The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880, Vol. III, Part 57

Author: Jewett, Clarence F; Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897
Publication date: 1880-1881
Publisher: Boston : J.R. Osgood
Number of Pages: 770

USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880, Vol. III > Part 57

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JAMAICA PLAIN, BOYLSTON CHURCH, Feb. 4, 1879.

Guy Van Der Kreeke .

Holland, Europe, Sept. 9, 1847 .

Hope Col., Mich., 1868

Feb. 20, 1873

...

OLIVET CHURCH, Jan. 12, 1876.

East Haddam, Ct., Nov. 13, 1828 Lyme, N.H., Oct. 1, 1845 . . · Picton, N.S., June 2, 1844 .

1866.

1869

June 25, 1878

SALEM AND MARINERS, Dec. 2, 1866.

J. M. H. Dow, A.P. Stephen H. Hayes, A. P.

...

Joseph P. Bixby .

H. M. Dexter, D.D., A.P. Frederick R. Abbe . . Frederick A. Haod, ·

Taunton, Eog., March 14, 1815 Plympton, Mass., Aug. 13, 1821 Litchfield, Ct., Oct. 28, 1827 .

Feb.

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CHAPTER VIII.

THE BAPTISTS IN BOSTON DURING THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS.

BY THE REV. HENRY M. KING, D. D., Pastor of the Dudley-Street Baptist Church, Roxbury.

O NE hundred years ago there were only two Baptist churches in Boston, and they were not strong in the number or social influence of their members. The First Baptist Church had had an existence of one hundred and fifteen years, having been organized in Charlestown in 1665, and after so long a period did not number more than one hundred and fifty members. The Second Baptist Church, subsequently known as the Baldwin-Place Church, and at the present time bearing the name of the Warren-Avenue Church, had been formed in 1743, and at the end of forty years had forty- three members. In 1784 published statistics of the denomination reported two hundred and one professing Baptists in Boston.

It is not necessary to present at length the reasons for this slowness of growth, or to give in detail the causes which prevented the views of the Baptists from taking root more quickly and bringing forth fruit more abun- dantly. It is enough to say that the soil was preoccupied; that legislation was adverse to the introduction or progress of Baptist principles; and that there was a strong public sentiment in opposition to any religious beliefs or organizations differing from those of "the standing order."

It should be remarked, however, that open hostility had ceased long be- fore 1780, and the spirit of religious toleration (that plant of slow growth and tardy maturity), and even of friendliness, was becoming more and more prevalent. It had been one hundred and thirty-six years since Mr. Painter had been publicly whipped at Hingham for refusing to allow his child to be baptized, and a whole century had passed away since the doors of the meet- ing-house of the First Baptist Church were nailed up by order of the Gov- ernor and Council of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, under date of March 8, 1680. Indeed, in 1718, when Rev. Elisha Callender was ordained as pastor of the First Baptist Church, three Congregational ministers - the Mathers, father and son, and Rev. John Webb - accepted invitations to be present at the service. Mr. Callender was a graduate of the College at Cambridge, and

422

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

this fact may not have been without its influence on their minds. Rev. Cotton Mather preached the sermon on that occasion, choosing for his theme, " Good Men United." In the sermon he carnestly condemned " the withdrawal of fellowship from good men," and the disposition to " inflict uneasy circumstances upon them, under the wretched notion of wholesome severities ;" he denounced that " cruel wrath," which is " good for nothing but only to make divisions in Jacob and dispersions in Israel," and followed his denunciation with the very humble and frank confession, expressive of his own position and undoubtedly of the changing sentiment of his people, that " New England also has, in some former times, done something of this aspect, which would not now be so well approved of; in which, if the

REV. SAMUEL STILLMAN, D.D.

brethren in whose house we are now convened, met with anything too unbrotherly, they now with satisfaction hear us expressing our dislike of everything that has looked like persecution in the days that have passed over us."

The better times had come. The rights of private judgment and personal conscience in matters of religious faith and worship were quite generally acknowledged, although laws were still in force which allowed the taxation of all lands for the support of the town minister, and it was not until 1832 that the last vestige of oppressive legislation was removed from the statute books of Massachusetts.

423

THE BAPTISTS IN BOSTON.

In 1780 Rev. Samuel Stillman, A.M., was pastor of the First Baptist Church, having been settled fifteen years before, and Rev. Isaac Skillman, A.M., had had for seven years the pastoral care of the Second Baptist Church. Mr. Skillman remained in the pastoral office until 1787. After the brief ministry and sudden death of Rev. Thomas Gair, the Second Church secured the services of Rev. Thomas Baldwin in 1790. Under the ministry of these two eminent preachers, Dr. Stillman and Dr. Baldwin, whose memory is still gratefully cherished in the denomination, the two Baptist churches were greatly strengthened and increased. The two hun- dred and one members of 1784 became four hundred and twenty-five mem- bers in 1795. The relations between the two churches and their pastors were of the most fraternal kind. Although the Second Church had gone out from the First, because the pastor at that time, Rev. Jeremiah Condy, was thought to be slightly tainted with Arminianism ; and although Dr. Still- man and Dr. Baldwin sympathized with different political parties in the exciting discussions at the beginning of the present century, so that on Thanksgiving and Fast days the congregations were considerably inter- mingled, and " the Federalists naturally went to Stillman Street and the Democrats to Baldwin l'lace,"- yet it was an era of unbroken harmony and prosperity. The favor of God rested upon his servants and their labors.

Dr. Stillman continued to be pastor of the First Church for forty-two years. He died March 12, 1807, greatly beloved and honored. His fellow laborer and intimate friend, Dr. Baldwin, preached the sermon at his funeral, and it is said that " all the members of the society appeared with badges of mourning, the women with black bonnets and handkerchiefs." Dr. Baldwin remained pastor of the Second Church thirty-five years. His death occurred Aug. 29, 1825, and called forth expressions of universal sorrow. "The bells of the city were tolled, and his funeral, attended by the Governor of the Commonwealth, by other high officials, both of the State and the city, and by the clergy of all denominations, was signalized by manifestations of respect seldom equalled." The following lines have been fittingly used to portray his character : -

" He was a good man. On his open brow Benignity had set her brightest seal ; And though the iron hand of Time might plough Some furrows there, still you could not but feel, When looking on him, that the highest weal Of human kind was to his bosom dear ; Age did not cloud it, age could not conceal The beam that shone so pure, so warm, so clear : · Such was the man of God whose memory all revere."

During Dr. Baldwin's ministry the church received such increase that its wooden house of worship was enlarged in 1797, and in 1810 was removed to make room for a larger edifice of brick, which was dedicated Jan. 1, 1811. This building, which was vacated by the church on its removal to Warren

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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

Avenue, was purchased by one of Boston's well-known charities, the Bald- win-Place Home for Little Wanderers.

Under such eminent leadership, crowned with the divine blessing, the principles held by the Baptists became better known and found intelligent and conscientious believers, and the size and strength of the denomination were steadily increased. The First Church, having worshipped for one hundred and fifty years by the side of what was then called the " mill-pond," on the north side of Stillman Street, between Salem and Pond streets (a second and larger edifice having been built on the same spot during the period), removed to a new meeting-house situated at the corner of Union and Hanover streets, in June, 1829. This building it occupied for twenty- four years, when, in 1853, compelled by the encroachments of business upon its location, it transferred itself to Somerset Street, where upon a most eligi- ble site it erected a beautiful sanctuary, whose lofty spire overlooks the city, and is a conspicuous object to those who approach from the sea. This building, also, the church at length vacated by reason of the very general removal of its families to the south end of the city, and in 1877 it united with the Shawmut-Avenue Baptist Church, worshipping at the corner of Shawmut Avenue and Rutland Street, the new church taking the name and inheriting the rich history of the mother church.

Soon after the beginning of the present century the growth of the denomination began to manifest itself in the springing up of new churches within the city limits and in the immediate suburbs. The following table of decades will show the number of churches established, and the order of their organization. The list includes, in addition to those suburban towns which have been actually annexed to Boston, those whose inhabitants largely do business in Boston, and might properly be reckoned in its population, - such as Brookline and Cambridge. The dates are those of organization : -

FIRST DECADE, - 1800 to 1810.

First Baptist Church, Charlestown . 1801 Independent (colored) . 1805

Charles Street (formerly called the Third) 1807

SECOND DECADE, - 1810 to 1820.

First Cambridge . 1817

Arlington 1817

THIRD DECADE, - 1820 to 1830.

Dudley Street (Roxbury) . 1821

Clarendon Street (at first Federal Street, afterward Rowe Street) . 1827

Second Cambridge 1827

Stoughton Street (Dorchester) 18.45 Brookline . IS28

South Baptist (South Boston) 1828

FOURTH DECADE, - 1830 to 1840.

North Baptist (disbanded 1840) . 1835

First Chelsea . 1836

Neponset Avenue (Dorchester) 1837

Harvard Street (formerly called Boyl- ston Street) 1839

Tremont Street (now Union Temple) 1839

FIFTH DECADE, - 1840 to 1850.

Bowdoin Square . 1840

Jamaica Plain 1842

Old Cambridge

1844

Union Church (now Union Temple) 1844 High Street (Charlestown, disbanded 1863) 1844

Central Square (East Boston) . 1844

Tremont (Roxbury, disbanded 1866) 18.45

Twelfth Church (colored) 1848

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THE BAPTISTS IN BOSTON.

SIXTH DECADE, - 1850 to 1860.

First Mariners' . 1851

Bunker Hill ( Charlestown) . 1851

Brighton Avenue (Allston) . 1853

North Cambridge . 1854

Shawmut Avenue (united with First Church) . 1856

Fourth Street (South Boston) 1858

Cary Avenue (Chelsea) 1859

SEVENTII DECADE, - 1860 to 1870.

Union Temple 1863

Broadway (Cambridge) 1865

EIGHTII DECADE, - 1870 to 1880.

Dearborn Street (Roxbury) 1870

Ruggles Street (Roxbury) 1870

Ebenezer (colored) 1871

Winthrop

1871

Tabernacle (Roxbury, disbanded

1877) 1873

Roslindale (West Roxbury) 1874

Charles River (Cambridge) 1876

Day Star (colored) 1876

Revere

1877

Trinity (East Boston)

1878

Union Church (Cambridge, colored) 1879

First German

1879

On the average more than one Baptist church for each two years has been organized within what may now be called Boston, since the beginning of the present century. With very few exceptions, these churches still live, and give abundant promise of growth and yet further multiplication. The few exceptions are the result not of any defection or surrender of principles, but of the receding of the tide of population, or a lack of wisdom in the choice of location. In two or three instances two churches have united their strength for the accomplishment of a larger work.

The limits of a single chapter will preclude even the briefest outline of the history and activity of this band of Christian churches of like faith, and will prevent the mention even of the names of the ministers who, for a longer or shorter period, have served them in the past, or are filling their pulpits to-day. But in addition to the names of Dr. Samuel Stillman and Dr. Thomas Baldwin, already mentioned, there are a few names of Baptist preachers, who by their special eminence, as well as by their prolonged service in this city, have been honored no less by other denominations than by their own. So intimately connected have they been with the pro- gress of Baptist churches and principles in Boston during the last seventy years that the omission of their names in the briefest history would be an unpardonable neglect in the historian.

Rev. Daniel Sharp, D.D., was the second pastor of the Charles-Street Church. Entering into this official relation in 1812, he remained in it until his death in 1853, his ministry covering a period of forty-one years. There are many who still delight to recall " his erect form and noble countenance, his personal dignity and natural eloquence." His preaching was character- ized as " lucid, serious, instructive, earnest," and he is said to have been " an enthusiastic believer in the ethics of Christianity," and to have " attached special importance to the culture of the moral virtues as the fruits of a gen- uine faith." His pulpit was one of great attractiveness and power, and he gave himself freely to every noble reform and évery great denominational enterprise.

Rev. Baron Stow, D.D., began his ministry in Boston in 1832. For six- VOL. III. - 54.

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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

teen years he was pastor of the Second or Baldwin-Place Church, and then for nineteen years the pastor of the Rowe Street, now the Clarendon-Street Church. He was " eminent as a Christian, a philanthropist, and a preacher," and " to every post of duty and labor he brought a sound judgment, an earnest purpose, a prayerful and conciliatory spirit." His preaching was thoroughly scriptural, with the doctrinal and practical judiciously united, and, when he was in the vigor of his manhood, was characterized by a kind- ling eloquence, which made him one of the most popular pulpit orators of his time. His wisdom and zeal were felt in every department of Christian labor.

Rev. Rollin Heber Neale, D.D., was called to the First Church in 1837, and held the position of pastor until 1877, when, no longer able to bear the burdens of the active ministry, he resigned his official relation with the church, but continued in its endeared fellowship until his death in Septem- ber, 1879. Endowed with superior mental gifts, with largeness of heart and catholicity of spirit, he stood for forty years at his important post, the trusted pastor, the eloquent preacher, the friend of all good causes; and thus with a hand of love he wrote the long story of his ministerial fidelity, and died sincerely esteemed and greatly beloved by all who knew him.

Rev. Francis Wayland, D.D., who during a presidency of twenty-five years at Brown University acquired a renown as an educator second to that of no one in New England, was, for five years previous to his connection with the college, pastor of the First Baptist Church in this city. Though his pastorate of the church was brief, he added strength to the denominational life and to the whole religious life of Boston, and the glory of his name still lingers about the pulpit of the old church which he served.

The names of Rev. James M. Winchell, called " the beloved Winchell; " of Rev. Bela Jacobs, the early and life-long friend of Newton Theological Institution ; of Rev. James D. Knowles, the accomplished Christian gentle- man and scholar, who went from the pulpit of the Baldwin-Place Church to a Professor's chair at Newton; of Rev. Henry Jackson. D.D .; of Rev. Howard Malcom, D.D .; of Rev. Robert W. Cushman, D.D .; and of Rev. Sumner R. Mason, D.D., - all of whom were able expounders of the Word and faithful ministers of their respective churches, - are as familiar to Bap- tists as household words.

These men and others not less worthy of mention, the living and the dead, -and not only clergymen, but distinguished laymen not a few, -have toiled and prayed and sacrificed for the advancement of the great central truths of the Christian faith which they believed essential to the welfare of society and the salvation of men, and for the defence of those particular views which, accepting the Word of God as of supreme authority in matters of religious belief and practice, they have conscientiously held.

In the year 1780 the two Baptist churches in Boston were connected with the Warren Association, - an association of Baptist churches formed at Warren, R. I. in 1767, and embracing " all but five of the regular Baptist

427

THE BAPTISTS IN BOSTON.

churches in Rhode Island, all in eastern Massachusetts, and several in the southern part of New Hampshire." In 1811 this association, covering so much territory, contained sixty churches. In that year it was voted by delegates from the churches in eastern Massachusetts to form the Boston Association. At its first session in 1812 twenty-four churches were rep- resented, ranging from Templeton, Mass., to New Boston, N. H., fronı Newton to Haverhill and Marblehead. As the churches increased in number, the more distant ones dropped off to form new associations, - the Worcester, the Old Colony, the Salem, etc .; until in 1848 the Bos- ton Association was again divided into the Boston North and the Boston South, the dividing line going through the heart of the city. These two associations, covering a circle of territory with Boston as a centre, and a radius of eight or ten miles, now contain seventy-nine churches with an aggregate membership of 19,028. The two little Boston churches, organized prior to 1780, are found at the expiration of the century to have been mul- tiplied by thirty-nine and a half in number, and by one hundred in respect to members. Or, if we confine our view to the actual limits of Boston to- day, the increase has been more than fifty-fold. The larger estimate of increase - namely, one hundred-fold, which it is certainly fair to accept - is perhaps a little in excess of the rate of increase which the denomination has had in the whole country during the last hundred years. There could hardly have been more than 25,000 Baptists in the United States in 1780, according to the most generous estimate; and the statistics of 1880 repre- sent the denomination of regular Baptists as numbering 2,296,327 members. It may be hoped that the Baptist churches in Boston give evidence of a corresponding increase in culture, wealth, social influence, moral and spirit- ual life; in fact, in everything which goes to make up the power and adds to the efficiency of a church of Christ.

To estimate properly the progress of a religious denomination it is not enough to consider the mere multiplication of numbers, for great numbers may sometimes be an element of weakness rather than of strength, and increasing proportions may be no certain indication of a larger spiritual life. The progress of a denomination is seen especially, first, in the progress of the principles for which it stands; and, secondly, in the nature of the enter- prises which it inaugurates and carries forward. With reference to the first point, this is not, of course, the proper place for any discussion. It will be sufficient to say that the Baptists of Boston, as elsewhere and always, have been the carnest advocates of religious liberty, - meaning thereby freedom of conscience, the unquestioned right of private judgment, and the separation of Church and State, - and also of a regenerated church-membership which is a vital part of their polity; and that they have borne no inconsiderable part in securing the more general acceptance of these principles among Christian citizens. It will be well, however, to look briefly at the second point, and consider the character of some of the enterprises which have engaged the attention of Boston Baptists, as indicative of their progressive spirit.

428

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

Previous to 1800 the Baptists of this country had done little or nothing to extend the knowledge of Christianity beyond their own borders. In this respect, however, they did not differ from other denominations of Christians. It was not until 1810 that the American Board of Commissioners for For- eign Missions, the first and largest of American missionary societies, was organized. The Baptists were few in number, for the most part in humble circumstances, and oppressed with disabilities, so that their little available strength was largely consumed for home support and advancement. A few scattered contributions had been forwarded to Rev. Dr. Carey, the pioneer missionary of the English Baptists at Serampore. In 1806 and 1807 he acknowledged the receipt of six thousand dollars from America. Another has said that the Baptists of America "were waiting for that Providential touch, as of the rod of Moses on the rock in Horeb, to which the gushing waters would come." That Providential touch was felt in the conversion of the Judsons to Baptist views, and their appeal from the distant East to those whose faith they had been led to adopt, to come to their support. When the ship "Tartar " arrived at Boston in January, 1813, bringing the unex- pected tidings from the Judsons, and like unexpected tidings from Rev. Luther Rice,-who had been ordained at the same time with Mr. Judson, had sailed for India under appointment of the American Board in another ship, and had also become a Baptist during the voyage by the independent study of the Scriptures, -it was looked upon as a divine call summoning the people to immediate and united action. Boston welcomed the call and responded with alacrity in the formation of "The Baptist Society for Propagating the Gospel in India and other Foreign Parts," of which Thomas Baldwin and Daniel Sharp were chosen president and secretary. Other societies were formed at other centres, and all were united in 1814 in the " General Mis- sionary Convention " for prosecuting the work of foreign missions. Rev. Adoniram Judson, Jr., was formally appointed their first missionary, and the denomination entered upon its sublime work of faith, and took the first step in obedience to the great commission of its risen Lord. The Convention was to meet once in three years, and the board at first had its seat in Phila- delphia. At the fourth meeting, however, measures were instituted which resulted, in 1826, in the transfer of the seat of management to Boston. The Baptists here accepted the solemn trust, and for fifty-four years have administered it with distinguishing wisdom and fidelity. The American Baptist Missionary Union, the name by which the society is now known, is, indeed, almost a national society, receiving its support from States east, north, and west, and expending during the past year $290,000 in its work; yet its support and its prosperity have been dependent in no small de- gree upon the fostering care and generous sympathies of the men and the churches to whose immediate supervision its interests have been committed. They have not only given to it their wisdom in the direction of its operations, but again and again in times of emergency have taken its burdens and made them their own, accepting them as from the Lord, and bearing them cheerfully

429

THE BAPTISTS IN BOSTON.

for His name's sake. They have been abundantly compensated, not only by the consciousness of duty done, but by the enlargement and success of the work, there being now 162 American Baptist missionaries laboring under the direction of the Missionary Union, and 1,052 native preachers, and 85,308 living members of organized churches.

Another object in which the Baptists of Boston have been especially interested during the present century, has been the work of ministerial education. The first quarter of the nineteenth century was distinguished by the activity of Christians of different names in this country in making provision for an educated ministry. In 1808 the Theological Seminary in Andover, Mass., was founded; in 1810 the Theological Seminary of the Dutch Reformed Church in New Brunswick, N. J .; in 1812 the Theological Seminary in Princeton, N. J .; and in 1814 the Theological Seminary in Bangor, Me. The Baptists caught the spirit of the time, and, acknowledging the necessity of special training for those who were to be the spiritual guides of the people and the leaders of religious thought, moved forward to meet it. It is, indeed, true, in the language of Rev. Dr. Sprague, that " The Baptists, as a denomination, have always attached little import- ance to human learning as a qualification for the ministry, in comparison with those higher, though not miraculous, spiritual gifts which they believe it the province of the Holy Ghost to impart ; and some of them, it must be acknowledged, have gone to the extreme of looking upon high intellectual culture in a minister as rather a hindrance than a help to the success of his labors."1 He very justly adds, however, "The Baptists have had less credit as the friends and patrons of learning than they have deserved."

The First Baptist Church in Boston was compelled to select its first pastors from such material as it had at hand, generally choosing some godly man from its own number. Such were Thomas Gould, John Russell, Isaac Hull, and Ellis Callender. The second pastor, John Russell, was a shoemaker by trade, and probably, like the Apostle Paul, thought it an honor, and also found it a necessity, to work at his trade after entering the ministry. He is described as " a wise and worthy man," who, making no pretensions to scholarship, " plainly spoke what he did know." His humble calling and meagre preparation for the ministry were sometimes made subjects for ridi- cule by his educated neighbors, and he was exhorted to " stick to his last." Having written an account of the trials of his church, and been so unwise as to venture into print with it, it was spoken of as a pamphlet which “a wedder-dropped shoemaker had stitched up." A Mr. Willard moralized sagely in this way: " Truly, if Goodman Russell be a fit man for a minister, we have but fooled ourselves in building colleges and instructing children in learning."

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The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880, Vol. III, Part 57

Author: Jewett, Clarence F; Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897 Publication date: 1880-1881 Publisher: Boston : J.R. Osgood Number of Pages: 770

Author: Jewett, Clarence F; Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897
Publication date: 1880-1881
Publisher: Boston : J.R. Osgood
Number of Pages: 770