USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Cambridge > Services at the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the organization of the First church in Cambridge, February 7- 14, 1886 > Part 5
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But even if we are not all of us the spiritual chil- dren of Thomas Shepard; even if our mode of ex- pressing our wonder, our awful fear, our abiding trust, in face of life and death and the unfathomable
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world, has changed; yet at this day, even now, we New Englanders are still leavened with the Puritan ferment. Our doctrines may have changed, but the cold Puritan passion is still here. And of many a man who now hears me, whether a member of his church or not, it may be said as it was said of Thomas Shepard by Cotton Mather: "So the character of his daily conversation was a trembling walk with God."
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FIRST CHURCH IN CAMBRIDGE.
ADDRESS.
BY REV. FREDERIC H. HEDGE, D.D.
MR. PRESIDENT AND FRIENDS :
THIS friendly meeting, this coming together, of two religious societies having a common origin, but long sundered by an old ecclesiastical feud, re- minds me of a similar passage of Christian history which occurred in Syria some fifteen hundred years ago. The Meletian schism had divided for eighty- five years the great church of Antioch. To heal that schism the venerable Meletian bishop (his name was Alexander), on a high festival, led his flock to the place of worship of the opposite (Eustathian) party, took part in their exercises, and then led both parties back to his own church, where both united in a joint celebration of the day.
But what I have to say on this occasion relates to nothing so remote. I shall not wander into dis- tant centuries, but confine myself within the limits of our own, and within the limits of our own town.
I propose to speak of the old meeting-house from which both our societies emanated.
I call it meeting-house, not church. We did not say church in those days except when speaking
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of Christ Church yonder; that (an exceptional phe- nomenon in these parts, not always in running order) we called the church, but ours was simply meeting-house.
The old meeting-house, then, stood very nearly where the Dane Law School now stands, opposite the head of Dunster Street. Its true front was toward the west; and on that side a substantial tower, springing from the ground and boldly pro- jecting from the main edifice, was surmounted by a belfry and a graceful spire capped with the customary gilt weathercock.
But the principal entrance was on the south, facing the pulpit. The auditorium was nearly square, - the best shape for acoustic purposes. It had three galleries. The eastern, before the erec- tion of University Hall with its chapel, was allotted to the students and teachers of the College; the west gallery was free; that on the south was occupied by the choir. The ground floor was divided into square pews, having seats which could be raised on hinges to afford standing-room during prayer. When the prayer ended they were let down with a slam which marked with portentous emphasis that stage in the services.
Organ there was none; the music was supplied by a redoubtable bass-viol, supplemented by some wind instruments and a volunteer choir. The hymn-book used was Tate and Brady's. In the latter part of Dr. Holmes's ministry this was com- muted for Watts's Hymns. The change was re-
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garded as a bold step, but due to the demands of a progressive age.
I would like to speak more fully than time will permit of our minister Dr. Holmes. An able man, a learned man, - learned especially in the line of ecclesiastical history, whereby he was able to cor- rect some misstatements in Southey's "Book of the Church," and to win from that author, I believe, an acknowledgment of error, - a man who inspired respect, dignified but kindly, grave but not without some touch of the humor that sparkles in the writings of his son.
Two scenes connected with the old meeting- house are indelibly impressed on my memory.
One occurred in my childhood, during what is known as the War of 1812.
A military company drafted from Cambridge, their term of service having expired, marched into town on a Sunday afternoon during divine service, with drum and fife affronting the sacred traditions of the Puritan Sabbath. They halted in front of the meeting-house, filed into the western entrance, ascended the stairs with measured tramp, the music not ceasing till they had taken their places in the free gallery. It was in the midst of the "long prayer." And the prayers were long in those days, or seemed so to the youngsters who listened, or perhaps did not listen. I have often wondered how, amid all that racket, Dr. Holmes could command his thoughts sufficiently to proceed with his prayer. But he did proceed. The "long prayer" had its
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epic requirements, its systematic process ; to have stopped in the middle would have been chaos. Our elders, I think, resented the disturbance. That the soldiers should come to meeting to render thanks for their safe return, was right and proper ; but the drum and fife were unsabbatical to a fault. We children, on the other hand, agreed in the wish that such episodes might be repeated.
The other scene occurred in 1824, on occasion of Lafayette's visit to this country as the nation's guest.
During Commencement week the College always took possession of the meeting-house for their cus- tomary exercises ; notice being given to pew-holders to remove their hymn-books and cushions, to protect them from academic abuse. Lafayette occupied a conspicuous seat on the platform on Commence- ment Day and the day following, at the meeting of the + B K Society. Edward Everett, then in the prime of early manhood, was the orator on that occasion. His personal beauty, his perfect grace, the charm of his wonderful voice, enhanced the ef- fect of a speech which, as it was the first, so it was in some respects the best of his public orations. At its close he addressed himself to Lafayette. He related the story of the Frenchman's offer of his services to this country at the breaking out of the Revolution, of the inability of our commissioners abroad, for want of means or credit, to furnish a vessel which should convey him hither. "'Then ' [I quote the words of the orator], exclaimed the youthful hero, 'I will provide my own.' And it is
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a literal fact that when all America was too poor to afford him so much as a passage to her shores, he left, in his tender youth, the bosom of home, of happiness, of wealth and rank, to plunge in the dust and blood of our inauspicious struggle."
The effect of this passage and the whole perora- tion, recalling memories of the Revolutionary War and the nation's chief, was such as I have never seen equalled. The immense assembly, filling the building to its uttermost capacity, was fused in one emotion. Tears were in every eye; the tumultu- ous applause, again and again renewed, verged on madness.
Mr. Everett won many oratorical triumphs in after life, but none comparable to that. Said a contemporary of mine not long since, " It is some consolation for being old to have witnessed that scene, to have heard that speech."
The old meeting-house is gone; and the old feud, let us hope, is forever extinct. The history of ecclesiastical feuds which originate in theological differences is very instructive. It shows us on what subtile questions, insoluble by human intelligence, the controversies for the most part have turned ; how a pale abstraction has set the world on fire, how Christendom has been rent by a vocable. And it admonishes us, in the words of an English divine, that "while we wrangle here in the dust, we are fast hastening to that world which is to decide all our controversies, and that the only safe passage thither is by peaceable holiness."
ADDRESSES
IN THE
SHEPARD MEMORIAL CHURCH.
I3
Evening Service
IN THE
SHEPARD MEMORIAL CHURCH.
ADDRESS.
BY REV. EDWARD H. HALL.
I HAVE been much interested to-day in noticing how many different lines of thought can be sug- gested by a single theme. Some of our hearers, it is true, less devoted than we to the memory of our colonial ancestry, may insist that our speakers have all been saying, in different ways, one and the same thing,- namely, that the Puritans were perfect. To them it may seem that we have been claiming for our forefathers all that is best in the country's history, and charging all that is worst upon their foes; tracing back all obstacles in the way of our prosperity to hatred of Puritan principles ; tracing back all religious and civic virtue and even all national institutions to half a dozen little meeting- houses built on these New England shores.
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Well, they have a right to smile. Many ele- ments go into the making of a nation, and the Puritans, in this case, did not contribute them all. There are many kinds of virtue in the world, and the Puritans had no monopoly in this line. That they were not paragons of all possible excellences we are quite ready to confess. At the same time there seems to me little danger that our glorifica- tion of the Puritans, in these days, will do any harm. We are none too prone to pay honor to our an- cestors. On the contrary, we have been quite too forgetful of them. Every such commemoration as this surprises us by the heroic names which it rescues from oblivion, and the vast amount of popular ignorance which it reveals. I have little doubt that some of those sitting before me now have just discovered for the first time that they are themselves descended from one or another of these ancient worthies. When the statue of John Bridge was placed upon our Common, three or four years ago, many of us had to ask each other, " Who was John Bridge?"- only to find in the end that we were direct descendants of that stout old Puritan; too honorable a man to be forgotten by any of his grandchildren. There is little danger, then, in these anniversaries, whatever the hero- worship to which they lead. The Puritans did not possess all the virtues, it is true; but they represented, what is much more to the purpose, a very definite and positive type of virtue, which we are not likely to overrate. I have heard many in-
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discriminate eulogies of the Puritans, I have heard many very fulsome eulogies of the Puritans, I have heard many partial and false eulogies of the Puri- tans; but I have never heard their actual or char- acteristic traits too highly extolled.
And now I find myself, too, led into a special line of thought, -one which I am very grateful to those who went before me for not infringing upon, and which I trust my successors will not feel them- selves wronged if I pursue; namely, the effect upon a religious faith of being transported from its home to foreign shores. A learned and orthodox Ger- man historian goes so far as to declare, in speaking of the Jews, that none of the historic religions has ever flourished in its own home. None, as he expresses it, seems able to conquer its native soil. Judaism must fly from its Chaldæan birthplace and be brought into contact with Egyptian worship before beginning its real career; Christianity, in turn, must abandon Jerusalem and Judæa before it can find full expression; Mohammedanism must be driven from Mecca before it becomes conscious of itself. Without urging upon you any such sweeping philosophical generalization, let me call your attention to the unquestionable changes which came over Protestantism on crossing the seas to this Western Continent. Not insisting that Protes- tantism found its full development only in America, or that the only true Puritanism is New England Puritanism, we can certainly claim that our Prot- estant faith took to itself fresh shape and vigor
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here, such as was possible only under these Western skies.
We are wont to think of the Puritan movement as having some distinctive form impressed upon it from the start. On the contrary, when it came to these shores, nearly a century after its birth, it had assumed no definite form whatever. It had been purely tentative and experimental, taking various names and shapes, but retaining neither of them. In Scotland, to be sure, it had adopted the form of Presbyterianism from the start; but in England it had been known by many names, each being rejected in turn as inadequate. At first, naturally enough, it appeared simply as a revulsion from episcopal jurisdiction, and contented itself with merely assert- ing its absolute freedom from ecclesiastical control. At this stage it bore the insignificant title of Brownism. Early in the seventeenth century it took to itself the more definite name of Indepen- dency. At about the same time those who had left the English Church, in order to distinguish themselves from those who remained behind, ac- cepted the name of Separatist. It was among the band of Separatists, settled chiefly in Holland, that the first movement to America began, which resulted in the settlement at Plymouth.
But, meantime, among the non-conforming clergy there was by no means entire sympathy with these movements. On the contrary, there was great dis- trust of them, and extreme distaste for both the methods and the aims of the Separatists. The name
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of Puritan became obnoxious to some of the Puri- tan clergy themselves, and something like an anti- Puritan reaction sprang up among them, purely in consequence of the radicalism of the Independents. The Non-conformists distrusted the Separatists, and the Separatists the Non-conformists, while both together repudiated the Brownists. Both John Cotton and John Robinson are on record as pas- sionately disavowing all sympathy with Brownism.
When the Puritans came to Massachusetts, then, they had outgrown each former name, and had found as yet no new one. What should the new name be? and what, in general, the worship and polity of the New England churches ?
So far as forms of worship are concerned, we find the Massachusetts churches falling quietly into the simple rites already adopted in Holland: Messengers from Plymouth, where these rites had been already adopted, were present with words of counsel at the organization of the first church in these parts, that at Salem. Some of our own min- isters, Hooker and others, had already visited their brethren in Holland, and learned their ways. Moreover, they were all agreed that the Scrip- tures were to be their supreme authority on every point; and in the New Testament they found no ritualistic worship, no bishops as distinct from ministers, no church officials except pastors and elders, teachers and deacons. Hence the plain and unecclesiastical worship which has come down to this day.
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But, meantime, another question arose, which the Plymouth colonists had not been called upon to meet : What was the relation of the new churches to each other ? It must be remembered that so far as precedents were concerned, the founders of the Massachusetts Colony had no alternative before them but Presbyterianism on the one hand, and the absolute independence of the churches on the other. Naturally, they might have been expected to favor Presbyterianism, which was in the ascendant then among the English Non-conformists, and continued so until Cromwell's influence brought Indepen- dence into favor. At the Assembly of Divines held at Westminster about ten years after the departure of the Massachusetts Colony (1643), only a handful of the members, a dozen at most, were Independents, the rest being Presbyterian. By
their action, so far as the Westminster Assembly could determine the question, Presbyterianism be- came the established religion of England. Nor
was this form of religion by any means without its advocates in Massachusetts. The minister of Hingham was charged with Presbyterian leanings. A little party of Presbyterians were heard of at Newbury. Others were petitioning the Court for recognition. But Presbyterianism found no favor in the free air of New England. On the contrary, our New England ministers, through their letters to friends at home, seem to have done most of the fighting in favor of Indepen- dence in England.
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Was it, then, Independence that established itself in New England ? Not quite. This name, too, had lost something of its charm, and was gradually giving way to another. Not consciously. The actors in such events rarely know the work in which they are engaged, and there is nothing to indicate that our Puritan fathers knew that they were establishing a new church polity. It came about through the pure force of circumstances.
In the strangeness of the new situation and the common sense of danger and of need, the little congregations longed for each other's sympathy. The instinct of companionship and fellowship drew them closer and closer together. They were afraid of heresies and false doctrines, too, and were deter- mined to present a united front against antinomi- anism, familism, anabaptism, or any other form of schism. Still another influence operated to pro- duce unity of action. As none but church-members were freemen, and none but freemen were church- members, they found themselves taking counsel together upon all the affairs of their several com- munities, matters of state to-day and matters of church to-morrow. Before they were aware of it, therefore, they came into very close ecclesiastical relations with each other. It was soon understood that no new church should be founded without the consent and participancy of the older churches. No pastor could be ordained without a coming together of elders and delegates to express their sympathy and offer the right hand of fellowship.
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I say, this came about only by degrees. Some churches, sensitive of their rights, resisted every step towards community of action. At first each church ordained its own pastor without consulting its neighbors or asking their fellowship in the mat- ter. When the church at Newtown was founded, in the august presence of the Massachusetts magis- trates and clergy, the visitors were informed that the church had chosen Thomas Shepard as its pastor, and proposed soon to install him. Water- town had the reputation of always refusing to "send its messengers to any church gathering or ordina- tion," or to ask for any delegates to its own. Salem, in its anxiety for the liberties of the churches, objected even to the ministers' gathering at each other's houses. Boston and Salem both took alarm when it was proposed to call a synod for considering church matters. But this hostility seems to have given way by degrees to the necessity of organiza- tion and the desire for mutual sympathy. The ties between the churches grew stronger and stronger. By and by this new relationship was ready to an- nounce itself and take a distinctive name. At a synod held in our own church during the ministry of Thomas Shepard, - a synod which, although not quite so protracted as the great Council of Trent, yet continued its session year after year (1646-1648) till its work was done, - this step was finally taken and the new name appeared.
And now, what is this new church order of which I am so mysteriously speaking, and this new name un-
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heard till now? It is Congregationalism. If I read the history of those times aright, in that clause in the Cambridge Platform which speaks of Congrega- tional churches, adding in parenthesis "the term Independent we approve not," we have the first offi- cial publication of a name and polity with which in these latter years we have grown so familiar.
I do not say that this was the first time the name Congregational was ever used. We find it here and there in the writings of Hooker, Cotton, and others, as if it were a term just coming into vogue, though not yet a recognized term. So far as ap- pears, John Cotton had more to do than any one else in bringing it forward just at the time it was needed. In Winthrop's Journal, covering the reli- gious as well as civil history of the first nineteen years of the colony, the word hardly appears at all, and was evidently not then in familiar use. Nor do I mean to say that the principles involved in Congregationalism were wholly new. On the con- trary, they had been advocated now and then from the first days of the Puritan movement. Even Browne, whose name had become such a terror among the Puritan clergy, seems to have favored some sort of fellowship among the Independent churches. The idea was by no means a new or strange one. But some hour there must be when such an idea, however long cherished, comes to practical development and demands for itself a name; and this hour, as it seems to me, arrived when the Synod of 1646 met at Newtown.
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What then was meant by Congregationalism ? Its distinction from Episcopacy is clear. Epis- copacy speaks of the church; Congregationalism, of the churches. Presbyterianism, again, while de- nying episcopal power, lodges the same authority in a presbytery, or body of pastors and elders; Con- gregationalism, on the other hand, lodges all au- thority absolutely in the congregation. Where, then, lies its distinction from Independency, or Separatism, or Brownism, with all of which bod- ies historians usually identify it, and all of which acknowledge the independence of the individual congregations? It lies in its recognition of the fellowship of the churches. Independency (the sheer logical outcome of Protestantism, perhaps) is exactly what its name indicates, -an assertion of the absolute independence of each congregation ; Congregationalism seeks to add to this an explicit provision for the association and united action of the churches through councils and synods. The individual church remains as free as before. It is still recognized as the sole source of ecclesiastical power; but it feels also the fine instinct of brother- hood, bred in it through its early years of exile and suffering, and delegates part of its authority to the whole fraternity of churches.
Congregationalism, then, is Independency touched by the spirit of fellowship. I do not claim that this is the only true form of religious polity. I do not claim that it is the only form suitable to our repub- lican institutions. According to our modern ideas,
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religion takes naturally many shapes, and will al- ways do so. I claim simply that of all the forms of Protestantism this is the most purely American. I claim that this is the form which Christianity naturally took on these Western shores; that it was with the nation from its birth, growing out of its earliest necessities and accompanying it through all the stages of its earlier development. I cannot assert that it has always remained exactly what it was at the beginning ; that it has not altered its form or its faith during these two centuries and a half. It is not for me to deny, nor yet to apologize for these changes. It is not for me to say whether Thomas Shepard, could he revisit to-day these earthly scenes, would recognize the building in which we are now gathered, its dazzling lights, its organ, its stately arches, its architectural splendor, or even the form of worship and of doctrine within, as in very truth his own. It is not for me to say in which of the two halves into which that First Church of Cam- bridge has been broken, Thomas Shepard would have felt himself most at home.
I only ask whether, on the whole, Congregation- alism has not redeemed its promise. Has it not un- derstood the New England life, of which it was one of the earliest factors? It has planted the germs of our religious and our civil institutions; it has covered New England with schools, and has es- tablished nearly all its colleges. Better yet, it has adapted itself constantly to the nation's growth, has opened itself to the influence of advancing religious
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thought, and is able to appear to-day under the form of two religious bodies, widely differing in faith, yet standing side by side and hand in hand at the grave of a common ancestor.
Who will say that a church which identified itself with the beginnings of our American institutions, and which has attended the republic at every step of its growth, has not much work to do in the future in securing the ends of freedom and truth for which our nation exists ?
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250TH ANNIVERSARY.
ADDRESS.
BY PRESIDENT CHARLES W. ELIOT.
I WISH to confess, in the first place, that I made a grave error when I advocated, in the Committee of Arrangements, a morning celebration of this anniversary. To this proposal Dr. Mckenzie ob- jected that the men of his congregation could not well attend in the forenoon, and that it would be a serious charge and trouble to provide a mid-day meal for so large a number of people as might assemble. How much the better Puritan he was, I discovered a few days later, when I came, in the records of the Great and General Court, upon the following enactment, passed Oct. 1, 1633: “And whereas it is found by common experience that the keeping of lectures at the ordinary hours now ob- served in the forenoon to be divers ways prejudicial to the common good, both in the loss of a whole day, and bringing other charges and troubles to the place where the lecture was kept; it is therefore ordered that hereafter no lecture shall begin before one o'clock in the afternoon." Fortunately my unhistorical recommendation did not prevail.
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