USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > New London > A history of the town of New London, Merrimack county, New Hampshire, 1779-1899 > Part 61
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BAPTIST CHAPEL AND CHURCH. RUINS OF BRICK ACADEMY AT THE RIGHT.
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it open, moving back the pulpit end, and putting in twenty new pews in front of the pulpit. It has thus been in use more than sixty years, and has become venerable in its plain and simple beauty. The chapel, or vestry, near by is comparatively mod- ern, it having been built in 1875, through the generous gift of the late George W. Herrick. The clock in the tower was placed there in the year 1884, and was the joint gift of Gen. Luther McCutchins and the late Marcus Nelson.
The Second Pastorate.
Rev. Oren Tracy, of Randolph, Mass., was unanimously called to the pastorate of the church, Feb. 19, 1827. The call was accepted, and Mr. Tracy began his work the next autumn under most favorable indications of the divine approval. He was duly settled and installed by a large Council, after the manner of his predecessor, on the 30th of January, 1828. The exercises were held in " the Baptist New Meeting House-in the presence of a numerous Assembly." The occasion was one of great interest, as well it might be, occurring only once in 40 years !
Mr. Tracy was a young man of good abilities and engaging manners. He had been educated at Waterville, and ordained to the work of the ministry three years before at East Stough- ton, Mass. The Council nevertheless proceeded to hear his Christian experience, call to the work of the ministry, and his views of Christian doctrine, as though for re-ordination. This was to be a settlement, an installation, not a mere recognition. Therefore the work must all be thorough and well understood. The Council voted "Satisfied," and proceeded with the ser- vices, when Rev. Nathan Ames, of Washington, offered the first prayer, Rev. Otis Robinson, of Salisbury, offered the sec- ond prayer, Rev. Ira Person, of Newport, preached the sermon, Rev. Elon Galusha offered the installing prayer, Rev. N. W. Williams, of Concord, gave the charge to the candidate, Rev. Theophilus B. Adams, of Acworth-a former member and licentiate of this church-gave the fellowship of the churches, and Rev. Parker Fogg offered the concluding prayer.
Thus with a new and inviting meeting-house and a new and popular young pastor, the prospects of the church were bright. The pastor was earnest and sympathetic in his public ministra-
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tions, faithful and assiduous in his pastoral work, deeply interested in the young people and the cause of education, an ardent advocate of the temperance reform, then just beginning to be agitated-and so made himself felt in all the moral, social, and educational, as well as the religious, life of the town. He began at once to sow the good seed, and gathered precious sheaves,-though it was two or three years before the full harvest was ripe. During the first year about 30 were added to the church. In the Autumn of 1831 special tokens of the Spirit's presence among the people became manifest. The church was greatly awakened, and souls began to ask the ques- tion of all questions,-" What shall I do to be saved?" Meetings were held on the Sabbath, and on week days in dif- ferent parts of the town. It was the old story-Zion travailed and she brought forth children. On the first Sabbath in Jan- uary, 1832,-which was also the first day of the year-43 persons received the bond of fellowship, of whom 39 had been recently converted and baptized. On the first Sunday in March, 35 more recent converts were received, and during the subse- quent summer several more, making about 90 in all. In this list are the names of several who are still with us, among them our two senior deacons.
In regard to this great revival, the Hon. J. Everett Sargent, late justice of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire, who was one of the number then baptized into the church, in his Histor- ical Address at the Centennial celebration of the town in 1879, uses the following tender and appreciative words :
" Many who are here to-day will never forget that first Sun- " day in January, 1832, and also the first Sunday in March of " the same year, upon each of which occasions about 40, stand- " ing on both sides of the broad aisle in the old meeting-house, "received the right hand of fellowship from Mr. Tracy, on " being received as members of the church. On these occa- " sions Mr. Tracy seemed to be inspired. I have never found " and never expect to find another minister who, in all respects, " would quite fill Mr. Tracy's place with me."
Another and a conspicuous illustration of the Scripture,-" I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas,"-it matters not so it be and all " of Christ !"
It is doubtful if the church has ever reached a higher plane
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of spiritual and temporal prosperity than during these years of Mr. Tracy's pastorate.
Mr. Tracy resigned the pastoral care of the church, Jan. I, 1836, and was duly dismissed as pastor by the vote of the church, Jan. 29th, and soon after entered into the same relation with the church in Newport.
The Third Pastorate.
Rev. Reuben Sawyer was called to be the successor of Mr. Tracy. He came from West Haven, Vt., in which place he had been pastor of the Baptist church since his ordination in 1824. He was received as a member of the church, and the right hand of fellowship was given to him as pastor by Joseph Colby, Esq.,-July 3d, 1836. He was not formally installed, as his predecessors had been, nor has there been a formal instal- lation service since. Query-Would it not have been well to perpetuate the usage of the fathers in this matter?
Mr. Sawyer was a native of Moncton, Vt. He was the son of a minister, Rev. Isaac Sawyer, and belonged to a family of ministers.
He was educated at the Hamilton Theological Seminary. When he came to the pastorate of this church he was in the very flower of his manhood, and to this church he gave 8 years of vigorous work.
Mr. Sawyer's first work, however, was not that of a harvester, but of a cultivator, a planter, a pruner. The discipline of the church was vigorously taken up, the stronger doctrines of grace were preached with great earnestness and power. Mr. Sawyer proclaimed both "the goodness and the severity of God." There was no sentimentalism either in himself or in his sermons. He saw truth in its sharp angles, and sometimes he presented it so. It therefore cut. In due time the work told. The strong truth got strong hold on strong men. The sword of the Spirit slew them. At length the blessing came. I find the following entry, without date, on a page of the church records by itself :
" A revival of religion commenced under the preaching of " Rev. Reuben Sawyer about the beginning of the year 1839, " and continued through the winter, during which time between " 40 and 50 were baptized by him, and united with the church.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
" Another revival commenced in the fall of 1842, and con- " tinued through the winter, in which about 50 were baptized " by Bro. Sawyer, and united with the church."
Among those baptized into the fellowship of the church by Mr. Sawyer during these seasons of precious soul harvesting, I find the names of the following: Gen. Anthony Colby and wife, Daniel E. Colby, Susan F. Colby (now Mrs. James B. Colgate, of New York), Nahum Greenwood, Martha Green- wood (now Mrs. Daniel F. Colby), Dr. W. H. Hosmer, Ben- jamin W. Seamans, Wyman Sawyer (son of the pastor, and now Rev. Dr. A. W. Sawyer, President of Acadia College, N. S.)-and many more that might be adduced to prove the truth of my statement just now made, strong truth strongly preached took strong hold on strong men.
During the early part of Mr. Sawyer's pastorate, the old New London academy was established under the special pat- ronage of the Newport Baptist association. Mr. Sawyer was prominent in the founding of the school and in securing its location in this town. As a friend and promoter of education he was a worthy successor of Mr. Tracy.
It was during the latter part of this pastorate that the unhappy and long-continued controversy sprang up in the church in regard to the subject of slavery. A part of the church, including some of its leading men, had come out strongly for the abolition cause. They would have no fellow- ship, not even that implied in the loose bonds that held together the independent Baptist churches of the North and the South, with slavery or with slave-holders. The times were troublous. The political cauldron had begun to bubble hot with this burn- ing question. The great religious and missionary bodies of the country felt the rumble of the earthquake. The churches all were shaken, some shattered. Happily this did not belong to the latter class, but it was fearfully shaken, and one of the results of the shock was, the pastor was removed out of his place. Not, however, by the formal action of the church; a large majority of whom stood with him, and a large and repre- sentative council called by the church, vindicated both the church and its pastor in their stand towards the dissentient members ; but as an indirect and loosening cause, the pastor felt that his usefulness was impaired, and that God had a place
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for him in another field. Accordingly on the 6th of April, 1844, Mr. Sawyer sent his resignation to the church.
The Fourth Pastorate.
Rev. Mark Carpenter, of Keene, was called to be the suc- cessor of Mr. Sawyer, in November, 1844, and immediately entered upon his work here. The times were still troublous, and the air, both politically and religiously, was resonant of the anti-slavery controversy. But the standing of the church had become firmer, and its course of action more settled. The position of the church was conservating anti-slavery : anti-slav- ery in principle, but non-partisan in regard to the political environments that encompass the moral question. This is always the safe position for the church to take on all such ques- tions.
The dissentient element, however, continued to vex the church, and the records of those years, 1844, '45, '46, '47, '48, are one prolonged burden of lamentation, in the form of letters, protests, resolutions, and the action of the large and represen- tative council whose recommendations finally brought the mat- ter to a close in the exclusion of the troublous elements.
Mr. Carpenter was a most faithful and conscientious pastor, and his work was in a line that, while not fruitful of outward results in the form of revivals and additions to the church, was nevertheless necessary to its health and life. Mr. Car- penter resigned the pastorate, in December, 1848.
These four early pastors, Job Seamans, Oren Tracy, Reu- ben Sawyer, and Mark Carpenter, whose successive pastorates ? covered the first sixty years of the church's existence, are all now numbered with " the general assembly and church of the first born whose names are written in heaven." They were all men of strong character, commanding gifts, and deep piety. Being dead, they still live. Their memory is fragrant here, as elsewhere in their several fields of Christian and ministerial labor.
Here we reach a dividing line between the dead and the living. All the pastors previous to 1848 are dead, all since are still living.
It will be fitting to pass more rapidly over the pastorates of the still living, and while the work is brought into view, per- sonal characterization will be more sparingly made.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
The Fifth Pastorate.
Rev. Ebenezer Dodge, at the time pastor of the Baptist church in New Hampton, was called to the pastoral care of this church, April 14, 1849. Mr. Dodge came to this field fully equipped for his work by nature, by grace, and by education. He at once commanded the attention, and even the admiration of the whole people, by his earnest and thoughtful utterances and his dignity and simplicity of demeanor. He was the right man in the right place at the right time. The abolition cyclone had passed over, but the ground was strewn with spiritual débris. The spiritual temple had been shaken, and not a few of its timbers lay loose in the open field. The work of Mr. Dodge was that of a master in strengthening the things that remained. His calm and gentle manner, his sound and dis- criminating judgment, his felt and acknowledged weight of character, and his simple and earnest piety, at once put him into the position of a pacificator, a conservator, a reconstructor. It would have been a very hard thing to get up a quarrel with Mr. Dodge, and a harder thing to maintain it. During his pastorate here of five years, he showed himself possessed of those qualities of gracious endowment, under which the kind- ling fires of opposition die down and die out for lack of fuel.
The church caught in a measure his spirit. It settled down into peace, harmony, charity. It took on new strength and effectiveness. It was not greatly increased in numbers. There was no season of very marked religious interest. But there was a growth from within. Mr. Dodge was everybody's pastor. Everybody loved him. His Sabbath ministrations were strong, healthful, soul-nurturing. The people came to hear the preached word because they were fed by it.
It was during the last year of Mr. Dodge's pastorate that the old New London academy, which had been dead practically, for a number of years, was regenerated, or better, raised again, in the form of the New London Literary and Scientific institu tion, now bearing the honored name of Colby academy. The old literary and theological institution at New Hampton had been transplanted to the soil of the Green mountains. The Baptist denomination in the state was left without a school of the higher grade. Mr. Dodge, in connection with the late
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF THE BAPTIST CHURCH.
ex-Gov. Anthony Colby, made immediate efforts to secure the patronage of the denomination in the state for such an institu- tion in this town. They were successful. The beginnings were made, the teachers secured, of whom I had the honor to be one, the school opened, when the same qualifications that fitted the fifth pastor for his work here, specially in connection with the school, recognized elsewhere with appreciation, carried him away to that broader field of Christian ministerial work where he has since wrought so long and so well, as pro- fessor and as president in the Madison university at Hamilton, N. Y. The college with its larger claims drew him from the church. The good and witty ex-governor insisted that it was stealing! It was only coveting the best gifts !
Mr. Dodge resigned the pastorate of the church in Novem- ber, 1853.
The Sixth Pastorate.
Henry F. Lane, a member of the Baldwin Place church in Boston, and at the time a student in the Newton Theological institution, was heartily called to be the successor of Mr. Dodge. Accepting the call he was ordained to the work of the ministry and the pastoral care of this flock of Christ, on the 27th of July, 1854.
His pastor, the beloved and revered Dr. Baron Stow, preached the sermon. Many who are here to-day will remem- ber the beauty and impressiveness of that ordination sermon, and of the whole service. " The model pastor," as his biogra- pher, Dr. J. C. Stockbridge, has been pleased to designate him in the memoir of the minister of Baldwin Place, seemed inspired with a special divine afflatus. And was he not? Is: not this in accordance with the promise, " Go, preach, I am with you."
Mr. Lane entered at once on his work with the zeal and courage of youth. He found ready cooperation, not only in the church, but in the school. The professors and teachers stood close to him. The students were attracted by the easy flow of his sympathetic words. The devotional meetings of the church on Sunday evenings, and during the week, were held in the old chapel of the academy. These meetings were quite often led by the principal, or by one of the professors. The
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
result was, a blending of interest, a coalescing of spirit, and a cooperation in Christian work between the church and the school, which, to some of us at least, seems very desirable for the interests of both.
The first year of Mr. Lane's pastorate was marked by a good degree of religious interest, and a quiet work of grace was experienced, quite largely in the school, in which over twenty were baptized into the fellowship of the church, the larger part of whom were students either resident in town, or from abroad. How distinctly and how tenderly I remember those prayer meetings, and those inquiry meetings, in the old mathematical recitation room. The very floor is yet sacred with the spiritual imprint of the knees that knelt upon it !
Thus it continued through the sixth pastorate, which lasted, however, only three years. Mr. Lane resigned the care of the church in January, 1857, to assume the pastorate of the church in Dorchester, Mass., now the flourishing Stoughton-street church of Boston.
The Seventh Pastorate.
On the 14th of the June following, 1857, Rev. Lucien Hay - den, of Saxton's River, Vt., succeeded to the work of Mr. Lane. Mr. Hayden was in the prime of his maturity and the ripened strength of his ministerial life. He had seen large and grati- fying success in his work in Vermont. He now had important work to do in New Hampshire. He came to it in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel. The time was a time of the right hand of God, the country over, the world over. The first year of Mr. Hayden's pastorate, 1857-'58, was the occasion of the great prayer revival in almost every city and town and neighborhood. Prayer alone seemed to be the means appointed for carrying on the work. Daily prayer meetings were held at noon in all the cities and large places, not only in the churches, but in halls and stores and other places of busi- ness. The whole atmosphere seemed surcharged with the breath of prayer. It was so easy to institute and carry on a daily prayer meeting ! The voice of prayer was everywhere one accordant melody. Sometimes prayer crowded out secu- lar work, study, amusement, everything. Shall I ever forget that memorable morning, in 1858, in the old classical recitation-
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room, in the senior class in Latin of over twenty members, most of whom were already Christians, when such a divine presence overshadowed us that we were constrained to stop the recitation and spend the better part of the hour in prayer for the unsaved members of the class and of the school !
Prayer meetings were held in the church during the day two or three times a week, and in the school houses of the different districts in the evenings. The work of God was quiet, deep, thorough. There was no extra preaching. There was no unhealthy excitement. There were no crowds of inquirers and young converts, in which many are often caught up and borne along without any genuine work of grace in their own hearts.
The succeeding years of Dr. Hayden's pastorate (he was honored with the Doctorate of Divinity while he was with us) were marked by harmony, steadiness, and unusual evenness of accession to the membership of the church. If I have exam- ined the records correctly, as I have carefully, seventy-five were received to the church by baptism and quite large num- bers by letter, during this pastorate.
The health of Dr. Hayden had not been firm. He suffered specially with a throat trouble that affected his voice. The climate here, especially during the winter, was too severe for him. His wife also, whom he married here, the estimable first lady principal of the institution, Mary Jane Prescott, was suf- fering from a weakness of the lungs which could no longer endure the vigor of these winters. Accordingly in November, 1868, Dr. Hayden resigned the pastorate, and sought a resi- dence in the milder climate of Indianapolis, in active connec- tion with the flourishing young ladies' institute of that city.
The Eighth Pastorate.
The eighth pastor of the church was Rev. F. D. Blake, recently pastor of the church in the city of Gardiner, Maine. He began his work, March 14th, 1869, and continued four years, till March, 1873. There was no marked work of grace in the church during Mr. Blake's pastorate, but twenty-four were added by baptism during these four years, about one- half of whom were students in the academy.
Just here it is proper to note the large number of letters of
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dismission granted to other churches, in consequence of the return of students to their homes, or their removal to other schools and colleges. This is a marked feature in the church statistics from the time the school was established here. It follows therefore that the increase of permanent members dur- ing all the later pastorates, has not been proportional to the number of accessions. But it is a cause of gratitude and thanksgiving, that this church has been privileged during the last thirty-five years to be a feeder in this way of other churches, and so has helped to gather for Christ and assimilate with our denomination, a large number of young men and women, who otherwise might never have been gathered at all, or if gathered would have been in other denominational folds. As an illus- tration of this point may I be allowed to remark, that of the ten students from the academy baptized by me the first Sunday in June last, seven of them were from families in no way con- nected with any Baptist church. Thus the school, as a kind of handmaid of the church, becomes, in an entirely uncontro- versial and unsectarian way, and with a most catholic spirit towards other denominations of Christians, a conservator and a propagator of denominational faith and life.
The Ninth Pastorate.
This has so recently closed that it has hardly become his- toric. But, as being the longest in the history of the church with the exception of the first, as well as on account of the distinguishing blessing of God in the accession of very large numbers to the fellowship of the church, and the enlisting of many earnest and active young hearts and hands in the church's home-work, in order to obtain anything like an accu- rate survey of what has been accomplished in the hundred years, we must note the later as well as the earlier movements, at the risk of telling what everybody already knows.
Rev. S. C. Fletcher was called to succeed Mr. Blake in the pastorate, June 29th, 1873. He came in the maturity and strength of his early manhood. He found a field equal to his zeal and courage. God immediately smiled upon his work. The church became quickened in its activities and entered earnestly into the work of saving souls. The field was white for the soul harvest. There had been no great and wide-sweeping
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revival for a number of years. Children had grown up to be young men and young women, and had not been brought sav- ingly to Christ. The pastor was called of God to put in a sharp sickle and reap the nodding grain. Other sickles came to his help. The grain was gathered by armfuls. In 1877, Mr. Fletcher received large numbers into the church, forty-two being baptized in the month of June. The work of grace was deep and pervasive. All ages became subjects of it, children, youth, men and women in mature life, some of whom had with- stood the strivings of the Spirit for a great many years. It was one of the few great ingatherings in the history of the church.
Again in 1885, it is fresh in most of your minds, the mighty arm was made bare in the salvation of very many precious souls. The scenes of 1877 were repeated, with even greater measure of blessing. In the one month of June, seventy-two baptisms are recorded, the largest number evidently in any one month of the church history. The nodding harvest was largely reaped ; young men, young women, mature men and women, old men, young children, all ages alike were gathered as sheaves into the garners of God !
I must forbear to characterize the work so recent any further. But I must be allowed to say, blessed are the pastoral hands that are permitted to gather and feed so many of Christ's lambs ; and blessed is the flock that has such a pastor to gather and feed them !
Mr. Fletcher filled up fourteen full years with his earnest, indefatigable pastoral work, and in November last laid down that work at the feet of the Great Shepherd. During his pastor- ate two hundred and eighteen were baptized into the fellowship of the church, besides many added by letter, so that at the time of his resignation, the church had reached its then greatest number of members, three hundred and forty-nine. The sta- tistics of the last year are as follows : received by baptism, seventeen ; by letter, four ; dismissed by letter, four ; died, five.
Thus through the grace of God the " Christian church in New London, holding to believers' baptism," rounds out its full cen- tenary to-day with the largest membership ever recorded during the one hundred years, three hundred and fifty-seven.
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