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 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.