USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Essex > Two centuries of church history : celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the organization of the Congregational church & parish in Essex, Mass., August 19-22, 1883 > Part 13
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REMINISCENGES OF DR. GROWELL
BY REV. JEREMIAH TAYLOR, D. D., OF PROVIDENCE, R. I.
Mr. Chairman, Fathers and Brethren :
It seems appropriate that I should be with you on this interesting occasion, for several reasons. A descendant of one of the honored pastors of this church sustained to me the relation of a beloved sister as the wife of my brother; and the pastor of your neighboring church at Manchester ; Rev. Oliver Alden Taylor. How often have I listened to the glowing descriptions she gave of her grandfather and the eminent service he rendered the church and state while pas- tor here. And it would be a profitable service, did time per- mit to trace the influence of the honored men who have served you here so long and so well, not merely in the confines of this parish, but on the broader range of the Community at large. Rev. John Cleaveland, gave to this County an emi- nent physician in the person of his son, Nehemiah Cleaveland, M. D., whose public life was identified, with the varied inter- ests which entered into the growth of Topsfield. Of his four sons, brothers of my sister, one was a bright ornament of the legal profession ; and spent his life in connection with the Bar of New York. Another was a distinguished clergyman, and boldly and successfully defended the doctrines of our faith, in the face of great opposition in one of the New England cities and left a work nobly done for the church. Another became an ornament in the department of literature, and the fourth was known and honored in the manufacturing and agricultural industry of this native county. Rare men all.
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A good deal of interest also has been awakened on my part to see how my friend, the present pastor in charge of this ven- erable pulpit wreathed with the crown of two centuries, may carry himself. It was my pleasure to greet him when he took his ordination vows, and we would gladly have retained him in the field where he was then installed.
But the chief thing which has brought me here is to say a few things in regard to one of the later pastors of the church who is so well remembered by the older portion of the con- gregation, Rev. Robert Crowell, D.D.
When called in 1847 to take the pastorate of the neigh- boring church at. Wenham; I took advise of your pastor as to the course of duty, and he as much as any one influenced the final decision.
And when for the ordination services the Ecclesiastical Council was called, and parts were finally assigned, on him devolved the duty of giving the charge to the young pastor. It impressed me then as a most excellent address of its kind, and as the parts were published, I have had opportunity to read it often since, and now think it to be a model both in regard to instruction and style. During the years, in which neighborly, pastoral relations existed between us, I had occa- sion to meet him often under circumstances, that could not fail to reveal the spirit of the man.
Attempting to walk over to Manchester of a Sabbath morn- ing to fulfil an appointment for an exchange, he slipped on the ice and brook his leg. Paying him a visit as he lay upon his couch in consequence of this disabled condition ; in per- fect calmness, and a spirit of gentle resignation he said I have often questioned whether I was in the place of duty, but I have now no doubt, as I lie here, that I am just where God has put me.
When in December 1851, my brother of Manchester died, there was no question as to whom he would wish to have preach his funeral discourse, I hastened in my grief to Dr. Crowell
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and engaged him for that service. The day of burial however proved so severe in cold and storm that he deemed it unsafe to leave his home, but delivered the sermon to the bereaved people on a subsequent Sabbath to the satisfaction of all concerned. Of Dr. Crowell personally I was impressed that he was loyal to himself. He cultivated those habits of life and character which brought him into close fellowship with God. The saint appeared clearly in the man. No one could be in his company for however short a time without feeling that he was spiritually minded; holy beyond what is ordinary. He was loyal to the letter of the Sacred Scrip- tures. He was a thorough student of the Word. Not.con- tent with his private studies of the orignal tongues, he in company with several others of the pastors in the vicinity formed what they called a Sub-Association, and met fre- quently to read and discuss together the Greek and Hebrew text.
He was also loyal to the doctrines of that Word; what the Scriptures taught satisfied. He was not led, by any specu- lations a step beyond, and when it is remembered who were his associates in the neighboring pastorates during his later years, one is not easily persuaded to believe there were essential doctrines in the Sacred Word which they had not discovered and the need of any departure from the faith which was then taught does not commend itself as worthy of serious regard. Those were the days, when Gale was at Rockport, Taylor at Manchester, Abbott at Beverly, Braman at Danvers, Worces- ter and Emerson at Salem, Cooke at Lynn, and the pulpit gave no uncertain instruction under their ministrations. Oh ! for the return of an era of such long and able pastorates when the preacher will have time and opportunity, as then, to teach his people thoroughly the profound things of life and salvation.
Dr. Crowell evinced a deep interest in young ministers, he had a happy way in conversation of calling out their opinions
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on abstruse and difficult topics, carefully concealing his own judgment to the last, when by a brief utterance he made abid- ing his own clear convictions in the mind of the listener. I have brought to this hour the results of a conversation I once held with him on the views of the elder President Edwards in regard to the social ostracism of excommunicated church members. In counsel Dr. Crowell was regarded excellent, highly acceptable as a preacher, ever welcome to the pulpits of neighboring parishes.
It was in 1855, that we assembled in the house of God where he had so long preached the gospel, to honor him in burial. Thence we bore his mortal remains to the neighbor- ing cemetery, committing them earth to earth, ashes to ashes. dust to dust, there to rest with his sleeping congregation and arise with them in triumphant, glorious resurrection.
Brethren, we seem standing to-day in exalted contempla- tion with the apostle when he exclaims in the opening verses of the twelfth chapter of Hebrews: "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set be- fore us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith." And especially let us take heart in view of the con- cluding portion of the chapter: "Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire."
معايابـ
LETTERS.
PARIS, July 14, 1883.
My Dear Brother,-I promised to write you a brief line expressing my interest in the two hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Essex Church, occuring Aug. 22. I was unable to write before leaving Boston, and since landing at Liverpool have had no good opportunity until the present. Our stay has been brief, in places visited, until we reached London, and we have had much to see and think about. We have really been living, quite as much in England and Scotland of the past, as of the present. We visited Ambleside and Grasmere; the home, the church and grave of Wordsworth ; Glasgow and Stirling; saw places sacred to the memory of Bruce and Wallace and Douglass; the fields of Stirling and Bannockburn; Melrose and Dryburg Abbeys, and Abbotts- ford, the home with the Library of Sir Walter Scott, as he left it; Edinburgh with its Castle and its Holy Rood and Memories of Mary Queen of Scotts, the rooms where she lived in part her singularly tragic life ; the house, pulpit and chair of John Knox, the grand old scottish reformer; the old town of York with its Minster, its relics of Roman days and honored as the birth-place of Constantine; then London with so much to see, and now Paris. In the brief time alloted, I am striv- ing to review the past as well as study the present. Do you wonder I have not much time save as I snatch a few minutes here and there to write.
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To-day all Paris is alive. It is the Anniversary of the tak- ing of the Bastile. I have been this morning to a grand review of Troops (in Bois de Boulogne).
Poor France is struggling to maintain a Republic, but on the one hand the struggle is between the repressed elements of parties that have had well nigh centuries of history and bloodshed, and on the other, not between Catholicism and Protestanism, I wish it were, then there would be more hope of grand fulfilment, but between Catholicism and Atheism. The Government is largely Atheistic. President Grevy is a noble looking man, we saw him to-day drive by us on his way to the Boulogne. But I am told he is Atheistical, indeed re- ligious instruction is taken from the schools, and the name of God even may be expunged from the school books, and yet boys of ten years are required to learn the use of the sword and bayonet. Paris is a beautiful city. Some have named it "The American Paradise." The contrast with England is marked. The almost absolute cleanliness of streets, and Boulevards, the tinting and coloring every where, the excita- bility of speech and movement, show a different people. There is an absence of English stability. To-day is the un- veiling of the Statue of Liberty, so long in preparation, and it is done with a clash between the Government of Paris and that of the Republic. Soldiers are posted to keep back the mob, and the President of the Republic withholds his pres- ence.
But I turn for a little while as a privilege from all this, to the scenes, faces and memories of dear old Essex. The Town I remember best is that of twenty years ago. It is no wonder I love to hold in memory those who had so much to do, outside the home, in moulding my own life. Pardon me if I speak of a few personal things. Deep in my heart do I keep the memory of my two boyhood pastors- the first, while striving personally to interest me and aid me in a course of study, which after the lapse of years I was en-
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abled to pursue, did not fail to set before me, the claims of God on my life. The second led me to Christ, was to me brother and pastor and opened the way, for my then maturer years, to enter the Christian Ministry. I remember with gratitude that Superintendent; that man who did so much for Christ's kingdom in the Sabbath School, that man, who knew how to educate, and not only laid the foundation of christian character in his pupils but made theologians of them. I remember the three Sabbath School teachers, the last of whom led his class like a good shepherd. They are all gone to the Spirit land,-and so to have that wider circle, many of whom were closely and dearly related, and some of them recently called. Many a face, many a voice comes to me to-night in this great city of another continent, and my memories are tender. But you in review will go back to earliest days, before the town had its present name, and to such men as Wise and others, who helped to make the first pages of religious history in "Chebacco." Two hundred years! Why you are within eighty years of Brewster and his Scrooby church, "the model," Professor Hoppin tells us, "of all our New England churches to-day !" A few days ago, I passed on the rail, within a short distance of this "Spiritual birth place of America" and I con- fess I would rather have visited this "modern Nazareth" than St. Paul's or even Westminister in London. Scrooby and Brewster's church is not so very far behind your early history.
John Robinson and the Speedwell and May Flower are a little nearer. But go back a step in history. Side by side in the Museum of Edinburgh are the pulpit of John Knox, and the Guillotine, on which the old Scottish Covenanters were beheaded, I thanked God as I looked upon them for the brave men that battled the storm. But Knox and Calvin and kindred spirits clasped hands, and in the battle for the truth such spirits make a history. Come down now, from those days, a century later, and men like Brewster, and John
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Robinson will rise, and driven out of England by persecution, with the pressure of centuries and Providence behind them, they will under God's lead find a Plymouth Rock, -Congre- gationalism ! ! No other ism was to be tolerated in a new world by the Pilgrims. All else was left behind-A scion of that mighty root was borne to your dear old town and planted in faith and carefully and prayerfully nourished. It took root and has grown. The fruitage we can see. Plymouth Rock has done for Essex mentally, morally and spiritually, what eternity alone will reveal. I revere the names you will revere to-day. I am greatly disappointed not to be with you to assure you in person of my own interest in the church and . to listen to those who will address you. They will dwell upon much that binds us together in the work, for Christ, past and present. What a difference in the progress of the Gospel among all nations since John Wise, was called home- (I congratulate you my brother on your happy relation with that dear people) God bless the dear old Church. I am with you in spirit though far away. Accept my heartiest wishes and sincere prayers for the success of your plans to-day.
Read of this what you desire and believe me,
Your brother in Christ, MICHAEL BURNHAM.
ROWLEY, Aug. 2, 1883.
My Dear Sir,-The letter from yourself and your associ- ates inviting me to be present at your celebration, came during my absence from home, and it must not be left longer un- noticed.
My associations with your church are exceedingly pleasant, where I used to preach that Gospel upon which as a corner stone, the fathers and the children have rested their hopes. Many lively and choice stones have gone into that building which was begun among you two hundred years ago, and
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which will not reach its completion, and show its utmost beauty till the Lord shall come.
Your Pastor Rev. Mr. Crowell, I had but little intercourse with, except in an occasional exchange, but know him to have been a man of God, who had a system of faith which was not the less desirable to him because it had been the faith of the centuries, and with no sentiment of which he thought it needful to part in order to make the rest more defensible, and the light of which was like that of the sun, brightest and best when all its colors were preserved and blended.
With the shorter pastorate of Rev. Mr. Bacon, I was some- what acquainted, and regarded him as a man who preached faithfully the gospel he professed to love, and devoted him- self to the interests of the people who were committed to his care.
There was one I used to meet, David Choate, whom to know once is always to remember, whose life was an "epistle known and read of all men," and who will have as large a proportion as we can well conceive any one to have, of chil- dren whom he has instructed and guided, and over whom he will be permitted to say to the Master at the last, here am I, and the children thou hast given me.
These, and other considerations, rather incline me to answer affirmatively your invitation. I have, however, a life infirmity which I did not have when I used to mingle with those who are gone and who still remain among you, which . anchors me quite strongly to my home when public occasions would call me away. It has been somewhat increased by my return last month to the College where I graduated fifty years ago, and where I felt obliged to take certain responsi- bilities for my Class which my strength hardly warranted, and which make it uncertain whether it is suitable for me, so soon, to go again into a public assembly where my mind and heart would be much excited and interested. I propose, therefore, not to positively decline, but to let the matter be
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under consideration until I shall see whether the increasing inflammation of my eyes is likely to be more troublesome and permanent. If I am able to come shall probably bring with me the two members of my family who, having shared the griefs of my home, I shall desire to share with me in all the interest your glad occasion may impart.
Very truly yours,
J. PIKE.
To Caleb S. Gage and others, Committee of First Church and Parish, Essex.
The following sketch of Mr. Webster was read by Mr. Palmer before the reading of the letter from Rev. J. C. Webster. See Hist. Essex p. 263.
"Nov. 13, 1799 Rev. Josiah Webster was ordained pastor of the church as successor to Mr. Cleaveland. Rev. Stephen Peabody, of Atkinson N. H. preached the ordination sermon.
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In 1806, having requested a dismission, a mutual council is called, and by their advice his pastoral relation is dissolved on the 23 of July.
The reason for this action was briefly as follows. At Mr. Webster's set- tlement the parish gave him $500 as a donation, or settlement as it was called. His annual salary was $334 and the parsonage. As the currency diminished in value his salary became insufficient. The parish voted to allow $100 from year to year as should be found necessary. The pa: tor was satisfied with the amount of this addition but insisted that it should be made a part of the orignal contract. The parish thought their pastor should have confidence in their good will to vote the addition yearly along with the rest of the salary. It was upon this issue that the pastoral relation was dissolved at Mr. Webster's request.
He was afterwards settled in Hampton, N. H. June S, ISOS where after a quiet and successful ministry he died March 27, 1837, aged 65.
In the twelfth vol. of the American Quarterly Register there is a bio- graphical sketch of him from which these extracts have been taken.
"Rev. Josiah Webster, the son of Nathan and Elizabeth Webster was born in Chester. N. II. Jan. 16, 1772.
His father was a farmer, barely in circumstances of comfort, with patient, laborious industry, providing for the wants of a large family, and therefore unable to furnish more than a common school education for his children.
Josiah, the eldest. in his 16th year went to reside with an uncle, whose affairs he managed in his many and long absences. But for a long time he had felt a strong desire to become a minister of the gospel. and though he had acquired only sufficient property to defray the expenses of prepara-
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tion for college, and was distressed and discouraged by the opposition of his friends, in his 19th year he repaired to the Rev. Mr. Remington, of Candia, under whose hospitable roof he began his studies. Afterwards he spent a year under the tuition of that eminent Christian, Rev. Dr. Thayer of Kingston, and completed his preparation at the Academy in Atkinson. It was at Kingston that he indulged the hope of reconciliation to God, and of the commencement of the Christian life. A deeper con- sciousness of sin than he had ever felt before, pressed upon his heart, so full of distress and alarm that for several days he was unable to pursue his studies. After a season of deep conviction, light broke out upon his mind, 'like a morning of Summer just as the sun rises, when the winds are hushed, and a solemn but delightful stillness prevails everywhere and the face of nature smiles with verdure and flowers.'
From Atkinson he took a journey of more than eighty miles to Dart- mouth College, for the mere purpose of examination and admission to college. His poverty prevented his remaining a single week to enjoy its advantages. Returning to Atkinson he pursued his studies under the in- struction of the preceptor Stephen P. Webster, until the Spring of 1795, when with little improvement in the state of his funds he rejoined his class in College, and completed his first year. At the close of the vacation. though disappointed in every effort to raise money among his friends he once more set his face toward College. By a mysterious providence of God he fell in company with a stranger, who, learning his condition, with- out solicitation offered to relieve his necessities by a loan of money to be repaid whenever his circumstances should permit. The traveler was afterward ascertained to be a merchant of Newburyport. After graduating in the year 1798, he studied theology with Rev. Stephen Peabody, the min- ister of Atkinson, about a year, and was then licensed to preach the gospel by the Haverhill Association. Soon after he was invited to preach as a candidate in Chebacco Parish, Ipswich, where, Nov. 1799, he was ordained. After his dismission from that pastorate on account of the inadequacy of his support, he was invited to preach to the church at Hampton, N.II., and was installed there, June 8. 1808. During his ministry at Hampton there were several revivals of religion as the fruit of which one hundred and seventy persons were gathered into the church.
It deserves to be recorded to the lasting honor of Mr. Webster that he perceived the evil effects of the use of ardent spirits at a period when even the eyes of good men were generally closed to the subject. Almost from the first of his ministry he preached against intemperance, and for years before the temperance reformation, observed entire abstinence from all that intoxicates.
He was also deeply interested in the cause of education. To his influence and agency. the Academy in Hampton, one of the most respectable and flourishing institutions in the State, is indebted for much of its character and usefulness.
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Attached to the faith and institutions of our fathers, the doctrines of grace he understood and loved, and preached to the very close of his life. His last public act was the preaching of the sermon at the ordination of his son Rev. John C. Webster at Newburyport, as seaman's preacher at Cronstadt Russia March 15, 1837. Anxious to perform the service assigned him on that occasion, he made an effort his impared health was unable to sustain. The day following he returned home, and taking his bed remarked that he thought his work on earth was done. . Well' said he 'if it be so, I know not with what act I could close life with more satisfaction.' He died of inflammation of the lungs. During his sickness, his mind was often alienated, but in lucid intervals he uniformly expressed confidence in the mercy of God, and cast himself upon the blood of atonement.
His funeral sermon. preached by the Rev. Dr. Dana, is highly commen- datory of his ministerial qualifications, devotion to his proper work, and his extensive usefulness. Mr. Webster published five discourses delivered on different occasions." .
WHEATON, ILL., Aug. 3, 1883.
REV. F. H. PALMER : Dear Brother,-Though I am a personal stranger to you, and probably, to all in your church and parisil, allow me to express my interest in the two hun- dredth anniversary of your church, which I notice is at hand, from the fact that my father was pastor of it the first six years of the present century. And though he left Essex, then Chebacco parish in Ipswich, before I was born, some of my earliest and very pleasant reminiscences are with your town. The names of its Choates, Lows, Burnhams and others were household words in our family during all the first years of my life. And I know my father carried to his grave the fondest remembrance of many of the associations of that, his first pastoral love.
I may, therefore, be excused for thinking it not inappro- priate to contribute, for use as it may be thought best, a few extracts from letters in my possession, written years ago, in- dicative of the kind and high esteem in which my father was held by some of his parishioners, who were natives or citizens of Essex, whose professional and national reputation has scarcely been excelled, and of whom the town may very justly be proud.
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Under date, Cincinnati Ohio, Dec. 5, 1856, R. D. Mussey M. D. one of the most distinguished physicians and surgeons of the U. S. wrote as follows :
"My first acquaintance with him was in the parish of Ips- wich, now Essex, Mass., while he was the pastor of the church in that place. It was in great measure due to his efficient friendship that, young and inexperienced, I gained an early in- troduction to professional practice. No spirit of jealousy, envy or concealment seemed to have found a place in the bosom of Mr. Webster. And now after the lapse of fifty years, the impressions of his cordial salutations, whether at his home or on the street, made with a firm grasp of the hand, a rich and benignant smile often accompanied with the announcement of some item of intelligence on a topic of mu- tual interest, comes up with the freshness of yesterday.
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