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■'NOLDS HISTORICAL
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRfR
3 1833 01145 5455
A BRIEF HISTORY
OF THE LAST
THREE PASTORATES
1st.
FIRST PARISH IN DEDHAM
1860—1688.
A SERMON PREACHED NOVEMBER 11, 1888,
By REV. SETH C. BEACH, Pastor.
DEDHAM :
PUBLISHED BY THE PARISH.
1S8S.
#
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''Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children,
and their children another generation." — Joel, i: 3.
The history of this parish during its first seven pastor-
ates, covering a period of two hundred and twenty-two
years, has been written with a fulness and ability which,
however much might be desired, leave little to be supplied.
For the commemoration of the two hundredth anniver-
sary of the gathering of the church, my predecessor,
Dr. Lamson, prepared with painstaking care three ser-
mons, in which, and in the notes to which, was told
not only the story of this parish but the religious his-
tory of the town, to the beginning of his own pastorate in
1818. On the fortieth anniversary of his settlement, Dr.
Lamson continued the history in a sermon, supplemented
at the time of his resignation, in 1860, by another, in which
was told most that is given a later generation to know of
his long and fruitful ministry. We have also had prepared
an interesting and valuable biographical sketch of Dr.
Lamson, which, with other matter, we have printed in a
small book entitled, "The First Church in Dedham."
These sermons, with this biographical sketch, make together
a very complete history of what is of most interest in the
religious life of this parish during something more than six
generations.
It is not my purpose to retell a story which has been
told so well, but in taking leave of the period and of its
names of blessed memory, we may be allowed to bear
testimony to the reverent and loving appreciation in which
the name of Dr. Lamson is still held by the generation that
knew him in the flesh, and by the later generation that is
not without some knowledge of his gifts. "He was a man
of most lovable nature ; he was our best patristic scholar,"
is the testimony of one of his intimate and scholarly
associates.*
* Rev. George E. Ellis, D. D.
-1
Upon his resignation, in I860, Dr. Lamson left the
parish at what I should suppose was very near the climax
of its strength. Both a? suggestive of the strength of the
parish at that date and of the changes which have taken
place in a generation, the names signed to a memorial of
regret at the resignation of Dr. Lamson, found upon our
parish records, are of great interest. They are, they say,
" Members of the First Parish in Dedham and other wor-
shippers there." The names are : Thomas Motley, Charles
B. Shaw, John Gardner, Jeremy Stimson, Euos Foord,
Alvan Fisher, Thomas Barrows, Henry Cormerais, Martin
Marsh, Edward M. Richards, Ezra W. Sampson, William
R. Sumner, William Chickering, Anna L. Rodman, Thomas
Sherwin, Eben S. Fisher, Jonathan H. Cobb, Nathaniel
Clapp, Waldo Colburn, Edward B. Holmes, William Whit-
ing, Ira Russell, Calvin F. Ellis, Henry W. Richards, Henry
(). Hildreth, William B. Tower, Danforth P.Wight, William
Field, Alfred Hewins, Eliphalet Stone, Gershom J. Van
Brunt, Luther Eaton, Isaac C. Bosworth, Jesse Farrington,
Benjamin Weatherbeo, John D. Runkle, George Coolidge,
William J. Adams, Joseph W. Waters, Franklin Kimball,
AbnerAlden, JohnB. Henck, Joel Wight, George F.Wight,
Charles H. Titcomb, Sanford Carroll, John E. Weatherbee,
Henry Smith, Sanford Howard, Eben Wight, Eben W.
Keyes, William F. Haynes, John Deane, Jesse Weatherbee,
James Foord, Augustus B. Endicott, George F. Fisher,
Lemuel Dana, Hezekiah Onion, Samuel G. Whiting. A list
of sixty heads of families, of whom we can count only ten,
or possibly twelve, today.
Over a parish so represented Mr. Benjamin Hollo way-
Bailey, then fresh from his studies at Cambridge, was called
to preside. The resignation of Dr. Lamson took effect the
29th of October, 1860, and the call to Mr. Bailey is dated
January 7th following. The parish had the good fortune
or the wisdom to agree upon a candidate for the pastorate
within the space of a little more than two months. At the
ordination of Mr. Bailey, March 14, 18G1,* Prof. Convcrs
Francis, D. D., of Cambridge, preached the sermon, Dr.
Lamson offered the ordaining prayer, Dr. Joseph Allen, of
Northboro', gave the charge to the pastor, and Dr. George
E. Ellis, then of Charlesto wn, made an address to the
people. Others who took part in the services were : Rev.
Dr. Morison, of Milton ; Rev. T. B. Forbush, of North-
boro' ; Rev. John D. Wells, of Quincy, and Rev. Calvin S.
Locke, of West Dedhain. We get a further idea of what
transpires in a generation when we note that of these men
then in conspicuous service, only Mr. Forbush, now
of Milwaukee, is in active ministry, and of the others
only Dr. Ellis, Dr. Morison, Mr. Wells, and Mr. Locke
survive.
Of Mr. Bailey, the time to write a biography happily
has not come. When called, as very often during the last
twenty years it has been his fortuue to be, he is still able
to speak for himself and for us. He came here a young
man, a fine scholar, of noble presence, in exceptionally
vigorous health, with great strength of feeliug, and rare
readiness and aptness of utterance. He won a warm place
in the hearts of his parishioners which it has given me
great pleasure to witness he still retains. His pastorate
covered a period little short of seven years, except the
period of the war for Independence the most eventful in
our national history. They were also eventful in the his-
tory of the parish. The guns of the Civil War, — consid-
ering the number of men engaged, the battles fought and
* It happened that this date was the fortieth anniversary of the ordina-
tion of Rev. Ebenezer Bnrges3, D. D., of the First Congregational Church,
as also the termination of his ministry. A signal act of courtesy appears
in the Records in the minutes of a parish meeting held March 4th pre-
ceding: " Voted, That the parish committee be instructed to have the
usual services in the church omitted on Sunday next, that being the time
appointed by Rev. Dr. Burgess for preaching his farewell discourse."
the blood spilled, the greatest war of modern times and
certainly the nearest to ns, — opened with the second year
of what had promised to be a serene and tranquil ministry.
During the next four troubled years it may be said in gen-
eral of our churches at the North, that their attention and
interest were absorbed by the humanities and inhumanities of
battlefields to which so much of their best life had gone,
and on which so much of their precious blood was spilled.
The churches of every name were local sanitary commis-
sions already organized, feeders to hospitals, sometimes
themselves hospitals. The evidence is that in such patri-
otic Christian service this parish was not wanting. It
could not be, for it had thirty-three of its sons in the
service, — four in the navy and twenty-nine in the army, —
all of them at posts of hardship and danger.
Sunday, August 31st, 1862, following the second battle
of Bull Run, is one the experience of which still vividly
haunts many of your memories, and the tradition of which
quickens the pulse of a hearer after the lapse of twenty-five
years. You had gathered here on that Sunday morning
with hearts lightened by the news of the day before, which
had encouraged you to believe that the enemy was in full
retreat. In the midst of your service a messenger arrived
with intelligence that a great battle had been fought, with
its usual consequences, and that hospital supplies were
wanted in unlimited quantities. The announcement from the
pulpit at the close of the service called you to duty of another
kind. One of your homes, always opeu for good works,
was transformed into a factory for the afternoon, filled with
generous hearts and busy fingers from other congregations
as from your own, and before nightfall, we are told, twenty-
seven cases of all sizes, among them f ' sixteen large pack-
ages of clothing, bandages, lint, jellies, cordials, aud other
necessaries and comforts," were on their way to the hospi-
tals. I recognize the name of one of the sons of the parish
who fell on that bloody Held, Charles Whiting Carroll ;
"the brave and patriotic captain," I find him called.
The crisis of the Civil War, in reference to which it is
to some of us matter of easy memory that all citizens of equal
patriotism did not think alike, was a trying time for many
churches at the North, and especially so for our more lib-
eral and unconventional churches. Those churches that did
not allow in their pulpits allusions to political events more
recent than the Jewish captivity or the destruction of
Jerusalem, in that fermented era fared best, and their
immunity from disaster may be taken as some vindication
of their reserve. It is said that this parish had its hour of
heart-burning, and that it had to mourn some losses besides
those it suffered in the field, but, thanks to the wisdom
of the pulpit or the forbearance of the pews, it was not
wrecked.
Opinions would differ now, as then, as to what ought
and ought not to have been said and done. It may not be
amiss to say, however, that by more than one of my seniors
whose fortune it was at that time to occupy a pulpit, the
period when every one's blood was up, not excepting his
own, is remembered as one of peculiar difficulty for a
minister. "How I went through it with any credit," says
your pastor of that day, "implies rather the mighty tide
of patriotism on which we were all upborne than any claim
that I can lay. The people were good and kind, as we know
they have always beeu ; quick to accept good intentions as
equivalent for real service, and ready to supplement ear-
nestness of purpose with amplest good will and endeavor.
They needed no prompting to good works ; they were in
and of themselves originators and promoters of every kind
of beneficence in those dark hours that were shutting down
upon the nation's life. Withal, the great things for which
the church stood prospered ; its comprehensive unity in the
substance of faith ; its enlarged charity ; its worship and
its hopo. I have always felt that it was largely due to the
affluence of Dr. Lamson's spirit overflowing his time and
moulding mine."
It was during Mr. Bailey's pastorate that, under the lead
of Dr. Bellows, fresh from the activities of the Sanitary
Commission, and turning his constructive energies into a
new field, occurred that awakening of Unitarian churches
to their duty and their opportunity which led, in 1865, to
the formation of the National Conference, and which, with
a kind of burst of enthusiasm, carried the missionary col-
lections of the American Unitarian Association from $10,-
000, for a single year, to $100,000. That this parish
shared in that awakening is shown by the record of its con-
tribution, $468 for that year, though the contribution upon
the same page of nearly the same amount, $450, the pro-
ceeds of a fair, to the " Children's Mission" may be taken
to indicate the relation in which, at that stage of its devel-
opment, the parish held a great general but somewhat
intangible interest compared with an object of very limited
scope which had the merit of being near, definite and com-
prehensible.
It is a curious fact that this contribution to the Ameri-
can Unitarian Association in 1865 seems to be the first
church or parish contribution of which there appears any
record. That contributions had been taken before is mat-
tor of tradition, for do we not hear of at least one annually
on Thanksgiving Day for the Juvenile Library? Whether
the parish took its contributions and, as the saying is,
"made nothing" of them, or whether the keeping of a
record would have seemed to our predecessors too much
like letting the right hand know what the left was doing,
is not easy to say. It seems, however, that the contribu-
tion of $168 for any purpose, considerably the largest single
contribution perhaps since the days of the forefathers,
broke- down all reserve. It is, however, the only contri-
bution recorded for that year.
For the year 18G6 there are twelve recorded, among
them four collections at Communion Service. It is inter-
esting to notice that these collections run then very much
as they do now: $10.18, $10.55, $11, $9. Our col-
lections for the corresponding dates of this year were
$10.37, $10.70, $15.55, $11.40. The total for the year
1865 was $1124.13. One is glad to know that our total of
last year, $1017.10, did not foil greatly below these figures
of the golden age. It is true that our total included $147
of the "Women's Auxiliary," and $157.23 of the Benevo-
lent Society, but, perhaps, we may consider these entries
ollset by $450 in the other total, the proceeds of a fair.
Of other matters of record, I find that in his pastorate
Mr. Bailey baptized 65 persons, received into the church
60, officiated at 31 marriages, and attended 98 funerals.
A parishioner speaks of " the warm and active interest
Mr. Bailey always took in the Sunday-school," and of " the
comfort and help he always carried to those who were called
upon to part with their loved ones," concerning which I
have heard other testimony. n Very recently," says this
writer, " I heard a mother who lost a little boy, while he
was settled here, speak of the almost daily calls he made
her, and each time brought fresh comfort." Mr. Bailey, in
those days of his youth, was a pastor whose example "would
be the despair of a minister of this later and weaker
generation.
At that date the parishioner of the ancient type still
survived, of whom mythical stories are told. "Members
of the church and parish were regularly in their pews,"
rows of white heads on either side bordering the aisles with
a kind of fringe of age and respectability, children between
father and mother filling the spaces as seraphs are clustered
on the canvas of an old master, both floor and gallery occu-
pied by attentive listeners, never nodding except in assent
to the preacher ; such is the traditional picture of that
ancient day, twenty -live years ago.
10
"It seems to me," says the witness already quoted,
" that a history of Mr. Bailey's pastorate is incomplete
without some allusion to such men as Mr. William Chick-
ering, Mr. Thomas Sherwin, Dr. Eben Wight, and many
others who were his warm friends to the last." I find on
the records the names of many who must have been strong
and valued parishioners, whose presence I do not see today.
There is evidence that Mr. Bailey's hold upon the parish
was very strong, and that the last year of his ministry
must have been one of marked religious activity. I have been
allowed to copy a memorandum, from which it appears that
"Mr. Bailey held prayer or conference meetings in the
vestry in 1866 and 1867, at first on Wednesday, afterwards
on Thursday, evenings. After the spring of 1867 they were
mostly conducted by lay members." Doubtless it was the
direct result of these meetings that at the communion ser-
vice following the sending in of Mr. Bailey's resignation,
twenty-five persons, among them one of its present
deacons, united with the church. This was an enviable
experience with which to close a pastorate.
From the memorandum just referred to, I learn that
"The second Sunday service," then regular, which after
moving from the church to the vestry and from the vestry
again to the church, we finally discontinued in 1884, "was
usually held in the afternoon, only occasionally in the
evening, till after the close of Mr. Bailey's ministry."
It was during this pastorate that the parish received a
legacy of $6,600, into the possession of which it has come
and is to come as the limitations expire, for the improve-
ment of singing in the church. To this generous provision
may doubtless be traced a revival of interest and an im-
provement in quality of music in the parish.
Mr. Bailey resigned his charge in October, 1867, to
assume the pastorate of the First Parish in Portland,
Maine. In releasing him from his engagements, the parish
say "that it is with deep sorrow that we are called upon
11
to dissolve the pastoral relation which Rev. Benjamin H.
Bailey has so faithfully sustained to this parish for more
than six years."
On February 1, 1869, after a vacancy in the pastorate
of one year and four months, no doubt with the usual
experiences, a call was given to Rev. George McKeau
Folsom, then pastor of the First Parish in Groton. Mr.
Folsom was a man of another type from that of his prede-
cessor, and very differently circumstanced. " What a
contrast in two men," says a parishioner, equally appre-
ciative of both ; " the warm, vigorous push of the one, and
the quiet, submissive manner of the other ; but do not
forget the earnest devotion of both the good men." It was
my privilege to be a classmate of Mr. Folsom in the Divin-
ity School at Cambridge, and to know him as one only
knows those of his immediate family. He was simple-
hearted even to childlike ness ; I should be tempted to say
he was pure and delicate as a woman, if that were not so
hackneyed a phrase, and if it were more common to find a
woman as pure and delicate as he. He was warm and
impulsive in his feelings, very generous in his sympathies
and with his means, strong and even chivalrous in his
attachments, honest, unstudied and uncalculating in his act
and speech.* There was about him a sensitiveness, difli-
*The following is from a letter, received since the delivery of this
discourse, from Mrs. Elizabeth G. Foord, an old resident of Dedham,
since removed to California:
" I should be pleased to bear my testimony to the character of the late
Mr. Folsom, from judgments formed while he was for some months a
member of my famity. He was a man of the greatest purity and sim-
plicity, honest and sincere. No offer of worldly profit or advantage could
have made him swerve from the path of rectitude. He was a faithful
friend, and wise counsellor, a lover of his kind, prompt to follow the
dictates of generosity, a cheerful giver. He was ever ready to see the
good in the character of others, while his extreme modesty led him to
underestimate his own. Incapable of resentment, he was ready to forgive,
although slow to perceive, the fault affording opportunity for forgiveness.
He was more apt to take blame to himself than to take offense, a truly
unselfish man."
12
dence and retiringness which kept him out of the current
of men and things, and made his circle of intimates smaller
than it should have been, but when his responsive nature
was not weighed down by a burden or congealed as by
frost, there was a ilow of spirits and a play of humor that
made him a delightful companion to those who knew him
best. He was a cultivated gentleman, and a finished
scholar such as it is rare to find, one who kept up the tradi-
tions of this pulpit for culture and scholarship close to the
level of its best estate.
Two or three circumstances weighted Mr. Folsom's pas-
torate from the beginning. To one I have already alluded,
his natural shrinking and reserve. It was predestinated
from the first that very few of his parishioners, not those
of a class but those whose contact was nearest and most
frequent, should over know him. Another circumstance
was the long and sore affliction of his wife's illness, the
tradition of which leaves it to my mind a marvel how, as
pastor or preacher, he had time, strength or heart to
accomplish anything. A third circumstance was the very
delicate and critical condition of things theological at that
date prevailing in most of the older Unitarian parishes,
from which, if I have been correctly informed, this parish
was not exempt. Indicative of what has happened since
Mr. Folsom's settlement, there is now, and has been for
three years, a volume of Theodore Parker's published by
the American Unitarian Association, bearing its imprint
and for sale at nominal cost, as one of the recognized rep-
resentatives of Unitarian thought. Moreover, at their late
October meeting, the directors of the Association gladly and
gratefully accepted the trust of a valuable building lot for a
church, the deed of which contaius the condition that the
church erected " shall never shut its doors to those who in
their day shall represent the opinions of Theodore Parker,
the statement also being inserted that the chief motive
actuating the donor in making the <rift is regard for Mr.
13
Parker's memory. In the year 1869, that of Mr. Folsom's
settlement, we were not doing these things either through
the Association or otherwise. On the contrary, in the year
J 870, under the illustrious lead of Rev. George H. Hepworth,
then a great light in our body, the National Conference re-
scinded an article that had been adopted in the interest of
breadth, adopted a substitute in the interest of greater nar-
rowness, and barely escaped formulating a creed. Those
who remember that period will recall that a strong wave of
conservatism was sweeping over the average Unitarian
consciousness.
Mr. Folsorn came here with his theological eyes open,
and with much less than most others to learn from the new
criticism and speculation which have since taken place. It
fell to him to do a work which it is not always pleasant to
have done, but which, nevertheless, it was inevitable that
some one would have to do.
Early in his pastorate, I am told, he "gave a series of
Sunday evening lectures upon the Bible, beginning with
the book of Genesis," full of keen insight and good schol-
arship I do not doubt, which, it is said, " aroused extreme
interest in his congregation, and, to no small extent, in the
neighboring one, and which tilled many minds with con-
sternation at the ideas, then new and startling, that to-day
arc accepted without question." The same witness speaks
of "a very instructive class for Sunday-school teachers
which Mr. Folsorn conducted fortnightly at his own house.
Hase's f Life of Jesus' was at one time the subject of study.
Mr. William Chickering and Mr. Charles L. Adams were
constant in their attendance, and the meetings were of great
benetit." Somewhat more revolutionary views of Old and
New Testament criticism than Mr. Folsorn probably ad-
vanced in those lectures and lessons, we have now embodied
in text-books for the Sunday-school, and with groat happi-
ness, and not a particle of misgiving, we put them into
the hands of the children.
14
My witness says further that " Mr. Folsom's interest in
the Sunday-school was very great ; his love for children and
the very happy manner in which he met them at a level and
won their affection and interest was unusual and delightful
to witness. He had what few men possess, a simple
directness of speech which appeals to a child's understand-
ing, and a rare manner of entertaining children, whom he
would hold spellbound by his inimitable charm of story-
telling or poetical recitation, with mimicry of bird-notes
and talk of animals. I think Mr. Folsom was very dear to
the children."
"It was," says the same witness, "while Mr. Folsom
was with us that the need of a more commodious and con-
venient vestry was strongly felt and, though the building
was not completed till a later day, moneys were raised from
lime to time for that purpose. Mr. Folsom himself con-
tributed largely to the cause by giving public readings,
which his remarkable talents rendered very enjoyable occa-
sions, and which benefited us by considerable sums of
money." It is gratefully remembered by many who have
enjoyed our improved social and Sunday-school accommo-
dations that the first contribution toward the new or
renewed vestry was the proceeds of Mr. Folsom's readings.
Of Mr. Folsom's pulpit ability there is, as I should
expect, a diversity of testimony. There are those who did
not always, perhaps not often, find exactly what they
desired in a sermon ; there were others who listened to him
with the delight which they experienced in anything deli-
cate and beautiful. Upon the more important question,
the actual worth and helpfulness of his ministry, estimates
also greatly differ. There were those who were scarcely
able to rate the period as one of special edification ; and
there are others to whom Mr. Folsom's ministry was an
epoch, the time when they experienced the dawn of their
own minds and set out upon a- voyage of discovery; when
the Bible became a new book and existence a new sensation
15
A matter about which there was no difference of opinion
in the parish or out, was the admirable work of Mr. Folsom
as member, and for some time chairman, of the town com-
mittee for public schools at a time when the duties of that
board were more arduous than, since the employment of a
superintendent, happily, they are now. I have no details
of his work beyond the fact that his service extended from
March, 1871, to March, 1875, but I have the testimony of
a teacher of that day that of Mr. Folsom, in his relations
with the schools, she has " most delightful recollections."
In March, 1875, after a ministry of six years, Mr. Fol-
som resigned this pastorate, and soon after accepted the
office of a supervisor of schools in Boston, a position for
which his friends here and elsewhere believed him to be
eminently fitted. His letter of resignation is marked by
his characteristic modesty : " I cannot make even this
formal announcement without assuring the Society of my
deep and heartfelt appreciation of the kindness, considera-
tion and forbearance which I have always received from
them, notwithstanding the many shortcomings of which I
am perfectly conscious." In accepting his resignation the
parish testify to " his attainments and ability as a scholar,"
to "the gentleness and sincerity of his character," to "the
simplicity, directness and strong religious feeling that have
marked his discourses," and to "the fidelity with which
he has discharged the duties of his sacred office."
Mr. Folsom died suddenly, in Boston, May 20, 1882.
In a notice of his death it was said, "He was as simple
and true and genuine a man as ever lived. He loved his
friends and his books. * * Certainly his life was not a
brilliant or noisy one, but it was rich in gentleness and
unselfishness, and in the power of doing good to others,
and the rare gift of diffusing happiness."
The records show that Mr. Folsom attended 84 funerals,
officiated at 30 marriages, baptized 29 persons, and received
into the church 18 members. Several of those added to
16
the roll of the church in his time, as in Mr. Bailey's and in
mine, were transfers of membership, a circumstance of
which I should not consider it necessary to speak were it
not that, I am told, it was a matter alluded to by Mr. Fol-
som in his last sermon, that so few during his ministry had
chosen to bear this testimony. It would have been a
response to his ministry which doubtless he would have had
too much delicacy to suggest, but which, if it had been
granted in larger measure, would have gladdened his heart.
From the date of Mr. Folsora's resignation to the call of
his successor, was a period of eight months. The call was
dated Nov. 8, 1875 ; its acceptance, Nov. 19 ; the installa-
tion took place Dec. 29 — it will be easy to reckon the
length of the pastorate which has followed. It has been
almost exactly as loug as both its immediate predecessors
combined. For good or ill, it has been, 1 believe, consid-
erably the longest pastorate in Dedham during nearly a
generation. Interesting as it has been to me, and near as
it has been to us all, I have not reserved a proportionate
space for its history. Happily, it can be dealt with more
briefly, as it will not be necessary to say anything at all
about the minister. His inner man, during the last thir-
teen years, it would be a kind of breach of confidence for
me to put into history, and of his outward relations you
know enough, and, I dare say, better than I.
A faithful historian, not disposed to rose-color his nar-
rative, would be obliged to say that you have not always
been able to agree entirely with your minister. I remem-
ber after some escapade in a sermon which did not seem
to every hearer to be greatly edifying, the gentlest of all
parishioners in the gentlest of all protests, made bold to
ask, "What were you aiming at? What were you trying
to do ? " I greatly fear the question may have been more
to the purpose than the answer. It is a noteworthy fact,
however, that the indications of dissent which have come to
my knowledge have, in general, not related to matters
17
commonly classed as theological. I do not know all you
have thought, but I have never heard that the pulpit was
too radical or too conservative, too skeptical or too credu-
lous, too slow or too fast. On the contrary, I have always
felt that the pews were quite abreast of the pulpit, and
abundantly ready for the latest intelligence, so it be intelli-
gence, from the world of science, criticism or thought.
Such differences as we have had have mainly related to
practical details.
If I mistake not, the most serious trial which any of
you have had with the pulpit was in the first year of my
pastorate, concerning an expression of views in the midst
of a feverish agitation of the subject of temperance. The
minister may have been too sensitive, but he felt very much
like one who is being dragooned into a movement with
which he does not wholly sympathize, and very possibly
he may have protested with more vigor than was necessary.
Perhaps the next most serious disturbance of our tran-
quillity related to a change in the administration of the
Communion Service, ventured upon four years ago by the
pastor on his own responsibility. It was undertaken to
hold that commemoration as a part of the morning service,
sometimes with, sometimes without the usual sermon, at
first using the customary wine, for which, that being sub-
ject to objection in a service made so general, pure water
was then substituted. The change had the good effect to
attract several persons to the observance, but in none of its
modifications was the experiment satisfactory to all, and, as
I understood, the liberty taken with the emblems came near
costing us a valued parishioner, not, I believe, because
wine was considered indispensable, but because the reversal
of the ancient miracle seemed a lapse from the healthy sen-
timent of the Master into the sickly sentimentality of a
disciple.
I am happy to say that questions of politics have never
greatly disturbed our serenity. I have noticed that some
18
of you have taken the liberty to think differently from your
minister, but such have seemed to be satisfied to neutralize
his vote at the polls, which I imagine, in the palmy days of
this pulpit, might have been a bold thing for a mere layman
to do.
In the affairs of the parish we have had great harmony,
and you have given me hearty co-operation. It was due
to your own enterprise that at an expense of $3300, in
1879, you carried out the improvement upon the vestry
projected in Mr. Folsom's pastorate, and that in 1882, at
an expense of nearly $2000, you greatly improved and
beautified this edifice. It was as much your choice as mine
that, in 1878, we adopted the Book of Services and Hymns
then just issued by the Unitarian Association, the respon-
sive readings from which have enriched our worship ; and
it was to the generosity of a parishioner* that, two years
ago, the Sunday school was indebted for the Hymnal aud
Services issued by the Sunday-school Society, which, with
increasing satisfaction, we now use.
It would not be hard to recall other things generously
done. Of such I must not be denied the mention of a
Christmas gift of $462, towards which I had the grateful
satisfaction of being assured every parishioner had con-
tributed some token of his good will. I must bo allowed,
also, to mention a very thoughtful and timely favor of $75
from the Benevolent Society, whose thoughtfulness I sup-
pose its beneficiaries always consider timely. I have rea-
son to be glad that the ladies found my case came properly
under their rules ; they were right in thinking they would
look long before they found a more receptive object of
charity.
Among the suggestions which I have made, and which
you have carried out, for increasing our interest in parish
affairs, not the least, I am persuaded, was the social gath-
*Mrs. Jolm E. Billiard.
19
ering and supper which brought 140 of us together, at our
last annual meeting, to listen to full and valuable reports
from every arm of our service. I remember that when the
shortest, but not least interesting, of those reports was
being read, one said to me, "When you put us up to do
this, you did the best thing you ever did in this parish."
I shall be glad to leave the suggestion as a kind of perpet-
ual legacy.
One of the most venerable of the parish organizations
then reporting was the Ladies' Benevolent Society, which
has just held its sixty-seventh annual meeting. I am told
that during part of Mr. Bailey's pastorate, the Benevolent
Society was merged into what was known as the Ladies'
Aid Society, in which all denominations co-operated for
the large work of humanity which the war made necessary.
That Society raised for its purposes $3040.96, of which it
would be a delicate matter to apportion the amount that
came from this parish. A third of it is $1000, and a fourth
of that is $250 ; this, of course, does not include a thousand
articles of value contributed, but was it perhaps about the
average money contribution through this channel per year ?
During the early part of my pastorate the Benevolent So-
ciety was very active and efficient, with an attendance at its
monthly meetings of fifty or sixty members. Since the
Associated Charities has been organized, much of the
work of the Benevolent Society has passed to its hands,
but I notice that its disbursements last year were still $215.
The Dedham Union, though a much younger offspring
than the Benevolent Society, has attained some antiquity,
and though it strenuously insists that it is not a parish or-
ganization, it has rendered us services which entitle it to a
grateful mention. It was formed during Mr. Folsom's pas-
torate, and I dare say much of the credit for its existence is
due to him. It appeared just in season to arrest any ten-
dency to disintegration during the critical period of transi-
tion from one pastorate to another, and I have heard it said
20
that it served that purpose admirably. In its younger days,
it gave many attractive lectures, and other entertainments,
and contributed much to the social life of the parish. Jt
was in full career at the time improvements were made
upon the vestry, and liberally assisted in that work by its
contributions of money. We have always accepted its good
offices, and, so it conducted itself properly, we have never
raised the question whether technically it was or was not a
parish society.
The ability of our ladies for efficient organization was
admirably exhibited in March, 1881, seven years ago, in
the formation of a branch of the Women's Auxiliary Con-
ference, as it has been since in the conduct of its affairs.
To that movement was justly credited a perceptible increase
in church attendance and of interest in all our parish activ-
ities. In addition to much excellent discussion which the
ladies have given and heard, in addition to much increase
of mutual acquaintance and intercourse, the "Auxiliary"
has had its hands steadily employed in good works far and
near, for the promotion of a religious life and a rational
faith. To the credit of these faithful workers, I believe it
was once said on a public occasion, that "for work, the
Dedham Auxiliary was the banner Branch." I should like
to distribute the praise for its success to those to whom
praise is chiefly due, if the chief praise did not rather belong
to all.
To the Sunday school during Mr. Bailey's and Mr.
Folsom's pastorates I have already referred, though I have
not written its history. I remember well when I first
looked in upon it, thirteen years ago, with its bright faces
and its well filled seats ; it was a delight to my eye and
heart. In our enlarged accommodations, greatly improved
text-books, and excellent service book, we have facilities
which did not then exist, and it is greatly to be hoped we
are doing as good work as at any time in our history. In
the recent death of Miss Ellis, the Sunday school has lost
21
one of its most indefatigable workers and one of its wisest
friends. It is due her memory, and it would be a grateful
tribute from the school, to hang her portrait in some form
upon its walls.
The faithful and generous services of the choir, always
reverently rendered as a labor of love, are a part of the
history of my pastorate which I am glad of an opportunity
to acknowledge.
I find upon the parish records a copy of my acceptance
of its call to this pulpit. It is simply a brief business note,
such as I might have written if one of you had invited me
to be a clerk in his store. I find upon the church records
an acknowledgment of its vote of concurrence, in which I
observe four times the space was occupied, and much more
expression of purposes and hopes was indulged. I said,
among other things, "I trust this action of the church is
more than an empty formality. I cannot resist the feeling
that in any just conception of his office, a minister is before
all else the minister of a church. * * * I shall come
among you with the sincere purpose to discharge the obli-
gations to the parish which I have assumed, but with the
profound conviction that I can do so only by becoming first
of all a faithful minister to the church. I shall not be sat-
isfied with my ministry unless I am able to see the contin-
uance of your prosperity, and to rejoice, as I trust I may, in
many additions to your membership and a proportionate
increase of your zeal and fidelity." As these letters indi-
cate, I came here with a theory, which had been the fruit
of some experience, which had slowly shaped itself into
very positive conviction, and which, from a very unecclesi-
astical beginning:, had transformed me into not a little of a
churchman. That theory was that while vague good feel-
ing, a kind of non-committal good feeling, is well, a feeling
that* has come to consciousness of itself, a decision made and
registered, a purpose settled and declared, is better. With
us the instrument providentially placed in our hands for
sometimes bringing about a decisive moment in religious
experience is what we call the church. It is as a means to
this end that I chiefly care, and that at last I have come to
care a great deal for this roll of those who have pledged to
each other their good endeavors. I may say that this theory
of the church and of its uses, with which I came, is the
theory by which my ministry during these thirteen years
has been shaped.
The heated process of conversion, by which in churches
calling themselves " evangelical " it is common to crystal-
lize religious feeling, was not open to us, and I looked with
a kind of helpless desire toward the ancient usage of con-
firmation by which our Catholic mother and her elder
daughters, Anglican "and Lutheran, lead up one generation
and then another gradually and naturally to the result. It
was eleven years ago that I first mentioned the word Con-
firmation aloud in this parish. It was to a large Bible class
of young persons which was to have met, and for a few
evenings did meet, at my house. I began by saying that I
should like to meet them not for criticism or speculation,
but for religious nurture, and, by way of illustration,
instanced what is aimed at in a confirmation class. I re-
member that Bible class chiefly as a thing of glowing prom-
ise which suddenly dissolved like the morning dew. Like
the apostle, " cast down but not destroyed," the uext year
to some of the same persons I said very much the same
things. " Now don't say confirmation," urged a blessed
saint, no longer with us ; " that was what frightened them
before." I dare say there may have been other discourage-
ments. Eight years after, in 1886, we held our first con-
firmation service in this church, with seven candidates.
We held a similar service last Easter, with fourteen candi-
dates ; nineteen, if we might count the adults. These
were occasions which many of us will not soon forget.
The three or four mouths of study and conversation with
the classes in preparation for these occasions, have been
23
very pleasant experiences. At the last annual meeting the
church, by vote, authorized admission to membership by
confirmation ; so the practice may be considered as one of
our recognized and legitimate usages. If this is something
over which we have a right to congratulate ourselves, let
us put the merit where it belongs. It could not have hap-
pened but for the favor which the suggestion has met fro m
the mothers in this parish. When, after a sermon upon the
subject, as we were forming our class a year ago, one said
tome, "I hope confirmation has come into this church to
stay," my inward response was, If so you feel, it has come
to stay. So it is, my friends, your minister can do nothing
without you ; you can do — you certainly can help him do —
almost what you will.
The Young People's Religious Society, the youngest
child of the parish, whose first report so gratified and en-
couraged us last March, cannot be said to have been an
outgrowth of the confirmation class, nor the confirmation
class of that. They have been parallel lines with some-
thing of the same history. As was said of confirmation, so
of the Young People's Society, it is to be hoped it has come
to stay. It is a good omen that it is able to be its own min-
ister. One of my recent exchanges is quoted as saying
that he had seen many young people's meetings, but never
before one that took care of itself. It is fortunate that the
one to whose inspiration and energy the society chiefly owes
its existence has the gift of continuance.
We have great reason to congratulate ourselves that our
young people are taking a part in the religious activities of
parish and church, for with them this inheritance from the
fathers will soon rest. I look about me and see that these
thirteen years have told upon those who at the beginning
of this pastorate were in their prime. I recall with tender
love and reverence the many faithful, saintly, beautiful
spirits who in these years, one by one, have taken their
discharge and gone to their rest. I am grateful that since
24
we are denied the comfort of their presence, they have left
us the inspiration of such precious memories.
A baptism, an admission to the church, a marriage, or
a funeral, is an occasion upon which a minister comes close
to the hearts of his people. Every such experience is an
event in his own history. During my pastorate it has been
my fortune to baptize 64 persons, to receive into the church
96, to officiate at 51 marriages, and to attend 137 funerals.
One of the pleasant incidents of my pastorate was a re-
ception tendered us, with others, by the church over which
Mr. Southgate was then pastor. In 1882, the year fol-
lowing I believe, we were able to reciprocate this courtesy
by a reception of our hosts and fellow-guests, which was
accepted with a cordiality that strained our accommodations
to the utmost. In its turn, St. Paul's parish repeated the
hospitality with a heartiness and liberality in which it was
not at all behind either of its predecessors. Differing very
widely in matters both of faith and practice, it is pleasant
to remember the respectful, kindly and neighborly relations
that have subsisted between these three adjacent churches,
which to such an extent divide between them the families
of this part of our village.
This harmony of feeling has made both possible and
natural the joint celebration of our great anniversary by
the two religious households that have together the noble
traditions of the first six generations, the first 180 years, of
this ancient church. It has been a privilege, without one
experience to mar its pleasure, to serve on the joint com-
mittee to prepare for that commemoration. One cloud,
indeed, there has been : the lamented death of a valued
member of that committee.*
It would be easy to make reflections upon the events and
upon the total of this history. It is so easy that I shall
leave you to make them yourselves. Let me dismiss this
* Deacon Theodore L. Browne.
25
imperfect record of twenty-eight, some of them momentous
years of your parish life, with the injunction of an apostle,
"Be watchful and strengthen the things that remain," and
may the God of all grace and love, who has blest you so much
in your noble history, and me so much in giving me a
modest place in that history, be with you both now and
always.
4 Q
13-89011
26
On Sunday and Monday of the week following this
historical discourse, Nov. 18th and 19th, 1888, occurred
the commemoration of the two hundred and fiftieth anni-
versary of the gathering of the First Church. The day fol-
lowing, Mr. Beach communicated his resignation, as below :
Dedham, November 20, 1888.
Messrs. Alfred Hewitts, Edwin A. Brooks, and Julius H. Tuttle,
Standing Comtnittee of the First Parish :
Dear Sirs — At a meeting of the Directors of the American
Unitarian Association, in September, an invitation was tendered
me to become its Missionary Agent for the District of Northern
New England. The position is one which I have not sought,
but which, for certain reasons, I have not felt wholly at liberty to
decline. I have been reluctant to disturb our relations until
your great anniversary, just passed so happily and auspiciously,
had been duly celebrated, but it has been understood in the
parish that the appointment referred to would be likely to result
in a vacancy in this pulpit, a vacancy which I sincerely hope you
will have the good fortune to fill wisely and without a long and
distracting period of delay. It now becomes my duty to place
in your hands my resignation of that trust committed to me by the
parish thirteen years ago, and to ask that the same be accepted
to take effect November 30, that I may enter upon the work
proposed to me December 1.
In taking leave of the parish, I wish to express the apprecia-
tion and gratitude of myself and of Mrs. Beach, whose interest
and obligation are the same as my own, for the unfailing kindness
and forbearance of the parish towards us during all the years
of our life in its midst, and for the many expressions of kind
feeling we have heard, and are hearing, at this time of our
separation. We shall always cherish the memories of these years
as among our most precious possessions, and we shall greatly
rejoice in all the prosperity which the future has in store for this
ancient parish and for its members.
Very sincerely yours,
S. C. BEACH.
27
At a meeting of the Parish, held December 3d, the
resignation of Mr. Beach was accepted, and the following
resolutions adopted :
Whereas, Rev. Seth C. Beach has presented his resignation
as pastor of the First Parish in Dedham ;
Resolved, That we, the members of the Parish, in accepting
this resignation, desire to express our deep regret at this termi-
nation of a faithful and efficient ministry, which has lasted
nearly thirteen years,
Resolved, That we should fail to do justice to our retiring
pastor, if we did not, at this time, also express our appreciation
of, and our obligation for, his many valuable services during his
connection with the parish ; the earnestness, independence and
ability, — a continually increasing ability, — which have character-
ized his pulpit ministrations, in which he has given his hearers
the results of wide reading and careful thought ; the attention
which he has paid to the religious and moral interests of the
Parish and Church, in his action as Superintendent of the Sun-
day-school, and in his connection with the Young People's
Religious Society, as in many other ways ; the fidelity with which
he has performed other Parish duties and endeavored to promote
the general welfare of the Church and Parish ; the zeal with
which he has given himself to the encouragement and advance-
ment of all benevolent objects, and of freedom and liberality of
thought and judgment.
Resolved, That we recognize that our pastor has been a good
citizen as well as a good minister, in his care for the schools of
the town, as otherwise, ready to do his part for the public benefit.
Resolved, That we also recognize that our minister, while
thus remembering the interests of the parish and the town, has
not confined himself to them, but has extended his labors to a
wider field, in his connection with the American Unitarian Asso-
ciation, working for the objects it is striving to accomplish, and
for the denomination at large, as well as for his own people.
Resolved, That in dissolving our connection with Mr. Beach,
we oner him our most sincere wishes that, in his new
charge, he may have the large success that we know he will
deserve, and that in all his undertakings, and always, he may
have a full measure of prosperity and happiness.
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1
