Skip to main content

Full text of "Sermons connected with the re-opening of the church of the South Parish, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, preached Dec. 25 & 26, 1858; and Jan. 30 and Feb. 6, 1859"

See other formats 


K  M  0  N  S 


• 


ill1 


» 


0*  Of  PBW$ 


/; 


i 


Logical  sttf^ 

T8S7 
T5 


55! 


r  / 


~f 


/ 


PRW7B 


SERMONS:^»^ 


CONNECTED     WITH     TUB 


Swrptning  of  tge  Clnxrdj  of  tlje  Sotttlj  farisg, 


IN   PORTSMOUTH,  NEW  HAMPSHIRE, 


PREACHED    DEC.  25   &   26,  1858;    AND  JAN.  30  AND 
EEB.  6,  1859. 


BY    ANDREW    P.    PEABODY, 


PASTOR    OF    THE   PARISH. 


^ubliSrjeU     bg    Request. 


PORTSMOUTH: 

JAMES  F.  SHORES,  JUN.,  &  JOSEPH  H.  FOSTER. 

boston: 

crosby,  nichols,  and   company. 
1859. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1S59,  by 

J.    F.    SHORES,   JUN.,    AND     J.    H.    FOSTER, 

In   the   Clerk's  Office  of   the  District   Court  of   the   District   of 
New  Hampshire. 


BOSTON : 

printed   by  john  wilson  and   son, 

22,  School  Street. 


CONTENTS. 


Sermon.                                                                                                  page. 
I.  —  Christian  Worship 5 

II.  —  Christ  and  the  Father  One 26 

III.  —  History  of  the  South  Parish        44 

IV.  —  History  of  the  South  Parish  (continued)  .    .    65 

Appendix 91 


I. 

CHRISTIAN  WORSHIP. 


Preached  at  the  Re-opening  of  the  Church,  Dec.  25,  1858. 


Heb.  x.  20:  "A  new  and  living  Way." 

A  KIND  Providence  permits  us,  after  our 
protracted  absence,  to  renew  our  wor- 
ship on  this  long-hallowed  spot ;  and,  I  trust, 
not  without  glad  and  grateful  hearts.  I  sym- 
pathize with  those  who  most  rejoice  in  the 
change  that  we  witness  in  our  sanctuary ; 
for  I  cannot  but  feel,  that  —  rapidly  as  we  are 
passing  on,  and  in  all  things,  whether  we  so 
intend  or  not,  living  less  for  ourselves  than 
for  those  who  shall  come  after  us  —  we  have 
been  doing  a  work  for  which  our  children 
and  our  children's  children  will  thank  us,  and 
have  made  the  extent,  capacity,  and  conve- 

2 


6  CHRISTIAN   WORSHIP. 

nience  of  our  house  of  worship  such  as  must 
meet  the  demands  of  those  who  shall  assemble 
here  for  many  generations.  At  the  same 
time,  in  the  general  outlines  of  the  walls  and 
ceiling,  we  retain  those  larger  features  which 
gave  individuality  to  the  edifice,  are  indelible 
in  all  our  associations  with  it,  and  will  trans- 
mit the  memory  of  the  pure  and  refined  taste 
which  presided  in  its  inception,  and  made  it 
inferior  to  hardly  any  structure  of  the  same 
date,  in  simple  and  massive  elegance,  and  in 
fitness  for  its  sacred  uses.  We  have  our  tri- 
bute of  gratitude  to  offer,  that,  in  an  enter- 
prise involving  so  much  exposure  and  peril, 
the  lives  of  those  who  have  wrought  the  work 
for  us  have  been  preserved,  and  that  not  a 
single  serious  personal  injury  has  occurred  to 
leave  a  painful  remembrance.  I  trust,  also, 
that,  in  the  inevitable  differences  of  opinion 
connected  with  so  large  and  important  an 
undertaking,  there  has  been  such  an  exercise 
of  the  spirit  of  mutual  concession  and  for- 
bearance, and   so   sincere   a   desire    and   en- 


CHRISTIAN    WORSHIP.  t 

deavor  to  meet  all  reasonable  wishes,  that  we 
re-enter  our  church  no  less  a  united  Christian 
community  than  when  we  left  it ;  and  that  the 
unspeakable  blessing  of  harmony,  which  has 
been  ours  for  a  time  of  which  the  memory 
of  man  runneth  not  to  the  contrary,  will 
continue  unimpaired  longer  than  our  forms 
or  our  names  shall  be  remembered  here. 
Though  we  would  gladly  have  hastened  the 
day,  it  may  be  accounted  as  a  privilege  that  we 
return  hither  on  the  anniversary  so  precious 
to  every  Christian  heart;  and  that  with  our 
consecrating  anthem  and  prayer  we  lift  our 
thanksgiving  for  the  advent  of  Him  who  has 
taught  us  to  pray,  and  filled  our  hearts  with 
praise. 

The  blending  of  the  two  occasions  suggests 
Christian  Worship  as  our  theme.  I  have 
separated  the  words  of  our  text  from  the  con- 
nection in  which  they  stand  as  referring  to 
the  Saviour's  death,  and  taken  them  as  a 
motto  for  a  discourse  on  what  is  peculiar  in 
Christian  worship,  —  on  the  way  to  the  throne 


8  CHRISTIAN    WORSHIP. 

and  the  mercy-seat  opened  by  the  advent  of 
Christ.  A  new  way ;  for  Christian  worship 
has  features  entirely  different  from  those 
which  have  appertained  to  any  other  religion 
except  Judaism,  and  to  which  Jewish  wor- 
ship bore  only  the  resemblance  which  the 
part  may  bear  to  the  whole,  the  beginning 
to  the  consummation,  the  germ  to  the  ripened 
fruitage.  A  living  way ;  for  the  Saviour, 
born  in  Bethlehem,  dying  only  to  live  again, 
ever-living,  is  the  way.  Christian  worship 
may  be  considered  as  to  its  object,  its  de- 
mands of  the  individual  worshipper,  and  the 
relations  in  which  it  places  him  toward 
the  race  of  which  he  is  a  member. 

I.  We  consider  its  object,  —  not  the  Crea- 
tor, not  the  Sovereign,  not  the  Judge,  but 
the  Father.  All  other  modes  of  worship  have 
been  propitiatory,  —  have  been  offered  to  divi- 
nities that  needed  to  be  appeased  and  conci- 
liated. Even  the  devout  Jew  dared  not  come 
to  the  altar  without  his  sacrifice  ;  and,  without 
the  shedding  of  blood,  there  was  no  remission. 


CHRISTIAN    WORSHIP.  9 

Until  Christ,  the  universal  consciousness  of 
mankind  confessed  an  alienation  from  God, 
and  a  need  of  reconciliation,  of  atonement. 
Ill-desert  interposed  a  fearful  chasm  between 
the  sinner  and  his  God.  Man  had  defeated 
his  own  claims  at  the  divine  hand  by  his 
wide  dereliction  of  the  duties  of  a  creature, 
a  subject,  a  child.  Before  the  awful  justice 
and  unsullied  purity  of  his  Judge,  he  was 
self-condemned.  All  that  he  felt  able  to  do 
was,  by  sacrifice,  or  even  by  self-torture,  to 
attest  the  depth  of  his  humiliation,  and  with 
an  agonized  heart  to  implore  the  mercy,  of 
which  he  traced  no  sign  in  the  inflexible  or- 
der of  nature ;  in  the  heavens,  wlrose  eternal 
silence  the  voice  of  pardon  had  not  broken ; 
or  in  the  earth,  whose  soil  had  not  yet  been 
trodden  by  any  God-sent  messenger  of  recon- 
ciliation. Hence  groaned  the  altars  with 
slaughtered  hecatombs.  Hence,  in  the  stress 
of  remorseful  terror,  flowed  the  blood  of  the 
first-born  to  expiate  the  father's  transgression. 
Hence  weary  pilgrimages,  and  lacerations  of 


10  CHRISTIAN   WORSHIP. 

the  flesh,  and  readings  of  its  living  fibre,  and 
self-immolations  at  the  shrines  of  a  deluded 
faith.  But  all  this  has  been  removed  by  the 
new  and  living  way.  In  the  sacrifice  of 
Christ,  mercy  and  justice  meet ;  righteousness 
and  peace  embrace  each  other.  All  that  se- 
parated between  man  and  God  has  been  rent 
away ;  the  veil  that  hid  the  holy  of  holies  is 
torn  down ;  and  he  who  has  seen  Christ  has 
seen  the  Father.  Our  ill-desert  is  none  the 
less;  but  reconciliation  has  been  proclaimed, 
and  sealed  on  the  cross.  Repentance  has  no 
additional  intrinsic  merit  to  cancel  sin,  and  to 
avert  its  righteous  penalty ;  but,  in  the  peace- 
speaking  blood,  there  is  mercy  which  rejoices 
against  judgment.  Man  can  urge  no  added 
claim  in  his  own  right ;  but  he  can  come  as 
an  erring  and  guilty  child,  and  cast  himself 
on  the  eternal  love  of  the  Father,  whom 
Christ  alone  reveals  and  manifests. 

The  living  way,  —  oh!  it  is  of  unspeakable 
worth.  None  felt  themselves  repelled  from 
the   Saviour.     The   despised   and  rejected  of 


CHRISTIAN    WORSHIP.  11 

men  fell  with  contrite  tears  at  his  feet.  The 
sinful,  in  their  penitence,  were  drawn  to  him 
by  the  very  intensity  of  their  guilt  and  need. 
Those,  in  whom  right  purpose  struggled  with 
conscious  infirmity,  were  strengthened  by  his 
words  of  good  cheer  and  promise.  All  that 
was  worthy  in  them  felt  the  might  of  his 
sympathy ;  all  that  was  evil  yielded  its  hold 
on  the  hearts  which  were  opened  to  his  influ- 
ence. In  his  prayer  for  his  murderers,  in  his 
death  for  a  guilty  race  and  world,  there  was 
love  such  as  man  had  not  seen  or  conceived. 
When  we  are  taught  to  regard  him  as  the 
image,  the  earthly  manifestation,  of  God,  then, 
for  the  first  time,  do  we  know  and  feel  what 
it  is  to  call  God  our  Father.  Yes,  it  is  in 
him  alone  that  we  behold  the  Father.  In  him 
the  Father  comes  forth  to  meet  the  penitent 
child,  to  throw  around  him  the  arms  of  eter- 
nal love,  to  open  to  his  returning  steps  the 
everlasting  mansion.  Thus,  in  all  the  assur- 
ance, confidence,  certainty,  with  which  we  can 
now  lift  our  praises  and  our  prayers ;  in  all 


12  CHRISTIAN   WORSHIP. 

that  makes  our  Christian  worship  a  loving 
service,  —  whenever  our  lips  utter  the  blessed 
word  Father,  and  a  child's  heart  is  borne 
heavenward  in  the  utterance,  —  we  are  tread- 
ing the  new  and  living  way  which  Christ  hath 
opened ;  or,  rather,  which  Christ  is. 

But,  my  friends,  glad  and  precious  as  this 
thought  is,  it  has  for  us  its  solemn  admoni- 
tion. If  we  come  to  God  as  to  our  Father, 
we  can  come  only  as  his  children,  with  filial 
love,  with  implicit  trust,  with  obedient  desire 
and  purpose.  In  the  Christian  temple,  above 
all,  is  the  heartless  service  abhorrent.  He, 
who  stoops  to  the  prayer  of  the  penitent  and 
the  desire  of  the  contrite,  can  have  no  response 
for  the  empty  voice  and  the  vacant  show  of  a 
worship  in  which  the  soul  cries  not,  with 
yearning  love,  "  Abba,  my  Father !  "  With 
this  full  and  clear  revelation  of  paternal  mer- 
cy, there  is  only  cast  a  deeper  guilt,  a  surer 
condemnation,  on  those  who  will  not  love  and 
trust  and  obey  the  Father  thus  revealed.  As, 
then,  we  welcome  the  Saviour's  advent,  oh!  let 


CHRISTIAN   WORSHIP.  13 

us  take  him  to  our  hearts  as  the  type  and 
pledge  of  the  Father,  from  whom  he  came ; 
and,  through  that  one  Mediator,  let  our  vows 
of  profound  gratitude  and  entire  self-consecra- 
tion go  up  to  Him  who  has  loved  us  with  an 
everlasting  love. 

II.  We  next  consider  Christian  worship  as 
to  what  it  demands  of  the  individual  wor- 
shipper. Under  every  other  system  than  the 
Christian,  worship  has  been  regarded  as  at 
least  in  some  degree  separated  from  cha- 
racter. Though,  through  the  inspired  pro- 
phets, there  was  the  clear  foreshining  of  a 
more  spiritual  dispensation,  yet  in  Judaism, 
as  held  and  practised  by  the  overwhelming 
majority  of  the  nation,  there  was  an  entire 
divorce  between  the  worship  and  the  life  ; 
and  those  who  were  the  most  punctilious  in 
ordinances  were  the  most  unscrupulous  in 
morals ;  fasting  twice  a  week,  and  devouring 
widows'  houses ;  paying  tithes  of  mint,  anise, 
and  cumin,  and  neglecting  justice  and  charity. 
But,  under   Christ,  the   life   is   the   worship. 


14  CHRISTIAN   WORSHIP. 

The  law  of  truth  and  right  is  the  rubric, 
common  speech  and  daily  deeds  the  ritual,  of 
devotion.  We  are  to  eat  and  drink,  and  do 
whatever  we  do,  to  the  glory  of  God.  We 
are  to  pray  without  ceasing.  God  is  to  have 
a  part  in  every  thought  and  purpose  and  act. 
All  the  ground  on  which  we  tread  is  hallowed 
ground :  we  never  pass  beyond  temple-gates. 
Our  homes  are  to  be  sanctuaries ;  our  fami- 
lies, churches  ;  even  the  house  of  merchandise, 
our  Father's  house.  The  idea  which  we  are 
wont  to  express  by  sacred  time,  holy  place, 
and  other  similar  phrases,  is  utterly  unchris- 
tian. The  gospel  does  away  the  old  distinc- 
tion between  the  common  and  the  consecrated, 
not  by  desecrating  the  consecrated,  but  by 
hallowing  the  common ;  by  levelling,  not 
downward,  but  upward.  Thus  it  forbids 
oaths,  but  endows  every  word  we  utter  with 
the  sanctity  of  an  oath.  It  enjoins  no  fasts ; 
but  it  would  crown  our  feast-days  with  more 
than  the  devotion  of  a  fast.  Thus,  also,  it 
lifts  up  the  six  working  days  to  the  sabbath- 


CHRISTIAN    WORSHIP.  15 

level  of  holy  time ;  and  makes  whatever  may 
be  the  scene  of  duty,  suffering,  or  joy,  no  less 
than  the  formally  dedicated  temple,  the  house 
of  God  and  the  gate  of  heaven.  Yet,  by  this 
very  process,  fresh  honor  and  added  sanction 
are  given  to  the  sabbath  and  the  sanctuary ; 
to  the  one  as  the  divinely  designated  season,  to 
the  other  as  the  fitting  place,  for  kindling, 
reviving,  and  feeding  the  flame,  which,  dur- 
ing the  working  days  and  in  the  outside 
world,  must  often  be  kept  alive  in  stifling  air, 
or  dense  mists,  or  dreary  wastes  that  yield 
no  fuel.  To  state,  in  brief,  the  distinction :  in 
other  religions,  rites  and  ordinances  are  wor- 
ship :  in  Christianity,  they  sustain  and  nourish 
worship.  The  gospel,  then,  unseats  them  only 
to  establish  them  on  a  firmer  basis ;  casts 
them  down  from  the  cloud-built  eminence  of 
an  arbitrary  enactment,  a  factitious  sanctity, 
and  a  talismanic  efficacy,  to  lay  the  foundation 
for  them  in  needs  and  utilities  co-extensive 
with  the  race  of  man,  and  lasting  as  the  life  of 
man  upon  the  earth. 


16  CHRISTIAN   WORSHIP. 

The  identification  of  worship  with  the  entire 
life  is  of  the  highest  practical  value.  It  at- 
taches to  all  that  we  say  and  do  the  solemnity 
of  an  altar-service ;  and  brings  to  bear  on  the 
details  of  business  and  recreation,  on  the  cares 
and  duties  of  home,  on  those  little  things  in 
which  we  are  so  prone  to  relax  our  watchful- 
ness and  diligence,  yet  which  set  the  current 
and  determine  the  drift  of  character,  the  same 
infinite  motives  that  are  owned  and  suggested 
in  our  prayer  and  praise.  We  depart  to  our 
own  injury  and  peril  from  the  spirit  of  Chris- 
tian worship,  whenever,  even  in  thought,  we 
separate  from  it  aught  that  can  bear  the  name 
of  duty.  The  old  theologians  used  to  talk 
about  the  first  and  second  tables  of  the  Deca- 
logue,—  the  first  religious,  the  second  moral. 
There  were,  indeed,  two  tables ;  probably  be- 
cause it  was  easier  for  Moses  to  carry  two 
than  one.  But  neither  is  more  religious  than 
the  other.  Truth  and  honesty  are  as  much  a 
part  of  God's  worship  as  reverence  and  sab- 
bath-keeping.    In  like  manner,  moralists  have 


CHRISTIAN   WORSHIP.  17 

divided  duties  into  religious,  social,  and  per- 
sonal,—  a  division  which  may  sometimes  be 
convenient  for  reference,  but  which  has  no 
basis  in  the  nature  of  things :  for  its  religious- 
ness, its  being  of  divine  enactment,  its  being 
a  part  of  worship,  enters  into  the  definition 
of  duty ;  and  that  which  forms  no  portion  of 
the  daily,  continual  sacrifice  required  upon  the 
altar  of  God,  is  not  a  duty. 

Here,  too,  we  are  led  in  worship  by  the  liv- 
ing way.  The  perfectness,  the  solemnity,  the 
religiousness,  of  the  Saviour's  common  life, 
the  consecration  that  rested  on  his  every  word 
and  act,  his  manifest  dwelling  in  the  bosom  of 
the  Father  while  he  walked  among  men,  is  the 
one  type  and  pattern  of  perpetual  worship, 
shows  us  how  the  life  may  be  all  praise,  illus- 
trates the  living  sacrifice,  and  urges  all  who 
would  follow  Christ  to  glorify  God  alike  with 
body  and  with  spirit,  and,  in  all  times  and  in 
all  places,  to  lift  up  holy  hands  and  adoring 
hearts. 


18  CHRISTIAN   WORSHIP. 

III.  We  will  now  consider  Christian  wor- 
ship as  regards  the  relations  into  which  it 
brings  ns  with  our  race.  We  pray  not  to  my 
Father,  but  to  our  Father ;  and  of  the  world- 
wide sweep  of  the  our  we  bear  witness  when 
we  add.  "  Thy  kingdom  come."  As  we  use 
our  Lord's  Prayer,  it  is  only  from  this  out- 
going of  the  heart,  this  contemplation  of  the 
sovereignty  of  God  over  all,  this  owning  of  a 
brotherhood  broad  as  the  universe,  that  we 
narrow  our  petitions  to  our  own  individual 
wants  and  needs.  In  this  respect,  Christianity 
stands  alone.  All  other  religions,  Judaism  ex- 
cepted, have  been  more  or  less  caste-religions, 
either  sanctioning  the  factitious  distinctions  of 
class,  title,  or  descent,  or  else  borrowing  the 
aid  of  superstition  to  set  up  more  cruel  and 
invidious  barriers  between  man  and  man. 
Thus  the  Bramin  is  too  holy,  the  Pariah  too 
vile,  to  touch  the  person  or  share  the  food  of 
the  member  of  another  caste.  The  purest 
of  the  Grecian  philosophers  promised  immor- 
tal life  with  the  gods  only  to  those  of  philo- 


CHRISTIAN   WORSHIP.  19 

so})] iic  culture ;  while  the  souls  of  even  the 
best  men  from  among  the  common  people 
were  to  tenant  the  bodies  of  ants,  wasps,  and 
bees.  In  the  great  Roman  epic,  ^Eneas  finds 
in  the  Elysian  fields  none  but  poets,  heroes, 
and  men  of  renown.  The  Hebrews,  indeed, 
under  the  divine  guidance,  formed  a  common- 
wealth ;  but,  if  we  except  the  more  clear- 
sighted of  their  prophets,  they  had  fellow- 
feeling  for  Jews  alone,  and  their  fierce  ban 
rested  on  the  nations  beyond  the  pale  of  their 
covenant.  Among  the  earliest  arguments 
against  Christianity,  we  find  repeated  and  con- 
temptuous mention  of  its  overpassing  social 
and  national  distinctions  ;  of  its  extending  its 
teachings  and  its  hopes  to  the  poor  and  the 
illiterate ;  of  its  embracing  in  its  charities  all 
sorts  and  conditions  of  men.  This  feature 
was  urged  by  Jew  and  Gentile  as  conclusive 
evidence  against  the  divinity  of  the  gospel ; 
nay,  as  shutting  out  its  claims  from  rightful 
tolerance.  In  fine,  the  Pharisee's  prayer, 
"  God,  I  thank  thee  that  I  am  not  as  other 


20  CHRISTIAN   WORSHIP. 

men,"  is  the  type  of  all  extra-Christian  wor- 
ship. 

But  the  Christian  cannot  stand  thus  by 
himself  when  he  prays.  He  cannot  bring  his 
own  little  cup  to  the  fountain  of  living  water, 
and  get  so  much  as  a  drop  to  allay  his  thirst. 
It  is  only  when  he  is  ready  to  offer  the  cup  to 
every  thirsty  soul,  that  the  waters  flow  for  his 
own  need.  That  is  not  Christian  worship, 
where  the  highly  privileged  congregation  wrap 
themselves  in  their  own  self-complacency  ;  re- 
joice in  the  quiet  affluence  of  their  own  spirit- 
ual estate,  in  the  walls  of  peace  and  bulwarks 
of  salvation  that  surround  their  own  fold  ; 
while  they  ignore  or  scorn  the  heathenism 
and  moral  destitution,  whether  close  around 
them  or  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth ; 
and  omit  from  their  counsel,  prayer,  and  ef- 
fort, inveterate  wrongs,  time-indurated  evils, 
giant  forms  of  guilt,  and  profound  depths  of 
misery.  Such  worshippers  may  be  at  ease ; 
but  it  is  not  in  Zion.  They  may  offer  prayer 
and  praise ;  but  it  is  not  to  the  Father  of  the 


CHRISTIAN    WORSHIP.  21 

Lord  Jesus,  who  will  have  all  men  to  be 
saved.  They  may  commune  at  a  table  spread 
in  the  solemn  form  and  spotless  beauty  of 
holiness ;  but  it  is  not  the  table  of  Him  whose 
nearest  follower  and  most  authentic  inter- 
preter directs  that  prayer  and  supplication  be 
made  for  all  men.  Christian  worship  is  in 
itself  a  philanthropy  broad  as  the  race,  deep 
as  the  needs  of  humanity. 

In  this  philanthropic  worship  we  are  guided 
by  the  living  way.  Jesus,  in  his  single  person- 
ality, runs  through  the  entire  scale  of  being. 
In  the  form  of  God,  in  the  lowliest  fortunes  of 
humanity ;  rich  beyond  thought,  poorer  than 
the  poorest ;  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  with 
no  spot  on  earth  where  to  lay  his  head ;  her- 
alded by  angels,  crucified  with  malefactors ; 
adored  by  the  hosts  of  heaven,  buffeted  by 
the  meanest  and  coarsest  of  the  children  of 
men,  —  he  comprehends  in  these  contrasts  all 
estates,  and,  by  his  exaltation  above  the  high- 
est and  his  brotherhood  with  the  lowest,  makes 
of  all  one  family.     He,  too,  overpasses  all  na- 

3 


22  CHRISTIAN  WORSHIP. 

tional  barriers.  Arabian  sages  brought  their 
gifts  to  his  manger-cradle  ;  among  the  first 
subjects  of  his  divine  charity  were  the  Samari- 
tans, with  whom  the  Jews  had  no  dealings ; 
and  his  parting  words  command  the  preach- 
ing of  the  gospel,  in  all  the  world,  to  every 
creature. 

We  have,  then,  for  the  characteristics  of 
Christian  worship,  its  object,  —  the  Father, 
God  ;  its  ritual,  —  the  consecrated  life  ;  its 
spirit,  —  universal  charity  and  love.  To  this 
worship  we  renew  the  dedication  of  our  house 
of  prayer.  To  this  we  hallow  these  enlarged 
walls,  with  all  that  art  and  skill  have  wrought 
within  them  to  make  the  place  of  our  assem- 
bling a  meet  offering  to  the  Most  High.  Of 
the  tender,  loving  spirit,  of  the  pervading, 
penetrating  power,  of  the  world-wide  charity, 
of  this  worship,  may  those  who  shall  stand  in 
this  pulpit  bear  faithful  testimony !  As  we 
come  to  this  altar,  may  it  be,  not  to  spend  an 
isolated  hour  in  holy  musing,  but  to  pour  out 
the  treasured  experiences  of  our  daily  devo- 


CHRISTIAN    WORSHIP.  23 

tion  and  our  constant  beneficence,  and  to 
•carry  hence  quickening  thoughts  for  perpe- 
tual, lifelong  communion  with  our  Saviour ! 
At  this  font  may  there  be  sealed  the  baptism, 
not  to  sacred  names  alone,  but  to  the  love  of 
the  Father ;  to  the  following  of  the  Lamb, 
whithersoever  he  goeth ;  to  the  reception  and 
the  diffusion,  in  pure  example,  kindly  en- 
deavor, and  broadcast  philanthropy,  of  the 
grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit !  As  the  stirring 
notes  of  this  majestic  organ  wake  the  heart 
and  attune  the  voice  to  the  high  praise  of 
God,  may  they  deepen  our  religious  affec- 
tions, start  the  quickened  throb  of  obedient 
purpose,  and  impart  generous  impulses  that 
shall  be  felt  in  our  whole  life  among  men ! 
Thus  may  we,  and  those  who  shall  come  after 
us  in  far-off  generations,  here  worship  the 
Father  in  spirit  and  in  truth ! 

And  now  let  every  heart  be  lifted  in  praise 
for  that  wonderful,  glorious  advent,  whose 
hour  was  struck  on  angel-harps  over  the  hill- 


24  CHRISTIAN   WORSHIP. 

tops  of  Bethlehem ;  that  birth  in  which  was 
born  all  that  can  give  pure  joy  on  earth, — 
all  that,  can  feed  the  hope  full  of  immortality. 
As  we  surround  our  tables,  and  gather  about 
us  those  dear  to  us  as  our  own  souls,  let  fer- 
vent thanks  go  forth  to  Him  whose  gospel  has 
created  home,  woven  its  indissoluble  bonds, 
inbreathed  its  virtues  and  its  charities,  inter- 
twined the  heart-fibres  of  its  holy  sympathies 
and  loves.  As,  in  our  gatherings,  there  come 
up  dear  memories  of  the  pure  and  lovely,  the 
true  and  faithful,  the  innocent  babe  and  the 
mature  in  age  and  goodness,  translated  before 
us  to  the  heavenly  society,  let  solemn  grati- 
tude ascend  to  Him  in  whom  those  who  were 
on  earth  united  are  not  separated  by  death ; 
and  through  whom  we  know,  that,  if  one  in 
him  with  those  who  sleep  in  him,  we  shall 
see  them  eye  to  eye  in  the  resurrection  of 
the  just.  And  as  this  anniversary  marks  for 
us  a  new  stage  of  our  passage  onward  in  the 
great  procession  from  dust  to  dust,  oh !   let 


CHRISTIAN    WORSHIP.  25 

our  hosannas  go  up,  from  hearts  that  feel  the 
power  of  his  resurrection,  to  Him  in  whom 
alone  the  dead  live  ;  and  who  hath  said,  "  He 
that  believeth  in  me  shall  never  die." 


II. 

CHRIST  AND  THE  FATHER  ONE. 


Preached  on  Sunday,  Dec.  26,  1858. 


John  x.  30  :   "I  and  my  Father  are  one." 

rpHTS  text  is  sometimes  quoted  in  support 
of  the  doctrine  of  Christ's  union  with 
God  as  a  person  in  the  Trinity.  But  I  can- 
not conceive  of  its  heing  so  quoted  by  any 
honest  man  who  can  read  the  Greek  of  the 
New  Testament.  Such  is  the  grammatical 
form  of  the  word  rendered  one,  that  it  cannot 
possibly  mean  one  person  or  one  being-.  The 
literal  translation  of  the  passage  is,  "I  and 
my  Father  are  one  thing; "  that  is,  "  Our  pur- 
pose and  aim,  as  to  the  subject  of  discourse, — 
the  safe-keeping  of  the  flock, — is  the  same.    I 


CHRIST   AND   THE    FATHER   ONE.  27 

will  not  suffer  them  to  be  plucked  out  of  my 
hand :  my  Father  will  not  suffer  them  to  be 
plucked  out  of  his  hand."  The  construction 
is  the  same  as  in  the  prayer  of  our  Saviour  in 
the  seventeenth  chapter  of  St.  John's  Gospel, 
where  he  says,  "  The  glory  which  thou  gavest 
me  I  have  given  them,  that  they  may  be  one 
even  as  we  are  one."  Thus  our  text  can  de- 
note no  other  union  between  Christ  and  God 
than  that  which  subsists  among  all  the  mem- 
bers of  Christ's  body ;  namely,  the  union  of 
feeling,  will,  and  endeavor. 

But  while,  as  a  proof-text  for  that  one  dis- 
puted doctrine,  our  text  has  no  weight  what- 
ever, it  seems  to  me  full  of  rich,  tender,  and 
encouraging  significance.  It  closes  that  sur- 
passingly beautiful  parable  of  the  sheep  and 
the  shepherd.  Jesus  has  represented  by  the 
most  touching  imagery  his  own  care  and  love 
for  his  flock ;  his  readiness  to  do  all  and  suffer 
all  for  them ;  nay,  even  to  lay  down  his  life 
for  them :  and  now,  to  add  force  to  these  as- 
surances, he  connects  the  Father's  name  with 


28       CHRIST  AND  THE  FATHER  ONE. 

his  own  in  his  mission  and  ward  of  redeeming 
mercy.  "  My  Father,  which  gave  them  me, 
is  greater  than  all ;  and  none  is  able  to  pluck 
them  out  of  my  Father's  hand.  I  and  my 
Father  are  one.'' 

Let  me  now  exhibit  to  you,  by  illustrations 
derived  from  what  might  take  place  in  a  hu- 
man family,  the  view  of  our  Saviour's  office 
which  seems  to  me  inconsistent  with  the  sen- 
timent of  the  text,  and  the  view  which  forces 
itself  upon  my  own  mind,  and  which  I  would 
gladly  leave  in  connection  with  these  words 
in  your  minds. 

In  the  first  place,  suppose  yourself,  my 
hearer,  the  wayward,  disobedient  child  of  a 
father,  virtuous  indeed,  and  kind  to  those 
who  really  deserve  his  kindness,  but  inexo- 
rably rigid  in  his  adherence  to  what  the  world 
calls  justice.  He  is  angry  with  you  for  your 
misdoings.  He  has  driven  you  from  his 
house,  and  threatened  to  disinherit  you,  and 
to  have  nothing  more  to  do  with  you.  You, 
however,  are  sincerely  penitent ;  you  acknow- 


CHRIST    AND    THE    FATHER   ONE.  29 

ledge  your  father's  claims  upon  you  ;  you 
long  to  be  received  home  again,  and  to  show 
the  genuineness  of  your  repentance  by  an 
altered  life  and  character.  Still  that  threat 
remains,  and  he  deems  himself  bound  in  honor 
not  to  recall  it.  At  this  juncture  a  compas- 
sionate friend  intervenes,  who  feels  deeply  for 
your  orphaned,  outcast  condition,  and  deter- 
mines to  do  all  that  he  can  to  restore  you  to 
your  father's  house.  He  goes  to  your  father, 
and  endeavors  to  appease  his  anger,  to  revive 
his  paternal  tenderness  for  you,  and  to  recon- 
cile him  to  you.  He  succeeds  only  with  great 
difficulty  ;  and,  in  order  to  satisfy  your  father's 
sensitiveness  to  the  word  which  has  gone  from 
him  that  he  will  not  receive  you  again,  he 
even  offers  to  take  upon  himself  a  punishment 
which  shall  be  set  off  in  the  scales  of  justice 
against  the  penalty  you  merit.  Now,  you 
would  never  say  of  such  a  friend,  that  he  and 
your  father  were  one.  They  are  as  far  apart 
as  two  beings  can  be.  The  one  is  all  stern, 
legal  justice ;   the  other,  all  love.     The  one, 


30  CHRIST    AND    THE    FATHER   ONE. 

retaining  the  name,  has  lost  the  heart,  of  a 
father ;  the  other,  without  the  name,  has  a  fa- 
ther's heart. 

I  will  make  now  a  different  supposition. 
You  are,  I  will  imagine,  wayward  and  disobe- 
dient ;  and,  of  your  own  accord,  you  have  left 
your  father's  house.  But  you  now  sincerely 
repent.  Your  first  thought  is,  "  My  offences 
are  too  great  to  be  forgiven."  You  know 
that  you  have  deserved  very  ill  of  a  father 
who  was  always  kind  to  you.  You  are  afraid 
to  cross  his  threshold.  You  dread  lest  his 
justice  may  be  too  severe  to  receive  you  again 
to  his  favor.  You  impute  to  him  the  harsh 
thoughts,  feelings,  and  judgment  for  which 
you  know  that  you  have  given  only  too  just 
cause.  But  your  father  takes  the  work  of 
reconciliation  into  his  own  hands.  He  sends 
to  you  a  dear  friend  of  his,  charged  to  tell  you 
that  your  father  loves  you  as  well  as  he  ever 
did ;  that  your  guilt  has  not  made  him  your 
enemy ;  that  his  arms  and  his  house  are  freely 
open  to  you,  whenever  you  will  return.     This 


CHRIST   AND    THE   FATHER   ONE.  31 

friend  seeks  you  out ;  tells  you  that  he  has 
come  .at  your  father's  request ;  talks  to  you 
tenderly  of  your  father's  inalienable  kindness 
and  affection ;  holds  forth  every  representa- 
tion that  can  be  of  avail  to  induce  you  to 
go  back  to  your  forsaken  home.  To  impress 
you  the  more  profoundly  with  the  truth  of  his 
words,  he  partakes  with  you  in  the  trials  and 
sufferings  of  your  exiled  condition,  and  makes 
heavy  and  painful  personal  sacrifices  while  he 
is  with  you  ;  assuring  you  all  the  while,  that, 
in  what  he  endures  for  love  of  you,  he  is  only 
manifesting  the  intensity  of  your  father's  love 
for  you.  Now,  of  that  friend  you  would  feel 
that  he  and  your  father  were  one ;  for,  in 
all  that  he  said,  did,  and  suffered,  you  would 
look  right  through  him  into  your  father's 
heart. 

These  illustrations  represent  two  widely  dif- 
ferent theories  with  reference  to  the  mission 
and  office  of  Christ.  According  to  one  of 
these  theories,  we  all  rest  for  our  sins  under 
an  inexorable  sentence  of  condemnation  and 


32      CHRIST  AND  THE  FATHER  ONE. 

eternal  punishment.  This  sentence  cannot  be 
turned  away  by  our  penitence.  The  penalty, 
or  its  equivalent,  must  be  somehow  borne,  — 
if  not  by  us,  by  a  substitute  who  shall  take 
upon  himself  the  sufferings  due  to  us  under 
the  divine  justice.  Jesus  interposes  to  appease 
the  divine  displeasure.  He  offers  himself  in 
our  stead  to  shame  and  agony.  He  satisfies 
for  us  the  stern  demands  of  justice  ;  and  God 
accepts  the  punishment  of  this  innocent  being 
instead  of  our  punishment.  Now,  I  maintain, 
that,  according  to  this  theory,  God  and  Christ 
are  not  one,  but  opposite  parties.  Nor  can  I, 
on  this  ground,  attach  any  meaning  to  such 
scriptures  as,  "  God  was  in  Christ,  reconciling 
the  world  unto  himself;"  or,  "  God  so  loved 
the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only-begotten  Son." 
For  scripture  appropriate  to  this  dogma,  I 
must  turn  away  from  the  New  Testament  to 
the  well-known  hymn :  — 

"  Rich  were  the  drops  of  Jesus'  blood, 
That  calmed  His  frowning  face  ; 
That  sprinkled  o'er  the  burning  throne, 
And  turned  the  wrath  to  grace." 


CHRIST    AND    THE    FATHER    ONE.  33 

Indeed,  one  fatal  objection  to  the  theory  now 
under  consideration  is,  that  there  is  no  inti- 
mation of  it  in  the  New  Testament,  —  not  one 
word  about  the  necessity  of  reconciling  God, 
about  substituted  or  vicarious  punishment,  or 
about  the  impossibility  of  God's  freely  forgiv- 
ing the  sins  of  the  penitent. 

Many,  however,  allege  their  own  felt  need 
as  their  reason  for  accepting  this  theory. 
They  say  that  they  are  conscious  of  guilt, 
which,  in  its  very  nature,  cannot  be  forgiven  ; 
that  they  dare  not  trust  the  divine  mercy  in 
and  of  itself;  that  they  cannot  come  to  God 
with  any  confidence,  except  through  the  blood 
of  the  innocent  victim.  I  admit  the  reality  of 
these  feelings.  They  form,  and  have  formed, 
a  part  of  the  religious  experience  of  thousands 
upon  thousands.  But  they  are  a  need  created 
by  the  very  doctrine  which  satisfies  it.  In  the 
earthly  relation  of  father  and  child,  if  you  so 
misapprehended  your  kind  father's  character 
as  to  suppose  that  on  no  account  whatever  he 
would   pardon  you,  nothing   could   give  you 


34  CHRIST   AND    THE    FATHER   ONE. 

assurance  of  your  favorable  reception  at  home, 
unless  some  one  took  upon  himself  the  punish- 
ment due  to  you.  In  like  manner,  if  your 
views  of  the  divine  character  forbid  you  to 
believe  that  God  can  freely  forgive  sin,  you 
can  suppose  yourself  forgiven  only  when  a 
substitute  appears  to  suffer  in  your  stead. 

The  other  theory  is  this.  Man  had,  by  ac- 
cumulated guilt,  merited  the  divine  displea- 
sure, and  incurred  the  inevitable  retribution 
which  must  follow  on  the  steps  of  unrepented 
sin.  But  God,  who  can  hate  nothing  that  he 
has  made,  looked  with  ineffable  pity  on  the 
self-degraded  and  sin-ruined  race.  He  saw  in 
the  manifestation  of  his  own  eternal  love  the 
only  force  which  could  overcome  the  power 
of  sin ;  which  could  call  forth  sincere  contri- 
tion, and  the  will  and  endeavor  to  return  to 
duty.  He  therefore  sends  from  his  throne 
one  who  shall  assume  the  form,  bow  to  the 
trials,  and  bear  the  sufferings,  of  his  alienated 
and  guilty  children  ;  and,  while  mingling  with 
them  in  the  profoundest  compassion  and  love, 


CHRIST  AND  THE  FATHER  ONE.      35 

shall  manifest  only  the  fulness  and  tenderness 
of  the  divine  pity.  He  appoints  for  this  Mes- 
senger from  heaven  death  under  circum- 
stances of  ignominy  and  bitter  agony,  because 
thus  only  can  love  manifest  its  sincerity  and 
intenseness  ;  and,  in  this  dying  love,  he  pours 
out  the  rich  fountain  of  his  own  paternal 
mercy.  It  is  his  own  sacrifice ;  and,  in  the 
pleadings  with  ungrateful  man  which  go  forth 
from  that  cross,  it  is  the  Father's  voice  we 
hear ;  it  is  the  Father  that  is  incarnated  in 
that  holy  Sufferer.  Every  look  and  accent  of 
the  Saviour's  love  is  a  reflection  of  the  always 
reconciled  countenance,  an  utterance  of  the 
always  tender  words  and  gracious  promises, 
of  Him  who  fills  the  throne  of  the  universe. 
In  this  view,  Christ  and  the  Father  are  one. 
They  are  not  opposing  parties,  but  consenting 
wills  and  counsels,  in  the  work  of  redemption. 
Do  you  ask,  however,  "  Was  it  not  essential 
that  God  should,  in  some  way,  or  by  the  pun- 
ishment of  some  victim,  manifest  his  hatred 
of  sin  ?  "     I  answer,  that  hatred  of  sin  is  not 


36       CHRIST  AND  THE  FATHER  ONE. 

displayed  by  the  punishment  of  the  innocent. 
Such  a  procedure  would,  on  the  contrary, 
evince  an  utter  indifference  to  those  moral 
distinctions  which  have  their  eternal  seat  in 
the  divine  attributes.  God  manifests  his  ha- 
tred of  sin  in  that  uniform  and  inevitable 
retribution  which  follows  sin  so  long  as  it 
lasts,  and  which  ceases  only  when  its  cause 
is  removed.  Nevertheless,  the  cross,  among 
its  many  offices,  does  manifest,  as  it  is  mani- 
fested in  no  other  way,  the  intrinsic  loath- 
someness of  sin,  —  of  all  sin  ;  for  it  was  pre- 
cisely such  sins  as  we  are  all  most  liable  to 
which  crucified  the  only  sinless  Being  that 
ever  trod  the  earth,  and  consummated  that 
outrage  from  which  the  very  heavens  with- 
drew their  light.  Yes,  in  that  cross,  in  which 
we  look  upon  the  fulness  of  the  divine  love,  we 
equally  behold  the  intensest  manifestation  of 
human  depravity :  and  its  searching,  wither- 
ing rebuke  rests  on  you  and  me  for  the  sins 
we  have  cherished ;  for  the  motions  of  sins  in 
our  hearts ;   for  the  least  seeds  of  those  pas- 


CHRIST  AND  THE  FATHER  ONE.      37 

sions  which  culminated  in  the  death  of  him 
who  came  to  dethrone  and  destroy  them. 

There  is  yet  another  aspect  in  which  I  wish 
to  present  the  sentiment  of  our  text,  "  I  and 
my  Father  are  one."  While  I  consider  our 
Saviour  as  at  the  head  of  God's  spiritual 
family,  and  render  to  him  honor,  adoration, 
and  praise,  limited  only  by  the  homage  due 
to  his  Father  and  ours,  I  cannot  set  aside  or 
explain  away  his  words,  "  The  Father  is 
greater  than  I ; "  nor  can  I  regard  as  self- 
derived  that  which  he  in  solemn  prayer  terms 
"  the  glory  which  Thou  hast  given  me  ;  "  nor 
can  I  suppose  that  he  is  praying  to  himself 
when  he  prays  to  God.  But  then  comes  the 
question,  "  Can  you  rely  on  a  created  being  ? 
Can  you  trust  in  less  than  an  almighty  Sa- 
viour ?  "  I  reply  unhesitatingly,  No.  My  soul 
can  rejoice  only  in  the  Lord  ;  my  spirit  can  be 
glad  only  in  God  my  Saviour.  I  can  lean  on 
nothing  less  than  Omnipotent  Love.  But  let 
us  try  the  issue  here  involved.  In  a  transac- 
tion between  man  and  man,  an  agent  comes 

4 


38      CHRIST  AND  THE  FATHER  ONE. 

to  you  with  authentic  credentials,  with  a 
power  of  attorney  from  a  person  with  whom 
you  have  important  business.  You  do  not 
trust  that  agent  in  his  own  character,  but 
only  as  the  representative  of  his  employer. 
His  signature  is  to  all  intents,  and  for  all 
uses,  his  employer's  signature.  His  contract 
with  you,  you  can  maintain  as  against  his 
employer ;  and  all  the  authority  of  the  State 
is  with  you  to  enforce  your  claim.  The  power 
of  attorney  makes  the  agent  and  his  principal 
one :  they  are  one  in  the  eye  of  the  law,  and 
by  every  rule  of  justice  and  equity.  An  am- 
bassador comes  from  France  or  England  with 
full  power  to  negotiate  a  treaty  with  our 
government.  The  terms  of  the  treaty  are 
agreed  upon  with  the  cabinet  at  Washington, 
and  ratified  by  the  Senate.  It  is  regarded  as 
a  treaty,  not  with  the  plenipotentiary,  but 
with  his  queen  or  his  emperor,  —  with  the  go- 
vernment that  gave  him  his  credentials.  He 
and  the  government  he  represents  are  one, 
and  are  held  as  one  by  the  law  of  nations  and 


CHRIST   AND   THE   FATHER   ONE.  39 

the  universal  sentiment  of  mankind.  Thus, 
when  Christ  comes,  and  shows  in  his  miracu- 
lous birth,  in  his  divine  character  and  works, 
in  his  resurrection  and  ascension,  credentials 
from  God  which  cannot  be  forged,  he  and  his 
Father  are  thenceforth  one.  His  words  are 
God's  words;  his  law,  God's  law;  his  pro- 
mises, God's  promises.  He  represents  the 
Almighty.  If  he  comes  from  God,  God  comes 
to  us  in  his  person.  He,  whom  mortal  eye 
else  has  not  seen,  is  made  visible  in  this  his 
fully  accredited  agent.  Our  trust  for  pardon 
and  salvation  is  not  reposed  in  a  created 
being,  —  not  even  in  "  the  First-born  of  every 
creature ; "  but  in  Him  who  is  from  eternity 
to  eternity.  "The  most  high  God  is  our 
refuge;   and  underneath  are  the   everlasting 


arms." 


Here,  then,  with  all  their  differences,  Chris- 
tian believers  are  virtually  agreed.  All  alike 
depend  on  an  almighty  Saviour.  Through 
Jesus  we  go  to  God;  and  God  draws  nigh 
to  us,  and  reveals  himself  to  our  familiar  know- 


40      CHRIST  AND  THE  FATHER  ONE. 

ledge  and  intimate  communion.  The  whole 
worth  of  Christ's  mission  depends  on  the  one- 
ness ascribed  in  our  text  to  the  Father  and  the 
Son,  —  their  oneness  of  will  and  purpose,  love 
and  mercy.  It  is  this  oneness  which  renders 
the  contemplation  of  our  Saviour's  character  so 
intensely  interesting.  In  learning  what  he  is, 
we  enter  into  the  mind  and  heart  of  God.  In 
comprehending  more  and  more  of  his  love,  we 
learn  how  tender  and  faithful  is  the  affection 
cherished  for  us  by  Him  who  gave  and  who 
sustains  our  being.  In  imitating  Jesus,  we 
become  followers  of  God. 

I  close  with  a  thought  suggested  by  our  text, 
in  the  connection  in  which  it  stands.  This  one- 
ness of  the  Son  with  the  Father  is  urged  solely 
by  way  of  encouragement,  at  the  close  of  one  of 
the  kindest  and  most  encouraging  of  all  our 
Saviour's  discourses.  The  idea  is,  "  We  are 
one  in  our  desire  and  endeavor  to  bring  and 
keep  together  the  flock  of  the  redemption-fold  ; 
we  are  united  in  the  most  assiduous  and  loving 
pastorate  for  all  who  will  place  themselves  un- 


CHRIST    AND   THE    FATHER    ONE.  41 

dcr  our  charge."  Now,  it  seems  to  me  that  the 
opposite  feeling  to  this  is  prevalent  in  some 
quarters,  — a  feeling  which  not  unfrequently  dis- 
courages and  disheartens  those  who  have  every 
reason  to  take  to  themselves  the  promises  and 
hopes  of  the  gospel.  The  feeling  is  as  if  the 
door  of  the  fold  were  jealously  guarded,  —  as 
if  some  harsh  and  severe  porter  stood  there  to 
challenge  those  who  desire  to  enter,  —  as  if 
there  were  a  stern  and  censorious  inquisition 
through  which  alone  one  can  pass  in.  Many 
remain  without  because  they  cannot  hope  to 
enter  through  such  an  ordeal ;  while  many 
more,  who  have  really  crossed  the  threshold, 
are  so  much  agitated  by  doubt  and  fear,  that 
they  know  not  whether  they  are  within  or  with- 
out. Now,  the  whole  tone  of  our  Saviour's 
discourses  is  that  of  free  invitation,  full  recep- 
tion, cordial  welcome,  wherever  desire  and  pur- 
pose, love  and  endeavor,  are  directed  toward 
duty,  God,  and  heaven.  Though  the  door  is 
not  wide  enough  to  admit  willing  guilt  or  cold 
indifference,  yet  it  seems  to  me  so  wide,  and  so 


42      CHRIST  AND  THE  FATHER  ONE. 

wide-open  always,  that  one  may  almost  enter 
without  knowing  it.  There  are,  I  think,  many 
Christians  who  dare  not  call  themselves  so ; 
and  the  very  solicitude  which  many  feel  lest 
they  may  have  been  presumptuous  in  taking 
upon  themselves  the  Saviour's  name,  is  a  soli- 
citude that  could  hardly  be  cherished  where 
there  was  good  reason  for  it.  "  To  this  man 
will  I  look,  saith  the  Lord,  —  to  him  that  is  poor 
and  of  a  contrite  spirit,  and  trembleth  at  my 
word." 

Should  not  we,  who  have  our  place  within 
the  visible  fold  of  Christ,  be,  in  this  regard,  one 
with  our  Father  and  our  Saviour  ?  I  would 
not  bate  one  jot  from  the  elevated  standard  of 
character  and  conduct  which  we  should  propose 
for  ourselves,  and  urge  more  by  example  than 
by  precept  upon  others.  Our  lives  ought  to 
honor  our  profession,  and  to  attest  the  sin- 
cerity of  our  faith.  But  we  should  be  as  genial 
and  cordial  in  our  welcome  of  others  to  the 
fold  as  we  are  strict  in  our  own  self-discipline. 
Wherever  there  are  Christian  desires  and  pur- 


CHRIST    AND   THE    FATHER   ONE.  43 

poses,  a  face  and  steps  manifestly  turned  Christ- 
ward,  a  looking  and  striving  for  the  things  that 
are  holy  and  divine,  there  should  we  be  prompt 
and  warm  in  our  proffers  of  fellowship,  feeling 
that  the  work  of  grace  is  there  begun,  and  may 
be  cherished  and  consummated,  though  not 
without  divine  aid,  yet  more  surely  and  effect- 
ually by  human  sympathy  and  helpfulness. 
While  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  the  Bride,  which 
is  the  Church  of  Christ,  say,  "  Come,"  let  those 
who  for  themselves  have  accepted  the  invita- 
tion say,  "  Come."  Let  them  echo  and  pro- 
long the  loving  call,  and,  in  the  name  of  the 
great  Master  of  the  household,  extend  its  hos- 
pitality wherever  they  can  find  a  willing  and 
thankful  guest.  "  Let  whosoever  will,  come, 
and  take  of  the  waters  of  life  freely." 


III. 

HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH   PARISH. 


Preached  Jan.  30,  1859. 


1  Kings  viii.  57 :   "  The  Lord   our  God   be  with  us,  as  he 
was  with  our  fathers." 

|~T  was  my  intention  to  give  you,  on  the 
twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  my  ordina- 
tion, a  sketch  of  the  history  of  the  South 
Parish ;  but  it  seemed  best  to  postpone  this 
till  we  should  be  re-assembled  in  our  usual 
place  of  worship.  I  propose  to  make  our 
parochial  history  the  subject  of  my  sermons 
this  and  the  next  Sunday  afternoon.  I  shall 
pass  rapidly  over  the  ecclesiastical  affairs  of 
the  town,  till  the  period  when  the  South 
Church  first  had  its  separate  existence. 

The  earliest  settlement  within  the  present 
limits  of  Portsmouth  was  made  in  1623 ;  the 


HISTORY    OF   THE    SOUTH    PARISH.  45 

first  church  was  gathered,  and  the  first  mini- 
ster settled,  in  1671.  From  this  delay,  too 
unfavorable  inferences  might  easily  be  drawn 
as  to  the  religious  character  of  our  fathers. 
There  is,  indeed,  no  doubt  that,  while  in  the 
colonization  of  Massachusetts  religious  motives 
were  foremost,  the  planters  on  the  Piscataqua 
established  themselves  here  chiefly  for  pur- 
poses connected  with  commerce  and  the  fisher- 
ies. Yet  that  higher  cares  and  interests  were 
not  neglected,  we  may  learn  from  the  fact,  that, 
as  early  as  1640,  a  grant  of  fifty  acres  of  land  — 
three-fourths  of  it  at  the  head  of  the  Creek,  the 
remainder  in  this  now  compact  part  of  the  city 
—  was  made  for  the  support  of  the  gospel  mini- 
stry. The  terms  of  that  grant  imply  that  there 
were  already  standing,  on  the  glebe-land,  a  cha- 
pel and  parsonage,  erected,  it  may  be,  several 
years  earlier.  But  most  of  the  settlers  were 
attached  to  the  church  of  England,  whose  per- 
manent ministrations  it  was  difficult  to  procure, 
and  still  more  difficult  to  defend  against  the  hos- 
tile  and  intrusive  jurisdiction  of  the  Massachu- 


46  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH   PARISH. 

setts  Bay  Colony.  The  chapel  and  parsonage 
occupied  a  site  on  what  is  now  Pleasant  Street, 
abutting,  on  the  north,  upon  the  present  site  of 
the  Universalist  Church.  The  twelve  and  a 
half  acres  of  glebe-land  extended  from  that 
spot  to  the  present  front  line  of  the  North 
Church,  and  were  bounded  by  lines  of  the  same 
length  running  westward.  Richard  Gibson,  an 
Episcopalian,  is  the  first  clergyman  known  to 
have  officiated  here ;  and  his  ministry  was  ar- 
rested by  a  summons  before  the  General  Court, 
at  Boston,  for  some  alleged  offence  against 
the  government  of  Massachusetts.  After  his 
departure,  various  clergymen,  probably  both 
Episcopal  and  Puritan,  were  transiently  em- 
ployed. 

The  chapel  was  perhaps  found  too  small  for 
the  increasing  population ;  and,  at  the  same 
time,  was  in  the  outermost  suburbs  of  the  town, 
which  was  built  principally  on  the  bank  of  the 
river,  and  extended,  in  a  southerly  direction, 
from  what  is  now  the  foot  of  Court  Street. 
Accordingly,  in  1G58,  a  new  meeting-house  was 


HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH    PARISH.  47 

erected  on  the  hill  below  the  South  Mill  Bridge, 
at  the  present  junction  of  Water  and  South 
Streets.  This  was  a  substantial  building  of 
sixty  feet  by  thirty,  with  galleries,  a  low  belfry 
and  a  bell,  the  windows  with  diamond  panes 
set  in  lead.  It  originally  had  no  pews ;  the 
men  and  women  being  seated  on  opposite  sides 
of  the  main  floor,  according  to  their  respective 
claims  to  precedence,  and  the  boys  and  girls 
occupying  places  in  opposite  galleries.  Pews 
were  subsequently  built,  in  various  parts  of  the 
edifice,  by  individual  worshippers.  A  cage,  a 
pillory  and  stocks,  in  the  early  New-England 
fashion,  brought  the  terrors  of  the  law  into 
close  proximity  to  the  milder  ministrations  of 
the  gospel. 

Rev.  Joshua  Moody  commenced  preaching 
here  about  the  time  of  the  completion  of  this 
meeting-house  ;  and,  in  1671,  was  ordained  over 
a  church  of  nine  members  then  organized.  In 
1684,  the  persecution  and  determined  hostility 
of  Cranfield,  the  royal  governor,  compelled  him 
to  leave  the  Province :   and  he  officiated  for 


48  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH   PARISH. 

several  years  as  assistant  minister  of  the  First 
Church  in  Boston  ;  making,  however,  frequent 
visits  to  his  flock  here,  aiding  them  by  his 
counsel,  and  observing,  by  special  exercises  of 
devotion  in  their  behalf,  all  their  stated  sea- 
sons of  fasting  and  prayer.  In  1693,  he  re- 
turned to  Portsmouth,  and  remained  in  the 
assiduous  exercise  of  his  pastorate  till  1697 ; 
when  he  died  at  Boston,  whither  he  had  gone 
for  medical  advice.  He  was  an  eminently  ju- 
dicious, devout,  and  faithful  minister  ;  and  left 
his  church  united  and  prosperous,  one  hundred 
and  sixty  members  having  been  added  during 
his  term  of  service.  He  was  succeeded  by 
Rev.  Nathaniel  Rogers,  son  of  the  President  of 
Harvard  College  ;  a  man  of  high  reputation  for 
learning,  piety,  and  usefulness.  It  is  during 
his  term  of  office  that  our  separate  history 
commences. 

Population  had  gradually  extended  back 
from  the  river,  and  northwardly  from  the  Mill 
Dam ;  till,  early  in  the  last  century,  there  had 
sprung  up  a  rivalry  and  collision  of  interests 


HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH    PARISH.  49 

between  the  old  part  of  the  town  and  the  new. 
At  the  south  end  lived,  for  the  most  part,  the 
descendants  of  the  original  settlers,  among 
whom  were  the  stoutest  workers,  the  most 
active  citizens,  and,  as  was  natural,  the  most 
resolute  conservatives.  The  northern  portion  of 
the  town  was  much  more  thinly  peopled,  and 
was  inhabited,  in  part,  by  government  officials 
of  considerable  income  and  influence ;  in  part 
by  new-comers,  who  had  built  more  ample 
mansions,  and  laid  out  grounds  on  a  larger 
scale  than  they  could  easily  have  found  room 
for  in  the  somewhat  crowded  village  about  the 
Mill  Dam.  As  I  understand  the  condition  of 
things,  within  the  more  compact  portion  of  the 
town,  numerical  strength  was  on  the  side  of 
the  southern,  the  preponderance  of  wealth  and 
personal  influence  on  that  of  the  northern,  fac- 
tion. The  latter  supplied  the  deficiency  in 
numbers  by  securing  the  co-operation  of  the 
inhabitants  of  what  is  now  Greenland  ;  promis- 
ing them,  in  return,  aid  in  obtaining  speedy 
incorporation  as  a  separate  town.     The  meet- 


50  HISTORY    OP   THE   SOUTH   PARISH. 

ing-house  near  the  Mill  Dam  was  the  property 
of  the  town  as  a  municipal  body  ;  and  the  funds 
for  the  support  of  the  ministry  were  assessed 
and  collected  as  a  part  of  the  tax  for  municipal 
purposes,  there  being  as  yet  no  legal  distinction 
between  the  town  and  the  parish.  The  meet- 
ing-house needed  extensive  repairs,  in  order  to 
its  continued  occupancy ;  and,  in  1712,  a  vote 
was  passed  for  the  erection  of  a  new  house  of 
worship  on  the  north-east  corner  of  the  glebe- 
land,  —  the  same  building  which  was  recently 
removed  to  make  room  for  the  present  North 
Church.  Jan.  7,  1713,  the  church  passed  a 
vote,  directing  Mr.  Kogers  to  preach  at  the 
new  meeting-house  on  and  after  the  third  Sun- 
day from  that  date.  I  am  inclined  to  think 
that  this  order  was  complied  with,  and  that,  for 
several  months,  the  inhabitants  all  met  for  wor- 
ship in  the  new  edifice. 

Meanwhile  deep  dissatisfaction  was  brooding 
at  the  south  end  ;  and  the  party  that  felt  itself 
aggrieved  found  a  resolute  leader  in  John  Pick- 
ering, second  of  the  name.     He  was,  we  have 


HISTORY    OF   THE   SOUTH    PARISH.  51 

reason  to  believe,  a  man  of  no  common  ability, 
and  of  wonderfully  versatile  powers  and  accom- 
plishments.   He  owned  and  managed  the  south 
mill.     He  was  a  licensed  innholder.     He  com- 
manded a  military  company.     He  was  a  car- 
penter ;  and  constructed,  by  contract  with  the 
town,  the  apparatus  for  the  punishment  of  evil- 
doers, which  stood  hard  by  the  meeting-house. 
He  was  a  lawyer,  and  appeared  as  counsel 
before  the  Supreme  Court,  in  a  case  involving 
the  titles  to  a  large  portion  of  the  real  estate  of 
his  fellow-citizens.     He  was  a  member  of  the 
Assembly  for  twelve  years,  and  Speaker  of  that 
body  for  nine.      He  evidently  was,  and   de- 
served to  be,  a  popular  man ;  and,  though  he 
undoubtedly  carried  into  ecclesiastical  affairs  a 
temper  ill  befitting  such  high  and  sacred  con- 
cerns, there  is  equally  little   doubt  that  he 
acted  in  behalf  of  what  he  believed  to  be  the 
right  and  interest  of  his  friends  and  neighbors. 
Sept.  9,  1713,  a  town-meeting  was  held,  of 
which  he  was  chosen  moderator.     The  meeting 
became  tumultuous ;  and  the  justices  present 


52  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH   PARISH. 

declared  it  dissolved,  and  forbade  all  farther 
proceedings.  Notwithstanding  this,  Picker- 
ing put,  and  his  party  carried,  several  votes, 
of  which  he  kept  the  minutes,  and  entered 
them  on  the  town-record,  the  town-clerk  re- 
fusing to  act :  the  purport  of  these  votes  being, 
that  the  old  meeting-house  is,  and  shall  for  ever 
be,  the  town  meeting-house,  to  be  replaced, 
when  no  longer  tenan table,  by  another  on  the 
same  spot ;  and  that  the  glebe-land  shall  be  for 
the  use  and  benefit  of  the  minister  who  shall 
officiate  at  the  old  meeting-house.  A  commit- 
tee was  then  appointed  to  confer  with  Mr. 
Rogers,  to  ascertain  whether  he  would  comply 
with  the  tenor  of  these  votes ;  and,  in  case  of 
his  refusal,  to  procure  a  minister  to  officiate  in 
the  old  meeting-house.  Mr.  Rogers,  as  was 
probably  anticipated,  declined  complying  with 
this  requisition  ;  and  Rev.  John  Emerson  was 
invited  by  the  committee  to  settle  over  the 
portion  of  the  inhabitants  represented  by  them. 
In  June  of  the  next  year,  at  a  general  town- 
meeting,  a  committee  was  chosen  to  call  and 


HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH    PARISH.  53 

settle  an  orthodox  and  learned  minister  at  the 
south  end ;  and  it  was  voted  to  pay  his  salary 
of  £100,  and  to  provide  for  him  a  house  at  the 
charge  of  the  town.  This  committee  ratified 
the  measures  taken  for  the  settlement  of  Mr. 
Emerson :  hut  the  authorities  of  the  town  re- 
fused to  comply  with  the  above-named  vote ; 
and,  after  several  unsuccessful  attempts  to  pro- 
cure by  legal  measures  the  stipulated  payment, 
the  South  Parish  was  left  to  its  own  resources 
for  the  support  of  its  minister.  In  March, 
1715,  Mr.  Emerson  was  installed ;  Rev.  Chris- 
topher Toppan,  of  Hampton,  giving  him  the 
Charge  ;  and  Rev.  Caleb  dishing,  of  Salisbury, 
Mass.,  and  Rev.  Theophilus  Cotton,  assist- 
ing in  the  services.  The  tradition  is,  that  a 
majority  of  the  church  adhered  to  Mr.  Emer- 
son ;  but  this  was  certainly  not  the  case  with 
a  majority  of  the  legal  voters  in  church-affairs. 

Mr.  Emerson  was  the  son  of  Rev.  John  Em- 
erson, of  Gloucester,  Mass.  He  was  born  at 
Ipswich,  Mass.,  in  1670 ;  was  graduated  at 
Harvard  University  at  the  age  of  nineteen  ;  was 

5 


54  HISTORY    OF   THE   SOUTH   PARISH. 

first  settled  at  Manchester,  Mass. ;  and  was  pas- 
tor of  the  church  in  Newcastle  from  1703  to 
1712.  In  1708,  he  visited  England  ;  was  pre- 
sented to  Queen  Anne,  and  was  received  by 
her  with  distinguished  favor.  His  portrait, 
which  many  of  us  have  seen,  represents  unusu- 
ally attractive  and  commanding  features,  and 
a  winning  expression  of  countenance  ;  and  he 
is  reported  to  have  been  a  man  of  engaging 
manners  and  conversation,  and  an  eloquent  and 
interesting  preacher.  That  he  was  earnest 
and  faithful  in  his  ministerial  office,  is  evinced 
by  the  large  accessions  to  the  church  during 
his  pastorate.  In  1727  occurred  what  was 
long  called  "  the  great  earthquake,"  which 
spread  terror  throughout  New  England,  and  was 
the  means  of  a  general  religious  awakening. 
In  the  course  of  the  following  year,  forty  persons 
were  added  to  Mr.  Emerson's  church ;  and  he 
was  so  profoundly  impressed  by  the  event  which 
had  led  to  this  increased  seriousness  in  his 
flock,  that  he  commemorated  its  anniversary 
by  solemn  religious  services,  for  the  residue  of 


HISTORY   OF   THE    SOUTH    PARISH.  55 

his  ministry.  In  1731,  the  present  Old  South 
Meeting-house  was  built  on  a  site  bequeathed 
to  the  parish  by  the  John  Pickering  who  had 
been  so  largely  instrumental  in  its  separate  or- 
ganization. A  portion  of  the  disused  meeting- 
house was  removed  to  the  site  now  occupied  by 
Congress  Block,  where  it  stood,  retaining  some 
of  the  original  windows,  till  it  was  taken  down 
to  make  room  for  the  present  edifice.  Another 
portion  formed  a  part  of  the  Old  South  School- 
house,  a  segment  of  which  was  removed  to 
Cabot  Street,  and  converted  into  a  dwelling- 
house.  Mr.  Emerson  offered  a  prayer,  after  the 
raising  of  the  new  meeting-house,  on  a  staging 
fixed  in  the  frame  ;  and  it  was  his  last  public 
service.     He  died  in  January,  1732. 

His  successor  at  Newcastle,  Rev.  William 
Shurtleff,  was  also  his  successor  here.  Mr. 
Shurtleff  was  born  at  Plymouth,  Mass.,  in  1689 ; 
was  graduated  at  Harvard  College  at  the  age 
of  eighteen  ;  and  was  ordained  at  Newcastle  in 
1712.  His  wife  was  the  sister  of  Hon.  Theo- 
dore Atkinson.     The  tradition  is,  that  she  mini- 


56  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH   PARISH. 

stered  largely  to  the  development  of  Christian 
forbearance,  meekness,  and  patience,  in  her 
husband,  and  that  her  connection  with  him  was 
the  severest  trial  of  his  life.  She  survived  him 
for  many  years  ;  and  one  of  my  aged  parishion- 
ers, who  died  a  few  years  after  my  settlement, 
distinctly  remembered  her.  I  have  in  my  pos- 
session a  piece  of  plate  bequeathed  by  her  for  the 
use  of  the  minister  of  the  South  Parish  for  the 
time  being.  She  also  bequeathed  in  the  same 
terms  a  portrait  of  her  husband  ;  which  was  un- 
fortunately suffered  to  pass  into  the  hands  of 
an  antiquary,  from  whom  I  have  in  vain  en- 
deavored to  reclaim  it. 

Mr.  Shurtleff  was  a  man  of  good  abilities, 
fervent  piety,  and  glowing  zeal.  He  was  warmly 
engaged  in  the  great  revival  of  religion  which 
commenced,  under  the  preaching  of  Whitefield, 
in  1740.  Whitefield  and  Gilbert  Tennent  visit- 
ed this  town,  and  preached  to  immense  multi- 
tudes. At  least  on  one  occasion,  perhaps  oft- 
ener,  Whitefield,  on  entering  the  pulpit  of  the 
South  Meeting-house,  found  a  much  larger  as- 


HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH   PARISH.  57 

sembly  outside  than  the  closely  packed  congre- 
gation within  the  walls  ;  and,  by  his  direction, 
the  pulpit  window  was  removed,  and  he,  stand- 
ing on  the  window-sill,  preached  to  the  crowds 
that  filled  the  seats  and  aisles,  covered  the  hill, 
and  thronged  the  adjacent  streets,  yards,  en- 
tries, and  windows.  In  the  "  Christian  History,'' 
a  periodical  printed  weekly  in  Boston  in  1743 
and  1744,  there  are  two  letters  from  Mr.  Shurt- 
leff  giving  an  account  of  the  revival  here. 
With  some  procedures  that  certainly  savored  of 
wild  fanaticism,  he  describes  much  that  indi- 
cates a  piire  and  precious  spiritual  influence,  a 
felt  power  of  divine  realities,  the  awakening  of 
professing  Christians  to  unwonted  religious 
vitality,  and  the  conversion  of  many  that  had 
been  opposers  and  scoffers.  On  a  candid  review 
of  the  history  of  that  period,  we  cannot  but  be- 
lieve, that  though  Whitefield  was  blameworthy, 
and  so  subsequently  confessed  himself,  for  bit- 
ter censoriousness  in  his  treatment  of  the  set- 
tled clergy,  and  though  his  itinerancy  led  to  ex- 
cesses and  extravagances  which  breathed  more 


58  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH    PARISH. 

of  animal  passion  than  of  Christian  piety,  he 
yet  found  in  the  New-England  churches  a  cold- 
ness and  declension,  which,  by  his  instrumen- 
tality, gave  place  to  an  earnest,  active,  and  per- 
sistent interest  in  divine  things  ;  and  while  the 
still  small  voice,  if  it  be  from  God,  is  to  be 
preferred  to  more  vehement  outpourings  of 
religious  zeal,  far  better  is  the  fire  or  the 
whirlwind  than  the  apathy  of  spiritual  death. 

Mr.  Shurtleff  published  several  sermons,  two 
of  which  I  have  seen.  These,  and  his  contri- 
butions to  the  "  Christian  History,''  would  lead 
me  to  place  a  high  estimate  on  his  ability  as 
a  writer,  as  well  as  on  his  faithfulness  and 
efficiency  as  a  preacher.  During  his  ministry, 
harmony  was  restored  between  the  North  and 
the  South  Church ;  and,  from  that  time  till 
1819,  their  pastors  were  in  the  habit  of  fre- 
quent interchange  and  union  in  the  services  of 
religion.  He  died  in  1747 ;  and  his  remains 
were  deposited,  as  were  those  of  his  successor, 
under  the  communion-table  of  the  South 
Meeting-house. 


HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH   PARISH.  59 

The  pulpit  remaining  vacant,  in  1749   the 
parish  sent  two  of  their  number  to  Northamp- 
ton, Mass.,  to  invite  Mr.  Job  Strong  to  visit 
Portsmouth,  with  a  view  to  his  settlement.    Mr. 
Strong  was  born  at  Northampton  in  1724,  and 
graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1747.     On  leav- 
ing college,  he  was  recommended  to  the  Com- 
missioners of  the  English  Society  for  the  Pro- 
pagation of  the  Gospel,  by  David  Brainerd, 
their  eminent  and  devoted  missionary,  then 
approaching  the  close  of  life,  as  a  suitable  per- 
son to  be  employed  as  a  missionary  to  the  In- 
dians of  the  Six  Nations.     Mr.  Strong  received 
the  appointment,  and  spent  several  months  at 
Bethel,  N.J.,  with  John  Brainerd,  the  brother 
and  successor  of  David,  who  presided  over  a 
settlement  and  church  of  converted  Indians. 
A  letter  from  him  to  his  parents,  written  from 
Bethel,  is  preserved  in  the  last  London  edition 
of  the  Works  of  Jonathan  Edwards.     It  is  cre- 
ditable equally  to  his  head  and  his  heart ;  show- 
ing nice  discrimination  in  his  judgment  of  what 
had  and  what  had  not  been  done  among  the 


60  HISTORY   OF  THE   SOUTH   PARISH. 

Bethel  Indians,  a  kind  and  sympathizing  appre- 
ciation of  all  that  was  hopeful  in  their  state, 
and  an  earnest  devotion  to  the  work  before  him. 
At  the  same  time,  the  letter  is  free  from  cant 
and  extravagance  in  language ;  is  singularly 
calm ;  marks  a  maturity  of  intellect  beyond 
his  years ;  and  evinces  that  he  had  entered  his 
Master's  vineyard,  not  with  the  hot  zeal  of  a 
novice,  but  with  the  deliberate  purpose  of  one 
who  had  counted  the  cost,  and  made  his  life- 
long choice  of  the  service.  From  Bethel  he 
started  for  his  destined  post  in  Central  New 
York ;  but  on  reaching  Schoharie,  then  a  fron- 
tier settlement  in  the  wilderness,  he  was  ar- 
rested by  illness,  and  obliged  to  return.  It 
was  while  he  was  seeking  to  re-establish  his 
health  at  his  native  home,  that  Matthew  Liver- 
more  and  Henry  Sherburne  visited  him  in  be- 
half of  this  parish.  Mr.  Edwards,  his  pastor 
and  spiritual  father,  consented  that  he  should 
go  to  Portsmouth,  only  on  the  pledge  of  these 
gentlemen  that  they  would  not  use  their  influ- 
ence toward  his  settlement  here.     They  kept 


HISTORY   OP  THE   SOUTH    PARISH.  61 

their  word  ;  but  the  parish  was  not  pledged, 
and  very  soon  gave  him  a  call  to  become  their 
pastor.  He  returned  a  negative  answer,  and 
took  measures  toward  resuming  his  suspended 
missionary  enterprise ;  but  his  health  was  so 
far  impaired,  that  he  was  pronounced  inade- 
quate to  a  charge  involving  the  utmost  expo- 
sure and  fatigue.  The  call  from  Portsmouth 
was  then  renewed  and  accepted. 

He  was  ordained  on  the  28th  of  June,  1749. 
The  ordination  sermon  was  preached  by  his 
pastor,  Jonathan  Edwards,  so  justly  regarded 
as  the  greatest  mind  of  his  century  in  theology 
and  metaphysics.  I  have  the  sermon.  It  is  a 
faithful  and  earnest  exhibition  of  Jesus  Christ 
as  the  example  for  his  ministers,  on  the  text, 
"  For  I  have  given  you  an  example,  that  ye 
should  do  as  I  have  done  to  you.  Yerily, 
verily,  I  say  unto  you,  The  servant  is  not 
greater  than  his  lord,  neither  he  that  is  sent 
greater  than  he  that  sent  him."  A  curious 
anecdote  with  reference  to  this  service  is  re- 
lated, in  the  Memoir  of  Edwards,  by  his  grand- 


62  HISTORY   OF   THE  SOUTH   PARISH. 

son.  A  daughter  of  Mr.  Edwards  (afterwards 
Mrs.  Dwight,  mother  of  President  Dwight), 
then  fifteen  years  of  age,  had  preceded  her 
father  on  a  visit  to  a  friend  of  the  family  in 
Portsmouth.  On  the  morning  of  the  ordina- 
tion, Mr.  Edwards  not  having  arrived,  Father 
Moody,  of  York,  Me.,  whose  eccentricities  have 
left  their  enduring  remembrance,  agreed  to 
preach  in  case  of  the  failure  of  the  expected 
preacher.  The  council  delayed  as  long  as  pos- 
sible, and  then  repaired  to  the  meeting-house. 
Mr.  Moody  rose  to  offer  the  prayer  before  ser- 
mon. In  this  he  besought  the  Lord  that  the 
congregation  might  be  suitably  humbled  under 
the  frown  of  his  providence,  in  not  being  per- 
mitted to  hear  the  discourse  anticipated  from 
his  eminent  servant,  —  Rev.  Mr.  Edwards,  of 
Northampton ;  and  proceeded  to  thank  God 
for  such  a  burning  and  shining  light,  for  his 
uncommon  piety,  his  great  excellence  and  re- 
markable success  as  a  preacher,  and  his  talents 
and  wisdom  as  a  writer.  He  then  went  on  to 
implore  the  divine  blessing  on  the  daughter  of 


HISTORY   OP   THE   SOUTH   PARISH.  63 

Mr.  Edwards  there  present,  who,  though  a  very 
worthy  and  amiable  young  lady,  was  still,  there 
was  reason  to  fear,  in  an  unconverted  state ; 
praying  that  God  would  not  suffer  her  peculiar 
privileges  to  be  the  means  of  her  more  aggra- 
vated condemnation.  Just  as  this  remarkable 
prayer  was  commenced,  Mr.  Edwards  had  rid- 
den on  horseback  to  the  door  of  the  meeting- 
house, noiselessly  entered  the  pulpit,  and  taken 
his  place  behind  Mr.  Moody.  When  the  prayer 
was  closed,  Mr.  Moody  saw  Mr.  Edwards,  gave 
him  his  hand,  and  said  to  him,  in  the  hearing 
of  the  congregation,  "  Brother  Edwards,  we 
are  all  of  us  much  rejoiced  to  see  you  here 
to-day ;  and  nobody,  probably,  as  much  so  as 
myself:  but  I  wish  that  you  might  have  got  in 
a  little  sooner,  or  a  little  later  ;  or  else  that  I 
might  have  heard  you  when  you  came  in,  and 
known  that  you  were  here.  I  didn't  intend  to 
flatter  you  to  your  face  :  but  there's  one  thing 
I'll  tell  you ;  they  say  "  —  alluding  to  the 
profoundness  of  his  metaphysical  subtilty  in 
things  pertaining  to  salvation  —  "  that   your 


64  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH   PARISH. 

wife  is  going  to  heaven  by  a  shorter  road  than 
yourself." 

Mr.  Strong  entered  with  earnestness  and  vigor 
upon  his  labors ;  but  his  ministry  lasted  little 
more  than  two  years.  One  Saturday  in  Sep- 
tember, 1751,  his  only  child,  an  infant  of  but 
a  few  days,  was  buried.  On  the  next  morning 
he  preached  from  the  text,  "  Though  I  walk 
through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,  I 
will  fear  no  evil."  He  went  home  but  to  pre- 
pare for  that  fearless  passage.  Before  the 
hour  of  afternoon  service,  he  was  seized  with 
severe  illness ;  and  died  in  the  course  of  the 
next  day,  leaving  long  regret  and  a  blessed 
memory. 

I  have  now  brought  my  narrative  down  to  a 
ministry  whose  beginnings  were  fresh  in  the 
remembrance  of  a  few  of  my  older  parishioners 
when  I  was  first  settled,  and  whose  latter  years 
are  within  the  recollection  of  the  older  portion 
of  my  present  hearers.  Next  Sunday  after- 
noon, I  hope  to  resume  and  complete  my  sketch 
of  our  parochial  history. 


IY. 

HISTORY  OF  THE   SOUTH  PARISH. 

(CONTINUED.) 


Preached   Feb.    6,    1859. 


1  Kings  via.  57 :  "  The  Lord  our   God   be  with   us  as  he 

WAS   WITH  OUR  FATHERS." 

AST  Sunday  afternoon,  I  brought  down  the 
history  of  our  parish  to  the  close  of  Mr. 
Strong's  brief  pastorate.  His  successor  was 
Rev.  Samuel  Haven.  He  was  born  at  Framing- 
ham,  Mass.,  in  1727 ;  was  graduated  at  Harvard 
University  in  1749  ;  studied  theology  with  Rev. 
Mr.  Parkman,  of  Westborough,  Mass. ;  received 
and  declined  invitations  to  settle  in  Brookfield, 
Med  way,  Braintree,  and  Brookline,  Mass. ;  ac- 
cepted a  unanimous  invitation  here,  and  was 
ordained  in  May,  1752 ;  Rev.  Jeremiah  Wise, 


6Q  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH   PARISH. 

of  Berwick,  Me.,  preaching  the  sermon.  When 
a  boy  of  thirteen,  he  had  been  greatly  impressed 
by  Whitefield's  preaching ;  and  had,  from  that 
time,  resolved  to  consecrate  himself  to  the 
ministry  of  the  gospel.  He  possessed  a  large 
portion  of  the  best  endowments  for  his  work, 
and  was  for  many  years  one  of  the  most  popu- 
lar preachers  of  his  time ;  a  fact  evinced  by 
the  frequency  with  which  he  was  called  upon 
to  officiate  on  important  public  occasions.  In 
early  life,  his  delivery  was  unusually  fervent 
and  impassioned.  Until  a  comparatively  re- 
cent period,  it  was  customary  here,  at  funerals, 
to  have  an  address  delivered  at  the  grave  :  and 
there  are  extant  numerous  testimonials  to  Dr. 
Haven's  extraordinary  pathos  and  eloquence  in 
that  class  of  services ;  in  which,  said  Dr.  Buck- 
minster,  "  for  variety,  copiousness,  tenderness, 
and  pertinency  of  address,  he  was  rarely 
equalled,  never  exceeded. "  His  numerous 
published  sermons  display  clearness  of  method, 
simplicity  and  directness  of  style,  and  a  free- 
dom —  rare  in  the  last  century  —  from  the 


HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH   PARISH.  67 

metaphysics  and  technicalities  of  doctrinal  theo- 
In his  opinions,  I  suppose  thai  he  should 
be  classed  with  the  Arminian  or  more  liberal 
portion  of  the  New-England  clergy  ;  who  were 
also  called  moderate  Calvinists,  though  they 
were  as  remote  from  Calvinism  as  are  the  more 
liberal  of  the  so-called  Orthodox  divines  of  the 
present  day.  His  loving  heart  led  him  to 
speculate  with  Chauncy  on  the  final  restora- 
tion of  the  impenitent  to  the  divine  favor. 
But  this  doctrine  he  did  not  regard  as  a  re- 
vealed truth  ;  and  was,  therefore,  unwilling  to 
preach  it.  The  only  form  in  which  he  pro- 
mulgated it  was  in  a  poem  devoted  to  its 
development,  with  the  following  note  prefixed  : 
"  The  author  means  only  modestly  to  hint  the 
sentiments  contained  in  this  ode  to  the  public 
mind  for  their  consideration." 

This  poem  appears  in  a  pamphlet  of  twenty- 
three  pages,  entitled  "  Poetic  Miscellanies," 
published  when  Dr.  Haven  had  passed  his 
seventy-first  year.     The  pieces  are  nearly  all 


68  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH   PARISH. 

devotional ;  and  display,  not  indeed  a  poetic 
ability  which  would  have  given  the  author 
extended  fame,  but  a  warm  and  vivid  fancy, 
an  easy  command  of  various  measures,  a 
quick  ear  for  rhythm  and  euphony,  and  a  high- 
ly cultivated  taste.  One  of  them  is  an  im- 
promptu epigram,  which  passed  from  paper 
to  paper  and  from  mouth  to  mouth,  as  the 
best  thing  ever  said,  in  brief,  about  Washing- 
ton. The  question  was  asked,  among  a  circle 
of  gentlemen  who  were  making  arrangements 
for  the  reception  of  the  first  President,  what 
was  the  appropriate  title  by  which  he  should 
be  addressed.  Dr.  Haven  gave  instant  utter- 
ance to  the  following  stanza  :  — 

"  Fame  spread  her  wings,  and  with  her  trumpet  blew,  — 
'  Great  Washington  is  near !     What  praise  his  due  ? 
What  title  shall  he  have  ?  '     She  paused,  and  said, 
'  Not  one :  his  name  alone  strikes  every  title  dead.'  " 

Dr.  Haven  was  singularly  assiduous  and 
faithful  as  a  pastor.  At  a  period  when  the 
intercourse  of  most  clergymen  with  their  peo- 
ple was  distant,  reserved,  and  formal,  he  cul- 


HISTORY   OP   THE   SOUTH   PARISH.  69 

tivated  the  most  intimate  relations  with  all  his 
parishioners,  and  with  none  more  intimate 
than  with  the  children  of  his  flock.  He  had 
pursued  the  study  of  medicine  to  a  consider- 
able extent ;  and,  without  interfering  with 
the  regular  faculty,  he  was  wont  to  prescribe 
gratuitously  for  those  too  poor  to  employ  a 
physician.  From  an  income  never  ample,  and 
with  a  very  large  family,  he  found  the  means 
for  extensive  almsgiving.  During  the  war  of 
the  Revolution,  when  his  salary  was  in  arrears, 
and  his  resources  were  scanted  in  every  way, 
he  shared  his  little  with  those  who  had  nothing. 
At  one  time,  there  were  no  fewer  than  forty 
widows  in  his  parish ;  most  of  them  in  desti- 
tute circumstances.  There  were  living,  in  the 
earlier  part  of  my  ministry,  a  considerable 
number  of  these  pensioners  on  his  kindness ; 
and  I  never  visited  them,  without  their  speak- 
ing to  me  of  his  sympathy,  gifts,  and  efficient 
services,  in  the  stress  of  their  need.  His  name 
was  on  their  lips  in  the  very  agony  of  death. 
Some  of   them   have   told   me,   that,   in   the 

6 


70  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH   PARISH. 

absence  of  the  public  and  private  charities 
now  so  liberally  dispensed,  his  care  and  gene- 
rosity were  all  that  stood  between  them  and 
utter  despair. 

For  forty-seven  years  he  preached  constant- 
ly, and  performed  all  the  duties  of  his  parish : 
but,  for  the  last  three  years  of  that  period,  he 
had  been  sinking  under  the  infirmities  of  age ; 
and,  in  1799,  a  colleague  was  settled  with 
him,  who  remained  here  six  years,  leaving 
him  again  sole  pastor  for  the  last  year  of  his 
life.  Shortly  after  the  settlement  of  his  col- 
league, he  preached  and  published  a  sermon 
on  the  occasion ;  which  is,  I  think,  the  best 
of  all  his  printed  sermons ;  and,  though  it 
breathes  the  tender  solemnity  of  one  just 
resigning  his  charge,  betrays  no  failure  in 
mental  vigor,  or  in  clearness  and  precision  of 
thought.  For  two  or  three  years  longer,  he 
occasionally  preached  ;  and  several  times, 
when,  too  feeble  to  ascend  the  pulpit-stairs, 
he  was  obliged  to  conduct  the  service  in  the 
deacons'  seat  below.     He  commonly  presided 


HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH    PARISH.  71 

at  the  communion-service  till  the  autumn  of 
1804 ;  and,  when  I  first  came  hither,  there 
were  many  living  who  remembered  his  im- 
pressive farewell  of  the  altar  at  which,  for 
fifty-two  years,  he  had  broken  the  bread  of 
life.  For  a  year  and  a  half  before  his  death, 
he  was  in  a  state  of  entire  mental  imbecility, 
and  of  great  bodily  suffering.  He  died  in 
March,  1806.  His  wife  —  who  had  attended 
him  constantly  during  his  decline,  and  seemed 
in  her  usual  health  at  the  time  of  his  decease 
—  survived  him  but  thirty-six  hours ;  and 
their  bodies  were  laid  together  in  his  family 
tomb,  under  the  pulpit  of  the  Old  South 
Meeting-house  ;  Rev.  Dr.  Buckminster  preach- 
ing the  funeral  sermon,  on  the  text,  "  A  son 
of  consolation." 

The  early  part  of  his  ministry  was  emi- 
nently prosperous  ;  but,  a  large  portion  of  his 
parishioners  being  in  mercantile  and  mari- 
time professions,  the  distresses  attending  the 
Revolutionary  war  were  felt  among  them  with 
peculiar  severity.      When   the  depression  re- 


72  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH   PARISH. 

suiting  from  this  cause  was  relieved,  his 
strength  was  rapidly  on  the  wane  ;  and  the 
popular  talents  which  distinguished  him  for 
many  years  had  given  place  to  a  diminished 
energy  and  eloquence  of  style  and  manner. 
At  the  same  time,  Dr.  Buckminster,  in  the 
North  Church,  was  nearing  the  meridian  of 
his  merited  fame ;  and  bore  a  reputation  for 
his  pulpit  services,  which,  I  think,  has  never 
been  surpassed,  if  equalled,  by  any  clergyman 
in  New  Hampshire.  In  the  early  years  of  the 
present  century  also,  Elias  Smith,  the  founder 
of  the  Christian  denomination,  commenced 
preaching  in  this  town ;  and,  by  his  rude  but 
commanding  and  attractive  powers,  drew  into 
his  newly  gathered  flock  large  numbers  from 
both  of  the  Congregational  societies.  The 
natural  consequence  of  these  causes  was  a 
marked  decline  of  the  South  Parish  in  num- 
bers and  ability ;  a  decline  which  would  have 
been  much  more  disastrous,  and  less  easily 
retrieved,  had  not  several  of  Dr.  Haven's  own 
children  —  of  whom  twelve  attended  his  fu- 


HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH   PARISH.  73 

neral  —  already  assumed  prominent  places  as 
citizens,  and  devoted  their  substance,  services, 
and  influence,  with  generous  zeal,  to  the  in- 
terests of  the  religious  organization  endeared 
to  them  by  the  bonds  and  associations  of  filial 
piety. 

I  spoke  of  the  settlement  of  a  colleague  with 
Dr.  Haven.  This  colleague  was  Rev.  Timothy 
Alden,  a  lineal  descendant  of  the  John  Alden 
who  came  to  Plymouth  in  the  "  Mayflower." 
He  was  the  son  of  Rev.  Timothy  Alden,  of 
Yarmouth,  Mass.  ;  was  born  in  1771,  and 
graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  1794.  He 
was  distinguished  in  college,  and  subsequent- 
ly as  an  Oriental  scholar ;  and  delivered, 
on  taking  his  degree,  a  Syriac  oration,  — 
probably  the  only  one  ever  uttered  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic.  He  was  so  well  versed 
in  the  Hebrew,  that  he  translated  into  that 
language  the  "  Assembly's  Shorter  Cate- 
chism ;  "  adding,  I  suppose,  very  little  to 
its  obscurity.  He  was  ordained  here  in  1799 ; 
Rev.  Dr.  Holmes,   of  Cambridge,   preaching 


74  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH   PARISH. 

the  sermon.  He  was  a  man  of  fervent  piety, 
active  benevolence,  and  no  mean  order  of  pro- 
fessional ability.  He  was  an  assiduous  pastor, 
and  manifested  especial  solicitude  for  the  good 
of  the  children  under  his  charge.  He  esta- 
blished what  might  seem  an  anticipation  of 
the  Sunday  school ;  gathering  the  young  per- 
sons of  the  parish  at  stated  seasons  for  the 
recitation  of  scriptural  lessons,  and  giving 
printed  certificates  to  those  who  reached  a 
specified  standard.  The  whole  number  that 
attended  these  exercises  was  one  hundred  and 
thirty-five. 

His  ministry,  while  it  had  many  elements 
that  promised  success,  was,  nevertheless,  a 
failure.  For  this  there  were  several  reasons. 
He  was  a  strong  Calvinist,  and  a  large  ma- 
jority of  his  parishioners  were  opposed  to  him 
in  theological  belief.  His  support  was  in- 
adequate, and  he  was  obliged  to  devote  much 
of  his  time  to  the  duties  of  a  school  for  young- 
ladies.  He  lacked  worldly  wisdom,  and  in- 
volved himself  in  several  unfortunate  secular 


HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH    PARISH.  75 

enterprises.  He  seems  to  have  had  no  con- 
tinuity of  purpose ;  and,  while  in  labors  more 
abundant,  he  wasted  much  of  his  energy  in 
desultory  plans  and  endeavors.  Inability  to 
continue  the  payment  of  his  salary  was  the 
ostensible  ground  of  his  dismission ;  but  this 
inability  would  not  have  existed,  had  he  proved 
himself  in  all  respects  adapted  to  his  situation. 
After  his  dismission,  he  continued  his  school 
here  for  three  years ;  and  was  afterward  en- 
gaged in  similar  schools  in  Boston,  and  in 
Newark,  N.J.  He  subsequently  laid  the 
foundations  of  Alleghany  College,  at  Mead- 
ville,  Penn.  ;  and  was  inaugurated  as  titular 
President  of  that  institution  in  1817.  He 
procured  funds  for  the  erection  of  a  spacious 
college  building,  collected  for  his  infant  semi- 
nary an  admirable  library,  and  obtained  for 
it  an  excellent  chemical  apparatus.  But  his 
own  sons  and  nephews  were  almost  the  only 
alumni  of  the  college,  of  which  he  constituted 
the  entire  Faculty;  until,  in  1831,  the  fran- 
chise and  property  passed  into  the  hands  of 


76  HISTORY   OF  THE   SOUTH   PARISH. 

the  Methodists,  under  whose  auspices  the  in- 
stitution has  attained  a  high  degree  of  pro- 
sperity. He  died  at  Pittsburg,  Penn.,  in 
1839. 

After  Dr.  Haven's  death,  the  pulpit  was 
supplied  for  two  years  by  various  clergymen. 
In  December,  1806,  St.  John's  Church  was 
burned  ;  and,  for  most  of  the  interval  which 
elapsed  before  the  completion  of  their  present 
church,  the  Episcopal  congregation  occupied, 
with  ours,  the  Old  South  Meeting-house  ;  the 
same  minister  not  infrequently  officiating  for 
both  parishes,  —  reading  the  Liturgy  one  part 
of  the  sabbath,  and  using  the  Congregational 
forms  for  the  other. 

In  September,  1808,  Rev.  Nathan  Parker 
was  ordained  pastor  of  this  church.  He  was 
born  at  Reading,  Mass.,  in  1782;  and  gra- 
duated at  Harvard  College  in  1803.  He 
studied  his  profession  with  Rev.  Dr.  Bancroft, 
of  Worcester,  Mass.,  who  preached  his  ordina- 
tion sermon. 

To  the  many  still  surviving  who  knew  Dr. 


HIST0IU'    OF   THE   SOUTH    PARISH.  77 

Parker,  and  in  whose  memory  his  image  can 
never  lose  its  characteristic  features,  it  would 
be  needless  for  me  to  do  more  than  mention 
his  name.  But  I  am  already  surrounded  by 
a  generation  that  have  seen  only  his  portrait 
and  his  monument.  For  them  I  would  say, 
that  of  manly,  Christian,  and  ministerial  ex- 
cellences, so  full  and  rich  an  impersonation  is 
seldom  found,  even  among  the  best  and  the 
most  gifted.  Devout  without  ostentation,  keen- 
ly discriminating  as  to  character,  direct  and 
frank  in  his  intercourse,  perseveringly  kind, 
courageous  and  resolute  in  difficult  and  pain- 
ful duty,  assiduous  in  all  the  charities  of  his 
profession,  foremost  in  every  good  work  for 
the  community,  a  discreet  counsellor,  a  friend 
always  to  be  depended  on,  —  his  countenance 
and  manner  indicating  at  once  the  hardiest 
and  the  most  amiable  traits  of  character,  so 
beautifully  blended  that  you  could  not  say 
which  predominated,  —  he  assumed  at  once, 
in  the  parish  and  in  the  town,  a  place  and  in- 
fluence  such   as   few  have   ever    maintained 


78  HISTORY   OF  THE   SOUTH   PARISH. 

among  us ;  and,  had  he  not  confined  himself 
even  too  exclusively  to  his  duties  here,  he 
would  have  been  universally  recognized  —  as 
he  was  by  all  who  knew  him  —  as  second  to  no 
minister  of  his  time  and  denomination.  His 
fidelity  and  tenderness  as  a  pastor ;  his  won- 
derful power  of  insinuating  needed  counsel  in 
his  peculiarly  laconic  style,  so  as  to  say  all 
that  could  be  of  avail,  without  the  formality  of 
a  professional  adviser,  and  without  room  for 
the  most  sensitive  to  take  umbrage  ;  his  loving 
and  efficient  sympathy  with  the  afflicted, 
sick,  and  dying ;  his  singular  capacity  of 
enlisting  and  organizing  co-operation  in  his 
plans  of  improvement  and  usefulness,  —  these 
are  among  the  unexhausted  themes  of  admira- 
tion among  all  who  were  conversant  with  his 
ministry. 

In  his  mien  and  manner  as  a  preacher,  there 
was  a  simple  dignity,  an  unstudied  solemnity, 
which  impressed  strangers  with  unwonted 
reverence  and  seriousness,  and  which  only 
deepened  that  impression  on  those  who  were 


HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH    PARISH.  79 

his  constant  hearers.  His  sermons  were  full 
of  sound  thought  and  calmly  fervent  feeling ; 
seldom  impassioned,  never  feeble.  With  little 
rhetorical  ornament,  with  no  display  of  elo- 
quence, his  simplicity,  chasteness,  directness, 
and  force  of  diction,  never  failed  to  enchain 
attention,  to  arouse  earnest  interest,  and  to 
leave  ample  food  for  self-reflection  and  self- 
chastening.  In  examining  his  manuscripts 
after  his  death,  with  a  view  to  publication, 
I  was  astonished  and  perplexed  in  finding 
hardly  any  sermons  that  either  rose  above  or 
fell  below  the  average  high  order  of  excellence 
in  thought  and  style ;  and  a  selection  made 
by  one  blindfolded  would,  perhaps,  have  fur- 
nished as  characteristic  and  worthy  a  me- 
morial of  his  pulpit  services  as  that  which  was 
made  with  the  utmost  care  and  the  most 
diligent  scrutiny. 

At  the  time  of  Dr.  Parker's  settlement,  the 
parish  was  so  feeble  that  its  resuscitation 
seemed,  to  many,  a  hopeless  endeavor.  From 
that  day,  its   growing   prosperity  was  an  as- 


80  HISTORY    OF   THE   SOUTH   PARISH. 

certained  fact.  Its  increase  in  numbers  was 
constant  and  rapid,  till  checked  for  lack  of 
church-room.  This  increase,  primarily  due 
to  the  eminent  gifts  and  graces  of  the  pastor, 
was  largely  aided  by  occurrences  connected 
with  the  history  of  the  North  Parish.  Dr. 
Buckminster's  popularity  had  retained  in  and 
drawn  into  his  flock  very  many  who  had  no 
sympathy  with  his  Calvinistic  creed.  At  his 
death  in  1812,  at  least  half  of  his  parish  were 
anti-Calvinistic.  One  of  the  ministers  invited 
to  settle  over  them  —  invited  by  a  bare  ma- 
jority on  a  strictly  party  vote  —  was  a  Uni- 
tarian, whose  settlement  was  vetoed  by  the 
independent  vote  of  the  church.  To  the 
council  convened  for  the  ordination  of  Rev. 
Mr.  Putnam  in  1815,  a  protest  against  his 
settlement  was  presented,  with  the  signa- 
tures of  from  sixty  to  eighty  legal  voters  of 
the  parish.  A  large  number  of  these,  with 
their  families,  soon  joined  the  South  Parish. 
Dr.  Parker  and  Mr.  Putnam  exchanged  minis- 
terial services  till  the  return  of  Dr.  Parker 


HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH    PARISH.  81 

from  the  ordination  of  Rev.  Jared  Sparks,  at 
Baltimore,  in  1819.  Dr.  Channing's  sermon 
at  that  ordination  was  a  singularly  clear  and 
strong  exhibition  of  Unitarian  sentiments, 
with  which  it  was  understood  that  the  clergy- 
men who  participated  in  the  service  entirely 
sympathized ;  and  it  was  made  the  occasion, 
throughout  New  England,  for  the  suspension 
of  such  ministerial  intercourse  as  had  been 
maintained  —  not  very  cordially  —  between 
the  clergymen  of  the  two  recognized  parties 
in  the  Congregational  Church.  At  this  time, 
Mr.  Putnam  declined  the  accustomed  inter- 
change of  services ;  and  most  or  all  of  the 
Unitarians,  who  had  till  then  remained  under 
his  ministry,  transferred  their  connection  to 
the  South  Parish. 

In  1824,  —  the  South  Meeting-house  afford- 
ing restricted  accommodations  for  the  members 
of  the  parish,  and  none  for  its  prospective 
increase,  —  the  corner-stone  of  the  church  in 
which  we  are  assembled  was  laid.  The  edifice 
was  completed  and  dedicated  in  February,  1826. 


82  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH   PARISH. 

A  strong  local  attachment,  with  memories 
too  dear  to  be  rudely  sacrificed,  held  some 
of  the  parishioners  to  the  house  where  their 
fathers  had  so  long  met  for  praise  and  prayer ; 
and  a  respectable  body  of  worshippers  formed 
a  new  society,  and  maintained  separate  services 
there,  with  the  countenance  and  aid  of  the  ma- 
jority who  had  taken  possession  of  the  new 
church.  Had  that  society  been  fortunate  in 
the  choice  of  its  minister,  it  might  have  re- 
mained in  being  during  Dr.  Parker's  lifetime  ; 
and,  in  the  change  of  relations  that  would 
naturally  have  ensued  on  his  decease,  would 
probably  have  risen  to  a  good  degree  of 
strength  and  prosperity.  I  am  inclined  to  think 
that  the  religious  elements  of  our  community 
would  have  easily  adjusted  themselves  so  as  to 
sustain  two  permanent  and  flourishing  societies 
of  our  faith  ;  yet  not  without  weakening  some 
of  the  other  parishes,  in  whose  well-being  we 
have  reason  to  rejoice.  The  society  at  the 
South  Meeting-house  settled  a  good  man,  but 
one   whose   services   failed   to   command   the 


HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH    PARISH.  83 

respect  and  interest  of  his  hearers:  and  the 
organization  was  disbanded  in  1829  ;  the  mem- 
bers, I  believe,  without  a  single  exception, 
rejoining  the  parish  from  which  they  had 
amicably  seceded. 

For  the  last  few  years  of  Dr.  Parker's  life, 
he  suffered  under  an  intensely  painful  and 
incurable  local  disease  ;  which,  for  a  part  of 
the  time,  incapacitated  him  for  pulpit  duty ; 
though,  until  within  a  few  weeks  of  his  death, 
he  continued  to  perform  most  of  his  pastoral 
labors.  His  patience  and  energy  under  the 
depressing  influence  of  incessant  suffering, 
his  continued  thoughtfulness  and  kind  offices 
for  all  within  his  sphere,  and  his  meek  sub- 
mission to  the  divine  will,  made  his  days  of 
infirmity  and  decline  eloquent  in  the  cause  to 
which  he  had  consecrated  his  health  and 
strength.  It  was  believed  that  his  life  might 
be  indefinitely  prolonged ;  and  some  were  so 
sanguine  as  to  hope,  that,  after  a  year's 
respite,  he  might  resume  the  full  charge  of 
his  flock.     But  it  was  found  necessary  to  pro- 


84  HISTORY   OF   THE    SOUTH   PARISH. 

cure  for  him  present  relief;  and  I  was  invited 
to  be  his  colleague  for  one  year,  with  the 
understanding  that  I  should  retire  at  the  end 
of  that  period,  if  he  should  be  able  to  dispense 
with  my  services.  My  ordination  was  on  the 
24th  of  October,  1833.  On  the  evening  of 
that  day,  Dr.  Parker's  case  assumed,  for  the 
first  time,  an  aspect  of  immediate  danger ; 
and  after  lingering  for  a  fortnight  in  the 
full  possession  of  his  mental  powers,  and  in 
the  exercise  of  all  those  Christian  graces 
which  make  the  death-chamber  seem  the  ante- 
room of  heaven,  he  passed  to  his  rest  and 
reward. 

Into  the  history  of  my  own  pastorate  I  can- 
not enter.  Such  few  external  events  as  merit 
a  place  on  its  record  are  too  recent  to  need 
recapitulation.  On  my  part,  the  connection 
has  been  one  of  sincere  affection,  and  earnest 
endeavor —  though  with  the  frequent  conscious- 
ness of  inadequacy  and  failure  —  for  your  high- 
est good  ;  on  yours,  of  a  kindness  which  merits, 
and  has,  my  warmest  gratitude. 


HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH   PARISH.  85 

Did  time  permit,  I  should  enter  into  the  his- 
tory of  that  most  important  of  our  subsidiary 
institutions,  —  the  Sunday  School.  This,  how- 
ever, I  willingly  omit ;  not  because  I  regard  it 
as  of  inferior  moment  to  the  details  which 
I  have  given  you,  but  because  the  work  has 
been  so  ably  and  faithfully  performed  in  seve- 
ral printed  reports  by  the  former  and  present 
Superintendents. 

Among  the  other  parochial  institutions,  I 
ought  to  make  emphatic  mention  of  the  Ladies' 
Domestic  Missionary  Society,  which  has,  for 
forty  years  or  more,  pursued  its  quiet  course  of 
usefulness  ;  furnishing  annually  a  liberal  sub- 
scription to  the  funds  of  the  Evangelical  Mis- 
sionary Society  for  the  aid  of  feeble  churches, 
and  an  equal  or  larger  sum  for  various  pur- 
poses of  religious  charity  in  our  own  commu- 
nity. 

For  many  years,  the  Society  for  Mutual  Im- 
provement was,  for  a  considerable  portion  of 
our  body  of  worshippers,  among  the  best  means 
of  instruction  and  edification.    The  essays  read 

7 


86  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH   PARISH. 

and  the  discussions  held  at  its  meetings  devel- 
oped a  large  amount  of  talent  that  might  not 
otherwise  have  found  utterance.  This  associa- 
tion declined  in  interest  mainly  because  the 
establishment  of  courses  of  popular  lectures 
threw  such  ability  as  was  nurtured  among  our- 
selves into  undeserved  neglect,  and  made  many 
unwilling  to  enter  into  what  might  seem  to  be 
a  competition  with  those  who  wrote  professedly 
and  expressly  for  a  larger  public. 

I  have  given  you  abridged  biographies  of 
my  predecessors  in  the  ministry.  I  regret 
that  my  limits  preclude  more  than  a  cursory 
mention  of  the  eminently  excellent  and  use- 
ful men  who  have  borne  with  the  pastor  a 
large  part  of  the  charge  and  burden  of  the 
sanctuary  ;  and  of  whom  we  can  trace  an  un- 
broken series,  commencing  with  the  early  days 
of  our  separate  organization.  Such,  in  the  last 
century,  were  Matthew  Livermore,  a  man  of 
excelling  gifts ;  holding  the  most  important 
legal  offices  under  the  Crown  ;  and  for  fifty 
years,  and  with  four  successive  pastors,  a  de- 


HISTORY   OF   THE    SOUTH    PARISH.  87 

voted  and  zealous  leader  in  the  temporal  affairs, 
and  helper  in  the  religious  growth  and  welfare, 
of  the  parish  ;  —  Henry  Sherburne,  a  liberally 
educated  and  munificent  merchant ;  whose 
house  was  the  wonted  home  of  the  clergy  from 
abroad ;  whose  time  and  ample  wealth  were 
freely  given  to  every  work  and  cause  of  piety 
and  charity ;  and  whose  example  of  singular 
sanctity  in  life  and  character  was  all  the  more 
conspicuous  for  his  high  social  position  ;  —  and 
Samuel  Hale,  one  of  the  most  eminent  scho- 
lars in  New  England  ;  the  intimate  friend  and 
constant  co-adjutor  of  Dr.  Haven  during  his 
entire  ministry ;  having  become  a  resident  of 
Portsmouth  a  little  while  before  Dr.  Haven's 
settlement,  and  following  close  upon  his  foot- 
steps to  the  grave.  The  whole  of  Dr.  Parker's 
ministry  was  signally  blessed  in  those  who 
shared  and  gladdened  his  labors.  Not  to  speak 
of  the  living,  in  whom  we  still  rejoice  ;  nor  yet 
to  mention  the  many  among  the  departed, 
whom  I  must  recall  were  I  to  cite  more  than 
two,  —  no  pastor  can  have  felt  his  hands  up- 


88  HISTORY    OF   THE    SOUTH   PARISH. 

borne  and  his  work  seconded  with  a  sounder 
discretion,  a  more  loving  zeal,  and  a  more 
truly  Christian  energy,  than  were  brought  to 
every  portion  of  the  altar-service  by  Nathaniel 
A.  Haven,  jun.,  and  John  W.  Foster,  —  names 
as  inseparable  from  the  history  of  this  church 
as  they  are  from  the  heart-history  of  the  many 
to  whom  they  held  the  place  of  spiritual 
fathers.  In  addition  to,  and  often  in  connec- 
tion with,  services  of  this  kind,  we  have  reason 
to  remember  not  a  few,  whose  liberal  gifts  have 
been  bestowed  in  times  of  special  need,  or  in- 
vested for  current  use  in  the  administration  of 
our  charities.  Especially  ought  I  to  mention 
the  names  of  Haven  and  Sheafe, — families  with- 
out whose  aid  we  probably  should  never  have 
seen  this  massive  and  costly  house  of  worship  ; 
the  former,  a  name  still  borne,  and,  I  trust,  long 
to  be  borne,  among  us ;  represented,  too,  in  our 
beautiful  communion-service,  and  in  a  perma- 
nent fund  for  the  relief  of  our  poor  widows :  the 
latter  connected  through  two  donors,  father 
and  son,  with  the  greater  part  of  the  invested 


HISTORY   OF  THE   SOUTH   PARISH.  89 

funds  of  the  Sunday  School ;  and  through  the 
generosity  of  the  last  of  the  name  who  was 
with  us,  of  a  younger  generation,  with  the 
enlarged,  remodelled,  and  refurnished  interior 
of  our  church. 

But  I  have  exceeded  my  due  limits.  Yet 
there  was  much  that  I  wished  to  add,  — 
thoughts  of  gratitude  to  God,  motives  to  fide- 
lity in  our  place  and  calling  in  his  Church,  — 
which  I  must  leave,  for  the  most  part,  to  your 
own  reflections. 

We  have  a  history  on  which  we  can  look 
back  with  unmingled  satisfaction.  No  name 
has  come  down  to  us,  as  connected  with  the 
ministrations  in  our  sanctuary,  which  we  may 
not  be  glad  to  own.  During  the  entire  period 
of  our  corporate  existence,  our  records  have 
been  defaced  by  no  public  scandal ;  by  no  quar- 
rel, strife,  or  division ;  by  no  stain  upon  the 
moral  or  religious  character  of  any  office-bearer 
in  our  church.  Be  it  our  Christian  ambition 
and  glory  to  hand  down  to  another  century 
records  as  pure  as  we  have  received.     Above 


90  HISTORY   OF   THE   SOUTH   PARISH. 

all,  let  our  names  and  our  life-work  be  so 
entered  in  the  register  which  must  wax  old 
and  perish,  that  they  shall  be  worthy  of  being- 
transcribed  into  God's  book  of  eternal  remem- 
brance. 


APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX. 


It  has  been  thought  best  to  preserve,  for  future 
reference,  the  following  details,  which  could  not  be 
incorporated  into  the  body  of  the  preceding  Dis- 
courses :  — 

MINISTERS. 

John  Emerson,  installed  March  23,  1715;  died  June  21,  1732. 
William  Shurtleff,  installed  Feb.  2,  1733 ;  died  May  9,  1747. 
Job  Strong,  ordained  June  28,  1749;  died  Sept.  30,  1751. 
Samuel  Haven,  ordained  May  6,  1752 ;  died  March  3,  1806. 
Timothy  Alden  (colleague),  ordained  Nov.  20, 1799;  dismissed 

Aug.  12,  1805. 
Nathan  Parker,  ordained  Sept.  14,  1808;  died  Nov.  8,  1833. 
Andrew  Preston  Peabody,  ordained  Oct.  24,  1833. 

DEACONS.        y 

The  following  persons  have  officiated  as  deacons  ; 
viz.,  Richard  Shortridge,  James  Sherburne,  Mark 
Langdon,  Daniel  Jackson,  Isaac  Williams,  John 
Marshall,  John  Noble,  Nadab  Moses,  John  Marshall 
(son  of  the  former  of  that  name),  Jonathan  Locke, 


94  APPENDIX. 

Solomon  Cotton,  John  W.  Foster,  Samuel  Hale, 
Samuel  Lord,  and  James  F.  Shores,  — the  two  last 
named  holding  the  office  at  the  present  time. 


THE   ORIGINAL   CONFESSION  AND   COVENANT. 

A  Confession  of  Faith  agreed  to  by  the  subscribers  on  the 
occasion  of  their  combining  together  in  church  order. 

In  general,  we  believe  God's  word,  or  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  to  be  the  adequate  object  and  only 
ground  of  our  faith,  — as  the  rule  of  faith  and  man- 
ners;  and,  therefore,  we  believe  in  all  things  ac- 
cording to  them.  More  particularly  such  things  as 
these  we  believe  :  — 

1.  That  God  is,  and  that  he  is  a  re  warder  of  those 
who  diligently  seek  him. 

2.  That  this  God,  who  is  the  living  and  true  God, 
is  but  one  in  essence  or  being,  though  threefold,  in 
substance   or  manner  of  being;  viz.,  Father,  Son, 

and  Spirit. 

3.  That  this  God  hath  made  all  things  for  him- 
self, and  does  uphold  them  by  the  word  of  his 
power,  and  govern  them  to  their  ends. 


APPENDIX.  95 

4.  That  he  has  formed  man  in  particular  for  his 
praise ;  and  did,  at  first,  make  him  every  way  meet 
and  apt  therefor,  to  serve  actively  thereto. 

5.  That  he  gave  him  a  rule  to  walk  by,  that  he 
might  obtain  this  end ;  which  rule  is  the  moral  law 
contained  in  the  Ten  Commandments,  and  was  at 
first  fairly  written  in  his  heart. 

6.  That  this  rule  was  given  him  also  as  a  cove- 
nant of  works ;  so  that,  upon  his  perfect  observance 
of  it,  he  was  to  be  happy  for  ever ;  or,  upon  a  failure 
in  any  one  point,  he  forfeited  this  happiness,  and  in- 
curred the  contrary,  —  misery. 

7.  That,  upon  the  trial  that  was  used  with  him, 
—  in  particular,  that  of  the  forbidden  fruit,  —  he 
failed,  fell,  broke  covenant  with  God,  and  rendered 
himself  obnoxious  to  the  penalty  of  the  law,  the 
curse  of  God,  and  the  wages  of  sin. 

8.  That  hence  he  became  divested  of  God's  ima^e, 
unmeet  for  his  service,  prone  only  to  sin,  and  a  sub- 
ject of  misery. 

9.  That  God  had  compassion  on  him  in  this  fallen 
and  perishing  state ;  and,  when  unable  to  help  him- 
self, mercifully  provided  for  his  redemption  there- 
from in  and  through  a  Mediator. 

10.  That  of  this  he  made  some,  though  a  more 
dark,  discovery  to  our  first  parents;    afterwards  a 


96  APPENDIX. 

more  clear  one  to  Abraham,  to  Moses,  and  the  Pro- 
phets, during  the  Old-Testament  dispensation. 

11.  That  now  he  hath  made  a  more  clear  one; 
since,  in  the  fulness  of  time,  he  hath  sent  forth  his 
Son,  made  of  a  woman,  made  under  the  law,  to 
redeem  them  that  are  under  the  law. 

12.  That  in  and  through  him,  and  as  founded  in 
him  (in  whom  are  all  the  promises,  yea  and  amen), 
God  hath  graciously  propounded  a  new  covenant 
unto  men,  commonly  called  the  Covenant  of  Grace. 

13.  That,  of  this  covenant,  there  was  a  twofold 
dispensation  ;  viz.,  that  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ment: on  the  account  of  which,  this  latter  is,  in 
Scripture,  sometimes  called  a  new  covenant. 

14.  That  the  terms  of  this  covenant  are  the  same 
for  substance  under  each  ;  viz.,  faith,  and  repentance, 
or  sincere  obedience,  —  as  the  terms  of  the  covenant 
of  works  was  perfect  obedience. 

15.  That  though  impotent  of  ourselves  to  perform 
the  terms  of  this  any  more  than  the  other,  yet  Christ 
has  become  an  undertaker  for  his,  that  all  that  the 
Father  hath  given  him  shall  come  to  him ;  and 
though  he  does  not  perform  the  terms  of  this  cove- 
nant for  them  as  he  has  done  of  the  first,  yet  he 
enables  them  to  perform  them,  working  in  them 
to  will  and  to  do  of  his  good  pleasure. 


APPENDIX.  97 


16.  That,  by  complying  with  the  terms  of  this 
covenant,  we  accept  of  the  covenant  itself,  and  of 
Christ  offered  therein  as  our  Mediator,  our  Priest, 
Prophet,  and  King ;  and  are  thereby  entitled  to  his 
benefits  ;  viz.,  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  the  adoption 
of  children,  salvation,  and  life  eternal. 

17.  That  there  are  two  seals  of  this  covenant, — 
viz.,  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  —  which  they 
have  right  to  who  take  up  with  the  terms  of  this 
covenant. 

18.  That  one  of  these  is  a  beginning  seal,  —  viz., 
Baptism,  which  declares  us  to  be  of  the  church  of 
Christ;  that  the  other  —  viz.,  the  Lord's  Supper  — 
is  a  confirming  seal,  serving  to  stablish  and  strength- 
en us,  and  to  promote  our  growing  up  in  faith  and 
love  unto  perfection  :  so  that  this  latter  is  frequently 
to  be  repeated ;  it  being  the  sacrament  of  feeding, 
nourishment,  continuance,  and  growth.  But  the 
former  must  not  be  more  than  once;  it  being  the 
sacrament  of  our  new  birth  and  entrance. 

19.  That  the  church  of  Christ,  which  is  the  com- 
pany of  the  called,  is  but  one  general  assembly, 
called  the  catholic  church,  either  militant  on  earth 
or  triumphant  in  heaven. 

20.  That  the  militant  part  of  it  is  yet  divided  into 
manifold   congregations  or  particular  churches  (as 


98  APPENDIX. 

so  many  companies  under  their  captain),  orderly 
gathered  and  settled  under  such  church-officers  as 
Christ  has  appointed  for  their  greater  convenience 
of  worshipping  God,  of  opposing  their  soul-adversa- 
ries, and  promoting  their  own  edification. 

21.  That  these  officers  should  be  orderly  called 
and  ordained  to  their  office,  according  to  the  rule  of 
Christ ;  and,  accordingly,  should  be  submitted  to 
and  acknowledged  in  their  place ;  teaching  the 
doctrine  of  Christ,  and  exercising  that  government 
and  discipline  which  Christ  has  set  up  in  his 
church. 

22.  That  as  all  believers  are  of  the  church  catho- 
lic, so  they  should  be  of  particular  churches ;  and 
that  a  profession  of  their  faith,  with  a  life  agreeable, 
does  qualify  them  for  acceptance  as  members  in  full 
communion  with  a  particular  church. 

23.  That  the  end  of  church-communion  is  to  pre- 
pare and  qualify  for  that  which  is  to  be  enjoyed  in 
heaven  above,  after  this  life. 

24.  Finally,  that  there  shall  be  a  resurrection  of 
the  just  and  unjust  at  the  last  day,  and  a  general 
and  last  judgment,  whereby  the  righteous  shall  be 
adjudged  to  life  eternal,  and  shall  receive  the  end  of 
their  faith,  even  the  salvation  of  their  souls. 


APPENDIX.  99 

We  whose  names  are  hereunto  affixed,  appre- 
hending ourselves  ealled  of  God  to  combine  together 
in  church  order,  confessing  our  utter  unworthiness 
of  so  great  a  spiritual  privilege,  as  well  as  inability, 
to  keep  covenant  with  the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  or  to 
perform  any  duty  which  he  requires,  without  the 
aids  of  divine  grace,  — 

We  do  this  day,  in  the  name  and  strength  of 
Christ  Jesus,  our  glorious  Lord,  freely  covenant  and 
bind  ourselves,  solemnly,  in  the  presence  of  God 
himself,  his  holy  angels,  and  all  his  people  here 
present,  to  serve  the  God  whose  name  alone  is 
Jehovah,  —  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  —  the 
only  true  and  living  God ;  cleaving  to  him  as  our 
sovereign  good  and  last  end.  And  we  acknowledge 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  God-man,  and  supreme 
Head  of  the  church,  and  Surety  of  the  new  covenant, 
as  our  only  Mediator  and  Saviour,  Prophet,  Priest, 
and  King,  of  our  souls ;  promising  to  submit  unto 
him  in  the  way  of  gospel  obedience.  We  do  likewise 
take  God  the  Holy  Ghost  to  be  our  Teacher,  Sancti- 
fier,  and  Comforter  ;  under  whose  gracious  influence 
we  do  more  particularly  oblige  ourselves  to  perform 
private  and  secret  as  well  as  public  duties  in  a 
perpetual  course,  and  to  attend  the  means  of  grace 
and  salvation. 


100  APPENDIX. 

Avouching  the  Lord  to  be  our  God,  and  the  God 
of  our  children  (which  we  devote  and  dedicate  unto 
him,  for  ever  to  be  his  consecrated  servants)  ;  esteem- 
ing it  as  a  distinguishing  favor  and  high  honor  that 
the  Lord  will  accept  of  us,  and  our  seed  with  us,  to 
be  his  people,  — 

We  do  also  give  ourselves  one  unto  another  in  the 
Lord,  covenanting  to  walk  together,  as  God's  pecu- 
liar people  and  a  particular  church  of  Christ  are 
obliged  to  do,  in  all  the  ways  of  his  worship,  accord- 
ing to  the  holy  rules  of  his  word;  promising,  in 
brotherly  love  and  Christian  charity,  carefully  to 
watch  over  one  another's  souls,  and  to  submit  our- 
selves to  the  discipline  and  power  of  Christ  in  his 
church,  and  duly  to  attend  the  seals  and  censures, 
or  whatever  ordinances  Christ  hath  commanded  to 
be  observed  by  his  disciples,  so  far  as  the  Lord,  by 
his  Spirit,  word,  or  providence,  has  or  shall  reveal 
unto  us  to  be  our  duty. 

And,  that  we  may  faithfully  keep  our  covenant 
with  God  and  each  other,  we  desire  wholly  to  deny 
ourselves,  and  entirely  to  depend  on  the  free  grace 
of  God  for  assistance,  and  upon  the  merits  of  Jesus 
Christ  for  acceptance,  and,  wherein  we  shall  fail  in 
any  part  of  our  duty  towards  God  or  our  fellow- 
Christians,  to  wait  on  him  for  pardon  through  his 


APPENDIX.  101 

name ;  beseeching  the  Lord  to  own  us  as  a  church 
of  Christ,  and  to  delight  to  take  up  his  gracious  and 
constant  abode  amon"  us. 


At  what  time  the  Covenant  given  above  was 
changed,  it  is  impossible  to  determine.  The  form 
that  was  adopted  in  its  place  does  not  appear  on 
the  records  of  the  church  (which,  for  a  portion 
of  the  time,  were  very  imperfectly  kept)  ;  but  it  is 
referred  to  in  the  following  vote,  passed  March  5, 
1809  :  "  The  church  having,  during  their  vacancy, 
lost  their  form  of  church-covenant,  it  was  voted  that 
Deacon  Marshall  and  N.  A.  Haven  be  united  with 
their  pastor  (Dr.  Parker)  as  a  committee  to  draught 
a  form,  and  present  it  to  the  church  for  acceptance." 
The  following  form  of  covenant,  reported  by  the 
above-named  committee,  and  adopted  by  the  church, 
March  21,  1809,  was  said  to  have  been  derived,  in 
part  at  least,  from  the  remembered  words  of  the  lost 
form :  — 

"  Believing  that  there  is  one  God,  and  one  Media- 
tor between  God  and  man  ;  that  the  Scriptures  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments  are  the  word  of  God, 
and  the  only  rule  of  faith  and  obedience  ;  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  true  Messiah,  and  Son  of  God ;   and 

8 


102  APPENDIX. 

that  he  has  appointed  two  special  ordinances,  — 
Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  —  which  it  is  the 
duty  of  all  true  Christians  religiously  to  observe,  — 
you  do  now,  in  an  everlasting  covenant,  dedicate 
yourself  to  God  in  Christ  Jesus.  You  do  humbly 
ask  of  God  the  forgiveness  of  all  your  sins ;  and 
desire,  with  all  your  heart,  to  accept  Jesus  Christ  as 
he  is  offered  to  sinners  in  the  gospel.  You  likewise 
solemnly  engage,  that,  by  divine  assistance,  you  will 
approve  yourself  a  true  disciple  of  Christ  Jesus. 
You  particularly  promise,  that,  so  long  as  God  shall 
continue  you  in  the  relation  which  you  now  com- 
mence, you  will  walk  in  communion  with  this  church 
of  Christ,  and  will  conduct  agreeably  to  the  rules  of 
the  gospel,  according  to  what  you  do  know  or  shall 
know  to  be  your  duty. 

"  In  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  then,  I  declare  you 
a  member  in  full  communion  with  the  church  of 
Christ ;  and,  in  the  name  of  this  church,  I  promise, 
that,  in  the  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  we  will  conduct 
towards  you  as  a  member  of  the  same  body  with 
ourselves ;  watching  over  you  for  your  good  with  a 
spirit  of  meekness,  love,  and  tenderness ;  earnestly 
praying  that  the  Lord  would  delight  to  dwell  among 
us,  that  his  blessing  may  rest  upon  us,  and  that  his 
o-lorious  kingdom  may  be  advanced.     Amen." 


APPENDIX.  103 

It  was  voted  at  the  same  time,  "  That  persons 
wishing  to  join  in  communion  with  this  church  be 
propounded  on  the  Communion-Sabbath  immediate- 
ly preceding  the  one  of  their  proposed  admission ; 
that  the  covenant  be  consented  to  by  such  candi- 
dates by  signing  it  in  private,  or  by  owning  it  before 
the  church  previous  to  admission ;  the  signing  in 
private,  or  consenting  to  it  before  the  church,  to  be 
at  the  election  of  those  proposed  for  admission." 


In  October,  1842,  a  committee,  consisting  of  Rev. 
Mr.  Peabody,  J.  "W.  Foster,  and  Alexander  Ladd, 
was  appointed  to  consider,  and  report  on,  a  proposed 
change  in  the  form  of  covenant,  and  manner  of  ad- 
mission to  the  church.  This  committee  presented 
the  following  form,  which  was  adopted  by  the 
church,  Jan.  29,  1843  :  — 

Christian  Friends,  —  We  regard  the  Lord's 
Supper  as  free  to  all  who  can  come  to  it  with  faith 
in  Christ,  and  with  humble  and  thankful  hearts ;  nor 
would  we  presume  to  fence  in  the  holy  table  by  any 
barrier  of  man's  device.  Yet  we  deem  it  meet  and 
profitable  that  the  new  guests  whom  we  welcome  to 
this  feast  of  love  should  make  such  profession  of 
Christian  faith  and  of  Christian   purpose  as  may 


104  APPENDIX. 

fulfil  the  command  of  our  blessed  Master  to  confess 
him  before  men,  that  so  he  may  confess  us  before 
his  Father  who  is  in  heaven.  We  desire  also,  by 
the  use  of  this  simple  form,  to  impress  the  more 
deeply  on  all  our  hearts  our  obligations  to  God,  to 
our  Saviour,  and  to  one  another ;  and  to  draw  the 
more  closely  the  bonds  of  Christian  fellowship 
among  ourselves,  as  followers  of  the  same  Master 
and  worshippers  at  the  same  altar.  We  therefore 
invite  our  friend  A.  B.,  who  is  here  present  with 
us,  to  unite  in  our  usual  form  of  Covenant. 

As  you  take  your  place  for  the  first  time  at  the 
table  of  the  Lord,  you  profess  your  faith  in  God, 
the  Father  of  all ;  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  as  the  true 
Messiah,  the  Son  of  God,  and  the  Saviour  of  men  ; 
and  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  as  the  records  of  divine 
revelation,  and  the  only  sufficient  rule  of  faith  and 
duty.  You  avow  your  solemn  purpose,  by  divine 
aid,  to  obey  the  commandments  of  God  as  given  in 
the  gospel  of  his  Son,  and  to  make  Jesus  Christ 
your  guide  and  pattern ;  looking  to  God's  mercy, 
through  him,  for  the  forgiveness  of  your  sins,  and 
for  the  influences  of  his  Spirit  to  sustain  you  in  the 
Christian  life. 

In  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  then,  I  welcome  you 
as  a  member  of  his  church ;  and,  in  the  name  of 
your   fellow-disciples   here,   I   pledge    to   you    our 


APPENDIX.  105 

Christian  sympathy  and  affection  ;  trusting  that  you 
will  walk  with  us  in  the  spirit  of  meekness  and  love, 
and  will  unite  your  prayers  and  efforts  with  ours  for 
the  growth  of  true  religion  among  us,  and  for  the 
advancement  of  the  Redeemer's  kingdom  in  the 
world. 


FUNDS. 

The  Church  Charity-Fund  —  the  result  of  con- 
tributions at  the  communion-table,  with  a  few  special 
donations  —  amounts,  at  the  present  time,  to  four 
thousand  dollars.  The  income  is  annually  dis- 
tributed, in  part  for  distinctively  religious  charities, 
in  part  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor  members  of  the 
church,  —  to  whose  sole  and  immediate  use  the  con- 
tributions at  the  communion-season  are  now,  and 
have  for  several  years  been,  devoted.  The  trustees 
of  this  fund  are  the  proprietors  of  the  cemetery  at 
the  foot  of  Auburn  Street;  in  which  the  lots  still 
unsold  are  reckoned  at  their  estimated  value  as  a 
part  of  the  fund. 

Joseph  Haven,  who  died  in  1829,  left,  by  his 
will,  a  fund  originally  amounting  to  two  thousand 
dollars,  but  reduced,  by  the  unforeseen  depreciation 
of  certain  stocks  which  formed  a  part  of  the  legacy, 
to  eleven  hundred  dollars ;    the  income  to  be  an- 


106  APPENDIX. 

nually  distributed  among  the  poor  widows  of  the 
parish. 

Mrs.  Ann  Treadwell,  widow  of  Robert  0. 
Treadwell,  who  died  in  1844,  bequeathed  to  the 
parish  a  thousand  dollars ;  the  income  to  be  an- 
nually expended  in  the  purchase  of  wood  for  the 
poor  members  of  the  parish. 

Robert  Rice,  who  died  in  1853,  left  the  minutes 
of  an  unexecuted  will ;  among  which  was  a  bequest  of 
a  thousand  dollars  to  the  South  Parish,  the  income 
to  be  annually  expended  for  charitable  purposes 
within  the  parish,  at  the  discretion  of  the  minister. 
His  benevolent  design  was  promptly  carried  into 
effect  by  his  heirs. 

The  invested  funds  of  the  Sunday  School  amount 
to  fifteen  hundred  dollars,  derived  from  legacies,  of 
five  hundred  dollars  each,  from  Thomas  Sheafe 
(1830),  Horace  A.  Haven  (1843),  and  Samuel 
Sheafe  (1857). 


CHURCH  PLATE. 


The  plate  in  use  by  the  church  until  1828  con- 
sisted of  six  ancient  silver  cups,  of  various  work- 
manship, without  date,  or  name  of  donor ;  the  rest 
of  the  communion-service  being  of  cheaper  material. 


APPENDIX.  107 

The  rich  and  costly  service  of  pure  silver  now  in 
use,  consisting  of  three  flagons,  eight  cups,  and  two 
plates,  —  massive,  highly  wrought,  and  beautifully 
embossed,  —  was  the  gift  of  the  late  Joseph 
Haven. 

A  baptismal  basin  of  hammered  silver  was  pro- 
cured, in  1740,  from  the  proceeds  of  a  bequest  by 
George  Walker,  of  whom  nothing  else  is  known. 
This,  in  its  original  form,  was  used  until  a  quite 
recent  period,  when,  with  additional  silver  from  the 
old  cups,  it  was  recast  in  a  style  corresponding  to 
that  of  the  communion-plate  ;  the  name  of  the  donor, 
with  the  date  of  his  bequest,  being  engraved  on  the 
later,  as  it  was  rudely  cut  in  the  earlier,  form  of 
the  vessel.  This,  for  public  use,  is  now  superseded 
by  a  permanent  font  of  white  marble  in  the  chancel 
of  the  church,  —  the  gift  of  Mr.  William  Sheafe. 


HOUSES   OF*  WORSHIP. 

The  meeting-house  built  in  1731  is  still  standing. 
After  the  dissolution  of  the  short-lived  Society 
formed  from  the  South  Parish,  it  remained  vacant 
for  several  years.  It  subsequently  became  the  pro- 
perty of  a  member  of  the  Free- Will  Baptist  Church  ; 
and  was  occupied,  at  several  different  periods,  as  a 


108  APPENDIX. 

place  of  worship,  by  the  Society  of  that  denomina- 
tion, which  has  recently  erected  the  church  on  Pearl 
Street.  In  the  intervals  of  this  occupancy,  it  has  been, 
for  a  considerable  portion  of  the  time,  kept  open  for 
religious  worship,  sometimes  by  series  of  Sunday 
afternoon  or  evening  services,  arranged  by  the  clergy- 
men of  the  city  ;  sometimes  by  regular  services,  con- 
ducted by  the  city  missionary,  under  whose  auspices 
a  prosperous  Sunday  school  now  holds  its  sessions 
there.  Several  years  ago,  a  floor  was  laid  between 
the  two  tiers  of  windows.  The  second  story  now 
contains  an  audience-room,  with  a  handsome  pulpit, 
slips  arranged  in  the  modern  style,  singing  gallery, 
&c,  together  with  a  small  vestry ;  while  the  lower 
story  is  divided  into  a  ward-room  and  two  school- 
rooms. 

The  church  now  occupied  by  the  South  Parish 
was  dedicated  on  the  8th  of  February,  1826.  It  is 
built  of  Rockport  granite,  with  a  heavy  square  bell 
turret  of  the  same  material.  It  was  originally 
ninety-two  feet  in  length  by  sixty-six  in  width, 
with  an  open  portico  projecting  seventeen  feet,  and 
supported  by  four  granite  columns.  It  contained 
one  hundred  and  four  pews  on  the  lower  floor ;  and 
eight,  together  with  the  orchestra,  in  the  gallery. 
The  late  Samuel  Sheafe  bequeathed  to  the  parish 
three  thousand  dollars,  of  which  five  hundred  were 


APPENDIX.  109 

for  the  Sunday  school,  and  fifteen  hundred  for  the 
purchase  of  a  new  organ.     It  was  found  impossible, 
without  extensive  alterations,  to  make  room  in  the 
original   organ-loft    for   such    an    instrument   as   it 
seemed  desirable  to  procure.      This  difficulty  led 
to  the  enlargement  and  remodelling  of  the  church 
in  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1858.     In  the  prose- 
cution of  this  enterprise,  the  rear  wall  was  removed, 
and  an  addition  of  seventeen  feet  made  to  the  length 
of  the  building.      The   organ  —  an  instrument  of 
great  power  and  richness  of  tone,  manufactured  by 
the  Messrs.  Hook,  in  procuring  which  Mr.  Wil- 
liam  Sheafe,  as  executor  and  residuary  legatee, 
more  than  doubled  the  sum  destined  to  that  purpose 
by  his   uncle  —  stands  on  a  platform  raised  three 
feet  above  the  body  of  the  church,  against  the  rear 
wall.     The  choir  have  seats  in  front  of  the  organ, 
separated,  by  a  heavy  black  walnut  railing,   from 
the  crescent-shaped  platform,  of  which   the   pulpit 
occupies  the  centre;   with  the  communion-table  on 
the  eastern,  and  the  baptismal  font  on  the  western, 
side.     The  pulpit  is  of  black  walnut,  with  carved 
trusses  on  either  side;   and,  in  the  front,  a  richly 
moulded  panel,  with   a  carved  shield  and  foliage. 
The  ceiling  and  walls  were  taken  down,  and  re- 
newed ;   the  ceiling  in  panel- work,  with  ornamental 

9 


110  APPENDIX. 

mouldings ;  the  walls  with  fluted  pilasters,  and  Co- 
rinthian capitals  and  entablature.  Over  the  organ 
there  is  a  massive  scroll-work  canopy,  supported  by 
fluted  columns,  with  Corinthian  capitals.  The  pews 
are  of  black  walnut,  and  of  an  elegant  design. 
There  are  one  hundred  and  thirty-four  pews  on 
the  main  floor  of  the  church,  and  twenty-two  in 
what  used  to  be  the  music  gallery.  An  entrance 
has  been  made  into  the  church  from  the  rear,  with 
a  passage  and  anteroom  on  each  side ;  one  for  the 
use  of  the  minister,  the  other  for  that  of  the  choir. 
Over  the  doors  leading  to  the  anterooms  are  raised 
tablets,  with  appropriate  inscriptions.  The  entire 
cost  of  these  improvements,  including  the  organ, 
was  from  fifteen  to  sixteen  thousand  dollars.  To- 
ward this  sum,  Mr.  William  Sheafe,  over  and 
above  the  surplus  paid  by  him  beyond  the  legacy 
for  the  organ,  subscribed  one  thousand  dollars ;  and 
assumed,  besides,  a  large  additional  pecuniary  re- 
sponsibility, nominally  covered  by  pews  conveyed 
to  him  by  the  parish,  but  for  which  his  returns  must 
be  slow  and  doubtful.  His  claims  upon  the  grati- 
tude of  the  parish  are  not  a  little  enhanced  by  the 
fact,  that  his  unsolicited  and  generous  overtures 
were  made  while  he  was  meditating  a  permanent 
removal  from  Portsmouth,  and  fulfilled  on  his  part 
after  he  had  become  a  citizen  of  Boston. 


APPENDIX.  Ill 


CHAPELS. 


In  1818,  a  small  wooden  building  (which  had 
been  erected  as  a  temporary  banking-house  for  the 
New-Hampshire  Union  Bank,  after  the  destruction 
of  the  previous  bank-building  in  the  great  fire  of 
1813)  was  purchased  by  the  South  Parish,  removed 
to  a  site  on  "Wentworth  Street  given  to  the  parish 
by  Joseph  Haven,  and  arranged  for  use  as  a 
chapel  and  Sunday-school-room.  This  was  sold,  in 
1828,  to  the  Pleasant-street  Congregational  Society  ; 
was  removed  to  a  site  on  Livermore  Street,  in  the 
rear  of  their  church  ;  and,  on  the  dissolution  of  that 
Society,  was  occupied  for  several  years  as  a  school- 
room. It  has  since  been  converted  into  a  dwelling- 
house. 

In  1828,  members  of  the  South  Parish  purchased 
the  meeting-house  on  Pitt  (now  Court)  Street, 
originally  placed  there  by  the  Independent  Con- 
gregational Society,  afterward  occupied  by  the 
Calvinistic  Baptist  Society,  and  vacated  by  them 
on  the  erection  of  their  church  on  Middle  Street. 
This  building  was  occupied  as  a  Sunday-school  and 
lecture  room,  from  the  autumn  of  1828  till  Febru- 
ary, 1857,  when  it  was  removed  to  make  room  for 
a  more  commodious  edifice. 


112  APPENDIX. 

The  corner-stone  of  our  present  chapel  was  laid 
on  the  25th  of  May,  1857 ;  and  the  building  was 
consecrated  by  appropriate  religious  services  on 
the  evening  of  Nov.  13,  1857.  It  is  seventy-five 
feet  by  thirty -four,  with  a  lateral  extension  of  the 
vestibule.  Over  the  vestibule  are  two  rooms,  so 
connected  as  to  be  easily  thrown  into  one,  and. 
together  measuring  seventeen  feet  by  thirty-seven ; 
the  smaller  of  which  is  appropriated  to  the  parish 
aid  Sunday-school  libraries,  and  the  larger  designed 
for  meetings  of  the  Sunday-school  teachers,  Bible 
classes,  and  other  similar  uses.  The  main  room  of 
the  building  is  fifty-eight  feet  by  thirty-three,  and 
twenty-two  feet  in  height.  It  contains  accommoda- 
tions for  thirty-eight  separate  classes,  and  ample 
room  to  seat  four  hundred  children  with  their  teach- 
ers. The  organ  is  placed  in  a  recess  behind  the 
desk.  The  entire  cost  of  this  building  and  its  fur- 
niture (not  including  that  of  the  land  on  which  the 
previous  building  stood)  was  about  eight  thousand 
dollars,  of  which  the  sum  of  fifteen  hundred  dollars 
was  furnished  by  the  parish  in  its  corporate  capa- 
city, the  residue  by  the  voluntary  subscriptions  of 
individual  parishioners.