USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Stockbridge > Stockbridge, 1739-1939; a chronicle > Part 10
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Probably most of the boys and girls sitting on hard pews in front of him felt the same way. He was not going to let his kindly nature interfere with his solemn duty. New England lived on sermons, and sermons Dr. West determined they should have . His Thanksgiving and Fast Day discourses were ready weeks ahead. His rhetoric was certainly effective.
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Young Albert Hopkins afterwards maintained that Sunday after Sunday he would go to church in a cheerful frame of mind. As the minister stated his text and went on to take up the various headings of his sermon, point by point, the boy began to tremble. At the end of the afternoon service, hope had left him and he departed from the church a doomed man.
When newspapers came few and far between, doctrine absorbed the intellectual life of even a farming community. Congregations bristled with local ecclesiastical pride or criti- cism. Theology was carried out of the pulpit to the counter at Timothy Edwards's store, to the bar at Silas Pepoon's. The portentous John Bacon, just moved to Stockbridge, who had gone into farming and politics and become a country gentle- man, had been dismissed from the Old South Church in Boston because he had differed from his parishioners about the doctrine of the Atonement, and the Halfway Covenant. He was a dogmatic fellow and argued violently with West. "These are my sentiments on the subject," he would thunder, thinking by mere avoirdupois to down his adversary.
Dr. West was a match for him, well aware of the responsi- bility of his position. Like Samuel Hopkins, he had reduced the metaphysical poetry of Edwards to a system of rules and regulations. Stockbridge was "well indoctrinated," says one of its historians, as if it were well inoculated. His sermons touched many subjects, and that upon Moral Agency made him famous. He preached on marriage and on the impotency of sinners. Upon infant baptism his ideas were possibly a little lax. He was inclined to think that children were not neces- sarily damned because they had not been baptized. Fathers and mothers who had dedicated themselves to the Lord by means of conversion, if they so dedicated their children, might nourish some hope of their receiving grace. On the whole, in spite of this slight wavering, West's views were as sound as Hopkins or Edwards could have wished. He maintained,
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"Christian parents feel that they themselves are sinners, that they merit to be sent to hell. They feel that they have been the wicked instruments of communicating a sinful existence to their offspring . .. If God, therefore, visiting their iniquities upon their children, should destroy them forever, they know that neither they nor their children would have the least reason for complaint."
Young men came to Stockbridge to study under Dr. West and boarded in his house. They were called the School of Prophets. Even young women came for instruction, and eventually he delivered a regular theological training course, where themes were written and questions given out. Young brains stirred the caldron of controversy. Darwin was as yet unborn, and the time when all this learning would be reduced to uselessness still remained far away.
The minister, as befitted his rôle, was a man of regular habits. Every morning as soon as he was dressed, he said his prayers. His breakfast toast always had to be of the same size. At seven o'clock in the evening he measured with his finger the exact amount of meat his housekeeper was to cook. Day after day found his routine unchanged. His two wives, even though the first was a Williams and Abigail's sister, scarcely interrupted him. Two pipes he allowed himself in the evening, then summoned his family to domestic worship, and after that, bed. Year after year melted into one another, as he instructed his pupils. He was serenely impervious to the strange new forces that were creeping in even to little Stockbridge, and the strange new thoughts passing through the minds of some of the well-indoctrinated boys and girls in front of him.
Stephen West was the servant as well as the pastor of his flock. The records of the Stockbridge church show it to be an entity with definite views of its own. The conception of a state in which the church ruled according to laws expressly set
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forth in the Bible, lingered in church affairs long after it had actually been severed from things temporal.
Sometimes the church was a court of law, and in this capacity it proved itself no respecter of persons. As in the past the Holy Roman Emperor had been subject to rebuke by the Pope of Rome, so even the social hierarchy of Stockbridge was humbled by the awful power of its church. In a dispute between Samuel Brown and no less a person than Timothy Edwards, the latter was discovered to be wrong.
In 1782, the very year the new meetinghouse was built, Sylvia Morgan was excluded from membership in the church for "associating with vain, light and airy company, & joining them in dances and frolicking, and accompanying with a man on Saturday night," which she herself admitted to be holy time. David Pixley was accused of taking the name of the Lord in vain, as well as of quarreling. For these sins he was excluded from the church, which generously gave him a chance to retrieve himself. A year later, however, he added the sin of "drinking spirituous liquors" to his other misde- meanors, and the church's patience became exhausted. The charge against him was supported and it was finally voted "that he be laid under the censure of the church . . . he continuing obstinate and impenitent under the means and measures which have been taken with him to convince him of his wickedness." The next year he was solemnly cut off. He enlisted as a soldier during the Revolution and distinguished himself, having found at last a suitable outlet for his erring ways.
The church tribunal consisted of the deacons and elders and no fault was too private for its accusing forefinger. Daniel Hutchinson was accused of unchristian conduct towards his neighbor in "refusing to suffer him to take water from a spring in his lot when he had plenty," while George Deming came under a charge of "undutifulness to his parents
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and unkindness to his family, indulging in idleness." Forgiveness was not granted until the accused had walked up the "broad alley"-the middle aisle of the church-and made his confession so that the whole congregation could hear.
There was one time, however, when this prying morality bit off more than it could chew, and brought down upon the village a tempest of controversy which became state-wide. The winds of doctrine blew furiously, the storm centering upon the rather valiant figures of one Mrs. Lavinia Deane, a young widow of amiable character and probably a pretty face, and Mr. John Fisk, keeper of one of the district schools. Mr. Fisk boarded with Mrs. Deane. He made himself as useful and as charming as possible, and before long wrought havoc in her exposed and susceptible heart. Gossip had it that they were to be married. Unfortunately, Mr. Fisk, in his short stay at Stockbridge, had not made a very good impression. It was not that he had done anything actually wrong, but he had been heard to say "I swear," and "damn it," and upon several occasions had used expressions that "savored of the language of the camp." Mrs. Deane had two little children, whose immortal souls, not to speak of her own, were in jeopardy under such an influence, and the church felt its clear duty was to take a stand. Deacons Curtis and Wilson were accordingly appointed a committee to "admonish Mrs. Deane to desist from marrying Mr. Fisk," until they could rest easy in their minds regarding him. Another committee was also appointed to look into Mr. Fisk's morals as well as his language. Their findings have been withheld from our sophisticated eyes but, whatever they were, they sufficed to make the brethren of the church decide that "it was inconsistent with the rules of the Word of God for Mrs. Deane to join in wedlock with the said John Fisk"-a person "openly immoral and profane."
In vain Lavinia Deane struggled to do the church's bidding. We can see her in the small house so narrowly separating her
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from her ardent and unregenerate lover, trying to interest herself solely in her children's concerns and the management of a manless household. She wanted to continue in the church, both for her own and her children's sakes. Climbing the Hill to the meetinghouse, in good standing with the congregation, was a necessary element to social security; and was Mr. Fisk's manly figure worth the price she had to pay? Surely it was better to be approved of by the church elders, to have Mrs. Elnathan Curtis smile at her across the aisle and earn the kindly nod of Dr. West, than to be the outcast wife of a handsome sinner. Yet she could not help arguing: Of what, exactly, had Mr. Fisk been accused? It was true that he swore, but she had spoken to him about this, and he had promised to be more careful. True, also, he had used "a few airy words," but he had done nothing wrong. Again true, he didn't seem to care very much what the brethren thought of him. As for the question of eternal salvation, he had been a soldier and did not understand such matters. All he wanted was Lavinia. Alas for morality, her struggle was shortly over. In the same month in which she had been "admonished" she married John Fisk. The church at Stockbridge promptly excommunicated her.
Mrs. Fisk was a woman of some spirit once she had made up her mind. Marriage evidently made her agree less and less with the church in regard to her husband's character. She determined to ask the advice of a council. Dr. West threw up his hands at the idea. He foresaw all the endless arguments, "unfriendly to our discipline," this entailed. The old quarrels about qualification for church membership would crop up if Mrs. Fisk secured the help of the churches she wanted. A great many of these, be it said to their shame, held that persons "visibly impenitent" could be admitted to communion and therefore, needless to say, to marriage with the elect. The Halfway Covenant was bound to rear its ugly
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head again, and West felt that he had settled that question once for all. If Mrs. Fisk would ask the ministers of all other orthodox churches, she was welcome to the council, otherwise not. Finally Mr. Fisk took a hand in the matter. There was a fight on and his blood was up. He suggested a council of six ministers, three to be chosen by his wife, three by the church. This proposal was agreed to and in 1779 the council met. Four clergymen and four laymen were in attendance. It adjourned and met again for two days with eleven clergymen and nine laymen. Then it again adjourned and again met for another two days. The little red school- house in the northwestern district of the town-upon what is now the Harder property-was packed to the doors. Buzzing crowds whispered sinister rumors. What exactly had Mr. Fisk said? Mr. Whittlesey had seen Mr. Fisk and his stepson go by in a sleigh, the little boy holding the whip. He had distinctly heard, "God damn that whip, and God damn your soul to hell."
Now, if ever, a definite verdict was to be given these enor- mities. Ears strained to hear it. Then, lo and behold, before the solemn council West quietly begged the question. Out of consideration for the character of Mr. Fisk, he wished to get off personalities and to restrict the whole discussion to the "grand point" to be contested, "whether it be consistent with the rules of our holy profession for Christian churches to tolerate members marrying profane and immoral persons."
But Fisk, now thoroughly aroused, insisted upon keeping the council's nose off theological scents and on to the grind- stone of his character. He was determined once and for all to know what they had against him. Thus directly chal- lenged, the second session of the council considered the charges "lame and deficient."
Dr. West, however, was sure that such a mistake could be righted. He was sure he could produce the necessary
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evidence, and he did. The church called in the neighbors. Quite naturally the council was shocked and West was supported. Once again, and this time forever, the unfortu- nate Mr. Fisk was pronounced a person "openly immoral and profane."
At this juncture, however, help came from an unexpected quarter. Dr. Joseph Huntington of Coventry arrived upon the scene. He delivered a long plea before the ecclesiastical council, the modernity of which stares out from yellowed pages like an electric-light bulb in a candle setting. The Stockbridge church, he maintained, regarded marriage as a bond between Christ and His church, whereas it was in reality based upon the carnal fact that "a man loves a woman and a woman loves a man." "Marriage has nothing of a spiritual nature in it, but is merely a civil, social connection and relation." All this talk about only converted people being able to marry each other was little short of nonsensical. Saving grace may make the best husbands and wives, but to say it is essential to the marriage relation is "wild talk indeed." "The law of nature is the law of God."
Poor Dr. West! It was shocking that such sentiments should be uttered in the town he had struggled so hard to keep pure. It was shocking that a minister should be guilty of such feelings. But Dr. Huntington went even further. He said that sometimes persons without saving grace make better rulers, parents, husbands and wives, than other persons who are the true children of God.
In West's seventy-one-page Vindication of the Principles and the Conduct of the Church in Stockbridge which followed Huntington's plea, we cannot but admire his unswerving loyalty to his beliefs. He maintains that even though marriage is a civil and temporal affair, "in all our concerns we are to consult the glory and good of the Kingdom of Christ." If Christ's interests are not watched in this most
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important of all relations, where indeed will they have a place? Will not Dr. Huntington's comments on marriage, wherein he stresses the importance of sex, or, as Dr. West more properly puts it, "the mutual tendencies of the different sexes to each other," encourage a "too general indulgence" among the "bucks and debauchees" of the age?
And what of Mrs. Fisk herself? She had two children, "whose complete happiness in heaven or unutterable torment in hell greatly depended under God on her conduct toward them." How could her behavior be consistent with a "proper benevolent concern for the eternal salvation of the offspring of her own bowels?"
The little doctor-it is almost a relief to know, so touching is his sincerity-had a staunch supporter not only in the ecclesiastical council, but in the imposing person of John Bacon. Bacon followed West's Vindication with an Appen- dix. West may have had his own differences of opinion with Bacon, but in this instance they stood as one.
After this, the contest waged more hotly than ever. Hunt- ington entered the lists with a brochure containing a reference to John Bacon, "a droll, a deist and a Master of Arts, gently reprimanded." Bacon, on the other hand, was heard to say that Huntington had "a brow of brass." So the clerics chased each other around and around, very much like the tigers in Little Black Sambo. And whatever became of John and Lavinia Fisk? Did he swear himself into his grave? Did her children turn out the worse for their early surroundings? Did Lavinia Fisk, in the happiness of her marriage, feel herself repaid for all she had gone through? We hope, somehow, that she did, and that after all, to use Mr. Fisk's own expres- sion, "Stephen West, Tim Edwards and all the divils of hell" were powerless to stop their "settling together."
The council's verdict was a triumph for Dr. West, and his ministry continued comparatively undisturbed for some time
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afterwards, certain years, like unusually high tides, bringing in more souls "to Christ from the world" than others. Those saved numbered 384 in all.
It was not until the latter part of his life that the Lord whom he served so faithfully saw fit to bring upon His minister sore affliction. Dr. West, moderate in all his ways, occasionally enjoyed a glass of wine. His second wife was prescribed spirits for her health. Advancing years had made it necessary to have an assistant, Seth Swift by name, a Uriah Heep of a man, who wanted to curry favor for himself in the village, and accordingly went about spreading the story that the minister and his wife were drunkards. Enough new people had moved to town, since Dr. West's light had been dimmed, to listen to gossip of the sort, and before long many of the village had turned against their minister. Two after- noons' inquiry sufficed to support the charge against Mrs. West, and her husband called the advice of a council. The ministers of surrounding towns, even Dr. Moore, the Presi- dent of Williams College, drove solemnly over to witness their colleague's shame. The pious Edwin Dwight, grandson of the brigadier, wrote to his mother: "I suppose Aunt West is excommunicated-is the good doctor's heart broken?" If Stockbridge did not have a care, he considered, the fate of Sodom would descend upon it.
Mrs. West was a nervous, trembling, little old lady. Like her husband, she always wanted to do the right thing. She was willing to admit that perhaps she should have left off taking spirits for her health a little sooner, but she could not confess to what she had not done. A thin slip of paper covered over with a fine wavering hand is her testimony: "Considering the unhappy state of this church and feeling myself to be the occasion of it, (although I do not feel myself to have made an intemperate use of strong drink) yet if, as far as I have given reason to any candid member of this church
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to believe . . . that I have made a too free use of strong drink, I do cheerfully and sincerely ask their forgiveness, and I do entreat every member of this church, if in future they should have any such report of me, that they would immediately come to me and give me an opportunity to clear myself, or confess my fault. Still further, considering my weak and poor state of health and apprehending that I would feel the necessity of stimulants, I freely confess that I may at times have made such a use of spirits as that my appearance and conduct would excite in others a belief that I was guilty of intemperate drinking."
After this she was left alone. Her innocence and her humiliation were so apparent that even the council was touched. After "affectionately" hearing all the evidence brought before them, it was unanimously voted that the censure upon her be removed. But the charges against her husband were not yet cleared up. As a badge of disgrace he had to yield his place at Communion to his assistant. "My heart was near to breaking, my comfort all destroyed at the sight," wrote Abigail Dwight (the first Abigail's daughter-in- law) , to her son, Edwin.
At last a witness was procured whom Mr. Swift believed was going to turn the trick. He was a dusty old parson who had lived in the Wests' house and knew their ways, and was such a doddering fellow that West's friends were terrified lest Swift should have corrupted him. On the day upon which he was to testify at the meetinghouse, everyone was tense. The judging clergy sat in a semicircle. The older families fidgeted in their pews. The newer arrivals, impar- tial and critical, ready to believe the worst, waited for the show.
At last the old gentleman got up. He had been with Mr. Swift two or three years ago, he told them, and Swift had said that Dr. West and his lady were guilty of gross drinking. In
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fact, the parson had a mug beside him and drank it every night.
"Were you at the Wests' at the time?"
"Yes," was the answer.
"Did you believe it?"
Dead, nerve-racking silence in the church. Was Dr. West's God indeed deserting him? Stockbridge's heart came right up into its mouth. The old man spoke slowly:
"Not-one-word-of-it, sir!"
"A low murmur of shame and disappointment ran over the assembly," while exclamations of delight came from West's few devoted friends. Their beloved doctor was safe.
As time went on, Stephen West figured less and less in the life of the community. Yet he lived on, feeble in strength and largely confined to his house. The world was becoming too much for him. He had bridged the gulf between the eighteenth century and the nineteenth. He had represented the convictions of his contemporaries. He was a stuffy Fun- damentalist to many of the younger generation. Reason- that daughter of Belial imported from France-was breaking the world down, dissolving the old solid beliefs. His friend, Theodore Sedgwick, whom he used to consult about parish affairs, could die in the Unitarian faith and still be considered respectable. William Ellery Channing was not only toler- ated, but adored. The world was becoming too big and too complicated. There were no longer just the Williamses and the Dwights and the poor ignorant savages to look after. The old colony had become a thriving new state. New roads were bringing new people to Berkshire.
As he grew older the little doctor sought refuge more and more in the consoling doctrines of Grace. His views upon infant damnation underwent a softening change. That fellow Swift had spoiled the end of his ministry. He even doubted whether his congregation had ever understood his sermons.
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But the spring was lovely on the apple trees and his garden looked well in the sun. His older parishioners still loved him. "I doubt if we have seen anyone so sanctified," wrote Abigail Dwight. If the story of the little boy who used to murmur, "Old Dr. West, old Dr. West," to keep off evil spirits when passing through the woods with his cows after nightfall, did not reach the minister's ears, something of the feeling it implied must have penetrated through all the turmoil of his parishioners' quarrels. So as the years went on, he could dwell quietly upon God's tender mercies.
Chapter VI
THE REVOLUTION
I N July of the year 1774, the ballroom of the Red Lion Inn was crowded. The first Congress of the state had met to consider the alarming condition of affairs, and to take a definite stand concerning them. Events for the last fourteen years had been slowly shaping themselves towards this even- tuality. Circumstances had funneled the community together into a common cause, and this meeting was not the mere feverish expression of a passing excitement but the climax of a long series of changing attitudes and needs. Removed as Berkshire was from the rest of Massachusetts, it had not remained entirely aloof from what was happening in the eastern part of the state. The insulation of hills and forests had not deadened its ears to clamors which were daily growing louder, though the slowness and self-sufficiency of back-state agriculture was less at the mercy of British policy than Boston trade.
Like all rural communities, Stockbridge was behind the times. For a while the Joneses and the Woodbridges were too busy putting crops in their cows' ears and repairing their fences to pay much attention to the complaints of Boston merchants or the rantings of Samuel Adams. Both were part and parcel of that greater and slightly over-civilized world beyond the rim of hills. Even the slogan, Taxation without Representation, had lost much of its echo, coming from so far.
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The Williamses and the Dwights, however, knew what was going on. Since the close of the French and Indian War, England had adopted a new policy. She was feeling poor and wanted to recoup her losses at the colonies' expense. Hence- forth the Americans were to be taxed, not merely for regulat- ing trade, but for purposes of revenue. The Sugar and Molasses Acts, the Stamp Act, the Townshend Acts were sign- posts along the road.
This policy, disturbing as it might be to Massachusetts, did not seem to the Williamses as alarming as the reaction against it. William Williams, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and for many years representative to the General Court, was still drawing his pay as a retired colonel in the British army. He had always been one of the men upon whom Tory Governor Bernard could rely. To him taxation without representation was less to be feared than Samuel Adams, who, he considered, was compensating himself for his personal failure in life by fanning the mob spirit in Boston. Although King George's recent policy might be an encroachment upon personal liberty, it was not as dangerous to the peace of the community as the hanging of Peter Oliver in effigy, the unnecessary attack upon redcoats by a mob, which resulted in the much-dramatized Boston Massacre and, finally, worst of all, the wholesale destruction of a shipload of good East India Company tea.
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