USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Derry > The history of Londonderry : comprising the towns of Derry and Londonderry, N.H. > Part 2
USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Londonderry > The history of Londonderry : comprising the towns of Derry and Londonderry, N.H. > Part 2
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remained in this place one year, residing in the family of Dr. Worcester, and assisting him in his ministerial and parochial duties ; he also taught a school which was con- nected with Dr. Worcester's society. His ardent piety was not unobserved here. His faithful and earnest labors, during a revival in the winter of 1809-10, are still fresh in the minds of some who were familiar with the scenes of that interesting period. He always looked upon the time spent at Salem as a very valuable prep- aration for his subsequent labors.
During his residence at Salem, as he passed through the East Parish of Londonderry, now Derry, on his way to visit his friends in Litchfield, he was providentially invited to supply the pulpit for two Sabbaths. This led to further engagements, which he met by going to Derry on Saturday afternoon, and returning to Salem on Monday in time to commence his school. As soon as he had fulfilled the engagement he had made with Dr. Wor- cester, he received a call to become the pastor of the Presbyterian church in the East Parish of Londonderry. This call he accepted, and was ordained September 12, 1810. Rev. Dr. Worcester, his friend and recent instructor, preached the ordination sermon. In address- ing the people on that occasion, Dr. Worcester said, with reference to the pastor elect : "We have the pleasing confidence that our young brother, who is now to be set over you in the Lord, will prove to you an ascension-gift, a good man and full of the Holy Ghost, an able and faithful minister of the New Testament. This confidence we have not taken up lightly ; it has resulted from what we have seen and known, and with respect to some of us, at least, it has been strengthened and confirmed by intimate and endearing acquaintance."
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Just before his ordination, he had evidently made the responsible duties of the ministry, and the various ways by which these might be most successfully accomplished, a matter of protracted and prayerful study. He had taken a comprehensive view of the difficulties to be met, the prejudices to be overcome, and felt that he needed more than human wisdom to render his ministry success- ful. There was no shrinking from the responsibilities of the station, because it was beset with trials ; no desire even to avoid what might come in the way of duty ; his only solicitude was to know how he might approve him- self to Him who had put him into the ministry.
The following extracts from his diary, will show his interest in adopting and carrying out such principles and rules, as would fit him most successfully for the work on which he was about to enter.
"I will consider love to God and zeal for his glory as my highest duty, and study to improve daily in these divine affections ; and will judge of my progress in them, not by transient fervor, but by my habitual temper ; by my faithful performance of the self-denying duties of Christianity ; by my cheerful acquiescence in all God's dispensations, and by the love, humility, and watchfulness which I may be enabled to exhibit to those around me."
" I will cultivate an habitual sense of God's presence, and of my accountability to him ; of the shortness of time, and my obligations to improve it."
" I will be particularly watchful against the love of praise or distinction, as well as the fear of shame ; dosist- ing from my purpose when I feel these to be my only motives, and endeavoring by prayer to overcome them when I perceive them combined with proper motives."
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" I will be open to conviction, ever receiving correc- tion and reproof meekly and thankfully ; never question- ing merely for the sake of dispute, nor retorting on my reprover."
" I will in no case affect knowledge which I have not; I will not put off to a future day the business of the pres- ent, but will apply myself to it, never yielding to sloth or the love of ease, but exercising a constant and self- denying attention to my proper work."
"I will watch particularly against all heartlessness towards inferiors, and especially such as need my help. I will listen kindly to their representations, and render them all the assistance in my power."
" I will guard against everything, in look and manner, which might tend to wound the feelings of others."
" I will not allow the conduct of others towards me to lessen my kindness and good-will to them,"
" I will consider the study of my heart one main busi- ness of my life, and I will enter every evening, if possible, into a serious review of the day past, and will solemnly consider the fitness of my soul to enter the eternal world."
In 1811, he married Miss Mehetabel Kimball, daughter of Deacon Stephen Kimball, of Hanover, N. H. She was to him a worthy companion, and a valued helper in his responsible duties. The connection then formed continued for thirty-nine years. She still survives, residing with her youngest son. They had four children ; two sons and two daughters. The younger daughter died at the age of about three years ; their other children are still living.
The parish with which Mr. Parker was connected,
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required unusual labor and prudence. It stretched over a large territory, rendering much time necessary to visit the remote parts of it. There had also been much alienation between the two societies which had existed ' there for several years ; the appropriate duties of the ministry had been to some extent neglected, and, when performed, were rendered in a measure nugatory, by the unhappy state of feeling existing in the place. And though, at the time of Mr. Parker's settlement, the two societies had with entire unanimity united in giving him a call, yet the old wounds could not at once be healed. A conviction of duty as well as interest impelled them to bury their differences, and to unite their strength in the support of an efficient ministry. Still, there were ele- ments pent up, which a slight cause would at any time call into action. This state of things Mr. Parker well understood, for we find in his diary at this time, this resolution : " Resolved to be very watchful and circum- spect in regard to everything I say, considering the present state of the society." The ministry on which he entered under such circumstances was eminently suc- cessful. Not that there was always entire harmony or no personal dissatisfaction ; not that a different course of measures and a different style of preaching would not have been acceptable to some ; not that he himself was a stranger to trials, some of which made his nights weari- some and sleepless ; but the general results of the connec- tion between him and the parish were much more happy, both for the temporal and spiritual interests of the people, were attended with more harmony and mutual confidence, than either could have dared to anticipate.
On the day of his ordination, he entered among other
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resolutions, the following : " I now resolve to give myself wholly to the work." This was the great motto of his life. This resolution, adopted, not from constraint, but under a high sense of duty, brought one single object of life before him, as the centre towards which everything must tend, and made the exhausting and self-denying labors of the ministry a source of rich enjoyment. Single- ness of aim, a hearty devotedness to the work, is one of the surest pledges of success in any undertaking, and is nowhere more needful than in the ministry. When this
office is entered with a divided purpose, with an eye as much upon the personal advantages it may give as upon the solemn duties it imposes and the fruits that should spring from it ; when it is sought with a view to gratify a literary taste, or as a field for the display of learning or eloquence, or because it may elevate him who is clothed with it to a more refined circle in society ; when any one, or all of these become paramount to the true business of the ministry, - the saving of men's souls, - that sacred office is so far prostituted, and the results which may always sooner or later be expected from the faithful performance of its duties, fail of being attained. It has been justly said, that it is hard to be a faithful min- ister ; and with equal justice it has been replied, it is harder to be an unfaithful one.
Mr. Parker entered the ministry with no such divided purpose. "I resolve to give myself wholly to the work. I determine to realize that I have but one Master to serve, and to make it my great aim to please him." Thus he resolves, and thus he writes, on the day of his ordination ; and how faithfully the pledge was kept, the people to whom he ministered for forty years can best
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judge. How earnestly he labored ; how little he con- sulted his own ease ; how entirely he merged his private interests in the welfare of his people ; with what restless anxiety he watched for opportunities to do good ; how he divided to his flock the Word of God, giving to each a portion in due season ; how he warned and entreated them ; how he went from house to house, conversing with those unreconciled to God ; how often he was by the bed- side of the sick and the dying, pointing them to their only refuge ; with what deep sympathy he imparted con- solation to the afflicted and broken-hearted ; with what words of gentleness he strove to win the affection and confidence of the lambs of his flock, that the truth might take effect in their minds also ; what a fervor and spirit of piety mingled in all his duties ; in a word, how faith- ful, how exemplary and blameless, was his ministry, they know well, who, for so many years, were witnesses of these things.
His theological views were consistent, scriptural, and what are termed evangelical. While he had studied most of the leading theologians, and was familiar with their differences of opinion, and their varying shades of representation and conception, he had studied the Bible more, and admitted or rejected particular views, according as they coincided or were at variance with what, after patient study, he believed to be the teaching of the Word of God. Of the doctrines of the Bible he had clear and well-defined conceptions, apprehending the extent and limits of each, as well as their interdependence, and seeing how symmetrical and harmonious a system they formed when combined together. Hence, without prying into the hidden mysteries of God, or trying to comprehend and
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explain them, he was able to " vindicate the ways of God to man." These doctrines were presented clearly and forcibly, but never in a manner suited to make the hearers of them theological wranglers, or the disciples of a particular theological teacher. No one ever heard from his pulpit the distinctive views or modes of philoso- phizing adopted by Edwards, Hopkins, Dwight, Burton, or Emmons. His aim was, not so much to make theolo- gians as Christians, not so much to give theoretical as practical instruction.
Mr. Parker possessed highly respectable, but not dis- tinguished talents as a preacher. If it could be said that he preached few great sermons, it could also be said that he rarely, if ever, preached a poor one. Though his mind was not characterized by any marked originality, it was strong and vigorous, quick of perception and rapid in its operations. It was not one-sided, or marred by any prominent defects, but was well-balanced and well-dis- ciplined. His sermons were not elaborate productions, modelled after severe rules ; they bore no striking marks of the rhetorician's skill, and there was little in them to gratify the fancy or imagination ; but they were always sound and instructive, always exhibited consecutive and well-arranged thought; they were plain, direct, and earnest, making forcible appeals to the conscience, urging upon men their duty, and portraying the fearful conse- quences of neglecting it ; with the deepest solemnity too, did he exhort and entreat them to become reconciled to God. And such was the evident sincerity with which his appeals and exhortations were made, so entirely free was he from heartlessness or formality in them, that none could sit beneath his ministrations without the conviction
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that he was a man of God, who knew and felt the weighty import of the message he had been commissioned to deliver.
The subjects of his discourses were well chosen ; he had no favorite circle of themes on which to preach, to the neglect of all others. His aim was to declare the whole counsel of God, selecting at a particular time such sub- jects as he supposed the wants of his people required. In this he was remarkably judicious. Being constantly among his parishioners, and acquainting himself with their peculiar state of feeling, with their misapprehensions of truth or prejudices against it, he was fully prepared to meet their various necessities. The state of the times, passing events, and solemn providences, he often seized upon as themes of discourse. But whatever the theme, whether doctrinal or practical, historical or biographical, his great aim was to enforce moral truth on the minds of his hearers.
In the discharge of his appropriate duties as pastor, he had few if any superiors. He has often and justly been called a " model pastor." Certainly, in the untiring and faithful manner in which the duties of this office were met, he has been surpassed by none. Not even Dr. Chalmers, in his unwearied efforts to make his pas- toral influence felt among the ten or twelve thousand parishioners of the Tron Church Parish, or the Parish of St. John's, can be said to have performed a greater amount of pastoral labor. The labors of the pastor should ever coexist with those of the preacher ; if the former are merged in the latter, so far the preacher neglects one of the most effective elements of his strength. Each is a handmaid of the other. To be most successful as a
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preacher one must be a faithful pastor, and he who would carry with him the greatest influence in his pastoral circuits, must remember that, however constantly and faithfully these more private ministrations may be per- formed, they can never supersede the necessity of the well studied and vigorous instructions of the pulpit. How readily and skilfully can he suit his teachings to particular states of mind, when he has learned these by mingling with his people ; and how cordial a reception will he meet at the homes of his parishioners ; what an influ- ence will his private teachings have over them; how readily will they open their hearts, if on the Sabbath he has ably and faithfully instructed them from the oracles of God.
The views of Mr. Parker with regard to the importance of the pastoral office, as well as the character and extent of his labors in it, are happily expressed in the following extract from the Congregational Journal, written by the Editor, Rev. Henry Wood.
" Confessedly, preaching is the great work of the min- istry ; but it is not its whole work. The natural and acquired abilities which give it interest and power, the reason which invigorates it, the taste which adorns it, the imagination which enlivens it, and the eloquence which enforces it, are of high value, and worthy of admi- ration ; at the same time, there are other qualifications equally potential in securing success, if not equally attrac- tive and dazzling. The kind heart, the wisely spoken word, the judicious measures, the visit to the house of poverty, outgushing sympathy with mourning and sorrow, interest in the parishioner's temporal as well as spiritual welfare, the familiar conversation, the cultivated intimacy with
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childhood and youth throughout the parish, the prayer at the family altar, or at the bedside of the sick and the dying, the conference in the school-room, and the prayer- meeting in the private dwelling, if they do not exhibit the talent which prepares the impressive and admired sermon, are indispensable to its effect."
" The power of the pulpit is not like that of gravitation or the mechanical forces, which may be calculated on infallible principles ; the state of mind in those who hear, is an important element in the computation of preaching power. Eloquence is impotent when it is judged to be heartless, and the most logical sermons fail to convince and impress, when it is suspected that they are extorted by the stern demands of pulpit duty, rather than the simple products of the prompting heart. It is the volunteer offices of the week which give much of its force to the exacted sermon of the Sabbath, - offices which might have been omitted without censure, and were performed with manifest pains-taking and self-denial: These, attesting to the sincerity of the heart, make eloquence more eloquent, and even common-place impressive and mighty."
" The churches of New Hampshire have just lost, - no, not lost, but parted with one whose life both sug- gested our remarks and illustrated them. Rev. Edward L. Parker, of Derry, was a model pastor, exceeded by none other in the State ; it is hardly too much to add, by no one in New England. A distinguished minister, who for many years had sustained the pastoral relation to an important congregation, and afterwards became the learned professor in a theological seminary and university, after spending a few weeks in the family of Mr. Parker,
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and observing his wisdom and tact, remarked, that he excelled in these respects all the ministers he had ever known, and deserved to be studied by young preachers as a model. His talents as a preacher were respectable, but not eminent ; always judicious and instructive, he was never eloquent. But his pastoral influence, like the air, was diffused and felt over his entire parish. In illustra- tion of his life and labors, it may be stated, such was his attention to the young that we learned from his own lips what was affirmed by others, that he knew the name of every child in his large parish of nearly two thousand souls. His labors in the outskirts of his parish were as abundant as they were arduous. He was wont to remark, that if he fortified the outposts he did not fear for the citadel."
" If Mr. Parker's parish had reason to boast of its pastor, the pastor had reason to boast of his parish, which in its good order, its intelligence, its solid religious character, its harmony, its steady progress, and the number of its youth it educated and sent forth to honor- able and useful stations, is hardly excelled by any other in New England."
For about thirty years of Mr. Parker's ministry, his parish contained nearly four hundred families, all of which he looked upon as his pastoral charge, and having claims upon him for instruction and sympathy. At times, he would make appointments to visit in particular neighborhoods, on certain days, calling at every house, and in this way making the circuit of the whole parish ; at other times, his visits were less formal and system- atic, having reference to the circumstances and wants of particular families. His attentions to the afflicted
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were unremitted, day after day was he found at the bedside of the sick and dying ; the earnest inquirer he sought out, that he might impart the light and instruction of the gospel ; the infirm and aged, who could not attend on his public teachings, to their spiritual wants he ministered in their own dwellings. Sometimes he devoted an entire week in visiting, with the single view of awakening among parents and children an interest in attending the Sabbath school. His visits, whether for this purpose or for others, were more frequent to the remoter parts of the town than to families more centrally situated. Wherever he went, he usually carried small books or tracts, particularly adapted to the young, which he distributed among them, both for the purpose of instructing them, as well as winning their love and con- fidence. Such was his desire to be among his people, that it was with difficulty he could be persuaded to be absent a few days, even to visit his friends; and when he did so, he was always impatient to return ; and when- ever he knew that any circumstances called him to any . part of his parish, he could never be induced to give himself quiet or rest at home, unless the state of the weather rendered it wholly imprudent to go abroad. Never was there a parish which had a more faithful or laborious pastor.
Mr. Parker had a special interest in the younger portion of his parish, and this interest was accompanied by corresponding efforts for their improvement. He not only felt but he acted on the principle, that youth is the seed-time of life. Some years previous to the establish- ment of Sabbath schools in New England, he adopted measures to give the youth of his parish a more extensive
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and exact knowledge of the Bible. The residents of Derry, thirty-five years ago, will remember the two soci- eties then in existence with this object in view. The " Adelphi," and the " Young Ladies Catechetical Soci- ety," will ever be held in grateful remembrance by not a few of their members. These societies met once each month, though not at the same time. Particular subjects for examination were previously assigned by the pastor, and the members of the society were expected to illus- trate and establish these by texts of Scripture. Subjects were not unfrequently given to the members of the Adelphi (the society for the young men), on which to write ; this they often did, at considerable length. In some instances, the meetings of this society were held in public. In such cases, the members were questioned in the presence of the audience, and also read the disserta- tions which they had written. Few parishes had a more promising circle of young men than were to be found here, before the advantages held out to them from abroad induced them to leave their native place. It must be added, that some of the choicest spirits went to an early grave. Nor is it out of place to remark, that the young ladies connected with the society established for their improvement, have been distinguished for sta- bility of character ; and many of them have been orna- ments in their respective spheres.
As another means of improving the young men, Mr. Parker invited them to meet in the vestry on Sabbath noon, and at other times, to listen to the reading of some valuable book. Sometimes, too, meetings were appointed in the school-houses in the remote parts of the parish, for the same purpose. Hawes's Lectures to Young Men,
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were read in this way in different parts of the town. For the younger part of his charge, he had other measures. By various inducements, he would persuade them to commit the answers to Scripture Questions, and also the Assembly's Shorter Catechism. For many years, his custom was to give a pocket Testament, containing his own name and that of the one to whom it was given, to every child who would recite the Catechism perfectly. Much interest was in this way awakened in the study of this valuable summary of truth ; and the prize which the successful competitors obtained, was valued both as an evidence of diligence and success, and also as being a present from their pastor. And will not these little mementos of a pastor's affection and interest have an increased value, now that he who inscribed those youthful names, has ceased from his labors in their behalf, and is silent in death ?
On occasions of temperance and Sabbath school cele- brations, so earnest was he that all the children might have their minds interested in these objects by the ceremonies, as well as by the direct instructions, that the writer well remembers him hurrying in different directions over the common, where the processions were usually formed, picking up a child here and another there, and finding places for them with the others.
His efforts for the general education of the young were of the same earnest character. During almost the whole of his ministry, he visited the eight or ten district schools each four times a year, - at the commencement and the close of the summer and winter terms. These were no formal visits, made to get rid of an irksome duty. He went with his mind alive to the interests which centred
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about those humble seats of learning. He watched and noted, with scarcely less than paternal interest, the devel- opment and growth of each mind. This interest on the part of the pastor was not without its effect on the minds of the scholars. They knew that their progress was marked, and were incited by it to greater efforts. A failure at an examination is always humbling, but it is doubly so when made in the presence of one whom we know to feel a lively interest in our improvement. The writer has not yet forgotten his own mortified feelings at failing to perform an exercise in the presence of his pastor, nor the resolution he then formed, not to be found deficient on a similar occasion. How many youth- ful minds have been thus quickened to nobler exertions, cannot be told ; but without doubt, not a few owe their first zealous impulse to study to the manifest interest and the counsels of their pastor at these school visitations.
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