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CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 
 
 BAPTIST CHURCH IN NEWTON CENTRE. 
 
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 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 
 
 Baptist Church at Newton Centre, 
 
 NOVEMBER 14, 1880. 
 
 
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 BOSTON: 
 
 PRINTED BY G. J. STILES. 
 
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Rev, JDSEPH &RAFTDN, 
 
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 In the early spring of 1880, the Baptist Church at 
 Newton Centre decided to celebrate its centennial 
 anniv^ersary with appropriate exercises, and appointed 
 the pastor, Rev. W. N. Clarke, D.D., with the fol- 
 lowing brethren, — Rev. Alvah Hovey, D.D., LL.D., 
 Deacon James N. Newell, A.M., John H. Sanborn, 
 George Warren, and Frank Edmands, — a committee 
 to recommend a time and order of exercises for the 
 occasion. This committee reported in favor of hold- 
 ing the anniversary on the 5th of July, the day of 
 the organization of the church one hundred years 
 before, and were authorized to complete the arrange- 
 ment for services on that day. But, owing to the 
 resignation of Dr. Clarke and his removal to Montreal, 
 Province of Quebec, as well as to the circumstance 
 that the 5th of July was to be observed by the 
 people as a national holiday instead of the 4th, it 
 was deemed expedient to postpone the centennial 
 services until the 14th of November. 
 
MORNING SERVICE. 
 
ORGAN YOLUHTARY. 
 
 MUSIC. INYOCATIOM. 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 READING SCRIPTURES Rev. R. S. MILLS, D.D. 
 
 PRAYER ■ . . Rev. 0. S. STEARNS, D.D. 
 
 HYMN. 
 HISTORICAL DISCCURSE Rev. Y/. N. CLARKE, D.D. 
 
 P.istor from 1869 to 1880. 
 PRAYER. HYMN. 
 
 BENEDICTION. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 BY RKV. \V. N. CLARKE, D.D., 
 Pastor from 1869 to iSSo. 
 
 Psalm Ixiii., 7. — Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow 
 of Thy wings will I rejoice. 
 
 At a time when we look back and look forward, no lan- 
 guage seems more suitable to express our prevailing senti- 
 ment than this language of grateful remembrance and joyful 
 trust. Therefore, I place it at the head of this historical 
 discourse. But times and manners have changed since the 
 half-century sermon of this church was preached by Father 
 Grafton, and the preacher of to-day will not be expected 
 to follow his example. He took for his text the words of 
 Balaam, " Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, 
 neither is there any divination against Israel ; according to 
 this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath 
 God wrought ! " He briefly told the story of Balaam, and 
 then deduced from his text as a theme, " the safety of God's 
 people," which he discussed under two divisions and three 
 subdivisions, occupying thus with his preliminary sermon 
 more than a third of his time. For us, the sentiment of our 
 text will be sufficient, without the sermon : God grant that 
 the gratitude and the trust may both be ours, and in this 
 spirit we will proceed at once to our work. 
 
8 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 The First Baptist Church of Newton was one of the later 
 results of the great work that made New England spiritually 
 new. After a long period of slumber came that which is 
 known as the Great Awakening ; and the event well de- 
 serves the name. It is impossible to tell exactly when the 
 gracious revival began, but from 1740, when Whitefield came, 
 it became general, reaching almost the whole country. The 
 joy of spiritual prosperity, however, was not unmixed ; for 
 the new work of grace was very exacting, and there were 
 many who would not accept its influence. The call that 
 went forth to churches and to ministers was a call to re- 
 pentance and reformation. It was only natural that some 
 should reject such a call as needless, fantastic, and fanatical, 
 and should set their faces against all the new demands. 
 Accordingly, the aggressive reformers in many places felt 
 themselves compelled to withdraw from the existing 
 churches, and to organize " Separate " churches, as they were 
 called, in which the spirit of the Great Awakening might 
 find a more congenial home. The influence of the great 
 revival does not appear to have been very extensive, either in' 
 Newton or in Brookline ; though in Newton, at least, the new 
 spirit was not indignantly rejected, as it was in many places. 
 But there sprung up in Brookline a Separate church, which 
 first appears about 1750. Jonathan Hyde was its pastor, — 
 a kinsman, though not an ancestor, of the Hydes who are 
 now in Newton. In 1753, he came to Newton to assist in 
 ordaining Mr. Nathan Ward, a kinsman of the present 
 Wards of Newton, as pastor of the Separate church that 
 existed here. This is the earliest sign of its existence, and 
 the date of its organization is unknown. 
 
 This Separate church had not a very long history, nor a 
 very placid one. Differences of opinion arose within it 
 upon the subject of baptism. Mr. Ward was a Pedobaptist, 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 9 
 
 as were most of the members at first ; but many of 
 them became convinced that believers alone should be 
 baptized, and received baptism on profession of their faith. 
 These Baptists retained their connection with the church, 
 however, of which they came in time to constitute a 
 majority. Mr. Ward withdrew from his office about 1763, 
 and sought a field of labor elsewhere. There are said to 
 have been differences within the church also, about the 
 support of the ministry and the improvement of gifts for 
 edification. Some members died, and some removed ; and 
 the church, as an organized body, ceased to exist. In the 
 quaint phrase of Isaac Backus, " Things were in a broken 
 posture in Newton for many years." But the Baptist 
 brethren, who remained from the Separate church, held 
 worship on the Lord's day, first in dwellings and afterwards 
 in a school-house. There were a few other Baptists resid- 
 ing in the town, who had been baptized, some in Boston, 
 and some by the Rev. Mr. Green, of Leicester, who was both 
 physician and preacher, and journeyed as an apostle. The 
 earliest record of baptism of a resident of Newton was 
 made at the First Baptist Church in Boston, Dec. 7, 1729; 
 and, between this date and 1774, some fifteen or twenty 
 names appear in the records of the town and in other 
 records as the names of Baptists. It is probable that these 
 names are far from representing the whole number. These 
 brethren maintained worship, and were occasionally visited 
 by ministers, whose services were joyfully received ; and this 
 continued till 1780. 
 
 Now, a strange figure appears upon the scene, — an inter- 
 esting and brilliant man, whose work for good and for evil 
 can be estimated only by the Omniscient One. Elhanan 
 Winchester, Jr., descended from an old Newton family, 
 was born on the border of Brookline in 1751. He was 
 
lO CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 converted at eighteen, began to preach at nineteen, and 
 was ordained before he was twenty. He was naturally 
 gifted with a remarkable eloquence, and his preaching was 
 attended with great results wherever he went. Between 
 1 77 1 and 1779, he labored in various parts of Massachu- 
 setts as a preacher in the Separate churches ; he went 
 to South Carolina, where he served a Baptist Church ; he 
 preached in Virginia and other Southern States, making 
 leisurely journeys that he might preach as he went ; and 
 he supplied for a short time the pulpit of the First Baptist 
 Church in Boston. Late in 1779 he returned to New Eng- 
 land, and in the spring of 1780 he visited Newton. His 
 father had been a deacon in the Separate church of Brook- 
 line, but was now interested in the company of Baptists in 
 Newton, already mentioned. Here the young man preached 
 with his accustomed power. A religious interest had sprung 
 up before his coming, and by his labors it was increased and 
 extended. Many were converted under his influence, and 
 that of other ministers who joined in the work, and received 
 baptism at his hands. It was a greater ingathering than the 
 little band had ever received before, and it gave them such 
 strength as they had not possessed. Naturally came the 
 thought of a new and better organization ; and the result 
 was the formation of the church that is now reviewing a 
 century of life. There had been a half-century of prepara- 
 tion, for just fifty years had elapsed since the first resident 
 of Newton was received into a Baptist church. 
 
 Four preliminary meetings were held in the month of 
 June, at which the brethren "voted the following articles to 
 be necessary to regulate our walk in Church State, agreeable 
 to the word of God." Only at the fourth meeting was the 
 list of twenty-one articles completed. The articles con- 
 tained no doctrinal statements, but are given wholly to prac- 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. II 
 
 tical affairs. It must be confessed that they do not make a 
 document of the first importance ; but they deal with the 
 practical difficulties that the brethren had met with in the 
 earlier organization, and were carefully framed with refer- 
 ence to the exigencies of the times. At the third meeting, it 
 was voted "to send to other churches for assistance and 
 advice," the other churches being those of Middleborough, 
 Bellingham, and Medfield. On Wednesday, July 5, 1780, 
 the council met. The place was the house of Mr. Noah 
 Wiswall, now occupied by Mr. Luther Paul. There were 
 present three ministers : Rev. Noah Alden, of Bellingham ; 
 Rev. Thomas Gair, of Medfield ; and Rev. Caleb Blood, con- 
 cerning whom more will soon be said. Rev. Isaac Backus 
 had been invited, but did not come. The visiting brethren 
 approved the steps that had been taken, and advised the 
 brethren in Newton "to imbody on this occasion." There- 
 upon, Mr. Alden preached from the text in Acts ii., 47, "And 
 the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved." 
 Then Mr. Gair prayed, and "read over a summary confession 
 of faith," which seems to have been the confession of the 
 Second Baptist Church in Boston, afterward called the 
 Baldwin Place Church and still later the Warren Avenue. 
 To this confession, "thirty-nine persons assented, in the pres- 
 ence of a numerous congregation ; and the whole was con- 
 cluded by an exhortation from Mr. Blood." Thus the work 
 was ended ; and by this simple ceremony was founded a 
 church that has stood a century, and may stand for centuries 
 more. 
 
 The fraternity into which the new church came was not 
 a very large one. It is difficult to tell just how many Bap- 
 tist churches then existed in Massachusetts. According to 
 Isaac Backus' list, made about 1795, the number appears 
 to have been between forty and fifty. The churches now 
 
12 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 existing in Massachusetts that were formed before 1780 are 
 twenty-three in number. The nearest neighbors were the 
 two churches in Boston (which, however, for some reason 
 were not invited to assist in the recognition), and the 
 churches in Medfield (formed in 1776), Wrentham, and Bel- 
 lingham. Haverhill and Chelmsford were the nearest on 
 the north, and Sutton, Leicester, and Charlton on the west. 
 There was no Baptist church in any town of Massachusetts 
 that is now a city, with the exceptions of Boston, Haverhill, 
 Taunton, and New Bedford ; and the churches of Taunton 
 and New Bedford appear to have become extinct, to be fol- 
 lowed by churches that now exist. Ten new churches were 
 organized in 1780, but only three of them have survived the 
 century. 
 
 The days just then were of the darkest. The war for 
 independence was approaching its end, it is true ; but the 
 events that were to bring the end and the victory were yet 
 to be developed. Thus far, the patriots had to walk by 
 faith ; for sight was but a poor helper to their courage. The 
 seat of the war was no longer in this vicinity, and the excite- 
 ments of Lexington, Bunker Hill, and the siege of Boston 
 were past; but the tidings that came from the South were 
 far from hopeful. The treason of Arnold was then in prog- 
 ress, and was discovered a few weeks after the founding of 
 the church, — a treason that was suggested by the apparent 
 hopelessness of the American cause. It seemed, indeed, as 
 if the long struggle was but too likely to end in the defeat 
 of liberty. Although the actual scenes of war were distant, 
 the whole country was suffering from poverty and loss. 
 We have complained, at the end of the century, of hard 
 times and the evils of a depreciated currency. But it is 
 written that in March, 1780, the town of Newton voted 
 a tax of p^30,ooo to defray the expenses of the war; in 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 1 3 
 
 September following, ^^40,000 more ; and, in December, 
 ;!^ioo,ooo more, — ;^i7o,ooo within a year. ]3ut in May, 
 1 78 1, it was voted "that ;^400, silver money, be raised, in 
 lieu of the ;;^ioo,ooo tax in bills." The cash value of a hun- 
 dred thousand was rated at four hundred. In the same 
 strain, it is recorded in the church-book that in September, 
 1780, it was "voted to give Brother Noah Wiswall forty 
 pounds (quarterly) as a present, for the use of his house to 
 meet in." Rather high rent, we would say, — ^160 a year ; 
 but, if the rate of value in the church was the same as in 
 the town, the whole yearly income of Mr. Wiswall from the 
 church was worth between three and four dollars. 
 
 Dark as the political skies were, however, there was in 
 Massachusetts the light of righteousness to cheer the hearts 
 of those who believed that righteousness must prevail. Just 
 after the church was founded, the new Constitution went 
 into effect. Adopted by the people in the spring, it became 
 the law of the land on the twenty-fifth day of October, 1780; 
 and by this instrument slavery was once and forever abol- 
 ished. " The manner in which Massachusetts left slavery 
 behind, as of the dead and irrevocable past, was the noblest," 
 says Bancroft, "that could ha\-e been devised. The inborn, 
 inalienable right of man to freedom was written in the per- 
 manent Constitution, as the law of all coming legislation." 
 It may seem an accident, and one of small importance ; and 
 yet it is pleasant to find the fathers of our church among 
 the men to whom this wise and noble act was possible. 
 
 Thirty-nine persons are said to have assented to the con- 
 fession that was read by Mr. Gair. Only thirty-eight appear 
 as constituent members, received on the 5th of July; but 
 the larger number probably includes the Rev. Caleb Blood, 
 who was the moderator of the meetings preliminary to organ- 
 ization, though not received to the church until the follow- 
 
14 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 ing year. He was then in the twenty-sixth year of his age, 
 and had already been two or three years pastor and evangel- 
 ist in Marlow, N.H. He seems to have been living at this 
 time in the town of Weston, where there were Baptists not 
 yet organized. He was at once called to the pastorate of 
 the new church. He does not seem to have accepted the 
 call at once, though he was constantly acting as a guide to 
 the young body. In the spring of 1781, he removed to New- 
 ton, and fully assumed the pastoral office, which he held 
 nearly seven years. On Saturday, the 15th of July, seven- 
 teen members were added to the original thirty-eight, and on 
 Sunday, the i6th, seven more. Before the year ended, the 
 number on the list was seventy-three. The church voted to 
 have a weekly collection, and to observe the Lord's Su^aper 
 once in six weeks. It immediately joined itself to the War- 
 ren Association, sending delegates and a letter to the meet- 
 ing of that body at Athol, in September. 
 
 The first place of worship, as we have seen, was Mr. 
 Wiswall's house. On fair Sundays, the meetings were often 
 held under the elms that overshadowed the dwelling. Mr. 
 Wiswall gave the church the land for a house of worship, 
 and in 1781 the work of building was undertaken. "Wis- 
 wall's Pond " was not named from this Noah Wiswall, but 
 from his great-grandfather Thomas, who was a constituent 
 member of the First Church of Newton in 1664, and was 
 then appointed its ruling elder and assistant pastor. The pond 
 became "Baptist Pond" by this gift of land upon its shore 
 for Baptist purposes, and by being used for a century, and 
 perhaps actually longer, as a baptistery. The house that was 
 begun in 1781 was probably used from that year or the next, 
 but it was not finished till 1795. The church was content 
 to use rough seats and a pulpit of unplaned boards, rather 
 than to assume the burden of a debt. The house was in 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 1 5 
 
 the style of that period, of course, and was a plain structure, 
 bare and barn-like, when all was finished. It was enlarged 
 in 1802, and was in use until 1836, when it was abandoned 
 for the house in which we are now assembled. We may see 
 the original structure, with the addition removed, any day, 
 for it still stands on the original site ; but we cannot well 
 imagine the groups that entered it in those early days, or 
 revive for our minds the sanctity that lived within the house 
 for theirs. 
 
 Of the first pastorate there is a considerably full record ; 
 and it is not the record of a pleasant history. The first clerk 
 of the church was the first to come under discipline and be 
 excluded ; and the discipline began when the church was six 
 months old. The second clerk was the next to follow in the 
 same way, less than a year later. All through these years, 
 discipline abounded ; and it always resulted in exclusion. 
 There was no case of restoration through church "labor" 
 for eleven years. An unexpected reason for discipline had 
 arisen. The Rev. Elhanan Winchester, after baptizing the 
 most of the original members of the church, had returned in 
 the autumn of 1780 to Philadelphia, where he was engaged 
 for a time as supply for the pulpit of the First Baptist 
 Church. There it is said that he heard John Murray, the 
 Apostle of Universalism, and the founder of the first church 
 of that faith in America. There, Winchester avowed himself 
 a supporter of the doctrine of Universal Restoration, and 
 preached it with all his accustomed power. His preaching 
 rent in twain the church to which he was ministering. He 
 and his party, being apparently the majority, sued at law for 
 the possession of the house of worship, but were defeated. 
 Whereupon, he formed a Universalist church in Philadelphia, 
 and became its pastor. Afterward, he travelled widely, 
 both, in America and in England, preaching the doctrine 
 
l6 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 of Universal Salvation. He had been "given to change" 
 before, having held first to open and then to close commun- 
 ion, and having been first an Arminian in doctrine and 
 then a hyper-Calvinist ; but in the views that he had now 
 reached he continued steadfast, until his death in 1797. It 
 is said that his personal character was never impeached, 
 and his piety never doubted. He died in Hartford, where 
 his funeral sermon was preached by a Congregational min- 
 ister who was a strong opponent of his doctrine, but who 
 cheerfully bore testimony to his personal excellence. 
 
 The departure of such a man from the faith of the 
 church that he had founded was an event of much impor- 
 tance to that church. Very naturally, his family sympa- 
 thized with his views. There were nine Winchesters among 
 the first fifty members of this church, the name of Elhanan 
 Winchester, senior, holding the place of honor as the first 
 upon the list. Of these nine, seven were excluded from the 
 church, the most of them for holding the views which their 
 brilliant kinsman Iiad avowed. The doctrine is often called 
 in the record "the doctrine of the restoration of all wicked 
 men and devils from hell." Others besides this family were 
 subjected to discipline for the same reason. There was 
 also an amount of immorality in the church that puts us to 
 the blush. Ten of the original thirty-eight were excluded 
 within the first pastorate ; and, out of ninety-two who were 
 members in Mr. Blood's time, at least fifteen, or about one- 
 sixth, were excluded before he left the church. 
 
 These matters occupy almost the whole of the record for 
 several years. The details of " labor " are often introduced ; 
 and there are recorded letters of admonition to various of- 
 fenders, and letters solemnly conveying the announcement of 
 exclusion. Mr. Blood was by no means a feeble leader ; and 
 his letters, though they often seem somewhat harsh in tone, 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 1/ 
 
 are weighty and powerful. The first doctrinal statement 
 that the book contains was recorded May 29, 1782: "The 
 meeting-, being opened by prayer, proceeded to business, as 
 follows : I. To make inquiry how the minds of the church 
 stood as to the belief of the doctrine of redemption of the 
 wicked from hell, and found that Brother Elhanan Winches- 
 ter (senior) and his wife, and Sister Rebecca Hammond, 
 were in the belief of the above-mentioned doctrine ; 2. Voted, 
 that the church cannot hold fellowship with any persons 
 holding the doctrine of redemption of the wicked from hell, 
 it being a doctrine contrary to God's Word." The case of 
 these members lingered, however, for nearly two years, 
 probably because of their prominence, and the desire of the 
 church for their restoration. In August, 1783, the church, 
 "viewing Brother Elhanan Winchester and his wife, and 
 Sister Rebecca Hammond, to be captivated with false doc- 
 trine, thought it expedient to appoint a day of fasting and 
 prayer on their account, and on the low state of religion 
 among us." But the firm stand of the church was effective, 
 and this form of doctrine disappeared after about ten years. 
 All through Mr. Blood's pastorate, too, there were finan- 
 cial embarrassments. The meeting-house was still in process 
 of completion, and no less than five subscriptions were raised 
 for the work at different times. It was no easy matter for 
 the brethren to agree as to the best way to provide for the 
 support of the pastor. There was great sensitiveness as to 
 how much each one ought to give. They knew no better 
 plan, apparently, than that of " equality" or "average" ; but 
 that plan did not repress the jealousies and complaints. 
 There were always arrearages to be made up. There was 
 great difficulty, too, in finding a suitable place for Mr. Blood 
 and his family to live ; and there was still greater difficulty in 
 enabling him to pay his rent. In June, 178 1, it was voted in 
 
1 8 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 the society "that the committee for supporting Mr. Blood 
 ascertain and inform this society what each man's proportion- 
 able part may be toward supporting Mr. Blood, that they 
 may know how to give according as God has prospered 
 them." In 1783, a committee communicated to Mr. Blood 
 the desire of the society that he should continue with them, 
 and asked him how long a time he would engage for. He 
 replied, so long as they should continue to treat him as a 
 gospel minister ought to be treated, and no longer. They 
 then informed him that the society had subscribed fifty-eight 
 pounds a year so long as they should view it their duty to 
 sit under his ministry, which he thought a generous sum 
 in the circumstances, but insufficient, as he had no house. 
 Whereupon, they raised the amount to sixty pounds. In 
 November, 1787, "the question being tried [in the society] 
 whether Mr. Blood could possibly discharge his debts and 
 support his family with what he received from the society," 
 — a very proper question to be considered, — "it passed in 
 the negative." So he was released, with perfect good-will, 
 from his pastoral engagement ; and his services terminated 
 on the 24th of January, 1788. It was not till February 8, 
 1792, however, that he signed a receipt in full for what the 
 society owed him. 
 
 He removed to Shaftsbury, Vermont, where he remained 
 nearly twenty years. He then returned to Boston, as the 
 first pastor of the Charles Street Church. After some two 
 years of service there, he became pastor of the First Bap- 
 tist Church in Portland, Me., where he died in 1814, leaving 
 an honorable record as a minister of Christ. 
 
 Now enters to the record, in 1788, the name that has been 
 more closely identified than any other with that of the 
 church, the name of Joseph Grafton. He was born at New- 
 port, R.I., in 1757, and spent his youth and early manhood 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. I9 
 
 in Providence. He was converted in his eighteenth year, 
 and united with the church of his parents, the Congrega- 
 tional Church. He soon thought of entering the ministry, 
 but circumstances did not favor the step ; and he married, 
 and settled in life. It was not till his wife and his two sons 
 had been taken away from him, and he himself had been 
 brought close to the grave by illness, that he yielded to his 
 convictions of duty, and gave himself to the work of preach- 
 ing the gospel. For two or three years, perhaps, he 
 preached as a Congregationalist, without being ordained. 
 He then embraced the principles of the Baptists, and united 
 with the First Church in Providence. After some months 
 spent in Connecticut, he visited Newton, where it was 
 appointed that his life should be sijcnt. He came almost 
 immediately after Mr. Blood's withdrawal. His name first 
 appears in the records of the society on the loth of March, 
 when he had been at least two Sundays here. A call was 
 decided upon on the loth of April, and voted on the 6th of 
 May. His salary was to be fifty-five pounds ; but it was 
 afterwards increased to sixty, and " eight cords of wood 
 delivered at his door" was added. In addition to this, 
 there was a collection weekly on the floor of the meeting- 
 house, and monthly in the gallery, the proceeds of which 
 were called the " loose money." This had been given to 
 Mr. Blood, and for many years was paid to Mr. Grafton reg- 
 ularly on Mondays. 
 
 The call was promptly accepted, and Mr. Grafton was 
 ordained on the i8th of June, 1788. The Rev. Isaac 
 Backus presided at the council, and the Rev. John Stan- 
 ford of Providence preached. Thus was begun a pastorate 
 of forty-eight years and six months. He who was thus 
 received as pastor, at the age of thirty-one, peacefully died 
 among his own people in his eightieth year. 
 
20 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 The records of this long pastorate are, on the whole, 
 extremely meagre. The pastor very soon became the clerk, 
 and kept all the record that was kept, until 1835, a year and 
 a half before his death. The record of forty-seven years 
 occupies about fifty-six pages of the book. Half of this space 
 is given to the first three years. Twelve pages were given, 
 in 1790, to the case of a couple who had imbibed certain 
 ideas about perfection, and the necessity of miraculous gifts 
 to the constitution of the church, "with divers other enthu- 
 siastical notions," Father Grafton wrote to them, " which 
 never existed only in the fertile soil of a warm imagination." 
 Twelve pages were given to this ; and then for ten years, 
 1799 to 1809, there were only two entries, made in 1803; 
 and a break of a year or two in the later records is nothing 
 unusual. The list of additions to the church was kept along, 
 and there is no proof that it is not complete ; though it is 
 easy to see that omissions may have occurred in such a 
 record. There is a fair record of the proceedings of the 
 society during all these years, and indeed throughout the 
 century. 
 
 There still remain about ten members in the church who 
 became connected with it in Father Grafton's time, and 
 there are a few others who remember him. To those upon 
 whose memory his features and his character are engraved, 
 no words from such lips as mine can do him justice. In fact 
 and in spirit, he was the father of his people. On his last 
 birthday, he wrote, "That generation who were still members 
 of the church when I was settled among them are all gone 
 the way of all the earth, except two." His church had 
 grown up about him, and the members of it looked upon 
 him with love and reverence. More than twelve years after 
 his death. Dr. Smith wrote : " Since I came to the pastorate, 
 but very few days have at any time passed in which I have 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 21 
 
 not heard some allusion to the Rev. Joseph Grafton, my hon- 
 ored and revered predecessor. It has happened to few min- 
 isters to live so vividly in the hearts of their people, so long 
 after the veil that hides eternity from time has dropped 
 between them." This testimony well represents the hold 
 that he had upon the church. A sincere and earnest man, 
 of true piety and warm sympathies, of mild but ready wit, of 
 strong social impulses and quick discernment of human 
 nature, he gave himself honestly to the work of winning and 
 instructing souls, and was able in a rare degree to impress 
 his own spirit upon the people around him. On that same 
 birthday, the last, he wrote : "I have the vanity or pleasure 
 to believe that no pastor was ever happier with a church 
 than I have been, for which I bless God." And his view 
 of the life-long pastorate was heartily shared by his people. 
 
 If we could see him as he looked in his later years, we 
 should see a little man, bright and active, with wonderfully 
 keen black eyes. He wore a brown wig ; and to the end of 
 his days, though the style had changed, he wore the old- 
 fashioned short breeches and knee-buckles. He was a great 
 visitor among his people, and could be seen any day in his 
 chaise somewhere upon the road. His chaise was his study 
 more than any room of his house. He had the same diffi- 
 culty as Mr. Blood in finding a place to live; and some mem- 
 bers of the society bought and presented to him the triangle 
 of land that is bounded by Centre, Homer, and Grafton 
 Streets. The house stood a little north of the Rand house, 
 and was removed only a few years ago ; but since its removal 
 it has been destroyed by fire. 
 
 For a time after his coming, the additions to the church 
 were but moderate in number. There were more than thirty 
 in the two years, 1788 and 1789; but there were only forty- 
 three in the eighteen years that followed, down to the end of 
 
22 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 1807. These were prosperous years for the Baptist churches 
 in Boston ; but, for some reason, they were years of sowing 
 rather tlian of reaping here. The two following years were 
 more fruitful; and in 18 10 there began a religious interest 
 that continued through 181 1, and perhaps longer still. 
 Fifty-one were added to the church in 181 1, and twenty- 
 eight in 1 8 12. This reviving brought great joy to the faith- 
 ful pastor, who published an account of it in the Baptist 
 Missionary Magazine. It was a quiet work, he says, "free 
 from noise and confusion, excepting what has been made by 
 its enemies." The preaching of the Word was the principal 
 means of the great change in the people. A few incidents 
 have been preserved : " On a Sabbath afternoon, when the 
 minister was preaching from this passage, ' A bruised reed 
 he will not break, and the smoking flax he will not quench,' 
 two young men at meeting, one sitting in the gallery, and 
 the other in a pew below, were both at the same moment, 
 and from the same idea of truth, brought to hope in the com- 
 passion of the Saviour. In the evening, at a meeting, each 
 related his exercises ; and their hearts ran together like the 
 hearts of David and Jonathan." Twenty of the persons bap- 
 tized were heads of families, and seventeen were under 
 twenty-one years of age. " Were it not that the good and 
 great Shepherd carries the lambs in his arms," says the 
 thoughtful pastor, " I should greatly fear for them. But 
 Christ says, ' My lambs, — my sheep, — I give unto them 
 eternal life.' May we not trust them with him } " Even 
 unto this day, one of this company of converts, but not one 
 of the youngest, remains in the church. Seth Davis was 
 already twenty-three years of age when, with his wife, he 
 was baptized by Father Grafton on the 6th of October, 181 1 ; 
 and for more than sixty-nine years he has been a member of 
 this church. No wonder that he loves it, and thinks there 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 23 
 
 is no other like it ; and no wonder that we are thankful to 
 see him in his place to-day. He and the church are mutually 
 indebted to each other for long good service. 
 
 After this happy refreshing, additions to the church con- 
 tinued frequent, the total number in fourteen years being 
 one hundred and twenty-eight. But in 1827 there came a 
 greater revival than had been known before. Within this 
 year, one hundred and three persons were added to the 
 church. Somewhat more than forty followed in the next 
 four years ; and in 1832 there came another great season of 
 blessing, in which ninety-one persons were received to mem- 
 bership. The details of these two great revivals it is not 
 easy to gather. It is well remembered that they were sea- 
 sons of deep and intense religious feeling; and men of 
 mature minds and honorable standing yielded to the power- 
 ful influence, as well as the young. In the later of the two, 
 at least, great help was rendered by the professors and stu- 
 dents of the Theological Institution, which had now come to 
 be an element in the life of the church. The aged hands of 
 the pastor were relieved of the labor of baptizing by Pro- 
 fessor Chase and Professor Ripley; and it is said that, on 
 one occasion, the almost inspired singing of an impressive 
 hymn by one of the students led to the conversion of sev- 
 eral persons. It is worthy of notice that these two great 
 revivals occurred in the old age of the pastor. His seven- 
 tieth birthday fell in the midst of the time when converts 
 were coming into the church in 1827, and his seventy-fifth 
 in the midst of the period of additions in 1832. It was not 
 a youthful voice that called these souls to Christ, and rejoiced 
 over their coming. This was the crowning of a half-century's 
 faithful toil, which resulted in the gathering in to the church 
 of no less than five hundred and sixty-one persons. Mr. 
 Grafton's long pastorate was arranged indeed almost accord- 
 
24 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 ing to an ideal plan. First, a good accession when he came ; 
 then, a period of spiritual sowing, which may have seemed 
 almost too long, but which was followed in the midst of the 
 pastorate by a quiet and rich revival ; then, accessions com- 
 ing faster than before, the same honored voice being still 
 heard in counsel and instruction ; then, new influences and 
 helps coming to the aged pastor's aid, and his life-long toil 
 crowned first by one and then by another great ingathering 
 of souls ; then, the faithful servant willingly resigning the 
 work to other hands, and peacefully falling asleep in Jesus. 
 What could be more beautiful .? And how can we wonder 
 that he thought himself as happy with his church as any 
 pastor had ever been ? 
 
 We should greatly mistake if we imagined the church in 
 anything like its present field or condition, and supposed 
 that all these people lived in a little circle about the house of 
 worship. Much later than 1832, this part of Newton was 
 wholly devoted to farming ; and at that time, between the old 
 church by the pond and the old burying-ground opposite the 
 Colby house, there were not more, probably, than eight 
 houses. The congregation had to come from far, for there 
 was little m.aterial for a congregation near. And they did 
 come from far. The roll of the church often contains the 
 mention of the residence of members ; and the neighboring 
 towns thus represented in the church are Brookline, Rox- 
 bury, Watertown, Waltham, West Cambridge, Dedham, and 
 Needham. Cambridge and Brighton might also have been 
 mentioned. Remoter places in which members had their 
 residence are Canton, Grotbn, Stow, Worcester, and New 
 London, N.H. ; but the members from these places were 
 undoubtedly transient residents in or near Newton. Accord- 
 ing to the pastor, in his half-century sermon, there was a 
 time when there were habitual attendants upon worship 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 25 
 
 here from eleven neighboring towns, inchiding Newton. In 
 some of these towns, in the earlier days of the church, dis- 
 senters from the Congregational order were still taxed for 
 the support of the established church. No such thing had 
 been done in Newton since 1776, the year of liberty. But 
 the society very early voted to give its aid in protecting the 
 rights of its members in other towns, advising them to pay 
 their taxes under protest, if their towns would not recognize 
 them as entitled to exemption ; and then advising the min- 
 ister, who was at that time Mr. Blood, to sue the towns for 
 the recovery of such taxes. Father Grafton was accustomed 
 to preach, on week days or Sunday evenings, in Watertown, 
 Cambridge, Brookline, and other places ; but this practice 
 of his did not prevent the people from walking on Sunday 
 mornings up to their Christian home on the shore of the 
 Baptist pond. They were a sturdier race than we ; and their 
 life was so much less crowded with excitements than ours 
 that the worship on the Lord's day occupied a much larger 
 space, relatively, than it does with us. So did the themes 
 and thoughts that were suited to the day. As they walked 
 in friendly groups from Watertown or Brookline, they talked 
 more seriously of serious things than we do ; and they could 
 spend more time than we find it easy to spend in the dis- 
 cussion of Christian doctrines and practices. So they came 
 soberly to the house of worship, expecting to obtain, in listen- 
 ing to the Word, enough to pay them fully for their walk. 
 In winter, the house of worship was so cold that they were 
 glad to escape from it after service to their noon-houses, 
 where three or four families would gather about a single fire 
 to eat their lunch. But after 1795 there was a stove in the 
 house, put in with careful directions from the society as to 
 where it should stand, and where the funnel should go out. 
 After that, the people would stay in the meeting-house 
 
26 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 between the services ; and it was the habit of their pastor to 
 remain among them, going from group to group, and meet- 
 ing them as a father meets his children. They shared their 
 dinner with him, and he talked with them faithfully concern- 
 ing their spiritual welfare. After the second service, they 
 wended their way homeward, often talking of what they had 
 heard, and often profoundly impressed by the good pastor's 
 fervent prayers and faithful counsels. They had their faults, 
 which were not exactly the same as ours ; and they had their 
 great and noble virtues, which were not exactly like those of 
 their successors. Sometimes, it is half-suspected that the 
 earnest and persistent fear of God has well-nigh fled from 
 the earth with the departure of our pious fathers. But, good 
 as they were, I suspect that any one who carefully reads the 
 record of this church for a hundred years will not wish that 
 he could change places with any generation that has gone 
 before us. 
 
 It could not be otherwise than that such a mother church 
 as this should become a mother of churches. The field was 
 too great for her long to occupy alone, and her success in 
 gaining distant members was only a step toward their sepa- 
 ration from her. Already, in 1787, the Baptist brethren in 
 Framingham had requested to have the Lord's Supper 
 administered to them as a branch of this church, and their 
 request had been granted; and in 1789 help was given in or- 
 ganizing the church in Weston, with the members of which 
 this church had already communicated respecting the ser- 
 vices of Mr. Blood. In the later days, the first company to 
 go out was the Baptist church in Cambridge, located at Cam- 
 bridgeport, which was formed in 18 17. Into this body went 
 some of the best members of the old church ; and Father 
 Grafton wrote in the record, " Never did a church dismiss 
 such a number of members with fairer character and with 
 
HlSTOKrCAL DISCOURSE. 2/ 
 
 greater union and affection." The church in West Cam- 
 bridge, now Arlington, was formed in the same year, and 
 took some members from Newton. In 1821, the church in 
 Roxbury, now known as the Dudley Street Church of Boston, 
 was organized, and to this again the mother sent some of 
 her best children. The new city of Lowell, in which a 
 Baptist church was formed in 1826, drew its population from 
 all quarters ; and this church dismissed a considerable com- 
 pany who had gone thither — the number is variously stated 
 — to join the new body. The church in Brooklinc, formed in 
 1828, took some members directly from this, and embraced 
 more who had already gone from this to the churches in 
 Cambridge and Roxbury. In 1830, a large and honorable 
 company withdrew to build a home of their own in Water- 
 town, where the church that was then organized has just 
 completed its fiftieth year. All these churches have lived 
 and prospered, and their fame is so wide-spread that we have 
 no need to speak the praises of those who have gone out 
 from among us. The last and largest colony was sent out 
 in 1835, when fifty-two members were dismissed to form the 
 Second Baptist Church of Newton, at the Upper Falls. 
 That village was perhaps more prosperous in manufacturing 
 then than it has been since ; and a Baptist house of wor- 
 ship had been built and dedicated some two years before the 
 organization of the church. Public worship had for some 
 time been held there ; and the formation of the church 
 amounted merely to a territorial division of the older body, 
 as there were only five constituent members in the new, 
 besides the fifty-two who went out from us. Thus, in less 
 than twenty years, seven new churches derived some part, 
 and four or five of them the chief part, of their constituent 
 members from this mother church. Perhaps this ought to 
 be added, as the completion of the ideal life-long pastorate 
 
28 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 of Father Grafton. He had the blessedness of gathering, 
 and the blessedness of scattering abroad ; and, before he 
 died, he saw his work organized in a wider field, to exert 
 influence which could never have gone forth from a single 
 centre. There are now as many as twenty churches within 
 the field of which he was once the sole Baptist pastor. 
 
 In July, 1835, the good old pastor requested, in view of 
 the increasing infirmities of age, to be released from active 
 service. The church lovingly granted his request, and began 
 to seek for a junior pastor. After ineffective negotiations 
 with Joseph W. Eaton, who had just finished his studies 
 here, a call was given to the Rev. Frederic Augustus Will- 
 ard, a native of Lancaster, Mass., and a graduate of Am- 
 herst College and Newton Theological Institution, who was 
 then at Worcester. The church, for some reason, called a 
 council to install him, which council was regularly organ- 
 ized, and proceeded exactly as in an ordination, hearing 
 the candidate's " Christian experience, call to the ministry, 
 and views of Christian doctrine and gospel ordinances," — 
 a very unusual proceeding among Baptists. This occurred 
 November 25, 1835 ; ^^^ ^^^- Willard served the church from 
 that time till July 29, 1838. Father Grafton preached occa- 
 sionally after his retirement. The date of his last sermon 
 at home is not recorded ; but he preached in Roxbury on 
 Sunday evening, December 11, 1836, the last Sunday of his 
 life, from the text, " How shall we escape, if we neglect so 
 great salvation ? " On Wednesday following, he fell sick in 
 his own home ; and on Friday, December 16, he peacefully 
 breathed his last. It had been expected that he would 
 preach on the i8th, at the last service that the church was to 
 hold in the old house of worship by the pond, which it was 
 just leaving for this house, then about to be dedicated. He 
 preached on that day to the people who gathered there, most 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 29 
 
 touchingly, but only in the spirit of the text, " He being dead 
 yet speaketh." On Tuesday, the 20th, his remains were 
 borne to the familiar place. The old house was crowded as 
 it never had been before, while Dr. Sharp told of the virtues 
 of his long-loved friend and brother. The funeral hymn was 
 sung, and the great congregation followed the faithful ])astor 
 out from those walls to his burial, and no religious service 
 was afterwards held within them. The pastor's remains were 
 laid in the Harback tomb ; and the society afterwards pro- 
 cured a lot in the old centre burying-ground, which is the 
 last earthly resting-place of Father Grafton and his family. 
 
 The scattering abroad of the gathered treasures had been 
 very liberal ; and after the last colony had gone out, in 1835, 
 it began to appear as if the old church had been too gener- 
 ous. On occasion of one of the separations, Father Grafton 
 said: "When the bees swarm, they always leave honey 
 enough in the hive for those that remain to live on." But 
 in this case they almost failed to provide for the old home. 
 By the formation of churches in other towns, the field of the 
 church was shut in to the limits of Newton; and just at 
 the same time, unwisely perhaps, that narrow field was 
 divided by the formation of the church at the Upper Falls. 
 The result was a great diminution both of numbers and of 
 financial strength. " The resident members and the property 
 of the church have thus been so far weakened," Mr. Willard 
 wrote in September, 1836, "that one year ago some of its 
 members seriously proposed disbanding." 
 
 When Mr. Willard was settled, his salary was to be $600 
 a year, toward which the Massachusetts Baptist Convention 
 voted an appropriation of whatever the church might need, 
 not exceeding $200. For some years following, matters 
 grew worse rather than better. The financial troubles of 
 1837 occasioned considerable changes in the population of 
 
30 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 the town, in the course of which many members of the 
 church were lost by removal. Many who remained had 
 suffered severe losses. At the same time, the church was 
 abandoning its old place of worship, and removing to a new 
 locality ; and, in taking this step, it lost the co-operation 
 of several persons of some wealth who would have helped 
 to build on the old spot. The change of location was de- 
 cided upon calmly, as a matter of judgment. "The loca- 
 tion which we take," Mr. Willard wrote, " is less congenial 
 to the feelings of nine-tenths of those who have cheerfully 
 assented to the removal." The step was taken expressly in 
 order to accommodate the Theological Institution, which 
 had now been ten or twelve years in existence. The land 
 for the new house was given to the society by Mrs. Anna 
 White. In order to adapt the house to the public uses of 
 the Institution, they made it about one-seventh larger than 
 any other house of worship in the town, and one-fourth 
 larger than their ordinary purposes required. Some help 
 was received from members of neighboring churches ; but 
 many promises of such assistance failed to be fulfilled be- 
 cause of the hard times. And, with all that they could 
 obtain, the burden was a heavy one, though the house that 
 they built was not, like the temple, " exceeding magnifical." 
 It was a plain structure, not overcharged with beauty ; and 
 when it was dedicated, on the 22d of December, 1836, not 
 without debt, the church rejoiced, but rejoiced with trem- 
 bling, amid the changes and uncertainties that were upon 
 them. After that event, the pecuniary embarrassment did 
 not diminish ; and the pastor intimated more than once, in 
 communications to the church, that there was a sad lack 
 of unanimity of feeling among the people. The current 
 expenses were not met, and there was a considerable arrear- 
 age due to the pastor. In June, 1838, Mr. Willard made 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 3 1 
 
 a proposal to help the society in meeting both its expenses 
 and the interest on its debt, on condition that the arrearage 
 was paid. But the society voted, " with unfeigned regret," 
 that " in their present pecuniary embarrassments they feel 
 themselves unable to pay him the amount of salary that 
 was voted to him." Whereupon, he resigned ; and his place 
 was vacated on the 29th of July. He afterwards served as 
 pastor in Louisville, Ky., and in South Danvers, South 
 Abington, and Necdham, Mass., and died at Philadelphia in 
 1866. Under his ministry, seventeen persons were added 
 to the church. 
 
 The next pastor did not come till the beginning of 1842, 
 after three years and five months had passed. The church 
 did not feel itself able to support a pastor, and did not seek 
 one. But on November i, 1838, it was voted to request 
 Professor Ripley to supply the pulpit, and exercise such a 
 care over the church as his other duties would allow ; and 
 on the 30th of November he accepted the position of acting 
 pastor. He conscientiously regarded an acting pastor as a 
 man who acts, in the pastor's place ; and he did as much 
 work, apparently, as could be expected of a pastor whose 
 services were not gratuitous. This arrangement continued 
 for nearly two years, or until September 4, 1840. During 
 this time, a long-continued effort to obtain a satisfactory 
 list of the members of the church was completed ; and a 
 list was accepted in the spring of 1840, that contained the 
 names of twenty-three men and seventy-nine women, or one 
 hundred and two in all. In 1835, after the departure of the 
 Upper Falls church, the number reported was two hundred 
 and twenty-four. But the body, though small, was of better 
 courage than at some other times ; and conversions began 
 to occur, more numerous than at any time since the great 
 ingathering of 1832. Thirty-nine persons were added to 
 
32 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 the church during this interval between the pastorates. 
 After September, 1840, the church began again to look for 
 a pastor. In March, 1841, Mr. Silas B. Randall, a recent 
 graduate of the Institution, received a unanimous call from 
 church and society ; but he also received a call to Woburn, 
 which he thought it his duty to accept. There was some 
 desire to reinstate Professor Ripley in the place that he had 
 vacated, but he was not willing to stand in the way of the 
 obtaining of a permanent pastor. At length, it became 
 known that the Rev. Samuel Francis Smith, then of Water- 
 ville, Maine, was about to remove to Boston to act as editor 
 of the Christian Revieiv, and was willing to be also the 
 pastor of some church in this vicinity. He spent one 
 Sunday here, and intended to visit the church again, but 
 found it impossible. Thereupon, on November 14, 1841, 
 the church unanimously voted to call him to the pastorate 
 for one year. "It was thought desirable to state a limited 
 time," says the record, "as the society in a particular 
 manner might have serious objections to making provision 
 for the permanent support of a person with whom they are 
 not acquainted." The society having concurred in the call, 
 Mr. Smith began his labors at the beginning of 1842. At 
 the end of a year, the call was unanimously renewed, with- 
 out limitation of time. The pastorate thus begun continued 
 until the end of June, 1854, twelve years and six months. 
 
 The general character of the life of this period is well 
 described by a passage in a letter of the church to the As- 
 sociation a little later, in 1857. "The annual record of any 
 church located as ours is can contain little of general in- 
 terest, unless specially blessed with divine influences. We 
 dwell among ourselves, seldom experiencing the stir and 
 bustle incident to other neighborhoods. The regularity of 
 our religious life borders upon sameness, and the manifesta- 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 33 
 
 tion of religious feeling indicates but little change." The 
 community was still small, and its daily life was almost un- 
 affected as yet by the proximity of a great city. The 
 pastorate of Dr. Smith was quiet, uneventful, and pros- 
 perous. The church seems to have been drawn closer 
 together in brotherly feeling. The number of persons 
 added to the church was one hundred and six, the largest 
 additions occurring in 1842, 1848, and 1851. The benevo- 
 lent operations of the church were better organized than 
 before, and the gifts were consequently larger. The new 
 hymn-book, the Psalmist, of which the pastor was the 
 principal compiler, was adopted for use in public worship. 
 "Winchell's Watts" had been in use before, apparently 
 since 1821. Pecuniary embarrassments still continued, and 
 the proposed increase of the pastor's salary after the first 
 year could not be made; but in 1846 the church was able 
 to relieve the society of nearly $2,000 of its debt, which 
 was nearly the whole, by turning to this purpose, by the 
 consent of heirs, a legacy given some years before by Mrs. 
 Nancy Foster. A case of discipline, arising out of pecu- 
 niary difficulties between two brethren, occupies some space 
 in the record. In 185 1, some repairs were made on the 
 house of worship. Thus the years passed quietly, bringing 
 gradual improvement, but showing no great changes. Just 
 at the end of Dr. Smith's pastorate, several members were 
 dismissed to form a church at Newtonville, which was after- 
 ward merged in the church that was formed at West New- 
 ton. Dr. Smith resigned his charge in April, 1854, and 
 closed his labors on the 30th of June. " Our pastor leaves 
 us," says the record, "with our unabated confidence in his 
 integrity and excellence as a Christian and a minister of 
 Christ, with entire affection on our part toward him, and 
 with our prayers for his future usefulness and happiness." 
 3 
 
34 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 But he did not withdraw from among his people, and he 
 would be with us to-day, were it not that one of the rarest 
 of privileges has been given him, — the privilege of visiting 
 at once a beloved son and the mission-field in which his 
 heart has so long been at home. 
 
 In September following, a call to the vacant pulpit was 
 e.xtended to Rev. Oakman S. Stearns, then of Newark, 
 N.J. ; but it was declined. The call was renewed, how- 
 ever, in August, 1855, and was now accepted; and on the 
 23d of September a pastorate of twelve years and eight 
 months was begun. The services of Dr. Stearns ended 
 May 31, 1868. His successor. Rev. William N. Clarke, 
 then of Keene, N.H., was called March 24, 1869, and 
 began his labors here on the i6th of May. His pastorate 
 lasted eleven years lacking two weeks, and closed May i, 
 1880. For the purposes of the present review, the events 
 of the last two pastorates may just as well be grouped 
 together. 
 
 Dr. Stearns found the church worshipping by invitation 
 with the Congregational church, while this house of worship 
 was almost made new. Great changes were made within. 
 The tower was erected ; and a bell, for the first time, began 
 to call the worshippers. The hospitality of our Congrega- 
 tional neighbors was enjoyed for eight months at that time, 
 a kindness which they showed us again for a few weeks last 
 year. The two churches have always had many pleasant 
 connections. The old pastors. Dr. Homer and Father Graf- 
 ton, were near neighbors and close friends, and their graves 
 are side by side in the old cemetery ; and the more recent 
 pastors have been true brethren to each other in love. The 
 house of worship was reopened early in 1856, with Dr. 
 Stearns, the new pastor, in the pulpit. Its subsequent fort- 
 unes need only be alluded to : how the chapel was added 
 
HISTORICAT, DISCOURSE. 35 
 
 in i860; how the house was remodelled again in 1869, re- 
 ceiving then a baptistery, and a new organ in place of one 
 which had served since 1840; how the pews have suf- 
 fered contraction and expansion according to the exigen- 
 cies of the time ; how the old structure was retouched with 
 paint last year, and then was damaged a few weeks later 
 by the gale, which barely spared it ; and how it stands in 
 hope of giving place to something better. It has never 
 been famous for beauty, but it has been a pleasant and 
 sacred home for a good religious life. 
 
 In 1858, this passage was inserted in the letter to the 
 Association, a passage in which one of the chief facts about 
 the church is well set forth : " In former years, one of our 
 chief sources of anxiety has arisen from the apparent ina- 
 bility to blend together the variety of elements of which, 
 though a small body, we are composed. We were not 
 troubled with discords, but neither were we cheered with the 
 harmony of many sounds. There was a very marked feel- 
 ing of irresponsibility on the part of some, generated in part 
 by the fear of man, which induced a disposition to leave to 
 others what their own spiritual growth required to be done 
 by themselves. This feeling was particularly manifest in 
 our prayer-meetings, which, though interesting and profita- 
 ble, failed to call into exercise the various gifts with which 
 we had been endowed." A change for the better had ap- 
 peared within the year of which this letter makes mention; 
 but all who know the church are aware that, as this fault 
 was not then of recent origin, so it was not then eradicated. 
 Such a fault was almost unavoidable in a church that con- 
 tained such elements as were gathered here. Yet this was 
 written while the great change in the constitution of the 
 body had but just begun. From a little after the time of 
 Dr. Stearns' coming, Boston began to give new character to 
 
36 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 Newton by sending hither a new class of residents. The 
 change began when Mr. Colby came in 1847, but from about 
 1858 it became much more rapid and extensive. Men of 
 trade began to come in among the quiet citizens of the 
 place ; and to the two elements that had existed before, the 
 Theological Institution furnishing one, a third was added. 
 How complete the change in character has been, there are 
 but few that know ; for there are only twenty-eight mem- 
 bers now in the church, resident or non-resident, whose 
 connection with it dates back of Dr. Stearns' coming. The 
 old difficulty about bearing the spiritual burdens equally 
 continued after the change, as might have been expected, 
 and continues still. And yet no one of the elements in the 
 church has ever been wished away, except perhaps in some 
 moment of ungodly impatience ; for each has been, in its 
 own way, a rich blessing to the body. 
 
 During Dr. Stearns' pastorate, the growth of the church 
 was steady and healthful. Two hundred and two persons 
 were added to the church, one hundred and eleven of them 
 by baptism ; and the additions were distributed quite evenly 
 over the whole period. In his ministry, as in Dr. Smith's, 
 a considerable number of young persons were received to 
 membership. Two Sunday-schools were established, one at 
 Oak Hill and one at Thompsonville. From the former, a 
 considerable company of young converts came to the church. 
 For the latter, a chapel was erected in 1867, and the school 
 is still successfully maintained. The community was grad- 
 ually growing larger, and the church was fully keeping pace 
 with its progress. In benevolent operations, especially, there 
 was a great increase, partly because the wealth of the church 
 had received large additions, and partly for the much better 
 reason that much of the wealth was in liberal hands. In 
 1865, the name of the body was changed, by vote, from 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 37 
 
 "The First Baptist Church of Newton " to "The Baptist 
 Church at Newton Centre." Within these years came on 
 the terrible experiences of the civil war. There seems to 
 be no record of the number of men that the church contrib- 
 uted to the national army ; but there is record of three who 
 lost their lives, — Eben White, William N. Freeman, and 
 Thomas C. Norcross, — and of others who did brave service 
 on the field. The spirit of patriotism was never wanting 
 here. In one of the annual letters to the Association, 
 the church say, after an allusion to " our imperilled coun- 
 try," " We have hailed with joy the public occasions which 
 have been appointed for supplication in her behalf, and 
 in our daily prayers we have not forgotten her interests ; 
 for, besides the present demand of patriotism, we think 
 that the best welfare of our nation for all coming time, 
 and of mankind at large, is enfolded in the issue of our 
 struggle." 
 
 Dr. Stearns withdrew from the pastoral office, to take the 
 honorable place that he still holds in the Theological Institu- 
 tion. The eleven years of his successor's pastorate, from 
 1869 to 1880, were not marked by many events that call for 
 record here. The chief event of the time was the revival of 
 1873, the most extensive that the church had enjoyed since 
 Father Grafton's last spiritual harvest, in 1832. It brought 
 into the church a large company of young people ; and all 
 who were permitted to have part in it remember well how 
 beautiful and satisfactory was the work of grace, and how 
 long the delightful spirit of holy life lingered among us. 
 Very rarely is any church blessed with so happy a season of 
 refreshing. Another addition to the church, nearly as large, 
 was made in 1877, when all the churches in this vicinity 
 were influenced by the work of Mr. Moody in Boston ; but 
 the memory of the earlier season of blessing can never be 
 
38 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 effaced by any remembrances of the later and more general 
 revival. Sixty-three persons were added to the church in 
 1873, thirty-six in 1874, and fifty-three in 1877. The whole 
 number added in this pastorate was two hundred and fifty- 
 eight, of whom one hundred and twenty-five were baptized. 
 This brings the whole number who have been connected 
 with the church within the hundred years to twelve hun- 
 dred and ninety-five, an average of a little more than one 
 addition a month throughout the century. For a church 
 situated as this has been, this certainly seems to be a higher 
 average than we could ordinarily expect. Few churches 
 similarly placed have equalled it. 
 
 In 1876, when the church was preparing the second edition 
 of its manual (the first having been printed in 1865), a new 
 revision of the Articles of Faith was made. The church 
 adopted no creed at its formation, unless the creed of the 
 Second Church in Boston was regarded as tacitly adopted by 
 being read. In 1813, a small sum was paid to Mr. Graf- 
 ton "for the articles of our faith and covenant," probably a 
 purchase of printed articles in Boston. The first sign of 
 independent action is a pamphlet, printed in 1832, which 
 contains a Confession of Faith that was in use by various 
 churches in this vicinity. In 1856, a committee was ap- 
 pointed '* with full powers to procure a new edition of the 
 church articles, with appropriate Scripture references." This 
 committee made some abridgment of the articles, and some 
 other changes. In 1876, another committee added one arti- 
 cle, and recast some of the others, and added to the proof 
 texts, the whole being submitted to the members of the 
 church, and by them somewhat altered before the final act of 
 adoption. These few facts are all that the records of the 
 church contain respecting the creed. 
 
 This mention of the creed and of the admission of mem- 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 39 
 
 bers brings to mind some facts in the record that illustrate 
 the attitude and feeling of the church with reference to 
 membership in itself. A committee of examination was 
 appointed in 181 7, enlarged and intrusted with additional 
 duties in 1828, and made a matter of annual appointment in 
 1854. Tenderness and forbearance seem to have been the 
 rule in dealing with applicants for baptism. As early as 
 1789, we find this sensible entry in the book : "Mr. Jonathan 
 Hyde and Mrs. Clough related their experiences. The church 
 voted they were satisfied with Mr. Hyde ; and, part of the 
 church not being [satisfied] with Mrs. Clough, they were 
 desired to visit her, which they did, and gained full satis- 
 faction." Something very similar occurred nearly sixty years 
 later. Eight candidates were unanimously received, when 
 " Professor Ripley expressed himself as not fully satisfied 
 with the case of Thomas Norcross," the ninth. So "the 
 professor and Deacon White were appointed a committee to 
 confer with him more minutely, previous to the approbatory 
 action of the church." On Sunday morning, after service and 
 before the time for baptism, " Professor Ripley made a report 
 in all respects highly satisfactory in respect to our young 
 friend, Thomas C. Norcross"; and thereupon the church 
 immediately received him, " without a single dissenting 
 voice." In reference to the removal of members who had 
 abandoned belief in the principles that are expressed in the 
 creed, the decided course of the church in its early days has 
 already been spoken of. In 184S, fellowship was withdrawn 
 from a sister who had adopted the views of the Adventists, 
 including the doctrine of the annihilation of the wicked. 
 Fellowship was withdrawn from one absent member, who 
 was reported to have become a Roman Catholic. The desire 
 of a member to unite with another evangelical church, how- 
 ever, has always been treated with respect. The first record, 
 
40 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 made in 1832, is typical in form and spirit of all : "Whereas 
 Miss Harriet Bingham has represented to us that a connec- 
 tion with another denomination of Christians is more desir- 
 able to herself than a continued union with this church, 
 voted, that in accordance with her request she be dismissed 
 from her connection with this church." The total number 
 of exclusions from the beginning seems to be about seventy, 
 — thirty-eight, according to Father Grafton, in the first half- 
 century, and about thirty-two in the second. 
 
 In this rapid review of a hundred years, the element of 
 personal description, the portrayal of individual character 
 and influence, has been almost entirely omitted. It would 
 be unpardonable, however, to leave the story unilluminated 
 by the light of individual life ; for this personal element is 
 essential to the right understanding of some important parts 
 of the general history. Yet, as for the earlier part of the 
 story, there is no one living who can supply the much- 
 needed touches of description. Those days are too remote, 
 and the actors of that time have passed too far from our 
 knowledge. Some of the first members have descendants 
 in the church to-day, indeed : the Wiswalls, the Halls, and 
 the Kings are thus represented, and perhaps some others. 
 But the church is composed, in so large a proportion, of new- 
 comers in the town that even the names of the old Newton 
 families sound but strangely to the greater part. A large 
 number of well-known Newton names are on our roll, as 
 well as some from neighboring towns ; for here are Rich- 
 ardson, Dana, Hall, and Hastings ; Cheney, Kenrick, Hyde, 
 and Parker ; Hammond, Richards, Stone, and Norcross ; 
 Coolidge, Hovey, Griggs, and Corey ; Bacon, Brackett, 
 Kingsbury, and Trowbridge ; Bixby, Pettee, Cunningham, 
 Keyes, and Scott; Langley, Lothrop, Bullough, and White. 
 But we must leave the earliest fathers and mothers unde- 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 4I 
 
 scribed. Some of them lingered among their children to 
 extreme old age. From twenty-five to fifty years ago, there 
 was a large proportion of aged men, and especially of aged 
 women, in the church, — a state of things that is strongly 
 in contrast with what we have lately seen, the church in 
 recent years having been remarkably youthful. The longest 
 term of membership in the church, longer than even that 
 of Mr. Davis, ended on the ist of January, 1859, when Mrs. 
 Charlotte Wilson Harback died. She was baptized in July, 
 1788, — just after Father Grafton came, — and she died after 
 seventy years and six months in fellowship with the church. 
 The fathers have gone ; and we cannot reproduce in imag- 
 ination the quaint figures and serious faces that once 
 thronged the old meeting-house. The few survivors of that 
 earlier period will not wonder that an historical review fails 
 to do justice to their memories of the past. It could not be 
 otherwise, for the simple reason that one generation goeth 
 and another cometh. 
 
 For the younger race, the period of conceptions that ap- 
 proach to definiteness begins as late as the founding of the 
 Theological Institution, in 1825. Then came Professor Irah 
 Chase to Newton, and met his two or three students at first 
 in a little house that stood on Ward Street. He united with 
 the church in 1826, and remained a member of it till 1857, 
 though his residence was removed from Newton some years 
 before that time. His coming was hailed with joy by the 
 aged pastor and by the j^eople, and he immediately became 
 prominent in the work and counsels of the church. His 
 influence was strong and good ; but the extreme meagreness 
 of the record, during the years when he was most promi- 
 nent, deprives us of the details by which his service to the 
 church might become better known. It was otherwise with 
 his associate, Dr. Henry J. Ripley, who became a member 
 
42 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 of this body early in 1827 ; for he remained a full half- 
 century in the church, and for many years it was his own 
 careful and accurate hand that kept the record. No figure 
 in the history of the church is more familiar than his, and 
 none is more suggestive of tender and beautiful remem- 
 brances. Strong in principle, immovable in fidelity to the 
 truth, strict in his own interpretation of the law of right- 
 eousness, still he was everywhere known as the man of 
 love, the faithful friend, the unwearying advocate of peace, 
 the man whose presence in the church was the pledge of 
 harmony in its counsels. Even down to old age, he was 
 the friend and servant of the church. The loveliness of his 
 spirit was never soured. He highly esteemed his younger 
 brethren, and never supposed that godliness was leaving 
 the earth with the generation to which he belonged. Such 
 a lifetime as his in any church would be sufficient to es- 
 tablish a habit of peace ; and that is exactly what his life 
 did among us. Side by side with him stood Deacon Eben 
 Stone, baptized at twelve years old, sixty years a member 
 of the church, and forty-six years a deacon. Tried and true 
 was he, a friend to whose lifelong and faithful service the 
 younger generation is more indebted than it knows. He 
 was a friend who never faltered. There was a time when 
 his influence in the church was stronger, perhaps, than any 
 other ; and yet his influence was always modified by that 
 of the wise and gentle spirit at his side, Dr. Ripley, with 
 whom he labored in loving unity. He was looking forward 
 to this centennial occasion, and hoping to contribute from 
 his store of memories to this historical review ; but he was 
 called away at the beginning of last year. Associated with 
 him were other faithful laymen of the same generation. 
 Seth Davis was active in the church in those days ; and so 
 was Ebenezer Davis White ; and so was Samuel Trowbridge, 
 
HIS'lXmiCAL DISCOURSE. 43 
 
 who lingered among us till he had passed his ninetieth year ; 
 and so was his son Asa, afterward deacon. There were other 
 professors in the Institution besides Dr. Chase and Dr. 
 Ripley, but they did not hold as i)rominent a position in 
 the church as these. The name of Dr. Sears often ai)pears 
 in the record during the time of his residence ; and that of 
 Dr. Hackett is mentioned less frequently, but often enough 
 to show that he loved the church. In 1847, '^ '"icw power 
 came in when Gardner Colby was drawn hither by his de- 
 votion to the Theological Institution. A power he was, in 
 any body of which he was a member ; and in this quiet, 
 rural community he was a power of a new kind. His com- 
 ing was the beginning of the revolution. From the first, he 
 was earnest in his devotion to the church, willing to work 
 with his brethren, and able to influence them for good in 
 new directions. What the history of the last thirty years 
 would have been without him, it is hard to imagine ; but it 
 is certain that we owe very much to his liberal giving and 
 his life-long interest in the church. And, as we look out into 
 the new century, we hope to see one of his last wishes ful- 
 filled, by his own liberality, in a new and better house of 
 worship. Other names of high worth might be mentioned, 
 among which stands that of the Rev. Jabez W. Parkhurst, 
 who was with the church for twenty years, and whose quiet 
 influence conspired with that of his brethren for the pro- 
 motion of godliness and peace. Of the living, who are still 
 members of the church, it is not well that I should speak ; 
 save that no one would forgive me if I failed to say that, 
 in the true and gentle spirit that presides over the Institu- 
 tion now, the church has had, for nearly thirty years, a 
 counsellor and friend whose influence, in favor at once of 
 truth and of unity, has been of inestimable value. In re- 
 calling the good gifts of a century, we should be strangely 
 
44 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 forgetful if we neglected to give thanks for the presence 
 and work of Dr. Alvah Hovey. To Dr. Ripley and to him, 
 very largely, it is due that unity has so nearly become 
 habitual in this body. 
 
 A church connected so closely with a Theological Semi- 
 nary might be expected to send into the ministry many of 
 its sons ; but the record of its contributions to the min- 
 istry, while it cannot be read without gratitude for their 
 good quality, awakens surprise and disappointment at the 
 smallness of their number. Within the first half-century, 
 and before the founding of the Institution, four preachers 
 were licensed from among the sons of the church, and one 
 of them was ordained. Nathan Dana, one of the original 
 members, was both licensed and ordained, and served in 
 the ministry in Vermont. Charles Train, licensed in 1806, 
 was the father of the Rev. Arthur Savage Train, who was 
 well known here in later years. The father long served the 
 church in Framingham, of which the son also was pastor 
 at his death. Hadley Proctor, afterward in Vermont and 
 in Maine, was licensed in 18 17; and Francis G. Macomber, 
 whose only pastorate, in Beverly, was cut short by his death 
 in 1829, received license here in 1820. Within the second 
 half-century, and since the founding of the Institution, only 
 two who are strictly to be called sons of the church have 
 been licensed to preach, — Daniel A. W. Smith in 1862 and 
 Henry F. Colby in 1866. Edward O. Stevens, who was 
 licensed in 1863 and ordained here in 1864, should be added; 
 for his home had been for some years with this church, 
 though he was not baptized here. Dr. Hackett was or- 
 dained here in 1839, after becoming a professor, and three 
 other persons have been licensed by the church, and four 
 have been ordained ; but they were students of the Insti- 
 tution, who were preparing for the ministry before they 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 45 
 
 became members with us. From a worldly point of view, 
 this state of things is, perhaps, natural enough ; but, from 
 a spiritual point of view, it certainly appears that the contri- 
 bution of such a church to the ministry ought to have been 
 larger. 
 
 The ministry has done more for the church than the 
 church for the ministry. Among the names that have al- 
 ready been mentioned there have been many ministerial 
 names that stand high in honor ; and, if the whole company 
 of ministers who have been members here could be seen 
 together, a noble company it would be. There are about 
 forty names of. ordained ministers on the roll, though a few 
 of these are the names of students who had already been 
 ordained. All the professors in the Institution, except 
 three, have brought their letters of dismission hither. 
 When the last manual was printed, there were fifteen 
 ordained ministers on the list. At the end of the cen- 
 tury there were twelve. The presence of so many minis- 
 ters in the church has been attended by certain inevitable 
 disadvantages in repressing the activity of other members. 
 But the ministers have been a blessing, and are a blessing 
 still. 
 
 The church has had a Sunday-school since 1818 or 18 19, 
 — traditions differ as to the date, — when it was founded by 
 Mrs. James Hyde in her own house. Father Grafton went 
 to her, and said, calling her by her Christian name, " Well, 
 the other churches are starting Sabbath-schools, and we 
 must have a Sabbath-school." There are no early records 
 of the school, but it is certain that on the list of the super- 
 intendents and teachers have been written names that have 
 since been highly honored in Zion. Many students of the 
 Institution have labored in this field ; and it ought to be 
 added that to the students the church has been indebted. 
 
46 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 all through the half-century, for spiritual sympathy, and 
 for help rendered in a hundred ways. The Sunday-school 
 has been to a very large extent the training-school for the 
 church. The church has a very pleasant history, indeed, in 
 connection with the conversion of children. It is known 
 that more than eighty persons have been received to mem- 
 bership at fourteen years old or under, and it is quite cer- 
 tain that this number falls below the truth. Some of these 
 were the very best that we have had. It is a singular and 
 interesting fact that the youngest person ever received to 
 the church was among the first company that was baptized, 
 ten days after the church was organized. On that 15th of 
 July, 1780, Abigail Prout, aged eight years, received baptism. 
 There is something unexplained about her; for her parents 
 appear to have been living in Boston, and the church ap- 
 pointed a committee, two months after she was baptized, to 
 go to Boston and converse with them, and also to take care 
 of her, and provide a place for her to dwell, at the expense 
 of the church. It is pleasant to think of the young church 
 as accepting this strange trust from Divine Providence. This 
 mysterious child stands, to us, in striking contrast with the 
 old man from whose house she went out to be baptized. 
 Noah Wiswall was born in 1699, and was in his eighty-first 
 year when all this happened. He was a sturdy old man, 
 who had gone down, five years earlier, to the battle-field of 
 Lexington, "to see what the boys were doing," and had 
 come home with a wounded hand and a British soldier's 
 gun. It was in this patriarch's house that the child was 
 made ready for baptism ; and he, no doubt, was one of the 
 company that walked with her across the road and through 
 the field to the fair natural baptistery. She remained in the 
 church ten years, and was then dismissed to the First 
 Church in Boston. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 4/ 
 
 The youthful Abigail Prout was the first to be provided 
 for by the bounty of the church, but she was the first of a 
 long- succession. Through all these years, the church has 
 been mindful of the poor. Two legacies for charitable pur- 
 poses have been received from members, as well as three 
 for general religious use ; and there is frequent record of 
 appropriations for the poor in the earlier time. In later 
 years, the administration of such work has been in the hands 
 of the deacons, and the details have not found their way 
 into the record. 
 
 The church has abundant reason to be thankful for its 
 many and long-continued relations with the great missionary 
 work. In 1812, it joined the Boston Baptist Association, 
 which was then formed ; and perhaps this connection with a 
 body nearer home than the large and scattered Warren Asso- 
 ciation quickened its interest in the general work of Christ's 
 kingdom. In the next year, it was voted to take twelve 
 copies of the Baptist Missio7iary Magazine, at the expense 
 of the church. Three years later, this was discontinued, but 
 the magazine was commended to the members of the body. 
 In 1 8 16, a contribution to the Education Society is recorded. 
 According to the custom of the time, female societies were 
 formed, for the support both of missions and of ministerial 
 education, which existed for many years, and did efficient 
 service. A contribution of $90 for foreign missions is men- 
 tioned in 1840, and more than once there is record of spe- 
 cial efforts to aid in relieving the financial embarrassments of 
 the Missionary Board. The Macedonian began to be taken 
 in 1843, and the Ho7ne Mission Record also was for many 
 years supplied to the members of the church. The concert 
 of prayer for missions was established at an early date ; and 
 in 1854 there is allusion to a concert of prayer for home 
 missions, held on the third Sunday evening in each month. 
 
48 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 All the pastors have had a living interest in missions ; and 
 no church, with the possible exception of one or two, has 
 had closer connections with our foreign missionary organ- 
 ization, or with the foreign field. For many years, we have 
 been represented on the Executive Committee of the Mis- 
 sionary Union. This has been a frequent resting-place 
 for missionaries on their return from their fields of labor. 
 The mother of the sainted George Dana Boardman ended 
 her days on earth as a member here. The children of mis- 
 sionaries have grown up among this people. Several breth- 
 ren who have gone from the Institution to the foreign field 
 have retained their connection with us ; and one of these, 
 Mr. Partridge, of Swatow, has just carried back with him to 
 his field of labor the warm affection of the church. From 
 our own number have gone out the Rev. Daniel A. W. 
 Smith, son of the former pastor, and his wife, daughter of 
 Dr. Stevens, of Rangoon ; the Rev. Edward O. Stevens, son 
 of Dr. Stevens, and his wife, daughter of Dr. Francis Mason, 
 of Burmah ; Miss Harriet E. Rice, who became the wife of 
 the Rev. C. H. Carpenter, of Bassein ; and Miss Sarah B. 
 Barrows, now of Maulmain. Dr. Warren, the beloved and 
 venerated Secretary of the Missionary Union, was active for 
 many years in the work and counsels of this church, and 
 his influence was a powerful help to the spirit of missionary 
 consecration. The first suggestion of the Woman's Baptist 
 Missionary Society arose within our limits, and the first 
 meeting that led to its organization was held here. The 
 women of this church have, from the beginning, been among 
 the most active supporters of that Society. Just now, a 
 new tie to bind the church to the foreign field has been es- 
 tablished, in the Home for Missionaries' Children, that has 
 just come into existence here. The church has an honor- 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 49 
 
 able record, too, amoni;- the givers for missionary work. 
 There have been some years in which it gave more than any 
 other church in America to the treasury of the Missionary 
 Union. The spirit of benevolence has been so greatly de- 
 veloped in some larger and wealtliier churches that this 
 honor is not likely to come to this body again ; but it is safe 
 to predict that the interest in obeying the Lord's great com- 
 mand will not die out in a church to which that interest has 
 been so great a blessing. 
 
 In other good works of \arious kinds, the church has taken 
 from time to time an active part, and on various moral 
 questions it has made its record. In 1850, it voted to as- 
 sume the responsibility of ^50 toward the simi of jg2,8oo, 
 provided the whole could be raised, to purchase the wife and 
 four children of a colored Baptist minister from slavery in 
 Tennessee, Mr. Colby offering to make up any deficit in the 
 $50. In the following year, the money was called for, and 
 was forwarded, Mr. Colby's part being about one-third. 
 Earlier, in 1844, the church was consulted by a committee of 
 the American Baptist Home Mission Society as to whether 
 in its judgment the constitution of that body could be so 
 modified as to "combine the harmonious action of brethren 
 holding conflicting views on the subject of slavery, and 
 whether any mode can be suggested for an amicable dissolu- 
 tion of the Home Mission Society." Into what a period of 
 moral bondage and perplexity does the proposal carry back 
 our minds! The church, in reply, did not venture any propo- 
 sition, professing full confidence in the Board that had asked 
 the questions ; but its answer included this utterance, " We 
 highly disapprove of the system of slavery, and we believe 
 that those who live in the midst of it ought to make it their 
 settled policy to bring about as speedily as possible its entire 
 removal." 
 4 
 
50 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 Is it right to leave the faults of the church unmentioned ? 
 Some of them have appeared incidentally in the story already 
 told ; but, in this day of grateful review, they shall not be 
 made prominent. It is only right to say, however, that the 
 greatest faults are of such a kind that the church itself is 
 the chief sufferer from them, sometimes consciously and 
 sometimes unconsciously. The history would be incomplete 
 also, if it were not said that there are certain faults which a 
 century has been too short to eradicate, — faults that appear 
 in the earlier years and in the later. Perhaps the greatest is 
 a certain narrowness of views and of administration in what 
 may be called the home policy of the church. Both finan- 
 cially and in other aspects, the course of the church for a 
 century at home has failed to appear as liberal and wise and 
 large-hearted as its conduct with reference to the general 
 interests of our Saviour's kingdom. In passing on to a new 
 century, the church will do well to study its own record, 
 that it may learn to avoid its own errors. 
 
 The quiet and uneventful character of this history cannot 
 have failed to impress every hearer. Some Baptist churches 
 that look back into the eighteenth century have a tragic 
 story of resistance to oppression from the civil power, but 
 this church is not quite old enough to remember such experi- 
 ences. Some Baptist churches have had to fight their way 
 up through bitter opposition from Christians of other de- 
 nominations, and the peculiar principles of the Baptists have 
 been forced into prominence by the strife ; but no such 
 conflicts are recorded here. Some churches have been torn 
 by doctrinal differences ; but, after the struggle of the first 
 few years, this church was untroubled by such strifes. Some 
 churches have been rent by personal contentions among 
 brethren, quarrels and alienations that destroyed the general 
 peace ; but in this church there have been very few such 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 5 I 
 
 troubles, and none that became so general as permanently 
 to affect the general welfare. "The son of peace" has 
 been here, and the habit of loving and keeping harmony 
 has grown strong by the practice of years. Some churches 
 have had their life in communities where excitements 
 abounded, and their course has partaken of the changeful- 
 ness that was around them ; but this church has dwelt in 
 the most quiet of places, and lived the most equable of 
 lives. Some churches have been radical and aggressive in 
 their prevailing tone, and have thus been brought into oppo- 
 sitions and excitements ; but few churches have been more 
 steady and conservative than this. Perhaps it has been too 
 conservative. It has become a leading church, partly by 
 the providential assignment of its situation, partly by the 
 character of the leading men that God has given it, and 
 partly by its own quiet persistence in well-doing. Doubt- 
 less, it might have been more decidedly a leading church, 
 if it had been able more efficiently to blend its various 
 elements into a single life. But its quiet, uneventful his- 
 tory is a history full of blessing, for which we gratefully 
 make acknowledgment to our God. As the church now 
 looks forward into a second century, may the blessing of 
 Heaven rest upon it ! As God was with the fathers, so 
 may he be with the children ! This is a good day for self- 
 examination and humility, for the putting away of faults, and 
 for fresh consecration to all holy service. The times are 
 new, and the fathers would scarcely recognize the world 
 in which the children live. The second century is all un- 
 known, except in this, that it will certainly be all unlike 
 the first. The questions and conflicts of the time are new 
 in form, old though the themes of thought may be. This 
 church is to be larger and stronger, if it has wisdom to 
 use its opportunities, than it has ever been yet. It is a 
 
52 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 time for wisdom and for consecration. The gospel is the 
 power of God unto salvation now as ever ; and the church 
 is the pillar and ground of the truth. The Lord is the 
 strength of his people; and here may he make his blessing 
 to rest, even life for evermore ! 
 
EVENING SERVICE, 
 
ORGAN VOLUNTARY. 
 
 MUSIC. PRAYER. 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 ADDRESS OF WELCOME, . Rev. ALYAH HOYEY, D.D., LL.D. 
 ADDRESS, Rev. 0. S. STEARNS, D.D. 
 
 Pastor from 1855 to 1868. 
 
 POEM Mra. W. N. CLARKE. 
 
 Read by Rev. Dr. Clarke. 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 ADDRESSES BY 
 
 J. G. WARREN, D.D., Rev. D. L. FURBER, D.D., 
 
 H. M. KING, D.D., Mr. H. LINCOLN CHASE, 
 
 Rev. W. T. CHASE. 
 
 LETTER FROM Rev. H. L. COLBY. 
 
 DOXOLOGY. BENEDICTION. 
 
ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 
 
 BY ALVAH HOVEY, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 Fathers a?id Brethren, — To me, as Chairman of the Com- 
 mittee of Arrangements, has been assigned the pleasant 
 duty of welcoming you to this reunion, and of expressing to 
 you our hope that it will pro\e delightful and profitable. 
 Some of you are members of this church or congregation, 
 some are neighbors and friends residing in this goodly city, 
 and some are pastors or delegates from churches, a part 
 of whose original members were taken from our ranks ; and 
 all of you are welcome to this place and to the memories of 
 this hour. 
 
 This anniversary would naturally have been held on the 
 fifth day of last July, when the church was just one hundred 
 years old ; but the people of Massachusetts, and indeed of 
 the whole country, claimed that day in lieu of the fourth 
 for the great national holiday ; and we, as loyal citizens, 
 yielded to their claims, postponing our celebration to the 
 14th of November. And now we have come together for a 
 very simple and natural purpose, — to recall as much as we 
 can of the past, to thank God for his care and love to this 
 people during a hundred years, and to gird up the loins of 
 our mind for Christian service in the future. 
 
 My own contribution to the story of the past will be small, 
 for the time belongs to others ; yet, were it proper, I could 
 
56 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 easily detain you an hour with reminiscences of events in 
 the Hfe of this church during the last thirty-five years, the 
 period through which it has been practically my religious 
 home. And a delightful, peaceful home it has been, — a 
 family of brothers and sisters, uncomnionly free from wrath, 
 strife, discord, or rivalry of any kind in their intercourse 
 with one another. I think, and expect always to think, with 
 great pleasure of the last three pastors, — two of whom are 
 present, while one is on his way to the distant East, — and 
 also of the most active members of the church, from the day 
 when I entered the Seminary until now. 
 
 Especially do I recall at this moment the first meeting 
 which I attended in the old vestry, nearly under the place 
 where I now stand. Yet my memory is filled with the men 
 who were there far more than with the small and low and 
 uninviting room where they worshipped. I seem even now 
 to see and hear Dr. Smith, Dr. Sears, and Dr. Ripley, to- 
 gether with Deacons Stone and White and Father Trow- 
 bridge, as they rose and spoke or prayed; for there was 
 something very distinctive in the speech of every one of 
 them, so that no person who had heard them utter a dozen 
 sentences in a social meeting could ever, to the end of life, 
 mistake any one of them, while in the act of speaking, for 
 another person. 
 
 But I must not detain you by further remarks from the 
 richer memories and better words of mv brethren. 
 
ADDRESS OF REV. 0. S. STEARNS, D.D., 
 
 Pastor from 1855 to 1S68. 
 
 I HAVE been requested by the committee for the centen- 
 nial of our beloved church to recall briefly some of the facts 
 pertaining to the period of my pastorate. The main facts 
 have been recorded so minutely by my revered friend, Dr. 
 Ripley, who was clerk of the church during most of my 
 ministry, a model clerk as well as a model man, as to leave 
 very little to be added. Any one who wishes to know what 
 pastor and people were, and what they did officially, during 
 those thirteen }ears, is commended to his faithful record. 
 I put in this caveat, because, if my reminiscences of that 
 period of the history of this church should seem to be too 
 roseate, the final appeal can be made to the record itself. 
 With age comes dimness of sight ; and dimness of sight 
 causes the foreground of the picture to be much more 
 clearly defined than the background. My reminiscences 
 will pertain to the foreground rather than to the background. 
 I much prefer sunrises to sunsets, except as brilliant sunsets 
 forecast brilliant sunrises. Constitutionally, I am a pessi- 
 mist. Religiously, I am an optimist. 
 
 My ministry with this church began September 23, 1855. 
 About a year previous to that date, I had been invited to 
 this pastorate; but, having just begun my work with the 
 South Baptist Church in Newark, N.J., I was compelled to 
 
58 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 decline. My health, however, rendered a more northern 
 climate a necessity ; and, as a pastor for this church was not 
 secured, I allowed my name to be presented again, on the 
 condition that the people I was then serving would acquiesce 
 in the call. Church was to appeal to church. If the church 
 in Newton Centre could show cause why the South Church 
 of Newark should yield to the request of a transfer of their 
 pastor to another field of service, the sphere of my labors 
 was to be here rather than there. I shall probably never 
 forget my surprise when the late Dr. Sears rung my door- 
 bell one Sunday morning in July, and announced his pur- 
 pose to present the case to my people of Newark on that 
 very day. He came suddenly and characteristically. He 
 refused to preach for me, and persisted in being a hearer. 
 He said he would be present at the prayer-meeting, and 
 present his case. And, so delicately had he prepared him- 
 self to advocate his cause, he would not allow me to be 
 absent from the same. The mutual kind feeling between 
 the two churches as to the removal of a pastor from one 
 church to another is on record ; and I revive the fact simply 
 to emphasize the cordial and Christian relations requisite 
 between churches of the same denomination under similar 
 circumstances. As the result, I became the pastor of this 
 church at the date already mentioned. 
 
 A special reason for accepting this pastorate at that time, 
 as presented to me by Dr. Sears, Dr. Hovey, and others, 
 was the purpose, upon the part of many in the church, to 
 blend together, so far as possible, the interests of the Insti- 
 tution with those of the church. The number of the stu- 
 dents was then small ; and, numerically, the church was 
 small. It was believed that the co-operation of the students 
 with the church, especially in the prayer-circle, might be 
 mutually beneficial. And it was really in the hope of doing 
 
ADDRESS OF DR. STEARNS. 59 
 
 some good in this direction that my decision, upon the 
 second call of the church, was made. I loved the Institu- 
 tion then, as I do now; and I felt that, in a small commu- 
 nity like ours, all the religious forces being concentrated 
 to a given end, we might become a power for good beyond 
 the circle in which we were accustomed to move. How 
 heartily the officers of the Institution and the students re- 
 sponded to this plan is very pleasant to my memory. Dr. 
 Ripley, my wise counsellor and the faithful servant of the 
 church ; Dr. Hovey, my time-tried friend and efficient co- 
 worker ; Dr. Arnold, my constant and instructive aid in the 
 prayer-meeting ; Dr. Train, rich in suggestions from a long 
 and successful pastorate ; Dr. Pepper, always to be trusted 
 and confided in ; Dr. Hackett, the sharp critic, but the faith- 
 ful attendant on the services of the sanctuary, and kind as 
 sharp ; and Dr. Anderson, sympathetic and faithful, — these, 
 with Instructors Brooks, King, and Gushing, responded to 
 my calls, and wrought with me enthusiastically ; while, 
 among the students, not a little were we aided in the choir, 
 in the Sunday-school, and in the prayer-meetings by such 
 men as those now well known, — H. M. Jones, J. C. Wight- 
 man, G. Bullen, G. B. Gow, A. Owen, H. A. Sawtelle, 
 T. Whitfield, C. H. Corey, and many others. 
 
 So far as the church was concerned, however, it was a 
 day of small things when I came to Newton. The number 
 of members, as reported to the Association that year, was 
 one hundred and thirty-seven ; but very many of them were 
 non-residents, while quite a percentage of the residents was 
 unable to render much effective service on account of age, 
 or on account of living at a distance from the places of 
 prayer and worship. Moreover, aside from a very few, we 
 were financially straitened. The meeting-house was un- 
 dergoing repairs, but the vestry was damp and dreary. The 
 
6o CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 community was small, the people sparsely settled ; and, al- 
 though the new railroad facilities inspired hope of an in- 
 crease to the population, for several years it was hope 
 against hope, the railroad by its impoverished condition 
 proving more of an incumbrance than an inspiration. I 
 easily recall the saddened impression of the first Sunday 
 when we entered our house of worship, just enlarged and 
 renovated. For the first time, I saw realities. We had been 
 worshipping with our neighbors, the Congregationalists ; 
 and I knew not in that combined audience who were mine 
 and who belonged to Brother Furber. I found myself the 
 pastor of a congregation numbering about sixty. The pews 
 had previously been sold to the occupants ; and, with pecu- 
 liar modesty, none but those on the right and left of the 
 pulpit had been purchased. From the pulpit to the choir, I 
 had free course. There was not a soul in the middle row. I 
 was to devote myself to the choir, or strike as I could right 
 and left. I had come from a large church and a large con- 
 gregation ; and it is not wonderful that my heart sank within 
 me, and that I often repeated during the succeeding night 
 the lamentation of Amos, " How can Jacob stand, for it is 
 small ? " But the leading thoughts of that first service were 
 acceptable to those who listened to me, and we welcomed 
 the position to which Providence seemed to beckon us. My 
 theme on that occasion was the elements of a prosperous 
 congregation, from the ii8th Psalm and 25th verse, — "O 
 Lord, I beseech thee send now prosperity," — enumerating 
 as these elements sociality, compactness, and aggressiveness. 
 I made no promises, for promises like prophecy are best in 
 their fulfilment ; but I pledged my endeavors to devote all 
 my powers to promote the well-being of the church. As I 
 review the sermon, however, I find that I asked more from 
 the people than I promised to do myself. I demanded, in 
 
ADDRESS OF DR. STEARNS. 6l 
 
 the name of my Master, hearty co-operation with me in all 
 our social, reliij;ious, and public enterprises, assuring them 
 that, when such co-operation ceased, my labors among them 
 would cease; and, if there was prosperity, it was due to the 
 congregation and the church as much as to their pastor. 
 I had true yoke-fellows, and we were determined to move on. 
 Such men as David H. Mason and George Lawton of the 
 society, and Gardiner Colby, Alvah Hovey, Barnas Sears, 
 Henry J. Ripley, Jabez W. Parkhurst, George J. Carlton, 
 Jonah G. Warren, J. G. Gunderson, L^ben Stone, Samuel 
 Trowbridge, Z. Erastus Coffin, and James M. Pevear of the 
 church, were not to be disheartened by appearances ; and 
 they resolved that, if progress was a possibility, progress 
 should be secured. Subsequently, as the church grew by 
 baptism and by the influx from neighboring churches, my 
 additional co-workers were such as Thomas Nickerson, 
 H. Lincoln Chase, George S. Dexter, Asa R. Trowbridge, 
 Mrs. Abby Kinmouth (now Mrs. Brooks), Mrs. Roxana 
 White, George and John H. Sanborn, Mellen Bray, S. C. 
 Spaulding, Charles James, Charles K. Kirby, and others 
 whom I might name. That with such co-laborers, under 
 the divine blessing, there was sufficient progress to war- 
 rant grateful mention, appears by an extract from a ser- 
 mon I preached at the close of the first seven years of my 
 ministry. It reads as follows : " During these years, 65 
 have been added by baptism, and 55 by letter, lacking 
 but 17 of a doubling of our membership ; and yet on our 
 roll to-day there are but 167 names, showing a net gain of 
 only 30. This reduction, however, has been for our health. 
 We have erased the names of those whose residence was 
 unknown, or whose absence rendered such an act neces- 
 sary ; and we have urged with success all those who pur- 
 posed to be absent but a short time to connect themselves 
 
62 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 with Other churches, that they might work the more effi- 
 ciently where Providence temporarily located them. As a 
 result of this latter movement, from a community espe- 
 cially noted for its unchangeableness, 65 have left us to work 
 in other fields of usefulness. Were they all with us, our 
 number would be 232, more than the average number of our 
 congregation on the Sabbath. During this period, in addi- 
 tion to our current expenses and some $10,000 expended 
 upon our house of worship and the chapel, and in addition 
 to the same amount contributed for benevolent objects in 
 a private way, the church has given for purposes of evan- 
 gelization by home and foreign missions, within the six 
 years ending last March, $6,695.19, or an average per an- 
 num of $1,115.86. And yet no one will say that this sum 
 of about $17,000 has been the result of any very marked 
 self-denial." Perhaps I may as well add here that from 
 this time (1862), notwithstanding what we are wont to call 
 war times, to the claims of which for means and men this 
 church responded generously and sacrificiiigly, our benev- 
 olent contributions until the close of my ministry (1868) 
 steadily increased, the amount being for the year 1862 
 $2,208.59, and that of 1867-68 $7,215.05; while during the 
 year 1865, inclusive of special aid to special calls from Wa- 
 terville College, Brown University, and the American Bap- 
 tist Missionary Union, they amounted to $34,392.25. 
 
 This apparent growth was due, however, in a special man- 
 ner to the faithful co-operation of the deacons of the church ; 
 and they deserve from me an honorable mention. At the 
 beginning of my ministry there were but two, Deacon Eben 
 Stone and Deacon E. Davis White. Deacon White, who 
 had served the church long and well and had been peculiarly 
 efficient in the Sunday-school, soon afterward removed from 
 the town. Deacon Stone, who has so recently left us for a 
 
ADDRESS OF DR. STEARNS. 63 
 
 higher and holier sphere, was true as steel. He loved this 
 church as few ever did or could love it. He almost idolized 
 it ; and, in so doing, he purchased "a good degree." Then 
 came in due time Z. Erastus Coffin, D. N. B. Coffin, Asa R. 
 Trowbridge, Gustavus Forbes, and James S. Newell, all 
 pure and true, wise in counsel, ever in sympathy with their 
 pastor, with whom I labored on without a jarring note, and 
 so far as I know, without a discordant thought. I often 
 stirred them up, and doubtless surprised them by my plans 
 and measures ; but I do not recall a single suggestion they 
 were not ready to entertain, and which, when deemed 
 advisable, they did not accept and execute cheerfully and 
 effectively. 
 
 In all the years of my ministry, so far as our growth was 
 indicated by an increase of members to the congregation 
 and to the church, by an increase of our benevolence, and, 
 as I think, by an increase of faith in God and in love for the 
 souls of men, it was due to the general harmony of thought 
 and action, and a disposition on the part of all, the young, 
 the middle-aged, and the old, the sisters and the brethren, to 
 see eye in eye, to pardon the imperfections of the pastor, to 
 work enthusiastically with the pastor, and to regard with 
 reverence and Christian zeal the church of God as the body 
 of Christ. The people had a mind to work. We sought to 
 possess and manifest in the pulpit and in the pew a spiritual 
 atmosphere, rendering the Sunday a holy day, making the 
 house of God a sacred place, and working through personal 
 agencies for the conversion of souls and the Christian 
 growth of souls. By personal watch-care, the very few young 
 persons in the church at my coming, and who had somewhat 
 lapsed from their first love, were nourished into life, and 
 became my best workers in the prayer-meeting and in the 
 general outside work of the church. Through them and a 
 
64 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 corps of helpers in the Sunday-school, the mission stations at 
 Oak Hill and atThompsonville were started and provided for. 
 The sermons, so far as they could be called sermons, for 
 they were rather the weekly correspondence of the "pastor 
 with his people, were aimed at an immediate and direct 
 effect. They were often deplorable failures ; but their pur- 
 pose was to do a present good, and gird up for the toils and 
 struggles of the ensuing week. There are scores of them in 
 the old barrel which will never see any light but the light of 
 the fire, because totally useless except for the occasion when 
 they were preached. Some of them were old ones ; and yet 
 they were deemed, on more than one occasion, so new as to 
 be pointed and personal. I remember a summons by a 
 parishioner to my parlor one Monday morning, to reprove 
 me for personalities in the pulpit the previous Sunday ; he 
 earnestly requesting that, if I wished to rebuke him, I would 
 speak to him privately. But when I told him that that ser- 
 mon was written and preached, word for word, many years 
 before in Southbridge, when I could not possibly be purpos- 
 ing to reprove him personally, he left. I remember another 
 occasion, when, speaking of the depravity of human nature, 
 I used several passages of Scripture, and among others 
 quoted the language of Isaiah, " We are all as an unclean 
 thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." A kind 
 neighbor, a regular attendant on my ministry, and who 
 prided himself upon his pure life, reproved me for the sever- 
 ity of my language, asking me if I deemed him as bad as my 
 language implied. And when I replied in the affirmative, 
 but that there was a divine power which would change filthy 
 rags into jjure white paper, he seemed a little mollified, and 
 concluded he would hear me again. And I remember how 
 sensitive my good people were concerning the introduction 
 of secular and political subjects into the pulpit, much more 
 
ADDRESS OF DR. STEARNS. 6$ 
 
 SO then than you would be now. On one occasion, I spoke 
 out boldly during the war concerning what I deemed a grave 
 public crime. One of my best friends was aggrieved, and 
 kindly but faithfully assured me of the fact. But as time 
 passed on, and I was pressed for a Thanksgiving sermon, I 
 had the hardihood to bring that condemned sermon into the 
 service, with some modifications and additions, when, to my 
 surprise, who but that same good brother should call on the 
 congregation for its publication ? He had forgotten the old 
 one in his zeal for the pertinency of the new one. These 
 things were the spice of a ministry which I love to recall, 
 because it shows how tenderly and yet watchfully those with 
 whom I wrought waited on that ministry to preserve its 
 soundness, its progressiveness, and its truthfulness. 
 
 But I must not dwell longer on scenes so fragrant to my 
 memory. Most of those who were my co-laborers when 
 I came here have gone to their reward in heaven. Those 
 thirteen years were years of toil, struggle, and self-sacrifice 
 but they were years of exquisite harmony, Christian growth, 
 and Christian power. The Christian element in our congre- 
 gations was not so exclusively Baptist as now, there were 
 a few of many kinds ; but we strove together, endeavoring to 
 "keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace." The 
 material to be gathered in was much less than now ; but, by 
 unity of effort between Dr. Furber and myself, we sought 
 to reach with the gospel every Protestant family within our 
 legitimate bounds. The two churches wrought side by side 
 in mutual love and with mutual zeal. 
 
 The history of this church, during a life of a century, is 
 a history of which none of us may be ashamed. " The little 
 one has not become a thousand," but her voice has been 
 heard and felt on heathen as well as on Christian shores. 
 My part in the result is scarcely worthy of mention. But 
 
 5 
 
66 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 I love to review it, and ascribe all the good in it to the won- 
 derful grace of God. An item in the records of the church, 
 at the close of my ministry, states that the number of per- 
 sons admitted by baptism was iii, by letter 98, total 209, 
 and that my texts on the last day of my official services were, 
 in the morning, Galatians i., 11, — "I certify you, brethren, 
 that the gospel which was preached of me is not after 
 man"; and in the afternoon, Revelations xxii., 21, — "The 
 grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be w^ith you all. Amen." 
 Certainly, these two texts expressed my purpose for you, 
 and my benediction upon you. Let me close by quoting 
 the last sentences in my letter of resignation: "The past 
 is no longer ours. The future opens before us. Mutually 
 forgiving and mutually striving for still greater efficiency, 
 let me assure you of my unchanging and unchangeable 
 desire for your constantly progressive prosperity. ' Because 
 of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good.' " 
 
FATHER Grafton's eyes. Gj 
 
 It was expected that a hymn or poem, which the Rev. S. F. 
 Smith, D.D., pastor of the church from 1842 to 1854, had engaged 
 to write for this occasion, if possible, before reaching England on 
 his way to Burmah, would be read at this point. But the chair- 
 man was obliged to express his regret that the poem (undoubtedly 
 a good one) had not been received, and of course could not be 
 read. Fortunately, however, Mrs. Emily S. Clarke had written the 
 following poem, which was read, after a few words of explanation, 
 by Dr. W. N. Clarke, a very welcome and unexpected pleasure to 
 the assembly : — 
 
 FATHER GRAFTON'S EYES. 
 
 One man in homely homespun, 
 With dark and flashing eyes, — 
 
 A brave and leading spirit 
 No homesptm could disguise. 
 
 One in commander's costume, 
 
 With nobly chiselled face, — 
 A man of storied lineage 
 
 And every courtly grace. 
 
 Once in the Revolution, 
 
 Some unknown day they met : 
 
 The one was Joseph Grafton, 
 The other Lafayette. 
 
 And both were full of ardor, 
 
 Both in the flush of youth, 
 And both in love with freedom. 
 
 Loyal to right and truth. 
 
 They met with souls unveiled, 
 
 No record how or when ; 
 And each one in the other 
 
 Discerned a king of men. 
 
68 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 They met and spoke and parted : 
 One made his noble name 
 
 A thousand-fold more noble, — 
 Each school-child knows his fame. 
 
 And one, obscurely serving, 
 A rustic folk did guide. 
 
 In love and peace and wisdom. 
 The fount of life beside. 
 
 Long had the war been over, 
 Full forty years had passed. 
 
 When, to the land that loved him, 
 The hero came at last. 
 
 But oft in vain and sadly 
 Familiar forms he sought : 
 
 These people were the children 
 Of those for whom he fought. 
 
 Of all the patriot soldiers 
 That long ago he led, 
 
 How few were left to greet him ! 
 And Washington was dead. 
 
 But now once more in Boston, 
 Upon the State House stair, 
 
 He saw among the strangers, 
 Thronging to meet him there. 
 
 One somewhat quaint of figure. 
 Somewhat old-fashioned grown. 
 
 In breeches, hose, and buckles. 
 With wig of rusty brown ; 
 
FATHER Grafton's eves. 69 
 
 And might have seen unnoting, 
 
 Save for a piercing glance, 
 A look still iinforgotten 
 
 Through years in far-off France, 
 
 That woke a recognition, 
 
 A throb of pleased surprise. 
 He cried : " There's Mr. Grafton ! 
 
 I know him by his eyes." 
 
 The people tell the story. 
 
 Their loving pride aglow, 
 To think their modest pastor 
 
 Should be remembered so. 
 
 Yet 'tis indeed no marvel, 
 
 Though even eyes grow old, 
 When youth's impulsive ardor 
 
 Has left but ashes cold. 
 
 For in his soul is springing 
 
 The well of holy truth. 
 The spirit's strong elixir 
 
 Of bright, immortal youth. 
 
 Though years have left their traces. 
 
 No marks of age disguise 
 The soul that looks out grandly 
 
 Through Father Grafton's eyes. 
 
ADDRESS BY REV. DR. J. G. WARREN, 
 
 DELEGATE FROM THE BAPTIST CHURCH AT NEWTON UPPER FALLS. 
 
 It is already eight o'clock, and I must put myself in as 
 small a compass as possible, so as to leave room for the many 
 who, I see by the programme, are to follow me. Being here 
 as one member of a delegation from the Second Baptist 
 Church in Newton, one of your daughters in the Christian 
 family, and having been requested to represent that delega- 
 tion, I should naturally be expected to give you an outline 
 of her fortunes since, in 1835, she set off by herself on the 
 journey of life. With that end in view, I had indeed drawn 
 out a statement embodying the leading events of a history, 
 covering full forty-five years, all of which I here pass into 
 your hands, to be used as your committee and the body you 
 act for may deem best. I will employ my time in turning 
 the thoughts of the friends before me in another direction, 
 and will seek to introduce yourself and them to this mother 
 of churches and its venerable pastor, as they presented them- 
 selves to my eyes in 1836. At that time, public worship 
 was still held in the old meeting-house, whose frame retains 
 its original location yonder on the banks of "Baptist Pond." 
 
 I invite each one of you to take a seat at my side, with 
 the singers, on a Lord's day morning, with eyes and ears 
 open, so as to take in all there is around us. 
 
 Asa R. Trowbridge, young, hopeful, and full of music as 
 
ADDRESS OF DR. WARREN. /I 
 
 he has ever been to this hour, has charge of the choir. 
 George C. Chandler, my seminary classmate, who at last ac- 
 counts was living on the westernmost slope of the Rocky 
 Mountains, in far-off Oregon, and shaking in every limb 
 with paralysis, stands at my left hand and helps me sing 
 bass. At my right hand is Miss Trowbridge, afterward 
 Mrs. Captain Bacon, and now living in yonder chamber, 
 shut almost entirely out from the light of day, and unable 
 for years to read a line of the Word of God. Beyond her 
 is Emily Langley, with a younger sister, whose parents had 
 only recently removed to Newton from Roxbury, and taken 
 possession of the old homestead of the Whites, the spacious 
 house still standing near the big poplar, east of the railroad 
 depot. 
 
 Looking about the house, you will recognize the Kings, the 
 Stones, and, I think, also the Richardses, some five or six 
 families in all, from Oak Hill ; the Thorntons, Pierces, and 
 Hydes, from the South End, now the Highlands ; the Lyon 
 brothers, paper-makers, from the Lower Falls ; the Lothrops, 
 Lambs, Davises, and Bacons, from West Newton ; the Bul- 
 lough family, from what is now Newtonville ; the Hydes, a 
 single family from the Corner ; the Pettis family, from East 
 Newton, filling full the north-east corner pew ; and, last, 
 the Trowbridges, the White brothers, both still living, the 
 Langleys and Bartletts, with Professors Chase, Ripley, and 
 Knowles. here at the Centre, — in all, say twenty-five families, 
 only six or eight of which are at present represented in your 
 assemblies. These, with here and there a stranger and a 
 half-score of students from the Seminary, make up a congre- 
 gation ranging, according to the state of the weather, from 
 fifty to one hundred. It is a day of small things for " Father 
 Grafton's church," which had formerly gathered its congre- 
 gation, to the utmost capacity of the house, from all the 
 
72 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 neighboring towns, and had only the previous year given off 
 full fifty members to set up its youngest daughter at the 
 Upper Falls. 
 
 Looking across to the other end of the house, whom do we 
 see in the pulpit ? The long-time pastor is there, bending 
 under the weight of years, and yet, by the considerate 
 courtesy of the church, retaining in name and in reality the 
 position of pastor. By his side sits Rev. Frederick A. 
 Willard, who, after a brief term as pastor of the First 
 Baptist Church at Worcester, only a short time ago has been 
 associated as colleague with Father Grafton. It has been 
 arranged between them that the senior pastor shall preach 
 this morning, and, in fact, take nearly all parts of the service. 
 As he rises to give the opening hymn, you see but the rem- 
 nant of what he once presented to the worshippers in this 
 house ; but there is enough left of him to draw and fix my 
 attention till the last word drops from his lips. He is small 
 in figure, only a little taller and slightly, if at all, more 
 stocky than Dr. Stearns, with thin face, keen, quick, black 
 eyes, which roll nervously in their sockets, and become the 
 prompt vehicle for conveying to all beholders every emotion 
 and passion which, in rapid succession, play in his bosom. 
 Before the reading of the first hymn is finished, all this comes 
 out ; for the sentiment of the hymn, in every line and every 
 word, is in him, and he places the emphasis where it belongs. 
 
 The singing over, he prays, and, in the most simple 
 words and the most engaging manner, goes for himself to 
 the mercy-seat, and takes us all along with him. He does 
 not "make a prayer," — that gravest misnomer among men, 
 that supremest abomination in the sight of Heaven ! He 
 prays, in language of contrition, confession, adoration, en- 
 treaty, thanksgiving, seldom, almost never, after the first 
 address to the High and Holy One, repeating that hallowed 
 
AnORF.SS OI'' DR. WARREN. 73 
 
 name, but, by the most natural and easy transition of 
 thought and utterance from topic to topic, rising- higher and 
 higher on devotion's wing, and entering with his whole 
 being into communion with the F'ather of Spirits, leaving 
 all mortal surroundings behind. Such a prayer ! Such an 
 outpouring of soul ! Like the angels in old Jacob's vision, 
 descending and ascending on the ladder, so he ascended and 
 descended on the Son of Man, the Son of God, the sole 
 medium of communication between heaven and earth. 
 
 Another song of praise, and he announces his text : 
 " Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet 
 to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light" 
 (Col. i., 12). Yes: this is it exactly, indelibly fixed in my 
 memory. The whole scene has been before me times and 
 times, and never can be erased from the tablet of my mind. 
 Most likely, I shall meet Father Grafton on the golden 
 pavements of the New Jerusalem, and tell him how much 
 I owe him for that prayer and that sermon. Why not ! 
 
 But " Father Grafton " is preaching, and we must see to it 
 that we lose no part of the sermon. In his peculiar style 
 of conception and of utterance, and with one eye partly 
 closed, as was his wont when something original or comical 
 or witty was coming out of his mouth, he announces his 
 theme, " Heaven, a Prepared Place for a Prepared People," 
 and then goes on with a sermon, of which the following is 
 an outline : — 
 
 What is it to be meet to be partakers of the inheritance 
 of the saints in light.' How shall we obtain that meetness ? 
 
 "In light." Light is the Scripture term for truth ; and, 
 when truth is held in the mind and embraced by the heart, 
 it is the comprehensive term for knowledge of divine 
 things or "experimental religion," — a knowledge that, 
 beginning here, shall go on increasing and expanding 
 endlessly. "Then shall I know even as also I am known." 
 
74 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 " Saints." These are the subjects of grace, the sanctified 
 ones, the holy ones, the pure in heart. " Blessed are the 
 pure in heart; for they shall see God." "We shall be like 
 him ; for we shall see him as he is." 
 
 "The inheritance." Inheritance is something given to 
 the heir, and so is nothing he ean claim on the ground of 
 personal merit. It is a bestowment of grace, simple, pure, 
 sovereign grace, — "grace abounding to the chief of sinners." 
 
 "Partakers." How partakers.? Not by the hand, as I 
 receive a gift of gold or silver or precious stones from you. 
 The treasure is suited to the mind, the heart, the spiritual 
 part of us ; and it must be received by the mind, the will, 
 the affections. It must be taken by faith, and a faith that 
 "worketh by love." 
 
 " Partakers of the inheritance of the caints in light." 
 Knowledge, holiness, self-abasement, a receptive faith, — 
 these are the elements of fitness for that state, and these 
 combined will give birth to all acts of service, adoration, 
 thanksgiving and praise in that blessed land. 
 
 But in what way shall this meetness be obtained by such 
 vile sinners as we are .'' To this question, but one satisfying 
 answer can be given to a sin-ruined soul, awaked now to a 
 sense of guilt and condemnation. To this question, our 
 Father in heaven has given but one answer, and man has 
 devised nothing to equal it. The sacrifice at Calvary is the 
 one effective offering in atonement for man's sin. The foun- 
 tain there opened in blood washes away the last stain of guilt. 
 The soul, accepting that offering, as~made in his behalf, 
 and bathing in that fountain, has already received a full and 
 complete redemption, and is on the instant coiuited meet by the 
 God of all grace for the inheritance of the saints in light. 
 Heaven's high court demands no other satisfaction : earth's 
 utmost deservings, all brought together and laid on one altar, 
 
ADDRESS OF DR. WARREN. 75 
 
 could not ransom a single transgressor. To this, beloved, 
 you are all shut up : it is this or nothing. 
 
 " Sovereign grace hath power alone 
 To subdue a heart of stone ; 
 And tlie moment grace is felt, 
 Then the hardest heart will melt." 
 
 But, brethren, the washed and regenerated are not all 
 taken at once to heaven : only a few of them compared with 
 the whole number are. They are kept here " to shine as 
 lights in the world"; and, being kept here, they soon find 
 remnants of the " old man " lurking within, and often show- 
 ing themselves in acts of unworthiness and disobedience, 
 the outside world, meantime, also tempting and alluring from 
 the path of rectitude. From each of them, the cry goes forth 
 with a strong importunity, "Who shall deliver me from the 
 body of this death. -^ " Here, my beloved, comes in the proc- 
 ess of training, of teaching, and of discipline, and also the 
 process of bestowing " more grace" and crowning that grace 
 with glory, while " we look for that blessed hope, and the 
 glorious appearing of the Great God, and our Saviour Jesus 
 Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us 
 from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, 
 zealous of good works." 
 
 The sermon is ended, and I sit entranced. I made no note 
 of it on paper at the time, nor have I since. It was written 
 as I verily believe by the finger of the Holy Spirit on the 
 tablet of my heart, to remain forever. " My speech and my 
 preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but 
 in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith 
 should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of 
 God " (I. Cor. ii., 4, 5). 
 
 I have already placed Father Grafton, in his physical 
 
'jG CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 development, by the side of one of your more recent pas- 
 tors ; and I may be pardoned, if I here trace the likeness 
 between them in other respects, as I have read and do still 
 read the two characters. Is one a poem .'' So was the other. 
 Is one an electrical machine, sending off flashes of light .'' So 
 was the other. Is one, at times, a galvanic battery in full 
 blast } So was the other. You could not touch Father 
 Grafton, even in old age, but the fire would fly, — not a fire 
 to scorch and blister, but to warm and soothe, enlighten and 
 cheer you. Is the one you still have among you, a specimen 
 of whose shining we have just seen, an aurora borealis, 
 streaming up from the northern depths, with all colors from 
 the palest white to the intensest crimson, and mixing all 
 these up in most splendid combination, filling the entire 
 firmament with glory } Father Grafton was not adequate 
 to this variety of exhibition, but he could and did flash in 
 the most engaging manner ; and whoever once saw and heard 
 him could never forget the scene. 
 
 In point of acquirements, literary and theological, — in 
 what we moderns denominate scholarship, — the long-ago-de- 
 parted one did not compare with the living one ; but he 
 knew one book, the Bible. The Bible in English he knew, 
 both by head and by heart ; and large parts of it he had at 
 his tongue's end, to come off in the most apt and fitting quo- 
 tations, to suit the instant demand. Few preachers have 
 ever equalled him in this. There was an aptness and a wit 
 at this point almost marvellous. Once upon a time, receiving 
 an unexpected token of kindness from a friend, he remained 
 silent for a moment, as if not knowing what to say, and then 
 exclaimed, " I will go and tell Jesus ! " This peculiarity 
 came out in the seclusion of the home circle, when moving 
 among the families of his loved flock, when meeting a friend 
 or a stranger by the wayside, at all times and everywhere. 
 
ADDRESS OF DR. WARREN. 7/ 
 
 The Word of God had taken possession of his beini:^, and 
 flowed out as waters from a living fountain. 
 
 Another book he read as few men ever read it, the book 
 of human hearts. He knew himself, as revealed to himself 
 by the ministration of the Highest ; and tliis helped him to 
 know others. "As face answereth to face in a glass, so the 
 heart of man to man." Going abroad, he everywhere opened 
 the doors of his heart, by the tongue, by the eyes, by the 
 muscles of his face, by the very movements and motions of 
 his body, and let his heart flow out in the most unrestrained 
 and lavish manner into other hearts. And what followed, — 
 followed with the certainty of a law } This followed : every 
 heart he touched opened up in turn to him, and at a glance 
 he read every emotion of every one. He gave himself to all, 
 all gave themselves to him. He was one of the quickest, 
 keenest, shrewdest judges of human kind that ever trod the 
 soil of Newton ; and he had the most exactly fitting word for 
 every one he fell in with, no matter where or when. He 
 was nimble as a cat in limb, in thought, in tongue. No one 
 ever caught him napping. A match and more than a match 
 was he for all sorts of persons, in all grades of society, and 
 in ev^ery possible emergency. 
 
 Besides,^ he was pre-eminently anointed by the Holy One, 
 that supremest gift of the minister of Christ, and of every 
 Christian as well. " Ye have an unction from the Holy 
 One, and ye know all things" (I. John ii., 20). Unction! 
 Do you know, Brother Hovey, what a world of meaning, — 
 do you know, Brother Carlton, what a world of meaning 
 is in that single word of Holy Scripture ? Do you know 
 what gifts and graces are wrapped up in it ? Do you know 
 how sweet it sounds in my ears ? Unction ! clirisnia ! 
 chrism! anointing! Read it again, "Ye have an unction 
 from the Holy One, and ye know all things." What is it 
 
78 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 to know all things, to be led by the Spirit into all truth? 
 What is it to go out and in, up and down, through and 
 through, the endless, glorious realms of truth, as written 
 in Holy Scripture, under the guidance of the Spirit of light 
 and love and holiness, while new and yet richer treasures 
 are constantly opening on the vision ? These questions 
 Father Grafton could answer ; for so was he led into all the 
 truth, and, being thus led, he had the best of fitting up for 
 a messenger of salvation. " The letter killeth, but tJie spirit 
 givetJi life.'' 
 
 It is yours. Brother Chairman, to deal out the letter of the 
 Word of God to my junior brothers, who are to minister in 
 holy things when I am gone. Don't you sometimes wish 
 and almost pray for the power to impart to them " the unc- 
 tion from the Holy One " } 
 
 Thus armed. Father Grafton was a power always and 
 everywhere. It became his duty to serve for a long period 
 as chaplain of the Regiment of State Militia, mustering annu- 
 ally in this vicinity, — a service he performed with admirable 
 tact, urbanity, and gravity. As he was every inch a Chris- 
 tian, so was he in all his make-up a gentleman and a noble- 
 man. While the freest of all men in deportment, no one 
 ever felt at liberty to obtrude on his rightful domain, or 
 invade his personal or official prerogatives. Dignified, 
 courteous, and respectful, to the last degree, in his bear- 
 ing toward fellow-soldiers of all grades, he was sure to 
 receive from all what he never failed to bestow, and so 
 became a universal favorite. 
 
 Nor was this all. He had a capacious soul. He was a 
 human being, a fellow-man. No man ever sat more grace- 
 fully on a horse than he ; and, when the regiment was drawn 
 up in hollow square, to seek the blessing of God, he, as 
 leader for all, went, as he did in his own pulpit, for himself 
 
ADDRESS OF DR. WARREN. 79 
 
 and for them to the throne of the heavenly mercy, and 
 almost before they were aware of it they found themselves 
 with hearts touched and eyes moistened. They could not 
 help it. He could not do otherwise. It was his deeply 
 religious nature flowing" into them, and through them up to 
 a common Father and Deliverer. His voice, never of large 
 compass, never swelling into stentorian strains, was silvery, 
 mellow, and sweet, and glided into the ear like enchantment. 
 All men loved him. All wanted to be where he was. I am 
 done. 
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH, 
 
 The following historical sketch of the Second Baptist Church 
 in Newton, worshipping at the Upper Falls, was handed to the 
 chairman by Dr. Warren. 
 
 The years 1830, 1831, and 1832 were made memorable in 
 the history of Newton by an unusual bestowment of God's 
 grace, of which blessing the inhabitants of the Upper Falls 
 received a large share. Many persons became Christians ; and 
 a large number of them united with the First Baptist Church, 
 of which the venerable Joseph Grafton was still pastor. 
 Meetings were held for some time in the village school- 
 house ; but, as objection arose in certain quarters to such a 
 use of the building, they were removed to the dwelling-house 
 of Mr. Samuel Bixby, soon after which an effort was made 
 to erect a meeting-house. This object was accomplished. 
 
8o CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 and the house recently remodelled was dedicated March 27, 
 1833. The names of Bixby, Kingsbury, Keyes, Smith, and 
 others, were prominent in this good work. 
 
 The church was organized February 8, 1835 ; ^^'^ ^^ Sep- 
 tember 7th of the following year Mr. Origen Crane, a gradu- 
 ate of the Theological Seminary, became pastor, and held the 
 office till July 9, 1840, a term of nearly five years. Mr. 
 Crane was followed by Charles W. Dennison, from Decem- 
 ber, 1 84 1, to February, 1843 ! ^^id he, by Samuel S. Leigh ton, 
 from February, 1846, to May, 1848. In November of that 
 year, Amos Webster took the pastoral care, and held it six 
 years and a quarter, or till September, 1854. He was fol- 
 lowed by Dr. S. F. Smith, who supplied the pulpit and per- 
 formed pastoral duties a period of seven years, residing at 
 the Centre, where he had previously served the mother 
 church a term of twelve years. 
 
 Dr. Smith was succeeded by Rev. W. C. Richards, who 
 had the oversight of the flock at two periods, in all full eight 
 years, and who still lives among his own people, respected 
 and beloved by all. 
 
 It will be seen from the above-named specifications of time 
 that the church has had the service of a pastor, or a con- 
 tinuous supply, almost two-thirds of the whole period of its 
 existence ; that is to say, thirty out of forty-five years. 
 
 All these pastors were blessed in their efforts to save souls 
 and build up the church. During Mr. Crane's term of ser- 
 vice, forty-eight were received by baptism ; Mr. Dennison's, 
 forty; Mr. Webster's, eight; Dr. Smith's, eleven; and Mr. 
 Richards', twenty-one. Under the personal supervision of 
 the last-named pastor, the vestry was improved, the house 
 repaired and painted throughout, a bell placed in the tower, 
 and the organ now in use procured. 
 
 For the present improved condition of the house and the 
 
SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH IN NEWTON. 8 1 
 
 hopeful prospects of the church and congregation, much is 
 due to the persistent and well-directed labors of Mr. Whit- 
 man, a member of the present Senior Class in the Seminary. 
 For the last year and a half, he has been the leader of the 
 flock, and continues in that relation. According to the best 
 evidence to be derived from the records, the admissions to 
 membership have been as follows : — 
 
 Original members, 56 
 
 Admitted by baptism, 195 
 
 Admitted by letter, 146 
 
 Total, 397 
 
 Of these have been 
 
 Dismissed 183 
 
 Excluded and erased, 59 
 
 Removed by death 55 
 
 Total, 297 
 
 Leaving one hundred to be accounted for. Of these, about 
 fifty are known to be alive, and are within the call of the 
 church-going-bell ; while as many more have gone, one by 
 one, to remote places, some to the land of the blessed, we 
 may believe. 
 
 " And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great 
 sight, why the bush is not consumed." — Exodus iii., 3. 
 
ADDRESS OF REV. H, M. KING, D.D. 
 
 PASTOR OF THE DUDLEY STREET BAPTIST CHURCH, ROXBURY, MASS. 
 
 I REGRET exceedingly that I could not be present at your 
 service this morning, and listen to the valuable historical 
 discourse of Rev. Dr. Clarke; for if there is anything in 
 which we should take the deepest interest, and which we 
 should record with devout gratitude, it is the history of our 
 churches, which shows the gracious dealings of God with 
 his people. But I rejoice that I am permitted to be with 
 you this evening, and bring to you my sincere congratula- 
 tions, and those of my church, on this your hundredth anni- 
 versary. 
 
 I have been trying to determine the exact relationship of 
 the church which I serve to the Baptist church in Newton 
 Centre. When there were fewer Baptist churches than 
 there are now, the members of a church were widely scat- 
 tered. At the beginning of the present century, some of the 
 families of this church resided in Brookline. Among them 
 were the well-known families of Deacons Griggs and Corey. 
 In 1817, when the First Baptist Church in Cambridge was 
 organized, they became constituent members of it. In 1821, 
 when the church in Roxbury — now the Dudley Street 
 Church — was formed, they became constituent and very 
 active members of that. After the lapse of seven years, 
 when the Baptists of Brookline became sufficiently strong 
 
ADDRESS OF DR. KIXG. 83 
 
 and numerous to have a church there, Deacons Griggs and 
 Corey were active in its organization; and they and their 
 families and other members were dismissed from the Rox- 
 bury church to constitute the church in Brookline. Their 
 removal from the church in Roxbury was a very serious loss 
 to it. It took awa}^ its two deacons, its clerk, its treasurer, 
 a large and substantial part of its members, and almost the 
 breath of life ; for the church was but seven years of age, 
 and by no means strong. These two respected families (it 
 should be stated that Deacon Thomas Griggs is still living 
 in Brookline, at the advanced age of ninety-two years) 
 seem to have been the connecting link between these four 
 churches, all of which are now vigorous and influential. It 
 was good stuff to make Baptist churches of. While there- 
 fore the Dudley Street Church can hardly claim the honor 
 of being a daughter of this church, whose centennial anni- 
 versary is celebrated to-day, it may claim, I think, to be a 
 very near grand-daughter, and has a right to send its dele- 
 gates to participate in these commemorative services. I 
 would also take this opportunity gratefully to acknowledge 
 in behalf of my church the fact that, subsequent to its or- 
 ganization, some of its most useful and valuable members 
 have come to it from the Newton Centre church. 
 
 Allow me to congratulate you, first, on the succession of 
 able and faithful pastors whose labors this church has en- 
 joyed during the hundred years of its existence. Few 
 churches, I think, have been so greatly blessed in this re- 
 spect. Some of these pastors I have been permitted to call 
 my personal friends, and their friendship has been an inspi- 
 ration and a help to me. At the time when I was a student 
 in the Seminary, Rev. Dr. Stearns was your pastor ; and it 
 was my privilege to sit many Sabbaths under his ministry, 
 and to listen to those sermons which he has been pleased 
 
84 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 modestly to call "deplorable failures," and I can assure you 
 that I have been striving in my preaching for eighteen years 
 to approach somewhere near to those "deplorable failures," 
 and have not been able. 
 
 The acquaintance of Rev. Dr. Smith I have long enjoyed ; 
 and, in common with the entire denomination, I love to do 
 honor to his genius, which has composed some of our sweet- 
 est and most spiritual hymns. Of your late pastor. Rev. Dr. 
 Clarke, with whom my relations have been most cordial and, 
 to me, most delightful, I need only say that his removal to 
 another field of labor has left a vacancy in our ministerial 
 circle which will not soon be filled. 
 
 My personal recollections of "Father" Grafton, by whose 
 long ministry this church was peculiarly honored, are not 
 very distinct, as he died before I was born. If I have 
 known him in some pre-existent state, I have been unable 
 to recognize him in the not very flattering picture of him 
 which I have seen. He must have been a man of remarka- 
 ble powers, and greatly beloved by his people. We have 
 some members still living in Roxbury who were baptized by 
 him, and who love to recognize him as their spiritual father, 
 and to speak of his excellencies and peculiarities. Some 
 years ago, I was called to attend the funeral of an aged 
 Christian woman in a family all of whose members were 
 strangers to me. The children had departed from their 
 mother's faith, but still cherished so much respect for it 
 and for her that they wished a Baptist minister to officiate 
 at her funeral. After the service, a daughter of the de- 
 parted saint called upon me, bringing a little gift which she 
 said had been very precious to her mother, and which she 
 wished me to accept. It was a small picture of Father Graf- 
 ton. Next to her Bible, she had prized this memento of her 
 former pastor. Her loving hand had clasjDcd it as long as 
 
ADDRESS OF DR. KING. 8$ 
 
 it could clasp anything, and had surrendered it only when it 
 was cold in death. 
 
 Father Grafton, it is reported, was somewhat given to 
 eccentricities. One illustration of his eccentric sayings 
 and doings I now recall. A couple whom he had united in 
 marriage, finding after a little experience that they did not 
 live happily together, came back to him to inquire if he 
 could not undo what he had done, and separate them with- 
 out the process of legal divorce. "Certainly I can," said 
 Mr. Grafton ; and, conducting them to the roadside in front 
 of his house, he told them to face in opposite directions, 
 one toward the east and the other tow^ard the west, and then 
 said to the husband, " You go this way," and to the wife, 
 " You go that way," and to both, " Don't you ever stop." 
 
 Father Grafton was held in high esteem by his contem- 
 poraries. In the year 1831, the Boston Baptist Association 
 held its twentieth anniversary " at the Baptist Meeting- 
 house, Roxbury." Rev. Dr. Sharp presided, as was often 
 the case ; for the Lord made him to preside, and his breth- 
 ren loved to recognize the fact. Sermons were preached 
 on that occasion by Rev. Henry Jackson, Rev. John O. 
 Choules, who was a delegate from the Warren Association, 
 Rev. James D. Knowles, Rev. Daniel Sharp, and Rev. 
 Francis Wayland, Jr. The circular letter was read by Prof. 
 Irah Chase, and w^as, of course, sound and good. It was 
 a rare occasion, and we are ready to exclaim, " There were 
 giants in those days." But what gave special interest to 
 that occasion and is worthy of special mention on this occa- 
 sion is this item in the minutes : " The venerable and be- 
 loved father, Joseph Grafton, who is in the seventy-fifth 
 year of his age, the fifty-first of his ministry, and the forty- 
 fourth of his present pastoral connection, being ordained 
 as their pastor in 1778 [should be 1788], by request of the 
 
86 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 moderator addressed the Association in substance as fol- 
 lows." 
 
 The address was an earnest and a fatherly exhortation to 
 his brethren in the ministry to carefully distinguish be- 
 tween " a religious excitement " and "a revival of religion," 
 and closed with an affectionate appeal to them to cultivate 
 above all things else the grace of personal humility. The 
 last sentences were words of solemn farewell, a patriarchal 
 benediction : — 
 
 "I am happy, my dear brethren, to meet you once more 
 on this anniversary occasion. Perhaps it may be the last 
 time. Soon I expect to follow my fathers and former con- 
 temporaries. I thank you, my junior brethren, for all that 
 affection and attention you have shown me at all times, and 
 on all occasions when we have been together. May God 
 bless you, and render you abundantly useful in your lives 
 and among your people. And should it be that I shall not 
 meet you again on such occasion, oh, may we meet in that 
 great association on high, where we shall unite with all the 
 redeemed of the Lamb here below ! With these feelings, 
 I bid you an affectionate farewell. In case when you come 
 together at Newton [the Association had been invited to 
 hold its next annual meeting here], you shall find my place 
 vacated by death, ^/leu, and ever after, remember my last 
 and only words, — Be humble." 
 
 But God was not quite ready to take the patriarch to his 
 fathers. His work was not yet done, and his cup of earthly 
 joy not yet filled. When the Association met here the next 
 year, Father Grafton was not only living, but was able to 
 report that seventy-nine persons had been baptized during 
 the year. The year following, the church received twenty- 
 four more. At that advanced age, the pastor was permitted 
 to enjoy one of the richest and most fruitful revivals in all 
 
ADDRESS OF DR. KING. 8/ 
 
 his long ministry. "They shall still bring forth fruit in old 
 age." 
 
 Allow me, in the second place, to congratulate you on the 
 good men and true, and good women also, who have here 
 labored and prayed for the prosperity of this church, 
 and have ripened for the heavenly kingdom. How little 
 of the history of a church of Christ can be written or told ! 
 How little of the anxiety and joy, the struggle and bless- 
 ing, the toil and self-denial, the comfort and reward, the 
 life that has gone into it, and the life that has come out of 
 it in strengthened faith and developed character and prepa- 
 ration for heaven ! Churches, even spiritual churches, are 
 not built and maintained except by prayer and labor, conse- 
 cration and material sacrifice. These hundred years of 
 growth and prosperity have cost something. There have 
 been warm hearts and earnest hands, and names that have 
 shone on )our list of members, but shine more brightly in 
 the Book of Life. With how many families, their deepest 
 and richest life, has the life of this church been interwoven, 
 as the generations have come and gone ! Many names you 
 will cherish, and your children after you, of the honest, 
 faithful builders and toilers of the past, who have made this 
 church their care, and God's service their delight. They 
 are your joy and rejoicing to-day, your crown of glory. 
 These names are your rich heritage. Their example will 
 be a perpetual inspiration, and their memory a benediction. 
 " They have labored, and you have entered into their labors." 
 
 May I suggest that, in one or two respects, your situation 
 has been peculiar.'' For more than fifty years, you have 
 been very intimately related to our Theological Seminary. 
 I need not speak of the help which the Seminary through 
 its professors has been to you. Undoubtedly, that has been 
 sufficiently brought to your notice to-day. But who can tell 
 
88 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 what a help you have been to it, and what a heavy responsi- 
 bility you have constantly felt for its character and ortho- 
 doxy ! And who can tell how great a debt of obligation all 
 our churches are under to this church for its prayerful and 
 laborious fidelity in this respect! Of one thing, we may be 
 certain, — that, so long as the Seminary is under your imme- 
 diate supervision, its doctrinal position will be established. 
 
 Then, too, the community in which you are situated is a 
 very respectable community, composed of well-to-do, moral 
 families, who, for the most part, are, or think they are, in 
 little or no need of the gospel, as it is preached from this 
 pulpit. This may possibly have seemed to you to be an 
 obstacle in the way of rapid growth and large usefulness. 
 I remember to have heard one of your good pastors say that 
 "it would be a real luxury to have a sinner — one who felt 
 himself to be a sinner — move into the town, and become a 
 member of the congregation." 
 
 But, to speak more seriously, I can say in words of sin- 
 cere commendation that this church has been distinguished 
 above most churches for two things. First, you have pos- 
 sessed and exhibited a generous and constant interest in 
 ministerial education. Students preparing for the Christian 
 ministry have had a large place in your benevolent thought. 
 Undoubtedly, your proximity to the Seminary has served to 
 keep you acquainted with their needs ; and, as they have 
 come and gone year after year, your sympathies have ever 
 been kept in active exercise. And not only have you con- 
 tributed generously toward their support, both through the 
 Educational Society and your Students' Aid Society, and 
 through more private channels, but you have cheerfully ex- 
 tended to them what is no less valuable and no less appreci- 
 ated, the kind hospitality of the church and of your pleasant 
 homes. I am happy to have this opportunity to make grate- 
 
ADDRESS OF DR. KING. 89 
 
 fill mention of the abiding memory of many such thoughtful 
 courtesies which brightened my seminary life. On the 
 apostle Paul rested " the care of all the churches." You 
 have cheerfully taken upon yourselves the care of all the 
 ministers. 
 
 And, secondly, you have always manifested a praiseworthy 
 interest in the great cause of foreign missions. Few 
 churches have made annually such large contributions of 
 money to the treasury of the Missionary Union ; and few 
 churches have had so many noble representatives among 
 their own members actively engaged in preaching the gospel 
 of Christ to heathen nations. 
 
 And now, O venerable mother of churches, the first cen- 
 tury of your life has ended, and the record of a hundred 
 years has closed ; and you have come, not down to old age, 
 weakness, and decrepitude, but up to a well-developed ma- 
 turity, to that ever-fresh renewal of strength which is prom- 
 ised to those who wait upon the Lord. And what a century 
 it has been ! And how many changes it has brought about in 
 our own country and among the nations of the earth, in this 
 community and in the homes that compose it, and above all, 
 it may be, in the Christian denomination with which we are 
 connected ! A hundred years ago, when this church was 
 planted here, a Baptist church was a rare and solitary and 
 singular thing; and our denomination had little position or 
 social or moral influence. Here and there, a feeble Baptist 
 church humbly begged permission to live and breathe. 
 There were two churches in Boston (organized respectively 
 in 1665 and 1743), in both of which there were less than 
 two hundred members. There were two churches in Middle- 
 boro (1756 and 1761), one in Medfield (1776), one in Haver- 
 hill (1765), one in Attleboro (1769), and one in Chelmsford 
 (177 1). And these were all the Baptist churches there were 
 
90 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 in this whole section ©f Massachusetts. In the same year 
 in which this church was constituted, churches were formed 
 in Dighton and Fall River ; and in the following year the 
 Woburn church had its birth. But now, after the lapse of 
 a single century, flourishing Baptist churches exist, not only 
 in the cities and larger towns, but in almost every village. 
 They have sprung up everywhere, as if from seed scattered 
 by invisible hands. God has made us a great people, and 
 given us an acknowledged place and a work among the evan- 
 gelizing agencies of this land and of all lands. 
 
 We do not estimate the life of a church as we estimate 
 the life of a man. In one of the prophetic descriptions of 
 the future glory of Zion, it is said, "The child shall die a 
 hundred years old." I wish to say to-night, this church, 
 a hundred years old, shall live, and be more beautiful, more 
 vigorous, more fruitful in the future than even it has been in 
 the past. 
 
ADDRESS OF REV. W. T. CHASE, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, CAMKKIDGE. 
 
 The records of the First Baptist Church of Cambridge 
 begin with the statement that " a meeting of the professed 
 friends of Christ of the Baptist Denomination in Cambridge 
 and vicinity was held at the house of Mr. James Hovey, in 
 the month of March, 1817, for the purpose of relating the 
 exercises of their minds relative to the propriety of cove- 
 nanting to walk together as a church of Christ. 
 
 " At the same meeting, it was voted that, when in the 
 opinion of our respected fathers in the ministry it shall 
 appear expedient, we do esteem it our duty thus to unite." 
 
 These " professed friends of Christ " had sustained meet- 
 ings for prayer and conference for about a year previous to 
 this time. 
 
 Occasionally, they listened to a sermon from some neigh- 
 boring Baptist minister. 
 
 Rev. Joseph Grafton, of Newton, and Ensign Lincoln, 
 a lay member of the Third Baptist Church, Boston, were 
 especially helpful. Without any formal church organization, 
 they continued these meetings until near the close of the 
 year 181 7. On the seventeenth day of December in that 
 year, those interested assembled at the house of Mr. 
 Samuel Hancock, and constituted themselves into a Chris- 
 tian Church by adopting and signing a Declaration of Faith 
 
g2 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 and Church Covenant prepared by a committee previously 
 appointed for that purpose. 
 
 On the twenty-fifth day of the same month, the newly 
 constituted body was publicly recognized as the regular 
 Baptist church of Cambridge by a council, of which Rev. 
 Thomas Baldwin, D.D., was the moderator. 
 
 The constituent members were forty-six in number. Of 
 these, twenty were received by letter from the Baptist 
 church in Newton, of which Rev. Joseph Grafton was 
 pastor. 
 
 Their names were as follows : David R. Griggs, Thomas 
 Griggs, Beulah Griggs, Abagail Griggs, Lydia Griggs, Eliza- 
 beth Griggs, James Hovey, Ebenezer Hovey, Ann Hovey, 
 Sally Hovey, Betsey Seaver, Sarah Everett, David Coolidge, 
 Susan Coolidge, Cornelius Stone, Melenda Stone, Jerusha 
 Stone, Lucinda Stone, Sarah R. Wyman, Ann Chamberlain. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Grafton, who was clerk of the church, says of 
 these, " Never did a church dismiss such a number with 
 fairer characters and with greater union and affection." 
 
 This is strong evidence that the mother church had faith- 
 fully reared her children. In six months, seven more were 
 sent out to join the twenty constituent members. These 
 were Deacon Elijah Corey and Mary Corey, Timothy Corey 
 and Mary Corey, Josiah Coolidge and Mary Coolidge, and 
 Miss Sally Hastings. 
 
 The remarks of Mr. Grafton in respect to the twenty 
 apply equally well to these seven. 
 
 Of this number, some were residents of VVatertown, some 
 of Brookline, some of Brighton, and others of Cambridge. 
 These men and women are gratefully remembered for their 
 Christian character and the union and affection which they 
 fostered in the church. 
 
 Taken together, they were men and women of faith, their 
 
ADDRESS OF REV. W. T. CHASE. 93 
 
 names worthy to be added to the roll of Hebrew worthies ; 
 for, while not "subduing kingdoms," they yet "wrought 
 righteousness"; and verily they "stopped the mouths of 
 lions" and '"quenched the violence of fire," for the walls of 
 their temple were raised in troublesome times. 
 
 The feeling of the community was strongly averse to their 
 building a house of worship. 
 
 The lot on which the house was placed was obtained 
 through a third party. So high ran the feeling of opposi- 
 tion that it produced estrangement between the man who 
 procured the lot and a brother, which resulted in a dissolu- 
 tion of their partnership in business. 
 
 When the meeting-house was built, the enemies of the 
 Baptists built near it a smoke-house, for the purpose, as was 
 understood, of annoyance. The Baptists earnestly remon- 
 strated. " Poor fellows," said a well-known citizen, " they 
 should not feel so bad, — rather be thankful for the smell of 
 the ham, as few of them are able to have the article in their 
 houses." The nuisance was, however, soon removed. The 
 church prospered, gaining in number, usefulness, and influ- 
 ence. 
 
 In February, 1821, Timothy Corey, Mary Corey, Thomas 
 Griggs, David Coolidge, and Susan Coolidge were dismissed 
 to aid in forming a Baptist church in Roxbury (now the 
 Dudley Street Church, Boston). 
 
 It is an interesting fact that Thomas Griggs came from 
 the Newton church to aid in forming a Baptist church in 
 Cambridge, and from Cambridge to aid in forming a Baptist 
 church in Roxbury, and from Roxbury to aid in forming a 
 Baptist church in Brookline, where he still lives, an honored 
 member and officer of the church. 
 
 In 1822, Miss Beulah Griggs was dismissed to the fellow- 
 ship of the Roxbury church. 
 
94 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 In June, 1828, a Baptist church was formed in Brookline ; 
 and Elijah Corey and Mrs. Corey, David Coolidge, and Mrs. 
 Coolidge were dismissed to become constituent members. 
 
 In August, 1830, John CooHdge, Jerusha Stone, Melinda 
 Stone, Susan Coolidge, Lucinda Olney (formerly Stone), 
 were dismissed to aid in forming a Baptist church in Water- 
 town. 
 
 In June, 1844, Josiah Coolidge and Mary Coolidge were 
 dismissed to aid in the formation of the Baptist church in 
 Old Cambridge. 
 
 David R. Griggs was dismissed to the Third Baptist 
 Church, Boston. 
 
 Mrs. Ann Chamberlain was dismissed in 1840 to the Bap- 
 tist church in Southboro. Miss Sarah Hastings was dis- 
 missed to the Baptist church in Worcester. Lydia Griggs 
 in 1840 was dismissed to the Baptist church in Brookline. 
 
 For neglect of covenant obligations, the hand of fellow- 
 ship was withdrawn from Sarah R. Wyman. 
 
 Abagail Griggs was dismissed to a church of another 
 denomination, receiving a certificate of earnest Christian 
 character. 
 
 James Hovey, Ebenezer Hovey, Cornelius Stone, Anna 
 Stone, Sally Hovey, Sarah P3verett, Betsey Seaver, and 
 Elizabeth Griggs continued their connection with the Cam- 
 bridge church until called to the church above. 
 
 Thus have we. endeavored to account for the twenty-seven 
 members of whom so favorable a record was made by their 
 Newton pastor at the time of their dismissal. 
 
 The summing up is as follows : — 
 
 Dismissed to aid in the formation of other churches, 13 
 
 Dismissed to established churches, 4 
 
 Dismissed to another denomination, i 
 
 Fellowship withdrawn from, i 
 
 Died while connected with us, 8 
 
ADDRESS OF REV. W. T. CHASE. - 95 
 
 More than threescore years have passed ; and but two, 
 so far as we can learn, Deacon Thomas Griggs of Brookline 
 and Mrs. Mary Coolidge of Watertown, remain to recall the 
 events of the past years, and to witness in the increase of 
 churches in our midst the blessing of the Lord on their 
 efforts and on his Word. 
 
 They were a noble band ; and passing, as most of them 
 have, from time, they, with those remaining, shall hear, be- 
 yond earthly commendations, the heavenly: "Well done 
 good and faithful servants! enter ye into the joy of your 
 Lord." 
 
 Twenty-six members (but see Historical Discourse, p. 27) of 
 the Baptist church in Newton were dismissed in 1826 to unite 
 with others in forming the First Baptist Church, Lowell, Mass.; 
 but, through an oversight of the Committee of Arrangements, 
 no invitation was sent to that church to be represented at our 
 centennial anniversary. The oversight has been an occasion of 
 much regret to the Committee. It may be added that some of 
 the Newton constituents of the First Baptist Church, Lowell, 
 became afterward constituent members of Worthen Street Bap- 
 tist Church, Lowell, which was represented at the anniversary. 
 
 A. H. 
 
ADDRESS BY REV. DR. FURBER, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, NEWTON CENTRE. 
 
 The first sermon I ever preached in Newton, I preached 
 in this pulpit. The council that ordained me dined in your 
 old meeting-house, the one in which Father Grafton preached, 
 near the pond. The name of the street on which I have 
 lived for twenty years is Grafton Street. All this shows 
 that I have been under good Baptist influences from the 
 beginning of my ministry. And I might go back still fur- 
 ther, and say that the man who now stands at the head of the 
 Theological Institution in this place was a classmate of mine 
 in college. 
 
 The occasion of my first sermon being preached in this 
 pulpit was that your congregation and ours were at that 
 time worshipping together. Our people were building a 
 new meeting-house, and were enjoying for many months 
 the hospitality to which you had kindly invited them. 
 And repeatedly during all these years such hospitality has 
 been given and received promptly and cordially on both 
 sides. Beside this, we have met together regularly twice 
 a year on Fast Days and Thanksgiving Days, and have had 
 many union meetings in seasons of special religious interest. 
 
 These things have had a good influence in promoting 
 acquaintance and Christian fellowship. 
 
 My relations with the professors in the Theological Insti- 
 tution have always been pleasant. I gratefully recall kind 
 
ADDRESS OF DR. FURBER. 97 
 
 words spoken to me many years ago by Drs. Scars, Ripley, 
 Hackett, and Chase, intended on their part, no doubt, as 
 encourai;-cments to a young man just beginning his work. It 
 is sometimes thought to be hard to preach to ministers and 
 theological professors ; but my impression is that, while they 
 are pretty sure to detect a preacher's faults, they are more 
 likely than others to give him credit for what is really good 
 in his sermon, and are less dependent for their appreciation 
 of it on what is merely adventitious, such as personal 
 appearance, and voice, and delivery. 
 
 I have known Dr. Hovey longer perhaps than any of you ; 
 and as I c(jmpare what he is now and the position he holds 
 with what he was as a young man, entering the Freshman 
 Class in Dartmouth College forty-one years ago, I feel that I 
 have before me a conspicuous and stimulating example of 
 what steady, persistent, unintcrmittcd industry can do. 
 
 Dr. Stearns and I worked side by side like brothers for 
 thirteen years. In the revival of 1858 there was a warming 
 of hearts at the union meetings. We prayed for one 
 another and with one another, we rejoiced in each other's 
 prosperity, and we felt the blessedness of the tie which 
 binds hearts together in Christian sympathy and love. 
 When Brother Clarke came here, he was younger than 
 I ; and I hardly thought we should ever come so closely 
 together as Brother Stearns and I have done. But, as I 
 came more and more to know him, I gave him my confidence, 
 and he gave me his ; and the gift has never been recalled on 
 either side. We have been to each other like Homer Street 
 and Grafton Street. They begin a little way apart, as you 
 know, but come gradually nearer to each other till they 
 merge in one. As to these two brethren. Dr. Stearns and 
 Dr. Clarke, I never had a word of dissension with either of 
 them. I never had a feeling of coldness or distrust toward 
 7 
 
98 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 either of them. I never suspected the sincerity of their 
 friendship or the genuineness and nobleness of their Chris- 
 tian magnanimity. If they are sectarian, I have not found 
 it out. If under any stress of temptation they would violate 
 the rules of denominational courtesy, then I have misjudged 
 them. It has been a very happy thing for me to have such 
 neighbors, and it has been a great blessing to you to have 
 such ministers. Thank God for them. Thank God for such 
 a man as Dr. Ripley, who was one of the saints, and one of 
 the few who carry the sanctity of heaven about with them 
 while they are here on earth. Thank God, too, for a man of 
 wealth, who consecrated his money to the Lord, and knew 
 how to use it for his glory. Give thanks for all the souls 
 you have gathered, for the peace and unity you have had, 
 and for all the good and true men God has given you to be 
 his witnesses, and to stand fast by the truth as it is in 
 Jesus. 
 
 This has been an inspiring day to you. The retrospect of 
 the hundred years that are gone should not only awaken 
 your gratitude, but it should stir in your hearts new hope 
 and courage for the future ; for your own history teaches 
 you that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. 
 
REMARKS OF H. LINCOLN CHASE, 
 
 DELEGATE FROM THE BROOKLINE BAPTIST CHURCH. 
 
 The church at Brookhne desire me to offer you their most 
 hearty congratulations. 
 
 The cordial relations established many years ago between 
 these churches by those sturdy, God-fearing men who once 
 worshipped here, but afterwards at Brookline, have contin- 
 ued to this moment; and it affords us very great satisfaction 
 to join in the celebration of this day. We recall honored 
 names, familiar as household words to you and to us, who 
 here toiled and sacrificed, and rejoice in the conspicuous 
 example they have furnished of fidelity to Christian principle 
 and duty, and in the opportunity this day has given to speak 
 in their praise and honor. We rejoice in all the good 
 accomplished by a hundred years of Christian effort, and in 
 the bright prospects of the future ; and it is our earnest and 
 our best wish for you that they may be realized. 
 
 But, in addition to the congratulations which I bring to 
 you as a delegate, there are memories of a personal nature 
 which come trooping before my mind. 
 
 This was the religious home of my boyhood and of my 
 early manhood. Here my parents worshipped. I am myself 
 a child of this church, having received baptism at the hand 
 of my revered father, in yonder lake, very early in life; and 
 it was here, in after years, that I received those impressions, 
 
lOO CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 since ripened into convictions, as to the Christian Church, 
 and the entire harmony of the views held by our denomination 
 with true Christian fellowship. And, that such fellowship 
 may exist independent of church connections, the relations 
 existing between this and the neighboring Congregational 
 Church, referred to in the admirable address of the previous 
 speaker, Dr. Furber, afford a most practical and delightful 
 illustration. There has been no sacrifice of principle on 
 either side, but a genuine regard for each other's convic- 
 tions, and hence mutual respect and confidence. So may it 
 ever be. 
 
 There is one other point to which I will venture to refer 
 briefly. Reference has been made to the somewhat peculiar 
 position of a church situated as this is, in close proximity to 
 the Institution. 
 
 It is an open secret that laymen here have sometimes 
 shrunk from active participation in church affairs, especially 
 in the social meetings, under an impression that those con- 
 nected with the Institution might regard their efforts in 
 somewhat of a critical or an unsympathetic spirit. Permit 
 me to say that this feeling is, in my judgment, altogether a 
 mistake. 
 
 My own experience, when a member here, convinces me 
 that there is really nothing in the fact of the connection of 
 the Institution with the church to check for one moment 
 any desire to be useful. 
 
 The professors and students, alike with those of us en- 
 gaged in active business life, need the influence of the social 
 meetings ; and while they may be able to enrich us from their 
 more ample intellectual resources, and by reason of their 
 special attention to religious themes, still they need to know, 
 and I am sure they rejoice to know, the experiences of their 
 brethren, and it is for their good, as well as for the benefit of 
 
REMARKS OF H. LINCOLN CHASE. lOl 
 
 all, that they should participate in all the Christian activities 
 of this church. May God bless you in all your plans for 
 advancing- his cause here and throughout the world ! 
 
 After the remarks of Mr. Chase, Deacon E. Davis White, now 
 of Westboro', was invited to speak of events in the past, of which 
 few beside himself had any personal knowledge. This he did in a 
 manner that would have gratified the large assembly, if his words 
 could have been heard by all. But, owing to the feebleness of his 
 voice, only a small number of those present could follow him as 
 he related incidents about Father Grafton, Deacons Richardson, 
 King, and Stone, Dr. Smith, and other men who were active in the 
 church thirty, forty, or fifty years ago. 
 
 The Chairman then read the following letter : — 
 
LETTER FROM REV. HENRY F. COLBY, 
 
 OF DAYTON, OHIO. 
 
 vDayton, Ohio, Nov, 9, 1880. 
 To THE First Baptist Church of Newton: 
 
 Dear Brethren, — I cheerfully comply with the suggestion 
 of one of your number that I should send you a few words 
 of fraternal greeting on the celebration of your centennial 
 anniversary. With you are associated some of the most 
 precious incidents of my life ; and my heart would be dull 
 indeed, if it did not join in your thanksgivings to God for all 
 the mercies of the past. I am permitted also to join with my 
 own the congratulations of Deacon Caleb Parker and of his 
 wife, Mrs. Susan Richards Parker, who must be among the 
 oldest survivors of those who have been members of your 
 church. Deacon Parker was baptized by Father Grafton in 
 the Baptist Pond sixty years ago, and Mrs. Parker a few years 
 earlier. They cherish lively recollections of the old barn- 
 like meeting-house on the shore of the pond, where they sat 
 under the ministry of that good and genial man, and where 
 they participated in many religious meetings of peculiar ten- 
 derness. Having joined the church in his seventeenth year, 
 Mr. Parker was accustomed to walk every Sunday four miles 
 from his home to attend the worship ; and he remembers 
 how, during the noon intermission, those from a distance 
 gathered around the stove which stood in the centre of the 
 meeting-house. They recall the names of Deacon Hovey, 
 Mr. Corey, who afterwards became a deacon of the Brookline 
 
LETTER FROM REV. H. F. COLBY. IO3 
 
 church, Mr. Coohdge from Watertown, and Mrs. Captain 
 Bacon, among those who were leaders of the little band at 
 that time. When some withdrew to form the church at 
 Cambridge, Father Grafton remarked, with a playful allu- 
 sion to his own name, that now the branches of Joseph's 
 bough had run over the wall. 
 
 Other reminiscences of Father Grafton are related by our 
 venerable friends. Before settling at Newton, he had been 
 called to another place. As the call was far from unanimous, 
 he declined it, but continued to preach for the church until 
 a revival occurred, and then the call was given unanimously. 
 This also he declined, and soon after came to Newton, where 
 he was cordially received at the outset. When asked why 
 he had declined the unanimous invitation of the former 
 •church, he said : " In a time of freshet, you cannot see any 
 of the stumps in a meadow. They are all covered out of 
 sight. But, when the flood subsides, you will find they are 
 still there. It is not well to accept a call given in time of 
 high water." At another time, when Dr. Sharp had been 
 prevented from keeping an appointment to preach at Water- 
 town, Father Grafton was sent for to fill his place. He pre- 
 faced his discourse by saying, " My friends, those of you 
 who are musicians know that there must be flats as well as 
 sharps. As Dr. Sharp cannot be here, you must put up 
 with a flat." About the time that Mr. Willard became a 
 colleague of Father Grafton, Mr. and Mrs. Parker, having 
 been married by the latter, removed their membership to the 
 Roxbury church ; but the thought of their aged and affec- 
 tionate pastor at Newton has accompanied them through life 
 as a constant benediction. 
 
 To these ancient items of interest, it seems scarcely worth 
 while for me to add any reflections of my own : they must 
 pertain to matters of so much later date. But in my mem- 
 
104 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 ory forever must stand the white meeting-house, as it was in 
 my childhood, with its short, square tower and broad front 
 steps. I attended for a time Mr. Burbank's school, which 
 was held in the basement, and the churchyard was then my 
 playground. I recall how on Sundays I sat in one of the 
 high pews, looking up, while 
 
 " The meeting-house windows, l)lank and bare, 
 Stared at me with a spectral glare," 
 
 and how I tried to count the little balls which, like the bells 
 and pomegranates on the high priest's robe, trimmed the 
 faded draperies behind the pulpit. In the vestry beneath, I 
 was a member of Mrs. Ripley's Sunday-school class, and 
 attended the prayer-meetings at which many solemn impres- 
 sions were made upon my mind. Beside Dr. Smith and 
 some of the professors and students, there rise up before my 
 mind now Mr. Parkhurst, Mr. Whitney, Mr. Lothrop, and 
 others, as participating in the prayers and exhortations. To 
 the same place, too, I came with my father to attend a Sun- 
 day morning prayer-meeting, at which he overcame his diffi- 
 dence and took part in the exercises. I was still a boy when 
 the church was remodelled. My parents were so interested 
 in the project, and had so much to say about it at home, that 
 we boys caught something of their enthusiasm ; and, as I was 
 then a pupil at the public school near by, I watched from day 
 to day the progress of the building. In the mean while, Dr. 
 Stearns had become our pastor. As I grew older, I felt my 
 conscience and heart impressed by the great truths of our 
 faith, which he so glowingly presented. When the new 
 chapel was built, it soon became, like the old vestry, a place 
 of sacred associations. Within its walls, I first avowed my 
 purpose to be a servant of Christ, and asked an interest in 
 the prayers of God's people. There, too, I taught my first 
 Sunday-school class, and tremblingly offered my first prayer 
 
LETTER FROM REV. H. F. COLBY. 105 
 
 in public. How much indeed have all our family been in- 
 debted to influences that clustered around that church! How 
 large and sanctifying- an element were thoughts and cares 
 concerning it in the life and character of him who has now 
 passed into the presence of his Lord ! What affectionate 
 esteem he cherished for its members ! What anxiety he felt 
 for its welfare ! 
 
 As I pause in the work of my ministry to send you my 
 greeting from this distant city, I am reminded that the sons 
 and daughters of the Newton Centre Church are scattered 
 throughout our land and in heathen lands. The growing 
 needs of your community, brethren, demand that you should 
 soon have a new and larger place of worship ; but, in the 
 memories of these absent ones, no building can take the 
 place of the old one. What if its walls could speak ! What 
 if some phonograph had treasured up the solemn instruc- 
 tions, the tearful appeals, the sounds of mourning, and the 
 glad hallelujahs which through all these years have there 
 been uttered, and could pour them forth again in your hear- 
 ing to-night ! The very thought of such echoes from the 
 past is thrilling. We cannot produce them to the outward 
 ear, but we know that all that praying, praising breath has 
 not been spent in vain, and that those dear servants of God 
 who have departed are ours still. They are not only ours, 
 to cherish their memories and emulate their virtues, but ours 
 to meet at last in the glory of him with whom " a thousand 
 years is as one day." "Wherefore, being compassed about 
 with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every 
 weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us, and let us 
 run with patience the race set before us, looking unto Jesus 
 the author and the finisher of our faith." 
 
 Your brother in Christ, 
 
 Henry F. Colby. 
 
LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
 
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