USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > One hundred years of Mount Vernon Church, 1842-1942 > Part 5
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The clock in the tower with its Westminster chimes was given by the children of Mrs. Hugh Flood in memory of their mother. The chimes were first heard on Christmas day in 1918. On the wall in the vestibule is a tablet with this inscription: "In loving memory of Margaret Simonds Flood, for forty-eight years a devoted member of Mount Vernon Church,
5 Mr. Bela L. Pratt, a Boston sculptor, executed the bust of John Cotton in the First Church of Boston.
6 See Chapter XII on Music.
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ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF MOUNT VERNON CHURCH
the Clock and the Chimes installed in the tower have been presented to this society by her family. Anno Domini MCMXVIII."
A memorial tablet to Isaac Williams hangs on the wall of the vestibule. For many years he was connected with the household of Dr. Louisa Paine Tingley.
He was the only representative of the Negro race who at that time was a communicant of this Church. {recorded the Reverend Sidney Lovett] In his simple way he personified the best attributes of his people. To know him was to forget distinctions of color, and to be reminded that the glory of God is a living man, regardless of the pigment of his skin. . . . His name is the Hebrew equivalent for laughter and none of us who knew him will forget his expansive mirth. Nor will this Church have in the ever living communion of her saints, a more constant lover of its continuing welfare than Isaac Williams.
Mrs. Sarah B. Baxter gave the individual communion service, the trays and the glasses, as a memorial to her husband, Dr. Edward K. Baxter. The communion service was first used on March 5, 1917.
There are three memorial rooms, the Washburn Memorial Room, the Murdoch Memorial Chapel, and the Serena Frances Perry Memorial Children's Chapel.
The Washburn Memorial Room, the small upstairs parlor facing Mas- sachusetts Avenue and adjacent to the main social hall, is named for Mrs. Henrietta Lorraine (Hamlin) Washburn, who died in 1928. In 1859 she married the Reverend George Washburn, who in 1877 succeeded her father, the Reverend Cyrus Hamlin, as president of Robert College,7 Constantinople. When her husband retired in 1908, they came to Boston to live with their son, Dr. George Hamlin Washburn. For years the en- tire family were devoted workers in Mount Vernon Church. The Wash- burn home in Boston for many years welcomed missionaries and students from Turkey, Armenia, Bulgaria, and other lands.
Madame Washburn was a learned scholar and an accomplished lin- guist. In 1919, recovering in a hospital from a broken hip after she had been knocked down by an automobile, she looked forward to the daily visits of the Greek hospital attendant who cleaned her room. At the first meeting he shook his head in response to her "Good Morning," implying he could not understand. She tried several Asiatic languages with no response of recognition. Finally she tried Greek. "The Lord led me to speak to him in Greek," she said, "whereupon he dropped his tools, rushed to the bed, seized my hand, covered it with kisses and poured forth a volley of Greek. ... . I don't know that my brasses needed it, but they
" See Chapter VI.
*
MEMORY OF
1891
MEMORIAL WINDOW TO DR. JAMES AYER (1815-1891) The artist was John La Farge
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MEMORIALS
certainly got cleaned every day after that." Madame Washburn was the first person with whom he had been able to converse in several weeks. He had somehow escaped from the war zone, but had heard nothing from his family; he had no friends here and could not speak a word of English.
The Murdoch Memorial Chapel on the first floor is named in memory of Deacon Albert Murdoch, who died in 1930. Mr. and Mrs. Murdoch were affectionately called Uncle Albert and Aunt Emma by members of the Young People's Society, who for many years enjoyed the charming hospitality of the Murdoch home.
[The Reverend Sidney Lovett wrote] Albert Murdoch was in deed as well as in name a Christian gentleman. There was true gallantry, both in his personal carriage, and in the way he bore physical discomfort and pain. His love for this Church was superb. Admitted to its fellowship more than fifty years ago (1877), he served its highest welfare with dignity and devotion. He belonged to the great society of encouragers. Four of the five men who have ministered in this Church might bear witness to the invigorating influence of his faith in them and in their mission. His trust in God was entire. Like Enoch, he walked with God, as a man with a Friend. His confidence in youth was profound. Time, rather than abating, seemed to enhance his affection for young men and women. The hospitality of his home was a sacrament of friendship. Though childless, there are literally scores of men and women in all parts of this country and be- yond, who will mourn his passing as that of a father-in-God. They will think of him with love, and of his wife with the tenderest sympathy. Rising up in remembrance they will call them both Blessed.
On Sunday evening, October 4, 1931, the Young People's Society held a special service in the Chapel, which had been redecorated as a memorial to Deacon Murdoch. At the evening service in the church, the Reverend Sidney Lovett gave the memorial address and officially dedicated the Murdoch Memorial Chapel.
The Serena Frances Perry Memorial Children's Chapel on the first floor is named for "Aunt Serena"-as she was affectionately called by her host of friends-who died in 1940 at the age of ninety-four. For many years she was a teacher in the Sunday School and in the Chinese Sunday School. In spite of impaired hearing and failing sight, her courage, optimism, ready wit, cheerfulness, and zest for life were an inspiration to all who were privileged to know her. The Children's Chapel, which is being planned during the centenary year, will have an altar screen designed by C. Roy Morse, a young artist who is a member of the church.
These are the tangible and visible memorials. There are, however, many unrecorded gifts of service and loyalty which are abiding memorials to the devotion of Mount Vernon's sons and daughters.
5 Missionary Activities and Religious Organizations
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have com- manded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.
-MATTHEW, XXVIII: 19-20
T IS IMPOSSIBLE to appraise the extent of the influence of Mount 4
Vernon Church in the world. Within the limits of this brief history one cannot mention all the missionary, educational, and sociological projects in which the church has had an active part. Also the exigencies of space do not allow a complete record of all members whose service in the world rightfully merits recognition.
THE AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS
Through the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Mount Vernon Church and the various organizations in the church have supported missions and philanthropies in almost every country in the world. The influence of the church "in the advancement of God's King- dom" has spread to the farthermost corners of the earth.
In 1826 the Reverend Edward N. Kirk became an agent of the Ameri- can Board, and served for two years in the middle and southern states. Also several members of the church have been officially connected with the Board: Langdon S. Ward, treasurer, Frank H. Wiggin, treasurer, John G. Hosmer, publishing and purchasing agent, the Reverend Enoch F. Bell, editorial secretary and the Editor of The Missionary Herald at Home and Abroad, and the Reverend Carl Heath Kopf, a member of the Prudential Committee.
MOUNT VERNON CHURCH IN AFRICA
For many years Mount Vernon Church has supported missionary work in Africa. In Chilesso, Angola, in Portuguese West Central Africa, is
34
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MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES AND ORGANIZATIONS
Mount Vernon Church in Africa,1 with a membership in 1941 of four thousand two hundred and ninety-one. The Reverend Henri A. Neipp2 and Mrs. Neipp, missionaries of the American Board, were the special representatives of this church for thirty-two years.
On the eve of their retirement in 1936 Mr. Neipp received the follow- ing communication from the highest official in the colony: "His Ex- cellency, the Governor-General, expresses his appreciation of the com- mendable efforts of Mr. Neipp in evangelism and education on behalf of the indigenous population." Mrs. Neipp, a devoted partner who had rendered invaluable service in the educational, evangelistic, and medical departments, died in 1936.
Their predecessor in Africa, as a representative of Mount Vernon Church, was Miss Gertrude R. Hance,3 who was commissioned as a mis- sionary to the Zulu Mission, East Africa, in 1870. Their successors, re- cently commissioned by the Board, are the Reverend Walter C. Wynn and Mrs. Wynn, a colored minister and his wife from the. Pond Street Baptist Church of Providence, who will go to the Galangue Station in West Central Africa.
1334571
THE HARRIETTE CARTER MEMORIAL MISSIONARY CHURCH IN CHINA
Miss Harriette Carter (1840-1915) joined Mount Vernon Church in 1879, transferring her membership from the Chambers Street Church4 which was discontinued that year. At the same time, the Chinese Sunday School, which had been held at the Chambers Street Church for two years, was transferred to Mount Vernon Church on Ashburton Place.
Miss Carter had entered the service of the City Missionary Society in 1871, and from 1881 until her death in 1915 was a missionary to the Chinese in Boston. Under her leadership, as superintendent of the Chi- nese Sunday School, nearly fifty Chinese joined Mount Vernon Church and substantial sums were given to mission work in China. The Chinese she influenced went all over New England. Others returned to China, be-
1 The key to Mount Vernon Church in Africa is in a box under the pulpit of Mount Vernon Church in Boston.
2 See Appendix I for Mr. Neipp's Memoir of a Life in Africa, written by request for this history.
3 Miss Hance, the author of The Zulu, Yesterday and Today, was sent to Africa by the Woman's Board, and her salary was paid by the Woman's Auxiliary of Mount Vernon Church.
4 The Chambers Street Church, which had for many years been sustained by the Old South Church, was disbanded in 1879 with the advice of a Council. Many of the mem- bers, by invitation of Dr. Herrick, transferred membership to Mount Vernon Church. The church now possesses the old record books of the Chambers Street Church.
" The school was later transferred to Pilgrim Hall in the old Congregational House, and eventually to the new Mount Vernon Church on Beacon Street.
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ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF MOUNT VERNON CHURCH
coming powers for good among their own people. After her death, her friends in Mount Vernon Church and other churches subscribed funds for the erection of a Harriette Carter Memorial Church at Hoi Hau Fau, Toi Shan City, south of Canton, China.
Many of the members6 of the church assisted Miss Carter and Miss Harriet I. Alexander, her successor, until the Chinese Sunday School was discontinued in January, 1921. Mr. Chen Fong, president of S. Y. Tank Company, who joined the church in 1910, recorded on January 24, 1921 : "Although the work of Miss Alexander at the church has been discon- tinued, yet it will not cease, as many of her pupils, also former pupils of Miss Carter, are earnest Christians and are continuing the good work which these two missionaries and teachers have so faithfully served."
JAPAN
Joseph Hardy Nee Sima,7 the founder of Doshisha University, a Chris- tian school, in Kyoto, was ordained at Mount Vernon Church on Sep- tember 24, 1874, as a "missionary pastor among his own people, the Japanese." The story of his life is one of thrilling adventure. At fifteen, in a Chinese history written by an American missionary, he read: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." He was determined to come to America to learn about the Christian religion and civilization which he felt his country needed. For three hundred years there had been a death penalty for the crime of leaving the country. With courage he broke the laws of his country and ran away. He shipped as a stowaway on the American schooner Berlin bound for Shanghai. From there he worked his way to Boston on the American clipper ship Wild Rover. He was found by the owner of the vessel, Mr. Alpheus Hardy, one of Boston's noble philanthropists, who took him into his own home, and gave him as a token of affection the middle name, Hardy. He educated him at Phillips Academy in Andover, Amherst College, and Andover Theological Sem- inary,8 from which he was graduated in 1874.
He joined the Mount Vernon Association of Young People in 1873 and wrote his signature in Japanese characters in the Membership Book. On July 2, 1874, he was appointed a corresponding member of the Japan
6 Within the limits of this volume a complete list of all the teachers in the Chinese Sunday School can not be given. Mention should be made of Mrs. Elizabeth S. Porter- "Auntie Porter," as she was affectionately called-who taught the Chinese in the old Ashburton Place church. She joined the church in 1855.
7 See Davis, Soldier, Missionary; Charles C. Greegan, Great Missionaries of the Church; and Hardy, Life and Letters of Joseph Hardy Nee Sima.
8 Nee Sima's motto at the Seminary was Day by day thy Cross take up. The original, written in character, is owned by the trustees of Andover Theological Seminary and is on exhibition in the museum of Andover-Newton.
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MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES AND ORGANIZATIONS
Mission of the American Board. After his ordination9 at Mount Vernon Church on September 24 of that year, he spoke to the enthusiastic audience who voluntarily subscribed generous amounts to help him establish a Christian school in Japan. He reached Japan in December, 1874, with five thousand dollars which he had raised in this country. On November 29, 1875, Doshisha School, now Doshisha University, was opened in Mr. Nee Sima's home in Kyoto, with a prayer meeting in which all six pupils took part. He was so grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Hardy, that he sent them as a gift some rare varieties of chrysanthemums.10
Mount Vernon Church has long been interested in the University. Dr. Hachiro Yuasa, who retired as president a few years ago, was a guest of the church in the fall of 1939. He lived at Herrick House for a month, during which time he spoke to all the church groups.
The Reverend Enoch F. Bell and Mrs. Bell, who joined the church in 1933, were missionaries of the American Board to Japan from 1902 to 1905. They were preparing for a life work there, when because of Mrs. Bell's ill health they were obliged to leave. For a short term Dr. Bell taught English at Doshisha University. He returned for a visit in 1917, as a member of an American Board deputation to that field.
Another member of the church who taught in Japan11 was Dr. George Adams Leland, who joined the church in 1866. A graduate of the Boston Latin School, Amherst College, and Harvard Medical School, he taught physical culture and hygiene at Tokio from 1878 to 1881 under the auspices of the Imperial Education Department. On July 16, 1878, he married Alice P. Higgins who had joined the church during the preced- ing January.
Today the United States is at war with Japan. We must remember that the Japanese militarists and not the Japanese people are responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbor. It will help us to maintain proper perspective by remembering these distinguished Japanese Christians who have been our friends: Joseph Hardy Nee Sima, Yoshio Osawa, a classmate and friend of the Reverend Carl Heath Kopf, Dr. Hachiro Yuasa, and Toyo- hiko Kagawa, the poet and evangelist.
9 Miss Margaret Herrick, who was then a very little girl, says she remembers her father's enthusiasm that night. After Nee Sima had been speaking for quite some time, Mr. Hardy said, "Joseph, sit down." "I'll sit down when I've finished," was his quick response.
10 For the last few years the Reverend Carl Heath Kopf has observed a chrysanthemum service in memory of Nee Sima on the Sunday following the Boston chrysanthemum show.
11 Dr. Leland's letters written to his friends at Mount Vernon Church were preserved in the Mount Vernon Literary Album. His impressions of Japan are interesting, in the light of present day conditions.
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ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF MOUNT VERNON CHURCH
FRANCE
The Young Ladies' Colporteur Association of Mount Vernon Church
The Young Ladies' Colporteur Association, later called the Colporteur Circle, was organized on March 27, 1843. According to the constitution, the object was "to sustain a Colporteur (Evangelist) in France, and to make its members acquainted with the progress of Evangelical Religion in France and Canada." The Association contributed funds to the For- eign Evangelical Society.
The weekly meetings were opened with devotional exercises, and were "spent in sewing and in reading such works as may be selected by the Di- rectresses with the advice of the Pastor." In 1845 the Constitution was amended. The name was changed to the Colporteur Circle and men were invited to become members. The weekly meetings were discontinued, and they voted to hold "the meetings on the first Thursday of each month, the ladies at 31/2 o'clock and the gentlemen at 7 o'clock P.M. for sewing, reading, and conversation."
Among the books read aloud at the meetings were the following: the Quarterly Paper of the Foreign Evangelical Society; D' Aubigne's History of the Reformation; Robert Moffat's12 Missionary Labours and Scenes in South Africa; John Williams' Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands; Mrs. Ellis' Daughters of England; the Memoir of Mrs. Van Lennep, late missionary in Turkey; and the Memoir of Mrs. Judson, wife of the American missionary, Adoniram Judson. Dr. Kirk gave this missionary circle a series of lectures on Mental Philosophy, which proved very popular.
It is impossible to state how long this organization continued. The only secretary's book extant closes with the minutes of 1849. Perhaps other records are hiding in some Beacon Hill attic!
The American Church in Paris
By request of the American and Foreign Christian Union of New York, the Reverend Edward N. Kirk went to Paris in December, 1856, to superintend the establishment of American Protestant worship and the erection of a chapel. Napoleon III permitted the erection of the original chapel, on Rue de Berri, Number 20, but fearing propaganda or international friction, forbade the church ever to have sermons in French.
On December 8, 1856, Dr. Kirk sent a letter13 to the Prudential
12 Robert Moffat's daughter, Mary, married David Livingstone.
13 See Appendix L for complete letter.
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MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES AND ORGANIZATIONS
Committee of the Mount Vernon Congregational Society requesting a leave of absence of six months to organize this undenominational church in Paris. He emphasized the importance of this project, because of "the increasing numbers of our Countrymen residing in that corrupt city, ... & especially the presence there of more than two hundred of our young men subjected to the overwhelming temptations of the place, with no religious influences surrounding them."
On December II, the Committee accepted the following proposition drafted by Edward S. Tobey:
1st-The Pastor's salary to cease from the time of leaving the Country until his labors as Pastor of Mt. Vernon Church shall be resumed.
2d-That the Society make its arrangements for supplying the pulpit at its own expense.
The Committee make it a condition that the Pastor shall not be absent from the Society longer than until Oct. 1, 1857.
Dr. Kirk held in trust the title to the property of the American Chapel in Paris, and on August 7, 1871, he added a codicil to his will,14 naming as his successor in said trust Jacob D. Vermilye, president of the Ameri- can and Foreign Christian Union of New York City. The property had been originally conveyed to Dr. Kirk on July 5, 1857, by Marie Celeste Mariguy, Veuve de M. Francois Euoul de Laondais.
Members of Mount Vernon Church have always been interested in the American Church in Paris. Those who have attended services there have always felt at home, with the bust of Dr. Kirk to greet them.
Mr. Henry Woods was on the Building Committee, was a member of the Standing Committee, and the Treasurer as long as he lived in Paris. While a student in Paris in 1908, Mr. Kenneth Shaw Usher,15 the organ- ist of Mount Vernon Church for thirty-two years, played the organ at many services in the American Church. Mr. Edward S. Chapin, a deacon and the present moderator of Mount Vernon Church, served as a deacon in the American Church from late 1920 to 1924.
The McAll Mission
Another French enterprise in which Mount Vernon Church has long been interested is the McAll Mission (La Mission Populaire Evangélique de France), organized in 1882 by the Reverend Robert W. McAll, a Congregational minister in England. The Boston Auxiliary was estab- lished in 1883.
14 Will in Suffolk Courthouse. Probate, number 55307.
15 See Chapter XII on Music for an appreciation of Mr. Usher.
40 ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF MOUNT VERNON CHURCH
The late Mrs. Helen M. Craig was president of the American McAll Association from 1930 to 1937. Previous to this, she had been treasurer of the Boston Auxiliary, president of the Boston Auxiliary, and state vice- president of the American McAll Association. Several of the members of Mount Vernon Church have been officers of the Boston Auxiliary, and many more members have contributed generously.
Born in Paris, Mrs. Craig lived in France for many years before mov- ing to this country. In 1905, her mother, Mrs. Henry Woods, established the Henry Woods Trust Fund to be used as a working capital for the McAll Mission.
MOUNT VERNON CHURCH AND THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE IN LONDON 1846
The Reverend Edward N. Kirk and Deacon Daniel Safford were dele- gates from Mount Vernon Church to the Evangelical Alliance, a great "Ecumenical Council of the Protestant Churches," held in Freemasons' Hall, in London, August 19-23, 1846. Many of the most distinguished divines, preachers, and philanthropists from England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, France, Switzerland, the United States, and other countries attended the Alliance for the purpose of promoting religious liberty, Christian Union and co-operation in every good work.
Clergy of the Established Church and Dissenters from the Establishment sat side by side. Sons of the old Covenanters, fresh from the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland,-heroes in the Disruption,-were there with an unyield- ing faith in the great principles of truth. Ministers of Christ from the Emerald Isle, keen in scholarship as well as in wit, deepened their sacred fellowship with the brave, generous, and impulsive neighbors from just across St. George's Channel. Germany sent thither some of her choicest thinkers, to receive a new baptism in Christ's fellowship, with their brethren from France, and in fact, from almost every Christian nation or land. In the midst of such a company, or rather themselves of it, were some sixty or seventy Christian heroes from the New World, prominent among whom were such men as Beecher, Emerson, Cox, Mason, De Witt, Skinner, Peck, Schmucker, Safford, and Kirk.16
The following letter, full of human interest, Dr. Kirk sent his mother from London on August 18, 1846, describing some of the personalities of the Alliance:
16 David O. Mears, Opus Citum, pp. 200-201, and Ann Eliza Safford, A Memoir of Daniel Safford, pp. 172-217.
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MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES AND ORGANIZATIONS
MY DEAR MOTHER,
I am now setting my face homeward. On the 4th of September we hope to step upon the great road that leads to Boston. But a most interesting week lies before us. The salt of the earth seems gathered here. I never saw a more in- teresting collection of men. And if the Lord is with us, it will be heaven on earth. I am in an improved state of health, and prepared to profit by our an- ticipated exercises. I have just seen Mr. Ross, the friend of Mr. Gough. He re- members Boston with intense interest, and especially Mount Vernon Church. He says that Dr. Cox and I, and many other Americans, are taken down in wood-cuts, as we were at a public meeting. The doctor's is a good likeness, mine indifferent. If I can find them, you shall see them. Dr. Cox is making the most brilliant display of his powers here. The rest of us are very tame. I never was much flatter in my life. Miss S. wrote me a dazzling description of the light which her minister was to shed on Britons; but she did not know how dim my taper was to be amid these great luminaries. Dr. Beecher does not appear as he used to; and yet he retains some of the old fire.
I haven't yet met your maternal anxieties by telling you just how many times I have coughed or taken pills this summer. On the whole my health has been im- proving. My extreme nervous depression and sensibility have diminished. My sleep is more refreshing; but I have had a slight attack of bronchitis, which is now passing away. The family of J., with whom I have passed a week, have taken the kindest care of me. They were formerly Quakers, and have introduced me among Quakers. They have much intelligence, refinement, and piety. They live in much more beautiful places than I supposed their views of duty would permit. Their furniture is plain, but their grounds are beautiful. Attended their meeting twice, and I assure you it was strange for me to sit still nearly two hours, and neither hear nor speak a word. But it was better to me than a great many noisier meetings I have attended in England. Poor children and youth! I pitied them, but I admired their tranquillity, and the discipline that could induce it. What would our dear Mary do in a Quaker meeting! .
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