L. Eorton 
 
 An Historical Sermon 
 
 concerning the Church _ 
 
 ^Life of 3. Stephen's PwiSl 
 
 Lynn, Massachusetts. 
 
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 AN HISTORICAL SERMON 
 
 
 <^ 
 
 CONCERNING THE 
 
 Church Life of S. Stephen's Parish, 
 
 LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS, 
 
 Delivered by the Rector, 
 
 THE REV. FRANK L. NORTON, D.D., 
 
 On Sunday Morning, November ytb, 1886. 
 
 LYNN, MASS. : 
 
 PRESS OF THOS. P. NICHOLS, 24 MARKET ST. 
 
 1886. 
 
"3Lsk note of the vtoijs that arc gast." — £> 
 
AN HISTORICAL SERMON. 
 
 ^ OMING to you one year ago to-da}^ — upon the first Sun- 
 ^^ day in November, 1885 — your Rector naturally desired 
 to know the history of the Parish from its beginning, and 
 so determined to gather what material he could from contempo- 
 raneous history, from Convention Journals, from the Parish 
 Registers, and from the reminiscences of those whose own lives 
 have run parallel with that of the Parish. It would seem, at first 
 sight, an easy task to " ask now of the days that are past," but 
 strangely enough, some of the Rectors left no records at all 
 behind them. But the private memoranda of one of the first 
 incorporators of the Parish have made good, for the purposes 
 of the historian, these lapses in clerical duty. To ascertain the 
 number of baptisms, confirmations, marriages and burials, to- 
 gether with the money contributed year by year for missions 
 and charities, (since the organization of the Parish), the Rector 
 has examined the Convention Journals from 1837 to the present 
 day, and, fortunately, wherever a Rector has failed to make a 
 report, the Bishop's address has noted the number confirmed, 
 or a faithful Warden has kept a note, or the good memory of 
 a Mother in Israel has filled the gap. So that it is believed 
 (jhal the entire and correct statistics of Parish life and movement 
 
4 AN HISTORICAL SERMON. 
 
 are now collected for preservation. And here the Rector would 
 record his grateful obligation to the Hon. Edward S. Davis and 
 the Hon. James R. Newhall — to the one for valuable remi- 
 niscences, and for the use of the Convention Journals (a com- 
 plete set of which he possesses), together with, perhaps, the 
 widest and most accurate knowledge of the history of the 
 Church in this Diocese, of any layman within it; and to the 
 other, for matter which, as a successful journalist and well- 
 known municipal historian, he so admirably imparts. From 
 these, and like sources, the following brief history is gathered. 
 
 " Ask now of the days that are past," and the answer comes, 
 first, away back in 1819, sounding like the tinkling of a tiny 
 mountain rill, which afterwards should broaden into a mighty 
 river. A lad walking to Salem, and, sometimes, to Marble- 
 head, attracted to the Church in those ancient cities, and always 
 longing for the services in his own home town, was, as it seems 
 to me, the tiny grain of mustard seed which has grown into the 
 goodly tree ; for he was the first person in Lynn who knew or 
 cared anything for the Church — at least, sufficiently to make 
 personal sacrifice for it. True, in 1819, some gentlemen at- 
 tempted to form an organization, and services were held occa- 
 sionally for two years, but it was a half-hearted enterprise, and, 
 upon the Bishop's advice, it was discontinued. But the young 
 lad who loved the Church enough to walk to Salem for it, still 
 kept the faith, and later on, when, in 1833, he had arrived at 
 man's estate, he invites a companion — a thoughtful youth — to 
 accompany him, and the first time this companion entered the 
 Church his tastes' were gratified, his religious sense satisfied ; 
 and being a popular youth, his course was noticed. These two 
 young men, Mr. Edward S. Davis and Mr. John Bowler, were 
 
AN HISTORICAL SERMON. 5 
 
 advised by Bishop Griswold to make an effort to start a church 
 in Lynn, and he would supply the clergyman for the winter. In 
 1834, trie y ca U e d upon all whom they thought inclined to join 
 them, and on November 27, of that year, Thanksgiving Day, 
 Edward S. Davis, John Bowler, Alonzo Lewis, Richard A. 
 Fleming and James Hilliker, met in an upper room — the old 
 Liberty Hall, on the corner of Market and Essex streets, and 
 resolved themselves into a Committee for the purpose of sustain- 
 ing worship according to the rights and usages of the Protestant 
 Episcopal Church. It was, indeed, " a day of small things." 
 As Lynn Common was the principal center, and sometimes 
 playfully called, "the Court end of the town,'" they desired to 
 have the services there ; so one of the Committee called upon 
 the minister of the Congregationalists, the Rev. David Peabodv, 
 and asked for permission to hold Episcopal services in their 
 house of worship. The minister replied that if the Trustees 
 were willing, he, himself, would consent. Each Trustee was 
 asked, and each gave his consent. This result was reported to 
 the minister, who thereupon told the Committemen that he would 
 permit the use of the building (now the Second Universalist), 
 provided they would not read prayers therein ! Of course, 
 it was impossible to accept the offer upon such terms, as the 
 use of our incomparable Liturgy was the longed for privilege 
 sought, and "Common Prayer''' — not the intellectual meander- 
 ings of an individual however excellent — was the desire of this 
 little flock. To the First Methodist Society, the Committeeman 
 went and proffered the same request; and, without a moment's 
 hesitation, it was granted, and more than that — one of the 
 Trustees offered to have the building prepared for the service, 
 warmed and lighted. On the evening appointed, the Rev. 
 
6 AN HISTORICAL SERMON. 
 
 W. H. Lewis of Marblehead, assisted by the Rev. John A. 
 Vaughn of Salem, and three or four Church people from that 
 city, and as many from Lynn — to make the proper responses — 
 held the first service of the new organization. The people 
 turned out to witness this new thing, and it is related that Mr. 
 Lewis made such an impression, that a year or two afterward, 
 when he came again to officiate for the infant parish, they sent 
 over to ask the Church to adjourn and meet with them and to 
 invite Mr. Lewis to preach for them. The next service was held 
 at the Town Hall, when Mr. Vaughn officiated, and the third at 
 the Lynn Academy, before the close of 1834. On the first of 
 January, 1835, regular services were begun at Liberty Hall, 
 and continued with little interruption to nearly the end of the 
 year, being served by various clergymen as they could be ob- 
 tained, when the place of worship was removed to what had 
 been Masonic Hall, which was fitted up for their use. 
 
 In January, 1836, the Rev. Milton Ward, M.D., became 
 the first minister, and the Church was regularly organized under 
 the name of Christ Church, its officers were chosen, and a 
 Church edifice was erected during the year. It was built on 
 North Common street, nearly opposite Church street, and on the 
 20th of July, 1837, ^ was consecrated. Bishop Griswold and a 
 number of the Clergy (sixteen) met at the house of one of the 
 Wardens. The dignified and imposing Prelate in his robes, 
 and the vested Clergy in procession, marching across the Com- 
 mon — then all unfenced and open — was a spectacle new, in- 
 deed, to Lynn, but a glad and grateful one to eyes bedimmed 
 with joyful tears that at last a Church was really built. At the 
 entrance the Clergy were met by the two Wardens, Mr. Davis 
 and Mr. Bowler, and so, proceeding up the center alley to the 
 
AN HISTORICAL SERMON. 7 
 
 chancel, they recited the 24th Psalm. How like a paean of vic- 
 tory must the words have sounded to those men who had toiled 
 and suffered, and to the women who had wrought and prayed 
 for this glad day. " Lift up your heads, O, ye gates, and be 
 ve lift up ve everlasting doors ; and the King of Glorv shall 
 come in !" 
 
 Bishop Griswold's sermon was from the text S. yohn If. 13. 
 
 " And when He had made a scourge of small cords. He drove them all out of 
 the Temple, and the sheep and the oxen : and poured out the changers' money, 
 and overthrew the tables." 
 
 It was doubtless a discourse upon the preservation of 
 God's House from all unhallowed uses. It was preached at 
 a time when such counsel was sorely needed, when too little 
 was known about the worship of God in any beauty of holi- 
 ness. It is a quaint little programme, of half a century ago, 
 that gives the order of that first Consecration Service, and but 
 one copy is now known to be in existence. A quartette choir 
 and a young organist from Salem furnished the simple music, 
 and one of the Vestrymen, Alonzo Lewis, wrote the Consecra- 
 tion Hvmn, and full it is of true poetry as well as rhythm. 
 Among those clergy who took part in that Consecration Service, 
 some attained great eminence in the Church ; and most of them 
 are fallen asleep. Dr. Stone, and Dr. Wainwright, afterwards, 
 Bishop of New York, the saintly Dr. Edson, Dr. Vaughn and 
 Dr. Lewis, Dr. Vail, Bishop of Kansas, and Dr. Howe, Bishop 
 of Central Pennsylvania, and the great Dr. Croswell were in 
 that procession, with their future greatness and usefulness be 
 fore them. The local chronicler tells of the dinner at the house 
 of Mr. Davis (now the Home for Aged Women) after the service, 
 of the Evening Prayer, when Dr. Stone preached and the Bishop 
 
8 AN HISTORICAL SERMON. 
 
 ordained Mr. Alexander H. Cull to the Deaconate, this, with 
 that of Mr. Jesse A. Penniman, being the only ordinations that 
 have taken place in our Church ; of the first baptism, July 16, 
 1837 > an d of the first confirmation, Feb. 19, 1838. The first 
 marriage was that of the Senior Warden, and the second, that 
 of the Junior Warden ; while the first child born in the Church 
 (1843), is, by the poetry of association, the beloved wife of the 
 Senior Warden of to-day. Strangely enough reads the first 
 official report to the Convention of 1837, and could the prophetic 
 vision of those who struggled and prayed and denied themselves 
 for the infant parish have rested upon the magnificent temple in 
 which their children and, thank God, some of them also, are 
 worshipping to-day, they would have declared that the age of 
 miracles was by no means past. The record reads, that — 
 
 " This Parish has been in existence a little more than one 
 year. It was formed principally out of new materials, and its 
 original was quite small. The}- have, however, done well dur- 
 ing the past year, in erecting a very neat and commodious 
 Church edifice, which has just been completed, and opened 
 with good promise of considerable accession to their strength. 
 The number of those who are now about to commence wor- 
 shipping here, cannot be immediately ascertained. Divine ser- 
 vice was regularly sustained under the ministrations of the Rev. 
 Mr. Ward, until April last. They have been continued since 
 that time under their present minister, with the interruption of a 
 few Sundays, occasioned by the loss of their old place of wor- 
 ship by fire" (Masonic Temple). "There have been a few 
 constant and faithful attendants upon these services, and it is 
 believed, not without spiritual benefit. The Communion has 
 never been administered in this Parish ; there are several con- 
 nected with it who are ready and desirous to be confirmed, and 
 
AN HISTORICAL SERMON. O. 
 
 to come to the table of the Lord, at the first opportunity. A 
 Sunday School has just been commenced in the new Church. 
 There have been two infant baptisms and one burial. All con- 
 tributions have gone towards defraying the expenses of the 
 Society, and it is agreeable to say that the Church is completed 
 with comparatively very little accumulation of debt. Their 
 present minister is a missionary of the Massachusetts Episcopal 
 Convocation. 
 
 [Signed] GEORGE WATERS, Minister:' 
 
 Two years later, the same clergyman remarks, " that this 
 Parish labors under pecuniary embarrassments at home, we 
 wish those to bear in mind who are called upon to contribute 
 somewhat for its present support abroad ; yet the present ratio 
 of increase, and the circumstances of the place, certainly 
 promise that it may, and will ere long, be able to stand upon its 
 own foundation ; and shall it not be the more induced, by re- 
 membrance of kindness received, to impart again of its own 
 unto the destitute, to do as it has been done by? Such is the 
 economy of Christian benevolence." 
 
 In the report of 1840 presented, in the absence of a resident 
 minister, by the Senior Warden, he says that "the pecuniary 
 difficulties which this Parish has labored under, from the com- 
 mencement, have been, and continue, a great barrier to its 
 success ; and unless, in the providence of God, some way is 
 opened, through which its liabilities may be discharged, we 
 have strong fears for its existence." 
 
 After Mr. Waters went away, the Rev. Mr. Pollard re- 
 mained for one year, and then so difficult was it to obtain a 
 pastor, or to raise funds for his support, that services were sus- 
 pended, although the organization was kept up. Finally, in 
 
IO AN HISTORICAL SERMON. 
 
 1S44, several new residents of Lynn joined forces with the 
 scattered remnant of the former Church and united under 
 another name, and from September 20, 1S44, this organization 
 has been known as S. Stephen's Church. The names of the 
 corporators were Edward S. Davis, William H. Hubbard, 
 Robert Farley, George M. Dexter, Edward D. Peters, Benja- 
 min T. Reed, Edward S. Rand, William Foster Otis, Edward 
 Codman, Robert Appleton and J. C. Brodhead. Services were 
 at once begun with the Rev. George D. Wildes, afterwards the 
 Rev. Dr. Wildes, as Rector, so well known in connection with 
 the Church Congress as its accomplished Secretary. He served 
 the Parish one year, and in his Convention report for 1844, 
 gives the circumstances under which the present Parish was 
 organized. 
 
 " It is well known that the Parish of Christ Church, con- 
 sisting of but a few families, and laboring under the dis- 
 couraging burden of a considerable debt, has had but a nominal 
 existence for some years. The Church being held on mortgage 
 by an individual (not a member of the Church), was leased by 
 him, or others concerned, for various religious and secular pur- 
 poses, and has been thus used, or vacant, for some four or five 
 years. Meantime, those who were communicants, or otherwise 
 attached to the worship of the Church, were scattered among 
 the various denominations of the town, and the prospect of ever 
 uniting them again in their household of faith and worship, had 
 become but faint. God, however, in His providence saw fit, in 
 this condition of the Parish, to raise up an instrument for its 
 revival. Through the untirincr exertions of a devoted and 
 liberal Churchman of Boston, an attempt was made to free the 
 Parish from the burden which had so long rested upon it, which 
 eventually resulted in the redemption of the mortgage upon the 
 
AN HISTORICAL SERMON. II 
 
 Church, and in the gathering together of the scattered members 
 of the fold." 
 
 The Church property so redeemed was placed in the pos- 
 session of the Bishop, together with two other gentlemen as 
 trustees. A Sunday School of thirty scholars and five teachers 
 was begun, the Church repaired and beautified, and a new era 
 seemed to open before this Parish hitherto so sorely tried. The 
 Rev. Isaac W. Hallam was Rector from February, 1846, to 
 April, i860. Mr. Hallam's pastorate of fourteen years was one 
 of great usefulness — the Parish possessed itself of a good Rectorv, 
 wholly paid for, and the number of communicants increased 
 from twenty-one to sixty, not yet a great growth, but it was a 
 time of holding fast to what they had, and steadily, though 
 slowly strengthening the Church's position in an uncongenial 
 soil. 
 
 The Rev. Edward H. True, in i860 came, with his earnest 
 enthusiasm and good judgment, to take charge of the Parish, 
 and his three years' pastorate saw an increase, in all respects, 
 both in temporal and spiritual things. From 1863 to 1870, the 
 Parish had for Rectors, in succession, the Rev. George S. Paine, 
 the Rev. Gordon M. Bradley, and the Rev. Benjamin W. Att- 
 well. In July, 1870, the Rev. Edward L. Drown, D.D., became 
 the Rector, and remained until July, 1875. The strongest ele- 
 ment in Dr. Drown's administration was his earnest pulpit utter- 
 ances. His preaching won many to the Church, and, through 
 it, to the Master's service, and many of his sermons are re- 
 membered, with profit, to-day, by those who listened to them in 
 those years gone by. 
 
 In January, 1876, the Rev. Louis DeCormis became Rector 
 
12 AN HISTORICAL SERMON. 
 
 of S. Stephen's Parish, and, with one exception, his was the 
 longest pastorate in its history. Coming, in all the freshness of 
 his young manhood, he gave to it nearly ten years of service, 
 during which time the number of communicants increased from 
 two hundred and seventy-five to four hundred ; and he inaugu- 
 rated the Choir of men and boys, which is, to-day, the boast and 
 pride of our Parish — a Choir, the members of which give their 
 services, a free-will offering to God — and under the direction of 
 Mr. Edward K. Weston, render chants, hymns and anthems in 
 a manner that needs no encomium from me, for their praise is in 
 all the churches : while to the beloved and able Organist and 
 Choir Master, this Parish owes a debt of earnest gratitude, and 
 his Rector is glad to place on record here, to-day, his own lov- 
 ing appreciation of his good friend's work, and his personal 
 loyalty to himself. 
 
 But Mr. DeCormis had what few such young pastors have, 
 the great satisfaction of watching from corner-stone to cross- 
 crowned tower,- the building of a Church, which for beauty, 
 richness of design and perfection of detail, has few equals 
 among the parish Churches of the land. To him, the present 
 incumbent owes much in the very perfect record kept of official 
 acts — the register being a thing of beauty, and a model to all 
 parishes and all priests — and for the kind and brotherly letters 
 which first welcomed him to the work, and afterward congratu- 
 lated him and the people upon the completion of the Chime of 
 Bells, for which the late Rector himself had seen the necessity 
 and the fitness, but as everything could not be done at once, 
 this crowning and completing joy was reserved for the next 
 incumbent and his first year's work. 
 
 To the Hon. Enoch R. Mudge the Parish owes a debt in 
 
AN HISTORICAL SERMON. J 3 
 
 the gift of this superb Church, the interest upon which can best 
 be paid by them in keeping it, as they do, so exquisitely cared 
 for that dust anywhere seems a profanation ; and by adding, 
 from time to time, as they have, objects of beauty and articles of 
 usefulness, and to maintain the dignity and beauty of the now 
 almost incomparable service. 
 
 Not to weary you with dry statistics. I desire to record here, 
 very briefly, for preservation, these records. From 1837 to 1886 
 inclusive, there have been — 
 
 7S1 
 
 421 
 284 
 438 
 
 Baptisms, . 
 
 Confirmations, . • • • 4 21 
 
 Marriages, . 2 ^4 
 
 Burials, • • 
 
 Offerings, exclusive of the cost of the Church and 
 
 Rectory, . $86,507.77 
 
 The Cost"' of the Church, . • • 250,000.00 
 
 The value of the Rectory, . • 15,000.00 
 
 Making the expenditures of mone) 
 half century of parish life, 
 
 during the 
 
 $35 I -5°7-77 
 
 One year ago to-day the present Pastor preached his first 
 sermon as your Rector. It has been a year of great happiness 
 to him, for the people have been more than responsive to his 
 suggestions — they have anticipated the needs of the Church, and 
 have supplied them. To him and to his family they have been 
 all that a kind and gracious Parish could be, and God has 
 surely blessed this union of Pastor and people, both in spiritual 
 and in temporal things. There have been eighty-one baptisms, 
 fifty-three confirmations, seventeen marriages and twenty-one 
 burials ; and during the conventional year the offerings have 
 amounted to $12,245. 
 

 J 4 
 
 AN HISTORICAL SERMON. 
 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 
 Much of the church work has been ably_ shared by the 
 assistant minister of the Parish, the Rev. E. B. Schmidt, to 
 whom the people extended a cordial reception early in June ; 
 and among the many pleasant occasions of the year was the 
 entertainment afforded by the Choir in the Parish House, when 
 the people gathered to bid the Curate welcome, and to enjoy 
 the good cheer which was made possible by the generous 
 and gracious help of a member* of the Parish, whose constant 
 thoughtfulnesss has often made happy his Rector, and the chor- 
 isters, who have ever been his chiefest care. 
 
 The tablet, erected in the porch at the tower entrance, 
 records the story of the bells placed there by a grateful Parish 
 to the glory of the Triune God, and in memory of him who 
 gave the church to us. The beautiful chancel furniture — the 
 Bishop's chair, the Rector's stall — within the rail, are gracious 
 memorials to departed worth and loveliness. The onef will ever 
 bring to mind a dear servant of God, whose aged eyes beheld 
 her children placed in a home, where " Grandma's room" was 
 always the centre toward which every home-coming tended ; 
 and when at last she fell asleep upon her Saviour's breast, her 
 children rose up and called her " blessed" ; and the other} is the 
 gift of one who is ever his Rector's helper ; and commemorates 
 his other self — the sweet and gentle wife, whose early entrance 
 into life eternal made earth poorer, as it made paradise richer 
 for her coming ; one whose character is indelibly stamped, 
 thank God, upon her children, whose blessed heritage is the 
 memory of that gentle mother's life. And to-day, used for the 
 first time in the celebration of the Holy Communion, is a paten 
 
 * Mr. W. H. Berry. t Presented by Mrs. J. C. Bennett, in memory of her mother. 
 
 I Presented by Mr. Joseph B. Breed, in memory of his wife. 
 
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 an historical sermon concerning the