USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > Historical manual of the Central Congregational Church, Providence, R.I. 1852-1902 > Part 5
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possible the assimilation of such steady accessions into the one spirit of the Central Church.
No one who has been present at one of the festivals of the church year like Christmas or Easter, or again, like the Thanksgiving of 1896, when the whole apse was decorated with fruit and vegetables, can forget how well the church lends itself to such decoration, or fail to appreciate the thought and labor and patience which has been bestowed upon this matter in most artistic fashion under the leadership of Miss Caroline L. Farrington.
One of the latest episodes of large meaning in the church was the effort made in the spring of 1900 to subscribe the re- mainder of the debt outstanding on the building. Our con- stituency has indeed grown greatly since we came into this building in 1893. Nevertheless it was in 10 small degree from the same persons who had generously subscribed twice before that the largest gifts were now expected. It was from these that they came. I went abroad for my vacation in July, 1900. By the end of August the chairman of that committee, Mr. Stephen O. Edwards, cabled to mne that the task had been finished. I was reminded that in July, 1891, Mr. Hastings had cabled to mne in Oxford that the sub- scription of that year had reached the point where con- tracts could be signed, and the ground for the chapel had actually been broken. It was a great work, now splendidly accomplished. The building has cost just a little short of $230,000, with the ground, interest, and furnishings included. except indeed for the organ, which was brought froin the old church. On this very day on which I finished this sketcli I saw the check, for $8,000, which cancelled the mortgage at the Hospital Trust Company. Collectible funds cover the re- mainder of the cost of some repairs last summer, so that the society is without debt of any sort.
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That same autumn of 1900 saw the revision of the by-laws of the society, which had been under the care of a committee for several years, so that this organization also has been brought down to date and is in high efficiency. Let me say a good word for a society. For myself, I believe in the dual organization of our Congregational Churches. If I remember rightly, I have never attended the annual meeting of the society but twice, and then on direct invitation. But the organization constituted exactly as it traditionally is with us, seems to me admirably adapted to the bearing of the trust which falls to it.
I am confident that the fact that the benevolence of the church has been kept, through these years, at a level above that of any previous decade, all the time that we were paying for the new church, has been due in good part to the fact that the support of the church, in the meantime, was secured through rentals. The support of a church like this is not a charity in any sense of the word, and it is degrading to col- lect its support as if it were a charity. To make the support of a church like this appear to be a benevolence would be infallibly to undermine all its other benevolences. There has never been deficit in the current expense account these thir- teen years, and often the surplus of this account has gone far to pay the interest on the debt.
That gentle spirit, Mr. Orin A. Read, was treasurer of the society all through the period of building. He resigned only shortly before his death in 1898, at the age of 84. He has been succeeded by Mr. Horatio A. Hunt, of the American National Bank. The same year, 1898, saw also the resigna- tion of Mr. John Eddy, who had been president of the society for fourteen years. He also has recently died, in 1901, in his eighty-third year. He has been succeeded in the presidency of the society by Deacon Jolin W. Danielson.
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I believe that it has contributed much to the benevolence of the church, and its sense of general responsibility concern- ing support and the debt, that facts concerning all these matters are published every year in the Manual along with the roll of the church.
The roll itself is thus kept constantly before the eyes of the people, and such has been the diligence of the clerk, Mr. James C. Kimball, in following up this matter, that I believe there is not a name on the roll at the present moment of a single person concerning whom we are not able to give account.
A survey of the minutes of the standing committee shows how many have been the appeals of all sorts for appropria- tions from the general fund for benevolent work, or for a hearing before the church for this cause or that. A good part of the time of the committee has been given to questions of co-operation in benevolence, and a good part of the time of the pastor, beyond that, has been devoted to the investigation of calls and claims of every kind, and from all parts of the world, as to whether they should be brought before the committee.
We have gone upon the theory that, with all possible sym- pathy with the problems which beset a city church, it would be absurd for us to attempt, under our own roof, many phases of what is ordinarily known as institutional church work. We have adopted rather the principle that it was the mission of a church, constituted and situated as ours is, to furnish men and women and money to organizations already in existence for charitable or philanthropic work, or to call into existence organizations in which co-operation of all denominations and public-spirited people could be secured, and the work done, not in a limited and ecclesiastical, but in a business-like and, if need be, in a professional way. The annals of charity in this city will show how large has been the financial contribu-
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tion year by year from the constituency of this church. The sum has been many times as great as ever passed through the hands of the treasurer of the church for these specific objects. Many largest donors have preferred to give directly, even to charities whose names were on our card.
But I think that what I may call the contribution of per- sonality has been even more significant than that of money. The time, thought, executive ability given to these things by members of this constituency could hardly be reckoned. I have kept lists for my own information. I published the list once in the Manual. A year ago, out of sixty charitable institutions of all sorts, in this city, open to the co-oper- ation of Protestants, forty-two showed members of this con- gregation on the lists of their elected officers, in numbers varying from one to twelve. In all, 135 different persons were thus engaged, and if we should count the same persons as they appear from one to seven times, we should have a sum of almost 250 cases of participation and responsibility of our people in things in which their relation to this church did not appear at all. And yet no doubt the interest and devotion of these people was directly connected with the vigor of their religious life. This sort of thing is all under ground, but it is a great thing for a church to stand in a community as a center of such vitality. If men more clearly thought of these things, or if they would take the pains to find out anything about them, they might less often ask, What is the function of a church? There is no nobler or more necessary function of any institution in human society than to be the hearthstone of such endeavor after mercy and righteousness.
It may be a matter of curiosity to mention that when asked, a year ago, by the Student Volunteer Movement, to furnish a list of college graduates in our constituency, it was discoverd that there were 81 college graduates among our
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communicant members, and Ho who regularly attended the church.
True to the patriotic instincts of many of our staunch New England churches, the original projection of the benevolence of this church was largely in the direction of home missions. The sums of money which went out from its constituency in the early days to the western colleges would be difficult to reckon. The contribution to the home mission work direct was often a half of the contribution to all other causes com- bined. The most powerful woman's organization in the church at the present moment is the Woman's Home Missionary Association. In this association more than one-half of all the women communicant members in the church are enrolled, beside many non-communicants. They meet every Friday morning, eight months in the year. They have had, these thirteen years, an average attendance of 42. Their specific work has been to aid home missionaries and their families. They have co-operated with all six of the national societies concerned in home missionary work. But help has been widely given to schools and teachers, to local institutions and charities. The society has been, since 1893, under the leader- ship of Mrs. John W. Danielson. It was before that under the leadership of Mrs. Francis W. Carpenter and Mrs. Mary I. Fuller. Its meetings have been also places of study and reading, and of valued social intercourse. The amount of contributions through the envelopes and other sources has been $16,408.21. A legacy of $2,000, and a gift of $2,000, from a present member, form the nucleus of a permanent fund, whose income is to be applied to this work. One hun- dred and sixty missionary boxes have been sent out, repre- senting a value of $20,188.60. For these boxes 6,495 gar- ments have been made in the society, an average of 515 a year. Contributions to the parent society have amounted to $4 .-
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875.54, making the total value of gifts in these years in money and boxes of $25,064.14.
But the interest in foreign missions has not been lacking. The Central Church Auxiliary to the Women's Board of Foreign Missions has maintained a meeting on alternate Wednesday afternoons. It has supported, at all times one, and at some times two, women missionaries, and occasionally native teachers and helpers besides, in the field. It has con- tributed $12,927.50 of which sum $8,060.48 passed through the treasury of the Women's Board of Foreign Missions, in Boston. A school on the island of Guam, named in memory of Henry W. Wilkinson, once clerk of this church, has re- ceived from this church, and mainly from members of the society which I speak about, $1,000 in the last two years. The Society has been under the presidency of Mrs. Henry W. Wilkinson, and latterly of Mrs. Harriet N. Lathrop.
I11 1893 there was organized also the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Central Congregational Church, under the leadership of Mrs. Francis W. Carpenter and Mrs. Edward C. Moore. It has maintained a meeting every Wednes- day morning, eight months in the year, with an average at- tendance of 25. Sewing is done at all the meetings for the families of missionaries, for the children in mission schools, and for mission hospitals. The society has had the use of a library of standard and newest missionary literature which has grown to good proportions. At every meeting a portion of the time has been given to Bible study, sometimes in courses extending over many months. The receipts by pledge cards to date have been $1,786.83, increasing from $26.53 the first year, to $329.99 last year. All money not spent for necessary materials has been given to the American Board, usually to its general fund. But special contributions have been given to the India Famine Fund and to the China Emergency Fund.
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It was under their leadership that in 1893 the sum of $2,000 was raised in our church for the Mission Church at Byculla, in Bombay, India.
The Girls' Mission Circle, meeting once a month under the care of Miss Lucy N. Lathrop, has aimed to prepare girls for membership in these societies later on. They also have always liad a teacher or some pupils to support.
And the Ministering Children's League, under the guidance of Mrs. Edwin Barrows, meeting, also, once a month, has ex- tended this education and opportunity to the children, both boys and girls. These children have had at all times two or three children in mission schools to support.
We have been fortunate in this, that through our nearness to Boston, returned missionaries fresh from the field have been invited almost every month to address our monthly con- cert. Home and foreign missions have alternated in these presentations of work, and no meetings that we ever hold are of greater interest.
My own membership of the Prudential Committee of tlie American Board, since 1899, has brought the whole church into yet closer touch with the foreign missionary cause. A contribution of $3,500, in June, 1901, to the Twentieth Century Fund of the Board evinced this interest.
Some statistics may be interesting, though they give but a partial sense of the things to which they refer.
That part of the benevolence of the church which has passed through the hands of the treasurer has aggregated in these thirteen years, from October 31st, 1888, to October 31st, 1901, $187,045.37, or an average of $14,388.10 per year. To this must be added $3,639.96, received by tlie treasurer of this church for benevolences from October 31st, 1901, to March 18th, 1902. These gifts through the treasury in these thirteen full years constitute forty per cent. of the benevolence
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recorded of the church in the whole fifty years of its life. And yet these have been the very thirteen years in which the building has been built and paid for. But when it is consid- ered that the church has now double the membership that it had when Dr. Swain died, in 1869, that which we have done may be taken as only a token of what we are to do in these next coming years, now that we are free from the burden concerning the new church. There are certain individuals who give largely : there are many with moderate income who give relatively moderate sums under the card sys-
tem with conscientious regularity. But the slightest in- spection of the figures concerning these cards shows how much more generous the gifts of the church would be were the system adopted in really thorough going fashion by all of our constituency. There is a considerable part of the constituency which the system has not yet touched.
The pew rents in the church have amounted in these thir- teen full years, September 30th, 1888, to September 30th, 1901, to $146,602.05, or an average of $11,277.08 a year. To this must be added, for completeness, September 30th, 1901, to March 31st, 1902, $7,188.30 in pew rents, though this sum is not used in making up the averages. It may be a matter of curiosity to know that in the five of these years which were spent in the old church on Benefit street the rentals averaged $8,402.86 and in the eight years in the new church they have averaged $13,073.65 a year. Out of these rentals all current expenses have been met.
If we should add the sums of these two accounts to that directly contributed in these same years for the building, namely $206,175.25, we should have $550,650.93 for the sum which has passed through the hands of the two treasurers in these thirteen and one-half years, or an average of $40,788.95 a year.
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To the membership of the church there have been added 285 persons by letter and 295 by confession, and one name was restored to the roll, making a gain of 581. There have died 134 of our communicant members, There have been dismissed to other churches 123. There have been dropped as persons concerning whom we could get no information, 21 ; making a loss of 278. The net gain is thus 303, and the total membership March 7th, 1902, was 769. The additions on confession have averaged just a little over 20 a year. The total membership January Ist, 1889, was 466. There has thus been an average gain of 45 each year ; an average loss of 22 each year ; and an average net gain of 23 each year. It shows what a remarkably stable community this is; that the church has never had but 1,558 names on its roll in fifty years. Of these 769, or very nearly a half, are on its roll at the present moment. If to the 769 now on the roll there should be added 259, which have been withdrawn, whether by death or dismis- sion, in these thirteen years, we should have 1,028, or alinost precisely two-thirds of the total enrollment of fifty years, to whom I have stood in relation of pastor.
I have attended 205 funerals, 148 of theni in the congrega- tion and 57 outside of our constituency.
There have been baptized 123 infants, 168 adults, or 291 altogether.
I have solemnized 85 marriages.
I have preached in these thirteen years 1,248 times, or an average of 96 times a year. This refers to regular Sunday services or regular preaching services on week days, as in Lent, at ordinations, installations, etc. I have kept no record of week day meetings, or of addresses at the city charities, or of informal addresses at other churches, at conferences, at the college, at the Young Men's Christian Association, etc.
I have not record of calls for all the years, but for nine of
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them. The highest record is 1,022 calls. The lowest is 570. The average would probably be about 750 to 800 a year.
Under our Congregational system the share which falls to each individual minister, particularly of one of our more central churches, in the sustaining of the denominational fellowship through attending councils, conferences, associa- tions, etc. is large. I have lived to be the senior acting pastor of our denomination in the city, and to have but three whose term of service exceeds mine in the State. That means that I have attended councils in most of our churches. I have preached in ahnost every church in this State, in some of them many times, and the friendship of their constituency and the fellowship of our ministry has been no small element in the happiness of my life. Of late years also there has grown up more and more of connection with the larger inter- ests of our denomination in the whole country.
These have been difficult years in the life of the Christian church in our country, but I often think that we have hardly realized how difficult they were. We have at least been allowed to work with all the mind and will that we had, and in the most perfect co-operation for the meeting of those diffi- culties. I think that where that is true one rejoices in diffi- culties rather than sinks under them. I hardly know a church which has carried more of the wealth of a noble past into its present ; I do not know a church which is less embarrassed by its past or more boldly and serenely faces its future.
In January, 1899, you were good enough to wish to cele- brate the tenth anniversary of our presence with you. Kind things were said, and in an off-hand way some chapters in this story were recounted. It seems but a day since then. It seems but a little while since we came among you at the first. Of one who served twice seven years it is said in an old book that the years seemed to him but as nothing because he loved.
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Something of that light is on the time that God has given us here.
If I had prayed concerning it I should have prayed for just a few years longer, to be allowed to reap something of all that for which we have tried to sow.
On December 11th, 1901, my election to the Parkman Pro- fessorship of Theology in Harvard University took place.
The new movement which the school inaugurates seemed to me to rest upon so great a conception and to involve such splendid possibilities that I could not refuse it. On the 29th of December I gave you my reasons in a sermon which has since been printed, and indicated my intention to resign. On January 16th, 1902, at a meeting of the church called for that purpose, my resignation was presented. True to yourselves, and to me, and to the tra- dition never broken in any matter great or small since the day that I came among you, that we should never have a dissent- ing vote, you rose like one man to accept my resignation, not gladly, you have permitted me to believe, but knowing what it cost me to offer it, and believing that my duty and yours are one and the same, and that the summons of God to a hard task is plain. The society accepted the same resignation January 20th. Council will convene March 21st to dissolve the pastoral relation. March 31st, the day after Easter, the dissolution takes effect. On Sunday, March 2d, thirty-two were added to the church, making fifty-eight since the first of January, 1902.
And now that I have written my story, I have a strange sense about it. I seem to myself to have spent most of my time relating things which were, all of them, more or less incidental and subsidiary. As I remember my attitude toward them at the time, they seemed to me to be, indeed, things which must be done, and done as well as I could do thiem.
CENTRAL CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
But they appeared always to be keeping me off from the real employments of my life, or to be done only that those real employments might be carried on more effectively.
Those real employments seemed always to me to be study and reading and thought, the writing of sermons, preparing myself to speak and to teach, the endeavor to understand the religious life of men, the need of our time, and to catch the spirit of the Gospel in such manner that I could present it to meet the living need of men.
And beyond this study and thought and writing, the chief other employment that was real and central, was the meeting of men and women in the pastoral relation, entering their homes at the times when they laid open to me the depths of their lives, and seeking to bring to them the help of the truth in their need.
By far the greater number of hours, the greater sum of forces of life, have been spent between these two things, study and pastoral work. But these hours have no history. There is no measure of their issue. Their end was to gain and to use influence for the upbuilding of men. As compared with that, the building of the church and all the care of organi- zation and administration may be necessary, but it is sub- sidiary. One may do it gladly, that he may do that other better. But, otherwise, there would never seem to be any purpose in doing it at all. Were that issue of the hours and forces of life spent in study and pastoral work in any measure what it ought to have been, it would justify all else that we have tried to do.
The real issue of the years should be in the lives of men and women, something so deep in their souls, and withal so lasting, that of that life no man may take measure or write a tale. If we have helped one another, you and I, to that life and in that life, all else that we have done may turn out to be
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tributary and so blessed. If we have not helped one another to that life in the soul, the life which is from God and for our fellow men, all else that we have done has been done in vain, and the doing of it might well never have been recorded, least of all, by mne.
God grant us this : that this one true issue of these rarely happy years together may not in His judgment now or liere- after fail.
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Articles of Faith.
ADOPTED MARCH 18, 1852, WITH AMENDMENTS OF FEBRUARY 10, 1873.
ARTICLE I.
We believe that there is one and but one God ; that He possesses in an infinite degree every attribute of perfection ; that He is the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of the Universe; and that He is revealed in the Scriptures as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
ARTICLE II.
We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and of the New Testament were written by the inspiration of God; that they are a revelation of His will; and that they are the only authoritative rule of religious faith and practice.
ARTICLE III.
We believe that man was originally created in a state of moral inno- cence; that by voluntary transgression he became a sinner; and that all the moral actions of his posterity, previous to regeneration, are in the sight of God, sinful and only sinful.
Article amended to read as follows : We believe that man, by his own act, has fallen from the state of innocence in which he was created; and that consequently all mankind are destitute of holiness, until renewed by the Holy Spirit.
ARTICLE IV.
We believe that Jesus Christ is both God and man; that by His suf- ferings and death He has made atonement for human sins; and that upon the ground of this atonement, pardon and salvation are bestowed upon those who repent of sin and believe in Him.
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ARTICLE V.
We believe that all who exercise such repentance and faith are regen- erated by the special influence of the Holy Spirit; and that, having been chosen in Christ from the foundation of the world, they will be kept by His power through faith unto salvation.
ARTICLE VI.
We believe that it is the duty and privilege of all such persons to make a public profession of their Christian Faith by uniting themselves to the visible church of Christ.
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