sudden changes in plan and purpose, I cannot sufficiently thank you. I will only add, that the years passed at Essex Street have been as free from the annoyances peculiar to the con- ductor's office, as any other years of my life. And I am happy to testify, that, if the path has not been altogether one of roses, it is not because you, my dear sir, have failed to strew goodly flowers of courtesy and kindness, in gen- crous profusion, in the way.
" The members of the choir, as well as myself, leave the Essex Street Church, and especially its Pastor, with many regrets. And be assured, sir, that your approbation, so freely and fully bestowed, will go far to allay any appre- hensions which, upon a review of all our acts in this relation, might arise, lest we may, at some times, have come short of our whole duty, as leaders of the praises of the sanctuary.
" With cordial respect and esteem, I subscribe myself, most truly, your obliged and grateful servant,
" EDWARD HAMILTON."
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MEMORIAL VOLUME.
A SILVER FLOWER VASE, from the Young Ladies of Essex Street Society, which, we know, excited ad- miration and gratitude in the recipient, is the ap- propriate receptacle of frequent tributes which gladden the Pastor's Study.
Brief ASistory of the
C Church.
7
BRIEF HISTORY
OF THE
UNION CHURCH,
IN ESSEX STREET, BOSTON, ITS FIRST PASTOR AND DEACONS.
TN January, 1819, a Congregational Church was gath- ered in Boylston Hall, under the pastoral care of Reverend James Sabine.
Individuals among them, - of whom Deacon Nathan Parker and Deacon James Melledge bore the principal part of the expense, with help from others, - erected the Meeting-House in Essex Street, which was dedicated in December, 1819. The Church took the name of " Essex Street Church."
Two years after, difficulties arose between the Pastor and some of the Church, which resulted in the with- drawal of the Pastor with the Church as a body to Boylston Hall. A minority continued to worship in the Essex Street Meeting-House, - the premises being the property of individuals, and chiefly of those who re- mained.
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MEMORIAL VOLUME.
On the twenty-eighth of March, 1822, they requested dismission from the Church in Boylston Hall, and, on the tenth of June, 1822, they were organized as a sepa- rate Church by an Ecclesiastical Council. They soon made application to the Old South and Park Street Churches for a contribution of Members. Nine breth- ren - three of them with their wives - were accordingly deputed from those Churches to strengthen this young Church. An inspection of their names will satisfy those who remember these men, that no Church ever had a more intelligent and efficient band of brethren in its beginning. To mark this fraternal and happy transaction, in which the three Churches were thus engaged, the name of UNION CHURCH was adopted.
ORIGINAL MEMBERS OF UNION CHURCH.
FROM THE ESSEX STREET CHURCH, (BOYLSTON HALL.)
Deacon Nathan Parker,
James Melledge,
Joseph Noyes,
Joseph Morton, Marquis F. Joscelyn,
Mrs. Eunice Joscelyn,
Mrs. Mary Ann Howe, Mrs. Catharine Thayer, Miss Mary Ann Howe, Miss Martha Howe.
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HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.
FROM HALIFAX, MASS. Mr. Marcus Howe, Mrs. Deborah A. Howe.
The following Members, already referred to, were dismissed from their respective Churches to strengthen this Church, and they were received August twenty- sixth, 1822, namely : -
FROM THE CHURCH IN BRAINTREE.
Deacon Josiah Vinton.
FROM THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH, BOSTON.
Deacon John Gulliver, Mrs. Sarah P. Gulliver, John Stimson.
FROM PARK STREET CHURCH, BOSTON.
Andrew Bradshaw,
Aaron Woodman,
John W. Rogers,
Mrs. Martha Rogers,
Daniel Noyes,
Gilman Prichard,
David Hale, Jr., Laura Hale, Ezra Haskell.
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MEMORIAL VOLUME.
REVEREND SAMUEL GREEN,
FIRST PASTOR OF UNION CHURCH.
ON the twenty-sixth of March, 1823, God bestowed upon the Church a great blessing, in sending them the Reverend SAMUEL GREEN, then Pastor of the First Church in Reading, Mass., to be their Pastor.
Of this most excellent man, whose memory is so justly dear to many of us, it were difficult to speak in terms of love and praise which would surpass his merits as an able and faithful man of God. His presence was com- manding, yet conciliatory ; his face combined intelli- gence, firmness, and love ; he had unction in his deliv- ery ; he was thoroughly imbued with the principles of theology as taught in the Westminster Assembly's Cate- chism. There was such sincerity and earnestness in his presentation of the Gospel, that many who did not relish the truths preached by him, were persuaded when he reasoned with them out of the Scriptures ; so that he drew from the ranks of error those whose intelligence, cultivation, and wealth, made them chief pillars in our Evangelical Churches.
He was born in Stoneham, Mass. He was graduated at Harvard College, in 1816. He took a deep interest in a controversy which arose with regard to the Hollis Professorship of Divinity at Harvard College, and wrote
SamGreen.
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HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.
a series of articles in the Boston Recorder, under the signature of " Hollis," which were afterwards gathered into a pamphlet. He also wrote some useful tracts for the American Tract Society, among which was one called " One Hundred Arguments in favor of the Supreme Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Mr. Green labored here from March, 1822, till 1831, when his health failed, in consequence of his exertions during a season of great religious interest. He was released from active duty, and spent some time in Eu- rope ; but the inroads of disease upon his constitution were not abated, and his connection with his people was terminated, at his request, March twenty-sixth, 1834, by the Council which installed the present Pastor. To this Church, and to the city and its vicinity, he was most truly a burning and a shining light.
During his ministry of eleven years, (including the three years of his sickness and absence, in which many who were the fruit of his sowing were gathered.) there were added to this Church,
On Profession of Faith 423
By Letter
177
Total
600
He died November twentieth, 1834. The present Pastor says : " Never did I select a text which seemed to me at the time, or which has since appeared to me more completely adapted to the subject, than the text
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MEMORIAL VOLUME.
of the Sermon which I was requested to preach at his funeral : ' For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith ; and much people was added unto the Lord' The day before he died, he took my hand, and, in a way which can never fade from my memory, he said : 'The blessing of the everlasting God be on you and on your people.'"
DEACON NATHAN PARKER.
NATHAN PARKER, one of the first two Deacons of this Church, and by whose munificence chiefly this house was built, was born in Malden, Mass., 1754. He died in Dorchester, Mass., August eighteenth, 1830, aged seventy-six. He was one of twelve children. He was in the Lexington battle, being then not far from twenty- one years of age. He was also present and assisted at the " Tea Party," in Boston Harbor. This is confirmed by several living witnesses, who heard him relate it. He went to St. Johns, Newfoundland, and there became successful in business and accumulated property. With his friend and partner in business, Deacon Melledge, he went into the woods and cut the timber for a House of Worship," which was occupied by the First Calvinist Church in St. Johns, and during his life he was instru-
* " The two elders erected it in twenty-eight days." - Sketch of the Hist. of Cong. in St. Johns, Neuf., by the Rer. George Schofield, p. 5.
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HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.
mental in building at least twelve meeting-houses, he being in every case the largest contributor. He had seven children, six sons and a daughter. Two of his sons were ministers of the Gospel, Reverend David Parker, formerly settled at Rhinebeck, New York, and Reverend Silas Parker, formerly of Mansfield, O. Both have deceased. They were educated at Yale College. Reverend David Parker went to England, where he married the daughter of the excellent Reverend Doctor Bogue, with whom he and Reverend Doctor Codman of Dorchester for some time studied theology. Mrs. Parker, (daughter of Doctor Bogue), survives, and now lives near Liverpool. Only one child of Deacon Parker is now living, - Judge Jacob Parker, of Ohio.
The wife of Deacon Parker died in Newfoundland in 1797. An account of her is found in the London Evan- gelical Magazine for that year, written by her Pastor, who says, "The subject of the following lines is Mrs. Ann Parker, late wife of Nathan Parker, who has been to me a faithful and judicious friend and fellow-sufferer in all my reproaches for Christ." She admonished her children, in her last hours, of their obligations to love and serve God in view of their having such a father, " whose instructions," she said, " have been so good and his example so proper."
His ancestors left England during the reign of Charles I., "to seek in America liberty of conscience and freedom in worshipping God. He preserved in him-
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MEMORIAL VOLUME.
self all the sentiments and principles, with very much of the manner, of the Pilgrim Fathers."
He was a man of unbounded kindness and liberality, whose purity and sincerity were evinced by remarkable acts towards his own immediate kindred, when there was no room for ostentation nor publicity.
With his friend, Deacon Melledge, he removed to Boston, and they lived near each other for many years, in Charles street. He was at one time Deacon of Park Street Church. The cause of evangelical religion in this city seeming to require another place for public worship, Deacon Parker contributed about thirty-three thousand dollars towards the erection of this house.
Deacon Parker and Deacon Melledge now sleep to- gether in the same tomb, in the cemetery under Park Street Church.
ANNA, the only daughter of Deacon Parker, married Samuel Bulley, of Teignmouth, Devonshire, and after her marriage went to England with her husband, who died there. In 1819 she left England with her children to comfort her aged father in his last years. She joined this Church in 1823, and died in Boston, March twenty- seventh, 1824. She left three daughters and one son, the eldest child, Lucy, having died at the age of seven.
MISS ANNA BULLEY, her second child, now deceased, occupies an honorable and most interesting place among
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HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.
the past members of our Church. Her mother died when Anna was seventeen years of age, leaving to her care four younger children, and their grandfather, Deacon Parker, then advanced in years and infirm. She joined this Church in March 1824, at which time, it will be seen by referring to the list, the Church received other valua- ble and important accessions. She died at the house of Reverend Doctor Codman, in Dorchester, October six- teenth, 1828, at the age of twenty-one. Doctor Codman published a brief account of her. The beautiful history of her life was written and published in England in 1851, entitled, " Anna, The Elder Sister."
Doctor Codman says of her, " Miss B. was remarka- ble for intellect, temper, piety, and personal appearance. Her understanding was singularly clear and even mascu- line ; she had a mind capable of any efforts ; she was distinguished for sound judgment, and I hesitate not to say that there is not, for discretion and propriety, an individual in my own congregation that I would sooner have consulted in a case of difficulty than Anna B."
The following extract from one of her letters will give the reader further information and good impressions respecting her grandfather, Deacon Parker :
" Dear grandfather has had a good deal of suffering ; through much of it he was insensible, and I confess I had not the smallest hope of his recovery. The other evening he called me to him, and said, 'Anna, I have lost much strength and I am declining in health very fast. I may be
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MEMORIAL VOLUME.
called suddenly away from time to eternity. It devolves upon you, as the oldest of your family, to sustain the honor of religion in it. I trust you will be an ornament to it ; may you grow in grace, my dear child, and may God bless you more and more. I trust you will ever walk in the faith of my fathers uncorrupted, believing in the blessed doctrines of the Divinity of Christ, and his atonement; keeping holy the Sabbath, and adopting that system of faith contained in the excellent Assembly's Catechism. My ancestors have, most of them, been men distinguished for piety, and out of respect to them I should have wished to have lain by their side, and been buried in the sepulchres of my fathers; but, owing to the errors which have crept into the church and town of M-, and the present unsettled state of religion among them, I rather wish to be buried in Boston, by the side of your mother. As to my temporal affairs, I leave them without anxiety ; they are, I believe, arranged as far as possible.'" *
DEACON JAMES MELLEDGE.
HE was born in South Street, in this city, in the year 1767, and died in Boston, January twenty-ninth, 1844. When he was eight or nine years old, at the beginning of the Revolution, he was sent to live with his relatives
. The representative of Deacon Parker has presented his cane to be the property of the Senior Deacon of this Church for the time being. Two sons of two deacons in our Boston Churches bear his family name with theirs, viz. NATHANIEL P. WILLIs, and JAMES P. MELLEDGE.
109
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.
in Newfoundland, where his good behavior, industry, and integrity won the esteem of his employers, till at length he was taken into partnership. He was greatly pros- pered in business.
He and Deacon Parker were instrumental in estab- lishing an Evangelical Church in St. Johns. It has already been stated that they went into the woods, cut the timber, and with the aid of others, built a small place of worship. A converted soldier was their first religious teacher .* They maintained a prayer-meeting at five o'clock in the morning. During their efforts to build up their society, they suffered much opposition. Coming to Boston, in 1818, he brought with him the experience and the habits which had made him useful as a Christian in the Provinces. He contributed largely for the erection of this place of worship. Deacon Par- ker and he were the first deacons of this Church.
If any man loved Christ supremely and ardently, it was our friend. The mention of the Saviour's name in ordinary conversation would frequently excite emo- tions in him which failed of utterance. Those Sermons interested and affected him most which exalted Christ. Frequently, after the Sabbath, when Christ had been the special subject of discourse, he has grasped the Pastor's hand with both of his, and while the tears ran down, he would say, " You will hear from these Sermons ; the
* The Rev. John Jones, of Wales. - Schofield's Sketch, &c.
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MEMORIAL VOLUME.
people cannot resist such a Saviour ; 'He is chiefest among ten thousand ; He is altogether lovely.'"
He looked upon himself as nothing ; for the more we exalt the grace of God, the more we sink in our own esteem. His confidence and joy in Christ, therefore, did not awaken spiritual pride. Such was his sense of insufficiency, with regard to his feelings toward Christ compared with the Saviour's character and love, that he sometimes feared he did not love Him, so that in the days of weakness, when asked if he enjoyed the presence of Christ, he would uniformly answer, with every sign of deep humility, " Yes, I trust that I can say, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I wish to love thee." He had a strong sense of the Saviour's person- ality. He loved to pray to Him. His power of speech failed very much the day before he died, and when he was dying he made great efforts to articulate something. Only one word was caught, - his last word ; it was, JESUS.
He lived and acted under the uniform conviction that religion was the principal thing. He made no forced efforts showing that he wished you to feel that he was thinking of religious things, but you could not be with him long without perceiving that religion was uppermost in his thoughts. The providential goodness of God was an unfailing source of conversation with him. He was deeply impressed with the shortness and uncertainty of life, and with the importance of being ready for death at
111
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.
all times. This led him to incessant efforts for the good of others. Soon after the present Pastor's installation here, Deacon Melledge proposed to go with him to every family in the congregation. In these visits, the Pastor became intimately acquainted with him, and formed an attachment to him which never abated. He had a happy faculty of speaking on religious subjects without formal introductions, conversing as freely on these themes as on others. His disposition was most vivacious and cheer- ful, his face a benediction, his manifest regard for those whose good he sought always disarming prejudice, win- ning a way for him to the heart and conscience without conflict. He would make repeated visits to learn if the remarks which he made, the book which he had given, had produced the desired effect. So he " watched for souls." Seldom has one been found in our churches who made it so much his business to seek the salvation of men."
* One incident will illustrate this. A deputation from several South- western Indian Tribes visited Boston in 1837. An immense crowd assem- bled to witness their exhibition of war dances on the Common. Our friend obtained a seat on the box of a coach with the driver, to enjoy the sight. Some one who knew him and saw him sitting with the coachman, said to a friend, "I will venture much that he will talk to that man about his soul." When he came down from his seat and found his friends, one of the first things which he said to them was, with his usual earnest manner, " Really, that man has some very serious thoughts; he thinks a good deal about his soul." The excitement in the streets, his curiosity to see all that was passing, and his being an entire stranger to the man, did not pre- vent him from talking with him about the great salvation. Referring to
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MEMORIAL VOLUME.
It was not to the unconverted only that our friend was faithful. He would mourn over professing Chris- tians who seemed to be negligent, as much as over others : so that his zeal was not a mere endeavor to bring people into the Church. He would speak to men and women about their spiritual condition in a way to bring tears to their eyes, and his words and tones on such occasions are deeply impressed on the memories of some among us. " My dear child," he would say to one who had confessed that he was neglecting secret prayer, " depend upon it this will not do; it will never do ; you ought not to live so; there is no oil in your vessel with your lamp; I am afraid you do not love the Bible ; if you did, you would not live in this poor state." It was interesting to hear him talk with men who did not observe family prayer. He would reason with them as earnestly as though he were persuading them to do some great thing for their temporal advantage. When a church member was overtaken with a fault, no affection- ate, faithful physician or nurse could do more for a patient, than he did to restore such, in the spirit of meekness. He assisted many in their embarrassments, doing it privately and delicately. He advised many as to their children ; and his counsels extended sometimes,
the practice of thus speaking a kind word to individuals on the subject of religion, he would say, " In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand; for thou knowest not which shall prosper, whether this or that; or whether both shall be alike good."
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HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.
in the most suitable and inoffensive way, - coming from an elderly man, - to the subject of personal and domes- tic habits .*
If there be a name by which one might best express the entire impression which this good man has made up- on many hearts, it would be this, -" The Good Church Member." He loved all the Churches of Christ, but he was enthusiastic in promoting the prosperity of the Church where God had assigned him his place of labor. It is true that circumstances in the early history of this Church gave him a peculiar attachment to it, yet his love for it was the offspring of Christian principle and not of accidental circumstances. He had the greatest dislike, and expressed the strongest disapprobation, of roving from one place of worship to another, from love of change, or with no fixed attachments. He used to say to those who thus wandered : " You will never grow ; " those that be planted in the house of the Lord, shall flourish in the courts of our God.' You must take root somewhere if you would grow." t
* Turning back at the close of a visit, he kindly said to one whose dwelling was not in all respects so uniformly tidy as he thought a Chris- tian's dwelling should be, " My dear, religion is cleanliness ; depend upon it, cleanliness is next to godliness."
t The following will illustrate his habit of doing good to all. Mr. R. W. Staton arrived at our wharves from Torquay, England, in 1835, to find occupation here as a master-workman in freestone. Deacon Melledge, having some business on board the vessel, accosted this stranger, and soon found that he was a professor of religion. He exhorted him to be stead- 8
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MEMORIAL VOLUME.
The Pastor seldom met Deacon Melledge in the street but he would produce a paper with a list of persons whom he had visited, and would call attention to one and another who he thought were seriously inclined, or were depressed, or were troubled with doubts. He would make an almost incredible number of calls in a short space of time ; and this, in part, because he came at once to his object in the call, without formality, and without mingling with it miscellaneous things.
As a member of the Committee for conversing with candidates for admission to the Church, he was discern- ing and quick in his judgment ; charitable, as well as faithful. A favorite question with him to a candidate was : " Do you enjoy such parts of the Word of God as the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm ? " adding : "I think a great deal of a spiritual taste." That
fast in the Christian life, and gave him an invitation to worship, the next Sabbath, at our Church. He took the directions for finding the place, but lost them. Walking along to find a place of worship on Sabbath morning, he saw over the door of this house a marble tablet, inscribed, "Erected to the worship of JEHOVAH, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." He felt drawn toward the place, and on coming into the porch, he met Deacon Melledge, who, being Treasurer of the Society, was statedly there to receive appli- cations for pews and seats, and to welcome strangers. Mr. Staton soon became a member of this Church, and was a useful teacher in the Sab- bath School. He died in 1852, honoring his Christian profession in life and death. Several prominent buildings among us witness to his skill as a worker in stone, viz .: the Boston Athenaeum; Bank of Commerce; Shoe and Leather Dealers' Bank; Club House, West Street; Rowe Street Bap- tist Church; First Presbyterian Church, Harrison Avenue; and the Epis- copal Church, Brookline.
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