USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Metropolitan Boston; a modern history; Volume III > Part 21
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other nationalities, both in the Canadian conflicts and in the commer- cial connections abroad, had a liberalizing influence.
Jonathan Mayhew and the West Church-The earliest signs of dissent from the normal Calvinistic faith of the Congregational churches in Bos- ton were seen in connection with the settlement of Rev. Jonathan Mayhew as pastor of the West Church in 1747. He was a man of genius and in- fluence, the most effective champion of liberalism in his day. He made open confession of his departure from Orthodoxy both in the pulpit and press, and as a result was regarded as a "heretic" and was refused the support of the Boston ministry at his ordination. This early "champion of Unitarianism" died in 1766 before he could unite the liberal forces in the Congregational churches. It was not until 1785 that an openly avowed Unitarian Church was established in the town, this being the historic King's Chapel, which had been the home of the first Episcopal organization in New England. Mr. James Freeman was the pastor of this church, and was denied recognition by the Episcopacy and the most of the Congregationalists ; nevertheless, the pulpits of churches of Bos- ton were nearly all filled by those who were Arminian in faith (the title Unitarian being of later application) and it is to be supposed, preached to societies that were Unitarian in belief. It is said that only one of the nine ministers of the Congregationalists was orthodox, and but one in twenty in Plymouth county. There was no break with the Congrega- tional order, as yet, possibly because the Bostonians were not inclined to ally themselves, even in name, with the English Unitarians, and the advantages of connection with an established church were too many to be thrown aside.
An uneasy neutrality was maintained through this early period. There were differences of opinion, but they were not emphasized. Min- isters of both parties exchanged pulpits, sat together on church councils and united in ordinations and other public services. The first hint of a break in these conditions came, in 1808, when Henry Ware was ap- pointed the Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard College. He was
one of the leading Unitarians, and his appointment was followed by four others within the next two years that made Harvard the center of Uni- tarianism in America. There can be little doubt that these appointments led to the founding of Andover Theological Seminary, and the establish- ment of the Park Street Church-"the former destined to furnish earnest antagonists of the Boston Unitarianism; the latter designed to check its ascendency and to counteract its influence." Pulpit exchanges were practically done away with after 1819, and had been limited for many years.
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The "Boston Religion"-Quoting from a sketch by Katherine Gibbs Allen in "Some Historic Churches of Boston :"
Two sharp shocks now broke the uneasy truce so studiously kept. The first was the publication of Belsham's "Life of Lindsey," which in its chapter on "American Unitar- ianism" gave correspondence between New England liberals and English Unitarians, showing a much closer alliance between the two movements than had been admitted. 'The liberals were now compelled to take the name Unitarian. Which they did with reluctance, but the immediate effect of this step was to awaken in them a sense of courage and of strength.
The second was the decision rendered by the Supreme Court of Massachusetts in 1820, that "when the majority of the members of a Congregational church shall separate from the majority of the parish, the members who remain, although a minority, consti- tute the church in such parish, and retain the rights and property belonging thereto." This decision was bitterly resented for it seemed to lend the hand of the law to help the liberal party.
The general results of this period are best given in the words of Lyman Beecher, who came to Park Street Church in 1823 to strengthen the cause of orthodoxy. He writes : "All the literary men of Massachusetts were Unitarian; all the trustees and professors of Harvard College were Unitarian; all the elite of wealth and fashion crowded Unitarian Church; all the judges on the bench were Unitarians, giving decisions by which the peculiar features of church organization so carefully ordered by the Pilgrim Fathers had been nullified, and all the power had passed into the hands of the congregation."
At the installation of Jared Sparks in Baltimore in 1819, Channing preached his epoch-making sermon which clarified the Unitarian position and showed them exactly where they stood. He dealt with the unreason of the Trinity, the confusion of Christ's double nature, the conflict of justice and mercy in the Divine nature, the moral enormity of the Atonement, and the true nature of salvation as being a moral or spiritual condition of the soul. It gave no positive doctrine. The great impression it made was not on account of its argument but on account of its positive and aggressive tone and its total lack of apology. Thenceforth it became the keynote for Unitarianism.
From this time on, the break between Unitarian and Trinitarian was gradually widen- ing. The orthodox position was greatly strengthened by the coming of Lyman Beecher to "Brimstone Corner" and by the years of orthodox revival which followed. But the Unitarians were well satisfied with the undisputed social and political ascendency they possessed and which was so well described by Dr. Beecher.
Channing's theology was not doctrinal, but rather a law of life making character a fundamental requirement. It had a particular appeal for the best minds of New England and those who embraced it made a group which was and is the glory of Boston. The names of Adams, Quincy, Bigelow, Shaw, Lowell, Prescott, Holmes, Howe, Longfellow, Mann, Dix, and Tuckerman are names of which our church is justly proud. They show perhaps, says Mr. Allen, not so much the power of the Unitarian faith as the soil and atmosphere in which it thrived.
In 1832, when the heat of the first controversy was dying out, came the first open break with the old congregational order. Ralph Waldo Emerson, who had been three years pastor of the Second Church, resigned his charge on the refusal of the church to discontinue the Communion Service or to radically change it. In his farewell sermon, he showed that he did not object to the service as a service, but that he did object to its being considered a sacrament and that he did object to its customary form. This address was a shock even to many Unitarians to whom the service was precious and by whom it was accepted without question. Six years later, he delivered the most celebrated and influ-
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ential of all his public discourses to the graduating class of the Harvard Divinity School. "This," says Joseph Henry Allen, "was the frankest challenge ever yet thrown down to the traditional views of the Divine Nature, Jesus, Christianity, or the office of the church ; and it proved the melodious, effective prelude to a conflict of opinion that has far more deeply than any other stirred the current of religious thought."
Controversy was now in the air and a great discussion began, largely in print. This, though open to the public, was mostly to scholars, critics, and students of theology. But in 1841, at another ordination, that of the Rev. Charles C. Shackford, of South Boston, Theodore Parker preached another epoch-making sermon when he preached on "The Transient and Permanent in Christianity." This brought the most radical questions of critical theology directly before the popular mind, and appealed them to popular judg- ment, and withal, confidently and religiously. The miracles of Jesus were brought to the level of an ordinary magician's and his virgin birth was so compared to that of Hercules, son of Jove.
The effect of this address was an immediate rending of the ranks of Unitarians themselves. "Now we have a Unitarian orthodoxy," was Channing's comment in antici- pation of the debate which followed.
To the work of tearing down the supernatural and of preaching "pure religion," as he saw it, Theodore Parker gave the next fifteen years of his life and even that life itself. The angry prejudice aroused by his frank and sometimes needless affronts pushed him into a prominence and influence that no denominational boundaries could permit. Channing was in doubt whether to call Parker a Christian, though he esteemed him as a friend.
The great upheaval within Unitarianism itself, which Parker brought about, did not, as was expected, divide the body, but it did cause the withdrawal of many younger and brighter minds and it weakened the unity and consequent strength of the body. It freed Unitarianism forever, however, from bondage to old ideas and traditions.
With the death of Parker, the dramatic and picturesque in the history of Unitarian- ism in New England passes.
A great change in Unitarian thought was brought about by the study of the writings of Darwin and Spencer and by the philosophical writings of Frederick Henry Hedge.
But Unitarianism has always been a movement towards a larger intellectual and reli- gious life, free from all restraints imposed upon it by doctrinal systems, and many of its followers have been unwilling to press its acceptance upon others. So it has come about that this work has often been done by those who have come to it in maturity and from other communions. These have felt, more than those to whom it was a birthright, the value of a freedom purchased sometimes at a great price.
Speaking of present-day Unitarianism, Rev. O. B. Frothingham says: "The new Unitarianism is neither sentimental nor transcendental nor traditional. It calls itself Unitarian simply because that name suggests freedom and breadth and progress and elasticity and joy. Another name might do as well, perhaps be more accurately descrip- tive. But no other would be so impressive, or on the whole so honorable."
Present Status of Unitarian Churches-The Unitarian churches in Boston have but little more than half of the numerical strength of fifty years ago, but are still numerous and prosperous. The growth of the denomination was checked somewhat by the various controversies in which parties have engaged, by the absence of authoritative standards of orthodoxy, and by the wide divergence of the opinions held by its pas- torate. "Whether such a standard is in itself desirable, or whether
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greater unanimity of belief is attainable without a sacrifice of independ- ent thought, it is not the province of history to determine or consider." There were. in 1927, seventeen Congregational Unitarian churches in Boston, with headquarters at 16 Beacon Street. Nearly all of these are of ancient origin and historic in character. Several are combinations of two or more societies ; some are churches organized to care for part of a congregation that came from one of the churches crowded out of its early location by the change in the type of residents. A few are churches. founded in sections of the city of recent development residentially. Much of the history of the earlier founded churches can be found in Chapter III of this work.
The present seventeen Unitarian churches with the dates of their establishment follows. The date of the founding of the Arlington Street, better known as the Federal Street Church, is variously given as 1727, 1729, and 1739. It was started by a group of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, and became Congregational in 1786. William Ellery Channing, called to the pastorate of this church influenced its change to the Unitarian polity in 1803. Bulfinch Place Church was established in 1826, through the efforts of Doctor Joseph Tuckerman, the founder of the Ministry at Large. In addition to the remarkable work of Doctor Tuckerman. it is noteworthy that for the last eighty years, the pastorate has been in the hands of two men, the Reverend Samuel H. Winkley from 1846 to 1896, and the present pastor, Christopher P. Eliot, since then.
The First Church in Boston, founded in 1630, needs no further word here. The First in Roxbury, dates but a few months after the First in Boston, but in the next year. 1631. It is the pride of its members that for nearly three centuries, services of worship have been maintained in this one spot. The present ancient edifice on Eliot Square is thought by many to be the finest type of Puritan meetinghouse now left in New England. The First Church in Dorchester antedates the founding of Boston slightly, although the date of its establishment is given as 1630. The Third Church in Dorchester was organized in 1813: Christ Church of Dorchester is of recent origin. King's Chapel dates from 1689 as Episcopal, and from 1749 as Unitarian. The Second Church in Boston, was founded in 1640.
The First Parish of West Roxbury, an offshoot of the First in Rox- bury, was formally set up in 1712, and is best known as Theodore Park- er's Church. The First Church in Brighton was founded in 1730. its first settled pastor coming in 1783. The Hawes Unitarian Congrega- tional Church of South Boston is the successor of two bearing almost the same name, the earliest dating from 1819. The Unitarian Church of Our Father, in East Boston succeeded a church of I845.
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In 1841, James Freeman Clarke wrote to his sister, "I agree with those who think it a good time to form a new congregation in Boston." The Church of the Disciples was the result, in the same year, of his con- viction. The newly organized church after meeting in various places, eventually secured the Freeman Place Chapel on Beacon Hill in 1843. This was sold while Mr. Clarke was ill, and the society had no regular church edifice until 1855, when it purchased the Indiana Place Chapel in 1855. The next removal was to West Brookline Street, 1868, where Mr. Clarke preached the remaining nineteen years of his life. The last service in Brookline Street was held June 25, 1905, removal then being made to the present Peterborough Street building, which was dedicated on November 19, 1905.
Unitarian Organizations-Unitarianism although called the "Boston Religion," and having made its greatest expansion in the city, is far larger than a local organization. Its headquarters always have been in Boston, both for missionary and other activities. The American Unitarian As- sociation was founded in 1825 and incorporated in 1847; its field of work is the country at large. The Unitarian Sunday School Society, insti- tuted in 1827, and reorganized in 1854, is what its name implies. The Sunday school publications of the denomination are edited and published in Boston. The Ministerial Conference was established in 1819; the Ministerial Union, organized in 1864, had for its purpose the promotion of "ministerial fellowship, to welcome and assist those entering the lib- eral ministry, and to protect the profession and parishes from incom- petent and unworthy men, and to assist in the diffusion of knowledge." The Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, Piety and Charity was incorporated in 1805; the Massachusetts Missionary Society was instituted in 1806 to aid feeble parishes in supporting preaching ; and the Society for the Promotion of Theological Education was formed in 1831 ; and the Society for the Relief of Aged and Destitute Clergymen was formed in 1848 and incorporated in 1850. All these, as may be seen, were established in the period when the Unitarian Church was under fire, and were means provided for self-protection as well as for the carry- ing on of the warfare, if such a word may be used, into the enemy's coun- try. They played their parts, and some have passed from the stage.
Other of the many organizations of the church are: The Fraternity of the Churches of Boston, organized in 1834 and incorporated in 1839; the Children's Mission to the Children of the Destitute in the City of Boston, instituted in 1849, and incorporated in 1864; the Industrial School for Girls, Dorchester District, organized in 1853 and incorporated the next year; Temporary Home for the Destitute, established in 1847 and incorporated in 1852; the Home for Aged Colored Women, founded
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in 1860. The most of these groups well illustrate the charitable interests of the Unitarians which have always been many and notable.
Worthy of more than a small paragraph, is the "Christian Register," the principal paper-the organ of the denomination-which has a history covering more than a century. It was, in order of time, the fourth re- ligious newspaper to be established in the city, being founded in 1821 by David Reed, who continued its publication until 1865, when it passed into the hands of a corporation known as the Christian Register Associa- tion. It has had the editorial services of men of distinguished reputa- tion, and from the first, its columns were enriched by contributions from eminent clergymen and laymen of the Unitarian Church. Mr. Reed had the advice and cooperation of such men as William Ellery Channing, Henry Ware, Jr., and Professor Andrews Norton. A rather unique fact in connection with the "Register" is that it was probably the first religious newspaper in the world which used the telegraph for the trans- mission of news and reports of meetings. The "Christian Register" is but one of many publications which have been issued by the Unitarian press. One can go back to 1804, if one pleases, and find the Unitarian "Monthly Anthology," a literary and theological magazine put out by
the younger scholars and divines of the denomination. After eight years, this was succeeded by the "General Repository and Review." In 1813, Noah Webster began the editorship of the "Christian Disciple" which in 1824 was virtually merged into the "Christian Examiner," and for forty-five years was issued by a noteworthy succession of brilliant editors. Its place was taken, in part, by the "Unitarian Review."
The Baptist Churches-The leading Protestant denomination, nu- merically, is the Baptist, and, next after the Puritan Church, it is the oldest, the First Baptist Church having been founded in 1665. The sec- ond was established in 1743, but in spite of the earliness of organization, the Baptists were weak in numbers and influence after a century and a quarter. In 1784, there were but 201 professing Baptists in Boston and no third church was formed until the next century. The reasons for this lack of growth have been hinted in a preceding chapter. It is enough to state here in the words of another, "the soil was preoccupied; that legislation was adverse to the introduction of progress of Baptist prin- ciples ; and that there was a strong public sentiment in opposition to any religious beliefs of organizations differing from those of the 'standing order.'" The impression left by the mention of figures of 1784, must be influenced by the statement that in 1795, the Baptists in Boston had more than doubled in number (425). In 1801, the First Baptist Church of Charlestown was established; in 1805, the Independent; in 1807 the Charles Street, or Third; and in 1817 were organized the First Cam- bridge and the Arlington.
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For a period extending over nearly a century, there was organ- ized in Boston or the near suburbs, an average of a church every other year. There have been casualties among these organizations, but the mortality has been relatively small when conditions brought about by the city's growth are considered. The names of the Baptist churches and the dates of their establishment which have an organization formed in the last century are: Dudley Street, Roxbury, 1821; Clarendon Street, 1827; Second Cambridge, 1827; Brookline, 1828; South Baptist, South Boston, 1828; North Baptist (disbanded in 1840), 1835; First Chelsea, 1836; Neponset Avenue, Dorchester, 1837; Harvard Street, 1839; Tremont Street, 1839; Bowdoin Square, 1840; Jamaica Plain, 1842; Old Cambridge, 1844; Union Church, 1844; High Street, Charlestown (disbanded in 1863) 1844; Central Square, East Boston, 1844; Stoughton Street, Dorchester, 1845; Tremont Street, Roxbury, (disbanded in 1866), 1845; Twelfth, 1848; First Mariners', 1851; Bunker Hill, Charlestown, 1851 ; Brighton Avenue, Allston, 1853; North Cambridge, 1854; Shaw- mut Avenue (united with the First), in 1856; Fourth Street, South Bos- ton, 1858; Cary Avenue, Chelsea, 1859; Union Temple (including the Union Church and the Tremont Street), 1863; Broadway, Cambridge, 1865; Dearborn Street, Roxbury, 1870; Ruggles Street, 1870; Ebenezer, 1871; Winthrop, 1871; Tabernacle, Roxbury (disbanded in 1877), 1873; Roslindale, 1874; Charles River, Cambridge, 1876; Day Star, 1876; Re- vere, 1877; Trinity, East Boston, 1878; and the First German, 1879.
Even as early as 1780, there was an Association of the Baptist churches, although at this time the Boston congregations were joined with the Warren, Rhode Island, body, itself founded in 1767. In 1812, twenty-four churches joined to form the Boston Association, but of these, the most were outside the city. As the number of churches in- creased, many associations were formed out of the original body, until in 1848, the North and South Baptist Associations were formed, with the dividing line running through the center of the city. These two as far back as 1880, and covering only the country within a radius of eight or nine miles from Boston, included seventy-nine churches with an ag- gregate membership of 19,000 members. While the marvelous growth of that period has not been kept up, the fact that the Baptists have come from one of the least of the denominations in the city, to the one having the largest number of churches among the Protestants, indicates that the denomination has never lagged in its progress.
The growth of the Baptists has not simply been along numerical lines ; a corresponding expansion has marked its career in other phases of religious activities. Previous to 1800, the American Baptists had done little to spread the knowledge of Christianity beyond their own
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borders, in which respect they were like all other sects. In 1810, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission, the first and largest of the American Missionary Societies, was formed. It is not necessary to go into the changes both in name and activity, inspired by Adoniram Judson, Jr., the first formally appointed missionary of the society. In 1826, what was now the Missionary Convention transferred its headquarters from Philadelphia to Boston, and here, under the better known name, "The American Baptist Missionary Union," it served as one of the great missionary forces in the denomination.
Almost as notable an interest of Boston Baptists, was that taken in the theological education of her ministers at quite an early date. Theological education seems to have taken a strong hold on all denomi- nations in the early years of the last century, not only those of New England but all over the United States, as then constituted. Andover Theological Seminary was formed in 1808; the Dutch Reformed Semi- nary at New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1810; Princeton Theological Semi- nary, 1812; and the Bangor Theological Seminary, in Maine, 1814. In this latter year, 1814, the Baptists caught the spirit of the time, and mani- fested it by forming the Massachusetts Baptist Educational Society, having for its object the preparation of a ministry qualified for its great work. Out of the educational movement of this year came first the "Maine Literary and Theological Institution," started at Waterville, Maine, in 1817. This was later called Waterville College, and still later, Colby University, in honor of Gardner Colby, a wealthy Boston mer- chant.
The second result of the educational movement was the founding of the Newton Theological Institution, a few miles outside the limits of Boston. This is not, and never has been, solely a Boston institution, nor does it belong to the State. But it was born in Boston, its originators came from the city, and the support, particularly during the early years, came from Boston folk.
Turning again to the Baptist churches in Boston, there is one that can well have attention directed to it without the suggestion of com- parison between the different societies in the city. Tremont Temple was an enterprise of more than local interest, for it set up a model after which many other churches were patterned. It was a modest attempt, begun in 1839 to establish a church in Boston where "all persons whether rich or poor, without distinction of color of condition" might worship: The suggestion came from Timothy Gilbert, a reformer, one identified with the antislavery movement, who found in Reverend Nathaniel Colver, the sort of a man who could put the idea through. After meet- ing in various places, nearly all of which were on or near Tremont Street,
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