■:^),^m^^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^;^^^,§^^ 
 
 

 >^/:f:i\c^'^'-^J 
 
 'M0f$^W^ 
 
 'fm§: 
 
;;. 
 
 ■■ 2-C, 
 
 / (TV 
 
JOHN COTTON. 
 
CONGREGATIONALISTS 
 
 AMERICA 
 
 A POPULAR HISTORY OF THEIR ORIGIN, BELIEF, 
 POLITY, GROWTH AND WORK 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. ALBERT E. DUNNING, D. D. 
 
 SPECIAL CHAPTERS BY 
 
 Rev. Joseph E. Roy, D. D., on Congregational Work and Progress in thk 
 
 West and Northwest ; Rev. Francis E. Clark, D. D., on Congre- 
 
 gationalists and their Young People ; Rev. Howard A, 
 
 Bridgman, on Congregational Literature ; 
 
 AND Rev. Alonzo H. Quint, D. D., 
 
 ON Ecclesiastical Councils 
 
 INTRODUCTIONS BY 
 
 REV. RICHARD S. STORRS, D. D., LL. D. 
 
 AND 
 
 MAJOR-GENERAL OLIVER O. HOWARD, LL. D. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 J. A. HILL & CO., Publishers 
 
 44 East 14TH Street 
 

 COPYKIGHT, 1894, 
 BY 
 
 J. A. HILL & COMPANY. 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 THE MERSHON COMPANY I'KESS, 
 RAHWAY, N. I. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This book is an attempt to tell the story of the rise of 
 modern Congregationalism and its growth in America. It 
 is prepared for busy pastors, Sunday-school teachers, Bible 
 classes. Christian Endeavor societies and all others who wish 
 to know what the Congregational denomination stands for, 
 what it has done in this country, what it is fitted to do, and 
 how it is related to the kingdom of God. 
 
 The chief difficulty in writing this book has been to con- 
 dense into required limits the great amount of material which 
 belongs in such a history, and at the same time to preserve a 
 popular narrative form. Many important events and move- 
 ments have been described only in the briefest outlines, which 
 would have accumulated interest in proportion to the space 
 given to them. Many things which must seem to many 
 readers worthy of a place in this volume have of necessity 
 been omitted. I have endeavored to make a continuous story 
 of the Congregationalism of three hundred years, and my rule 
 of selection has been to include the things which seem most 
 essential to the continuity of the history. I have not allowed 
 myself to take the space or to burden the pages with refer- 
 ences in detail to authorities, though the temptation to do so 
 was great. But I have not aimed to discuss controverted 
 questions with students. The majority of readers have not at 
 hand the authorities which might have been cited, nor do they 
 usually take the pains to search for them ; and this book is 
 intended for popular use. 
 
 S34230 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 I have, however, taken care to verify these statements, and 
 in doubtful matters to compare authorities and to consult 
 where possible the best informed living witnesses. Nearly the 
 entire volume has been read to and reviewed by Rev. Dr. A. 
 H. Quint, who has, I believe, as thoroughly studied the history 
 and working of Congregationalism as anyone now living. I 
 should not have undertaken this work had he not felt com- 
 pelled, after some months of consideration, to decline to do it, 
 nor should I then have ventured on it but for the assurance of 
 his co-operation. I am under great obligation to him for his 
 valuable suggestions, and for his guidance to the best sources 
 of information. I am glad also to express my obligations to 
 many others whom I cannot name for lack of space, especially 
 to presidents of colleges and secretaries of our benevolent 
 societies. I cannot hope to have avoided all mistakes ; but I 
 shall be grateful to any who may call my attention to such 
 errors as remain, that they may be corrected should a future 
 edition be called for. 
 
 The question of illustrations, especially of portraits, has 
 been a perplexing one. It is unfortunate that no pictures are 
 to be found of some of the greatest heroes of the early history 
 of Congregationalism. Who would not rejoice to look on the 
 face of John Robinson, of Thomas Hooker, or of John Eliot ? 
 But they have left behind them no trace of lineaments or 
 figure. A long list of worthies would seem to be entitled to 
 place in the portrait gallery of this volume. But in the limi- 
 tations which were found necessary, I have chosen those who 
 have been conspicuous as pioneers in the advancing march of 
 Congregationalism ; and I have not felt at liberty to insert the 
 portraits of any who are still living. 
 
 The special chapters have been written by men who will be 
 recognized as authorities on the topics which have been 
 assigned to them. Dr. Roy has been an important part of the 
 history of the Northwest and of the South for more than thirty 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 years as a superintendent of missions. I know no man living 
 who has been present at a larger number of National and State 
 meetings and other notable gatherings of Congregationalists 
 than he. Under his nom de plume of " Pilgrim," which he has 
 signed to more than seven hundred letters published in 
 various papers, he is known throughout the denomination. 
 Rev. Dr. F. E. Clark is, as he always has been, a Congregationa- 
 list, though the great movement which originated with him 
 has spread through all Protestant denominations and through 
 the world. Rev, H. A. Bridgman, the managing editor of the 
 Congregationalist, has made special investigations of the 
 beginning and growth of Congregational periodical literature. 
 Dr. A. H. Quint, the moderator of the last National Council, 
 has been a prominent factor in every one of these assemblies, 
 and is unsurpassed in his familiarity with Congregational 
 usages and with every aspect of ecclesiastical councils. Some 
 repetition has been unavoidable, because the same period has 
 been considered by different writers ; but not more, it is 
 hoped, than the symmetry of each narrative required. 
 
 I have made no mention of doctrinal discussions which 
 center around the higher criticism of the Bible, and which are 
 rife in all denominations. Nor have I alluded to very recent 
 controversies connected with the American Board and 
 Andover Theological Seminary. It is quite uncertain as yet 
 whether these matters will demand much space in the history 
 of Congregationalism in the nineteenth century. At present 
 no denomination is more harmonious than ours. May the 
 Spirit of holiness, truth, peace and love always abide in it ! 
 
 My reverence for the wisdom, faith, consecration and cour- 
 age of the men and women who have labored in this branch of 
 Christ's body for the advancement of His kingdom has con- 
 stantly increased as I have further studied their characters and 
 aims. In the noble company of many names, of those who 
 have " through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteous- 
 
VI 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 ness, obtained promises," Congregationalists hold an honorable 
 place. All those who share their name ought to know some- 
 thing of their principles and deeds. Every Congregationalist 
 surely should be informed concerning the important facts of 
 the history of his denomination. If I have succeeded in mak- 
 ing these facts more accessible and interesting, my labors will 
 have been amply rewarded ; for by the truths which He 
 taught, the redemption which He accomplished, and the 
 companies of believers in whom He dwells by His Spirit, the 
 kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdom of our 
 Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 Boston, May 15, 1894. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 By the Rev. RICHARD S. STORRS, D, D., LL. D. 
 
 It is gratifying to know that the volume on Con- 
 gregationalism has been prepared, and is to be pub- 
 lished, to which the writer of these lines is asked to 
 contribute a brief Introductory Note. A popular 
 account of the principles and the history of Congrega- 
 tional churches should have its interest for all who 
 know what such churches have done in the world, 
 while it may naturally be expected to be specially 
 welcome to those knowing more or less of the system, 
 yet not fully informed as to its characteristics or as to 
 their development in the past. 
 
 The present writer is by no means a prejudiced par- 
 tisan for particular forms of practice commonly associ- 
 ated with this scheme of church-order. On the other 
 hand he sees certain excellences in various other 
 methods and forms of action, and could no doubt 
 adjust himself to them if occasion required. But he 
 has lived and worked in the Congregational fellowship 
 during all the years of his Christian life, as his fathers 
 had done for two centuries before, and his attachment 
 to what he conceives to be distinctive In its principles 
 is naturally strong. Perhaps, too, his testimony con- 
 cerning this may not be weakened in force by the 
 fact that it has in it the suggestions of experience ; as 
 one who has long lived in a house may fairly be sup- 
 
viii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 posed to know more of its internal arrangements and 
 fitnesses for use than an outside observer, who has 
 seen only its walls, windows, gables, and chimney-tops. 
 So he gladly consents to say a few words commending 
 this volume to the attention of those to whom his 
 name may be known. 
 
 The two fundamental principles in the Congre- 
 gational scheme of the relation of churches to each 
 other are obvious and familiar : First, that any per- 
 manent congregation of disciples, accepting God's 
 revelation of himself in the Scriptures, and personally 
 consecrated to Christ the Head, associating themselves, 
 with their households, for the worship of God and the 
 administration of Christian ordinances, constitutes a 
 church ; complete in itself, competent to elect and set 
 apart its officers, to adopt its rules, to arrange its own 
 forms of worship, and in general to manage its par- 
 ticular affairs in the way which shall seem to it best, 
 under constant and reverent reference to the precept 
 and guidance of the Heavenly King: Second, that 
 every such church is bound to live in fellowship and 
 communion, of faith, of spirit, and of work, with every 
 other ; to give to others aid and counsel when these 
 are needed, to seek their fraternal aid and counsel when 
 important action is to be taken by itself, or when dif- 
 ferences of judgment and feeling arise within it, and 
 fraternally to co-operate with them in all good works. 
 
 These two principles — the independence and auton- 
 omy, under Christ, of the local church, and the obli- 
 gation of fellowship with others always resting upon 
 it — are what give to Congregationalism its name, and 
 
 >. 
 
INTRODUCTION. ix 
 
 what impart to it any virtue which belongs to it as a 
 scheme of general church-order. They have been well 
 described as the two foci of its ellipse. They are the 
 two 'responsive and regulating forces in its organic 
 system. It is not " Independency," while it still looks 
 askance on any comprehensive permanent organization 
 in which the life of the local congregation is liable to 
 be practically merged. Affiliated " churches " — not one 
 all-embracing " Church," least of all "The Church" — 
 are what it finds in the New Testament, and what it 
 seeks to reproduce wherever it prevails. 
 
 At the same time, in the relations to each other of 
 the disciples associated in such churches it recognizes 
 a normal equality of right and privilege, a real and 
 effective brotherhood of believers, and estimates office 
 as ministerial only, never as conveying endowment of 
 prerogative. Character and wisdom are in its view the 
 only proper conditions of influence, and the pastor him- 
 self is fitly a fellow-member with those of whom he 
 should be also leader and guide. The notion of the 
 dependence of church-life on any class of officers set 
 over it, and supplying this life from superior heights, 
 is as foreign to Congregationalism as would be the 
 notion in society that household life and domestic har- 
 mony require to be conferred by official supervisors. 
 From within outward, from beneath upward, is the law 
 of the progress of life, in the spiritual as in the 
 natural world. To try to reverse the process in 
 churches is irrational in theory, and practically as 
 dangerous, history shows, as an attempt to set the 
 growing tree on its branches instead of its roots. 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The Christian Hfe in individual souls, and thus in 
 the permanent societies which these form, is recog- 
 nized as ingenerated by the Spirit of God, through the 
 ministry of the truth, as that is set before men in the 
 Scriptures, and as it has been substantially accepted 
 and illustriously verified in the experience of faithful 
 disciples in all evangelical communions. Congre- 
 gationalism has, accordingly, no universal creed-form. 
 It is not limited as to statements of the Faith by any 
 human confessions or catechisms, however careful, 
 however venerable. It gets large light from such, now 
 as in the past ; but it does not acknowledge in them 
 any decisive and permanent law. The Bible is to it 
 the living and perennial basis of the church ; and it 
 holds itself bound only by the Scriptures, and by the 
 supreme instruction of the Lord. Yet the truth, thus 
 apprehended in its simplicity and superlative majesty, 
 has for those who honor and maintain this form of 
 church-order continuing authority, and an inestimable 
 importance. It is supremely valued as the Divine 
 means by which, in God's grace, men are to be led 
 into personal, affectionate and self-consecrating faith, 
 toward the Redeemer and Kino- of the world. Con- 
 gregationalism is evangelical and practical. It never 
 recoenizes orthodox belief as enouQfh in itself, thouo"!! 
 valuing this, and seeking to cherish and to distribute 
 it. It never seeks simph^ to educate men's minds, to 
 add polish to their manners, or to train them in social 
 amenities and elegances. Its one aim is that through 
 the truth, under the influence of God's Spirit, men 
 shall be brouo;ht, in p^lad surrender of heart and life, 
 
INTRODUCTION. xi 
 
 into fellowship with Christ, to become true members 
 first of His church on earth, and then, immortally, of 
 His Church Triumphant. 
 
 Of this transformation the truth is the instrument. 
 Believing disciples form the church. Preaching, teach- 
 ing, and godly living, are therefore the vehicles on 
 which the Divine influence moves ; and any theory of 
 efficacious grace conveyed on sacraments, as the means 
 of producing this interior essential life of the soul, is as 
 remote from Congregationalism as would be a theory 
 of vivifying star-dust to account for summer blooms 
 and growths. The two Christian sacraments, of 
 Baptism and the Lord's Supper, are permanent and 
 commanding in its churches ; but they are signs and 
 seals of faith, means of cherishing and renewing, not 
 of imparting, spiritual life. It has no possible use or 
 room for mechanical mediations or manual imposi- 
 tions to initiate the faith which cometh by hearing, and 
 by the Word of God, under the silent but mighty im- 
 pression of the Divine Spirit. 
 
 Congregationalism has always insisted, therefore, as 
 it now does, on an educated ministry ; a ministry rich 
 in character, of course, fervent in zeal, of a believing 
 temper, but also of instructed and trained power ; a 
 ministry able clearly to apprehend the truth, and 
 earnestly and effectively to set this forth to men. It 
 has built and endowed great institutes of learning — 
 academic, collegiate, theological — to secure such a 
 ministry; and on its success in accomplishing this, not 
 on any skill in formulating confessions or church- 
 rules, it depends for the furtherance of the cause 
 
xii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of the Master, so far as that is committed to its 
 churches. 
 
 It is, as it always has been, constitutionally, a mis- 
 sionary system ; seeking not so much to form churches 
 of a particular name or order, at home or abroad, 
 as to propagate the Gospel, by books. Bibles, earnest 
 preaching, in our own land and in others : where 
 the frontiersman has pushed his way into the wilder- 
 ness ; where the people of ancient lands want a light 
 and hope which they do not find in ancestral philoso- 
 phies or religions ; or where the brutal savage grovels 
 in his inherited filth and vice. The first missionary 
 societies in this country, for either the home or the 
 foreign field, sprang up among its churches. This 
 work has always been nobly sustained by them, and 
 has been widely effective. 
 
 Congregationalism may fairly claim to be, by its 
 nature, a catholic system, in a sense and to a degree in 
 which none surpasses it. It recognizes all assemblies 
 of disciples holding the Head and permanently 
 associated for His service as true churches, whether or 
 not wearing its denominational name. If some of 
 these churches prefer to be organized in Presbyterian 
 fashion, with lay-elders and under supervision of a 
 permanent church-court, that is their privilege. There 
 were such churches in the earlier time, as there have 
 been since ; and their contributions have been vast 
 to the culture and the progress of Christendom. If 
 churches prefer to frame or to adopt a full liturgy 
 for public worship, Congregationalism never ques- 
 tions their liberty to do so, though preferring in 
 
INTRODUCTION. xiii 
 
 its more immediate circles the freer forms which 
 have for it ancestral commendation. If baptism 
 by immersion, administered only to adult believers, 
 seem to any the preferable way, nearest the New 
 Testament pattern, the church-life continues in the 
 congregations so ordered, and it is properly recog- 
 nized as vigorous and useful. Even if congregations 
 desire and elect Episcopal superintendence, it is accord- 
 ing to the genius of this system that they should have 
 it, though it must be hoped that their acceptance of 
 it will not carry with it the conception of any peculiar 
 Divine right in alleged successors of those Apostles 
 whose very office, as Dean Alford emphatically said, 
 "precluded the idea of succession or renewal," and 
 that it will not lead to denial or forgetfulness of the 
 great truth energetically set forth by Bishop Light- 
 foot, that '' the only priests under the Gospel, desig- 
 nated as such in the New Testament, are the saints, 
 the members of the Christian brotherhood," and that 
 upon officers or ministers of the church " the sacerdotal 
 title is never once conferred." 
 
 It certainly seems to those trained in Congregational 
 principles that in this allowance of liberty to all local 
 churches, concerning forms of worship and methods of 
 organization and government, it closely approaches 
 the New Testament examples, while in seeking a 
 true spiritual unity, with no required outward uni- 
 formity of rule and rite, it is helping to realize the 
 ideal of the Master, for which He wrought, suffered, 
 and prayed — "that they all may be one: as Thou, 
 Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 one in us," No apparent difference could conceivably 
 have been greater than between the man of Nazareth 
 and the Infinite Father, while they were eternally one in 
 inmost life. Thus, as we conceive, the true unity of 
 Christendom is finally to come : differences of adminis- 
 trations, diversities of operations, but the same Lord, 
 
 Of course, as all know, this particular scheme of 
 church-order has from the first widely prevailed in 
 New England. It seems germane to the liberal, prac- 
 tical, and truth-trusting spirit of the American people. 
 Local self-control is with us a public policy. If democ- 
 racy is legitimate anywhere it must be in the church. 
 So churches and communicants of this order have been 
 multiplied threefold in the recent half-century. A still 
 more rapid visible progress may be expected in genera- 
 tions to come ; while the principles which are vital and 
 organific in the system have gone more widely than 
 its special name, and are to-day more extensively 
 shown than ever before, in practice if not in theo- 
 retical declaration, in all Protestant communions. In 
 a true and large sense these principles, we are confi- 
 dent, have the future for their own. 
 
 The present volume, by Dr, Albert E. Dunning, 
 which traces the history of Congregationalism, and 
 elucidates its principles, ought to have wide circulation 
 among intelligent and thoughtful Christians, here and 
 abroad, I trust that the blessing of the great Head 
 of all the churches will rest upon it ! 
 
 Brooklyn, N. Y., May lo, 1894. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 By Major-General OLIVER OTIS HOWARD, LL. D. 
 
 When a young man, the writer of this introductory 
 letter, soon after his conversion, found himself asso- 
 ciated with strong advocates of the Episcopacy. His 
 friends were decided Christian men of extensive read- 
 ing and research ; and for a time their arguments 
 appeared to him to be strong and conclusive that "the 
 true Church" was indeed a small one which by "apos- 
 tolic succession " had come down to us throuoh cen- 
 turies without a break in the line of bishops. The 
 writings of the Rev. Dr. Pusey and other like advo- 
 cates were put into his hands. The impressions upon 
 his mind and heart were so strong that not only did 
 it seem for a while that bishops, priests and deacons 
 were essential to the Church of Christ, but that other 
 branches like the Presbyterians and Congregationalists 
 were in error, and that their clergymen were not 
 ordained ministers of Christ. Soon the arguments 
 carried him on to the Roman Church, till he said to 
 himself : " If the unbroken apostolic succession in the 
 line of bishops is essential to the living Church, the 
 Roman faith has precedence." Since then it has never 
 seemed at all strange to him that so many of his 
 friends who were high churchmen at last joined the 
 Roman Catholic communion. 
 
 Further reading of the Scriptures, study and thought 
 
xvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 brought the writer back to his proper home in the 
 Congregational household, an^ there he "was admitted 
 and confirmed with his family. This is perhaps too 
 personal for general reading, yet it may chance to 
 influence and help some other searcher for the fold 
 of Christ. It is no way claimed that the Episcopal 
 divisions of the grand army of -the Lord are not good 
 and wise, and in that sense under special divine favor, 
 but the gj-ander truth may dawn upon a man's heart 
 that our Lord is In all His branches and that "wisdom 
 is justified of all her children." It takes all the instru- 
 mentalities to reach the nooks and corners of the 
 world. But what would the writer not have given 
 during his probation for such a historic compendium 
 as this volume furnishes ! 
 
 In these days an Ism is not of grea4: moment; it is 
 but an indication of the division lines in the. hosts of 
 the Lprd — the hosts who are now on the march or 
 already battling with the foes of truth and righteous- 
 ness. But organization is important, and a Christian 
 wants to feel that he belonos to one that is at least 
 defensible. The author of this book, a review of all 
 the divisions from the apostles' time till now, showing 
 the origin of the Congregational polity in the earliest 
 period, and following it through the ages without 
 prolixity, with comprehensive clearness and with 
 explicit and full statements of facts, pro and con, has 
 done a great work. Perhaps a little sectarian spirit 
 could be detected in some of his pages by some old- 
 fashioned Christian — some follower of John Knox 
 or John Wesley. He rather feels that our Ism is the 
 real Church, and that the others have somehow 
 departed from the original simplicity of organization 
 
INTRODUCTION. xvii 
 
 and worship. Once a gentleman, member of a Con- 
 gregational church out West, was walking to a Con- 
 gregational house of worship with a lady, an ardent 
 Episcopalian. She tried to show him the superiority 
 of the Episcopal service to any other, and also how far 
 short the other came of the true faith. The gentle- 
 man replied as they entered the vestibule : " All right ; 
 perhaps yours is better than mine as you claim, but 
 this one, dear madam, is mine ! Your home may be 
 nicer than ours, yet ours is ours ! " So we detect little 
 harm present or prospective in an author who clings 
 with some fervor to a hearty description of his own 
 household of work and worship, and who is able to 
 trace the pedigree of his family connection to the very 
 fountain-head. The readers of this book will particu- 
 larly enjoy the history of the Congregational churches 
 of New England, where the rigid and liberal inter- 
 preters of Holy Writ are all given a fair exhibit. vThe 
 causes of the Pilgrim leaving England ; the sojourn in 
 Holland; his arrival in America; his faith and purpose 
 and trial on New England's shores — no descendant of 
 his is ever averse to the story of these things, and 
 here, though an old one, it is told concisely and well. 
 It will hereafter become a text for the jovial and elo- 
 quent speakers at the yearly anniversaries of New 
 England societies which gather in all our great towns 
 from Boston to San Francisco. 
 
 Our youth cannot be made too familiar with the 
 actual foundation of our civil government, arranged 
 for on board the " Mayflower," but secured at Plym- 
 outh, Mass.; a government of the people, where the 
 flag, an emblem of the people's sovereignty, forever 
 ensures a free Church. The church that best assim- 
 
XVin INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ilates that government of republican form and order 
 is very near and dear to patriotic hearts. 
 
 The chapter on growth and expansion, taking us to 
 Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, 
 Rhode Island, Maryland, and Virginia, is of marked 
 interest. Who does not want to know more about 
 Roger Williams, John Eliot and the Indian missions.'^ 
 An early Congregational church in Virginia, and its 
 transference to Maryland, and what came of it ; the 
 Virginia churches of our order can trace their regular 
 succession after a lapse ; and Washington Congrega- 
 tionalists will take on new courage and vigor, and push 
 on to extend their simple methods of formal ordination 
 to cover unoccupied fields of the South. Baptists in 
 the South, who at bottom are usually good Congre- 
 gationalists, will read with avidity a history which 
 strengthens their claim in that region to divide with 
 our Methodist brothers their call to all races of men. 
 
 One gets into the valleys and shadows of things 
 when he sees " Halfway Covenants," troubles with 
 Quakers, times of cleavage, religious declension, dif- 
 ferences with Episcopalians, witchcraft delusion ; but 
 if of " Orthodox blood" he must have a degree of sat- 
 isfaction to answer soberly the laughings of Oliver 
 Wendell Holmes and other humoristic reformers. 
 Here with some shiverings while in the bottom of 
 the chasms he can pick up the facts ; one should 
 want nothing better ! 
 
 At Key West, Fla., the writer of this article 
 recently found two plants that greatly interested him. 
 One was an East Indian tree, called the banyan, and 
 the other was a new Congregational church. To his 
 mind there are in general many points of resemblance ; 
 
INTRODUCTION. XIX 
 
 there is a center tree ; there are also other smaller 
 trees, quite independent in their growth, which rise 
 from the ground, and more little trees still that start 
 from wide-spreading branches, and grow down till they 
 touch the earth ; there they root themselves. All 
 these up and down growths keep increasing in number 
 and size till they finally become one immense tree. 
 There at Key West came the Congregational home 
 missionary. He found a few Christians scattered about 
 that place who wanted some fellowship and a house of 
 worship. He explained to them the Congregational 
 polity as he understood it, and showed them the ordi- 
 nary expressions of faith that our people adopt. A 
 church was founded, and by the help of the Home Mis- 
 sionary Society, a church was organized, and a house of 
 worship erected. Outside were independent growths, 
 bands associated for prayer, Sunday schools, shoots 
 thrown off from other churches from one cause and 
 another. All these began to group around the original 
 plant which the missionary had nourished. New con- 
 verts then came from the church and its accessories. 
 The apparently independent growths coming from the 
 ground were brought nearer and made more homoge- 
 neous by the converts who seemed to spring from 
 branches and other growths, till they secured their own 
 bases, filled up the spaces and made a strong central, 
 yet wide-spreading tree. 
 
 It was a Banyan Church also that we planted at 
 Washington in 1865. It was a worrisome and some- 
 times exasperating concern at first, in its make up. It 
 took beggings and pleadings to secure money enough 
 to build a meeting-house. It took ex-parte councils 
 and general councils and much fostering care to get it 
 
XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 well-rooted. Offshoots in time there were ; several 
 in Washington and in the District of Columbia, and 
 several more in the bordering States ! They were 
 seeming rivals and wondrously independent. But by 
 the common sap of God's Spirit the central trunk has 
 become at last large and thriving, and all the rootlets 
 are now united by a large annual conference where 
 fellowship so prevails as to suggest the likeness of 
 one ofreat tree. 
 
 We cannot maintain very well that our order is the 
 best of all. Our brethren of other communions see in 
 us many weaknesses. The independence of the indi- 
 vidual church every home-born and home-bred Congre- 
 gational believer insists on as a si7ie qiia non. How 
 can heresy and schism be prevented where there is no 
 authority beyond the individual church ? " Look," 
 they say, "there went off from you the Baptists, then 
 the Unitarians ! They all preserve your methods, so 
 that now there are three bodies instead of one. You 
 cannot even maintain a uniform creed !" 
 
 Are you sure, brethren, that it is necessary to 
 Christ's kingdom to keep solidly to one trunk of 
 opinions on all topics ? If so, Christ's Church is and 
 ever will be a huge failure. 
 
 Again they aver that for the most part we have 
 a double-headed system — a church and a society to 
 take care of the individual church. Surely there is no 
 harm in this arrangement where it is expedient to have 
 a society for holding and managing property ; but this 
 society is not essential to any church, Congregational 
 or other, but merely a way of doing business through 
 a competent agent, the society being the agent. Again 
 the old proverb is quoted against our Congregational 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxi 
 
 efficiency, namely : " What is everybody's business is 
 nobody's business." This is never fair to us, for all 
 democratic bodies work through chosen committees or 
 agents, so that very little work is done directly by the 
 whole body. But we must not be betrayed into a pro- 
 longed discussion which is not at all profitable. 
 
 Any Christian church of any communion is efficient 
 enough if its individual members have in their indi- 
 vidual hearts the spirit of the Master, and by the spur 
 of His presence do the best they can to live like Him 
 and carry out His injunctions. The larger the indi- 
 vidual liberty, in co-partnership with the Lord's Spirit, 
 the better. The larger the liberty of the individual 
 church in similar co-partnership, the better for its 
 healthful and effective growth and undertakings. 
 
 The Congregational history before us gives us in 
 graphic and acceptable shape the best defense of our 
 polity that I have seen. Let us ever be considered 
 a part and parcel of the army of Christ ! We have 
 our distinctive flag ; our division is known by the other 
 communions, for we are in the field of enterprising 
 work. We go to all climes and to all peoples alongside 
 of Presbyterians and Episcopalians. We have like 
 them our conflicts within and without ; but we do try 
 to always keep unfurled to the breeze the great com- 
 mon banner of our Lord, on which is inscribed : " Go 
 ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every 
 creature." 
 
 This banner shows to all Christians and to all 
 opposers that, whether in the ranks or in the skirmish 
 or on the picket-line, we do belong to the army of the 
 Lord, our Saviour, and are determined to bear our 
 part in the great contest of truth against error, for 
 
XXli INTRODUCTION. 
 
 right against wrong, for the spread of light and knowl- 
 edcre and for the salvation of human souls. 
 
 All the methods of all communions workinor tOQ-ether 
 with one Saviour, one faith and one baptism of the 
 spirit, are best of all. But each individual church must 
 perform its functions, as each individual man and 
 woman and child must perform the individual part. 
 We do not want to be in error nor be deceived. " But 
 being sincere, in love grow up unto Him in all things 
 who is the head, even Christ: from whom the whole 
 body fitly joined together and compacted, by that which 
 every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working 
 in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the 
 body unto the edifying of itself in love." 
 
 In the hope of promoting to some degree the largest 
 charity, we join our brethren in offering to Christian 
 people and honest seekers after knowledge this book 
 which the author has so diligently, faithfully and 
 acceptably prepared. 
 
 Major -General, U. S. A. 
 Governor's Island, N. Y., May 15, 1894. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. — Apostolic Congregationalism. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Christ's Teaching- Concerning His Kingdom — His Teaching Concerning His Church 
 — Election of a Twelfth Apostle by the Whole Congregation — The First Christian 
 Church at Pentecost a Congregational Church — Election of Deacons by the 
 Whole Church — Stoning of Stephen (a Deacon) — Congregational Church in 
 Samaria — Another in Joppa — Congregational Action of the Church at Jerusalem-;— 
 The Church at Antioch — It Becomes a Missionary Church — Congregational 
 Churches in Asia Minor — Dispute in the Church at Antioch — Council of Churches 
 at Jerusalem — Dissension at Antioch Renewed by Peter — Peter Rebuked by Paul- 
 Churches Organized by Paul on his Second and Third Missionary Journeys — ^Paul's 
 Instructions Concerning Church Government and Discipline — Duties of Church 
 Officers — Condition of Churches at Close of the Apostolic Period^Coiigregation- 
 alism the Result of the Teachings of Christ and the Work of the Apostles, . 33 
 
 CHAPTER II. — Apostolic Congregationalism Revived in Later Times. 
 
 Apostolic Congregationalism Gradually Superseded by Episcopacy — Early Forms 
 of Puritanism and Their Suppression by Romanism — Revival of Learning in 
 Europe — Wickliffe and the Lollards — Origin of English Puritanism — Acts of 
 Supremacy and Uniformity — Resistance of Puritans to Domination of the English 
 Church — " The Privye Church " — Robert Browne— Grounds of his Opposition to 
 the Church of England — Principles of Congregationalism — Coppin and Thacker 
 hanged — Browne's Return to Episcopacy, and his Death — Greenwood and Bar- 
 rowe in Prison — Their Writings — John Penry — The Mar-prelate Tracts — Penry 
 Becomes a Separatist — Francis Johnson Suppresses the Book of Barrowe and 
 Greenwood — Becomes a Separatist and Pastor of the First Congregational Church 
 in London — Its Officers and Form of Government — Persecutions of the Church 
 — Barrowe and Greenwood Tried, Condemned and Hung — Penry Imprisoned — 
 His Counsels to His Family and the Church — His Trial and Execution, . . 51 
 
 CHAPTER III. — Congregationalists in Exile in Holland. 
 
 London Congregationalists Escape to Amsterdam — The Separatists of Gainsborough 
 and Scrooby — John Robinson — William Brewster — Escape to Amsterdam — Trou- 
 bles of the London Church in Amsterdam— Its Confession of Faith — Scrooby Emi- 
 grants remove to Leyden — Their Experiences in Leyden — Their Plan to Emigrate 
 to America — Difficulties in their Way — Thomas Weston — Compact between Ad- 
 venturers and Pilgrims — Departure of Pilgrims from Holland — The " Mayflower " 
 Leaves Plymouth for the New World — Faith and Purpose of the Pilgrims, , . 71 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— The Pilgrim Church in its Permanent Home. 
 
 Pilgrims Arrive off Cape Cod — The Compact in the " Mayflower " — The Landing at 
 Plymouth — The First Winter — Bradford Elected Governor — The First Wedding — 
 New Arrivals by the Ship " Fortune" — The First House of Worship — Thomas 
 Weston's Troublesome Colony — Encounter with Indians— Discouragements Fol- 
 
XXIV TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 lowed by Blessing:s — Fasting and Thanksgiving — Captain Gorges — Lyford and 
 Oldham Expelled — Contract between Pilgrims and English Adventurers Ended — 
 Death of John Robinson in Leyden — A nival of the Leyden Remnant at Plymouth, 87 
 
 CHAPTER v.— The Puritans of Massachusetts Bay. 
 Their Purpose in Coming to New England— The First Puritan Settlement, Cape Ann 
 
 — Removal to Naumkeag — Massachusetts Bay Company Organized in England 
 
 Endecott Arrives at Salem— Dr. Fuller Visits Salem — New Arrivals with Four 
 Ministers— First Church Organized in New England— Its Constitution and Char- 
 acter—Abortive Attempt to Start an Episcopal Church— Confession and Covenant 
 of Salem Church — Transfer of Massachusetts Bay Company to New England — 
 Church from Dorchester, England, Settles in Dorchester, Mass. — Arrival of John 
 Winthrop and Fleet at Salem — Removal to Charlestown — A Day of Fasting and 
 Prayer— Churches Formed at Charlestown and Watertown- First General Court 
 —Removal to Boston— New Church at Charlestown— Other Churches Formed, . loo 
 
 CHAPTER VI.— Early American Congregationalism. 
 Independence and Fellowship of the First New England Churches— Character of the 
 Colonists— Cotton, Hooker, Stone— Principles they Advocated— Cotton, Teacher 
 of First Chufch, Boston— Hooker and Stone at Newtown— Citizenship Limited to 
 Church Membership— Organization of Churches Controlled by General Court- 
 Thursday Lectures Established— Ministers Resist Laud's Attempt to secure Return 
 of the Charter— Roger Williams Attacks the Charter— He Attempts to Use the 
 Churches to Control Civil Legislation— Williams Banished from the Colony- 
 Companies from Dorchester and Watertown Remove to Connecticut— Hooker 
 and His Church Remove to Connecticut— Harvard College Founded— Anne 
 Hutchinson— Sir Henry Vane— Mrs. HutchinsorTsTleetings— General Court Con- 
 venes Council of Ministers— Mrs. Hutchinson's Teachings Condemned— Mrs. 
 Hutchinson and Mr. Wheelwright Banished— Her Further Career and Death, . iiS 
 
 CHAPTER VII.— The Cambridge Synod. 
 John Davenport Arrives in Massachusetts— New Haven Colony Founded— Inquiries 
 from Ministers in England— Answers of Cotton and Richard Mather— West- 
 minster Assembly— Synod in Cambridge, Mass., 1643— Hooker's " Sum of Church 
 Discipline "—Opposition to " The New England Way"— Trouble Between Hing- 
 ham Men and the General Court— Objections to Ecclesiastical Authority— Appeal to 
 Parliament P'orbidden- First Meetmg of Synod, 1646— Independents Gain Power 
 in England— Westminster Assembly Prepares Confession of Faith— General Court 
 Requests American Synod to Prepare a Confession of Faith— Final Session of 
 Synod, 1648— Cambridge Platform— Approved by General Court— Body of Liber- 
 ties— First Constitution of Connecticut— Order of Public Worship in the Churches, 137 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. — Growth and Expansion. 
 Cessation of Emigration to New England— Confederation of Colonies— Plymouth 
 Colony, its Towns and Churches— Churches of Massachusetts— Connecticut 
 Churches— New Haven Colony— Its Organization and Churches— New Hampshire 
 Settlements and Churches -Settlements in Maine— Rhode Island and First Baptist 
 Church— Roger Williams, Mrs Hutchinson, Samuel Gorton— First Congrega- 
 tional Churches in Rhode Island— Churches in Long Island— Congregational 
 Church in Virginia— Churches on Islands off the Atlantic Coast— Efforts to Chris- 
 tianize the Indians— John Eliot— Tlie Mayhews at Martha's Vineyard— Mission- 
 ary Society Formed in England— Indian Christian Communities— Eliot's Indian 
 Bible— New England Congregationalism at llie End of the Seventeenth Century, 152 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. XXV 
 
 CHAPTER IX.— The Halfway Covenant. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Early Qualifications for Church Membership — Rights of Baptized Children — Con- 
 tinued Discussion of the Subject— Rights of Children of such Baptized persons — 
 Connecticut Court Asks Questions — Massachusetts Court Appoints Ministers to 
 Consider the Questions, 1657 — Their Answers — Further Discussion among the 
 Churches — General Court of Massachusetts Summons Synod, 1662 — Propositions 
 of the Synod — Their Reception by the Churches — Troubles with Quakers —Per- 
 secutions of Baptists — Attack on New England Congregationalism by Charles II. — 
 General Court of Connecticut Asks Ministers to Consider Claims of Unregenerate 
 Persons to Privileges of Church Membership — Divisions in Local Churches — 
 Synod in Connecticut in 1667 — Lines of Cleavage in the Churches, . . -171 
 
 CHAPTER X. — Religious Declension and Reform.\tion. 
 
 Dissensions Cause Spiritual Decline — Wars and Other Calamities — Petition to the 
 Massachusetts General Court to Call Synod — Reforming Synod of 1679-80 — The 
 Savoy Confession — Its Adoption by Massachusetts Churches — Good Fruits from 
 the Synod — Recall of the Charter of Massachusetts — Old South Meeting-house 
 Taken by Force by Episcopalians — Cotton Mather — Revolution of 1689 — The 
 Witchcraft Delusion — Mingled Gains and Losses, . 189 
 
 CHAPTER XL — Conflicting Tendencies in Church Government. 
 
 Poverty and Weakness of the Churches — Massachusetts Convention of Ministers — 
 Ministerial Associations — Drift toward Making Councils Governing Bodies — Con- 
 servative and Liberal Parties — Organization of Brattle Street Church — Efforts to 
 Restore Peace — Renewed Strife — "Order of the Gospel" and "Gospel Order 
 Revived " — Dissension in Harvard College — Withdrawal of Increase Mather from 
 its Presidency — Proposals of 1705 — John Wise's Attack on Them — Founding of 
 Yale College — The Saybrook Synod — Heads of Agreement Adopted by the 
 Synod — Consociation of Churches — Permanent Associations of Ministers — Action 
 of the Synod Confirmed by the Connecticut General Court — Results of the Synod, 205 
 
 CHAPTER XII.— The Great Awakening. 
 Indian Wars, Internal Dissensions, Growth of Episcopacy — Death of Increase Mather 
 — Failure to Legislate for a Revival — Death of Cotton Mather — Jonathan Edwards 
 His Ordination and Marriage — Religious Condition of the Colonies — Effects 
 of Halfway Covenant — Theology of Edwards — Effects of his Preaching — Revival 
 of 1735 — Edwards' " Narrative of Surprising Conversions" — George Whitefield — 
 His Visit to New England in 1740— Effects of his Preaching, .... 228 
 
 CHAPTER XIII.— The Great Awakening {continued). 
 Progress of the Revival — Gilbert Tennent's Preaching in Boston — The Revival in 
 Connecticut — Awakening Opposition — Davenport's Mischievous Work — Persecu- 
 tion of Revivalists in Connecticut — The Controversy in Massachusetts — Whitefield's 
 Second Visit — Results of the Revival — Later History of Jonathan Edwards, . . 250 
 
 CHAPTER XIV.— Congregationalists in the War of the Revolution. 
 The Chief Motive in Originating the War — Encroachments of Episcopacy— Influence 
 of Congregational Ministers in Civil Government — Their Controversy with the 
 English Hierarchy — Resistance of American People to Episcopacy— Comparative 
 Strength of Congregationalism in New England — Hostility of the British Army 
 to Congregationalism — Meeting-houses Destroyed by British Troops— Congrega- 
 tional Ministers in the War — Influence of Congregationalism in Shaping the New 
 Government — The Principles of Congregationalism the Principles of the Republic, 265 
 
xxvi TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. — The Unitarian Departure. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Beginnings of Unitarianism in New England — Different Schools of Theology — Hop- 
 kinsianism — Views of Mayhew, Chauncey, Thacher — First Appearance of Divid- 
 ing Lines Between Unitarians and Trinitarians — King's Chapel — Unitarianism in 
 Europe — Revival of 1800 — Massachusetts Missionary Society — General Association 
 of Massachusetts— Harvard College Captured by the " Liberal" Party — Andover 
 Seminary Founded — Convention Sermons — Codman at Dorchester — Park Street 
 Church — A. B. C. F. M. Formed — Unitarianism in Connecticut — Parkman's Reply 
 to Unitarians in England— Opposing Parties on the Eve of Disruption, . . 277 
 
 CHAPTER XVL— The Unitarian Departure {continued). 
 
 The Crisis Reached — Charges and Denials — Lines of Division Drawn — The Dedham 
 Case — Complete Separation between the Two Bodies — What is Unitarianism ? — 
 Its Spread through Massachusetts — Its Intellectual, Political and Social Prestige 
 — Unitarian Church in Baltimore — Amherst College Founded — Lyman Beecher in 
 Boston — Effects of the Revival — Foreign Missions — Home Missions — Periodical 
 Literature — Parsons Cooke's Sermon — Hartford Seminary Founded — Strength and 
 Weakness of Orthodoxy — Strength and W^eakness of Unitarianism — Ser\-ice of 
 Unitarianism to Orthodoxy — Causes of the Failure of Unitarianism, . . . 29S 
 
 CHAPTER XVII.— The Disastrous Plan of Union. 
 
 Union of Connecticut Congregatlonalists and Presbyterians — Plan of Union — Its 
 Purpose and Advantages — Why Presbyterianism Prevailed — Why Congregational- 
 ism Failed — Old and New Schools of Presbyterians — The Exscinding Acts— Heresy 
 Trials — State Associations — Formed — Friction between New School Presbyterians 
 and Congregatlonalists — Plan of Union Abandoned, 318 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII.— Organized Christian Work. 
 
 Congregationalism a Missionary Movement — A. -B. C- F. M.: its Beginning — Its 
 Missionaries Ordained in Salem — Judson and Newell in Calcutta — Death of Harriet 
 Newell — First Mission to the Mahrattas — Other Missions Established — Effect of 
 Tidings from Them— The " Morning Star" — Missions in Japan — Fields Occupied 
 — Results — Educational Work — Officers — A. E. S. — Its Organization in 1816 — 
 Union with Western College Society — N. W. E. C. — Present Field and Aims of 
 the Society — A. H. M. S. — Previous Organizations — Its Formation in 1826 — 
 Work of the Society— C. S.-S. & P. S.— Its History— Its Receipts— A. M. A.— Its 
 History — Its Connection with Oberlin College — Its Work for the Freedmen — Its 
 Schools and Universities — Its Churches — Mountain Whites — Chinese — C. C. B. S. 
 — Its History and Work— Organization of the Six Societies — Ministerial Relief 
 Fund— A. C. A 334 
 
 CHAPTER XIX.— Education. 
 
 Puritan Views of Education — Harvard College — Yale — Dartmouth — Williams — 
 Bowdoin— Amherst — Illinois — Oberlin — Beloit — Olivet — Berea— Ripon — Wash- 
 l)urn — Tabor — Carleton — Drury — Doane — Colorado — Yankton — Pacific— ^^'hit- 
 man — Pomona — Academies — Education for Women — Mary Lyon — Mount Holyoke 
 — Other Institutions Formed on its Plan — Smith — Wellesley — Equipment of 
 Colleges — Theological Seminaries — List of Colleges and Seminaries, . . 363 
 
 CHAPTER XX.— The New Era. 
 
 Evidences of its Beginning — Doctmial^ Discussions — Edwards A. Park — Horace Biish- 
 nell — Unity through Diversity — Opposition to Slavery — "Uncle Tom's Cabin " — 
 Henry \Vard Beecher in England — Unity in the Cause of Freedom — Development 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. xxvii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 of Polity — Leonard Bacon — Henry Martyn Dexter — Growth in Michigan — Illinois 
 — Iowa — Wisconsin — Minnesota — Missouri — Kansas and Nebraska — Colorado — 
 Dakota — Pacific States — Southern States — British Provinces — Statistics for 1863 
 and 1893 Compared — Growth by Decades — Ten Churches Showing Greatest 
 Growth — Ten Largest Churches — Cities where Congregationalism is Strongest — 
 Statistics of Denominations — Congregationalists in Other Countries — Congrega- 
 tional Clubs — Institutional Churches — Future of Congregationalism, . . 393 
 
 CHAPTER XXI — Congregationalism in the Northwest. 
 
 The Northwest Territory — Manasseh Cutler and the Ohio Company — First Church, 
 Marietta — The Connecticut Land Company and the Western Reserve — Results of 
 the Plan of Union — New England Ideas in the West^Work of the Connecticut 
 Society in Illinois, Missouri, and Indiana — Work of Other Congregational Mis- 
 sionary Societies — Building up Christian Colleges — Their Value to the Church and 
 the Country — College Men in the Union Army — The Louisiana Purchase — 
 Growth of Congregationalism in Missouri — Iowa — Minnesota — Kansas — Nebraska 
 — Other Great States — Northwest Pacific States — California, .... 419 
 
 CHAPTER XXII.— The Story of the Young People. 
 
 Puritan Training of Children — Modern Methods — Young People's Associations in 
 the Eighteenth Century — Early History of Sunday Schools — Asa Bullard — Young 
 People's Societies — Missionary Organizations — Young People's Society of Chris- 
 tian Endeavor— Its Fundamental Principle — Its Beginning in Portland, Me. — Its 
 Pledge — Other Distinctive Features — The Junior Society — Local Unions and Con- 
 ventions — The Origin of the Society in a Congregational Church — Interdenomina- 
 tional and International Fellowship — Boys' Brigade — Brotherhood of Andrew and 
 Philip — Future of Young People's Work for Christ, 446 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. — Congregational Literature. 
 
 Congregationalism both the Creator and the Outgrowth of a Literature — The Earliest 
 Writers on Polity — Subsequent Ecclesiastical, Theological and Missionary Treatises 
 — Ministerial Pamphlets the Forerunners of Periodical Liteialure — The Rise of 
 Monthlies and Quarterlies — The Congregational Qiiartei-ly — The Year Book — 
 Periodicals Representing Different Seminaries — English Publications— Sunday- 
 school Literature — The Origin and Development of Religious Newspapers — The 
 Contributions of Congregational Writers to the Various Departments of General 
 Literature : To Theology — To History — To Philosophy and Jurisprudence — To 
 Biblical and Exegetical Literature — To Literature on Foreign Missions and Trans- 
 lations of the Bible — To Hymnology — To Devotional Literature — To Sociology — 
 To Fiction and Poetry, 467 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV.— Visible Unity. 
 
 Local Self-government and the Fellowship of the Churches Cardinal Principles — 
 The Testimony of Our Fathers as to Unity — The Unity of the Church Catholic — 
 The Unity of Our Churches — Unity in Sentiment — Visible Unity Seen in the 
 Relations of Particular Churches to Each Other — Local Ecclesiastical Councils — 
 The Great Co-operative Societies for Christian Work — Local Conferences of 
 Churches — The State Organizations of Churches — The National Convention of 
 1852— The National Council of 1865— The Established National Council of the 
 Congregational Churches of the United States, . 489 
 
LIST OF AUTHORITIES. 
 
 The early history of Congregationalism in America is the 
 early history of New England. The books which contain this 
 history must be studied by those who would understand what 
 Congregationalists have done for America. The most impor- 
 tant of these books are mentioned in John Fiske's" The Begin- 
 nings of New England," Bibliographical note, pp. 279-287. 
 Standard histories of England and of the United States must 
 of course be consulted. Dr. Dexter's " Congregationalism as 
 Seen in Its Literature" contains a voluminous list of writings 
 of Congregationalists, the result of the researches of a lifetime. 
 Professor Williston Walker, in his " Creeds and Platforms of 
 Congregationalism," has prefixed to each chapter a compre- 
 hensive list of authorities. 
 
 The Congregational Library, in the Congregational House, 
 Boston, is of great value, especially as the storehouse of local 
 histories of churches and communities, the records of our 
 benevolent institutions, schools and colleges, and of local and 
 State organizations of churches. I am much indebted to the 
 librarian, Dr. W. H. Cobb, and to his competent assistant, 
 Miss Mary E. Stone, for placing in my hands literature which 
 would otherwise have been inaccessible to me in preparing 
 this volume. Loyal Congregationalists should see that his- 
 torical sermons and other documents, and books of value to 
 the denomination, find their way to the shelves of this library. 
 
 The following works have been freely used in preparing this 
 history, and most of them are accessible, at least to those who 
 are near public libraries. The list might easily be prolonged. 
 
 The Congregationalism of the Last Three Hundred Years, 
 as Seen in Its Literature. H. M. Dexter, D. D. 
 
 Congregationalism, What It Is, Whence It Is, How It 
 Works. H. M. Dexter, D. D. 
 
LIST OF AUTHORITIES xxix 
 
 Handbook of Congregationalism. H. M. Dexter, D. D. 
 
 Congregational History : 1567-1700. Waddington. 
 
 Genesis of the New England Churches. L. Bacon, D. D. 
 
 The Pilgrim Republic. Goodwin. 
 
 Magnalia. Cotton Mather, D. D. 
 
 Ecclesiastical History of New England. Felt. 
 
 History of New England. Hubbard. 
 
 History of New England. Five vols. Palfrey. 
 
 History of New England. Journal from 1630-1649. John 
 Winthrop. 
 
 The English in America : The Pilgrim Colonies. Doyle. 
 
 The Beginnings of New England. John Fiske. 
 
 Historical Sketch of the Congregational Churches of Massa- 
 chusetts. Joseph S. Clark, D. D. 
 
 History of Plymouth Plantation. William Bradford. 
 
 Story of the Pilgrims. Rev. Morton Dexter. 
 
 New England Congregationalism. White. 
 
 History of Congregationalism. Rev. George Punchard. 
 
 Lechford's Works. 
 
 Works of Cotton, Hooker, Increase and Cotton Mather on 
 polity. 
 
 In the Series of The Makers of America: John Winthrop, 
 by Rev. J. H. Twichell ; Thomas Hooker, by G. L. Walker, 
 D. D., Cotton Mather, by Prof. Barrett Wendell. 
 
 The Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism. Williston 
 Walker, Ph. D. 
 
 History of the Colony of Massachusetts. Hutchinson. 
 
 History of Connecticut. Hollister. 
 
 History of Connecticut. J. Hammond Trumbull. 
 
 Thirteen Historical Discourses. Leonard Bacon, D. D. 
 
 Christian History. Two vols. Thomas Prince. 
 
 History of the Old South Church, Boston. H. A. Hill. 
 
 Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of Connecticut. 
 
 History of the First Church, Hartford, Conn. George Leon 
 Walker, D. D. 
 
 The Great Awakening. Rev. Joseph Tracy. 
 
 Annals of the American Pulpit. Sprague. 
 
 Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Litera- 
 ture. McClintock and Strong. 
 
XXX LIST OF AUTHORITIES. 
 
 Life and Times of Cotton Mather. A. P. Marvin, D. D. 
 
 Life of Jonathan Edwards. Dwight. 
 
 Life of Jonathan Edwards. Allen. 
 
 Life of Jonathan Mayhew. Bradford. 
 
 John Adams. An Address. Hon. Mellen Chamberlain. 
 
 Autobiography of Lyman Beecher. Two vols. 
 
 Life of Samuel Hopkins. Edwards A. Park, D. D. 
 
 Life of Nathaniel Emmons. Edwards A. Park, D. D. 
 
 A Half Century of the Unitarian Controversy. George E. 
 Ellis, D. D. 
 
 Pages from the Ecclesiastical History of New England. 
 Bishop Burgess. 
 
 Historical Magazine. Article by Gillett. (With Bibli- 
 ography). 
 
 The Panoplist. 
 
 The Massachusetts Missionary Magazine. 
 
 The Quarterly Register. 
 
 The Spirit of the Pilgrims. 
 
 Outlines of Congregational History. Rev. G. Huntington. 
 
 History of Harvard College. Josiah Quincy. 
 
 History of Andover Seminary. Leonard Woods, D. D. 
 
 Histories of Dartmouth, Bowdoin, Amherst, Oberlin and 
 other Colleges. 
 
 Missions. Several Volumes by Rufus Anderson, D. D. 
 
 Sketches of Missions. S. C. Bartlett, D. D. 
 
 Lives of Truman Post, D. D., C. L. Goodell, D. D., and 
 several other biographies of Congregational leaders. 
 
 The Congregational Quarterly, 1 859-1 878, containing many 
 valuable articles. 
 
 Presbyterians. George P. Hays, D. D. 
 
 Proceedings of the General Convention at Albany, 1852. 
 
 Minutes of National Councils, State Associations and Con- 
 ferences. 
 
 Report of International Congregational Council, London, 
 1891. 
 
 Bound Volumes of the Home Missionary, Missionary 
 Herald, and other denominational periodicals. 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 portraits : 
 
 Cotton, John, 
 WiNTHROP, John, 
 Davenport, John, 
 Knollys, Hanserd, . 
 Mather, Cotton, 
 Edwards, Jonathan, 
 Beecher, Lyman, 
 Finney, Charles G., 
 Anderson, Rufus, 
 Armstrong, General S 
 Wheelock, Eleazer, 
 Lyon, Mary, . 
 Hopkins, Mark, . 
 BusHNELL, Horace, . 
 Sturtevant, J. M., 
 Turner, Asa, . 
 Atkinson, George H., 
 BuLLARD, Asa, 
 Dexter, H. M., 
 Mason, Lowell. 
 Bacon, Leonard, 
 
 Frontispiece 
 ii8 
 
 137 
 158 
 189 
 228 
 
 307 
 328 
 
 334 
 356 
 363 
 383 
 393 
 396 
 412 
 
 437 
 443 
 453 
 467 
 487 
 
 UbeolOGical Seminaries 
 
 Andover, Mass., 
 Bangor, Me., 
 Chicago, III., 
 Hartford, Conn., 
 Oberlin, O., . 
 
 289 
 506 
 513 
 313 
 370 
 
 (Ik)Ue(}es an& XHnirersities : 
 
 Amherst College, Amherst, Mass., 
 Atlanta University, Atlanta, Ga. 
 Beloit College, Beloit, Wis., 
 Berea College, Berea, Ky., 
 
 308 
 
 515 
 432 
 398 
 
xxxil ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 BowDoiN College, Brunswick, Me., . . .161 
 
 Carleton College, Northfield, Minn., . . 461 
 
 Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Col., . . 175 
 
 Dartmouth College, Hanover, N. H., . . . 471 
 
 DoANE College, Crete, Neb., .... 440 
 
 FiSK University, Nashville, Tenn., . . . 354 
 
 Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., . . .131 
 
 Iowa College, Grinnell, Ia., .... 480 
 
 Marietta College, Marietta, O., . . . .421 
 
 Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vt., . . 495 
 
 Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, South Hadley, Mass., 384 
 Oberlin College, Oberlin, O., . . . . 352 
 
 Olivet College, Olivet; Mich., .... 374 
 Ripon College, Ripon, Wis., .... 255 
 
 Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass., . . . 464 
 
 Williams College, Williamstown, Mass., . . 269 
 
 Yale University, New Haven, Conn., . . .221 
 
 Yankton College, Yankton, S. D., . . 500 
 
 /nMscellaneous : 
 
 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., . . .361 
 
 DosHiSHA (The), Kyoto, Japan, .... 339 
 
 Faneuil Hall, the Cradle of American Liberty, 
 
 Boston, Mass. Built 1742, .... 183 
 
 John Robinson Memorial Tablet (The), . . .97 
 
 Meeting-house of First Church, Salem, Mass., . no 
 
 Meeting-house of First Church, Hartford, Conn., . 129 
 Meeting-house of First Church, Oakland, Cal., . 533 
 
 Meeting-house of Pilgrim Church, St. Louis, Mo., . 406 
 Meeting-house of Union Park Church, Chicago, III., 404 
 Myles Standish House, Duxbury, Mass., . . -93 
 
 Old South Meeting-house, Boston, Mass., . . 230 
 
 Old State House, Boston, Mass., .... 273 
 Park Street Meeting-house, Boston, Mass., . . 293 
 
 Scrooby Manor House, ..... 73 
 
 St. Helen's, Austerfield, England, ... 63 
 
CONGREGATIONALISTS 
 IN AMERICA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 APOSTOLIC CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 JESUS CHRIST in His ministry on the earth did 
 not directly organize the visible church. But the 
 principles of His teaching imperatively resulted in the 
 establishment of church order. 
 
 He chose and appointed twelve disciples to be with 
 Him, and He invited all who would accept His teach- 
 ing and do His will to follow Him. He taught them 
 simple and great principles, and showed them by His 
 example how to realize these principles in their lives. 
 He declared that He came into the world to establish 
 a kingdom which should continue forever ; that the 
 way to enter into it was to repent of sin and to accept 
 Him as Saviour and Lord. He taught that everyone 
 who loved Him would obey His words, and that into 
 every obedient soul God would by His Spirit enter to 
 abide and rule there. He laid down the law of the 
 kingdom as supreme love to God and love to one's 
 neighbor as to himself. He taught that the kingdom 
 began in renewed lives, and that it was to manifest 
 itself in the gathering together of renewed persons in 
 
34 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 the fellowship of spiritual love and obedience to Him ; 
 and He promised to be present in every such company 
 of His disciples. Such an association of believers 
 naturally became a Christian church. 
 
 Christ showed His disciples how the kingdom was 
 to grow — by the Father's providential care over them, 
 by their fellowship with Him and with one another in 
 prayer and service, and by the work in and through 
 them of the Holy Spirit whom He promised to send 
 to them. He told them that He was to oive Him- 
 self to die as a ransom for many, for the remission 
 of their sins ; that He would rise from the dead, the 
 Redeemer and the Judge of mankind, and that the 
 issues of the judgment would be eternal life and eternal 
 punishment. These are Christ's doctrines, and these 
 doctrines the churches of Christ believe and proclaim 
 to the world as the gospel. 
 
 Only twice, so far as His words are recorded, did 
 Christ mention the church by name. When He first 
 revealed to His disciples that he was looking forward 
 to his sufferings and death at the hands of His own 
 nation He led them to confess whom they believed 
 Him to be; and when Peter, speaking for them all, 
 declared, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living 
 God," Jesus said that this was not merely a human 
 opinion nor a fact based on human knowledge only, 
 but that it was a revelation from His Father; and He 
 added : "And I also say unto thee that thou art Peter, 
 and upon this rock I will build my church." Here He 
 declared the basis on which His church is founded, and 
 the means by which it spreads through the world. The 
 church of Christ is neither built upon a man nor upon 
 a creed, but upon living disciples of Christ confessing 
 
APOSTOLIC CONGREGATIONALISM. 35 
 
 and proclaiming Him as the Son of the living God, 
 because that fact has been revealed in them from His 
 Father through the Holy Spirit. So the apostle to the 
 Gentiles understood this statement of Christ when He 
 wrote to them that they were "built upon the founda- 
 tions of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Him- 
 self being the chief corner stone." But Christ gave to 
 no man or men pre-eminence in His church. He said 
 to His disciples, who had asked that they might rank 
 above others : " Ye know that the rulers of the Gen- 
 tiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise 
 authority over them. Not so shall it be among you!' 
 He constantly taught them that the only pre-eminence 
 they were to seek must be in the line of the greatest 
 service. By precept and example and object lesson He 
 impressed on them this law : " Whosoever would be 
 first among you shall be your bondservant." He alone 
 is Lord and Master. All His disciples are brethren. 
 This is the fundamental principle of Christian fellow- /? 
 ship in Congregational churches. 
 
 On one other occasion He mentioned the church. 
 It was in connection with one of His solemn lessons to 
 His disciples, warning them not to aspire to hold 
 authority where all are brethren. After He had 
 answered their question, " Who then is greatest in the 
 kingdom of Heaven ? " by placing a little child before 
 them, and earnestly assuring them that unless they 
 turned away from their ambition for higher places than 
 others and became like that little child, they should not 
 enter into Ine kingdom at all, He talked to them of 
 His love for weak disciples who were going astray. 
 He told them that if one should be wronged by another, 
 he ought to go to his erring brother and show him his 
 
36 COXGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 fault ; that if that step failed, he should go with one or 
 two others and try again ; that if the brother still re- 
 fused to listen to them, they should tell it to the church 
 — wdiich is the congregation of believers — and that if 
 he should refuse to hear the church they should with- 
 draw fellowship from him. This action, He declared, 
 would be confirmed in heaven. He concluded by inti- 
 mating what a church is in these words : " For where 
 two or three are gathered together in my name there 
 am I in the midst of them." Thus He stated the fun- 
 damental principle of the government of a church of 
 Christ, and Congregationalists accept and follow it. 
 
 When Christ had so taught His disciples, had suf- 
 fered and died on the cross, and had risen from the 
 dead, He assured them that all power was given to 
 Him in heaven and on earth; and on that ground He 
 commanded them to make disciples of all the nations, 
 to baptize them into the one name of the Father, Son, 
 and Holy Spirit, and to teach them all they had learned 
 from Him, Then, having promised to be always with 
 them, He disappeared from their sight. 
 
 The first important step taken afterward by the 
 disciples, about one hundred and twenty in all, was to 
 choose one to be an apostle in place of Judas. This 
 was done by the whole congregation, as Congregation- 
 '^ alists now manage the business of the church. Peter 
 made the motion, which was agreed to, that the vacancy 
 should be filled. The disciples chose two of their 
 members as candidates. Then, havino" united in 
 prayer, they drew lots between the two ; and the lot 
 falling on Matthias, he was counted with the other 
 apostles, thus completing the number of twelve. If we 
 had not the Revised Version of the New Testament, it 
 
APOSTOLIC CONGREGATIONALISM. 37 
 
 would be necessary to explain here that Peter's quota- 
 tion from the 109th Psalm, " His bishopric let another 
 take," does not refer to an episcopal office. The cor- 
 rect rendering, " His office let another take" \jnargin, 
 overseership] is given in the Revised Version which, in 
 a number of instances, corrects the mistakes into which 
 the translators of the King James version naturally 
 fell, of representing the organization of the apostolic 
 churches as conformed to the Episcopal Church of 
 which these translators were officers. 
 
 The disciples waited in Jerusalem for some token 
 from their Master to show them how and where He 
 would have them begin His work. In about ten days 
 the sign came. The first Christian church was formed 
 in that city on the day of Pentecost, about seven weeks 
 after the crucifixion. It was the model according to 
 which all Congregational churches are formed. The 
 word church, or ccclesia, means a given assembly or 
 congregation of believers. 
 
 The first siofn of the besfinnino- of a new church was 
 a sound like a rushing mighty wind in the unstirred air 
 of the room where the disciples were sitting. The 
 next was a vision of flaming tongues like halosof light. 
 These were not given to the apostles alone, but 
 appeared on every one of the disciples. Then came 
 an outburst of praises to God in many languages, 
 from the entire assembly. As the harmony of diverse 
 tongues swelled into a mighty chorus, the crowd 
 gathered, amazed to see a company of Galileans so 
 uttering praises to God that strangers from every land 
 heard in their own tongues the mighty works of God. 
 
 Then the twelve apostles stood up together, and 
 Peter preached to the multitude. He wore no priest's' 
 
38 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 robes. He needed no altar or candles. The altar to 
 which he pointed was the cross, which seven weeks 
 before had stood not far from that very place, and the 
 fiaming tongue on his head was beyond comparison 
 with any earthly illumination. He needed no choir. 
 Every disciple sang, and everybody in the audience 
 heard the music in his own language wherein he was 
 born. It was music for the masses. 
 
 His sermon was simple. He began by answering the 
 question which absorbed the thought of the audience — 
 " What meaneth this ?" Some had already undertaken 
 to answer it by saying " They are filled with new wine." 
 He met that sneer at the outset by pointing back to 
 the ancient prophets, selecting a magnificent text from 
 Joel. TJiis, he said, to which honest inquirers can give 
 no name, and which mockers call intoxication, is the 
 power of the Holy Spirit foretold by prophets. This, 
 which you see in these flaming tongues and hear in 
 these many languages declaring the mighty works of 
 God — tJiis is poured forth by Jesus of Nazareth, who 
 wrought wonders among you by the power of God, as 
 you well know, whom you crucified. " This Jesus did 
 God raise up, whereof we all are witnesses." This 
 power of the Holy Spirit Jesus received from God His 
 Father, and is now shedding forth upon us, said the 
 apostle. That was the doctrine. " Repent ye and be 
 baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ 
 unto the remission of your sins, and ye shall receive 
 the gift of the Holy Spirit." That w^as the application. 
 
 There we first find the concrete, visible Christian 
 church. About three thousand were added to the one 
 hundred and twenty original members that very day. . 
 There was no confirmation of them by a bishop. No 
 
APOSTOLIC CONGREGATIONALISM. 39 
 
 presbytery met to decide on their claims to form a 
 church. No presiding elder appointed their minister. 
 The only condition of membership was that each should 
 be a living stone in the new structure. The only evi- 
 dences of it which were required were repentance from 
 sin, supreme loyalty to Jesus Christ, the gift of the 
 Holy Spirit and the fellowship of believers. 
 
 The first church was a Congregational church, a 
 spiritual democracy with Christian character for its 
 basis — character begun and nurtured by union with 
 Jesus Christ, character royal in itself and owning no 
 superior on earth, having one Master and all being 
 brethren. The exercises of the new church were regu- 
 lar attendance on the apostles' teaching, regular prayer 
 meetings, regular observance of the Lord's Supper and 
 generous contributions for the needs of the church and 
 its poor. 
 
 Four or five years later the new church at Jerusa- 
 lem had grown to be so large that the twelve apostles 
 found themselves unable to look after the poor. It 
 included not only natives of Jerusalem, but many 
 foreign Jews living there. These different classes 
 naturally had jealous feelings toward each other, and 
 the foreigners began to complain that their widows did 
 not get their share in the daily distribution of alms. 
 To settle this difficulty the apostles called the whole 
 church together, and declaring that they could not 
 turn from their business of preaching and teaching the 
 word of God to look after temporal affairs, asked that 
 the brethren would elect seven men from among them 
 to take care of the poor. All were pleased with this 
 suggestion and chose seven devout men, who, though 
 Jews, appear to have been themselves foreigners, whom 
 
40 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 the disciples brought forward in the meeting to the 
 twelve apostles. The apostles led the church in 
 prayer and then laid their hands on the seven and set 
 them apart for the "ministration," or diakonia as it is 
 called in the Greek. Thus, by the action and choice of 
 all the members, in the usual Congregational way, the 
 order of deacons was instituted, one of the two perma- 
 nent orders in the Conoreo^ational churches. 
 
 These seven deacons quickly began to enlarge their 
 work beyond that for which they were elected, with the 
 approval of all. Some of them, especially Stephen and 
 Philip, soon came to surpass the apostles as preachers. 
 Stephen wrought great wonders and signs among the 
 people. He met in their synagogues the Jews of sev- 
 eral foreign provinces and vanquished them in debate, 
 proving that Jesus was the Messiah foretold in the 
 Scriptures. Finally, as they could not overcome him 
 by argument, they took the uncongregational way of 
 silencing him which the church under the control of a 
 hierarchy has employed so often throughout its entire 
 history. They killed him. ^Less than two years after 
 his election as deacon he became a martyr by being 
 stoned to death. 
 
 , Stephen's death, and the persecutions which followed, 
 led by Saul, a foreign Jew from Cilicia, did great serv- 
 ice to the young church, for it drove the disciples out 
 of Jerusalem into the other cities and villages of Judea 
 and into Samaria. Philip preached with great success 
 in the city of Samaria, and the news of the wonderful 
 revival there came to the apostles, who had remained 
 in Jerusalem. They sent Peter and John to help 
 Philip, and there again the Holy Spirit came upon all 
 the believers, who had been baptized already, not by 
 
APOSTOLIC CONGREGATIONALISM. 4I 
 
 the apostles but by Deacon Philip or by laymen who 
 labored with him. Thus another church was organized, ;x 
 again Congregational, the precursor of many churches 
 in the Samaritan villages. 
 
 About three years later Peter, by direction of the 
 Holy Spirit, preached the gospel to a large audience in 
 the house of a Roman officer at Joppa, and his preach- 
 ing was accompanied by the same signs which had 
 signalized the formation of the first church in Jerusalem. 
 Unable to resist these evidences of divine approval, he 
 gave instructions to those with him, probably to the 
 six brethren who came down from Cesarea, to baptize 
 these Gentile believers, who had never been circum- 
 cised, in the name of Jesus Christ. Thus another 
 church was formed in the house of Cornelius, this time y 
 as heretofore, Congregational, but of persons hitherto 
 supposed to be outside of and beyond the favor of God. 
 
 This was a very serious step for Peter to take, and 
 it aroused surprise and indignation in the church at 
 Jerusalem. When he returned to the brethren, they 
 charged him with violating important principles of their 
 faith. He was not arraigned before a company of 
 bishops nor before the apostles only, but the apostles 
 and brethren together challenged him to explain his 
 conduct to the whole church of which he was a member. 
 He did this so convincingly that they all agreed that 
 he had done right, and they unanimously adopted 
 this new article of faith, which eventually changed the 
 whole spirit and manner of their work : " To the Gen- 
 tiles also hath God granted repentance unto life." 
 Thus by a method now everywhere recognized as Con- x 
 gregational, the churches grew in their knowledge of 
 Christian doctrine. 
 
42 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Many of the disciples, driven from Jerusalem by the 
 persecution, went beyond the bounds of Palestine, 
 probably in search of work and of homes where they 
 could li\^e in peace. But wherever they went, they told 
 to their fellow Jews the story of Jesus, His resurrection 
 and His promise to establish among men the Kingdom 
 of God. Some of these new disciples were foreigners 
 by birth, some having been born in the island of Cy- 
 prus, and others in Cyrene, a city of Northern Africa. 
 Both places were centers of Greek life. When, there- 
 fore, these men came to Antioch, which had been the 
 capital of the Greek kings of Syria before it was con- 
 quered by the Romans, they told the story of Jesus to 
 the Greeks there as well as to Jews. Nicolas, one of 
 the seven deacons who had been appointed at Jerusa- 
 lem, belonged in Antioch, and he was probably one of 
 those who preached there. Great interest was awak- 
 ened, and a new church was formed, containing many 
 Gentiles. It was now about ten years since the first 
 church began at Jerusalem. Antioch was about three 
 hundred miles north of that city, a long journey at that 
 time, but news of this first Gentile church came to 
 Jerusalem, and the church there sent one of its mem- 
 bers, Joseph Barnabas, a landowner and a liberal giver, 
 to see what was going on at Antioch. After preaching 
 there a while with large success in building up the 
 church, he determined to seek a helper. He remem- 
 bered that that Saul who had been prominent as a 
 persecutor when Deacon Stephen was stoned had since 
 been converted to Christ, and had called on him 
 four or five years before in Jerusalem. He knew that 
 Saul's home was in Tarsus, and there he found 
 him. They returned together to Antioch. There they 
 
APOSTOLIC CONGREGATIONALISM. 43 
 
 labored, two evangelists, neither of them ordained by 
 any church, only one of them with any credentials from 
 a church, for a whole year. The church at Antioch 
 grew fast. Before that, all the disciples having been 
 Jews had been known as followers of the Way, to dis- 
 tinguish them from other Jews. But now, as many 
 were Gentiles, they all began to be called in Antioch 
 by a new name, Christians. There were no different 
 denominations as yet, for each church managed its own 
 affairs and chose its own ofificers, as Congregational 
 churches now do. 
 
 The Antioch Christians soon began to be interested 
 in those outside of their own membership. They 
 heard of much sufferingr amonor the Christians in 
 Judea, and though these persons were strangers to 
 them, they decided of their own motion to send to 
 them a generous sum of money. This they did, for- 
 warding it by Barnabas and Saul. These brethren, 
 when they returned from Jerusalem, brought with them 
 John Mark. 
 
 Already five persons had become recognized in the 
 church at Antioch as prophets and teachers ; not, so 
 far as we can learn, by any formal ordination, but 
 because of their oifts and labors. Their names were 
 Joseph Barnabas, Symeon Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, 
 Manaen, foster brother of the tetrarch Herod, and 
 Saul. These brethren were drawn together in their 
 work and prayers, and became greatly interested in 
 carrying the gospel to those who had not yet heard of 
 it, so fulfilling the last command of Jesus. After a time 
 they so stirred up the members of the church in its zeal 
 for missions that, led by the Holy Spirit, the)^ chose 
 Barnabas and Saul to oo as missionaries. Then for 
 
44 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA, 
 
 the first time, though they had been preaching for 
 some years, these two disciples were formally set apart 
 by the laying on of hands, not by the apostles, but by 
 the brethren of that church, and they went forth on 
 their journey, taking John Mark with them, no doubt 
 provided with necessary funds by the church. This 
 was the beginning of foreign missions, a movement 
 started by a church self-formed, as Congregational 
 churches now are, and largely made up of converted 
 heathen. The church ordained and supported its own 
 missionaries without even consultation wnth other 
 churches, and they went forth to preach where the 
 Spirit should lead them. 
 
 They had a wonderful experience in Asia Minor, 
 going from place to place, preaching the gospel and 
 gathering believers into churches. In each church, 
 elders, sometimes called pastors, were chosen by vote, 
 and installed with prayer and fasting, and after a year 
 or more of these labors, Paul and Barnabas came back 
 to Antioch, where they told to the church which had 
 sent them out the story of their mission, and how God 
 had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. 
 
 Here they remained for a year or more, when some 
 of the Jewish Christians from Judea came to Antioch 
 and began to preach that it was necessary for the 
 Gentiles to become Jews, else they could not be 
 Christians, and that the labors of Paul and Barnabas 
 would count for nothing because they had not circum- 
 cised the converts from heathendom and taught them 
 to obey the law of Moses. Naturally the missionaries 
 were indignant at this teaching and vigorously fought 
 it, till the dissension became so great that it threatened 
 to divide the church. Then they took the Congrega- 
 
APOSTOLIC CONGREGATIONALISM. 45 
 
 tional way of settling the difficulty. The church chose 
 several delegates, among whom were Paul and Barna- 
 bas, and sent them up to Jerusalem to inquire of the 
 apostles, and the elders, sometimes called pastors, con- 
 cerning this matter. They did not contemplate any 
 authority in the mother church. They disputed the 
 testimony of its members who had come among them. 
 They evidently acknowledged no officer as having 
 authority over them, but they sought counsel, just as 
 Congregational churches now do. A council was 
 called : the apostles and pastors came together and 
 the subject was thoroughly discussed. Finally the 
 whole church agreed to sustain Paul and Barnabas in 
 the position they had taken. The apostles did not 
 go down to Antioch to instruct that church what to 
 believe, but the whole church elected two of the 
 brethren and sent them with Paul and Barnabas to tell 
 the brethren at Antioch that according to their judg- 
 ment, guided by the Holy Spirit, it was not necessary 
 for heathen converts to become Jews. They only 
 urofed that all Christians should abstain from thino-s 
 offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and 
 from fornication. 
 
 The last of these requirements was one of common 
 morality. The advice as to the others was not accepted 
 as law. When the question concerning things offered 
 to idols came up a few years later in the churches at 
 Corinth and Rome, and was referred to Paul, he did 
 not quote the decision of the Jerusalem Council as 
 authority, but taught them to live according to the law 
 of Christ, to love their neighbors as themselves, and to 
 treat things offered to idols as the law of Christ, under 
 the circumstances in which they were placed, would die- 
 
46 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 tate. Thus the Congregational principle of fellowship 
 ' between the churches was recoonized and acted on. 
 Each church governed itself, but they united in counsel 
 concerning matters of common interest, and they had 
 sufficient evidence that the Holy Spirit guided their 
 deliberations. 
 
 Paul and Barnabas, with the delegates from Jerusa- 
 lem, returned to Antioch, where they all assured the 
 brethren of the approval of the Christians in Judea, 
 and confirmed them in their faith that simply by trust- 
 ing and following Jesus Christ, without keeping the law 
 of Moses, they would be saved. Peter, indeed, came 
 down to Antioch, and being afraid of the Jews, went 
 over to the Jewish party and acted inconsistently with 
 the result of the council at Jerusalem, which he had 
 himself advocated. He had so much influence that 
 he carried with him the Jewish Christians, and even 
 Barnabas also. A division in the church again seemed 
 imminent, and if it had occurred would have been dis- 
 astrous, making two opposing sects following the same 
 Master, one of Jews and the other of Gentiles. But 
 Paul prevented the division, as he afterward wrote to 
 the Galatians, not by referring to the action at Jerusa- 
 lem as authoritative, but by proving Peter to be incon- 
 sistent with his own practice, and by urging upon both 
 parties the fundamental truth of the gospel, that 
 whether Jews or Gentiles they were saved through 
 faith in Jesus Christ and through Him alone. Two 
 '/^ things are also made plain here : first, that Peter was 
 wrong in his judgment, and second, that neither Paul 
 nor the other brethren had any idea that Peter was the 
 head of the Church. In no w^ay could the sufficiency 
 of the local church have been more completely shown. 
 
APOSTOLIC CONGREGATIONALISM. 4/ 
 
 Some time after this Paul, with Silas, began that 
 wonderful mission of some two years in Europe, where 
 he planted churches in Philippi, Berea, Thessalonica, 
 Corinth and other cities, and where were worked out 
 many of the principles of church government described 
 in his letters to them. In September of the year 53 
 Paul returned to Antioch, where he remained for 
 some months. Early in the year 54 he set out on his 
 third missionary journey, which continued for more 
 than four years. During- this time he visited the 
 churches in Asia Minor and in Greece, planting new 
 ones, and writing his letters to the Corinthians, Ro- 
 mans and Galatians. This is the last record in the 
 book of the Acts concerninof the organization of 
 churches, though Paul labored for two years with the 
 church at Rome while he was imprisoned there, and 
 wrote letters to churches and individuals which are 
 now a part of the New Testament scriptures. 
 
 These letters to the churches are addressed to the 
 brethren, never to the officials by themselves, and 
 wherever outward organizations are referred to, the 
 plural form is used. We find no reference to Presbyte- 
 rian organization bringing collections of churches into 
 one authoritative body. These letters give direction 
 to the churches to govern themselves in the Congrega- 
 tional way. The church is compared to a human body 
 with different members, but all to receive equal honor. 
 The brethren are told that they have in their own hands 
 the power of discipline, "to admonish one another." 
 They are exhorted in lowliness of mind to let each 
 account others above himself. They are assured that 
 when a man seeks to exalt himself, "he deceives him- 
 self with vain imaginations." In matters of discipline, 
 
48 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 it is the brethren, the whole membership, who take 
 action. Paul instructs the brethren at Thessalanica to 
 withdraw themselves from disorderly persons. He tells 
 the Corinthian brethren that when they voted in public 
 assembly to discipline an offending member, they 
 reflected his judgment also ; and in a later letter he 
 tells them that their sentence, voted by the majority, 
 was a sufficient punishment. This was Congregational 
 church government. 
 
 In Paul's letters, as in the other epistles, only two 
 orders of church officers are mentioned, pastors and 
 deacons. The first class are called bishops, elders, 
 pastors, or teachers, the word bishop meaning simply 
 overseer. These names are not applied to distinctions 
 in ofiice, but have reference to varieties in the kind of 
 work performed by the same man. These officers were 
 sometimes settled with local churches, and sometimes 
 labored at large, but never had any diocese of churches 
 under their control or formed part of a ruling body. 
 When elders were elected more than one w^as chosen 
 in a given local church. Paul told the elders of the 
 church at Ephesus that the Holy Spirit had made them 
 bishops of that flock. They were ministers in that 
 local church. 
 
 The apostles themselves exercised the authority of 
 those who had learned the truth from Christ's own lips 
 and received their commission direct from Him to 
 baptize and teach the nations. They were originally 
 twelve, and after Christ left them to complete His work, 
 they only filled the one vacancy caused by the apostasy 
 of Judas. There is no evidence that when any other 
 apostle died a successor was appointed. It was their 
 business to be witnesses of Christ's resurrection. Paul 
 
APOSTOLIC CONGREGATIONALISM. 49 
 
 claimed apostleship not by election of the brethren but 
 because he had seen the Lord. When the apostles 
 died their office ceased. Apostleship in any other con- 
 nection simply describes a sending for service and has 
 no connection with the office. The apostles directed 
 the infant churches of their planting much as home 
 missionary superintendents among Congregationalists 
 now oversee the affairs of churches dependent for early 
 nurture on the home missionary organizations which 
 these superintendents represent. They taught the 
 churclves self-government and the principles and 
 methods of administration which prevail in Congre- 
 gational churches. 
 
 This was the condition of the churches of Christ at 
 the close of the apostolic history in the New Testa- 
 ment. The history of the beginning of organized 
 Christianity is simple, straightforward and natural. 
 The apostles and other disciples proclaimed Jesus of 
 Nazareth as the Messiah foretold by the prophets. 
 They told how he went about doing good, working 
 miracles and declaring himself to be the manifestation 
 of God the Father. They repeated what He had 
 taught to them. They told of His death on the cross, 
 His resurrection from the dead. His promise of eternal 
 life to His followers and of the Holy Spirit to enter 
 and dwell in them. They declared that no man could 
 bear witness to Jesus as his Master except in the Holy 
 Spirit ; and they invited everyone to repent of his sins 
 and believe on Jesus as the Messiah and his Lord, 
 promising to all who would accept their invitation the 
 gift of the Holy Spirit. Those who became believers 
 associated themselves together by divine guidance, 
 drawn by a common love and service to one Lord ; 
 
50 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 and each company of believers became a true church 
 of Christ, complete in itself. These believers chose 
 the most gifted among them to instruct them and to 
 manage as their servants the affairs of the communi- 
 ties thus formed. Those so chosen administered bap- 
 tism to new members and their households, and par- 
 took together with them of the Lord's Supper, They 
 held meetings for worship, mutual encouragement and 
 instruction, and the day fixed on from the beginning 
 as most suited for these exercises was that day, the 
 first of the week, on which their Lord had risen from 
 the dead, which they called the Lord's Day. 
 T^ In this way, then, churches sprang up. No careful 
 outline for their organization was revealed by Christ, 
 or conceived by His apostles. They came into being 
 as Christians found themselves drawn to one another 
 by common love and service to one Lord, and as they 
 were led by the Holy Spirit to feel that in such fellow- 
 ship they could best express their inward union and 
 best fulfill the purpose for which they represented their 
 Lord in the world. 
 /^ The result of this divine process of organization was 
 Congregationalism, a church government which is a 
 theocratic democracy. Its motto is " One is your Mas- 
 ter, even the Christ ; and all ye are brethren." 
 
 With wonderful rapidity in the first centuries of the 
 Christian era these churches multiplied, spreading from 
 province to province and country to country till the 
 gospel of Christ became known in every part of the 
 great Roman Empire, which included the whole known 
 world. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 APOSTOLIC CONGREGATIONALISM REVIVED IN LATER 
 
 TIMES. 
 
 IT is not within the province of this history to trace 
 the process by which local churches of the first cen- 
 tury gradually surrendered their independence and 
 came under the control of powerful leaders, till at last 
 the episcopal idea of church government became fully 
 developed. One bishop, as father or pope of all, 
 claimed and received supreme authority as the vice- 
 gerent of Christ on earth, having under him bishops 
 with subordinate officers in their dioceses, making the 
 church a mighty organization contending with and 
 often absolutely controlling human governments, exer- 
 cising, with the infliction of pains and penalties, juris- 
 diction over the consciences of Christians throughout 
 the world. 
 
 From the time when Christianity became the dom- 
 inant religion of the Roman Empire by the conversion 
 of Constantine, a. d. 312, and even before that date, 
 there were Christians who resisted unto death the 
 attempts of human authority to take the place of Christ 
 over their consciences. Century after century such 
 Christians united in organizations for the avowed pur- 
 pose either of purifying the existing church or of 
 planting new and pure churches of Christ in the world. 
 One name, thoucrh in different lana-uacres, came to be 
 applied to these successive sects, which in English is 
 
 51 
 
52 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 the word Puritan, signifying that they sought to make 
 the body of Christ on earth pure from moral defilement, 
 and that they believed themselves called to resist cen- 
 tralized authority, to point out and denounce the sins 
 of the church, and to withdraw from those who con- 
 tinued in these sins. In the third century were the 
 Novatians, who separated from the church at Rome 
 and assumed the name Cathari, which means the pure. 
 In the fourth century were the Donatists in Northern 
 Africa. In the seventh century arose the Paulicians, 
 who continued in Asia Minor and in Southern Europe, 
 sometimes in large numbers, for more than four hun- 
 dred years. The Waldenses and Albigenses were the 
 natural successors of the Paulicians, and their descend- 
 ants remain to this day. The most that we know of 
 the religious movements which these names represent 
 we have to learn from their enemies, for the Catholic 
 Church, as it gained power and became Roman and 
 fostered the ambitions of its popes and other leaders, 
 pursued relentlessly those who criticised it and who 
 renounced its authority. Their writings were burned, 
 they were themselves cast into prison, tortured and put 
 to death. Sometimes they were killed by thousands, 
 while survivors were driven into wildernesses and 
 mountain fastnesses with the purpose to exterminate 
 them. The student of history finds no records of con- 
 flicts so bitter, of carnage so awful, as those waged hi 
 the name of relioion. 
 
 The fall of Constantinople in 1453 drove many 
 scholars westward from that city to find homes in Italy, 
 the German States and France. The revival of learn- 
 ing which followed, and which was in those countries 
 wonderfully stimulated by the invention of printing, 
 
APOSTOLIC CONGREGATIONALISM REVIVED. 53 
 
 was accompanied by a new interest in the study of the 
 Bible and a reHgious quickening which led to the 
 Reformation. The leaders of that movement threw 
 off the yoke of Rome and turned to the Holy 
 Scriptures as the one supreme and sufficient source of 
 authority in religion. Their interest, however, cen- 
 tered in the Word of God as revealing doctrine and 
 life, and did not greatly extend to its teachings of 
 church government. They allied themselves, and the 
 churches they formed, with the civil governments under 
 which they lived. 
 
 In England, in 1380, one hundred and forty years 
 before Martin Luther nailed his theses on the church 
 door in Wittenberg, Wycliffe proclaimed that the Bible 
 was an all-sufficient guide, not only in religious faith 
 and duty, but in all matters of ecclesiastical order also. 
 He insisted on the necessity of personal piety to true 
 church membership, rejected altogether episcopal con- 
 firmation with the authority of the pope and papal 
 officers, declared that Christ is the only head of the 
 church, and that the office of the minister is simply to 
 preach the gospel. He taught that the New Testa- 
 ment is the sufficient guide in church government. 
 
 For adopting these Congregational principles and 
 other teachings of that grreat reformer of the fourteenth 
 century, a long roll of martyrs in England for two 
 hundred years suffered at the hands of the church, 
 endured loss of property and social standing, imprison- 
 ment, indignities of many kinds, torture and death on 
 the gallows or at the stake. The history of the 
 Lollards, who embraced the doctrines of Wycliffe, 
 though the records of them are scanty, is one of the 
 most interesting chapters in the history of the Chris- 
 
54 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 tian church. It is impossible to read the simple story 
 of so many brave men and women suffering the loss of 
 all things and freely giving up life itself rather than 
 deny their faith, without the conviction that the re- 
 ligious liberty which we enjoy has been bought at 
 a great price, and that the roots of our churches reach 
 down deep and far into the life-blood of generations 
 of noble servants of Christ of whom the world was not 
 worthy. 
 
 When England under Henry VI II,, in 1534, threw 
 off the yoke of Rome, she had no idea of permitting 
 men to follow the dictates of their consciences in wor- 
 shiping God, The church was still essentially united 
 with the state to control all its subjects, though the 
 sovereign took the place of the pope. 
 
 The kinor secured the consent of Parliament to call 
 himself, under Christ, the supreme head of the church, 
 and the clergy in convocation had to acknowledge his 
 supremacy. He confiscated the property of the mon- 
 asteries, but not for the good of the people. He 
 divided the wealth he took amoncr his nobles and other 
 friends. Following him, Edward VI, gave encourage- 
 ment to hope for prosperity to Protestant churches. 
 But his short reign was followed by the five years' blot 
 of Mary's rule, which was one continuous blood-stain 
 on England's history. When Elizabeth came to the 
 throne she made permanent the reformation of the 
 church, as it was called, by assuming for herself and 
 her lords the appointment of the clergy to their livings, 
 and by claiming, as head of the church, the unlimited 
 superintendence of the religion of the people. Dr. 
 Leonard Bacon has well characterized her as a petti- 
 coated pope. 
 
APOSTOLIC CONGREGATIONALISM REVIVED. 55 
 
 But she had two opposing classes in the one national 
 church to hold in outward unity besides the larger 
 class who accepted without question the new order. 
 The first of these, naturally conservative, looked with 
 regfret on the chanofes which desolated the monasteries 
 and separated the church from the great papal body. 
 The other class were Lollards and those who sympa- 
 thized with them, the most of whom, however, sought, 
 not to separate themselves from the national church, 
 but to reform it more thoroughly : to purify its clergy, 
 its membership, its forms of worship, and its ordi- 
 nances. These came to be known as Puritans. This 
 was the origin of English Puritanism. They wanted 
 the authority of the state to be exercised in reforming 
 the church. 
 
 Elizabeth sought to hold in control these opposing 
 elements by the enforcement of two famous acts which 
 Parliament passed in the beginning of her reign. The 
 first was the Act of Supremacy, which separated the 
 Church of England from the papal see. This act em- 
 powered the Queen to establish a High Commission, or 
 supreme ecclesiastical court, consisting of forty-four 
 persons appointed by herself. To this court those 
 accused of crimes against the church might appeal, but 
 its decision was final, and it was practically that of the 
 Queen herself. Every person in England was amenable 
 to the ecclesiastical courts. The church, therefore, with 
 the sovereign at the head, held as absolute authority 
 over all the people in all spiritual matters as did the 
 state in temporal matters. There was, however, a limit 
 to the power of the ecclesiastical courts in imposing 
 punishments. They could not inflict the death penalty. 
 That must be pronounced by a secular court. 
 
56 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 The second act was known as the Act of Uniformity, 
 which compelled the use of the Book of Common 
 Prayer, and of the ritual contained in it, by every min- 
 ister and in every religious assembly. On one side 
 were royal power and prestige, supported by the tradi- 
 tions of centuries in favor of the established church, 
 with its prescribed orders of bishops, priests and other 
 clergy, its fixed forms of worship, and its sacraments 
 of baptism, confirmation, the Lord's Supper, marriage, 
 death and burial, encompassing every person in the 
 realm ; on the other side the obstinate consciences of 
 men and women stimulated by the sense of injustice, 
 by heavy fines, imprisonments and degrading punish- 
 ments, and by the memory of recent burnings and 
 hangings of many godly men and women. It was to 
 be expected that such persons would question the divine 
 authority of a church which sought to impose laws and 
 forms which their consciences repudiated, and would 
 search the Word of God to see if it contained any war- 
 rant for such compulsion. Some of those who resisted 
 were men of great learning and eloquence. Foremost 
 among them was Thomas Cartwright, a professor in 
 the University of Cambridge, who, as early as 1570, 
 began in his lectures to point out the differences be- 
 tween the orovernment of the Church of Enorland and 
 the principles and practices of the churches of the New 
 Testament. From that university came afterward 
 most of the leaders in the first Enp;lish Cono^reo^ational 
 churches. Still, Cartwright held that the nation was 
 the church, which needed to be reconstructed. He 
 and his followers carried on their warfare within the 
 church, and in time became advocates of Presbyteri- 
 anism, like that of the established Church of Scotland. 
 
APOSTOLIC CONGREGATIONALISM REVIVED. 57 
 
 Not all the reformers, however, were satisfied to 
 stop there. In 1567, the tenth year of Elizabeth's 
 reign, a small congregation used to meet in London, 
 calling itself " The Privye Church," whose members 
 declared themselves separated from the Church of 
 England, which they described as the " secret and dis- 
 guised Antichrist." They professed to worship God 
 " according to His blessed and glorious Word," "abol- 
 ishing and abhorring all inventions and traditions of 
 men." They were severely persecuted. They charged 
 this " Antichrist " with havino- killed their minister, 
 Richard Fitz, and their deacon, Thomas Rowland, and 
 many others ; and they cried to God to redress their 
 wrongs. Very little is known of them and they prob- 
 ably were soon crushed out of existence. But the 
 religious liberty for which they contended could not be 
 destroyed by persecution. 
 
 The apostolic idea of churches founded by the 
 voluntary union of believers, each church controlling 
 its own affairs, yet united with others in bonds of fel- 
 lowship, was revolutionary, but the study of the New 
 Testament was sure to sug-o-est it. Indeed, there is evi- 
 dence that this apostolic Congregationalism was main- 
 tained in England from the time of Wycliffe onward, 
 but it began to attract attention as a definite movement 
 in church history about 1581. Six years before that, at 
 Bury St. Edmunds, in the county of Suffolk, several 
 clergymen of the established church came under sus- 
 picion for refusing to conform to its rules. Some, of 
 whom two bore the names of Coppin and Thacker, 
 were imprisoned. 
 
 When these two had been in prison some six years, 
 there appeared in that region as their champion and 
 
58 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 defender Robert Browne, who has been called with 
 good reason the father of modern CongregationaHsm. 
 He was a student at Cambridge University in 1570, 
 when Cartwright was lecturing there, and probably 
 graduated from Corpus Christi College. He was a 
 clergyman of the established church, and had been for 
 a time chaplain to the Duchess of Suffolk. Gather- 
 ing the common people into private houses or wher- 
 ever they could safely meet, he fearlessly denounced 
 the Bishop of Norwich for his persecution of these 
 ministers, declared that the Church of England was 
 not the true church, and proclaimed the right of 
 everyone to worship God as his own conscience should 
 dictate. He was a popular preacher, of an eager, 
 imperious disposition and strong convictions. He 
 soon found himself in prison for his temerity, but 
 after a time was released througrh the efforts of his 
 relative, Lord Burghley. Through these experiences, 
 the study of the Scriptures and the discipline of 
 church courts, his system of church government 
 rapidly matured in his mind. When again out of 
 prison, he soon renewed his preaching, and gathered 
 an Independent or Separatist Church at Norwich, 
 perhaps also bringing about the formation of other 
 such churches. Before many months it became evi- 
 dent that he and his followers would lose liberty and 
 perhaps life if they remained in England. The little 
 church, therefore, in 1581 went voluntarily into exile in 
 Middleburgh, Zealand. There he published a book 
 explaining the system of church government which he 
 advocated. His statements are in substance the prin- 
 ciples of Congregationalism, and the}^ evidently grew 
 out of earnest thought on the polity of the New Testa- 
 
APOSTOLIC CONGREGATIONALISM REVIVED. 59 
 
 ment churches set in sharp contrast to the Enghsh 
 hierarchy. 
 
 The Church of England wielded the authority of the 
 state, and held that every child in England must be 
 baptized into it, and that every person in England be- 
 longed in it and was subject to its laws. Browne held 
 that the true church was composed only of regenerate 
 persons, that there was no warrant to exercise civil 
 authority over its spiritual affairs, and that church and 
 state are separate realms. He did not believe that the 
 Church of England, including as it did those who did 
 not follow Christ or have His Spirit, could be reformed, 
 but he regarded it as essentially wrong in its constitu- 
 tion and claims : therefore he broke away from it. 
 
 The Church of England maintained that it was one 
 organization, exclusively empowered of God to estab- 
 lish forms and methods of worship and to enforce its 
 discipline by the power of the state ; that the sovereign 
 of England was supreme head of the church, and that 
 its officers of different ranks, appointed by him, had, 
 under him, the power of God. Browne held that the 
 New Testament furnished the model for the organi- 
 zation of churches ; that they are to be formed by be- 
 lievers in Christ uniting together, of their own free will, 
 in a covenant to obey Him ; that they had, under 
 Christ, the sole power to receive, to dismiss, and, if need 
 be, to discipline and to expel members ; that the offi- 
 cers of such churches are to be chosen by the members, 
 these officers being pastors, sometimes called elders, 
 and also deacons, relievers and widows, "having their 
 several charge in one church only." He affirmed that 
 these officers had no authority to stand between Christ 
 and the believer, but that " every one of the church is 
 
6o CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 made a king, a priest and a prophet under Christ, to 
 uphold and further the kingdom of God." He held 
 that every member of the church had an immediate 
 relation to Christ its Head. 
 
 But while he maintained the independence of the 
 local church, he recognized the duties of local churches 
 to each other, exercised through " the meetings of sun- 
 dry churches ; which are when the weaker churches seek 
 the help of the stronger for deciding or redressing of 
 matters, or else the stronger look to them for redress." 
 
 These principles, which Browne formulated, pub- 
 lished, and put in practice in the church which he organ- 
 ized, are the principles of Congregationalism which 
 were illustrated in the apostolic churches. The suffi- 
 ciency of the local church, composed of believers in 
 Christ covenanted together to obey Him, having equal 
 rights and privileges under their one head, and the 
 unity of the churches through mutual fellowship and 
 common interests — this is Conoreofationalism. These 
 principles now distinguish Congregational churches 
 throughout the world. 
 
 The fact is not to be overlooked, also, that Browne 
 considered his church polity, which was essentially 
 democratic — though he did not so intend it — as ap- 
 plicable also to the state. Individuals formed the 
 church by covenanting together and chose their own 
 leaders by majority vote. His idea of the state was 
 also a compact of individuals under rulers who held 
 office by the consent of the governed. The system 
 of our republican government was enfolded in the 
 idea of Congregational churches as explained in his 
 book, the substance of whose long title was " The 
 Life and Manners of i.\ll True Christians." 
 
APOSTOLIC CONGREGATIONALISM REVIVED. 6l 
 
 Another book which Browne sent out from Zea- 
 land to be distributed in England was entitled " Of 
 Reformation without Tarrying for Any." It was a 
 challenge of Separatists to Puritans who sought the 
 reformation of the church through the civil author- 
 ities and would wait for these to act. It was a 
 declaration of the necessity of withdrawing from the 
 Established Church and forming separate and self- 
 governing churches after the New Testament pattern. 
 John Coppin, still imprisoned, with Elias Thacker, under 
 the authority of the High Commission and the Bishop 
 of Norwich, were charged wnth circulating these books. 
 Both were turned over to the secular power, tried on 
 a charge of sedition and hanged. Several copies of 
 Browne's books were burned at the executions. The 
 old charge against Jesus Christ was renewed against 
 these martyrs. Congregationalism in England under 
 Elizabeth Tudor was condemned as sedition. 
 
 It is not necessary to follow Browne's later history in 
 detail ; nor is it pleasant to do so. The church which 
 he had established at Middleburgh soon fell into dififi- 
 culties and was broken up, probably through attempts 
 to apply discipline for offenses which, if committed, 
 were not properly matters for church investigation. 
 Browne came back to England, was subsequently 
 excommunicated from the Established Church but 
 received back again, and through the influence of his 
 relative. Lord Burghley, was appointed to the living of 
 Achurch cum Thorpe, a parish of eighteen families 
 in Northamptonshire, where he remained nearly forty 
 years, till he died in 1630. There seems to be some 
 reason for believing that his mind became unbalanced 
 by his hard experiences, and that this ought to miti- 
 
62 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 gate the censure passed upon him for abandoning the 
 battle in behalf of the principles which represented in 
 England the revival of apostolic Congregationalism. 
 Those principles, at any rate, are not less true, Scrip- 
 tural, and permanent because he who first clearly 
 declared them in modern times failed to continue 
 defending them till his death. 
 
 In 1586 John Greenwood lay in the Clink prison, 
 London, because he believed that a company of be- 
 lievers in Christ had the rio-ht to covenant together 
 to worship God, and thus to form a Christian church. 
 He was about thirty years old, a graduate of Christ's 
 College, Cambridge, and had been a clergyman of the 
 Church of England. There his friend Henry Barrowe 
 called on him on the Lord's Day, November 19, but 
 the keeper having him inside would not let him out, and 
 he became a fellow prisoner with Greenwood. Barrowe, 
 too, was a Cambridge scholar, some years the senior of 
 his friend. He was a lawyer and had been a courtier, 
 living a somewhat dissolute life, as was common among 
 those who dwelt at court. But one day he heard a 
 sermon by chance, which changed his whole life. He 
 adopted the principles of the Separatists, and soon 
 became a leader among them. His detention brought 
 great satisfaction to Archbishop Whitgift, who ex- 
 amined him that very Sunday and recommitted him 
 without bail. He was twice afterward examined, once 
 before the High Commissioners and once before com- 
 missioners specially appointed by the Queen, but they 
 got little satisfaction from him. He rejected liturgies 
 and prescribed forms of prayer, and declared the " Book 
 of Common Prayer" to be "idolatrous, superstitious 
 and popish." He did not believe the Church of Eng- 
 
APOSTOLIC CONGREGATIONALISM REVIVED, 
 
 63 
 
 land to be the true church, and he declared that its 
 ecclesiastical courts and governors were unlawful and 
 anti-Christian. He acknowledged the Queen to be 
 ruler over the land and over the Church, but denied 
 that she had any right to make laws for the Church 
 other than those Christ had left in the world. 
 
 After some six months in prison Barrowe and Green- 
 wood were let out on bail, and for a time worshiped 
 with their fellow believers wherever they could secretly 
 
 ST. HELEN S, AUSTERFIELD, ENGLAND, WHERE WM. BRADFORD WORSHIPED. /. 75. 
 
 meet, sometimes in private houses, sometimes in the 
 fields and woods or other retired places. But they 
 were soon caught in one of these meetings and again 
 imprisoned with a number of others. This time they 
 remained confined for more than five years. Here, 
 under great inconvenience, suffering and difficulties, 
 they wrote tracts and books defending the simple faith 
 of the apostolic churches, and against the Church of 
 England. Sheets of paper, one or two at a time, were 
 
64 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 smuggled in to them by their friends, and taken away 
 when filled. They were carried over to Holland, their 
 contents printed and secretly brought back to Eng- 
 land. Thus these persons kept spreading abroad their 
 doctrines, and the number of believers in the primi- 
 tive faith multiplied. One of these tracts, entitled 
 "A True Description," was probably accepted by the 
 brethren who worshiped together in London, and those 
 in fellowship with them, as expressing their faith. It 
 makes the Bible the standard, both in matters of doc- 
 trine and of church government, but it mainly dwells 
 on the polity and administration of the churches. It 
 does not differ essentially from the statements of 
 Browne, except that it makes ruling elders a kind of 
 oligarchy in the local church, elected by the members, 
 but having the entire administration practically under 
 their control. 
 
 But these two prisoners were not the only source 
 from which pamphlets and books were scattered abroad 
 in defense of Congregationalism. John Penry, another 
 Cambridge scholar, a Welsh evangelist, finished his 
 college studies, becoming Master of Arts in 1586, 
 when he was twenty-five years of age. The large 
 majority of the clergy in Wales never preached. They 
 conducted public service with the Book of Common 
 Prayer according to law, as was done in the Church 
 of England. Many of them were not intellectually, 
 and most of them were not spiritually qualified to 
 preach the gospel. Penry's soul burned within him 
 because of the spiritual destitution of his native land. 
 The first year after his graduation he printed at Oxford 
 a very earnest plea to the Queen and Parliament that 
 some provision might be made for the preaching of the 
 
APOSTOLIC CONGREGATIONALISM REVIVED. 65 
 
 gospel in Wales, with the outline of a plan by which it 
 might be done. The book was seized, its scheme was 
 condemned by Archbishop Whitgift as intolerable and 
 its author was imprisoned. But in consequence his 
 friends provided him with a small printing press, which 
 was kept busy, though it was hunted from place to 
 place. 
 
 During the year 1588, between February and 
 August, appeared successively the seven famous Mar- 
 tin Mar-prelate tracts, stinging satires against the 
 church, its bishops and clergy. The officers of eccle- 
 siastical courts vainly tried to suppress them. Detect- 
 ives scoured the land to find their author. High 
 dignitaries wrote ponderous replies to them. Then 
 they tried to answer satire by satire, and made them- 
 selves and their cause more ridiculous. What illus- 
 trated caricature is in politics in these da)'s, these tracts 
 were in the warfare ao^ainst the Church of Engfland. 
 The outcry of the bishops showed how hard they were 
 hit, while the smallness of the shafts by which their 
 unseen enemy wounded them belittled their dignity. 
 These tracts came from Penry's secret press. He was 
 accused of writing them, but probably without good 
 reason. The secret of their authorship has never 
 been discovered ; but Rev. Dr. Henry M. Dexter, pre- 
 eminent in his knowledge of this period of Congrega- 
 tional history, has conjectured that Henry Barrowe 
 wrote them in prison, while Penry published them ; 
 and Dr. Dexter supports his conjecture with reasons 
 of considerable force. 
 
 In February, 1589, Penry's study was searched and 
 his papers seized by an officer of the ecclesiastical 
 court. An order was made out for his arrest under a 
 
66 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 royal proclamation then issued against seditious and 
 schismatical books. He fled with his wife and child 
 to Scotland, where he printed another book to show 
 the injustice of the charges made against reformers. 
 While there, from being a Puritan he became a Sepa- 
 ratist, and was drawn to the fellowship of those brethren 
 in London who were maintaining a church by volun- 
 tary covenant, after the manner of the New Testament 
 churches. He came back to England and went to Lon- 
 don in September, 1592, Meanwhile, a manuscript pre- 
 pared by Barrowe and Greenwood had been sent over 
 to Holland, and was being printed in Middleburgh, 
 Zealand, where Robert Browne had planted his church 
 some years before. In that town was Francis Johnson, 
 another Cambridge scholar, and a clergyman. He was 
 a Puritan, and for preaching Puritan doctrine in Cam- 
 bridge had been expelled from the university and 
 imprisoned. He had found employment as a preacher 
 to the English merchants in Middleburgh. When he 
 learned that a book was being printed there by two 
 noted Separatists, as a loyal though Puritan member 
 of the Enelish Church he informed the Eng^lish ambas- 
 sador, and was employed to destroy the book. This 
 he succeeded in doing, but kept two copies. One of 
 these he read, and became convinced that the Separa- 
 tists were right. He came over to England, made the 
 acquaintance of Barrowe and Greenwood and cast in 
 his fortunes with their company. The church had so 
 far, we know not how long, existed simply as a com- 
 pany of brethren, each of whom had entered into a 
 sacred covenant "that he would walk with the rest of 
 the congregation, so long as they did walk in the way 
 of the Lord, and as far as they might be warranted by 
 
APOSTOLIC CONGREGATIONALISM REVIVED. 6^ 
 
 the Word of God." But now, September, 1592, they 
 completed their organization by electing PVancis John- 
 son as their pastor; John Greenwood, teacher; Daniel 
 Studley and George Keniston, ruling elders ; Chris- 
 topher Bowman and Nicholas Lee, deacons. This is 
 generally regarded as the first Congregational Church 
 of modern times of which we have any distinct trace, 
 though there was undoubtedly an older organization at 
 Norwich, and perhaps there were several companies of 
 believers who were covenanted together as essentially 
 Congregational churches. 
 
 This church chose two ruling elders. This feature 
 marks the difference between Barrowe's idea of church 
 polity and Browne's. The latter advocated a purely 
 democratic organization, the members administering 
 the government of the church, all officers to be chosen 
 and measures to be determined by the vote of the 
 whole church. But Barrowe sought to modify this by 
 a sort of compromise with Presbyterianism, whereby 
 the church should elect ruling elders, to whom there- 
 after should be entrusted the administration of affairs. 
 Traces of this innovation on apostolic Congregation- 
 alism, which has been aptly characterized as a Presby- 
 terian heart within a Congregational body, are to be 
 seen long after the denomination grew to be a power 
 in New England, and not a little evil resulted from it. 
 
 The completion of the organization of this church 
 was followed by severe persecutions. Soon after 
 Greenwood's election to the office of teacher, he was 
 rearrested and Francis Johnson was imprisoned with 
 him. Many others of the little company were incar- 
 cerated, and memorials were addressed to her Maj- 
 esty's Council praying for their relief, but in vain. 
 
68 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 One of these memorials, which mentions those in 
 prison and their sufferings, thus sets forth their motive 
 for withdrawinof from the Church of Enoland and 
 organizing a church by themselves. " We, by the Holy 
 Scriptures, find God's absolute commandment that all 
 which hear and believe the gospel of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ should forthwith thereupon forsake their evil 
 walk, and from thenceforth walk in Christ's holy faith 
 and order, together with His faithful servants, subject- 
 ing themselves to the ministry, and those holy laws and 
 ordinances which the Lord Jesus hath appointed, and 
 whereby only He is present and reigneth in the church. 
 Wherefore, both for the enjoying of that inestimable 
 comfort of His joyful presence and protection, and to 
 show our obedience to God's holy commandment, we 
 have, in His reverent fear and love, joined ourselves 
 together in that Christian faith, order and communion 
 prescribed in his Word, and [have] subjected our souls 
 and bodies to those holy laws and ordinances which 
 the Son of God hath instituted, and whereby He is 
 present and ruleth His church here beneath; and [we] 
 have chosen to ourselves such a ministry of pastor, 
 teacher, elders, deacons, as Christ hath given to His 
 church here on earth to the world's end." 
 
 Up to this time the persecution of Barrowe and 
 Greenwood and their brethren had been carried on 
 solely by the ecclesiastical courts, and these memorials 
 seem to have been addressed to the secular authorities 
 in the hope of securing from them redress for griev- 
 ances ; but the hope was in vain. The ruling powers, 
 secular as as well ecclesiastical, were determined to 
 establish the principle that all the English people 
 must believe and worship according to the dictate of 
 
APOSTOLIC CONGREGATIONALISM REVIVED. 69 
 
 their temporal sovereign. The same method which 
 had been appHed to Coppin and Thacker ten years 
 before was aofain resorted to with Barrowe and Green- 
 wood. They were indicted for circulating seditious 
 books, which by Act of Parliament had been made a 
 capital crime. Two days later they were found guilty 
 and sentenced to be hung on the following day. Just 
 before the hour for execution, after they had been led 
 out of the dungeon to their death, as they supposed, 
 they were reprieved. A week later, when they had 
 refused to recant, they were again led forth to die, and 
 ropes were placed about their necks. Again at the 
 last moment, a reprieve came. They waited another 
 month in prison, not knowing but that each day would 
 be their last. Then early one morning they were taken 
 out for the third time and hanged. 
 
 John Penry's fate was even more unjust and cruel. 
 He had gone to London, partly with the hope that he 
 might secure an interview with the Queen, and gain 
 permission to preach the gospel in Wales ; but finding 
 that he was in peril he hid himself. Yet the day before 
 Barrowe and Greenwood were condemned to death his 
 place of concealment was discovered by treachery, and 
 he was taken to prison. His wife, accompanied by a 
 widowed friend, petitioned in his behalf the Lord 
 Keeper of the Great Seal. The only result of it was 
 that the widow was committed to prison for being with 
 Penry's wife when she presented the petition. While 
 Penry was in prison, anticipating his end, he wrote his 
 latest counsels to his wife, to his four young children, 
 the oldest not yet four years old, and to the church. 
 The tenderness, the steadfastness, the spirit of trust 
 in God, and the overflowing affection of these words 
 
70 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 make them worthy to be placed beside the dying testi- 
 monies of any other Christian martyrs. His enemies 
 could not in his books or by inquisitorial examination 
 gain sufficient evidence to convict him of sedition ; 
 but among his private papers they had come upon some 
 notes concerning a memorial to the Queen which he 
 had thought of preparing. On these, which had never 
 been seen before by anyone but himself, they prepared 
 their indictment. He was tried at Westminster Hall, 
 without being allowed to defend himself by counsel, 
 and of course was convicted. Four days later he was 
 sentenced ; and on the fourth day after that, at five 
 o'clock in the afternoon he was taken in a cart to the 
 second milestone on the Kent road and hanged on a 
 tree. The time chosen was an unusual hour in order 
 that his friends might not be present. To the few 
 who had been drawn to the place by seeing the 
 gallows suddenly prepared, he wished to speak ; but 
 no word was he allowed to utter. So suffered John 
 Penry at thirty-three years of age, the last of the 
 English martyrs for Congregationalism. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 CONGREGATION A LISTS IN EXILE IN HOLLAND. 
 
 IT had now become evident that English Congrega- 
 tionalists could find neither home nor safety in their 
 native land. Just before his death Penry had coun- 
 seled the church to seek in a body a refuge in some 
 other country. This advice indeed had been made 
 imperative by an Act of Parliament passed the day after 
 the execution of Barrowe and Greenwood, imposing 
 banishment and forfeiture of property on every Sepa- 
 ratist who, after three months imprisonment, refused to 
 conform. The following year such as could escaped 
 to Holland, and after some months settled in Amster- 
 dam. Francis Johnson and his brother George re- 
 mained another year in different prisons, but finally 
 they were tried and banished for life. With two others, 
 they were sent on two merchant vessels to America, 
 but one of the ships having been wrecked off the coast 
 of Newfoundland, the other took on board the pas- 
 sengers and crew, and put back to England. From 
 thence the two brothers and a number of other 
 Separatists found their way to Amsterdam. 
 
 Just before Penry's death he had advised the London 
 Church to consult with their brethren in the west and 
 north country. Quite a number of them were to be 
 found in the counties of Lincoln, York and Nottingham. 
 From being Puritans they became Separatists, and 
 finally, by necessity, some became Pilgrims. Earnest 
 
 71 
 
72 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 preachers of the gospel had stirred them to repentance 
 and to the study of the Bible. Holy living exposed 
 them to the scorn of their profligate neighbors. Their 
 efforts quietly to worship God in their own way in 
 private houses brought on them the forces of ecclesias- 
 tical oppression, just as their brethren in Norwich and 
 London were being persecuted, perhaps about the 
 same time. Under this hard discipline they became in 
 process of years a people by themselves, and in 1602 
 a number of them covenanted together, forming a 
 church which centered at Gainsborough, " to walk with 
 God and with one another, in the enjoyment of the 
 ordinances of God, according to the primitive pattern 
 in the Word of God." The next year Queen Elizabeth 
 died, and some hope of relief came to them from the 
 coming of James I. to the throne. But in this they 
 were disappointed. James had some skill and scholar- 
 ship, but far more conceit and selfishness. He was as 
 hostile to Congregationalism as his predecessor had 
 been. 
 
 In 1606 this Separatist Church, for convenience and 
 safety in holding assemblies, divided into two bodies. 
 One continued to meet in Gainsborough, with John 
 Smyth as its pastor, till before the end of the year it emi- 
 grated to Amsterdam. The other became the historic 
 church at Scrooby, twelve miles distant, meeting in the 
 house occupied by William Brewster. He was a gentle- 
 man of property, about thirty-four years of age, had been 
 educated at Cambridge University, had held office 
 under the Queen, and was familiar with public affairs. 
 He was living in an old manor house which had for 
 a great many years been a possession of the church 
 and was at one time a residence of the Archbishop of 
 
CONGREGATIONALISTS IN EXILE IN HOLLAND. 
 
 71 
 
 York. In that house was the beginning- of New 
 England. 
 
 Richard Clyfton was the pastor of the Scrooby 
 Church. With him was associated as teacher John 
 Robinson, a name famous in the annals of Congrega- 
 tionahsm, always at the head of the historic list of 
 Congregational ministers in the United States, al- 
 though he never came personally to this country. He 
 
 SCROOBY MANOR HOUSE. 
 
 was about twenty-five years old, a Master of Arts of 
 Cambridge, and had recently been a fellow of Corpus 
 Christi College. He is described as " a man of learned, 
 polished and modest spirit, pious and studious of the 
 truth, largely accomplished, with suitable gifts and 
 qualifications.'" Later on, Brewster was chosen ruling 
 elder. Thus this Scrooby Church, composed of sturdy 
 rural Englishmen and their families, devotedly 
 studious of the Word of God and loyal to consciences 
 
74 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 enlightened by it, and manned by worthy and able 
 leaders, was preparing itself to be the pioneer of Con- 
 gregationalism, and of civil institutions in America. 
 
 Persecution grew hotter as their organization be- 
 came known. Their houses were watched and searched 
 by officers of ecclesiastical courts. They were driven 
 from their places of employment. Some were impris- 
 oned ; till at last they resolved, like their brethren in 
 London, to escape to the United States of the Nether- 
 lands, where there was religious freedom for all. The 
 risk was great. They were mostly farmers. They 
 were to take their chances in a strange land among 
 people who spoke another language, and whose occu- 
 pations were mainly manufactures and commerce. 
 
 It was the winter of 1607 when they planned to 
 embark from Boston, a seaport about fifty miles distant 
 from their homes. But their enemies were as unwilling 
 to let them go as to allow them to stay. The ship- 
 master who had agreed to take them betrayed them, 
 and they were arrested, maltreated and brought back 
 from the vessel to the town. After a month of impris- 
 onment, all except Brewster and six others were liber- 
 ated, and these not long after regained their freedom. 
 Six months later they made another attempt to depart, 
 on a Dutch ship, from Hull. But when most of the 
 men had got on board, the women and children being 
 on a bark aground, were surprised by officers and 
 taken, while the ship sailed away without them, and 
 was driven about by storms for fourteen days before 
 its passengers could land in Holland, uncertain about 
 the fate of their families. Those left behind were in 
 sad plight, but after a time and having endured many 
 hardships they all came together again in x'\msterdam. 
 
CONGREGATIONAr.ISTS IN EXILE IN HOLLAND. 75 
 
 Here they joined themselves with the church which 
 had come over from London, and, though they were 
 very poor, they found peace. WilHam Bradford, one 
 of their number, who had hved as a boy at Austerfield, 
 has given so pleasant a picture of them that it deserves 
 a place here : 
 
 " If you had seen them in their beauty and order, as 
 we have done, you would have been much affected 
 therewith, we dare say. At Amsterdam, before their 
 division and breach, there were about three hundred 
 communicants, and they had for their pastor and 
 teacher those two eminent men before named, and in 
 our time four grave men for ruling elders, and three 
 able and godly men for deacons, one ancient widow 
 for a deaconess, who did them service for many years, 
 though she was sixty years of age when she was 
 chosen. She honored her place and was an ornament 
 to the congregation. She usually sat in a convenient 
 place in the congregation, with a little birchen rod in 
 her hand, and kept little children in great awe from 
 disturbing the congregation. She did frequently visit 
 the sick and weak, especially women, and, as there 
 was need, called out maids and young women to watch 
 and do them other helps as their necessity did require ; 
 and if they were poor, she would gather relief for them 
 of those that were able, or acquaint the deacons ; and 
 she was obeyed as a mother in Israel and an officer 
 of Christ." 
 
 Varied fortunes had befallen this Amsterdam church 
 during the dozen years or more since it had emigrated 
 from London. It had found a worthy successor to 
 John Greenwood as its teacher in Henry Ainsworth, 
 
76 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 who had come over from Ireland, His name is one of 
 the most illustrious on the roll of the Separatists, He 
 was famous as a Hebrew scholar. He w^as, withal, a 
 self-poised, modest and attractive gentleman, and a 
 winsome preacher. But troubles had beset the church, 
 both without and within. Tolerated by the Dutch 
 government, it was regarded with suspicion by the 
 Dutch clergy, with some of whom its leaders had had 
 controversies in print. In 1596 the church put forth a 
 Confession of Faith, by which they sought to answer 
 the many slanderous reports concerning them, and to 
 gain to a greater degree the confidence of their Dutch 
 ^ neighbors. Its preface arraigns the Church of England 
 as unchristian, and sets forth the sufferings and motives 
 of the Separatists. The Confession itself contains forty- 
 five articles, supported by numerous Scriptural refer- 
 ences. The confessors plant themselves squarely on 
 Calvinistic doctrine, in accordance with the belief of 
 the great majority of the Protestant churches at that 
 time. Sixteen articles are devoted to the declaration 
 of their religious faith. The remainder declare the 
 polity of the churches, their officers, ordinances, duties, 
 relations to one another and to the civil authorities. 
 Many of the statements are evidently answers to 
 questions which had arisen in practical experience, and 
 mark the growth of the ideas of Congregationalism as 
 they were brought to meet practical issues. They call 
 on the civil authorities to root out all false ministries 
 and false worship of God, and to appropriate to civil 
 uses the property of the false church. They make it 
 plain that if they had had the power they Avould have 
 punished dissent from their faith as severely as they 
 had themselves been punished ; and here their views 
 
CONGREGATIONALISTS IN EXILE IN HOLLAND. 7/ 
 
 differed from those of Browne as to the limits of 
 civil authority ; a difference which later largely dis- 
 tinguished the Congregationalists of the Massachusetts 
 Bay Colony from those who settled at Plymouth. 
 Their Confession was reprinted several times within 
 the next twenty years in Latin, Dutch and English 
 editions. 
 
 But the church suffered more from internal dissen- 
 sions than from the prejudices of those without. 
 First, the pastor, Francis Johnson, had married a 
 widow, whom some members of his family disliked. 
 They, especially his brother George, said evil things 
 about her and accused her of dressing too fashionably. 
 They were particularly grieved because she wore 
 whalebones in her dresses and cork on her shoes. 
 The scandal led to church discipline and finally to 
 excommunication of the pastor's father and brother. 
 Next, John Smyth had begun to raise a contention 
 by claiming that only the Scriptures in the original 
 languages were inspired, and that ministers ought not 
 to take translations into the pulpit ; that the people 
 should improvise songs in praise to God, that only 
 church members should contribute to church expenses, 
 that elders were a false ministry, and by maintaining 
 various other differences of opinion as to both doctrine 
 and polity. Smyth appears to have been an able man, 
 with a magnetic nature and unbalanced judgment. 
 After a while he drew off a part of the church and 
 formed another close by. 
 
 In these discords the Scrooby emigrants had no 
 share, and they foresaw that for the sake of peace it 
 would be best for them to put some distance between 
 them and their belligerent brethren. Levden, some 
 
78 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 twenty-five miles away, was a beautiful city, with a fine 
 situation and a famous university. Thither they went, 
 by permission of the Leyden authorities. The city then 
 had a population of about one hundred thousand. 
 The pilgrims soon found employment of one sort or 
 another. Elder Brewster taught a school. William 
 Bradford, not yet twenty-one years of age, became 
 apprentice to a silk-dyer. Edward Winslow went into 
 a printing office. The pastor, John Robinson, after 
 six years' residence, became a fellow of the university. 
 Professor Hornbeek, one of its most eminent instruct- 
 ors, wrote of him, "John Robinson was most dear to 
 us while he lived, was on familiar terms with the 
 Leyden theologians, and was greatly esteemed by 
 them." He soon began to win honor as an author. 
 His works were mainly controversial, in defense of the 
 doctrines and polity of the Separatists. He accepted, 
 somewhat reluctantly, a challenge to meet Arminius in 
 public dispute, and proved himself so able a champion 
 of Calvinism that he won much honor. In theology 
 he defended the doctrines of the Synod of Dort, which 
 was convened in Dordrecht in November, 1618. In 
 church polity he strenuously maintained the independ- 
 ence of the local church and its divine authority as 
 opposed to the Established Church. But he was more 
 broad-minded and tolerant than most of the other 
 Separatist leaders, while his abilities no less than his 
 character have won for him the foremost place in the 
 early history of Congregationalists. Such sentences 
 as this, taken from his " Essays," throw a flood of light 
 on his spirit : " Men are often accounted heretics with 
 greater sin through want of charity in the judges than 
 in the judged through defect of faith." 
 
CONGREGATIONALISTS IN EXILE IN HOLLAND. 79 
 
 Robinson was greatly beloved by his people, and 
 under his wise administration the church orew in 
 numbers and in favor with the Dutch among whom 
 they lived. They became more prosperous in their 
 business affairs as time went on. They were honest, 
 peaceable and lawabiding. At the end of their stay 
 in Leyden the magistrates of the city declared that 
 " These English have lived among us now these twelve 
 years, and yet we never had any suit or accusation 
 come against any of them." 
 
 But as years passed it became evident that no 
 great future awaited them there. They were aliens 
 in language. They were exiles. They did not wish to 
 leave their children in Holland, and there was no 
 likelihood of their being permitted to return to Eng- 
 land. They dreaded the prospect of falling away 
 and final disappearance as a separate organization, 
 which indeed came to be the history of those who 
 remained behind in Amsterdam. They longed for 
 freedom, for their own Puritan Sabbath, for schools for 
 their children, for some field where they might have 
 encouragement to lay the foundations of a Christian 
 commonwealth, and to give to others the gospel they 
 loved more than any earthly gain and even life itself. 
 They had in them more than they themselves realized, 
 the character and the ambition of statesmen. 
 
 Fifteen years before the Separatists had petitioned 
 Elizabeth for permission to form a colony in America, 
 but in vain. Now again the wiser ones began to look 
 away across the seas to the new land the tidings of 
 which had stirred so many Englishmen to deeds of 
 adventure and daring. But theirs was the noblest type 
 of ambition ; not to make conquests or to win for 
 
8o CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 themselves renown, but in the simple yet sublime 
 language of one of their number, to lay " some good 
 foundation, or at least make some way thereunto, for 
 the propagating and advancing of the kingdom of 
 Christ in those remote parts of the world ; yea, 
 though they should be but even as stepping stones 
 unto others for the performing of so great a work." 
 The idea grew as they discussed it, and prayed over it ; 
 put new life and courage into them, and at last took 
 shape in a plan to emigrate to America. 
 
 Some ten years before, two colonizing corporations 
 had been created by King James, one in London and 
 the other in Plymouth. To the Virginia Company of 
 London the Pilgrims determined to apply for a grant 
 of territory in what was then called Virginia, and to 
 the King for permission to live in it as a distinct 
 com.munity. In September, 1617, they sent John 
 Carver and Robert Cushman to England to make the 
 negotiations. The company was willing, but the King 
 refused, and the messengers returned. James I. was 
 too small a man to tolerate Congregationalists, or 
 Brownists, as they were then called, anywhere in his 
 dominions, even in a wilderness across the ocean. In 
 December Carver and Cushman returned to England 
 again, and through some influential friends at court 
 succeeded, after making many protestations and expla- 
 nations, in wringing out of the churlish monarch and 
 his bishops a sort of vague verbal promise that they 
 " would connive at them and not molest them, provided 
 they carried themselves peaceably." Weary months of 
 waiting and disappointment followed, till at last they 
 received from the Virginia Company a patent " con- 
 firmed under the company's seal." 
 
CONGREGATIONALISTS IN EXILE IN HOLLAND. 8 1 
 
 The next questions to be settled were, how should 
 the money be raised to pay for their expenses of emi- 
 gration, and who of the Leyden company should go. 
 The first question was in a measure answered by the 
 report which Cushman brought from England — where 
 he had left Brewster to forward the interests of the 
 Pilgrims — that some friends in England wished to go 
 with them to Virginia, and that some merchants, 
 among them " one Mr. Thomas Weston," had offered 
 to furnish the money. But to decide on both ques- 
 tions there was appointed a day of humiliation and 
 prayer to seek the guidance of the Lord, when Pastor 
 Robinson preached a notable sermon from i Samuel 
 xxiii. 3-4 — -a text whose final sentence, "Arise, go down 
 to Keilah ; for I will deliver the Philistines into thy 
 hand," seems to carry with it a strong affirmative vote. 
 Then they discussed who should go. Some were too 
 old or too feeble for the hardships to be faced. Some 
 could not at once leave their business affairs. From 
 those who could go a sufficient number were chosen, 
 and it was agreed that the pastor should remain with 
 those who stayed behind, but that Elder Brewster 
 should accompany the pioneers. It was of course 
 hoped that the whole company would before long be 
 reunited in the New World. It was settled that each 
 body should act as an independent church while they 
 were separated, but that when Robinson should rejoin 
 the colony he should be received as pastor without any 
 new election. Those who were to go on the first expe- 
 dition sold the goods they could not carry with them, 
 closed their business affairs and waited anxiously for 
 the time of their departure. 
 
 But unexpected difficulties were arising in England, 
 
82 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 The Plymouth Virginia Company had revived under a 
 new corporate name, and was negotiating with the King 
 for a new charter, giving to it "the northern parts of 
 Virginia," the region from the 41st to the 45th parallel 
 of latitude. This country was to be called New 
 England, a name which had been proposed by Captain 
 John Smith. Thomas Weston, the London merchant, 
 and some others who had offered to assist them, were 
 in favor of their giving up their patent from the 
 London Company and settling in New England. 
 Weston, who went over from London to Leyden to 
 visit and encourage them, was much more anxious 
 for the profits of fur and codfish than for the wel- 
 fare of the Pilgrims. He persuaded them to give 
 up consideration of a favorable offer of assistance 
 from the Amsterdam Trading Company, which was 
 interested in the settlement of the country about 
 the mouth of the Hudson River. Finally, though 
 without apparently any formal decision, the general 
 opinion favored going to the territory of the Ply- 
 mouth Company and getting a patent from that body 
 afterward. 
 
 While they were waiting, some of the friends in 
 England who had proposed to go with them withdrew 
 from their agreement. Some of the merchants who 
 were to furnish money did the same on various excuses. 
 A compact had been drawn up between the Adventurers 
 on the one hand, who were to furnish funds, and the 
 Planters or Pilorrims on the other. To this Weston 
 had agreed, but when the Pilgrims had fully committed 
 themselves he insisted on changes ; and having them 
 in his power, succeeded with his associates in driving 
 with Carver, as representative of the Pilgrims, a very 
 
CONGREGATIONALISTS IN EXILE IN HOLLAND. 83 
 
 hard bargain. Both parties were to form a joint-stock 
 company. The shares were put at ^lo each. Each 
 Pilgrim over sixteen years of age was counted as a 
 share, and each under sixteen and over ten, half a 
 share. The colony was to be supported out of the 
 common stock, and at the end of seven years all the 
 profits were to be equally divided ; so that those who 
 stayed at home and gave money were to have as 
 much as those who spent their lives in labor and 
 hardship. 
 
 At last, after three years of effort from the time 
 emigration was first proposed, a vessel of 60 tons, the 
 "Speedwell," was bought in Holland; and another, the 
 " Mayflower," of 180 tons, was hired in London, and 
 both were equipped for the voyage. The time for their 
 departure having come, they all observed a day of 
 humiliation and prayer, with an appropriate sermon by 
 the pastor, preaching on Ezra viii. 21. In the Geneva 
 version, which the Pilgrims used, the words are these : 
 "And there at the river by Ahava I proclaimed a fast 
 that we might humble ourselves before our God, and 
 seek of him a right way for us, and for our children, 
 and for all our substance." Then those who were to 
 stay in Leyden gave to the Pilgrims a feast in the 
 pastor's house, after which they went together to Delfs- 
 haven, about fourteen miles distant, where the " Speed- 
 well " was lying. There they spent the night with little 
 sleep, but in "friendly entertainment and Christian 
 discourse." In the morning, July 12 (O. S.), 1620, with 
 abundant leavetakings and tears, after a parting prayer 
 by the pastor, the Pilgrims went on board the ship 
 and, borne by favorable winds, were in a few hours at 
 Southampton. Here they found the "Mayflower" 
 
84 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 waiting. But here also they learned the changed terms 
 which Cushman had accepted from Weston, and they 
 refused to ratify them. They had expected that 
 Weston would settle obligations they had incurred to 
 the amount of about ^loo. He angrily refused to dis- 
 burse a penny and left them. But undismayed by his 
 heartless abandonment of them, they sold a part of 
 their scanty stores, including about ^60 worth of pro- 
 visions, " to clear things at their going away." By 
 August 5 they were ready to depart. A farewell let- 
 ter from Robinson was read to them, filled with noble 
 and affectionate counsels. The company was divided 
 between the two vessels, and they set sail for their new 
 home in the wilderness. Twice they had to put back 
 for repairs, having found the "Speedwell" unsea- 
 worthy; and finally they abandoned her, putting 
 ashore about twenty who chose to remain behind, 
 while the others were crowded into the " Mayflower." 
 That vessel, with one hundred and two passengers, 
 finally departed, September 6, for the New World. 
 
 We have now followed the story of these despised 
 and persecuted Separatists, from the time when Robert 
 Browne first at Norwich declared that the church of 
 Christ was the voluntary association of believers in 
 covenant with Him till such a company of believers, 
 who had abandoned home and fortune and had passed 
 through weary years of trial in order that they might 
 stand for that principle, were afloat on the ocean with 
 their faces set toward a land where they hoped to plant 
 such a church, undisturbed from without. It has been 
 well said that the three most famous ships in history are 
 Noah's Ark, the " Argo," and the " Mayflower." The 
 last is the most illustrious of them all ; for she bore 
 
CONGREGATIONALISTS IN EXILE IN HOLLAND. 85 
 
 those who, hardly conscious of it themselves, carried 
 within them the beginning of a great nation with ideas 
 of lo^'alty to the truth revealed by God, of liberty in 
 discovering it and of energy in putting it into practice 
 which were to make it one of the most important fac- 
 tors in modern history. John Robinson had solemnly 
 charged them in his farewell words, as one then present 
 reported years afterward, " to follow him no farther than 
 he followed Christ ; and, if God should reveal anything 
 to us by any other instrument of His, to be as ready to 
 receive it as ever we were to receive any truth by his 
 ministry ; for he was very confident the Lord had more 
 truth and light yet to break forth out of His holy 
 Word." The Reformation of a century before had 
 rediscovered the Bible. Luther's great doctrine of 
 justification by faith had created the Protestant Church. 
 These Pilgrims had found truth in the Word of God 
 to them as precious and significant as Luther's was to 
 him. The discovery of it, the living of it against foes, 
 constant witnessing to it at whatever cost made them 
 the heroic men and women who could found a free 
 church with a free state where everyone could worship 
 God according to the dictates of his own conscience. 
 The idea which engaged their thoughts was a spontane- 
 ous association in covenant of renewed souls in fellow- 
 ship with Christ and one another. They believed that 
 no civil authority could put anyone into a church 
 or take anyone out of it. Only Christ through His 
 renewing spirit could make one fit for any such fellow- 
 ship. Only his brethren as his peers could judge of 
 his fitness ; and from their judgment there was no 
 court of appeal but to Christ as the head of the church. 
 That idea at the beginning of a commonwealth meant, 
 
86 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 when it should have worked itself out in experience, 
 complete independence of church and state, and com- 
 plete liberty, with equal sovereign rights, in both. The 
 seed of that free government was in the " Mayflower " 
 and in the compact made in it. The fruit of it is 
 the American Republic. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE PILGRIM CHURCH IN ITS PERMANENT HOME. 
 
 SIXTY-FIVE days the church which was to plant 
 itself in the wilderness and lay the foundations of 
 a notable commonwealth was tossed on the sea in the 
 "' Mayflower." In the early dawn of November 9 the 
 wanderers saw land, which seemed to them "so goodly 
 a land . . . wooded to the bank of the sea." It was 
 Cape Cod. 
 
 But they were bound for the Hudson River, to the 
 region where their patent entitled them to plant a 
 colony. They turned southward, but soon found them- 
 selves among- shoals and breakers. Retracing their 
 path, the next day they came to anchor in what is now 
 Provincetown Harbor. There they knelt and gave 
 thanks to God for the privilege " again to set their feet 
 on the firm and solid earth." 
 
 When they found that they must land on this coast, 
 to which their patent gave them no right, they first 
 faced the question how they should live together in 
 peace and order. In the territory where they were 
 going to settle, none of the company had any authority 
 from the mother country to govern. Not all were 
 members of the church. Some had already begun to 
 talk about using their liberty when they should get on 
 shore. Unless they could be held together, there was 
 little hope that any would long survive. The church 
 was already bound by a strict mutual covenant. But 
 
 87 
 
88 CONGREGATIOXALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 to include also those outside of it, a civil compact was 
 drawn up — the constitution and foundation of a Chris- 
 tian republic in the New World. It acknowledged the 
 right of everyone who signed it to share in making 
 and administering the laws, and the right of the 
 majority to rule. It was the constitution of a pure 
 democracy, tlie principle of their church government 
 applied to the state. This instrument, for several 
 years, was all the law they had. By it they chose their 
 first governor, John Carver, and later other officers, and 
 administered in orderly fashion their civil affairs. This 
 was their Magna Charta, signed by forty-one names : 
 
 " In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are 
 vnderwritten, the loyall subjects of our dread Sove- 
 raigne Lord King James, by the grace of God of 
 Great Britaine, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of 
 the Faith, &c. 
 
 " Having vndertaken for the glory of God, and ad- 
 vancement of the Christian Faith, and honor of our 
 King and Countrey, a Voyage to plant the first Colony 
 in the Northerne parts of Virginia, doe by these 
 presents solemnly & mutually, in the presence of 
 God and one of another, covenant, and combine our- 
 selues together into a civill body politike, for our better 
 ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends 
 aforesaid ; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, 
 and frame such iust and equall Lawes, Ordinances, 
 Acts, constitutions, offices from time to time, as shall 
 be thought most meet and convenient for the generall 
 good of the Colony : vnto which we promise all due 
 submission and obedience. In witnesse whereof we 
 haue here-vnder subscribed our names. Cape Cod, 
 
THE PILGRIM CHURCH IN ITS PERMANENT HOME. 89 
 
 II of November, in the yeare of the raigne of our 
 Soveraigne Lord King James, of England, France, 
 and Ireland 18. and of Scotland 54. Anno Dom- 
 ino, 1620." 
 
 They spent a month on shipboard amid storms and 
 cold, successive parties exploring the coast to find 
 a suitable place for a settlement. At last, on Fri- 
 day night, December 8, after dark, the exploring 
 party of eighteen men, in a northeast storm of 
 snow and rain, landed from their shallop at Clark's 
 Island. The next day they dried their clothing, and 
 on the day following kept the Sabbath ; and on Mon- 
 day, December 11 (New Style 21), they went to 
 the mai^iland, and " found diverse cornfields, and little 
 running brooks : a place, as they supposed, fit for situa- 
 tion." When they returned to the ship, which was still 
 off the shore at Cape Cod, Bradford was met by the 
 news that his wife had fallen overboard and been 
 drowned during his absence. 
 
 Friday of that week the " Mayflower " furled her sails 
 in the harbor which six years before Captain John 
 Smith had named Plymouth. There, on Sabbath, they 
 worshiped on shipboard ; and during the week follow- 
 ing, after asking guidance from God, by a majority 
 vote they decided to begin their settlement on the 
 slope of what became Burial Hill, looking seaward. 
 Bradford wrote of it, "In one field is a orreat hill 
 on which we point to make a platform and plant 
 our ordinance which will command all round about. 
 From thence we may see into the bay, and far into the 
 sea ; and we may see thence Cape Cod." There, on 
 Christmas Day, which they ignored as a pagan festival, 
 
90 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 they began to build their first house ; and there the 
 Pilofrim Church at last found a home. 
 
 They had a terrible winter, in constant apprehension 
 from Indian foes, suffering from exposure, want and 
 sickness, till when spring came fully one-half their 
 number were under the sod of Burial Hill. The sur- 
 vivors carefully leveled the graves of their friends in 
 order that Indian visitors might not know how much 
 their numbers had been reduced by death. Yet when, 
 in April, the "Mayflower" sailed away home, not a 
 single Pilgrim returned in her. They had found seed 
 corn for planting. The land had been cleared for them 
 by Indians, whom a plague had mostly cleared from the 
 earth three or four years before. They had made 
 a treaty with Massasoit's tribe. They had re-elected 
 Carver as their governor. They had disciplined the 
 first offender, and were preparing, under the instruc- 
 tion of Squanto, their Indian friend, to plant twenty 
 acres of corn, and to catch a supply of herring at the 
 mouth of the town brook. 
 
 Before April had gone. Governor Carver suddenly 
 sickened and died, and William Bradford was elected 
 to fill his place. But as he was only just recovering 
 from illness Isaac Allerton was chosen as his assistant, 
 and thus the office of lieutenant grovernor beo^an. The 
 little Republic — for such it was, though under the nom- 
 inal rule of King James — was developing its organiza- 
 tion as occasion demanded. 
 
 Then came the first New England wedding. Wil- 
 liam White had died, leaving his widow Susanna, with 
 two little boys, one of them born on the " Mayflower," 
 Edward Winslow's wife had died during the winter. 
 Susanna White became the wife of Winslow. By 
 
THE PILGRIM CHURCH IN ITS PERMAMENT HOME. 9I 
 
 English law they could not be married without a priest 
 and the ceremonies of the church. But they had 
 learned the way of civil marriage in Leyden, and in 
 presence of Governor Bradford they entered into 
 the sacred covenant. The colony had already begun 
 to be independent both of the English church and 
 the English state. 
 
 In November the ship "Fortune" came from their 
 partners, the Adventurers in England, with Cushman 
 and a re-enforcement of thirty-five persons, not all of 
 them desirable additions to their company, but all with 
 mouths to feed. She brought also a complaining letter 
 from Thomas Weston, and started back, with Cush- 
 man, on the anniversary of the landing at Plymouth a 
 year before. The attempt of these newcomers to 
 make Christmas a holiday that year by playing ball 
 and other sports was promptly suppressed by the 
 Governor. They said it was against their consciences 
 to work on that day, and he replied that it was against 
 his conscience for them to play while the others 
 worked. 
 
 Yet they had kept, in a sort, the month before, the 
 day which became the great New England festival of 
 Thanksgiving. When their first harvest was gathered, 
 they killed a number of wild duck and turkey, and 
 with five deer which Massasoit and ninety of his men 
 brought with them on a visit, they had a three days' 
 feast. 
 
 By the next summer they had erected a building 
 which was a combined fort and house of worship. A 
 Dutch merchant, De Rasieres, who visited Plymouth 
 in 1627, thus described it and their Sabbath services: 
 " Upon the hill they have a large square house, with a 
 
92 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 flat roof made of thick sawn planks, stayed with oak 
 beams, upon the top of which they have six cannons 
 which shoot iron balls of four or five pounds and com- 
 mand the surrounding country. The lower part they 
 use for their church, where they preach on Sundays 
 and the usual holidays. They assemble by beat of 
 drum, each with his musket or firelock, in front of the 
 captain's door ; they have their cloaks on and place 
 themselves in order, three abreast, and are led by a 
 sergeant without beat of drum. Behind comes the 
 Governor in a long robe ; beside him on the right 
 hand comes the preacher with his cloak on; and on 
 the left hand the captain, with his side arms and cloak 
 on and with a small cane in his hand ; and so they 
 march in good order and each sets his arms down near 
 him." 
 
 The Pilgrims had as great obstacles to overcome 
 from their own countrymen as from Indians and the 
 wilderness. Thomas Weston proved to be one of 
 their greatest trials. He had much increased the 
 difificulties of their departure from England. But now 
 having separated entirely from their enterprise, he had 
 undertaken to plant a colony on his own account. In 
 the summer of 1622 two vessels, with fifty or sixty of 
 his men, arrived at Plymouth, where they speedily 
 became a nuisance to the Pilorims who, nevertheless, 
 entertained them kindly. They stole the unripe ears 
 of corn and otherwise abused the hospitality they 
 received. In the autumn they attempted to plant a 
 colony at Wessagussett, some twenty miles north of 
 Plymouth, but early in the next year they fell into 
 trouble with the Indians, who, because of their false 
 dealing with them, formed a conspiracy to exterminate 
 
THE riLGRIM CHURCH IN ITS PERMANENT HOME. 
 
 93 
 
 all the English. This compelled the Pilgrims to send 
 their captain, Myles Standish, with a company of eight 
 men to teach the Indians a lesson, which the brave 
 captain did by killing three of them in a hand-to-hand 
 fight and hanging another. This was not in the plans 
 of those who had hoped to give the gospel to the 
 
 natives of that new __ - - -/« .- 
 
 land ; and Robinson, 
 when he heard of it, 
 wrote plaintively to 
 his brethren: "Oh, 
 how happy a thing it 
 had been if you had 
 converted some before 
 you had killed any." 
 But it proved to be 
 the last chapter in the 
 short history of Wes- 
 ton's colony. Men without moral quality, only con- 
 trolled by selfish aims, were not of the sort to face 
 the difficulties of a new land and found a stable gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 That year, 1623, began with severe discouragements 
 for the Plymouth settlers. They had little to eat in 
 the spring and no encouraging prospects. A long 
 season of dry weather followed their corn-planting, 
 and threatened the destruction of the crop. The 
 vessel they were expecting to bring them supplies did 
 not arrive, but some wreckage drifted on the coast. 
 Then in their extremity they appointed by public 
 authority a day in July, to be set apart from all other 
 employments as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer. 
 They assembled in the morning under a clear sky, but 
 
 MYLES STANDISH HOUSE, DUXBURY, MASS. 
 BUILT BY HIS SON, 1666. 
 
94 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 before they had ceased praying clouds had gathered 
 which next morning "distilled soft, sweet and mod- 
 erate showers of rain." These showers, with intervals 
 of fair weather, continued for two weeks and even- 
 tually saved their crops. Meanwhile Captain Standish 
 returned from an expedition to the settlement at the 
 mouth of the Pascataqua River, bringing supplies of 
 food. Tidings came that their expected vessel was 
 safe, though driven back by storms ; and that the ship 
 "Anne," with many of their friends from Delfshaven, 
 would soon arrive. In their joy and gratitude at these 
 brightening prospects, they set apart another solemn 
 day for thanksgiving "to our good God who dealt so 
 graciously with us — whose name, for these and all his 
 other mercies toward his church and chosen ones, by 
 them be blessed and praised now and evermore." In 
 these records and others like them we see the roots of 
 those customs of public recognition of God by the 
 state which have survived to this day, and which 
 would have a stronger hold upon the churches if the 
 memory of the guiding Providence of God in those 
 early days were kept more green. 
 
 Another peril to the Pilgrim Church was the arrival 
 of Captain Robert Gorges with a commission as gov- 
 ernor general of the whole country. He was a 
 nephew of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, a gentleman promi- 
 nent in the councils of King James, and a leading 
 member of companies organized to establish colonies 
 in America. Captain Gorges came with great ^clat, 
 intending to extend his government over all the 
 various colonies — of which by this time there were 
 several — along the coast. On his arrival, in Septem- 
 ber, 1623, he attempted, with the company he brought. 
 
THE PILGRIM CHURCH IN ITS PERMANENT HOME. 95 
 
 to found another colony at the place which Weston's 
 men had abandoned a few months before. He brought 
 a chaplain who was expected to represent in New 
 England the Church of Old England and to exercise 
 jurisdiction over the souls of all the people. But the 
 next spring the would-be governor general returned 
 in disgust to England, the most of the colony scat- 
 tered, and the remainder, with the chaplain, were 
 helped with supplies from Plymouth. He wrote a 
 Latin poem about the country, but seems not to have 
 done much else, and the next year he returned to 
 England. Those men were not of the stuff which 
 makes stable government in a new land. 
 
 A much greater danger to the Pilgrims came from 
 the presence among them of a number of persons who 
 had been eager to enlist in the new enterprise, but 
 who had no sympathy with its aims. Many of the 
 Adventurers in England who helped to support the 
 colony in the hope of gaining a profitable return from 
 their investment, were Puritans who hated the princi- 
 ples of the Separatists. They kept John Robinson 
 from joining his flock, and their dislike was fostered 
 by false stories concerning the colony, sent home by 
 the discontented ones. They sent to Plymouth John 
 Lyford, who professed to be a Puritan minister from 
 Ireland, hoping that the Pilgrims would take him as 
 their preacher. Robinson seems to have been aware 
 of the Puritan opposition to his rejoining his people 
 across the sea, and in his last letter to them wrote : 
 " The Adventurers, it seems, have neither money nor 
 any great mind of us, for the most part. They deny it 
 to be any part of the covenants between us that they 
 should transport us ; neither do I look for any further 
 
96 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 help from them till means come from you." Yet it is 
 not to be supposed that the Puritans knew the char- 
 acter of the man they sent in the hope that he would 
 be received in place of Robinson. Lyford proved to 
 be a hypocrite and a liar. He knew how to weep, and 
 to feign humility and admiration of those from whom 
 he sought favors. He united with the church with so 
 exceedingly earnest confession of his faith, and so pro- 
 fuse expressions of his joy in the opportunity of having 
 liberty to worship God according to his conscience, 
 that he seems to have been regarded from the first with 
 some suspicion, and he was not received as the minister 
 of the church, but only with liberty to prophesy. 
 Before long he, with John Oldham, was caught plot- 
 ting against the colony and sending lying letters to 
 England. Both were tried, convicted and sentenced 
 to be expelled from the colony. Lyford, after con- 
 fessing his sin with many tears, was permitted to 
 remain for six months longer, partly on account of his 
 large family ; but before that time had passed he was 
 caught aeain in the same mischievous business. Old- 
 ham, having returned without permission after his 
 banishment, behaved so insolently that the governor 
 had a guard of musketeers drawn up and made him 
 pass through the line, " receiving from everyone a 
 parting thump with a musket as he passed by." 
 
 A number of the Puritan Adventurers, discouraged 
 in their efforts to make the colony what they wished, 
 believing that a company of Separatists would not 
 attract many settlers, finally insisted that their com- 
 pany in England should govern the colony, and that 
 its people should be not Separatists but members of 
 the Church of England. These demands the colonists 
 
THE PILGRIM CHURCH 'IN ITS PERMANENT HOME. 
 
 97 
 
 refused to acknowledge, and the contract between the 
 Adventurers and the Planters came to an end. That 
 proved a fortunate thing for Plymouth. Though bur- 
 dened with a heavy debt, they were now independent. 
 Each colonist received his own allotment of land and 
 
 t^UJt 
 
 
 ii 
 
 K t® *^-_, rn_ 
 
 rA 
 
 «il^^^Si3l?S^^^ 
 
 /AL)lf 
 
 -T-l 
 
 THE JOHN ROBINSON MEMORIAL TABLET, ST. PETER S CHURCH, 
 LEYDEN, HOLLAND. 
 
 his own home. New ambitions were roused in them, 
 and Increased prosperity followed. 
 
 Still the Pilgrim Church had no pastor dwelling 
 among them, though William Brewster had regularly 
 conducted services, preaching and teaching as their 
 ruling elder. They constantly hoped for the coming 
 of their pastor, John Robinson, from Leyden, and he 
 
98 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 as earnestly desired to join them. But March i, 1626, 
 after a short ilhiess he died in Leyden, to the great 
 grief of his followers in Holland and in New England. 
 His memory is still held in reverence on both sides of 
 the ocean. Almost three centuries after he first en- 
 tered Leyden, July 24, 1891, in the presence of a large 
 assembly of eminent American and English Congrega- 
 tionalists, with a company of the prominent citizens 
 of Leyden, a memorial tablet to him was unv^eiled in 
 a recess of St. Peter's Church, opposite to the house 
 where he had lived. The tablet bears this inscription : 
 
 THE MAYFLOWER, 1620. 
 
 In Memory of 
 
 Rev. John Robinson, M. A., 
 
 Pastor of the English Church worshiping over 
 
 against this spot, a. d. 1609-1625, whence 
 
 at his prompting went forth 
 
 THE PILGRIM FATHERS 
 
 To settle in New England 
 in 1620. 
 
 Buried under this house of worship, 
 4 March, 1625. 
 
 AET XLIX YEARS. 
 
 In manor ia ceter7ia er it Justus. 
 
 Erected by the National Council of the Congre- 
 
 gational Churches of the United States 
 
 of America, a. d. 1891. 
 
 To that assembly Dr. Kuenen, professor in the 
 University of Leyden, said : 
 
 " Ladies and gentlemen, when you have gone back 
 
THE PILGRIM CHURCH IN ITS PERMANENT HOME. 99 
 
 to America, tell your countrymen that the citizens of 
 Leyden and the members of its University are proud 
 to possess in the midst of us the monument you have 
 dedicated to-day, and that we like to consider it as a 
 pledge of the future lasting friendship of both the 
 countries, America and our Fatherland, whose early 
 history, as that monument testifies, is so closely iden- 
 tified. Tell them that we say that in that monument 
 we have a pledge of hearty co-operation in the common 
 love for civil and religious freedom." 
 
 In 1628 Isaac Allerton returned from a journey to 
 England in the interests of the colony, bringing with 
 him Mr. Rogers, a young minister. But they soon 
 found that he was insane, and sent him back home the 
 next year. Nine years had passed, yet the only pastor 
 they had known was he who had planned their emigra- 
 tion, but whose body had been laid in the grave at 
 Leyden. 
 
 But now the few friends in London who had re- 
 mained loyal to the Pilgrims, and sympathized with 
 their desire that the company which had been left 
 behind in Holland might join them again, generously 
 lent their aid. Thirty-five of the Leyden remnant 
 reached Plymouth in the summer of 1629. Early the 
 next year the last remaining members followed them, 
 and the long emigration which began from Scrooby 
 more than twenty years before was ended. They had 
 found a home and founded a commonwealth in New 
 England. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE PURITANS OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 
 
 THE first Puritans of Massachusetts came hither 
 with no intention of separating from the Church 
 of England. They were of the Reform party within 
 the church. They stood between it and the Sepa- 
 ratists, disapproving of both. They hoped to make 
 somethinor better than either, which should still be the 
 Church of England. Yet, as Robinson had predicted, 
 the simple fact of removal from England to the New 
 World made the Puritan emigrants become Separatists, 
 though they did not for some time realize the change 
 which had been wrought. 
 
 The first Puritan settlement began with a little com- 
 pany of fishermen on Cape Ann. Its chief patron 
 was John White, a noted Puritan minister of Dor- 
 chester, England, and it was maintained by a company 
 formed in that town. This settlement began in 1624, 
 Roger Conant being superintendent of the plantation. 
 John Lyford, after his deserved expulsion from the 
 Plymouth Colony, found his way thither, and repre- 
 senting that he had left Plymouth because his 
 conscience could not abide the Separatists, was 
 received as a minister. The settlement did not 
 prosper, and being given up the second year by the 
 Dorchester Company, most of the men went back to 
 England. 
 
 100 
 
THE PURITANS OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY. lOI 
 
 But Roger Conant, with a few others, remained. 
 He informed Mr. White that there was a better chance 
 for a colony at Nauml^eag, a Httle west of Cape Ann, 
 and suggested that it "might prove a receptacle for 
 such as upon the account of religion would be willing 
 to begin a foreign plantation in the New World." 
 Conant sought to plant a Puritan colony, as far from 
 Popery on the one hand as from Separatism on the 
 other. White, who never came to America, promised 
 to help him. The company removed to Naumkeag. 
 Lyford, having had, or claiming to have had, a call to 
 Virginia, persuaded most of the company to break 
 their engagement to stay, and to follow him thither. 
 Conant declared that he would stand firm, though 
 everyone should forsake him. He persuaded his three 
 associates, who had also accepted White's offer of help, 
 to remain with him. 
 
 Early in 1628, under White's leadership, the Com- 
 pany of Massachusetts Bay was organized in England. 
 It received a grant of " that part of New England 
 which lies between the Merrimack and Charles rivers 
 in the bottom of Massachusetts Bay." The grant 
 included the land beyond this tract three miles from 
 the banks of both rivers. The scheme for a Puritan 
 colony was furthered by the growing conviction in the 
 Puritan party in England that it would find justice at 
 home only through revolution and war. Captain John 
 Endecott, a brave and earnest Puritan, was chosen 
 to govern the new plantation, and with his wife 
 and about forty others arrived in the ship "Abigail," 
 September 6, of that year. Some discontent arose 
 between the newcomers and those already on the 
 ground, but it was soon removed by prudent man- 
 
I02 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 agement ; and in memory of that event the name 
 of the plantation was changed to Salem, which 
 means Peace. 
 
 Soon they were visited with severe sickness, and 
 Captain Endecott applied to Plymouth Colony for help. 
 Dr. Samuel Fuller, deacon of the Pilgrim church and 
 physician of the colony, was sent to Salem. He 
 brought with him more than healing for the body. 
 He gave the New England Puritans so true an idea of 
 the New England Pilgrims that they were drawn toward 
 that union which in years to come was to result in one 
 denomination of Christians and one commonwealth. 
 Govenor Endecott, writing to Governor Bradford in 
 grateful acknowledgment of Dr. Fuller's services, 
 declared himself convinced that the Pilgrims' method 
 of worship was right. " It is," he wrote, "as far as I 
 can gather, no other than is warranted by the evidence 
 of truth, and the same which I have professed and 
 maintained ever since the Lord in mercy revealed him- 
 self to me ; being very far different from the common 
 report that hath been spread of you touching that 
 particular." 
 
 Governor Endecott soon had an opportunity to put 
 in practice his theories of church worship, and of 
 church government also, for the next year, 1629, the 
 Massachusetts Company, encouraged by reports of the 
 prosperity of the plantation, sent out six vessels with 
 nearly four hundred persons, live stock and extensive 
 equipments for the settlers. With this company came 
 four ministers. Francis Higginson, Samuel Skelton 
 and Francis Bright were Puritans ; Ralph Smith was 
 a Separatist, and when that fact was discovered he 
 came near having to give up his passage. He was 
 
THE PURITANS OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY. I03 
 
 finally permitted to sail under restrictions. These 
 Puritan ministers did not propose to renounce the 
 mother church. Higginson had been forbidden to 
 officiate as a minister in England because of his views, 
 yet he is said to have gathered his children and the 
 other passengers into the stern of the ship as they 
 passed Land's End, and to have used these words : 
 " We will not say, as the Separatists were wont to say 
 at their leaving of England, 'Farewell, Babylon ! fare- 
 well, Rome ! ' but we will say, ' Farewell, dear England, 
 farewell, the Church of God in England and all the 
 Christian friends there.' We do not go to New Eng- 
 land as Separatists from the Church of England, 
 though we cannot but separate from the corrup- 
 tions in it ; but we go to practice the positive part 
 of church reformation, and propagate the gospel 
 in America." Perhaps the presence of that Sep- 
 aratist minister might have added emphasis to these 
 words. 
 
 The company was careful to provide able preachers, 
 because it was in a true sense a foreign missionary 
 organization. They sought not only to plant a Chris- 
 tian colony, but to Christianize the Indians also. They 
 avowed "that the propagating of the gospel is a thing 
 we do profess above all to be our aim in settling this 
 plantation." The Puritan not less than the Pilgrim 
 colony was a religious enterprise, planned and carried 
 out by Christian men. These three ministers con- 
 tracted with the company which sent them, "to do 
 their uttermost to further the main end of this planta- 
 tion," to secure " by the assistance of Almighty God 
 the conversion of the savages." Each minister was to 
 have from the company for an outfit twenty pounds. 
 
104 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 also ten pounds for books and a salary of twenty 
 pounds a year. He had free passage to New England, 
 with house, food and firewood, to be furnished by the 
 colony, Higginson had ten pounds a year in addition 
 on account of his large family. 
 
 Ralph Smith soon found his way to Plymouth and 
 became the first pastor in that colony. The other 
 ministers remained at Salem. But somehow it was at 
 once felt that though they were regularly ordained, and 
 the people to whom they came were members of the 
 Church of England, something more was needed to 
 qualify them for the exercise of the pastoral office in 
 this new land. The governor talked the matter over 
 with the chief men of the colony. The result w^as that 
 he appointed a day of fasting and prayer for the con- 
 sideration of church affairs. On that day, July 20, all 
 places of business being closed, Messrs. Higginson and 
 Skelton gave their views as to the church and an- 
 swered questions as to the ministerial calling ; and 
 their statements being satisfactory, a ballot w^as taken, 
 " every fit member voting," and Mr. Skelton was 
 chosen pastor and Mr. Higginson, teacher. This is 
 the first instance on record of the use of the printed 
 ballot in America. These two men accepted the call 
 thus extended, and at once were formally set apart for 
 their work. First Mr. Higginson, with three or four 
 of the gravest members, laid hands on Mr. Skelton 
 with prayer. Then, in like manner, hands were laid on 
 Mr. Higginson. An elder and two deacons were also 
 nominated, but their election was postponed, because 
 it was thought that some more able men might 
 be sent over from England from whom the 
 church might choose. Some have supposed that 
 
THE PURITANS OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY. I05 
 
 there was already a covenant between a few persons, 
 who did the votino- while the rest of the colonists 
 looked on, but the evidence does not support this 
 conjecture. 
 
 The people now had ministers of their choice, but 
 there was as yet no distinct church organization. In 
 England every baptized person was a member of the 
 church. But these Salem Puritans had already taken 
 the first step which made inevitable a separation of the 
 church from the world, of those who surrendered 
 tliemselves to the leadership of Christ and received the 
 Holy Spirit from those who refused that leadership 
 and rejected the Holy Spirit. They had formally 
 elected their own ministers, thus assuming the respon- 
 sibilities of church government which in England 
 belonged only to the bishops and clergy. Naturally 
 the question arose as to who were the proper persons 
 to guide the affairs of the church in Salem. The 
 national church was thousands of miles away, the 
 colonists were beginning in a new land where they 
 must decide for themselves what rules they would fol- 
 low, what institutions they would plant. They had 
 the New Testament as their guide, and they fully 
 believed in it. Mr. Higginson, the newly chosen pas- 
 tor, was requested to draw up a " Confession of faith 
 and church covenant according to the Scripture." 
 Copies of the document so prepared were distributed 
 to thirty selected persons who were invited, by pub- 
 licly adopting this confession and entering into this 
 covenant, to form a church. 
 
 Was this method adopted in imitation of the example 
 of the Separatists of England and of Plymouth ? Did 
 the conversation of Deacon P^uller with Governor Ende- 
 
Io6 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 cott and his fellow colonists persuade them of the wis- 
 dom of thus organizing churches after the apostolic 
 pattern, or did they simply put in practice the teachings 
 of the New Testament ? We cannot answer these 
 questions. The men of that time could not answer 
 them. John Cotton, who came to New England four 
 years after the organization of this Salem Church, 
 wrote, " How far they of Salem take up any practice 
 from Plymouth I do not know. Sure I am that Mr. 
 Skelton was studious of that way before he left Lin- 
 colnshire. If the dissuader knew the spirit of those 
 men who came hither, after Plymouth, he would 
 easily discern that they were not such as would 
 be leavened by vicinity of neighbors, but by the 
 divinity of the truth of God shining forth from the 
 Word." 
 
 But the covenant into which they entered, as Hig- 
 ginson wrote it, so far as it is preserved, was as fol- 
 lows : " We covenant with the Lord and one with 
 another, and do bind ourselves in the presence of 
 God, to walk together in all His ways, according 
 as He is pleased to reveal Himself unto us in 
 His blessed Word of Truth." It was in substance 
 the same as that covenant of the Separatist Church 
 formed in London in 1592, which elected Francis 
 Johnson for its minister and John Greenwood for 
 its teacher. 
 
 These steps having been taken, the 6th of 
 August was appointed as another day of fasting, 
 humiliation and prayer. When the appointed day 
 came all secular business was suspended, both the 
 ministers preached, public services continued through 
 the day, till near its close the confession and covenant 
 
THE PURITANS OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 107 
 
 were read, to which these thirty persons solemnly- 
 assented, and thus constituted a church of Christ. It 
 was necessarily a church of the Congregational order. 
 Then brethren appointed by the church proceeded to 
 install these persons into the offices to which they had 
 appointed them by publicly laying hands on them and 
 by prayer. 
 
 Representatives of that church at Plymouth, one of 
 whom was Governor Bradford, presented themselves, 
 and shared in the closing part of the services, proba- 
 bly in compliance with an invitation for that purpose. 
 Having been detained by adverse winds they did not 
 arrive till the services were in progress, but having 
 heard the statement of the election of officers, the 
 mutual confession and covenant, and the formal 
 induction of the ministers, elder and deacons into 
 office, they in behalf of their church "gave the right 
 hand of fellowship," thus signifying " their approbation 
 and concurrence." 
 
 Thus the ministers who had been at first chosen and 
 set apart for their office by the people of what might 
 be called the parish were by a second service installed 
 as pastor and teacher of the newly organized church. 
 Thus the second Congregational church in America, 
 and the first organized on American soil, began its 
 existence by a voluntary separation from the world of 
 those v^^ho constituted it, and by their voluntary coven- 
 ant to walk together in obedience to Christ. Instead 
 of bishops, priests and curates, set over them without 
 their consent, they chose and set apart ministers with 
 fasting and prayer that the Holy Spirit would direct 
 their choice. Instead of rites and ceremonies imposed 
 on them by the arbitrary will of a monarch led by a 
 
I08 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 hierarchy using the power of the state, they substi- 
 tuted simple forms of worship as the Holy Spirit 
 should lead them. Instead of ecclesiastical courts 
 enforcing conformity, they introduced the princi- 
 ple of the self-government of each local church 
 with such fellowship among the churches, without 
 authority, as would promote purity of life, main- 
 tain general harmony of belief, and secure co-oper- 
 ation in Christian work. This principle, which 
 they introduced into American history, that the 
 church is voluntary and independent of the state, 
 has been slowly but effectually wrought into our 
 national life till it has finally prevailed in all Protes- 
 tant denominations. 
 
 It was not to be expected that methods of church 
 organization and worship which had met with such 
 fierce persecution in England would be adopted in 
 the new colony without opposition both from among 
 its own members and from its supporters in the 
 mother country. Two brothers named Brown, one 
 a lawyer and the other a merchant, attempted to start 
 another conorreeation at Salem, in w^hich the Book of 
 Common Prayer was used and the ceremonies of the 
 Church of England were observed. Perhaps if they 
 had been content with worshiping God in their own 
 way and had refrained from criticising the new depar- 
 ture in church order they would have been let alone. 
 But they felt impelled to testify against the new order 
 so persistently as to threaten faction and division. 
 Having been summoned before the governor, they 
 charged the ministers with being Separatists, and 
 declared their own purpose to maintain worship ac- 
 cording to the order of the Church of England. The 
 
THE PURITANS OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 109 
 
 ministers had not yet realized to what extent these 
 charges were true. They replied that they did not 
 separate from the Church of England, but only from 
 its corruptions and disorders ; that being in a place 
 where they might have liberty, they would not use 
 the Prayer Book nor the ceremonies of the English 
 Church, because they believed these things to be 
 sinful corruptions. To them Episcopacy meant the 
 tyranny of Archbishop Laud and of the Court of 
 High Commission. 
 
 The answer of the ministers, in the opinion of the 
 governor and his council, and of the people generally, 
 was sufficient. Governor Endecott sent the Browns 
 back to England, Their influence there did something 
 to promote disturbance among the supporters of the 
 colony, who wrote letters expressing their dissatisfac- 
 tion and urging the colonists to stop their innovations 
 on established church order and to repent of them. 
 But these admonitions do not seem to have had much 
 effect. Those New England Puritans had begun to 
 be conscious of their independence in a new land, and 
 to forecast the character of the commonwealth whose 
 foundations they were laying. 
 
 There has been much debate as to whether this first 
 Coneregfational church orgranized in America had a 
 distinct confession of faith, or whether that was 
 included with the covenant in one document. The 
 latter seems much more probable, but there need be 
 no question as to the doctrinal belief of the Salem 
 church. The doctrines held by the Puritans, thor- 
 oughly Calvinistic, agreed with those of the Church of 
 England so entirely that there was no need at the first 
 for them to be formally set forth. 
 
ITO 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Yet the church allowed its members reasonable 
 liberty in interpreting its creed and covenant. 
 Nathaniel Morton, writing forty years later of the 
 beginning of the Salem church, says : "The confession 
 of. faith and covenant was acknowledged only as a direc- 
 tion, pointing unto 
 that faith and cov- 
 enant contained in 
 the Holy Scrip- 
 ture; and therefore 
 no man was con- 
 fined unto that 
 form of words, but 
 only to the sub- 
 stance, end and 
 scope of the matter 
 contained therein." 
 While the steps 
 were being taken 
 by which Salem 
 church was or^an- 
 ized, events of 
 great importance 
 to the New World 
 were taking place 
 in England. The increasing severity with which per- 
 secutions of Puritans were pressed, forced many men of 
 prominence seriously to consider emigration to America. 
 Many among these were connected with the Massachu- 
 setts Company ; a number of whom, whose names are 
 now familiar in New England history, entered into a 
 covenant to emigrate to the colony, provided the 
 charter and patent of the company could be legally 
 
 FIRST MEETING HOUSE OF THE FIRST PROTESTANT 
 CHURCH ORGANIZED IN AMERICA, SALEM, MASS., 
 BUILT 1634. 
 
THE PURITANS OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY, III 
 
 carried thither. This brought matters to a crisis, and 
 the company voted in August, 1629, to mals;e the 
 transfer. Matthew Cradock, the Governor, and other 
 officers who could not leave England, resigned, and 
 John Winthrop was chosen governor of the company. 
 He was then forty-one years old, of prominent family, 
 had been a student at Cambridge University, and a 
 lawyer for a number of years. His name is one of 
 the most illustrious in early New England annals. 
 Domestic bereavements had strengfthened his character 
 and enriched his piety. He was a man of remarkable 
 courage, persistence and patience, with a rare com- 
 bination of the qualities needed in the leader of the 
 infant colony. 
 
 The first company to start for New England in the 
 spring of 1630, under the impulse of this new turn of 
 affairs, was organized in Dorchester, England, under 
 the guidance of John White. Its members formed 
 themselves into a church by covenant at Ply- 
 mouth just before sailing, and chose John Warham 
 and John Maverick to be their ministers. Mr. War- 
 ham was a clergyman of the Established Church, 
 living at Exeter. The organization was completed in 
 the New Hospital with a day of fasting and prayer 
 and preaching by Mr. White. This church landed at 
 Nantasket May 30 and soon settled at Mattapan. 
 The settlers called the place Dorchester, after the 
 name of the English town which had been the home of 
 many of them. 
 
 In June Winthrop arrived at Salem in the "Ara- 
 bella" with three other vessels, and most of the 
 remainder of his fleet came to land before July 5. He 
 found the settlement weakened by sickness, discour- 
 
112 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 agement and death, with scanty provisions, and in 
 great fear of the Indians. Salem did not appear to 
 be a suitable location for the capital of the colony. 
 The fleet went to Charlestown, where a settle- 
 ment had already begun, under Governor Endecott's 
 direction, and there in tents, booths and cottages, 
 many of the settlers began their new life. With the 
 company had come two ministers, John Wilson and 
 George Phillips, who held services on Sabbaths and 
 preached under a tree which served as their meeting 
 place. 
 
 July 8, the fieet having all arrived, was observed 
 throughout the plantations as a day of thanksgiving. 
 But severe sickness soon visited Charlestown, prob- 
 ably owing to the hardships of the voyage, exhaust- 
 ing the energies of the less robust. Governor 
 Winthrop asked advice of the church in Salem. 
 Messrs. Fuller, Allerton and Winslow were there at 
 the time on a visit from Plymouth and their advice 
 was also asked. It was agreed to set apart July 30 
 as a day of fasting and prayer. The three settle- 
 ments into which Winthrop's company had divided 
 were invited, with Salem, to observe the day, and 
 Winslow and Fuller wrote to Plymouth that ''they 
 do earnestly entreat that the Church of Plymouth 
 would set apart the same day for the same ends, 
 beseeching the Lord, as to withdraw His hand of cor- 
 rection from them, so also to establish and direct them 
 in His ways." Thus early, even in advance of church 
 organizations, were the people of the colonies drawn 
 together in the common sympathies of a common faith. 
 
 On the appointed day John Winthrop, Isaac John- 
 son, Thomas Dudley and John Wilson, the four 
 
THE PURITANS OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY. II3 
 
 most prominent persons in the Charlestown commu- 
 nity, entered into this simple covenant with God and 
 with one another, thus forming a Christian church : 
 
 " In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, & in 
 Obedience to His holy will & Divine Ordinaunce, 
 
 "Wee whose names are herevnder written, being by 
 His most wise, & good Providence brought together 
 Into this part of America in the Bay of Massachusetts, 
 & desirous to vnite ourselves into one Conerecration, 
 or Church, vnder the Lord Jesus Christ our Head, 
 in such sort as becometh all those whom He hath 
 Redeemed, & Sanctifyed to Himselfe, do hereby sol- 
 emnly, and religiously (as in His most holy Proesence) 
 Promisse, and bind o'^selves, to walke in all our wayes 
 according to the Rule of the Gospell, & in all sincere 
 Conformity to His holy Ordinaunces, & in mutuall 
 love, & respect each to other, so neere as God shall 
 give vs grace." 
 
 The same day a church was formed at Watertown, 
 about forty persons subscribing their names to a cov- 
 enant. They chose George Phillips to be their 
 minister. 
 
 The first general court was held at Charlestown, 
 August 23, when John Winthrop was elected governor 
 of the colony, although he held the position of gov- 
 ernor of the corporation by the appointment he 
 had received before leaving England. The people 
 already began to exercise their privileges as freemen. 
 The court also agreed to provide houses for the min- 
 isters at Charlestown and Watertown, and to pay 
 to Mr. Phillips a salary of thirty pounds. Mr. Wilson 
 was voted a salary of twenty pounds a year till 
 his wife should come over from Engfland. Four 
 
114 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 days later the church at Charlestown, which had largely 
 increased in numbers, observed a day of fasting and 
 prayer, and formally chose John Wilson to be their 
 teacher, Increase Nowell ruling elder, and William 
 Gager and William Aspinwall deacons. These officers 
 were duly installed by the laying on of hands. 
 
 The sickness on account of which the people had 
 set apart a day of fasting and prayer in July did not 
 abate. Many of the wives of prominent men died, 
 including the wife of George Phillips and the Lady 
 Arabella, wife of Isaac Johnson and daughter of 
 the Earl of Lincoln. That autumn two hundred 
 persons succumbed to disease. When the ships re- 
 turned to England, more than one hundred discour- 
 aged persons, among whom were many hired serv- 
 ants, returned in them. Some who were not in 
 sympathy with the aims of the colony left for the settle- 
 ment at the mouth of the Pascataqua River, where 
 they had heard that there were people more to their 
 liking. But the withdrawals were mostly of those 
 who would have hindered more than they would have 
 helped the new settlements. 
 
 Before long the supply of fresh water in Charlestown 
 ran low. Only one spring could be found there, and 
 that was inaccessible at high tide. Across the river 
 at a place called Shawmut, was a fine spring of run- 
 ning water. William Blackstone, a Puritan clergyman, 
 had been living there for some years. He had 
 brought with him to this country a valuable library, 
 and enjoyed study in solitude and the cultivation 
 of his garden. On his invitation the governor and 
 some of the leading men moved thither. In a little 
 while their minister settled on that side of the river 
 
THE PURITANS OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY. I15 
 
 and Sabbath services began to be held there, which the 
 Charlestown brethren attended. The new settlement 
 was called Boston, from the Lincolnshire town in 
 England which had been the home of some of the 
 settlers. 
 
 Boston was not at first fixed on for the capital. A 
 town was laid out for that purpose where Cambridge 
 now is, and it was named Newtown. The governor 
 began to build there. Deputy Governor Dudley 
 finished his house at Newtown and removed to it with 
 his family, But the finger of destiny was pointing all 
 the time to Boston as the metropolis of New England, 
 and the governing powers finally acknowledged the 
 fact. In the autumn of 1631 Governor Winthrop 
 fixed his residence in Boston, and the work of building- 
 up the town was vigorously carried on. 
 
 During the three years following the arrival of Gov- 
 ernor Winthrop and his large company in Massachu- 
 setts Bay the immigrants were few. Sad reports of 
 the mortality that prevailed that first autumn, and evil 
 reports from those who had gone back to England in 
 discouragement, or had been sent home because of 
 misdemeanors, kept back Immigration. In 1631 only 
 about ninety persons arrived, and the next year only 
 about two hundred and fifty. This was to the advan- 
 tage of the new colony, which needed time for its 
 citizens to become acquainted with one another and 
 with their new surroundings and to settle the affairs 
 of government by themselves. 
 
 For about two years the Charlestown people went 
 across the river to Boston to attend public worship. 
 But in the autumn of 1632 enough people had arrived 
 to warrant a new organization. The church at Boston 
 
Il6 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 formally dismissed thirty-five of its members who lived 
 in Charlestown, and these persons organized themselves 
 into a church, November 23 of that year. They 
 elected and installed Thomas James as their pastor, who 
 had arrived from England a short time before, and not 
 long after appointed a ruling elder and two deacons. 
 
 By the end of the year 1632, just twelve years after 
 the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, seven churches 
 had planted themselves around Massachusetts Bay, 
 while to the church of Plymouth two others had been 
 added in that colony, at Marshfield and Scituate. 
 These seven churches were organized in the following 
 order: Salem, 1629; Dorchester, Boston (at Charles- 
 town) and Watertown, 1630; Lynn, Roxbury and 
 Charlestown, 1632. Under the leadership of an 
 admirable governor, with statesmanlike associates, the 
 foundations of a body politic had been securely laid. 
 With unstinted self-sacrifice, high religious aims, a pro- 
 found faith in God, these families in the wilderness 
 had begun to feel the influences of civil and religious 
 freedom in a community generally united in belief and 
 purpose, and to mold the state in accordance with 
 those influences. Already the great Republic was 
 born ; and although almost a century and a half was 
 to pass away before it would attain to its majority, it 
 was even then settled that the twin forces of gov- 
 ernment would be free churches on one hand, and 
 free civil institutions on the other, mutually inde- 
 pendent yet mutually supporting each other in their 
 efforts to realize the divine ideal of man in soci- 
 
 Vety. Our fathers had to work out these ideas of 
 government through discipline and trial. They had 
 to learn the meaning of ecclesiastical and civil freedom 
 
THE PURITANS OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 11/ 
 
 by experiment, not without mistakes, not altogether 
 without intolerance on their part. But they wrought, 
 perhaps, without graver errors in the light of their 
 time than those into which their descendants have 
 fallen, and with a prophetic purpose which has been 
 nobly realized and for which we owe them a great 
 debt. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 EARLY AMERICAN CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 THE first churches formed by the Puritans in the 
 Massachusetts Bay Colony had, as we have seen, 
 no intention of separating themselves from the Church 
 of England. Their pastors and teachers did not in 
 general renounce their Episcopal ordination. They 
 meant only to free themselves from the corruptions of 
 the church which had persecuted them, and caused 
 them to leave their homes to found a nation in the 
 wilderness of the New World. 
 
 But the principles which controlled these Puritans, 
 separated from the immediate domination of the Eng- 
 lish church and state, would inevitably issue in Con- 
 gregational churches and a republican government. 
 Those seven churches which had been formed in the 
 Massachusetts Bay Colony before the spring of 1633^ 
 as well as the three which had been planted in the 
 Plymouth Colony, were in effect independent. Each 
 had originated in a voluntary covenant, had chosen 
 and placed in office its own officers and was adminis- 
 tering its own affairs. They had, however, united with 
 one another in mutual councils. We are now to trace 
 the working out of these ideas of the sufficiency of the 
 local church and of the union of such churches in fel- 
 lowship, without authority over one another, till the 
 polity they represented came to be known as Ameri- 
 can Congregationalism. The providential guidance 
 
 n8 
 
JOHN WINTHROP. 
 
EARLY AMERICAN CONGREGATIONALISM. II9 
 
 which led to that result appears especially in the 
 men who became the leaders in New England, in the 
 exigencies at home which shaped the faith and polity 
 of the churches and made declarations of that faith 
 and polity necessary, and in the influences from 
 England. 
 
 Those who stood for godly living in England against 
 the corruptions of the church and the state were of 
 the right sort to lay solid foundations of free common- 
 wealths. They had exalted ideas of public welfare, 
 and for it in God's name they were ready to make any 
 sacrifices. They were no mere enthusiasts. With 
 them sound learning went hand in hand with holy pur- 
 poses. Never was another colony planted whose early 
 settlers included so large a proportion of men of liberal 
 education. Many of the choicest sons of Cambridge 
 and Oxford universities, especially the former, were 
 among these emigrants. There was at least one 
 graduate from these institutions to every two hundred 
 planters. In the twenty years following the landing 
 of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, seventy-seven ministers 
 and sixteen theological students came with the other 
 immigrants to New England, about one to every one 
 hundred and twenty-five persons. Their coming indi- 
 cates the character of those who came with them. 
 When John Cotton was considering the question of 
 leaving England, his inclination to go was strengthened 
 by the opinion of an elderly minister whom he con- 
 sulted, " that the removing of a minister was like the 
 draining of a fish-pond : the good fish will follow the 
 water, but eels and other baggage fish will stick in 
 the mud." 
 
 No man has left a broader and deeper impress of 
 
I20 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 character on New England life than this same John 
 Cotton. He came to this country in the full flush of 
 his powers, at the age of forty-eight, arriving in Boston 
 September 4, 1633. From being a brilliant scholar at 
 Cambridge and a fellow of Emanuel College, he had 
 gone to be for twenty years the rector of the congrega- 
 tion worshiping in the most magnificent parish church 
 in England, St, Botolph's, at Boston. At last he had 
 been silenced for his nonconformity and had fled to the 
 new Boston, where he was welcomed as a great acces- 
 sion to the ministry of the colony. In the same ship 
 with Cotton came two other ministers, Thomas Hooker 
 and Samuel Stone. Hooker was also in middle life, 
 having been born in England in 1586 in the little 
 hamlet of Marfield, Leicestershire. He too, like his 
 college friend Cotton, who was one year his senior in 
 age, was a graduate of Cambridge and a fellow of 
 Emanuel College. He had been a popular and influ- 
 ential preacher in England, whose views were much to 
 the distaste of Charles I. and Archbishop Laud. But 
 it had been well said of his spirit and courage as a 
 minister, " He was a person who, while doing his 
 Master's work, would put a king in his pocket." He 
 had been silenced, however, and had taken to keeping 
 a private school at Little Baddow, about thirty miles 
 from London. It is chiefly memorable because into 
 that school came as a student John Eliot, afterward a 
 missionary to the American Indians ; and Eliot says 
 of his experience in that " blessed family," " Here the 
 Lord said unto my dead soul, live ; and through the 
 grace of Christ I do live and shall live forever !" 
 
 But it was not possible to check the influence of 
 Thomas Hooker in Enoland as lono- as he himself 
 
EARLY AMERICAN CONGREGATIONALISM. 121 
 
 remained in that kingdom. One of his enemies 
 wrote of him to Dr. Duck, Laud's cliancellor : "His 
 genius will still haunt all the pulpits in the country 
 where any of his scholars may be admitted to preach 
 . . . I have lived in Essex to see many changes, 
 and have seen the people idolizing many new minis- 
 ters and lecturers, but this man . . . gains more 
 and far greater followers than all before him." Hooker 
 was driven out of England, and went to Holland in 
 1630, where he soon found hearers and became 
 acquainted with Hugh Peter, later known as the 
 minister of Salem. While Hooker was in Holland 
 many of his followers found their way to Massachu- 
 setts Bay, and among them John Eliot. They were so 
 numerous that they were known about Boston as " Mr. 
 Hooker's Company." Thither Hooker followed them, 
 bringing with him many more of his loyal friends. 
 
 Samuel Stone, also a graduate of Emanuel, had had, 
 on the recommendation of Thomas Shepard, of the 
 same college, and four years Stone's junior, an appoint- 
 ment as Puritan lecturer at Towcester, in Northamp- 
 tonshire. He was only thirty-one years old when he 
 accepted the invitation of "the judicious Christians 
 that were cominor to New England with Mr. Hooker," 
 to join them as Hooker's assistant. The Puritans of 
 Massachusetts, who had a greater fund of humor than 
 has usually been credited to them, used to say that the 
 ship in which these three men sailed for New England 
 brought to this country " three great necessities : 
 Cotton for their clothing. Hooker for their fishing, and 
 Stone for their building." With them also came 
 John Haynes, afterward governor of the colony. 
 
 These ministers, of matured convictions, large schol- 
 
122 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 arship and experience as popular religious leaders, 
 joined others who were their peers in the young 
 colony, where the experiment of free churches in a 
 free state was to be worked out by men still under the 
 influence of the English Church and English* mon- 
 archy, and nominally, at least, under their control. 
 What would these Englishmen create for their spir- 
 itual and temporal government with such materials, 
 when separated for conscience' sake from old associa- 
 tions in a new land ? No more interesting problem 
 appears in history than that which these men worked 
 out, whose result is seen in this great Republic of the 
 United States of America, leavened but not ruled by 
 free churches of Jesus Christ. Whoever would insist 
 on judging the efforts of the men of those early years, 
 when the problem was being courageously and labori- 
 ously wrought out, by the standards which have now 
 at length resulted from those labors, is deficient in 
 historic sense. Even througrh mistakes which our 
 fathers made and suffered from, always aiming at that 
 liberty which is our glory, we have come into the 
 inheritance of the institutions for which they labored 
 and prayed, "having seen them and greeted them 
 from afar, and having confessed that they were stran- 
 gers and pilgrims on the earth." 
 
 John Cotton was promptly called to be teacher of the 
 church in Boston, John Wilson, their first teacher, hav- 
 ing been chosen to the office of pastor ; and on the loth 
 of October, Cotton having accepted the call, was set 
 apart by the laying on of hands, with a prayer of the 
 pastor and elders of the church. Neighboring pastors, 
 being present, gave him the right hand of fellowship. 
 Mr. Cotton's ideas of church government must have 
 
EARLY AMERICAN CONGREGATIONALISM. 1 23 
 
 changed considerably since he had left England ; for 
 before he left, he wrote to Mr. Skelton at Salem, com- 
 plaining because Skelton had refused to baptize the 
 child of Mr. Coddington, for the reason that he had not 
 united with any particular " Reformed Church," al- 
 thouijh he was a member of the Church of England. 
 Yet Mr. Cotton at his installation stated that he had 
 not been willing to baptize his own child Seaborn, born 
 during the voyage, because they had no settled congre- 
 gation on the ship, and " because a minister has no 
 power to give the seals but in his own congregation." 
 Mr. Cotton already had come to believe that the minis- 
 terial office was identical with the pastorate of a par- 
 ticular church. The next day after Mr. Cotton's settle- 
 ment at Boston, Mr. Hooker was chosen pastor and 
 Mr. Stone teacher at Newtown, which was soon after 
 called Cambridge, the church probably having been 
 already organized. At any rate a meeting house had 
 been erected the previous year with a bell on it. 
 
 By this time the population of the towns and planta- 
 tions of the Bay was at least three thousand, and there 
 were thirteen or fourteen ministers, who had been 
 eminent clergymen of the Church of England. New- 
 town had about one hundred families, all of whom were 
 of Mr. Hooker's congregation. It was a thrifty and 
 pleasant community, and its people, like those of the 
 neiehborinof towns, were conscientious, intelligfent, 
 religious and Puritan in character. But Boston had 
 already been fixed on as the seat of government, and 
 Mr. Cotton speedily acquired large influence there. 
 It was said of him, that "whatever he delivered in the 
 pulpit was soon put into an order of court, if of a civil, 
 or set up as a practice in the church, if of an ecclesias- 
 
124 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 tical, concernment." Cotton leaned toward aristocracy 
 in government, both in church and state. Not long 
 after his arrival here, he wrote to Lord Say and Sele : 
 " Democracy I do not conceive that God ever did 
 ordain as a fit orovernment either for church or com- 
 monwealth. If the people be governors, who shall be 
 the governed ?" He preached a sermon at the first 
 Court of Elections after he came to Boston, in May, 
 1634, to show "that a magistrate ought not to be 
 turned into the condition of a private man without just 
 cause ; " and Governor Winthrop also favored that 
 view. It took practical form two years later in the 
 action of the General Court establishino- a Standinor 
 Council, to consist of " a certain number of magfistrates 
 for the term of their lives," with authority to exercise 
 powers " out of court," such as the Legislature might 
 give them. Hooker was democratic in his tendencies, 
 and naturally these views were distasteful to him. The 
 historian Hubbard says of him " After his coming it 
 was observed that many of the freemen [men on whom 
 were conferred the rights of citizenship] grew to be 
 very jealous of their liberties." The sturdy independ- 
 ence of these freemen soon asserted itself against the 
 permanent tenure of office, and against the formation 
 of any ruling class in society. But the struggle 
 between the principles of aristocracy and democracy 
 was constantly going on, in which these two ministers 
 took prominent part with opposing views which finally 
 led to the departure of Mr. Hooker and his followers 
 to plant a new colony in the Connecticut Valley, 
 
 As early as 1631 the General Court had decided that 
 " no man shall be admitted to the freedom of this body 
 politic, but such as are members of some of the churches 
 
EARLY AMERICAN CONGREGATIONALISM. 125 
 
 within the limits of the same." EnorHsh law would 
 have required as much, but the English Church would 
 have made all the people members of it by baptism. 
 The Massachusetts churches would admit no one to 
 membership except those who were regarded as regen- 
 erate souls. Four years later the General Court decided 
 that no new churches should be formed without the 
 consent of the civil magistrates and the elders of the 
 churches. Thus were fostered both theocratic and aris- 
 tocratic tendencies in government, in which of course 
 the ministers would have ofreat influence. Soon after 
 Mr. Cotton's arrival a semi-monthly ministers' meeting 
 was established, at which " some question of moment 
 was debated." Some, among them Mr. Skelton of 
 Salem, objected to this organization, as Winthrop says, 
 " fearing it might grow in time to a presbytery or super- 
 intendency, to the prejudice of the churches' liberties." 
 But the majority of the ministers favored and main- 
 tained it. Thursday lectures by the ministers were 
 soon established in Boston, Dorchester, Roxbury and 
 Newtown. They included a wide range of subjects, 
 and sometimes provoked opposition. At one of them 
 in Boston, when Mr. Cotton had spoken against the 
 necessity of women wearing veils in church, Mr. Ende- 
 cott, who was present, disputed with him till the discus- 
 sion became so hot between them that Governor Win- 
 throp interposed. 
 
 Mr. Hooker appears to have looked with some 
 apprehension on the limiting of authority in govern- 
 ment to the church members or to the educated classes. 
 He replied to a defense by Governor Winthrop of 
 restriction of suffrage by saying, "In matters which 
 concern the common good a general council chosen by 
 
126 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 all to transact businesses which concern all, I conceive 
 most suitable to rule and most safe for relief for the 
 whole." Hooker had many followers, especially in 
 Newtown, Watertown and Dorchester, which as early 
 as 1633 organized town governments, with selectmen. 
 
 While Cotton and his associates were on their 
 voyage from England to America, William Laud was 
 made Archbishop of Canterbury in England, and he 
 promptly placed himself at the head of a special 
 commission to control English colonial affairs. This 
 he followed by a summons to the Massachusetts Bay 
 Company to return its charter. In the perplexity 
 which followed this summons the magistrates of the 
 colony called together the ministers and asked their 
 counsel on this question : " What ought we to do if a 
 eeneral Qrovernor should be sent out to us from Eno- 
 land?" The ministers replied, "We ought not to 
 accept him, but defend our lawful possessions if we 
 are able ; otherwise to avoid or protract." This inci- 
 dent illustrates the perils to which the colony was 
 exposed from the interference of the home govern- 
 ment, and also the influence of the ministers over the 
 colonial magistrates. 
 
 This incident will help also to explain an episode which 
 properly finds mention at this point, which has greater 
 civil than religio,us significance. Roger W^illiams was 
 a young minister who had come over from England 
 in 1 63 1, and had been employed for a short time by the 
 church in Salem against the remonstrances of the magis- 
 trates. The next year he was preaching in Plymouth, 
 but on the death of Mr. Skelton in 1634 he became the 
 sole minister of the Salem church. As a conscientious 
 disturber of the peace, he stands unsurpassed in New 
 
EARLY AMERICAN CONGREGATIONALISM. 12/ 
 
 England history. He managed to urge important 
 truths with such an interweaving of dangerous errors 
 that he stirred up wrangles wherever he went. He 
 proclaimed the principle of religious toleration in 
 advance of his time, and he seems to have had a 
 sweetness of temper which never gave away before the 
 righteous wrath which he everywhere aroused. The 
 evils he inflicted on others he intended to be for 
 their useful discipline, and he repeatedly returned 
 kindness for the punishment they inflicted on him. 
 He denounced King James as a liar, and King 
 Charles, then on the throne of England, as an unclean 
 spirit and a wanton, applying to him some of the most 
 objectionable passages in the Book of Revelation ; and 
 there was enough of truth in these assertions to make 
 them dangerous. He attacked the precious charter 
 of Massachusetts and declared it worthless, saying that 
 the people were unjustly usurping the possessions of 
 the Indians. These things were enough to put the 
 peace of the colony in peril and even its very existence 
 should his words be reported, as they were likely to 
 be, in England. But he found ways to come even 
 closer home to the sensibilities of the colonists. He 
 tried to influence the political action of the General 
 Court by persuading his church to ask other churches 
 to discipline those of their members who as town 
 representatives would not vote to allow a petition of 
 Salem to receive a grant of public land. When these 
 churches did not act on this request, he tried to per- 
 suade the Salem church to withdraw fellowship from 
 them. When that church would not do as he desired 
 he withdrew his fellowship from it, and when his wife 
 continued to attend the church he withdrew fellowship 
 
128 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 from her and refused to pray in the family in her 
 presence. Besides all these proceedings he would not 
 become a freeman of the colony, and tried in his pulpit 
 to persuade others to decline to take the oath of 
 allegiance to the government. 
 
 It was simply a matter of self-protection, and not at 
 all a theological question, which led the General Court 
 to summon Mr. Williams before it for trial ; and, when 
 he persisted in maintaining his opinions, to order him 
 to leave the colony within six weeks. This action was 
 taken in October, 1635. But being given a respite till 
 the next spring, he made so much mischief during the 
 winter that a military guard was sent to Salem in 
 January to bring him to Boston and put him on board 
 a ship bound for England. Being seasonably warned, 
 however, by Governor Winthrop, he escaped to Narra- 
 gansett Bay, and in the summer of 1636 began a settle- 
 ment at Providence. 
 
 Meanwhile Mr. Hooker and his friends had been, 
 almost from the time of his arrival, looking about for 
 some region where they could plant a colony for them- 
 selves. In the summer of 1634 they sent a pioneer 
 party of six persons to Connecticut ; and the fall meet- 
 ing of the General Court was largely occupied with the 
 discussion concerning the request of the people of 
 Newtown to remove to Connecticut. The court or- 
 dered a day of fasting and prayer to seek guidance of 
 the Lord on the matter, and the Newtow^n people were 
 finally persuaded to accept more land in the neighbor- 
 hood of Watertown and what is now Newton ; *' and 
 so the fear of their removal to Connecticut w^as 
 removed." 
 
 Their departure, however, was only delayed. There 
 
EARLY AMERICAN CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 129 
 
 seem to be good reasons for believing that Mr. Hooker 
 preferred more democratic ideas of government, both 
 in the church and the state, than those which prevailed 
 in the Massachusetts colony ; and that many others 
 agreed with him. In • 
 
 the spring of 1635 
 the court gave per- 
 mission to companies 
 in Dorchester and 
 Watertown to re- 
 move to Connec- 
 ticut. Those who 
 went endured great 
 hardships the ensu- 
 ing winter. But the 
 tidings of their suffer- 
 ings did not deter 
 the Newtown church 
 from following them. 
 Early in 1636, a con- ^M 
 siderable company | |j 
 havinof arrived from 
 England, Mr. Hook- 
 er's people were able 
 to sell their houses 
 to these newcomers. 
 Another church in 
 Newtown was organized February i, with Thomas 
 Shepard as pastor ; and by the last of May, the New- 
 town pilgrims, about one hundred in number, were on 
 their journey. It was a toilsome way through a path- 
 less wilderness, over mountains and across unbridged 
 rivers, with only a compass for a guide. Mrs. Hooker, 
 
 =r^^ 
 
 MEETING-HOUSE OF FIRST CHURCH, HARTFORD, 
 CONN. ERECTED 1807. 
 
I30 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA, 
 
 being an invalid, was carried on a litter. They were 
 about a fortnight on the way ; but they all came safely 
 at last to the place on the Connecticut River where 
 they began their settlement, which they called Hart- 
 ford, in remembrance of Mr. Stone's native town in 
 Enofland. The church which emig-rated from Dor- 
 Chester settled at Windsor, under the leadership of its 
 minister, John Warham. This exodus from the three 
 Massachusetts towns, which resulted in the plant- 
 ing of the three original river towns of Connecticut — 
 Hartford, Windsor and Wethersfield — took away from 
 Massachusetts about one-quarter of her strength. Yet 
 such was the value which these Puritans of Massachu- 
 setts Bay placed on education that in this year of trial 
 the General Court appropriated four hundred pounds 
 for the bes^inninor of a collegre at Newtown, and the 
 name of that place, in honor of the fact, was changed 
 to Cambridge. 
 
 It is quite possible that the fellowship of the New 
 England churches was saved too severe a test in this 
 early period of their history by this exodus to Connec- 
 ticut. But other exio-encies were soon to arise which 
 would call for more definite statements than the churches 
 had yet given, both of their faith and their polity. 
 Mrs. Anne Hutchinson had been a parishioner and an 
 admirer of Mr. Cotton in England. She was a woman 
 of ambition and influence, of attractive manners and 
 not wanting in self-confidence. She regarded herself 
 as peculiarl}^ qualified to instruct others in religion. 
 She believed that she was favored with special revela- 
 tions from God. Soon after Mr. Cotton left for New 
 England she said : " It was revealed to me that I must 
 go thither also." Her husband, Winthrop says, was 
 
132 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 "a man of very mild temper and weak parts, wholly 
 guided by his wife." In these facts are all the 
 materials needed for a lively church disturbance. 
 Mrs. Hutchinson, on her arrival in Boston, promptly 
 sought admission into Mr. Cotton's church. Some 
 question of her orthodoxy arose at her examination, 
 but she was received November 2, 1634. She soon 
 began to hold weekly meetings at her own house. 
 These appear to have been a kind of Bible readings, 
 but especially she made them occasions for repeating 
 and explaining to her hearers the substance of Mr. 
 Cotton's sermons. 
 
 Mrs. Hutchinson's meetings soon became popular, 
 the most prominent people of the town attending 
 them. The next autumn after her arrival young Sir 
 Henry Vane came to Boston, and was welcomed as a 
 great addition to its society. He became a disciple of 
 Mrs. Hutchinson. Mr. Cotton was captivated by 
 her. In May, 1636, Vane was chosen Governor. 
 Mrs. Hutchinson's brother-in-law, John Wheelwright, 
 supported her views, and therefore met with her 
 approval. But Mr. Cotton's colleague, Mr. Wilson. 
 Governor Winthrop, Hugh Peter, who had come to 
 be pastor of the Salem church, and a number of others, 
 were proof against her persuasive powers. These, 
 and indeed all who did not accept her views, she 
 declared to be under " a covenant of works," while she 
 and her followers were under " a covenant of grace." 
 She extolled Mr. Cotton and Mr. Wheelwright, but the 
 other ministers she regarded as unfit to preach. She 
 believed that those enlightened directly by the Spirit, 
 as she was, could preach better than the " black 
 coats" from the " ninniversity " — epithets which seem 
 
EARLY AMERICAN CONGREGATIONALISM. 1 33 
 
 to need no other evidence of their feminine origin. 
 Mr. Wilson became so unpopular that, when he rose 
 to preach, a large part of the congregation would leave 
 the house, Mrs, Hutchinson taught that those who 
 were under the covenant of grace had an immediate 
 disclosure from the Holy Spirit that they were saved ; 
 that they had or could have revelations from heaven ; 
 and that the evidence of their salvation lay in the 
 revelation to them of the fact, and not in any evidence 
 of improvement in moral character. These views, 
 Winthrop says, had "many branches." Probably Mrs. 
 Hutchinson herself was not able to make all of them 
 very clear either to her own mind or to the minds of 
 her followers. But she succeeded in bringing the 
 churches of the entire colony into turmoil. The 
 Boston church came very near division, with Mr. 
 Cotton leading one faction and Mr. Wilson the 
 other. 
 
 January 19, 1637, was observed as a day of fasting 
 and prayer in view of these dissensions, and Mr. 
 Wheelwright preached a sermon for which the court 
 found him guilty of sedition. On account of the ex- 
 citement in Boston the next Court of Elections, May 
 17, w^as held at Cambridge, the views of Mrs. Hutch- 
 inson being the sole issue in the campaign. The 
 feeling was so intense that physical violence was hardly 
 avoided. Mr. Wilson, in his eagerness to be heard, 
 climbed a tree and used it as a pulpit from which to 
 address the voters assembled in the field. The anti- 
 Hutchinsonians triumphed. Vane was not re-elected 
 governor, and soon afterward returned to England. 
 Winthrop was chosen in his place. 
 
 Befot-e autumn the excitement had somewhat abated, 
 
134 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 though another day of humiHation and prayer had 
 been observed on account of the trouble. Mr. Hooker 
 had been from the first opposed to the Hutchinson- 
 ians. In April he had written to Winthrop : " I did 
 rejoice from the root of my heart that the Lord did 
 and hath graciously kept you from the taint of those 
 new-coined conceits." Thomas Shepard of Newtown 
 heartily sympathized with Hooker, who had now 
 become his father-in-law; and most of the ministers 
 outside of Boston agreed with them. The final 
 settlement of the matter being vital to the peace of 
 the colony, the General Court convened at Cambridge 
 the first general council or synod held in New England. 
 It consisted of "all the teaching elders through the 
 country" and of "messengers from the churches," 
 " about twenty-five godly ministers of Christ besides 
 many other graciously eminent servants of His." The 
 assembly met August 30, and continued in session over 
 three weeks. Peter Bulkeley of Concord and Thomas 
 Hooker of Hartford were chosen moderators. The 
 debates were very earnest, especially as many things 
 said must have reflected rather severely on Mr. Cotton. 
 " Solemn speeches were made with tears," says Cotton 
 Mather, "lamenting that they should in this im- 
 portant matter dissent from a person so venerable 
 and considerable in the country." In its result the 
 council stated and condemned eighty-two erroneous 
 opinions, and nine unwholesome expressions, be- 
 sides specifying many texts of Scripture which 
 had been abused. Mr. Cotton would not sign the 
 result, but he seems to have at last accepted it, with 
 qualifications. The council unanimously decided that 
 meetings of women in which one woman undertook to 
 
EARLY AMERICAN COXGREGATIOXAI.ISM, 135 
 
 teach doctrines were disorderly ; that disputes in the 
 public assembly after sermon by private members were 
 unjustifiable ; that members refusing to answer the 
 summons of the church might be proceeded against, 
 though absent ; and that members disagreeing with 
 their own churches in matters of doctrine should not 
 be granted letters of dismission to other churches. 
 
 The government paid the traveling and other ex- 
 penses incident to the assembly, and Governor Win- 
 throp was so pleased with its results that he proposed 
 that meetings should be held annually. This proposal 
 was favorably regarded but not acted on. The good 
 sense of the ministers saved them from such a step 
 toward Presbyterianism, and doubtless the jealousy of 
 the people toward permanent ecclesiastical assemblies 
 helped them to refrain from establishing such a body. 
 
 The dissensions, however, did not end with the 
 dissolution of the council. Mr. Wheelwright kept on 
 preaching the opinions which had been condemned. 
 Alienations continued in families and between neiofh- 
 bors. The court in October summoned Mr. Wheel- 
 wright and questioned him. He dared them to pro- 
 ceed. Finally the court' pronounced sentence of ban- 
 ishment against him and Mrs. Hutchinson, and a 
 number of prominent citizens who sympathized with 
 them were fined and disarmed. Mrs. Hutchinson re- 
 mained in the colony till spring, when she was tried by 
 the Boston church and excommunicated. She went to 
 Rhode Island and Mr. Wheelwright to Pascataqua. 
 Five years later she and all her household except one 
 child were massacred by the Mohawk Indians. Her 
 career was a trying one, both to the civil government 
 of the colony and to the churches. But one cannot 
 
136 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 withhold admiration for her ability, respect for her 
 earnestness and sympathy for her misfortunes. When 
 the tide of popular favor turned against her she was 
 undoubtedly treated with undue severity, which even 
 the precarious state of the colony could only partly 
 excuse. 
 
JOHN DAVENPORT. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE CAMBRIDGE SYNOD. 
 
 THE Hutchinson troubles brought unfortunate re- 
 sults to the Massachusetts colony in various ways. 
 While they were at their height in the summer of 1637 
 John Davenport, an intimate friend of Mr. Cotton, 
 came over from England with a wealthy gentleman, 
 Theophilus Eaton, and two shiploads of emigrants. 
 How far they were influenced by these troubles against 
 remaining in Massachusetts is uncertain. But they 
 were in full sympathy with the prevailing views of the 
 colony concerning government, and it had been ex- 
 pected that they would join it. However, the next 
 spring they went to the northern shore of Long Island 
 Sound, and founded at Quinnipiack the New Haven 
 colony. The news of the religious and political dis- 
 turbances in Boston was also carried back to England 
 and probably hindered further emigration to New Eng- 
 land. Cotton sent word to the English Puritans 
 early in that year " that all the strife among us is 
 about magnifying the grace of God . . . and that if 
 there are any among them that would strive for grace 
 they should come hither." 
 
 But though the tidings of the dissensions hindered 
 the coming of the desired immigrants, they caused 
 anxious inquiries from the old country concerning the 
 belief of the New England churches and the princi- 
 ples and methods by which they were governed. In 
 
 13/ 
 
138 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 1637 came "a letter from many ministers in Old Eng- 
 land " making inquiry concerning " nine positions," 
 relating to the use of a liturgy, admission to the sac- 
 raments, church membership, excommunication and 
 ministerial standing. About the same time also the 
 English Puritans sent to New England " thirty-two 
 questions," concerning the whole field of church polity. 
 They asked about the way churches were organized, 
 the settlement of ministers, lay preaching, the powers 
 of synods and councils. These inquiries brought forth 
 from New England ministers answers, to which again 
 the English ministers made rejoinders ; and during 
 the years from 1636 to 1648 an extensive literature was 
 produced which helped to settle and define the princi- 
 ples of Congregationalism. 
 
 John Cotton was a prolific writer on these topics, in 
 various treatises printed in England, of which the most 
 noted was entitled, " The Keys of the Kingdom of 
 Heaven." Richard Mather of Dorchester wrote an 
 elaborate reply to the thirty-two questions, which, 
 though it was entirely his own production, the min- 
 isters generally approved. The views of the time were 
 those of Barrowe rather than those of Browne. While 
 they placed governing power entirely in the local church 
 they made the ruling elders practically the church so far 
 as government was concerned. The New England minis- 
 ters held that the will of Christ must rule the church ; but 
 that in case of difference of opinion the elders, and not 
 the majority of the members, should interpret Christ's 
 will. They held that the whole church had a voice in 
 its government in that the members, by their silence, 
 could give assent to the judgment of the elders ; and 
 that if any should dissent, they should be labored with 
 
THE CAMBRIDGE SYNOD. 1 39 
 
 to change their judgment. If such labor failed they 
 were to be admonished as factious and as a final resort 
 their votes nullified. The ministers denied that this 
 was an aristocracy, and tried to persuade themselves 
 that it was a wise middle way between Presbyterianism 
 and Brownism. But it was after all, as Samuel Stone 
 of Hartford said, " A speaking aristocracy in the face 
 of a silent democracy." 
 
 Meanwhile the course of Puritanism in Old England 
 was different from that in New England. Especially 
 the Puritans in New England emphasized the suffi- 
 ciency of the local church, while in Old England the 
 tendency increased toward Presbyterianism, giving the 
 authority into the hands of ministers and representa- 
 tives of the churches in presbyteries and synods. 
 The Westminster Assembly, called by Parliament in 
 1643 without the approval of the king, became the 
 more surely Presbyterian because the Episcopalians 
 who were loyal to the king refused to attend it. From 
 New England Messrs. Cotton, Hooker and Davenport 
 received an invitation to " assist in the synod," from 
 Lord Say and Sele, Cromwell and some thirty other 
 minority members of Parliament. Cotton and Daven- 
 port were inclined to accept the invitation, but 
 Hooker opposed accepting, and his view prevailed, 
 being re-enforced by letters from English friends. It 
 was evident that the views of Congregationalists would 
 be rejected there. Though there were some ten mem- 
 bers of the assembly during its sessions who " stood for 
 independency," they were a hopeless minority. Yet 
 these Congregationalists commanded the respect of the 
 assembly and were the peers of its ablest members. 
 
 But the preparations in England for that assembly 
 
140 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 crave new interest to the discussions in New Ens^land 
 concerning Presbyterianism. Some of the ministers 
 favored its principles ; especially Thomas Parker and 
 James Noyes, pastor and teacher of the church at 
 Newbury. To prevent the spread of the dissensions 
 which were arising at Newbury from this cause, a 
 convention was held in Newtown, by that time called 
 Cambridge, in September, 1643. It included all the 
 ministers in the country, about fifty, and such of the 
 rulinof elders as desired to attend. Cotton of Massa- 
 chusetts and Hooker of Connecticut were moderators. 
 This meeting made no formal deliverance, but disap- 
 proved of some features of Presbyterianism, and pre- 
 sented its reasons for so doing to the Newbury 
 brethren. The convention maintained that the votes of 
 the church members were necessary in admitting and ex- 
 communicating persons ; that those were not fit mem- 
 bers who practiced known sins or neglected known 
 duty; that stated conferences of the churches were 
 necessary ; that in each particular church the power 
 should usually be exercised by the elders; and that the 
 parish churches in England, where all who had been 
 baptized were counted as members, could not be right 
 without a renewal of the covenant, including only those 
 who joined in it. These opinions seem to have had 
 little weight with the Newbury ministers, for the 
 trouble in their church continued. 
 
 In England many books were coming from the 
 press on the subject of Presbyterianism, some of 
 them directly criticising the New England church 
 polity. One of these, Professor Samuel Rutherford's 
 " Due Right of Presbyteries," the New England Con- 
 gregationalists thought should be answered. Replies 
 
THE CAMBRIDGE SYNOD. I4I 
 
 were written by Mr. Davenport on " The Power of 
 Congregational Churches," and by Mr. Hooker, " A 
 Survey of the Sum of Church DiscipHne." These 
 manuscripts were examined and approved by a general 
 meeting of ministers at Cambridge, July, 1645, but the 
 ship in which they were sent to England to be printed 
 was never heard from after leaving port. Hooker 
 reluctantly rewrote his " Survey," but it was not pub- 
 lished till after his death. In the preface is a summary 
 of principles, which so clearly represents the Congre- 
 gational polity that it is hereunder reproduced. It 
 is only needful to make comments on tw^o points. 
 Hooker's assertion that there ought to be no ordina- 
 tion of a minister at large no longer stands for Con- 
 gregational usage. By consociations and synods he 
 means simply advisory councils. Hooker's summary is 
 as follows : 
 
 • " If the Reader shall demand how far this w^ay of 
 church-proceeding receives approbation by any com- 
 mon concurrence amongst us : I shall plainly and 
 punctually express myself in a word of truth, in these 
 following points, viz. 
 
 " Visible saints are the only true and meet matter, 
 whereof a visible church should be gathered, and 
 confederation is the form. 
 
 " The church as totutn essentiale, is, and may be, 
 before officers. 
 
 "There is no Presbyteriall church {i. e., a church 
 made up of the elders of many Congregations ap- 
 pointed classickwise, to rule all those Congregations) 
 in the New Testament. 
 
 "A church Congregational is the first subject of the 
 keys. 
 
142 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 •^ Each congregation completely constituted of all 
 officers, hath sufficient power in herself, to exercise 
 the power of the keys and all church discipline, in all 
 the censures thereof. 
 
 " Ordination is not before election. 
 
 " There ought to be no ordination of a minister at 
 large, namely, such as should make him pastor without 
 a people. 
 
 " The election of the people hath an instrumental 
 causal virtue under Christ, to give an outward call 
 unto an officer. 
 
 "Ordination is only a solemn installing of an officer 
 into the office, unto which he was formerly called. 
 
 " Children of such, who are members of coneregra- 
 tions, ought only to be baptized. 
 
 " The consent of the people gives a causal virtue to 
 the completing of the sentence of excommunication. 
 
 "Whilst the church remains a true church of 
 Christ, it doth not lose this power, nor can it lawfully 
 be taken away. 
 
 " Consociation of churches should be used, as occa- 
 sion doth require. 
 
 " Such consociations and synods have allowance to 
 counsel and admonish other churches, as the case 
 may require. 
 
 " And if they grow obstinate in error or sinful mis- 
 carriages, they should renounce the right hand of 
 fellowship with them. 
 
 " But they have no power to excommunicate. 
 
 " Nor do their constitutions bind formaliter & 
 juridice. 
 
 But the " New England way" of church government 
 thus simply described met with continued opposition, 
 
THE CAMBRIDGE SYNOD. I43 
 
 as well from political as from religious reasons. Some, 
 like Messrs. Parker and Noyes of Newbury, conscien- 
 tiously preferred Presbyterianism. Others sought 
 such changes in church polity as would aid them to 
 gain the rights of citizenship. The limitation of the 
 franchise to church members deprived the larger por- 
 tion of the people of any active share in the gov- 
 ernment. Out of the fifteen thousand persons in 
 the Massachusetts colony in 1643, only one thousand 
 seven hundred and eight had become citizens, and 
 many of these had removed to Connecticut. In the 
 Plymouth colony, although the ecclesiastical test was 
 not applied, the restrictions were so great that out of 
 three thousand persons only two hundred and thirty 
 had the right to vote. Local causes of irritation also 
 strenorthened the feeling of discontent with ecclesias- 
 tical authority which seemed to some to savor of 
 tyranny. A conflict arose in 1645 between a party in 
 the church at Hingham and the General Court over 
 the appointment of a captain of militia. An attempt 
 was made, led by the minister, Peter Hobart, to 
 excommunicate from the church Captain Eames, of 
 whom the soldiery wished to be rid. This act would 
 have deprived him of citizenship. Governor Win- 
 throp and some of the magistrates took the part of 
 Eames, and the case occupied the attention for a 
 considerable time both of the Legislature and the 
 ministers. Governor Winthrop, having been accused 
 of exceeding his powers because he fined and committed 
 to jail some of the Hingham citizens, was tried by the 
 General Court and acquitted. The ministers censured 
 Mr. Hobart and upheld the magistrates. Hobart was 
 heavily fined, but he had many sympathizers, who. 
 
144 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 with him, were regarded by the party in power as 
 unpatriotic and seditious because they talked of ap- 
 pealing to the English Parliament from what they 
 claimed were unauthorized acts of the colonial govern- 
 ment. Such an appeal was finally made as the result 
 of a movement begun by one of Mr. Hobart's neigh- 
 bors, William Vassall. A memorial was prepared to 
 be sent to Parliament, complaining that freeborn sub- 
 jects of England residing- in the colony were denied 
 their liberties because their consciences would not 
 permit them to enter into the church covenants. 
 While this memorial was bei.ng prepared, seven persons 
 of some prominence presented the same statements 
 in substance to the General Court of Massachusetts, 
 giving formal notice that they would appeal to Parlia- 
 ment unless the court should grant their request. 
 Eventually the court declared that no appeal from its 
 proceedings could be allowed, while acknowledging 
 that the colony owed allegiance to the authorities in 
 England. It thus practically asserted the independ- 
 ence of the colonies, which one hundred and forty 
 years later was formally affirmed in the Declaration of 
 Independence. But the court denied the reasonable 
 petition, and punished the men who made it with 
 imprisonment and heavy fines. 
 
 These disturbances aroused afresh the sensitiveness 
 of both magistrates and people to the constant danger 
 to which their government was exposed by appeals to 
 English authorities. To guard against that danger it 
 was important that the constitution of the churches, and 
 the conditions of admission to them by which men 
 might also become freemen, should be clearly defined. 
 The Assembly, now known as the Westminster, then 
 
THE CAMBRIDGE SYNOD. I45 
 
 in session, suggested a way in which this could be done. 
 Some of the ministers of the Massachusetts colony 
 requested the General Court at its meeting in May, 
 1646, to pass an act which they had drawn up, summon- 
 ing the churches to assemble by their representatives in 
 a synod for the purpose of agreeing on a uniform prac- 
 tice in all the churches. The magistrates passed the 
 act, but some of the deputies objected that civil magis- 
 trates had not the authority to command the churches to 
 determine what should be uniform practice, nor to com- 
 pel them to adopt what the synod should decide. The 
 act was therefore modified so that the court requested, 
 instead of commanding the churches to convene ; and 
 it was explained that the synod was called only to 
 present counsel from the Word of God, which the 
 court would be at liberty to accept or reject according 
 as they should see cause. The act was then passed 
 by both branches of the court. 
 
 The call mentioned the fact that there were differ- 
 ences of opinion and practice among the churches, 
 especially directing attention to questions concerning 
 church membership and the baptism of children of 
 non-communicants ; and expressed the desire of the 
 court "that there be a public assembly of the elders 
 and other messengers of the several churches within 
 this jurisdiction, who may come together and meet at 
 Cambridge upon the first day of September, now next 
 ensuing ; there to discuss, dispute and clear up by the 
 Word of God such questions of church government 
 and discipline in the things afore mentioned, or any 
 other, as they shall think needful and meet, and to 
 continue so doing till they, or the major part of them, 
 shall have agreed and consented upon one form of 
 
146 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 government and discipline, for the main and sub- 
 stantial parts thereof, as that which they judge agree- 
 able to the Holy Scriptures." 
 
 When the synod met in Cambridge, September i, 
 it was found that all the churches of Massachusetts 
 colony were represented except four. The minister at 
 Concord was unable to be present. The Hingham 
 church, of course, would not be represented. But the 
 churches of Boston and Salem made serious objections, 
 not overcome without diligent efforts, occupying sev- 
 eral days ; and in the case of Boston, though dele- 
 gates were finally sent, a considerable minority of 
 the church protested. However, the synod as organ- 
 ized had the support of all, except one, of the twenty- 
 nine churches of Massachusetts, the two churches in 
 New Hampshire, and the approval of the twenty-two 
 churches of Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven, 
 some of whom were represented by their ministers or 
 delegates. The two weeks of the first session were 
 largely taken up with discussions concerning the 
 authority of the civil magistrates in religious matters, 
 and concerning the nature of powers of a synod. John 
 Cotton, Richard Mather and Ralph Partridge, the last 
 named being minister at Duxbury, were appointed each 
 to prepare a " model of church government" for consid- 
 eration at the next meeting, and the synod adjourned 
 to June 8, 1647. The session which met on that date 
 was a brief one, because of an epidemic which caused 
 the death of many people, among whom were Governor 
 Winthrop's wife and Mr. Hooker of Hartford. 
 
 Meanwhile affairs in England were rapidly drifting 
 toward revolution, and it was becoming evident that 
 influences were gaining ascendency which would favor 
 
THE CAMBRIDGE SYNOD. I47 
 
 New England. Presbyterianism had arrayed itself 
 against the army and in defense of the king. The 
 army was largely composed of Independents, who 
 heartily favored what were the essential principles of 
 New England Congregationalism. About the time of 
 the second session of the Cambridge Synod, in June, 
 1647, the army by force gained possession of the 
 king's person, and the Independents came into power 
 in Parliament. When this news arrived in New 
 England it was plain that the danger to which her 
 institutions had been exposed from the mother country 
 had ceased, at least for that time. Questions concerning 
 the conditions of citizenship were no longer of chief im- 
 portance, for the laws of Massachusetts were not now 
 likely to be taken up for revision in England. These 
 matters were left to be solved by the New England 
 churches half a generation later. The attention of the 
 synod was therefore turned, more prominently than it 
 would otherwise have been, to matters of doctrine. 
 
 The Westminster Assembly had by this time pre- 
 pared a confession of faith, a few copies of which had 
 been printed under charge of secrecy ; but it was not 
 yet adopted by Parliament, and there was reason to 
 fear that it might not be acceptable to Congregation- 
 alists in New England. The General Court there- 
 fore requested the American Synod to adopt a con- 
 fession of faith, and that Messrs. Norris of Salem, 
 Cotton of Boston, Mather of Dorchester, Rogers 
 and Norton of Ipswich, Shepard of Cambridge, 
 and Cobbett of Lynn, should each prepare a state- 
 ment of belief, to be considered by the synod at 
 its next session. 
 
 This, the final session, opened at Cambridge August 
 
148 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 15, 1648. By that time Parliament had adopted and 
 published the Westminster Assembly's . Confession of 
 Faith ; and the synod unanimously voted concerning 
 the doctrinal part of it that they " do judge it to be 
 very holy, orthodox, and judicious in all matters of 
 faith ; and do therefore freely and fully consent there- 
 unto, for the substance thereof." The synod adopted 
 substantially the Platform of Church Discipline which 
 had been drawn up by Richard Mather. It contains 
 seventeen chapters, and includes much which had been 
 previously written on the subject of church govern- 
 ment by himself and Mr. Cotton. It begins with an 
 extended preface by Mr. Cotton, answering various 
 criticisms and explaining certain practices of the New 
 England churches and defending their orthodoxy. 
 The first four chapters declare that there is only one 
 form of church government prescribed in the Word 
 of God, and that that is Congrreoational. The fifth 
 says that the power of the church is In the elders, 
 but that the brethren elect the elders. The sixth 
 affirms that there are only two orders of ordinary 
 officers in the churches, elders — who are either pastors, 
 teachers, or ruling elders — and deacons. The seventh 
 explains the duties of ruling elders and deacons. The 
 eighth shows how officers are to be chosen ; the ninth, 
 the manner of their ordination and its meaning ; and 
 the tenth gives in detail the powers of the elders and 
 the brethren respectively and their relations to each 
 other in church gfovernment. The eleventh refers to 
 the financial support of church officers, the twelfth, 
 thirteenth and fourteenth to reception, dismission, cen- 
 sure and excommunication of members. The fifteenth 
 explains the fellowship of the churches, and the six- 
 
THE CAMBRIDGE SYNOD. I49 
 
 teenth the nature of synods and proper methods of call- 
 ing them. The seventeenth affirms that church officers 
 may not intermeddle with the civil government nor 
 magistrates with the business of the churches ; but that 
 the magistrates should punish idolatry, blasphemy, 
 heresy, and the venting of corrupt and pernicious 
 opinions. 
 
 The Platform was duly printed, and was presented 
 to the General Court at its autumn session, in 1649. 
 The court referred it to the churches, requesting them 
 to express their opinion as to its appropriateness. In 
 1 65 1 the court presented to the ministers in due form 
 the objections which it had received to the Platform, 
 asking their advice. The ministers appointed Rich- 
 ard Mather to answer these criticisms, approved the 
 statement he prepared and presented it to the Gen- 
 eral Court, which in October, 165 i, formally voted con- 
 cerning the Book of Discipline, "that for the substance 
 thereof it is what we have practiced, and do believe." 
 
 This Platform is the most important document pro- 
 duced by the Congregationalists of the seventeenth 
 century, for it most clearly represents the belief of the 
 churches and their system of government for more than 
 one hundred years. It was indeed the legally recognized 
 standard till 1780. In its description of ruling elders 
 and their duties, and of the distinction between pastors 
 and teachers, each beinor a minister of the church, in 
 its definition of the official position of ministers not in 
 charge of churches, and in various minor matters, it has 
 become obsolete ; but it still largely represents the 
 fundamental principles of the faith and polity of Con- 
 gregational churches. 
 
 It is not within our province in this work to trace 
 
I50 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 the civil histon^ of the colonies except as it is directly 
 connected with that of the churches. But it should 
 never be forgotten that we owe more to the ministers 
 of New England of those early days than to any other 
 men for our democratic system of government, and for 
 our laws, which are founded on the principles of the 
 Mosaic legislation. The " Body of Liberties," which 
 was the earliest written code of Massachusetts, adopted 
 by the General Court in 1641, was drawn up by Nathan- 
 iel Ward, minister of Ipswich, who had practiced in the 
 courts of common law in Enorland. The first consti- 
 tution of Connecticut, adopted in 1639, was largely the 
 work of Thomas Hooker, and was the first written 
 constitution in history which resulted in a civil govern- 
 ment. Our present national government is in direct 
 descent from that formed on this constitution, which 
 marked the beginning of democracy. Connecticut 
 made to Massachusetts the first propositions which 
 resulted in the confederacy of the New England col- 
 onies, and in this movement also the hand of Mr, 
 Hooker is conspicuous. Congregationalism has been 
 a potent factor in establishing the principles of this 
 first of great republics. 
 
 The simple picture of the public worship of those 
 early days will fitly close this chapter. The Sunday 
 morning service began about nine o'clock, the audience 
 usually having been called together by ringing a bell, 
 beating a drum, blowing a horn or hoisting a flag. 
 The ruling elders sat in front of the pulpit on a raised 
 seat, and the deacons a little lower down, both facing 
 the congregation. The men sat on one side of the 
 house, and the women on the other, while the children 
 had also a place by themselves and were kept in order 
 
THE CAMBRIDGE SYNOD. I51 
 
 by a tithingman with a long rod. The pastor opened 
 with prayer for about fifteen minutes, the teacher read 
 and explained the Scriptures and a ruling elder then 
 lined off a Psalm, usually from the Bay Psalm-Book, 
 which was sung. There were not more than ten tunes 
 in use before the year 1 700. The pastor then preached 
 for an hour or more, and the teacher concluded the 
 service with prayer and benediction. In the afternoon 
 the service was similar except that the teacher and pas- 
 tor usually exchanged places. In many churches where 
 there was but one minister, the morning sermon was 
 devoted to the argument, as it was called, and the after- 
 noon sermon to the application. 
 
 There was ordinarily a mid-week service, either 
 including a sermon, or a conference of the brethren on 
 some topic previously announced. The ministers did 
 not solemnize marriages, nor was there any ceremony 
 at funerals. The congregations stood during public 
 prayer. In these and other ways they continued for 
 many years their protest against Roman Catholic cus- 
 toms and modes of worship, witnessing even in their 
 most simple forms as in their most solemn services to 
 their independence of priestly rule, and to their sense 
 of the immediate responsibility of each and every soul 
 to God. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 GROWTH AND EXPANSION. 
 
 THE Puritans left England in order that they might 
 maintain in New England a state and churches in 
 accordance with their views of right and duty. When, 
 then, the persecution of Puritans ceased in England 
 with the assembling of the Long Parliament, in 1640, 
 immigration ceased also. " The change," wrote Gov- 
 ernor Winthrop, "made all men to stay in England in 
 expectation of a new world." During the eleven years, 
 1629-40, about twenty-one thousand persons came to 
 New England. From that time, for a century and 
 a half the immigration was slight, and the increase of 
 the New England population was almost entirely from 
 the descendants of these immigrants. At the end of the 
 eighteenth century, ninety-eight in every one hundred 
 of the inhabitants were of pure English descent. 
 
 In 1643 the four colonies, Massachusetts, Plymouth, 
 Connecticut and New Haven, entered into a confedera- 
 tion for more efficient self-defense, under the name of 
 "The United Colonies of New England" ; New Hamp- 
 shire having, in 1641, come under the Massachusetts 
 government. Of the twenty-six thousand white people 
 in. New England, twenty-four thousand were in thes^ 
 colonies, fifteen thousand being in Massachusetts and 
 about three thousand in each of the others. The 
 remaining two thousand were mostly scattered along 
 
 152 
 
GROWTH AND EXPANSION. I53 
 
 the coasts of the territory now inchided in Rhode 
 Island and Maine. In this entire region there were 
 about fifty towns and forty churches. 
 
 Plymouth, the oldest colony, had been less flourish- 
 ing than the others, though, after its earlier difficulties 
 were in a measure overcome, it attained respectable 
 prosperity. For the first nine years the church at 
 Plymouth had no pastor, though regular public worship 
 was maintained ; William Brewster, as ruling elder, 
 taking the place of a pastor. Ralph Smith, a good 
 man, but without great gifts as a preacher, occupied 
 that position from 1629 to 1636. He was followed 
 by John Reyner, who served the church as teacher 
 till 1654. The church was then without pastor or 
 teacher for fifteen years, though frequent efforts were 
 made, with many days of fasting and prayer, to fill the 
 vacant place. Its numbers were few, and were lessened 
 by removals from time to time, so that they could not 
 offer sufficient support for the maintenance of a per- 
 manent minister. In 1666, when John Cotton, Jr., was 
 called to the pastorate, there were only forty-seven 
 resident members. 
 
 Duxbury, on the north side of the bay, was the 
 first offshoot from Plymouth, in 1632, though its first 
 pastor, Ralph Partridge, was not settled till 1637. 
 Marshfield came next, being set off with great reluc- 
 tance by the mother church. Edward Winslow was 
 one of its original members. In September, 1634, 
 John Lothrop arrived at Scituate with about thirty 
 people of whom he had been pastor, as successor 
 of Henry Jacob, in the church at .Southwark, Lon- 
 don. That church was organized in 16 16. Mr. 
 Lothrop had endured severe persecutions in England, 
 
154 CONGREGATIONALTSTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 including imprisonment. He had been set free after 
 much suffering, on condition that he would leave the 
 country. He was acquainted with some of the people 
 from Kent, England, who had settled in Scituate, and 
 for that reason, probably, decided to unite his fortune 
 with theirs. Mr. Lothrop's company, with thirteen 
 persons dismissed from Plymouth, organized a church 
 at Scituate by joining in a covenant, January 8, 1635, 
 and he was chosen pastor. But its first years were 
 stormy, chiefly because of differences of opinion on the 
 subject of baptism, some of its members advocating 
 immersion. In consequence the majority of the 
 church, with permission of the General Court, re- 
 moved in a body with the pastor and formed a settle- 
 ment at Barnstable, in 1639, while those who remained 
 at Scituate organized a new church. It was no more 
 united than was the former organization before the ma- 
 jority withdrew. In 1641, it called Charles Chauncey to 
 be its pastor and he accepted, though his coming was 
 opposed by a large minority who, the next year, organ- 
 ized a new church, which they claimed to be the first, 
 on the ground that Mr. Chauncey and his followers 
 had not kept their covenant. The controversy was 
 long continued. Indeed, divisions between the 
 churches of Plymouth colony have not altogether 
 ceased even to this day. 
 
 Miss Elizabeth Poole, with one or more ministers 
 and a considerable company, emigrated from Taunton, 
 England, and settled in the wilderness of Titicut, about 
 twenty-six miles from Plymouth, in 1637. They named 
 their new settlement Taunton. There a church was 
 organized about the end of that year, with William 
 Hooke as its pastor, and Nicholas Street, teacher. 
 
GROWTH AND EXPANSION. 155 
 
 Both were ordained by members of the church ap- 
 pointed for that purpose. Churches were also formed 
 at Yarmouth in 1639, and at Sandwich in 1640. Some 
 of the churches of the colony were quite prosperous. 
 Cotton Mather says that in the year 1642 they had 
 altogether " above a dozen ministers," some of whom 
 were "stars of the first magnitude." But their early 
 history soon became clouded by doctrinal disagree- 
 ments, to whose consequences the same author refers 
 as the " hour of temptation, wherein the fondness of 
 the people for the prophesyings of the brethren pro- 
 duced those disagreements unto their ministers, that 
 almost all the ministers left the colony." At the 
 time of its union with Massachusetts under a new 
 charter, in 1692, Plymouth colony contained seven- 
 teen towns. In all except three of these towns, 
 Conofreofational churches had been formed. 
 
 The growth of the churches of Massachusetts 
 colony has been described in preceding chapters. 
 These churches, up to 1640, were organized in the 
 following order: Salem, 1629; Dorchester, Boston, 
 Watertown, 1630; Lynn, Roxbury, Charlestown, 1632 ; 
 Cambridge, 1633; Ipswich, 1634; Newbury, Wey- 
 mouth, Hingham, Cambridge 2d, 1635 ; Concord, 
 Dorchester 2d, 1636; Dedham, Salisbury, 1638; 
 Quincy, Rowley, 1639; Sudbury, 1640. 
 
 The Connecticut colony began by the immigration 
 of the first churches of Dorchester and Cambridge, 
 which settled at Windsor and Hartford. A company 
 also went about the same time from Watertown, of 
 whom six or seven took letters of dismission to form 
 a new church. This company settled at Wethersfield. 
 In the autumn of 1635 about twenty men from Eng- 
 
156 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 land, with John Winthrop, Jr., son of Governor 
 Winthrop, built a fort at the mouth of the Con- 
 necticut River, and called the place Saybrook, in honor 
 of two of the persons. Lord Say and Sele, and Lord 
 Brook, who held the patent for land covering the 
 whole territory of what is now the State of Connecti- 
 cut. John Higginson, son of the first Salem pastor, 
 was the minister of the garrison. This settlement 
 became incorporated with Connecticut in 1644. 
 
 The New Haven colony, under the lead of John 
 Davenport, with Samuel Eaton, arrived at Quinni- 
 piack, and kept their first Sabbath there April 18, 
 1638. They set apart a day for fasting and prayer 
 and adopted a Plantation Covenant, agreeing to be 
 " ordered by the rules which the Scriptures held 
 forth to them." June 4, the planters came together 
 in a barn, and Mr. Davenport preached from Prov- 
 erbs XI. I, "Wisdom hath builded her house, she 
 hath hewn out her seven pillars." He argued that 
 the church should be founded with seven principal 
 men, to which others should be added. Twelve men 
 were appointed to choose from their number the seven 
 pillars. In August the choice was made and the 
 church organized. October 25 the seven pillars, who 
 were called The Court, formed the Body of Freemen, 
 to which all the members of the church were admitted. 
 A governor and other of^cers of the new colony were 
 duly chosen, and thus a church-commonwealth was 
 begun. A church was also formed at New Haven on 
 the same general plan, which in the following February 
 settled at Mil ford. Its members were mostly per- 
 sons from Wethersfield. Peter Prudden was ordained 
 pastor. In 1640 land was purchased at Guilford, 
 
GROWTH AND EXPANSION. 157 
 
 where a church was organized by seven pillars in 
 1643. Henry Whitfield was there received as pastor 
 without being ordained, since he had brought with 
 him from England a considerable part of the church. 
 His house is still standing and is one of the old- 
 est in the United States. John Higginson, from 
 Saybrook, was chosen teacher. A church was organ- 
 ized at Stratford in 1640, and in Fairfield in 1650, 
 though at the latter place John Jones, an Oxford 
 scholar, had been preaching since 1639. ^^ 1665, 
 when the colonies of New Haven and Connecticut 
 were united under a new charter from Charles H., 
 they included fifteen churches, all Congregational, 
 with about twenty ministers. The population at that 
 time was somewhat over eight thousand, making about 
 one minister to every one hundred families. 
 
 New Hampshire was first settled under the leader- 
 ship of two members of the Plymouth Council, Sir 
 Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason. These 
 two men, having associated with them several English 
 merchants, sent out two colonies in 1623, one of which 
 located at Little Harbor, now Rye, at the mouth of the 
 Pascataqua River. The other party went eight miles 
 further up the river and began to build at Dover. But 
 though much money was spent and many skilled work- 
 men from England from time to time joined these 
 colonies, the elements of power which were fitted to 
 conquer the difficulties of the new country were not 
 among them, and for a number of years the efforts 
 made resulted in successive failures. 
 
 It was not till 1633 that any minister appeared 
 among them. In that year a number of families from 
 the west of England, of "good estates and of some 
 
158 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 account for religion," arrived at Dover under the 
 auspices of Lord Say and Sele and Lord Brook, 
 brineine with them William Leverich, a Cambrido^e 
 graduate and an able Puritan minister. But the 
 support given him was so meager that in about two 
 years he left the place, and was succeeded by a 
 
 shrewd but unprin- 
 cipled adventurer, 
 George Burdett. 
 He did what he 
 could to prejudice 
 people in England 
 against the Massa- 
 chusetts colonists, 
 especially in cor- 
 respondence with 
 Archbishop Laud, 
 and finally suc- 
 ceeded in becom- 
 ing-governor of the 
 plantation. But be- 
 ing detected in im- 
 moralities he was 
 compelled to leave 
 Dover, and finally, having entered the royalist army, he 
 was captured, and ended his career in an English prison. 
 After Burdett left Dover, Hanserd Knollys, for- 
 merly a very learned school-teacher in Gainesborough, 
 England, came and organized the first church in that 
 town in December, 1638. He had a short and stormy 
 pastorate. But in 1641 he went to London, where he 
 organized a Baptist Church, and lived to the great age 
 of ninety-three years. Neale says he was "universally 
 
 HANSERD KNOLLYS, FIRST MINISTER OF 
 FIRST CHURCH, DOVER, N. H. 
 
GROWTH AND EXPANSION. I 59 
 
 esteemed and beloved by all his brethren " In Eng- 
 land. Thomas Larkam drove Knollys out of the 
 pastorate at Dover and succeeded him. He was of 
 brilliant parts, but he proved a sad though short-lived 
 misfit. The dispute was practically between Knollys 
 the Puritan, and Larkam, the defender of the prac- 
 tices of the Church of England. In 1643 Daniel 
 Maud, a graduate of Emanuel College, Cambridge, 
 followed Larkam, having left the leadership of the 
 Boston Latin School for that purpose, and had a suc- 
 cessful pastorate of thirteen years. He was followed 
 in 1655 by John Reyner, who came from eighteen 
 years' service at Plymouth. Not far from 1639 appears 
 a church at Hampton, on lands taken possession of 
 by Massachusetts in 1636. Stephen Bachelor was 
 pastor, and after about a year was joined by Tim- 
 othy Dalton as teacher. This is the only instance 
 in New Hampshire where a pastor and teacher were at 
 the same time laboring in one parish. The arrange- 
 ment worked badly, the church and town being divided 
 into two factions, one led by the pastor and the other 
 by the teacher. Mr. Dalton's party were in the 
 majority, and Mr. Bachelor left the town about 1641, 
 though the contentions continued for a long time after- 
 ward. Mr. Dalton remained with the church till his 
 death in 1661. 
 
 John Wheelwright, Mrs. Hutchinson's brother- 
 in-law, when he was banished from Massachusetts, 
 settled at Exeter in 1638 with a number of sympa" 
 thizers, and the following year organized there a 
 church of nine members. But three years later this 
 plantation, with Dover and Portsmouth, was incor- 
 porated with the Massachusetts colony ; and as Mr. 
 
l6o CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Wheelwright, being still under sentence of banish- 
 ment, was compelled to leave the jurisdiction, the 
 church was at once broken up. In 1644 the people 
 tried to organize a church, but the General Court 
 forbade them to do it. Later they had Samuel Dud- 
 ley as their minister for thirty-three years, but no 
 church was formed there till 1698. 
 
 At Portsmouth no provision was made for public 
 worship till 1640, and no church was organized till 
 1671, though a minister was resident there a consid- 
 erable part of the intervening time ; and Joshua 
 Moody, the first pastor of the church, was the minis- 
 ter of Portsmouth by vote of the town from 1658. 
 He continued pastor till 1684, when he was imprisoned 
 and finally banished from the province by the arbitrary 
 authority of Lieutenant Governor Cranfield. He was 
 invited in that year to the presidency of Harvard 
 College, but did not accept. He returned to Ports- 
 mouth after Cranfield retired from office, and died 
 there in 1697. A church was formed at Nashua in 
 1675, but that town was then supposed to be in 
 Massachusetts. No other churches were organized in 
 New Hampshire before the end of the seventeenth 
 century. 
 
 The first attempt at a settlement in Maine was made 
 in 1607 by a company of one hundred and twenty per- 
 sons, led by Captain George Popham, a brother of 
 Lord Chief Justice Popham of England, and Ralegh 
 Gilbert, a nephew of Sir Walter Ralegh. They 
 landed at St. George's Island, where the first sermon 
 ever preached in New England was delivered August 
 9, 1607. They formed a settlement at the mouth of 
 the Kennebec River, but the colonists were not suited 
 
x6i 
 
l62 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 to endure the hardships of life in the wilderness, and 
 the next year the enterprise was abandoned. Probably 
 no permanent settlement was made on the Maine coast 
 before 1622. From that time on several fishing and 
 tradinof communities were established at the island of 
 Monhegan, at Saco, and several other points. But 
 the people for a long time organized neither schools 
 nor churches. This coast seems to have been a kind 
 of dumping ground for people who could not endure 
 the rigid discipline of Massachusetts. 
 
 The charter of the Province of Maine, given by 
 Charles I. in 1639, required that the established 
 church should be the Church of England, but it does 
 not appear that any Episcopal church was planted 
 there, though Richard Gibson, an Episcopal cler- 
 gyman, appears to have officiated in several planta- 
 tions between 1636 and 1642. During those years 
 also several ministers from Massachusetts visited dif- 
 ferent points in Maine, and there seems to have been 
 stated preaching for a time at Agamenticus, which is 
 now York. Yet it is probable that the church in that 
 town now generally regarded as the oldest in the 
 State was not formed till 1673. When Mr. Wheel- 
 wright left Hampton, N. H., he went to the Province 
 of Maine, and in 1643 ^^^^ '^^^ ^^^^ town of Wells. It 
 is probable that lie organized a church there, though 
 no distinct record of it remains. The church which 
 now exists there was formed about 1701. 
 
 Thomas Jenner was probably the first Congre- 
 gational minister at Saco, where he remained from 
 1 64 1 to 1646. But there was no great prosperity in 
 the Maine settlements till they came under the govern- 
 ment of Massachusetts about 1653. After that time 
 
GROWTH AND EXPANSION. 163 
 
 the towns were required to maintain public worship 
 and to support ministers if they were able. But there 
 was little CongrreQ^ationalism in Maine till after the end 
 of the seventeenth century. 
 
 Rhode Island gathered to itself the religious fanatics 
 who w^ere banished from Massachusetts. The first of 
 these was Roger Williams, who settled at Providence 
 in 1636, He there founded the first Baptist church 
 in America in March, 1638, nearly three years after 
 his arrival there. The church consisted of twelve 
 members. One of them, Ezekiel Holman, first 
 immersed Mr, Williams, who then immersed Mr. 
 Holman and the others. Within four months, how- 
 ever, Williams left the church with three others, and 
 renounced its baptism and ministry. A few years 
 later the church divided over the question whether or 
 not hands should be laid on the heads of newly 
 baptized persons. There could not have been much 
 enthusiasm among them for public worship, for no 
 meeting house was built by them before the end of the 
 century. 
 
 When Mrs. Hutchinson was banished from Mas- 
 sachusetts she intended joining her brother-in-law, Mr. 
 Wheelwright, at Exeter, but for some unknown reason 
 turned her footsteps toward Rhode Island. Her com- 
 pany included sixteen persons, led by Mr. John Clarke, 
 who had been a London physician, and who had been 
 disarmed in Boston as an antinomian. They settled 
 first at Pocasset, but early in 1639 the colony removed 
 to Newport, where they organized a Congregational 
 church. Dr. Clarke ofiiciated as minister, expecting 
 that Mr. Wheelwright would come to be their pastor. 
 However, Wheelwright did not seem to be in full 
 
164 CONGREGATIONAIJSTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 sympathy witli tlieir peculiar views, and in 1640 they 
 secured the services of Robert Lenthall. Samuel 
 Gorton was one of Mrs. Hutchinson's earliest sym- 
 pathizers there, a man of honorable character, but by 
 temperament a constant fomenter of strife. He soon 
 manas^ed to create a schism amonor Mrs. Hutchinson's 
 followers, and made his way into Roger Williams' 
 territory, who describes him as "bewitching and mad- 
 ding poor Providence." The disturbances he stirred 
 up among the Indians and in Massachusetts colony 
 do not claim place here, but they would serve to illus- 
 trate the reasons why no very friendly relations existed 
 between the churches of Massachusetts and the church 
 at Newport. After three or four years Dr. Clarke and 
 several others with him became Baptists, and the 
 church seems to have disbanded. 
 
 The oldest Congregational church in Rhode Island 
 is probably that at Barrington, organized in 1670. 
 Another church was formed at Bristol in 1687. The 
 next was at Little Compton In 1 704. 
 
 Long Island early attracted the attention of New 
 Englanders. In 1640 a company from Lynn and 
 Ipswich, having obtained a grant of land on the island 
 from Lord Stirling, and having made an agreement 
 with the Indians, settled at Southampton. The emi- 
 grants had already organized a church before leav- 
 ing Lynn, and secured Abraham Pierson as their 
 pastor. In the same year also Southold was settled, 
 the church having been e?ithered at New Haven 
 with John Young as pastor. Other settlenients on 
 the island with Cong-reoatlonal churches were made 
 between 1640 and 1660 at Hempstead, East Ham[)ton, 
 Newton, Crookhaven, Jamaica and one or two other 
 
GROWTH AND EXPANSION. 165 
 
 places. Some of these churches remained Congrega- 
 tional for a long time, that at Southold for nearly two 
 hundred years ; but they finally united with Presbytery. 
 
 Congregationalism in the days of the early English 
 settlements of the Atlantic Coast had a foothold at 
 many points, stretching across the island groups also. 
 In 1624 Henry Jacob, founder of the first perma- 
 nent Congregational church in London, was called to 
 settle in "V^irginia, but died soon after his arrival. In 
 1642 letters signed by seventy-one persons were 
 received at Boston from Nansemond County, Virginia, 
 asking for ministers, and saying that there were three 
 parishes in Virginia ready to receive pastors from New 
 England. Great interest was excited, and three minis- 
 ters were selected to go as missionaries. They were 
 cordially received, but were forbidden to preach 
 because the Church of Engfland was the established 
 church of the colony. The people met, however, in 
 private houses, and a Congregational church was 
 formed, which in a few years numbered one hundred 
 and eighteen communicants. But, their pastor hav- 
 ing been banished, and later the entire body, they 
 removed to Maryland, near where now stands the city 
 of Annapolis, and named their settlement Providence. 
 There the church finally became extinct, 
 
 Congregationalists were scattered, in considerable 
 numbers, among the early settlers of the island groups 
 to the southeast of the mainland of North America ; 
 and a church was organized on one of the Bermuda 
 islands, another at New Providence, and a third on the 
 island of Barbadoes ; but the surroundings were not 
 favorable to their growth, and in a few years they dis- 
 appeared. 
 
l66 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Most remarkable of all, in these early years of 
 growth and expansion, were the efforts made to Chris- 
 tianize the Indians. This purpose was prominent among 
 the plans both of the Pilgrims and the Puritans when 
 they first came to New England. But the unexpected 
 difficulties encountered in planting homes and forming 
 governments in the wilderness, and in putting into prac- 
 tice the New Testament polity of the churches, for a 
 time held their missionary zeal in check. Perhaps, 
 also, they found the savages of the New World less 
 open to the gospel message than they had expected. 
 Yet at no time were they indifferent to the spiritual 
 welfare of the natives. They were, in general, scrupu- 
 lously honest in their business transactions with them. 
 They welcomed gratefully such signs as appeared that 
 some of the Indians were interested in the Christian 
 religion. Bradford recorded with much satisfaction 
 that Squanto, near his death, would have the governor 
 pray " that he might go to the Englishman's God in 
 heaven," and that Hobbomok left " some good hopes 
 in their hearts that his soul went to rest." Indian boys 
 and girls were received into families as servants and 
 were taught the simple facts of the Christian religion. 
 Some of them attended public worship and seemed 
 to be impressed by what they heard. 
 
 In 1644, when the people began to have leisure to 
 consider other matters than those which had been of 
 pressing necessity to the preservation of their own 
 existence, the General Court of Massachusetts passed 
 an act instructing the county courts to take measures 
 to civilize the Indians and instruct them " in the knowl- 
 edge and worship of God," and counseling the elders 
 of the churches to consider how "to brino- the natives 
 
GROWTH AND EXPANSION. 167 
 
 to the knowledge of God and His ways." In 1646 the 
 General Court ordered that the elders should annually 
 appoint two ministers as missionaries to the Indians 
 with the consent of their churches, and that an allow- 
 ance should be made to them for this work by the 
 court. But already, the week before this order was 
 passed, John Eliot had made his first attempt to preach 
 to the Indians. He had been for fourteen years the 
 honored teacher of the church at Roxbury, and had 
 for some time, with a native interpreter, been studying 
 the Indian lanouaee. 
 
 His first sermon to the Indians was preached in 
 a hut on the Charles River, near Watertown, October 
 28, 1646. It lasted an hour and a quarter, and was 
 followed by a number of questions from his audience, 
 which he and three friends with him answered, also 
 asking questions of the Indians. The service closed 
 with prayer, after which Eliot gave the children some 
 apples and the men some tobacco. The work thus 
 begun was continued with practical and wise efforts 
 both to convert and to civilize the natives. Plans were 
 soon put into operation to bring them into compact 
 settlements, to train them to industrial habits in farm- 
 ing and in simple mechanical arts, and to gather their 
 children into schools. The ministers became greatly 
 interested in the work. Henry Dunster, president 
 of Harvard College, gave earnest attention to it. 
 The General Court co-operated by making arrange- 
 ments for the purchase of land for the Indians on 
 which they might live together in an orderly way, and 
 by voting a gratuity to Mr. Eliot. The subject was 
 discussed with oreat interest at the meetino-s of the 
 Cambridge Synod. Requests came to Mr. Eliot from 
 
l68 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Indians in various sections of the country, urging him 
 to come and preach to them. He went among them 
 on missionary journeys, to Concord, to "a great fish- 
 ing place on one of the falls of the Merrimac," to 
 " remote places about Cape Cod," westward to Brook- 
 field, and everywhere found some who were eager for 
 instruction. 
 
 About the same time Thomas Mayhew and his son, 
 havino- o-one from Watertown to Martha's Vineyard, 
 became much interested in preaching to the Indians 
 there. One of the natives, Hiacoomes, became a 
 preacher to his own people. In 1650, the younger 
 Mayhew wrote, " There are now by the grace of God, 
 thirty-nine Indian men of this meeting, besides women 
 that are looking this way, which we suppose to exceed 
 the number of the men." 
 
 Tidings of this work created great interest in Eng- 
 land, where accounts of it were published by Edward 
 Winslow, then in London. Parliament passed an act 
 " for the promoting and propagating of the gospel of 
 Jesus Christ in New England." A corporation, which 
 might not inappropriately have been called a Board of 
 Commissioners for Foreign Missions, was appointed, 
 with authority to hold property, and a general collec- 
 tion for this work was ordered in all the parishes of 
 England and Wales. Mr. Winslow's services were of 
 great value in this movement. Within seven years 
 about seventeen hundred pounds were remitted to 
 New England for this missionary work. Messrs. Eliot 
 and Mayhew were each paid a salary of fifty pounds, 
 A number of persons, both whites and natives, were 
 employed as their assistants. Several young Indians 
 were selected to be educated at Harvard as mission- 
 
GROWTH AND EXPANSION. 169 
 
 aries to their own race. Notwithstanding much oppo- 
 sition, especially from chiefs of the Indian tribes, and 
 some criticism from Eng-lishmen, the work orrew 
 steadily under Mr. Eliot's indefatigable leadership. 
 He organized, in 1650, an Indian community at Natick, 
 with a simple scheme of government ; the Indians, as 
 the white people had done, entering with solemn cere- 
 monies " into covenant with God and each other to be 
 the Lord's people, and to be governed by the Word of 
 the Lord in all things." A similar community was 
 gathered at Ponkapog, now Stoughton, and the 
 General Court authorized the establishment of Indian 
 towns at several other places, Daniel Gookin was 
 appointed by the General Court, in 1656, to be super- 
 intendent of the Indians within the district of Massa- 
 chusetts, and continued in that ofifice, doing excellent 
 service, till his death in 1687. 
 
 In due time Eliot completed the translation of the 
 Bible into the Indian language, and it was published 
 in 1663. He also prepared a catechism in the same 
 language, and a version of the metrical paraphrase of 
 the Book of Psalms. 
 
 From this necessarily brief survey of the early growth 
 of Congregationalism in New England, it will be seen 
 that to the end of the seventeenth century it continued 
 to represent, almost exclusively, the religious life of the 
 people; that it largely influenced the organization of 
 government in these formative years ; and that it well 
 fulfilled its opportunities, both in occupying the towns 
 and plantations of English settlements and in edu- 
 cating and Christianizing the Indians. In 1647 there 
 were 43 churches in New England. In 1650 the num- 
 ber had grown to 58, and in 1674 to 82, including three 
 
170 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 on Long Island and one on Martha's Vineyard. In 1674 
 there were also in Massachusetts 14 towns of "praying 
 Indians," with a total population of about 1 100. In 
 1685 there were in Plymouth colony 1400 adult 
 "praying Indians." Among the 300 Indian families 
 in Martha's Vineyard, there were three churches and 10 
 teachers of Indian blood. In Nantucket, with perhaps 
 one-half as many Indians, there were three towns and 
 one church. In 1696 there were in New England over 
 130 white churches, and 30 Indian towns supplied by 
 Indian preachers. The total population amounted to 
 about 140,000, of which perhaps 20,000 were Indians. 
 
CHAPTER IX. y 
 
 THE HALFWAY COVENANT. 
 
 THE New England churches held that only those 
 who had consciously experienced the new birth, 
 and their children, were fitted for membership. Dur- 
 ing- the first and second generations this condition 
 occasioned no perplexity. All parents who were 
 church members offered their children in baptism, on 
 the ground that they were included in the covenant. 
 Cotton stated the common belief in these words : 
 " The same covenant which God made with the 
 National Church of Israel and their seed, it is the 
 very same . . . which the Lord maketh with any 
 Congregational church and our seed." These children^ 
 received baptism not as a condition of admission into 
 the church, but because, being in the church by birth, /] 
 they were entitled to this rite. 
 
 But some of these children, as they grew up, could 
 not claim the experience of the new birth, which was 
 held to be essential to church membership. They were 
 in the church without being fully entitled to its privi- 
 leges. They made no public confession of their faith, 
 and therefore were not admitted to the Lord's Supper. 
 Some of these persons had children. The question 
 whether such parents had the right to present their 
 children for baptism disturbed New England churches 
 for more than a century. 
 
 As early as 1634 a member of the church in Dor- 
 
 171 
 
1/2 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 diester desired baptism for his grandchild, neither of 
 whose parents were church members. The advice of 
 the Boston church was sought, and given in these 
 words: "We do therefore profess it to be the judg- 
 ment of our church . . . that the grandfather, a 
 member of the church, may claim the privilege of bap- 
 tism to his grandchild, though his next seed, the 
 parents of the child, be not received themselves into 
 church covenant." Other occasions for discussing the 
 question arose from time to time. Hooker, Davenport 
 and others held that only the children of "visible 
 saints" should be baptized. Others, like' Phillips of 
 Watertown, affirmed that all descendants of visible 
 saints belong within the church. But all agreed that 
 only those baptized children could properly be ad- 
 mitted into full communion, that is, to the Lord's table, 
 who had been personally renewed by the Holy Spirit. 
 'Thus there arose in every community a third class, as 
 related to the church. The first class was composed 
 of church members in full communion, the second were 
 the unregenerate, with no connection with the church. 
 This third class were persons who had been born and 
 baptized in the church, believers in the Bible, educated 
 in Christian faith, who lived accordino- to the teachinors 
 of the Christian religion and wished to train their chil- 
 dren in the same ways, but who could not say with 
 confidence that they had experienced the new birth. 
 To have admitted this third class to the full privi- 
 leges of membership would have been against the fun- 
 damental principle of the New England churches, that 
 only those consciously united to Christ by the new 
 birth were members of His church. It would have 
 brought the church down to the level of the English 
 
THE HALFWAY COVENANT. 1 73 
 
 Church, which the Puritans had so earnestly sought to 
 reform, which received to full fellowship all persons 
 of outwardly moral life. To have rejected them al- 
 together would have been to have weakened the 
 influence of the church in the community, and to have 
 shut out from the covenant some who by birth 
 belonged to it. That could be done only by excommu- 
 nication, for the churches held that the only doors of 
 withdrawal from the covenant were death, dismission 
 to another church or excommunication. Besides, it 
 was not felt to be just to withhold the much valued 
 privileges of Christian training from those sons and 
 daughters of believers, who, as Cotton Mather said, 
 were "sober persons, who professed themselves desir- 
 ous to renew their baptismal covenant, and submit 
 unto the church discipline," and so have their houses 
 also marked for the Lord's ; but who were not able 
 to "come up to that experimental account of their 
 own regeneration which would sufficiently embolden 
 their access to the other sacrament." 
 
 This third class was constantly increasing in num- 
 ber, many of them were men of character and influ- 
 ence in their communities, yet they had no vote nor 
 voice in calling a pastor nor in managing church 
 affairs. It was natural that this condition should 
 arouse excited feeling and that it should constantly 
 tend to increase. Prominent among the causes which 
 led to the calling of the Cambridge Synod in 1646 was 
 the complaint to the General Court of Massachusetts 
 by Dr. Child and others that their children were "de- 
 barred from the seals of the covenant." The court, in 
 calling that synod, had especially commended to its 
 attention this subject of the baptism of children, 
 
1/4 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA, 
 
 declaring that the views and practices of the churches 
 had become so diverse that they would, " if not timely 
 remedied, beget such differences as will be displeasing 
 to the Lord, offensive to others and danoferous to our- 
 selves." This subject was discussed in the synod, and 
 a declaration was inserted in its Platform that the 
 proper subjects of baptism were converted adults who 
 joined in fellowship with a visible church, their chil- 
 dren "and all their seed after them that cast not off 
 the covenant of God by some scandalous and obstinate 
 going on in sin." This statement, however, was 
 omitted from the final draft of the Platform, though 
 favored by the majority. The violent opposition of 
 some leading men, among whom President Chauncey 
 of Harvard College was specially prominent, caused it 
 to be abandoned. 
 
 That action did not quiet discussion. Traces of it 
 abound in the epistolary correspondence of that 
 period. Henry Smith of Wethersfield, Conn., wrote 
 to Richard Mather in 1647 that his people were 
 at a loss as to the admission of members' chil- 
 dren to the communion because the synod had not 
 made any deliverance concerning it. He favored 
 the larger view. Messrs. Stone of Plartford and 
 Wareham of Windsor agreed with Mr. Smith. 
 Thomas Shepard of Cambridge approved of the 
 same position. John Cotton thought that these non- 
 reofenerate children of church members, thous^h not 
 fit to come to the Lord's Supper, might make profes- 
 sion full enough to admit their children to baptism, 
 " or to the same estate Ishmael stood in after circum- 
 cision." In 1650 Mr. Stone of Hartford expressed 
 his conviction that unless a synod should be called 
 
COLOK-VDO COLLEOt COLUR\DO bPRlNGb, COLO 
 
176 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 that very year to settle the matter the Connecticut 
 churches would put in practice these new views, which 
 were called halfway covenant principles. By 1654 
 the Salem church had accepted them, though they 
 were not put in practice till several years later. In 
 1655 the church in Dorchester discussed the subject 
 earnestly, and being divided in opinion, sent letters to 
 the churches of Boston, Roxbury, Dedham and Brain- 
 tree, expressing their purpose, unless it should be 
 offensive to these churches, to baptize the children of 
 non-regenerate parents who had inherited the privi- 
 leges of the church. In 1656 the church at Ipswich 
 voted to adopt the new system. It declared that chil- 
 dren who were not more than fourteen years old when 
 their parents joined the church were themselves also 
 members of the church ; that the pastor should call 
 on them to take the covenant ; and that, when they 
 came to maturity, their children should be baptized ; 
 but that these persons should not be admitted to the 
 Lord's table without evidence that they had experi- 
 enced a work of faith and repentance. 
 
 But while most of the pastors were in favor of 
 the new theories, many of the laity were strongly 
 opposed to them. The opinions of the ministers 
 would naturally find fullest expression and record ; 
 but there is sufficient evidence of strong conservatism 
 among the lay brethren, many of whom regarded the 
 new movement as undermining the safeguards of the 
 purity of the church, and as bringing into New Eng- 
 land the corruptions from which they had fled In the 
 old country. Yet, opposed to these conservatives 
 within the church \vere those outside of it who con- 
 tributed to Its support, believed in its doctrines, were 
 
THE HALFWAY COVENANT. I77 
 
 in sympathy with its aims, but who were in a sense 
 ostracized because they could not comply with the 
 terms of membership by recounting a religious experi- 
 ence satisfactory to the church. These had also many 
 friends within the church. The feeling in behalf of 
 these persons was especially strong in Connecticut. 
 It seems to have been intensified by a quarrel which 
 lasted several years, from 1653 to 1659, between Sam- 
 uel Stone, the teacher, and William Goodwin, the ruling 
 elder of the Hartford church, concernino- the choice of a 
 successor to Mr. Hooker. This quarrel finally resulted 
 in the withdrawal of a number of the members of that 
 church and the formation of a new settlement at 
 Hadley, Mass. It docs not seem to have been par- 
 ticularly concerned with the extent to which bap- 
 tism might be practiced, but it undoubtedly helped to 
 prompt the petition which was presented to the Con- 
 necticut General Court in May, 1656, asking that 
 grievances might be removed. The court appointed 
 a committee of seven to consider these grievances and 
 to prepare questions concerning them to be presented 
 to the courts of the colonies. In response to the 
 questions sent by this committee, the Massachusetts 
 General Court appointed thirteen ministers to meet to 
 consider them June 4, 1657, and advised the other 
 colonies of the proposed meeting. Plymouth took no 
 action. New Haven declined to take part, and 
 expressed its continued adherence to the old ways. 
 Connecticut sent four ministers to the meeting, which 
 was held in Boston at the time appointed. It con- 
 tinued in session two weeks. It answered the twenty- 
 one questions which had been put before it, all of 
 which concerned the same subject, the baptism of the 
 
1/8 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 children of non-regenerate but baptized persons. The 
 general conclusion of the assembly was that the 
 children of church members who were come to 
 maturity, but were not yet fit for the Lord's Supper, 
 were still members of the church, and ought "to own 
 the covenant they made with their parents by entering 
 thereinto in their own persons." Yet it was decided 
 that while the children of those thus owning the 
 covenant ought to be admitted to baptism, they them- 
 selves ought not to come to the Lord's table, nor vote 
 in church affairs, till they had made a profession of 
 personal regeneration. 
 
 This decision only excited further discussion, which 
 grew so sharp in some instances as to threaten division 
 in the churches. It is difficult for us to understand 
 how feeling could have risen so high on a subject 
 which is now left to the conscience of the individual 
 minister and believer. But in those days political and 
 social standing was closely connected with church 
 standing. In all the colonies government practically 
 inhered in the churches. Christian character was gen- 
 erally regarded as necessary to citizenship. Only 
 persons whom God approved were fit to be trusted 
 with power, and the evidence of God's approval was 
 such a personal experience as assured the believer that 
 his heart had been changed by the Holy Spirit. 
 Besides, the accession of Charles II. to the throne of 
 England in 1660 threatened anew to overthrow the 
 New England church ways and to introduce those 
 which were most repugnant to the Puritans. 
 
 So strong was the opposition to the new theories 
 that the General Court of Massachusetts, December 
 31, 1 66 1, ordered the churches of the colony to send 
 
THE HALFWAY COVENANT. 1 79 
 
 their pastors and delegates to a synod to be held in 
 Boston on the second Tuesday of March following, 
 "to discuss and declare what they shall judge to be 
 the mind of God, revealed in His Word, concerninof 
 such questions as shall be propounded to them by 
 the order of this court." Those were days when the 
 jurisdiction of the Legislature over the church seems 
 not to have been questioned. The court propounded 
 to the synod two questions : (i) Who are the subjects 
 of baptism ? (2) Ought there to be a consociation of 
 churches, and if so, what should be the manner of 
 it ? The synod gave a general affirmative answer to 
 the second question, but its attention was mainly con- 
 centrated on the subject of baptism. The synod was 
 composed of about seventy persons, many of them 
 famous in the history of Massachusetts churches. 
 Most prominent in favor of the Halfway Covenant 
 was Jonathan Mitchell, the young and brilliant Cam- 
 bridge pastor. His most formidable opponent was 
 the venerable President Chauncey. For a fortnight 
 the matter was discussed without approaching a con- 
 clusion ; when an adjournment was had to June 10. 
 A second adjournment followed to September 10. It 
 must have been evident by that time that the large 
 majority were in favor of the conclusions adopted by 
 the assembly of ministers five years before. But the 
 conservative party was determined not to yield till 
 every effort to resist had failed. John Davenport of 
 New Haven was appealed to, and sent in writing his 
 objections to the views of the majority. Increase 
 Mather undertook to read these objections to the 
 body, but John Norton prevented him. However, he 
 published them, and so got them before the delegates. 
 
l8o CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 It seems to have been agreed by all that children 
 of church members are by birth in the same covenant 
 with their parents. But to the doctrine that the chil- 
 dren of such children might be admitted to baptism 
 the opposition was weighty, though the persons on that 
 side were not numerous. Finally, however, seven 
 propositions were adopted, declaring in substance what 
 the assembly of ministers had agreed on in 1657, that 
 members of the visible church are subjects of baptism : 
 that believers who have entered into covenant and 
 their minor children are members of the visible 
 church, and that the children of church members 
 admitted in minority who are not scandalous in life 
 and have owned the covenant are also to be baptized. 
 These propositions were adopted by a vote of sixty 
 in the affirmative to less than ten against, and pre- 
 sented to the General Court. But the opposition 
 presented its objections and urged them with force ; 
 and though the court paid little attention to the 
 protest, the synodists and anti-synodists for a long 
 time kept the Cambridge presses hot with the pam- 
 phlets they issued on the controversy. Chauncey, 
 Davenport and Increase Mather wrote vigorously 
 against the action of the synod, while Mitchell, Allen, 
 and Richard Mather as earnestly defended it. Their 
 arguments won Increase Mather to their side, and 
 within less than ten years he became the most con- 
 spicuous defender of the synod's conclusions. Curi- 
 ously enough both parties urged the same reasons 
 for their opposing positions. The conservatives 
 declared that the Halfway Covenant would result 
 in filling the churches with unregenerate persons 
 and so break down the distinction between the 
 
THE HALFWAY COVENANT. l8l 
 
 church and the world. The advocates of the new 
 measure urged that, unless it should be adopted, 
 the churches could not be prevented from so low- 
 ering the terms of communion as to admit unsuit- 
 able persons to all privileges. They held that the 
 Halfway Covenant would prove a barrier to guard 
 full communion more effectually. 
 
 Meanwhile the churches were threatened by two kinds 
 of danger. The first came from those who denounced 
 and sought to break them up from without ; the second 
 from those who sought to enter them without suitable 
 qualifications. The sect of Quakers arose in England 
 about 1648, with George Fox as their founder. He 
 was a thoughtful and devout young man who relied 
 much on inward revelations. He, and the followers 
 who gathered around him, soon began to believe it to 
 be their duty to denounce churches as idol temples 
 and to cry out against those who worshiped in them. 
 He commanded a magistrate who caused his arrest to 
 " tremble at the word of the Lord," and the magistrate 
 gave him the nickname of Quaker, a title which was 
 quickly taken up and popularly applied to him and his 
 followers. Many of them were whipped, beaten, im- 
 prisoned and otherwise abused in England. 
 
 The news of this new sect soon reached New 
 England. The memory of the troubles with Mrs. 
 Hutchinson was yet fresh. New strife would threaten 
 the independence of the still infant colonies. When 
 some of the books of the Quakers appeared in Massa- 
 chusetts in 1654 they were burned by order of the 
 General Court. In 1656 two Quaker women came to 
 Boston from the Barbadoes. Governor Endecott sent 
 them back on the same ship which brought them. A 
 
1 82 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 little later eight others arrived from England and were 
 treated in the same way. Each of the five colonies, 
 on the recommendation of the Federal Commissioners, 
 took steps to prohibit Quakers and other heretics from 
 coming within their bounds. In 1657, the same year 
 the assembly of ministers met in Boston to decide 
 on the question concerning the Halfway Covenant, 
 fifteen Quakers, some of whom had been sent away 
 the year before, arrived in New England. Several 
 were imprisoned, and some were whipped. Severer 
 laws were passed against them amid general alarm. 
 The Federal Commissioners advised that they be 
 banished under pain of severe corporal punishment if 
 they returned ; and that if any returned after a second 
 banishment they should be put to death. Massachu- 
 setts alone of the colonies adopted the extreme 
 penalty. It seemed probable that the Legislature 
 thought that if the law were passed it would be suffi- 
 cient to deter Quakers from coming into the colony. 
 But that proved to be a mistaken idea. Marmaduke 
 Stevenson, in the Barbadoes, heard of the law and 
 started at once for New England. Arrived at Rhode 
 Island, "the word of the Lord came to him, saying. 
 Go to Boston with thy brother, William Robinson." 
 Mary Dyer heard of the law, and "was moved of the 
 Lord to come to Boston." Nicholas Davis came also. 
 All four received sentence of banishment. They 
 departed, but in about a month Robinson and Steven- 
 son felt constrained of the Lord to come back to 
 Boston and suffer martyrdom. When they arrived 
 they found that Mary Dyer had also returned. All 
 three were sentenced to be hanged. The sentence 
 was executed on both men. Mary Dyer was delivered 
 
THE HALFWAY COVENANT. 
 
 183 
 
 into the charge of her son, who promised to take her 
 home and keep her there. But the next spring she 
 returned agfain to Boston, was acrain condemned to die 
 and was hung. WilHam Leddra and Wenlock Christi- 
 son were also sentenced to death, and the former was 
 hung in March, 1661. By that time pubHc sentiment 
 revolted against putting persons to death because of 
 
 FANEUIL IIALL, THE CRADLE UF AMKRlLAN LIUKR'IV. ULILl I742. 
 
 their opinions and the persecution stopped. The 
 Quakers had conquered the Puritans. For some time 
 they continued their absurd antics. They interrupted 
 public meetings. A young woman in Salem went 
 naked about the streets. Another with the same 
 absence of clothing attended church at Newbury, 
 Others went about in strange disguises and disfigure- 
 ments. But when the authorities ceased punishing 
 them they gradually ceased offending. 
 
 During these years, also, there were persecutions 
 
1 84 COXGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 against the Baptists. In 1644 the General Court 
 passed an order banishing those who held and taught 
 Baptist views. In 1651 three Baptists were arrested 
 for holding a public meeting and sent to jail. One of 
 them was whipped, choosing that punishment rather 
 than pay his fine. In 1665 a Baptist church was 
 organized at Charlestown, which ultimately became 
 the First Baptist Church of Boston. Five of its mem- 
 bers, who were freemen, were disfranchised. Two 
 were imprisoned for nearly a year. Three of the 
 leaders were sentenced to banishment ; but these 
 persecutions appear soon to have ceased, for in 1670 
 the agents of the colony in England w^ere instructed to 
 say concerning the Baptists : " They are now subject 
 to no other penal statutes than those of the Congre- 
 gational way." 
 
 The facts concerning these persecutions of Quakers 
 and Baptists have been here impartially set down. 
 Judged in the light of our time they would be without 
 excuse. But it must be remembered that while some 
 thirty Quakers were punished in various w^ays by order 
 of the Massachusetts General Court, some thousands 
 underwent similar punishments in England. When 
 in 1662 Charles II. wrote to the Massachusetts Gov- 
 ernment directing that greater liberty in worship should 
 be allowed, he expressly excepted Quakers. He w^rote : 
 "We cannot be understood hereby to direct or wish 
 that any indulgence should be granted to those persons 
 commonly called Quakers, wdiose being is inconsistent 
 with any kind of government. We have found it 
 necessary by the advice of our Parliament here to 
 make sharp laws against them, and are w^ell content 
 that you do the like there." The Puritans undertook 
 
THE HALFWAY COVENANT. 1 85 
 
 to establish on land which they had fairly acquired a 
 theocracy, according to what they believed to be the 
 laws of God, They insisted that these laws, as they 
 understood them, should be obeyed within their own 
 boundaries. It must be remembered that Quakers 
 usually denied the authority of all civil government. 
 The Puritans only asked that those who would not 
 obey should leave them. They believed that their 
 liberties were imperiled by persistent invaders, and 
 when these refused to depart they inflicted punish- 
 ments which in our judgment were severe and cruel. 
 It is fortunate that they learned so soon the futility of 
 attempting to protect their government by these means. 
 
 But while the peace of the churches was disturbed 
 by those from the outside who condemned it, their 
 purity was threatened by those who sought to enter 
 without possessing the requirements of admission on 
 which the churches had insisted. John Norton 
 and Simon Bradstreet had been sent to Enoland to 
 propitiate the new king, Charles II., and to secure a 
 continuation of the charter of Massachusetts, In this 
 they were successful, but they also brought back in- 
 structions that the use of the Prayer Book should be 
 permitted to all who might desire to use it ; that church 
 membership should no longer be a necessary qualifica- 
 tion for freemen, and that all persons of good, honest 
 lives should be admitted to the Lord's Supper and 
 their children to baptism, Mr, Norton became very 
 unpopular as a consequence of being the bearer of 
 these messages, and died a few months afterward, 
 having been greatly depressed by his reception on his 
 return from England, 
 
 This attack from the king on the strictness of early 
 
1 86 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN aIvIERICA. 
 
 Congregationalism was strengthened by a petition to 
 the General Court of Connecticut, presented in Octo- 
 ber, 1664, by several persons of good standing, asking 
 the court to compel ministers to admit them to the 
 Lord's table and their children to baptism, or else to 
 relieve them from contributing to the support of any 
 minister who should refuse. The court called on the 
 ministers to consider whether it was not their duty to 
 receive into church fellowship such persons as were 
 of good conversation and desired to enter into the 
 covenant, and whether baptized children who had 
 grown up should not be admitted to full communion, 
 if found qualified to share in the Lord's Supper. The 
 court also asked the officers of the churches to con- 
 sider whether it was not the duty of the court to order 
 the churches to do these things. 
 
 These steps promised to open the door into the 
 churches even more widely than was contemplated by 
 the Halfway Covenant. Of course they intensified 
 the opposition, which came from men who felt that 
 they were defending the church of God against in- 
 vasion. The pastors of Norwalk and Stamford sent to 
 the court a joint letter of protest against the new 
 proposal. The excitement was increased by the re- 
 ception of a new charter from England uniting in one 
 government the Connecticut and New Haven colonies. 
 Abraham Pierson of Branford and the majority of 
 his people in the spring of 1666 prepared to reniove to 
 Newark, N. J., because of their dissatisfaction with this 
 union and with the Halfway Covenant, The church 
 in Stratford was disturbed by a quarrel over the same 
 subject, resulting in division and the planting of a new 
 town at Woodbury. The church in Hartford was 
 
THE HALFWAY COVENANT. 187 
 
 split Into two factions, each led by one of its ministers. 
 John Davenport left New Haven, unwilling- to remain 
 in the colony after it was united to Connecticut, where 
 the Halfway Covenant views prevailed. " It is no 
 slight matter," he wrote to Governor Winthrop, who 
 had procured the new charter, " but that which con- 
 cerns the preserving of Christian churches in peace, 
 and gospel ordinances in purity. It is the faith and 
 order of the churches of Christ, which we are called to 
 contend for, that they may be preserved entire and 
 uncorrupted." When John Wilson died, in 1667, 
 Davenport was called to the First Church in Boston by 
 the large majority, who sympathized with his views. 
 His coming was followed by the withdrawal of twenty- 
 eight male members, who formed, by the aid of an ex 
 paj'te council, the Third, which has long been known as 
 the Old South Church. For fourteen years there was 
 no communion between the old church and the new ; 
 and the churches of the colony were long divided in 
 sentiment, those who were against the synod favoring 
 the First Church, and those who were for it, the Third 
 Church. In October, 1666, the General Court ordered 
 a synod to be called to meet in May of the next year 
 to settle a number of questions which had arisen in 
 these unhappy controversies. One of these questions 
 was whether the whole conorreofation were obliged to ac- 
 cept the choice of a minister by the church, or whether 
 dissatisfied persons had any other source of appeal. 
 
 But the synod, though it met as ordered, was 
 shrewdly managed by those who opposed the Half- 
 way Covenant, and never accomplished any result. 
 It adjourned to October, and before that time the 
 Federal Commissioners were induced to vote to sug- 
 
1 88 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 gest the calling of a synod representing all the churches 
 of the colonies. To this the Connecticut Court 
 agreed, but the Massachusetts Court failed to take up 
 the matter. In 1669 the Connecticut Court voted to 
 approve both the churches which practiced the Half- 
 way Covenant and those which opposed it, and to 
 permit churches divided on the question to separate. 
 This action the two factions of the Hartford Church 
 at once took advantage of, and the Second Church was 
 formed. When the churches found that neither view 
 was to be insisted on as the only orthodox way, the 
 intensity of discussion subsided ; but it had already 
 introduced lines of cleavage deeply into the life of the 
 churches, and its evil results will appear more dis- 
 tinctly in the records which conclude the eighteenth 
 century. 
 
COTTON MATHER, D. D. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 RELIGIOUS DECLENSION AND REFORMATION, 
 
 WITH the passing away of the first generation of 
 Pilgrims and Puritans much of the spirit of self- 
 sacrifice in planting a new nation with high Christian 
 principles also passed away. Ministers were less able 
 and had less commanding influence. The dissensions 
 in local churches, especially bitter in the chief towns, 
 such as Boston and Hartford, weakened their power 
 over the communities, and diminished their spiritual 
 fervor. The subjects discussed, in which prominent 
 persons became involved and in some instances their 
 characters questioned, produced opposing parties, not 
 in the churches only but in the political organizations 
 of the colonies. Immediate personal relations with 
 God became of less interest to Christians as compared 
 with disputes concerning personal relations with the 
 churches. From 1670 to 1680 only three churches 
 were organized in Massachusetts, a smaller number 
 than in any other decade of her history. Few persons 
 were received into full communion. Grave lapses of 
 members, which compelled discipline, increased. 
 
 Evidences that this religrious decline was felt and de- 
 plored abound in the annual election sermons during and 
 just previous to this decade. Year after year the gov- 
 ernor and legislature were reminded by the prophets 
 of the day that the glory of New England was depart- 
 ing. "We have abated in our esteem of ordinances, 
 in our hungering and thirsting after the rich provisions 
 
 189 
 
190 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 of the house of God," says Mr. Stoughton in 1668. 
 " Ah, how doth the unsoundness, the rottenness, the 
 hypocrisy of too many amongst us make itself known." 
 " Have we not reason to expect that ere long our 
 mourners will go up and down, and say. How is New 
 England fallen ! The land that was a land of holiness 
 hath lost her holiness ! " exclaimed Mr. Walley in 1669. 
 " Doth not a careless, remiss, flat, dry, cold, dead frame 
 of spirit grow upon you secretly, strongly, prodi- 
 giously?" appealed Mr. Danforth in 1670. In sermons 
 like these there is a profound pathos and terrible ear- 
 nestness on the part of ministers which must have been 
 intensified by the spiritual deadness of the people who 
 could hear such appeals without response. 
 
 Disasters to persons and property, and threatening 
 dangers to the political life of the colonies, made the 
 dearth of religious interests more ominous. The peo- 
 ple had been trained to believe that calamities were 
 signs of God's displeasure. Their fasts and thanks- 
 givings had been national recognitions of His provi- 
 dences in all their affairs. They had experienced many 
 wonderful and continued signs of divine favor. The 
 Indians, whom their fathers had naturally feared, had 
 been friendly. For fifty years there had been peace 
 between Indians and English except during the brief 
 Pequot war of 1637. During the civil strifes of the 
 mother country they had been left at peace, and 
 through the times of Charles I., of Cromwell and his 
 son, and in the earlier years of the reign of Charles II. 
 they had retained their charter undisturbed. Trade 
 had flourished in spite of some persistent efforts by 
 England to restrict it ; and the harvests had usually 
 been abundant. 
 
RELIGIOUS DECLENSION AND REFORMATION. 191 
 
 But now the crops had repeatedly failed. Unusual 
 disasters had occurred at sea. Severe epidemics, 
 especially the smallpox, had fallen on the colonies. 
 The visit of the royal commissioners from England in 
 1664 had awakened alarms and anxieties which were 
 long in subsiding. The disputes with the mother coun- 
 try were revived in 1676, when Edward Randolph came 
 to Massachusetts with a message from King Charles 
 complaining of the colony's infraction of its privileges, 
 and demanding that the authorities should send repre- 
 sentatives to E norland to defend its claims to its charter. 
 The contest continued till in 1684 the English Court 
 of Chancery vacated the charter. King Philip's war, 
 1 674-1 676, which had aimed at nothing less than the 
 extermination of Englishmen, had brought to every 
 community unspeakable horrors. At least one in every 
 twelve men of military age had been killed, many of 
 them with horrible barbarities. Almost every family 
 was in mourning. The loss of property had been ter- 
 rible. Some entire towns had been destroyed, and the 
 colonies were almost bankrupt because of the heavy 
 debts imposed by the war. 
 
 Oppressed by these circumstances and by the sense 
 of religious decline in the churches. Increase Mather, 
 pastor of the Second Church in Boston and the lead- 
 ing minister in New England, prepared a petition to 
 the Massachusetts General Court, and secured to it 
 the signatures of eighteen prominent ministers. The 
 petition requested the court to call a synod of the 
 churches, with a view to " inquiring into the causes 
 and state of God's controversy with us," and to reform 
 the evil conditions which had fallen on them. The 
 court, to which the petition was presented May 28, 
 
192 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 1679, promptly responded, and ordered the churches 
 to assemble by their messengers on the second Wed- 
 nesday of September following to revise the Platform 
 agreed on in 1647 ; and they were ordered to provide 
 for the expenses of the meeting. At this time there 
 seems to have been little question of the propriety of 
 the civil government issuing such orders, though the 
 First Church of Boston voted that it did not see the 
 necessity for calling the synod, but was willing to send 
 messengers to it, " though whatever is there deter- 
 mined, we look upon and judge to be no further 
 binding to us than the light of God's Word is thereby 
 cleared to our consciences." These two questions, 
 which were appended to the request from the 
 ministers, formed the subjects of discussion by the 
 synod: (i) "What are the evils that have pro- 
 voked the Lord to bring His judgment on New 
 England?" (2) " What is to be done that those evils 
 may be reformed ? " 
 
 After full and free discussion, occupying several days, 
 the synod unanimously adopted a result, including an- 
 swers to both questions. It mentioned thirteen evils as 
 prevalent : the decay of godliness among professing' 
 Christians ; pride as shown in insubordination, strife 
 and extravagance in dress ; neglect of baptism and 
 church fellowship, -and of testifying against Quakers 
 and Baptists ; profanity and irreverence ; Sabbath- 
 breaking ; neglect of family worship and discipline ; 
 quarrels, slanders and lawsuits between church mem- 
 bers ; intemperance; lustful behavior and adultery; 
 untruthfulness ; worldly ambition and covetousness, 
 leading to stinginess and unfair dealing in business; 
 leniency toward sin ; indifference to the public welfare, 
 
RELIGIOUS DECLENSION AND REFORMATION. 193 
 
 and sins against the gospel by refusing to repent and 
 by general unfruitfulness. 
 
 For these evils the synod prescribed twelve remedies, 
 namely, that prominent persons should be careful to 
 set good examples ; that the Cambridge Platform be 
 reaffirmed ; that only regenerate persons be ad- 
 mitted to the Lord's Supper ; that church discipline 
 be faithfully enforced ; that efforts be made to have 
 the churches fully officered, with pastor, teacher and 
 ruling elders ; that the magistrates see that these 
 officers are suitably supported ; that righteous laws be 
 enforced and the best persons be chosen to do it ; that 
 the churches solemnly renew their covenant ; that 
 they engage against the sins of the times ; that they 
 clearly express in their covenants their purposes of 
 holy living and labor ; that they promote diligently 
 the cause of education in the college and the schools : 
 and that all "cry mightily unto God . . . that he 
 would be pleased to rain down righteousness." 
 
 Besides answering these two questions in this sum- 
 mary of evils and the remedies proposed for them, 
 the synod appointed a committee to prepare a con- 
 fession of faith, and report at a second session, 
 which was held May 12, 1680. This committee was 
 practically relieved of labor by a synod of Congre- 
 gationalists, or Independents, as they were called in 
 England, which had been held in the Savoy Palace in 
 London in 1658. The confession prepared by the 
 Westminster Assembly, and adopted by Parliament 
 ten years before, was mainly the work of the Pres- 
 byterians. As the Independents rose into power, it 
 was natural that they should determine to have a 
 confession of their own. The Savoy Synod, though 
 
194 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 not officially summoned by the English government, 
 was called by the Congregational ministers in and 
 about London, who had been summoned by the 
 Clerk of the Council of State to take action. The 
 synod was in session only twelve working days. A 
 number of those who composed it had been active 
 also in the Westminster Assembly. The confession 
 prepared by the earlier body had been altered to 
 some extent by Parliament before it was adopted. 
 Some further alterations of a minor nature were 
 made, especial emphasis being- laid on the rightful- 
 ness of toleration and on the more gracious aspects 
 of the gospel, the result being the doctrinal part 
 of the Savoy declaration. To this were added thirty 
 sections concerninsf church order, settincr forth com- 
 pactly and clearly the grand outlines of the Con- 
 gregational polity. The whole formed " A Declara- 
 tion of the Faith and Order owned and Practiced in 
 the Congregational churches in England." 
 
 This confession had little effect on the churches 
 whose representatives prepared it. But Increase 
 Mather, and President Urian Oakes, of Harvard, 
 who were the leading members of the Committee of 
 the Massachusetts Synod of 1679, had been in England 
 at the time of the Savoy Synod ; and no doubt through 
 their influence the Savoy Confession, with slight 
 alterations, was now adopted as the creed of the 
 Massachusetts churches. Though it was not meant to 
 and did not supplant the creeds of local churches, it 
 appears to have been adopted by the Old South 
 Church of Boston, and the First Church of Cambridge, 
 and perhaps by some others. The Massachusetts 
 General Court commended the action of the synod 
 
RELIGIOUS DECLENSION AND REFORMATION. I95 
 
 to the consideration of all the churches and enjoined 
 all persons to diligent reformation of the evils which 
 the synod had named, and ordered its deliverance con- 
 cerning them, as also the confession of faith, to be 
 printed. 
 
 The action of the synod produced good fruit. 
 Cotton Mather says it was followed, " not only by 
 a great advancement of holiness in the people but also 
 by a great addition of converts to their holy fellow- 
 ship." Many of the churches of Massachusetts sol- 
 emnly renewed their covenants ; and their example 
 was followed extensively by those of the other colonies. 
 Singularly, however, very many of the additions were 
 not to full communion, but were of persons received by 
 the Halfway Covenant. In the Old South Church, 
 for example, April 30, 1680, seventy-nine persons 
 " owned the covenant." They were nearly all young 
 people. The additions to the same church the fol- 
 lowing year were only two. In subsequent years 
 those received into fellowship were largely of the 
 class which did not come into full communion, though 
 no doubt in many cases this step was followed later 
 by a profession of religious experience. The records 
 of the First Church in Hartford, for example, show 
 that within a month, in 1696, one hundred and ninety- 
 two persons, probably nearly all the young people in 
 the congregation, signed their names to the covenant. 
 Two years after the final session of the Reforming 
 Synod, as it has been known in our history, and 
 perhaps as one of its results, the First and Third 
 (Old South) churches of Boston, which for fourteen 
 years had not fellowshipped each other, were recon- 
 ciled, and "both the churches kept a solemn day 
 
196 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 together, wherein, lamenting the infirmities that had 
 attended their former contentions, they gave thanks 
 to the great Peace Maker for effecting this joyful 
 reconciliation." 
 
 But notwithstanding this temporary revival of re- 
 ligious interest, yet darker clouds were gathering over 
 New England, brooding most heavily on Massa- 
 chusetts. The decree vacating its charter, Avhich was 
 made final October 23, 1684, was the downfall of the 
 Puritan commonwealth. The humiliation of Massa- 
 chusetts was made complete by the appointment of 
 the brutal Colonel Kirk as its governor, and though 
 his coming was defeated by the death of the king, 
 before the close of the next year Sir Edmund Andros 
 had arrived with a commission as governor of New 
 Enoland. A few months later he seized the Old 
 South meeting house in which to hold the services 
 of the Church of England. The church from whose 
 persecutions the Puritans had fled now thrust itself 
 into their very sanctuaries, and threatened to levy on 
 them taxes for its support. Palfrey says, " If the de- 
 mand had been for the use of the building for a mass, 
 or for a carriage-house for Juggernaut, it could scarcely 
 have been to the generality of the people more offen- 
 sive." The act of seizure was not only a humiliating 
 reminder that the people were now deprived of their 
 rights of self-government, but it was also a threat that 
 the religious system they had planted might be sup- 
 pressed, and a menace to all their titles to their homes 
 and property. This, indeed, was but one incident in 
 a course of despotism which was certain to rouse the 
 spirits of Englishmen to revolution. Another illustra- 
 tion of the odious rule of Andros arose in connection 
 
RELIGIOUS DECLENSION AND REFORMATION. 197 
 
 with his attempt to impose an arbitrary tax on the peo- 
 ple. John Wise, minister of Ipswich, protested against 
 this, and as a punishment was imprisoned and fined 
 fifty pounds, and suspended from the ministry. 
 
 About this time there began to rise into prominence 
 in Massachusetts a young man who became the most 
 famous minister in New England during the close of 
 the seventeenth and the first quarter of the eighteenth 
 centuries. Cotton Mather was born in Boston, Feb- 
 ruary 12, 1663. His mother was the only daughter of 
 John Cotton, long the illustrious minister of the First 
 Church. On his father's side, he was the grandson 
 of Richard Mather, the honored first pastor of the 
 church in Dorchester. His father, Increase Mather, 
 has already often been mentioned in these pages, the 
 pastor of the Second, or North Church in Boston, a 
 man of eminence on both sides of the ocean. About 
 this time, 1685, Increase Mather was chosen President 
 of Harvard College, which position he held for sixteen 
 years besides his pastorate. 
 
 Cotton Mather received the bachelor's degree from 
 Harvard in 1678. In all the history of that institution 
 only two persons have received that degree at an 
 earlier age than he. In May, 1685, he was ordained 
 as colleague pastor with his father. He began his 
 ministry in stormy times. In April, 1688, his father 
 went to England to try to procure a restoration of the 
 charter and relief from the hated rule of Andros, and 
 also to secure a royal charter for Harvard College. 
 In December of that year the brief reign of James II. 
 came to an end, and two weeks later William and 
 Mary ascended the throne of England. When the 
 news reached Boston, April 4, 1689, that William had 
 
198 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 landed in England, the citizens seized and imprisoned 
 Andros and his chief assistants, and formed a pro- 
 visional government. The ministers of Boston were 
 active in that revolution. Cotton Mather appears to 
 have been one of the leaders in it and to have done 
 much to prevent undue violence. When the news 
 arrived, May 26, of the accession of William and Mary, 
 Simon Bradstreet, then in his eighty-seventh year, the 
 only survivor of the Puritan leaders of the first gener- 
 ation, was again made governor, which office he held 
 till 1692, when he was succeeded by Sir William 
 Phips, the first governor under the new charter. 
 That charter was the result of the diplomacy of 
 Increase Mather. 
 
 The last ten years of the seventeenth century have 
 been called the " woeful decade " for New England. 
 In the spring of 1692 the famous witchcraft panic 
 broke out in Salem. It was no new thing to believe 
 in witchcraft nor to punish witches. In 1648 Margaret 
 Jones had been condemned as a witch by the judicious 
 Governor Winthrop and executed. In 1651 Martha 
 Parsons was put to death at Springfield. In 1653 
 another woman was hanged in Hartford under the 
 same accusation. From time to time during the inter- 
 vening period before 1692 several persons, eight or 
 nine in all, had been condemned in New England as 
 witches. The epidemic of witchcraft which threw 
 Massachusetts into convulsions was brief in time and 
 small in its results, as compared with the excitement 
 which spread over Europe. James Russell Lowell 
 says : " Puritanism had nothing to do with it. They 
 acted under a delusion which, with an exception here 
 and there, darkened the understanding of all Chris- 
 
RELIGIOUS DECLENSION AND REFORMATION. I99 
 
 tendom. . . The proceedings of the Salem trial are 
 sometimes spoken of as if they were exceptionally 
 cruel. But in fact, if compared with others of the 
 same kind, they were exceptionally humane." The 
 witchcraft delusion, as it has been called, broke out 
 again and again in Europe as a storm of terror. It 
 has been estimated that in the British Islands thirty 
 thousand suffered death for witchcraft, seventy-five 
 thousand in France, one hundred thousand in Ger- 
 many, and many thousands in other countries of 
 Europe. In the New England colonies thirty-two 
 were executed, of whom twenty were in Salem. Be- 
 yond question the publication of stories of witches 
 and of their trials before the courts in England had 
 great influence in exciting the fears and passions of 
 the people of Massachusetts, and in causing the trage- 
 dies at Salem. 
 
 It was the common belief in those days that current 
 events were directly caused by supernatural powers, 
 benio-nant or malicious. Diseases which we trace to 
 bad drainage the people of that time believed were the 
 infliction of bad spirits. They had frequent visions of 
 angels and of devils. To them the Indians and their 
 territory were subject to Satan. He was fighting the 
 Puritans, making use to that end of unregenerate souls 
 who had surrendered to his influence, and they were 
 striving in the name of God to overcome him. Minis- 
 ters fasted and prayed against the works of the devil, 
 and saw portents of his presence in storms and light- 
 nings and fires and plagues. In 1684 Increase 
 Mather wrote a book against witchcraft. Two years 
 later Cotton Mather heard of a maid in Woburn 
 possessed of the devil, resolved to study the action 
 
200 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 of "those evil humors," and set apart days of secret 
 prayer and fasting to cast out devils. About 
 that time he recorded the appearance of a glorious 
 angel, who foretold to him the great influence he 
 should have through his mind and books, " not only in 
 America, but in Europe," and as a consequence of his 
 vision he had prayed : " From the wiles of the devil, 
 I beseech thee, deliver and defend thy most unworthy 
 servant." 
 
 In brief, the story of the Salem witchcraft began by 
 the seizure of the children of the minister, Mr. Paris, 
 with strange disorders early in 1692. They accused 
 their neighbors of bewitching them. Their story was 
 believed. The panic spread. The people were 
 stricken with terror. No one knew on whom sus- 
 picion might fall, or what dark deeds Satan was medi- 
 tating. The governor, Sir William Phips, appointed 
 a special court to try the accused. June 2 Bridget 
 Bishop, who had been accused several years before of 
 being a witch, was condemned, and June 10 she was 
 executed. The court then asked the advice of the 
 ministers of Boston and vicinity. June 15 they 
 replied at length in a Return written by Cotton 
 Mather. They said : " We judge that in the prose- 
 cution of these and all such witchcrafts there is need 
 of a very critical and exquisite caution, lest by too 
 much credulity for things received only upon the devil's 
 authority there be a door opened for a long train of 
 miserable consequences, and Satan get an advantage 
 over us," They urged " that all proceedings thereabout 
 be managed with an exceeding tenderness toward those 
 that may be complained of, especially if they have 
 been persons formerly of an unblemished reputation." 
 
RELIGIOUS DECLENSION AND REFORMATION. 201 
 
 The number of those who claimed to be bewitched, 
 however, rapidly increased. Multitudes thought them- 
 selves possessed by the devil. Accusations multiplied. 
 Many prominent people were denounced as witches. 
 Cotton Mather says : "The devil improves the dark, 
 ness of this affair to push us into a blind man's buffet, 
 and we are ready to be sinfully, yea, hotly and 
 madly, mauling one another in the dark." Before the 
 excitement had entirely passed, he himself was accused 
 by a young woman of having bewitched her. By the 
 22d of September nineteen persons in Salem had 
 been hung, and one had been pressed to death. 
 Among the victims was George Burroughs, a min- 
 ister of some twenty years' standing, and a grad- 
 uate of Harvard. The craze passed away almost 
 as speedily as it sprang up. In January, 1693, the 
 special court of Oyer and Terminer gave way to the 
 regular Superior Court, which refused to admit "spec- 
 tral evidence : " that is, it declined to receive as testi- 
 mony the ravings of bewitched people. The next 
 May all the accused who had been committed to jail, 
 probably as many as two hundred, were released by 
 the order of the governor. "Such a jail delivery," 
 says Hutchinson, "has never been known in New 
 England." 
 
 Cotton Mather has been accused, but without any 
 adequate evidence, of dishonesty in seeking the pun- 
 ishment of witchcraft. Beyond doubt he believed in 
 its reality, and was intensely in earnest to destroy it. 
 But to any candid reader of his diary and other writ- 
 ings on the subject the idea that he was actuated by 
 malice is simply incredible. He and other ministers 
 exercised a restraining influence on the public mind 
 
202 CONGREGATIONALTSTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 during those terrible days. Some eminent men, 
 among whom were Simon Bradstreet, Increase Mather 
 and Samuel Willard, pastor of the Old South Church, 
 earnestly opposed the witchcraft proceedings. Three 
 years later Samuel Sewall, one of the judges who 
 had officially condemned those who had been 
 executed, at a day of public fast openly confessed 
 his blame and shame in connection with the court, 
 asked the pardon of men and their prayers that 
 he mi^ht have the forg-iveness of God. But lono- 
 after. Cotton Mather wrote in his diary, concern- 
 ing his deliverances about witchcraft: "Upon the 
 severest examination, and the solemnest supplica- 
 tion, I still think that for the main I have written 
 right." 
 
 The seventeenth century closed with mingled gains 
 and losses to the churches. The Puritan common- 
 wealth, which had fallen in 1684, came to a final end 
 with the issuance of the new provincial charter in 1692. 
 From that time the church ceased to be the ruling 
 power in the colony of Massachusetts. Before that 
 only church members could vote, and the propor- 
 tion of voters to the population had dwindled till less 
 than one adult in five was a freeman. By the new 
 charter only a property qualification was to be required 
 of voters. The governor was to be appointed by the 
 Crowm, but the right of the people to choose their 
 own legislature was expressly confirmed. The exclu- 
 sive right of the legislature to impose taxes was also 
 confirmed, but its laws must be sent to England for 
 royal approval. As a matter of course, the leading 
 ministers regarded this passing away from the church 
 of the civil power as the defeat of the great purpose 
 
RELIGIOUS DECLENSION AND REFORMATION. 203 
 
 for which their fathers had planted the colonies. 
 With all their might they resisted the change, and 
 mourned over the opposition of the worldly and the 
 indifference of many within the church. They felt 
 that if they could no longer rule, righteousness would 
 cease. The intrusion of Episcopacy threatened their 
 civil liberty as much as their religious supremacy. 
 The building of King's Chapel, finished in 1689, for 
 whose erection the ruling powers had in all ways, short 
 of direct coercion, sought to compel them to con- 
 tribute, they regarded as a menace to their rights. 
 The sermons and other published utterances of 
 the fathers at that time show that the close of the 
 century seemed to them the dawning of the day of 
 doom. 
 
 Yet the important advantages to the churches far 
 exceeded these apparent losses, as afterward plainly 
 appeared. The diminishing temptation to join the 
 church on account of worldly advantages connected 
 with it tended to promote its purity. The separation 
 of the church from the state restored the inde- 
 pendence which already the churches had found to be 
 a large price to pay for their pre-eminence in civil 
 affairs. Puritan Congregationalism had so firmly 
 fixed itself in New England soil that no political 
 changes could uproot it or alter its essential character. 
 The close of the century found seventy-six Congrega- 
 tional churches within the present bounds of Mas- 
 sachusetts, beside eight Indian churches. There were 
 also two Baptist churches in Boston and one Episcopal, 
 and a company of Quakers who had built a small 
 meeting house. There were thirty-five churches in 
 Connecticut, seven in New Hampshire, and two in 
 
204 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Maine, all Congregational. In Rhode Island there 
 were two or three Baptist churches, and some motley 
 communities without definite organizations. The 
 predominant, almost the entire organized religious 
 life of New England, was still Puritan Congrega- 
 tionalism. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 CONFLICTING TENDENCIES IN CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 
 
 THE closing years of the seventeenth century and 
 the first decade of the eighteenth witnessed the 
 development of conflicting tendencies in church 
 government, whose influences extended through the 
 whole of the latter century and beyond it. Many of 
 the churches, especially in the frontier settlements, 
 were small in numbers, weakened by poverty and the 
 Indian wars. They could not have continued to 
 exist without financial aid. The Massachusetts Legis- 
 lature became in a sense a home missionary society. 
 Between 1693 and 1710 more than fifty -applications 
 for help were made to it from these feeble churches, 
 and granted by appropriations from the public 
 treasury. Earnest efforts were made to strengthen 
 these churches by a closer union of their pastors ; and 
 the natural tendency was to increase the power of the 
 ministers and the organizations formed by them over 
 the churches. Besides the inroads of Episcopacy, lax 
 tendencies developing with respect to terms of admis- 
 sion to membership, the participation in church gov- 
 ernment of those not admitted to full communion, 
 the weakening of the influence of ministers in the civil 
 government, and increasing restlessness under their 
 efforts to guide spiritual and social affairs were occa- 
 sions of alarm to many who feared in these movements 
 
 205 
 
2o6 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 the decline of the power of the churches and of vital 
 godliness. 
 
 Those most zealous to maintain the old order of 
 things turned to ministerial orofanizations as a means 
 of quickening the life of the churches and establish- 
 ing their authority more firmly. One of these, the 
 Ministers' Convention, had existed from the beginning 
 of the Massachusetts colony. It had held annual 
 sessions in connection with the opening of the general 
 court in May. Its advice had often been asked by 
 the court on important matters. The ministers of the 
 other colonies had followed its example by meeting 
 also in connection with the sessions of the general 
 courts. After a time it became the custom to have a 
 sermon preached to the convention annually, the day 
 after the election of the governor by the lower house, 
 in the presence of the governor and the legislature. 
 This convention was not a synod, and did not claim to 
 be an authoritative body, but it discussed matters most 
 prominent in the churches and in the moral concerns 
 of the commonwealth. Cotton Mather, in his " Mag- 
 nalia," written in 1698, says that in its meetings "every 
 pastor that meets with singular difficulties has oppor- 
 tunity to bring them under consideration. But the 
 question most usually now considered is, ' What may 
 be further proposed for the preserving and promoting 
 of true piety in the land?'" 
 
 Other gatherings of ministers had been regularly 
 held in the early history of Massachusetts. There was 
 a regular fortnightly meeting of this sort in Boston 
 and vicinity as early as 1633. But it met with some 
 opposition through fear that it might grow into a 
 presbytery, and it appears after some years to have 
 
CONFLICTING TENDENCIES IN CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 20/ 
 
 ceased. Thomas Shepard of Cambridge in 1672 said 
 that he remembered such meetings in his childhood. 
 John Wise in 1710 declared that thirty years before 
 that time there were no such meetings. But in the 
 autumn of 1690 an association was organized of the 
 ministers in the neighborhood of Boston, It was the 
 first permanent district association, and seems to have 
 been begun by Charles Morton, minister of Charles- 
 town. It was modeled after a similar body which had 
 arisen in county Cornwall, England, in 1655, but 
 which was shortlived. Its meetings were held on 
 Monday mornings at Harvard College once in six 
 weeks or oftener. Other associations appear to have 
 been early formed in Essex County, in the neighbor- 
 hoods of Weymouth and Sherburne, and in Bristol 
 County. 
 
 These associations, especially the one at Cambridge, 
 seem to have been one means of developing the tend- 
 encies of two conflicting parties, each of which led 
 the churches in different directions further away from 
 the earlier Congregationalism. The conservative 
 party sought to restrain the independence of the local 
 churches and of individual ministers by the influence 
 of ministerial, and a little later by church, associations. 
 They aimed to do this by making, through these asso- 
 ciations, declarations of the will of the churches, by 
 limiting the choice of pastors to such persons as met 
 their approval, and by guarding against the organi- 
 zation of new churches which would favor loose ways. 
 As Harvard College was the source from which most 
 of the ministers were expected to come, it seemed to 
 them especially important to guard it against false 
 teaching and undesirable teachers. 
 
2o8 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Cotton Mather gives a long list of the topics dis- 
 cussed by the Cambridge association, which indicates 
 the direction of its interests and its purposes. Among 
 them were these : who chooses a minister; powers of 
 ministers in their churches ; rights of a minister to 
 officiate in a church not his own ; resignation of 
 ministry ; inquiries by pastors into scandals ; use of 
 instrumental music and of ceremonies in public 
 worship ; relations of church discipline to civil con- 
 viction ; powers of councils. The drift of the associa- 
 tion toward assuming authority over churches is 
 indicated by its deliverances, of which the following 
 are illustrations : 
 
 " Synods, duly composed of messengers chosen by 
 those whom they are to represent, and proceeding with 
 a due regard unto the will of God in His Word, are 
 to be reverenced, as determining the mind of the Holy 
 Spirit concerning things necessary to be received and 
 practiced in order to the edification of the churches 
 therein represented." 
 
 "Synods, being of Apostolical example, recom- 
 mended, as a necessary ordinance, it is but reasonable, 
 that their judgment be acknowledged as decisive, in the 
 affairs for which they are ordained." 
 
 These deliverances referred, so far as form is con- 
 cerned, to occasional gatherings, now called ecclesiasti- 
 cal councils. 
 
 The leaders of the conservative party were the 
 Mathers, father and son. With them were James 
 Allen, pastor of the First Church, Boston, John Hig- 
 ginson and Nicholas Noyes of Salem, William Hubbard 
 of Ipswich, and several others, mostly of the older 
 ministers. To these men were opposed a party, mainly 
 
CONFLICTING TENDENCIES IN CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 209 
 
 of younger ministers, who steadily gained in power. 
 John Leverett and WilHam Brattle were graduates of 
 Harvard in 1680, and became tutors in the college in 
 1685, the year of Increase Mather's election to the 
 presidency. Thomas Brattle, an older brother of 
 William, graduated in 1676 and was treasurer of the 
 college from 1693 to 1713. Ebenezer Pemberton grad- 
 uated in 1 69 1 , and was tutor in the college till 1 700, when 
 he became colleague pastor with Samuel Willard in the 
 Old South Church. William Brattle became pastor of 
 the Cambridge Church in 1696. These four became 
 the leaders of the liberal party. Mr. Willard, who in 
 fact, though not in name, succeeded Increase Mather 
 as President of Harvard when the latter was prac- 
 tically deposed in 1 701, occupied a position midway 
 between the two parties, though leaning toward the 
 liberal side. 
 
 The aims of the liberal party were, first, to relieve 
 candidates for admission into the church from making 
 a public statement of their experience ; second, to 
 extend the right of voting for the choice of a pastor to 
 all male adults in the congregation, at least to all who 
 had been baptized ; third, to extend the right of bap- 
 tism to all children presented by any professing Chris- 
 tians who would stand sponsors for their religious 
 training ; fourth, to bring into the services of public 
 worship the reading of the Scriptures without comment 
 and the repetition of the Lord's Prayer. Congrega- 
 tional churches from the first had resisted, as savoring 
 of the Prayer Book, what was called "dumb reading" 
 of the Bible and the use of the Lord's Prayer in public 
 worship. The feeling between the two parties may be 
 traced in church records and in various publications 
 
2IO CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 issued during this period. Evidently it found expres- 
 sion in private conversation and in public meetings, by 
 which it was made to grow in intensity. For example, 
 when Benjamin Wadsworth was ordained colleague 
 pastor of the First Church, September 8, 1696, 
 Increase Mather gave him the right hand of fellow- 
 ship, of which Judge Sewall records in his diary that 
 Mr. Mather " spake notably of some young men who 
 had apostatized from New England principles, contrary 
 to the light of their education ; was glad that he [Mr. 
 Wadsworth] was of another spirit." The next year, 
 1697, Cotton Mather published his life of Jonathan 
 Mitchell, and his father wrote the preface. In it the 
 elder Mather referred to places which had had a faithful 
 ministry, but which had become through " young, pro- 
 fane mockers, and scornful neuters, overgrown with 
 thorns and nettles, so that the glory of the Lord had 
 departed." He especially admonished the tutors in the 
 college not to "become degenerate plants, or prove 
 themselves apostate." It was impossible to avoid see- 
 ing, in sentences like these, allusions to those persons 
 whose views the conservative party opposed. The 
 same year, in August, the Second Church in Boston, of 
 which the Mathers were pastors, admonished by letter 
 the Charlestown church "for betraying the liberties of 
 the churches in their late putting into the hands of the 
 whole inhabitants the choice of a minister." 
 
 About this time the o-i'owino- strenoth of the liberal 
 movement led to the oro;anization of a fourth church. 
 For a score of years after the first settlement of 
 Boston, the First Church stood alone. In 1650 the 
 Second, or North Church had been formed simply 
 because the first was overcrowded. The Old South 
 
CONFLICTING TENDENCIES IN CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 211 
 
 had come into existence in 1669 as the result of a 
 bitter controversy in the First Church, and though its 
 pastor sympathized to some extent with the new party, 
 some of its prominent members were strongly con- 
 servative. But the First and Second churches strenu- 
 ously opposed the movement for another church, and 
 they were very large and influential. The liberal 
 party felt the necessity of a new church in which the 
 new measures could be put into practice. Thomas 
 Brattle was wealthy and owned land in what became 
 known later as Brattle Square. On this land, which 
 he transferred to a body of associates, a new meeting 
 house, a plain, unpainted structure, was built. In May, 
 1699, an invitation was sent to Benjamin Colman, a 
 brilliant young graduate of Harvard, then in England, 
 to become pastor of the proposed new church. He 
 accepted the call, and havino- been advised by his 
 friends that the Boston cYiurcties would not receive 
 him with favor, he secured ordination at the hands of 
 the London presbytery, under whose authority he was 
 then preaching. He arrived in Boston November i, 
 1699, and at once began preaching in the new meeting 
 house. Those actively interested in the new move- 
 ment issued a statement of their views and principles, 
 November 17, in which they declared their adherence 
 to the doctrines of the Westminster Confession, and 
 their desire for the fellowship of the churches ; but 
 affirmed that those seeking admission into the church 
 should be required to relate their religious experience 
 to the pastor only ; that children had the right to 
 baptism when presented by any professing Christians 
 willing to stand sponsor for them ; that all adults who 
 contributed to the support of the pastor should have 
 
212 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 a voice in electing him, and that the devotional read- 
 ing of the Scriptures without comment was a proper 
 exercise in public worship. They called their state- 
 ment a "manifesto," and for a long time afterward 
 their orofanization bore the name of the Manifesto 
 Church. 
 
 The church was formed December 12, and consisted 
 of fourteen members, several of whom came from the 
 Old South. No council was called, though the new 
 church voted to invite the others to keep with it a day 
 of fasting and prayer. But in its formation, in the 
 reception of its minister without the usual installation 
 into office by the co-operation of the neighboring- 
 churches, and in its declaration of principles, it had 
 distinctly departed from time-honored practices of New 
 England Congregationalism. James Allen and In- 
 crease Mather, representing the First and Second 
 churches, replied to the invitation to a fast that they 
 could not join in it unless the new organization should 
 give the satisfaction which the law of Christ required 
 for its disorderly proceedings. John Higginson and 
 Nicholas Noyes sent an earnest reproof to the new 
 church. The intensity of feeling may be inferred from 
 various records in Cotton Mather's diary, of which 
 the following, under date of January 5, 1700, is a 
 specimen : 
 
 " I see Satan beeinnino- a terrible shake unto the 
 churches of New England, and the Innovators that 
 have set up a new church in Boston, (a new one 
 indeed !) have made a day of temptation among us. 
 The men are ignorant, arrogant, obstinate, and full of 
 malice and slander, and they fill the land with lies, in 
 the representations whereof I am a singular sufferer. 
 
CONFLICTING TENDENCIES IN CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 213 
 
 Wherefore I set apart this day again for prayer in my 
 study, to cry mightily unto God." 
 
 Yet there were many who strove for peace. Lieu- 
 tenant Governor Stoughton and Judge Sewall, with 
 Mr. Willard and others, finally secured the signatures 
 of Mr, Colman and his friends to an agreement drawn 
 up by William Brattle, and the ministers consented to 
 join in a fast recognizing the new church. This was 
 held January 31. Mr. Colman preached, and Increase 
 Mather also, whose text was " Follow peace with all 
 men, and holiness." His theme was that peace must 
 be followed so far as it is consistent with holiness. But 
 it is evident that he was not persuaded that peace under 
 existing conditions was consistent with holiness ; for 
 the cessation of hostilities was only a truce. Already 
 he had prepared a tract, one of the most remarkable 
 in Congregational literature, attacking the new move- 
 ment and its leaders. The observance of the fast 
 seems to have postponed the publication of the tract, 
 but it was issued March i, 1700. The same day 
 Cotton Mather wrote in his diary, " The venom of that 
 malignant company who have lately built a new church 
 in Boston disposes them to add unto the storm of my 
 present persecution : for it may be never had any men 
 more of that character of grievous revolters, to be 
 walking with slanders, than many of that poor people 
 have." The tract was entitled " The Order of the 
 Gospel." It mentioned no names ; but its tone and 
 temper may be inferred from the following extract : 
 
 " If we Espouse such principles as these. Namely, 
 That Churches are not to Enquire into the Regenera- 
 tion of those whom they admit unto their Communion. 
 That Admission to Sacraments is to be left wholly to 
 
214 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 the prudence and Conscience of the Minister. That 
 ExpHcit Covenanting with God and with the Church is 
 needless. That Persons not OuaHfied for Communion 
 in special Ordinances shall Elect Pastors of Churches. 
 That all Professed Christians have a right to Baptism. 
 That Brethren are to have no voice in Ecclesiastical 
 Councils. That the Essence of a Minister's call is 
 not in the Election of the People, but in the Cere- 
 mony of Imposing hands. That Persons may be 
 Established in the Pastoral Office without the Appro- 
 bation of Neighboring Churches or Elders ; We then 
 give away the whole Congregational cause at once, 
 and a great part of the Presbyterian Discipline also." 
 Mather characterized Colman, without naming him, 
 as " a wandering Levite who has no flock." He called 
 on the churches to prav that the college might have 
 "tutors that will be true to Christ's interests and ways 
 and not hanker after new and loose ways." When the 
 Ministers' Convention assembled, May 30, Mather led 
 them, in order " to prevent the great mischief to the 
 evanofelical interests that may arise from the unadvised 
 proceedings of people to gather churches," to vote to 
 republish the deliverance of the Synod of 1662 con- 
 cerning the consociation of churches. He was 
 requested by the convention to issue an address to 
 the churches, accompanying this document, urging 
 them to see that " the irregular proceedings of any 
 people hereafter, contrary to that advice, be not encour- 
 aged." This was one of the ways in which the con- 
 servative party hoped to use ministerial organizations 
 as a bulwark against threatened innovations. But it 
 availed little. An anonvmous reply to Increase 
 Mather's tract was issued, entitled " Gospel Order 
 
CONFLICTING TENDENCIES IN CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 21 5 
 
 Revived." It was probably the product of Colman 
 and some of his friends. It was personal in its attack 
 on Mr. Mather ; it ridiculed some of his statements, 
 and it affirmed in its preface that the press in Boston 
 was so much under Mr. Mather's influence that the 
 printer would not print the tract. 
 
 But the battle was not waged between the churches 
 only. As President of Harvard, Increase Mather had 
 for years been struggling against opposers. He had 
 made many attempts to secure a charter which would 
 preserve the college to the interests of the churches, 
 but in vain. He was senior pastor of the largest 
 church in Boston, and he greatly disliked to live in 
 Cambridge. Yet pressure had repeatedly been brought 
 to bear on him to live in the neighborhood of the 
 college. The General Court had voted, in 1693, 
 1695, and again in 1698, that the president should 
 reside in Cambridge. The last time the court had 
 joined with the proposal an increase of salary. But 
 to these votes Mr. Mather made no response. July 
 10, 1700, the court positively insisted that he should 
 live at Cambridge. He was accordingly persuaded to 
 make the change, but in a few weeks he was back in 
 Boston, and wrote to Lieutenant Governor Stoughton 
 asking that another president be thought of. Prob- 
 ably he did not mean to resign his office. He wanted 
 to keep it while at the same time he retained his pas- 
 torate ; and he intensely desired to be sent again to 
 England to secure a new charter for the college. But 
 in February 1701, Samuel Willard, pastor of the Old 
 South Church, was made Vice President. In Septem- 
 ber following, the General Court voted to commit the 
 care of the college to Mr. Willard, and though Mr. 
 
2l6 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Mather nominally retained his position as president, 
 his control of the colleo^e then ended. 
 
 Increase Mather had for many years been the most 
 influential minister in Massachusetts. He had with 
 great ability represented the interests of the colony in 
 England. His services had been of the highest value 
 to Harvard College. His defeat and removal from 
 authority as its president was a disappointment whose 
 bitterness continued with him and his son to the end of 
 their lives. It meant to them and their friends the 
 surrender of Harvard to men not in sympathy with the 
 aims of the conservative party in the churches, and the 
 further history of the college showed that their alarm 
 and distress were not without reason. 
 
 But the steps they took to guard against the innova- 
 tion of new customs led toward other dangers to the 
 liberty of the churches, not less perilous to Congrega- 
 tionalism. And singularly enough, some, at least, of 
 the men whom they had opposed joined them in these 
 measures to strengthen Congregationalism by bringing 
 increased power into associations of ministers and 
 churches. In June, 1704, the Ministers' Convention 
 issued a circular letter urging pastors, by pastoral visits 
 and personal interviews, to fresh endeavors to bring all 
 the people to make public covenant with God ; to be 
 faithful in church discipline, and not to shield any in 
 other churches from discipline ; and to take measures 
 "that the associations of the ministers in the several 
 parts of the country may be strengthened." This was 
 signed by twenty-three ministers, including Pemberton, 
 Colman, James Allen and Cotton Mather. In Novem- 
 ber following the Cambridge Association re-enforced 
 the letter of the convention, laying especial emphasis 
 
CONFLICTING TENDENCIES IN CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 21/ 
 
 on the importance of associations of ministers con- 
 sulting with one another to promote " a watchful 
 regard unto the great interests of religion among us." 
 September ii, [705, a meeting was held in Boston 
 of nine delegates, representing the five ministerial 
 associations of Boston, Weymouth, Salem, Sherburne 
 and Bristol. It is not known how these delegates 
 were appointed, or what body propounded the question 
 they sought to answer. That question was : " What 
 further steps are to be taken, that the councils may 
 have due constitution and efiiciency in supporting, pre- 
 serving and well ordering the interests of the churches 
 in the country?" Their answer is known as the 
 Proposals of 1705, The plan proposed ministerial 
 associations, with stated moderators, having power to 
 call meetings : these bodies to try ministers accused of 
 scandal or heresy, calling a council if necessary ; to 
 examine all candidates for the ministry, the churches 
 to employ none without recommendation of an asso- 
 ciation ; to answer applications for ministers from 
 pastorless churches ; to direct churches how to pro- 
 ceed in calling councils, and to discipline ministers 
 neglecting these associations. It was also proposed 
 that the pastors in each association should^ with "a 
 proper number of delegates," to be chosen annually 
 from the churches, constitute a standing council to 
 meet as often as once in each year to examine into the 
 affairs of the churches and advise what ought to be 
 done for their welfare ; that the determinations of the 
 standing council should be looked on as decisive 
 and final unless appeal should be allowed for further 
 hearing ; that if any church disregarded the advice of 
 such a council, the churches should withdraw com- 
 
2l8 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 munion from it, making provision that such of its 
 members as submitted to the " advice " mieht be re- 
 ceived into other churches. 
 
 In some respects these Proposals evidently were in 
 the direction of needed reform. It was important that 
 ministers should have proper credentials ; and the 
 association of pastors and churches for mutual helpful- 
 ness and closer acquaintance commended itself to all. 
 The suggestions looking to this end were cordially 
 received and to a considerable extent put into practice. 
 The whole body of the Proposals was formal!}^ ap- 
 proved by the Ministers' Convention May 30, 1706. It 
 would seem that Pemberton and Colman favored them 
 as heartily as did the Mathers. But standing councils 
 never found a foothold in Massachusetts. The Pro- 
 posals for them savored altogether too strongly of 
 Presbyterianism, of power lodged in permanent rep- 
 resentative bodies over both ministers and churches, 
 such as Conorreoationalism had from its besfinninof 
 emphatically repudiated. From the time these Pro- 
 posals were issued they were opposed, says Cotton 
 Mather, by "some very considerable persons among 
 the ministers as well as of the brethren, who thought 
 the liberties of particular persons to be in danger of 
 being too much limited and infringed in them." Four 
 years after these proposals were approved by the 
 Ministers' Convention, they were attacked by John 
 Wise of Chebacco, now Essex, in a very clever satire 
 entitled " The Churches' Quarrel Espoused, Etc." 
 In this treatise Wise sought to stir the churches to a 
 sense of the danger to which their liberties were ex- 
 posed by this attempt to concentrate power in standing 
 authoritative councils; to show that the Proposals 
 
CONFLICTING TENDENCIES IN CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 219 
 
 were hostile to the poHty of Congregationalism, and to 
 rouse laymen to defend their rights. He declared that 
 these new propositions had that in them which "smells 
 so strong of the pope's cooks and kitchen, . . . that 
 they are enough to strangle a freeborn Englishman, 
 and much more these churches that have lived in 
 such a clear air and under such enlargements so 
 long a time." 
 
 Wise followed this treatise seven years later by 
 another, "A Vindication of the Government of the 
 New England Churches, etc.," in which he affirmed 
 that "Democracy is Christ's government in church and 
 state." The conclusion of his argument was "that the 
 people or fraternity, under the gospel, are the first sub- 
 ject of power ; . . . that a democracy in church or 
 state is a very honorable and regular government, ac- 
 cording to the dictates of right reason ; that these 
 churches in their ancient constitution of church order, 
 it being a democracy, are manifestly justified and de- 
 fended by the law and light of nature." This little 
 book of one hundred and five pages, with the one 
 which preceded it, presents the strongest arguments 
 for democratic principles in ecclesiastical and civil gov- 
 ernment which the eighteenth century produced. 
 
 These two tracts were reprinted in 1772, and had a 
 remarkable influence in kindling the patriotism and 
 shaping the principles of those who led in the contest 
 for American independence. But their influence at 
 the time of their first issue was not less notable. 
 Dr. Dexter says that they " provoked a discussion 
 which in time revolutionized the internal philosophy of 
 the New England polity, cast out Barrowism with all its 
 belongings, and brought back the original Brownism, 
 
220 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 purged of its connate inconsistencies and harmonized 
 and perfected for the great uses of the future." 
 
 But the failure of the movement for stricter eccle- 
 siastical government in Massachusetts was accompa- 
 nied by the success of a similar movement in Connecti- 
 cut, whose beginnings seem to have been connected 
 with the founding of Yale College. As early as 1654 
 an attempt had been made to plant a college in New 
 Haven, and a considerable sum of money had been 
 raised by gifts and appropriations from the Legislature 
 for that purpose. These efforts, however, resulted 
 only in the founding of the Hopkins Grammar School, 
 which still continues in that city. But as the colony 
 increased in numbers and in wealth toward the end 
 of the century, its leading men began to consider again 
 the advisability of founding a college for their sons 
 in Connecticut. In the year 1700 some decisive steps 
 seem to have been taken at a meeting of ministers in 
 New Haven and at another meeting in Branford. They 
 had the cordial sympathy of the conservative party led 
 by the Mathers in Boston, whose grief at their loss of 
 control of Harvard seems to have been somewhat miti- 
 gated by the hope that an institution representing sound 
 doctrine and polity would be built up in the neighbor- 
 ing colony. August 7, 1701, five Connecticut ministers 
 wrote to Judge Sewall and Isaac Addington of Boston, 
 asking for a draft of a charter for the college they pro- 
 posed to found. Among them were Abraham Pierson 
 of Killingworth, who became the first president of 
 the college, and Gurdon Saltonstall of New London, 
 who was governor of Connecticut from 1707 to 1724. 
 Sewall and Addington sent the paper asked for, Octo- 
 ber 6, saying : " We should be very glad to hear of 
 
222 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 flourishing schools and a college at Connecticut, and it 
 would be some relief to us against the sorrow we have 
 conceived for the decay of them in this province." 
 Thoueh Yale Colleo-e was founded because of an 
 independent desire of Connecticut citizens for higher 
 education, its beginnings were fostered by the active 
 sympathy of those in Massachusetts who were disap- 
 pointed at the recent turn of affairs in Harvard. 
 There is in the archives of Yale a '* Scheme for a 
 College," indorsed in the handwriting of Cotton 
 Mather, written before 1701 ; and it was through his 
 efforts that Elihu Yale bestowed his gifts on the col- 
 lege. It was at Mather's suggestion that the college 
 received its name. Not long before the draft for a 
 charter was received by the Connecticut ministers 
 Increase Mather wrote to two of them, offering sugges- 
 tions about the organization of the college. 
 
 The college was started at Saybrook and its trus- 
 tees, ten leading ministers, naturally exerted great 
 influence over the churches. They did not confine 
 themselves, in their meetings, to the business of the 
 college, but took into earnest consideration the eccle- 
 siastical affairs of the colony. When they met in 
 Guilford, in 1703, they prepared and issued a circular 
 letter to the ministers, calling attention to "the godly 
 examples of our brethren in other parts" to preserve 
 the people and their posterity from heresy and apos- 
 tasy, suggesting that the ministers of Connecticut 
 examine the Westminster Confession of Faith and 
 also that made by the Synod of Boston in 1680, and 
 that the grovernment should be asked to recommend to 
 the people the Confession as adopted by the Boston 
 Synod. Two years after this letter was issued the 
 
CONFLICTING TENDENCIES IN CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 223 
 
 Massachusetts Proposals already described appeared. 
 In May, 1708, the Upper House of Connecticut, of 
 which the minister, Governor Saltonstall, was a member, 
 passed a bill ordering the ministers, with representa- 
 tives of the churches, to meet in their county towns on 
 the last Monday in June, and prepare "rules for the 
 management of ecclesiastical discipline." Each meet- 
 ing was instructed to appoint two or more of its mem- 
 bers to be delegates to a joint meeting to be held at 
 Saybrook at the next college commencement, " when 
 they shall compare the results of the ministers of the 
 several counties, and out of and from them draw a 
 form of ecclesiastical discipline." 
 
 This Saybrook Synod, whose members were chosen 
 by the instructions of the General Court, w^as com- 
 posed of twelve ministers and four laymen. Eight of 
 the ministers were trustees of the college. James 
 Noyes and Thomas Buckingham were the moderators. 
 The Synod met September 9, 1708. It promptly dis- 
 posed of the doctrinal question by recommending, in 
 accordance with the suggestion of the ministers' letter 
 of 1703, that the Savoy Confession, as adopted by the 
 Massachusetts Synod of 1680, should be the doctrinal 
 basis of the churches. In taking up the subject of 
 church government it turned to the Heads of Agree- 
 ment, adopted as a basis of union between Congrega- 
 tionalists and Presbyterians in England in 1691. The 
 persecutions and legal restrictions imposed on non- 
 episcopal ministers and churches in the mother 
 country had brought Congregationalists and Presby- 
 terians continually nearer together, from the time of 
 the end of the Commonwealth in 1660 till the passage 
 of the Toleration Act of 1689, which gave to Dis- 
 
224 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 senters the right to maintain pubHc worship. Fol- 
 lowing that act a movement arose in the vicinity of 
 London to unite the two denominations. It appears 
 to have been confined to the ministers, the churches 
 as such taking no part in it. Increase Mather, then in 
 England representing Massachusetts colony, his son 
 Cotton tells us was most prominent in the movement, 
 and that without him the union would not have been 
 effected. It accomplished little in England, but like 
 the Savoy Synod its results were remembered in this 
 country long after they were forgotten abroad. The 
 Presbyterians and Congregationalists about London 
 soon got into a doctrinal controversy about a docu- 
 ment written nearly fifty years before, but which was 
 first published about the time the Union was formed; 
 and the discussion speedily brought the Union to an 
 end. The Heads of Agreement were sufficiently vague 
 to avoid sharp dissent by either party, but they in the 
 main represented the Congregational way at that time. 
 They declared that the time and manner of regenera- 
 tion are not to be insisted on as evidence of fitness 
 for partaking of the Lord's Supper ; that neighboring 
 ministers should examine candidates for installation 
 into the pastorate ; that the officers of a church should 
 manage its affairs, but that if the people object to their 
 doings efforts should be made to satisfy them ; that 
 the churches should associate together for mutual 
 advice and help, and that their advice ought to be 
 followed. 
 
 These Heads of Agreement were adopted by the 
 Saybrook Synod, but they did not furnish rules for 
 that stricter government of the churches which the 
 Legislature had called for. Therefore another docu- 
 
CONFLICTING TENDENCIES IN CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 22$ 
 
 ment was prepared, consisting mainly of the draft of 
 rules proposed by the New Haven county meeting, 
 but modified by suggestions from the Hartford repre- 
 sentatives leaning further toward Presbyterianism. It 
 consisted of fifteen " Articles for the Administration 
 of Church Discipline." These articles affirmed that 
 the elder or elders of a church ouorht to administer 
 church discipline ; that the chujrches of each county 
 should unite in a consociation ; that all cases of scandal 
 should be tried before a council of such churches ; that 
 all such cases should be decided by the majority 
 vote of the council ; that fellowship should be with- 
 drawn from any pastor or church refusing to abide by 
 such decision ; that in any case of difficulty not satis- 
 factorily settled by such a council, an appeal might 
 under certain conditions be taken to a larger council ; 
 that a church might call a council of the churches with 
 which it is consociated, but that an offending brother 
 could not have the privilege without the consent of the 
 church ; that a council should be permanent till new 
 delegates should be chosen. It was also provided that 
 permanent associations of ministers should be formed 
 to consider the interests of the churches, to examine 
 candidates for the ministry, and to look after cases of 
 ministerial heresy or scandal. To these associations 
 churches wanting pastors were directed to apply, and 
 in case any such church should not promptly seek a 
 pastor the association should complain of its neglect 
 to the General Court. The last of the fifteen articles 
 recommended that the several county associations 
 should meet annually by delegates in a general asso- 
 ciation. 
 
 The similarity of this scheme to that of the Pro- 
 
226 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 pOsals of 1705 is apparent. Indeed, the language of 
 the fifteen articles is in some parts identical with that 
 of the Proposals. The consociations of churches were 
 intended to be, in effect, standing councils, and the 
 ministerial associations were meant, not only to pre- 
 serve the doctrinal and moral purity of the ministry, 
 but to guard authoritatively the general interests of the 
 churches. In Massachusetts the Proposals received no 
 indorsement from the civil authorities. But in Con- 
 necticut the General Court, the month following the 
 meeting of the Saybrook Synod, made its " Confession 
 of Faith, Heads of Agreement, and Regulations in 
 the Administrations of Church Discipline," a part of 
 the law of the colony, ordaining " that all the churches 
 within this o-overnment that are or shall be thus united 
 in doctrine, worship and discipline, be, and for the future 
 shall be owned and acknowledged established by law." 
 The court ordered the symbols adopted at Saybrook 
 to be printed and distributed at the expense of the 
 colony. The volume, the first book ever published in 
 Connecticut, was printed in New London in 1710. 
 
 The action of the synod and its confirmation by 
 the General Court produced various effects. In each 
 county a consociation of churches and an association 
 of ministers were formed ; in Hartford County tW'O of 
 each. Some individual churches opposed the system, 
 with results which in later years caused sharp disputes. 
 The New Haven consociation found it too strict and 
 the Fairfield consociation too liberal. Each body 
 placed on record its owai interpretation of the rules 
 of church discipline. New Haven inclined toward the 
 principles of Congregationalism, laying special empha- 
 sis on the Heads of Agreement ; but Fairfield, placing 
 
CONFLICTING TENDENCIES IN CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 22/ 
 
 a Strict interpretation on the fifteen articles, prac- 
 tically constituted itself a court with power to declare 
 sentence of excommunication against an offending 
 church. The results of this ecclesiastical law will 
 appear in the later history when we come to consider 
 the Plan of Union entered into between Congregation- 
 alists and Presbyterians in 1801. 
 
 The Saybrook Platform ceased to be civil law in 1784 
 when the statutes of Connecticut were revised. When 
 the present State constitution was adopted in 18 18 all 
 special privileges were withdrawn from the Congrega- 
 tional body, and all religious associations in the State 
 were left purely voluntary. The true Congregational 
 principle then prevailed. But though the churches 
 were at that time legally disestablished the consocia- 
 tion system survived. In 1841 all except fifteen of the 
 two hundred and forty-six Congregational churches of 
 Connecticut were consociated, and in 1892 four con- 
 sociations, the Fairfield East and West, the New 
 Haven East and the Litchfield South, survived, with a 
 membership of seventy-one out of three hundred and 
 six churches. The authority of these bodies, however, 
 has been more and more limited till the ecclesiastical 
 government established by the Saybrook Synod has 
 practically passed away. The integrity and sufficiency 
 of each Coneregfational church in Connecticut is main- 
 tained as in every other State. Yet, as results of the 
 movements we have described in Massachusetts and 
 Connecticut, we have the local and general organiza- 
 tions of churches now to be found in every State and 
 the associations of ministers, which still, in some parts 
 of the country, examine and approve candidates for 
 the ministry. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 DURING the entire first quarter of the eighteenth 
 century war was being waged, with greater or less 
 intensity, between the New England colonies and the 
 Indians ; and during the preceding twenty-five years, 
 since the beginning of King Philip's war in 1674, the 
 country had known hardly a single year of peace. 
 The French ceased active hostilities from the time of 
 the treaty of Utrecht in 171 3. But they continued 
 to incite the Indians to pillage the English settlements, 
 especially along the eastern frontier, and they killed or 
 carried into captivity many of the settlers. War in- 
 flames the passions of men, and indisposes commu- 
 nities to a high degree of spiritual life. 
 
 Internal dissensions also engaged and at times 
 absorbed the attention of the people. The adminis- 
 tration of Thomas Dudley, as governor of Massa- 
 chusetts, from 1702 to 1 715, was one continuous 
 struggle between him and the representatives of the 
 people in the Lower House, in which some of the 
 ministers bore a not inconspicuous part. The career 
 of his successor, Samuel Shute, was not much more 
 peaceful. Cotton Mather had considerable influence 
 in securing Dudley's appointment ; but he afterward 
 bitterly regretted it. Dudley had in his earlier years 
 spoken of Dr. Increase Mather as his spiritual father; 
 and at one time when Dudley was preparing for the 
 
 228 
 
JONATHAN EDWARDS. 
 
THE GREAT AWAKENING. 229 
 
 ministry, Dr. Mather had expressed to his church the 
 hope that he would be his assistant. But when Dudley, 
 after a residence of more than ten years in England, 
 returned to Massachusetts as governor of the colony, 
 he was favorably inclined toward the Episcopal Church. 
 He also allied himself with the party in Harvard College 
 which opposed the Mathers. Dudley called on Cotton 
 Mather very soon after his arrival in Boston in 1702, 
 when the latter took occasion to warn the new governor 
 to beware of undue influence from Mr. Byfield and 
 Mr. Leverett, tutors in the college and leaders of the 
 opposing party. But Mather records in his diary that 
 " The wretch went unto those men and told them that 
 I had advised him to be no ways advised by them ; 
 and inflamed them to an implacable rage against me." 
 By 1 708 suspicion had grown and spread that Gov- 
 ernor Dudley was not trustworthy ; but was carrying 
 on illicit dealings with the French, who were waging 
 war ag-ainst New Eno-land. Increase Mather wrote 
 him a sharp letter accusing him of plotting against the 
 liberties of the province, of accepting a bribe, of 
 hypocrisy in the affairs of the college and of forsaking 
 the worship of God. Cotton Mather followed his 
 father's letter with another, of the same date, heaping 
 on the governor the same accusations in a larger 
 measure. These passionate charges contained enough 
 of truth to give some justification to the wrath of the 
 Mathers, while Dudley's retort that their letters were 
 prompted by their disappointment at losing control of 
 the college was also in part true. The election of 
 John Leverett to succeed Samuel Willard as Presi- 
 dent of Harvard was keenly felt by Cotton Mather, 
 who was then, at forty-four years of age, in the 
 
230 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 prime of his manhood, and thought himself best 
 quahfied for that office. The bitterness and personal- 
 ities of this contest found their way into the pulpits. 
 Judge Sewall's diary records of a sermon by Mr. 
 Pemberton at the Old South Church about this time, 
 
 " 'Tis reckoned he 
 lashed Dr. Mather 
 and Mr. Cotton 
 Mather and Mr. 
 Bridge for what 
 they have written, 
 preached and prayed 
 about the present 
 contest with the 
 governor." Such a 
 temper on the part 
 of the ministers and 
 leading laymen was 
 not calculated to 
 promote revivals of 
 religion. 
 
 Meanwhile efforts 
 to build up Episco- 
 pacy were a constant 
 source of irritation. 
 The Society for the 
 Propagation of the Gospel, organized in England in 
 1 70 1 for the purpose of Christianizing the American 
 Indians, had become in the hands of its promoters a 
 society for aiding the Church of England in the Amer- 
 ican provinces. Dudley, though he did not sever his 
 membership with the Congregational church in Rox- 
 bury, allowed himself to be counted as a member of 
 
 OLD SOUIH MEElING-HOUbE, BOSTON. 
 ERECTED 1730. 
 
THE GREAT AWAKENING. 23 1 
 
 King's Chapel congregation, and often worshiped 
 there. A public discussion began in 1711 between 
 Dr. Colman and Dean Kennett, afterward Bishop of 
 Peterborough, England, concerning the purpose of 
 the Episcopal authorities to estabHsh Episcopacy in 
 America. In 1713 Queen Anne issued an order in- 
 tended to secure such an establishment. Up to this 
 time King's Chapel was the only Episcopal Church 
 in the colony, but efforts were now made to establish 
 others at Braintree, Newbury, Marblehead and several 
 other places. These efforts caused much ill-feeling 
 throughout the province. 
 
 This movement especially awakened alarm by its 
 success in Connecticut. Yale College, after years of 
 uncertainty^ as to its location, was fixed in 1716 at New 
 Haven. In 1719 Timothy Cutler of Stratford was 
 chosen resident rector of the college, which the 
 year before had adopted the name of its benefactor, 
 Elihu Yale. But in 1722 Mr. Cutler and one of the 
 tutors, Mr. Brown, announced themselves converts to 
 the Church of England, and with them two neio^hbor- 
 ing ministers, Mr. Johnson of West Haven and Mr. 
 Wetmore of North Haven. Rev. Gurdon Saltonstall, 
 then governor of Connecticut, publicly disputed with 
 Mr. Cutler concerning his position. The alarm was 
 increased by the belief that other prominent clergy- 
 men had joined in a scheme to go over to Episcopacy 
 and take the people of Connecticut with them. Mr. 
 Cutler was promptly relieved by the trustees from all 
 official connection with the college, and Mr. Brown's 
 resignation was accepted. The four converts soon 
 went to England, where they received Episcopal orders. 
 Brown died soon after. The other three returned to 
 
232 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 America as Episcopal missionaries of the Society for 
 the Propagation of the Gospel. Dr. Cutler, who had 
 received his degree from Oxford and Cambridge 
 Universities, became rector, with Mr. Miles, of King's 
 Chapel, Boston. The disputes concerning church 
 order which arose from these changes were calculated 
 to turn the minds of Christians from the subject of 
 personal religion and their responsibility for the un- 
 converted, into lines of controversy. 
 
 The trustees of Yale voted that thereafter all persons 
 elected to the office of rector or tutor should, before 
 being accepted, be examined as to "the soundness of 
 their faith, in opposition to Arminian and prelatical 
 corruptions," and should be required to give their 
 assent to the confession of faith of the Saybrook 
 Platform. 
 
 In August, 1723, at the age of eighty-four, Dr. 
 Increase Mather died, deploring the degeneracy of the 
 times and the decay of vital religion, but prophesying 
 that Boston would yet be preserved through the godly 
 people living in it. "There is," he said, "a grievous 
 decay of piety in the land and a leaving of the first 
 love, and the beauties of holiness are not to be seen as 
 they once were. The very interest of New England 
 seems to be changed from a religious to a worldly 
 one." The feeling of this, one of the greatest of New 
 England Puritans, in his declining years, had long been 
 shared by many, especially of the ministers. From time 
 to time attempts had been made, but without great 
 success, to rouse the people to a deeper sense of their 
 sins and of their responsibility to God. The legisla- 
 tures of Connecticut and Massachusetts had been 
 addressed with the hope that they would use their 
 
THE GREAT AWAKENING. 233 
 
 authority to spread the gospel and to command its 
 acceptance. In i 714 the General Court of Connecticut 
 requested the governor to recommend to the ministers 
 to inquire strictly into the state of religion in every 
 parish, asking, " What are the sins and evils that pro- 
 voke the just majesty of Heaven to walk contrar)- to us 
 in the ways of His providence : that thereby all pos- 
 sible means may be used for our healing and recovery 
 from our degeneracy." 
 
 An attempt was made by the ministers in Massa- 
 chusetts, in 1 715, to move the General Court to call 
 a synod to seek remedies for the low state of religion, 
 but it failed. In 1725 the final effort was made to use 
 the civil government in tliis country to arouse the 
 churches to more effective work. The convention of 
 Congregational ministers of Massachusetts, May 27, 
 led by Cotton Mather, passed a vote, calling on the 
 legislature to summon the churches to meet in a synod 
 to consider, " What are the miscarriages whereof we 
 have reason to think the judgments of Heaven upon us 
 call us to be more generally sensible, and what may be 
 the most evangelical and effectual expedients to put 
 a stop unto those or the like miscarriages?" The 
 Upper House approved the plan. The Lower House 
 refused to concur. Dr. Cutler and Mr. Miles, the 
 Episcopal clergymen of Boston, remonstrated, and 
 both Houses rebuked their remonstrance. But the 
 subject was postponed to the next session of the Legis- 
 lature, and before that time the appeals of Cutler and 
 Miles to their superiors in England had .brought such 
 influence to bear on the English government that the 
 Lord Justices declared that a synod could not be held 
 without the King's consent, and intimated that further 
 
234 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 efforts in that direction might be followed by prosecu- 
 tion for misdemeanor. Thus, by the interference of 
 a religious denomination which w^as an exotic in New 
 England, the great service was unintentionally ren- 
 dered to the Congregational churches of Massachu- 
 setts of leading them to abandon hope of reviving 
 their spiritual power through action of the civil author- 
 ities. This, in away quite different from that intended, 
 was one important step toward the great revival of 
 religion which was to follow, not many years later. 
 
 Cotton Mather had for a long time been most 
 zealous amonof the leaders who were laborino- and 
 praying for a revived interest in personal religion. He 
 died February 13, 1728, at the age of sixty-five years. 
 He was the most prolific author in the history of New 
 England Puritanism. His unrestrained frankness in 
 committing his feelings and experiences to waiting, and 
 his great self-esteem, have given to his critics abundant 
 opportunities to misjudge him, of which they have 
 freely taken advantage. His publications, during his 
 whole public life, about three hundred and eighty in 
 all, appeared with such regularity and frequency as 
 almost to entitle him to be called the journalist of his 
 time. Certainly no man of that age surpassed him in 
 appreciation of the power of the press. During the 
 last four years of his life at least fifty publications were 
 issued by him, an average of more than one every 
 month, and at some periods the number w^as consider- 
 ably greater. He did a great service to New England, 
 not only by portraying for coming generations living 
 pictures of the times, but by recording in permanent 
 form the important events of history and the principles 
 which were then controlling in church and state. Mak- 
 
THE GREAT AWAKENING. 235 
 
 ing all allowance also for his faults of egotism and of 
 temper, he was a man of great intellectual ability, 
 devout spirit and strong affections. The impression 
 he made on New England life was deep, abiding and 
 in the main salutary, the work of a leader chosen and 
 honored by God, 
 
 But at the time Cotton Mather died there was 
 already beginning to be known a young man who 
 stands without a rival in the religious history of the 
 eighteenth century, the peer of the greatest theolo- 
 gians of any age, and whose influence in Great Britain 
 came to be, perhaps, not less potent than in America. 
 Jonathan Edwards was born at East Windsor, Conn., 
 in 1703, where his father, a graduate of Harvard, was 
 long an honored minister, and his mother was the 
 daughter of Solomon Stoddard of Northampton, 
 Mass. He graduated from Yale when not quite seven- 
 teen, with the highest graduating honors which that 
 young institution could bestow. After two years spent 
 at New Haven in theoloeical studies he had a brief 
 pastorate with a newly organized Presbyterian church 
 in New York City, and then for two years, 1 724-26, 
 he was a tutor at Yale, following the withdrawal of 
 Dr. Cutler and Mr. Brown. 
 
 Like Cotton Mather, Edwards left to posterity a 
 diary of his early 3'ears ; but, unlike Mather's, it is 
 uncolored by any appearance of consciousness that he 
 is displaying himself for the admiration of others. It 
 is a succession of pictures of a youthful soul whose 
 eyes of brilliant but chastened imagination look unfal- 
 teringly toward God, and whose aspirations after the 
 highest ideals revealed in the Bible seem never to tire. 
 •His early studies were philosophical, and had he pur- 
 
236 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 sued them as a profession he might have rivaled 
 Kant, his contemporary and the greatest philosopher 
 of that century. But his idea of God was ever con- 
 trolling in his mind. He had rapturous visions of the 
 excellences of the divine nature, but visions did not 
 divert him from the practical purpose to become trans- 
 formed into the divine likeness, and to that end he 
 regulated the habits of thought, recreation, study, of 
 his whole life. 
 
 Early in 1727 Edwards was ordained as colleague 
 pastor with his grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, 
 at Northampton. Stoddard was then eighty-three 
 years old, and had held his pastorate since 1672. He 
 had long been a conspicuous leader, not only in local 
 affairs but in the wider interests of the churches 
 throughout New England. His ministry had been 
 marked by five periods of revival, and in its entire 
 course had been able, devout and fruitful. The 
 Northampton church was. In wealth and numbers, 
 the stronofest in Massachusetts outside of Boston. 
 Edwards was rarely fortunate in his marriage. Sarah 
 Pierrepont of New Haven, who became his wife at the 
 early age of seventeen, had as high an ideal as her 
 husband and as practical a purpose to realize it ; and 
 she saw in him a nearer approach to it than in any 
 other human being. The attractions of her person 
 were not less remarkable than those of her mind and 
 spirit. She made a home renowned for its charms 
 and its hospitality, which witnessed eloquently to its 
 guests the advantages of married life. When George 
 Whitefield had been entertained there for some days, 
 he wrote in his diary that Mr. Edwards " is a son 
 himself and hath also a daughter of Abraham for 
 
THE GREAT AWAKENING. 237 
 
 his wife. A sweeter couple I have not seen. . , 
 She caused me to renew those prayers which for 
 some months I have put up to God, that He 
 would send me a daughter of Abraham to be my 
 wife. I find upon many accounts it is my duty to 
 marry." 
 
 For eight years Edwards preached at Northampton 
 before he witnessed that first spiritual quickening in 
 his congregation which marks the beginning of a new 
 era in Christian history both in this country and in 
 Great Britain. It is not difficult to describe the back- 
 ground of religious conditions on which shone the 
 brilliant logic and fervent appeals of the young 
 minister which burned conviction into the souls of his 
 hearers, melted them to repentance, and lifted them 
 into ecstasy in the new sense of being forgiven for their 
 sins and received into the favor of God. Durine the 
 half century in which the provinces had been dis- 
 tracted and impoverished by wars, the churches had 
 not willingly sunk into spiritual indifference. Many 
 of their pastors had been faithful and diligent in 
 preaching the gospel. They had made use of calami- 
 ties large and small to direct attention to the dis- 
 pleasure of God because of the sins of the people. 
 The evils of war had emphasized their appeals. In 
 the terrible epidemic of smallpox of 1721 there were 
 over five thousand cases and seven hundred and sixty- 
 one deaths within three months in the town of Boston, 
 and other towns suffered in like proportion. The 
 earthquake in 1727 furnished an impressive theme. 
 Days of fasting and prayer from time to time are 
 recorded for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. There 
 were in local communities from time to time seasons 
 
238 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 of spiritual refreshing in which considerable numbers 
 were added to the churches. 
 
 But the efforts after revival laid constantly increasing 
 emphasis on outward reformation, till the idea came to 
 prevail that by diligent attention to good works men 
 could win the favor of God and gain entrance into 
 heaven. The history of the first thirty years of the 
 eighteenth century furnishes abundant illustrations of 
 this tendency. In 1711 the Hartford North Associa- 
 tion, to arrest religious declension, recommended its 
 churches to call on all those in their parishes to own 
 the baptismal covenant, if they had not yet done so ; 
 to urge those who had owned it to renew their con- 
 sent ; and to call on all the people to keep the Sabbath, 
 attend public worship regularly, to observe the divine 
 ordinances, to avoid profanity, immorality, drunken- 
 ness and lying ; to be honest in business, to maintain 
 family discipline ; to obey their superiors in the family, 
 church and commonwealth, and to watch over one 
 another that all might be stimulated to perform their 
 duties as Christians. In 1715 the General Court of 
 Connecticut passed an act prompting judges and 
 justices of the peace to suppress immoralities ; direct- 
 ing selectmen to see that families without Bibles sup- 
 plied themselves, and were " furnished with a suit- 
 able number of orthodox catechisms, and other good 
 books of practical godliness, viz., such as treat on, 
 encourage and duly prepare for the right attendance 
 on that great duty, the Lord's Supper." 
 
 This last clause still further illustrates the formal 
 orthodoxy, if it may be so called, of that period. The 
 Halfway Covenant had taught the people that they 
 could have acceptable relations with God without hav- 
 
THE GREAT AWAKENING. 239 
 
 ing evidence that their lives were renewed by His 
 Spirit, and that performing religious duties would lead 
 to spiritual renewal. Those who had been baptized 
 were regarded as inheriting through Christian parents 
 relations of sonship toward God. They were expected 
 not to wait for the testimony of personal experience, 
 but to bring their children to the church for baptism, 
 and to make for themselves the promises of regenerate 
 souls. The next logical step in this direction was to 
 urge upon all persons, whether renewed or not, that 
 participation in the Lord's Supper was a duty. For 
 many years after the Halfway Covenant became com- 
 mon practice this conclusion was avoided ; those who 
 owned the covenant while admittedly unregenerate 
 being excluded from the Lord's Supper. But the dis- 
 tinction in many places gradually faded away ; and in 
 1707 Mr. Stoddard, in a sermon which he published, 
 maintained that " the Lord's Supper is a converting 
 ordinance." The sermon provoked earnest discussion, 
 and in 1709 Mr. Stoddard, in reply to the arguments 
 against it by Dr. Increase Mather and others, pub- 
 lished his " Appeal to the Learned ; being a Vindica- 
 tion of the Rieht of Visible Saints to the Lord's 
 Supper, though they be destitute of a Saving Work of 
 God's Spirit on their Hearts." This position, that 
 there were saints who had not been born anew, though 
 it was not universally accepted, was affirmed by able 
 and godly leaders among the churches, and it exten- 
 sively prevailed. 
 
 The churches, thus receiving increasing numbers who 
 did not claim to be converted, grew lax in discipline. 
 The ruling sentiment put honor on church member- 
 ship. To neglect religious duties lowered persons 
 
240 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 socially. The advantages of belonging to the church 
 moved many to seek fellowship in it who did not claim 
 fellowship with God. Under such circumstances the 
 churches themselves could not be expected to feel 
 deeply the danger of the unconverted, nor the sense of 
 their guilt. They sought, indeed, to persuade men to 
 prepare themselves for heaven. But present business 
 and pleasures were pressing, and when men were per- 
 suaded that they could, at their own will, prepare them- 
 selves for heaven, they put off doing it for what they 
 more enjoyed doing ; and in spite of legislatures and 
 exhortations of ministers, worldliness increased and 
 morals grew lax. It is probable, also, that men found 
 their way into the ministry with whom the saving of 
 souls was not the overmastering purpose, but who de- 
 sired that office because it was an honored and influ- 
 ential profession. There was, no doubt, some reason 
 for the charge made by Whitefield and others that the 
 churches were filled with unconverted ministers. In a 
 word, the churches were busy, so far as they were busy 
 at all, in persuading men to do, in order to become 
 Christians, what renewed souls love to do because they 
 are Christians. Thus there grew up, in part at least 
 as the result of the Halfway Covenant, what was then 
 called " the new-fashioned divinity," " the Arminian 
 scheme of justification by our own virtues." 
 
 Into these conditions the preaching of Jonathan 
 Edwards came as a purifying stream from a divine 
 fountain. He accepted at first the condition of the 
 Northampton church as he found it under the long 
 administration of his grandfather. He received to the 
 Lord's Supper those who did not profess to have been 
 converted, though in due time he vigorously opposed 
 
THE GREAT AWAKENING. 24I 
 
 the practice. But his lofty visions of God and His 
 holiness, his profound sense of his own unvvorthiness, 
 his meditation on the solemn and somber questions 
 raised in dealing with the religious experiences of his 
 people, steadily tended to define and confirm in his 
 mind those interpretations of Calvinism by which he 
 shaped anew and largely informed New England the- 
 ology. When only twenty-eight years of age, in 1731, 
 he preached by invitation in Boston a sermon which 
 made a profound impression, and to whose excellence 
 the ministers of that town bore formal testimony. Its 
 title was " God glorified in Man's Dependence." It 
 was a solemn affirmation of the sovereign right of God 
 to give or withhold salvation according to his pleasure. 
 It presented the cardinal principle of Edwards' the- 
 ology. In his view man, because of the fall, is totally 
 undeservine of the divine favor. God is under no 
 obligation whatever to save anyone. He has deter- 
 mined, of His mere gracious condescension, to save 
 some persons. Upon others He has determined to pro- 
 nounce the sentence of reprobation to eternal death. 
 " His sovereignty is involved in His freedom to take 
 whom He pleases, and to leave whom He pleases to 
 perish." Man has no power of himself to please God. 
 Those whom God has chosen to salvation are the sub- 
 jects of His special grace. Upon all others and in all 
 the spheres of ordinary life God exercises His common 
 grace, but this exerts no saving efificacy. To His elect 
 God reveals His will by the impartation of divine and 
 supernatural light, by His Spirit dwelling in them com- 
 municatine His thouoht to them. This is the imme- 
 diate action of the Holy Spirit on the human soul. 
 That lieht God withdrew from the human race when 
 
242 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 our first parents fell. He restores it only to those 
 whom He has chosen to salvation. All others are by 
 their nature and determination opposed to God, in 
 utter and hopeless spiritual darkness. The common 
 grace of God operates to restrain human wickedness so 
 that men do not fully realize their enmity to Him. 
 But when this restraint is removed from unrenewed 
 men, as it will be in the next world, they will find them- 
 selves in the fiames of hell, forever hating God in their 
 utter misery, while He in turn hates them as essentially 
 hateful. 
 
 But while as an infinite sovereign God may pardon 
 or reject whom He will, as the moral governor of the 
 universe it is necessary that His justice should receive 
 satisfaction from those whom He redeems. To this 
 end Jesus Christ died, that the elect might receive the 
 forgiveness of sins while the honor and righteousness 
 of God are vindicated. Christ bore a penalty which is 
 equivalent to the endless suffering of those whom He 
 has redeemed. Therefore, their debt is paid. The 
 righteousness of Christ is imputed to the sinner who 
 commits himself to Him. "To him that worketh not, 
 but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his 
 faith is counted for righteousness." 
 
 This brief and necessarily imperfect summary of 
 Edwards' theology has for its center the doctrine which 
 he preached most effectively in rousing men's con- 
 sciences and brincrino- them to conviction of their sins, 
 justification through faith alone. No one could do 
 anything to win the favor of God. No one could tell 
 whether or not he was one of the elect. But an awak- 
 ened sense of guilt was an evidence that the Holy 
 Spirit was operating on the soul. When the awak- 
 
THE GREAT AWAKENING. 243 
 
 ened sinner confessed his utter ill desert, freely ad- 
 mitted that God would be just if He should condemn 
 him to eternal misery, and cast himself at the feet of 
 Christ for pardon, then in that self-renunciation there 
 might come to him the sense of inward peace which is 
 the assurance that he is accepted of God and that his 
 sins are forgiven. The more intense his conviction of 
 his own sinfulness and the deeper his despair, the 
 greater his joy when the burden of guilt was removed, 
 the fear of punishment at an end, and the prospect of 
 eternal happiness in serving God in heaven unfolded 
 on his view. 
 
 One can imagine the effect of proclaiming such 
 doctrines as these to a community persuaded that 
 religion consisted in performing faithfully common 
 duties and in regular attendance on church ordinances, 
 and assured that those who did these thines without 
 reproach from their neighbors were in the way to 
 attain eternal life. From some lips these doctrines 
 might have fallen unheeded. From others they might 
 have provoked only opposition. But Edwards was a 
 unique personality. His towering Intellect was re- 
 enforced by a vivid imagination, and his personal 
 influence was emphasized by a majestic purity of life. 
 He was, in the ancient Bible sense of the word, a seer. 
 He saw God in the infinite orrandeur of His holiness, 
 and he saw in himself the depths of unworthiness 
 which he described as existing in others. He saw 
 himself a sinner redeemed through infinite mercy, and 
 in loving self-renunciation he cast himself at the feet 
 of Jesus Christ his Redeemer. To his vision eternal 
 punishment was awful beyond description, and all man- 
 kind except the elect were doomed to it ; while his 
 
244 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 soul was enraptured with the fehcity of heaven, and he 
 believed that he was an instrument in the hands of 
 God to brine into heaven those who were chosen to 
 salvation. 
 
 The effects of his preaching began to be manifested 
 in Northampton toward the close of the year 1734. 
 His themes at this time were justification by faith, the 
 justice of God in condemning sinners, the excellence 
 and glory of Christ, and the duty of seeking with all 
 the heart the kingdom of God. Remarkable instances 
 of conversion began to appear. One of the earliest 
 was that of a gay young woman, who came to him 
 "giving evidence of a heart truly broken and sancti- 
 fied." Soon the subject of personal religion became 
 the chief topic of conversation in the town. It ab- 
 sorbed alike the attention of business men, of domestic 
 circles and of the children. Meetings in private 
 houses for prayer and religious conversation were 
 thronged. Through the winter and the spring follow- 
 ing the interest constantly grew till Northampton 
 seemed to have become almost a heaven on earth. 
 Edwards gives a picture of it on which one loves to 
 linger. He says : " There were remarkable tokens of 
 God's presence in almost every house. . . Our public 
 assemblies were then beautiful ; the congregation was 
 alive in God's service, everyone earnestly intent on the 
 public worship, every hearer eager to drink in the words 
 of the minister as they came from his mouth ; the as- 
 semblies in general were from time to time in tears while 
 the word was preached ; some weeping with sorrow 
 and distress, others with joy and love, others with pity 
 and concern for the souls of their neighbors. Our 
 public praises were then greatly enlivened : God was 
 
THE GREAT AWAKENING. 245 
 
 then served in our psalmody in some measure in the 
 beauty of hoHness." 
 
 The revival spread to neighboring towns, and pro- 
 duced in them effects similar to those in Northampton. 
 Several towns in Connecticut also experienced at 
 about the same time gracious visitations of the Holy 
 Spirit. The work was there even more extensive than 
 in Massachusetts. Edwards became intensely inter- 
 ested in studying the experiences through which the 
 converts passed. He found them all characterized by 
 certain marked outlines, though they varied in degrees 
 of intensity. Inquirers were first aroused to a sense of 
 the awful danger of their condition and the necessity 
 of escaping from it at once. Then they became per- 
 suaded of their helplessness in their sins, their entire 
 dependence on God and their absolute need of a divine 
 mediator. Then came gracious manifestations of the 
 mercy of God when Christ revealed Himself to the 
 redeemed soul. Edwards warned those under convic- 
 tion of sin against deceiving themselves with false 
 hopes. He emphasized spiritual joys and delights as 
 evidence of the genuineness of conversion. He took 
 it for orranted that those who had been born anew 
 would live in obedience to God. 
 
 At about this time, on the request of Dr. Colman 
 of Boston, Edwards wrote an account of the revival, 
 which was printed and copies were sent to England 
 and Scotland. So o-reat interest was awakened that he 
 was induced to write a fuller description with the title, 
 " Narrative of Surprising Conversions," which, with 
 several of his sermons, was published in England and 
 again in Boston. It was read by multitudes on both 
 sides of the ocean. It kindled spiritually great numbers. 
 
246 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 not only of the laity but of the ministers. Though 
 the immediate effects of the revival subsided in the 
 early summer of 1735, its influences continued, pre- 
 paring the way for the far more extensive revival 
 of I 740-42. 
 
 George Whitefield first visited the American colonies 
 in 1738. He came to Georgia by the invitation of 
 John and Charles Wesley, then laboring in that State. 
 In the autumn of the same year he went home again to 
 receive ordination as a priest in the Church of Eng- 
 land and to raise funds for an orphanage in Georgia. 
 Although he remained in England but nine months 
 his preaching there aroused great interest, especially 
 among the poor, and intense opposition from Episco- 
 pal bishops and clergy. His doctrines of the new 
 birth and justification by faith were welcomed as good 
 news by the coal miners, but w^ere attacked by ministers 
 in sermons and pamphlets. In November, i 739, White- 
 field arrived in Philadelphia. In that city, in New 
 York and in surrounding towns he preached to great 
 crowds, and many persons were converted. He col- 
 lected considerable sums for the orphanage, and 
 spent the winter in the South. By invitation of 
 several ministers he visited Boston, arriving there 
 September 18, 1740. New England was prepared 
 for his coming. His fame had preceded him. 
 His picture is thus drawn by one who saw and 
 heard him : 
 
 " He is of a sprightly, cheerful temper : acts and 
 moves with great -agility and life. The endowments of 
 his mind are very uncommon ; his wit is quick and 
 piercing, his imagination lively and florid ; and both, as 
 far as I can discern, are under the direction of an exact 
 
THE GREAT AWAKENING. 247 
 
 and solid judgment. He has a most ready memory, 
 and I think speaks entirely without notes. He has 
 a clear and musical voice, and a wonderful com- 
 mand of it. He uses much gesture, but with great 
 propriety. Every accent of his voice, every motion 
 of his body speaks ; and both are natural and un- 
 affected." 
 
 The same person thus summarizes the substance of 
 his preaching : 
 
 " He loudly proclaims all men by nature to be under 
 sin, and obnoxious to the wrath and curse of God. 
 He maintains the absolute necessity of supernatural 
 grace to bring men out of this state. He asserts the 
 righteousness of Christ to be the alone cause of the 
 justification of a sinner ; that this is received by faith ; 
 that faith is the gift of God ; that where faith is 
 wrought it brings the sinner, under the deepest sense 
 of his guilt and unworthiness, to the footstool of 
 sovereign grace to accept of mercy as the free gift of 
 God only for Christ's sake. He asserts the absolute 
 necessity of the new birth ; that this new production 
 is solely the work of God's blessed Spirit ; that 
 wherever it is wrought it is a permanent, abiding 
 principle, and that the gates of hell shall never pre- 
 vail against it." 
 
 A brief description of the effect of Whitefield's 
 preaching on an audience will prepare us to understand 
 in some degree the impression of his first visit to New 
 England : 
 
 " I never in my life saw so attentive an audience. 
 Mr. Whitefield spake as one having authority. All he 
 said was demonstration, life, and power. The people's 
 eyes and ears hung on his lips. They greedily devoured 
 
248 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 every word. I came home astonished. Every scruple 
 vanished ; and I said within myself, surely God is 
 with this man." In his prayers, which were extem- 
 poraneous, as in his speech, an intense fervor kindled 
 the devotions of those whom he led to the throne 
 of grace. 
 
 But this young man, twenty-six years old, with all his 
 gifts and graces, could never have stirred New Eng- 
 land as he did, had not the Holy Spirit prepared the 
 hearts of the people to hear his message, and accom- 
 panied it with divine power. The first Sunday after 
 his arrival in Boston he preached to a crowded audi- 
 ence in Brattle Street meeting-house, and later to a 
 great throng on the common. The next day at the 
 New South meeting-house a panic occurred during the 
 service, and so great was the crowd that in attempting 
 to escape from the building five persons were killed. 
 He preached at Harvard College, and he made excur- 
 sions to the neighboring towns. Inquirers everywhere 
 pressed on him for personal conversation concerning 
 their salvation. He collected generous sums for his 
 orphanage in Georgia. He preached his farewell ser- 
 mon on Boston Common, October 12, to an audience 
 which he estimated at thirty thousand. Governor 
 Belcher bade him farewell, with tears entreating him to 
 pray for him. Whitefield, preaching at prominent points 
 on the way, arrived at Northampton on the following 
 Friday, and spent Sunday with Jonathan Edwards, 
 preaching for him with profound effect. Thence he 
 made his way through Connecticut, preaching to thou- 
 sands at Springfield, Hartford, New Haven, and other 
 places, arriving at New York October 30. In that 
 city, and in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, he spent 
 
THE GREAT AWAKENING. 249 
 
 three weeks preaching daily, and then returned to 
 Georgia. He recorded in his diary that in the seventy- 
 four days since he had landed at Newport, R. I., he had 
 preached one hundred and seventy-five times, besides 
 exhorting frequently in private. The effects of his 
 visit among the Congregational churches of New 
 England will be described in the next chapter. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE GREAT AWAKENING {coutiimcd^. 
 
 THE visit of George Whitefield to New England 
 covered about five weeks. With all the excite- 
 ment which attended it and its profound impression on 
 the people, it can hardly be regarded as more than the 
 most prominent incident occurring in that revival which 
 characterized the history of Congregationalism in the 
 eighteenth century. It has even been suggested that 
 the revival was delayed by the expectation of his com- 
 ing; many, in whose hearts a gracious work had begun, 
 waiting with the feeling that they would be called to 
 declare it when he should arrive. 
 
 Thomas Prince, then the junior pastor of the Old 
 South Church, aided his son to collect and publish, in 
 1743 and 1744, extended accounts of the revival, includ- 
 ing events occurring both in this country and in Eng- 
 land and Scotland. In Boston, after Whitefield's de- 
 parture, the attendance on the regular services of the 
 churches was greatly increased. A special Tuesday 
 eveninor lecture was established at Brattle Street meet- 
 ing-house, which attracted large audiences for many 
 months. The governor, at the request of the House 
 of Representatives, appointed December 3 as a day of 
 fasting and prayer. December 13 Gilbert Tennent, a 
 Presbyterian minister of New Jersey, arrived in Boston. 
 His father and his three brothers were ministers, and 
 the whole family were so prominent in the revival then 
 
 250 
 
THE GREAT AWAKENING. 2$ I 
 
 in progress in the region where they labored that it 
 was known as the " Tennent revival." 
 
 Gilbert Tennent was one of the most powerful 
 revival preachers ever known in this country. But his 
 manner was quite in contrast with that of Whitefield. 
 Mr. Prince says of him : " He seemed to have no 
 regard to please the eyes of his hearers with agreeable 
 gesture, nor their ears with delivery, nor their fancy 
 w^ith language ; but to aim directly at their hearts and 
 consciences, to lay open their ruinous delusions, show 
 them their numerous secret, hypocritical shifts in re- 
 ligion, and drive them out of every deceitful refuge 
 wherein they made themselves easy with the form of 
 godliness without the power." He preached the terrors 
 of the law to sinners, " the awful danger they w-ere 
 every moment in of being struck down to hell, and 
 being damned forever, with the amazing miseries of 
 that place of torment." But he was most effective in 
 "laying open their many vain and secret shifts and 
 refuges, counterfeit resemblances of grace, delusive 
 and damning hopes, their utter impotence, and 
 impending danger of destruction." 
 
 Mr. Tennent preached in and about Boston for two 
 months and a half. His audiences everywhere were 
 large, the people earnest and solemn. Many were 
 brought under deep conviction of sin, though without 
 any demonstrations of crying out or fainting, such as 
 had occurred in other places. He preached his fare- 
 well sermon March 2, 1841, in the Brattle Street meet- 
 ing-house, and the parting between him and his hearers 
 was affectionate and sad. The religious interest, which 
 was deep and general through the winter, still further 
 increased after his departure. Within three months 
 
252 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Mr. Cooper had six hundred inquirers who came to 
 ask his spiritual counsel, and Mr. Webb more than one 
 thousand. Crowded services were held in several of 
 the churches on Tuesday and Friday evenings ; and on 
 the other evenings there were nearly thirty meetings in 
 different parts of the town. During the entire year 
 the ministers were constantly employed in preaching to 
 crowded gatherings in private houses. Large numbers 
 joined the churches, though less than would have done 
 so had not Mr. Tennent very earnestly cautioned the 
 people against taking the Lord's Supper unless they 
 had satisfying evidence that they had been saved. 
 The very face of the town seemed to be strangely 
 altered. Those who had been for some time absent 
 and returned to Boston noted with surprise the strange 
 look and carriage of the people. Good order and 
 sobriety everywhere prevailed. " Thus successfully," 
 says Mr. Prince, "did this divine work, as above 
 described, go on without any lisp, as I remember, of 
 a separation, either in this town or province, for above 
 a year and a half after Mr. Whitefield left us." 
 
 The same holy and happy influences were working 
 in other towns throughout the whole of New England. 
 Everywhere there were remarkable evidences of the 
 special presence and blessing of the Holy Spirit. In 
 Connecticut the interest in religion was even deeper 
 than in any other section of the country. Ministers 
 were physically unable to satisfy the demands made 
 on them for preaching and for religious conversation. 
 Many of them visited and labored for some time in 
 other parishes besides their own. Many inquirers 
 came to them for spiritual advice, sometimes from 
 distant places. Many professing Christians became 
 
THE GREAT AWAKENING. 253 
 
 persuaded that they had been building on false founda- 
 tions, and sought earnestly for deeper experience and 
 more satisfying evidence that they were born again. 
 The additions to the churches were frequent and 
 numerous, and religion was the one chief topic, not 
 only in the churches, but in the homes and by the 
 wayside. 
 
 But within little more than a year the good influ- 
 ences of the revival began to be checked, not less by 
 the indiscretions of some of its promoters than by the 
 opposition of its enemies. Whitefield was a man of 
 intense emotions, and he awakened like feelings in 
 others. His journal abounds in descriptions of great 
 excitement produced by his preaching. " Shrieking, 
 crying, weeping and wailing were to be heard in every 
 corner." "In every part of the congregation some- 
 body or other began to cry out, and almost all melted 
 into tears." He counted too much on these displays of 
 feeling as evidence of the working of the Holy Spirit. 
 Some of his followers exaggerated them far more than 
 he did as evidences of the spiritual power of their 
 preaching and exhorting. 
 
 Whitefield had also spoken strongly of unconverted 
 ministers as hindering the work. His own preaching 
 had such effect that he thought those who did not preach 
 with similar power must be unconverted. In the imme- 
 diate interest kindled by his preaching and presence, 
 the pastors were moved to examine their own hearts 
 rather than to resent the criticism. When, however, 
 his journal, kept during his visit to Boston, was pub- 
 lished, containing severe reflections on some of the 
 ministers, it awakened resentment. But while he 
 made sad mistakes in some of his statements about 
 
254 • CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 them, it must not be forgotten that he was at times as 
 unsparing- in his criticisms of himself. He says in his 
 journal of an experience in New York: " I could only 
 lie before the Lord and say I was a poor sinner and 
 wonder that God could be gracious to such a wretch." 
 
 Gilbert Tennent had also spoken severely against 
 ministers who did not join heartily in the revival 
 movement, charging them with being unregenerate. 
 In New Jersey he had with his father and brothers led 
 a movement in which sharp censures were made upon 
 ministers who opposed them, and which resulted in a 
 division of the synod to which they belonged. A 
 disposition to criticise ministers was developed among 
 some who were most deeply affected by the revival. 
 These sentiments caused the dismission of Samuel 
 Mather from the pastorate of the Second Church, Bos- 
 ton, in December, 1741. He had been charged with 
 vagueness in preaching on the doctrine of regeneration 
 and with discouraging the work of conversion. But 
 the real ground of complaint against him was want 
 of sympathy with some features of the revival. With 
 him ninety-three members withdrew from the Second 
 Church and formed a new organization. 
 
 James Davenport, a minister of Southold, L, I., had 
 been much moved by hearing of Whitefield's labors 
 and had visited him in New Jersey. Whitefield, who 
 was not a profound judge of men, gave him the warmest 
 commendation. A little later Davenport was preach- 
 ing in company with the Tennents. In 1741 he went 
 to Connecticut, and by his denunciation of ministers 
 as unconverted wrought mischievous dissensions in a 
 number of communities. In New Haven he secured a 
 following which organized a separate church. He was 
 
THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 255 
 
 brought before the General Association at Hartford 
 about June i, i 742, on complaint of having stirred up dis- 
 order in Stratford. The same charcre was also brought 
 against Benjamin Pomeroy of Hebron. The Connecti- 
 cut Legislature had just passed laws forbidding any 
 minister to preach in any other parish except his own 
 without the consent of the minister and church of the 
 parish ; and forbidding any person to preach in the 
 
 
 
 RIPON COLLEGE, RIPON, WIS. (/fl'^t'375). 
 
 state without license from a regular body of ministers, 
 as provided for in the Saybrook Platform. This 
 unwarrantable method of suppressing disorders only 
 increased them. Pomeroy and Davenport were 
 arrested ; the charge against the former was dismissed. 
 Davenport was adjudged insane and sent back to 
 Long Island. 
 
 But he soon made his way to Boston. His first 
 Sunday in that vicinity, in June, 1742, he spent at 
 Charlestown, attending church in the morning, but 
 remaining away in the afternoon because he feared 
 that the minister was not converted. On Monday he 
 attended the Ministers' Association in Boston at their 
 invitation, and gave them an account of his work. 
 
256 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 They had already heard of him, of his habit of 
 demanding ministers to give accounts of their religious 
 experience, and of his pronouncing many of them un- 
 regenerate. They promptly published a declaration to 
 the effect that while they did not question his piety 
 they disapproved of his methods, and that they would 
 not invite him to preach in their pulpits. Davenport 
 began to preach on the Common, and retorted that 
 most of the ministers were unconverted and were 
 "leading their people blindfold to hell." He was 
 arrested and brought before the grand jury late in 
 August for uttering slanderous reports about ministers, 
 and the indictment against him was sustained ; but 
 being tried by the court he was adjudged to be not of 
 sound mind and therefore not guilty. He was released 
 from custody and not long after departed. In this 
 action Massachusetts was more generous in her treat- 
 ment than Connecticut. 
 
 But he had diverted the attention of the people 
 from concern about their own conversion, and had 
 sown seeds of discord among the churches. He 
 wrought much greater mischief in Connecticut. 
 The next March he appeared at New London, 
 where he and his followers publicly burned a number 
 of books written by Increase Mather, Colman, 
 Sewall and others, declaring that the smoke as- 
 cended like the smoke of the torments of their 
 authors in hell. Davenport represented a class who 
 claimed to have special illumination from the Holy 
 Spirit, who discredited human learning, delighted in 
 hearing the noisy exhortations of those who felt 
 themselves moved by the Spirit to speak, and regarded 
 efforts to repress outcries and displays of physical 
 
THE GREAT AWAKENING. 2$/ 
 
 excitement at meetings as quenching the Spirit. They 
 made much of vfsions and trances. They thought they 
 saw Christ bleeding on the cross, or amid the glories of 
 heaven. Ministers who did not approve of these expe- 
 riences and visions they declared unconverted, and also 
 laymen who expressed doubts of their own conversion. 
 It does not appear that any of the Connecticut pas- 
 tors gave countenance to these "impulses," as they 
 were called. But in several places many of the 
 church members were carried away by these delusions, 
 and after a time withdrew and formed independent 
 organizations. To repress such disorders the Con- 
 necticut General Court in May, 1743, added to its 
 legislation of the preceding year by repealing the act 
 of 1708 allowing persons, under certain conditions, to 
 worship according to their own views. In October 
 another act was passed, imposing increased penalties 
 on those who should preach without being duly 
 authorized to do so. Under these acts the State 
 authorities proceeded to real persecution of what were 
 called " New Lights." Justices and other officers who 
 were classed with them were removed from office. 
 Many ministers were accused of preaching Arminian- 
 ism, and dissensions among the clergy rapidly increased. 
 Two young men, brothers, were expelled from Yale 
 College for attending a meeting of Separatists. Two 
 ministers, John Owen of Groton and Benjamin Pome- 
 roy, were arrested for preaching in parishes other than 
 their own without invitation from the ministers of 
 those parishes. Pomeroy, whose offense was scarcely 
 even technical, was heavily fined and suspended from 
 the ministry. Nor was he restored until by act of the 
 legislature in May, 1 748. Pastors suspended church 
 
258 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 members from communion for going to hear revival 
 preachers ; and some of those suspended were kept 
 for many years from the Lord's Supper. In this 
 unhappy controversy both parties forgot the Golden 
 Rule and the laws of Christian courtesy. Ten or 
 more Separatist churches were organized in eastern 
 Connecticut, though a large proportion, probably the 
 majority of the supporters of the revival, disapproved 
 of this movement to withdraw from the churches, and 
 deplored its excesses. In 1744 James Davenport pub- 
 lished a confession and retraction of his errors, but 
 those who had been his followers renounced him and 
 kept on as before. 
 
 In Massachusetts Jonathan Edwards led those who 
 defended the revival, and Dr. Chauncey of Boston 
 those who opposed it, in the sharp controversy already 
 begun. Edwards admitted and disapproved of the evils 
 connected with it, but laid emphasis on the vast gains 
 from it in the salvation of souls and the spiritual uplift 
 of the churches. Chauncey admitted that there were 
 good results, but exaggerated and lamented the evils 
 connected with it, and therefore condemned it almost 
 without qualification. Edwards' most important work 
 on the subject, published in 1742, was " Thoughts on 
 the Revival of Religion in New England," to which 
 Chauncey replied the next year in a volume entitled 
 " Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in 
 New England." In May, i 743, the General Convention 
 of Ministers in Massachusetts issued a "Testimony" 
 " against several errors in doctrine and disorders in 
 practice, which have of late obtained in various parts 
 of the land." Thirty-eight ministers were recorded 
 as voting for it. Those who sympathized with the 
 
THE GREAT AWAKENING. 259 
 
 revival were much disturbed and irritated by this 
 action, and called another convention in Cambridge 
 in July, which made a discriminating- report, empha- 
 sizing the divine power in the revival and the good 
 results from it. It was signed by one hundred and 
 thirteen ministers. These two conventions and their 
 deliverances indicate the excitement, with its accom- 
 panying discord and bitterness, which had spread widely 
 through the churches. 
 
 Whitefield arrived at York, Me., October 19, 1744, 
 with his wife, on his second visit to New England. 
 His reappearance at once intensified the feelings of 
 the opposing parties. The majority of the Boston 
 pastors welcomed him. But several associations of 
 ministers in the State refused him admission to their 
 pulpits and voted emphatic declarations against him. 
 The faculties of Harvard and Yale colleges issued 
 " testimonies " against him. They charged him with 
 being uncharitable, censorious, slanderous, a deluder of 
 the people, a man led by dreams and i;Tipulses. White- 
 field replied to these attacks, mainly in a Christian 
 temper, acknowledging that he had made mistakes, dis- 
 avowing any intention of alienating the minds of the 
 people from their ministers and asking for a charitable 
 judgment. He was, however, compelled to bear, not 
 only the consequences of his own mistakes, but of those 
 of his followers. He remained in Boston till June 19, 
 1745. He preached to great audiences, and established 
 a series of six o'clock morning lectures, on Genesis, 
 which were attended by such crowds that he was 
 once obliged to climb in at the window. His friends 
 offered to build him " the largest place of worship ever 
 seen in America," but he declined to permit them to do 
 
26o CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 it. With all the excitement, no such results followed 
 his preaching as on his former visit. Just before he 
 left Boston, the General Association of Connecticut, 
 expecting that he would pass through that state on his 
 way south, voted that " it would by no means be advis- 
 able for any of our ministers to admit him into their 
 pulpits or for any of our people to attend his minis- 
 trations." 
 
 Whitefield returned to New England in 1754, again 
 in 1764, and finally in 1770, in which year he died, 
 September 30, at Newburyport. By the time of his 
 later visits the feeling against him had become soft- 
 ened ; and he has long been reverenced as one of the 
 most eloquent and devoted ministers of any age or 
 country. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the evils which grew out of the 
 revival, it stands as the most remarkable quickening 
 of the New England churches during their entire his- 
 tory. The additions to the churches in consequence of 
 it are variously estimated at from twenty-five thousand 
 to fifty thousand, when the population of New England 
 was less than five hundred thousand. Great numbers 
 of church members were brought by it into a deeper 
 Christian experience, and many, no doubt, who had not 
 before been converted, entered into genuine fellowship 
 with Christ. Beyond question, before the revival, there 
 were many unconverted ministers. The right of such 
 men to the sacred office was defended by men eminent 
 in the church. As many as twenty ministers in Boston 
 declared that they had been converted in the revival. 
 It created a much higher estimate of the ministry and 
 led many young men to enter it at the call of God, It 
 exalted notably the moral tone of the entire country, 
 
THE GREAT AWAKENING. 261 
 
 healed alienations between brethren, increased knowl- 
 edge of the Bible and reverence for it, promoted the 
 observance of the Sabbath, deepened in multitudes the 
 sense of their sinfulness and exalted their sense of the 
 holiness of God. It may almost be said to have created 
 in this country those nobler sentiments of humanity, one 
 fruit of which, after a century, was the overthrow of 
 slavery. It emphasized the great doctrines of grace 
 and the necessity of vital religion which had character- 
 ized the New England churches in their early days. It 
 placed the inward process of conversion foremost in 
 Christian experience ; and, especially under the leader- 
 ship of Edwards, it defined the New England theology 
 with a distinctiveness which makes it the date of a new 
 beginning in theological history. 
 
 To Edwards himself, however, the revival was fol- 
 lowed by bitter experiences. He was disappointed in 
 its results, which he had at one time hoped would bring 
 in the millennial reign of Christ. In 1746 a memorial 
 from Scotland invited the churches in America to join 
 in prayer for a revival which would accomplish this end, 
 and Edwards welcomed this proposal with a sermon 
 which the following year grew into a treatise entitled 
 " Union in Prayer." About this time he received David 
 Brainerd into his home. Brainerd in 1743 had been 
 unjustly expelled from Yale College, because of an 
 injudicious remark he had made about its faculty which 
 was prompted by his sympathy with the revival. He 
 had met with great success as a missionary to the 
 Indians, but was now in the last stages of consumption. 
 Edwards became intensely interested in Brainerd's 
 rapturous experiences, and after his death wrote his 
 biography. 
 
262 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Edwards had come by this time to the conviction 
 that the avowal and evidence of personal experience of 
 the new birth was necessary to membership in the 
 church. This was the renunciation of the Halfway 
 Covenant, which had in process of time been so far 
 modified that baptized persons had been received into 
 the Northampton church without any profession of 
 Christian experience. Edwards expressed his convic- 
 tions in his sermons on the "Religious Affections" in 
 1744. For the next four years no one applied to him 
 for admission to the Lord's Supper. The first person 
 who did apply was told that full terms of admission to 
 the church would be required. This condition was 
 declined. At the same time also Edwards undertook 
 to bring before the church for discipline certain young 
 persons connected with prominent families, whose 
 names he publicly read, who were charged with reading 
 impure literature and immoral practices. In this 
 attempt he failed. He proposed to preach on the 
 necessity of credible evidence of spiritual renewal in 
 order to admission to the church, but the church refused 
 to permit him to do so, and angrily persisted in com- 
 pelling him to withdraw from his pastorate. An 
 ecclesiastical council, convened not without elements of 
 unfairness, voted by a majority of one to dissolve the 
 pastoral relation, the dissolution to take effect June 22, 
 1750. The church ratified the decision of the council 
 by a vote of two hundred and twenty, and the town 
 meeting forbade him to preach again in Northampton. 
 Edwards clearly stated his position in a book entitled 
 " Qualifications for Full Communion," and calmly 
 accepted his fate. 
 
 Toward the close of the year, with his wife and ten 
 
THE GREAT AWAKENING. 263 
 
 children, he removed to Stockbridge, then mostly an 
 Indian settlement. During his seven years' pastorate 
 there he wrote his most famous work, on the " Freedom 
 of the Will," and a number of other volumes. In 1757 
 he accepted a call to the presidency of Princeton Col- 
 lege, and there he died of smallpox a few weeks after 
 his arrival. 
 
 The religious thought and life of New England has 
 been determined by the influence of Jonathan Edwards 
 more than by that of any other man, and that influence 
 has extended far beyond the bounds of Congregation- 
 alism. He revived and gave new meaning and power 
 to the teachings of the founders of this country. He 
 set in motion forces which brought to an end the Half- 
 way Covenant. He made distinct the line dividing 
 the church from the world. He fixed firmly in the 
 churches the conviction that the new birth is the only 
 door of entrance into the kingdom of God, and that 
 the subjects of it have some reliable evidence that they 
 have experienced it. Though, when smarting under 
 the injustice he endured at the hands of the council 
 which dismissed him from his church at Northampton, 
 he declared his preference for the Presbyterian form of 
 church government, he has with good reason been 
 called the father of modern Congregationalism. His 
 sublime and absorbing conception of the absolute 
 sovereignty of God left little room for human free- 
 dom, and placed too low an estimate on human 
 worth. But by some of the most eminent men on 
 both sides of the Atlantic who have differed widely 
 from him, as well as by those who have accepted his 
 teachings, he has been regarded as the greatest 
 man of the eighteenth century. Many will accept 
 
264 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 without qualification this tribute given to him by 
 Dr. Chalmers : 
 
 " I have long esteemed him as the greatest of theo- 
 logians, combining in a degree that is unexampled the 
 profoundly intellectual with the devotedly spiritual 
 and sacred, and realizing in his own person a most 
 rare yet most beautiful harmony between the simplicity 
 of the Christian pastor on the one hand, and on the 
 other all the strength and prowess of a giant in 
 philosophy." 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 A CANDID study of the early history of New 
 England can lead to no other conclusion than 
 this, that the most powerful motive in originating the 
 war of independence was a religious motive. It was 
 the same as that which first brought the Pilgrims to 
 this country, that they might worship God unmolested 
 in the way they believed most pleasing to Him ; that 
 they might plant churches of the Congregational order 
 and a civil government in harmony with the principles 
 of such churches. It was the same motive as that 
 which brought the Puritans out of England to plant 
 a colony on the shores of Massachusetts Bay. Year 
 after year from their first settlement, in increasing 
 numbers, up to 1640, they fled not so much from the 
 tyranny of Charles I. as from the persecutions of 
 the High Commission and Archbishop Laud. They 
 loathed the hierarchy of the English church, and, with 
 all their loyalty to the British crown, they dreaded it 
 because the hierarchy was sustained by it. The king 
 was the head of the church. Parliament imposed on 
 the people the laws of the church, its creed and forms 
 of worship. Its bishops and other clergy were really 
 appointed by the government. The Puritans in effect 
 proposed to form a hierarchy of their own, but it was 
 none the less hostile to the English hierarchy. 
 
 Laud pursued the Puritans in New England with 
 
 265 
 
2C6 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA, 
 
 the purpose to impose on them the authority of the 
 Enghsh church. Hardly had they become settled in 
 their new home before, in 1634, he began his assault 
 on them by securing a commission to examine their 
 charter, and if necessary to revoke it. His plans were 
 interrupted by the civil wars ; but his successors 
 pressed those plans with no less zeal, and the Puritans 
 and their successors fought against them for one hun- 
 dred and fifty years with no less determination till they 
 at last gained their freedom by the peace of 1783. 
 John Adams, the successor of Washington as Presi- 
 dent of the United States, and one of the wisest states- 
 men this country ever had, says that "the principles 
 and feelings which contributed to produce the Revolu- 
 tion ought to be traced back for two hundred years, 
 and sought in the history of the country from the first 
 plantations in America." The ruling forces in that 
 early period were the Congregational ministers and 
 the churches under their leadership. The ministers 
 proposed the important laws which were adopted by 
 the General Court. For a number of years the " Judi- 
 cials " of John Cotton, and after them the "Body of 
 Liberties" of Nathaniel Ward, were the only civil 
 codes of the colony. The master spirit in forming the 
 constitution of Connecticut, which, more than any 
 other document, has influenced the character of our 
 State and national governments, was Thomas Hooker. 
 The churches determinedly resisted the English hier- 
 archy, and came to resist the English government 
 because it sought to enforce the authority of that 
 hierarchy. Mr, Adams says again : " Independence 
 of English church and state was the fundamental prin- 
 ciple of the first colonization, has been its general 
 
CONGREGATIONALISTS IN THE WAR OF REVOLUTION. 267 
 
 principle for two hundred years, and now, I hope, is 
 past dispute." 
 
 As Episcopacy followed the Puritans and their chil- 
 dren to New England and sought to establish itself 
 here, they fought it with the same intensity with which 
 their ancestors had fled from it. To them Episcopacy 
 meant tyranny over conscience, and made monarchy 
 an instrument to compel obedience to it. The " Soci- 
 ety for the Propagation of the Gospel," formed in 
 England about the beginning of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury for the alleged purpose of Christianizing the 
 Indians, came to be used, in the hands of English 
 bishops, to proselyte Congregationalists. It attempted 
 to plant Episcopal churches in towns already amply 
 supplied with churches of the Congregational order on 
 the assumption that such were not genuine churches of 
 Christ. In 1762 that society had thirty-one missiona- 
 ries in New England, John Adams, writing in 181 5 to 
 Dr. Morse, declared that " the apprehension of Episco- 
 pacy contributed fifty years ago, as much as any other 
 cause, to arouse the attention not only of the inquiring 
 mind, but of the common people, and to urge them to 
 close thinking on the constitutional authority of Parlia- 
 ment over the Colonies." Hildreth, in his " History of 
 the United States," referring to the same period, says : 
 "An unseasonable revival of the scheme for a bishop 
 in the colonies had recently excited a bitter contro- 
 versy . . . which could only tend to confirm the 
 Congregational body in hostility to the extension of 
 English influence." Jonathan Mayhew, pastor of the 
 West Church, Boston, took the lead in that contro- 
 versy, and after his death Dr. Chauncey continued it. 
 Mayhew's sermon in 1750, on " Unlimited Submission 
 
268 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers," which be- 
 came famous both in America and in England, was a 
 trumpet call in behalf of civil and religious liberty. It 
 had a powerful and continuous influence in leading the 
 New England colonists to the position where they 
 were ready to declare and to fight for their independ- 
 ence. " People have no security," he said, " against 
 being unmercifully priest-ridden but by keeping all 
 imperious bishops, and other clergy who love to lord 
 it over God's heritage, from getting their feet into 
 the stirrup at all." Samuel Adams, the father of the 
 Revolution, writing in 1768 to the agent in London of 
 the Massachusetts House of Representatives, advised 
 him that the persistent attempts of English bishops 
 to establish a Protestant Episcopate in America were 
 "very alarming to a people whose fathers, from the 
 hardships they suffered under such an establishment, 
 were obliged to fly their native country into a wilder- 
 ness. . . We hope in God such an establishment will 
 never take place in America, and we desire you would 
 strenuously oppose it. The revenue raised in Amer- 
 ica, for aught we can tell, may be as constitutionally 
 applied toward the support of prelacy as of soldiers 
 and pensioners." The next year, 1769, Dr. Sewall, 
 pastor of the Old South Church, died ; and the Boston 
 Eve7iing Post said of him: "He was greatly alarmed 
 with every motion to introduce the hierarchy into 
 these colonies, whose predecessors had, at the peril of 
 every earthly comfort, fled from the face of ecclesias- 
 tical tyranny. Nor was he less jealous of the attempts 
 made to deprive us of our civil rights and privileges." 
 Such extracts as these, which might be multiplied, 
 suffice to show how strong was the sentiment of resist- 
 
CONGREGATIONALISTS IN THE WAR OF REVOLUTION. 269 
 
 ance among the Congregational ministers of New 
 England to the ecclesiastical encroachments of Old 
 Eneland, and how their relioious zeal re-enforced their 
 patriotism in their appeals to the people to resist 
 unjust taxation and the imposition of unwelcome offi- 
 cers and laws. The presence of General Gage and 
 
 &?^'5E^?sl^^fc.— . 
 
 MARK HOPKINS MEMORIAL, WILLIAMS COLLEGE, WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS. (/. 365). 
 
 his redcoats in Boston did not do more to rouse 
 popular resentment than did the presence of clergymen 
 maintained by the Church of England. Civil and 
 ecclesiastical tyranny were alike dreaded, and both 
 were joined together in the minds of the people. 
 While Conereeational ministers thundered acrainst the 
 Stamp Act, it was equally plain, as John Adams wrote 
 in his diary in 1765, that "the Church people are 
 many of them favorers of the Stamp Act." It must 
 be remembered, too, that at that time nearly all New 
 England people attended church, and heard preachers 
 
270 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 with a reverence by no means now so generally ac- 
 corded to them. " Twice every week," says Palfrey, 
 "all her people sat down to listen to able men (for the 
 pulpits of New England then admitted no others) 
 accomplished in the best learning of the time ; and 
 while their convictions and characters were molded 
 by this vigorous instrumentality, their understandings 
 and their taste received a wholesome stimulus and a 
 generous nurture." 
 
 The sermons which have been preserved — and they 
 are many — of those days before and during the war 
 abound with the boldest declarations of civil rights, 
 and of the duty of freemen to resist civil wrongs. 
 Fast Day and Thanksgiving sermons rang with 
 patriotic appeals. Sermons which had been preached 
 long before on the principles of free government were 
 brought out again and eagerly read. The two tracts 
 of Rev. John Wise of Ipswich, more than half a cen- 
 tury old, one of which was the " Vindication of the 
 Government of New England Churches," so clearly set 
 forth the leading principles of democracy that they 
 were republished by subscription of laymen in 1772 
 and widely circulated. The people, too, in their 
 capacity as citizens, and their rulers, regarded the 
 co-operation of ministers and churches as essential to 
 their success in assertino- and maintaininor- their civil 
 rights. When in 1766 General Gage was expected in 
 Boston, the citizens in town meeting voted to ask the 
 ministers of the town to set apart a day of fasting and 
 prayer in view of the dangers threatening the colony. 
 In 1774 the Provisional Congress, with John Hancock 
 at its head, issued an appeal to ministers, asking them 
 to extend their aid to help the people to escape from 
 
CONGREGATIONALISTS IN THE WAR OF REVOLUTION. 27 1 
 
 the "dreadful slavery" as the Congress called It, of the 
 acts of Parliament. When, later in the same year, 
 General Gage, having superseded Hutchinson as gov- 
 ernor, was asked by the General Court to appoint a 
 day of fasting and prayer and refused to do so, the 
 court appealed to the associated ministers of Boston, 
 who proposed to their congregations to set apart 
 Thursday, July 14, 1774, to be religiously kept as a 
 fast in view of threatening calamities. General Gage 
 wrote of it to the Earl of Dartmouth, "The fast 
 day appointed by the faction was kept in this town on 
 the 14th instant as generally and punctually as if it had 
 been appointed by authority. I might say the same of 
 most other places, though it was not universal." 
 
 The churches in general followed the leadership of 
 the ministers, though at the first in many of them 
 there were two parties, one favoring the royalists and 
 the other composed of ardent defenders of the cause of 
 liberty. When the struggle with the ruling powers 
 first began to take definite shape, few went so far as to 
 advocate entire separation from the mother country. 
 The majority demanded the repeal of unjust laws and 
 the recognition of the civil riohts of the colonies. 
 They came slowly to willingness to relinquish the 
 advantages of the protection of the strong government 
 of England against France and other foreign powers. 
 They cherished inherited sentiments of loyalty to the 
 home of their fathers. They felt that they were fight- 
 inof the same battle which had lonor been and was still 
 being waged by the Puritans in Old England against 
 prelatical rule, and against its insistence on the divine 
 right of kings and the religious duty of passive obedi- 
 ence ; and they hoped to win under the same govern- 
 
2y2 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 ment with their brethren in England. But it came to 
 
 fc> 
 
 be their one purpose to win at all hazards. That was 
 true of them which Macaulay had said of the Puri- 
 tans in England when they conquered Charles I., that 
 they " brought to civil and military affairs a coolness 
 of judgment and an immutability of purpose which 
 some writers have thouo^ht inconsistent with their 
 religious zeal, but which were in fact the necessary 
 effects of it. The intensity of their feelings on one 
 subject made them tranquil on every other." 
 
 Massachusetts was the foremost colony in waging 
 war for national independence. She uttered the first 
 defiance to British tyranny. The first battle for freedom 
 was fought on her soil. She furnished nearly one-third 
 of the American soldiers in that war. So far as the 
 churches were a factor in bringing about the Revolu- 
 tion, the preponderant influence of Congregationalists 
 in Massachusetts is made evident by a simple enumera- 
 tion of their relative strength. In 1770 there were 
 three hundred and thirty-nine ecclesiastical organiza- 
 tions in that colony, of which eleven were Episcopal, 
 sixteen Baptist, eighteen Quaker and two hundred and 
 ninety-four Congregational. At the close of the war 
 there were one Roman Catholic, three Universalist, 
 six Quaker, eleven Episcopal, sixty-eight Baptist and 
 three hundred and thirty Congregational churches. 
 The proportion of Congregational churches was about 
 the same in the other New England States. 
 
 The ministers and their churches not only roused 
 and strengthened the spirit of liberty in the people by 
 their work in the pulpit, but they bore their full share 
 of the burdens of war on the field. Of course in the 
 early stages of the conflict the Boston churches were 
 
CONGREGATIONALISTS IN THE WAR OF REVOLUTION. 273 
 
 the most prominent. On November 29, 1773, the Old 
 South meeting house was crowded with people to con- 
 sider what should be done concerning the tea on which 
 the British government had determined that the people 
 of the Colonies should pay a tax. In and about that 
 house, December 16, an immense company was again 
 
 OLD STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, MASS. 
 
 gathered to consider the same subject, and from it 
 went men who that night emptied three hundred and 
 forty-two chests of tea from the ships into the waters of 
 the bay. The British officers had an especial spite 
 aoainst the church buildincrs as breeders of rebellion. 
 They occupied a number of them as barracks. They 
 tore down the steeple of the West Church, because 
 they thought it had been used as a signal staff. They 
 demolished the Old North and used the materials for 
 fuel. They cut to pieces the pulpit, pews and seats of 
 
274 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 the Old South and used the building as a stable and 
 a riding- school. They wantonly destroyed a large 
 part of a very valuable library of Thomas Prince, a 
 former pastor of the church. Soon after the war broke 
 out most of the ministers left the city, their places of 
 worship having been taken by the British authorities. 
 Dr. Byles of Mollis Street Church, the one Tory, 
 remained ; but when his people returned after the 
 evacuation of the city they would not allow him to 
 preach. Of the Boston pastors, Mr. Howe died at 
 Hartford, August 25, 1775, and Mr. Hunt a few 
 months later at Northampton. Dr. Pemberton of the 
 Old South does not appear to have preached after the 
 meeting house was desecrated. He died September 9, 
 1779. 
 
 A few instances, taken from among many by Dr. 
 Joseph S. Clarke, in his " Historical Sketch of Congre- 
 gational churches in Massachussetts," show the spirit 
 with which ministers everywhere inspired their people 
 to ficrht for freedom. When the town of Sturbridore 
 voted to provide four casks of powder, with other sup- 
 plies, for the army, Joshua Paine, the pastor of the 
 Congregational church, offered to pay for one cask, 
 which cost one-fifth of his salary for the year. Samuel 
 Eaton of Brunswick, Me., when the British landed on 
 the coast of that province, preached a sermon which 
 brought forty men in his congregation to enlist to 
 meet them. His text was: "Cursed be he that 
 keepeth back his sword from blood." Thomas Allen 
 of Pittsfield, chaplain at the battle of Bennington, 
 being asked if he had killed any, said he hoped he had 
 prevented some from being killed : " For," said he, 
 "observing a flash often repeated in a bush near by. 
 
CONGREGATIONALISTS IN THE WAR OF REVOLUTION. 2/5 
 
 which seemed to be succeeded by the fall of some 
 one of our men, I leveled my musket, and firing in that 
 direction put out that flash." There are few of the 
 older towns of New England in which some traditions 
 have not survived of the effective service of Con- 
 gregational ministers during the stirring scenes of the 
 Revolution. 
 
 The influence of Congregational churches was also 
 not less potent in shaping the new government than in 
 throwing off the yoke of the old. Congregationalism 
 was in its nature a democracy, and it was inevitable 
 that its principles of government should prevail in a 
 nation planted by Congregationalists. Sir James 
 Mackintosh declares that Congregationalist ministers 
 first taught to John Locke " those principles of religious 
 liberty which they were the first to disclose to the 
 world." Among those tracts of ministers already 
 alluded to as having been reprinted to influence public 
 sentiment just before the Revolutionary War, one, first 
 issued by a Massachusetts pastor in 1687, bore the 
 significant title, ''Democracy is Christ's government." 
 Such influences as these shaped the town meetino- and 
 the State governments according to the principles on 
 which Congregational churches were founded. The 
 same influences were powerful also in bringing about 
 the federation of States which has resulted in our 
 united Republic. In 1766 Jonathan Mayhew wrote to 
 James Otis : "You have heard of the communion of 
 churches. . . While I was thinking of this in my bed 
 the great use and importance of a communion of 
 colonies appeared to me in a strong light, which led 
 me immediately to set down these hints to transmit to 
 you." The thoughts of the ministers, who led the 
 
2/6 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 people in religion, were kindled not less by desire to 
 make everyone realize his equality with his brethren 
 in the church under Christ as the one head, than by 
 the desire to bring all the people to gain civil freedom. 
 They inspired men with love of liberty. They taught 
 them that freedom was a condition to be fought for, 
 even with the sacrifice of life ; to be maintained only 
 by a habit of obedience to God, and to be imparted in 
 its fullest meaning only to those who could receive it 
 as a sacred trust. 
 
 The idea of a "government of the people, by the 
 people, and for the people," was conceived in Congre- 
 gational churches ; was by them urged and developed 
 into a practical scheme, and without them would never 
 have been realized. The blessings of our Republic 
 have come to us through Congregationalism and 
 through the men who found in its faith and polity the 
 principles of self-government, together with unswerving- 
 loyalty to God. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE UNITARIAN DEPARTURE. 
 
 THE positive beginnings of Unitarianism in Massa- 
 chusetts must be sought for in the reaction which 
 followed the Great Awakening of 1740. Signs of its 
 coming may have appeared earlier. Many ministers 
 of that and the following generation regarded the 
 revival of that period as throughout a work of the 
 Holy Spirit. A smaller number believed it to be a 
 work of God, but deplored the excesses which accom- 
 panied it. Others, like Dr. Chauncey, though they 
 still believed and preached the doctrines of the 
 fathers, spoke of the revival only with disapproval. 
 A few cared more for their intellectual freedom than 
 for any creed, and were cold at heart toward emo- 
 tional demonstrations of spiritual life. 
 
 It was considerably more than half a century before 
 these different classes gathered into two distinct oppos- 
 ing parties. But during the whole of that period the 
 effect of the peculiar doctrines of Calvinism, as the 
 fathers had maintained them, was developing opposing 
 tendencies. One class, devoutly holding these doc- 
 trines but realizing the difificulties which the human 
 reason encountered in accepting them, became increas- 
 ingly interested in philosophical and metaphysical 
 attempts to justify the ways of God to men. The other 
 class was increasingly disposed to deny the authority 
 
 277 
 
278 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 of creeds and confessions and to praise the spirit of 
 free inquiry. While the latter class would naturally 
 be regarded with suspicion, in the first class were 
 the accepted leaders in the churches. Some of them 
 exerted wide influence through the pupils who came, 
 as was the custom in those days, to study with them in 
 preparation for the ministry. They developed distin- 
 guishing features of theological teaching, which their 
 pupils reproduced and defended with loyalty to their 
 instructors. Joseph Bellamy of Bethlehem, Conn., and 
 Samuel Hopkins of Newport, R. I., had studied the- 
 ology with Jonathan Edwards. Each founded a 
 modified system of theology and taught it to his 
 pupils. The Edwardean system evolved into the 
 Hopkinsian, and this in later years passed through 
 further changes in the hands of Nathaniel Emmons 
 of Franklin, Mass., and in the earlier part of the 
 present century was again modified by Nathaniel 
 W. Taylor of New Haven, by Lyman Beecher and 
 others, till it came to be known as " Tlie New Divinity." 
 Some of its expounders, men of great and trained 
 powers of reasoning, became sometimes more inter- 
 ested in discussing the philosophy of the change by 
 which a soul is born into the kingdom of God than 
 in pressing home with fervid appeal the truth which 
 the Holy Spirit uses to bring about that change. 
 For example, Hopkins demonstrated, as he believed, 
 that sinners had natural power but not moral power 
 to believe in Christ ; that in the process of the new 
 birth repentance precedes faith ; that God exerted 
 His power in such a manner that He purposed it to 
 be followed by the existence of sin, but that He 
 overrules sin to promote good ; and that it is a test 
 
THE UNITARIAN DEPARTURE. 279 
 
 of the renewed man that he must be wilHne to lose 
 his own soul for the glory of God. Discussions on 
 themes like these gathered prejudices against the 
 gospel as it was preached which waited a favorable 
 time for expression. 
 
 It must not be supposed that these noted teachers 
 were merely metaphysical theologians. They were 
 also reformers, the vanguard of that army which has 
 wrouo;ht the greatest moral advances of this aee. 
 Hopkins, settled at Newport in 1770, when a number 
 of his parishioners owned slaves, boldly denounced 
 slavery as a crime. He did this with such effect 
 that his people were induced to free their slaves. 
 Whittier has said of the day when Hopkins preached 
 against slavery : " It may well be doubted whether 
 on that Sabbath day the angels of God in their 
 wide survey looked upon a nobler spectacle than 
 that of the minister of Newport rising up before his 
 slaveholdinof cono'reo'ation and demandintr in the 
 name of the Highest the deliverance of the captive 
 and the opening of prison doors to them that were 
 bound." Emmons also was an abolitionist and a 
 stanch defender of various reforms, as well as an 
 illustrious expounder and defender of the Congrega- 
 tional polity. Lyman Beecher's famous six sermons 
 against intemperance made him the pioneer in the 
 great work for temperance in this country. The 
 leadership which these men and their compeers 
 maintained in theology was greatly strengthened by 
 their interest in practical reforms. 
 
 But on the other hand there was an increasing num- 
 ber of ministers whose impatience with metaphysical 
 subtleties strengthened their indifference to essential 
 
28o CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 doctrines of the gospel. Some of these were able 
 men, whose earnestness in the time of civil conflict 
 with England found more frequent expression in impas- 
 sioned love of liberty than in the language of adoration 
 to God. Jonathan Mayhew, of the West Church, 
 Boston, who died in 1766, was one of the earliest of 
 this type of ministers. He was a bold, liberal thinker, 
 as impatient of theological as he was of monarchical 
 restraints. He was not adverse to startling people by 
 extreme statements. He made some allusions to the 
 deity of Christ which even he was ready to acknowl- 
 edge as too rash. Bellamy said of him, " He boldly 
 ridicules the doctrine "of the Trinity and denies the 
 doctrine of justification by faith alone." Yet he would 
 probably never have admitted the truth of such a 
 charge. So far as he did deny these doctrines, he 
 stood almost alone among New England ministers pre- 
 vious to the Revolutionary War. Dr. Chauncey of the 
 First Church, Mayhew's contemporary and his survivor 
 till 1 78 1, bold, unimaginative, with little reverence for 
 the past, carried his bitter opposition to the great 
 revival in later years to like opposition to some of the 
 doctrines prominently preached in that revival. Espe- 
 cially he preached and wrote against the doctrine of 
 eternal retribution, and defended the doctrine of the 
 final restoration of all men. Thacher, pastor of the 
 Brattle Street Church from 1 785-1802, declared : " For 
 myself I can say that I believe the true and proper 
 divinity of Jesus Christ ; the awful depravity of human 
 nature ; the necessity of regeneration and of the agency 
 of the Divine Spirit in effecting the change ; the in- 
 sufficiency of our own works to justify us in the sight 
 of God ; the necessity of holiness in heart and life in 
 
THE UNITARIAN DEPARTURE. 28 1 
 
 order to fit us for heaven ; and the utter futiHty of the 
 hope that in the future state we shall have the oppor- 
 tunity of rectifying the mistakes as to our own religious 
 character which we make in the present. . . But great 
 and eood men, men much oreater and better than I am, 
 have materially differed from me in their ideas on 
 these subjects." Such divergent lines of thinking as 
 were represented by Hopkins and Emmons on one 
 side and Chauncey and Thacher on the other could not 
 but have their legirimate effect on thinking people in 
 the pews. Men turned to one kind of preachers to find 
 themselves met by metaphysical distinctions which they 
 could not understand, and to another kind to find the 
 mysterious and the supernatural set aside as unedi- 
 fying, with a plea for simplicity which was often only 
 another name for spiritual barrenness. One cannot 
 read the record of these years without earnestly wish- 
 ing that a wise, consecrated, zealous evangelist might 
 have appeared, with trumpet voice calling the churches 
 to their knees and the unconverted to repentance. 
 
 Yet though two opposing parties were forming in the 
 Massachusetts churches for more than fifty years, the 
 division did not distinctly appear till the beginning of 
 the present century. The first church which avowed 
 itself to be Unitarian was not Congregational but 
 Episcopal. For two years after the outbreak of the 
 Revolution, King's Chapel was without a rector. Then 
 for five years it was lent to the Old South Church, 
 whose meeting house had been made unfit for use by 
 British troops. In 1782 the remnant of the organiza- 
 tion called James Freeman to be their rector, a brilliant 
 young student from Harvard. The Revolution had 
 made it necessary that the prayer book should be 
 
282 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 changed in its references to political rulers. Freeman 
 took advantage of that fact to omit also the passages 
 in which the Trinity was recognized. He met with 
 opposition, but by a vote of twenty to seven the new 
 ritual was adopted. He sought in vain for ordination 
 by Episcopal bishops ; and at last in 1787 his wardens 
 laid hands on him in a service of nominal ordination, 
 though seventeen of the members of the parish pro- 
 tested. This was the beginning of organized Uni- 
 tarianism in Boston. 
 
 Unitarianism in Europe was first preached in Poland 
 as Socinianism about the middle of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury. Its founder, Socinus, denied the deity of Christ, 
 the moral fall of man, the necessity of an atonement 
 for sin, the resurrection of the body and eternal pun- 
 ishment. From the beginning it was mainly a series 
 of denials of these doctrines. John Biddle was the 
 father of Unitarianism in England. He was banished 
 for his teachings to the Scilly Islands, and finally died 
 in prison in 1662. Thomas Emlyn, born the following 
 year, championed Riddle's views, for which he also 
 suffered punishment inflicted by the government. He 
 published in England near the close of the seventeenth 
 century a " Humble Inquiry into the Scripture Account 
 of Jesus Christ," in which he denied His deit)'. He 
 died in 1743. In 1756 his book was republished in 
 Boston and attracted considerable attention. Joseph 
 Priestley, born in 1733, became in 1755 a dissenting 
 minister in England, but three years later withdrew 
 from his congregation because he had renounced belief 
 in the atonement. He became not only the foremost 
 defender of Unitarianism in Europe, but one of the 
 most honored amonor scientific men. He was the dis- 
 
THE UNITARIAN DEPARTURE. 283 
 
 coverer of ox^^gen and other gases, and his reputation 
 as a scientist gave added weight to his publications in 
 defense of his rehgious views. Thomas Belsham, a 
 dissenting minister, in 1789 avowed himself a Unita- 
 rian, and next to Priestley came to be regarded as the 
 leader of Unitarianism in Eneland. Unitarians there 
 were naturally interested in the progress of their views 
 in America, and Belsham maintained a regular corre- 
 spondence with Freeman of Boston. Priestley came 
 to America in 1794 and remained in Pennsylvania till 
 his death in 1804. He was disappointed in the results 
 of his visit, and it was not thought wise by those who 
 favored his views to invite him to Boston ; but his 
 presence in this country increased the interest here felt 
 in Unitarianism. 
 
 As the century drew to its close, a revival of great 
 power spread through the Middle States and further 
 west ; and its influence was felt, though with less force, 
 in England. Methodism, which first made its appear- 
 ance in Massachusetts in 1 790, kindled in many com- 
 munities new religious fervor, and offered an oppor- 
 tunity for religious expression to those evangelical 
 Christians who did not accept the doctrines of Calvin- 
 ism. In Yale College the powerful and eloquent 
 preaching of President Timothy Dwight turned back 
 the tide of French infidelity which was sweeping over 
 that institution and quickened the religious interest 
 amone New Eno-land churches. The ConoreQ^ational 
 Missionary Society of Connecticut was formed in 1798, 
 and the Massachusetts Missionary Society the follow- 
 ing year, with Dr. Emmons as its first president. 
 These societies aimed to give the gospel to "the 
 remote parts of our country, where Christ is seldom 
 
284 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 preached," and looked beyond "through more distant 
 reeions of the earth, as circumstances shall invite and 
 the ability of the society shall admit." Thus the 
 beginning of the present century witnessed the com- 
 mencement of that organized missionary effort which 
 has become the foremost interest of the churches of 
 our time. 
 
 All these movements tended to emphasize the dis- 
 tinction between those who believed and preached the 
 orthodox doctrines and those who were indifferent to 
 or repudiated them. The churches which came to be 
 known as " evangelical," in distinction from those 
 which called themselves "liberal," sympathized with 
 and experienced revivals, and almost exclusively sup- 
 ported the missionary societies. The Boston churches 
 were passing into the leadership of "liberal" ministers. 
 In 1799 William Emerson succeeded Clarke in the 
 pastorate of the First Church. In 1803 William Ellery 
 Channing became pastor of the Federal Street Church. 
 He began his ministry, he afterward said, "by abstain- 
 ing most scrupulously from every expression which 
 could be construed into an acknowledgment of the 
 Trinity." In 1805 Buckminster succeeded Thacher 
 in the Brattle Street Church. He was known to have 
 adopted Freeman's views of the Trinity. The evan- 
 gelical ministers were alive to the danger of division 
 and endeavored to strengthen their position. In 1802 
 they took steps to form a General Association of the 
 ministers of the State. The same year the Massac/ui- 
 scits Missionary Magazine was begun, to promote 
 pure religion and awaken a missionary spirit. The 
 next year the General Association was formed, though 
 representatives of only five of the twenty-four district 
 
THE UNITARIAN DEPARTURE. 285 
 
 associations participated in the organization. The 
 new body declared "the doctrines of the Westminster 
 Shorter Catechism to be considered as the basis of the 
 union of our churches," In 1810 the Association 
 further declared that the doctrines of that catechism 
 are "understood by us to be distinctly those which 
 from the beginning have been generally embraced by 
 the churches of New England as the doctrines of the 
 gospel." 
 
 The formation of the General Association was 
 opposed by many of the district associations. Some 
 of them regarded the step as perilous to the liberty of 
 the churches. Dr. Emmons opposed it because " As- 
 sociationism leads to Consociationism ; Consociation- 
 ism leads to Presbyterianism ; Presbyterianism leads 
 to Episcopacy ; Episcopacy leads to Roman Catholi- 
 cism, and Roman Catholicism is an ultimate fact." But 
 the strongest opposition came from the "liberal" 
 party. The Boston association, in declaring its disap- 
 proval of the general association idea in 1805, said 
 that the efforts to agree on a doctrinal basis would 
 result in the "erection of barriers between those who 
 at present are not formally separated," and that "the 
 bonds of union would be strengthened between those 
 only who are already sufificiently cemented. 
 
 About this time the excitement in the churches was 
 greatly intensified by a successful attempt to bring 
 the control of Harvard College into the hands of the 
 liberal party. Dr. Archibald Alexander, then Presi- 
 dent of Hampden-Sidney College, Virginia, writing in 
 later years of a visit to Harvard in 1801, says: "Even 
 at the time of my visit all the young men of talent in 
 Harvard were Unitarians." Referringf to a visit to 
 
286 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Dr. Buckminster at Portsmouth, N. H., he says that 
 the younger Buckminster, " the pride of Harvard," 
 was " full of anecdotes such as were current at Cam- 
 bridge, and which were mostly intended to ridicule 
 evangelical opinions." Mr. Hollis, a merchant of 
 London, had given a partial endowment to support a 
 professor of divinity " of sound orthodox principles." 
 A vacancy having occurred in this professorship by the 
 death of Dr. Tappan in 1804, strenuous efforts were 
 made, and as strenuously resisted, to fill his place with 
 a professor of Unitarian belief. After a contest of a 
 year, two members of the corporation having died, and 
 their places having been filled by "liberal" men, 
 Henry Ware of Hingham was appointed. He was an 
 anti-Calvinist, though he had not then declared himself 
 a Unitarian. The right to examine him with respect 
 to his theological beliefs was denied. Intense and 
 bitter opposition to Dr. Ware's appointment at once 
 manifested itself both within and without the college. 
 Dr. Samuel Spring of Newburyport, a teacher of 
 theological students of the Hopkinsian type, in two 
 published sermons denounced the appointment as the 
 violation of a sacred trust. Dr. Morse of Charlestown, 
 a member of the Board of Overseers, sharply opposed 
 the appointment on similar grounds. The election of 
 Dr. Webber as president the following year confirmed 
 the conviction that Harvard was lost to the evan- 
 gelical churches. Dr. Eliphalet Pearson, professor of 
 Hebrew and other Oriental languages, who had also 
 been acting as president, now resigned his position 
 and withdrew from the corporation, of which he was 
 a member. Dr. Morse also withdrew. Dr. Pearson 
 went to Andover, where he had formerly been the first 
 
THE UNITARIAN DEPARTURE. 28/ 
 
 principal of Phillips Academy. The two brothers 
 Phillips, who were the founders of this institution 
 in I JJ^, had made provision by a fund for the support 
 of students who might wish to pursue theological 
 studies in connection with the academy, and already 
 some dozen or more had availed themselves of this 
 aid. Dr. Pearson at once began to take steps to 
 found a theoloo^ical institution in connection with the 
 academy. An association for this purpose was formed 
 July lo, 1806, by Drs. Pearson and Morse, Mr. Samuel 
 Abbott, and four other gentlemen. Mr. Abbott had 
 bequeathed his estate to Harvard, to be used for the 
 education of theological students. But after the 
 election of Dr. Ware he revoked his will, and 
 devised the property to the trustees of Phillips 
 Academy for the same purpose. In June, 1807, the 
 General Court authorized these trustees to hold funds 
 for the establishment of a theological institution on 
 the academy foundation. 
 
 Meanwhile another movement to found a theological 
 seminary had begun at Newburyport. In this Dr. 
 Spring was interested, and in his congregation, though 
 not a member of the church, was a prosperous young 
 merchant, William Bartlett. Dr. Spring had already 
 a number of students under his instruction. Mr. 
 Bartlett and his friend, Moses Brown, were ready to 
 give a generous sum of money to found a seminary. 
 When those who had begun these two movements 
 became acquainted with each other's purposes, earnest 
 efforts were made to unite them, and this union, 
 though not without many difficulties, was at last 
 happily accomplished in 1808. It brought together 
 the old Calvinists and the Hopkinsians, who had 
 
288 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 before made two parties in the denomination, and 
 remanded their difficulties to the background in view 
 of the new errors which both opposed. 
 
 Madam Phoebe PhilHps and her son, Hon. John 
 PhilHps of Andover, erected two buildings, one of 
 which is known as Phillips Hall. Mr. Abbott gave 
 twenty thousand dollars to found a professorship and 
 left to the institution by will one hundred thousand 
 dollars additional. Messrs. Bartlett, Brown and John 
 Norris of Salem, gave ten thousand dollars each, and 
 from each of these persons the seminary later received 
 from twenty-five thousand to seventy-five thousand 
 dollars. These gifts were accompanied by deep and 
 consecrated purpose of the donors to preserve vital 
 religion in the churches of New England and to spread 
 the gospel throughout the world. Mr. Norris was 
 greatly interested in the subject of foreign missions, 
 and had some time before withdrawn ten thousand 
 silver dollars from the bank, put them up in firkins, 
 and consecrated them to this work. Madam Phillips 
 wrote in a letter concerning the building she proposed 
 to erect, " I hope a prayer will be offered for every 
 hod of brick and every bucket of mortar used in its 
 erection." 
 
 The seminary was duly organized in the summer 
 of 1808. Dr. Pearson, President of the Board of 
 Trustees, was chosen Professor of Natural Theology, 
 and Rev. Leonard Woods, Professor of Christian 
 Theology. Mr. Woods had been influential in bringing 
 about the union of the two movements in the support 
 of one institution. A strictly orthodox creed was pre- 
 pared, with the provision that every professor should 
 sign it and repeat in the same way the avowal of his 
 
290 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 belief once in every five years. A Board of Visitors 
 was provided for, whose powers were authorized by 
 a special act of the Legislature. 
 
 Andover Seminary began at once to be a source of 
 strenofth to the orthodox churches, a center around 
 which the defenders of the faith of the fathers gath- 
 ered with renewed couraofe. Its trustees called able 
 men to serve as instructors, who as writers, teachers 
 and preachers exerted wide and growing influence in 
 support of Calvinistic doctrines. The churches rallied 
 to their support by prayers and gifts and by per- 
 suading some of their choicest young men to enter the 
 seminary in preparation for the ministry. During its 
 first year the institution enrolled thirty-six students. 
 In 1809 Dr. Edward Dorr Griffin was inaugurated 
 Professor of Sacred Rhetoric, and the following year 
 Rev. Moses Stuart was made Professor of Sacred 
 Literature. He became one of the ablest of the Scrip- 
 ture exegetists of the first half of this century, and a 
 tower of strength to the seminary. 
 
 In other ways also the conflict was waxing sharper 
 between the two bodies whose lines of division were 
 still not fully defined. In 1803 the first treatise 
 against Trinitarian doctrines written by an American 
 was published in Boston. It was a work on the atone- 
 ment by Hosea Ballou, pastor of the first Universal- 
 ist Church organized in this country. In 1804 the 
 Monthly Anthology was begun, in charge of Emer- 
 son of the First Church, under the auspices of the 
 Anthology Club, of fourteen members. It was dedi- 
 cated to literature, but was used effectually to com- 
 mend "liberal" religion. In 1805 the Panoplist 
 arose, with Drs. Spring and Morse and other orthodox 
 
THE UNITARIAN DEPARTURE. 29I 
 
 ministers as its editors. It was an able defender of 
 the Calvinistic doctrines. In 1808 it was united with 
 the Missionary Magazine. 
 
 The annual Convention Sermon at Boston was an 
 outlet for the expression of conflicting beliefs, as repre- 
 sentatives of the opposing- parties were successively 
 elected preachers. In 1805, for example, Lyman of 
 Hatfield affirmed the doctrine of total depravity, and 
 declared that Christ "is essentially God and equal with 
 the Father." The next year Reed of Bridgewater 
 defended liberality in belief and denounced " censo- 
 rious persons," with evident reference to the sermon of 
 Lyman. Thus the forces of the storm were gathering, 
 with no final outbreak as yet. The liberal ministers 
 did not know their strength. The orthodox ministers 
 were divided among themselves. The strict Calvinists 
 resisted earnestly the metaphysical differences affirmed 
 by the Hopkinsians. The liberal party, equally with 
 the orthodox, shrank from open separation, yet saw 
 and felt the signs of its approach. The conflict which 
 had begun between ministers, had then extended to 
 periodicals and had made Harvard College on one 
 side and Andover Seminary on the other centers of 
 opposition, was now spreading through churches and 
 parishes. 
 
 All the churches united in the ordination of Joshua 
 Huntington as associate pastor with Dr. Eckley of the 
 Old South in 1808. But the sermon by Dr. Morse 
 was a vigorous and aggressive plea for doctrinal 
 preaching, while Mr. Channing, in giving the right 
 hand of fellowship, expressed in finished phrases his 
 wish for the continuance of charity and unity. Janu- 
 ary I, 1808, the Second Church of Dorchester was 
 
292 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 formally recog-nized by council, and December 7 John 
 Codman was ordained pastor, Mr. Channing preaching 
 the sermon. Mr. Codman, in his letter of acceptance, 
 distinctly avowed his " firm, unshaken faith in those 
 doctrines that are sometimes called the doctrines of 
 the Reformation, the doctrines of the Cross, the 
 peculiar doctrines of the gospel." He also asked that 
 Watts' Psalms and Hymns be restored to the use of 
 the church in place of a collection by Belknap which 
 omitted the doxologies to the Father, Son and Holy 
 Ghost. He thus squarely placed himself with the 
 orthodox party in the denomination. On the other 
 hand there was introduced into the First Church, Bos- 
 ton, a collection of hymns prepared by Emerson and 
 Buckminster, which excluded allusions to the deity of 
 Christ, the sacrificial atonement, the personality of the 
 Holy Spirit and future retribution. 
 
 In February, 1809, Park Street Church was organized, 
 its members avowincr their belief in the Westminster 
 Shorter Catechism, the Confession of 1680, and the 
 Calvinistic doctrines as stated in a creed of their own. 
 That church quickly became another strong rallying 
 point for believers in the doctrine of the fathers. Dr. 
 Griffin of Andover Seminary preached much of the 
 time at Park Street, till he was installed pastor in 181 r, 
 when he withdrew from his professorship. His volume 
 of Sabbath Evening lectures published in that year, on 
 "Total Depravity," "Regeneration Supernatural," 
 " Election," and kindred themes, suggests the doc- 
 trines which were then most vigorously attacked and 
 defended, and the character of the preaching whicli 
 caused the place where the meeting house stands 
 to be called " Brimstone Corner." 
 
THE UNITARIAN DEPARTURE. 
 
 293 
 
 In 1 8 10 Dr. Porter of Roxbury preached the con- 
 vention sermon on " Christian Simplicity." He named 
 various doctrines, amone which were Original Sin, 
 Trinity in Unity, the Deity of Jesus Christ, the Eter- 
 nity of Punishment, and said, " I cannot place my 
 finger on any one in the list of doctrines just men- 
 tioned, the belief or rejection 
 of which I consider essential 
 to Christian character." It is 
 needless to say that the pulpit 
 of Park Street thundered against 
 such statements as this. 
 
 In 1 8 10 Dr. Kirkland of New 
 North Church, of well-known 
 Unitarian sen- 
 timents, was 
 elected Presi- 
 dent of Har- 
 vard and it was 
 generally con- 
 ceded that no 
 hope remained 
 of the recovery 
 of that colleo-e 
 to the orthodox 
 faith. In that 
 year the Ameri- 
 can Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was 
 organized by the action of the General Association 
 of Massachusetts, to send missionaries of the gospel 
 to heathen lands, and soon became a new center of 
 interest which drew together believers in the ancient 
 faith. There was considerable difficulty in procuring 
 
 PARK STREET MEETING-HOUSE, BOSTON. 
 181O. 
 
294 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 for it a charter from the Massachusetts Legislature, 
 owing to opposition from those who did not sympathize 
 with the religious belief of its promoters. 
 
 Meanwhile Unitarianism made little progress in 
 Connecticut. In 1805 John Sherman, minister at 
 Mansfield, had published his disbelief in the Trinity 
 and had been deprived of membership in his minis- 
 terial association, though he was regularly dismissed 
 by council from the church. In 1811 Abiel Abbott of 
 Coventry, having made a similar avowal, and having 
 been dismissed by the Tolland County Consociation, 
 secured an important council from eastern Massa- 
 chusetts to sustain him : whereupon the General As- 
 sociation of Connecticut made a " public and solemn 
 declaration that there be neither ministerial nor Chris- 
 tian fellowship " between the members of that council 
 and the consociated churches and pastors. The strong 
 orthodox preaching of President Dwight of Yale and 
 other leading ministers prevented Unitarianism from 
 gaining a foothold in Connecticut. So far as the 
 churches were concerned, the extent of the secession 
 was confined to a single one. In 1809 Buckminster 
 wrote to Belsham, "The State of Connecticut, the 
 greater part of Massachusetts and New Hampshire are 
 filled with what we call Hopkinsian clergymen, or the 
 followers of Jonathan Edwards and others, who pushed 
 the first tenets of Calvinism only to their natural con- 
 sequence." " It is the prevailing idea all over the 
 United States that the clergy of Boston are little 
 better than Deists." 
 
 In Massachusetts, however, the contest between 
 churches and the parishes with which these churches 
 were connected was already going on in 18 10. As 
 
THE UNITARIAN DEPARTURE. 295 
 
 early as 1792 the entire church in Taunton, except 
 four members, withdrew from the parish because con- 
 trolHng men in the society were opposed to some of 
 the distinguishing doctrines of the gospel contained in 
 the Westminster Confession of Faith. In 1800 fifty- 
 two members of the old First Church in Plymouth 
 seceded and formed the Third Church, now called 
 the Church of the Pilorimao^e. In 1810 the church in 
 New Bedford withdrew in a body, leaving scarcely any 
 members behind to be connected with the parish. 
 
 About forty of the parishioners of Mr. Codman of 
 Dorcliester expressed disappointment because he had 
 not exchanged with Boston ministers. He refused to 
 make pledges, and finally maintained his position, 
 thouofh not without a severe struo-ole which included 
 the calling of two councils. The parish finally put 
 another minister in the pulpit and placed a guard on 
 the pulpit stairs to keep out Mr. Codman. But he 
 preached from the platform and then retired with his 
 congregation, leaving only a handful to hear the parish 
 preacher. Of the one hundred and fifty members of 
 the church, all except seven or eight stood by their 
 pastor. The matter was settled by the withdrawal of 
 the Unitarians, whose pews were purchased at a fair 
 price. In 181 1 the parish in Sandwich, by a vote of 
 eighty-three to eighty, declared their pastor, Jonathan 
 Burr, dismissed because he preached Calvinistic doc- 
 trines. More than five-sixths of the church adhered to 
 their minister, but they were forced to abandon the 
 meetine-house and to build a new one while the title 
 to the name of the church and its property remained 
 for the time in contest. 
 
 Though the strained relations throucrhout eastern 
 
296 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Massachusetts were such as to maintain constant 
 anxiety, it was probably as yet believed by few that 
 actual division would occur in many churches. Green- 
 wood, the successor of Thacher in the New South 
 Church, years later described it as a time " when in 
 our religious world there was nothing but distrust on 
 one side and fear and evasion on the other ; when the 
 self-conceited theologian looked awry on the suspicious 
 heretic, and the object of his suspicion answered him 
 with circumlocution and evasion.'' Men who after- 
 ward avowed themselves Unitarians still resented the 
 charge that they had abandoned orthodox doctrines. 
 When a Socinian publication in London announced 
 tliat Unitarian sentiments were prevalent in Massa- 
 chusetts, Francis Parkman, a young minister from 
 Boston, then in London, denied the statement, declar- 
 ing that " there was scarcely a parishioner in Boston 
 who would not be shocked at having his minister 
 preach the peculiarities of Unitarianism." "We are 
 not," he said, "and permit me to add, as long as we 
 study the Scriptures we shall not become converts to 
 your new doctrine." Parkman became the successor 
 of Eliot in New North Church in 18 13, and after the 
 division occurred was prominent among the Unita- 
 rian ministers. As opportunity offered, attacks of one 
 side against the other became more and more pro- 
 nounced, and not less irritating because not distinctly 
 avowed. In 1813, for example, President Kirkland of 
 Harvard preached the convention sermon, of which 
 his friends said that "without directly impugning any 
 of the tenets of the opposite theology, he examined 
 them completely and brushed them away like cob- 
 webs." 
 
THE UNITARIAN DEPARTURE. 297 
 
 Thus the two parties, still connected together under 
 one name, but opposing each other in doctrines, with 
 different rallying centers, leaders and perio.dicals, sim- 
 ply awaited some signal for a formal separation and 
 for gathering into opposing camps. The Unitarian 
 party held power and prestige in Boston and its 
 vicinity. It had obtained full control of the ancient 
 college. It claimed nearly all the ministers in Boston 
 churches, the strongest in the land in numbers and 
 wealth. But the orthodox forces were better organ- 
 ized. They had a theological seminary already well 
 endowed. They controlled the State Association. 
 Their leaders were being diverted by the peril of 
 division from their own differences with one another 
 in theological beliefs, and they had a deeper stimulus 
 to effort in the missionary organizations already begun 
 with the aim to convert the world to Christ. An occa- 
 sion for a declaration of separation between the two 
 parties was soon to arise. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE UNITARIAN DEPARTURE (cOJltiuUed). 
 
 IN the beginning of the year 1815 there appeared in 
 Boston a Httle pamphlet entitled "A Brief History 
 of the Progress and Present State of Unitarian 
 Churches in America." It at once created intense 
 excitement. It was merely some extracts from a 
 memoir of Theophilus Lindsey, an English Unitarian 
 minister, written by Belsham and published in England 
 in 181 2. It contained letters written from time to time 
 by Freeman to Belsham, describing the growth of 
 Unitarianism in America. The memoir had been for 
 two or more years in the library of Harvard College 
 when Dr. Morse, after repeated applications, secured 
 the privilege of reading it. He caused extracts con- 
 taining the letters to be published. A few specimens 
 will show the significance of these letters. In 1789 
 Freeman wrote that there were in Massachusetts 
 " many churches in which the worship was strictly 
 Unitarian." In 1794 he wrote again, that he was 
 "acquainted with a number of ministers, particularly in 
 the southern part of Massachusetts, who avow^ed and 
 publicly preached Unitarian doctrine," while others 
 " more cautious, contented themselves with leading 
 their hearers by a course of rational and prudent ser- 
 mons, gradually and sensibly to embrace it." Similar 
 letters appeared in this pamphlet from Mr. Wells, a 
 Boston publisher. 
 
 298 
 
THE UNITARIAN DEPARTURE. 299 
 
 This publication at once precipitated the crisis which 
 had long been approaching. The orthodox forces 
 declared that these letters were evidences that the 
 " liberals " had for years been concealing their beliefs 
 and intentions with deliberate design to carry the 
 churches over to Unitarianism. The Panoplist pub- 
 lished a review of the pamphlet, written by Jeremiah 
 Evarts, presenting the known sentiments of Unitarians 
 in England, and ascribino- those views to Unitarians 
 in America who had not avowed their belief. The 
 " liberals " indignantly denied the charge of unworthy 
 concealment. Channing, in a published letter to 
 Thacher, declared that his worship and sentiments had 
 been Unitarian, and that while the great majority of 
 the liberal clergy differed from English Unitarians and 
 believed that Christ was more than man, it was " no 
 crime to believe with Mr. Belsham." Samuel Worces- 
 ter of Salem replied in the Panoplist to Channing, 
 that " it seemed to have been received as an established 
 uncontested fact that ministers of the liberal class were 
 not accustomed to be unreserved and explicit in the 
 public avowal and declaration of their sentiments." 
 Publications on both sides multiplied, the controversy 
 lost dignity : Unitarians disavowed and attacked ortho- 
 dox doctrines in their pulpits, Trinitarians drew closer 
 together and complete separation was before long 
 established. Trinitarians had already defined their 
 position. Park Street Church had expressed*it in its 
 original confession as a "decided attachment to that 
 system of the Christian religion which is distinguish- 
 ingly denominated Evangelical ; more particularly to 
 those doctines which, in proper sense, are styled doc- 
 trines of grace." Unitarians refused to avow these 
 
300 CONCxREGATIONALTSTS IN AMERICA, 
 
 "doctrines of grace," but pleaded for charity. They 
 charged Trinitarians with ilHberality and exclusiveness, 
 and were in turn charged with insincerity and disin- 
 genuousness. The Unitarians were trying to retain 
 the name and historic prestige of Congregationalism, 
 while they repudiated its chief doctrines. The conten 
 tion had increased through the use of the press, espe- 
 cially of the periodicals w^hich represented one or the 
 other party. In 1816 the Boston Rccordei^ was begun 
 as representing the Evangelical churches. Two years 
 before the American Tract Society had been formed 
 in Boston. The Panopolist and Missionajy Maga- 
 zine published earnest and able articles in defence of 
 Trinitarian belief. The General Repository, begun in 
 Cambridge in 181 2, represented the Unitarians. 
 
 Ministers also drew apart from one another and 
 ranored themselves accordino- to their beliefs. Earnest 
 efforts were made to increase the number of Evanoeli- 
 cal ministers, not only by strengthening Andover 
 Seminary but by providing aid for young men pre- 
 paring for the ministry. In 18 15 the American Educa- 
 tion Society w^as organized for this purpose. An 
 attempt was also made to unite the Massachusetts 
 churches in consociation according to the plan estab- 
 lished in Connecticut, but this failed. The attempt 
 was based on a manuscript found among the papers of 
 Cotton Mather, and presented to the General Associa- 
 tion in 1 8 14. It proved to be the original draft of the 
 Proposals of 1705, which had been printed as late as 
 1772, but had been forgotten. Of course the lines of 
 division between Congregational ministers w^ere not 
 at once in all cases distinctly drawn. But of the two 
 hundred and seventy-five in Massachusetts at that time 
 
THE UNITARIAN DEPARTURE. 3OI 
 
 about seventy-five immediately came to be regarded as 
 Unitarian. The churches mostly followed the lead of 
 their ministers. The large majority rallied to the 
 defense of the old faith. But in Boston all except the 
 Old South and Park Street were Unitarian, and their 
 influence, with that of Harvard, was intellectually and 
 socially very great. Many of the churches in eastern 
 Massachusetts were in sympathy with them. 
 
 The sharpest controversy, however, came where tlie 
 dividing line was drawn within the local parishes. 
 Already this had been done in several instances. The 
 cases of Plymouth, New Bedford and Sandwich have 
 already been mentioned. The crucial question soon 
 arose as to what legally constituted the church, and 
 whether church or parish, in case of a division, had a 
 title to the name and property. Each parish was then 
 a religious society for maintaining public worship ; and 
 the cost of so doing, including the support of the 
 minister, was usually raised by a tax on the property 
 of the parish. By a law passed in 1754 the deacons of 
 the church were made trustees of property designed 
 for religious and charitable uses. 
 
 The first case decided by the courts was that of 
 the First Church, Dedham, which began in 181 8. A 
 vacancy having occurred in the pastorate, the parish, 
 contrary to all precedent, took the initiative in calling 
 Mr. Alvan Lamson to be the pastor of the church. The 
 church thereupon decided by a vote of eighteen to 
 fourteen of the male members that It was not ready to 
 call a pastor. An invitation to several churches was 
 then sent out by " the First Parish of Dedham" to 
 assemble in council and install Mr. Lamson. This the 
 representatives of the Invited churches proceeded to 
 
302 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 do, A few weeks later another council called by the 
 "First Church of Dedham " declared irregular the pro- 
 ceedings of the council called by the parish. The church 
 therefore withdrew from the parish and claimed the title 
 to its name and its own special property. An appeal 
 to the civil courts resulted after two years in a decision 
 by Chief Justice Parker, in 1820, that " the only circum- 
 stance which gives a church any legal character is its 
 connection with some regularly constituted society." 
 By this decision all civil power connected with the 
 church belonged to the parish. The court declared 
 that "as to all civil purposes, the secession of a whole 
 church from the parish would be the extinction of the 
 church." In such a case the parish could not only 
 hold its own property, the right to which was con- 
 ceded, but could orpfanize a church which would inherit 
 the title and property of the seceding church. 
 
 This decision established a precedent by which 
 many other similar cases were settled during the next 
 twenty years. In consequence of it a number of 
 churches were deprived of their names, records, church 
 furniture and funds; and in many cases those who 
 took possession of them would have been excluded 
 from the church by the persons who had given this 
 property. A careful review, published in the Congre- 
 gational Quarterly for July, 1863, of the individual 
 instances in which separations occurred between 
 churches and parishes, shows that forty-six churches 
 had been "driven from their houses of worship by 
 town or parish votes, or by measures equivalent to 
 such votes," while thirty-five others had been con- 
 strained by conscience to secede as individuals and 
 form distinct churches. Thirty-nine churches became 
 
THE UNITARIAN DEPARTURE. 303 
 
 Unitarian by the acquiescence of their members without 
 division. Of the three hundred and sixty-one Congre- 
 gational churches in Massachusetts in 1810, the meeting- 
 houses and other property of one hundred and twenty- 
 six churches were eventually lost to the denomination. 
 
 Great intensity was thus added to the controversy 
 between the two parties. The orthodox denied the 
 justice of the decision, either in law or equity ; and 
 some Unitarians have since admitted that the issue 
 raised was perplexing, and that they were not in all 
 cases satisfied with the legal decisions. The distinction 
 between two organizations in the same town, marked 
 by the titles "parish church" and "exiled church," 
 with the sense of triumph on one side and of injustice 
 on the other, brought discord into village life and left 
 evil effects which have scarcely yet disappeared. 
 
 Though Unitarian churches came to be known as 
 such in 1815, organized Unitarianism dates from 1825, 
 when the American Unitarian Association was formed 
 in order to consecrate their work and spread their 
 belief by means of missionaries and publications. It 
 is significant that when Unitarians organized their 
 National Conference in 1865 they declined to use the 
 term " Congregational." 
 
 To comprehend the nature and issues of this contro- 
 versy it is necessary to consider both the theological 
 and social factors involved. As to the first, Dr. George 
 E. Ellis, one of the most conservative Unitarians of 
 the older school, in his " Half Century of the Unita- 
 rian Controversy," thus answers on its negative side 
 the question, "What is Unitarianism?" 
 
 " Unitarianism stands in direct and positive oppo- 
 sition to Orthodoxy on three great doctrines which 
 
304 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Orthodoxy teaches with emphasis as vital to its system, 
 namely : that tlie nature of human beings has been 
 vitiated, corrupted and disabled in consequence of the 
 sin of Adam, for which God has in judgment doomed 
 our race to suffering and woe ; that Jesus Christ is 
 God, and therefore an object of religious homage and 
 prayer ; and that the death of Christ is made effectual 
 t€ human salvation by reconciling God to man and 
 satisfying the claims of an insulted and outraged law. 
 Unitarianism denies that these are doctrines of the 
 gospel, and offers very different doctrines, sustained by 
 Scripture, in their place. The rejection of these three 
 doctrines, and the belief of those which Unitarianism 
 substitutes for them, constitutes Unitarianism." 
 
 We have allowed this statement of Dr. Ellis in defin- 
 ing orthodox doctrines to pass, although we should 
 use somewhat different language. But what are these 
 substituted doctrines? Dr. Ellis says that "On all 
 other matters of Christian doctrine a Unitarian may be 
 in entire accordance with the oeneral views of the 
 orthodox and yet be not one whit less a Unitarian." 
 In fact, however, no unity is claimed by Unitarians in 
 positive belief. They agree in denying the moral ruin 
 of the human race in consequence of the sin of Adam, 
 the deity of Jesus Christ, and the vicarious atonement. 
 But as to the atonement, Dr. Ellis says "It would be 
 difficult to make Unitarians as a body responsible for 
 any positive dogma on this subject." Indeed, as to all 
 these three doctrines, "the moment that Unitarianism 
 is made responsible for a belief or a denial about either 
 of them, we have to encounter professions and protests 
 which prove that a supposed sect contains almost as 
 many creeds as individual members." 
 
THE UNITARIAN DEPARTURE. 305 
 
 Negativel3^ Unitarians are united in the denial of 
 the three doctrines we have named. Positively they 
 are not united on any doctrines. Dr. Ellis says that if 
 one would assail Unitarianisni he would find "that it 
 is almost impossible to define and identify his foe." 
 While, then, the new denomination vigorously attacked 
 the body from which it had withdrawn, not only by 
 denying its fundamental doctrines but often by cari- 
 caturing them before denial, it avoided counter attacks 
 in a measure by refusing to unite in avowing any posi- 
 tive beliefs concerning- the doctrines it denied. 
 
 But it took strong advantage of the social prestige 
 it had oained in having: secured control of Harvard 
 College, of the churches in the chief city of the Com- 
 monwealth and of the name and property of other 
 prominent historic churches. It drew to its support, 
 not only those who were united to it in belief, but 
 those who were attracted to it because of what they 
 did not believe. Representatives sent from the towns 
 and villages to the General Court at Boston heard 
 from Channing and Greenwood, and other Unitarian 
 ministers, eloquent utterances against slavery to creeds 
 and confessions of faith, and returning to their homes 
 gathered about them those who could not endure 
 the severity of orthodox doctrines, those who were 
 attracted to what were called broad and liberal views, 
 those who enjoyed seeing distorted pictures of Cal- 
 vinism demolished and those who sought to exalt 
 human nature as needing no redemption from sin or 
 moral regeneration. Graduates of Harvard, settling 
 in the different towns in the various professions or in 
 business, carried with them the prevailing sentiments 
 and spirit of the college, and often became leaders in 
 
306 CONGREQATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 their communities in religious matters. The college 
 also furnished ministers often of natural eloquence, 
 and always of cultivated tastes, who, while controvert- 
 ing evangelical doctrines, preached much that was 
 honorable and of good report. Lyman Beecher wrote 
 in 1821, "The power of corrupting the youth of the 
 commonwealth by means of Cambridge is silently put- 
 ting sentinels in all the churches, legislators in the 
 hall and judges on the bench, and scattering every- 
 where physicians, lawyers and merchants," 
 
 Unitarians laid positive emphasis on humanitarian- 
 ism, on regarding all mankind with benevolent interest, 
 on seeing in all men elements of good which need only 
 to be developed to attain to divine perfection. They 
 defended amusements which the orthodox condemned, 
 as belonging rather to one's social position and tastes 
 than as in any way connected with his religious char- 
 acter. The orthodox charged them with worldliness, 
 and they replied with the charges of narrowness and 
 bigotry. The undecided and prosperous welcomed 
 Unitarianism as gospel, and the orthodox denounced 
 Unitarians as enemies of Christ, denying their Lord 
 who bought them. Communities were divided socially 
 according to their religious affiliations, and the separat- 
 ing lines were even drawn through many families. 
 
 Turning from this unhappy picture of social and 
 religious strife, we may trace briefly the important 
 religious events of the last twenty years of this con- 
 troversy from 1820 to 1840. 
 
 In 1819 a Unitarian church was organized in Balti- 
 more, and the sermon of Dr. Channing at the ordina- 
 tion of Jared Sparks as its pastor was widely circulated 
 and started a new phase of the controversy, in which 
 
vo^ r-- ' 
 
 LYMAN BEECHER, D. D. 
 
THE UNITARIAN DEPARTURE. 307 
 
 Professor Stuart of Andover and Professor Miller 
 of Princeton took prominent part. Though both 
 were opposed to Channing, they controverted each 
 other concerning the doctrine of the eternal Sonship 
 of Christ. Professor Woods of Andover and Professor 
 Ware of Harvard were engaged at the same time in 
 a discussion in which were issued " Letters to Uni- 
 tarians," " Letters to Trinitarians and Calvinists," and 
 various others. 
 
 Amherst College was begun In 1821, and at once 
 drew to its support many of the orthodox churches. 
 Its application for a charter was for two years per- 
 sistently opposed in the Massachusetts Legislature, 
 in part because it was regarded as representing the 
 orthodox faith ; but the charter was granted, with 
 conditions, in 1825. 
 
 In 1823 Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher of Litchfield, 
 Conn., came to Boston to assist Dr. S. E. Dwight of 
 Park Street Church in revival services. He had for 
 several years taken a deep interest and an active part 
 in the controversy with the Unitarians, and had ex- 
 pressed grave apprehensions on account of their growth 
 in power and prestige. But he was soon encouraged 
 by what he saw in Boston. He wrote : " There is un- 
 questionably a great and auspicious change going on 
 in Boston in respect to evangelical doctrine and piety. 
 The orthodox have for years been delving in their 
 Sabbath Schools and other evangelical efforts, and 
 their zeal and strength and momentum as to preparing 
 the way for a revival are noble, and they are reaping 
 their reward." The religious interest aroused by Dr. 
 Beecher's preaching was deep and lasting. Not only 
 were the orthodox churches greatly strengthened by 
 
THE UNITARIAN DEPARTURE. 3O9 
 
 it, but many Unitarians became interested, impressed 
 by the contrast between the spiritual character of the 
 orthodox meetings and the spiritual apathy in their 
 own circles. The effect of the revival was salutary 
 also in bringing about a change in the nature of the 
 controversy. The orthodox churches, under the pres- 
 sure of the discussion, had been gradually abandoning 
 the positions of the Old Calvinists which were repellent 
 to human sympathies and human reason. The extent 
 of this change is indicated in a letter written to Dr. 
 Beecher by Dr. Nettleton, an eminent revivalist in 
 Connecticut. He wrote : " Why not take this ground 
 with Unitarians ; we feel no concern for Old Cal- 
 vinism. Let them dispute it as much as they please : 
 we feel bound to make no defense. Come home to 
 the evangelical system now taught in New England. 
 Meet us, if at all, on our own avowed principles, or we 
 shall have nothing to say to you." 
 
 In 1826 Dr. Beecher was settled over the newly 
 organized Hanover Street Church, Boston. By this 
 time Unitarianism had begun to change from its boldly 
 aggressive to a defensive policy. Henry Ware, Jr., 
 pastor of the Second Church, about this time wrote : 
 " Dr. Beecher has drawn away some from our societies, 
 and I suspect that orthodoxy rather gains ground. . . 
 Our greatest evil is want of ministers. Openings 
 appear everywhere, but we cannot make use of them. 
 Our theological seminary is so poor that it almost 
 languishes. Three applicants went away because we 
 had no support for them." 
 
 Foreign missions were exciting deep and growing 
 interest in the orthodox churches. In 1812 the first 
 missionaries sent from America to India had been 
 
3IO CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 ordained in the Tabernacle Church, Salem, and tidings 
 of the fruits of their labors were now bringing great 
 encouragement to their supporters. Already cheering 
 results of the mission to the Hawaiian Islands, whose 
 first laborers had been ordained in Park Street Church 
 in 1819, were being brought back to the churches. 
 Unitarians had little interest in missions, and its de- 
 fenders had to confess, as did a writer in the Christian 
 Examiner, that " if Unitarianism chills and deadens 
 the sensibilities of those who receive it to the miseries 
 and wants of those amonor our fellow men who are 
 unblessed with revelation, this is as strong against our 
 opinions even as our opponents represent it to be." 
 
 Home missions were also greatly stimulated by the 
 trials of orthodox churches. The Massachusetts Mis- 
 sionary Society, formed in 1 799, was helping feeble 
 churches outside the State, but many of the churches 
 which had been deprived of their property by the 
 decisions of the courts also needed help, and their 
 brethren rallied nobly to their support. The Domes- 
 tic Missionary Society of Massachusetts was organized 
 in 1818 "to assist needy churches, parishes and waste 
 places" within the State. These two organizations 
 were united in 1827. By the year 1830 fifty-seven 
 churches of the "exiles" had been aided through this 
 society, and the sympathy thus expressed and received 
 bound the churches together in a union which greatly 
 increased their strength. The local conferences of 
 churches which have become a universal feature of 
 Congregationalism originated in these years of trial. 
 
 Periodical religious literature received a great im- 
 pulse through this controversy. Since 1822 the Pa7io- 
 plist had been merged into the Missionary Herald. 
 
THE UNITARIAN DEPARTURE. 3 II 
 
 The Christian Spectator had been published in New- 
 Haven, Conn., since 1819. In 1828 appeared the first 
 issue of the Spirit of the Pilgrims, which did valiant 
 service for the orthodox churches. The Unitarians 
 maintained the Christian Disciple, its successor, the 
 Christian Examiner and the Unitarian Advocate, and 
 gathered into their pages the ablest defence of their 
 position v^^hich the talent of Harvard and of the many 
 scholarly men in that denomination could furnish. 
 
 From 1828 to 1833 the defenders of orthodoxy were 
 re-enforced by vigorous sermons and articles from 
 Parsons Cooke of East Ware, later of Lynn, and 
 George B. Cheever of Salem. Mr. Cooke especially 
 created great excitement by a Fast Day sermon, in 
 which he charged that Unitarians, though including 
 not more than one quarter of the citizens, had suc- 
 ceeded in getting possession of nine-tenths of the 
 public offices. Chief Justice Parker made the grave 
 mistake of attempting to answer Mr. Cooke anony- 
 mously in the Christian Examiner, in which he as- 
 sumed a dictatorial air and contempt for his young 
 antagonist. Mr. Cooke replied with the enthusiasm of 
 youth, but with facts and arguments so ably presented 
 that no answer to his pamphlet could be attempted. 
 Both parties had wearied of the controversy, and from 
 the time when the Massachusetts Legislature in 1833 
 passed an act completely severing all official relations 
 between church and state, the warfare between the two 
 denominations, now entirely distinct from each other, 
 gradually ceased. 
 
 Dissensions within each body diverted the atten- 
 tion which the two denominations had so lonof 
 been giving to each other. The Trinitarians be- 
 
312 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 came much absorbed in the metaphysical discussions 
 between Dr. Nathaniel W. Taylor of the theolog- 
 ical department of Yale College and Dr. Bennett 
 Tyler, first President of the Theological Institute at 
 East Windsor, Conn., founded in 1834 to controvert 
 Dr. Taylor's views. The latter institution is now 
 Hartford Theological Seminary. Unitarians found 
 enough to contend against in Ralph Waldo Emerson, 
 pastor of the Second Church, and a little later, in 
 Theodore Parker. Mr. Emerson withdrew in 1832 
 from his pastorate and from the ministry. Mr. Parker 
 became one of Boston's most brilliant preachers, but 
 was disowned by conservative Unitarians, and for many 
 years drew large audiences, though he could count 
 but few allies amono- Unitarian ministers. 
 
 Looking back over the half century and more which 
 has passed since the scenes we have described were 
 enacted, it is possible to give a just estimate of the 
 relative strength and weakness of both parties in the 
 conflict. 
 
 Orthodoxy was strong in its agreement in essential 
 doctrines with the Christian Church in all ages, in its 
 inheritance from the founders of New England, in its 
 loyalty to the Holy Scriptures as the authoritative 
 revelation of the will of God, and in the power of the 
 preached gospel of salvation for sinners through faith 
 in Jesus Christ as the divine Saviour. The issue of 
 the conflict proved also that the ancient polity of Con- 
 gregationalism was sufficient to withstand even so 
 severe a strain as this, to slough off inconsistent asso- 
 ciations, and to guard the ancient faith in the care of 
 the churches which held it, which remained united 
 through the storm and came out of it more thoroughly 
 
314 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 homogeneous and better equipped for their work than 
 before the disturbance manifested itself. 
 
 Unitarianism was strong in its exaltation of human 
 nature, in its emphasis on the fatherhood of God, and 
 on uprightness of character and benevolent feelings 
 toward all men, in having leaders of natural eloquence 
 and cultivated minds, in possessing Harvard College, 
 the great preponderance of wealth and social prestige 
 in Boston and in the control of the large majority of 
 the public offices of the commonwealth. 
 
 Orthodoxy was weak in the undue emphasis which 
 it laid on some of the peculiar doctrines of Calvinism, 
 in the tendency of leaders to become absorbed in 
 metaphysical subtleties, and to dispute concerning 
 them, and in underestimatino- the grraces of intel- 
 lectual and social culture. Unitarianism was weak in 
 the feebleness of its sense of sin and of its demand for 
 repentance and submission to God ; in its practical 
 indifference to the spread of Christian faith through 
 the world ; in the fact that it was the offspring of 
 doubt, and that it proclaimed suggestions of doubt 
 whose growth was fostered rather than checked in its 
 disciples, and in the admitted fact that its distinctive 
 doctrines do not spring from the Bible nor accord with 
 its plain meaning. Dr. Ellis, in an address before 
 the Unitarian Club of Boston in 1882, prefacing his 
 remarks with the statement that he made them with 
 the utmost deliberation after fifty years' study of the 
 Bible, said of it : 
 
 "The vast majority of its readers, following its 
 letter, its obvious sense, its natural meaning, and 
 yielding to the impression which some of its emphatic 
 texts make upon them, find in it Orthodoxy. Only 
 
THE UNITARIAN DEPARTURE. 315 
 
 that kind of ingenious, special, discriminativ^e, and, in 
 candor, I must add, forced treatment which it receives 
 from us, Liberals, can make the book teach anything 
 but Orthodoxy. The Evangelical sects, so called, are 
 clearly right in maintaining that their view of Scrip- 
 ture and of its doctrines draws a deep and wide 
 division of creed between them and ourselves." 
 
 Unitarianism has rendered to Orthodoxy valuable 
 service by turning it from side issues in religion to 
 the defence and proclamation of essential truths, by 
 driving it out from behind the untenable fortresses of 
 old Calvinism, by leading it to a truer sense of the 
 fatherhood of God, and by persuading it to a greater 
 appreciation of the dignity of human nature. 
 
 Unitarianism, so far as growth in numbers is con- 
 cerned, is a complete disappointment to its advocates. 
 Dr. Ellis says that when the controversy opened Uni- 
 tarians were confident that, before fifty years should be 
 passed, " Orthodoxy would have become a thing of the 
 past, while Unitarianism would be the prevailing type 
 of religion." 
 
 Twenty-five years after the controversy broke out 
 in 18 1 5 there were in Massachusetts about 130 Uni- 
 tarian churches of which the parishes of 96 had been 
 originally orthodox, while about 30 had been organized 
 by parishes from which orthodox churches had removed. 
 There were at that time 4i4Trinitarian Congregational 
 churches in the State, 197 of which had been organized 
 since 181 5. The growth of the Baptist and Methodist 
 denominations had also been constant and rapid. Ac- 
 cording to the United States census for 1890 there 
 were in this country 421 Unitarian churches with 
 67,749 members, more than half of whom are 
 
3l6 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 in Massachusetts. The number of Congregational 
 churches in 1890 was 4868, with 512,771 members. 
 
 It is impossible to represent accurately the doctrinal 
 belief of Unitarians, since they differ as widely among 
 themselves as the denomination differs from Trinita- 
 rian denominations. The right wing of the body 
 almost touches Orthodoxy. The left wing, as abun- 
 dant utterances of prominent Unitarians testify, hardly 
 touches Christianity at all. Dr. Bellows said, in 1876, 
 of the right of anyone to be a Unitarian : " He may be 
 a pantheist, or an atheist, and if he calls himself a 
 Christian, and is not immoral in life, he may join the 
 Unitarian Conference, and claim as good ecclesiastical 
 standing as the most conservative believer." In 1886 
 the Western Unitarian Conference refused to adopt 
 the name " Christian." M. J. Savage, pastor of Unity 
 Church, Boston, has recently said : "We are gradually 
 drifting away from the idea that the Bible has any 
 special significance or authority. We have no reliance 
 on any historic person like Christ." This was precisely 
 what was predicted in the time of the conflict. 
 
 The causes also of the failure of Unitarianism have 
 been most forcibly explained by those most closely 
 identified with it. To no man did it owe so much for 
 its temporary success as to Dr. W. E. Channing. In 
 1839, ^^^^ ^^'^^ close of his forty years' labors as a Uni- 
 tarian minister, he wrote : " I would that I could look 
 to Unitarianism with more hope. But this system 
 was, at its recent revival, a protest of the understand- 
 ing against absurd dogmas, rather than the work of 
 deep religious principle, and was early paralyzed by 
 the mixture of material philosophy, and fell too much 
 into the hands of scholars and political reformers, and 
 
THE UNITARIAN DEPARTURE. 317 
 
 the consequence is a want of vitality and force which 
 gives us Httle hope of its accompHshing much under 
 its present auspices or in its present form." 
 
 Dr. Edward Everett Hale, in a recent address, said 
 that Dr. Palfrey, one of the founders of the Unitarian 
 Association, once remarked to him of the period be- 
 tween 1810 and 1830: "We governed Boston, and 
 we governed Massachusetts ; and they let us do it 
 because we did it so well." Dr. Hale asks why the 
 Unitarians do not do it now ; and answers : " Because 
 the aristocracy of Massachusetts tried to preach the 
 gospel to the people of America ; but for the lack 
 of a miracle of Pentecost, they could not speak the 
 language." 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE DISASTROUS PLAN OF UNION. 
 
 WHILE the Unitarian controversy was withdraw- 
 ing from the churches of Massachusetts a portion 
 of their strength, the Congregationalists of Connecti- 
 cut were entering into a compact with the Presbyterian 
 Church which resulted in crippling and almost destroy- 
 ino- the orrowth of Conorreo^ationalism in the Middle 
 and Western States for half a century. 
 
 Congregational churches, which have disappeared or 
 have become Presbyterian, were formed in Eastern 
 New York in the seventeenth century, and many more 
 in the eighteenth, a few of which still survive. In 
 the list of churches of the New York State Association, 
 including Long Island, twenty are named which were 
 formed previous to 1800, five of them before the close 
 of the Revolutionary War. 
 
 Massachusetts and Connecticut claimed that the 
 patents which had been issued to them as colonies 
 covered a large part of the State of New York. In 
 1786 commissioners granted to Massachusetts in set- 
 tlement of these claims the right to purchase from the 
 Indians a large tract, amounting to millions of acres, 
 known as Western New York. The land was pur- 
 chased and advertised for sale in exchange for culti- 
 vated farms in New England. In 1790 Congress gave 
 to Connecticut, in lieu of its claim on New York 
 
 318 
 
THE DISASTROUS PLAN OF UNION. 319 
 
 lands, the title to more than three million acres south 
 ot Lake Erie, which came to be known as the Western 
 Reserve, or New Connecticut. The tide of immi- 
 grants from New England soon poured rapidly into 
 both these sections. But these immifjrants were 
 mostly poor and had to overcome the difficulties which 
 beset settlers in the wilderness. Their brethren in 
 New England promptly recognized their need of aid 
 to maintain religious institutions. As early as 1784 
 Connecticut ministers went on short mission tours to 
 the " Western Country." In 1788 the General Asso- 
 ciation of Connecticut recommended all the local asso- 
 ciations to send out pastors on brief missions. In 
 I 792 eight pastors were named by the General Associ- 
 ation to go to the new fields for four months each. 
 Their compensation was to be $4.50 per week, with $4 
 a week additional to supply their pulpits. In 1798 the 
 General Association organized itself as the Connecticut 
 Missionary Society. In 1800 the Coiinccticiit Evan- 
 gelical Magazine was begun, to spread tidings of 
 missionary work, and its profits were turned into the 
 treasury of the Missionary Society. 
 
 Durinof all this time, and indeed before the war of the 
 Revolution, Connecticut Conofregfationalists were beino- 
 drawn into closer sympathy with the Presbyterians of 
 the Middle States. The fear of the inroads of Episco- 
 pacy led to a joint convention in 1766 of representatives 
 of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia and of the 
 General Association of Connecticut, on the proposal of 
 the Presbyterian body ; and this convention continued 
 to meet annually till war began in 1775. After the 
 war the development of Unitarian tendencies in Massa- 
 chusetts confirmed the Connecticut churches in their 
 
320 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 consociational system according to the Saybrook Plat- 
 form as protecting them against ministers who practi- 
 cally renounced their faith, and the same tendencies 
 quickened their feeling of kinship for Presbyterians. 
 In I 790 the General Association expressed its desire for 
 closer union with Presbyterians, and four years later, by 
 agreement between the General Association and the 
 Presbyterian General Assembly, delegates from each 
 body attended the meeting of the other with full right 
 to vote. Connecticut Congregationalists seemed even 
 willing in their eagerness to repudiate Massachusetts 
 Unitarianism and to affiliate with Presbyterianism, to 
 renounce their name and history ; for in 1799 ^'^^ Hart- 
 ford North Association declared that the churches of 
 Connecticut " are not now and never were from the earli- 
 est period of our settlement Congregational churches 
 according to the ideas and forms of church order con- 
 tained in the book of discipline called the Cambridge 
 Platform." In 1805 the General Association character- 
 ized the Saybrook Platform as " the Ecclesiastical Con- 
 stitution of the Presbyterian Church of Connecticut." 
 It was to be expected, then, that when both denom- 
 inations were found to have representatives in the new 
 Western Country needing missionary aid, some form 
 of union for this work would be brought about between 
 the two bodies. Jonathan Edwards the younger had 
 been for thirty years a Congregational pastor in Con- 
 necticut, the most of the time at New Haven. In 1799 
 he became president of Union College, which was in a 
 section of New York then filling up with settlers. In 
 1800, when he was attending the Connecticut General 
 Association as a delegate of the Presbyterian General 
 Assembly, the question was raised, probably by him, of 
 
THE DISASTROUS PLAN OF UNION. ^21 
 
 the union of the two denominations in their missionary 
 work. Edwards was appointed on a committee to pre- 
 pare a report on the subject. As a resuh, the Connecti- 
 cut General Association appointed a committee to 
 consider measures " to establish, as far as possible, an 
 uniform system of church government " for Presby- 
 terians and Congregationalists in the new settlements. 
 The next year in May the General Assembly appointed 
 a committee for the same purpose, with President 
 Edwards as chairman, and its report was by the same 
 assembly adopted. The next month it was also 
 adopted by the Connecticut General Association. 
 This report was the Plan of Union, the substance of 
 which is as follows : 
 
 " If in the new settlements any church of the Con- 
 gregational order shall settle a minister of the Presby- 
 terian order, that church may, if they choose, still 
 conduct their discipline according to Congregational 
 principles, settling their difficulties among themselves, 
 or by a council mutually agreed upon for that purpose. 
 But, if any difficulty shall exist between the minister 
 and the church, or any member of it, it shall be referred 
 to the Presbytery to which the minister shall belong, 
 provided both parties agree to it ; if not, to a council 
 consisting of an equal number of Presbyterians and 
 Congregationalists, agreed upon by both parties. 
 
 " If a Presbyterian church shall settle a minister of 
 Congregational principles, that church may still con- 
 duct their discipline according to Presbyterian prin- 
 ciples, excepting that if a difficulty arise between him 
 and his church, or any member of it, the cause shall be 
 tried by the association to which the said minister 
 shall belong, provided both parties agree to it ; other- 
 
322 CON ;REGATI0NALISTS in AMERICA. 
 
 wise b}' a council, one-half Congregationalists and the 
 other Presbyterians mutually agreed upon by the 
 parties. 
 
 '' If any congregation consist partly of tliose who hold 
 the Congregational form of discipline and partly of 
 those who hold the Presbyterian form, we recommend 
 to both parties that this be no obstruction to their 
 uniting in one church and settling a minister ; and that 
 in this case the church choose a standinor committee 
 from the communicants of said church, whose business 
 it shall be to call to account every member of the 
 church who shall conduct himself inconsistently with 
 the laws of Christianity, and to give judgment on 
 such conduct. That if the person condemned by 
 their judgment be a Presbyterian, he shall have 
 liberty to appeal to the Presbytery ; if he be a 
 Congregationalist he shall have liberty to appeal to 
 the body of the male communicants of the church. 
 In the former case the determination of the Presbytery 
 shall be final unless the church shall consent to a fur- 
 ther appeal to the synod or to the General Assembly ; 
 and in the latter case, if the party condemned shall 
 wish for a trial by a mutual council, the cause shall be 
 referred to such a council. And provided the said 
 standing committee of any church shall depute one 
 of themselves to attend the Presbytery, he may have 
 the same right to sit and act in the Presbytery as a 
 ruling elder of the Presbyterian Church." 
 
 There can be no question as to the honesty of either 
 party in entering into this agreement. Its apparent 
 fairness also to both must be conceded. It provided 
 that a Congregational church with a Presbyterian 
 pastor and a Presbyterian church with a Congrega- 
 
THE DISASTROUS PLAN OF UNION. 323 
 
 tional pastor should each retain its own poHty, while 
 the pastor, if he came into discipline, should be tried 
 by the body to which he belonged ; or if both parties 
 could not agree to this, by a mutual council composed 
 of an equal number from both denominations. It did 
 indeed provide that a church composed of members of 
 both denominations should have a standingr committee 
 on discipline, and that a Congregational member under 
 discipline could get his case before the communicants 
 In the church only by appeal from the committee. 
 But early Congregational history furnished precedents 
 for such government. Where churches were altogether 
 Presbyterian or altogether Congregational they might 
 maintain their own polity without reference to any Plan 
 of Union. 
 
 It seems to have been demonstrated also that im- 
 portant advantages resulted from this plan in the early 
 years of its working. The Christian families in West- 
 ern New York and Ohio included both Congrega- 
 tionalists from New England and Presbyterians from 
 Pennsylvania. Each preferred its own polity. But 
 they were too few to sustain each a separate church in 
 the same settlement. They were a long distance from 
 their home land. The journey from Connecticut to 
 the Western Reserve occupied six weeks. The settle- 
 ments were remote from each other and generally 
 without roads connecting them. The people held a 
 common faith, and they counted Christian fellowship a 
 great privilege. The labors of the early missionaries, 
 some of whom were Congregationalists sent out by 
 the Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire 
 missionary societies, and others Presbyterians from 
 the synods of New York and Pennsylvania, were re- 
 
324 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 warded by the planting of churches and by many con- 
 versions. In the beginning of the century, in many 
 settlements, especially in Ohio, there were remarkable 
 revivals of religion. 
 
 It seems plain also that Presbyterianism finally 
 prevailed as much because Congregationalists were 
 indifferent to the maintenance of their own polity 
 as because Presbyterians were active in pushing theirs. 
 In Western New York Congregationalism was earliest 
 planted and for the first generation was of strongest 
 growth. According to a writer in the Congregational 
 Quarterly for 1859, there are records of nineteen 
 Congregational and four Presbyterian churches or- 
 ganized in this region before 1800; while during the 
 first fifteen years of the present century sixty Con- 
 gregational and eighteen Presbyterian churches were 
 formed. The missionaries also were supported in the 
 main by Congregational societies. Large and strong 
 associations of Congregational ministers and churches 
 were also formed, such as the Black River, Oneida, 
 Middle, Ontario and Susquehanna associations. 
 During the first decade after the Plan of Union 
 was adopted there was an apparent prospect that 
 Western New York would become as thoroughly 
 Congregational as New England. 
 
 In the Western Reserve these two denominations 
 had nearly equal advantages at the start. The 
 first minister was William Wick, a Presbyterian. 
 He was ordained at Youngstown, O., September 3, 
 1800. A few weeks later Joseph Badger, leaving 
 his pastorate at Blanford, Mass., came to the Reserve 
 under appointment of the Connecticut Missionary 
 Society. 
 
THE DISASTROUS PLAN OF UNION. 325 
 
 Presbyterian ministers were most numerous from 
 1806 to 181 2, but the majority of the church members 
 were Congregational. Thomas Barr, a Presbyterian 
 pastor at EucHd, in his autobiography, says : " The 
 Reserve was mainly settled by New Englanders. 
 The Christians among them were generally Congre- 
 gationalists, especially for the first four or five years. 
 The churches they formed were either purely Congre- 
 gational, or on a mixed plan which was only a slight 
 modification. In nine-tenths of these churches there 
 were no real Presbyterian members." Several Con- 
 gregational churches were established in the southern 
 part of Ohio about the beginning of the century, the 
 first being at Marietta in 1796. These churches 
 formed the Musking-um Association, meetincj first at 
 Springfield in 1809. The first Congregational church 
 on the Reserve was at Austinburg in 1801, followed 
 by that at Hudson in 1802, and others soon after. 
 These churches, before any of them had settled 
 pastors, organized *' The Ecclesiastical Convention of 
 New Connecticut." By 18 14 Congregational ministers 
 were again largely in the majority, and the churches 
 were nearly all Congregational. 
 
 Yet within the next twenty years churches disap- 
 peared from the Congregational roll, associations 
 w^ere dissolved, small presbyteries grew in size and 
 power, synods were formed ; and Presbyterianism 
 came to be the dominant order both in New York 
 and in the Western Reserve. A Presbyterian con- 
 temporary observer estimated that by 1828 a result of 
 the workinor of the Plan of Union had been the 
 addition of more than six hundred churches to the 
 Presbyterian body ; and a careful student of the 
 
326 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 history of Congregationalism, Rev. Dr. A. H. Ross, 
 recently affirmed that " the Plan of Union has trans- 
 formed over two thousand churches, which were in 
 origin and usages Congregational, into Presbyterian 
 churches." 
 
 These disastrous results to Congregationalism were 
 brought about as much by the efforts of Congregation- 
 alists as by Presbyterians. Presbyteries were organ- 
 ized and ministers were urged to join them without 
 giving up their connection with their own associations. 
 Churches were invited to come under the care of Pres- 
 bytery while they might retain connection with their 
 own ecclesiastical bodies. A church might come under 
 the Presbytery by a majority vote of its members. It 
 could not withdraw, unless by consent of the Presby- 
 tery, without a unanimous vote of its members. The 
 idea was fostered that stronger ecclesiastical bonds 
 were necessary in the new settlements than in New 
 England to guard the purity, of the churches. Con- 
 ofreaationalists who aided the movement from a dis- 
 tance adopted this idea with even more enthusiasm 
 than the Presbyterians. The Missionary Society of 
 Connecticut instructed its missionaries to use their 
 efforts to promote union between themselves and the 
 Presbyterians. A writer in the Recorder says that 
 " the churches evidently showed great reluctance to 
 enter into' any organization which should have the 
 name or any of the forms of Presbyterianism," but that 
 such forms were " imposed on reluctant churches by 
 the trustees of the Missionary Society of Connecticut 
 and their missionaries." The defection of Unitarian 
 churches in Massachusetts was adduced as an exam- 
 ple of results to be expected from the loose ties which 
 
THE DISASTROUS PLAN OF UNION. 327 
 
 held Congregational churches together ; until in the 
 Middle and Western States the idea became prevalent 
 that all Congreg'ationalists were to be regarded with 
 suspicion as unsound in doctrine. It came to be 
 generally accepted, both in New England and out of 
 it, that ConoTeoationalism was indio^enous in the New 
 England States, but could not flourish beyond them, 
 and that its western boundary was the Hudson River. 
 Professor Moses Stuart said that in 1829 the directors 
 of the American Education Society were accustomed 
 to recommend " all young men who go from New 
 England into the boundaries of the General Assembly 
 of the Presbyterian Church to unite with the Presby- 
 teries and not to hold on upon Congregationalism," 
 and that "nearly one-half of the young men who have 
 gone from Andover Theological Seminary have be- 
 come Presbyterians." Even New England churches 
 came to look with indifference, if not with suspicion, 
 on the Cono^reo^ational churches which struofeled to 
 maintain their existence in the West, and advised their 
 members who emigrated to the newer sections to 
 become Presbyterians ; and they freely poured out 
 their gifts of money and missionaries to build up 
 Presbyterianism with the advancing tide of emigration. 
 But if this Plan of Union operated to undermine 
 Congregationalism in the West, it proved to be no less 
 harmful as an element of discord among Presbyterians. 
 The churches formed by this plan eventually intro- 
 duced inharmonious elements into the Presbyterian 
 body. As early as 1825 the right of representatives of 
 these churches, " committeemen " as they were called, 
 to sit in the General Assembly was questioned. In 
 1832 the Assembly voted that the Plan of Union did 
 
328 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 not authorize any "committeeman" to sit in synod or 
 General Assembly. 
 
 The Plan had led the Presbyterian Church to join 
 with Congregationalists both in home and foreign mis- 
 sionary work. The American Board and the American 
 Home Missionary Society, while founded by Congre- 
 gationalists, came to represent both denominations ; 
 but a large section of the Presbyterian Church, espe- 
 cially its southern portion, believed that its missionary 
 work could better be carried on by organizations under 
 its own control. Those who strongly held this con- 
 viction were also becoming alarmed at what they 
 considered new indications of doctrinal unsoundness 
 of Congregationalists. In 1822 a theological depart- 
 ment was opened in Yale College, with Dr. N. W. 
 Taylor at its head ; and in a few years the " New 
 Haven Divinity" came to be prominently discussed in 
 ecclesiastical gatherings. It was a modification of 
 Hopkinsianism, which itself many Presbyterians re- 
 garded as hostile to Calvinism. New measures in con- 
 ducting revivals, in which Rev. C. G. Finney, after- 
 ward President of Oberlin College, was prominent, 
 also excited much alarm. 
 
 In 1835 representative Presbyterian opposers of the 
 Plan of Union, who had by that time come to be 
 known as the Old School party, held a conference just 
 before the meeting of the General Assembly and 
 determined to force a division from the New School 
 party. They did not succeed that year or the next, but 
 they worked steadily toward that end, with constantly 
 increasing excitement throughout the denomination. 
 In 1837 the Old School party had a decided majority 
 in the General Assembly, which, after long and sharp 
 
REV. CHARLES G. FINNEY. 
 
THE DISASTROUS PLAN OF UNION. 329 
 
 discussion, abrogated the Plan of Union, declaring 
 that the American Home Missionary Society and the 
 American Education Society were " exceedingly in- 
 jurious to the peace and purity of the Presbyterian 
 Church," and cut off from that body the four synods 
 which contained the churches formed under the Plan of 
 Union. These four exscinded synods were the West- 
 ern Reserve, Utica, Geneva and Genesee. These 
 synods were "declared to be out of the ecclesiastical 
 connection of the Presbyterian Church, and not in 
 form or in part an integral portion of said Church." 
 The next year when the Assembly met the New School 
 party, finding that they were denied their right of 
 membership, organized on the floor of the house by the 
 appointment of a moderator and clerks and withdrew 
 to another meeting house, where it proceeded to busi- 
 ness. Thus the division was consummated, and the 
 New School Presbyterian Church was formed. 
 
 The excitement and bitterness between the two par- 
 ties were enhanced by the ecclesiastical trials for heresy 
 of three Presbyterian ministers. Dr. George Duffield of 
 Carlisle, Pa., Dr. Albert Barnes of the First Presbyte- 
 rian Church of Philadelphia, which had been organized 
 in 1698 as a Congregational church, and Dr. Lyman 
 Beecher, who had gone from Boston in 1830 to be a 
 professor in Lane Seminary and pastor of the Second 
 Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati. All three were 
 finally acquitted and became members of the New 
 School body. 
 
 If this attempt at division had not succeeded, it is 
 probable that Congregationalists in the Middle and 
 Interior States would earlier have gathered strength to 
 withdraw from their connection with Presbyterians and 
 
330 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 to form separate ecclesiastical bodies. But their sym- 
 pathies were strongly with the New School party, and 
 while the conflict was pending their leaders were urged 
 not to desert their friends. On questions most promi- 
 nent in the minds of Christians throughout the country 
 New School Presb)'terians and Congregationalists 
 were closely in sympathy. They were agreed in the 
 agitation against slavery, which was already assuming 
 large proportions. After the division the New School 
 body continued its missionary work both at home and 
 abroad through the societies which they maintained 
 in common with Congregationalists. Both denomina- 
 tions were also in hearty doctrinal agreement. 
 
 Yet already, even before the division of 1838, a spirit 
 of denominational enthusiasm was awakenino- amonof 
 Congregationalists. One source of their weakness was 
 their want of acquaintance with one another. There 
 had been no general gathering of representatives of the 
 denomination for nearly two hundred years. In New 
 England Congregationalists had strengthened them- 
 selves by state associations, but the effort to follow 
 their example in the early history of Western New York 
 had failed. In 1834, however, the General Association 
 of New York was formed, and in 1836 the General 
 Association of the Western Reserve was organized. 
 Though this latter body after some time dissolved, 
 another and finally successful attempt was made by the 
 organization of a consociation in 1841' of the church 
 in Marietta with several others. This body called a 
 convention at Mansfield in 1852 in which forty-four 
 churches were represented, and this was the beginning 
 of the State Conference of Ohio. The enthusiasm of 
 that meeting and the interest kindled by the gathering 
 
THE DISASTROUS PLAN OF UNION. 33 1 
 
 of the churches is thus pictured in a report in the 
 C/iJ^zstian Press of Cincinnati : " Those who had 
 stood long years alone, and had felt the discourage- 
 ment of isolation and had been cut off very much from 
 association and sympathy, were softened to tears when 
 they looked round upon their assembled brethren and 
 felt that the hour so longed for and prayed for had 
 come." 
 
 Meanwhile also the churches in neicrhborinof States 
 were formincr associations and beoinninor to realize 
 their vitality for growth and expansion. The Iowa 
 Association w^as formed in 1840, that of Michigan in 
 1842, and Illinois in 1844. In 1846 a very important 
 convention of representatives of Western Congrega- 
 tional churches was held in Michigan City, Ind., which 
 unanimously declared their adherence to the funda- 
 mental doctrines of the gospel as set forth by the 
 masters of New England theology. This affirmation 
 by the churches of the West of the faith and polity of 
 the fathers did much to convince their New England 
 brethren that the Congregationalists east and west 
 were one in spirit as well as in name. 
 
 Before many years serious difficulties* began to 
 arise in connection with the administration of the 
 home missionary work of Presbyterians and Congre- 
 gationalists through the same societv. Each denom- 
 ination felt that its own interests were not sufficiently 
 considered in the planting and support of new churches. 
 Some of the presbyteries acted independently of the 
 society, helping feeble churches of their own order in 
 the west. Some individual Conoreo-ationalists and 
 local churches did a similar service for some mis- 
 sionary Congregational churches. The Home Mis- 
 
332 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 sionary Society tried various means to induce or 
 compel the churches to send all their gifts through 
 its treasury, but found it difficult to please, in its 
 distribution of funds, two denominations which could 
 hardly help being rivals as they entered into the 
 newly settled sections of the country. The final 
 separation of the society from its alliance with Pres- 
 byterians was caused by the action of the Alton 
 Presbytery. This Presbytery, since 1840, had co-op- 
 erated with the Home Missionary Society as its 
 auxiliary, through a committee of missions. But in 
 1856 the Presbytery resolved "to employ two mission- 
 aries under the sole and only direction of this Pres- 
 bytery, with no commission from any other source 
 save the Lord Jesus Christ." From that time the 
 Presbytery ceased to collect funds for the Home 
 Missionary Society, but made collections for this 
 separate work from churches sustained by that 
 society, and denounced the society as " aiming a 
 deathblow at their Presbyterial missions." At the 
 same time the Presbytery continued to seek and 
 obtain aid for its feeble churches from the Home 
 Missionary Society. The contributions of the Pres- 
 byterians to the society fell from thirty-two per 
 cent, of its receipts in 1855 to nineteen per cent, 
 in i860. In 1 86 1 the separation between the two 
 denominations in home missionary work was consum- 
 mated. Such experiences serve to explain the grow- 
 ing disposition in each denomination to consolidate its 
 strength and to carry on its work independently. 
 
 At last the new life which for years had been 
 kindling found a way to express itself. In response 
 to an invitation from the General Association of New 
 
THE DISASTROUS PLAN OF UNION. 333 
 
 York the first general meeting of the Congregational- 
 ists of the United States since the Cambridge synod 
 of 1648 was held at Albany, beginning October 5, 
 1852. By that convention the Plan of Union was 
 declared at an end. Consfrecrationalists had discov- 
 ered that their polity was adapted to the entire 
 country, that they had a divinely appointed mission 
 to give the gospel of Christ to the whole world, and 
 that in order to carry out this mission it was necessary 
 that they should know one another, and should become 
 affiliated as one body in such a manner that they could 
 act intelligently and unitedly in fulfilh'ng their great 
 work. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 ORGANIZED CHRISTIAN WORK. 
 
 MODERN Congregationalism from its beginning 
 was essentially a missionary movement. Its 
 founders were drawn to the New World, not only that 
 they might plant a commonwealth where they could 
 worship God unmolested, but also in the hope that 
 they might give the gospel to the native inhabitants of 
 the new land. This missionary spirit grew with their 
 growth both in themselves and in their descendants. 
 As the colonies expanded into provinces and these 
 into States united and free, the churches promptly 
 extended their aid to their brethren who were strug- 
 gling to plant Christian institutions in new settlements, 
 and in due time, with their prayers and gifts, they 
 entered on plans to carry into distant lands the truth 
 which they held most precious. 
 
 Conc^reo-ationalists were in the front rank in found- 
 ing this Republic, in securing its independence of 
 Great Britain and in framing its political institutions; 
 but their most thrilling history is the record of their 
 missionary enterprises at home and abroad. In these 
 are to be found the secret and evidence of their vitality 
 and their promise for the future. Their missionary 
 societies began as they were called into being by the 
 necessities of particular times. In their earlier history 
 other denominations co-operated with them. These 
 
 334 
 
,^ 
 
 RUFUS ANDERSON, D. D. 
 
ORGANIZED CHRISTIAN WORK. 335 
 
 organizations were voluntary societies established by 
 individuals and not by the churches. They at first 
 overlapped one another, and have gradually come into 
 their present condition and relations with each other 
 through natural experience and mutual understanding. 
 Necessarily the account of them to be given in this 
 volume must be far briefer than they deserve. But 
 their doings have been woven into the entire history ; 
 and in this chapter only the outlines of the societies 
 now existing can be described. They have been 
 placed in the order of their organization. 
 
 The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
 
 Missions. 
 
 The beginnings of American foreign missions may 
 be traced back to a few men and women of large faith 
 and consecrated spirit. One of these women was the 
 mother of Samuel J. Mills. He entered Williams Col- 
 lege in 1806. In that year a missionary prayer meet- 
 ing was held by a few of the students under the shelter 
 of a haystack, and from the date of that meeting 
 the history of American foreign missions practically 
 begins. 
 
 Two years later a society was formed in the college 
 for the purpose of beginning "a mission to the 
 heathen." From Williams College Mills, Gordon 
 Hall and James Richards went to Andover Seminary 
 and there associated others with them in the same 
 purpose. In 1810 Mills, Newell, Nott and Judson 
 requested the Massachusetts General Association, 
 which that year met at Bradford, to further their pur- 
 pose to preach the gospel to heathen lands. The 
 association welcomed the petition of the young men 
 
336 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 and the American Board was organized with nine 
 commissioners, five from Massachusetts and four from 
 Connecticut, selected by the association for one year's 
 service. The next year the General Association of 
 Connecticut selected its own commissioners. The 
 receipts for the first year were $999.52. The next 
 year, by the will of Mrs. Mary Norris of Salem, whose 
 husband had been one of the founders of Andover 
 Seminary, the Board received $30,000. This bequest 
 probably was one of the reasons which prompted the 
 Prudential Committee to apply to the Massachusetts 
 Legislature for a charter, which however was bitterly 
 opposed, and not granted till 181 2. By the charter 
 the Board was made a self-perpetuating body. In 
 that year, February 6, Judson, Hall, Newell, Nott and 
 Rice were ordained in the Tabernacle Church, Salem, 
 to establish a mission in Asia. In June Judson and 
 Newell, with their wives, landed at Calcutta, but were 
 ordered home by the British East India Company. 
 They found passage on a vessel bound for the Isle of 
 France, which they reached after a long voyage with 
 many hardships. There Mrs. Harriet Newell died at 
 the ao^e of eig^hteen, after sendinor home to her friends 
 messages of faith and love. The story of her brief 
 life, and her devotion to the cause to which she gave 
 it, kindled in this country an enthusiasm for missions 
 which doubtless accomplished far more than she could 
 have done if she had lived to do actual service in the 
 field. Not only did money for the work flow freely 
 » into the treasury, but multitudes dated their conver- 
 sion from the time of their reading the memoir of this 
 missionary girl, and churches sprang into being from 
 the story of her willing self-sacrifice. 
 
ORGANIZED CHRISTIAN WORK. 337 
 
 Judson and Rice became Baptists, and their change 
 of views led to the formation of a Baptist Missionary 
 Society in 1814. Hall and Nott finally reached Bom- 
 bay, where they gained permission to remain, and by 
 them the first mission of the Board, that to the Mah- 
 rattas of Western India, was established, in 18 13. In 
 1 816 Daniel Poor, with four associates, opened a mis- 
 sion in Ceylon on the Island of Jaffna. In 181 7 a 
 mission was beo^un with the Cherokee Indians in 
 Georgia, and in 18 18 with the Choctaws in Mississippi. 
 
 In 1 8 19 a company of seventeen persons sailed from 
 Boston to begin a mission in the Hawaiian Islands, 
 then known as the Sandwich Islands. Henry Oboo- 
 kiah, one of the islanders, had found his way to New 
 Haven, Conn., when fourteen years old, in care of a 
 kind sea captain, and the story of the conversion and 
 early death of the heathen boy produced a flame of 
 missionary zeal like that kindled by the missionary 
 girl whose body had been buried in the Isle of France. 
 That same year two young missionaries sailed for the 
 Holy Land to win back to Christ the people who lived 
 where He had lived. 
 
 In 1823 the Syrian mission was begun by Messrs. 
 Goodell and Bird at Beirut. In 1829 Bridgman and 
 Abell began the work of the Board in China, at 
 Canton. In 1830 Smith and Dwight went on an 
 exploring tour through Armenia and Persia. In 1831 
 Joseph King opened a mission at Athens for the 
 Greeks, and Goodell began at Constantinople what is 
 now the Western Turkey Mission. In 1833 missions 
 were commenced in Siam, Singapore, Persia and West 
 Africa. The Madura mission was begun in 1834, and 
 that to the Zulus, in southeastern Africa, in 1835. 
 
338 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 During these earlier years of missions comparatively 
 little was known of the countries where they were car- 
 ried on. Communication between these lands and our 
 own was slow and infrequent. News of the travels and 
 explorations of missionaries was received with great 
 interest. Accounts of their hardships and often of 
 early death kindled among the young people in the 
 churches at home the spirit of self-sacrifice for the 
 salvation of the world. Tidings came of revivals of 
 relicrion in mission fields, of the brave endurance of 
 persecution by native converts and of the eagerness 
 v/ith which some of the heathen welcomed the gospel 
 of Christ. The Hawaiian Islands were especially a 
 center of great interest. A wonderful revival there in 
 1837-38 brought multitudes into the churches, whose 
 membership in 1840 numbered sixteen thousand five 
 hundred and eighty-seven. Ten years more passed, 
 and the Hawaiian Missionary Society was formed at 
 Honolulu to carry the gospel to the islands of Micro- 
 nesia. In 1863 the Hawaiian Islands were regarded 
 as practically Christianized, and the American Board 
 withdrew from that field. 
 
 But not less interesting tidings during all these 
 years came from other countries. India, Turkey, 
 Syria, China and Africa furnished wonderful expe- 
 riences of the providence of God opening closed 
 doors for His Word to enter in. The children of 
 American churches took part gladly in the great work 
 of converting the world. In 1856 they contributed 
 over $28,000 to equip the first missionary vessel, the 
 "Morning Star," for service in the Pacific Ocean. Since 
 then this "Star" has had three successors, all built by 
 children's gifts. In 1869 R^v. D. C. Greene sailed for 
 
ORGANIZED CHRISTIAN WORK. 
 
 339 
 
 Japan, the first missionary of the Board to that coun- 
 try. The history of missions in Japan has not been 
 surpassed by the wonderful records of any land where 
 missionaries have preached. 
 
 The Doshisha, founded at Kyoto in 1876 throuo-h 
 the zeal of Joseph Neesima, has become one of the 
 
 THE DOSHISHA, KYOTO, JAPAN. 
 
 leading educational institutions of that country, while 
 the story of his life is unsurpassed in interest in mis- 
 sionary annals. To Hon. Alpheus Hardy, a Boston 
 merchant, for many years chairman of the Prudential 
 Committee of the Board, is largely due the successful 
 establishment of this university for Japan. Mr. Hardy 
 first befriended Neesima, when he had found his way 
 to this country on one of Mr, Hardy's ships, received 
 
340 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA, 
 
 him into his family, enabled him to gain a thorough 
 education at Phillips Academy, Amherst College and 
 Andover Seminary, and gave generously toward the 
 work which, under the wise counsel of his benefactor, 
 Neesima successfully inaugurated in his native land. 
 The Board has had a no less honorable part in 
 establishing missions in the great continent of Africa 
 as during the last fifteen years that country has been 
 explored and opened to travel and commerce. 
 
 Certain other denominations, attracted by the en- 
 thusiasm for the work, had very early co-operated with 
 this parent society, but later they successively withdrew 
 and organized missionary societies of their own. The 
 Old School Presbyterians took this step at the time of 
 the division in 1837, the Dutch Reformed Churches in 
 1857, and the New School Presbyterians soon after the 
 reunion in 1870. Some missions were thus amicably 
 transferred to the care of the new societies, but the 
 work of the Board and its receipts have nevertheless 
 been constantly enlarging. In 18 10 its income was 
 not quite $1000 for the year, in 1820 nearly $40,000, in 
 1840 over $240,000, in 1870 over $460,000 and in 1892 
 $840,804. At present, in 1894, the field includes 20 
 missions with 183 ordained missionaries, 10 of whom 
 are physicians, 18 men not ordained and 356 women, 
 making the total of missionaries of the Board 557. 
 There are also 2741 native workers, of whom 768 are 
 pastors and preachers. There are 444 churches with 
 a membership of 41,522. In 1893, 3461 were received 
 on confession of faith. During its history the churches 
 of the Board have received to membership over 120,000 
 persons. 
 
 In recent years, especially, the educational work has 
 
ORGANIZED CHRISTIAN WORK. 34I 
 
 made great progress. There are now under the care 
 of the Board 1022 common schools, 65 schools for 
 girls, and 80 high, training and theological schools. In 
 the latter are 3819 young men, many of them preparing 
 for the ministry. More than 50,000 persons are under 
 Christian instruction through these schools. Some of 
 the higher institutions are widely known and are foun- 
 tains of great influence for good. Robert College, 
 Constantinople, wa;s begun in 1863 through the influ- 
 ence of missionaries of the Board. Among the most 
 famous colleges now in the care of the Board, besides 
 the Doshisha, already mentioned, are Central Turkey 
 College at Aintab, established in 1875 '> Euphrates 
 College at Harpoot, 1878 ; Constantinople Home, 
 1870, now chartered as the American College for 
 Girls ; Central Turkey Girls' College at Marash, 1886 ; 
 Ahmednagar and Pasumalai Institutions, recognized by 
 the orovernment as colleges in 1886, 
 
 The American Board has been specially fortunate in 
 having as secretaries and other officers men of great 
 ability and consecrated character, who have given to 
 it long terms of service. Its earliest secretaries were 
 Rev. Samuel Worcester and Jeremiah Evarts. From 
 1832 to 1864 Dr. Rufus Anderson was its correspond- 
 ing secretary. He made visits to the missions in the 
 Hawaiian Islands, in the Levant, in Turkey and India. 
 The literature he has produced on the subject of mis- 
 sions is of orreat value. His name is one of the most 
 illustrious on the roll of those who have planned and 
 directed American foreign missions. He was succeeded 
 in 1866 by Rev. Dr. N. G. Clark, who still remains in 
 office. Among honored names in the secretaryships of 
 the Board are Rev. Messrs. S. B. Treat, J. O. Means 
 
342 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 and E. K. Alden, the last named having served from 
 1876 to 1893. Rev. Dr. A. C. Thompson was for forty- 
 four years a member of the Prudential Committee and 
 its chairman for seven years previous to 1893 when he 
 resigned. The list of its presidents is a remarkable 
 succession of honored names — John Treadwell, Joseph 
 Lyman, John Cotton Smith, Theodore Frelinghuysen, 
 Mark Hopkins ; and since the death of the last named 
 in 1887 the office has been filled with eminent ability 
 by Rev. Dr. R. S. Storrs. 
 
 The Board has been not less fortunate also in hav- 
 ing, during its entire history, treasurers of eminent 
 financial ability, who have received for their services 
 much less than they could have commanded elsewhere. 
 The financial standing of the Board has always been of 
 the highest character, and the money intrusted to it 
 has been used with greatest care and economy. 
 
 The Woman's Board of Missions, through whose 
 treasury goes a large and increasing proportion of the 
 contributions to the Board, was organized in Boston 
 in 1868, the Woman's Board of the Interior, with head- 
 quarters at Chicago, in 1869, and the Woman's Board 
 of the Pacific in 1873. 
 
 The American Education Society. 
 
 From the beginninof of the settlement of New Eno-- 
 land Congregationalists have been deeply interested in 
 raising up and maintaining an educated ministry. For 
 that purpose Harvard College was founded. Yale Col- 
 lege was begun by ministers and for ministers. But 
 when Harvard was lost to the evangelical faith and 
 other professions attracted an increasing proportion of 
 the students of Yale, devout men and women mourned 
 
ORGANIZED CHRISTIAN WORK. 343 
 
 the dearth of ministers. A meeting was held in Boston 
 in 18 1 5, and initial steps were taken to organize a society 
 to encourage and aid young men of ability and Chris- 
 tian character to fit themselves to preach the gospel. 
 At an adjourned meeting that year Dr. Eliphalet Pear- 
 son preached, affirming that in the nine Western States 
 and Territories, with a population of 1,758,815, there 
 were only 116 ministers, and that the need of spiritual 
 leaders was also great in the South and even in New 
 England. 
 
 At that meeting " The American Society for Educat- 
 ing Pious Youths for the Gospel Ministry" was organ- 
 ized, and it was legally incorporated the following year. 
 Great interest was aroused in its object. Auxiliary 
 organizations were formed in many places. Generous 
 gifts were offered. Within the first year $4000 were 
 contributed and forty young men were aided in their 
 preparatory studies for the ministry. In the earlier I 
 years Presbyterians gave to the society with Congrega- 
 tionalists, but during the most of its history it has been 
 distinctively Congregational. Since its organization it 
 has aided about eight thousand young men to enter 
 the ministry, and has expended for this purpose about 
 $2,500,000. 
 
 But the newly settled and growing West needed not 
 only ministers, but institutions to train them. The 
 young colleges that were springing up were moved to 
 appeal to the older churches for help, and several of 
 their representatives met in New York City in 1843 to 
 discuss the ways in which this need could be met. The 
 result was the organization of "The Society for the Pro- 
 motion of Colleofiate and Theoloofical Education at the 
 West." During the thirty years of its independent 
 
344 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 existence the society distributed about $1,800,000 to 
 thirty colleges and seminaries. In 1874 it was united 
 with the older oro-anlzation under the name of the 
 American College and Education Society. 
 
 In 1878 an appeal was made to this society to aid in 
 planting academies, and especially to assist two — one 
 just beginning at Salt Lake City, and another at Santa 
 Fe, N. M. The society did not think it wise to 
 assume the added responsibilities. In 1879 the Gen- 
 eral Association of Illinois appointed a committee to 
 urge the Home Missionary Society to plant Christian 
 schools In Utah as a means of preaching the gospel 
 there and of counteracting the intolerable evils of 
 Mormonism. But that society, after discussions ex- 
 tending over more than two years, decided that, owing 
 to the limitations of its charter and the pressure of 
 other matters, it was not able to take the new work. 
 So deeply, however, was the importance of such an 
 effort felt that the New West Education Commission 
 was organized In 1880, with headquarters at Chicago, 
 and with Rev. Dr. F. A. Noble as President and Rev. 
 C. R. Bliss as General Secretary. Schools and acade- 
 mies were soon established in Utah and New Mexico. 
 Consecrated and able teachers, most of them women, 
 took up the work. Some of them were brought from 
 their fields from time to time to tell the churches what 
 was being done, and what was needed to overthrow 
 Mormonism and Jesuitism in the new territories of the 
 West. They pleaded their cause so effectively, and 
 were so heartily supported by the officers of the soci- 
 ety, that the contributions of $3000 In 1880 Increased 
 to $48,470 In 1885, and to $82,200 in 1893. The 
 society then had property amounting to $150,000, six 
 
ORGANIZED CHRISTIAN WORK. 345 
 
 academies and fifteen schools, with an aggregate en- 
 roUment of 2481 pupils. In that year, by advice of 
 the National Council, the New West Commission and 
 the American College and Education Society were 
 consolidated under the title, The American Education 
 Society. This organization, therefore, now includes 
 in its aims ministerial education, colleges, academies 
 and mission schools. It annually aids about 375 
 young men in course of preparation for the ministry. 
 It is giving assistance to 15 academies and 8 colleges, 
 and to the mission schools transferred to its care by 
 the New West Commission. 
 
 The Congregational Home Missionary Society. 
 
 The Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire 
 and other missionary societies have been mentioned in 
 previous chapters. They were organized responses to 
 the call from feeble churches and from destitute fields 
 for help to maintain religious institutions. As emigra- 
 tion increased from the older States into the newer 
 reofions, the work of these and other similar societies 
 enlarged. They usually commissioned missionaries to 
 make tours of a few months over largfe sections of 
 territory, preaching, calling on families, organizing 
 churches and administerino- the sacraments. Some 
 of these tours reached the Mississippi River and 
 descended to New Orleans. These ministers were 
 entirely supported by the societies sending them. 
 The effects of their labor were largely temporary. 
 Sometimes ministers employed by different societies 
 came into competition on the same fields. The system, 
 or rather the lack of system, was too expensive, and at 
 the same time it was scarcely effective. 
 
346 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 In 1822 the United Domestic Missionary Society of 
 New York was formed by the union of two local 
 organizations. In January, 1825, Nathaniel Bouton, 
 afterward pastor of the First Church, Concord, N. H., 
 riding from Andover to Newburyport in a stage-coach 
 with several theological students, suggested the forma- 
 tion of a National Domestic Missionary Society. The 
 idea at once found favor. It was discussed by the 
 students at Andover Seminary in their debating socie- 
 ties and in the columns of religious papers and maga- 
 zines. It was commended by a meeting of ministers 
 assembled in Boston to ordain four Andover students 
 for home missionary work. In January, 1826, a meet- 
 ing of prominent New England ministers recom- 
 mended that the United Domestic Missionary Society 
 of New York should become the American Domestic 
 Missionary Society. The executive committee of that 
 body responded favorably and called a meeting of 
 friends of home missions from all parts of the United 
 States. One hundred and twenty-six persons, represent- 
 ing thirteen States and four religious denominations, 
 responded by assembling in the Brick Presbyterian 
 Church of New York City, May 10. A constitution 
 for the new organization was then proposed, and May 
 12 it was adopted by the United Domestic Missionary 
 Society, which thus became the American Home Mis- 
 sionary Society. In its first list of officers the Congre- 
 gational, Presbyterian, Reformed Dutch and Associated 
 Reformed denominations were represented. From the 
 beginning, however, Congregationalists were much the 
 most prominent in gifts and in labors. The societies 
 in the New England States continued to take care of 
 needy churches within their own boundaries, but trans- 
 
ORGANIZED CHRISTIAN WORK. 347 
 
 ferred to the national society their work for the 
 regions beyond. They thus became auxiliary socie- 
 ties, and from time to time their numbers have 
 been increased as the missionary societies of the 
 younger States have reached self-support. There are 
 now thirteen of these auxiliaries, and in time it is to 
 be expected that the churches in every State will care 
 for their own missionary fields. 
 
 The society employs State superintendents, general 
 missionaries and pastors of churches or of groups of 
 churches. It makes appropriations to aid churches in 
 supporting their pastors, constantly encouraging them 
 to self-support, leading fifty or more churches annually 
 to financial independence. The first year after its 
 formation the income of the society was $18,140, which 
 has increased till in 1893 it amounted to $689,000. The 
 first year there were 169 missionaries on its roll, who 
 preached statedly to 196 congregations. In 1893 it 
 employed or helped to support 2002 missionaries, who 
 preached to 3841 congregations. In the first year 
 more than two-thirds of its missionaries were in the 
 State of New York. Now it has missionaries in every 
 State in the Union except Delaware and in every Ter- 
 ritory except Alaska. It has organized or aided more 
 than 5000 churches, many of which are now among 
 the strongest in the country. Its missionaries have 
 planted schools and colleges throughout the land, have 
 always been in the front with the march of emigration, 
 have molded the characters of commonwealths and 
 have left the impress of their influence on society for 
 good in every part of our land. 
 
 The Associated Reformed churches never took any 
 prominent part in the work of the society. In 1832 
 
348 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 the Dutch Reformed churches organized their own 
 Board of Missions. In 1861 the Presbyterian General 
 Assembly (New School) instituted its own committee 
 on Home Missions. But the society, though for more 
 than thirty years it had been the organ of Congrega- 
 tionalists only, did not change its name till 1893, when it 
 became the Congregational Home Missionary Society. 
 This society has within the last ten years largely 
 increased its work for the foreign population in our 
 country, maintaining a superintendent of its German 
 Department, another for the Scandinavian and another 
 for the Slavonic. Women's home missionary organ- 
 izations co-operating with it have been formed in 
 many of the States with growing interest and effi- 
 ciency. The educational work of the society, though 
 not extensive, is carried on by the maintenance of 
 schools or academies in Georgia, Arkansas, the Indian 
 Territory and Utah. 
 
 The Congregational Sunday-school and Publishing 
 
 Society. 
 
 In the earliest years of the present century Sunday 
 schools rapidly grew in importance as auxiliaries of 
 Congregational churches. The Sunday-school move- 
 ment as begun by Robert Raikes in Gloucester, Eng- 
 land, in 1780, was confined to efforts to teach poor and 
 neglected children. But in this country it included all 
 classes. The Massachusetts Sabbath-school Union, 
 formed in Boston in 1825, began as an auxiliary to the 
 American Sunday-school Union organized in Philadel- 
 phia the previous year. In 1832 the organization came 
 entirely under the control of Congregationalists, taking 
 the name of the Massachusetts Sabbath-school Societ)'. 
 Rev. Dr. F. E. Clark, in Chapter XXII. of this volume, 
 
ORGANIZED CHRISTIAN WORK. 349 
 
 has fitly outlined the growth of this Sunday-school 
 work, but a few facts of denominational history 
 properly belong here. 
 
 In 1834 Rev. Asa Bullard became the general agent 
 of the society, and continued to be officially connected 
 with it through all its changes of name and expansion 
 in work till his death in 1888. For fifty-four years he 
 was known among the Congregational churches of the 
 land as the children's friend. For more than forty 
 years he edited the Wellspring, which is still one of 
 the most popular of Sunday-school papers for children. 
 Lesson helps and Sunday-school books were published 
 and widely circulated. Juvenile missionary associations 
 were formed in New England to help less favored 
 children in the West and in Canada. In 1839 ^^^ 
 society became independent of the American Sunday- 
 scliool Union, and in 1841 it was legally incorporated 
 by the Massachusetts Legislature. Between 1853 and 
 i860 eleven agents were employed as Sunday-school 
 missionaries in Western States, During the Civil 
 War this missionary work was largely suspended, and 
 the society turned its attention to distributing its pub- 
 lications to the soldiers in camp and hospital and to 
 the Freedmen, 
 
 An early demand for other publications than those 
 for Sunday schools led to the formation in 1829 of the 
 Doctrinal Tract and Book Society to promote Hop- 
 kinsian theology. This society in 1854 became the 
 Congregational Board of Publication. In 1868 this 
 Board and the Sabbath-school Society were united 
 under the name of the Conorresfational Sabbath-school 
 and Publishing Society, which two years later became 
 the Congregational Publishing Society. 
 
350 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 In 1874 the National Council, hoping to make the 
 society a strictly business enterprise, recommended 
 that its missionary Sunday-school work be transferred 
 to the American Home Missionary Society. The 
 advice was adopted, but the result proved disastrous to 
 Sunday-school missionary interests. The receipts of 
 the Publishing Society fell off largely, while the con- 
 tributions to the Home Missionary Society for Sunday- 
 school work were small, and interest among Congre- 
 gationalists in this department of missions languished. 
 The consequent dissatisfaction found expression in the 
 action of several State associations and other bodies 
 requesting the appointment of a general Sunday- 
 school secretary. In 1880 the Publishing Society, to 
 which these requests were addressed, elected A. E. 
 Dunning, then a pastor in Boston, to that office, and 
 he entered on its duties January i, 1881. In 1882, 
 by agreement between the Home Missionary Society 
 and the Publishing Society, the missionary Sunday- 
 school work of the denomination was transferred to 
 the latter organization. In 1883 the name of the 
 Society was again changed to the Congregational 
 Sunday-school and Publishing Society. The board 
 of directors was increased to twenty-one, to which, 
 later, five residing in Chicago were added, the majority 
 of all being prominent business men. Sunday-school 
 interests promptly advanced, both in the missionary 
 and publication departments. State superintendents 
 of Sunday-school work were appointed in the interior 
 and western States. Missionaries of the society or- 
 ganized Sunday schools in neglected districts. The 
 energies of the churches were directed to greater and 
 more sympathetic efforts in behalf of the young, and 
 
ORGANIZED CHRISTIAN WORK. 35 I 
 
 encourasfine results followed. Durinsf the four years 
 previous to 1882 the net gain of Congregational Sun- 
 day schools throughout the land was 18,837. During 
 the four years including and following 1882 the net 
 gain was 67,504. 
 
 The receipts of the society for missionary work for 
 the year 1882 were $6257 ; for the'year ending March 
 I, 1893, nearly $80,000. 
 
 The total assets of the business department in 1882 
 were $35,125 ; in 1893 the assets' were $128,560. The 
 total sales of the business department in 1882 were 
 $84,169. The total sales of both houses in 1893 were 
 about $250,000. 
 
 The American Missionary Association. 
 
 This organization was formed in 1846, not originally 
 for the purpose of giving the gospel to the colored 
 people in the South, but " to conduct Christian mis- 
 sionary and educational operations, and diffuse a knowl- 
 edge of the Holy Scriptures in our own and other 
 countries." In the opinion of those who were active 
 in forming the association, other missionary societies 
 did not at that time with sufficient earnestness dis- 
 claim affiliations with the institution of human slavery. 
 Therefore, they formed a missionary society which 
 refused the contributions and co-operation of slave- 
 holders. 
 
 This society inherited the work of three organiza- 
 tions all of which had sprung up within the preceding 
 ten years. One of them, with three missionaries and a 
 shipload of captured slaves whom our civil courts had 
 declared free, had founded a mission in West Africa. 
 Another was maintaining a mission among Freedmen 
 
352 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 in the island of Jamaica. A third had been formed by 
 the Western Reserve Association to carry on mission- 
 ary work among Indians, and was supporting several 
 missionaries among these people in Minnesota. 
 
 In all these three movements Oberlin College was 
 deeply interested, and furnished from its students most 
 
 PETERS HALL, OBERLIN COLLEGE, OBERLIN, O. 
 
 of the missionaries. Nearly forty of them at different 
 times labored in Jamaica. Two of the three mission- 
 aries to West Africa went from Oberlin, while more 
 than twenty were missionaries to the Indians, sent out 
 by the Western Evangelical Missionary Society. Ober- 
 lin in those years regarded with distrust what its faculty 
 and students considered as the too conservative attitude 
 of the American Board on the subject of slavery. The 
 church of the town did not contribute to the treasury 
 of the Board nor did the students apply to it for mis- 
 
ORGANIZED CHRISTIAN WORK. 353 
 
 sionary appointments. It may be truly said that the 
 American Missionary Association is the offspring of 
 Oberhn College. Its honored senior secretary, Rev. 
 Dr. M. E. Strieby, who has given his life to the asso- 
 ciation and whose statesmanlike wisdom has shaped 
 and guided its work, was a graduate of Oberlin. 
 
 The association, then, in its earlier years, was both a 
 foreign and a home missionary society. In 1854 it had 
 79 missionaries in foreign lands and among the North 
 American Indians. In i860 it employed 112 laborers 
 in our own country, the majority of whom were in the 
 interior States west of New York. At this time it 
 supported 15 missionaries in the Southern States and 
 in Kansas. These labored among white people. Some 
 of them were beaten with stripes, and otherwise perse- 
 cuted and driven out of the country. 
 
 The Civil War, breaking out in 1861, opened to the 
 association new and wonderful opportunities. Large 
 numbers of slaves escaping along the lines of the 
 advance of the Union armies and declared " contra- 
 band of war," were gathered at Fortress Monroe and 
 Hampton, Va. Here in September, 1861, a Sunday 
 school and a day school for Freedmen were begun, and 
 during that year and the one following, schools were 
 opened and religious work undertaken in various places 
 by ministers and teachers supported by the association. 
 The Proclamation of Emancipation, dated January i, 
 1863, brought thousands of escaping slaves, utterly 
 destitute and very ignorant, within the Union lines, 
 and the appeal made in their behalf met with a gener- 
 ous response from Northern philanthropy. Their 
 pitiable need for food, clothing and education laid 
 suddenly on the American Missionary Association an 
 
354 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 immense responsibility, but it promptly rose to the 
 occasion. In 1864 it had 250 missionaries and teachers 
 laboring in all the Southern States then accessible to 
 Union men. In March, 1865, Congress created the 
 Freedmen's Bureau, which expended for the emanci- 
 pated slaves nearly $13,000,000. Its Chief Commis- 
 
 JUBILEE HALL, FISK UNIVERSITY, NASHVILLE, TENN. 
 
 sioner was Major-General O. O. Howard, now president 
 of the Congregational Home Missionary Society, and 
 in his noble official service he was ever ready to give 
 his aid in extending the beneficent labors of the asso- 
 ciation. 
 
 The Congregational National Council, which met 
 in Boston in 1865, recommended that the churches 
 should at once raise $250,000 for the Freedmen, to be 
 expended through the association. More than that 
 amount was given, After the close of the war schools 
 
ORCiANIZED CHRISTIAN WORK. 355 
 
 for the Freedmen multiplied, and liioher institutions of 
 learning were soon organized. A school at Berea, Ky., 
 had been planted several years before the war by Rev. 
 John G. Fee, a pioneer missionary of the association. 
 He and his company had been driven out of the 
 country, but as soon as the war was over they re- 
 turned, and the school not long after expanded into 
 a college. Hampton Institute, Virginia, though not 
 under the care of the association, is not less a fruit 
 of its plans. Its originator, and for more than a score 
 of years its leader, was the noble General S. C. 
 Armstrong, the son of a Congregational missionary of 
 the American Board in the Hawaiian Islands, and a 
 graduate of Williams Colleofe. Durinor the Civil War 
 General Armstrong was for two years and a half a 
 commander of colored troops in the Union army. His 
 later educational work for Negroes and Indians, till his 
 death in 1893, has made his name illustrious among 
 those who have opened new ways to bless and uplift 
 mankind. To remarkable opportunities from child- 
 hood of becoming thoroughly acquainted with the 
 Negro race, he added a sublime faith in God, indom- 
 itable energy, rare tact, good sense and organizing 
 powers which laid the foundations of Hampton broad 
 and deep, interested multitudes North and South in its 
 system of education, and is sending out many trained 
 and consecrated men and women to be teachers and 
 leaders of their people. The Fisk school was opened 
 at Nashville, Tenn., in 1865, with an attendance the 
 first year of over twelve hundred pupils. It was incor- 
 porated as a university in 1867. The Colored Jubilee 
 Singers have made it famous in Europe as well as in 
 the United States. In their singing tours they secured 
 
356 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 abroad over $150,000 for the institution. Howard 
 University was founded in 1867 at Washington, D. C. 
 Atlanta (Ga.) and Straight (New Orleans, La.) Uni- 
 versities and Talladega (Ala.) College were chartered 
 
 GENERAL S. C. ARMSTRONG. 
 
 in 1869, Tougaloo (Miss.) University in 1871, and 
 Tillotson Collegiate and Normal Institute (Austin, 
 Tex.) in 1876. 
 
 Howard, Fisk and Straight Universities and Talla- 
 dega College maintain theological departments, and in 
 all the schools special attention is given to Bible study 
 and Christian training. Normal, graded, industrial 
 
ORGANIZED CHRISTIAN WORK. 357 
 
 and many primary schools are maintained by the asso- 
 ciation throughout the Southern States, and thousands 
 of teachers trained in these schools are doine efficient 
 service among the people of their own race. The gift 
 and bequest of Daniel Hand, amounting to nearly 
 $1,500,000, has created an important source of income 
 to be expended by the association in educating the 
 colored race. 
 
 Church planting among the Freedmen has been 
 slower than school planting because of the high moral 
 and spiritual standard adopted by the association ; yet 
 since the first church which it organized among them, 
 in 1867 — the Plymouth, of Charleston, S. C. — the 
 number had increased to one hundred and twenty- 
 eight in 1890, with eight State organizations. 
 
 The association maintains an interesting work, with 
 schools, academies and churches, among the mountain 
 whites of Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina. 
 Since 1876 it has sustained missionaries and teachers 
 among the American Indians. In 1882 this branch of 
 its work was enlarged by the transfer to its care of the 
 Indian missions of the American Board. Since 1870 
 mission work has been carried on among the Chinese 
 immicrrants in California with encouraeinof success. 
 Christian women have from the beginning been prom- 
 inent in all departments of the association's work 
 and earnest in raising funds for its support. In 1883 a 
 Bureau of Woman's Work was formed, with which 
 thirty-four woman's missionary organizations co- 
 operate. The average annual receipts of the associ- 
 ation from 1880 to 1890, not including the Hand fund, 
 were over $450,000. 
 
358 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 The Congregational Church Building Society. 
 
 One of the topics of greatest interest at the Albany 
 Convention of Congregational churches in 1852 was 
 the building of meeting-houses for young churches in 
 the West. The convention recommended that $50,000 
 be raised at once for that purpose, and the churches 
 responded by giving $61,891. P>om this movement 
 sprang the American Congregational Union, formed in 
 New York City, May 11,. 1853. In 1882 the society 
 added to its benevolent work the raising of money to 
 aid in building parsonages. 
 
 From the date of its organization till January i, 1894, 
 the society aided in building 2445 meeting-houses and 
 432 parsonages. The conditions on which aid is fur- 
 nished require that the buildings shall be completed free 
 from debt, shall be kept insured, and if they are diverted 
 to other purposes than those for which aid was given, the 
 society, which holds a first lien on the property, may 
 recover its gift. The receipts for 1893 were $189,235. 
 
 With a single exception none of these six societies 
 in their beginnings, nor any of those which have been 
 consolidated with them, assumed the denominational 
 name. Some of them have received large sums of 
 money in gifts and bequests from persons outside of 
 the denomination. Three of the societies, however, 
 now bear the name " Congregational." Control is in 
 each case vested in the society itself, though in most 
 cases some direct recoQ^nition of the churches is eiven 
 by inviting them to nominate or to elect representa- 
 tives in the membership. The American Board is a 
 self-perpetuating body of 350 persons, but three-fourths 
 
ORGANIZED CHRISTIAN WORK. 359 
 
 of the new members may be nominated by State asso- 
 ciations and conferences. The other societies are 
 composed of persons who have become life members 
 by the payment of a specific sum, and of annual 
 delegates chosen by contributing churches and by 
 State organizations. 
 
 In this connection may properly be mentioned the 
 Ministerial Relief Fund. The National Council of 
 1892 recommended that $100,000 should be raised as 
 a permanent fund for the support of aged and needy 
 ministers, and efforts are being made to that end. In 
 several of the States, also, some provision is made for 
 the care of ministers enfeebled by sickness or age who 
 have labored for a specific length of time within their 
 bounds, and for widows and orphans of ministers. 
 
 Congregationalists have also generously contributed 
 to undenominational benevolent organizations, such as 
 the Bible, Tract and Seamen's Friend societies and the 
 American Sunday-school Union. Congregationalists 
 rank first amonor the denominations in the amount of 
 their gifts per member to missions. In 1892 the gifts 
 of Congregationalists through their home and foreign 
 societies were $4.27 per member; Presbyterians, North, 
 $3.72; Episcopalians, $2.07; Baptists, North, $1.54; 
 Presbyterians, South, $1.27 ; Methodists, North, 53c.; 
 Methodists, South, 44c.; Baptists, South, 36c.; Cum- 
 berland Presbyterians, 30c.; Lutherans, 27c. 
 
 This chapter would be incomplete without some 
 mention of 
 
 The American Congregational Association. 
 
 The importance of preserving the literature which 
 contains the history of a religious denomination cannot 
 
360 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 be overestimated. But the necessity of any general 
 movement for this purpose hardly seems to have 
 occurred to the early Congregationalists in New 
 England. The very valuable library of Thomas 
 Prince, preserved in the Old South meeting-house, was 
 sadly damaged by the British army during the Revolu- 
 tionary War ; but what remained of it has been care- 
 fully preserved, in the care of the Old South Church, 
 and is now deposited in the Boston Public Library. 
 
 Not till 1851, however, was any organization formed 
 to establish a Congregational library. From that be- 
 ginning sprang into being, in 1853, the Congrega- 
 tional Library Association, with headquarters in a 
 rented room in Tremont Temple, Boston. Its object 
 was declared in its constitution to be " to found and 
 perpetuate a library of books, pamphlets and manu- 
 scripts, and a collection of portraits and whatever else 
 shall serve to illustrate Puritan history, and promote 
 the general interests of Congregationalism." From 
 that time till his death in 1861 Dr. Joseph S. Clark, 
 in connection with other friends of the enterprise, de- 
 voted much of his time to secure for it a building and 
 a collection of books and other literature. The first 
 estate purchased was on Chauncey Street in 1857. In 
 1862 Dr. I. P. Langworthy took up the task, and with 
 the active co-operation of Dr. H. M. Dexter, Dr. A. 
 H. Quint and others, against great obstacles, the work 
 went on, till in 1873 the pi'esent Congregational House 
 at the corner of Beacon and Somerset streets was 
 secured and occupied. In it are to be found the offices 
 of the denominational benevolent societies centering in 
 Boston, the Publishing Society's bookstore, the edi- 
 torial and business rooms of The Cong7'egationalist, 
 
36i 
 
362 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 and the very valuable Congregational Library, named 
 for Samuel A. Hitchcock, who gave $25,000 for the 
 building. Already the building is found inadequate to 
 the needs of these organizations, and plans have been 
 submitted for a new and much larger structure on the 
 site of the present one. When sufficient funds shall 
 have been secured, it is confidently anticipated that 
 the glory of the latter house will far surpass the glory 
 of the former. 
 
ELEAZER WHEELOCK, D. D. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 TT7HEREVER, in any land, groups of Congrega- 
 VV tional churches have arisen, institutions of learn- 
 ing have been planted among them. The Puritans 
 believed in the necessity of an educated ministry, and 
 of an intelligent laity who could give a reason for the 
 faith that was in them. Therefore the Cono-reea- 
 
 o o 
 
 tionalists of New Eno-land orioinated free common 
 schools which have spread through the land. 
 
 But our fathers were not satisfied with primary 
 education for their children. Six years after they 
 settled Boston they founded Harvard College, which 
 bears the name of a Conareoational minister who 
 began its endowment. They intended it to be, first of 
 all, an institution for training ministers of the gospel, 
 and for that reason especially the prayers and interest 
 of the churches centered around it as the chief foun- 
 tain of learning in this country. They gave it for 
 its motto, " Christo et Ecclesise." From its earliest 
 years its standard of scholarship was high, and many of 
 its alumni were intellectually as well equipped as the 
 graduates of Oxford and Cambridge, England, where 
 so many of the earliest settlers of New England had 
 gained academic degrees. In 1647 ^^^^ Massachusetts 
 General Court enacted a law that every town with 
 fifty families should provide a school where children 
 
 363 
 
364 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA, 
 
 should be taught to read and write ; and that every 
 town with one hundred famiHes should provide a 
 grammar school with a master able to fit young men 
 for college. Thus early were the foundations of our 
 educational system laid with its three grades of schools. 
 
 But Harvard was the only college in America for 
 the whole of the seventeenth century, except the 
 Episcopal College of William and Mary, founded in 
 Virginia in 1693. When it was felt that the time had 
 come for a second colles^e in New England, a com- 
 pany of Connecticut Congregational ministers in 1700 
 took the initiative, gave to it the first donations and 
 decided what should be its character and aims. The 
 original corporation consisted of ten Congregational 
 ministers, who had power to fill their own vacancies. 
 From that day to this the majority of the governing 
 body of what is now Yale University have been 
 Congregational ministers. All its presidents from 
 Abraham Pierson to Timothy Dwight have been Con- 
 gregational ministers. Its eight students in 1702 have 
 increased to two thousand two hundred and two 
 in 1894. It has trained young men (and since 1892 
 women also) of every religious denomination, and its 
 thousands of alumni are to be found in all lands, in all 
 departments of professional and business life and of 
 crovernment. 
 
 These two colleges satisfied New England for nearly 
 seventy years after Yale was founded. In 1754 a 
 Congregational minister, Eleazer Wheelock, opened 
 in what is now the town of Columbia, Conn., a charity 
 school for the instruction of Indian youth. Fifteen 
 years later it was determined to remove this school to 
 some healthful location in New Hampshire and to 
 
EDUCATION. 365 
 
 enlarge it into a college. A charter was granted 
 in 1769 by Governor John Wentworth in the name of 
 Kinor Georoe III., namincr it for the Earl of Dart- 
 mouth, one of its benefactors, and recognizing Dr. 
 Wheelock as its founder and first president, with the 
 privilege of naming his successor. The college was 
 opened in 1770 at Hanover, N. H. From the begin- 
 ning a majority of its trustees have been Congrega- 
 tionalists, and all its presidents except one have been 
 Congregational ministers. Its roll of graduates 
 includes Daniel Webster, Rufus Choate and many 
 other names illustrious in American history. 
 
 Williams Colleo-e bears the name of a man of 
 Puritan descent, a heroic soldier of the old French 
 war, with whom the college originated as an academy, 
 at Williamstown, Mass. It was incorporated as a col- 
 lege in 1793, and a Congregational minister, Dr. 
 Ebenezer Fitch, the principal of the academy, was 
 elected first president. His successor, Dr. Z. S. Moore, 
 elected in 181 5, remained till 1821, when he became 
 the first president of Amherst. Dr. Edward Dorr 
 Griffin, the eloquent champion of orthodoxy as pro- 
 fessor of Andover Seminary, and as the first pastor of 
 Park Street Church, Boston, from 181 1 to 1815, was 
 president of Williams from 1821 to 1836. Then came 
 Dr. Mark Hopkins, whose fame is more than national 
 as a teacher, preacher and philosopher. For more 
 than half a century his was the most prominent name 
 connected with the college. He resigned its presi- 
 dency in 1872, but continued to be professor of moral 
 philosophy and rhetoric till he died in 1887. Under 
 his administration the students of Williams acquired a 
 discipline of mind and a type of character which often 
 
366 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 distinguished them in business and professional Hfe. 
 President James A. Garfield was one of the most illus- 
 trious of many who have attributed to Mark Hopkins 
 the chief influence in forming their characters. Gar- 
 field's saying has become famous : "A log cabin in 
 Ohio, with a wooden bench in it, and Mark Hopkins 
 ^ on one end of it and I on the other, would be college 
 enough for me." Williams College was the birthplace 
 of American foreign missions, and Dr. Hopkins linked 
 its history with that of the American Board by serving 
 -^^^s the president of that organization for thirty years. 
 
 Rhode Island had Brown University, a Baptist col- 
 lege, from 1765, and the University of Vermont was 
 founded at Burlington in 1791. These, with the col- 
 leges already named, sufficed for New England till the 
 beginning of the present century. Middlebury College, 
 Vermont, was opened in 1800. It is a Congregational 
 colleee, and Cono^resfational influences have also always 
 predominated in the University of Vermont, though it 
 has not been in any sense a denominational institution. 
 
 The district of Maine had for many years desired a 
 college. In 1788 its Congregational ministers and its 
 justices of the peace petitioned the General Court of 
 Massachusetts to incorporate a college in that district. 
 After many vicissitudes a charter was granted in i 794. 
 The college, named in honor of James Bowdoin, one of 
 the governors of Massachusetts, was opened at Bruns- 
 wick in 1802. The question of its denominational re- 
 lations was at times discussed, but about the year 1842 
 the majority of its overseers and trustees put forth a 
 declaration that "from its foundation it has been and 
 still is of the Orthodox Congregational denomination." 
 All its presidents have been Congregational ministers. 
 
EDUCATION. 367 
 
 On its roll of graduates the names of Longfellow, 
 Hawthorne, J. S. C. Abbott, Rufus Anderson, Calvin 
 E. Stowe, Franklin Pierce, William Pitt Fessenden, 
 John A. Andrew and Major-General O. O. Howard, 
 besides many others known to fame, show the great 
 service which Bowdoin has rendered to the country and 
 the world. 
 
 The circumstances attending the founding of Am- 
 herst College are intimately connected with the history 
 of the Unitarian departure. When Dr. Z. S. Moore 
 was called from the professorship of languages at 
 Dartmouth to be President of Williams, he accepted 
 on condition that the college should be removed to 
 another part of the State. Dr. Moore favored the 
 removal of Williams to Amherst to be connected with 
 the academy of that town. When this project failed, 
 he accepted the presidency of the new college at 
 Amherst. In its earlier history the college was 
 greatly embarrassed for want of funds. In 1830 its 
 debt was $30,000, and it carried this burden till 1846, 
 when the debt was canceled under the able adminis- 
 tration of President Hitchcock. During the two years 
 following the college received, including a grant of 
 $25,000 from the State, the sum of $108,000. At this 
 time one of its most generous benefactors was Hon. 
 Samuel Williston of Easthampton, whose gifts to the 
 college finally amounted to $250,000. Mr. Williston 
 was a type of a noble company of Congregationalist 
 laymen who have done great service for Christian 
 learning. He was the son of a Congregational min- 
 ister, and was reared in poverty. He was prevented 
 by poor eyesight from gaining a liberal education ; but 
 he made a fortune by the manufacture of buttons, and 
 
368 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 besides large and wise benefactions during his life- 
 time, bequeathed to educational institutions over one 
 million dollars. 
 
 Amherst was founded and has been maintained dur- 
 ing its entire history with a distinctly religious aim. It 
 has kept foremost its purpose to educate men to serve 
 God. Frequent and powerful revivals of religion have 
 resulted in the conversion of many young men. While 
 it has sent out many prominent men into all profes- 
 sions, it has a specially honorable list of ministers. 
 Among its alumni are Daniel W. Poor, the pioneer 
 missionary to Ceylon ; Professor B. B. Edwards of 
 Andover, Joseph S. Clarke, Henry Ward Beecher and 
 Richard S. Storrs. 
 
 Since the founding of Amherst New England Con- 
 gregationalists have been content to enrich her colleges 
 and universities for young men by munificent gifts 
 instead of planting new ones. But from the beginning 
 of the great movement of western emigration soon 
 after the close of the Revolutionary War, Congrega- 
 tionalists have been at the front, planting and foster- 
 ing Christian colleges. Dr. Roy, in Chapter XXI., 
 has admirably sketched the outline of that work. He 
 has shown how in the path of New England mission- 
 aries the Western Reserve, Illinois, Oberlin, Marietta, 
 Knox and the whole noble succession of colleges have 
 sprung up. Some further mention will be allowed 
 here to portray the distinctive features of some of 
 these colleges planted by Congregationalists. 
 
 Illinois College looks back for its beginning to an 
 evening in 1827, when seven students, gathered under 
 the elms in New Haven, pledged themselves to give 
 their lives to the work of education and of preaching 
 
EDUCATION. 369 
 
 the gospel in what was then the far West, the State of 
 IlHnois. These students were returning home after 
 Hstening to an essay by one of their number, Theron 
 Baldwin, on "The Call of the West." Two years later 
 a school was opened at Jacksonville, with Julian M. 
 Sturtevant as teacher, one of that famous Yale Band 
 sent out by the American Home Missionary Society. 
 In 1 83 1 Edward Beecher left the pastorate of Park 
 Street Church, Boston, to become the first president 
 of Illinois College. Its first class, graduated in 1835, 
 consisted of two persons, one of whom, Richard Yates, 
 became afterward the noted war governor of Illinois. 
 Dr. Sturtevant was for fifty-six years connected with 
 the institution as teacher, professor and president. Dr. 
 Beecher still lives, till recently filling his ripe age with 
 labors as a preacher in Brooklyn, N. Y. Illinois Col- 
 lege has done more than any other institution to lay 
 the foundations of education in that State. Its pro- 
 fessors and graduates were pioneers in forming public 
 sentiment in favor of a system of public schools. It 
 has from the beginning maintained high standards, 
 and followed worthily in the steps of Yale, its parent 
 institution. 
 
 Oberlin was as distinctively founded by a Pilgrim 
 colony as" was Plymouth, Mass. One of the two 
 pioneers who settled that town was a minister, John J. 
 Shipherd, and the other had been a missionary of the 
 American Board to the Choctaw Indians in Mississippi. 
 These young men planned a Christian colony with 
 a covenant to which its members subscribed, and the 
 settlement began in April, X^oS- Before the end of 
 that year the first college building was inclosed and the 
 school opened. Forty-four students were enrolled the 
 
370 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 first term, of whom fifteen were women. Oberlin was 
 the first college in the world to give to women equal 
 advantages of education with men. In 1834 the first 
 college class was organized, and the first Congregational 
 Church of Oberlin was formed with sixty-two members. 
 In 1835 Oberlin invited the attendance of colored stu- 
 
 OBERLIN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, OBERLIN, O. 
 
 dents, the first educational institution in this country to 
 attract wide attention by that step, though Dartmoiith 
 had years before admitted a colored student. In con- 
 sequence, about thirty young men from Lane Theolog- 
 ical Seminary, Cincinnati, having been forbidden by 
 the trustees of that institution to discuss the subject of 
 slavery, removed to Oberlin, and a theological depart- 
 ment was opened. Charles G. Finney, pastor of what 
 is now the Broadway Tabernacle Congregational 
 church in New York city, was appointed professor of 
 theology, Professor John Morgan, a graduate of Wil- 
 
EDUCATION. 371 
 
 Hams College, removed from Lane Seminary to Ober- 
 lin, and Asa Mahan, pastor of a Presbyterian church 
 in Cincinnati and a graduate of Andover Theological 
 Seminary, was chosen president. One colored student 
 came to the college that year. 
 
 Oberlin soon became widely known as a place where 
 peculiar and pronounced views were held concerning 
 religion, theology, politics and social life. It was 
 visited from time to time by persons who sought to 
 impress their peculiar views on the college and the 
 community. But while every such person of reputable 
 character was hospitably received, he was expected to 
 present his opinions in open debate. Often successive 
 days were spent in such public discussions. The presi- 
 dent and faculty were able men, and thoroughly exam- 
 ined the arguments of their visitors. On some subjects 
 members of the faculty themselves held views opposing 
 one another, and frankly compared these views in open 
 discussion. On other subjects, such as co-education, 
 perfectionism and slavery, they were either against or 
 in advance of the public sentiment of the time, so that 
 the college and the colony met with much opposition 
 from churches and people. 
 
 But Oberlin was led by men of strong minds and 
 consecrated purpose. She profited by experience both 
 in correctincr her mistakes and in strenethenino- her 
 influence. She sent out educated and devoted men 
 and women into all parts of the land, and especially 
 into the newer West. Her oraduates laid the founda- 
 tions of other colleo-es, such as Olivet in Michiean and 
 Tabor in Iowa. She took a prominent part in events 
 which led to the Civil War and resulted in the aboli- 
 tion of slavery. 
 
372 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Oberlin has perhaps laid aside some peculiarities 
 which distinguished her earlier history. Other views 
 and aims which she still holds have ceased to be pecu- 
 liar. While the religious atmosphere of the college is 
 not less marked than in former years, the institution 
 has greatly enlarged its educational facilities, has 
 broadened its curriculum and increased the number of 
 its pupils till it is one of the foremost universities of 
 the interior States. 
 
 Beloit College, Beloit, Wis., like Illinois College, 
 fondly looks back to a group of seven men seeking in 
 a spirit of prayer the Christian education of the West. 
 These seven were traveling together on a steamboat 
 on Lake Erie in 1843, and one of them was the same 
 Theron Baldwin whose essay in 1827 had led to the 
 forming of the Yale Band of Illinois. In that com- 
 pany on the steamboat Beloit College was conceived 
 in the mind of its chief founder, Stephen Peet. Two 
 years later its first board of trustees was chosen, and 
 in June, 1847, the corner stone of its first building was 
 laid. Its first president, Rev. E. L. Chapin, a gradu- 
 ate of Yale, was inaugurated in 1850, and served in 
 that office for thirty-six years, till his successor, Presi- 
 dent E. D. Eaton, was elected in 1886. It well 
 deserves the title by which it is often called, the Yale 
 of the West. 
 
 Asa Turner was one of that Yale Band of Illinois 
 in 1829. In 1843 we find him at Denmark, la., and 
 with him the Andover Band, who had gone that year 
 into the new Territory. In the same consecrated 
 spirit which had led to the beginning of Christian 
 institutions in Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin, they laid 
 the foundations of Iowa College, which was incor- 
 
EDUCATION. 373 
 
 porated In 1847 and opened its first building in 1848. 
 Ten years later it was removed to ^rinnell, in the 
 center of the State. That town was founded by a 
 Christian colony, and bears the name of one of its 
 founders, who chose the ministry as his profession but 
 was compelled by ill health to surrender that purpose 
 and move to the West, where he nobly spent a long 
 life in Christian service. The first president of the 
 college, Rev. Dr. George F. Magoun, still lives in the 
 town. His successor, President George A. Gates, was 
 inaugurated in 1887. 
 
 Rev. John J. Shipherd, rejoicing in Oberlin colony 
 and college as more than realizing his hopes, in 1843 
 visited the southern part of Michigan, and there 
 selected a site for a new colony, naming it Olivet. 
 The next year he led a company of thirty-nine per- 
 sons, a little group of families from Oberlin, to the 
 spot he had chosen, and there they built homes and a 
 school, which was to be, like Oberlin College, open to 
 both sexes, and to colored as well as white students. 
 Not till 1859 were the founders of " Qlivet Institute" 
 able to secure from the State a charter as a college. 
 Nor did the school meet with a more cordial recogni- 
 tion amone relieious denominations than Oberlin had 
 met. But the number of students attending it con- 
 stantly increased, and after a few years they were 
 more than could be properly accommodated. Great 
 sacrifices were made by its friends to provide for Its 
 needs. The gifts it has received have come mainly 
 from Congregationalists, and its four presidents have 
 been and are Congregational ministers : M. W. Fair- 
 field, N. J. Morrison, H. O. Butterfield and W. G. 
 Sperry. The latter was inaugurated in 1892. 
 
EDUCATION. 375 
 
 The history of Berea College, Berea, Ky., belongs 
 with the history of the American Missionary Associa- 
 tion, where mention of its founding is recorded. It is 
 the only college in this country where colored and 
 white students in considerable numbers may be found 
 studying together. It is doing for both sexes a unique 
 and very important work in a region where educational 
 facilities are meager, and its future, under the lead of 
 its recently inaugurated president, William G. Frost, 
 is bright with promise. 
 
 The first building in what is now the city of Ripon, 
 Wis., was erected in 1849. ^^ 1S51 an act for the 
 incorporation of a college was passed. By the aid of 
 the State Convention of Congregational and Presby- 
 terian churches a school was maintained from 1853, 
 and several Congregational ministers labored earnestly 
 during the next ten years to advance its interests. 
 But no college work was done till the election of 
 Rev. W. E. Merriman in 1863. His admirable admin- 
 istration soon placed the institution on a secure foun- 
 dation and gave to it a distinctive character. Dr. 
 Merriman resigned the presidency because of ill 
 health in 1875. ^i^ successors have been Professor 
 E. H. Merrell and Rev. Rufus C. Flagfof who was 
 appointed in 1892. 
 
 As early as 1857 the first steps were taken by the 
 General Association of Congregational churches of 
 Kansas to plant in that State a Christian college. But 
 a 3'ear of drought and four years of civil war pre- 
 vented the establishment of the college till 1865, when 
 it was incorporated and the first building was erected 
 at Topeka. It was first called Lincoln College, but 
 in 1868 its name was changed to Washburn in recog- 
 
376 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 nition of a gift of twenty-five thousand dollars as an 
 endowment fund from Deacon Ichabod Washburn of 
 Worcester, Mass. For one year Rev. H. Q. Butter- 
 field was president, but soon after his resignation in 
 1870 Rev. Peter McVicar was elected and still remains 
 in ofifice. From time to time, in addition to funds 
 raised in Kansas, generous sums have been given to 
 the college by friends in Massachusetts and Connec- 
 ticut, and several of its buildings bear names of Con- 
 gregationalists honored in New England. 
 
 In 1844 a colony started from Oberlin to found 
 Olivet, Mich. In 1848 another colony from the same 
 town went westward to plant Tabor, la. It was led 
 by Deacon George A. Gaston, who, after six years in 
 Oberlin, had labored from 1840 to 1845 ^^ a mission- 
 ary of the American Board to the Pawnee Indians on 
 the Missouri River. He then returned to Oberlin 
 because of ill health ; but three years later he per- 
 suaded several of his neighbors to return with him to 
 the scene of his missionary labors and there plant a 
 new Oberlin, In 1852 they consecrated a spot as 
 "college grounds." In 1854 another party of thirty- 
 eight from Oberlin joined the colony. Tabor Literary 
 Institute was incorporated the same year. In 1857 
 Rev. William M. Brooks was engaged as principal and 
 the school was begun. 
 
 Tabor carried the spirit of Oberlin into the border 
 struggles which preceded the Civil War. John Brown's 
 father was an early trustee of Oberlin. John Brown 
 himself spent weeks and months in Tabor with his 
 men preparing for the " Kansas War." Tabor was a 
 storehouse and a recruiting camp in those days of 
 conflict. 
 
EDUCATION. 377 
 
 Tabor College was not incorporated till the Civil 
 War had ended. In 1866 the Council Bluffs Asso- 
 ciation, which included about one-third of the Con- 
 gregational churches in the State, recommended 
 the placing of the institution on a college basis. 
 The people of the town raised twenty-five thousand 
 dollars for this purpose. Deacon Gaston gave 
 four thousand dollars, nearly half his entire prop- 
 erty. The first nineteen donors gave an average of 
 sixty per cent, of the assessed value of all they 
 owned. Few institutions of learning in the land have 
 a record of as great self-sacrifice and as deep devotion\ 
 as Tabor, and this spirit has characterized its gradu- \ 
 ates. Two of the Yale Dakota Band sent out by 
 the Home Missionary Society in 1881, with their 
 wives, were from Tabor. President Brooks has been 
 with the institution from the begrinninof. 
 
 In 1866 the sixty Congregational churches of Min- 
 nesota decided to plant a college at Northfield. The 
 matter had then been two years under consideration. 
 The next year the preparatory school was opened. 
 October 14, 1870, the college department was organ- 
 ized, the General Conference of churches being then 
 in session at Northfield. James W. Strong, a pastor 
 at Faribault, had just been elected president and at 
 this meeting announced his acceptance of the office. 
 Amid great enthusiasm and with earnest prayers, 
 pledges of gifts were made which represented much 
 self-sacrifice. More than sixteen thousand dollars were 
 promised in the afternoon session of the conference 
 that day. Some of this money came from poor home 
 missionaries, some from young men and women just 
 beginning life, and some was given in memory of one 
 
378 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 who had laid down his life for his country. A little later 
 the same year, by a remarkable series of providences, 
 William Carleton of Charlestown, Mass., became 
 interested in the young college and gave to it fifty 
 thousand dollars. Since that time it has borne his 
 name. Steadily and rapidly the institute has expanded ; 
 new buildings have been erected and new chairs 
 endowed. In 1886 the sum of two hundred thousand 
 dollars was added to the endowment fund, mostly by 
 Minnesota givers. In 1891 the preparatory depart- 
 ment was separated from the college and organ- 
 ized as the academy. Dr. Strong continues in the 
 presidency. 
 
 Drury College, like other similar institutions already 
 described, had its origin in the prayers and plans of 
 the Congregational churches of Missouri. It was 
 founded in 1873^ and every year since then has wit- 
 nessed such giving and toil as has built out of prairie 
 and wilderness free and ereat Christian commonwealths. 
 It bears the name of Samuel J. Drury, a Congrega- 
 tionalist layman of Olivet, Mich., and one of its 
 generous patrons. Rev. N. J. Morrison was its first 
 president, and his successor, Rev. Frank T. Ingalls, 
 literally laid down his life for the college. Of the 
 half million dollars It has received, more than one 
 hundred thousand dollars have come from Pilgrim 
 Church, St. Louis. But other churches have not been 
 behind, according to their abilities, and eastern donors 
 have dealt with it generously. 
 
 The Congregational churches of Nebraska, while 
 that State was yet In its Infancy, decided In 1872 to 
 plant a college. It was located at Crete In 1873, and 
 bears the name of one of Its most liberal donors, 
 
EDUCATION. 379 
 
 Colonel Thomas Doane, a member of the same Win- 
 throp Church, Charlestown, Mass., with William 
 Carleton, who gave his name to the Congregational 
 college of Minnesota. Its fine group of buildings is 
 nobly located on a hill overlooking the valley of the 
 Blue River. Its president. Rev. D. B. Perry, a grad- 
 uate of Yale, has been from its beginning the master 
 spirit in organizing and administering the college. 
 
 Colorajdo Springs, seventy-five miles south of Den- 
 ver, like so many other western college towns, was 
 begun by a colony, and bears the characteristics of 
 a city built for high moral purposes. It is a city of 
 cultured homes in the midst of as magnificent scenery 
 as can be found in America. There Colorado Col- 
 lege was planted in 1874. It has had twenty years of 
 remarkable orowth. Under the wise administration of 
 President Slocum its preparatory department has been 
 separately organized as Cutler Academy, its standard 
 of scholarship compares favorably with that of the 
 oldest eastern colleges, and it worthily leads the edu- 
 cational interests of the State. 
 
 Yankton College began in 1 881, as its first president, 
 Joseph Ward, said, a Dakota product. Dr. Ward 
 gave to it the best years of his life and died in its 
 service. It has already four fine buildings, and under 
 the energetic administration of Rev. A. T. Free is 
 rapidly increasing in numbers and is receiving gener- 
 ous endowments. 
 
 North Dakota Congregationalists have been for the 
 last eight years, in the face of many obstacles, laying 
 the foundations of a colleore at Faro^o. Thus far it has 
 endured the vicissitudes which its older brethren have 
 known, and now, under the presidency of Rev. R. A. 
 
380 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Beard, enters on an era of growing prosperity and 
 usefulness. 
 
 On the Pacific coast Con^reoationalists have carried 
 the same spirit which brought forth Western Reserve 
 and OberHn colleo^es and their noble list of successors. 
 When George H. Atkinson came to Oregon in 1848 
 as the first missionary of the Home Missionary Society 
 to that region, he found, at what is now Forest Grove, 
 Harvey Clarke, a minister who had graduated at Ober- 
 Hn, and had orone to that western wilderness with his 
 wife to be self-supporting laborers among the Indians. 
 By the efforts of these two men Tualatin Academy was 
 founded at Forest Grove. In 1854 it grew intoJPacific 
 University, anticipating in name what the vast re- 
 sources of that magnificent country inspired its earlier 
 settlers to hope for. Ten years later it had two small 
 buildings. To these two others, much more preten- 
 tious, have been added. It has an honorable roll of 
 more than one hundred graduates from the college 
 course, and property amounting to about two hundred 
 thousand dollars. 
 
 In 1866 Rev. Gushing Eells opened Whitman 
 Seminary near the Columbia River in Washington 
 Territory, at the mission station where Dr. Marcus 
 Whitman, a missionary of the American Board, had 
 been massacred in 1847. Soon after it was moved to 
 Walla Walla, six miles distant. In 1882 the institution" 
 received a college charter, and Professor A. J. Ander- 
 son was chosen president. He resigned in 1891, and 
 his successor is Rev. J. F. Eaton. 
 
 In northern California Congregationalists have 
 planted no college, but in 1853 their efforts, united 
 with those of Presbyterians, planted the school which 
 
EDUCATION. 381 
 
 has resulted in the University of California. In south- 
 ern California the Association of Congregational 
 Churches in 1889 established Pomona College, now 
 located at Claremont, with Rev. C. B. Sumner as its 
 president. The present year it has enrolled one hun- 
 dred and seventy-two students, and two handsome 
 buildings are already erected. 
 
 Within the last few years northern emigrants have 
 found their way into the South in considerable num- 
 bers. Florida, especially, is largely occupied by winter 
 homes of families from New England, the Middle 
 States and the West. Nearly sixty Congregational 
 churches have been planted there since 1880. Under 
 their fostering care Rollins Colleqe was established at 
 Winter Park in 1885. It is attractively located, and 
 among its students are represented both southern and 
 northern families. The latest claimant for a place in 
 the list of colleges specially cared for by Congregation- 
 alists is Lake Charles, La. 
 
 During the seventeenth century, especially the latter 
 part of it, partly because of poverty and war, the 
 higher grades of public schools were not to be found 
 in many New England towns. Private and endowed 
 academies sprang up in several places, some of which 
 have become famous, and still continue. The oldest of 
 these now existing is Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., 
 founded in 1778. Phillips Exeter (N. H.) Academy 
 followed in 1781. Both these institutions were planted 
 by two brothers whose father had been a Congrega- 
 tional minister of the West Parish, Andover. Not less 
 famous — of later date, 1841 — is the seminary for boys 
 at Easthampton, Mass., which bears the name of its 
 founder, Samuel Williston. Academies were numerous 
 
382 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 all over New England in the early part of this century. 
 There were about fifty- five of them in Massachusetts, 
 thirty in Maine, twenty-five each in New Hampshire 
 and Connecticut, and twenty in Vermont. Most of 
 these were endowed, with funds estimated as amount- 
 ing in the aggregate to over seven hundred thousand 
 dollars. In recent years attempts have been success- 
 fully made by Congregationalists to repeat in the West 
 this work of preparatory education. In Nebraska, Min- 
 nesota, Kansas, Washington and other western States 
 there are several flourishino- Conorreofational academies. 
 
 The story of schools and colleges would be far from 
 complete without some account of the efforts made by 
 Conereofationalists for the higher education of women. 
 Our New England fathers did not think it necessary to 
 burden the public with the expense of educating girls. 
 They thought the duties of tliat sex could be well 
 performed without mental training. Girls were not 
 allowed to attend the public schools in Boston till 1790. 
 Until 1822 the law permitted their attendance onl)^ in 
 the summer months. Similar restrictions may be found 
 in the records of other New England towns. But sev- 
 eral of the academies admitted girls. Most famous 
 among these is the one at Bradford, Mass., founded in 
 1803. This institution opened a new era in the educa- 
 tion of women. In 1828 a separate department for 
 girls was established, and in 1836 the boys' department 
 was closed. Miss Ann C. Hasseltine was connected 
 with this school for half a century, first as associate 
 and later as principal. Among its earlier pupils were 
 Harriet Atwood Newell and Ann Hasseltine Judson, 
 wives of the first missionaries of the American Board. 
 
 The increasing calls for women as teachers occa- 
 
EDUCATION. 383 
 
 sioned a growing interest in the education of girls. 
 The first institution in New England for that sex only 
 was founded with a bequest of Jacob Adams at Derry, 
 N. H., in 1823. Ipswich (Mass.) Academy was opened 
 in 1828, Abbott Academy, Andover, was incorporated 
 in 1829, and Wheaton Academy, Norton, in 1834. 
 
 In all these movements for the education of women 
 the most interesting and illustrious person is Mary 
 Lyon. Born and reared in poverty at Bucklancl, Mass., 
 she early became a teacher in country schools, receiv- 
 ing at first as her wages seventy-five cents a week 
 and "boarding round" in the families of her pupils. 
 She first went to an academy as a student in 18 17, at 
 the age of twenty. Later, at Ipswich Academy, she 
 became acquainted with Miss Grant, and these two 
 women were for four years together as teachers at 
 Adams Academy, Derry, N. H. Leaving there because 
 the trustees objected to the prominence they gave to 
 religious instruction, they returned to labor in Ipswich. 
 But Mary Lyon had already conceived a plan of found- 
 ing a seminary for girls to be carried on by methods 
 peculiarly her own. In 1834 she left Ipswich to devote 
 herself to this purpose. When in that same year 
 Judge Laban Wheaton opened at Norton, Mass., a 
 seminary for girls as a memorial of his daughter, 
 Mary Lyon was present with her counsels, selected the 
 first principal and spent some time with the school. 
 
 But her heart was set on another enterprise. She 
 interested individuals and churches in it, crathered 
 money from many sources with varied discouragements 
 but undaunted persistence, and in 1837 Mount HolyokeX 
 Seminary was opened at South Hadley, Mass. Miss 
 Lyon's plan contemplated sufficient manual labor on the 
 
384 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 part of the pupils to bring the expense down to a low 
 figure, and to give the opportunity for education to girls 
 in the position she herself had occupied, who hungered 
 for knowledge as she did. The price of board and tui- 
 tion for a term of ten weeks was put at sixteen dollars. 
 The story of Miss Lyon's life and work is fas- 
 
 MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE, SOUTH HADLEY, MASS. 
 
 cinating, 
 
 She drew to her support a trio of Congre- 
 gational deacons — Avery, Porter and Safford — whose 
 labor for the seminary of itself entitles them to lasting 
 renown. Others, like Samuel Williston and Henry F. 
 Durant, gave generously of their time and money. 
 Miss Lyon had years of anxiety, prayer, fear and hope 
 before she died in 1849. But one cannot read the 
 story of her life without the conviction that few women 
 ever enjoyed living as much as she did. With won- 
 derful rapidity Mount Holyoke grew to be a fountain 
 of world-wide beneficence. Its pupils went to be labor. 
 
EDUCATION. 385 
 
 ers In every good field. More than fifty women whom 
 she had trained became foreign missionaries. Semi- 
 naries after the pattern of Mount Holyoke and taught 
 by its graduates sprang up, not only in America, but in 
 every continent. Lake Erie Seminary, Painesville, O., 
 founded in 1847, received its plans and many of its 
 teachers, including two nieces of Miss Lyon, from 
 Mount Holyoke. Mills Seminary and College, Cali- 
 fornia, was established by Dr. and Mrs. Mills " to do 
 for the far West what Mount Holyoke Seminary does 
 for the East." Fidelia Fiske's Seminary for the Nes- 
 torian girls of Persia, the Mount Holyoke Seminary at 
 Bitlis, Turkey, for the Koordish girls, the Huguenot 
 Seminary at Wellington, South Africa, all officered by 
 Mount Holyoke graduates, are only conspicuous illus- 
 trations among many of the blessed life and service 
 of Mary Lyon. Mount Holyoke Seminary secured 
 its charter as a college in 1888, but with the same 
 spirit and aims as in earlier days it continues its 
 prosperous career with Mrs. Elizabeth M, Mead as its 
 president. 
 
 In that Connecticut valley lived Miss Sophia Smith, 
 who gave a generous sum to found Smith College for 
 girls at Northampton in 1875. I" its equipment, fac- 
 ulty and students it is already in the foremost rank. 
 Henry F. Durant studied the system of education 
 at Mount Holyoke, served as one of its trustees, and 
 moved by the knowledge of its vast usefulness, with 
 his wife, who survives him, founded Wellesley College 
 in 1875, giving for this purpose six hundred thou- 
 sand dollars, to which other large gifts have been 
 added, till its stately buildings, its home-like cottages 
 and its ample grounds combine to make it unsur- 
 
386 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 passed in attractiveness by any American college. 
 Its seven hundred and twenty-nine students come 
 from thirty-seven States of the Union and from seven 
 foreign countries. 
 
 While the college is, and by the terms of its charter 
 must be, undenominational, it is " distinctively and 
 positively Christian in its influence, discipline and 
 instruction." Its founders and its two presideats, 
 Mrs. Alice Freeman Palmer and Miss Helen M. 
 Shafer, were Congregationalists. 
 
 Several of the collecres here described bear no de- 
 nominational name. They all open their doors equally 
 wide to all worthy applicants. Some of them were 
 founded by individuals, others by the action of 
 associations or conferences of churches. They are 
 given a place in this history because they have 
 been founded by Congregationalists, and because 
 through their history or government, or both, they 
 are most closely affiliated with the Congregational 
 denomination. 
 
 These colleges represent various degrees of maturity 
 in their equipments and attainments. But they all 
 maintain high standards of scholarship, and as centers 
 of Christian culture and influence are unsurpassed by 
 any institutions of learning in America. Most of these 
 colleges, especially in the West, have preparatory 
 departments much larger than the collegiate ; but as 
 their numbers have increased, the most of them have 
 made the college department distinct and complete 
 in itself. In many of theiu normal training, music 
 and art have received special attention, while not 
 a few have provided for post-graduate courses of 
 study. 
 
EDUCATION. 387 
 
 -To these schools of Cliristian learning other 
 institutions might be added, unique in character 
 and without denominational affiliations, but founded 
 by Congregationalists and to a large extent sus- 
 tained by them. Prominent among these in Mas- 
 sachusetts are Mr. Moody's Mount Hermon schools, 
 one for boys and the other for girls, the School 
 for Christian Workers and the French Protestant 
 College at Springfield, and the Lay College at 
 Revere. 
 
 Congregationalists have founded seven schools for 
 the professional training of ministers. Andover Theo- 
 logical Seminary is the oldest, opened in 1708. Its 
 list of professors includes such eminent names as 
 Moses Stuart, Leonard Woods, W. G. T. Shedd, 
 E. P. Barrows, Calvin E. Stowe, Edwards A. Park, 
 Austin Phelps and Egbert C. Smyth. 
 
 Bangor Seminary was opened at Hampden in 1816, 
 and a few years later removed to Bangor, Me., about 
 six miles distant. A large proportion of its students 
 have not been college graduates, but have received in 
 this institution a training which has enabled them to 
 be useful ministers, and some of them have attained 
 high eminence. Among its teachers Professors Enoch 
 Pond and Lewis F. Stearns have made important per- 
 manent contributions to theological literature. Dr. 
 Pond was connected with the institution as professor 
 or president for forty-five years. 
 
 In 1822 Yale College, which had always made in- 
 struction in theology prominent, opened a distinctive 
 department for this purpose, with Dr. Nathaniel W. 
 Taylor at its head, which soon grew to large propor- 
 tions and is now one of the best equipped theological 
 
388 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 schools in the world. Few writers have made more 
 valuable contributions to American religious literature 
 than its teachers, among whom are Theodore D. 
 Woolsey, Leonard Bacon, Noah Porter, Timothy 
 Dwight, Chauncey A. Goodrich, George E. Day, 
 Samuel Harris and George P. Fisher. 
 
 Soon after the theological department of Yale was 
 opened a doctrinal controversy arose, in which Dr. 
 Taylor was opposed by Dr. Bennett Tyler. The con- 
 troversy was carried on with great interest to theolo- 
 gians for several years, though the points of difference 
 have ceased to be of any practical importance. But it 
 resulted in the founding in 1833, by the Pastoral Union 
 of Connecticut, of the East Windsor Theological 
 Institute, with Dr. Tyler at its head. This union was 
 a body of about one hundred Congregational ministers, 
 associated on the basis of a creed embod3'ing the theo- 
 logical views of Edwards, Bellamy and other standard 
 New England writers. The membership of the union 
 has since increased to about two hundred. This insti- 
 tution, removed to the capital of the state, has become 
 Hartford Theological Seminary. It has excellent 
 buildings, a very valuable library, an admirable body 
 of teachers and a large attendance of students. Its 
 president, Chester D. Hartranft, by its organization 
 and broad plans of education for ministers, has given to 
 it a distinctive character among theological seminaries. 
 It has recently admitted women into its classes. In 
 1894 it enrolled fifty-four students, ten of whom were 
 women. ' 
 
 Oberlin, as elsewhere stated, opened a theological 
 department in 1835. This has become a distinct 
 school, having its own professors, and a large number 
 
EDUCATION. 389 
 
 of graduates are doing valiant service in the pulpits of 
 America and other lands. 
 
 Chicago Theological Seminary, the youngest of 
 the seven, except one, has surpassed all the others 
 in its departments, attendance and endowments. It 
 was organized by delegates from Congregational 
 churches in six interior States, was incorporated in 
 1855 and opened in 1858. Its directors are chosen 
 by the representatives of Congregational churches 
 of the interior States. It has devoted much atten- 
 tion to the traininof of ministers for work amono- 
 foreign nationalities in this country. Its German 
 department was opened in 1882, the Dano-Norwegian 
 in 1884 and the Swedish in 1885. Its total attendance 
 of students in 1894, is two hundred and two, represent- 
 ing twenty-three States of the Union and thirteen 
 foreign countries. One hundred and twenty-eight of 
 them have pursued academic studies in sixtj^-six 
 collegiate institutions. The seminary has graduated 
 five hundred and seventy-seven young men, and 
 has given instruction to more than twelve hundred. 
 Dr. Franklin W. Fisk, still the honored president, 
 and Dr. George Dana Boardman, now emeritus pro- 
 fessor of systematic theology, have been with it 
 from the beginning, thirty-five years, while Profess- 
 ors Curtiss, Scott, Wilcox, Taylor and others are 
 doinof noble service. 
 
 By heroic efforts on the part of the faculty, directors 
 and other friends of the institution, a fund of five hun- 
 dred and eighty thousand dollars has just been raised, 
 one hundred and fifty thousand dollars of which was 
 the gift of Dr. D. K. Pearsons of Chicago. The 
 seminary, now fully equipped, with property amounting 
 
390 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 to more than a million and a half of dollars, with 
 abundant opportunities for listening to eloquent 
 preachers, as well as for every kind of missionary 
 work, offers exceptional attractions to students in prep- 
 aration for the ministry. 
 
 In 1869 the General Association of California 
 founded Pacific Theological Seminary at Oakland, and 
 appointed Rev. Joseph A. Benton as its first professor. 
 The next year Rev. George Mooar was associated 
 with him. In 1881 gifts amounting to one hundred 
 thousand dollars placed the institution on a hopeful 
 footing, and three new professors have been recently 
 added to the faculty. 
 
 From the institutions thus briefly described — acad- 
 emies, colleges, universities and theological seminaries^ 
 go forth every year an army of young men and women 
 whose Influence is inestimable. The large majority 
 of them are professing Christians. They have spent 
 years of study in an atmosphere of Christian culture, 
 where the prevailing motives are to serve mankind 
 for Christ's sake. They become educators in every 
 land and among all classes of people. They take 
 positions in the front ranks of professional, business 
 and political life. Who can calculate the results of 
 the gifts and labors of consecrated men and women 
 in founding and maintaining and keeping alive the 
 interest of the churches in these institutions of 
 learning ? 
 
 The following table represents the list of institutions 
 which have originated with Congregationalists, and in 
 which that denomination is now especially interested, 
 though many of them are not in any sense under 
 denominational control : 
 
EDUCATION. 
 
 391 
 
 LIST OF COLLEGES. 
 
 
 
 DATES OF 
 
 NAME. 
 
 LOCATION. 
 
 CHARTER. 
 
 Yale 
 
 New Haven, Conn., . 
 
 I7OI 
 
 Dartmouth, . 
 
 Hanover, N. H., 
 
 1769 
 
 Williams, .... 
 
 Williamstown, Mass., 
 
 1793 
 
 Bowdoin, 
 
 Brunswick, Me., 
 
 1794 
 
 Middlebury, 
 
 Middlebury, Vt., 
 
 1800 
 
 Amherst, 
 
 Amherst, Mass., 
 
 1825 
 
 Oberlin, .... 
 
 Oberlin, 0., . . . 
 
 1833 
 
 Marietta, 
 
 Marietta, 0., . 
 
 1834 
 
 Illinois, .... 
 
 Jacksonville, 111., 
 
 1835 
 
 Beloit, .... 
 
 Beloit, Wis., . 
 
 1846 
 
 Iowa, .... 
 
 Grinnell, la., 
 
 1847 
 
 Pacific, 
 
 Forest Grove, Ore., 
 
 1854 
 
 Ripon, .... 
 
 Ripon, Wis., 
 
 1855 
 
 Olivet, .... 
 
 Olivet, Mich., 
 
 1859 
 
 Wheaton, .... 
 
 Wheaton, 111., . 
 
 1861 
 
 Berea, .... 
 
 Berea, Ky., 
 
 1865 
 
 Washburn, 
 
 Topeka, Kan 
 
 1865 
 
 Tabor, .... 
 
 Tabor, la.. 
 
 1866 
 
 Carleton, .... 
 
 Northfield, Minn., 
 
 1866 
 
 Fisk, .... 
 
 Nashville, Tenn., . 
 
 1867 
 
 Howard, .... 
 
 Washington, D. C, . 
 
 1867 
 
 Talladega, . 
 
 Talladega, Ga., 
 
 1867 
 
 Straight, .... 
 
 New Orleans, La., 
 
 1869 
 
 Atlanta, 
 
 Atlanta, Ga., . 
 
 1869 
 
 Tougaloo, 
 
 Tougaloo, Miss., 
 
 1869 
 
 Doane, .... 
 
 Crete, Neb., . 
 
 1872 
 
 Drury, .... 
 
 Springfield, Mo., 
 
 T873 
 
 Colorado, 
 
 Colorado Springs, Colo., 
 
 1874 
 
 Smith, .... 
 
 Northampton, Mass., 
 
 1875 
 
 Wellesley, 
 
 Wellesley, Mass., . 
 
 1875 
 
 Yankton, .... 
 
 Yankton, S. D., 
 
 I881 
 
 Gates, . . . . 
 
 Neligh, Neb.. 
 
 I881 
 
 Whitman, .... 
 
 Walla Walla, Wash., . 
 
 1883 
 
 Rollins, 
 
 Winter Park, Fla , 
 
 1885 
 
 Fargo, .... 
 
 Fargo, N. D., . 
 
 1887 
 
 Redfield, 
 
 Redfield, S. D., . 
 
 1888 
 
 Mount Holyoke, 
 
 South Hadley, Mass., 
 
 1888 
 
 Pomona, 
 
 Pomona, Cal., 
 
 1889 
 
 Lake Charles, . 
 
 Lake Charles, La., 
 
 1890 
 
392 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES. 
 
 NAME. 
 
 LOCATION. 
 
 DATES OF 
 CHARTER. 
 
 Andover, .... 
 
 Andover, Mass., 
 
 1808 
 
 Bangor, 
 
 Bangor, Me., 
 
 1816 
 
 Yale, .... 
 
 New Haven, Conn., . 
 
 1822 
 
 Hartford, 
 
 Hartford, Conn., . 
 
 ^^33 
 
 Oberlin, .... 
 
 Oberlin, 0., . . . 
 
 1835 
 
 Chicago, 
 
 Chicago, 111., 
 
 1854 
 
 Pacific, .... 
 
 Oakland, Cal., . 
 
 1869 
 
MARK HOPKINS, D. D., LL. D. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE NEW ERA. 
 
 THE last half century is a distinct period in the 
 history of Congregationalism. During that time 
 it has awakened to a new self-consciousness, has come 
 into formal unity, has become national and has under- 
 taken world-wide aims. In Christian education and in 
 missionary enterprise it was first in the field in this 
 country. During the last fifty years it has come to 
 recognize the duty of maintaining independently of 
 other denominations its missionary efforts in all lands ; 
 and it has justified the title which has been given to it, 
 "the denomination which educates." 
 
 The evidence that Coniifreofationalists are doinor 
 these things worthily has been given in the two pre- 
 vious chapters. They were the first to enter on the 
 work of educating the freedmen after the Civil War. 
 From that time to the present they have expended in 
 the South more for this purpose than all the other 
 denominations together. Conoreo-ationalists were the 
 first to introduce Christian education into Utah, making 
 it the most potent instrument in destroying the power 
 of Mormonism. They have been pioneers in carrying 
 the gospel into heathen nations, where they maintain 
 14 theological schools, 66 colleges and high schools 
 for boys, 56 similar institutions for girls and nearly 
 1000 common schools. In missionary work and in 
 
 393 
 
394 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 education Congregationalists have made a record 
 second to none at home and abroad. 
 
 Evidences of the new awakening of the denomina- 
 tion abound, especially in the literature of the years 
 immediately before and following 1850. Many ad- 
 dresses of that period before State meetings and other 
 annual gatherings on the character and working of the 
 Congregational polity were printed and widely distrib- 
 uted. The pastoral letter of the General Association 
 of New York in 1853 says : " Until a recent date our 
 existence beyond the bounds of New England was 
 not always readily acknowledged;" "but it is so no 
 longer;" "for the last eight or ten years this apathy 
 has been gradually disappearing." In 1854 Dr. Tru- 
 man M. Post of St. Louis delivered the address at 
 the annual meeting of the American Congregational 
 Union in Brooklyn, on the topic "The Mission of 
 Congregationalism in the West." The next year the 
 subject of the address of Dr. Julian M. Sturtevant of 
 Illinois before the same body was "Congregationalism 
 Anti-Sectarian." The denomination was thus being 
 roused to consider with new hope its mission and its 
 opportunities, and this fact furnished the prevailing 
 themes of its representative assemblies. 
 
 During the first twenty years of the last half cen- 
 tury, from 1845 to 1865, certain subjects of vital and 
 general interest commanded the attention of the 
 churches, the discussion of which had important results 
 in unifying the denomination and enlarging its influ- 
 ence. These subjects concerned the doctrine of the 
 churches, their attitude toward the national govern- 
 ment, especially on the question of slavery, and their 
 polity. 
 
THE NEW ERA. 395 
 
 In the earlier part of this period doctrinal matters 
 attracted the greatest attention in New England, which 
 still contained nearly four-fifths of the Congregational 
 churches in the United States. Massachusetts Con- 
 gregationalists had, after more than a generation of 
 wearisome conflict, freed themselves from the incubus 
 of Unitarianism. Naturally many of them looked 
 with apprehension on tendencies in theological teach- 
 ing which seemed to call in question doctrines they 
 were defendinor as essential to their faith. Two men 
 of remarkable ability and bf very different types of 
 mind were then coming into prominence in the denom- 
 ination as leaders of religious thought, who awakened 
 decided opposition. Edwards A. Park, then recently 
 appointed, not without strong remonstrance, to the 
 ehair of systematic theology at Andover, was reformu- 
 latinor Calvinistic doctrines with an exactness of defini- 
 tion, a power of logic and a freshness of thought and 
 style which drew large classes of students to the semi- 
 nary, and which fearlessly challenged those who dis- 
 puted those doctrines or objected to new statements of 
 them. Horace Bushnell, from the pulpit of the First 
 Church, Hartford, Conn., was winning the loyal sup- 
 port of his people, no less by the charm of his personal 
 presence than by his eloquence and poetic genius. 
 The great crisis in his spiritual histor}', in 1848, 
 brought forth views then novel, which he gave to the 
 public in the book " God in Christ," and which precip- 
 itated a long and sharp controversy. Some acquaint- 
 ance with the author's temperament, character and 
 history was, perhaps, necessary at the time in order 
 fully to comprehend his meaning and purpose. His 
 thought rose above definitions and expressed itself in 
 
39^ 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 sublime conceptions of Christ formed in the soul, a 
 new creating power of God for and in humanity. But 
 he was at once attacked by many of his ministerial 
 brethren, through public addresses and the religious 
 press, as a dangerous heretic in his views of the Trinity 
 
 and the atonement. 
 His own ministerial 
 association, the Hart- 
 ford Central, essayed 
 to brincr him before 
 the consociation for 
 trial, but after full dis- 
 cussion decided that 
 his errors were not 
 fundamental. The 
 Connecticut General 
 Association made his 
 alleged heresies the 
 chief subject of de- 
 bate for four succes- 
 sive years. Nearly 
 all the ministers of 
 Hartford and vicinity 
 during this period refused to permit him to enter their 
 pulpits. His own church unanimously stood with him, 
 and withdrew on his account from the consociation. 
 Dr. Bushnell was not a framer of a theological system, 
 but he was a wonderful inspirer of religious thought 
 and experience. His sympathies embraced with en- 
 thusiasm every department of life. He was not only 
 the most distinguished preacher but also the foremost 
 citizen of Hartford. In his later life, as his writings 
 plainly show, he did not hesitate to set aside what he 
 
 HORACE BUSHNELL 
 
THE NEW ERA. 397 
 
 had held that was inconsistent with the deeper knowl- 
 edge he had attained, and he came into greater har- 
 mony with many of those from whom he had differed. 
 He lived to see the distrust and opposition which he 
 had long endured fade away, and give place to a loyal 
 devotion which, with those who knew him, mingled 
 affection with reverence. 
 
 It might have been natural to expect that these 
 theological disturbances would tend to divide rather 
 than unify the denomination. But already by the 
 Unitarian departure the limits of fellowship had been 
 recognized and accepted. These latter experiences 
 helped to determine the churches that within those 
 limits liberty would be allowed. The outcome of 
 those years of conflict was beneficent : it was settled 
 from that time that theolop'ical investigration in a 
 devout spirit would be encouraged, that fresh state- 
 ments of truth would be welcomed by Congregational 
 churches, and that no fixed creed of the fathers could 
 be irrevocably binding on coming generations. 
 
 Congregationalists were substantially united in their 
 sentiments of opposition to slavery in the early part 
 of the century ; but as the subject came to be more 
 generally discussed, the denomination took a foremost 
 position in denouncing it, with tremendous effect in 
 bringing about its final overthrow. The part taken in 
 this contest by Oberlin College and its graduates has 
 already been described. Oberlin men and women were 
 to be found in Michigan, in Iowa, In Kansas, in every 
 western State, maintaining the same uncompromising 
 attitude. But even more telling blows against the 
 institution of slavery were being struck in the East. 
 In 1845 Joseph P. Thompson went from the Chapel 
 
398 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Street Church, New Haven, to the pastorate of the 
 Broadway Tabernacle Church, New York ; a posi- 
 tion which he filled with great ability for more than 
 a quarter of a century. In 1846 the Church of the 
 Pilgrims in Brooklyn, then two years old, settled its 
 young pastor, Richard Salter Storrs. In 1847 ^ '"'^^ 
 Congregational enterprise was begun in Brooklyn, 
 which took the name of Plymouth Church, and called 
 
 BEREA COLLEGE, BEREA, KY. {page 375). 
 
 to be its first pastor Henry Ward Beecher, then thirty- 
 four years of age, with an experience of seven years in 
 the ministry in the West. Both these men were sons 
 of ministers notable in New England Congregational 
 history. Leonard Bacon, also the. son of a pioneer 
 Congregational minister, had already served a score 
 of years as pastor of the First Church, New Haven, 
 and was recognized as a leader in the denomination. 
 These men were at the front of a steadily growing and 
 advancing army of those who strove by voice and pen 
 for freedom for the slave, for righteousness in govern- 
 ment and for the supremacy of Congregational prin- 
 ciples. The New York Independent, begun by them 
 in 1848, was one of the channels through which they 
 
THE NEW ERA, 
 
 399 
 
 spoke. Other periodicals gave voice to their utter- 
 ances. From pulpit and platform they made them- 
 selves heard and their beliefs respected. In 1846 Dr. 
 Bacon published his volume " Slavery Discussed," to 
 which Abraham Lincoln years afterward referred as 
 having led him to clear convictions on that subject — 
 convictions which prompted him to issue his Emanci- 
 pation Proclamation in 1862. Plymouth Church, 
 Brooklyn, soon gained national fame for its advocacy 
 of freedom for the slave. When the conflict waxed 
 hot as to whether Kansas should be made a free or 
 a slave State, Plymouth Church undertook to supply 
 every family emigrating thither in the interests of 
 freedom with a Bible and a rifle. 
 
 In June, 1851, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's 
 "Uncle Tom's Cabin" began to be published as a 
 serial in \}:i^ National Era of Washington. That story 
 stirred the people of the Northern States from Maine 
 to California. It made the execution of the Fucritive 
 Slave Law impossible. It did more than any other 
 one thing to break the fetters of the slave. Lyman 
 Beecher made upon all his children indelible impres- 
 sions of hostility to slavery, and inspired them to 
 defend all mankind who were oppressed. His 
 daughter, Mrs. Stowe, referring to his preaching in 
 her childhood, and his daily prayers in the family, says 
 she could never forget their effect : " Prayers offered 
 with strong crying and tears, which indelibly impressed 
 my heart and made me what I am from my very soul, 
 the enemy of all slavery. Every brother I have has 
 been in his sphere a leading anti-slavery man," 
 
 As the struggle grew in intensity. Congregational 
 churches became more and more united in their oppo- 
 
400 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 sition to slavery. Though they were denounced by 
 some aboHtionists who were eager to force immediate 
 separation of the northern from the slave-holding 
 States, they were inspired by their leaders both to loy- 
 alty to the Union and to the principles of liberty which 
 finally prevailed. Henry Ward Beecher did noble 
 service for this country and the cause of freedom by 
 addresses made in Great Britain in the autumn of 1863. 
 Public sentiment there at that time leaned strongly 
 toward the Confederacy. Mr. Beecher spoke on the 
 issues of our Civil War to vast audiences in Manches- 
 ter, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool and London, and 
 though he was in each city met by intense opposition, 
 he overcame it by his fearless good humor, his earnest 
 convictions, his intense perseverance and his magnetic 
 power as an orator, and contributed greatly to influence 
 popular feeling in that country to sympathy with the 
 Union cause. To the success of that cause Conereofa- 
 tional churches contributed their full share in men who 
 served in the army, in the self-sacrifice of women, in 
 money and in influence at home and abroad. 
 
 During these same years which preceded the Civil 
 War the polity of Congregationalists was also develop- 
 ing in important directions. Interest in their history 
 was revived. They were called to adapt their polity to 
 the new conditions of the rapidly expanding country. 
 They were led to strengthen the bonds of fellow^ship with, 
 out infrinofins: on the freedom of the local church. In 
 this important work Dr. Leonard Bacon did especially 
 valuable service. He began to write for the Christian 
 Spectator while a student at Andover in 1823. He 
 was one of the editors of that magazine from 1826 to 
 1838. He helped to establish the New Englaiider in 
 
_^ THE NEW ERA. 4OI 
 
 1843, ^"^ published in its columns more than one hun- 
 dred essays. For fifty-seven years, from 1825 till his 
 death, December 24, 1881, he was pastor of the First 
 Church of New Haven. From 1866 to the end of his 
 life he was connected with the Yale Divinity School as 
 professor of didactic theology, and later as lecturer on 
 ecclesiastical polity and American church history. He 
 greatly helped Congregationalists to understand and 
 appreciate the facts of their history and the exact prin- 
 ciples of their polity. In all important denominational 
 assemblies his presence was influential, and he came 
 to be regarded as one of the very foremost Congre- 
 gational leaders. 
 
 Henry Martyn Dexter was the junior of Dr. Bacon 
 by twenty years ; but in historical research, in enthusi- 
 astic faith in the Congregational polity and in perma- 
 nent contributions to its literature he followed closely 
 in the footsteps of his senior and in the latter overtook 
 and surpassed him. In contending against slavery also 
 he took a notable part. He freely used voice and 
 pen in the interests of freedom, and he prepared the 
 famous remonstrance to the Nebraska Bill, to which he 
 secured the signatures of several thousand ministers of 
 all denominations in New England. Dr. Dexter was 
 the pastor from 1849 ^^ 1867 of the Pine Street, after- 
 ward the Berkeley Street, Church, Boston. From 1851 
 till his death in 1891, with a single interval of a year, he 
 was the editor of the Congrcgationalist. Early in his 
 public career he devoted himself to the study of the 
 history and principles of Congregationalism, and to the 
 practical application of these principles in the adminis- 
 tration and spread of Congregational churches. Much 
 of his great interest in this subject undoubtedly 
 
402 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 originated in the fact of his descent from, and his rev- 
 erence for, the Pilgrim fathers. In process of time Dr. 
 Joseph S. Clark, Dr. A. H. Quint and others became 
 associated with him in editing the Congregational 
 Quarterly, which later was succeeded by the Year Book, 
 and other publications representing the principles, sta- 
 tistics and growth of the denomination. Dr. Quint 
 devised the plan and method of collecting statistics for 
 the entire denomination, and had charge of this work 
 for a quarter of a century. He devised the method of 
 representation of the first National Council in 1865, and 
 framed its constitution substantially as it now stands. 
 He has had prominent influence in shaping many 
 of the most important denominational documents of 
 the last thirty-five years. He is therefore eminently 
 fitted for the task he has undertaken, in the last chapter 
 of this volume, of describing the development of the 
 denominational spirit through occasional councils, local 
 and State associations and conferences, and finally 
 through the National Council, Into visible unity. 
 
 Thus Congregatlonallsts, by the expanding and 
 liberalizing of doctrinal beliefs within evangelical lines, 
 by the development of the national spirit through the 
 Civil War, in which they found themselves substan- 
 tially united In favor of a union of the States, with 
 freedom and the equality of all men of every race and 
 color under one government, and by the necessity of 
 extending their polity throughout the entire country, 
 came Into some fit sense of their national mission ; anjd 
 in consequence their growth as a denomination has 
 steadily and remarkably Increased. 
 
 Space allows only a meager account, mostly in the 
 form of statistics, of the spread of Congregational 
 
^ THE NEW ERA. 403 
 
 churches during these last fifty years. In 1844 the 
 only State organization west of New York was the 
 General Association of Michigan, then two years old. 
 The pioneer of the denomination in that State was a 
 home missionary, Rev. John D. Pierce. By him the 
 educational system of Michigan was drafted in 1837. 
 The number of churches in fifty years has increased 
 from about 30 to 346, with 27,954 members. In 1844 
 the First Congregational Church of Detroit was or- 
 ganized. In the same year the General Association of 
 Illinois was formed. That State then contained about 
 sixty Congregational churches. But it was not till 
 1 85 1 that Congregationalism found a foothold in 
 Chicago, when 42 of the 68 members of the Third 
 Presbyterian Church of that city, having been excluded 
 from the church by the Presbytery on account of their 
 attitude on the slavery question, called a council and 
 were recognized as the First Congregational Church of 
 Chicago. Only four Congregational churches could 
 then be found within a radius of forty miles. The 
 Chicago Association now includes more than 100 
 Churches. For more than a quarter of a century Dr. 
 E. P. Goodwin has been the faithful pastor of the 
 First Church, which has grown to more than 1250 mem- 
 bers, and has made its grood influence felt throug-h- 
 out the land. Plymouth Church was formed the next 
 year after the First, the New England in 1853 ^^^ 
 Union Park in i860. Of the latter Dr. F. A. Noble 
 has been pastor for fifteen years, and its membership 
 is larger than that of the First Church. In 1894 there 
 were 57 Congregational churches in Chicago, the 
 largest number in any city in the United States. In 
 Illinois there are 311 churches, with 40,238 members. 
 
404 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 The banner of Congregationalism was first perma- 
 nently planted west of the Mississippi River at Den- 
 
 mark, la., 
 
 Association of that 
 1840. The churches, 
 but slowly in num- 
 began of the '' Iowa 
 that State in Novem- 
 said, " If each one of 
 one good and perma- 
 toofether build a col- 
 that will be ! " They 
 mission. These 
 in fifty years to 304, 
 
 There the General 
 State was formed in 
 however, increased 
 bers till the work 
 Band," who entered 
 ber, 1843. They 
 us can only plant 
 nent church, and all 
 lege, what a work 
 nobly fulfilled their 
 churches have thrown 
 with a membership 
 
 MEETING-HOUSE OF UNION PARK CHURCH, CHICAGO, II. I.. 
 
 of 28,515. Congregationalism l)egan in Wisconsin with 
 the removal to that country from Massachusetts of the 
 
THE NEW ERA. 405 
 
 Stockbridge Indians, among- whom was a Congrega- 
 tional church. In 1838, two years after Wisconsin was 
 organized as a Territory, churches were formed at 
 Waukesha and Beloit, and within the next two years 
 10 others were organized. In 1840 the Presbyterian 
 and Congregational Convention of Wisconsin was 
 formed, from which the word Presbyterian has been 
 recently dropped, since the churches of that name have 
 withdrawn into organizations of their own denomina- 
 tion. Wisconsin has now 236 churches. 
 
 In 1 85 1 the first Congregational church for white 
 people was organized in Minnesota, at St. Anthony, by 
 Rev. Charles Seccombe. It is now the First Conorreea- 
 tional Church of Minneapolis. From that beginning 
 there have grown 17 churches in that city and eight in 
 St. Paul, while in the State there are 204 churches, 
 with 16,448 members. 
 
 Congregational missionaries have done valiant work 
 in Missouri since 18 14. But the First Congregational 
 Church of St. Louis, organized by Dr. Truman M. 
 Post in 1852, stands at the head of the list in that 
 State. In that year Dr. Post, after four years' service 
 in the Third Presbyterian Church of that city, which 
 then had 100,000 inhabitants, gathered a self-supporting 
 church of the Congregational order. It stood alone 
 till after the Civil W^ar. when a little band of New 
 Eno'landers in 1866 formed the Pilo-rim Church, whose 
 meeting-house for more than twenty years has stood 
 on the highest part of the city, and has extended its 
 beneficent influence through the whole Southwest. 
 Hither came as its third pastor, in 1872, Constans L. 
 Goodell, and with this church he remained in a rarely 
 happy and prosperous ministry till his death in 1886. 
 
4o6 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 The minister and the church were of the spirit which 
 begets churches. They found in the First Church a 
 
 hearty ally, and 
 their number in 
 that southern city 
 has in twenty years 
 multiplied from 
 two to twenty. 
 
 In 1853 the en- 
 tire white popula- 
 tion of Kansas and 
 Nebraska, a region 
 not yet having a 
 territorial grovern- 
 ment, was less than 
 600. But by that 
 time Congrega- 
 tionalists had be- 
 crun to rekindle 
 their missionary 
 zeal with renewed 
 confidence in their 
 own polity, and 
 the next year a 
 C o ngregational 
 church was formed 
 in Lawrence, and 
 the First Church in Omaha in 1856. In these Ter- 
 ritories, especially in Kansas, the battle between 
 freedom and slavery was waged with great intensity 
 for seven years before the Civil War broke out ; and 
 the church militant was too busy in its conflict to 
 multiply rapidly its organizations ; but in less than 
 
 MEETING-HOCSE OF PILGRIM CHIRCU, ST. LOUIS, MO. 
 
THE NEW ERA. 407 
 
 forty years Kansas and Nebraska have each come 
 to include i86 churches, though Kansas has 558 more 
 members than Nebraska. 
 
 " The First Conereeational Church of Colorado " was 
 the name by which the church at Central City was 
 called, organized in 1863 ; but it has ceased to exist. 
 A church was formed at Boulder and another in 
 Denver, in 1864. The First Church stood alone in the 
 latter city till 1879. But there are now 12 Congrega- 
 tional churches in Denver and 58 in the State. 
 
 Dakota was organized as a territory in 1861, includ- 
 ing the two States which now bear that name, besides 
 Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. But very few white 
 people settled in this vast region till some years after 
 the Civil War. In 1868 a church of 11 members was 
 gathered at Yankton by Rev. Elisha W. Cook. In 1869 
 Rev. Joseph Ward became its pastor. He was a 
 graduate from Andover Seminary the preceding year. 
 Till his death in 1889 ^^ ^^^ ^"^ °^ ^^"'^ foremost citi- 
 zens of Dakota, deeply interested in laying the founda- 
 tions of civil government as well as of churches and a 
 Christian college. North Dakota had its first Congre- 
 gational church in Fargo in 1881, and the following 
 year two were formed in Montana. No Congrega- 
 tional church was organized in Wyoming before 1884 
 except the First Church at Cheyenne, which alone 
 represented the denomination in that vast region for 
 fifteen years. But South Dakota now stands sixteenth 
 in our Year Book in the number of its churches among 
 the 49 States and Territories. It has 143 churches, 
 North Dakota 70, Wyoming 14 and Montana 10. 
 
 The entire history of Congregationalism west of the 
 Rocky Mountains is included within the last half 
 
408 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 century, and the most of its growth has been within the 
 last thirty years. In 1864 the whole section contained 
 but 26 churches. California now has 184, the First 
 Church of Oakland having more than 1200 members, 
 Oregon has 51 and Washington 106, only 11 of which 
 were organized previous to 1880. 
 
 The Southern States show a remarkable growth of 
 Congregational churches since the Civil War. The 
 old Circular Church of Charleston, S. C, stands in the 
 Year Book with the date of 1690. A number of Con- 
 gregational churches were planted in Georgia and 
 other Southern States in their early history. Several 
 were organized also in the early years of the present 
 century. But the attitude of the denomination toward 
 slavery closed the South against Congregational 
 churches till slavery was destroyed. Since 1870 their 
 number has been steadily increasing. The first Con- 
 gregational church in Florida was organized in 1875. 
 In 1894 the number had increased to 55, with 1754 
 members. Previous to 1870 there were only five 
 churches in Georgia. In 1893 there were ']'], with 
 41 1 1 members. Alabama had but two churches 
 formed before 1870; the number was 88 in 1894, with 
 4271 members. In all the Southern States there were 
 in 1866 only 12 Congregational churches. In 1894 
 there were 441 churclies, with 26,063 members. About 
 130 of these were mainly colored churches. In several 
 of these States a considerable number of the churches 
 of the Congregational Methodist denomination have 
 recently been received into fellowship as Congrega- 
 tional churches, maintaining tlieir local district con- 
 ferences. 
 
 A digression may, perhaps, be as appropriate here 
 
THE NEW ERA. 409 
 
 as at any point in the history to describe briefly the 
 churches of the British provinces of North America. 
 Though these churches have no ecclesiastical affiliation 
 with the Congregational churches of the United States, 
 they have to a large extent been founded by American 
 citizens, and many of their ministers have gone to 
 them from the United States. 
 
 Nova Scotia, first occupied by the French, was 
 recovered by England in 1748. A few years later 
 the English government offered free farms to New 
 Englanders who would settle there. In 1759 ^^^ 
 vessels went from Boston and four from Rhode 
 Island with several hundred emigrants. Plymouth, 
 Mass., and New London, Conn., sent 280. One of 
 the towns founded by New England settlers was 
 Chester, about forty miles west of Halifax, in 1759. 
 Here Rev. John Seccombe, a Congregational minister 
 from Harvard, Mass., labored for thirty-three years. 
 Liverpool, seventy-five miles southwest of Halifax, 
 was settled by families from Massachusetts, and a 
 Congregational church was organized there in 1761. 
 Another was soon after formed at Chebogue, now 
 Yarmouth, and several others in the Annapolis Valley 
 and along the Bay of Fundy. Some of these churches 
 were composed of Separatists, or " New Lights," as 
 they were called, from Connecticut, whose peculiar 
 beliefs were to be traced back to the mischievous work 
 of James Davenport, following the Great Awakening 
 of 1 740. Another man of the same type appeared 
 among the Nova Scotia Congregationalists about the 
 year 1780, a disorderly evangelist, Henry Alline, and 
 left wreck and ruin in his path. He was a native of 
 Newport, R. I. 
 
410 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 New Brunswick in 1760 received a colony of emi- 
 grants from Rowley, Newburyport and other towns of 
 Essex County, Mass. They named their settlement 
 Maugerville, and organized a Congregational church 
 in 1766. Two or three other churches were formed at 
 different points early in the present century, and the 
 First Congregational Church of St. John in 1844. 
 
 The one Conofreofational church in Newfoundland, 
 that at St. Johns, dates back to about 1777, and was 
 founded by a British soldier, John Jones, who was 
 afterward ordained and served as pastor of the church 
 till 1800. 
 
 Congregationalism had little place in Canada before 
 1833. Some Congregationalists from New Hampshire 
 settled at Stanstead, across the " line " from Derby, 
 Vt., about 1790, and a church was formed there in 
 1798. The London Missionary Society, which is main- 
 tained by English Congregationalists, sent a minister 
 to Quebec, where he organized a church in 1801 ; but 
 he suffered much from persecution by the government. 
 Another representative of the same society organized 
 a Congregational church in Montreal in 1832. It en- 
 joyed for nearly half a century the ministry of Rev. 
 Henry Wilkes and grew to strength and prosperity. 
 There are now three Congregational churches in that 
 city. Though the churches of the provinces have been 
 hindered by isolation from one another and burdened 
 by poverty, they have had and now have able and 
 courageous leaders. There is a Congregational Union 
 for Ontario and Quebec, and another for Nova Scotia 
 and New Brunswick. The Con^reQ^ational Collecre in 
 Montreal, under the care of Principal Barbour, has 
 trained a number of ministers for the home and 
 
THE NEW ERA. 
 
 411 
 
 foreign field. The Canadian Missionary Society has 
 done good service in bringing the churches together 
 and aiding those that are feeble. The latest Canadian 
 Year Book contains the statistics of 129 churches and 
 48 preaching stations, 97 ministers and 10,415 church 
 members. 
 
 The following table presents the number of Con- 
 gregational churches in each of the States and Terri- 
 tories of the Union, in 1863 and 1893 : 
 
 
 I 
 
 863 
 
 I 
 
 893 
 
 
 CHURCHES. 
 
 MEMBERS. 
 
 CHURCHES. 
 
 MEMBERS. 
 
 Alabama, 
 
 
 
 88 
 
 4,271 
 
 Arizona, 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 204 
 
 Arkansas, 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 324 
 
 California, . 
 
 16 
 
 '838 
 
 184 
 
 15,137 
 
 Colorado, 
 
 I 
 
 24 
 
 58 
 
 4,507 
 
 Connecticut, 
 
 284 
 
 45,950 
 
 312 
 
 60,252 
 
 District of Columbia, 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 2,067 
 
 Floiida, 
 
 
 
 55 
 
 1,754 
 
 Georgia, . 
 
 
 
 77 
 
 4,111 
 
 Idaho, 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 216 
 
 Illinois, 
 
 211 
 
 13,537 
 
 311 
 
 40,238 
 
 Indiana, 
 
 26 
 
 804 
 
 53 
 
 3,415 
 
 Indian Territory, 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 112 
 
 Iowa, . 
 
 148 
 
 5,515 
 
 304 
 
 28,515 
 
 Kansas, . 
 
 32 
 
 773 
 
 186 
 
 12,523 
 
 Kentucky, . 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 604 
 
 Louisiana, 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 1,501 
 
 Maine, 
 
 247 
 
 19,341 
 
 238 
 
 21,413 
 
 Maryland, 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 408 
 
 Massachusetts, 
 
 493 
 
 73,479 
 
 587 
 
 107,524 
 
 Michigan, 
 
 141 
 
 8,045 
 
 346 
 
 27,954 
 
 Minnesota, . 
 
 53 
 
 1,657 
 
 204 
 
 16,448 
 
 Mississippi, 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 143 
 
 Missouri, 
 
 5 
 
 '382 
 
 83 
 
 8,572 
 
 Montana, 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 479 
 
 Nebraska, . 
 
 10 
 
 131 
 
 186 
 
 11,965 
 
 Nevada, . 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 54 
 
 New Hampshire, . 
 
 i82 
 
 18,600 
 
 188 
 
 19,585 
 
412 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 
 I 
 
 863 
 
 I 
 
 893 
 
 
 CHURCHES. 
 
 MEMBERS. 
 
 CHURCHES. 
 
 MEMBERS. 
 
 New Jersey, 
 
 6 
 
 981 
 
 32 
 
 5,350 
 
 New Mexico, 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 215 
 
 New York, 
 
 203 
 
 17,885 
 
 283 
 
 46,198 
 
 North Carolina, . 
 
 
 
 33 
 
 1,451 
 
 North Dakota, 
 
 
 
 70 
 
 2,029 
 
 Ohio, . 
 
 161 
 
 12,262 
 
 249 
 
 35,838 
 
 Oklahoma, 
 
 
 
 39 
 
 974 
 
 Oregon, 
 
 10 
 
 229 
 
 51 
 
 2,977 
 
 Pennsylvania, . 
 
 22 
 
 745 
 
 109 
 
 10,196 
 
 Rhode Island, 
 
 23 
 
 3,270 
 
 32 
 
 7,481 
 
 South Carolina, 
 
 
 . . 
 
 4 
 
 364 
 
 South Dakota, 
 
 
 
 143 
 
 5,529 
 
 Tennessee, 
 
 . . 
 
 
 31 
 
 1,748 
 
 Texas, 
 
 
 
 17 
 
 1,140 
 
 Utah, 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 699 
 
 Vermont, 
 
 195 
 
 17,380 
 
 201 
 
 20,771 
 
 Virginia, 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 158 
 
 Washington, 
 
 
 
 106 
 
 4,502 
 
 West Virginia, 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 195 
 
 Wisconsin, . 
 
 163 
 
 8,829 
 
 236 
 
 18,975 
 
 Wyoming, 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 555 
 
 
 2,632 
 
 250,657 
 
 5,236 
 
 561,641 
 
 The following table shows the increase by decades 
 during the present century : 
 
 DATE. 
 
 CHURCHES. 
 
 MEMBERSHIP. 
 
 1800, ........ 
 
 850 
 
 Unknown. 
 
 181O, 
 
 975 
 
 
 1820, 
 
 1,100 
 
 
 1830, 
 
 1,300 
 
 
 1840, . 
 
 1,575 
 
 183,244 
 
 1850, 
 
 1,988 
 
 205,872 
 
 i860, ........ 
 
 2,583 
 
 253,7-65 
 
 1863 
 
 2,652 
 
 260,284 
 
 1873, 
 
 3,325 
 
 323,679 
 
 1883 
 
 4,010 
 
 396,209 
 
 1893, 
 
 5.236 
 
 561,641 
 
JULIAN M. STURTEVANT, D. D. 
 
THE NEW ERA. 413 
 
 From the tables given above some interesting facts 
 appear. The number of churches has nearly doubled, 
 and the membership has considerably more than 
 doubled during the last thirty years. The gain in 
 churches and membership during these thirty years has 
 been greater than during the two hundred and forty 
 years previous to i860. The gain in membership dur- 
 ing the last ten years is considerably greater than during 
 the preceding twenty years. Figures not included in 
 this volume show even a more encouraging growth in 
 the Sunday schools than in church membership. The 
 enrollment for 1893 was over 700,000, and has con- 
 siderably more than doubled within twenty-five years. 
 A great impulse has been given to this department 
 by the employment of missionaries since 1882 to plant 
 and foster Sunday schools in the newer parts of the 
 country. In 1893 there were 975 such schools not con- 
 nected witli churches, with a membership of 49,271. 
 
 A comparison between other statistics at hand shows 
 also that fifty years ago more than four-fifths of the 
 churches and members were in New England. In 
 1893 nearly five-sevenths of the churches and more 
 than one-half of the members were outside of New 
 England. Fifty years ago there was not a single 
 Congregational church west of the Mississippi River. 
 The number of churches in that section in 1893 was 
 greater than in the six New England States. 
 
 Statistics show that the denomination has not only 
 become national within the last thirty years, but that 
 it is gaining most rapidly in sections where it has found 
 a foothold within that period. In 1892, the latest 
 figures at hand of additions to individual churches, the 
 following showed the greatest net growth : 
 
414 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 PLACE. ' 
 
 NAME OF CHURCH. 
 
 ADDITIONS. 
 
 Seattle, Wash., . 
 
 Plymouth, 
 
 205 
 
 Oakland, Cal, 
 
 First, 
 
 193 
 
 Chicago, 111., 
 
 First, .... 
 
 165 
 
 Tacoina, Wash., 
 
 First, 
 
 161 
 
 Portland, Ore., . 
 
 First, .... 
 
 147 
 
 San Francisco, Cal., 
 
 Plymouth, . 
 
 122 
 
 Brooklyn, N. Y., 
 
 Central, .... 
 
 117 
 
 San Diego, Cal., 
 
 First, 
 
 114 
 
 Detroit, Mich., . 
 
 Plymouth, 
 
 114 
 
 Springfield, 111., 
 
 First, 
 
 97 
 
 San Francisco, Cal., . 
 
 First, .... 
 
 92 
 
 Congregationalists in the United States according to 
 the census of 1890 stand eighth in the number of 
 church members and sixth in the value of their church 
 property. The statistics of ecclesiastical organizations 
 are as follows : 
 
 DENOMINATIONS. 
 
 CHURCH 
 ORGANIZATIONS. 
 
 VALUE OF PROPERTY. 
 
 MEMBERS. 
 
 Roman Catholics, 
 
 10,221 
 
 $118,381,516 
 
 6,250,045 
 
 Methodists. 
 
 51,489 
 
 132,140,179 
 
 4,589,287 
 
 Baptists, .... 
 
 40,727 
 
 75,003,258 
 
 3-593,766 
 
 Presbyterians, 
 
 13,490 
 
 94,876,233 
 
 1,278,815 
 
 Lutherans, .... 
 
 8,427 
 
 34,218,234 
 
 1,199,514 
 
 Disciples of Christ, 
 
 8,670 
 
 13,980,270 
 
 744,773 
 
 Protestant Episcopal, 
 
 5,0^9 
 
 81,066,317 
 
 532,054 
 
 Congregationalists, 
 
 4,868 
 
 43,335,437 
 
 512,771 
 
 Reformed Church, 
 
 2,181 
 
 18,744,242 
 
 309,458 
 
 Brethren in Christ, 
 
 4,614 
 
 5,003,633 
 
 227,886 
 
 Evangelical Association, 
 
 2,310 
 
 4,785,680 
 
 133,313 
 
 Jews, .... 
 
 533 
 
 9,754.275 
 
 130,496 
 
 Friends, .... 
 
 1,056 
 
 4,541,000 
 
 107,208 
 
 Unitarians, 
 
 421 
 
 10,335,100 
 
 67,749 
 
 Universalists, 
 
 956 
 
 8,054,333 
 
 49,194 
 
 Spiritualists, . 
 
 334 
 
 573,650 
 
 45,030 
 
 Christian Scientists, . 
 
 221 
 
 40,666 
 
 8,724 
 
 Salvation Army, 
 
 329 
 
 37,350 
 
 8,662 
 
 Svvedenborgians, 
 
 154 
 
 1,386,455 
 
 7,095 
 
 Theosophists, 
 
 40 
 
 600 
 
 695 
 
THE NEW ERA. 415 
 
 The ten largest churches in 1893 were as follows : 
 
 PLACE. 
 
 NAME. 
 
 MEMBERS. 
 
 Brooklyn, N. Y., 
 
 Tompkins Avenue, 
 
 1895 
 
 Brooklyn, N. Y., . 
 
 Central, 
 
 1867 
 
 Brooklyn, N. Y., 
 
 Plymouth, 
 
 1813 
 
 Chicago, 111., . 
 
 Union Park, 
 
 1275 
 
 Oberlin, 0., ... 
 
 First, .... 
 
 1269 
 
 Chicago, 111., . 
 
 First, 
 
 1258 
 
 Oakland, Cal. 
 
 First, .... 
 
 I2IO 
 
 New York, N. Y., . 
 
 Tabernacle, 
 
 II18 
 
 Minneapolis, Minn., 
 
 Plymouth, 
 
 II16 
 
 Chicago, 111., . 
 
 Plymouth, 
 
 1047 
 
 The following are the cities where the strength of 
 Congregationalism is greatest, the number of churches 
 and members being in 1894 : 
 
 CITY. 
 
 NUMBER OF 
 CHURCHES. 
 
 MEMBERS. 
 
 Brooklyn, N. Y., 
 
 20 
 
 12,179 
 
 Chicago, 111., 
 
 57 
 
 11,883 
 
 Boston, Mass., 
 
 31 
 
 11,017 
 
 New Haven, Conn., .... 
 
 17 
 
 6,586 
 
 Worcester, Mass., 
 
 17 
 
 5.162 
 
 Cleveland, 0., 
 
 18 
 
 4,696 
 
 Hartford, Conn., ..... 
 
 II 
 
 4,189 
 
 Minneapolis, Minn., .... 
 
 18 
 
 4,049 
 
 Providence, R. I., 
 
 II 
 
 4,017 
 
 Springfield, Mass., .... 
 
 12 
 
 3,647 
 
 St. Louis, Mo., 
 
 20 
 
 3,228 
 
 New York, N. Y , 
 
 9 
 
 3,009 
 
 Denver, Col., 
 
 12 
 
 2,033 
 
 The name of Congregationalist has been di.sclaimed 
 by Unitarians as a body, and is not claimed by Uni- 
 versalists, though both denominations hold the sub- 
 stance of the Congregational polity so far as it relates 
 to the sufficiency of the local congregation. Baptists 
 
4i6 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 and Free Baptists are Congregational in their govern- 
 ment. There are, therefore, in the United States 
 nearly fifty thousand churches with a membership of 
 about four and a half millions who maintain the form of 
 church government introduced into this country by the 
 Pilgrims and Puritans, and continued by their descend- 
 
 ants 
 
 Congregationalists in other countries give no reliable 
 statements of membership. The latest facts obtain- 
 able as to the number of churches and ministers abroad 
 in 1892-93 are given below, which do not include 
 churches in heathen lands maintained by foreign mis- 
 sionary societies : 
 
 
 CHURCHES 
 
 
 COUNTRIES. 
 
 AND 
 STATIONS. 
 
 MINISTERS. 
 
 Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, . 
 
 177 
 
 97 
 
 England and Wales, 
 
 4,468 
 
 2,725 
 
 Scotland, ....... 
 
 100 
 
 118 
 
 Ireland, ....... 
 
 28 
 
 29 
 
 Continental Europe, 
 
 44 
 
 
 British America, 
 
 173 
 
 88 
 
 Australasia, 
 
 306 
 
 150 
 
 New Zealand, 
 
 21 
 
 26 
 
 South Africa, 
 
 156 
 
 64 
 
 Jamaica, 
 
 38 
 
 10 
 
 British Guiana, 
 
 40 
 
 9 
 
 China, 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 India, 
 
 8 
 
 •• 
 
 Totals, 
 
 5,513 
 
 3.318 
 
 In the earlier history of our country ministers formed 
 exclusively most of the organizations representing the 
 churches, and were controlling in them all. During 
 the present century laymen have taken increasing in- 
 
THE NEW ERA. 417 
 
 terest and responsibility in the general business of the 
 churches. Within the last twenty-five years an impor- 
 tant social feature of Congregationalism has been the 
 clubs which have sprung up in the chief cities through- 
 out the whole country. The first Congregational club 
 was formed in Boston in 1869, to encourage among the 
 churches of the city and vicinity "a more friendly 
 and intimate acquaintance, to secure concert of action 
 and to promote the general interests of Congrega- 
 tionalism." Fifty similar clubs have since been or- 
 ganized, extending from Maine to southern California. 
 In many of them women are admitted to membership 
 on the same terms with men. These clubs discuss a 
 wide range of topics of interest to the denomination, 
 and are an important auxiliary to its growth and unity. 
 
 In the new movement to reach and help the mul- 
 titudes of non-churchgoers Congregationalists are at 
 the front. The majority of what are known as institu- 
 tional churches are Conorres^ational. Amonor the most 
 prominent are Berkeley Temple, Boston, the Fourth 
 Church, Hartford, Conn,, the Tabernacle, Jersey City, 
 N. J., and Plymouth Church, Milwaukee, Wis. Con- 
 gregationalists are also prominently interested in the 
 social settlements and rescue missions which are be- 
 coming an important feature of Christian work in many 
 American cities. 
 
 From this survey of the history of Congregational- 
 ism for three hundred years we turn for a moment to 
 the future. What are the prospects of growth and 
 influence for this denomination in the United States? 
 We have found it the most prominent factor in form- 
 ing the character of our civil government in its begin- 
 ning ; ef^ficient in promoting the self-government of the 
 
41 8 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 colonies, and ultimately their federal union and inde- 
 pendence ; constant in advocacy of those principles 
 which have prevailed of liberty for all men and their 
 equality as citizens ; steadfast in its adherence to the 
 authority o^ the Holy Scriptures and to the evangelical 
 doctrines revealed in them, while affording to every 
 one freedom of conscience in interpreting the Scrip- 
 tures ; earnest in its missionary spirit, and prompt to 
 adapt itself to the changing conditions and needs of 
 the people. We have found that the most recent 
 growth of Congregationalism has been the most rapid. 
 Its churches, educational institutions, missionary enter- 
 prises and organized bodies of churches are established 
 on a substantial, enduring basis. In its faith it is in 
 harmony with the prevailing religious belief of the 
 people. In its democratic polity it is in harmony with 
 our principles of free government. Congregationalism 
 has larger opportunities and more encouraging pros- 
 pects than ever before in its history. May it fulfill 
 worthily its mission to spread the gospel brought from 
 Heaven by our Lord and Saviour Christ, and to main- 
 tain the liberty under beneficent laws which has been 
 dearly bought and must always be vigilantly defended. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISM IN THE NORTHWEST. 
 {By Rev. Joseph E. Roy, D. D.) 
 
 THE Northwest Territory, named by the ordinance 
 of 1787, was that part of our new wild domain 
 lying between the Ohio and the Mississippi and reach- 
 ing to the Lakes. In due time it was carved into its 
 five grand commonwealths. Subsequent acquisitions 
 have pushed that Northwest on over the Rocky Moun- 
 tains, introducing into our family of States a dozen 
 others, leaving Alaska now as our only Northwestern 
 Territory. 
 
 Consfreo^ationalism was the first Protestant religious 
 system to break over into that original Northwest. 
 Indeed it led over the first colony, having practically 
 secured in the ordinance itself that provision whereby 
 freedom and education were made the inheritance not 
 only of our great interior, but of the belt across the 
 continent. Manasseh Cutler, LL, D., a Conofreea- 
 tional pastor in Massachusetts, was a director and the 
 agent of the Ohio Company, which was composed of 
 Revolutionary officers and soldiers who proposed to 
 make a settlement over there, accepting a million and 
 a half acres of land in payment for their military serv- 
 ices. But they would not go unless freedom and the 
 means of education were provided for the entire ter- 
 ritory. Dr. Cutler, representing the company, spent 
 
 419 
 
420 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 the winter of 1787 in New York during the session 
 of Congress that passed the ordinance, and through 
 Nathan Dane was largely instrumental in securing in 
 it the provision for freedom and education. Thomas 
 Jefferson was not a member of that Congress, being 
 -abroad on public duty ; but he had previously proposed 
 a prohibition of slavery within that territory after the 
 year 1800. Manasseh Cutler and Winthrop Sargent 
 as agents made the contract with the Board of the 
 Treasury for the United States. Before the colony left 
 in the spring of 1788 the directors had named their town 
 Marietta after the Queen of France, and had taken meas- 
 ures to provide for teaching and for preaching in their 
 settlement. Among the members of the corporation 
 were several Congregational clergymen. One of these 
 was Daniel Breck, who on visiting the colony as 
 early as July of 1788 preached four or five Sundays and 
 thus inaugurated public worship in the Northwest Terri- 
 tory. Other occasional supplies were soon followed by 
 the pastorate of Daniel Story, a Dartmouth man, an 
 uncle of the eminent jurist Joseph Story. Dr. Cutler 
 had sent on the young pastor. He had written to 
 General Putnam that he had requested the treasurer, 
 Colonel Piatt, to forward the sum that had been raised 
 for the support of preachers and schoolmasters ; and by 
 the last of August he was on the ground himself 
 preaching on the text : '' For from the rising of the sun 
 even unto the going down of the same my name shall be 
 great among the Gentiles" ; and saying, "We this day 
 literally see the fulfillment of the prophecy of our text." 
 But, on account of the Indian wars, in which, at an 
 expense of thirty thousand dollars, the colonists had 
 built and held their forts against the combined forces 
 
CONGREGATIONALISM IN THE NORTHWEST. 
 
 421 
 
 of twenty-one tribes of savages backed by British emis- 
 saries, the Congregational church was not organized 
 until 1 796. Of the thirty-two charter members all 
 but one had been members of such churches in New 
 England. As early as 1797 the Muskingum Academy 
 
 MARIETTA COLLEGE, MARIETTA, O. 
 
 was started, and David Putnam, a grandson of Major- 
 General Israel Putnam, was the first teacher. Then 
 in due time came on Marietta College to be a foun- 
 tain of learning and of religion in all that region, 
 as well as a o-racious influence on the Viroinia side 
 of the Ohio. 
 
 Congregationalism at the birth of the century also 
 passed over into this Promised Land along with the 
 
422 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Connecticut Land Company and the multitude of her 
 people, among whom were many whose homes had 
 been burned out during the Revolution and to whom 
 the State had allotted lands in the Western Reserve, 
 which embraced the ten counties and four fractional 
 counties in the northeast corner of Ohio. This tract 
 Connecticut had reserved in her cession to the Federal 
 government of her belt across the continent as granted 
 by her original charter. The portion sold to the com- 
 pany brought one million two hundred thousand dol- 
 lars, which sum was put into a school fund for the 
 children. The Congregational Missionary Society of 
 Connecticut, organized in 1798, followed into this 
 wilderness her children who had exiled themselves from 
 their New England homes. It was just about this 
 time, 1 80 1, that the Presbyterian General Assembly 
 and the General Association of Connecticut entered 
 into the Plan of Union, described in Chapter XVII. — 
 an arrangement which, though devised in the spirit of 
 fellowship, became a process for building up Presby- 
 terianism out of Congregational material. This new 
 Connecticut went on receiving her people, her ideas, 
 her church life, her ministers, from the old State, and 
 the Missionary Society of the old State went on moth- 
 ering them for a quarter of a century, until the new 
 National Society taking them up, in 1826, in its first 
 report set forth a whole synod of Presbyterian churches, 
 eighty-seven of them, already gathered there and served 
 by forty-two so-called Presbyterian ministers, almost 
 all of whom had been Congregationalists and mission- 
 aries of the Connecticut Society — and all this under the 
 Plan of Union ! In 1835 Rev. Ansel R. Clark found one 
 hundred and sixty of these ministers. The nativity of 
 
CONGREGATIONALISM IN THE NORTHWEST. 423 
 
 one hundred and one was in New England ; of twenty, 
 one in New York, where the same process had been 
 going on ; and of fifteen unknown. More than half 
 were from New England colleges. In 1845 Rev. Dr. 
 G. E. Pierce found there in Presbytery ninety-eight 
 Congregational churches, sixteen New School Presby- 
 terian and only nine Old School Presbytei^ian chnrches. 
 Besides these, he found twenty-two Congregational 
 churches not in Presbytery, and twenty-four in the 
 Western Reserve (Oberlin) Association, making in 
 all one hundred and forty-four, against the nine Old 
 School Presbyterians on the Reserve. These changes 
 went on until in New York and the West as many 
 as fifteen hundred Presbyterian churches had come of 
 Congregational membership. At one time in the 
 former New School Assembly, when those who were of 
 New England origin wefe called upon to rise, two- 
 thirds of the body came to their feet. Rev. A. T. 
 Norton, in his " History of the Presbyterianism of 
 Illinois," says : " After some investigation, though not 
 pretending to positive accuracy of knowledge, it is my 
 full belief that during the whole period of the exist- 
 ence of the Presbyterian Church in this country, at 
 least one-half its members have been, and are. New 
 Englanders and their descendants." Toward the end 
 of the period of partnership in the American Home 
 Missionary Society it came out that while two-thirds 
 of the beneficiary churches were Presbyterian, two- 
 thirds of the money was coming from Congregational 
 sources : " Milk from the Conorreo-ational cows churned 
 into Presbyterian butter." 
 
 This resultant of the Plan of Union was not ar- 
 rested until a Congregational convention, held at 
 
424 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Michigan City, Ind., in 1846, protested against this 
 denominational abnegation, and the Albany Conven- 
 tion in 1852 repudiated the entangling alliance. It is 
 something of a compensation to this numerical loss 
 that the Puritan principles have been so much the 
 more propagated. In this way a stream of New 
 England theology has been poured across the West, 
 The New School ministers and churches exscinded from 
 the old General Assembly were simply a body of New 
 Englandized Presbyterianism. Thus the science of 
 theology had been made so much the gainer. It is 
 also due to the scope of history to put on record the 
 fact that, as the anti-slavery sentiment was under 
 process of development, the Congregational system, by 
 its advanced ideas on this subject, by its freedom from 
 organic connection with slavery and from the repress- 
 ive ecclesiastical machinery of Presbyterianism, had 
 the advantage and by it gained largely, especially in 
 the West, not only by the turning back of Plan of 
 Union churches, but in the organizing of new churches, 
 — enough nearly to counterbalance the loss by the old- 
 time co-operation. In the midst of that conflict the 
 Congregationalists of the W^estern Reserve at one time 
 sent Joshua R. Giddings, then a Member of Congress, as 
 a member of the Presbyterian General Assembly at Phil- 
 adelphia, to represent their interests and feelings as anti- 
 slavery men ; but in spite of his most herculean efforts 
 that body refused even to pronounce slavery a wrong. 
 It is in place to mark another stream of influence 
 from that missionary society of Connecticut. Out of 
 that divine ferment in Williams College, which gave 
 life to the American Board, came also a fresh impulse 
 to the work of Christianizing our own country. In 
 
CONGREGATIONALISM IN THE NORTHWEST, 425 
 
 18 1 2 Samuel J. Mills, the associate of Hudson, Hall, 
 Newell and Nott, was sent by that society, along with 
 John F. Schermerhorn, to make a tour of explo- 
 ration through the Western States and down to New 
 Orleans. On horseback they went forth, crossing 
 Pennsylvania, skirting Ohio and Virginia, teaching 
 and preaching at Marietta, Cincinnati, Lawrenceburg, 
 Frankfort, Lexington, Shawneetown and Nashville ; 
 Thence for thirty days down the Cumberland and 
 Mississippi to Natchez, as the guests of General 
 Andrew Jackson, who, with fifteen hundred soldiers, 
 was also going down to New Orleans on a mission ! 
 After a stay of a month at Natchez, where they organ- 
 ized the First Presbyterian Church, they went on to 
 New Orleans, where, after preaching a while, they 
 organized the First Presbyterian, as it was the first 
 Protestant, Church of that city. After Mills the same 
 society sent Elias Cornelius, subsequently a sec- 
 retary of the American Board, to preach for a while to 
 the New Orleans church ; and after him it sent from 
 Andover the eloquent Sylvester Larned to become its 
 pastor, whose popularity is to this day commemorated 
 by a stone tablet at the entrance way of that fine 
 church on Lexington Park — and all this under the pay 
 of that old Connecticut Society. The veteran pastor 
 of that church, the most eloquent Presbyterian 
 preacher in the South, B. M. Palmer, D. D., in 
 a commemorative discourse not long ago, gratefully 
 acknowledged the founding and the early supple- 
 mental support of his church by Congregational en- 
 terprise and generosity. 
 
 In 1814 the same society sent Mills and Daniel 
 Smith on another tour. This time they made their 
 
426 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA, 
 
 way to St. Louis, which they found to be a village 
 of two thousand, three-fourths of whom were Catholics. 
 They preached the first Protestant sermons on that 
 side of the Father of Waters, and prepared the way 
 for the coming to St. Louis from Andover in 1816 
 of Rev. Salmon Giddings, a cousin of Joshua R. Gid- 
 dings. It was not until after he had spent a year and 
 a half of hard labor that he was able to gather the 
 First Presbyterian Church of that city, of nine mem- 
 bers, five of whom were from the Massachusetts and 
 Congregational family of Stephen Hempstead, who 
 was made an elder, though he lived five miles out of 
 town. To the day of his death, in 1828, Giddings 
 remained in that church under the commission and the 
 pay of the society which had sent him out. That 
 mother of churches — claiming as her daughters the 
 Second, of which Dr. E. F. Hatfield was pastor ; 
 the Third, which, under Dr. T. M. Post, became the 
 First Conofreeational — has herself had an illustrious 
 pastoral succession : Mr. Giddings and Drs. W. S. 
 Potts, William Wisner, Artemas Bullard, Henry A. 
 Nelson and C, A. Dickey. But more than this, during 
 those years of missionary commission this original St. 
 Louis pastor was serving as an apostolic evangelist on 
 both sides of the Mississippi until he had gathered sev- 
 enteen Presbyterian churches, organizing nine of them 
 as the Missouri Presbytery and eight as the Illinois Pres- 
 bytery. And still more : all this time to Mr. Giddings, 
 as the bishop, missionaries were sent from the East for 
 direction as to location in these Presbyterian churches, 
 — twelve of them Congregationalists, nine of whom 
 were under commission of the Connecticut Society. 
 This same generosity was manifested in the young 
 
CONGREGATIONALISM IN THE NORTHWEST, 427 
 
 State of Indiana as well as of Illinois. "A Brief His- 
 tory of the Presbyterian Church in Indiana," by Rev. 
 John M. Dickey, as quoted by James H. Johnston in 
 his " Ministry of Forty Years in Indiana," says of the 
 societies which had operated there : " Of these the 
 Connecticut seems to have the first claim to our 
 gratitude. Her missionaries have been found amongr 
 the first heralds of the Cross in these Western wilds; 
 and for whole years together they have prosecuted 
 their arduous labors amid perils and privations innu- 
 merable." I count up eight or ten of these Con- 
 necticut missionaries who had been sent on under 
 commission to serve these Presbyterian churches of 
 Indiana before the American Home Missionary Society 
 assumed this work. It was a dozen Conereeational 
 ministers who were sent by the Connecticut Society to 
 build up Presbyterian churches in Illinois at such 
 places as Alton, Carrolton, Vandalia, Springfield and 
 others of like grade. There is a fascination in this 
 unselfish prodigality with which New England was 
 thus pouring her life into the West, and all the time 
 into a rival ecclesiastical system. The denomination, 
 which, like the two and a half tribes, went over the 
 Jordan to establish a sister denomination in the pos- 
 session of this Canaan of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and 
 Missouri, at last returned to its tents and to its own 
 work. Though upon its return when it began to build 
 its own altar over against the land of Canaan there 
 was something of a flurry, as though it were a " tres- 
 pass," yet, upon explanation and mutual expression of 
 loyalty to the one religion, the altar became a witness 
 between them, so that neither could say to the other, 
 "Ye have no part in the Lord." 
 
428 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Now, Up to date, this original Northwestern Terri- 
 tory numbers her Congregational Israel as follows : 
 
 STATES. 
 
 CHURCHES. 
 
 MINISTERS. 
 
 MEMBERS. 
 
 S. B. MEMBERS. 
 
 BENEVOLENCES. 
 
 Ohio, . 
 
 249 
 
 234 
 
 35,838 
 
 35,779 
 
 $61,593 
 
 Indiana, . 
 
 53 
 
 31 
 
 3>4i5 
 
 5,471 
 
 4,783 
 
 Illinois, 
 
 311 
 
 367 
 
 40,238 
 
 51,538 
 
 303,150 
 
 Michigan, 
 
 346 
 
 290 
 
 27-954 
 
 36,941 
 
 78,813 
 
 Wisconsin, . 
 
 236 
 
 240 
 
 18,975 
 
 20,853 
 
 59,286 
 
 To-day in these five States there are more than 
 22,000 Protestant churches, more than 2,000,000 
 church members, while not far from 17,000 clergymen 
 minister to these congregations. 
 
 The American Home Missionary Society, organized 
 in 1826, took up the western work of the Connecti- 
 cut Society and of the United Domestic Missionary 
 Society of New York, and ever since has been the 
 great propagandist of this church system, drawing the 
 New England zone across the continent. For the 
 first thirty-five years it was the common organ of this 
 denomination and of the New School Presbyterian. 
 During its entire period of action up to 1893 it has 
 raised and expended $15,384,895, the bulk of which 
 has been used in the western field ; and of the total, 
 since the withdrawal of the Presbyterians, the Congre- 
 gationalists alone have raised through that society 
 $11,371,697, and counting half of the previous sum, 
 $13,378,286. The Congregational Church Building 
 Society has aided 2444 churches in securing 2444 
 houses of worship and 432 parsonages. During the 
 period of anti-slavery agitation the American Mis- 
 sionary Association was aiding as many as 70 
 
CONGREGATIONALISM IN THE NORTHWEST. 429 
 
 churches in this interior. The Congregational Sunday 
 School and Publishing Society has been a benediction 
 to the children of the West ; and in these late years, 
 since 1883, its missionary department has been the 
 means of developing more than 450 of its schools into 
 churches. The New West Education Commission, 
 now consolidated with the American Education 
 Society, has planted schools and academies in Utah 
 and New Mexico that have become permanent factors 
 in the educational problem of that deep interior, and 
 in due time will supply the college for each State, 
 
 Its influence in behalf of education is a part of the 
 history of this church life in the Northwest. It is 
 difficult to apprehend fully the benefit that has inured 
 to our country from the provision made in the ordi- 
 nance of 1787, whereby, in all the region reaching to 
 the Mississippi and, later, to the Pacific coast, every 
 sixteenth section of every township was dedicated to 
 free schools ; and this, as has been shown, was secured 
 by that Yankee Congregational colony of Revolution- 
 ary soldiers. Then the Christian college was an 
 essential part of that ideal. The first home missionary 
 to the new Connecticut (1801) in a four-horse wagon, 
 emigrating with his wife and six children, brings along 
 the college idea. In 1803 he and a dozen laymen, 
 among them David Hudson, who gave the name to 
 his town, are incorporated as a board of trustees, with 
 the purpose of " establishing an institution adequate 
 to the preparation of young men for the ministry." 
 The school is a long time in getting under way, until 
 in 1822 a half dozen more missionaries coming on. 
 new life is given it and a theological department is 
 added, with Rev. C. B. Storrs as president and pro- 
 
430 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 fessor of theology, and with other such men in the 
 faculty as Professor Elias Loomis, Hon. Elizur Wright, 
 Dr. Delamater, and Drs. L. P. Hickok, E. P. 
 Barrows, Clement Long, H. N. Day, S. C. Bartlett, 
 H. P. Hitchcock, P. A. Chadbourne, N. S. Burton 
 and Carroll Cutler, a galaxy in the scientific and 
 theological world. In 1829 Illinois College follows 
 under the same inspiration. Since 1816 Salmon Gid- 
 dings has been at St. Louis under the Connecticut 
 Society. He brings on from Andover John M. Ellis 
 and locates him at Kaskaskia. Ellis, at his ordination 
 in the Old South Church, Boston, had received from 
 Elias Cornelius the charge : " Build up an institution 
 of learnine which shall bless the West for all time." 
 They locate their institution at Jacksonville, and Ellis 
 in the Home Alissionary reports a revival and calls for 
 help in behalf of the college. This report comes 
 before a mission band in Yale divinity school. The 
 two streams coalesce, and soon the dozen men of the 
 "Illinois Band" are on the ground to build up the 
 college and its cordon of supporting churches, and 
 to give character to the commonwealth. Out of the 
 movement came also Monticello Seminary with its 
 three thousand educated young ladies, and the Jackson- 
 ville Female College, a fountain of life, and also the 
 College Society itself, born out of the brain of Bald- 
 win, one of the Yale Band. The names of these men 
 in Illinois are household words — J. M. Sturtevant, 
 Theron Baldwin, Mason Grosvenor, William Kirby, 
 John F. Crooks, Elisha Jenney, Asa Turner, William 
 Carter, Albert Hale, Romulus Barnes, Lucian Farn- 
 ham and Flavel Bascom. Next, in 1S32, comes 
 Wabash College, Indiana, in which John M. Ellis 
 
CONGREGATIONALISM IN THE NORTHWEST. 43 1 
 
 is again in the lead. He and four other home mission- 
 aries, after three days of consultation and prayer, go 
 out to the spot selected in the midst of the primeval 
 forest and there, kneeling in the snow, join in dedicat- 
 ing the eround to God for a Christian Colleg-e. In 
 the same year Lane Seminary takes up its mission. 
 In 1833 Oberlin makes the start upon her majestic 
 educational career, and by and by her daughter Olivet 
 in Michigan. In 1835 Marietta College takes on the 
 college name and charter. In 1836 Knox College, 
 Illinois, another importation of colony life, comes 
 along with an initial endowment provided for in the 
 sale of lands, and later, in the same State, Wheaton 
 College. In 1847 Beloit College, Wisconsin, comes 
 upon the stage, and then her younger sister, Ripon. 
 These institutions were nearly all started upon the 
 co-operative plan ; but now Western Reserve and Lane 
 and Wabash are apt to be recognized as Presbyterian 
 and the others as Congregational, except that Knox, 
 by subsequent compact, is to be held on a balance 
 between the two denominations. In addition, within 
 the old Northwest, the Presbyterians have their Alma 
 College, their Blackburn University and their Mc- 
 Cormick Theological Seminary, and the Congrega- 
 tionalists their Chicago Theological Seminary. 
 
 Have these institutions repaid the cost of their mis- 
 sionary planting ? Many times over. They have 
 themselves become missionary evangelists, both as to 
 conversions amongf their students and as to evanorelis- 
 tic service in the regions round about them. They 
 have been aboundingly successful in raising up culti- 
 vated and consecrated ministers, both for the home 
 field and the foreign. They have also provided edu- 
 
432 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 cated Christian men and women for the other profes- 
 sions and vocations as a vast evangelizing power. 
 They have trained leaders for the social and civil 
 
 t^J^S^. >^-^' 
 
 CHAPEL, BELOIT COLLEGE, BELOIT, WIS. 
 
 life. It is safe to say that by these and other similar 
 institutions the cast of character for intelligence and 
 morality and religion and civil probity has been largely 
 effected in these o"reat interior commonwealths and 
 also in those of the regions beyond. Subtract their 
 influence from the moral forces of these parts of our 
 country, and who would care to contemplate the result ? 
 
CONGREGATIONALISM IN THE NORTHWEST. 433 
 
 There is a contagion in learning. Education takes the 
 supremacy in communities and in States. Simply mar- 
 velous is the influence of this educating process, not 
 only in the region round about these moral and intel- 
 lectual centers, but throughout the land. The practical 
 work done by these schools for our country in the way 
 of Christian patriotism I bring as a final illustration. 
 When the slaveholders' rebellion broke out these 
 colleges were almost literally emptied of their soldier 
 material. Wabash counted two hundred and seventy- 
 five of her sons in the army ; of whom three were 
 major-generals, three brigadiers, nine coJonels, six 
 lieutenant-colonels, three majors, eleven surgeons, five 
 chaplains, fifty captains and forty lieutenants. Oberlin 
 counted seven hundred, of whom one hundred fell in 
 the service ; Marietta had one hundred and four, who 
 furnished twenty-eight line oflficers and represented 
 every one of their then twenty graduated classes ; 
 Beloit, sixty-nine, with twenty-four line officers ; young 
 Iowa, sixty-five ; while each of the several others had 
 its similar roll of honor. It is also an indicative fact 
 as to the influence of this church system that the Con- 
 gregational churches in these States and in those 
 beyond the great river, as learned by circular at the 
 time, sent into the army of the Union one in four of 
 their entire male membership, including old men, in- 
 valids and boys. 
 
 The securing of the trans-Mississippi regions of the 
 Northwest to the area of our country was by a marked 
 providential overruling of the plans of the nation. 
 Our territory had been bounded on the west by that 
 river. We wanted no more, except that we had been 
 trying for years to secure from the court of Spain the 
 
434 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 control of the mouth of the river, so that its commerce 
 might have free access to the ocean. In 1797 we 
 instructed our minister there, Mr. Carmichael, to urge 
 the following considerations: (i) a guarantee of the 
 Spanish possession beyond the river ; (2) that it would 
 be safer for Spain that the United States should be her 
 neighbor than England ; (3) that conquest was not one 
 of our principles, but was inconsistent with our idea 
 of government ; (4) that it was not our intention to 
 cross the Mississippi for ages — would never be for our 
 interest to remain connected with any one who might 
 cross it. Yet this urgency availed not. Soon Spain 
 cedes this region to France. Napoleon is threatened 
 with another war. He wants money. He fears Eng- 
 land may deprive him of this newly acquired colonial 
 empire. For fifteen million dollars he offers our min- 
 ister, not New Orleans only, but the whole territory. 
 Monroe and Livingston have no authority in such a 
 case ; they have no steamers, no cable, by which to 
 consult with authorities at home. "The whole or 
 none," says Napoleon. They take the responsibility. 
 And so that Louisiana Purchase, which is to form on 
 the west side of the Mississippi a line of common- 
 wealths in double and triple tier from the Gulf to the 
 British line, is forced upon us by Divine Providence. 
 God seems to have purposed to intrust those yet 
 unborn States to the English-speaking Protestant 
 nation rather than to leave them to the tutelage of a 
 foreign tongue and of the Romish system. As to 
 what it miofht have been otherwise we are not left to 
 conjecture. The early American settlers in St. Louis 
 were not allowed to have a Protestant house of wor- 
 ship. In the " Natchez Country," the lower part of 
 
CONGREGATIONALISM IN THE NORTHWEST. 435 
 
 the territory, it had been a crime at law to meet 
 for a public Protestant worship, and persons were 
 arrested for doing- so. During the British posses- 
 sion of West Florida, 1 763-69, a Congregational 
 colony from New Jersey, under the lead of Captain 
 Amos Ogden and Rev. Samuel Swayze and his 
 brother Richard, settled upon a grant of twenty- 
 five thousand acres from George III., sixteen miles 
 back from Fort Rosalie, where is now the city of 
 Natchez. Theirs was the first Protestant church and 
 Mr. Swayze the first minister of that faith to settle in 
 all that southwestern region. But as soon as Spain 
 resumed the sovereignty Romanism was declared to be 
 the only allowable religion in it. Persecution at once 
 set in against the pastor and his flock. Protestant 
 Bibles and other books were seized and consigned to 
 the flames. Father Swayze, in order to secure his 
 Bible and himself from this inquisitorial grasp, re- 
 tired to a cane-brake on the margin of a small stream 
 — still marked on the maps as " Sammy's Run " — and 
 there fixed him a seat in the hollow of a large syca- 
 more tree where he often sat to read the Bible and 
 where he kept it concealed from his persecutors. That 
 church disappeared, but its descendants, of positive 
 character, yet abide in the Methodist and Baptist 
 churches of that region. 
 
 The old pastor and his wife were buried on the 
 bank of the Mississippi, near Fort Rosalie ; but this 
 graveyard long since caved into the river, so that the 
 dust of the Puritan divine and his wife was literally 
 " carried down by the flood and lost in following years." 
 But his spirit has not been lost in the flood of years 
 to that Louisiana Territory ; nor does that system 
 
436 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 of Papal hierarchy dominate over there. I have 
 shown how that spirit reappeared at St. Louis in the 
 visit of Samuel J. Mills and in the pastorate and apos- 
 tolic evangelism of Salmon Giddings, who, upon 
 arrival there after his horseback journey of twelve hun- 
 dred miles, took up a city paper and read a " Caution " 
 asrainst a man who had been commissioned to visit 
 them from New England as a political maneuver of 
 the Hartford Convention ! It is still further a gratify- 
 ing consideration that, notwithstanding the diver- 
 sion already noted of the Congregational influ- 
 ence into another channel, since the overthrow of the 
 system of slavery, as despotic as Romanism, the Con- 
 gregational churches in that city have increased 
 in number to 20, with 3200 members, with 4500 
 Sunday-school scholars, wdiile the total of benevolent 
 offerings for one year in three of its churches amounted 
 to $19,969. In the State there is a general associa- 
 tion, with five local associations, and 85 churches, 
 with a membership of 8572 ; and with its Kidder 
 Institute and Drury College, which, with Dr. Pear- 
 sons' $25,000, in these "troublous times," has just 
 completed an endowment of $100,000, with a generous 
 additional sum pledged toward another $100,000 on 
 the same terms. 
 
 The next Congregational drive into that Louisiana 
 portion of the Northwest was into Iowa. Previous to 
 the coming of the Iowa Band in November, 1843, 
 there was already in that territory a sacred seven of 
 young Congregational ministers — Julius A. Reed, 
 Reuben Gaylord, Charles Burnham, Allen B. Hitch- 
 cock, Oliver Emerson, John C. Holbrook and Asa 
 Turner, all of whom proved themselves men of dis- 
 
REV. ASA TURNER. 
 
CONGREGATIONALISM IN THE NORTHWEST. 437 
 
 tiiigiiished success as builders of churches and of the 
 State. The only survivor, Dr. Holbrook, whose first 
 distinction came to him as publisher of the " Compre- 
 hensive Commentary," at Brattleboro, Vt., is still 
 bringing forth fruit in old age, having served for fifty- 
 two years the First Church of Dubuque, the New Eng- 
 land of Chicago, the Home Missionary Society of New 
 York and the church of Stockton, Cal. The last 
 named of the seven, Asa Turner, having been one 
 of the Illinois Band, and having had his first pastorate 
 at Quincy on the east bank of the river, was just the 
 man to take in the possibilities of the young Iowa, and 
 to be the first man to strike over there and to gather 
 its first Congregational church, the one at Denmark, 
 in 1838. And to whom in the fall of 1843 should the 
 Iowa Band come but to Asa Turner at Denmark for 
 ordination by council in his cabin church, and for 
 counsel and direction as to the locating of their respec- 
 tive fields of labor? They were twelve young men in 
 Andover Seminary who had been drawn together by 
 spirit and covenant to enter the Black Hawk Pur- 
 chase within the Louisiana Purchase as frontier mis- 
 sionaries. Their names were Daniel Lane, Harvey 
 Adams, Erastus Ripley, Horace Hutchinson, Alden 
 B. Robbins, William Salter, Edwin B. Turner, Ben- 
 jamin A. Spaulding, William Hammond, James J. Hill, 
 Ebenezer Alden, Jr., and Ephraim Adams. Ripley, 
 Hill and Hammond were detained from comino^ with 
 the first installment. The ordination was by the 
 laying on of the hands of no ruling bishop, and the 
 designation of their appointment was by no diocesan 
 authority, but by the consentient action of themselves 
 and the original fellow pioneers already named. Two 
 
438 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Other men already on the ground; W. A. Thompson 
 and Dr. Granger, were added to the ordination group. 
 Off they go to their allotted charges. They fall to 
 work, each, in the training of experience, rallying the 
 sympathetic elements of his community, and taking 
 hold of the organizing of society in its varied relations. 
 Two of them, Drs. Robbins and Salter, still retain 
 their orioinal charcres at Muscatine and Burlinofton, 
 except that the former is now pastor emeritus and the 
 latter gave a year or two to Maquoketa before taking 
 the place of his life work. All have made good 
 ministers of the word, faithful pastors. More than 
 half of them have passed the semi-centennial of 
 their ordination. The seven and the dozen, coal- 
 escing and co-operating, at once gave prestige to their 
 movements all along the front. It is not too much to 
 say that their combined influence has given character 
 not only to their denomination in the State, but to the 
 State itself. Losing their lives, they found them. 
 The first men are the historic men. They themselves 
 have been built into the commonwealth that lies 
 between the two great rivers. 
 
 When the band brought out their new idea of a 
 college, they found that the pioneers had also been 
 planning for it, with their Denmark Academy 
 already chartered. It was opened in the historic 
 church in the fall of 1845, ^^"^^ 'low for twenty-five 
 years has had a beautiful seventeen thousand dollar 
 edifice for its home, having had for its first principal 
 the apostolic Micronesian missionary. Rev. A. A. 
 Stiirges, the next our Arnold of Rugby, Professor 
 H. K. Edson, who served it a quarter of a century be- 
 fore taking a professor's chair in Iowa College. This 
 
CONGREGATIONALISM IN THE NORTHWEST. 439 
 
 was opened at Davenport in the fall of 1848, with 
 Ripley of the band in charge. In i860 it was re- 
 moved to Grinnell, where, in buildings that have risen 
 up in the path of the cyclone, in the numbers of 
 students, in their mental and moral equipments, in 
 endowments partially secured and in extended and 
 high-toned influence, it has come far along in the 
 attainment of the New England ideal of a Christian 
 college. The Hull Academy is striving to come 
 into the attainment applied in the old academic 
 name. 
 
 Conofreeationalism in Minnesota has been a orrowth 
 out of a congenial soil. Its churches, represented in a 
 general association and in eight local conferences, 
 number 204, with 16,448 members. Its Carleton 
 Colleee, like all the others a child of home missions, 
 looks back to the day of its poverty as the day of 
 its glory, when, calling to itself a president — James 
 W. Strone, D. D. — the orivinor for it, in General 
 Association, rolled up in one day over $16,000, 
 until every home missionary was down for a sum 
 that went beyond the point of feeling it. Up 
 there the thrillinor scene abides in thouoht as a 
 sacred memento. That first strain probably cost 
 more of sacrifice than the later raising, mostly in the 
 State, of a $200,000 endowment. 
 
 Kansas is a State with a history, and one of the 
 earliest records of that history was the fact that the 
 first home missionary to take a hand in its evolution 
 out of troublous times — Rev. S. Y. Lum, locating at 
 Lawrence — was a Congregationalist. That incident 
 has been characteristic of the Congregational develop- 
 ment along by the side of the progress of the State. 
 
440 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Its Washburn College bears the Puritan likeness and 
 seeks to honor it. Its Stockton Academy does the 
 
 same. 
 
 Nebraska, the twin sister of Kansas, was born out of 
 o-reat tribulation ; like her, has been making a church 
 
 
 MERRILL HALL AND BOSWELL OBSERVATORY, DOANE COLLEGE, CRETE, NEB. 
 
 and college history justly to be proud of. The two 
 Dakotas, by their advanced railway system having had 
 a section of civilization dumped every eight miles along 
 the railway lines, have kept up in church institutions 
 with that process of transportation. Yankton College 
 solves the riddle : Out of the eater comes forth meat ; 
 out of drought and financial distress, with Dr. Pearsons' 
 aid, comes forth a hundred thousand dollar endow- 
 ment. And Colorado, the Centennial State, makes 
 
CONGREGATIONALISM IN THE NORTHWEST. 44! 
 
 its Puritan exhibit worthy of that national title. 
 Wyoming is just now working up the scheme for its 
 college at Bie Horn. Utah and New Mexico, each out 
 of the chrysalis of its New West Academy, is preparing 
 to take to itself the wings of a college. Montana, 
 holding the head waters of the Missouri, and so being 
 still on the eastern slope, with its coterie of nine Con- 
 gregational churches, will not fail to bring on its Puri- 
 tan college and so fill out the Congregational area of 
 the Louisiana Purchase. In 1903 will come the cen- 
 tennial of that purchase. Here will be a fine opportu- 
 nity for St. Louis, the central and the historic city in 
 that majestic empire, to lead in the celebration of 
 that event so fraught with the destiny of our country, 
 even as Marietta, in 1888, celebrated its centennial 
 era. 
 
 But did that Purchase also sweep over the Rocky 
 Mountain crest and take in the region now indicated 
 as Oregon, Washington and Idaho ? So it has been 
 claimed and so some maps have represented. As 
 President Salisbury has collated the evidence, France 
 never claimed anything beyond the Rockies. The 
 royal charter of Louis XIV. to Anthony Crozzat, 
 1 71 2, limited Louisiana to the valley of the Mississippi. 
 When in 1800 Napoleon retroceded it to Spain it was 
 to be "with the same extent it now has in the hands 
 of Spain and that it had when France possessed it." 
 Marbois, Napoleon's minister of the treasury, who as 
 such was the negotiator of the sale, in his " History of 
 Louisiana," 1829, says, *' The shores of the western 
 ocean were certainly not included in the cession"; and 
 again, " The first article of the treaty meant to convey 
 nothing beyond the sources of the Missouri." President 
 
441 CONGREGATIONALISTS I-N AMERICA. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson and Secretary John Quincy Adams 
 held this view. The latter made our title to Oregron to 
 rest, (i) on the discovery of the Columbia, (2) the 
 exploration of Lewis and Clark, 1805, (3) the settle- 
 ment at Astoria, 1811. But the Hudson Bay Com- 
 pany sought to jump that claim in its interest for 
 trapping and in that of the British government for 
 the sovereignty of the soil. Here again was a divine 
 interposition. The pioneer Indian missionary Marcus 
 Whitman, M. D., learning of this intent, in the fall 
 and winter of 1842-43, on horseback, with a solitary 
 companion, braved the terrors of a journey across the 
 mountains and the continent to acquaint our govern- 
 ment of that purpose and to induce it to save its own 
 rightful possession. The result was accomplished, the 
 doctor proving that settlements could there be made 
 by actually taking over the mountains a large colony in 
 wagons. Then came another providential overruling. 
 By the massacre of Dr. Whitman and wife and thir- 
 teen or more associates, the Indian mission was broken 
 up, and its surviving band of foreign missionaries were 
 turned loose as home missionaries to the incoming 
 settlements of western Oregon, before they had been 
 overtaken by the Home Missionary Society. In this 
 way Walker and Eells and Spalding and Gray and 
 Parker and their colonial followers were the very men 
 who, by their necessities, took the lead in setting up 
 a provisional territorial government, impressing their 
 personnel upon all the early history of the region now 
 named as these three Northwestern States. Gray be- 
 came the historian ; Walker, a minister at large, and 
 his sons Indian teachers and agents; and Eells, a 
 general missionary, a teacher at the Tualatin Academy 
 
GEORGE H. ATKINSON, D. D. 
 
CONGREGATIONALISM IN THE NORTHWEST. 443 
 
 and the founder at Walla Walla, near the site of the 
 massacre, of the Whitman Seminary and Whitman 
 College, putting into its endowment not less than 
 twelve thousand dollars, besides years and years of 
 labor without salary. The most of the churches in 
 eastern Washington, now ministered unto by the 
 noted Yale Band, were the fruit of his planting. 
 One of Eells' sons, the Hon. Edwin Eells, has been 
 for a score and five years in Washington the model 
 Indian agent ; and another. Dr. Myron Eells, the 
 missionary pastor under the American Missionary 
 Association on the Puget Sound among the Skoko- 
 mish and other Indians, has two churches, taking 
 in also the citizen white people. Walker and Eells, 
 in 1838, had been designated by the American Board 
 to the Zulus of South Africa ; but by this Indian 
 exigency of the foreign field in Oregon they were 
 sent over the Rockies ; and there by another exi- 
 gency they were diverted to the home department — 
 all these changes in Providence turning out to be the 
 highest wisdom. 
 
 George H. Atkinson from Andover had also been 
 appointed to the Zulu mission, but by the same exigency 
 in Oregon was transferred to that field under the 
 Home Missionary Society, going on a whaling vessel 
 by way of the Sandwich Islands, and arriving in 1848, 
 just in the midst of the excitements and perils inci- 
 dent upon the breaking up of the Indian missions. 
 He had his pastorates at Oregon City and Portland, 
 He was as a father to the Pacific University that grew 
 up by the side of the Tualatin Academy, which itself 
 had grown out of the school at Forest Grove for the 
 orphans of the martyred missionaries. The later 
 
444 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 years of his life he had served as home missionary 
 superintendent for Oregon and Washington, and by 
 the time of his departure, after forty-one years on that 
 coast, he was permitted to see these institutions estab- 
 Hshed, to count up one hundred and forty-five Congre- 
 gational churches, and to have witnessed the growth of 
 those grand States up from their wilderness condition, 
 himself built into their religious, educational and civil 
 life. 
 
 California came into the Union as the result of the 
 war with Mexico. As a providential interposition the 
 discovery of gold was kept back until after the transfer 
 of jurisdiction, so that the sudden influx of popula- 
 tion might facilitate the Protestant assimilation of the 
 people of the State. It has been a marvelous trans- 
 formation by which the Romanized domain has come 
 to be a preponderatingly Protestant member of our 
 American Union — the Congregational system having 
 done its share in the evolution of the Christian State, 
 as indicated by its one hundred and eighty-eight 
 churches, its academy and its theological seminary, 
 and by its aid in molding public sentiment in behalf of 
 all the elements that go to make up an enlightened 
 commonwealth. The patriarch of all this develop- 
 ment in that State of the Golden Gate is the Rev. 
 James H. Warren, D. D., who has given to it the 
 entire forty-four years of his ministry, having served 
 as pastor, as editor and as general superintendent 
 under the Congregational Home Missionary Society, 
 and who is now engaged in writing up that striking 
 history. 
 
 Thus has been made good that " Great Patent " of 
 King James, 1620, which read : " In length by all the 
 
CONGREGATIONALISM IN THE NORTHWEST. 445 
 
 breadth aforesaid, throughout the main land from sea 
 to sea." But a sovereign, even the King of Kings, 
 had issued to the Puritan settlers His great patent as 
 recorded in His Providence to possess not only that 
 narrow strip across the land, but all the parts adjacent 
 thereto. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE STORY OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE. 
 {By Rev. Francis E. Clark, D. D.) 
 
 THE history of no denomination would be complete 
 unless at least one chapter were devoted to its 
 work for the young- people. Yet how can the efforts 
 of three centuries in this all-important field of Christian 
 nurture be condensed into five thousand words? It is 
 a trite saying that this is "the young people's century," 
 and doubtless it is true that in the relio^ious world far 
 more has been done of late for them and by them than 
 ever before. The last quarter of a century will doubt- 
 less be recognized as the era of their especial activity 
 in church life. 
 
 Yet it must not be supposed that the church has 
 been indifferent to her children durlnof all these 
 years, or has cared little for their spiritual welfare. 
 To be sure, she sometimes seems to have acted the 
 part of the traditional stepmother rather than of the 
 loving parent. She has sometimes repressed and 
 souo-ht to subdue them rather than to encouraoe and 
 set them at work. She has made too much of the old 
 adage that " Children should be seen and not heard," 
 and yet there has never been a year in the history of 
 Congregationalism, probably not a year in the history 
 of the Christian Church, in which there have not been 
 some efforts made to follow out the command of 
 Him who said, "Feed my lambs." 
 
 446 
 
THE STORY OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE. 447 
 
 We know how much was made by our Puritan ances- 
 tors of parental care and training for God, of cate- 
 chetical instruction, of attendance upon the services of 
 the sanctuary. Undoubtedly the tithing man figured 
 more prominently than the Sunday-school concert in 
 those days; there was more of "go" than of "come" ; 
 nevertheless all these efforts show the place that 
 Christian training had in the hearts of our ancestors, 
 and the faults of this training were rather the stern 
 faults of the age than any idiosyncrasy of Congrega- 
 tionalism. 
 
 The great distinction between the former methods 
 of training and the more modern methods is that in 
 the olden days everything was done for the children 
 and youth. In these days it is not much of an ex- 
 aggeration to say that everything is done by them. 
 In former times the little pitchers were set conveniently 
 under the droppings of the sanctuary, where they could 
 be filled from time to time with the water of life. 
 To-day, perhaps, no less effort is made to fill the little 
 pitchers than formerly, but much more is expected of 
 them. They are to give of their stores to those who 
 have not like privileges. They are taught to work 
 and pray and sing for Jesus, and are given to under- 
 stand in every way that the great commission, " Go ye 
 into all the world," is for them as well as for their 
 fathers and mothers. 
 
 Yet it must not be supposed that even in ancient 
 days young Christians themselves were altogether 
 idle. To be sure, they were not greatly encouraged to 
 work. The church concerned itself very little with 
 providing channels for their activities and often frowned 
 upon their callow attempts at service, but even amid 
 
448 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 all these discouraging surroundings their life did 
 express itself. 
 
 The spiritual life cannot be altogether repressed. 
 Energy must find vent in action. It is a curious 
 fact in the early history of Congregationalism that, 
 as far back as the middle of the eighteenth century, 
 there were many young people's associations which 
 seem in their scope and purpose to be marvelously 
 like the societies of Christian Endeavor of modern 
 days. 
 
 These associations appear to have sprung up in 
 consequence of the great revival of religion which 
 followed the preaching of Jonathan Edwards, and in 
 many a Congregational church the young people, 
 chiefly the young men, seem to have banded them- 
 selves together for a weekly prayer meeting, for 
 mutual oversight and counsel and reproof and for 
 the performance of any service which might be 
 demanded of them. The pledge, the consecration 
 meeting and the lookout committee of the modern 
 young people's society seem to have been fore- 
 shadowed in these early associations, though it was 
 a number of years after the establishment of Chris- 
 tian Endeavor societies that the coincidence was 
 first noticed. 
 
 One of these associations which existed at Lexing- 
 ton, Mass., about the year 1757, declares in its 
 preamble as follows : 
 
 " We whose Names are underwritten, having by the 
 grace of God been awakened in our youth to a 
 serious Concern about the things of our everlasting 
 Peace and to an earnest desire suitably and reli- 
 giously to remember our Creator in the days of our 
 
THE STORY OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE. 449 
 
 Youth and to give ourselves unto the service of 
 God through our Lord Jesus Christ, do covenant 
 and agree together and with an Humble dependence 
 upon Divine grace do solemnly promise that we will 
 not allow ourselves in the Practice of any known sin 
 or in the Omission of any known Duty, and for an 
 assistance in the service of God and in the great 
 Design of early Religion, and for the preventing and 
 escaping the Snayres and Temptations which Young 
 People do frequently fall into in evil Company, we 
 do associate ourselves for the religious Observ- 
 ance of the Following Orders, namely : 
 
 " I St, The Prayer meeting. 
 
 " 2d. Conditions and methods of membership. 
 
 " 3d. Watch care and fellowship. 
 
 "4th. Lookout and reproof. 
 
 "5th. Apostasy and expulsion." 
 
 In the somewhat stilted phrase of the olden time 
 we can here discern the true spirit of the young 
 disciple. The earnest seriousness of purpose, the 
 devotion and zeal which have been touched by the 
 spirit of Christ, were the same then as now. If I 
 am not mistaken, the first constitution, which the 
 other associations seem to have copied (a kind of 
 model constitution), was drawn up by Jonathan 
 Edwards himself, so that modern forms of young 
 people's work have the support of eminent theological 
 authority as" well as of antiquity. But apparently 
 these associations were short-lived and had little 
 effect upon the life of the churches, though very 
 largely helpful doubtless to the individuals who com- 
 posed them. 
 
 The churches were not ready for innQvation^. The 
 
450 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 spirit of the times feared the ascendency of young 
 people, and, apparently, for lack of sympathy and affec- 
 tionate interest, these early associations were allowed 
 to die and have scarcely left a name behind them. It 
 is sometimes said by theoretical objectors that young 
 people's societies are hothouses forcing Christian 
 growth, and that an unnatural religious life is the 
 result. All experience disproves this idea, but evi- 
 dently in the olden church there was little of the hot- 
 house element. They were veritable ice houses in 
 which the tender plants were soon nipped and the 
 associations of earnest youth were speedily frozen out. 
 
 A score of years after the brief life and untimely 
 death of this effort among the youth of our churches 
 the Sunday school of Robert Raikes, which seems to 
 have been the progenitor of modern schools, was 
 established at Gloucester, England, in 1780. 
 
 This movement, too, had to make its way toilsomely 
 for the most part in an unbelieving if not a hostile 
 church. As has been truly said, " The authorized and 
 official teachers of the church feared the effect of this 
 unauthorized and unofficial teaching. This was true 
 both in England and in this country. Then came a 
 time when it was tolerated, though not much more 
 than tolerated, in the church, when many pastors 
 looked upon it with suspicion and granted it a place 
 with apprehension. Still, it had taken too strong a 
 hold upon the mass of the people to be refused." 
 
 The early history of Sunday schools in Congrega- 
 tional churches was very much the same as in other 
 denominations. Here and there were those who wel- 
 comed the new auxiliary with open arms, but for the 
 most part it had to win its way and prove by its own 
 
THE STORY OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE. 45 1 
 
 undoubted value its inherent right to exist. Dim 
 traditions which may be somewhat apocryphal have 
 come down from the early part of this century to the 
 effect that in one Congregational church a day of 
 fasting and prayer was called in order to stem this new 
 heresy, and to deplore the effects of this unofficial 
 teaching. This tradition shows at least the spirit of 
 the times. 
 
 But it was not for long that our churches held this 
 attitude, for as early as 1816 Sunday-school unions 
 were formed in New York and Boston in which Con- 
 gregationalists had prominent part, while in 1832 a 
 distinctive denominational society was formed. 
 
 An important publishing business was the natural 
 outgrowth of the Sunday-school Society, and during its 
 early years it issued many valuable books for Sunday- 
 school libraries, question books and singing books as 
 well. 
 
 In 1864 a marriage was happily completed between 
 the " Doctrinal Tract and Book Society," whose name 
 in the meantime had been chanored to " Confrreoa- 
 tional Board of Publication," and the " Massachusetts 
 Sabbath-school Society," and then the work which is 
 now carried on so successfully under the somewhat 
 cumbrous name of the " Congregational Sunday-school 
 and Publishing Society " (which baptismal name, by 
 the way, was not given to the organization until 1883) 
 may be said fairly to have begun. 
 
 Great impetus came to the work when Rev. A. E. 
 Dunning in 1880 was chosen Sunday-school secretary, 
 and from that day to this the work has gone on with 
 constantly increasing momentum. In 1883 the jubilee 
 year of the Sunday-school Society was happily cele- 
 
452 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 brated by a great increase of its missionary activities. 
 Sunday-school missionaries or superintendents began 
 to be employed whose duty it is " to improve the con- 
 ditions of existing Sunday schools, to plant Sunday 
 schools in places where there is promise of the organi- 
 zation of Congregational churches, to plant mission 
 schools in neighborhoods where they can be cared for 
 by Congregational churches and to reorganize Sunday 
 schools in places where they have been abandoned 
 by churches and where churches themselves have 
 died out." 
 
 There are now twenty superintendents and as many 
 more missionaries in the field, and the spiritual results 
 of this work have been laroe and we believe abidinor. 
 Forty-five hundred Sunday-schools have been organ- 
 ized in a little more than a decade, into which were 
 brought at the beginning two hundred thousand 
 persons, and four hundred and fifty Congrega- 
 tional churches have been traced directly to the 
 Sunday schools thus organized out of which they 
 sprung. 
 
 Many of these churches doubtless would have been 
 formed in any event, but many more of them would never 
 have come into existence had it not been for the fos- 
 tering- care of this admirable oro^anization. An annual 
 children's Sunday has become a generally recognized 
 institution. The Home Department, first introduced 
 by Dr. W. A. Duncan, field secretary of the society, 
 has been extensively adopted, not only in this but in 
 other countries. New methods for the instruction of 
 teachers have become popular. In many ways a great 
 beneficent impulse has been given to the denomination 
 by the work of this society. We can give the figures, 
 
THE STORY OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE, 
 
 453 
 
 but the spiritual results, patent as they are even to the 
 eye of a casual observer, will be found fully recorded 
 only in the Lamb's Book of Life. 
 
 To-day the work, under the care of the efficient 
 secretary, Rev. George M. Boynton, D. D., is carried 
 on with the vigor 
 and success which 
 has long charac- 
 terized it, and the 
 future of the Con- 
 gregational Sun- 
 day-school and 
 Publishins: Soci- 
 ety is full of the 
 largest promise. 
 
 Even a very 
 hasty review of 
 the Sunday-school 
 work of the de- 
 nomination would 
 not be complete 
 without calling to 
 mind the name 
 of Asa Bullard, 
 whose venerable 
 form and white 
 
 locks for so many years impressed themselves upon 
 youthful Congregationalists in all parts of the land 
 as the very incarnation of Christian gentleness and 
 vivacity. For fifty-four years, from 1834 to 1888, he 
 was connected with the society, edited its books and 
 its well-known paper. The Wcllspring, made long 
 journeys in the interest of the society, visited the 
 
 REV. ASA BULLARD. 
 
454 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 schools and left behind him everywhere the bene- 
 diction of a sweet and gracious spirit. 
 
 The Sunday-school publications of this organization 
 have taken a high rank, its imprint alone guaranteeing 
 their excellence, while its lesson helps and other 
 periodicals which are used directly in the work of the 
 Sunday school have obtained an enormous circulation, 
 having gone beyond six hundred and fifty thousand 
 copies already, in spite of the numerous rivals, many 
 of them of exceptional excellence, which are found in 
 this field of literature. 
 
 So far our chapter has related largely to the work 
 that has been done for the children and youth of our 
 Congregational churches. Of late years another large 
 field of effort has been developed, namely, the work 
 v/hich the young men and maidens, the boys and girls, 
 are doing for the church and for all its activities, and 
 thus indirectly for their own spiritual advancement. 
 
 More or less spasmodic and futile efforts have been 
 made by the young people of our churches for many 
 years in various directions. More often these have 
 taken a literary or social turn, and have had their value 
 doubtless in bringing young people of the church 
 together, making them acquainted one with another 
 and interesting them to some extent in the church 
 to which their parents belong. But these young 
 people's sociables and literary societies and debat- 
 ing clubs seem to possess little vitality and to have 
 very feeble " staying powers." Interest soon wanes 
 and some other plans must be devised by the often 
 anxious and troubled pastor. 
 
 Of far more value were the old-fashioned young 
 people's prayer meetings which have long existed in 
 
THE STORY OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE. 455 
 
 many churches, and which attracted to themselves the 
 most devout and mature of the older young people of 
 the church. Their great defect seemed to be the 
 limited number who attended them, and their tendency 
 to drift into the hands of a few of the better educated 
 and the more accomplished young people who could 
 " talk well in meeting," and thus the bane of all prayer 
 meetings seemed especially to afflict the young peo- 
 ple's meeting, until after a few years it was often a 
 "young people's meeting" only by courtesy. Little 
 was accomplished by these meetings for the great 
 masses of young men and women and boys and girls 
 who could not be reckoned among the experienced or 
 the glib. 
 
 This same tendency to drift into the hands of a few 
 was shown also in the young people's missionary organ- 
 izations of the church which within the last quarter of 
 a century have sprung up so numerously all over the 
 land, especially in connection with the work of foreign 
 missions. These mission circles have kindled the 
 missionary spirit and enthusiasm in the hearts of thou- 
 sands who otherwise would have been unresponsive to 
 the holy claim. But these circles have been confined 
 largely to the more devout and earnest among the 
 young women of the church. The fire of missionary 
 enthusiasm has not kindled as it should the hearts of 
 all the young men and women. 
 
 Still these mission circles have done pfreat orood, 
 not only because the)^ have interested their members 
 in the work of spreading the gospel, but still more 
 because they have demonstrated the fact that there is 
 appropriate and important work in every church for 
 young people to do which none others can do so 
 
456 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 well. This fact, which has gradually been dawning 
 upon the consciousness of the church for many years, 
 has found its fullest expression in the Young People's 
 Society of Christian Endeavor. 
 
 For this movement the young people's prayer meet- 
 ing, the mission circle, the old-fashioned lyceum or 
 debating society and other forms of activity among the 
 young people have long been preparing the way. It 
 is rooted in the idea that the young men and maidens 
 ought to do something for the church and should not 
 expect the church to do everything for them. It Is 
 founded on the principle that service, and not enter- 
 tainment or mere instructioUj is necessary to the 
 development of Christian character. It proceeds 
 upon the assumption that the only way to grapple the 
 hearts of the young people to the heart of the church 
 with hooks of steel is to give them something to do in 
 the church and for the church, and to lead them to 
 realize that they are integral parts of the particular 
 branch of the church of Christ to which they belong, 
 and that its work will not be fully done unless they 
 as well as their fathers and grandfathers do their 
 part of it. 
 
 In the year 1881 in the Williston Congregational 
 Church of Portland, Me., on the second day of Feb- 
 ruary, the first Young People's Society of Christian 
 Endeavor was formed, and it was formed simply to 
 meet the needs of one local cluirch, without any 
 thought that the idea would be used by Providence 
 in tens of thousands of other churches. It was the 
 outgrowth in part of some of these earlier ideas of 
 Christian nurture which have already been alluded to 
 in this chapter. 
 
THE STORY OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE. 457 
 
 The young people's prayer meeting had long existed 
 in this church, but it was of the spasmodic variety 
 that wilted under the heat of summer, was fre- 
 quently washed away, for the time being, by the rains 
 of autumn and was blockaded by the snows of winter. 
 Mission circles had also been a vio-orous element in 
 the life of the young people of this church, and quite a 
 number of those who met together to form the first 
 Endeavor society belonged to the " Mizpah Mission 
 Circle," which, under the care of the pastor's wife, reg- 
 ularly met at the parsonage. A literary society and 
 young people's debating club had also existed in this 
 church, but none of these agencies seemed to accom- 
 plish all that was necessary for the spiritual growth 
 and training of the young disciples, and when in the 
 winter of 1881 a new company of young converts were 
 about to be received into the church it was felt most 
 seriously that something must be done to prevent 
 these timid and inexperienced young disciples from 
 folding their hands, slipping into a comfortable back 
 scat in the church and becoming mere ciphers, as too 
 many of their young companions who had previously 
 joined the church had become. 
 
 The feeling was general, not only in this church but 
 in many others, that there was a missing link which as 
 yet had been unsupplied, that it was scarcely safe to 
 introduce children and youth to the responsibilities of 
 church membership under the old regime, and that 
 since the first few weeks of the Christian life decided 
 its future character so largely, some new plan must be 
 devised to prevent the young Christian from taking on 
 at the beginning a lazy, indifferent and shamefaced 
 type of religious character. 
 
458 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 The Society of Christian Endeavor was the outcome 
 of these conditions and this greatly felt need. It set 
 itself to work to solve these problems in three ways : 
 
 First, by making very much of the idea of frequei>t 
 outspoken confession of Christ. To this end the 
 pledge which ever since has been the distinctive char- 
 acteristic of the movement was adopted. By this 
 pledge every member promises to make it the rule of 
 his life not only to remember his private devotions 
 daily, not only to support his own church loyally, but 
 also to attend and take some part in each weekly young 
 people's prayer meeting. Not very much is demanded. 
 No elaborate address or carefully prepared harangue. 
 Such participation is very far from the Christian 
 Endeavor idea. Simply some word indicating loyalty 
 to the Lord Jesus Christ is expected. The shortest 
 verse of Scripture, the most stammering and hesitating 
 word of testimony, a brief quotation from a religious 
 author, any participation of this sort fulfills all the 
 requirements and accomplishes the great task of 
 buttressing the young soul with the strength of a 
 mighty purpose to live for Christ, whose love is con- 
 tinually confessed. 
 
 But the prayer-meeting pledge will not always en- 
 force itself. In every churcli there are some careless 
 young souls that need constantly to be reminded of 
 their duties, and so the Lookout committee and 
 Prayer-meeting committee, whose duty it is to see 
 that the pledge is observed, were inaugurated in the 
 first society, and have been indispensable parts of 
 every Christian Endeavor society that has ever since 
 been formed. 
 
 The second feature of this movement is the con- 
 
THE STORY OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE. 459 
 
 secration meeting, in which once every month the 
 names of all the members are called and each one is 
 faced with the questions, " Where am I standing in 
 relation to Christ?" "What is my purpose for the 
 future ?" 
 
 Almost as essential as the prayer-meeting pledge has 
 been found this monthly covenant service, and no one 
 thing has done more to give to the movement a spirit- 
 ual purpose and to show to the members that nothing 
 can take the place of unswerving loyalty to their 
 Master. 
 
 The third element upon which the Christian En- 
 deavor society largely insists is that of service in 
 building up the symmetrical Christian character. Its 
 ideal is to give everyone something to do for Christ 
 and the church. No one is so young, inexperienced or 
 bashful that he will not find himself sooner or later upon 
 some committee on which it is his special and partic- 
 ular business to work in some definite way for Christ. 
 "To every man his work," is the motto of the Christian 
 Endeavor society, and it has sought to put the most 
 generic meaning into the word "man," so as to include 
 every woman and every boy and every girl who has 
 taken the Christian Endeavor pledge. It has sought 
 in this way to solve the problem of the unemployed, a 
 problem which is quite as pressing in the religious as 
 in the industrial world. 
 
 It is easy for the minister, the deacons and the Sun- 
 day-school superintendents and a few of the leading 
 men and women in every church to find enough to do, 
 but to find appropriate work for the rank and file is a 
 very different thing. The Christian Endeavor society 
 has seriously set itself to work to solve this great prob- 
 
460 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 lem, and not only the Lookout committee and the 
 Prayer-meeting committee, which have already been 
 mentioned, but the Social, the Missionary, the 
 Sunday-school, Flower and Music committees, the 
 Good Literature, Vestibule and Sunshine committees 
 and many others which might be named are all the 
 outgrowth of this idea to give to everyone something 
 to do. 
 
 Of late years this idea of service has taken a still 
 wider sweep, and many of the local unions of Christian 
 Endeavor are makino- vioforous efforts to awaken their 
 members and young people generally to the claims of 
 good citizenship, the mighty interests of extending the 
 kingdom of God in other lands, w^ork for the sailors 
 and soldiers, for the life-saving stations and light- 
 house inmates, for policemen, traveling men, firemen 
 and a multitude of other classes who can be helped by 
 the earnest words and generous deeds of devoted young 
 disciples. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are con- 
 tributed every year by the Christian Endeavor societies 
 through their own denominational missionary boards, 
 and multitudes of 3^oung people have of late adopted 
 the plan of giving at least one-tenth of their income 
 for the advancement of the kingdom. 
 
 Many of those who formed the first Society of 
 Christian Endeavor were boys and girls who would 
 now be formed into a Junior Society. These boys 
 and girls had been trained in a pastor's class and 
 several months previous to the formation of this 
 society had taken the pledge which indicated that 
 they had consciously begun the Christian life, the 
 same form of words which now forms the first 
 part of the Junior pledge. But the first distinctive 
 
I s/t«» 
 
462 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Junior Endeavor Society was formed in the Congrega- 
 tional church of 1 abor, la., of which the Rev. J. W. 
 Cowan is the faithful pastor. 
 
 Of late years this effort for the children has kept 
 pace with the endeavors of the older young people. 
 Intermediate societies, Senior societies of Christian 
 Endeavor whose chief business it is to apply the 
 Christian Endeavor principles to the weekly prayer 
 meetinor of the church, and Mothers' societies in which 
 devout mothers band themselves together to pray for 
 and help along the children in the Junior societies have 
 sprung up, and there are in all the world betw^een thirty 
 and forty thousand of these organizations, numbering 
 two millions of members, while the ranks are being 
 recruited at the rate of two or three hundred thousand 
 new members every year. 
 
 Fully six thousand of these societies, with nearly 
 three hundred thousand members, are found in Con- 
 gregational churches in both hemispheres. Very much 
 the laro^er number are found in America, thouQ^h the 
 growth of the movement in both England and Aus- 
 tralia during the last twelve months has been almost 
 as rapid as in the land of its birth. 
 
 The conventions and local union meetings of these 
 societies are among the most remarkable features of 
 the movement. The enthusiasm, the numbers that 
 attend and the consecrated spirit shown surpass the 
 belief of those who are not familiar with such o-ather- 
 ings. At one of these conventions not less than thirty 
 thousand young people came together, most of them 
 from a considerable distance, with the one purpose of 
 enjoying the spiritual advantages of such a gathering. 
 Christian Endeavor conventions in England and 
 
THE STORY OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE. 463 
 
 Australia, and even in some of the missionary lands, are 
 taking on the same features of enthusiastic, consecrated, 
 intelligent zeal for the Master which have been so con- 
 spicuous in the American conventions. 
 
 Congregationalists have always had a warm place in 
 their hearts for this movement. With but very few 
 exceptions every church of our order in America has 
 such a society. The first article describing the move- 
 ment was published in August, 1881, in the Congr-ega- 
 tiojialist, under the title " What One Church is Trying 
 to do for its Young People." As was natural, the 
 second society was also formed in a Congregational 
 church, the North Church of Newburyport, Mass, 
 But soon other denominations found that there was 
 something for them also in these same ideas of 
 Christian nurture, and from the beginning the thought 
 of Christian fellowship and interdenominational 
 brotherhood has been woven into the very fabric of 
 the Christian Endeavor societies. Loyalty to Christ 
 and the local church and fclloivship with all those who 
 love Him, have been the two distinctive strands In the 
 warp and woof of the Christian Endeavor movement. 
 
 Of late years international fellowship has been added 
 to interdenominational fellowship, and it is not too much 
 to believe, in the good providence of God, that young 
 Christians of different nationalities as well as of dif- 
 ferent denominations may be banded together for an 
 aggressive crusade against all unrighteousness and for 
 the building up of the kingdom of God such as the 
 world has never yet seen. 
 
 The controlling hand of Providence is to be grate- 
 fully and gladly acknowledged in all this work. It is 
 no human invention or man-made device. The times 
 
464 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 were ready for it. Ten thousand pastors were feeling 
 after some such plan for the training of young Chris- 
 tians, Such a movement was bound to come to 
 develop the strength and vigor of young Christian 
 manhood and womanhood and turn them into channels 
 of devoted allegiance to the Church of Christ. If the 
 
 -tfifV' 
 
 WELLESLEY COLLEGE, WELLESLEY, MASS. 
 
 first society had not been formed in Williston Church 
 when it was, doubtless a very few months would have 
 seen a similar development in some other field, for 
 when the full time has come God's purposes are Rever 
 very long delayed. In one or two denominations, but 
 only in one or two, the young people's movement has 
 taken a strictly denominational form. 
 
 Within the last five years the Boys' Brigade, an insti- 
 tution imported in the first place from Scotland, has 
 found its way into a number of our churches. Its great 
 object is to promote soldierly fidelity and discipline 
 
THE STORY OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE. 465 
 
 among the boys, and it is hoped, under the guise of 
 miHtary training, to bring recruits into the army of the 
 Captain of our Salvation, and to make them obedient 
 and loyal soldiers. 
 
 In some of our churches, too, the Brotherhood of 
 Andrew and Philip has found a sympathetic home. 
 This is an effort to set young men at work for young 
 men, especially to win the degraded and outcast by the 
 personal influence of those who have been touched by 
 Christ's spirit. It is a "win-one" society, whose possi- 
 bilities are in many places large. So far it is confined 
 chiefly to the larger churches, especially the institu- 
 tional churches, where a considerable body of young 
 men can be brought together. But in other and 
 smaller churches it may be and is a branch of the 
 Christian Endeavor Society, a Brotherhood committee 
 of that organization being formed where any number 
 of young men, from five to fifty, may be given the task 
 of bringing their companions to Christ and His service. 
 The originator of this movement, Rev. Rufus W. 
 Miller of the German Reformed Church, heartily ap- 
 proves of this combination, which saves a multiplica- 
 tion of organizations, and at the same time accom- 
 plishes the work which the Brotherhood is set to do. 
 
 As yet we seem to be at the very threshold of young 
 people's work. What shall the future bring forth ? 
 Who is wise enough to predict what the twentieth 
 century has in store for the Church of God through 
 the agency of these young disciples? How may the 
 church not enlaro-e her boundaries with these vigorous 
 and joyous young workmen laboring with all the 
 energy of youth upon the walls of Zion ? What may 
 not the Sunday school of the future become ? Who 
 
466 CONGREGATIONALTSTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 can predict the possibilities of the rejuvenated prayer 
 meeting? Who will set any limits to the missionary 
 activities and the extension of the kingdom the world 
 around when the years have had a chance fully to 
 develop the mightily growing enthusiasm of these 
 young Christians for the extension of their Master's 
 kingdom ? 
 
 How may we not hope that our politics may be puri- 
 fied, our municipal governments purged, the whole 
 tone of our State and national issues raised from the 
 low plane of partisan controversy to the sunlit table- 
 lands of patriotic principles ? What may not be the 
 joy of angels and men when, partially at least, through 
 the activities and loving fellowship of Christ's young 
 disciples, sectarian wranglings shall cease, wasteful 
 rivalries which have disgraced the Protestant Church 
 in the past shall be no more, and His own prayer shall 
 be answered, " That they all may be one as Thou, 
 Father, art in Me and I in Thee " ? 
 
HENRY MARTYN DEXTER, D. D., LL. D. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 CONGREGATIONAL LITERATURE. 
 {^By Rev. Howard A. Bridgman.) 
 
 WHAT place do the writings of Congregationalists 
 occupy in the world's literature ? How large and 
 of what character is the literature pertaining to Con- 
 gregationalism, and what contributions have members 
 of this denomination made through the printed page to 
 the different realms of human thought ? If it were 
 possible to apportion all the products of the press to 
 their various authors it would be found, we think, that 
 in proportion to their numbers Congregationalists have 
 borne a worthy part in adding to the shelves of the 
 public and private libraries of Christendom ; or if the 
 classification were made on the basis of assigning to 
 each denomination the literature connected with its 
 origin, growth and extension, the share that would fall 
 to the Congregational body would doubtless compare 
 favorably both in size and quality with that of any of 
 the leading branches of the church of Christ. 
 
 While it is true on the one hand that Congregation- 
 alism has created a literature, it is equally true that 
 this literature has in turn fostered and developed Con- 
 gregationalism. There has been, ever since the start, 
 among men of our polity an impulse toward expressing 
 their faith in an enduring form, and every creditable 
 publication has reacted favorably upon the denomina- 
 tional life. There was not, to be sure, much premedi- 
 
 467 
 
468 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 tation in the earlier, and indeed in many of the later, 
 contributions to Congregational literature. They were 
 called forth by existing circumstances and their authors 
 in most cases probably put them forth regardless of the 
 final judgment that would be passed upon them. But 
 having once gained the imperishability which type 
 confers they have combined to make a literature large, 
 varied and important. 
 
 From the nature of our polity it was to be expected 
 that pamphlets and books would be needed to bring 
 home to the minds of men an understanding of it. 
 Conoreoationalism in the latter half of the sixteenth 
 century was a new thing in the world. It needed to be 
 explained and defended. Its scriptural basis must be 
 set forth. Indeed before it came to have any standing- 
 place in tlie world it was obliged, as all reforms are, to 
 justify its own existence. How effectual in this direc- 
 tion were the half dozen Martin Mar-prelate tracts, put 
 forth as early as 1589, has been shown elsewhere in 
 this book. Thirty years before these cutting pamphlets 
 were issued a French writer, Morelli, had expounded 
 the Congregational way as he saw it, and though his 
 books were burned it was impossible to reduce to ashes 
 their influence. Robert Browne, in his turn, from his 
 retreat in Zealand, aided by his friend Harrison, set 
 forth the principles of Congregationalism in perhaps 
 six or eight publications, three of which are now accessi- 
 ble. Greenwood and Barrowe, too, were writers, and 
 perhaps a dozen works are to be credited to them. 
 The scholarly Henry Ainsworth also produced a score 
 or more of publications, not all of them, however, 
 treatises on polity, for he was a student of the Bible 
 and wrote expositions of the sacred text. 
 
CONGREGATIONAL LITERATURE. 469 
 
 As Congregationalism developed, as its adherents 
 multiplied, as the field of its operations enlarged, as 
 new conditions arose, it is obvious that there would be 
 abundant reason for increasino- the number of books 
 and pamphlets. There were in every generation wise 
 men who endeavored to explain and vindicate the 
 principles of Congregationalism and apply them to 
 specific cases. Thus it has come about that we have a 
 wealth of strictly technical literature bearing upon the 
 Congregational polity, in which precedents are cited, 
 decisions made, platforms laid down, opponents chal- 
 lenged and confuted. In this glorious galaxy of Con- 
 gregational defenders shine such illustrious names as 
 John Goodwin, John Owen, John Robinson, Thomas 
 Hooker, Ralph Wardlaw, John Locke, Robert 
 Vaughan ; and passing to America, John Cotton, John 
 Davenport, the Mathers, Enoch Pond, Leonard Bacon, 
 A. Hastings Ross, William W. Patton, Joseph E. Roy, 
 Henry M. Dexter, Samuel N. Jackson, Alonzo H. 
 Quint, not to speak of scores of others hardly less 
 worthy of mention, whose researches in particular 
 provinces of investigation have contributed to a better 
 understanding of the faith and polity in which we 
 glory. 
 
 But it is not contributions respecting our polity 
 which alone make up the vast library of which we are 
 speaking. Theology has been a mighty factor in 
 swelling the stream of literature. The conflicts of the 
 earlier and later theologians of the denomination have 
 given rise to numerous publications, many of which 
 now sleep their last sleep in the dusty oblivion of un- 
 frequented alcoves, but which in their day were care- 
 fully read and which are valuable to us as landmarks 
 
470 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 and monuments of a past out of which we never can 
 fail to gain instruction. Our early New England 
 history abounds in such literature. It used to be the 
 custom for ministers, in the days before reviews and 
 newspapers, to issue their discourses and their treatises 
 on their own responsibility and at their own charges. 
 Even after periodicals began to multiply there was still 
 room for controversial pamphlets. The rise of Uni- 
 tarianism stimulated the production of such writings. 
 One minister would put forth a brochure and another 
 would reply. This Reply would be met by an Answer, 
 but not to be outwitted the doughty antagonist would 
 
 respond with " Remarks on Dr. 's Answer." The 
 
 annual sermon preached before the Massachusetts 
 Convention of Ministers usually found its way into 
 print and was one of the important documents of the 
 year. Meanwhile another influence was at work in- 
 creasing the supply of literature. Nearly one hun- 
 dred and fifty years ago Jonathan Edwards, narrating 
 his remarkable religious experience, wrote : " I used 
 to be eager to read public news-letters, mainly for 
 that end, to see if I could not find some news favorable 
 to the interests of religion in the world." This desire 
 for intelligence in regard to the spread of Christ's 
 kinofdom at home and abroad led to an increasino- use 
 of the printing press for the purpose of disseminating 
 such information. So we find occasional publications 
 devoted chiefly to news, and harbingers of the modern 
 newspaper. Such was the Christiaii Histoi-y, pub- 
 lished as early as i 743 by Thomas Prince, son of the 
 pastor of the Old South Church in Boston, appearing 
 weekly for a period of two years. Over a century 
 before that date, in 1639, the first printing office in 
 
CONGREGATIONAL LITERATURE. 
 
 471 
 
 America had been established in the city of Cambridge, 
 and its first three pubHcations were the " The Free- 
 man's Oath," " Pierce's Ahnanac," and the celebrated 
 " Bay Psalm Book," which went through seventy edi- 
 tions in Boston, London and Edinburgh. There were 
 
 LIBRARY, DARTMOUTH COLLEGE, HANOVER, N. H. {page 365). 
 
 also occasional English reprints, Baxter and Bunyan 
 being the chief favorites, but it was not until the dawn 
 of the nineteenth century that the magazine and news- 
 paper era in American literature can be said fairly to 
 have begun. It is interesting to see that this forward 
 step was due to the combined working of the three 
 forces of which we have spoken. The ecclesiastical, 
 the theological and the missionary impulse each 
 sought expression and each was discernible in the 
 contents of the publications which date from the first 
 
472 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 quarter of this century. In the prospectuses of these 
 magazines there is marked uniformity in the statement 
 of the purpose in view. Their founders evidently in- 
 tended to glean from these three main fields the 
 materials for their publications, though naturally a dif- 
 ference is noticeable in the proportion in which the 
 elements were mixed, due probably in part to the vary- 
 ing tastes of the editor and in part to limitations 
 imposed by a specific title. The century had hardly 
 drawn its first breaths when the Connecticut EvanQcl- 
 teal Magazine appeared in 1800, its place of publication 
 being Hartford, while the Massachusetts Missio7ia?y 
 Magazine was on the field only two years later, united 
 in 1808 with the Panoplist, which had then been run- 
 ning three years. From 1818 on to 1820 the magazine 
 was known as the Panoplist and Missionary Herald, 
 and since the latter date the single title Missionary 
 Herald has been used to designate a publication 
 which, in the judgment of the best informed persons 
 on both sides of the water, is in the very front rank of 
 journals of its class. The Panoplist did valiant 
 service at the time of the Unitarian dissension, and its 
 pages bear abundant evidence of the questions that 
 were shakino- the churches to their foundations durino- 
 the second decade of this century. Other New Eng- 
 land States besides Massachusetts and Connecticut 
 were ambitious to have periodicals of their own. New 
 Hampshire's first venture was the Piscataqna Evan- 
 gelical Magazine, published at Portsmouth, January, 
 1805, by an association of ministers. The next candi- 
 date for patronage was the Religions Repository, whose 
 place of publication was Concord, the State Home 
 Missionary Society assuming responsibility for it. 
 
CONGREGATIONAL LITERATURE. 473 
 
 Vermont's venture in this line was known as the 
 Adviser, or the Vermont Evangelical Magazine, 
 and the dates 1809 to 1818 bounded its Hfe. Re- 
 turning to Boston, we note next the Spirit of the 
 Pilcrrims, which came into beinor in 1828. It was 
 born out of the Unitarian controversy and was de- 
 slened to counteract the influence of the Unitarian 
 pubhcations known as the Christiafi Disciple, begun 
 in 1 8 13, and the Christian Examiner, begun in 1824. 
 It was felt that the Orthodox position was not having 
 sufficient vindication through the press. " We must 
 be read," said the aggressive and fertile Lyman Beecher, 
 and in that sentence he stated a truth which advocates 
 of good causes have over and over again realized. 
 
 The periodical which next deserves mention is 
 one with which many persons living are familiar, the 
 Congregational Quarterly. This grew out of a con- 
 versation which the late Dr. Dexter and Dr. Quint 
 had at a council, when the former suggested that it 
 would be desirable to preserve in some periodical 
 records of important councils, noteworthy ecclesiastical 
 precedents and other matters of interest to the denom- 
 ination. They associated with themselves in this 
 undertaking Dr. Joseph S. Clark. With their original 
 idea was incorporated another which had not found 
 expression in any of the previous denominational 
 magazines, namely, the insertion of annual statistics 
 concerning the denomination. As early as 1846 there 
 had been efforts to gather such statistics, and three or 
 four little almanacs, about the size of an ordinary 
 primer, were issued in the years 1846 to 1848. One 
 of them bears the name of Dorus Clark, a Boston 
 minister, as compiler, and another is credited to Par- 
 
474 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 sons Cooke of Lynn, But there had been no sys- 
 tematic attempt to gather the figures relating to the 
 denomination until 1854, when Rev. Timothy Atkinson, 
 and after him Dr. I. P. Langworthy, as secretaries of 
 the American Congregational Union, collected for it 
 for four or five successive years statistics conveying 
 some approximate idea of the extent and size of the 
 denomination. It was felt by both Drs, Dexter and 
 Quint that a careful and semi-ofHcial census would be 
 a proper feature in the quarterly which they had in 
 mind; and beginning in i860, the second year of its 
 life, these statistics were presented, having been col- 
 lected by Dr. Quint upon a thoroughly matured plan, 
 covering the whole country and enlisting special secre- 
 taries in each State. The items called for were at 
 once very much enlarged in number. Dr. Quint con- 
 tinued that work until 1883, when his secretaryship of 
 the National Council terminated, completing twenty- 
 five years of service, with a temporary interruption 
 occasioned by his absence during the war, The 
 Quarterly lived until the end of 1878, though the 
 control of it passed in time from the hands of the 
 three original proprietors, and from Dr. Langworthy 
 and Mr. Samuel Burnham, who came later into the 
 partnership, to Rev. Christopher Cushing, D. D., who 
 was its last owner and editor. The twenty volumes 
 of the Quarterly include very important articles of a 
 historical, ecclesiastical and practical nature, and a 
 series of valuable engraved portraits. Toward the 
 end of its existence it grew somewhat more contro- 
 versial. Its circulation in its palmiest days was not 
 far from two thousand copies, but declined in the later 
 years of its existence. One reason for its subsidence 
 
CONGREGATIONAL LITERATURE. 475 
 
 was the decision of the National Council in 1877 to 
 issue a Year Book, which appeared first in 1879 under 
 the editorship of Dr. Quint, possessing then substan- 
 tially the same features which characterize it now. 
 Since 1883 it has been prepared by Rev. H. A. 
 Hazen, D. D. Our English brethren were in the 
 field with a Year Book considerably before us, their 
 first issue bearing the date of 1846, though far 
 more meagfer in its statistical showing than ours. 
 Australian as well Canadian Congregationalists now 
 publish a Year Book, and our brethren in Ireland 
 and in Scotland have occasionally issued similar 
 publications. 
 
 To refer to a few other periodicals closely linked to 
 the denomination the Bibliotheca Sacra merits men- 
 tion as an influential exponent of Congregational 
 thought. It was begun in Andover in 1844. ^^ 1884 
 it was removed to Oberlin, where it continues to be 
 published under the editorship of Dr. G. Frederick 
 Wright and able associates. At the time that the Biblio- 
 theca was removed to Oberlin the faculty of Andover 
 began the Andover Review. It continued until 1893. 
 Its pages reflect the various phases of recent contro- 
 versies due to the espousal by Andover of the cause of 
 progressive Orthodoxy. But aside from theological 
 discussions, the Reviezu, while it lasted, presented 
 fresh and forcible contributions upon literary and 
 sociological topics. Yale College has had its organ 
 since 1843, known until 1892 as the JVezu Englander, 
 when it adopted the name of the Yale Review. The 
 erudite William M. Kingsley was for a time its editor- 
 in-chief. Hartford Seminary started in 1890 the Hart- 
 ford Seminary Record, which continues to print valua- 
 
4/6 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 ble information in reofard to that institution. We 
 should go too far afield to trace the influence of the 
 Congregational leaven in other and more secular realms 
 of journalism. It should not be forgotten that the 
 editor of the Review of Reviews, Mr. Albert Shaw, is 
 a Congregationalist, and that the YotUJis Companion 
 owes a large portion of its prosperity and success to 
 the late Francis G. Pratt, Jr., who came of honored 
 Conorreeational stock. 
 
 The history of Congregational periodicals in Eng- 
 land dates from 1818, when the Congregational Maga- 
 zine was founded. It led a somewhat precarious exist- 
 ence until 1844, when the Christian Witness appeared, 
 under the sanction of the Congregational Union of 
 England and Wales. It stood squarely for the dissent- 
 ing churches. Its profits were applied to the relief of 
 aged ministers, and its circulation, for a number of 
 years, averaged over thirty-three thousand a month. 
 It was discontinued in 1871. Contemporaneous with 
 and outlivinof the Christian Witness was the British 
 Quarterly Review, started February i, 1845, and con- 
 tinuing until 1886. In January, 1872, a somewhat more 
 popular and virile periodical was started, called the 
 Congregationalist, and with its editing such distin- 
 guished names as Dr. R. W. Dale and Rev. J. Guinness 
 Rogers are associated. Succeeding to it, and incorpo- 
 rating also with itself the British Quarterly Reviezv, 
 came the Congregational Rcvieiu, which first saw the 
 light in January, 1887, and for four years exercised 
 a wholesome influence upon the English churches. 
 Since it was discontinued, in January, 1891, our brethren 
 across the sea have sustained no monthly, but in the field 
 of religious weeklies they are well represented in the 
 
CONGREGATIONAL LITERATURE. 477 
 
 Independent and Noiicoiiforuiist, WOW under the editor- 
 ship of Rev. D. Burford Hooke. 
 
 The appearance of the Sunday school and its recog- 
 nition, after years of doubt, as a legitimate part of the 
 church gave rise in time to a special kind of literature 
 devoted to advancing^ the interests of this riofht arm of 
 the church. The Sunday-school Ti^easury, published 
 by the American Sunday-school Union in July, 1828, 
 was the first in the field, the Sunday-school Visitor, 
 under Congregational auspices, coming into being in 
 1833. The dear old Wellspring, which nearly two 
 generations of children have now enjoyed, dates from 
 1844. An allusion need only be made to the flood of 
 Sunday-school question books, quarterlies, helps, and 
 concert exercises, for which, in its later years, the denom- 
 ination is indebted to the Congregational Sunday- 
 school and Publishing Society. The circulation of its 
 quarterlies alone to-day considerably exceeds a half 
 million copies. 
 
 We pass now to a distinct, though related, sphere of 
 Congregational literature — that of the religious news- 
 paper. The product of the same forces which brought 
 into being ministerial pamphlets and treatises, and 
 which led to the establishment of the periodicals already 
 referred to, religious journalism is, at the same time, 
 sufficiently dissimilar in its aim and scope to warrant 
 special consideration. It was not the idea of the 
 founders of the first religious newspapers to confine 
 the contents of their journals to strictly religious arti- 
 cles. They sought rather to graft upon the existing 
 weekly secular newspaper religious principles and 
 aims. This was in the mind of Nathaniel P. Willis 
 when he established, January 3, 18 16, the Boston 
 
478 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Recorder, whose successor is the Congregaiioiialist, 
 and whose claim to priority in the field of American 
 religious journalism cannot be successfully disputed. 
 Nearest it in age is the New York Observer, founded 
 in 1823. Mr. Willis, in starting the Recorder, availed 
 himself of the help of S. E. Morse of Charlestown, 
 who was its first editor. Its early years were no less 
 precarious than those of most journalistic undertak- 
 ings, but in the course of a score of years it had 
 shown that in combining secular with religious news, 
 and in approaching political and social topics from the 
 Christian point of view, it had introduced into jour- 
 nalism a distinctively new element, the worth of which 
 was recognized by the fact that representatives of other 
 denominations before many years established journals 
 of their own patterned after the Recorder. The Re- 
 corder, while not narrowly sectarian at the start, and 
 never unpleasantly denominational, circulated chiefly 
 amono- Conereofationalists and was recoonized as their 
 organ. In 1849 "^^ Congregationalist was started to 
 advocate more especially the views of the newer school 
 in theology. In May, 1867, it absorbed the Recorder, 
 retaining the name until November 3, 1870, since which 
 time it has been known simply as the Congregationalist. 
 The denomination has always given to this paper a 
 generous support, and has recognized that as it was a 
 pioneer in point of time, so as respects enlargement 
 and improvement it has often set the pace for its con- 
 temporaries. It was one of the first papers to employ 
 paid contributors of the first reputation. It originated 
 and developed the system of collecting and presenting 
 news from the churches all over the country. It has 
 added department after department until its columns 
 
CONGREGATIONAL LITERATURE. 479 
 
 to-day mirror almost every phase of Christian activity 
 and deal with all the larijer interests of the church, the 
 home, the school and of society. 
 
 The spread of Congregationalism into other sections 
 of the country has naturally led to the starting of other 
 papers representing or affiliating with our denomina- 
 tion. The Congregationalists of the metropolis in 
 1848 felt the need of a journal of their own, and the 
 Independent was projected. Its first number appeared 
 December, 1848, under the joint editorship of those 
 able and highly esteemed men Leonard Bacon, Joseph 
 P. Thompson and Richard S. Storrs, Jr. It empha- 
 sized particularly its devotion to free-soil principles, 
 and rendered valuable services to the cause of aboli- 
 tionism. There came a period in its history when it 
 virtually cut loose from its denominational basis, but 
 the pendulum swung back again in time. To-day, 
 while it does not claim any relation to any denomina- 
 tion, it circulates among many Congregationalists, and 
 two of its leading editors, William Hayes Ward and 
 Kinsley Twining, are useful and honored ministers of 
 the Congregational denomination. 
 
 Another of the religious newspapers whose head- 
 quarters are in New York, and which in its origin and 
 conduct may be connected with our denomination 
 rather than any other, is the Oiitlook, the new series of 
 the Christian Union, founded by Henry Ward Beecher 
 in 1869, and edited to-day by Rev. Lyman Abbott, 
 D. D., the successor of Mr. Beecher as pastor of 
 Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, and by Hamilton W. 
 Mabie. 
 
 When Congregationalism had taken strong root in 
 Chicago the desire manifested itself there also for an 
 
48o 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 organ representing the churches of that region, and the 
 wish was brought to fruition in the Advance, whose 
 first number bears the date of September 5, 1867, and 
 whose first editor was Rev. W. W. Patton, D. D., 
 
 GOODNOW HALL, IOWA COLLEGE, GRINNELL, LA., [page 372). 
 
 always a stalwart and effective champion of the Con- 
 gregational polity. There had been before the 
 Advance two State papers in the West, the loiva News 
 Letter and the Wisconsin Ptiritan, both of which 
 passed over their subscription list to the Advance and 
 suspended publication. In later years State or sec- 
 tional Congregational journals have sprung up in 
 several strong Conofreirational centers in the West. 
 The Pacific, which represents all the region west of 
 
CONGREGATIONAL LITERATURE. 481 
 
 the Rockies, has existed since 1853. In the East as 
 well there has been quite a crop of State papers, few of 
 which have attained any financial prosperity. G«e 
 such, in one of the New England States, in the course 
 of forty-four years had five titles, was the property of 
 fourteen different persons, had twelve different editors, 
 and was published in three different places. Then it 
 ceased to be, but it had not been dead long before 
 another sprang up in its place. So triumphantly does 
 hope spring in the human heart that pants for the 
 scissors and paste pot. 
 
 When we attempt a survey of the contributions made 
 by Congregationalists to the various departments of 
 general literature we must confess at the outset that it 
 is impossible in these limits to treat the subject ex- 
 haustively. Merely to catalogue the books and the 
 authors would be a herculean task. When it is 
 remembered that Dr. Dexter, in his " Congregation- 
 alism as seen in its Literature," enumerates no less 
 than seven thousand two hundred and fifty pamphlets 
 and books, and then calls the result of his arduous 
 labors nothing but " collections toward a bibliography 
 of Congregationalism," one gets some idea of the 
 vastness of the field under contemplation. Moreover, 
 Dr. Dexter's chief attempt was to mention works 
 vitally related to the history and polity of Congrega- 
 tionalism, and he did not venture far into the field of 
 general literature. It may, however, be possible, and 
 it is certainly due to the denomination to convey some 
 conception of the valuable and enduring service which 
 men and women of our faith have rendered with the 
 pen to the world. Take theology, for example. Think 
 of the illustrious contributions of Jonathan Edwards, 
 
482 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Nathaniel Emmons, Leonard Woods, Horace Bushnell 
 and their contemporaries. Nor need we appeal only 
 to the past, for still living among us are Edwards A. 
 Park, Samuel Harris and James H. Fairchild, whose 
 massive works in defense and exposition of the faith 
 are so widely known. The lamented Lewis F. Stearns, 
 cut off in the prime of his years, had already exhibited 
 a masterly insight into theology that gave promise of 
 larger service than that already rendered. The con- 
 tributions of George P. Fisher to church history and 
 apologetics entitle him to the high honor in which he is 
 held in this country and abroad. Richard S. Storrs has 
 given the public the fruits of his extensive researches 
 in the field of ecclesiastical history, and Williston 
 Walker, though belonging to a younger generation, 
 has already made the denomination his debtor by his 
 investigations into its past. Several admirable his- 
 tories of individual churches have been written, notably 
 that of the Old South Church, Boston, by Hamilton 
 A. Hill, and that of the Beneficent Church, Providence, 
 by James G. Vose. Many of our theologians have 
 been sermonizers too, and it is therefore proper, under 
 this head, to refer to the scores of volumes of excellent 
 discourses circulated far and wide and varying in type 
 and tone, from the polished utterances of Austin Phelps 
 and Theodore T. Munger, the glowing discourses of 
 Henry Ward Beecher and William M. Taylor, to the 
 fervid appeals of Finney and Moody and other repre- 
 sentatives of the evangelistic school. 
 
 To philosophy no slight re-enforcement has been 
 brought by those master minds Mark Hopkins, Noah 
 Porter, Laurens Hickok and Julius H. Seelye ; while 
 in jurisprudence no names shine with more luster than 
 
CONGREGATIONAL LITERATURE. 483 
 
 those of Theodore Woolsey and Benjamin Vaughn 
 Abbott. 
 
 The constantly accumulating mass of biblical and 
 exegetical literature would be considerably lessened if 
 from it were withdrawn the contributions of Congrega- 
 tionalists, who have ever been foremost in prosecuting 
 investigations in this field of research. Moses Stuart, 
 on this side of the water, was one of the founders of 
 biblical criticism, and his work has been taken up and 
 carried forward in our day by the second Timothy 
 Dvvight, the late Edwin C. Bissell, by J. Henry 
 Thayer, whose monumental lexicon of the New Testa- 
 ment throws a flood of light on the gospels and epistles ; 
 by Charles M. Mead, Samuel Ives Curtiss, Edward Y. 
 Hincks, Benjamin W. Bacon; by George T. Ladd, 
 who has promoted a better understanding of the origin 
 and nature of the biblical revelation ; by William 
 Hayes Ward, G. Frederick Wright and Selah Mer- 
 rill, whose archaeological investigations have vastly 
 increased the store of knowledge respecting the witness 
 of the past to the truth of Scripture. The contribu- 
 tions of English Congregationalists to theological and 
 biblical science are numerous and exceedingly valuable. 
 We cite a few representative names : J- Baldwin 
 Brown, Edward White, James Legge, A. M. Fairbairn, 
 R. W. Dale, Joseph Parker, Alfred Cave, H. R. Reyn- 
 olds, R. F. Horton. 
 
 An entire chapter might well be devoted to the part 
 which Congfreeationalists have had in increasino^ the 
 amount of literature relating to foreign missions and 
 in multiplying and conserving Christian influences in 
 other lands by means of the printing press. The Ely 
 volume, by Thomas Laurie, formerly a missionary in 
 
484 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Persia, presents fully the literary and scientific work 
 done by missionaries. The writings of Dr. A. C. 
 Thompson and Rufus Anderson represent admirably 
 the effective labor along this line of men who, not on 
 missionary ground themselves, have watched the prog- 
 ress of missions with keenest interest. As respects the 
 men who have gone to the field, the literary labors 
 in Turkey of Cyrus Hamlin, William Goodell, Elias 
 Riggs, William Schauffler, and George Herrick have 
 been great both in extent and effect, while no less valu- 
 able work in the way of translation has been done by 
 Messrs. Baldwin, Williams and Blodget in China, by Dr. 
 J. K. Greene in Japan and by Lewis Grout in Africa, 
 whose grammar of the Zulu language Professor W. S. 
 Tyler pronounces the most scientific of any work of 
 that sort in any language. The feat accomplished by 
 Hiram Binorham in reducinor to writinQ- the lanoruape of 
 the Gilbert Islanders and in then translating into it 
 the whole Bible has probably never been paralleled. 
 During the first fifty years of the history of the Ameri- 
 can Board no less than one billion five hundred million 
 pages of literature were issued in forty-three different 
 languages. The Ely Volume mentions one hundred 
 and twenty-nine books in English prepared by or 
 relating to the missionaries of the Board. The great 
 work of S. Wells Williams on the Middle Kingdom 
 should not be overlooked in this connection. Ameri- 
 can Board missionaries have reduced to writing as 
 many as twenty-seven languages, and to them are 
 credited one hundred and eighty translations of the 
 Bible, and the amount of Christian literature sent forth 
 from printing presses, established at various centers of 
 the Board's operations, can only be approximately 
 
CONGREGATIONAL LITERATURE. 485 
 
 computed. The patient labor of Dr. Stephen R. 
 ^^gg^s, on our Western frontier, in translating the 
 Bible into the Indian tongue should not be forootten. 
 
 o o 
 
 A glance at the missionary library which Dr. George 
 E. Day is building up for the Yale Divinity School 
 would confirm and enforce these statements in regard 
 to the prominence of Congregationalists as makers of 
 missionary literature. 
 
 Hymnology and hymnody owe much to Congrega- 
 tionalists. What hymns can compare in circulation 
 with those of Isaac Watts, a Cono^reorationalist? while 
 Doddridofe, also a Conofreg-ationalist, is no mean second 
 to him. On this side the Atlantic Timothy Dwight 
 and Dr. Ray Palmer have written hymns that will last 
 as long as the church lasts ; while such names as 
 Phoebe H. Brown, Samuel Wolcott, Benjamin Tappan, 
 Washington Gladden, Increase N. Tarbox and J. E. 
 Rankin are to be held in grateful remembrance for the 
 thought and feeling which they have embodied in 
 graceful verse. In the production of hymn books also 
 Congregationalists have been at the front. Dr. Strong, 
 pastor of the First Church in Hartford, brought out 
 the first American publication of this sort in 1799, 
 although Watts had been reprinted here as early as 
 I 741, and twenty years earlier even Watts had sent a 
 copy of his hymns and versions of the Psalms to Cotton 
 Mather, who drew largely from it in making his own 
 book of hymns. Various editions of this prince of 
 hymnists appeared at intervals, notable among which 
 was President Dwig-ht's in 1800. Samuel Worcester 
 wrote several volumes on Christian psalmody, and his 
 name is to be linked with the famous Watts and " Select 
 Hymns," Nettleton found time in the midst of his 
 
486 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 evangelistic labors to bring out in 1824 " Village 
 Hymns," which were extremely popular all over the 
 country. Lowell Mason, the famous composer, came 
 to public attention in 1827, and in 1831 published, in 
 conjunction with David Greene, a book known as 
 "Church Psalmody," with eleven hundred and eighty- 
 five selections. Mason is pre-eminently deserving of 
 his title, "the father of American church music." In 
 his long life of eighty years he virtually revolutionized 
 the type of sacred song through his public work and 
 through his fifty volumes of musical composition and 
 instruction, which attained an aesfreg-ate circulation of 
 two million copies. To him more than any other man 
 was due the introduction of music as a feature of 
 public school education, and all through his life he 
 strove to bring to the common people the benefits. of 
 his musical genius. He was the first man in the 
 country to receive from an American university the 
 degree of musical doctor. Henry Ward Beecher's 
 "Plymouth Collection," published in 1855, carried with 
 it the prestige of a great name. Drs. Park and Phelps 
 in 1858 brought out the "Sabbath Hymn Book," for 
 which Horatius Bonar and Ray Palmer wrote special 
 hymns and translations. The successor to this work 
 was the "Sabbath Hymn and Tune Book," in which 
 Dr. Phelps and Dr. Park were assisted by Lowell 
 Mason. The only American book that ever bore the 
 title "Congregational Hymn Book" was that of Elias 
 Nason, published in Boston in 1857. \n later years a 
 number of our Congregational ministers have ventured 
 upon this branch of literature. The book " Hymns of 
 the Faith" was brought out by several Andover pro- 
 fessors in 1887, and within a few months Dr. Lyman 
 
CONGREGATIONAL LITERATURE. 
 
 487 
 
 Abbott has issued a "Plymouth Hymnal." Other 
 creditable works of this character are associated with 
 the names of Charles H. Richards and F. N. Peloubet, 
 while the denomi- 
 nation is indebted 
 to men like Edwin 
 P. Parker, Profes- 
 sor Waldo S.Pratt, 
 Joseph T. Duryea 
 and Edward Hun- 
 gerford for their 
 successful endeav- 
 ors to enrich the 
 service of wor- 
 ship. 
 
 As writers of de- 
 votional literature 
 ThomasC. Upham, 
 Austin Phelps, 
 Dr. E. N. Kirk, 
 Nehemiah Adams, 
 William W. Pat- 
 ton, Mrs. Eliza- 
 beth Payson Pren- 
 tiss and Miss A. E. Warner are representative names. 
 Sociological topics have been treated ably in books 
 and periodicals by Josiah Strong, Ricliard T. Ely, 
 Samuel L. Loomis, Robert A. Woods and Washington 
 Gladden. Special phases of Christian activity, like the 
 work of young people's societies, have been exploited 
 by Rev. F. E. Clark, D. D., and the author of the best 
 book on open-air preaching is Rev. E. H. Byington. 
 Sunday-school literature is both plentiful and excellent, 
 
 LOWELL MASON, MUS. DOC 
 
488. CONGREGATIONALTSTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 and the names of Henry Clay Trumbull, Asa Bullard, 
 George M. Boynton and F. N. Peloubet are identified 
 with this phase of our subject. As writers of fiction 
 J. G. Holland, George W. Cable, A. S. Hardy, Eliza- 
 beth Stuart Phelps and Harriet Beecher Stowe consti- 
 tute a cluster of writers of which the denomination 
 may justly be proud ; while not a few other persons, 
 like F. W. Gunsaulus, George A. Jackson and E. 
 P. Tenney, have pursued story-writing as a voca- 
 tion with considerable success. We may enumerate 
 among the successful writers for children Jacob Abbott, 
 "Sophie May," William M. Thayer and Charles 
 Carleton Coffin. For a poet of the first rank Congre- 
 gationalists may point to John Milton. They may 
 also claim Daniel DeFoe, the author of "Robinson 
 Crusoe," and Bunyan, the author of the immortal alle- 
 gory, "Pilgrim's Progress." 
 
 This necessarily incomplete and superficial summary 
 of the contributions of Congregationalists to the world's 
 literature may answer the purpose of quickening within 
 the denomination the sense of the contributions its 
 members have made to the world's wealth, and may 
 show to others not of our faith that Congregationalists 
 have kept step with the march of thought in all the 
 ranges of human interest, and in their day and genera- 
 tion have sought to make the world wiser and better 
 by enshrining in an enduring form the thoughts God 
 gave them and the things they learned in His universe 
 and in contact with their fellow-men. 
 
LEONARD BACON, D. D., LL. D. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 VISIBLE UNITY. 
 {By Rev. Alonzo H. Quint, D. D.) 
 
 SEVEN churches in London set forth in 1646 a 
 Confession of Faith. Among the signers thereto, 
 and apparently one of the framers, was Hanserd 
 Knollys, a godly minister, who, in 1638, had founded 
 in the edge of the wilderness, upon the banks of the 
 Pascataqua, the first church in New Hampsliire, and 
 who preached the gospel until nearly ninety-three 
 years of age. This confession states the ecclesiastical 
 character of the local church, and the relation of 
 churches one to another, in the following well-chosen 
 words : " And although the particular Congregations 
 be distinct and severall bodies, every one as a compact 
 and knit Citie within itselfe ; yet are they all to walke 
 by one rule of truth ; So also they (by all meanes 
 convenient) are to have the counsell and helpe one of 
 another, if necessitie require it, as members of one 
 body, in the common faith, under Christ their head." 
 The freedom of ConereQ^ationalism from set forms of 
 government and unchanging methods of administra- 
 tion enables it to adapt itself to all classes, all times 
 and all needs ; but the simple Congregational prin- 
 ciples thus stated are unchanging. 
 
 In the Platform of church polity set forth by a com- 
 mittee under the direction of the National Council 
 of 1865, some paragraphs written by the learned 
 
 489 
 
490 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 ecclesiastical scholar and denominational leader, Dr. 
 Leonard Bacon, expand the statement of the principle 
 thus held two hundred years before : " Although 
 churches are distinct, and therefore may not be con- 
 founded one with another; and equal, and therefore 
 have not dominion one over another ; yet all the 
 churches ought to preserve church communion one 
 with another, because they are all united to Christ as 
 integral parts of His one catholic church, militant 
 asfainst the evil that is in the world, and visible in the 
 profession of the Christian faith, in the observance of 
 the Christian sacraments, in the manifestation of the 
 Christian life, and In the worship of the one God of 
 our salvation, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy 
 Ghost." Nor does the principle herein embodied 
 limit Itself to the communion and fellowship of Con- 
 gregational churches merely. It is without limit 
 except In the boundaries of the Church of Christ upon 
 earth. "The churches of the Congregational polity, 
 as Integral portions of Christ's catholic church," says 
 the Platform, " maintain all practicable communion 
 with all other portions of the church universal. While 
 other churches differ from us In their internal polity, 
 in their relations and connections with each other, in 
 their forms of worship, or in the uninspired state- 
 ments and definitions of doctrines disputed among 
 Christians, and while we disown their scheme of 
 hierarchical or synodical government, we acknowledge 
 as particular churches of Christ all congregations of 
 Christian worshipers that acknowledge the Holy 
 Scriptures as their supreme rule of faith and practice, 
 and Christ as the Lamb of God who taketh away the 
 sin of the world." 
 
VISIBLE UNITY. 49I 
 
 With all such churches our churches exercise all acts 
 of communion which are possible, and which such other 
 churches are willing to receive or extend. Such com- 
 munion is often manifested in the receiving or dismiss- 
 ing of members one to another, in the exchange of 
 pulpit ministrations, in the transfer of ministers from 
 one denominational group to the other, in salutations 
 conveyed by messengers from one denomination to 
 another, and in hearty co-operative work, organized or 
 otherwise, in great Christian and philanthropic enter- 
 prises. But it is manifest that acts of communion 
 otherwise than those of general Christian courtesy, or 
 such as may be exhibited by individual Christians in 
 common labors, are often Impossible between churches 
 widely differing In organization. Hence it is of neces- 
 sity, and not from choice, that the Congregational 
 churches are restricted to their own number in certain 
 outward methods of fellowship. The visible unity of 
 the church militant, impaired by Papacy, hierarchies, 
 synods or rites, may still be preserved by keeping the 
 unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The senti- 
 ment of the Congregational churches In favor of 
 visible unity was well expressed by their unanimous 
 vote In the National Council of 1892, as follows : 
 " Resolved, That this Council heartily agrees with the 
 unanimous declaration of the International Congrega- 
 tional Council, held in London in 1 891, in favor of a 
 federation without authority of all bodies of Christian 
 churches, as soon as the providence of God shall per- 
 mit, for the manifestation of the unity of the Church 
 of Christ upon the earth, and for harmonious action 
 in advancing the kingdom of Jesus Christ." 
 
 The right and duty of local self-government by the 
 
492 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 churches themselves cannot be ignored. But it is not 
 to be supposed that any church in our fellowship can 
 disreeard the oblio-ations which are involved in that 
 fellowship. No Congregational church is independ- 
 ent. It can become so by withdrawing from its afifilia- 
 tions with the other churches, but in that case it ceases 
 to be a part of the Congregational body. The acts of 
 any church are not subject by appeal of any person to 
 reversal, but the body of churches retains the neces- 
 sary right to withdraw its fellowship from any church 
 which in the exercise of its power becomes scandalous 
 in faith or practice, or which violates the conditions of 
 the communion of the churches. This principle is not 
 new. Bartlet, in his " Model of the Primitive Congre- 
 gational Way," 1647, well says: 
 
 " Or else, if it could be clearely evinced by any of 
 the Congregationall men's words and writings, opinions 
 or practises in old England or new : first that they 
 do altogether exclude the advice and counsell of the 
 servants of Christ in neighbour Churches, when there is 
 occasion for it : or, secondly, That they refuse to be 
 accountable for their actions unto those who shall, in a 
 faire and orderly way, according to the rule of the 
 Gospell, in the name of Christ desire them ... I say 
 if these things could be fairly made out against those 
 of the Congregationall way, it were something, then I 
 confesse, our brethren (as in words they professe them- 
 selves) might justly accuse us before heaven and earth 
 of Pride and Arrogancy, of presumption, Blasphemy 
 and impudency : but (forever blessed be the Lord) this 
 they cannot do." 
 
 The fellowship of the Congregational churches is 
 first, of necessity, one of sentiment. They neither need 
 
VISIBLE UNITY. 493 
 
 nor desire a formal external authority which should 
 bind together incongruous elements. Indifferent to 
 non-essentials, and reverential to conscientious convic- 
 tions, they hold that no true unity can exist except by 
 the spontaneous affiliation of Christians. Christian love 
 is the bond of union. The expression of such fellow- 
 ship must be made in outward forms, and whatever 
 thus expresses fellowship is the exhibition of unity. 
 The churches can include in their immediate commun- 
 ion those churches, and those only, who in faith and 
 order voluntarily recognize the claims of such unity, 
 by practical agreement in essential doctrine and sub- 
 stantial co-operation in work. This they do. 
 
 As particular churches, their unity is manifested one 
 with another in simple and practical ways. They show 
 it by admitting members of one church to communion 
 with another at the Lord's table, and respecting the dis- 
 cipline of any church by refusing to receive such as are 
 under its censure ; in the dismission and reception of 
 members ; in admitting a minister of one church to 
 preach the Word and administer the sacraments in 
 another ; in giving and receiving advice when one 
 church desires counsel of another or of many others ; 
 in giving and receiving admonition, when there is 
 found in a church some public offense ; and in giving 
 and receiving help when one church needs outward sup- 
 port from the contributions of another or of many 
 others. In all these methods the churches have from 
 the beginning recognized their mutual privileges and 
 obligations as integral parts of the visible church under 
 Christ, the Head. They have found no necessity for 
 any dominant power to take the performance of such 
 acts out of the hands of the local churches. 
 
494 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA, 
 
 But it has always been held that the communion of 
 the churches was not limited to an act of one church 
 directly communing with another single church in such 
 ways as have just been specified. In his " Disquisition 
 on Ecclesiastical Councils," issued in the year 1716, 
 Increase Mather writes thus regarding the relations of 
 the churches: " It has ever been their declared judg- 
 ment, that when there is want of either Light or Peace 
 in a particular Church it is their duty to ask for Coun- 
 sel, &c., and that in Matters of common Concernment, 
 Particular churches should proceed with the Concur- 
 rences of Neighboring churches." The phrase, " Mat- 
 ters of common Concernment," is the significant phrase 
 in this statement of the learned writer. For all affairs 
 which come under a fair interpretation of this princi- 
 ple, our polity demands that the churches meet together 
 for consultation and for expression of what may be 
 the result of their deliberations. It is manifest that 
 no church can rightly assume to do, without consulta- 
 tion, what may affect the character and work of the 
 churches in general. It is a matter of "common Con- 
 cernment" when brethren desire to be organized into 
 and recognized as a distinct church. In such a case, 
 they should ask the churches to meet in consultation, 
 without which the needed fellowship cannot be 
 extended. It is a matter of " common Concernment" 
 when a church desires the ordination and installation 
 of a minister over it, in so far as it may well take the 
 advice of other churches in so orave a matter ; and 
 particularly because, while a church may make a person 
 its local pastor, ordination to the work of the ministry 
 in general, and the fellowship of the churches given to 
 such minister, necessarily require action by the churches 
 
VISIBLE UNITY. 
 
 495 
 
 properly convened for the purpose. It is a matter of 
 "common Concernment" when a member of a church 
 is unjustly excluded from the fellowship of the churches 
 by some act of censure in his own church ; and the 
 judgment of the churches may declare whether these 
 other churches shall continue to fellowship him, should 
 an evident injustice appear to have been done which 
 
 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE, MIDDLEBURY, VT. 
 
 his church will not rectify. It is a matter of " common 
 Concernment " when proposals for Christian work upon 
 a scale more or less extended require the co-operation 
 of a greater or less body of churches ; and such plans 
 ought not to be undertaken without the concurrence of 
 the churches assembled for counsel. 
 
 There came therefore at once into being the system 
 of local ecclesiastical councils, called for a specific 
 purpose mentioned in the call, and expiring with the 
 conclusion of deliberations upon the subject in ques- 
 
496 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 tion. Such a council is simply a group of churches, 
 each of which is represented by its pastor and one dele- 
 gate. It is usually made up of a convenient number 
 of the churches of the vicinasfe, although others more 
 distant may be invited, particularly in cases where 
 advice is needed from persons outside of an atmos- 
 phere of possible contention. The practice has also 
 grown up of asking the presence of a few persons 
 of extended experience and wisdom in counsel. 
 A church — or persons asking to be organized into a 
 church — must always be a party to calling such a 
 council, with the single apparent exception of one 
 called by an aggrieved member of a church which 
 ought to have itself consented to summon a council. 
 In cases of controversy It must be impartially selected ; 
 the parties agree upon a common list, or each selects 
 one-half. In calling a council concerning the dismissal 
 of a pastor, or a mutual one between a church and an 
 aggrieved member, both parties sign the call for the 
 council. But where there are two parties at variance 
 within a church, and the church desires advice resfard- 
 ing these dissensions, the church alone issues the call, 
 although each party is allowed a voice in the selection 
 of churches to be invited. To constitute a quorum 
 a majority of the invited churches must be represented. 
 The call, known as "letter missive," gives to each 
 church and person invited a list of all churches and 
 persons summoned, which list cannot be increased by 
 any act of the council, either in conferring actual or 
 honorary membership ; nor can the council admit any 
 church or person invited by the church, but omitted 
 from its list in the call. The letter missive specifies 
 and absolutely limits the question to be laid before the 
 
VISIBLE UNITY. 497 
 
 council. When this subject has been carefully con- 
 sidered, the conclusions arrived at are embodied in 
 what is technically known as a "result." This result 
 is in many cases necessarily only advisory, and a 
 church may decline to act in accordance with it with- 
 out incurring censure, but in some cases the result is 
 necessarily conclusive. Thus, a council called to act 
 upon the proposed ordination of a minister, and pro- 
 ceeding to ordain him, of course determines the ques- 
 tion. A council called with power to declare the 
 dissolution of a pastoral relation can decide impera- 
 tively, but such power is seldom given. The courts in 
 Massachusetts, and also in some other States, have 
 recognized the existence of councils as a part of our 
 polity, and have declared that when a council is impar- 
 tially selected, and proceeds according to the ordinary 
 principles of fairness, either party accepting the result 
 of such council will be sustained by law in cases within 
 the cognizance of law. 
 
 It must be remembered that councils are not to be 
 convened upon trivial occasions, nor does every ground 
 of dissatisfaction afford a just cause for demanding the 
 convening of such a body. They are proper only in 
 cases involving the communion of the churches. No 
 member of a church can demand a council, and, if 
 refused, call an ex parte council, unless he has been 
 deprived of good standing, and thereby of the right of 
 communine with other churches. A council is in no 
 sense a court of appeal from some church action sup- 
 posed to be injudicious, nor can any council annul or 
 reverse a decision of any church within that church. 
 Proper occasions for councils are these: (i) The 
 organizing or receiving a church into fellowship ; (2) 
 
498 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 the ordination of a person to the ministry, with or 
 without induction into the pastoral office, and the in- 
 stallation of pastors previously ordained ; (3) the 
 dismissal of an installed pastor from his office in a 
 particular church ; (4) the giving advice to a church 
 asking" for it in cases where internal difficulties 
 disturb its peace ; or where parties exist within the 
 church whose variance suggests the pressing need 
 of counsel ; (5) the giving advice where the church 
 is in doubt as to needed measures for its pros- 
 perity ; (6) the consideration of an alleged offense by 
 some member which both the member and the church 
 desire to refer to a council for advice before church 
 action ; (7) the hearing upon a claim of unjust censure 
 by a church upon some member, mutually referred for 
 advice to such council ; or, in case of refusal by the 
 church, its consideration by an ex parte council called 
 b^ the aggrieved member in view of alleged injustice, 
 but with power only to advise the church, and recom- 
 mend his reception by any other church ; (8) the hear- 
 ing by a mutual or ex parte council of a complaint that 
 a member, being in good and regular standing, has been 
 refused a letter of dismissal and recommendation to 
 some other church which he had requested in good faith ; 
 (9) the hearing of charges against a pastor or other or- 
 dained minister in a church, which would, if proved, make 
 it proper that he be deposed from the ministry, and thus 
 lose the fellowship of the churches as a minister of 
 the gospel ; (10) the hearing of a complaint by any 
 one church that another particular church has after 
 admonition persisted in offenses as to faith or practice 
 which affect the reputation of the body of churches. 
 It will be seen that councils are proper only in cases 
 
VISIBLE UNITY. 499 
 
 of "common Concernment." For such cases, whether 
 affecting a church or an individual member, the system 
 furnishes ample opportunity for the expression of all 
 that is contained in Christian fellowship as applied to 
 single and specific occurrences. Nor do our churches 
 find any need of standing judicatories, and they feel 
 that it is better to trust to the advice of faithful breth- 
 ren in some matter of common interest or in a case of 
 alleged injustice, rather than ask for judicial decisions 
 from a tribunal in the form of verdicts. They prefer 
 the advice of brethren selected freshly for a given 
 case, and then returning to the brotherhood which sent 
 them, rather than standing and permanent ofificials. 
 They believe that an isolated case of alleged grievance 
 can be more easily settled in its own limited neighbor- 
 hood than by a system of successive courts which 
 widens it to the coofnizance of a continent. The 
 whole body of churches, while not bound so to do by 
 any constitution, yet tacitly acquiesces in the decisions 
 arrived at by groups of churches orderly convened in 
 their respective localities. The result has justified the 
 wisdom of this course. The flexible character and 
 the easy adjustment of fellowship have readily settled 
 estrangements which might otherwise have rent in two 
 a whole denomination. Local dissensions have been 
 healed by the kindly assistance of local councils, which 
 judicial trials would often have made permanent. The 
 whole method has its power in Christian love and 
 neighborly affection. Fellowship, and not authority, is 
 the secret of its administration. These councils are 
 the visible expression of affinities in doctrine and prac- 
 tice. No two of them ever comprise precisely the 
 same churches, and thus all the churches become inter- 
 
500 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 woven. In the days of the great New England defec- 
 tion it was not necessary to exclude by council. The 
 mere omission by evangelical churches to invite into 
 counsel those churches which had become alien from 
 the faith itself settled the question of fellowship 
 and made formal by natural process the inevitable 
 separation. 
 
 But our churches have found a peculiar method of 
 
 YANKTON COLLEGE, YANKTON, S. D. {page 379). 
 
 expressing visible unity in the great religious benevo- 
 lent associations for Christian work in which Congrega- 
 tionalists have been acknowledged as leaders. These 
 works were not undertaken to express that unity; they 
 were begun because such unity, in loyalty to the com- 
 mand of Christ to go into all the world and preach 
 the gospel to every creature, already existed. Our 
 great organizations for these Christian purposes 
 
VISIBLE UNITY. 5OI 
 
 indeed were established, in the main, on a basis 
 broader than that of denominational life. The fathers 
 sought, as has been already shown in previous chap- 
 ters of this work, to unite Christians of all evangelical 
 names in missionary operations. The hope that this 
 might be accomplished, which for a time seemed war- 
 ranted, proved fallacious. This disappointment came 
 by no act of ours, but because others, growing 
 stronger or more denominational, withdrew from 
 co-operation. Doubtless it was the providence of God 
 to make His work more effectual. While this partial 
 union continued, and since the separation, the unity of 
 our churches in Christian work, which was the expres- 
 sion of Christian faith, was wonderfully visible. It 
 was the result of that inner life which can develop 
 activity of itself, and without waiting for, or needing, 
 the decrees of some central government issuing its 
 orders and providing methods. The unity which 
 manifested itself in voluntary Christian work through 
 associated agencies, shaped simply as God's provi- 
 dence showed the immediate way, has been far more 
 impressive than any trained system of government 
 could possibly have been. It was the visible unity 
 of the Spirit. 
 
 We have already seen that our general associations 
 for Christian work originated with Individuals rather 
 than with ecclesiastical organizations. Men and women 
 moved by the Holy Ghost united for some special 
 work to which they were peculiarly Inclined. This has 
 been called the voluntary system. Such men and 
 women did not need to wait for the consent of some 
 hierarchy or some synod before entering Into the place 
 of their labors. There were special reasons, indeed. 
 
502 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 why the voluntary union of persons rather than that 
 of churches was the method chosen. Except in the 
 hmited territory of consociations, and there but in part, 
 we had no associations of churches, yet when our first 
 great society, that for foreign missions, was to come 
 into existence the young men who projected the enter- 
 prise did the best they could. They applied to the 
 General Association of Massachusetts, which, although 
 a clerical body, was held to practically represent the 
 evangelical churches of the State. That body or- 
 ganized the American Board and appointed its first 
 members. With a similar body in Connecticut it made 
 appointments the following year. The Board ceased 
 to be a representative body only when legal incorpora- 
 tion was deemed necessary, and in procuring incorpo- 
 ration the representative principle was ignored by the 
 deleo^ates who sougrht it. 
 
 Our other great societies, with a single exception, 
 came into being by individual co-operation, as has been 
 shown in the specific accounts of those bodies. This 
 method was partially due to the strong desire for co- 
 operation between Christians of different denomina- 
 tions. But it was also greatly due to a want of vivid 
 conception of the Congregational principles underlying 
 the nature and duties of the local church. It was felt 
 without much thought that voluntary associations of 
 all persons interested in a special work practically 
 represented the churches. The American Board, how- 
 ever, with its limited membership, was not voluntary 
 even in this sense. 
 
 But a general change from individualism to church 
 representation was inevitable. When members of 
 other denominations withdrew, the societies were in 
 
VISIBLE UNITY. 5D3 
 
 new conditions. The constant appeals for contribu- 
 tions which their officials made to the churches through 
 the pulpits and in our general annual and local gather- 
 ings, awoke the question whether these churches 
 should be excluded as such from the control of the 
 work which they supported. The rising sense of 
 loyalty to Congregational principles of church order 
 was having its effect. It is Congregational that 
 the churches as in the days of the fathers should 
 consult and act together in all matters of "common 
 Concernment." There could be no crreater common 
 concern than that of the missionary operations of 
 these churches. For the doctrine to be preached, the 
 methods to be employed, the financial support to be 
 afforded, the churches were responsible. These re- 
 sponsibilities could not be left to individual control. 
 The discussions which ensued found their complete 
 conclusion in the action of the National Council of 
 1889. This council, representing the churches from 
 the Atlantic to the Pacific, in appointing a committee 
 to consult with the committees of the several national 
 benevolent societies as to "the relations of these 
 societies to the churches," unanimously said: "And 
 for guidance of the said committees the Council de- 
 clares its opinion in favor of steps which in due time 
 will make the said societies the representatives of the 
 churches." 
 
 Some of these societies had, much earlier than this 
 date, placed themselves in harmony with Congrega- 
 tional principles by providing for the admission of 
 delegates, with full voting powers, from all contribut- 
 inof churches. The last of the societies to acknowl- 
 edoe the demand of Conores^ationalism was the Amer- 
 
504 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 ican Board of Commissioners for Foreion Missions. 
 With a membership of but two hundred and fifty 
 persons, and these serving for Hfe, and with recurring 
 vacancies filled by the votes of the remaining members, 
 its absolute independence of the churches whose love 
 for missions forced them to contribute their moneys, 
 was an anomaly in Congregationalism. It was an 
 independence absolutely unknown to any other Protes- 
 tant missionary society. The magnificent work done 
 by our missionaries, and the admirable administration 
 of the affairs by the Board, had kept that Board dear 
 to the hearts of our people, notwithstanding this or- 
 ganic separation. The National Council had given 
 voice to what had become almost universally de- 
 manded. In 1892 the Board unanimously adopted a 
 tentative measure for one year, by which two-thirds 
 of all recurring vacancies should be filled by nomina- 
 tions made pro rata by the several State organizations 
 of churches. The National Council, at its meeting 
 immediately following, unanimously declared its grati- 
 fication at this action, and expressed the earnest hope 
 that the Board would take further measures to make it 
 a representative body, and that these measures would 
 be such as would "show the confidence of the Board in 
 the churches, and result in increased confidence of the 
 churches in the Board." At its next meeting, that of 
 1893, the Board justified this hope by unanimously 
 largely increasing its limit of membership, and extend- 
 ing the time in which the method of representation 
 previously adopted should be in force. Thus the last 
 of our great societies joined in acknowledging the Con- 
 gregational principle that the churches themselves 
 must control the united religious operations which the 
 
VISIBLE UNITY, 505 
 
 providence of God calls upon them to support. Our 
 churches do not, on the one hand, leave such work to 
 irresponsible individuals, nor, on the other hand, do 
 they submit it to church boards appointed by some 
 consolidated central government, with all the liabilities 
 to arbitrary and despotic power which such a system 
 must fear. 
 
 The unity of our churches has found still another 
 method of illustration in the local groups of churches 
 known as conferences or associations ; and in the 
 several State bodies v/hich cover the broader fields 
 denoted by the title. All these came into being by 
 natural development. They were not formed at the 
 same period, nor in pursuance of a general plan. They 
 have no power of government whatever, and can never 
 entertain an appeal from any quarter. They meet 
 solely for Christian communion and consultation ; and 
 being free from all the perplexities and technicalities 
 of ecclesiastical discipline, they furnish occasions for 
 great spiritual profit. The local conferences, each in- 
 cluding perhaps a score or more of churches, meet 
 twice or oftener in each year, at one of which meetings 
 the Lord's Supper is administered. Reports of church 
 work, Sunday-school methods, and those of young peo- 
 ple's societies, revival results, and kindred topics are 
 discussed. These local conferences are of compara- 
 tively recent origin. The early consociations were 
 of a different character. In Ohio the Muskingum Con- 
 ference and the Ecclesiastical Convention of New Con- 
 necticut were formed between 1800 and 18 10 but soon 
 disappeared. The oldest of the twenty-five conferences 
 now existing in Massachusetts was organized in 1821, 
 the next in 1827, and seven more were in existence in 
 
5o6 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 1830. In New Hampshire seven conferences had 
 come into being in the period from 1826 to 1833. 
 In Maine nine conferences were organized between 
 1822 and 1829. In Vermont, where fourteen such 
 bodies exist, the first conference, as such, was organ- 
 )30 ; but consociations, formed at dates 
 
 ized m 
 
 w 
 
 BANGOR THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, BANGOR, ME. 
 
 beginning with 1804 are now reported as conferences. 
 In Connecticut the oldest conference dates from 1852. 
 The rapid growth of the conference system was in the 
 period when the Unitarian defection was becoming 
 settled. In the time of their anxieties, and of their 
 inflexible purpose, they drew closer together in prayer- 
 ful conference and affectionate communion. It was 
 also a period of revivals, and the result of such revivals 
 was in part thus embodied. This system has become 
 universal among our churches. A few " independent" 
 churches still remain in a partial connection with our 
 body, but their number is steadily diminishing; and in 
 many States the enrollment of churches upon our 
 
VISIBLE UNITY. 507 
 
 list naturally comes only through membership in a 
 conference. These conferences are so thoroughly a 
 constituent part of our system that they are rep- 
 resented by their delegates in the National Council 
 of which they constitute much the larger portion. 
 
 Local associations of ministers were in existence as 
 far back as the seventeenth century. They had no 
 lay membership upon their lists, and were often looked 
 upon with suspicion. It was feared that they might 
 grow into bodies claiming jurisdiction. The Cam- 
 bridge Platform, while it nominally denied to ministers 
 any prerogatives as such, yet gave to each pastor an 
 absolute negative on the decisions of his church. 
 Practically the early ministry was a powerful body in 
 church and state. Associations of ministers became 
 careful not to infringe upon the rights of the churches. 
 They are not to be confused with conferences of 
 churches, but are voluntary bodies merely, for mutual 
 edification and help. Yet the decisions of the highest 
 court in our land have recognized the right of such 
 bodies as being privileged to expel unworthy mem- 
 bers, on the ground that they are natural judges of the 
 purity of the ministry. Nevertheless, only a council 
 called for the purpose can withdraw the fellowship 
 of the churches from an unworthy minister. These 
 associations are, in many parts of the country, terri- 
 torially coincident with the limits of the conferences. 
 In the absence of bodies representing churches they 
 naturally examined candidates for the ministry, al- 
 though they could not ordain. This trust generally 
 remains with them ; and practically, in the Eastern 
 States, it is the determination of ministerial standing. 
 But the National Council of 1886, recognizing the prin- 
 
508 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 ciple that the fellowship of the churches in any particu- 
 lar case belongs to the churches themselves (including 
 ministers as well as lay members), advised the State 
 and local organizations of churches " to consider such 
 modification of their constitution as will make them 
 to become responsible for the ministerial standing of 
 ministers within their bounds, in harmony with the 
 principle that the churches of any locality decide upon 
 their own fellowship." The result of this appropriate 
 recommendation is still pending. 
 
 From the local conference to the State conference 
 was a natural development. The earliest body cover- 
 ing a province or State was the General Association of 
 Connecticut, organized May i8, 1709. It was a purely 
 clerical body, and had some peculiar powers. The 
 General Convention of Vermont followed June 21, 
 1796 ; the General Association of Massachusetts, June 
 29, 1803 ; Rhode Island, under the name of Consocia- 
 tion, May 3, 1809, ^^^ ^^^^ General Association of 
 New Hampshire, June 8, 1809. These bodies, except 
 Rhode Island, represented local associations of min- 
 isters, and they interchanged delegates with each other 
 in their meetings, which were held annually. The 
 Rhode Island Consociation included churches, but it 
 was on the plan which made it " the regular and 
 proper council for ordaining, installing and dismis- 
 sing ministers"; and gave the ministers of this body 
 the right of discipline over its ministers and licentiates. 
 Many years elapsed before these provisions were 
 annulled. It was for Maine to originate the real 
 Congregational system in which the churches should 
 be united in conferences. Its General Conference was 
 organized January 10, 1825. All the other New Eng- 
 
VISIBLE UNITY. 509 
 
 land State bodies except Connecticut have since 
 changed their constitutions, so as to make these bodies 
 the direct representatives of the churches, but without 
 authority. Connecticut, whose General Association 
 held certain trusts, organized a distinct general confer- 
 ence of the churches November 12, 1867. The Gen- 
 eral Association of New York was organized May 31. 
 1834. The churches of the interior and far West 
 adopted this system from the beginning, as they did 
 that of local conferences ; and the churches of the 
 South have followed the same plan. Forty such 
 organizations now exist in as many States and Terri- 
 tories. All possess the same character. They deter- 
 mine the basis of their own fellowship, but they meet 
 solely for consultation and expression of opinion on 
 matters of common religious interest. They have no 
 power to legislate or to act judicially ; but their 
 opinions naturally carry more weight than would 
 judicial determinations, because based solely upon the 
 reasons found in such opinions and upon the love 
 which prompted them. 
 
 The right and power of local self-government 
 remain in the particular churches, and cannot be sur- 
 rendered. The system of neighborhood councils, sum- 
 moned for specific action in such cases as have been 
 already specified, retains unabated force and con- 
 fidence. The great benevolent operations of the 
 churches, which require united efforts, are provided for 
 by representation of the churches interested. The 
 grouping of churches in neighborhood conferences 
 and in State organizations for purposes of Christian 
 consultation and edification, in regular recurring 
 gatherings, are parts of "the providential evidence 
 
5IO CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 of Christian unity. But the broadening extent of our 
 national domain, whose western progress has been 
 accompanied by the westward movement of our 
 churches, has inevitably led to a broader application 
 of the principles of our polity. Consultations of a 
 general character became necessary. We have seen 
 that even the fathers found general synods indispen- 
 sable. Two such synods, those of 1637 and 1648, 
 and other partial synods, have already been noticed. 
 Then they fell into disuse. Little organization existed 
 for generations. But habits and methods which could 
 be tolerated while the churches were scarcely beyond 
 the sound of the Atlantic surf, were insufficient when 
 the advanced line of the churches was crossine a con- 
 tinent. Congregational principles were adequate to 
 every need, and a return was had to the methods of 
 the fathers. 
 
 More than two hundred years had elapsed from the 
 date when the churches had adjourned from their 
 synod at Cambridge to the time when they were again 
 called together for consultation as a whole. The 
 third general synod, known as "a convention of 
 ministers and delegates of Congregational churches 
 in the United States," met "in accordance with a call 
 issued by direction of the General Association of New 
 York." It assembled in Albany, N. Y., on the 5th day 
 of October, 1852 ; consisted of four hundred and sixty- 
 three elders and messengers from churches in seven- 
 teen States; chose Rev. William T. Dwieht, D. D., of 
 Maine, President ; and Rev. Noah Porter, D. D., of 
 Connecticut, and Rev. Asa Turner of Iowa, Vice 
 Presidents, and dissolved on the 8th day of October. 
 
 The main subjects upon wliich the Convention acted 
 
VISIBLE UNITY. 5 II 
 
 were : i. The project of aiding feeble churches at the 
 West in building church edifices. 2. The construc- 
 tion and practical operation of the " Plan of Union 
 between Presbyterians and Congregationalists," agreed 
 upon by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
 Church and the General Association of Connecticut in 
 the year 1801. 
 
 The first of these topics was made imperative by 
 the rapid emigration westward, and the necessity of 
 assisting churches in their feeble beginnings to erect 
 houses of worship. The Convention adopted a plan 
 for raising the sum of fifty thousand dollars at once, 
 and for its apportionment and use. Much more than 
 this modest sum was speedily raised, and it was the 
 commencement of that great work of the church- 
 building society which has placed its memorials through- 
 out our whole land. 
 
 Upon the second topic, the convention found that 
 the Plan of Union had been repudiated by the Gen- 
 eral Assembly before the schism of 1838, but was 
 acknowledged as in force by one branch of that 
 church ; that, although so acknowledged, it was not 
 maintained in its integrity ; and that its operation was 
 not only now " unfavorable to the spread of, and 
 permanence of, the Congregational polity," but "even 
 to the real harmony of these Christian communities." 
 The convention, therefore, unanimously declared the 
 continuance of the Plan of Union to be inexpedient. 
 The general acceptance of this recommendation by 
 the churches relieved both denominations from compli- 
 cations injurious to harmony. 
 
 Twelve years later a far greater emergency was 
 before the churches. The great war was not ended, 
 
512 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 but men foresaw the coming triumph of the Union 
 armies. New fields for Christian activity, from which 
 Congregationalists had been practically excluded, were 
 to be opened ; and the changed conditions of the 
 North and West demanded more vigorous work in 
 evangelization than had ever been attempted. What 
 were the duties of the churches was a question of vast 
 importance. The summoning of a general council was 
 suggested in various quarters, especially in the interior. 
 " The Triennial Convention of the Congregational 
 Churches of the Northwest" — a body whose special 
 work concerned the Chicago Theological Seminary — at 
 its meeting held in April, 1864, recorded the fact that 
 vast regions were likely to be opened to the work of 
 our churches, that great numbers of bondmen were to 
 become free, and that the structure of society and 
 of ecclesiastical organization was becoming greatly 
 changed ; and declared that the churches ought " to 
 inquire what is their duty in this vast and solemn 
 crisis, such as comes only once in ages, and what new 
 efforts, measures and policies they may owe to this 
 condition of affairs — this new genesis of nations." 
 It proposed that a National Congregational Conven- 
 tion be held. The General Association of Illinois 
 sustained the proposal. Other State bodies followed. 
 The committees appointed by the several State or- 
 ganizations met in Broadway Tabernacle, New York 
 City, November 16, 1864. That gathering, of which 
 Dr. Leonard Bacon was chairman, decided upon Bos- 
 ton as the place, and June 14, 1865, as the date, of a 
 National Council, and provided a plan of represen- 
 tation through local conferences. It proposed, as 
 subjects for consideration, the work of evangelization 
 
514 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 in the West and South, and in foreign lands ; church- 
 building ; ed*ucation for the ministry ; ministerial sup- 
 port ; local and parochial evangelization ; a statement 
 of church polity ; a declaration of faith, as held by the 
 Congregational churches ; and the classification of 
 benevolent orgfanizations to be recommended to the 
 patronage of the churches ; and its selected com- 
 mittees to present papers upon these several subjects. 
 Upon the fourteenth day of June, 1865, this National 
 Council assembled in the Old South Meeting-house, 
 in Boston — the house which had resounded to the elo- 
 quence of the patriots of the Revolution, and which the 
 British had used for a riding school. Five hundred 
 and two members were present from twenty-five States ; 
 sixteen delegates were present from foreign lands, and 
 fourteen persons were made honorary members, Hon. 
 William A. Buckingham, governor of Connecticut, was 
 chosen moderator ; and Hon. Charles G. Hammond of 
 Illinois, and Rev. Joseph P. Thompson, D. D., of New 
 York, were made assistant moderators. The proceed- 
 ings of this body, which was in session (apart from the 
 Sabbath) ten days, covered much more than the range 
 of the topics proposed. All the work committed to 
 the various national denominational societies passed 
 in review, and their necessities were considered ; while 
 generous sympathy was expressed for undenominational 
 societies like those for the circulation of the Bible and 
 for Sunday schools. Collegiate education, the education 
 of ministers, and ministerial support were considered. 
 Systematic beneficence received attention. Foreign 
 Missions as well as Home, the building meeting-houses 
 and parochial evangelization were discussed at length. 
 But the condition of the country, emerging as it was 
 
VISIBLE UNITY.' 515 
 
 from the conflict of arms, and coming into the crisis of 
 reconstruction, proved to be the theme of absorbing 
 interest. The opening of the South, and enfranchise- 
 ment of milhons of men, presented opportunities and 
 created duties of the greatest moment. The response 
 was earnest. It was resolved to enter upon the work 
 which God had provided. As a beginning of contribu- 
 
 ATLANTA UIMIVERSI'IY, ATLANTA, GA. 
 
 tions, the council advised the immediate raising of 
 seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars for general 
 work, to which the churches afterward honorably 
 responded. The enthusiasm which this council 
 developed appears to have been almost the beginning 
 of a new era. Dissensions which had existed, and 
 differences of thought which still exist, it had been 
 feared would make harmony In such a council almost 
 impossible. Jealousies between different "schools" 
 might have been expected. There was no central 
 authority to preserve unity or to command peace. 
 But when brethren came together from all parts of the 
 land, and came preserving their own peculiarities of 
 thought ; meeting face to face, and in the presence of 
 common responsibilities and duties, their faith in the 
 one Lord dispelled all distrust. The exhibition of the 
 unity of the Spirit in the bonds of love was complete. 
 
5l6 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 From that time the two " schools," as they were called, 
 passed out of sight. 
 
 Two important subjects in addition to those just 
 mentioned were considered by the council. The first 
 was that of church polity. A preliminary committee, 
 consisting of Dr. Leonard Bacon and Rev. A. H. 
 Quint, presented an elaborate platform of polit3^ in 
 which the hand of the distinguished chairman was evi- 
 dently prominent. This proposed platform was finally 
 referred to a committee of twenty-five ministers and 
 laymen, including the two already mentioned, with 
 many brethren eminent in knowledge residing in differ- 
 ent parts of the land. The list embraced representa- 
 tives of all the theological seminaries, presidents of 
 colleges, distinguished pastors, and laymen high in 
 judicial position. This committee, which was to pub- 
 lish its conclusions at its leisure, subsequently carefully 
 revised the proposed platform and gave it to the public. 
 Their work was not "a polemic defense of Congrega- 
 tionalism, or a rhetorical commendation of it "; it was an 
 exhaustive and careful statement of the principles and 
 usages of our churches in their ecclesiastical govern- 
 ment and relations. It was not the decree of any leg- 
 islative power within our churches to which conformity 
 could be required ; it was the united testimony of men 
 qualified to declare what actually exists, and carries the 
 weight which belongs to their deliberate judgment. 
 This platform is the only one prepared by men under 
 the direction of the churches since the year 1648, and 
 an examination will show that it is the best and 
 clearest exposition of our principles and methods which 
 now exists. 
 
 The second of the two topics to which we have 
 
VISIBLE UNITY. 
 
 517 
 
 alluded was that of a declaration of faith. A prelimi- 
 nary committee had presented a draft of such a declara- 
 tion, which was referred to a committee of the council. 
 This committee had reported a somewhat different 
 paper, which was under discussion and which met with 
 determined criticism, on the day which preceded that 
 of a visit of the council to the Plymouth where the 
 fathers had landed in 1620. The divergence of opin- 
 ion was such as threatened to make unanimity impossi- 
 ble. But when the council, on the morning of June 22, 
 1865, met on Burial Hill, under a cloudless sky, a new 
 draft of a declaration of faith was presented, which at 
 once commanded the approval of the council. It em- 
 bodied a considerable portion of the paper before the 
 council on the preceding day, but introduced, and was 
 also supplemented by, new matter, and it omitted need- 
 less paragraphs which had excited controversy. Only 
 two persons voted against its adoption, and these two 
 votes disappeared when on the next day the declaration 
 was reaffirmed after a few corrections of unimportant 
 words. A spirit of gratitude to God was everywhere 
 felt. A danger had been arrested. The real unity of 
 our churches in faith had providentially found ex- 
 pression. Professor Williston Walker of Hartford, 
 in his learned work containing the "Creeds and 
 Platforms of Congregationalism," published in 1893, 
 appropriately says : "Thus came into being the only 
 declaration of faith which a body representative of 
 American Congregationalism as a whole had approved 
 since 1648." Nor has any other declaration been 
 set forth by the churches in council assembled since 
 the declaration at Plymouth. The declaration is as 
 follows : 
 
5l8 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Standing by the rock where the Pilgrims set foot upon these 
 shores, upon the spot where they worshiped God, and among the 
 graves of the early generations, we, elders and messengers of the 
 Congregational churches of the United States in National Council 
 assembled — like them acknowledging no rule of faith but the Word 
 of God — do now declare our adherence to the faith and order of the 
 apostolic and primitive churches held by our fathers, and substan- 
 tially as embodied in the confessions and platforms which our 
 synods of 1648 and 1680 set forth or reaffirmed. We declare that 
 the experience of the nearly two and a half centuries which have 
 elapsed since the memorable day when our sires founded here a 
 Christian commonwealth, with all the development of new forms of 
 error since their times, has only deepened our confidence in the 
 faith and polity of those fathers. We bless God for the inheritance 
 of these doctrines. We invoke the help of the Divine Redeemer 
 that, through the presence of the promised Comforter, he will 
 enable us to transmit them in purity to our children. 
 
 In the times that are before us as a nation, times at once of duty 
 and of danger, we rest all our hope in the gospel of the Son of God. 
 It was the grand peculiarity of our Puritan fathers that they held 
 this gospel, not merely as the ground of their personal salvation, 
 but as declaring the worth of man by the incarnation and sacrifice 
 of the Son of God ; and therefore applied its principles to elevate 
 society, to regulate education, to civilize humanity, to purify law, to 
 reform the church and the state, and to assert and defend liberty ; 
 in short, to mold and redeem, by its all-transforming energy, every- 
 thing that belongs to man in his individual and social relations. 
 
 It was the faith of our fathers that gave us this free land in which 
 we dwell. It is by this faith only that we can transmit to our 
 children a free and happy, because a Christian, commonwealth. 
 
 We hold it to be a distinctive excellence of our Congregational 
 system that it exalts that which is more above that which is less 
 important, and, by the simplicity of its organization, facilitates, in 
 comnuinities where the population is limited, the union of all true 
 believers in one Christian church ; and that the division of such 
 communities into several weak and jealous societies, holding the 
 same common faith, is a sin against the unity of the body of Christ, 
 and at once the shame and scandal of Christendom. 
 
 We rejoice that, through the influence of our free system of 
 apostolic order, we can hold felIowshi|) with all who ackowledge 
 
VISIBLE UNITY. 519 
 
 Christ, and act efficiently in the work of restoring unity to tlie 
 divided church, and of bringing back harmony and peace among all 
 " who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." 
 
 Thus recognizing the unity of the church of Christ in all the 
 world, and knowing that we are but one branch of Christ's people, 
 while adhering to our peculiar faith and order, we extend to all 
 believers the hand of Christian fellowship upon the basis of those 
 great fundamental truths in which all Christians should agree. 
 With them we confess our faith in God, the Father, the Son and the 
 Holy Ghost, the only living and true God ; in Jesus Christ, the 
 incarnate Word, who is exalted to be our Redeemer and King ; and 
 in the Holy Comforter, who is present in the church to regenerate 
 and sanctify the soul. 
 
 With the whole church we confess the common sinfulness avxl 
 ruin of our race, and acknowledge that it is only through the work 
 accomplished by the life and expiatory death of Christ that believers 
 in Him are justified before God, receive the remission of sins, and 
 through the presence and grace of the Holy Comforter are delivered 
 from the power of sin and perfected in holiness. 
 
 We believe also in the organized and visible church, in the minis- 
 try of the Word, in the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Sup- 
 per, in the resurrection of the body and in the final judgment, the 
 issues of which are eternal life and everlasting punishment. 
 
 We receive these truths on the testimony of God, given through 
 prophets and apostles, and in the life, the miracles, the death, the 
 resurrection, of His Son, our Divine Redeemer — a testimony pre- 
 served for the church in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testa- 
 ments, which were composed by holy men as they were moved by 
 the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Affirming now our belief that those who thus hold " one faith, one 
 Lord, one baptism," together constitute the one catholic church, the 
 several households of which, though called by different names, are 
 the one body of Christ, and that these members of His body are 
 sacredly bound to keep " the unity of the spirit in the bond of 
 peace," we declare that we will co-operate with all who hold these 
 truths. With them we will carry the gospel into every part of this 
 land, and with them we will go into all the world and " preach the 
 gospel to every creature." May He to whom " all power is given 
 in heaven and earth " fulfill the promise which is all our hope : " Lo, 
 I am with you alway, even to the end of the world. Amen." 
 
520 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 It was then solemnly reaffirmed and finally adopted 
 by a rising vote, in connection with prayer by Rev. 
 Dr. Palmer of New York, and the singing of " My 
 Faith Looks Up to Thee" and the Doxology. 
 
 The correspondent of The Iiidepe^ident, Dr. J. P. 
 Gulliver, thus wrote of the scene on Burial Hill at 
 Plymouth : 
 
 " It was a sublime moment ! Nearly two hundred 
 and fifty years had passed since the feeble 'Mayflower' 
 company had repeated in solemn covenant the articles 
 of their despised faith on that spot. ' What do these 
 feeble Jews?' said a sneering world. 'Even that 
 which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break 
 down their stone wall.' Now five hundred men, the 
 representatives of three thousand churches, the repre- 
 sentatives of ideas which have triumphed gloriously 
 and finally over the land, the representatives of 
 PtLvitanisin, pure and simple, unchanged, unabashed, 
 bold and intense, as in the days of the Commonwealth, 
 stood on the soil made firm by the heroic tread of 
 those despised men and exultingly declared : ' This 
 faith is our faith. These ideas have saved our 
 country, and are going forth, conquering and to con- 
 quer, over the world.' " 
 
 The National Council of the Congregational 
 churches of the United States is the natural and final 
 expression of the unity of the churches. 
 
 It had been held that in ordinary times the inter- 
 change of delegates between State bodies was amply 
 sufficient for purposes of consultation. It was also 
 believed that only in cases of peculiar exigency were 
 general councils or synods desirable. But tlie rapid 
 extension of our churches had made the need of fre- 
 
VISIBLE UNITY. 52 1 
 
 quent opportunities for general consultation strongly 
 felt. The great and pressing duties of evangelization 
 in view of the growth of cities, the rapid settlement 
 of new parts of our country, the problems attending 
 the citizenship of a race, and the great immigration 
 needing to be met with the gospel of Christ, made 
 exigencies continual. The stanchest advocates of the 
 rights of the churches came to feel that a national 
 organization was greatly to be desired, and that it 
 could be secured without establishing even a shadow 
 of ecclesiastical supremacy. The grand results of 
 the council of 1865 had also proved beyond a doubt 
 the value of national consultation. 
 
 At the request of the Church of the Pilgrimage in 
 Plymouth, Mass., a meeting was held in New York 
 City March 2, 1870, to consider measures appropriate 
 to the approaching fifth jubilee of the landing of the 
 Pilgrims. That meeting recommended the holding 
 of a Pilgrim Memorial Convention at Chicago, 111., 
 April 27, 1870, to be made up of delegates from all 
 churches who might care to appoint them. That con- 
 vention, meeting in connection with the Triennial Con- 
 vention of the Northwest, among its acts took occasion 
 to give voice to what had been privately discussed ; and 
 recommended to the several State and other organiza- 
 tions "to unite in measures for instituting, on the 
 principle of fellowship, excluding ecclesiastical author- 
 ity, a permanent National Conference." The Ohio 
 General Conference, on a motion made by Dr. A. H. 
 Ross, was the first of the State bodies to take decisive 
 action, and it appointed a committee to act with others 
 in bringing about the desired result. Nearly all of the 
 State organizations heartily approved the proposal and 
 
522 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 appointed suitable committees. Only one State, which 
 contained seventy churches, made objection, and that 
 only by one majority. The Massachusetts committee 
 invited all other committees to meet in the Congre- 
 gational Library in Boston upon the twenty-first day of 
 December, 1870. The meeting was accordingly held, 
 Dr. E. B. Webb of Boston beino- made moderator, and 
 Hon. A. C. Barstow of Providence assistant moderator. 
 The action of the several State bodies having been 
 presented, it was unanimously resolved, "That it is 
 expedient, and appears clearly to be the voice of the 
 churches, that a National Council of the Congrega- 
 tional churches of the United States be oro-anized." 
 
 It was a fitting date upon which the churches thus 
 decreed their visible unity. It was the exact two hun- 
 dred and fiftieth anniversary of the day, December 21, 
 1620, on which the little church of Christ had landed 
 at Plymouth. 
 
 The simple measures taken were to select a commit- 
 tee charged with the duty of preparing the draft of 
 a suitable constitution, select the time and place of 
 meeting, and issue the call for such meeting, under 
 certain definite instructions as to the character of the 
 proposed constitution and the method of representation. 
 The committee chosen by ballot consisted of Rev. A. 
 H. Quint of Massachusetts, Rev. President William E. 
 Merriman of Wisconsin, Rev. Professor Samuel C. 
 Bartlett of Illinois, Samuel Holmes of New Jersey, 
 Major-General Oliver O. Howard, U. S. A., Rev. 
 William I, Budington of New York and Hon. Amos 
 C. Barstow of P.hode Island. 
 
 Under the call of this committee the first council 
 convened at Oberlin, O., November 15, 1871. Called 
 
VISIBLE UNITY. 523 
 
 to order by the chairman of the prehminary committee, 
 who read the letter summoning the council, the dele- 
 gates chose Hon. Erastus D. Holton of Wisconsin to 
 be temporary moderator. Two hundred and seventy- 
 six delegates were present from twenty-five States. 
 Eleven honorary members included delegates from 
 seven benevolent societies and three theoloeical sem- 
 inaries. The proposed constitution was adopted, with 
 unimportant amendments; and Rev. William Ives 
 Budincrton, D. D., of New York, was chosen modera- 
 tor, and Major-General Oliver O. Howard, U. S. A., 
 and Rev. George H. Atkinson, D. D., of Oregon, were 
 made assistant moderators. 
 
 The place of meeting was happily chosen. The 
 choice recocrnized the orreat work which Oberlin had 
 done in our land. It signified the removal of past 
 distrust. Well did Dr. Budington say, in his opening 
 address, " We stand to-day upon the grave of buried 
 prejudices." When the venerable Charles G. Finney, 
 in feeble health, with tears flowing from his eyes, spoke 
 to the thronging congregation upon " the baptism of 
 the Holy Spirit " tears were also upon every cheek, 
 and it was believed that that baptism rested upon the 
 messengers of the churches in their new work. 
 
 The constitution, which has remained practically un- 
 chancred, has certain features which must be noticed : 
 
 First, it declares the object in view : " The Cong;re- 
 gational churches of the United States, by elders and 
 messengers assembled, do now associate themselves in 
 National Council, to express and foster their substan- 
 tial unit}'' in doctrine, polity and work : and to consult 
 upon the common interests of all the churches, their 
 duties in the work of evanorelization, the united devel- 
 
524 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 opment of their resources and their relations to all 
 parts of the kingdom of Christ." 
 
 Secondly, it acknowledges " the Scriptural and in- 
 alienable rio-ht of each church to self-o-overnment 
 
 o o 
 
 and administration"; and declares that "this National 
 Council shall never exercise legislative or judicial 
 authority, nor act as a council of reference." 
 
 Thirdly, it says that the churches "agree in belief 
 that the Holy Scriptures are the sufficient and only 
 infallible rule of religious faith and practice ; their 
 interpretation thereof being in substantial accordance 
 with the ofreat doctrines of the Christian faith, com- 
 monly called evangelical, held in our churches from 
 the early times, and sufficiently set forth by former 
 general councils." It was the undoubted intent, in 
 choosinof this laneuasfe, to icrnore all distinctions 
 between Calvinist and Arminian, and to base the 
 union of the churches upon the great evangelical 
 faith common to Christendom. Such was the expo- 
 sition of the distinguished moderator. In harmony 
 with this purpose was the action of the council of 
 1892, as follows : 
 
 ^'Resolved, That affiliation with our denomina- 
 tion of churches not now upon our roll, should be 
 welcomed upon the basis of common evangelical faith, 
 substantial Congregational polity and free communion 
 of Christians, without regard to forms or minor 
 differences." 
 
 The council is composed of delegates equally 
 divided between ministers and laymen from local con- 
 ferences and State organizations. Each local confer- 
 ence sends one delegate for every ten churches upon 
 its roll and one for a final fraction greater than five- 
 
VISIBLE UNITY. 52$ 
 
 tenths ; but each conference is entitled to at least one 
 delegate. Each State orgranization elects one deleo^ate 
 and one for each ten thousand communicants in the 
 churches upon its roll and one for a final major fraction 
 thereof. Each national Cono-reQ^ational benevolent 
 society and each theological seminary sends one hono- 
 rary delegate. A secretary, a registrar and a treasurer 
 are chosen at each triennial session to serve for three 
 years ; and the moderator at any session presides 
 during the organizing of the next succeeding. A pro- 
 visional committee is appointed at each triennial ses- 
 sion to propose topics of such eminent importance as 
 may demand attention at the next, while the several 
 benevolent societies and theological seminaries avail 
 themselves of the opportunity by their delegates to pre- 
 sent statements of their condition at each session, which 
 are then considered by the council. Certain committees 
 are also appointed at each session to make careful in- 
 vestigation into specified matters of weighty impor- 
 tance, and to report thereon at the next session. But 
 these committees are not prescribed by any standing 
 rule. So simple is the organization of this body. 
 
 Many subjects have been before the successive coun- 
 cils. The general work of the churches through the 
 various societies has always had the most prominent 
 place of consideration. The council has discussed 
 specific themes like temperance, the observance of the 
 Sabbath, marriage and divorce, the right treatment of 
 the Indians and of the Chinese ; and the Mormon ques- 
 tion and arbitration among nations are found upon 
 record. Denominational comity has been repeatedly 
 discussed. Parochial evangelization, city evangeliza- 
 tion and work among our foreign-born population ; 
 
526 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 systematic beneficence ; education in colleges and 
 State universities and the education of ministers ; the 
 relation of church and parish, exhaustively presented ; 
 pastorless churches and churchless pastors ; the minis- 
 terial supply, economy in ministerial force, and minis- 
 terial support ; tests of church membership ; the posi- 
 tion of children in the church, Sunday-school instruc- 
 tion, and the Christian Endeavor movement have re- 
 ceived careful attention and been the subjects of 
 thoughtful deliverances. As to caste, against which it 
 pronounced in 1871, the council has been the means 
 of readily deciding the question by affirming that no 
 conferences of churches can be recognized by the re- 
 ception of their delegates unless those conferences 
 give equal rights to all alike. Without the least fric- 
 tion it decided upon the position of women in ecclesias- 
 tical affairs; wdien in the council of 1880 a w^oman pre- 
 sented credentials as delegate from Colorado, her name 
 was placed upon the roll as a matter of course and 
 without dissent. Thus easily does Congregationalism 
 decide great questions without involving any crashing 
 of ecclesiastical machinery. It is also proper here to 
 note that women are found as delegates in our ecclesias- 
 tical councils, our local conferences and our State or- 
 ganizations, and that their Christian right of voting 
 in our churches is now almost universally understood. 
 The council has established a fund for the relief of 
 aged or disabled ministers and the widows and orphans 
 of such if needing assistance. 
 
 Upon the question of ministerial tests and standing, 
 the council unanimously declared our recognized prin- 
 ciples in 1892 as follows : 
 
 " Each Conorrecrational church has its own confession 
 
VISIBLE UNITY. 527 
 
 of faith, and there is no authority to impose any 
 general confession upon it nor are our ministers re- 
 quired to subscribe to any specified doctrinal standards. 
 But, as a basis of fellowship, we have certain creeds of 
 acknowledged weight, to be used not as tests, but as a 
 testimony ; and we have also, in ecclesiastical councils 
 and associations of churches, recognized organs fur 
 expressing the fellowship and declaring the faith held 
 by our churches to be essential, as well as guarding the 
 liberty of thought generally allowed in our churches. 
 Therefore, in the administration of all our benevolent 
 societies, and in the common work of our churches, the 
 utmost care should be exercised in the application of 
 the foregoing principles." 
 
 At the council of 1886 the unanimous action taken 
 upon ministerial standing was as follows : 
 
 *' Resolved, That standing in the Congregational 
 ministry is acquired by the fulfillment of these three 
 conditions, namely, (i) membership in a Congrega- 
 tional church ; (2) ordination to the Christian ministry ; 
 and (3) reception as an ordained minister into the fel- 
 lowship of the Congregational churches in accordance 
 with the usaofe of the State or territorial orcjanization 
 of churches in which the applicant may reside ; and 
 such standing Is to be continued in accordance with 
 these usages, it being understood that a pro re nata 
 council is the ultimate resort in all cases in question." 
 
 The council of 1871 declared that every minister 
 ought to be In orderly connection with some ministerial 
 or ecclesiastical organization capable of certifying 
 to his continued standing. Upon this principle the 
 roll of ministers published in the Year Book is com- 
 piled, the list for each State being furnished by the 
 
528 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 State organization, which the secretary of the council 
 has no authority whatever to alter, and regarding 
 which the council itself has no judicial authority. 
 
 The annual Year Book, compiled and published 
 under the direction of the council, contains the 
 statistics of the churches throughout the country, more 
 exhaustively and completely than is found in any other 
 similar compilation ; the alphabetical list of recognized 
 ministers, that of licentiates and that of our foreign 
 missionaries ; the lists of professors and students, with 
 terms and vacations, in our theological seminaries ; 
 the orofanization of each of our national benevolent 
 societies ; careful and accurate memorials of deceased 
 ministers ; tables of ordinations, installations and dis- 
 missals ; lists and officials of Congregational clubs and 
 other similar valuable information. The expense 
 being paid for by the churches through their State 
 organizations, a copy is sent to every minister upon 
 the roll and a copy to each church. This work has 
 been of inestimable advantage in promoting the unity 
 of the churches, as was expected and intended 
 when the statistical system was planned over thirty 
 years ago. 
 
 At the session of the council in 1880 it seemed that 
 some brief statement of doctrinal faith mioht be useful 
 for instruction and edification in our churches. The 
 broad and extended declaration made at Plymouth 
 in 1865 was not formulated with a view to use in the 
 reception of members or for church manuals. A 
 committee of seven was thereupon appointed, which 
 should, after careful deliberation after the council had 
 adjourned, select twenty-five men " of piety and ability, 
 well versed in the truths of the Bible and representing 
 
VISIBLE UNITY. 529 
 
 different shades of thought among us, who may be 
 willing to confer and act together as a commission to 
 propose in the form of a creed or catechism, or both, 
 a simple, clear and comprehensive exposition of the 
 truths of the glorious gospel of the blessed God, for 
 the instruction and edification of our churches." This 
 commission was not to report the result of their work 
 to the council, but to issue it to the world, " to carry 
 such weight of authority as the character of the com- 
 mission and the intrinsic merit of their exposition of 
 truth may command." This method was chosen so as 
 to avoid any appearance of assumed authority by the 
 council to legislate in matters of faith. Of the twenty- 
 five eminent brethren selected, Rev. Julius H. Seelye, 
 President of Amherst College, was chairman. Twenty- 
 two of the twentv-five found themselves able to aofree. 
 The declaration then put forth, although it has not 
 had indorsement by the council, has met with exten- 
 sive favor, as declaring the general consensus of doc- 
 trine held by our churches, and is used by many of 
 them as a standard. 
 
 The declaration we give in full as follows : 
 
 I. We believe in one God, the Father Ahnighty, Maker of heaven 
 and earth, and of all things visible and invisible ; 
 
 And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who is of one sub- 
 stance with the Father ; by whom all things were made ; 
 
 And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, who is sent 
 from the Father and Son, and who together with the Father and 
 Son is worshiped and glorified. 
 
 n. We believe that the Providence of Cxod, by which He executes 
 His eternal purposes in the government of the world, is in and over 
 all events ; yet so that the freedom and responsibility of man are 
 not impaired, and sin is the act of the creature alone. 
 
 HL We beljeve that man was made in the image of God, that he 
 
530 CONGRECxATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 might know, love and obey God, and enjoy Him forever ; that our 
 first parents by disobedience fell under the righteous condemnation 
 of God ; and that all men are so alienated from God that there is 
 no salvation from the guilt and power of sin except through God's 
 redeeming grace. 
 
 IV. We believe that God would have all men return to Him; 
 that to this end He has made Himself known, not only through the 
 works of nature, the course of His providence and the consciences 
 of men, but also through supernatural revelations made especially 
 to a chosen people, and above all, when the fullness of tinie was 
 come, through Jesus Christ His Son. 
 
 V. We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testa- 
 ments are the records of God's revelations of Himself in the work 
 of redemption ; that they were written by men under the special 
 guidance of the Holy Spirit; that they are able to make wise unto 
 salvation ; and that they constitute the authoritative standard by 
 which religious teaching and human conduct are to be regulated 
 and judged. 
 
 VI. We believe that the love of God to sinful men has found its 
 highest expression in the redemptive work of His Son ; who became 
 man, uniting His divine nature with our human nature in one per- 
 son ; who was tempted like other men, yet without sin ; who by His 
 humiliation, His holy obedience. His sufferings. His death on the 
 cross and His resurrection, became a perfect Redeemer ; whose 
 sacrifice of Himself for the sins of the world declares the righteous- 
 ness of God, and is the sole and sufficient ground of forgiveness 
 and of reconciliation with him. 
 
 VII. We believe that Jesus Christ, after he had risen from the 
 dead, ascended into heaven, where, as the one Mediator between 
 God and man, He carries forward His work of saving men ; that He 
 sends the Holy Spirit to convict them of sin and to lead them to 
 repentance and faith ; and that those who through renewing grace 
 turn to righteousness, and trust in Jesus Christ as their Redeemer, 
 receive for His sake the forgiveness of their sins, and are made the 
 children of God. 
 
 VIII. We believe that those who are thus regenerated and justi- 
 fied grow in sanctified character through fellowship with Christ, the 
 indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and obedience to the truth ; that 
 a holy life is the fruit and evidence of saving faith ; and that the 
 
VISIBLE UNITY. 53 1 
 
 believer's hope of continuance in such a life is in the preserving 
 grace of God. 
 
 IX. We believe that Jesus Christ came to establish among men 
 the kingdom of God, the reign of truth and love, righteousness and 
 peace ; that to Jesus Christ, the Head of this kingdom, Christians 
 are directly responsible in faith and conduct ; and that to Him all 
 have immediate access without mediatorial or priestly intervention. 
 
 X. We believe that the church of Christ, invisible and spiritual, 
 comprises all true believers, whose duty it is to associate themselves 
 in churches, for the maintenance of worship, for the promotion of 
 spiritual growth and fellowship and for the conversion of men ; 
 that these churches, under the guidance of the Holy Scriptures and 
 in fellowship with one another, may determine — each for itself — 
 their organization, statements of belief and forms of worship ; may 
 appoint and set apart their own ministers, and should co-operate in 
 the work which Christ has committed to them for the furtherance 
 of the gospel throughout the world. 
 
 XI. We believe in the observance of the Lord's Day as a day 
 of holy rest and worship ; in the ministry of the Word ; and in the 
 two Sacraments which Christ has appointed for His Church : Bap- 
 tism, to be administered to believers and their children, as the sign 
 of cleansing from sin, of union to Christ, and of the impartation of 
 the Holy Spirit ; and the Lord's Supper, as a symbol of His atoning 
 death, a seal of its efficacy and a means whereby He confirms and 
 strengthens the spiritual union and communion of believers with 
 Himself. 
 
 XII. We believe in the ultimate prevalence of the kingdom of 
 Christ over all the earth ; in the glorious appearing of the great 
 God and our Saviour Jesus Christ ; in the resurrection of the dead, 
 and in a final judgment, the issues of which are everlasting punish- 
 ment and everlasting life. 
 
 The result of the estabHshment of the National 
 Council has been most helpful. The Council is the 
 recognized declaration of the unity of the churches. 
 It has shown that a national union of churches 
 throughout a continent, each of which preserves the 
 inalienable right of local self-government, can exist 
 
532 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 without domination over churches, and without danofer 
 of assuming authority. It has shown that mutual fel- 
 lowship and communion in Christian love form a tie 
 as strong as that of any ecclesiastical machinery. It 
 has shown that unity may be preserved by brotherly 
 consultation without the penalties of judicial pro- 
 cedure. It has given evidence that, with the posses- 
 sion of a common faith, co-operation in the great 
 enterprises of the gospel is the strongest bond of 
 fraternity under Christ. 
 
 The National Council, made up in every case of 
 messengers sent by the churches, has, by its enrollment 
 of brethren in unity, given courage to many an obscure 
 toiler in the hard places of Christian work, who has 
 felt that he was not overlooked by the great brother- 
 hood ; and courage to many a hidden church, which 
 finds itself recognized as the peer of the strongest in 
 worldly position or influence or wealth. 
 
 The Council has given the judgment of the churches' 
 messengers, after wise and prayerful deliberation and 
 with light coming from every part of the country, upon 
 subjects of weighty import ; its judgment having the 
 force contained in the character of the men who have 
 expressed it, and of the reasonableness found in the 
 opinions thus sent forth ; and these opinions have 
 been received with a favor and respect which have shown 
 the steadily growing confidence of the churches in this 
 method of consultation upon interests dear to their 
 hearts. 
 
 The Council has also tended to break the provin- 
 cialism of methods of thought and action which pre- 
 vailed to some extent in early days by reason of the 
 isolation of groups of churches. It has tended to 
 
VISIBLE UNITY. 
 
 533 
 
 blend us into a national life which absorbs the good 
 found in every section and in all our schools of thought. 
 In our outward growth it is noticeable that since the 
 organization of the Council we have made a net in- 
 crease of more than two thousand churches, our church 
 membership has advanced more than seventy per 
 cent., our enrollment in Sunday schools has increased 
 
 MEETING-HOUSE OF FIRST CHURCH, OAKLAND, CAL. 
 
 by more than ninety per cent., and the benevolent 
 contributions, apart from all local church support, 
 have nearly trebled. 
 
 The next session of the National Council is appointed 
 to be held in San Francisco. I twill take place exactly 
 two and three-quarter centuries from the date of the Pil- 
 orim landine. With much to retard our orrowth, by 
 reason of such lack of denominational interest that 
 our fathers deliberately sent much of our strength into 
 
534 CONGREGATIONALISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Other denominations of Christians, by reason of useless 
 theological dissensions in times past, and by reason of 
 former lack of concentrated energy, yet the Council 
 will represent, when it meets in that city in 1895, more 
 than five thousand churches and more than half a mil- 
 lion of communicants. Forty-nine States and Terri- 
 tories will report their Congregational churches. From 
 the beginning at Plymouth, in numbers hardly to be 
 noticed, but mighty in seminal principle, it is proper 
 that the body of churches should at last connect the 
 surf of the Atlantic with the waves of the Pacific, and 
 sit together in loving communion by the Golden Gate. 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 
 
 OF IMPORTANT EVENTS IN CONGREGATIONAL HISTORY. 
 
 1582. Browne's "Statement of Congregational Principles " published. 
 
 1 583. John Coppin and Elias Thacker hanged at Bury St. Edmunds, England. 
 1586. John Greenwood and Henry Barrowe imprisoned in London. 
 
 1588. Martin Mar-prelate Tracts. 
 
 1 589. " A Triie Description, out of the Word of God, of the Visible Church," 
 
 published in London. 
 
 1592. First known modern Congregational church completely and formally 
 
 organized in London. 
 
 1593. John Greenwood, Henry Barrowe and John Penry hanged : the last of 
 
 the Congregational martyrs put to death. Fifty-six members of 
 the first Congregational church, London, imprisoned. 
 
 1595. First Congregational church regathered in Amsterdam, Holland. 
 
 1596. "A True Confession of the Faith" of the London-Amsterdam 
 
 Church published. 
 1598. The same " True Confession " translated into Latin and published. 
 
 1602. Congregational church organized at Gainsborough, England. 
 
 1603. Death of Elizabeth and accession of James I, Petition of Amsterdam 
 
 Church to King James I., stating the " Points of Difference between 
 Congregationalism and the Church of England." 
 
 1606. Scrooby Church organized, John Robinson, Pastor. Gainsborough 
 Church removes to Amsterdam. 
 
 1607-08. Scrooby Church removes to Amsterdam. 
 
 1609. John Robinson, with the Pilgrims of Scrooby Church, settles in Leyden. 
 
 161 1. King James' Version of the Bible published. 
 
 1616. Congregational church organized at Southwark, London. 
 
 1617. Pilgrims of Leyden petition King James for permission to settle in 
 
 America. 
 1618-19. The Synod of Dort, at Dordrecht, Holland. 
 
 1620. Pilgrims left Leyden, July 21 ; sailed from Plymouth, September 16; 
 
 signed civil compact in the "Mayflower," November 21 ; landed at 
 Plymouth, Mass., December 11 (O. S.), December 21 (N. S.) 
 
 162 1. Governor Carver died ; William Bradford chosen governor of Pilgrim 
 
 Colony. 
 
 1624. First Puritan settlement in New England, at Cape Ann, 
 
 1625. John Robinson died in Leyden. Death of James I. and accession of 
 
 Charles I. 
 1628. The Company of Massachusetts Bay formed in England. Captain 
 Endecott arrived at Salem. William Laud made Bishop of London. 
 
 535 
 
536 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE, 
 
 1629. Six vessels, with emigrants from England, arrived at Salem. Second 
 
 Congregational church in America, formed at Salem, Mass. 
 Charter granted to Massachusetts. 
 
 1630. First Church, Dorchester, Mass., organized at Plymouth, England, 
 
 landed at Nantasket, May 30. John Winthrop, with a fleet of ves- 
 sels, arrived in Massachusetts Bay. The Massachusetts charter 
 brought to New England. First Church organized at Charlestown, 
 and First Church, Watertown, July 30. First General Court, Au- 
 gust 23. John Winthrop elected governor. Settlement of Boston. 
 
 1632. Church at Charlestown removed to Boston. Present First Church, 
 
 Charlestown, organized November 23. First Church, Lynn, and 
 First Church, Roxbury, organized. 
 
 1633. John Cotton, Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone arrived at Boston. 
 
 Laud made Archbishop of Canterbury. First parish in New 
 Hampshire, at Dover. First Church formed in connection with the 
 parish, 1638. 
 
 1635. Colonies from Dorchester and Watertown removed to Connecticut. 
 
 1636. First Church in Dorchester, Mass., organized in Plymouth, England, 
 
 1630, fully established at Windsor, Conn. First Church, Cam- 
 bridge, organized. Thomas Hooker, with his company, an organ- 
 ized church, emigrated from Cambridge, Mass., to Hartford, Conn. 
 Roger Williams banished from Massachusetts Colony. Sir Henry 
 Vane chosen governor. The Hutchinson controversy. Harvard 
 College founded. Winthrop again elected governor. 
 
 1637. First General Synod of New England convened at Cambridge by the 
 
 General Court. It condemned Antinomianism. John Davenport 
 and company arrived at Boston from England. Pequot War. 
 
 1638. Mrs. Hutchinson excommunicated from the Boston Church, and ban- 
 
 ished from the colony. New Haven Colony founded by Davenport 
 and his company. 
 1641. "Body of Liberties," adopted by the General Court of Massachusetts. 
 New Hampshire towns incorporated into Massachusetts Colony. 
 
 1643. Westminster Assembly convened in England by Parliament. Minis- 
 
 terial Convention at Cambridge, Mass. Confederation of the four 
 colonies : Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven. 
 
 1644. Archbishop Laud executed. 
 
 1645. Battle of Naseby, insuring the downfall of the English Monarchy. 
 
 Hooker's " Survey of the Sum of Church Discipline " approved by 
 the ministers of the New England colonies. 
 1646-48. John Eliot began preaching to the Indians. General American 
 Synod at Cambridge setting forth platform of Church Polity. 
 
 1647. System of common schools adopted by General Court of Massachusetts. 
 
 1648. Westminster Confession of Faith approved by Parliament. 
 
 1649. England proclaims itself a Commonwealth. 
 
 1650. Second Church, Boston, organized. 
 
 165 1. General Court of Massachusetts approved Cambridge Platform. 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 537 
 
 1654. Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England. 
 
 1657. Ministerial Convention at Boston. Halfway Covenant recommended. 
 
 Quakers imprisoned in Boston. 
 
 1658. General Synod at Savoy Palace, London, setting forth amended 
 
 Westminster Confession and Congregational Platform of Church 
 Order. Oliver Cromwell died. 
 
 1660. Restoration of monarchy in England. Charles IL made king. 
 
 1662. Massachusetts Synod at Boston approved Halfway Covenant. Con- 
 necticut and New Haven Colonies united. 
 
 1664. Church at Barrington organized ; the oldest existing Congregational 
 church in Rhode Island . 
 
 1669. Old South Church, Boston, organized. 
 
 1670. Second Church, Hartford, Conn., organized. 
 
 1673. Church in Agamenticus, now York, Me., organized (possibly much 
 earlier), the oldest existing Congregational church in that State, 
 then a part of Massachusetts. 
 
 1674-76. King Philip's War. 
 
 1679-80. Massachusetts Synod at Boston, known as the Reforming Synod. 
 
 1682. Cotton Mather ordained colleague pastor of Second Church, Boston. 
 
 1684. Charter of Massachusetts Colony vacated. 
 
 1685. James II., king of England. Sir Edmund Andros seized Old South 
 
 Meeting-house, Boston, for Episcopal services. 
 
 1689. William and Mary made king and queen of England. Andros 
 
 imprisoned, and provisional government formed in Massachusetts. 
 Simon Bradstreet, governor. King's Chapel erected for Episcopal 
 worship. Toleration Act passed by English Parliament, afford- 
 ing legal protection to Nonconformists. 
 
 1690. Association of ministers of Boston and vicinity formed ; the first 
 
 permanent District Association in Massachusetts. 
 
 1691. Heads of Agreement adopted, in London, between Presbyterians and 
 
 Congregationalists. Plymouth Colony connected with Massa- 
 chusetts. 
 
 1692. William Phips, first governor of Massachusets under new charter. 
 
 Twenty persons put to death at Salem for witchcraft. Episco- 
 palians, Baptists and Quakers exempted from taxes for the support 
 of Congregational churches in Massachusetts. 
 1699. Brattle Street Church, Boston, organized. 
 
 1 701. Yale College founded. Society for the Propagation of the Gospel 
 
 organized in England. 
 
 1702. Anne, queen of England. 
 
 1705. " Proposals," issued by representatives of Massachusetts ministerial 
 associations. 
 
 1708. Connecticut Synod at Saybrook issued the Saybrook Platform. 
 
 1709. General Association of Connecticut ministers organized : the first 
 
 State organization. 
 1713. Peace of Utrecht. 
 
538 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 1714. George L, king of England. 
 
 1716. Yale College located in New Haven. 
 
 1722. Cutler, rector of Yale College, and others, became Episcopalians. 
 
 1723. Increase Mather died. 
 
 1725. Final and unsuccessful effort of General Court of Massachusetts to 
 call a synod of churches. 
 
 1727. Jonathan Edwards ordained colleague pastor at Northampton. 
 
 George II., king of England, 
 
 1728. Cotton Mather died. 
 
 1735. Revival of religion at Northampton. 
 1738. George Whitefield's first visit to America. 
 
 1740. Whitefield visited Boston and other parts of New England. 
 1740-42. Great revival of religion in New England. 
 
 1741. Gilbert Tennent preached in Boston. 
 
 1742. John Davenport by his preaching made disturbances in Connecticut 
 
 and Massachusetts. Separatist churches formed. 
 1744-45. Whitefield's second visit to New England. 
 1750. Jonathan Edwards, forced to leave the Church at Northampton, went 
 
 to Stockbridge, a missionary to the Indians. 
 1757- Jonathan Edwards died. 
 1762. First Church organized in Vermont, at Bennington. 
 
 1765. Stamp Act passed. 
 
 1766. Stamp Act repealed. 
 
 1769. Dartmouth College founded. 
 
 1770. Samuel Hopkins settled at Newport, R. I. 
 1773. The Boston Tea Party. 
 
 1775. Commencement of War of the Revolution. 
 
 1778. Phillips Academy, Andover, founded. Phillips Acadeiny. Exeter, 
 
 N. H., chartered 1781. 
 1780. Massachusetts Bill of Rights enacted ; amended, guaranteeing to 
 - every denomination of Christians equal protection in law, 1834. 
 
 1782. James Freeman chosen rector of King's Chapel; the church under 
 
 him became Unitarian. 
 
 1783. End of the War of the Revolution. 
 
 1784. Saybrook Platform, by revision of statutes, ceased to be civil law in 
 
 Connecticut. 
 
 1786. Massachusetts was granted the right to purchase from the Indians 
 Western New York. 
 
 1790. Methodism first appears in Massachusetts. Grant of Western Re- 
 serve to Connecticut. 
 
 1793. Williams College chartered. 
 
 1794. Bowdoin College chartered. 
 
 1795. The London Missionary Society instituted. General Convention of 
 
 Congregational ministers and churches in Vermont organized. 
 
 1796. First Congregational church in Ohio, at Marietta. 
 1798. Connecticut Missionary Society formed. 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 539 
 
 1799. Massachusetts Missionary Society formed. 
 
 1800. Middlebury College founded. 
 
 1 801. Plan of Union adopted between the General Congregational Associa- 
 
 tion of Connecticut and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
 Church. Congregational Church organized in Quebec, the first in 
 Lower Canada. 
 
 1803. General Association of Massachusetts ministers formed. General 
 Conference of churches, i860. Union of Association and Confer- 
 ence, 1868. 
 
 1805. Henry Ware chosen professor of divinity at Harvard. First Sunday 
 school in Canada organized in connection with Congregational 
 church in Quebec. 
 
 1808. The first theological seminary opened at Andover, Mass. 
 
 1809. Park Street Church, Boston, organized. New Hampshire Associa- 
 
 tion and Rhode Island Consociation organized. Muskingum 
 (O.) Association formed. 
 
 1 8 10. American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions established 
 
 by the General Association of Massachusetts. Dr. Kirkland 
 elected president of Harv^ard. First Sunday school in Massachu- 
 setts, at Beverly. 
 
 181 5. Unitarianism avowed by some Massachusetts Congregationalists. 
 
 1816. American Education Society formed ; united with Western College 
 
 Society in 1874; with New West Education Commission in 1893. 
 Bangor Theological Seminary began. Boston Recorder began. 
 
 1818. New constitution adopted by the State of Connecticut, making all re- 
 
 ligious associations purely voluntary. 
 
 1819. Congregational church organized at Southwold, the first in Upper 
 
 Canada. 
 
 1 82 1. Amherst College founded. 
 
 1822. Theological department opened at Yale College. 
 
 1826. American Home Missionary Society instituted. First State Confer- 
 ence of churches organized in Maine. 
 
 1 83 1. Congregational Union of England and Wales organized. 
 
 1832. Massachusetts Sabbath-school Society organized. 
 
 1833. Declaration of Faith of the Congregational churches of England and 
 
 Wales, with Principles of Church Order and Discipline. Oberlin 
 College founded. 
 
 1834. General Association of New York organized. 
 
 1835. Illinois College founded. 
 
 1837. Presbyterian General Assembly abrogated Plan of Union. 
 
 1838. New School Presbyterian Church organized. 
 
 1840. General Association of Iowa and Wisconsin Convention formed. 
 1842. General Association of Michigan formed. 
 1844. General Association of Illinois formed. 
 
 1846. Convention of Western Congregational churches at Michigan City, 
 Mich. American Missionary Association organized. 
 
540 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 1847. Beloit College founded. 
 
 1848. Iowa College founded. Oregon Association formed. 
 
 1852. American General Convention of Congregational Churches at Albany, 
 
 N. Y. End of Plan of Union. Ohio Association organized. 
 
 1853. Congregational Church-building Society formed. 
 
 1855. Kansas Association organized. 
 
 1856. Minnesota Association organized. 
 
 1857. California and Nebraska associations organized. 
 
 1858. Chicago Theological Seminary founded. Indiana Association organ- 
 
 ized. 
 i860. Congregational College of British North America founded ; affiliated 
 
 with McGill University, Montreal, Canada, 1864, 
 1861. Beginning of Civil War. 
 1865. Close of Civil War. Missouri Association organized. General 
 
 American Council of Congregational Churches, Boston. Burial 
 
 Hill Declaration of Faith adopted. 
 
 1867. Connecticut Conference organized. 
 
 1868. Colorado Association organized. 
 
 1869. New Jersey Association organized. 
 
 1870. Louisiana Association organized. 
 
 1871. National Council established at Oberlin, O., for triennial meetings. 
 
 South Dakota and Tennessee associations organized. 
 1873. Congregational House, Boston, occupied by benevolent societies and 
 
 other Congregational organizations. 
 1876. Alabama Association organized. 
 
 1878. Georgia Association organized. 
 
 1879. North Carolina Conference organized. 
 
 1881. First Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor, formed at Willis- 
 
 ton Congregational Church, Portland, Me. New West Education 
 Commission organized ; united with American Education Society, 
 
 1893. 
 
 1882. Utah Association organized. 
 
 1883. Declaration of Faith by a Creed Commission appointed by the 
 
 National Council. Florida and Mississippi associations and North 
 Dakota Conference organized. 
 
 1884. Arizona and New Mexico Association and Montana Conference 
 
 organized. 
 
 1886. Pennsylvania Association organized. 
 
 1887. Arkansas and Southern California associations organized. 
 
 1889. Washington Association organized. 
 
 1890. Georgia Convention and Oklahoma Association organized. 
 
 1 891. First International Congregational Council, London, England, all 
 
 parts of the world being represented. 
 
 1892. Wyoming Association organized. 
 
INDEX OF NAMES OF PERSONS. 
 
 Abbott, Abif.l, 294 
 Abbott, B. v., 483 
 Abbott, Jacob, 488 
 Abbott, Lyman, 479, 4S7 
 Abbott, Samuel, 287, 288 
 Abeel, David, 337 
 Adams, Ephraim, 437 
 Adams, Harvey, 437 
 Adams, Jacob, 383 
 Adams, John, 266, 267, 26g 
 Adams, Nehemiah, 487 
 Adams, Samuel, 268 
 Addington, Isaac, 220 
 Ainsworth, Henry, 75, ^63 
 Alden, Ebenezer, Jr., 437 
 Alden, E. K., 342 
 Allen, James, 180, 208, 212, 216 
 Allen, Thomas, 274 
 Allerton, Isaac, qo, gg, T12 
 AUine, Henry, 409 
 Anderson, A. J., 380 
 Anderson, Rufus, 484 
 Andros, Sir Edmund, 196 
 Arabella, Lady, 114 
 Armstrong, S. C, 355, 35^ 
 Aspinwall, William, 114 
 Atkinson, G. H., 380, 443, 524 
 Atkinson, Timothy, 474 
 
 Bachelor, Stephen, 159 
 
 Bacon, B. W., 483 
 
 Bacon, Leonard, 387, 398-400, < 
 
 516 
 Badger, Joseph, 324 
 Baldwin, C. C, 484 
 Baldwin, Theron, 369, 372, 430 
 Barbour, W. M., 410 
 Barnabas, Joseph, 42-46 
 Barnes, Albert, 329 
 Barnes, Romulus, 430 
 Barr, Thomas, 325 
 Barrowe, Henry, 62, 63, 66, 71, 
 Barrows, E. P., 387, 430 
 Barstow, A. C, 523 
 Bartlet, William, 287, 28S 
 Bartlett, S. C, 43°. 5^3 
 Bascom, Flavel, 430 
 Baxter, Richard, 471 
 Beard, R. A., 380 
 
 , 479. 490, 512, 
 
 Beecher, Edward, 369 
 
 Beecher, H. W., 398, 400, 479, 482, 486 
 
 Beecher, Lyman, 278, 279, 306, 307, 30( 
 
 399 
 Belcher, Gov., 248 
 Belknap, Jeremy, 292 
 Bellamy, Joseph, 280, 281 
 Belsham, Thomas, 283, 294, 298, 299 
 Benton, J. A., 390 
 Biddle, John, 282 
 Bingham, Hiram, 484 
 Bird, Isaac, 337 
 Bishop, Bridget, 200 
 Bissell, E. C., 483 
 Blackstone, William, 114 
 Bliss, C. R., 344 
 Blodget, Henry, 4S4 
 Boardman, D. B., 389 
 Bonar, Horatius, 486 
 Bouton, Nathaniel, 346 
 Bowdoin, James, 366 
 Bowman, Christopher, 67 
 Boynton, G. M, 488, 453 
 Bradford, William, 75, 78, 89-91, 102, 107 
 Bradstreet, Simon, 185, 198, 202 
 Brainerd, David, 261 
 Brattle, Thomas, 209, 211 
 Brattle, William, 209, 213 
 Breck, Daniel, 420 
 
 Brewster, William, 72-74, 78, 8i, 97, 98, 15 
 Bridgman, E. C, 337 
 Bridgman, H. A., v, 467 
 Bright, Francis, 102 
 Brook, Lord, 158 
 Brooks, W. M., 376, 377 
 Brown, J. B., 483 
 Brown, John, 376 
 Brown, Moses, 287, 288 
 Brown, Phoebe H., 485 
 Brown, Tutor, 231 
 Brown, Two Brothers, 108, 109 
 Browne, Robert, 58-61, 468 
 Buckingham, Thomas, 223 
 
 Buckingham, W. A., 514 
 
 Buckminster, J. S., 284, 286, 292, 294 
 
 Budington, W. I., 523, 524 
 
 Bulkeley, Peter, 134 
 
 BuUard, Artemas, 426 
 
 BuUard, Asa, 3491 453i 4S8 
 
542 
 
 INDEX OF NAMES OF PERSONS. 
 
 Bunyan, John, 471, 488 
 Burdett, George, 158 
 Burnham, Charles, 436 
 Burnham, Samuel, 474 
 Burr, Jonathan, 295 
 Burroughs, George, 201 
 Burton, N. S., 430 
 Bushnell, Horace, 395-397, 482 
 Butterfield, H. Q., 373, 376 
 Byington, E. H., 487 
 Byles, Mather, 274 
 
 Cable, G. W., 488 
 
 Carleton, William, 378, 379 
 
 Carter, William, 430 
 
 Cartwright, Thomas, 56, 58 
 
 Carver, John, 80, 82, 88, 90 
 
 Cave, Alfred, 483 
 
 Chadbourne, P. A., 430 
 
 Chalmers, Thomas, 264 
 
 Channing, W. E., 284, 291, 292, 299, 305, 306, 
 
 307- 316 
 Chapin, E. L., 372 
 Chauncey, Charles, 154, 174, 179, 180 
 Chauncey, Dr. Charles, 258, 267, 277, 280, 28: 
 Cheever, G. B., 311 
 Choate, Rufus, 365 
 Christison, Wenlock, 183 
 Clark, A. R., 423 
 Clark, Dorus, 473 
 Clark, F. E., v, 348, 446, 487 
 Clark, J. L., 274, 360, 368, 402, 473 
 Clark, N. G., 341 
 Clarke, Harvey, 380 
 Clarke, John, 163, i^ 
 Clarke, John, 284 
 Clyfton, Richard, 73 
 Cobbett, Thomas, 147 
 Codman, John, 292, 295 
 Coffin, C. C, 488 
 
 Colmar, Benjamin, 211, 213-216, 218-231, 245 
 Conant, Roger, 100, loi 
 Cook, E. W., 407 
 Cooke, Parsons, 311, 474 
 Cooper, Ezekiel, 252 
 Coppin, J., 57, 61, 69 
 Cornelius, the Centurion, 41 
 Cornelius, Elias, 425, 430 
 Cotton, John, 106, 119, 120, 122-125, 130, 132-134, 
 
 137-140, 146-148, 171, 174, 197, 266, 267, 469 
 Cotton, John, Jr., 153 
 Cradock, Matthew, 11 1 
 Cranfield, Lieut.-Gov., 160 
 Cromwell, Oliver, 139 
 Crooks, J. F., 430 
 Curtiss, S. J., 389. 483 
 Cushing, Christopher, 474 
 Cushman, Robert, 80, 81, 84, 91 
 Cutler, Carroll, 430 
 Cutler, Manasseh, 419, 47 j 
 Cutler, Timothy, 231-233 
 
 Dale, R. W., 483 
 
 Dalton, Timothy, 159 
 
 Dane, Nathan, 429 
 
 Davenport, James, 254, 255, 258 
 
 Davenport, John, 137, 139, 141, 156, 172, 180, 187, 
 
 469 
 Davis, Nicholas, 182 
 Day, G. E., 387, 485 
 Day, H. N., 430 
 De Foe, Daniel, 488 
 Delamater, Dr., 430 
 
 Dexter, H. M., 65, 219, 360, 401, 469, 473, 474 
 Dickey, C. A., 426 
 Dickey, J. M., 427 
 Doane, Thomas, 379 
 Doddridge, Philip, 485 
 Drury, Samuel, 378 
 Dudley, Samuel, 160 
 Dudley, Thomas, 115, 228 
 Duffield, George, 329 
 Duncan, W. A., 452 
 Dunning, A. E., xiv, 350, 451 
 Dunster, Henry, 167 
 Durant, H. F., 384, 385 
 Duryea, J. T., 487 
 Dwight, H. G. O., 337 
 Dwight, S. E., 307 
 Dwight, Timothy, 283, 294, 485 
 Dwight, Timothy, 364, 3SS, 483 
 Dwight, W. T., 510 
 Dyer, Mary, 182 
 
 Eames, Capt., 143 
 
 Eaton, E. D., 372 
 
 Eaton, J. F., 380 
 
 Eaton, Samuel, 156, 274 
 
 Eaton, Theophilus, 137 
 
 Eckley, Joseph, 291 
 
 Edson, H. K., 438 
 
 Edward VI., 54 
 
 Edwards, Jonathan, 235-237, 240, 241-245, 248, 258, 
 
 261-263, 278, 294, 320, 321, 448, 449, 481 
 Eells, Cushing, 380, 442 
 Eells, Edwin, 443 
 Eells, Myron, 443 
 Elizabeth, Queen, 54, 55, 61 ■ 
 Eliot, Andrew, 296 
 Eliot, John, iv, 120, 121, 167-169 
 Ellis, G. E., 303-305, 314, 315 
 Ellis, J. M., 430 
 Ely, R. T., 487 
 
 Emerson, Oliver, 436 , 
 
 Emerson, R. W., 312 
 Emerson, William, 284, 292 
 Emlyn, Thomas, 282 
 
 Emmons, Nathaniel, 278, 279, 281, 283, 285, 4G2 
 Endecott, John, loi, 102, 105, 109, 125, 181 
 Evarts, Jeremiah, 299 
 
 Fairbairn, a. M., 483 
 Fairchild, J. H., 482 
 
INDEX OF NAMES OF PERSONS. 
 
 543 
 
 Fairfield, M. W., 373 
 
 Farnham, Lucian, 430 
 
 Fee, J. G., 355 
 
 Finney, C. G., 32S, 370, 4S2, 524 
 
 Fisher, G. P., 387, 482 
 
 Fisk, F. W., 389 
 
 Fiske, Fidelia, 385 
 
 Fitch, Ebenezer, 365 
 
 Fitz, Richard, 57 
 
 Flagg, R. C., 375 
 
 Fox, George, 181 
 
 Free, A. T., 379 
 
 Freeman, James, 281, 282, 298 
 
 Frelinghuysen, Theodore, 342 
 
 Frost, W. G., 375 
 
 Fuller, Samuel, 102, 105, 112 
 
 Gage, Gen., 270, 271 
 Gager, William, 114 
 Garfield, J. A., 366 
 Gaston, G. A., 376, 377 
 Gates, G. A., 373 
 Gaylord, Reuben, 436 
 Gibson, Richard, 162 
 Giddings, J. R., 424, 426 
 Giddings, S. R., 426, 430, 436 
 Gilbert, Ralegh, 160 
 Gladden, Washington, 485, 487 
 Goodell, C. L., 405 
 Goodell, William, 337, 484 
 Goodrich, C. A., 387 
 Goodwin, E. P., 403 
 Goodwin, John, 469 
 Goodwin, William, 177 
 Gookin, Daniel, 169 
 Gorges, Capt. Robert, 94 
 Gorges, Ferdinando, 94, 157 
 Gorton, Samuel, 164 
 Granger, Dr., 438 
 Grant, Miss, 383 
 
 Greene, David, 486 
 
 Greene, D. C, 338 
 
 Greene, J. K., 484 
 
 Greenwood, F. W. P., 296, 305 
 
 Greenwood, John, 62, 63, 66-71, 
 
 Griffin, E. D., 292, 365 
 
 Grosvenor, Mason, 430 
 
 Grout, Lewis, 484 
 
 Gulliver, J. P., 521 
 
 Gunsaulus, F. W., 488 
 
 Hale, Albert, 430 
 Hale, E. E., 317 
 Hall, Gordon, 335-337 
 Hamlin, Cyrus, 484 
 Hammond, C. G., 514 
 Hammond, William, 437 
 Hancock, John, 270 
 Hand, Daniel, 357 
 Hardy, Alpheus, 339 
 Hardy, A. S., 488 
 
 Harris, Samuel, 387, 482 
 Harrison, Robert, 468 
 Hartranft, C. D. 388 
 Hasseltine, Ann C, 382 
 Hatfield, E. F.,382, 426 
 Haynes, John, 121 
 Hazen, H. A., 475 
 Hempstead, Stephen. 426 
 Henry Vni., 54 
 Herrick, George, 484 
 Hiacoomes, 168 
 Hickok, L. P., 430, 482 
 Higginson, Francis, 102-106 
 Higginson, John, 156, 157, 208, 212 
 Hill, H. A., 482 
 
 Hill, J. J., 437 
 
 Hincks, E. Y., 483 
 
 Hitchcock, A. B., 436 
 
 Hitchcock, H. P., 430 
 
 Hitchcock, Edward, 367 
 
 Hitchcock, L. A., 362 
 
 Hobart, Peter, 143 
 
 Hobbomok, 166 
 
 Holbrook, J. C., 436, 437 
 
 Holland, J. G., 488 
 
 HoUis. Thomas, 286 
 
 Holman, Ezekiel, 163 
 
 Holmes, Samuel, 523 
 
 Holton, E. D., 524 
 
 Hooke, D. B., 477 
 
 Hooke, William, 154 
 
 Hooker, Thomas, iv, 120, 121, 123-126, 128, 129, 
 
 I33i I34i I37~i39i I45> 1721 i77> 266, 469 
 Hopkins, Mark, 342, 365, 366, 482 
 Hopkins, Samuel, 278, 279, 281, 286 
 Horton, R. F.. 483 
 
 Howard, O. O., xxii, 354, 367, 523, 524 
 Howe, Joseph, 274 
 Hubbard, William, 208 
 Hudson, David, 429 
 Hungerford, Edward, 487 
 Hunt, John, 274 
 Huntington, Joshua, 291 
 Hutchinson, Ann, 130, 132, 133, 135, 163 
 Hutchinson, Gov., 201 
 Hutchinson, Horace, 437 
 
 Ingalls, F. T., 378 
 
 Jackson, G, A., 48S 
 
 Jackson, S. N., 469 
 
 Jacob, Henry, 153, 162 
 
 James I., 72 
 
 James, Thomas, 116 
 
 Jenner, Thomas, 162 
 
 Jenney, Elisha, 430 
 
 John, the Apostle, 40 
 
 Johnson, Francis, 66, 67, 71, 77, 106 
 
 Johnson, George, 71, 77 
 
 Johnson, Isaac, 114 
 
 Johnson, Mr., 231 
 
544 
 
 INDEX OF NAMES OF PERSONS. 
 
 Jones, John, 157 
 Jones, John, 410 
 Judson, Adoniram, 335-337 
 Judson, Ann H., 382 
 
 Keniston. George, 67 
 King, Joseph, 337 
 Kingsley, W. M., 475 
 Kirby, William, 430 
 Kirk, E. N., 487 
 Kirkland, J. T., 293, 296 
 Knollys, Hanserd, 158, 159, 489 
 Kuenen, Dr., 98 
 
 Ladd, G. T., 483 
 
 Lane, Daniel, 437 
 
 Langvvorthy, I. P., 360, 474 
 
 Larkam, Thomas, 159 
 
 Larned, Sylvester, 425 
 
 Laud, William, 120, 126, 158, 265, 266 
 
 Laurie, Thomas, 483 
 
 Leddra, William, 183 
 
 Legge, James, 483 
 
 Lee, Nicholas, 67 
 
 Lenthall, Robert, 164 
 
 Leverett, John, 209, 229 
 
 Leverich, William, 158 
 
 Lindsay, Theophilus, 298 
 
 Locke, John, 275, 469 
 
 Long, Clement, 430 
 
 Loomis, Elias, 430 
 
 Loomis, S. L., 487 
 
 Lothrop, John, 153 
 
 Lucius, of Cyrene, 43 
 
 Lum, S. Y., 439 
 
 Luther, Martin, 53 
 
 Lyford, Jo^n, 95, 96, 100, toi 
 
 Lyman, Joseph, 291, 342 
 
 Lyon, Mary, 383, 384, 385 
 
 Mabie, H. W., 479 
 
 Mackintosh, Sir James, 275 
 
 Magoun, G. F., 373 
 
 Mahan, Asa, 371 
 
 Manaen, 43 
 
 Mary, Queen, 54 
 
 Mark, John, 43, 44 
 
 Mason, John, 157 
 
 Mason, Lowell, 486 
 
 Massasoit, 90, 91 
 
 Mather, Cotton, 134, 153, 173, 197, 198, ipg, 200, 
 
 202, 206, 208, 210, 213, 216, 2i8, 222, 224, 229, 
 
 230> 233. 234. 300. 469 
 Mather, Increase, 180, 191, 194, 197-199, 202, 208- 
 
 210, 2i2-2i6, 220, 202, 224, 228, 229, 232, 239, 
 
 256, 469, 494 
 Mather, Richard, 138, 146-149, 174, 176 
 Mather, Samuel, 254 
 Matthias, 36 
 Maud, Daniel, 159 
 Maverick, John, m 
 
 May, Sophie, 488 
 
 Mayhew, Jonathan, 267, 275, 280 
 
 Mayhew, Thomas, 168 
 
 McVicar, Peter, 376 
 
 Mead, C. M., 483 
 
 Mead, Mrs. E. M., 385 
 
 Means, J. O., 341 
 
 Merrell, E. H., 375 
 
 Merrill, Selah, 483 
 
 Merriman, W. E., 375, 523 
 
 Miles, Mr., 232, 233 
 
 Miller, R. W., 465 
 
 Miller, Samuel, 307 
 
 Mills, S. J., 335, 425, 436 
 
 Mills, Dr., 385 
 
 Milton, John, 488 
 
 Mitchell, Jonathan, 179, 180, 2io 
 
 Mooar, George, 390 
 
 Moody, D. L., 387, 482 
 
 Moody, Joshua, 160 
 
 Moore, L. S., 365, 367 
 
 Morelli, 468 
 
 Morgan, John, 370 
 
 Morrison, N. J., 373, 378 
 
 Morse, Jedediah, 267, 268, 287, 291 
 
 Morse, S. E., 478 
 
 Morton, Charles, 207 
 
 Morton, Nathaniel, no 
 
 Munger, T. T., 482 
 
 Nason, Elias, 486 
 Neesima, Joseph, 339, 340 
 Nelson, H. A., 426 
 Nettleton, Asahel, 309, 485 
 Newell, Harriet, 336, 382 
 Newell, Samuel, 335, 336 
 Nicolas, 42 
 Niger, Symeon, 43 
 Noble, F. A., 344, 403 
 Norris, Edward, 147 
 Norris, John, 288 
 Norris, Mary, 336 
 Norton, A. T., 423 
 Norton, John, 147, 179, 185 
 Nott, Samuel, 335, 336, 337 
 Nowell, Increase, 114 
 Noyes, James, 140, 143, 223 
 Noyes, Nicholas, 208,212 
 
 Oake.s, Urian, 194 
 Ogden, Amos, 435 
 Obookiah, Henry, 337 
 Oldham, John, 96 
 Otis, James, 275 
 Owen, John, 257 
 
 Paine, Joshua, 274 
 Palmer, Mrs. A. F., 386 
 Palmer, B. M., 425 
 Palmer, Ray, 485, 486, 521 
 Paris, Mr., 200 
 
INDEX OF NAMES OF PERSONS. 
 
 545 
 
 Park, E. A., 387, 395, 482, 486 
 
 Pa^Rer, Chief Justice, 302, 311 
 
 Parker, Edwin O., 487 
 
 Parker, Joseph, 483 
 
 Parker, Theodore, 312 
 
 Parker, Thomas, 140, 143 
 
 Parkman, Francis, 296 
 
 Partridge, Ralph, 146, 153 
 
 Patton, W. W., 469, 480, 487 
 
 Paul, the Apostle, 44-48 
 
 Pearson, Eliphalet, 286-288, 343 
 
 Pearsons, D. K., 389, 436, 440 
 
 Peet, Stephen, 372 
 
 Peloubet, F. N., 487, 488 
 
 Pemberton, Ebenezer, 209, 216, 218, 230, 274 
 
 Penry, John, 64-66, 69-71 
 
 Perry, D. B., 379 
 
 Peter, the Apostle, 34, 36, 37, 40, 41, 46 
 
 Peter, Hugh, 121, 132 
 
 Phelps, Austin, 387, 482, 486, 487 
 
 Phelps, Elizabeth S., 488 
 
 Philip, 40, 41 
 
 Phillips, George, it2, 114, 172 
 
 Phillips, John, 287, 288 
 
 Phillips, Phoebe, 288 
 
 Phips, Sir William, 198, 200 
 
 Pierce, G. E., 423 
 
 Pierce, J. D., 403 
 
 Pierrepont, Sarah, 236 
 
 Pierson, Abraham, 164, 186, 220, 364 
 
 Pomeroy, Benjamin, 255, 157 
 
 Pond, Enoch, 387, 469 
 
 Poole, Elizabeth, 154 
 
 Poor, Daniel, 337 
 
 Popham, Capt. George, 160 
 
 Porter, Eliphalet, 293 
 
 Porter, Noah, 387, 482, 510 
 
 Post, T. M., 394, 406, 426 
 
 Potts, W. S., 426 
 
 Pratt, F. G., Jr., 476 
 
 Pratt, W. S., 487 
 
 Prentiss, Elizabeth P., 487 
 
 Priestley, Joseph, 282, 283 
 
 Prince, Thomas, 250-252, 274, 470 
 
 Prudden, Peter, 156 
 
 Putnam, David, 421 
 
 Quint, A. H., v, 360, 482, 469, 473, 474, 489, 516, 
 523 
 
 Raikes, Robert, 348, 450 
 Randolph, Edward, 191 
 Rankin, J. E., 485 
 Reed, J. A., 436 
 Reed, John, 291 
 Reyner, John, 153^ 159 
 Reynolds, H. R., 483 
 Rice, Luther, 336, 337 
 Richards, C. H., 487 
 Richards, James, 335 
 Riggs, Elias, 484 
 
 Riggs, S. R., 48s 
 
 Ripley, Erastus, 437, 439 
 
 Robbins, A. B., 437, 438 
 
 Robinson, John, 73, 78, 79, 81, 84, 85, 93, 95-98, 
 
 469 
 Robinson, William, 182 
 Rogers, Mr., 99 
 Rogers, Nathaniel, 147 
 Ross, A. H., 469, 522 
 Rowland, Thomas, 57 
 Roy, J. E., iv, 419, 469 
 Rutherford, Samuel, 140 
 
 Salter, William, 437, 438 
 
 Saltonstall, Gurdon, 223, 231 
 
 Sargent, Winthrop, 420 
 
 Saul, 42, 43 
 
 Say and Sele, Lord, 124, 139, 158 
 
 Schaufller, William, 484 
 
 Schermerhorn, J. F., 425 
 
 Scott, H. M., 389 
 
 Seccombe, Charles, 405 
 
 Seccombe, John, 409 
 
 Seelye, J. H., 482, 530 
 
 Bewail, Joseph, 268 
 
 Sewall, Samuel, 202, 210, 213, 220, 230 
 
 Schafer, Helen M., 386 
 
 Shaw, Albert, 476 
 
 Shedd, W. G. T., 387 
 
 Shephard, Thomas, 121, 129, 134, 147, 174, 207 
 
 Sherman, John, 294 
 
 Shipherd, J. J., 369, 373 
 
 Silas, 47 
 
 Skelton, Samuel, 102, 104, 106, 125, 126 
 
 Slocum, W. F., 379 
 
 Smith, Daniel, 425 
 
 Smith, Eli, 337 
 
 Smith, Henry, 174 
 
 Smith, J. C, 342 
 
 Smith, John, 82 
 
 Smith, Ralph, 102, 104, 153 
 
 Smith, Sophia, 385 
 
 Smyth, E. C, 387 
 
 Smyth, John, 72, 77 
 
 Socinus, 282 
 
 Sparks, Jared, 306 
 
 Spaulding, B. A., 437 
 
 Sperry, W. G., 373 
 
 Spring, Samuel, 286, 287 
 
 Squanto, 90, 166 
 
 Standish, Myles, 93, 94 
 
 Stearns, L. F., 387, 482 
 
 Stephen, 40, 42 
 
 Stevenson, Marmaduke, 182 
 
 Stoddard, Solomon, 235, 236, 239 
 
 Stone, Samuel, 120, 121, 123, 129, 139, 174, 177 
 
 Storrs, C. B., 429 
 
 Storrs, R. S., vii, 342, 398, 479, 482 
 
 Story, Daniel, 420 
 
 Stoughton, Lieut.-Gov., 213, 215 
 
 Stowe, C. E., 387 
 
546 
 
 INDEX OF NAMES OF PERSONS. 
 
 Stowe, Mrs. H. B., 399, 488 
 Street, Nicholas, 154 
 Strieby, M. E., 353 
 Strong, Josiah, 487 
 Strong, J. W., 377, 378, 439 
 Strong, Nathan, 485 
 Stuart, Moses, 307, 327, 387, 483 
 Studley, Daniel, 67 
 Sturges, A. A., 438 
 Sturtevant, J. M., 369, 394, 430 
 Sumner, C. B., 381 
 Swayze, Samuel, 435 
 
 Tafpan, Benjamin, 485 
 
 Tappan, David, 286 
 
 Tarbox, I. N., 485 
 
 Tayler, Graham, 389 
 
 Taylor, N. VV.. 278, 312, 328, 387, 38 
 
 Taylor, W. M., 482 
 
 Tennent, Gilbert, 250-252, 254 
 
 Tenney, E. P., 488 
 
 Thacher, S. C., 280, 281, 296, 299 
 
 Thacker, Elias, 57, 61, 69 
 
 Thayer, J. H., 483 
 
 Thayer, M. M., 488 
 
 Thompson, A. C., 342, 484 
 
 Thompson, J. P., 397, 479, 514 
 
 Thompson, W. A., 438 
 
 Treadwell, John, 342 
 
 Treat, S. B., 341 
 
 Trumbull, H. C, 488 
 
 Turner, Asa, 372, 430, 436, 437, 510 
 
 Turner, E. B., 437 
 
 Twining, Kinsley, 479 
 
 Tyler, Bennett, 312, 388 
 
 Tyler, W. S., 484 
 
 Upham, T. C, 487 
 
 Vane, Sir Henry, 132, 133 
 Vassall, William, 144 
 Vaughan, Robert, 469 
 Vose, J. G., 482 
 
 Wadsworth, Benjamin, 210 
 Walker, Williston, 482, 517 
 Ward, Joseph, 379, 407 
 Ward, Nathaniel, 150, 266 
 Ward, W. H., 479, 483 
 Wardlaw, Ralph, 469 
 Ware, Henry, 286, 287, 307 
 Ware, Henry, Jr., 309 
 Warham, John, iii, 130, 174 
 
 Warner, A. E., 487 
 
 Warren, J. H., 444 
 
 Washburn, Ichabod, 376 
 
 Watts, Isaac, 485 
 
 Webb, E. B., 523 
 
 Webb, John, 252 
 
 Webber, Dr., 286 
 
 Webster, Daniel, 365 
 
 Wells, Mr., 298 
 
 Wentworth, John, 365 
 
 Wesley, Charles, 246 
 
 Wesley, John, 246 
 
 Weston, Thomas, 81, 82, 84, 91, 92 
 
 Wetmore, Mr., 231 
 
 Wheaton, Laban, 383 
 
 Wheelock, Eleazer, 364, 365 
 
 Wheelright, John, 132, 135, 159, i6o, 163 
 
 White, Edward, 483 
 
 White, John, 100, loi, in 
 
 White, William, 90 
 
 Whitefield, George, 236, 240, 246-248, 250-253, 259, 
 
 260 
 Whitfield, Henry, 157 
 Whitgift, Archbishop, 62, 65 
 Whitman, Marcus, 380, 442 
 Wick, William, 324 
 Wilcox, G. B., 389 
 Wilkes, Henry, 410 
 Willard, Samuel, 202, 204, 209, 213, 215 
 Williams, Roger, 126-128, 163, 164 
 
 Williams, S. W., 484 
 
 Willis, N. P., 477 
 
 Williston, Samuel, 367, 381, 384 
 
 Wilson, John, 112-114, 122, 132, 133, 187 
 
 Winslow, Edward, 78, 90, 112, 153, 168 
 
 Winthrop, John, 111-113, 115, 124, 125, 132, 133, 
 135. 143. 187 
 
 Winthrop, John, Jr., 156 
 
 Wise, John, 197, 207, 218,219, 270 
 
 Wisner, William, 426 
 
 Wolcott, Samuel, 485 
 
 Woods, Leonard, 288, 307, 387, 382 
 
 Woods, R. A., 487 
 
 Woolsey, T. D., 387, 483 
 
 Worcester, Samuel, 299, 485 
 
 Wright, Elizur, 430 
 
 Wright, G. F., 475, 483 
 
 Wycliffe, John, 53 
 
 Yale, Elihu, 222 
 Yates, Richard, 369 
 Young, John, 164 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Abbott Academy, 383 
 
 Act of Supremacy, 55 
 
 Act of Uniformity, 56 
 
 Act Severing Official Relations between Church 
 
 and State in Massachusetts, 311 
 Advance, 480 
 Adventurers, their Contract with Pilgrims, 82, 
 
 83 ; Hinder Success of Pilgrims, 95 ; Contract 
 
 Ended, 97 
 Albany Convention, 333 
 Albigenses, 52 
 Almanac, Pierce's, 471 
 Alton Presbytery, Action of, 332 
 American Bible Society, J59 
 American Board, Organized, 293 ; Represented 
 
 Presbyterians, 328 ; its History, 335 ff., 352, 
 
 357 ; its Literature, 484 ; Constitution of, 502- 
 
 504. ^ . , 
 
 American Congregational Association, 359-362 
 American Domestic Missionary Society, 346 
 American Education Society, 300, 327, 329, 342- 
 
 345, 429 
 American Home Missionary Society, 328, 329, 
 
 332, 346, 350, 369, 427, 428. See C. H. M. S. 
 American Missionary Asst>ciation, 351-357, 366, 
 
 428 
 American Sunday-school Union, 348, 349 
 American Tract Society, 359 
 Amherst College, 307, 340, 367, 368 
 Amsterdam Trading Company, 82 
 Andover Band, 372 1 
 Andover Rtview, ^t$ 
 Andover Seminary, i 288, 290, 291, 300, 335, 340, 
 
 387 ■ . 
 
 Antioch, First Congregational Church in, 42 
 Aristocracy and Democracy, Struggle between, 
 
 in Massachusetts Colony, 124 
 Arminius Disputes with Robinson, 78 
 Apostle, Elected by Disciples, 36 ; Office of. 
 
 Ceased with the Twelve, 49 
 Associations of Ministers, 207 
 Atlanta University, 356 
 
 Authority of Churches Strengthened, 207, 208 
 Authorities on Congregationalism, xxviii-xxx 
 
 Ballot, when First Used in America, 104 
 
 Bangor Seminary, 387 
 
 Baptism of Children of Non-Church Members, 
 
 171-181 
 Baptist Church, First in Rhode Island, 163 
 Baptist Missionary Society, 337 
 Baptists, Persecutions of, 184 
 Barbadoes, Church in, 165 
 Barnstable, Mass., Church in, 154 
 Barrington, R. I., Oldest Congregational Church 
 
 in the State, 164 
 Barrowism, How Different from Brownism, 67 ; 
 
 in Early New England Churches, 138 
 Bay Psalm Book, 471 
 Beloit College, 372, 431-433 
 
 Benevolent Societies, their Names and Organi- 
 zations, 358 
 
 Berea College, 355, 375, 398 
 
 Bermuda Islands, Church in, 165 
 
 Bible, Indian, 169 
 
 Bibliotheca Sacra, 475 
 
 Body of Liberties, 150, 266 
 
 Boston Ministers' Meeting, 206 
 
 Boston Recorder, 300, 477 
 
 Boston Settled in 1630, 114, 115 
 
 Bowdoin College, 161, 366 
 
 Boys' Brigade, 464 
 
 Bradford Academy, 382 
 
 Brattle Street Church, Views of, 211 
 
 British Officers Destroy Church Property, 27- 
 
 British Quarterly Review^ 476 
 
 Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip, 465 
 
 Brown University, 366 
 
 Browne, Robert, His Early History, 58 ; Founds 
 Separatist Church at Norwich, 58 ; His Prin- 
 ciples of Church Government, 59, 60 ; These 
 Principles Applicable to the State, 60 ; His 
 later History and Death, 61 
 
 Burial Hill, VVhy so Named, 90 ; Declaration of 
 Faith, 517 
 
 California, Congregationalism in, 444 
 
 Cambridge Platform, 148, 149, 507 
 
 Cambridge Synod, in 1646-1648, 145-147 
 
 Canada, Congregationalists in, 410 
 
 Cape Cod, Pilgrims Arrive at, 87 
 
 Carleton College, 377, 378, 439 
 
 Caste Condemned, 527 
 
 Charlestown, Mass., Settled by Winthrop's Com- 
 pany, 112 ; Present First Church Organized in, 
 1632, 116 
 
 Charter of Massachusetts Bay Company Granted, 
 loi ; Transferred to New England, in ; its 
 Surrender Demanded, 126 ; Threatened, 191 ; 
 Withdrawn, 196 
 
 Chicago, Churches in, 403 ; Theological Seminary, 
 389, 390 
 
 Christian Disciple, 311 
 
 Christian Endeavor Society, First, 456 ; its aim 
 and Methods, 458 ; its Committees, 460 ; Junior 
 Societies, 461 ; Conventions and Local Unions, 
 462 
 
 Christian Exaviiner, 311 
 
 Christian History, 470 
 
 Christian Spectator, 311 
 
 Christian Union, 479 
 
 Christian IVitness, 476 
 
 Church, Christ's Idea of, 35, 36 ; Robert Browne's 
 Idea of, 59 ; Pilgrim Idea of, 85 
 
 Church, First Congregational, Formed in Jerusa- 
 lem, 37, 39 ; in House of Cornelius, 41 ; in 
 Samaria, 41 ; in Antioch, 42 ; First Congrega- 
 tional, Formed in London in 1592, 67 ; First, 
 Organized in America, 104 ; First Protestant, in 
 the Southwest, 435 
 
 547 
 
548 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Church Government, Browne's System of, 58-61 
 Church, Local, its Sufficiency Shown, 46 
 Church, London Congregational, Organized, 67 ; 
 Escapes to Amsterdam, 71 ; its Confession of 
 Faith, 76 ; its Troubles, 77 ; its End, 79 
 Church of England Attempts to Establish its 
 
 (Jrder of Service in Salem, 108 
 Church Psalmody, 486 
 
 Church, Qualifications for Membership in, 39 
 Church, the Visible, not Organized by Christ, 
 
 Church Voted to Receive Gentiles. 41 
 Churches Formed in Asia Minor, 44, 47 
 Churches in Boston During the Revolutionary 
 
 War, 273 
 Churches, Increase by Decades, 412 
 Churches, Institutional, 417 
 
 Churches of Christ as Described in New Testa- 
 ment, 49 
 Churches Organized Before 1640, 155 
 Churches, Table of, 411, 412 ; Ten Largest, 
 
 415 ... 
 
 Churches, Their Spiritual Condition in Early 
 
 Part of Eighteenth Century, 237, 238 
 Citizenship Confined to Church Membership, 
 
 Civil War, Influence of Churches in, 400 
 
 Clubs, Congregational, 417 
 
 Colleges, List of, 391 
 
 College Men in the Civil War, 433 
 
 Colorado, Churches in, 175, 407 
 
 Colorado College, 379 
 
 Committees of C. E. Societies, 460 
 
 Compact in the " Mayflower," 88 
 
 Confederation of Colonies in 1643, 152 
 
 Conferences and Associations, State, 502, 508. 
 
 See States by Name 
 Conferences, Local, their Origin, 310, 505 
 Confession of Faith of Amsterdam Church, i';96, 
 
 76 . 
 
 Conflict between Conservatives and Liberals, 
 208 ff. _ 
 
 Congregational Board of Publication, 349 
 
 Congregational Church-building Society, 358, 
 428, 511 
 
 Congregational Churches Presbyterianized, 423 
 
 Congregational Doctrine, Repentance to Gentiles, 
 41 . . . . 
 
 Congregational Home Missionary Society, 345- 
 348, 354. See A. H. M. S. 
 
 Congregational House, 361 
 
 Congregational Hymn Book, 486 
 
 Congregational Library, 360 
 
 Congregational Magazine, 476 
 
 Congregational Ministers in Revolutionary War, 
 266 ; Leaders of Reforms, 279 
 
 Congregational Missionary Society of Con- 
 necticut, 422 
 
 Congregational Principles of Fellowship Recog- 
 nized, 46 
 
 Congregational Principles of Wycliffe, 53 
 
 Congregational Quarterly, 473 
 
 Congregational Review, 476 
 
 Congregational Sunday-school and Publishing 
 Society, 348-351 
 
 Congregationalism, in the Epistles, 47 ; the Polity 
 of the Primitive Churches, 50; its Fundamental 
 Principles, viii ; its Insistence on an Educated 
 Ministry, xi ; a Missionary and a Catholic Sys- 
 tem, xii ; its Liberty and Aim for Spiritual 
 Unity, xiv ; its Beginnings in England, 53 ff.; 
 its Beginnings in New England, 107, 108, ii8ff.; 
 its Principles Summarized, 141, 142 ; Growth 
 and Expansion, 152 ff. ; the Last Half Century 
 of, 393; its Recent Growth, 402 ff.; its Pros- 
 pects, 417, 418 
 
 Congregationalist , The, 478 
 
 Congregationalists in Westminster A.ssembly, 
 139 ; Union with Presbyterians in England, 223 
 
 Congregationalists throughout the World, 416 
 
 Connecticut Eiiangelical Magazine, 472 
 
 Connecticut, General Association of, 502, 50S, 
 509 ; Consociational System of, 320 ; Consoci- 
 ations of Churches, 227 ; Constitution of, 150 
 
 Constantinople, its Fall in 1453, 5^ 
 
 Contest between Churches and Parishes in 
 Massachusetts, 294, ff. 
 
 Contribution for Poor Taken by Church in 
 Antioch, 43 
 
 Controversial Pamphlets, 470 
 
 Conventions, Cambridge, 1643, 140; Michigan 
 City, 1846, 424 ; Albany, 1852, 424, 510 ; Boston, 
 
 1870, 523 ; Pilgrim Memorial, 522 
 Coppin and Thacker Hanged, 61 
 
 Cotton, John, His Early History and Arrival in 
 
 New England, 120; Teacher of First Church, 
 
 Boston, 122 ; His Aristocratic Tendencies, 124 ; 
 
 His Relation to the Hutchinson Disturbance, 
 
 130 ff.; His Writings, 138, 146, 148 
 Council, First at Jerusalem, 45 ; International, 
 
 1S91, 491 
 Councils, Local, Their Character and Functions, 
 
 494-500 
 Councils and Synods, General, 510 ; of 1637, 510 ; 
 
 of 1648, 510 ; of 1852, 510 ; of 1865, 489, 511 
 Council, National Triennial, 491, 503-504, 507 ; 
 
 Origin of and History, 521 ff.; Constitution of, 
 
 524 ; Reference to Action by, 525 ff. ; Topics 
 
 Discussed, 526 ff. 
 Covenant of Church at Charlestown, 113 ; of 
 
 First Church, Salem, 105, 106, 109 
 Covenant, Halfway, 171-182 
 Cutler Academy, 379 
 
 Dakotas, Churches in, 407, Congregationalism 
 
 in, 440 
 Dartmouth College, 365 
 Deacons, Elected by the Church, 39 
 Declaration of Faith in Full in 1865, 517 ; Basis in 
 
 1871, 524 ; in 1883 in Full, 530 
 
 Dedham, First Church, Division Between Church 
 
 and Parish, 301-302 
 Delfshaven, Embarkation From, 83 
 Denmark Academy, 438 
 Denominations, Census of, 414 
 Dissensions in Local Churches, iSg 
 Doane College, 378-379. 440 
 Doctrinal Faith. See Declaration. 
 Doctrinal Tract and Book Society, 349, 351 
 Doctrine, Liberty Allowed in, 397 
 Doctrines of Christ Summarized, 33-34 
 Donatists, 52 
 Dorchester," First Church of. Organized, iii ; 
 
 Church Removes to Windsor, Conn,, 129 ; 
 
 Second Church, Contest in, 295 
 Dort, Synod of, 78 
 Dover, N. H., Church in, 158 
 Doshisha, The, 339, 341 
 Drury College, 378, 436 
 Dudley's Quarrel with the Mathers, 229 
 " Due Rights of Presbyteries," 140 
 Duxbury, Church in, 153 
 
 Ecclesiastical Convention of New Connecticut, 
 
 325 
 Ecclesiastical Courts, their Power in England, 
 
 55-56. . ^ . ^ . 
 Education in Foreign Lands, 341 
 Edwardean Theology, Teachers of, 278 
 Edwards, Jonathan, His Early History, 235-236^ 
 
 Preaching at Northampton, 237-140 ; Summary 
 
 of Doctrines, 241-243 ; Dismissed from North- 
 
 ^ 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 549 
 
 ariiptotl, 262 ; Called to Princeton College and 
 
 Death, 263 ; his " Freedom of the Will," 263 ; 
 
 his " Religious Affections," 262 
 Elder, Another Name for Pastor, 48 
 Elders, Ruling, 67 
 Election Sermons, 189, 190 
 Ely Volume, 484 
 English Congregationalist, 476 
 Episcopacy, its Attempts to gain Foothold in 
 
 New England, 231, 267 
 Episcopal idea, how Developed, 51 
 "Evangelical" and "Liberal Churches in 
 
 Massachusetts, 284 
 Exeter, Church in, 159 
 
 Fairfield, Conn., First Church in, 157 
 
 Fargo College, 379 
 
 Fast Day, 93 ; General Fast Appointed July 30, 
 1629, 112 ; Days Appointed by Boston Minis- 
 ters, 270-271 
 
 First Institution in New England for Educating 
 Girls Only, 383 
 
 First Meeting-house, Salem, no 
 
 First Sermon in New England, 160 
 
 Fisk University, 354-356 
 
 Foreign Missions, Growing Interest in, 309 
 
 " Fortune," Arrival of, at Plymouth, 91 
 
 Freedmen, First School for, 353 
 
 Freedmen's Bureau, 354 
 
 Freedom, Principles of, in First Puritan Colony, 
 116 
 
 Freeman's Oath, 471 
 
 French Protestant College, 387 
 
 Gainesborough, Church in, 72 
 General Court, First, 113 
 General Repository, 300 
 Gentiles, Repentance Granted to them, 41 
 Gorges, Capt., Attempts to Extend his Govern- 
 ment over Colonies, 94-95 
 Gorton, Samuel, Disturbing Providence, 164 
 " Gospel Order Revived," 214 
 Great Awakening, its Results, 260-261 
 Guilford, Conn., First Church in, 156 
 
 Hampton Institute, 355 
 
 Hartford, Meeting-house of First Church, 129 
 
 Hartford Theological Seminary, 312, 388 
 
 Hartford Seminary Record^ 475 
 
 Harvard College, 130, 286, 291, 342, 363-364 ; 
 
 Captured by Unitarians, 286 
 Hawaiian Islands, Mission to, 337-338 
 Haystack Prayer Meeting, 335 
 Halfway Covenant ; Convention of Ministers, 
 
 Boston, 1657, 177; Action of General Court on, 
 
 i88 ; Opposition to, 186-188 ; its Consequences, 
 
 239-240 
 Hanging of Quakers, 182 
 Heads of Agreement, 223, 224, 226 
 Henry VIII., Head of English Church, 54 
 Heresy Trials of Three Presbyterian Ministers, 
 
 329. 
 Higginson s Farewell to England, 103 
 Hingham, Trouble in Church at, 143 
 Hooker and Stone Installed at Cambridge, 123 
 Hooker's Company Remove to Connecticut, 129 
 Hooker, Thomas, His Early History, 120; His 
 Influence in England, 121 ; Arrival in New 
 England, 121 ; Pastor at Newtown, 123 ; Demo- 
 cratic Tendencies, 124, 125 ; Removal to Con- 
 necticut, 128, 129 ; Opposition to Hutchin- 
 sonians, 134 ; Invited to Westminster Assembly, 
 139 ; His Survey of the Sum of Church Disci- 
 pline, 141, 142 ; His Work on the Constitution 
 of Connecticut and the Confederacy of the 
 Colonies, 150 
 
 Hopkins Grammar School, 220 
 
 Hopkinsianism, 278 ff., 294, 328 
 
 Howard University, 356 
 
 Hull, Iowa, Academy, 439 
 
 Hutchinson, Mrs. Anne, Arrives at Boston, 132 ; 
 Holds Public Meetings and Criticises Ministers, 
 133 ; is Banished from the Colony, Excommu- 
 nicated from the Church, and Massacred by 
 Indians, 135 
 
 Hymns of the Faith, 486 
 
 Illinois, Churches in, 403 
 
 Illinois College, 368-369, 430 
 
 Illinois, General Association of, 512 
 
 Immigration to Massachusetts Colony Checked, 
 
 1631-1633, 115 ; Cessation of, in 1640, 152 
 Independent, The New York, 479 
 Independent and Non-Conformist, 477 
 Indiana, Congregationalism in, 427 
 Indians, Act of General Court to Civilize, 166, 
 
 Communities in Natick and Ponkapog, 169 ; 
 
 Missionary Work among, 166, 352-353, 357 
 Inquiries Concerning Polity of New England 
 
 Churches, 138 
 Inst.Tllation of Higginson and Skelton, 106 
 Installation of Officers of Church at Charlestown, 
 
 114 
 Iowa Band, 404, 436-437 
 Iowa, Churches in, 404 ; Congregationalism in, 
 
 436 
 Iowa College, 372-373, 434, 438 
 Iowa News Letter, 4S0 
 Ipswich Academy, 383 
 
 Jacksonville, III., Female College, 430 
 Jerusalem; Formation of First Church in, 37 
 Jubilee Singers, 355 
 Junior Society of Christian Endeavor, 460, 462 
 
 Kansas, Churches in, 406-407, Congregationalism 
 
 19, 439 
 " Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven," 138 
 Key West, Church at, xviii 
 King Philip's War, 191 
 King's Chapel, i68g, 203, 231, 281 
 Knox College, 431 
 
 Lake Charles College, 381 
 
 Lake Erie Seminary, 385 
 
 Landing at Plymouth, December 21, 1620, 89 
 
 Lay College, Revere, Mass., 387 
 
 Lollards, The, 53 
 
 Long Island, Congregational Churches in, 164 
 
 Lord's Supper, a Converting Ordinance, 239 
 
 Louisiana Purchase, 434 
 
 Lyford and Oldham Expelled from Plymouth 
 
 Colony, 96 
 Lynn, Church Formed at, 116 
 
 Maine, General Conference of, 508 ; Settlements 
 
 in, 160 
 Manifesto Church, 212 
 Marietta, O., its Settlement, 420 ; College, 421, 
 
 43I' 433> 441 
 
 Mar-prelate Tracts, 65, 468 
 
 Marshfield, Church in, 153 
 
 Massachusetts Bay Company Organized in Eng- 
 land, loi ; Removes to New England, in 
 
 Massachusetts Charter Threatened, 19! ; Charter 
 Withdrawn, ig6 ; Legislature Grants Aid to 
 Feeble Churches, 205- ; in Revolutionary War, 
 272 
 
 Massachusetts, Domestic Missionary Society of, 
 310 
 
 Massachusetts, General Association of, 284, 502, 
 508 
 
550 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Massachusetts, Missionary Mag^azine, 284, 472 
 Massachusetts Sabbath-school Union, 348 
 Mather, Cotton, His Early History, 137 ; His 
 Political Influence, 198 ; His Connection with 
 Witchcraft Proceedings, 199-202 ; His Disputes 
 with Ministers and Churches, 210, 212, 213 ; 
 His Service to Yale College, 222 ; His Difficulty 
 with Dudley, 228-230 ; His Writings and Death, 
 
 234 , . . 
 
 " Mayflower, 83, 84, 87 ; Compact in, 88 ; Arrives 
 
 at Plymouth, 89 
 Meeting-house, First, in New England, 91 
 Memorial of Congregationalists to Queen's 
 
 Council, 68 
 Memorial Tablet to Robinson, 97 
 Methodism, First Appearance in Massachusetts, 
 
 Michigan, Churches in, 402 
 
 Michigan City, Ind., Convention, 331 
 
 Middle Kingdom, 484 
 
 Middlebury College, 1S3, 366 
 
 Milford, Conn., First Church in, 156 
 
 Mills College and Seminary, Cal., 385 
 
 Mills, S. J., Organizes Presbyterian Churches in 
 Natchez and New Orleans, 425 
 
 Ministerial Associations, 507 ; Relief Fund, 359 
 
 Ministers' Convention of Boston, 206 ; Attempts 
 to Strengthen Government of the Churches, 214; 
 Sends Circular Letter to Pastors, 216 
 
 Ministers' Meeting in Boston, 125 
 
 Ministers, Standing of, 527-528 
 
 Minnesota, Churches in, 405 ; Congregationalism 
 in, 439 
 
 Mission Circles, their Work, 455 
 
 Missionaries of the Sunday School and Publish- 
 ing Society, 452 
 
 Missionary Herald, 310, 472 
 
 Missionary Society of Connecticut, 283 ; of Mas- 
 sachusetts, 283, 310 ; Work of other Denomina- 
 tions, 340 
 
 Missions, Originated in Church at Antioch, 43 
 
 Missouri, Churches in, 405, 436 
 
 Montana, Congregationalism in, 441 
 
 Monticello Seminary, 430 
 
 " Morning Star," 338 
 
 Mount Hermon Schools, 387 
 
 Mount Holyoke College, 383-385 
 
 Muskingum Academy, 421 
 
 Muskingum Association, 325 
 
 Nansemond County, Virginia, Church, 165 
 
 " Narrative of Surprising Conversions," 245 
 
 Nashua, Church in, 160 
 
 Natick, Indian Community in, 169 
 
 National Co-operative Societies, Unity in, 500 
 
 National Council, 354, 359, 491, 503-504. 507, 521 
 ff., 524 ff- 
 
 Nebraska, Churches in, 406-407 ; Congregation- 
 alism in, 440 
 
 New Brunswick, Churches in, 410 
 
 Netv Englander, 475 
 
 Newfoundland, Church in, 410 
 
 New Hampshire, First Settled, 157 ; General 
 Association of, 508 
 
 New Haven Colony, 137, 156 
 
 " New Lights " Persecuted in Connecticut, 257 ; 
 Some of them Remove to Nova Scotia, 409 
 
 New Providence, Church in, 165 
 
 New West Education Commission, 344-345. 429 
 
 New York, Early Churches in, 318, 324 ; General 
 Association of, 509 
 
 North Church, Boston, 210 
 
 Northwest Territory, 419 ; Prohibition of Slav- 
 ery in, 420 
 
 Nova Scotia, Congregationalists in, 409 
 
 Novatians, 52 
 
 Oberlin College, 352-353, 369-370, 372, 397, 
 43'i 433 ; National Council at, 523 ; Theolog- 
 ical Seminary, 388 
 
 Ohio General Conference, 522 
 
 Old South Church, 187, 210, 212, 230 ; Meeting- 
 house Seized, 196 
 
 Olivet College, 371, 373, 376, 431 
 
 Opposition to Congregational Polity, 143 
 
 " Order of the Gospel," 213 
 
 Oregon, Claims of United States to, 442 
 
 Orthodox Periodicals, 311 
 
 Outlook, The, 479 
 
 Pacific States, Churches in, 40S ; Theological 
 Seminary, 390 ; University, 380, 443 
 
 Pacific, The, 480 
 
 Panoplist, The, 299, 300, 310, 472 
 
 " Parish Church " and " Exiled Church," 303 
 
 Parish, Decision of Courts Giving Civil Power to, 
 302 ^ 
 
 Park Street Church, Boston, 292, 299, 307 
 
 Pastor and Deacons the only Orders in the 
 Church, 48 
 
 Patriotism in Sermons Preceding the Revolu- 
 tionary War, 270 
 
 Paul, First Missionary Journey, 44 ; Second 
 Missionary Journey, 47 ; Third Missionary 
 Journey, 47 
 
 Paulicians, 52 
 
 Peter Tried by Church of Jerusalem, 41 
 
 Phillips Academy, Andover, 387, 340, 381 ; Exe- 
 ter Academy, 381 
 
 Pilgrim Church, St. Louis, 405-406 
 
 Pilgrims at Scrooby, 72 ; Arrive in Holland, 74 
 Remove from Amsterdam to Leyden, 78 
 Begin to Think of Emigrating to America, 79 
 Petition of. Refused by King James I., 80 
 Prepare to Depart from Holland, 81 ; Com- 
 pact with Adventurers, 82 ; Depart from Ply- 
 mouth, England, 84 ; Land at Plymouth, Mass., 
 89 ; First Year at Plymouth, 90 ; Perils to 
 their Church, 94-95 ; Leyden Remnant Arrives 
 at Plymouth, 1629, 99 
 
 Piscataqua Evangelical Magazine, 472 
 
 Plan of Union. See Presbyterian Church 
 
 Platform of Cambridge Synod, 174; of Church 
 Discipline, 148 ; of 1865, 480, 516 
 
 Plea for the Gospel in Wales, Penry's, 64 
 
 Plymouth, Church in, 153, 522 ; Church of the 
 Pilgrimage formed at, 295 ; Council at, 517 
 
 Plymouth Collection, 486 
 
 Plymouth Hymnal, 487 
 
 Plymouth, Virginia Company, 80, 82 
 
 Polity, Congregational, Browne's applicable to 
 the State, 60 ; Opposition to, 143 
 
 Polity, 400 ; by Seven Churches of London, 489 
 
 Pomona College. 381 
 
 Ponkapog, Indian Community, 169 
 
 Portsmouth, N. H., Church in, 160 
 
 " Power of Congregational Churches, The," 141 
 
 Presbyterian Church, Division between Old and 
 New Schools, 329 ; Plan of Union with, 318 ff.. 
 Plan Stated, 321 f.. First Working of, 323 ; 
 Results of, 325 ; How Results Were Caused, 
 326 ; Results to Presbyterians, 327 ; its Effects, 
 424 ; Ended, 511 
 
 Presbyterianism, Why it Prevailed over Congre- 
 gationalism, 324 
 
 Principles of Congregationalism in Practice, 107 
 
 " Privye Church," The, 57 
 
 Proclamation of Emancipation, 353 
 
 Proposals of 1705, 217 ; Approved by Ministers' 
 Convention, 218 ; Attacked by John Wise, 218, 
 219; Attempt to Revive them, 300 
 
 Publications of Sunday School and Publishing 
 Society, 454 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 551 
 
 Puritan, Origin of the Word, 52 
 "Puritanism, English, How Originated, 55 
 
 Puritans, Persecuted in Early Ages, 52 ; Some 
 Become Pilgrims, 71 ; First, of Massachusetts 
 Bay, 100 ; First Settlement Removed to Naum- 
 keag, loi ; Settlement Enlarged by New Ar- 
 rivals, 102 ; Early, Many of Them College 
 Graduates, 119; Commonwealth Ended, 202; 
 Sympathy with Their Brethren in England, 
 271 ; Resistance to Prelatical Rule, 271 
 
 Quakers, Rise of the New Sect, iSi ; Whipped, 
 Imprisoned, Banished from Boston, 182 ; Some 
 of Them Hung, 183 ; End of Persecutions, 183, 
 
 Reformation, The, 53 
 
 Reforming Synod, 167(5, 191-102 
 
 Religious Declension in the Colonies, 232 
 
 Religions Refiosito7y, ^t2 
 
 Rescue IV[issions, 417 
 
 Results of Hutchinson Troubles, 137 
 
 Review 0/ Reviews^ 476 
 
 Revival in Boston, 1740-41, 250 ; Opposed, 253 ; 
 in 1800, 283 ; in 1823, 307 ; in Connecticut, 
 252; in Northampton, 244 
 
 Revolutionary War Prompted by a Religious 
 Motive, 265 
 
 Rhode Island, Congregationalists in, 163 ; Con- 
 sociation and Conference, 508 
 
 Ripon College, 375, 431 
 
 Robinson, John, Early History and Character, 
 73 ; His Influence in Holland, 78 ; His Leader- 
 ship of the Pilgrims, 79, 81, 83 ; Kept by Puri- 
 tans from going to Plymouth, 95 ; His Death 
 and Memorial Tablet, 97, 98 
 
 Rollins College, 381 
 
 Roxbury, Church Formed in, 116 
 
 Sabbath, Hymn Book, 486 ; Hymn and Tune 
 
 Book, 486 
 Salem, Name Adopted by Puritan Settlement, 
 
 102 
 Sandwich, Church in, 155 
 San Francisco Selected as Place of Meeting, 
 
 534 ^ 
 
 Savoy Confession, 1658, 193 
 
 Saybrook Platform, 225, 227 
 
 School System of Massachusetts, 363-364 
 
 Scituate, Church in, 153 
 
 Scrooby, Manor-house, 73 ; Church Emigrates to 
 Holland, 74 
 
 Seaman's Friend Society, 359 
 
 Separatists, Church at Norwich, 58 ; in the North 
 Country, 72 ; in Connecticut, 258 
 
 Sermon, at Organization of First Church, Jerusa- 
 lem, 38 ; Annual Convention, at Boston, 291 
 
 Sickness at Charlestown, 114 
 
 Slavery, Agitation against, 330; Churches 
 Opposed to, 397-400 ; Prohibited in Northwest 
 Territory, 420 
 
 Smith College, 385 
 
 Social Settlements, 417 
 
 Society, for the Promotion of Collegiate Educa- 
 tion in the West, 343 ; for the Propagation of 
 the Gospel, 230 
 
 Southern States, Churches in, 408 
 
 Southwark, London, Church, 153 
 
 Spirit 0/ the Pi/gritns, 311, 473 
 
 Standing Council Appointed by the General 
 Court of Massachusetts, 124 
 
 State Organizations of Churches. See Confer- 
 ences AND Associations, also Unity 
 
 Stockton, Kansas, Academy, 440 
 
 Straight University, New Orleans, 356 
 
 Stratford, Conn., First Church in, 157 
 
 Sunday Schools, Early History of, in Congrega- 
 tional Churches, 348-350, 450-454 
 
 Sunday-school Quarterlies, 477 ; Treasury, 477 ; 
 Visitor, ),ii 
 
 St. Louis, First Protestant Preaching in, 426; 
 Protestant Preaching Forbidden in, 434 ; Growth 
 of Congregationalism in, 436 
 
 " Survey of the Sum of Church Discipline," 141 
 
 Synod, First in New England, 134 ; Result of the 
 First Cambridge, 1637, 133 ; Second Cambridge, 
 1648, 147 ; at Boston, on Halfway Covenant, 
 1662, 179 ; called in 1666, 187 ; Saybrook, 223 ; 
 Attempt of Massachusetts to Call, 233 ; Forbid- 
 den in 1725, 233 
 
 Tabor College, 371. 376-377 
 
 Talladega College, 356 
 
 Taunton, Church in, 154 
 
 " Testimony " of Massachusetts Ministers against 
 
 Revival, 258 
 Tests, for Church Members, 527 ; of Ministerial 
 
 Standing, 527-528 
 Thanksgiving Day, gi 
 Theological Seminaries, List of, 392 
 Theology of Edwards, 241-243 
 Thursday Lectures, 125 
 Tillotson Collegiate Institute, 356 
 Tongaloo University, 356 
 Trans-Mississippi Region Ceded by Spain to 
 
 France, 434 ; Sold to United States, 434 
 Triennial Convention of the Northwest, 512, 522 
 " True Description, A," 64 
 Trustees of Yale Recommend to Connecticut the 
 
 Confession of Boston Synod, 222 
 
 " Uncle Tom's Cabin," 399 
 
 " Union in Prayer," 261 
 
 Union Park Church, 404 
 
 Unitarianism, Beginnings of, in America, 277 ff.; 
 in Europe, 282 f.; in Connecticut, 294 ; Growth 
 of, in America. 298 ; Open Conflict with Ortho- 
 doxy, 298 ; Organized, 303 ; Defined, 303 ; 
 Social Factors Involved in Controversy, 303 ff.; 
 Church in Baltimore, 306; Periodicals, 311; 
 Advocate, 311 ; its Service to Orthodoxy, 315 , 
 Doctrinal Belief of, 316; Causes of Failure of, 
 316 : Relative Strength and Weakness of Uni- 
 tarians and Trinitarians, 312 ff. 
 
 United Domestic Missionary Society of New 
 York, 346 
 
 Unity, Visible, 489 ff. ; in Sentiment, 493; With 
 Church Catholic, 490-492, 525; Denominational, 
 492, 524-525, 533; of Distinct Churches, 493 ; 
 in Local Councils, 494 ; in General Co operative 
 Organizations, 500 ; in Local Conferences, 505 ; 
 in State Organizations, 508 ; in General Synods, 
 see Councils ; in the National Council, see 
 Council, National 
 
 University of California, 381 
 
 University of Vermont, 366 
 
 Vermont, Evangelical Magazine, 473 ; General 
 
 Convention of, 508 
 Village Hymns, 486 
 " Vindication of the Government of the New 
 
 England Churches, A," 219 
 Virginia Company of London, 80, 82 
 Voluntary Societies, 501 
 
 Wai.denses, 52 
 
 Washburn College, 375-376, 440 
 Watertown. Church Formed at, 113 
 " Watts and Select Hymns," 485 
 Weathersfield, Conn., 155 
 Wedding, First, in New England, 90 
 Wellesley College, 385-386 
 
552 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Wells, Me., Church in, 162 
 
 Wellspriti^, The, 349, 477 
 
 Wessagussett, 95 ; Weston's Colony at, 92-93 
 
 Western Evangelical Missionary Society, 352 
 
 Western New York First Settled, 319 
 
 Western Reserve, 319, 422 ; College, 429, 431 
 
 Westminster Assembly, 139, 147, 148 
 
 Wheaton Academy, Norton, Mass., 383 
 
 Wheaton, 111., College, 431 
 
 Whitefield, in New England. 246 ; his Preaching, 
 247 ; Second and Subsequent Visits to New 
 England, 259 ; His Death, 260 
 
 Whitman College, 380, 443 
 
 William and Mary College, 364 
 
 Williams College, 365-367 
 
 Williams, Roger, a Disturber of the Peace, 126; 
 Attacks the Charter of Massachusetts, 127 ; Re- 
 fuses to become a Freeman, 128 ; is Ordered to 
 Leave the Colony, 128 
 
 Williston Seminary, 381 
 
 Windsor, Conn., 155 
 
 Wisconsin, Churches in, 405 ; Puritan, 480 
 
 Witchcraft Panic in Salem, 200 
 
 Woman's Board of Missions, 342 
 
 Women, Education of, 370, 382 ; Equality of 
 
 Rights of, in the Church, 527 
 Worship, Order of Public, 150 
 Wycliffe, Taught Congregational Principles, 
 
 53 
 
 Wyoming, Churches in, 407 
 
 Yale Band, of Illinois, 369, 372, 430 ; of Wash- 
 ington, 443 
 
 Yale College, 220, 231, 342, 364 ; Divinity School, 
 387-388, 485 ; University, 364, 387 
 
 Yale Rez'iciv, 475 
 
 Yankton College, 379, 440. 500 
 
 Yarmouth, Church in, 155 
 
 Year Book, 475 ; Character of, 528 
 
 York, Me., Church in, 162 
 
 Young People, Associations of, in the EighteenfTi 
 Century, 448 ; Organization of, at Lexington, 
 Mass., 449; Distinction Between Earlier ana- 
 Modern Methods of Training, i,^ \ Literary 
 Societies, Debating Clubs, etc., 454 ; Society 
 of Christian Endeavor, its Beginning, 456, 463 ; 
 its Prayer-meeting Pledge, 458 ; Consecration 
 Meeting, 459 
 Youtli' s CoJii/'atu'oK, The, 476 
 
n 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 RENEWALS ONLY— TEL. NO. 642-3405 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which renewed. 
 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recalL 
 
 KPimsG? 
 
 hM 
 
 ;^^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 fPRZ7m-fi^ lf' ^ 3 m 
 
 M^fi 1971^ 8 
 
 f^^^^ BARBARA 
 
 ^^o^vbT'"'"^'' ^°an 
 
 ,M!\U2 2A^.I^^'-^ 
 
 Mw_i_s — ApirsSi8Wbr.cy9. 
 

 
 i 
 
 ^..-jI 
 
 WJ^ 
 
 ^^m^:ii\ : ^k ■a^-^