USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880, Vol. III > Part 55
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The last half of the last century and the early years of the present must be regarded as a period peculiarly unfavorable to religious growth and prosperity in New England. We might, in this connection, speak of the disastrous results of the long-continued union of Church and State in our early New England history, and other kindred causes. But leaving these aside, there are certain open and obvious facts looking in the same general direction, which deserve to be brought into special notice.
For fifty years and more from the middle of the last century the minds of men in this country were peculiarly absorbed by questions of politics and war. First came the "French and Indian War," so-called, which made a very heavy draft upon the families and the property of New Eng- land. Hardly had this passed, when the fierce agitations between this and the mother country began. This was a strife which year by year waxed hotter and hotter, until it culminated in the eight years' struggle of the Revolution. After this war closed, came up the long and tedious debates touching the formation of the government and the provisions of the federal constitution. To aggravate the case, and render matters connected with religion still worse, our friendly alliance with France during the years of the Revolution had made our people very familiar with French ideas of life, here and hereafter. Nothing could be more at variance with the old New England faith than this light, airy, unthinking philosophy. At the close of the last century French infidelity had become quite current in New England, especially among the young men. And nowhere was this more common than among the young men in our colleges, - advanced thinkers, as they thought themselves to be, and aspiring to be leaders of public opinion. Whether we have here given the true causes or not, it must be admitted that New England was never at a lower point, religiously, as seen in her public and in her private life, than in the earliest years of the present century.
Thus far our attention has been directed to Boston, as its territory was known and bounded in the last century. But it is of course proper that the Boston of to-day should be comprehended and exhibited. To this end it is needful that we turn back again for a moment, and enumerate the
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Congregational churches existing one hundred years ago on the territory recently brought within the city limits. These churches are five in number, namely : -
First Church in Roxbury July, 1632.
First Church in Charlestown Nov. 2, 1632.
First Church in Dorchester Aug. 23, 1636.
Second Church in Roxbury (West Roxbury) Nov. 2, 1712.
Third Church in Roxbury (Jamaica Plain) Dec. 11, 1770.
These five, added to the eleven already enumerated, show the existence of sixteen Congregational churches, in 1780, upon the territory now em- braced within the city of Boston. In some lists the First Church in Brigh- ton is made to date from 1730. But we reckon the year of the formation of the Old Brighton Church to be 1783. Brighton was anciently a part of Cambridge, and was called Little Cambridge. A preaching service, more or less irregular, had been maintained at Little Cambridge from 1730 onward. But the real organization of the church did not take place till 1783, and we date from that organic act, and not from the early movements looking in that direction.
Of the sixteen churches named above, which were in active existence one hundred years ago upon the present Boston soil, all but two in the early years of the present century became known as Unitarian. The two remain- ing Trinitarian were the First Church in Charlestown and the Old South. As the Unitarian churches of the city will be presented in a separate chapter, we will not attempt farther to follow their fortunes, but will give our atten- tion to the two above-mentioned, and those of like faith which have come into existence during the present century.
After that long period of dulness and decline of which we have spoken, at length came the time when the religious life of New England set forward again under new and more favorable auspices. Some of the evils and hindrances of the former years had worked themselves out to their full end, and had disappeared. That scheme of church-membership introduced by the Synod of 1662, and known as the Half-way Covenant, had at length been abandoned. The ruling elders, who figured so prominently in the early generations, had taken their departure. The aristocratic features of the Cambridge Platform, giving such undue power in the government of the churches to the ministers, had lost their vitality. The union of the Church with the State was rapidly drawing to a close. The churches, both in city and country, were losing some of their formal dignity and growing more and more into the pattern of the New Testament simplicities. The exclu- siveness of the former days had gone by; and a fair and open field was presented to churches of other denominations, giving them substantially the same rights and privileges which had before been reserved for churches of the standing order. In due time came the full inauguration of the principle that religion should be free, -that no person should be taxed for any church except at his own pleasure. Changes so radical as these seemed to
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many of the conservative men of fifty and sixty years ago the giving up of all that New England had held most dear. But, looking back from the present, few will deny that our religious condition is far more sound and healthful in consequence of these changes. This revolution was a growth from within, rather than a measure forced upon the churches from without. There never was a time when the churches of the standing order in New England were forced by outside majorities to change their early policy ; they yielded rather to the silent pressure of their own underlying principles. Step by step they advanced logically toward greater liberty and toleration.
With the opening years of the present century other elements, of a differ- ent type, came into the church life of New England. Then began that great migratory movement, by which the pent-up population of the Atlantic slopes and the gathering hosts of the Old World were to be distributed across this broad continent. A missionary field of the most majestic proportions opened before the churches of every name and order. Coincident with this came the Christian impulse to send the blessings of the gospel far abroad to the nations sitting in darkness. The thoughts of men and women were thus turned away from themselves and from the little worlds in which they personally moved to the broad land which God had given them for an inheritance, and to a wide and waiting world appealing to their Christian sympathies. The missionary work at home and abroad done by this and . by other lands distinguishes, to an eminent degree, the Christianity of the present century from the centuries that went before. There is now among the churches of the New England type less of form and ceremony, less of dignity and state, less of dogmatic controversy than in the generations past ; but there is, let us hope, more of the spirit of that great Teacher and Master who went about doing good. Looking at things in a certain way, it is easy to conclude that men and women were more religious formerly than now. There was a far more enforced conformity to religious observances; but when we remember that religion is a thing of the heart, and not of the out- ward form, and that nothing can be truly genuine and worthy in this respect which does not spring naturally out of a free and willing mind, we may find some evidence that the real piety of this generation is as good as that of the past.
Early in the present century began the formation of Sunday-schools among the churches of this country, -an enterprise which has already grown into vast proportions. It has called out the benevolence and the working power of our churches to a very great degree. From year to year this en- terprise takes on new forms and varieties and methods of work; but never, perhaps, has the range of its activity been larger or more healthy than at present. All these things indicate religious activity, if not religious thought. The century in which we are living has witnessed an advance in almost every department of life truly marvellous; and we believe that the relig- ious progress during this period will prove as truly great as the revolution wrought in things outward and material.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Going back then once more to the beginning of the century, and setting out with the two churches which had come over from the previous genera- tions, we find that within the limits of the present city of Boston forty-one Congregational churches have meanwhile sprung into existence. Of these, twenty-six were on the ancient territory of Boston, and fifteen were in the several districts which have lately been added to the city. These are as follows, taking first those on the old territory: -
Park Street, 1809; Union, 1822; Phillips, 1823; Green Street, 1823; Bowdoin, 1825; Salem Street, 1827; Berkeley, 1827; Mariners, 1830; Central, 1835; Maverick, 1836; Free Church, 1836; Garden Street, 1840; Mount Vernon, 1842; Messiah, 1844; Church of the Pilgrims, 1844; Ley- den, 1844; Payson, 1845; Shawmut, 1845; Edwards, 1849; Church of the Unity, 1857; Springfield Street, 1860; Oak Place, 1860; E Street, 1860; Chambers Street, 1861; Salem and Mariners, 1866; Olivet, 1876.
Those in the new districts are as follows : -
Second Church, Dorchester, 1808; Brighton, 1827; Village Church, Dorchester, 1829; Winthrop, Charlestown, 1833; Eliot, Roxbury, 1834; South Evan., West Roxbury, 1835; Bethesda, Charlestown, 1847; Central, Jamaica Plain, 1853; Immanuel, Roxbury, 1857; Trinity, Neponset, 1859; Pilgrim, Dorchester, 1862; Highland, Roxbury, 1869; Walnut Avenue, Roxbury, 1870; Church of Hollanders, Roxbury, 1873 ; Boylston, Jamaica Plain, 1879.
In making a brief reference to the men who have occupied the pulpits of these churches during the century, we shall be obliged to confine our notices to some of the more conspicuous, who have already passed away. In making our selection we shall choose indiscriminately from the ancient Boston, and from those portions recently brought within the city limits.
In 1779, almost at the beginning of the period contemplated in this chapter, the Rev. Dr. Joseph Eckley was ordained pastor of the Old South Joseph Eckley Church. He was a native of London, Eng- land, and a graduate from the College of New Jersey. His ministry continued thirty- two years, until his death in 1811. It was eminently a transition period among the churches of Boston, and Dr. Eck- ley to some degree sympathized with the changes going forward, though not to such an extent as to leave his old theological associations. He was a man of refined manners and good culture, who fulfilled his ministry in a troubled and revolutionary period. -
In the year 1808 the Rev. Joshua Huntington was settled as his col- league. He was a man greatly beloved and honored, but his ministry was cut short in 1819 by his untimely death, at the age of thirty-four.
The Rev. Jedidiah Morse, D.D., was settled over the First Church of Charlestown in 1789, and continued in office until 1820, when he resigned. He was one of the marked men of his generation, distinguished by his pulpit talents and his power as a writer upon religious and doctrinal topics.
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THE CONGREGATIONAL (TRINITARIAN) CHURCHES.
He has been known also as the father of American geography, and was deeply interested in all matters scientific and historical. For several years he was the editor of the Panoplist, and was prominently connected with the founding of the Imorseo Andover Theological Seminary. Great as lie was in himself, he was still more distinguished in his sons, who have filled a high place in journalism, and in the records of great inventions. He was a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and of other learned bodies.
The Rev. Edward Dorr Griffin, D.D., the first pastor of Park-Street Church, professor of rhetoric in Andover Theological Seminary, and & D Griffin. president of Williams College, im- pressed the men of his generation as a preacher of solid power and commanding eloquence. His stay in Boston was brief. His longest term of office was in the presidency
of Williams College, where he remained from 1821 to 1836. He was among the leading pulpit orators of his time in New England.
The Rev. John Codman, D.D., first pastor of the Second Church in Dor- chester, remained in office thirty-nine years, till his death. The son of a wealthy Boston merchant, To kelo odmane he enjoyed more than the usual opportunities for education, both at home and abroad. Without any thought or forecast at the time of his settlement as to what would happen, it fell to his lot to open that great strife, in the early years of the present century, whereby a separation took place between the Con- gregational churches since known as ·Unitarian and those that adhered to the old New England standards of faith. The opening years of his minis- try were therefore very stirring and eventful. Dr. Codman was a man strong, solid, and practical, rather than brilliant. Blessed with fortune, he was able to become a public benefactor in a financial way, and took delight in imparting of his substance for individual and public good. His name abides in honor.
The Rev. William Jenks, D.D., more widely distinguished as an author than as a preacher, was well known in Boston in various connections from 1818 Mom Jenks till his death in 1866, at the advanced age of eighty- eight. His gentlemanly person, his quiet manners, and his refined taste are well remembered by multi- tudes in the city. In the later years of his life, as he sat in the pulpit of the Old South Church on the Sabbath with his ear- trumpet, his saintly looks and gentle ways acted like a constant benediction upon the congregation. He was an able and instructive preacher in the
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
days of his strength and activity, but was more remarkable for his ripe learning and his great success in authorship. His Comprehensive Commen- tary, the fruit of the labor of many years, is said to have had a sale of 120,000 copies. Other works of his, illustrative of the Bible and designed as helps in its study, have had a large circulation
The stay of Dr. Lyman Beecher in Boston is to be regarded as a kind of episode in his long, stirring, and eventful life. He was resident here only from 1826 to 1832. But these were years when he was in the full plenitude
Lyman Bucher 1
of his strength, -when his intellect was at the best, and his experience already large. Dr. Beecher, though quaint, odd, and absent-minded, was not unsymmetrical. He was a man to be trusted with great interests. While
1 [This cut follows a portrait by Baird of by Mrs. Mary Foote Perkins, a daughter of Dr. Cincinnati, painted about 1843, and now owned Beecher. - ED.]
F
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he was pastor in Boston his influence in all the surrounding towns was very great. As an author, his published writings bear witness to the order and comprehensiveness of his thought. In short he was not, as some suppose, simply an impulsive and fiery orator, carrying his points by the sway and splendor of his rhetoric; he was a scholar also, - a man of system and orderly arrangement, working intelligently toward his end. He was unique to an extraordinary degree.
Fifty years ago the name of the Rev. B. B. Wisner, D.D., was one of the popular and beloved names of Boston. As pastor of the Old South Church from 1821 to 1832, and as one of the secretaries of the American Board from 1832 to his death in 1835, few men have more thoroughly won public affection and confidence. Of a fine presence and winning aspect, with an attractive address and a fluent speech, he was a general favorite with the people. He passed away at a comparatively early age, at a period when a man usually begins to take on his full mental vigor and compass. He was but thirty-nine at the time of his death, but left behind him an excellent record for culture, activity, and usefulness.1
The Old South Church also suffered a severe affliction in the early death of the pastor immediately succeeding Dr. Wisner, -the Rev. Samuel H. Stearns. His ministry, begun in 1834, opened with great promise, and the young pastor was most highly esteemed and loved by his congregation. But his work was soon cut short by disease. He died after a ministry of only three years.
One of the early ministers of the church in Brighton was the cele- brated Dr. William Adams, who after a long and very conspicuous life Mr. Allan3 has recently passed away by death in the city of New York. His set- tlement at Brighton was in 1831, immediately after leaving the theo- logical seminary. He had not then learned to use the treasures of his learning and power. In later years he became one of the foremost clergy- men in the land. By his stately dignity and eloquence, few men could more adequately meet the requirements of a great occasion.
The first pastor of the Salem-Street Church was the Rev. Justin Edwards, D.D. Before coming to Boston, he had been pastor at Andover for fifteen years. His pastorate at Boston was short, because of failing Justin Edwards health; but after recovering strength he became a conspic- uous worker through all the later years of his life in reformatory move- ments. He was the founder of the American Temperance Society, and became its secretary. He was actively engaged both as writer and public debater upon the Sabbath question. An immense number of copies of his
1 [We owe to Dr. Wisner the only history we have of the Old South Church. - ED.1 VOL. III .- 52.
-
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Sabbath Manual, his Temperance Manual, and of other of his works were circulated among the people. He was for several years the President of the Andover Theological Seminary.
In 1834 the Rev. Nehemiah Adams, D.D., began his ministry in Essex Street, as pastor of the Union Church, and from that time until recent years he has been one of the most marked men connected with the Boston ministry. Of conservative tendencies on all questions of theology and morals, of strong and abid-
very affecty yours NAdans
ing will, he was yet a man of such grace of culture, and such felicity of public address, that his services were always in full demand so long as his health and strength lasted. He had the delights and delicacies of literary culture to a most remarkable degree. In the fitness and aptness of his Scriptural quotations he was well-nigh unsur- passed. To all these advantages are to be added the comeliness and beauty of his person, and his calm self-possession in all public duties. He bore a prominent part in the religious controversies of his day, but took a greater delight in more quiet authorship. As a public writer he was large and comprehensive. There is a wide variety in the books which he has left behind; but they are all marked by the ever-recurring touches of his pe- culiar genius.
The first pastor of the Eliot Church, Boston Highlands, was the Rev. John S. C. Abbott, D.D., a man of quick and versatile genius, and holding pre-eminently the pen of a ready writer. In connection with his public labors in the min- John S.l. Alla istry in various places he has been prolific in authorship to a remarkable degree, and his writings have enjoyed a large popularity. While many have not been able to coincide with some of his historical judgments, all will concede that there is a peculiar charm spread over the pages of his books. Few men have gathered about themselves a greater multitude of readers.
The Rev. Sereno E. Dwight, D.D., the second pastor of Park-Street Church, was the son of Dr. Timothy Dwight, President of Yale College. His own abilities, as well as his father's name, caused him to become con- spicuous in public life during the early years of the present century. As a preacher and a writer he obtained a good reputation. After leaving Park Street in 1826, he was for a short period President of Hamilton College, New York, but was more largely engaged as a writer and author. He pub- lished several works, of which the most important was the life of his distin- guished ancestor Jonathan Edwards, which makes the first volume in his ten-volume edition of Edwards's Works, published in 1830.
The Rev. Joel H. Linsley, D.D., pastor of Park-Street Church at a later date, was a man of very effective pulpit powers. Not demonstrative, not aiming at oratorical display, he was often eloquent after the most genuine fashion. He touched and captivated the heart. Simple and natural in
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THE CONGREGATIONAL (TRINITARIAN) CHURCHES.
his daily life and in all his public addresses, he was a choice and valued Christian worker in his generation. After leaving Boston he became Presi- dent of Marietta College, Ohio. His longest ministry was in his later years at Greenwich, Connecticut, where he died in 1868.
The Rev. Silas Aiken, D.D., successor to Dr. Linsley in the Park-Street pulpit, was a man different in the habits of his mind and in his constitu- tional tendencies; less tender and emotional, but strong, solid, and worthy. He had not the elements of a strictly popular preacher ; but he had strength Silas Aiken of understanding, and was a wise, faith- ful, judicious pastor, - a man to be honored and trusted. His pastoral care of the church continued for eleven years, from 1837 to 1848.
The Rev. Amos A. Phelps, connected as pastor with three of the Boston churches between the years 1832 and 1847, was a man who left behind him a much greater name than any immediate success would seem to warrant. The secret of this is to be found probably in the fact that he was a thorough- going Antislavery advocate at a time when Antislavery sentiments were not popular in the great cities of the north. Moreover, as an Antislavery man he did not consort with men of the radical type, but kept himself in strict alliance with the churches, where at the first he found little sympathy. As an acute and logical thinker, whose ideas though tardily received were at length victorious, he has an honor now which he did not enjoy in his lifetime. He was of a delicate constitution, and passed away at a compar- atively early age. Few of his contemporaries, however, accomplished more than he in the cause of truth and righteousness.
Another Congregational minister, who like the preceding was cut off in the midst of his days, was the Rev. William M. Rogers, the brilliant pastor Ifm. M. Rogers. of Central Church from 1835 to 1851. For a number of years, while his health and strength were continued, there was no Congregational minister in Boston who had greater attractive power than he. The Central Church in those years was one of the places of popular resort. Mr. Rogers was of a slight figure, with marked nervous energy, and with a style of address that reached and thoroughly penetrated his hearers. He was averse to every form of radicalism. He might be called ultra-conservative. But notwithstanding these seeming drawbacks he had the elements of popularity in him to a marked degree, and filled a conspicuous place during the short period of his public activity.
The Rev. Samuel Green, the first pastor of Union Church, was one of those men of excellent quality and large promise who are not permitted to continue. After a min- Sum green. istry of eleven years in Essex Street he died at
the age of forty-two, greatly beloved and honored. He was a brother of
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
the Rev. David Green, so widely known as a wise and able secretary of the American Board.
The successor of Dr. Lyman Beecher, at the Bowdoin-Street Church, was the Rev. Hubbard Winslow, D.D., who remained in office from 1832 to 1844. Mr. Winslow was a man of a companionable nature, easily accessi- ble, and during his ministry Bowdoin-Street Church was full to overflowing. For some years no Congregational Church in Boston was more crowded. Dr. Winslow, though not a great preacher in the highest sense, had the power of adaptation to the wants of common minds, so that he was a favor- ite with the people. After leaving the ministry in 1844 he became well known as a teacher and writer. He published several volumes of a religious and practical nature which had a good circulation.
The Rev. Edward N. Kirk, D.D., came to Boston in 1842 to be made the first pastor of the Mount Vernon Church. Previous to his coming hither Edw n. Kirk he had acquired a wide reputation as an evangelist. He was an accomplished pul- pit orator, and wherever he went he was certain to draw crowds to hear him. He preached the gospel with great fervor and directness, and in a most winning manner. With a voice clear, rotund, musical, capable by its range of finding out the most distant hearer ; with a figure full, graceful, easy of movement,-he had few equals in the land in making a popular impression. Turning from his life as an evangelist to become a settled pastor, many thought that he had perhaps made a mis- take, and that the new enterprise would prove a failure in his hands. But on coming to Boston Dr. Kirk thoroughly identified himself with every good word and work. No man among us has been more widely connected with great evangelical movements, not only near at hand, but throughout the land and the world. His name has been as familiar almost in England, France, Germany, and Italy, as in the United States.
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