USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880, Vol. III > Part 65
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More than a decade of years must pass, however, before this desire could be fulfilled. At length the way was opened. On Dec. 13, 1816, the Gover- nor signed an act incorporating the Second Society of Universalists in the town of Boston. The first meeting of the Society was held Jan. 25, 1817. From the first it was the purpose of the gentlemen united in this movement to call Mr. Ballou to the pastorate. Having ministered some years in Vermont and in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, he was now at Salem, Massa- chusetts, with a much-loved parish which had suffered greatly from the general depression in business then experienced. It was understood that, Mr. Murray of the First Church having deceased, Mr. Ballou was not now averse to hecding the wishes of his Boston friends. During the summer of 1817 a meeting-house was erected in School Street, nearly opposite the City Hall, on the site of the present School-Street block.1 In October of that year it was dedicated, the Rev. Thomas Jones, of Gloucester, preaching the sermon from John iv. 23. Mr. Ballou was absent in Vermont, fulfilling an appointment previously made. The Rev. David Pickering offered the
lievers ought to be careful to maintain order in 1785, it is supposed his parish became ex- and practise good works; for these things are good and profitable unto men."
1 This site in part is the precise spot on which the old French church formerly stood, and in the pulpit of which Mr. Murray was stoned in 1774. Built about 1715-20, it was sold to the New Congregational Society, Mr. Cros- well pastor, in 1748. On Mr. Croswell's death,
tinct. In 1788 a Roman Catholic congregation, gathered three or four years before, obtained this house, and worshipped in it until they built the church in Franklin Street, which was dedi- cated in 1803. The old meeting-house in School Street was then taken down, and the land was subsequently sold to the Second Universalist Society. Whittemore's Life of Ballou, ii. 10.
.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
introductory prayer, and the Rev. Edward Turner, of Charlestown, the dedi- catory prayer. The Rev. Paul Dean, - at this time the sole pastor of the First Church, - who was supposed not to look with much favor upon this new movement, sat in the desk, but took no part, on account, it was said, of ill health. The unanimous call of the society having been accepted by Mr. Ballou, the installation took place December 25, the same year. The Rev. Paul Dean preached the sermon from Acts xx. 24, and gave the right hand of fellowship. The installing prayer and the charge were by the Rev. Edward Turner; and the Rev. Joshua Flagg, who had succeeded Mr. Ballou at Salem, offered the concluding prayer. These services of dedi- cation and installation revealed a profound interest in the new movement, and showed that high expectation had taken possession of the public mind. Such men as John Brazier, David Townsend, Edmund Wright, Danicl E. Powars, Lemuel Packard, Jr., Levi Melcher, and John Trull, to name no more, were a guarantee of the high character, solid strength, and immediate success of the new society.
The high anticipations from Mr. Ballou's ministry were more than realized. Such had been his peculiar exercise of mind that he had grown accus- tomed to a much broader field of discussion than was common among his brethren. His advanced positions in Biblical interpretation drew upon him attacks from all quarters, which he repelled with a master hand.1 His preaching became necessarily controversial. Many of his sermons, singly and in volumes, were published and widely distributed. Letters and pam- phlets of attack and reply appeared in rapid succession and through a series of years. Majestic in person, calm in spirit, quick in penetration, and affluent in a broad Christian common-sense, he often surprised his opponents and awakened the keenest interest in his hearers by rending away at a single
1 His responses were of the keenest sort. see; I never thought that saving sinners was An aged lady expressing surprise at his views, just making them morally clean."
added : "The good book says, -
"In Adam's fall we sinned all,'"
to which he replied: "Yes, and the same good book says, -
'The cat doth play, and after slay.'"
On his way of a Saturday evening to a town in Essex County, while waiting for a private conveyance from the railway-station, he stepped into a cottage where he found a good woman washing her floor. She cordially welcomed him, and entercd at once into conversation. On learn- ing that her guest was Mr. Ballou, the Univer- salist preacher, she expressed surprise, and inquired if he "really believed that all men would be saved ?" -" Yes, I hope so." - " What !" said she, "is it possible that sinners can be saved just as they are ?" -" My good woman," said he, "are you going to wash up your floor just as it is ?" - " Ah!" said she, " I
At a time when Dr. Lyman Beecher was con- ducting a revival in his church on Bowdoin Street, and much comment had been made in respect to his visiting servant girls in the kitch- ens, and urging them to his meetings, he met Mr. Ballou, and told him that " he dreamed that he died and went to heaven ; and looking care- fully about him, he failed to see a single Uni- versalist there." - " I suppose," said Mr. Ballou " you only went into the kitchen."
On one occasion, being introduced to a vener- able lady, she asked : "Are you Mr. Ballou, the Universalist preacher?" On being answered af- firmativelv, she further inquired : "Do you preach the gospel of the New Testament ?" He replied that he " tried to preach it." -" But," said she, "do you preach as the Saviour preached ?"-" I try to," was the reply. "Do you preach, 'Woe unto you Scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites '?" - "Ah, no!" said he, "those people do not attend my meeting."
497
THE CENTURY OF UNIVERSALISM.
stroke, as it were, the veils of sophistry woven by error, and exposing that error in its own naked deformity.
In 1819 Mr. Henry Bowen, a young man having just published a volume of Lecture Sermons from the pen of Mr. Ballou, established the Universalist Magasine, with Mr. Ballou as its editor. Within three years of that time the Rev. Thomas Whittemore - a boot-maker's apprentice in State Street when the publication began - became associate editor. Thenceforth Mr. Whit- temore continued his editorial labors, amid whatever professional and other burdens resting upon him, throughout his whole life.1 This Magazine was the first Univer- salist newspaper published in this country, and sup- posed to be the first in the world. Such was its inspiring influence that in 1824 there had sprung into being no less than a dozen similar newspapers within the limits of New England and the State of New York. At the end of nine years it was transferred to the hands of the Rev. Russell Streeter, of Watertown, and Thomas Whittemore, of Cambridgeport, and continued under the title of The Trumpet and Universalist Magazine.
Among the numerous controversies into which Mr. Ballou was drawn, those pertaining to the doctrine of future punishment were conspicuous. While not at this time denying that doctrine, he had come to believe that the Scriptures do not teach it. The full light of eternity, he believed, would banish all love of sinning and win all souls to God, thus saving them, not in their sins, but from their sins.2 The secret opposition which the pastor of the First Church -the Rev. Paul Dean -felt to the Second-Church movement became open and avowed in connection with this subject. The
1 Though Mr. Whittemore, afterward Dr. Whittemore, was never the pastor of a church in Boston, he rendered the cause in the city and throughout the country most eminent service both as a preacher and as an editor and author. Ilis works, among which may be mentioned his Notes on the Purables, Plain Guide to Universal- ism, Life of Hosea Ballou in four volumes, Mod- ern History of Universalism, Commentary on the Revelation, etc., were all written in a popu- lar style, and exerted a wide influence. A man of large administrative ability, democratic in feeling and genial in spirit, he was emphatically a man of the people. He died in Cambridge, March 21, 1861, aged sixty-one years.
2 Few men have been the subjects of such bitter calumny as Mr. Ballou. The doctrines of "death and glory," "salvation in sin," "God looking upon saint and sinner with equal appro- bation," and the like were almost universally im- puted to him by the pulpits of his and even later time. The truth is, Mr. Ballou believed this to be VOL. III. --- 63.
the only world of temptation and of transgression ; that God here, by outward and inward laws, by means visible and invisible, justly and adequately recompenses both the evil and the good; that peace can be found only in righteousness, and that when God shall appear men will become like him, for they will see him as he is. Thus those who leave this world unpurified will be saved by moral means as really as those who are saved in the flesh, -exposing him, therefore, no more to the stigma of teaching "death and glory " than does the welcoming of the penitent murderer from the scaffold to heaven expose the teachers who assailed Mr. Ballou to the same stigma. He believed firmly in historic Christianity, in the subordination of Christ 10 the Father, in the manifestation of the Father's universal love through Christ, in the miracles he wrought, and in the ultimate efficiency of his mission in the salvation of all souls. And these are the views of the Universalist Church to this day.
498
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
controversy was long and bitter. The sympathics of the Universalist pub- lic were largely with Mr. Ballou. The First Church shared this feeling.
Mr. Dean, having withdrawn from it, April 6, 1823, became pastor of a Third Universalist Church, which was located in Btilfinch Street, whither a portion of the First Society followed him. The dedication of the meeting- house and the installation of the pastor occurred on the same day, - May 7, 1823. Several brethren, among whom Mr. Dean held a conspicuous place, put forth an "appeal" and "declaration," protesting publicly against the views of Mr. Ballou, who, in conjunction with Hosea Ballou, 2d (his grand-nephew), and Thomas Whittemore, made a most effective reply. Mr. Pant Dean Dean, at his own request, was dismissed from fellowship with the Universalist body. Several of the gentlemen felt the force of the reply, and were reconciled. A year later, in 1824, Mr. Dean earnestly sought to be again received into fellowship. Some brethren strongly opposed thereto were persuaded by Mr. Ballou to accede to the request. They yielded with reluctance, and the sequel justified their hesi- tation. The restorationist schism continued for some years, but the influ- ence of Mr. Ballou remained unimpaired. It was quite otherwise with Mr. Dean. After the lapse of a few years the Rev. Frederick T. Gray, Unitarian, was called to the associate pastorate of the Bulfinch-Street Church, from which Mr. Dean, for a consideration, a little later retired, and the church ceased to be even nominally Universalist.1
1 " During the heat of the controversy between Mr. Ballou and Mr. Dean many interesting inci- dents took place. Returning on one occasion from Nantucket, where he had spent some days, on reaching New Bedford Mr. Ballou found himself in the stage-coach beside a stranger, who introduced conversation with him. 'Are you from Nantucket, sir ?' -'I am,' replied Mr. Ballou. - ' Is there any news at the island?'- ' I heard none,' said Mr. Ballou. 'There might be much news and I not hear of it.' -' Ah ! well, they say old Ballou is down there preach- ing ; did you hear anything about him?'-' He has been preaching there, sir.' -' Large congre- gations, I suppose ; did you hear him, sir ?'- ' I did, several times.' - ' Well, I don't like him; he's coarse in his preaching ; he don't be- lieve in any future punishment ; he holds that all men will go to heaven when they die, just as they leave this world ; I don't like him. There 's Mr. Dean, - I think he's a very fine man, a gen- tleman; I should like to hear him preach.'- ' Did you ever hear Mr. Ballou preach ?' said Mr. Ballou, very calmly. - ' Nol no, sir, I never heard him preach; I have no desire to hear him preach ; but I should be gratified at an opportunity to hear Mr. Dean. Did you ever hear Mr. Dean, sir ?'-' Yes, sir, several times.' -- ' Well, he's a fine man, sir, -a gentleman ; but Ballou I do not like at all; he preaches a
horrid doctrine.' -' And what does he preach, sir, that is horrid?'-' Oh, he holds that all men will go to heaven at once when they die.' - ' Well, sir, suppose they do; is that horrid ? Is it not very desirable that all men shall become holy and happy?' - ' Ah, sir, but he holds that men will go to heaven in their sins.' -' But, sir, you have confessed that you never heard him preach ; how do you know he preaches in that manner ?' - ' Oh, I have heard so, a thousand times.' - ' But you may have been misinformed, my friend. I am quite confident Mr. Ballou holds no such doctrine. If you were to put the question to him, I think he himself would say he held no such doctrine.' -' I am surprised. Well, what does he hold to, then?'-' I think if he were here, he would say he did not believe what you have attributed to him, - that men are to go to heaven in their sins. ... He probably would say he held that men are to be saved from their sins.'-' Well, you seem to know. Will you let me ask where you live ?' -' I live in Bos- ton, sir.' -' Do you attend a Universalist church ?' - ' I do, sir.' - ' What church do you attend, sir ?' - 'I attend Mr. Ballou's, sir.' - 'Are you intimately acquainted . with Mr. Ballou, sir.' -' My name is Hosea Ballou, my friend.' The stranger's confusion may be bet- ter imagined than described." - Whittemore's Life of Ballou, ii. 247, 248.
499
THE CENTURY OF UNIVERSALISM.
A powerful impulse was given to the cause of Universalism during the controversies above referred to by the writings of the Rev. Walter Balfour, a man of remarkable originality and power. Before leaving Scotland, his native country, he became acquainted with the late Rev. John Codman, D.D., long pastor of a church in Dorchester. Reaching New York in 1806, pro- ceeding thence to Albany in company with the late Rev. Daniel Sharp, D.1)., whose life-long friendship he enjoyed, he settled in Charlestown in 1807. As a member of the school-board in 1825 he advocated the estab- lishment of an English High and Latin school. The measure failed, as did also the attempt to secure his re-election. Twenty-two years later the sug- gestion was acted upon, and the school established.1 In connection with the Rev. Dr. Morse, whose pulpit he often supplied, he organized the first Bible-class established in Charles- town. In 1808 he was appointed Walter Balfour to the chaplaincy of the prison, which position he conscientiously resigned on account of his change of views touching infant baptism.2 Con- verted to Universalism by Professor Stuart's argument for the universal worship of Christ, Mr. Balfour, in 1824, published his Inquiry into the Script- ural Import of the Words Shcol, Hades, Tartarus, and Gchenna : all trans- lated "Hell" in the Common English Version. In 1826 appeared his Second Inquiry, designed to show that the terms " Satan," " Devil," etc., were not used in the Bible to designate a specific being. These volumes were fol- lowed in 1828 by Balfour's Essays ; in 1834, by Balfour's Reply to the Rev. Bernard Whitman ; and in the same year by Ballou's Examination of the Doctrine of Future Retribution. Notwithstanding these works were not wholly accordant with each other in doctrine, they were most important contributions to the elucidation of Christian truth, and exerted a very wide influence.
While preachers of the gospel were multiplied, and one work after another was sent forth from the press, the School-Street Church continued to be the Mecca of the Universalist Zion. Mr. Ballou was listened to by visitors and business men from all parts of the country, and the seeds of truth were thus scattered far and wide. The men who started with him in the Christian race were falling under the weight of years; but those who still survived were noble specimens of Christian manhood.
When at length it became necessary to select a colleague for Mr. Ballou, new dangers opened in the pathway of the society. Two candidates, the Revs. T. C. Adam and H. B. Soule, were heard for several months each, neither of whom received the requisite two-thirds vote of the parish. On his retirement from the candidacy, one of them, the Rev. T. C. Adam, fol- lowed by a portion of the society, opened meetings in a chapel in Chardon Street. So apparent was his unworthiness that he soon withdrew. Having organized a society and enjoyed the brief ministrations of several clergy-
1 Letter of his son, D. M. Balfour.
2 Mass. State Prison, by Gideon Haynes, p. 19.
500
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
men, the chief supporters abandoned the movement, many of them return- ing to the School-Street Church, and the enterprise soon failed altogether. Finally the School-Street parish called the Rev. E. H. Chapin, D.D., of Charlestown, to the associate pastorate. The installation took place Jan. 28, 1846, Mr. Ballou preaching the sermon. After two years of marked prosperity under the ministrations of this eloquent divine, the parisli very reluctantly accepted his resignation, and he removed to New York city. He was immediately succeeded by the Rev. A. A. Miner, of Lowell, both gen- tlemen entering on their new pastorates May· 1, 1848. Mr. Miner was in- stalled May 31, Dr. Chapin preaching the sermon, and Mr. Ballou offering the installing prayer.
The relations of both of these juniors with their senior were marked by the most affectionate cordiality and profound respect.1 On the deatlı of Mr. Ballou, - which occurred June 7, 1852, - Mr. Miner became sole pastor, which relation he still holds. The office of President of Tufts College hav- ing become vacant by the death of Hosea Ballon, 2d, D.D., May 27, 1861, Mr. Miner was elected his successor, it being understood that his pastorate would not be relinquished, though his parish generously excused him from most of the pastoral labor. His inaugural address was delivered July 9, 1862. During the twelve and a half years of his Presidency more than seven hundred thousand dollars were added to the funds of the College, mostly by Boston men, and more than half of it by members of his parish. Jan. 2, 1867, the Rev. Rowland Connor was installed as colleague pastor, Dr. Miner preaching the sermon. Mr. Connor held that office about five months. Dismissed because of his rejection of the authority of Christ, he had quite a following to Mechanics Hall, where he soon conspicuously failed, most of his adherents returning to the parish. June 3, 1868, the Rev. Henry I. Cushman was installed as colleague, Dr. Miner again preach- ing the sermon. During the nearly seven years of his most faithful service Mr. Cushman won for himself the marked esteem both of his senior and of the society. In 1851 the parish remodelled its church in School Street, at a cost of about twenty thousand dollars; and in 1872 there was erected in its place, for business purposes, a building now known as the School-Street Block, the fee of which, after several changes in the circumstances of the tenure, is in the parish. Its fine new stone church on Columbus Avenue, corner of Clarendon Street, was built the same season, at a cost of about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and dedicated Dec. 5, 1872, the
1 Since the above text was written, Dr. Cha- pin has closed his earthly labors, terminating one of the two senior Universalist pastorates. He died in New York, Dec. 26, 1880. His fune- ral was a remarkable occasion. Denominational barriers were utterly broken down. Drs. Pullman and Capen, Universalists, the Rev. Robert Coll- yer, Unitarian, the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, Congregationalist, and the Rev. Dr. Armitage, Baptist, joined in paying the highest honors to his
memory. In the Columbus-Avenue Universalist Church, Boston, memorial services were held on Sunday, January 9, in the presence of an im- mense throng, in which the Rev. Messrs. Safford and Lee, Drs. Sawyer, Adams, and Miner, the Governor of the Commonwealth, John D. Long, and the Mayor of the city, F. O. Prince, bore most affectionate testimony to Dr. Chapin's Christian character, matchless eloquence, and ministerial fidelity.
501
THE CENTURY OF UNIVERSALISM.
dedicatory address being delivered by Dr. Miner, and the prayer being offered by Mr. Cushman.
The first Universalist sermon preached in Roxbury was by the Rev. Elhanan Winchester, in 1798, in the parish church, by invitation of the pastor. Nov. 29, 1818, the Rev. Hosea Ballou preached in the Town Hall.
-
COLUMBUS-AVENUE CHURCH.
The first Universalist society in Roxbury was organized March 2, 1820. Forty-three men good and true petitioned for the charter. Samuel Parker was chosen moderator of the first meeting, and Luther Newell clerk. The spacious and imposing edifice in which the society still worships was crected on a portion of the Dudley estate, and on the precise site of the mansion
502
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
occupied by the Governors Dudley. The old family well in the cellar still remains. This site, costing one thousand dollars, is said now to be worth one hundred thousand dollars. Messrs. William Hannaford, Edward Turner, Lewis Morse, Jacob Allen, Warren Marsh, Joseph Stratton, and Elisha Wheeler were chosen a committee, May 15, and charged with the responsi- bility of building. September 14, a parish meeting urged the committee to finish the house as soon as possible. It was dedicated Jan. 4, 1821, the Rev. Hosea Ballou preaching the sermon.1 The Rev. Hosea Ballou, 2d, was the first pastor, and was installed July 26, ABallon 2 1821, the Rev. Patil Dean preaching the ser- mon, and Mr. Ballou, of Boston, giving the charge. The present pastor, speaking of the first incumbent, says: "For the solidity, the spirituality, the even prosper- ity of this parish through all these years we are largely indebted to his eminently careful, faithful, and judicious leadership in the beginning of its history."2 On Jan. 4, 1822, a church, consisting of twenty-two most worthy members, was publicly recognized. Mr. Ballou resigned the pasto- rate April 28, 1838; and at the semi-centennial anniversary of the church all the original twenty-two members, as also its pastor, had "entered into the promised inheritance." There have been few if any men in the Univer- salist ministry in Boston or elsewhere, throughout the entire history of the church, who for solid learning, moral and Christian worth, great personal weight, and permanent influence in moulding our whole body into fair pro- portions, and stimulating it to an increased activity in the cause of educa- tion, are worthy of higher honor or deeper gratitude than is the Rev. Hosea Ballou, 2d, D.D. Most fitting was it that the closing years of his useful life should be spent in the duties of the Presidency of Tufts College, in which office he died May 27, 1861, aged sixty-four years.3
The Universalist Society of South Boston is the fifth of the churches organized in that part of the city. The population in 1830 was barely three thousand. The access from Boston proper was extremely unpleasant. The Federal-Street bridge had been built two years before. On the last of April, 1830, Elijah Harris, Joseph Harris, Jr., Dr. Ebenezer Stevens, Samuel Burnham, William Andrews, and Isaiah Josselyn (who alone survives) met at the house of one Mr. Holmes, corner of Fourth Street and Dorchester
1 Semi-Centennial Memorial, p. 8.
2 Ibid., p. 14.
8 The pastorate of the Roxbury parish has been filled by other most worthy men in the fol- lowing order : The Rev. Asher Moore, from January, 1839, to January, 1840; the Rev. Cyrus H. Fay, from January, 1841, to March, 1849; the Rev. William H. Ryder, from 1849, 10 January, 1859; the Rev. J. G. Bartholomew, from July, 1860, to January, 1866; and the Rev. A. J. Patterson, from September, 1866, to the present time. Through all these years the par- ish has enjoyed uninterrupted prosperity, and
vindicated its Christian aims by large sacrifices both in its own immediate field of labor and in the interests of the general Church. The cler-
gymen who have led in this work, several of whom have also won laurels in other fields, will ever be cherished in affectionate remembrance.
503
THE CENTURY OF UNIVERSALISM.
Avenue, and associated themselves as the Fourth Universalist Society of Boston.1 The Rev. Benjamin Whittemore, of Troy, New York, son-in-law of the Rev. Hosca Ballou, and a young man of great Benj THhittemore promise, who in later years became a Doctor of Divin- ity, and who still survives in a ripe old age, preached in a hall opposite Mr. Holmes's house. May 9, 1830, having accepted an invitation to become pastor of the new society, he entered upon the duties of that office July 18 of the same year. On May 30, 1831, an accession to the parish was re- ceived of fifty-one men, of whom two only now survive.2 Worship was continued in Harding's Hall until the completion of the church cdifice on Broadway, corner of B Street, which was dedicated April 10, 1833, the Rev. Hosea Ballou preaching the sermon, and the pastor offering the dedicatory prayer. The long-deferred installation of the pastor took place on the afternoon of the same day, - the Revs. Thomas Whittemore, Hosca Ballou, Hosea Ballou, 2d, Sebastian Streeter, Matthew Hale Smith, and Lucius R. Paige,8 rendering the various services. After thirteen years of most faith- Lucius R. Paige. ful and efficient ministration, the able and much-loved pastor, in - April, 1843, resigned his pasto- rate, and was succeeded the fol- lowing autumn by the Rev. T. D. Cook. During his pastorate several thousands of dollars were expended in alterations in the mecting-house to gain suitable accommodations for the Sunday School, which has ever been an important auxiliary of the church.4
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