USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880, Vol. III > Part 59
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The early worshippers in the Methodist Alley Church suffered many petty annoyances. Rude disturbers of their worship were thought to have been incited to unmanly acts by others who screened themselves. At last legal protection was secured through the influence of Mr. William W. Mot- ley, a gentleman of culture, who had become a Methodist.
The good influence of this church was widely felt at the North End. From 1796 to 1828 it was a centre of moral light and heat. The voices of all the eminent ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church were heard there. Bishops Asbury, George, and McKendree, Revs. George Pickering, John Broadhead, Daniel Ostrander, Thomas F. Sargeant, Peter Jayne, Samuel Merwin, Daniel Webb, Martin Ruter, D.D., Elijah Hedding, D.D.,. Enoch Mudge, Timothy Merritt, and President Wilbur Fisk, D.D., are some of the notable ones. The Rev. John Newland Maffitt preached in this house to crowded audiences, many persons climbing in at the windows to hear him. Among the laymen of the carlier period were Samuel Burrill, Thomas Green, Elijah Phinney Lewis, Uriah Tufts, Jacob Hawkins, Samuel
439
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
Mills, Abram Ingersol, James Johnson, Colonel Amos Binney, and William WV. Motley.
At the end of fourteen years the membership of the church was two hun- dred and fifty-seven, and it was resolved (March 3, 1806) to erect another chapel in another part of the city. On the 19th of November following the Bromfield-Street Church was dedicated, the sermon being delivered by the Rev. Samuel Merwin. Its foundations contained a block of hewn stone from Plymouth Rock, which is still there. Was it a symbol of the engraft- ing of the Methodist bough into the stock of the old New-England order, or of the absorption of that into the larger life and growth of Methodism?
The erection of this edifice was a bold movement, and purely aggressive. Those who undertook it were only just relieved from the heavy embarrass- ments occasioned by the completion of the Alley church. But the new enterprise involved them more deeply. The sale of the pews was very limited; the times soon became very unfavorable : the Berlin and Milan decrees, the Embargo and Non-Intercourse acts, paralyzed commerce and industry. Boston felt the shock severely. Years of painful struggles fol- lowed. Contributions were sought all over the land. The General Con- ference and Annual Conferences were appealed to. The Middle States, and even Charleston, South Carolina, sent aid. The sagacious plans and large public influence of Colonel Amos Binney and Mr. John Clark contributed much to the final solution of the problem.
This crisis passed, the experimental period of Methodism in Boston was over. The next twenty years was a period of steady and healthy growth. The church extended its influence, and acquired character and respect. Colonel Amos Binney, a trustee and steward, was a merchant, and for a dozen years the United States Navy agent in Boston, and stood side by side with leading citizens; John Clark was an enterprising citizen ; George Suth- erland, a trustee and class-leader, was a Scotchman by birth, always radiant with sunshine, and a goldsmith by trade; Thomas Bagnall, class-leader and trustee, was a man of literary taste; Mrs. Sarah Hawes, a niece of Governor Hancock, an eminently consistent and elevated Christian, received into the church by the Rev. Elijah Hedding, deserves mention as the " Elect Lady." Besides these, Thomas Patten, a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, David Patten, father of the late Rev. David Patten, Jr., D.D., of precious memory, and William True, father of the late Rev. Charles K. True, D.D., an honored alumnus of Harvard College, are a few of many worthy names of this period, conspicuous for devotion to the church. Isaac Rich and Jacob Sleeper, gentlemen of rare excellences, belong to a later period, of ampler opportunities, which they have filled and honored with noble char- ities and deeds.
These two churches were favored with frequent revivals, and the mem- bership increased from 259 in 1806 to 688 in 1830. In 1827 the church in the Alley felt the need of a larger and better edifice. A lot was purchased on Bennet Street, and a new church was dedicated Sept. 18, 1828, the Rev.
440
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Stephen Martindale delivering the sermon. Forty-three pews were sold, and the only surviving purchaser is the venerable Micah Dyer, of the pres- ent Tremont-Street Church. With these two more sightly edifices as out- ward signs, the cause of Methodism moved forward under a strong impulse, and other churches were organized.
The first Methodist church in Dorchester was formed in 1817, and was due to the influence of Mr. Anthony Otheman,1 a French Huguenot, who was one of the fruits of this denomination in Boston. In 1818 the first Methodist church was formed in Charlestown. They purchased the wooden structure on High Street, built by the Baptists and subsequently occupied by the Unitarians. In 1818 a Methodist society was organized at Chelsea Point, now Winthrop. In 1826 the May-Street, now Revere-Street, Church was organized for the colored people, and the Rev. Samuel Snowden, highly esteemed for twenty-five years by citizens of all classes, was their pastor.
Two periods of church colonizing have since marked the history of the Methodist Episcopal Church within the present limits of Suffolk County. The first was from 1834 to 1853, in which the following fourteen churches were organized : In 1834, the Church-Street, now the Peoples', Church; in 1835, after several unsuccessful attempts previously, the First Methodist Episcopal, now the Broadway, Church in South Boston; in 1837, the North Russell-Street Church; in 1839, the First Methodist Episcopal, now the Winthrop-Street, Church in Roxbury; and the First Methodist Episcopal, now the Walnut-Street, Church in Chelsea; in 1841, the Richmond-Street Church, and the First Methodist Episcopal, now the Meridian-Street, Church in East Boston; in 1842, the "Odeon " Society; in 1846, the Canton-Street, now the Tremont-Street, Church; in 1847, the Second Methodist Episcopal, now the Monument-Square, Church in Charlestown; in 1850, the Second Methodist Episcopal, now the Appleton, Church in Dorchester; in 1852, the Mount-Bellingham Church in Chelsea, and the German Church in Rox- bury; and in 1853, the Bennington-Street, now the Saratoga-Street, Church in East Boston.
In the meantime new conditions affected the population at the North End. They were felt soon after 1840, and became more apparent in the next ten years, influencing unfavorably all the Protestant churches. In 1849 the Richmond-Street and the Bennet-Street churches united, and pur- chased the large and elegant edifice of Dr. Robbins's Unitarian Society on Hanover Street. The North Russell-Street Church held its position until 1865, when it removed to Grace Church, on Temple Street. In 1873 the Hanover-Street Church relinquished its field and united with the Grace Church, but retained its title as the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Boston.
In sixteen years- from 1853 to 1869-only two Methodist churches were organized, - one at Jamaica Plain, in 1859, and the Dorchester-Street Church, in South Boston, in 1860.
1 Father of the Revs. Bartholomew and Edward Otheman.
44 1
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
From 1869 to 1878 is the second colonizing period, in which the follow- ing ten churches were organized, most of them the fruits of the Boston Methodist City Mission and Church-Extension Society: In 1869 the High- land Church and the Ruggles-Street Church in Roxbury; in 1871, the Washington-Village Church in South Boston, and the Broadway Church in Chelsea; in 1872, the church at Allston ; in 1873, the church at Roslindale ; in 1874, the church at Harrison Square; in 1876, the Mount-Pleasant Church; in 1877, the Eggleston-Square Church; and in 1878, the Monroe Mission Church on Charlestown Neck.
Two African Methodist Episcopal churches - the Zion Church on North Russell Street, and the Bethel Church on Charles Street, now jointly num- bering about 500 members - were organized in 1836 and 1839 respectively.
Two secessions from the Methodist Episcopal Church in Boston have occurred, - the Protestant Methodist, in 1830, and the True Wesleyan, in 1842-43; but the churches formed by the retiring bodies were small, and existed only a few years.
Among the tangible and conspicuous results of Boston Methodism, several demand mention :
1. The first School of Theology of the Methodist Episcopal Church had its inception in Boston in 1839, was organized a little later in Concord, New Hampshire, and removed to Boston in 1867. It has graduated over four hundred young men.
2. The Boston University, with which the School of Theology united in 1871, is an outgrowth of the Methodist Episcopal Church. It was founded by Isaac Rich, Jacob Sleeper, and Lee Claflin; Mr. Rich bequeathing to it his large estate. It comprises colleges of liberal arts, music, agriculture, theology, law, and medicine, in which are over five hundred students. Under the presidency of the Rev. William F. Warren, D.D., LL.D., it has attained the highest rank. Women are admitted to all its departments, and it is eminently progressive and catholic in all its features.
3. The Zion's Herald, the oldest newspaper of the denomination, was founded in Boston in 1823. Its successive editors have been John R. Cotton, Barber Badger, G. W. H. Forbes, Benjamin Jones, Revs. Shipley W. Wilson, Aaron Lummus, Mr. William C. Brown, Revs. Timothy Merritt, Samuel O. Wright, Benjamin Kingsbury, Abel Stevens, LL.D., Daniel Wisc, D.D., Erastus O. Haven, D.D., LL.D., Nelson E. Cobleigh, D.D., Gilbert Haven, LL.D., and Bradford K. Pierce, D.D. It has a circulation of 15,000 copies.
4. The Wesleyan Association, a corporation formed in 1831, consisting of laymen, own and publish the Zion's Herald. In 1870 they completed and occupied the elegant Wesleyan Building on Bromfield Street, in which are the offices of the Zion's Herald, the Wesleyan Hall, and the general headquarters of the denomination in New England.
5. The Methodist book-store, now in the Wesleyan Building, has existed over forty years, and has been conducted successively by Dexter S. King, VOL. 111 .- 56.
442
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Strong & Broadhead, Wait, Pierce, & Co., Charles H. Pierce, and, since 1851, by the present efficient agent, James P. Magee, under whose admin- istration its annual sales have increased from thirty thousand dollars in 1850 to cighity thousand dollars at the present time.
6. In 1872 Boston became an Episcopal residence, and a fine parsonage was purchased, on Rutland Street, at the South End. The Rt. Rev. Ran- dolph S. Foster, D.D., LLD., is the New England Bishop.
7. The Methodist Social Union, a body of laymen and ministers, meets monthly in the Wesleyan Hall, for the promotion of church life and fellow- ship.
8. The Boston Methodist Preachers' Meeting, a live aggressive body, for the discussion of church questions and general improvement, mects every Monday morning in the Wesleyan Hall.
9. The New-England Methodist Historical Society, whose headquarters are in the Wesleyan Building on Bromfield Street; Hon. William Claflin, President, Willard S. Allen, Librarian, and the Rev. Daniel Dorchester, D.D., Historiographer.
10. The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episco- pai Church was here organized in the year 1869. It now covers with its branches nearly the whole country, and raises between seventy and eighty thousand dollars a year for the support of female missionaries and school work in different parts of the world. Its monthly organ, The Heathen Woman's Friend, edited by Mrs. William F. Warren, with a circulation of twenty thousand copies, has been from the beginning published in this city.
STATISTICS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCHES IN BOSTON, AND SUFFOLK COUNTY.
Year.
LOCALITIES AND CHURCHES.
MINISTERS.
Mem- bers.
1790
Bostoo
Jesse Lee .
...
1800
Boston
Thomas F. Sargeant
72
1820
Boston
David Kilburn, Benjamin R. Hoyt .
619
Dorchester
Benjamin Hazleton, Jotham Horton
19
Charlestown
Wilbur Fisk, D.D.
638
1840
Boston, Bennet Street
James Porter, D.D.
509
Bromfield Street
Stephen Lovell .
475
Church Street
Thomas C. Pierce
268
North Russell Street
Jefferson Hascal, D.D.
316
Mariner's Church
Edward T. Taylor .
...
= South Boston
Ziba B. C. Dunham
103
Roxbury
Henry B. Skinner
103
Dorchester
Luman Boyden .
129
Charlestown
Epaphras Kibbe
133
Chelsea .
John S. Springer
...
2,036
STATISTICS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCHES. - Continued.
CHURCH PROPERTY.
SUNDAY SCHOOLS.
LOCALITIES AND CHURCHES. 1860.
PASTORS.
Members.
Probationers.
Local Preachers.
Churches.
Parsonages.
Value.
Schools.
Officers and
Teachers.
Scholars.
Volumes in
Library.
BOSTON.
First Church, Hanover Street
William C. High
432
30
N
I
$75,000
...
2
58
425
800
Bromfield Street .
William F. Warren, D.D., LL.D.
430
13
I
I
75,000
$8,000
35
224
1 ,500
Church Street .
Isaac J. P. Collyer . .
300
30
2
I
30,000
...
...
I
37
315
564
North Russell Street
John W. Dadmun
302
23
...
1
15,000
...
.........
I
40
283
950
Hedding Church
Henry W. Warren, D.D.
193
...
...
.....
...
...
...
I
16
64
132
Centenary Church
Ralph W. Allen .
25
6
2
6,000
...
...
I
30
270
600
Meridian Street .
Samuel Tupper
290
60
...
18,000
...
........
41
336
710
Bennington Street
Gershom F. Cox
151
8
...
...
...
1
38
290
983
Mariner's Church
John W. F. Barnes.
...
...
...
...
........
...
...
Total, Old Boston
2,274
199
10
8
$237,000
I
$8,000
IO
321
2,445
7,339
Roxbury, Warren Street
Fales H. Newhall, D.D.
256
20
3
I
17,000
...
...
I
43
261
700
"
Jamaica Plain .
John Emory Round
19
=
...
...
:
25
200
German Church
H. Liebhout .
83
31
3,500
...
...
1
25
125
550
Charlestown, High Street
George Bowler .
167
6
10,000
...
2
29
193
410
Union Church
Nathan D. George
321
35
15,000
...
........
2
34
300
600
Total, in Present Boston
3,220
302
16
13
$287,500
I
$8,000
18
478
3,484
10,069
Chelsea, Walnut Street
Justin S. Barrows .
210
26
2
I
25,000
I
2,800
40
300
900
Mount Bellingham Street
Willard F. Mallalieu, D.D. .
16
21,000
...
....
I
36
236
925
Winthrop . .
John S. Day . .
35
3
...
500
...
.........
-
15
99
365
Total, present limits of Suffolk County
3,616
347
18
16
$334,000
2
$10,800
22
569
4,119
12,259
1
26
238
1,000
Revere Street .
Supplied
51
9
3
I
3,000
1
...
....
26
$35
370
Dorchester, First Church.
Zachariah A. Mndge
100
...
I
5,000
...
I
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
443
...
Edward T. Taylor
I
15,000
I
Value.
STATISTICS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCHES .- Concluded.
LOCALITIES AND CHURCHES.
PASTORS.
.
Members.
Probationers.
Local Preachers.
Churches.
of Churches.
Parsonages.
Value of Pars'ges.
Schools.
Officers and
Teachers.
Scholars.
Volumes in
Library.
Old City District.
First Church, Temple Street
1792
Samuel F. Upham, D.D.
476
42
15
$47,000
$12,000
43
350
900
! Bromfield Street
1806
Amos B. Kendig . .
348
28
...
1
100,000
I
10,000
I
38
330
591
; People's Church
1834
John W. Hamilton
250
52
6
I
70,000
1
10,000
45
386
950
Tremont Street
1846
William E. Huntington .
256
5
2
I
150,000
I
12,000
I
34
294
1,265
Broadway
1835
Joseph H. Mansfield .
370
$5
4
I
65,000
I
36
408
800
Dorchester Street
x860
Nicholas T. Whitaker
194
22
I
20,000
I
35
276
500
Washington Village
1871
36
IO
I
3,500
I
15
129
Meridian Street
1841
Lewis B. Bates.
325
30
I
28,000
I
5,500
44
456
1,300
Saratoga Street
1853
Samuel L. Gracy .
4$5
34
I
I
I
5,000
50
433
950
Revere Street .
1826
Thomas B. Snowden ,
55
8
I
I
5,000
-
6
30
Swedish Mission
1880
Otto Anderson .
15
...
...
...
...
....
......
Total, Old Boston .
.
2,740
246
29
IO
$518,500
6
$54,500
II
346
3,092
7,256
Roxbury and West Roxbury District.
Winthrop Street
1839
Andrew Mckeown, D.D
223
22
I
I
45,000
8,000
34
300
1,000
German Church
1852
Frederick W. Flocken
93
4
2
1
I
I
21
98
.. ...
Highland Church .
1869
Frank K. Stratton
260
54
I
I
28,000
...
1
1I
96
275
Roslindale .
1873
Joseph H. Thompson
76
2
I
I
20,000
I
25
190
500
Ruggles Street .
1 869
William H. Hatch
62
...
I
2,500
...
1
20
160
400
Eggleston Square.
1877
D. W. Couch .
57
8
I
8,000
...
1
20
175
Dorchester District.
Dorchester Church
1817
Hiram D. Weston
202
9
...
I
37,000
...
I
28
321
505
Appleton Church .
1850
Edward W. Virgin
102
14
I
1
5,000
I
13
75
300
Harrison Square .
1874
Lyman D. Bragg .
57
8
I
8,000
I
25
125
265
Mount Pleasant
1876
Franklin Furber
95
5
I
6,000
...
I
33
146
275
.
·
.
94
14
3
I
19,000
...
...
.
.
:
I
I
I
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
.
1880.
Date of organiza-
CHURCH PROPERTY.
SUNDAY SCHOOLS.
Value
tion.
tin
.
...
I
I
26
268
470
Jamaica Plain .
1859
James W. Bashford
12,000
3,000
I
...
...
444
.
30,000
Brighton District.
Allston
1872
William G. Leonard .
62
7
-.
I
12,000
...
........
1
14
75
Charlestown District.
Trinity Church .
1818
Horace W. Bolton
366
42
-
...
.........
1
87
700
850
Monument Square
1847
James O. Knowles
335
28
I
I
......
...
1
46
398
600
Monroe Mission
1877
14
6
2
...
.........
...
...
...
I
1 1
71
300
Total, Present Boston
4,838
469
12
24
$862,000
8
$65,500
26
760
6,290
12,890
Chelsea.
Walnut Street .
1839
W. F. Mallalieu, D.D. .
471
23
4
-
35,000
6,000
53
541
1,000
Mount Bellingham
1852
Varnum A. Cooper
306
16
30,000
3
4,000
1
40
306
800
Broadway .
1871
Cyrus L. Eastman
100
=
..
...
...
I
14
100
381
Winthrop
1818
William A. Nottage .
89
3
...
15,000
...
.........
13
340
100
Total, Suffolk County
5,804
522
46
27
$942,000
10
$75.500
30
880
7,577
15.471
.
AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCHES.
Bethel, Charles Street .
1839 1836
William H. Hunter R. H. Dyson .
294
5
3
a
...
-
25 16
255
350
Zion, North Russell Street
200
35
4
-
$70,000 30,000
...
1
1 50
500
·
.
I
1
I
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
445
.
65,000 40,000
446
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
COMPARATIVE PROGRESS.
CHURCH PROPERTY.
SUNDAY SCHOOLS.
LOCALITIES AND
PERIODS.
Communicants.
Church Edi-
fices.
Value of Churches.
Parsonages.
Value of Pars'ges.
Schools.
Scholars.
Officers and
Teachers.
Volumes in Library.
Old Boston.
1840 I
2,036 2,473
4
5
1860
1880
2,986
10
$237,000 518,500
6
$8,000 54,500
10
2,445 3,092
321
7,239 7,256
Present Boston.2
1840 1
2,036
6
...
8
1860
3,522
13
287,500 862,000
8
8,000 65,500
18
3,484 6,290
478
10,069 12,890
Suffolk County.2
1840 1
2,036
7
IO
1860
3,963
16
2
10,800
22
4,119
569 880
12,259
1880
6,326
27
334,000 942,000
IO
75,500
30
7,577
15,471
I Only partial statistics for 1840 can now be obtained
2 The same territory is included for each period.
From 1840 to 1880 the population within the present limits of Suffolk County increased 200 per cent, and the communicants of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 210 per cent. From 1860 to 1880 the population in- creased 40 per cent, and the communicants, 60 per cent. All this gain has been realized, notwithstanding the immense foreign additions to the population during these forty years.
Danie Dorchester
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. - A Short History of the Methodists. By the Rev. Jesse Lee. Balti- more : Magill & Clime. 12mo. pp. 366. 1810.
Life of the Rev. Jesse Lee. By the Rev. Le Roy M. Lee, D.D. Louisville, Ky .: John Early, Printer. 8vo. 1848.
Memorials of the Introduction of Methodism into the Eastern States. By the Rev. Abel Stevens, LL.D. Boston : Charles H. Pierce; pp. 490. 1848.
Second Series of the above, same author and publisher ; pp. 492. 1852.
Minutes of the Annual Conferences of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church in the United States. 1773-
1881. Eighteen volumes, 8vo. Methodist Book Concern, 805 Broadway, New York.
Files of the Zion's Herald, 1823-1881. 36 Bromfield Street, Boston.
Jesse Lee under the Old Elm. A pamphlet. Boston: by the Rev. John W. Hamilton. 1879.
Cyclopedia of Methodism. By the Right Rev. Bishop Matthew Simpson, D.D., LL.D. Phila- delphia: Everts & Stewart. 4to. pp. 1827. 1878.
MSS. "Sketches of Methodism in Boston," by Hon. Jacob Sleeper, of Boston ; and "in Chelsea and Dorchester," by the Rev. Edward Otheman, of Chelsea. (Unpublished.)
1880
5,307
24
26
760
346
1
1
-
CHAPTER X.
THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
BY THE REV. PHILLIPS BROOKS, D.D., Rector of Trinity Church.
T HE Rev. Joshua Wingate Weeks was a minister of the Church of Eng- land, and a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gos- pel in Foreign Parts, settled at Marblehead, in Massachusetts. In the year 1778 he wrote to the society an account of "The state of the Episcopal churches in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, etc." Of the churches in Boston he wrote: "Trinity Church in Boston is still open, the prayers for the King and Royal Family, etc., being omitted. The King's Chapel is made use of as a meeting-house by a Dissenting congrega- tion. The French have received leave from the Congress to make use of Christ Church for the purposes of their worship; but the proprietors of it, having notice of this, persuaded Mr. Parker to preach in it every Sunday in the afternoon, by which means it remains untouched. . .. In a word," he adds, "our ecclesiastical affairs wear a very gloomy aspect at present in that part of the world."
What Mr. Weeks thus wrote in 1778 was mainly true two years later, in 1780, at the point where I begin to sketch the history of the Episcopal Church in Boston for the last hundred years. In the mean time, the Rev. Stephen C. Lewis, who had been chaplain of a regiment of light dragoons in the army of General Burgoyne, had become the regular minister of Christ Church; but the congregation of the Old South were still worshipping in the King's Chapel, and the Rev. Dr. Samuel Parker was in charge of Trinity. These were the three Episcopal parishes in Boston in the year 1780. The King's Chapel with its house of worship on Tremont Street, Christ Church in Salem Street, and Trinity Church in Summer Street. The King's Chapel had been in existence since 1689, Christ Church since 1723, and Trinity Church since 1734.
It is not difficult to see what it was that made " our ecclesiastical affairs" wear such a "gloomy aspect in this part of the world " in the days which immediately followed the Revolution. To the old Puritan dislike of Episco- pacy had been added the distrust of the English Church as the church of the oppressors of the colonies. Up to the beginning of the Revolution the
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Episcopal Church in Boston had been counted an intruder. It had never been the church of the people, but had largely lived upon the patronage and favor of the English governors. The outbreak of the Revolution had found the Rev. Dr. Henry Caner, rector of King's Chapel, and the Rev. Dr. Wil- liam Walter, rector of Trinity. Both of these clergymen went to Halifax with the British troops when Boston was evacuated in 1776.1 In one of the record books of King's Chapel, Dr. Caner made the following entry : -
" An unnatural rebellion of the colonies against His Majesty's government obliged the loyal part of his subjects to evacuate their dwellings and substance, and take refuge in Halifax, London, and elsewhere; by which means the public worship at King's Chapel became suspended, and is likely to remain so until it shall please God, in the course of his providence, to change the hearts of the rebels, or give success to His Maj- esty's arms for suppressing the rebellion. Two boxes of church plate, and a silver christening basin were left in the hands of the Rev. Dr. Breynton at Halifax, to be delivered to me or my order, agreeable to his note receipt in my hands."
At Christ Church the Rev. Dr. Mather Byles, Jr., resigned the rectorship on Easter Tuesday, 1775, meaning to go to Portsmouth in New Hampshire ; but political tumults making that impossible, he remained in Boston and performed the duty of chaplain to some of the regiments until after the evacuation.1 At Trinity alone was there any real attempt to meet the new condition of things by changes in the church's worship. The parts of the lit- urgy, having reference to the King and the Royal Family 1 were omitted, and this was the only sign which the Episcopal Church in Boston made of any willingness to accommodate herself to the patriotic feeling of the times; and even with her mutilated liturgy, the associations of her worship with the hated power of England still remained. No doubt the few people who gathered in Trinity Church during the Revolution were those whose sympathy with the cause of the struggling colonies was weakest and most doubtful. As one looks at her position when the war is closed, he sees clearly that before the Episcopal Church can become a powerful element in American life she has before her, first, a struggle for existence; and then another struggle, hardly less difficult, to separate herself from English influences and standards, and to throw herself heartily into the interests and hopes of the new nation.
Of how those two struggles began in the country at large, when the Revo- lutionary war was over and our independence was established, there is not room here to speak except very briefly. It was the sprouting of a tree which had been cut down to the very roots. The earliest sign of life was a meeting at New Brunswick in New Jersey, in 1784, when thirteen clergymen and laymen, from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, came together to see what could be made of the fragments of the Church of England which were scattered through the now independent colonies. The same year there was a meeting held in Boston, where seven clergymen of Massa- chusetts and Rhode Island consulted on the condition and prospects of their
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