USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880, Vol. III > Part 58
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When, however, the church had it in its power to secure for its pulpit those who had enjoyed larger advantages, it was not slow to do it. Its sixth and seventh pastors were Elisha Callender and Jeremiah Condy, both of
1 Historical Introduction to Annals of American Baptist Pulpit, p. xv.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
whom were graduates of Harvard College. They served the church from 1718 to 1764. The eighth pastor was Dr. Stillman, who " had received a good classical education, and studied theology under his pastor, the Rev. Mr. Hart," of Charleston, S. C. This method, namely, of private study with some prominent pastor, was often resorted to, even after graduation from college, for special theological training. It was the best method possible at the time, but was felt to be utterly inadequate. In 1814, at the third annual meeting of the Boston Association of Baptist churches, there was formed the Massachusetts Baptist Education Society, having for its object the preparation of a ministry more thoroughly qualified for its great work. This society, having changed its name to "The Northern Baptist Education Society," is still in active operation, having rendered a service of incalculable value to the churches.
Out of that educational movement begun in 1814 grew first the " Maine Literary and Theological Institution," planted in 1817 at Waterville, Me. It was subsequently called Waterville College, and more recently it has borne the name of Colby University, in honor of the late Gardner Colby, Esq., a successful Boston merchant, by whose donations its endowment has been greatly increased.
As a second direct result of that educational movement, there was founded, in 1825, the Newton Theological Institution, situated in Newton Centre, seven miles from Boston. This institution does not, indeed, belong exclusively to the Baptists of Boston, or even of Massachusetts. It has had generous friends in all parts of New England, who have contributed to its funds and promoted its prosperity. But it is not too much to say that by far the larger part of its endowment has been contributed, even as the heavy burdens of its foundation were borne, by its friends in Boston and its imme- diate vicinity. The names of four laymen are mentioned 1 as especially connected with the establishment of this school of sacred learning; namely, Ensign Lincoln, of the well remembered publishing house of Lincoln and Edmands; Nathaniel R. Cobb, a conscientious Christian merchant, who at the beginning of his business career solemnly adopted a plan of be- nevolence beginning with these words, "By the grace of God, I will never be worth more than $50,000;" Levi Farwell, who for nine years was steward of Harvard College ; and Jonathan Batcheller, of Lynn, a man of whom it has been said that he " spent little on himself, and put much into the treasury of the Lord." Three of these friends of the institution con- tributed to its funds in the aggregate nearly sixty thousand dollars, at a time when large gifts were few, and the wealth of the denomination was small. Boston has furnished worthy successors of these liberal men, who have as- sisted in increasing the assets of the institution to $450,000. The Board of Trustees has been presided over for forty-five years by the following persons in succession : Rev. Daniel Sharp, D.D., Rev. Baron Stow, D.D.,
1 Historical Address by President Alvah Hovey, D.D., at the Fiftieth Anniversary of Newton Theological Institution.
1
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THE BAPTISTS IN BOSTON.
Gardner Colby, Esq., and Hon. J. Warren Merrill. The prosperity and present efficiency of this honored school of the denomination are due in no small degree to the wisdom and generosity of its representatives in Boston and vicinity.
It is not necessary to speak of the general activities of the Baptist churches in this city, or the numerous channels through which their ever increasing life has flowed .. Those channels have been such as the life of spiritual religion will ever make for itself, and the forms of service have been such as are everywhere born of the genius of the gospel of Christ. The important work of Christian benevolence and home evangelization, in all its departments, has enlisted the practical sympathies of these churches. They have reached out the hand of help to the destitute and the oppressed of every name, - the unfortunate, the inebriate, the struggling pioneer of the West, the unenlightened freedman of the South, the mariner who lands at our port, and the immigrant who seeks a home on our shores. They have in- culcated by precept and example those principles of righteousness on which the peace and good morals of society depend. They have earnestly pro- claimed those fundamental truths of Christianity which are the basis of the highest morality as well as of immortal hope; assured that if men are made true citizens of God's spiritual kingdom, they cannot fail to be virtuous, peace-loving, law-abiding citizens under human government. In seeking to serve God devotedly, they have rendered the best service to the city and the Commonwealth. That the work of these churches has been marred by much weakness and imperfection is, alas ! too true ; but it is hoped that they have been sufficiently true to their holy faith to show some resemblance to the apostolic model, and to assist in promoting the public weal.
There are two enterprises which the Baptists have put in successful operation in this city, which may perhaps be called Baptist " notions." The Tremont Temple enterprise, in its present large proportions, grew out of a determination to establish a free church in Boston, - a church where " all persons, whether rich or poor, without distinction of color or condition," could be free to enjoy the public ministry of the gospel. The prime mover in the enterprise was Timothy Gilbert, a man of strong character and posi- tive convictions, who may be said to have been born a reformer, and who so earnestly identified himself with the Antislavery movement, that he won to himself from the lips of a slave-hunter the title, " the grandest abolitionist in Boston." The church was organized in 1839 under the name of the First Free Church. After worshipping in various places, the Tremont Theatre, a large building opposite the Tremont House, was purchased and fitted up as a place of worship. Mr. Gilbert found, in Rev. Nathaniel Colver, D.D., the first pastor of the church, a man of like spirit with himself, of tremendous energy, and without fear, who " snuffed the battle from afar," and generally succeeded in bringing it near. He remained as pastor twelve years. The property was burned in 1853, and immediately restored. The church find- ing itself unable to carry so large a property, an act of incorporation was
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
secured in 1857 for a society known as the Evangelical Baptist Benevolent and Missionary Society, which, composed of corporate members and dele- gates from the Baptist churches of the city, holds the property for the benefit of the free church worshipping in it, and is to devote whatever income may at any time be derived from it to benevolent and missionary work in the city. The building, which is centrally located, has become, in accordance with the noble design of the founder of the enterprise, "the Stranger's Sabbath Home." It has been made also the headquarters of the various denominational societies located in Boston. It was again destroyed by fire in August, 1879, and has been rebuilt during the year, and now con- tains one of the most complete and elegant auditories in the city.
The Baptist Social Union of Boston is an association of laymen, formed in 1864, for the purpose of a more intimate acquaintance between members of the different churches, and for the consideration of topics of common practical interest. Its meetings are held monthly, and have uniformly been sources of great enjoyment and profit. This union has done much to pre- serve the unity and fellowship of the churches, and to stimulate their active benevolence, and guide it in wise directions. Its growth and prosperity for the sixteen years of its existence contain the promise of permanent useful- ness. Other unions, similar to this, with perhaps slight modifications, have been formed in other cities and in other denominations; but to the Baptist Social Union of Boston belongs the honor of being the parent of them all:
Such is the shadowy outline of a history which has been full of earnest toil, patient and willing sacrifice, and heroic achievement. These churches, holding firmly to the supreme authority of the Word of God, and with equal firmness to the independence of the individual church, and the freedom of the individual conscience, acknowledging allegiance to no creed of human origin however venerable, and bound together only by the gossamer threads of voluntary association, have remained throughout the century substantially one with themselves, and one with their historic faith. Not one of them has departed from the common faith, or broken with its fellows. Grateful to God for the harmony and progress of the past, they anticipate the future with unwavering faith in the truths which the fathers held, in the Christ whom the fathers honored, and in the ultimate triumph of that kingdom which is " righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost."
Henry ho Kings.
CHAPTER IX.
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH: ITS ORIGIN, GROWTH, AND OFFSHOOTS IN SUFFOLK COUNTY.
BY THE REV. DANIEL DORCHESTER, D.D.
" Taedet me populi hujusce ¢trofevou, ita me urbanitate sua divexant et persequuntur. Non patiuntur me esse solum. E rure veniunt invisentes clerici; me revertentes in rus trahunt. Cogor hanc Angliam contemplari, etiam antiquâ amoeniorem; et nequeo non exclamare, O fortunata regio !" - From a letter written in Boston, Oct. 5, 1736, by the Rev. Charles Wesley to his brother John, then in Savannah, Ga.
T HE War of Independence divides the history of the original Church of England communion in Boston, as in all the older portions of the country, into two strongly contrasted periods. Before that event all American Episcopalians were under the jurisdiction of an English bishop, and were considered an integral part of the National Church. Even the lay preachers sent over by John Wesley, while they carried the gospel into many localities where the Church of England had no preachers, and gath- cred into religious societies multitudes of converts who were of dissenting or even foreign birth, were still so loyal to their mother that, as late as the year 1773, on holding their first conference in Philadelphia, the entire number present (ten) agreed to the following rules, to wit: --
First, that each would " Strictly avoid administering the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper ; " and, secondly, that they would " Earnestly exhort all the people among whom they labored, - particularly in Maryland and Virginia, - to attend the Church and to receive the ordinances there."
The outbreak of the war was naturally more disorganizing to this com- munion than to any of the others. It being the duty of every rector publicly to pray for the king and the royal family, the continuance of public worship according to the Book of Common Prayer was impossible. In this state of things the majority of the Episcopal clergy esteemed it alike their duty and interest to flee the country, where they could only be objects of pop- ular suspicion or hate, and wait the further unfoldments of Providence. The war over, and its issue irrevocably sealed by the treaty which ac- VOL. III .- 55.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
knowledged the independence of the American States, the necessity for ecclesiastical re-organization was forced upon the communicants and min- isters still attached to the Episcopal order and to the forms of the Anglican Church.
Two independent American churches were the result, to wit: the Methodist Episcopal Church, organized in 1784, and the Protestant Epis- copal Church, organized in 1789. Each was constituted after the Anglican model, with a ministry including bishops, presbyters, and deacons; each adopted, with modifications, the Articles of Religion of the Church of England and the ritual contained in the Book of Common Prayer. The more patriotic and religiously-aggressive elements of the old communion, strengthened by large accessions won by the lay-ministry before and dur- ing the war, crystallized into the earlier of the two new churches; the more conservative, wealthy, and tradition-loving elements into the latter. If the modifications embodied in the recension of the Thirty-nine Articles and the Prayer-book adopted by the Methodist Episcopal Church are more in the interest of doctrinal and liturgical freedom than those secured by the Protestant Episcopal Church, the history of the time, and particularly the history of King's Chapel, Boston, and Dr. White's Proposed Prayer-Book, shows that the fault was in the English bishops and not in the constituents of the new organization. Both churches are the natural and filial repre- sentatives of the Anglican mother; and, taken together, undoubtedly con- stitute a more important factor in the religious life of the country than ever that mother did in the period of colonial dependency.
The " Holy Club" of the University of Oxford was formed in the au- tumn of 1729. Seven years later, on Sept. 24, 1736, one of the most distin- guished of its original members, the Rev. Charles Wesley, landed in Boston. At that time 'Mr. Wesley was a missionary to Georgia and secretary to the governor of the colony, General Oglethorpe. Being in somewhat impaired health, he was commissioned by the governor to bear important dispatches to the home government in London. In consequence of the unseaworthy condition of the ship on which he embarked, the captain put in at the port of Boston; and thus the visit of the man who may be called the first Methodist Episcopal clergyman who ever preached in this city, was unfore- seen and involuntary. Though quite ill, Mr. Wesley preached in King's Chapel and in Christ Church, received visits from various suburban clergy- men, and celebrated, in a lively letter to his brother, both the remarkable hospitality of the people and the beauty of the adjacent country. He rc-embarked for England October 25, the same year.
Four years later another member of the same club of Oxford Methodists, George Whitefield, a priest of the Church of England, and therefore en- titled to be called a Methodist Episcopalian, appeared in Boston. The story of his sojourn has been told in the second volume of this History. Twenty thousand people heard his farewell sermon on the Common, where fifty years later, under the preaching of Jesse Lee, another Methodist Episco-
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THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
palian, the permanent planting of Methodism was effected. In his advent and in his departure he was a common sharer 1 with the Wesleys in what- ever opprobrium was then attached to the name of Methodist.
From this date until his death, in 1770, this second Methodist Episcopal minister - the forerunner of the Methodist Episcopal Church - was an important element in the religious history of Boston. He visited the town again and again, as the reader has seen. His labors here, as elsewhere, in his grand itinerations, were preparing the way for those heroic successors who have made the planting and growth of the Methodist Episcopal Church a marvel to students of American church history.
In the same storms through which Whitefield was borne on his final passage to America, the Revs. Richard Boardman and Joseph Pillmore, the first preachers sent by Wesley, were tossed on their tempestuous voyage. Boardman-the first superintendent of Wesley's missionaries to our shores, a man of strong understanding and amiable spirit -came to Boston in May, 1772. A place of worship was obtained, converts made, and a society organized; but it did not long exist. The political excitements of those pre-Revolutionary years embarrassed religious movements. By inflaming the people, they supplanted religious thought and action.
In the autumn of 1784, the Rev. William Black, " an English Wesleyan preacher, eminent for talents and character," preached a few times in Bos- ton. After a visit to the Conference in Baltimore, he returned and resumed his labors here. Denied access to the pulpits, he preached in a chamber at the North End; then in a chamber at the South End. At both places the floors settled under the crowd, and occasioned alarm. Then he preached in Dr. Stillman's (Baptist) church; then in the North Latin School-house ; then in the Sandemanian Chapel; and finally, on his last Sabbath, in the New North Church of the estimable Dr. Eliot. Arrangements made for a successor failed, and the converts joined other churches.
In 1787 the Rev. Freeborn Garretson, fresh from the founding of Method- ism in Halifax, N. S., passed through Boston. He found some who had been members of the society formed by Boardman fifteen years before. After preaching several times in private houses, he left, purposing to return the following year. Detained, however, by the rapidly-spreading work in the Middle States, he did not come again until 1790. A descendant from an old Maryland family, connected by marriage with the Chancellor Livingston family of New York, a slaveholder and man of affairs, on his conversion to Methodism, he emancipated his slaves for Christ's sake, and became a con- spicuous leader in the itinerant hosts. Cherishing his interest in Boston, while superintendent of the rising societies on the Hudson, he visited this town, and on Sunday evening, July 4, preached in the church formerly occupied by Dr. Mather. Engaging a place for future services, he went to Providence, meeting on his way one destined to achieve the distinction of
1 Whitefield was then in full sympathy with the Wesleys. His break with them on account of Calvinism occurred after this visit to Boston.
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organizing the first permanent Methodist Episcopal churches in Boston and New England.
Ten miles from Providence the two itinerants, habited in the simplicity of their order, with those invariable symbols the now obsolete saddle-bags, unexpectedly and joyfully met. The one reports his reconnoitring tour, and hastens on to his immense district on the Hudson; and the other un- folds his plans, and advances to the metropolis of the old Puritan common- wealth.
It was beneath the famous Elm which until lately was a conspicuous object on our Common, that, at six o'clock on Sunday evening, July 11, 1790, upon a rude table, a man of powerful frame and of “serene but shrewd countenance " took his stand. Four persons approached, and curi- ously gazed while he sang. Kneeling, he prayed with a fervor unknown in the Puritan pulpits, attracting crowds of promenaders from the shady walks. Three thousand persons drank in his flowing thoughts, as from a pocket- Bible, " without notes," he proclaimed a frec salvation. At first senten- tiously, then with a variety of beautiful images, then with broad discussion, then with tender pathos, he moved the thronging crowd. "It was agreed," said one who heard him, " that such a man had not visited New England since the days of Whitefield. I heard him again, and thought I could fol- low him to the ends of the earth." Such was the Rev. Jesse Lee's first appearance before a Boston gathering.
The peculiar effect of early Methodist preaching was not, however, wholly due either to the eloquence, or the manner, or the spiritual power of the preachers. It was largely owing to the adaptation of the religious views which they presented to existing conditions in the minds of their hearers. Said an eminent Congregational divine : -
"There was evidently an aptitude in the public mind to receive the Methodist faith and form of worship. Nor is it difficult to show how this came about. Old Orthodoxy, tinctured with Arminianism, and cooled down to a lukewarm temperature in its delivery from the desk, had become the characteristic of Sabbath-day instruc- tions in many pulpits, as it had been prior to the Great Awakening in 1740; and nothing could have been more favorable to the success of an earnest, loud-spoken ministry. In his doctrinal teaching Jesse Lee, the pioneer of that denomination in these parts, suited such as were of Arminian tendencies ; in his fervent style of ad- dress he was acceptable to many warm-hearted Calvinists tired of dull preaching. What with both of these adaptations to the wants of the people, no wonder that Methodism had a rapid growth. Something of the kind was inevitable. The wild enthusiasm of the Quakers had long since disappeared, and their numbers were diminishing. The martyr spirit which animated the first generation of Baptists had subsided with the removal of their civil disabilities, and their religious zeal suffered a proportional decline. If Jesse Lee had not come into Massachusetts, some one else, pressed in spirit, like Paul at Athens 'when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry,' would have found utterance, and would have had followers." 1
1 Historical Sketch of the Congregational Churches in Massachusetts, by the Rev. Joseph S. Clark, D.D., pp. 226, 227.
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THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
Jesse Lee was a man of uncommon colloquial gifts, with a fascinating address and ready wit. His rare physical, intellectual, and spiritual powers were united with
" An unconquerable will, And courage never to submit or yield."
A scion of an old Virginia family, carly trained in the Episcopal Church, a zealous convert to Wesleyanism, he went forth as an itinerant and founded societies from Florida to New Brunswick. At the age of thirty-one he was commissioned to establish on the soil of the Puritans the Methodist Epis- copal Church, - the first religious body which had effected a national organization in the United States. The following year he reached Boston, and halted not until he saw this denomination established in all the East- ern States.
During the week after he preached on the Common, Lee visited Lynn, Salem, Newburyport, and Portsmouth, and returned to Boston. On the next Sunday, being still excluded from the churches, he preached again on the Common to 3,000 persons ; during the week in private houses, and once in a vacant Baptist church; and, on the third Sunday, again on the Com- mon to 5,000 persons. Then he returned to his widely extended field in Rhode Island and Connecticut.
On the 13th of November he was again in Boston. The weather was cold, shutting him out of his leafy temple, and the hearts of the people were colder still. Then commenced a series of labors, struggles, defeats, and reverses, which would have made a less indomitable spirit quail. This princely man, pronounced by Dr. Thomas Coke to be "one of the ablest preachers he had ever heard in Europe or America," who preached the gos- pel from the St. Mary's to the St. John's with a success unequalled since the days of Whitefield, and who was an acceptable chaplain to Congress for several years, received no notice from any Boston minister, nor was allowed access to any audience room. Months passed, almost two years, with oc- casional visits and close inquiry. Meanwhile, though unsuccessful, he was still intent. Societics were formed in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Lynn opened her doors and her heart, organized a church and crected a chapel; but Boston remained closed. Then preachers from Lynn, under Lee's superintendence, visited Boston, and the sterile soil began to yield fruit.
On July 13, 1792, the first Methodist class was formed in Boston, at the house of Mr. Samuel Burrill, on Sheafe Street, at the North End. Fifteen members were soon after reported to the Conference, and the Rev. Jeremiah Cosden was appointed prcacher. A gentleman of fortune and educated for the bar, he left the law for the gospel, and abandoned the courts to be- come an itinerant. A school-house at the North End was the first place of worship ; then an " upper room" in the house of Mr. John Ruddock, corner of Harris and Ann (now North) streets. Here the apostolic Asbury
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preached, complaining of the incommodiousness of the place, and of the noise of the " Jack Tars and boys" outside.
In 1793 the Rev. Amos G. Thompson was the preacher; in 1794 the Rev. Christopher Spry; in 1795 the Rev. John Harper, late from the West Indies, and father of Chancellor Harper, of South Carolina.
On August 28, 1795, the corner-stone of the first Methodist Episcopal church was laid by the Rev. Jesse Lee. The house went slowly up, and was dedicated May 15, 1796, the sermon being given by the Rev. George Pickering. It was situated in Ingraham's Yard, subsequently Methodist Alley, now Hanover Avenue. This was then a very respectable locality. Dr. Eliot's New Brick Church was only two hundred feet distant, and Ann Street and other adjacent streets were occupied by the residences of people of the higher social rank. This first edifice was a small, plain building measuring thirty-six by forty-six feet, rough and unfinished within, and benches without backs served for pews. Even in this condition it was heavily encumbered with debt, for the forty members were all poor. In this state it was occupied until 1800, when through the assistance of Lee in the Middle States, and with a little help from the clergy and citizens of Boston, it was completed. But the struggle was hard; and even when finished the house was severely plain. The alley then had no side-walks. The main floor was two steps above the street, and the outside door opened directly into the aisles, and to the right and left stairs led into the galleries, one of which was occupied by males and the other by females. A stove stood in front of the altar. Opposite the pulpit were the singers' seats, -- and the old church was famous for good singing. Here the society wor- shipped until the erection of the more spacious edifice on Bennet Street, when the old church was occupied by the Boston Port Society, until the Seaman's Bethel in the North Square was completed, in which the Rev. Edward T. Taylor exercised his wonderful ministry.
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