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HOLLIS STREET CHURCH 
 
 FROM 
 
 MATHER BYLES to THOMAS STARR KING. 
 
 1732— \%\. 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 fall 
 
 I I J 
 
 
 
 
 im- 
 
 Two Discourses, by George Leonard Chanev 
 
 1877. 
 
HOLLIS STREET CHURCH 
 
 FROM 
 
 MATHER BYLES to THOMAS STARR KING. 
 
 1732 — 1861. 
 
 TWO DISCOURSES ^ 
 
 GIVEN IN HOLLIS STREET MEETING-HOUSE, 
 DEC. 31, 1876, and JAN. 7, 1877, 
 
 By GEORGE LEONARD CHANEY. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 PRESS OF GEORGE H. ELLIS. 
 
 1877. 
 
 BOSTON COLLEGE UW*A*T» 
 CHESTNUT NfUr MASS. 
 
4010 
 
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 1>~&5*» 
 
 -rru u q 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 i 
 
 J 
 
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 THE NF\ST HOLLIS S T JVIEET1NG HOUSE 
 
 And its n«ifehbourhood . 
 
 DRAWfJ BY DR.J.BtLKfJAP, I r4 l^gj . 
 
DISCOURSE. 
 
 John iv., 24. 
 " God is a Spirit : and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." 
 
 The first sermon preached in the Hollis Street 
 Meeting-house, June 18, 1732, was from this text. Dr. 
 Sewall of the Old South Church was the preacher. It 
 was he who " more immediately formed" or organized 
 the church here. He wrote its covenant, dedicated its 
 house of worship with prayer, gave the charge to its 
 first pastor, and laid the hand of ordination upon his 
 head. This first pastor was the Rev. Mather Byles, 
 a gentleman of good ministerial extraction, counting 
 Richard Mather and John Cotton among his ancestors ; 
 of University training (having graduated at Harvard 
 College 1725), and of sincere attachment to his chosen 
 calling, and more than common fitness for its duties. 
 
 The proof of these latter qualifications is in the 
 length and quietness of his pastorate, extending over 
 forty-four years, and in those specimens of his pro- 
 fessional compositions which have lived after him in 
 the printed and written word. His letter accepting 
 the pastoral office in Hollis Street shows a due sense of 
 the importance of the task he is assuming, a respectful 
 deliberation in the manner of forming his conclusion, 
 
a manly directness in accepting the call when his 
 conclusion is reached, a modest estimate of his own 
 powers, and a just and devout dependence upon the 
 Divine Aid in the performance of his duties. He 
 relies, also, upon the affection, encouragement, and 
 support to be expected from his people. " Brethren, 
 pray for me," he says, " that I may approve myself 
 upright before God and faithful to you. Pray that I 
 may be holy, wise, diligent, and successful ; that I may 
 feed the flock, be an example to the flock, a wise stew- 
 ard of the divine mysteries, rightly dividing the Word 
 of Truth." His letter to Jeremy Belknap, several years 
 later, on the subject of entering the ministry, shows his 
 sincerity and professional good sense. A printed ser- 
 mon on the u Nature and Necessity of Conversion, 
 published in 1769," reveals his doctrine and method 
 of preaching. Some of it would not find a place in 
 our current theology to-day, but his definition and 
 illustrations of true conversion are as fresh and timely 
 now as ever. "Some think," he says, "that to be con- 
 verted is only to profess the Christian religion. They 
 fancy that to turn from heathenism to Christianity is all 
 that is implied in it. If we speak of our being con- 
 verted, they ask, Why, what were you before ? Jews, 
 or Turks, or Heathen ? Alas ! the fatal mistake ! . . . 
 Conversion does not consist in embracing a new sect, 
 or party, in baptism, or approach to the Lord's table, 
 or any external privilege, or advantage, or alteration. 
 No, it consists in turning from the creature to God." 
 
5 
 
 It is simple justice to recall at this date some of the 
 earnest and devout sentiments of Dr. Byles, because 
 secular history has claimed so large a share of his 
 biography. To nearly every reader of Revolutionary 
 times in Boston he is only known as the inveterate 
 wit and obstinate tory. At this late period his irre- 
 pressible humor and ready felicity of speech make 
 his disloyalty to the American cause almost amusing. 
 Even amid the intense feeling of his own day, the 
 sentence of banishment which was passed against him 
 was never carried into effect. His church, however, 
 was less tolerant of him than his country. It throws 
 a shade of sadness over the records of a long and 
 harmonious pastorate to review its history with a 
 knowledge of its unhappy close. But that is our 
 task. The young minister begins with his new church 
 in 1732, one hundred and forty-four years ago this very 
 month. Jonathan Belcher, Captain-General and Gov- 
 ernor-in-Chief in and over His Majesty's Province of 
 Massachusetts Bay, "had given the land unto William 
 Pain, Esq., on condition that he, with a covenant 
 number, would associate themselves together and build 
 a house for the public worship of God." Dr. Byles' 
 first wife was the Governor's niece. A year or two 
 after the settlement (April, 1734), Thomas Hollis, of 
 London, presented the church with a fine bell of about 
 eight hundred pounds weight. In the same year that 
 the bell lifted up its voice in the steeple, a " handsome 
 dial or clock, for the ornament of the house and the 
 
benefit of the congregation," was installed as its col- 
 league in the interior of the meeting-house. 
 
 Other gifts from people to church are pleasantly 
 recorded. One of these is especially interesting for 
 its date of the time when the Bible was first publicly 
 read here. On May 2d, 1742, the pastor, in the name 
 of the Hon. William Dummer, late Lieutenant-Governor 
 and Commander-in-Chief over this Province, presented 
 the church with " a large and rich folio Bible, on con- 
 dition that it should be read as a part of the publick 
 worship on the Lord's day among us." The thanks of 
 the church are voted to the honorable donor for his 
 " stately church Bible," and one week later, May 9, 
 1742, reading from the Scriptures is introduced. 
 
 Gifts of silver for the communion-table and font are 
 acknowledged from Thomas Hubbard, Silence Eliot, 
 Gov. Dummer, Zachariah Johonnot. And in June 27, 
 1762, I find this important extract from the will of the 
 Hon. William Dummer : — 
 
 I give unto the church of which the Rev. Mather Byles is at 
 present pastor, £26 13s. and 4^., lawful money, to be placed out to 
 interest, on good security, by the deacons of said church, for the 
 time being forever, said interest to be annually paid by the dea- 
 cons of said church, for the time being, to the minister or minis- 
 ters of the same church forever. \_Mem. — I have never received 
 any such interest, g. l. c] 
 
 In the same book with these records of church doings 
 are the lists of baptisms, and we are led along this 
 
primrose path, rewarded now by some familiar family 
 name, and now by quaint old-fashioned styles with good 
 Hebrew significance in them, like Thankful Jepson, 
 Waitstill Trott, Hopestill Foster, Faith Bass, and 
 Patience How. It warms one's heart towards this far- 
 off predecessor to find, under date of Jan. 12, 1734, the 
 simple inscription, " My Mather." The father got the 
 better of the minister when he made that entry, and 
 broke the formal list of baptisms with the language of 
 nature. His Mather afterwards became an Episcopal 
 minister, and was settled for a time in Christ Church 
 in this city. He shared his father's tory convictions, 
 and after the evacuation of Boston spent the remainder 
 of his days in Nova Scotia. We are called by this 
 episode of the son to recount the critical event in the 
 ministerial life of the father. 
 
 Dr. Byles was a consistent tory, and doubtless con- 
 cealed as much obstinacy of opinion under his habitual 
 pleasantries as graver men possessed. He is credited 
 with some good and witty reasons for not introducing 
 politics into his discourses from the pulpit : " In the 
 first place, I do not understand politics ; in the second 
 place, you all do, every mother's son of you ; in the 
 third place, you have politics all the week, pray let one 
 day be given to religion ; and in the fourth place, I have 
 something better to preach about." 
 
 But, whether he made politics a frequent theme of his 
 preaching or not, he did not scruple to pledge his pray- 
 ers to the enemy, and we find among the charges pre- 
 
8 
 
 ferred against him at a later day, that he "pray'd in 
 publick that America might submitt to Grate Brittain, 
 or words to the same purpose." It is not shown that 
 he took any very active part in opposing the indepen- 
 dence of the colonies, although his well-known tory sym- 
 pathies exposed him to constant suspicion. In the list 
 of charges made against him by his church and congre- 
 gation, on their return, after the British had left Boston, 
 it is said that he " associated and spent a considerable 
 part of his time with the officers of the British army, 
 having them frequently in his house, and lending them 
 his glasses for the purpose of seeing the works erecting 
 out of town for our Defense." His daughters openly 
 boasted that they had walked on the Common during 
 the siege with Gen. Howe and Lord Percy, and were 
 serenaded by the royal band. It is further declared 
 that he treated the public calamity with " a grate degree 
 of liteness and Indifference, saying when his towns- 
 people left their houses, that a better sort of people 
 would take their place, or words to that purpose"; 
 "that he frequently met on Lord's days, before and 
 after service, with a number of our Inveterate Enemies, 
 at a certain place in King Street, called Tory Hall." 
 Another grievance was his refusal " to have two ser- 
 vices on Lord's days, while he preached at the Old 
 Brick meeting-house, though urged thereto by some of 
 the ministers then in town." 
 
 He was summoned to give answer to these complaints 
 at a meeting held in the first Hollis Street Meeting- 
 
house, Aug. 9, i Jj6, and, on the charges being read, and 
 the evidence to support them produced, he made " such 
 answers as he tho't proper," says the reticent church 
 record. The oral traditions which hand down the 
 story suggest a much more lively picture of the reso- 
 lute grief of the society, and the undignified resent- 
 ment of their minister. Certainly the propriety of the 
 defence did not rest in its manner, and if one may 
 judge from the speedy action of the church, its matter 
 was equally unsatisfactory. For, one week later, they 
 voted, that " the Rev d Dr. Mather Byles, having by his 
 conduct put an end to his usefulness as a Publick 
 preacher amongst us, Be and hereby is, dismissed from 
 his Pastoral charge." 
 
 The prompt action of the church in Hollis Street, in 
 arraigning its minister for his tory sympathies imme- 
 diately on their return to town, illustrates very forcibly 
 the vital connection which was felt at that time to exist 
 between Politics and Religion. Perhaps no livelier illus- 
 tration of this common conviction could be furnished 
 than is given in an incident which happened just before 
 June 14, 1774. Dr. Byles succeeded in creating a real 
 panic among the British troops, by reporting that on 
 June 14 forty thousand men would rise up in opposi- 
 tion to them, with the clergy at their head; the fact 
 being that that day had been appointed as a day of 
 fasting throughout the Province. It was wisdom, as 
 well as wit, which looked upon a peaceful convocation 
 of fasting worshippers as a standing army. We smile 
 
IO 
 
 at the possibility of finding anything formidable in a 
 Fast-day congregation ; but in that day, in this Province, 
 it meant, in all literalness, an army of two-score thou- 
 sand men, headed by their clergy, and animated with 
 the dangerous resolution to defend their liberties. Un- 
 faithfulness to civil liberty was regarded by these patri- 
 ots as an unpardonable offence against the church. It 
 was on this ground that the tie between pastor and 
 people was broken, a tie which, at that time, was as 
 binding as that which wedded man and wife. For forty- 
 four years, from its beginning in 1732 to 1776, Dr. Byles 
 had been the minister of Hollis Street Church, and, in 
 accordance with the custom of his day, he had been 
 settled for life. And yet, on evidence of his aiding 
 and abetting the British, he was deposed from his 
 office, and it was declared that he had put an end to 
 his usefulness in this church. It is pleasant to find 
 on the records, at a later date, a vote of money for 
 his necessities. His friends in the church and his 
 neighbors were kind to him as a man, after they had 
 ceased to respect him as a minister. His loss of office, 
 and consequent lack of pecuniary resources, do not 
 seem to have dulled his wit or permanently depressed 
 his spirits. 
 
 Dr. Belknap, in his letter to Hazard, describes a visit 
 to him just after the great fire of 1787. Dr. Byles' 
 house was in imminent danger. " His books, instru- 
 ments, papers, and prints were dislodged in an hour 
 from a fifty years' quietness to a helter-skelter heap in 
 
II 
 
 an adjoining pasture." The "melancholy satisfaction" 
 afforded him of seeing the meeting-house which had 
 ejected him burned to the ground must have been an 
 afterthought, for the prospect of losing his own dwell- 
 ing was too pressing to leave room for any satisfaction 
 at the time. " The first thing we thought of saving," 
 said his daughters, "was papa." "Whereupon," writes 
 Belknap, " the Doctor would have gone into a long 
 disquisition upon persons and things. But I could not 
 stop to hear. He told me of a minister who preached 
 about the lunatic dispossessed of devils that entered 
 into the swine, and he made three heads of it, which he 
 would express by three English proverbs : — 
 
 "'i. The devil will play at small game rather than 
 be idle. 
 
 " ' 2. He must run whom the devil drives. 
 
 "'3. The devil always brings his pigs to a bad mar- 
 ket.' " 
 
 The writer adds : " The Doctor is a curiosity." 
 
 In his latter days, he naturally found his social attrac- 
 tions, more and more, among the Episcopalians, who 
 were generally of the royal persuasion. His family 
 were aided by the members of Trinity Church. But 
 the Congregational bias of his sympathies showed itself 
 to the end ; for when the rectors of Christ Church and 
 Trinity came to see him in his last sickness, with their 
 formal methods of consolation, and one of them asked 
 him how he felt, — "I feel," said he, with that incor- 
 rigible humor which always had a tinge of redeeming 
 
11 
 
 candor in it, "I feel that I am going where there are 
 no more bishops." 
 
 This was in 1788, when Dr. Byles was eighty-two years 
 old. He died as he had lived, Puritan in faith and Tory 
 in politics. His leading traits may seem incongruous to 
 one whose conception of a minister's character begins 
 by omitting his common humanity. But in any true 
 analysis, of a minister as of any other man, there will 
 be found the gay blending with the graver moods ; fun 
 and folly living side by side with wisdom, and sportive 
 humor coming to the rescue of overburdened care. 
 Nature seldom, if ever, turns every hair on her chil- 
 dren's heads to whiteness. The gray of age mingles 
 remnants of youth with its own silver. It is no just 
 imputation upon a man's earnestness that he is capable 
 of joking. "If I did not tell my stories," said Lincoln, 
 to one who remonstrated with him, "I should die." 
 Some of the most serious men in history have been the 
 most jocose. Indeed, there is justly felt to be some- 
 thing lacking in the man who cannot appreciate the 
 humorous side of life. As Paley has so well stated it: 
 "The man who is never a fool is always a fool." I shall 
 not take the trouble, therefore, to exonerate Dr. Byles 
 for his wit, even if it was not always seasonable or kind. 
 Nature will out, and the work of grace, as I conceive it, 
 is not to destroy but to develop and purify the common 
 humanity which is in us all. Perchance the sometime 
 iniquity of Mather Byles' wit may be due to the unnat- 
 ural restraints which were put. upon the ministry in his 
 
13 
 
 day. In the chancel of the grand cathedral in Old 
 Chester, in England, there is some wonderful carving 
 done by the monks many years ago. On the surface 
 every image is saintly, sweet, and becoming the conven- 
 tional house of worship; but on turning up the sedilia, 
 or seats, where the priests sat, there were carved under- 
 neath images of pigs playing upon violins, and other 
 conceits as whimsical and funny as Reinicke Fuchs. 
 It was the irrepressible love of the humorous, denied 
 open expression, but revenging itself by this covert joke 
 within the very chancel itself. 
 
 The meeting-house in Hollis Street was promptly 
 cleared of the rubbish bequeathed to it by the British 
 soldiers of 1776. The Standing Committee were author- 
 ized to dispose of an iron stove left in the meeting-house, 
 — the congregations of that day brought their own foot- 
 stoves with them. The building was, however, much 
 smaller than the present one. It was about as large as 
 our chapel, having forty pews below and nine in the 
 gallery. Public worship was resumed here Oct. 9, 1776. 
 One year later, Mr. Ebenezer Wight was unanimously 
 chosen as Pastor. He accepted, in a letter of mingled 
 modesty and courage, but it was five months before he 
 came to his conclusion, he preaching meantime, and 
 gathering confidence from the knowledge and experi- 
 ence which the time of probation afforded him. One 
 cannot but admire the caution and deliberation with 
 which ministers and parishes came together in that 
 day. The pastors gave some proof of their calling of 
 
H 
 
 God, before they received their lower call. And the 
 parish itself made good its claim, and its disposition and 
 ability to support and further the work of the minister, 
 before he, in his turn, accepted its call. In accepting it, 
 the minister felt that he was making a choice which 
 must last for life, and the most solemn and tender spirit 
 attended the binding of this sacred tie. "God forbid," 
 writes this young man, to his first and only parish, 
 "that I should cease to pray for you, — that we may be 
 perfectly joined together in the bonds of love, and be 
 fellow-helpers of each others' joy until admitted to join 
 the Church Triumphant." At the time of his settle- 
 ment (1778) he was twenty-eight years old. These were 
 stirring times in the country. It must have required 
 more than common devotion to the ministry to keep a 
 young man in that day from the army. In the memoir 
 written by his descendant (Dr. D. F. Wight), we are told 
 how long and ardently he had labored for the service of 
 the gospel ministry. Only by adding nights of hard 
 study to "laborious days" upon his father's farm in Ded_ 
 ham, was he able to prepare for Harvard College, and 
 having graduated there in 1776, and passed two more 
 years in study for his profession with Rev. Jason Haven, 
 of Dedham, he became a candidate and was soon invited 
 to succeed Dr. Byles in this church. He is described 
 as " a popular preacher, with a melodious voice, a distinct 
 enunciation, graceful gesture, an impressive manner, and 
 great gifts in prayer. He eschewed metaphysics and 
 controversial theology in his preaching, preferring to 
 
i5 
 
 discourse upon the great truths of the gospel and the 
 duties they enforce. He devoted himself to his parish ; 
 was a frequent visitor in its homes; sought out the 
 aged and infirm ; was particular in his work among the 
 young; faithful to the sick and afflicted ; kind to the 
 poor; winning all hearts by giving them his own." 
 His biographer gives twelve pages of his genealogy 
 of the Wight family to this, its most illustrious mem- 
 ber. But I do not find any reference to my modest 
 predecessor elsewhere, except in the records of the 
 church. His ministry of ten years here perfectly illus- 
 trates the ease and certainty with which a man of talent 
 and devotion — to use the language of his biographer 
 — a "popular preacher, a melodious voice, a distinct 
 enunciation, graceful gesture, impressive manner, and 
 great gifts in prayer," may utterly disappear in the em- 
 braces of a satisfied congregation and give no sign. Of 
 course, one hopes and believes that this absorption of 
 so many gifts by one people was good for them. The 
 leaven that goes into the bread disappears, but behold 
 the comely loaf! Caleb Davis and Thomas Bailey, Mr. 
 Wight's good deacons, have both presented our church 
 with ministerial descendants. It would be a rare ques- 
 tion in spiritual stirpitology, how far the example and 
 teaching of Ebenezer Wight affected the entrance of 
 Caleb Davis Bradlee and Thomas Bailey Fox into the 
 ministerial profession. Surely some compensation is 
 due to the man who so bounded his ambition and his 
 success to the fifty or sixty families that attended his 
 
i6 
 
 church. His own life, though not deprived of its right- 
 ful three-score and ten by his labors, was limited in its 
 ministerial opportunities to ten. Busied by day with 
 parish calls and incessant visiting, he was obliged to 
 take his nights for study. In this way his eyesight be- 
 came impaired ; then his health gave way in conse- 
 quence of the confinement caused by his tender eyes, 
 and a complete debility ensued, which finally drove him 
 from his church, beyond recall. 
 
 "Sic transit gloria clerici." It was a sad parting, 
 but the gradual demonstration of its necessity had pre- 
 pared the minds of both pastor and people for the final 
 act. It might have come sooner but for the great fire 
 of 1787, which consumed the old Hollis Street Meeting- 
 house, and delivered its congregation to the hospitable 
 care of the Old South Church. Mr. Wight's health al- 
 lowed him to alternate with Dr. Eckley, in united ser- 
 vices in that church for a year, while the new house was 
 building. He preached in the new meeting-house on 
 August 31, 1788, and again a week later, when he re- 
 newed his request to be dismissed. The last reference 
 to his ministerial work that I have seen is in the Right 
 Hand of Fellowship given by Dr. Eckley, at the Instal- 
 lation of his successor, Rev. Samuel West. Speaking 
 to the society here, and referring to the year of united 
 services held in the Old South Church, Dr. Eckley said : 
 "The connection which existed between us some time 
 ago, as it will not be forgotten on my part, neither will 
 it, I trust, on yours also. Often have we mingled our 
 
W 
 o 
 o 
 
 D 
 
 w 
 
 W 
 H 
 
 h—l 
 
 Q 
 O 
 
 c 
 
 w 
 W 
 
i7 
 
 souls together at the same church, in humble adoration 
 of the God of Heaven ; often have we sat as brethren 
 around the same table of our Saviour, when in the course 
 of duty, your late worthy and pious pastor, Mr. Wight, 
 has carried our spirits to the Almighty throne, and in 
 able, solemn, and pathetic prayer, presented us before 
 the Lord." One would like to know what feelings this 
 tribute aroused in the retired minister, as he tended the 
 pigs and cows which were henceforth to be his flock, on 
 the quiet Dedham farm to which he went from Boston. 
 But hereafter his thoughts are his own. A happy pos- 
 session, we may believe, for his descendant says : " To 
 him, his field and garden were places of worship ; he 
 retired there to contemplate on the wisdom of Provi- 
 dence and the beneficence of the Author of Nature." 
 Now begins twenty-one years of church life under 
 Dr. Samuel West. He is fifty years old already, having 
 served in the ministry in Needham for twenty-five years. 
 He brings, therefore, neither the freshness nor the green- 
 ness of youth to his task. Too high-minded to haggle 
 with his Needham parish over the payment of his just 
 dues, and really straitened for want of them, he ac- 
 cepted the call to Hollis Street as a providential door of 
 escape. And yet so conscientious is he about severing 
 a connection already broken on the part of his people 
 by failure to support him, that he fills a full page of our 
 Church Records with a statement of reasons, and writes 
 a memoir with further explanations, that his posterity 
 may know with what caution and forbearance he had 
 
i8 
 
 acted, and with what due respect for the ministerial 
 name and calling. 
 
 I have invoked, for my better knowledge of Dr. West, 
 some of those shadowy remains which ministers leave 
 behind them in the shape of published sermons. The 
 dust of mortality was still upon them, as they came 
 down from their appointed shelves in the library of the 
 Massachusetts Historical Society. But I found in these 
 neglected and forgotten pamphlets more than enough to 
 justify the tradition of goodness and wisdom which is 
 associated with the name of Samuel West. His Thanks- 
 giving sermon of 1795 contains a wonderful historic 
 parallelism with our own times. But in the sermon he 
 preached, according to the custom of those days, at his 
 own Installation, there is such admirable form and or- 
 derly development of the theme; such just emphasis 
 and discrimination of values ; such terse and cleanly dic_ 
 tion ; such mental breadth combined with positive opin- 
 ions of his own ; such comprehensive scope and culture, 
 all penetrated with earnest piety, — that I closed the 
 book with a sense of shame at the ignorant neglect with 
 which I had treated this able and wise predecessor. 
 You, few people, who knew and still remember Dr. 
 West, have not told me the half of his greatness. But 
 how should you since you were no more than children 
 when he died? I find in this discourse, preached in 
 1788, the best possible analysis of the minister's qualifi- 
 cations for his work, — one that I am glad to quote in 
 anticipation of those remarkable men, who followed 
 
19 
 
 West, in the pulpit of this church. Speaking of shining 
 talents, he says : " If they are not indispensable, they 
 are, at least, ornamental to the ministry and useful to 
 the church." And who of us, filled as this age is with 
 the conceit of science as almost the discovery of our 
 generation, would expect to hear a preacher of nearly a 
 century ago saying, that "acquaintance with science, 
 although not to be compared with experimental acquaint- 
 ance with true religion, is a qualification nearly indis- 
 pensable, in those who are set for the defence of the 
 gospel." 
 
 The Rev. Thomas Thatcher, in his memoir of Dr. 
 West, says that his character is an exception to the gen- 
 eral rule; that clerical biography is tame and monoto- 
 nous. He claims for West, marks of original genius, 
 superior learning, social experience, humanity, and cour- 
 tesy, and even balancing of the understanding and the 
 heart, quite exceptional and impressive. Educated in 
 the prevailing Calvinism of his day, his mind was too 
 liberal and his heart too generous to remain in bondage 
 to such a gloomy and contracted system of divinity. 
 In preaching, he spoke without notes, relying upon a 
 remarkable memory. "His method," says Thatcher, 
 "was very different from that of ignorant, vociferating 
 enthusiasts, who foam out extempore the crude, undi- 
 gested ideas first occurring in their poor, unlettered 
 minds." There is certainly no mark of crudity or haste 
 
 in the published sermons that have come down to us 
 
 • 
 
 The only surprise we feel is in hearing that such closely- 
 
20 
 
 thought and concisely-stated discourses were given with- 
 out manuscript or notes. 
 
 His moderation and discretion in times of peculiar 
 political controversy and excitement are remarked by 
 his biographer. He maintained friendly relations even 
 with tories, an " effort of duty not a little hazardous in 
 that season of suspicion." And yet he was thoroughly 
 true to the liberty of his country. If his allusions to 
 matters connected with politics were not frequent, they 
 were outspoken when they came. " Would to God there 
 were none but freemen in the United States ! " an 
 exclamation in his Thanksgiving sermon has the true 
 ring in it. His autobiography tells a story still more 
 illustrative of his zeal for human rights. In Dr. Cotton 
 Mather's life of his father, Dr. Increase Mather, it is 
 said that the latter once made a present to his father of 
 a fine black slave, in consequence of which Providence, 
 who, it seems, much approved of his conduct, remark- 
 ably smiled upon and blessed the son. " How surpris- 
 ing," says West, "that those pious people should 
 consider one of the most criminal actions with which 
 a man can be charged, buying, or selling, or giving 
 away, for the purpose of slavery, his fellow-creature, 
 equally with themselves entitled to freedom, that such 
 an action should merit the smiles of the Common 
 Parent of the universe, who has made of one blood 
 all nations of men, and enjoined on all to do by others 
 as they would wish others to do by them ! . . . We must 
 suppose they had something to say for themselves, 
 
21 
 
 although it is not easy to point out anything even 
 plausible to cover over the horrors of such conduct." 
 The amiability of his disposition seems to have been 
 even more remarkable than the breadth of his mind and 
 the discrimination of his judgment. " He bore, without 
 betraying any symptoms either of anger or disgust, with 
 the folly and persecution of men." He easily forgave 
 personal injuries, and was never known to retaliate an 
 ill office, or to attempt to lessen the character of an 
 enemy. He has been called "an abridgment of all 
 that was pleasant in man," and in the quiet heroism 
 with which he bore the pains of a prolonged sickness, 
 he gave the final testimony to his consummate Christian 
 character. The records of his ministry show by their 
 very scantiness the peace and quiet growth that marked 
 his stay here. Ephraim Wales and Betsey Trott lead 
 off the long procession of marriages, those best signs 
 of normal, healthy life in any society. The first baby 
 baptized under Dr. West is Thomas, son of Nathaniel 
 Bradlee ; the last, is Elizabeth, daughter of Jabez Ellis. 
 Many a familiar name comes between, and in the interval 
 before Holley is ordained we meet with a cluster of 
 almost household names in this church to-day, — Cathe- 
 rine Vose, John Davis Weld, Mary Stedman of Timothy 
 Tileston, John of Thomas Blake, and Paul Dudley of 
 Joseph Richards. Oct. 25, 1801, Joseph Tuckerman 
 goes to Chelsea, from this church, to begin that min- 
 istry which was destined to illustrate so wisely and 
 largely the mission of the gospel to the poor. In 
 
22 
 
 1789, Arnold Welles presents an elegant Bible to the 
 church, as a bequest from his wife. The most affec- 
 tionate and wholesome relations seem to have marked 
 the entire course of this pastorate. Beginning with the 
 advantages of a new and attractive edifice, an increasing 
 neighborhood, a mature man as pastor, with unusual 
 gifts fully ripe, and a character rarely disciplined, it 
 ended in the natural way by the death of the minister, 
 attended to the last by a faithful and helpful parish. 
 
 Brethren, I find that I wholly miscalculated the his- 
 torical riches of our church when I proposed to unfold 
 to you in one discourse the whole treasure of a century 
 of church life. It cannot be done without prolonging 
 our testimony far beyond the recognized domain of 
 Sunday morning discourses. The triple stars which 
 come now within the field of our telescope, Holley, 
 Pierpont, and King, cannot be dismissed with hasty 
 observation and the stinted celebration of the cata- 
 logue. Although more often talked about, I question 
 if they are better known than their predecessors, whose 
 characters and works we have been reviewing together. 
 Their lives and labors belong rather to the new era 
 than the old. They begin and illustrate a new depart- 
 ure in the ministerial profession. They stand more 
 appropriately at the beginning of a new year than at 
 the going out of the old year. Let us take their lives 
 as our study for the first Sunday of the coming year, 
 and accept afresh the church, which is the legacy of 
 such men, to our affection and support. 
 
23 
 
 Already we have reviewed three-quarters of a century 
 (1732 to 1809) in as many quarters of an hour. The 
 task in this composition has been in the omission of 
 interesting facts and incidents, rather than in the inter- 
 weaving of those select portions which I have given 
 you. The history of a church which anticipated the 
 Independence of the country, and has kept pace with 
 its development until this day, has elements of interest 
 which justify commemoration, and although its homely 
 records may not vie in exciting memories with the 
 archives of the State, to a lively imagination they suggest 
 a truer picture of bygone generations. In the pages of 
 secular history only the foremost men are seen, and they 
 commonly in their robes of office or military uniform. 
 But in the sober annals of the church, men and 
 women and little children, with no title but their 
 Christian name, come forth and tell the story of their 
 every-day life. Prompted by them we have seen the 
 tall and stately form of Dr. Byles, arrayed in gown 
 and bands, with wig on head, and psalm-book in hand, 
 preaching in the little old-fashioned meeting-house, in 
 December, 1732, to a congregation whose only hope of 
 warmth was in the foot-stove at their feet and the fires 
 he might kindle in their hearts. To him succeeds the 
 devoted Ebenezer Wight, coming in his Master's name 
 in the midst of the Revolution, not sent to destroy 
 men's lives but to save them. And now, across the 
 green field which separates the church from his home on 
 Nassau Street, comes the amiable and learned Dr. West, 
 
24 
 
 whose "gown the children plucked to share the good 
 man's smile " ; retaining amid the dignities of his city 
 parish the simplicity of the village vicar of Needham. 
 
 Lo ! these are the representatives and prophets of that 
 domestic purity, that civil order, and those religious 
 institutions for which the battles were fought and the 
 victories won. They do not catch the eye and deafen 
 the ear with the splendor and noise of military renown. 
 But years after the smoke of the battle is over, and the 
 gory plain is green once more, it is found that the abid- 
 ing glory of war is in the homes it has defended. As 
 amid the action and reaction of acid and mineral pure 
 crystals of heaven's own hue are forming, so amid the 
 conflict of arms, peaceful homes are clustering around 
 the Church and the State. 
 
 Let this be our satisfaction as we review, at the close 
 of more than a century of church life, the earlier pages 
 of its honorable history. Let the piety and generosity 
 of the fathers inspire us with a worthy resolution to 
 emulate their devotion. Let us not doubt the patriot- 
 ism, no less than the piety of those keen-sighted men, 
 who maintained with equal love and jealousy a Congre- 
 gational Church and a Republican State. Let us close 
 the volume of a hundred years of American history, 
 with devout thankfulness for the church which kept the 
 symbol of civil liberty sacredly within her ark, and 
 which still lives to be the sanctuary of our best ideals 
 and our worthiest hopes. 
 
DISCOURSE. 
 
 Daniel iii. , 28. 
 "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his 
 angel and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, 
 and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any God, except their 
 own God." 
 
 Our oldest parishioner, who sees from her window to- 
 day the snows of her ninety-sixth winter, has given me 
 another reminiscence of Dr. West. She says that he 
 once told her mother that " it was forty years since he 
 had felt his temper." His autobiography, which has 
 recently come into my hands, in the original manuscript, 
 has a page upon this subject, which explains the story. 
 In this, he says that for many years he has not allowed 
 his temper to express itself in word or act. 
 
 Gentle and wise spirit ! May thy mantle fall on us 
 as we pursue our backward-looking journey! 
 
 Horace Holley was twenty-eight years of age when 
 he succeeded Dr. West in Hollis Street Church. He 
 was installed here on the 8th of March, 1809. Again 
 the minister of the Old South was summoned to take 
 the leading place in the services. Dr. Eckley preached 
 the sermon. The two-score years which had elapsed 
 since he gave the Right Hand of Fellowship to Samuel 
 West found him still at his post He alludes in his 
 
26 
 
 sermon to the part he had taken in the laying of the 
 corner-stone of the church in which they were gathered, 
 the second meeting-house in Hollis Street, and pays a 
 just tribute to the piety and learning of their late pastor. 
 One passage in the sermon reads like prophecy in the 
 light of after-events. It illustrates the ominous import 
 which often lurks in the preacher's rhetoric : " In the 
 natural world," said he, "an uninterrupted summer of 
 sunshine would, on the whole, be less grateful, than for 
 the heavens at times to be covered with clouds — the 
 lightning of thunder to send forth its streams, and the 
 wild tempest beat. A calm and peaceful ocean, with a 
 surface smooth as glass, is a delightful object. But if 
 the wind should never pass upon its bosom and excite 
 its waves, its waters might lose the fineness of their 
 transparency, and the surface cease to reflect the splen- 
 dors of the sky." 
 
 The Unitarian controversy was already muttering on 
 the horizon when these services were held. And this 
 young man with the lofty brow and trumpet tongue was 
 sure to give no uncertain sound when his turn came to 
 speak. He had received his University training at Yale, 
 and pursued his professional studies under Dr. Dwight, 
 and in company with Stewart, who was afterward profes- 
 sor at Andover. His three years' settlement in Fairfield, 
 Conn., had been a good apprenticeship. He had already 
 tried and demonstrated his powers. Once settled in 
 Boston, he was able to gain acquaintance with the true 
 character of those liberal clergymen, of whom he had 
 
27 
 
 heard injurious accounts. His biographer says: "He 
 found them differing from the Orthodox not only in 
 being liberal, but in having, with as much learning, 
 more simplicity of character, more independence, and 
 more kindness." "If they had less of the form and 
 show of religion, they had quite as much of its spirit, 
 and this was, he thought, as it should be." 
 
 It is not unusual for the converts to a new form of 
 religion to surpass its leaders in the extremes to which 
 they go. Holley was certainly not behind the foremost 
 liberals of his time. His active mind carried every 
 premise to its logical conclusion. If this intellectual 
 trait, which was emphatically his mental characteristic, 
 was a hindrance to his faith in what are called the mys- 
 teries of the gospel, let not the men who trained his 
 mind rebuke him for his fidelity to their own method. 
 The strength of Calvinism from the first has been in its 
 logical consistency. Grant its premises and you will 
 admit its conclusions. This is the secret of its per- 
 manent influence upon mankind. It is self-consistent. 
 Men can understand it. Anybody who can admit its 
 first principles, can see how the system follows. I be- 
 lieve that all forms of Calvinism owe their acceptance 
 by men far more to their logical consistency and adapt- 
 ation to the understanding of mankind than to their 
 spiritual truth or religious value. The men trained by 
 Calvinism are men of practised understanding. So 
 long as they can abide their false premises, they will 
 preach their terrible conclusions. But when it happens, 
 
28 
 
 as it did with Holley, that time, and fuller knowledge, 
 and wider experience, and the ability and courage to 
 think independently bring men to doubt the very postu- 
 lates of Orthodoxy, then the system built upon them 
 slowly crumbles into ruin. 
 
 Another characteristic of Holley's mind was the celerity 
 and accuracy with which it mastered the contents of a 
 book, and the readiness to apprehend another's meaning 
 whether in writing or in speech. There are four kinds 
 of readers. The first kind goes through a book as a 
 practical farmer runs his eye over a field of grass and 
 tells you within a hundred weight what the crop of hay 
 will be and its quality. The second kind traverses the 
 field with the slow sweep of his scythe, cutting and 
 turning its contents over and over, and at length storing 
 its product in his mind as into barns. You will always 
 find the facts of the book down to its least particular in 
 his barn, but they will be as dry and dead as hay. The 
 third kind roams the field, with selective industry, like 
 the bee, and carries away the honey of the clover. 
 These are they that treasure well the sweetest and best 
 of every book, and leave the sticks and stalks behind. 
 And the fourth kind is like the summer wind, which 
 gently blowing over the blossoming meadow, takes 
 nothing but the perfume of the flowers in its breezy 
 flight. And these are they who may remember little 
 and repeat less of the book they read, but in their gen- 
 erous abandonment of themselves to the spell of the 
 writer, they may enter more fully into his real thought 
 
2 9 
 
 and carry away more of his spirit than either of the 
 others. 
 
 Holley was one of the first kind. He knew almost 
 at sight the amount and value of a book, considered in- 
 tellectually, and he made its contents serve his argu- 
 ment with masterly readiness and skill. His method 
 of acquirement was not the busy continuity of toil 
 which distinguishes the bee. He was the master- 
 farmer, whose business it was to plan, estimate, direct, 
 and utilize the toil of tamer men. 
 
 Nature made him for a leader before men chose him 
 for this post. In person no less than in mind his build 
 was ducal. His manly form and graceful figure were 
 surmounted by a head of classic beauty. The dark eyes 
 and hair of his mother combined with the sanguine glow 
 of his father's complexion to present a rare specimen 
 of beauty. And when, as years passed, the hair "grad- 
 ually retreated from his fair, polished forehead," the loss 
 in youthful decoration was more than compensated by 
 the gain in mental impressiveness. 
 
 Thus fitted by Nature to take the eye, and qualified 
 by culture to instruct the mind, it only needs to be added 
 that his voice and style of oratory were equally calcu- 
 lated to captivate the ear, to complete the picture of 
 the consummate public speaker. Beyond dispute and 
 almost beyond comparison, Holley was master in the art 
 of addressing an audience. His rich and mellow voice 
 would have contented the ear with its music, even 
 though its freight of meaning had not satisfied the un- 
 
3° 
 
 derstanding of his hearers. His enunciation was so per- 
 fect that every word dropped from his lips with the 
 distinctness of impression and honest ring of a gold 
 coin coming from its die. His eulogist, Dr. Caldwell, 
 of Transylvania University, thus describes him, as he 
 appeared before an audience: "Thus configured, gifted 
 and accomplished when he ascended, in his flowing toga, 
 the pulpit or the rostrum, assumed the air and attitude 
 of the orator, and threw his eyes around him, on an ad- 
 miring audience, the presentation itself was a burst of 
 eloquence, an exquisite exordium to a splendid discourse." 
 For nine years (from 1809 to 18 18) this model of 
 physical beauty and strength, logical understanding and 
 oratorical excellence, was set up in this church, and great 
 was the company of the worshippers. The modest, com- 
 modious meeting-house of Dr. West, with its budding 
 towers, must give way to a grander structure, whose 
 horn should be exalted like the unicorn's. The wooden 
 age yields to the brick ; comfort now aspires to elegance. 
 The dismembered temple goes off to Braintree, where 
 it serves until this day, "a comely, symmetrical little 
 building," writes one of its present neighbors; "but the 
 people there have done their best to spoil it by remod- 
 elling and modernizing it. Luckily they had not money 
 enough to quite spoil it." Meantime, Mr. Holley's con- 
 gregation gratefully accept the invitation of the First 
 Church to unite with them in worshipping in their meet- 
 ing-house. Mr. William Emerson, pastor of the First 
 Church, was then bringing to his people the beaten oil 
 

 PRESENT MEETING HOUSE. 
 
3i 
 
 of a husbandry almost over for him in this world. He 
 and Holley alternated in conducting the services. Very 
 likely the mutual enjoyment of this year of union may 
 have prompted, at a later day, the desire for a more per- 
 manent union, which was openly expressed in the time 
 of Mr. King. 
 
 In January, 1811, the grand new meeting-house of 
 brick is finished. Here it stands ! On the 31st day of 
 this month the house is dedicated. 
 
 It is high-water mark in Hollis Street to-day. The 
 moving tent of the city's population is now pitched in 
 this neighborhood. The large and influential congrega- 
 tion, wont to worship here, give the preacher fit au- 
 dience and inspiring attention, and reward him with the 
 satisfied feeling that the truth he has given them will 
 find appreciation and addition in their own minds and 
 hearts. The melody of Holley's voice is answered by 
 the harmony of a large choir, widely known in their 
 day as the Franklin Hall Singing Society; that is, 
 the choir of Hollis Street Church. Under the accepta- 
 ble lead of Jacob Guild, this Singing Society devotes 
 itself to what its Constitution calls this " pleasing and 
 important part of Public Worship." Its members pref- 
 ace their subscription with the declaration that they 
 conceive it to be "a duty incumbent upon them to aid 
 and assist, as much as in them lies, in the worship of 
 their Creator." 
 
 Like every association dependent upon voluntary 
 work, this parish choir had its "ups and downs." But 
 
32 
 
 these are a part of every musical score ; and when, in 
 1 8 14, the interest droops, a sermon from Holley, show- 
 ing "what a laudable and important part of the public 
 worship of God is the praising Him with our voices," 
 revives the flagging harmony, and brings the choir back 
 to its starting pitch. A month or two later the minister 
 and deacons visit the society at one of the rehearsals in 
 Franklin Hall, together with other friends, and are re- 
 galed with " concord of sweet sounds." " The following 
 pieces," says the modest secretary, " were performed on 
 the occasion, and, we believe, with some gratification to 
 the assembled hearers: 'Denmark,' 'Cambridge,' 'Vital 
 Spark,' 'Music,' and 'Old Hundred.'" 
 
 Nothing warms the heart like good fare, and these 
 well-fed worshippers grow generous in their prosperity. 
 Feb. 7, 1 81 3, Mrs. Fox, daughter of the "late venerable 
 and respected Deacon Thomas Bayley, presents the 
 church with two silver cups for the communion-table." 
 
 Mrs. Eleanor Davis, widow of another deacon, had 
 already given the church three hundred dollars, to be 
 expended in part in the purchase of a clock for the in- 
 terior of the new meeting-house, and the remainder to 
 be invested as the foundation of a fund for the poor of 
 the church (May 1, 181 1). Accordingly an "elegant 
 clock " was purchased for one hundred and eighty-five 
 dollars, and one hundred and fifteen dollars were put into 
 the hands of the deacons for a poor fund. Generos- 
 ity is contagious. On May 23d of the same year, John 
 Lucas, Esq., gives a clock for the steeple. Feb. 19, 
 
33 
 
 1815, Deacons William Brown, William Dall, and 
 Charles Davis are assigned the pleasing duty of sending 
 a letter of thanks to Benjamin Bussey, Esq., for his 
 "munificent gift and generous donation" of two tables, 
 on which were inscribed the Decalogue and the Lord's 
 Prayer. The correspondence on this occasion furnishes 
 as good a tribute to the edifying and harmonizing effect 
 of Mr. Holley's ministry as can be found or could be 
 desired. Mr. Bussey says that he has been moved to 
 make the gift, by the respect and regard awakened in 
 him, by the manifestation of energy, harmony, and en- 
 terprise which the church had given. In a time of 
 "depression and discouragement in the commercial 
 world, they had cheerfully taken down their former 
 place of worship and erected 'a noble and commodious 
 edifice.' All this they had done with a spirit and in a 
 manner which did them the greatest credit," said Mr. 
 Bussey, and in recognition of their sacrifices he offered 
 his own. A parishioner both of West and Holley, he 
 felt that the latter was the providential successor of the 
 beloved and venerable Samuel West, sent to " fill the 
 vacant desk, and unite us in the bond of harmony and 
 charity." The deacons, in their reply, reciprocate his 
 congratulations, echo his satisfaction, and esteem the ex- 
 pression of friendship given by so respectable a parish- 
 ioner, who has worshipped with them for a quarter of a 
 century, as of "great value in various views." 
 
 It may interest you to know that these tables, still 
 guarding this pulpit, on the right hand and on the left, 
 
34 
 
 were made by Messrs. Vose and Coates; the painting 
 executed by John R. Penniman, all of whom were con- 
 sidered the first in their profession. "And in the pres- 
 ent instance," writes Mr. Bussey, " I flatter myself that 
 you will join me in the opinion that they have done 
 themselves great credit." 
 
 Deacon Brown completed the list of gifts when, on the 
 following year, his son William presented, as a bequest 
 from his father, the sum of one hundred dollars, to be 
 used in adding to the communion service, "already 
 handsome and respectable," should it be required ; or, 
 failing that, it might " mingle with the common funds." 
 
 With all these elements of prosperity and evidences 
 of success, what more could Holley or his people ask ? 
 The finest meeting-house in town, a large, united, and 
 influential society, the best oratorical gifts in the coun- 
 try, an assured position in society, and honorable rela- 
 tions with the literary, benevolent, and scientific institu- 
 tions for which Boston was then, as now, preeminent, 
 membership of the School Board, and the post of Over- 
 seer of Harvard College, — all these he had, as the 
 means and implements merely of his rarely-gifted 
 mind and presiding character. 
 
 But either his ambition or his desire for usefulness 
 was not satisfied. Or it may be that the preponderance 
 of his intellectual culture and development became too 
 much for his devotional interest and pastoral patience. 
 We can imagine such a man — a student by taste and 
 natural proclivity, devoted to mental philosophy and the 
 
35 
 
 study of language, and every year, with the maturing of 
 his mind, finding his calling, where he found his joy, in 
 the pursuit of these themes — becoming restive under 
 the necessary interruptions and diversions of parish 
 life, and finally breaking away from the ministry of the 
 church to the service of the university. Some such 
 experience, we are persuaded, lay behind his favorable 
 hearing of the invitation, twice made to him, to take the 
 presidency of Transylvania University in Lexington, 
 Ky. His wife, who has written his memoir, has no 
 adequate explanation to give of her husband's leaving 
 so brilliant a sphere, and one to which he was so pecul- 
 iarly adapted, as that which he filled in the metropolis 
 of New England. " Such a step," she says, " almost 
 persuades one to yield to the superstition of fatalism, by 
 which each individual is led to the accomplishment of 
 his destiny." 
 
 I suppose few men have left behind them a more regret- 
 ful parish. Holley's determination to go seems to have 
 been the only reason which could persuade his people to 
 dismiss him. No stronger endorsement of his preach- 
 ing or character could well be given than is given in 
 their letter of farewell. Such men as Benjamin West, 
 the worthy son of good Samuel West, long a pillar in 
 the church his father had honored by his purity, Samuel 
 May, William Brown, Joseph Richards, Charles Davis, 
 Barzillai Homes, and William Dall, whose names are 
 attached to this letter, mean what they say. Holley's 
 letter in reply, gratefully accepting their praises, justly 
 
36 
 
 shares the merit of the church's success with the people 
 who had heartily sustained him in the preaching of those 
 things which " numbers in the community had been in- 
 clined to consider as novelties, and a few as dangerous 
 errors." He had taught them that " truth and honesty 
 are the best policy, not only in the ordinary affairs of 
 life, but in that profession which of all others brings a 
 man most immediately into contact with the errors, the 
 prejudices, the fears, and the' intolerance of others." 
 
 Happily it forms no necessary part of these remi- 
 niscences of the life of this church to follow President 
 Holley through the fiery trials which were to try him 
 in his new field of labor. A sudden and brilliant suc- 
 cess, soon changed by sectarian hate and treachery into 
 mortifying failure, is the brief story of his eight years 
 at Transylvania. As he stood in his pulpit on that last 
 Sunday of his pastorate here, the pews, the aisles, the 
 very steps of the pulpit thronged with hearers, now 
 lifted by his eloquence into the rapture of high agree- 
 ment, and now weeping at the thought that they should 
 see his face no more, did no monition of his coming 
 trials attend him ? If it did, his purpose was un- 
 changed. He went to Kentucky, where he lived until 
 March, 1827. He left Lexington, "accompanied for a 
 considerable distance by a procession of pupils, citizens, 
 and friends, who testified by every expression of affec- 
 tionate sorrow their sincere attachment to his person 
 and character." Not discouraged by his experience in 
 Kentucky, he undertook the equally difficult task of 
 restoring the college of New Orleans. 
 
37 
 
 But over-exertion in this treacherous climate, in the 
 early summer months, compelled him to seek bodily 
 relief by a voyage to New England. Too late ! He 
 died at sea, July 31, 1827, a few days after leaving New 
 Orleans. 
 
 Gentle Izaak Walton, in his life of Mr. George Her- 
 bert, says of his widow: "Thus she continued mourning 
 till time and conversation had so moderated her sorrows 
 that she became the happy wife of Sir Robert Cook, of 
 Highnam." 
 
 Jan. 25, 1 8 19, four months after Holley had left his 
 inconsolable parish, they had unanimously elected Mr. 
 John Pierpont to be their minister. Verily the tongue 
 is a great consoler. Time cannot claim a large share in 
 this business of reconciliation. But was there not rea- 
 son for their happy agreement in the person of the new 
 incumbent? His life had followed with singular exact- 
 ness the footsteps of Holley. Like him, he was a son 
 of Connecticut (born in Litchfield, April 6, 1785); a 
 graduate of Yale (1804), at first a student of the law, 
 and afterwards, with a brief interval of business life, a 
 minister. 
 
 If we fully realized that we daily pass upon the street, 
 unnoticing and unnoticed, people whose lives are des- 
 tined one day to exert a powerful influence upon our 
 own lives, it might give us pause. But cui bono? Our 
 fate is not labelled. I offer the reflection only as an 
 added inducement to treat everybody with civility. 
 There were Horace Holley and John Pierpont pursu- 
 
3» 
 
 ing their studies at the same time, at Yale, passing one 
 another in the college-yard, reading the same books, 
 looking up to the same professors, animated by the 
 same high ambition to excel, and destined one day to 
 take upon themselves the same responsible position in 
 this city, and yet hardly on speaking terms with one 
 another. Later in life, when Holley was settled here, 
 Pierpont shared the hospitality of his house and the 
 rare courtesy of which he was' a consummate master. 
 Outwardly no two men could be greater contrasts than 
 were these two. Nor were their mental traits the same. 
 Likeness with a difference is the common condition of 
 happy succession to a much loved predecessor. Our 
 new minister had some likeness to his forerunner, but 
 more difference. He was like in the breadth and rea- 
 sonableness of his doctrines ; in the manly freedom of 
 his thought and speech ; in the strength of his convic- 
 tions and his faithfulness to them ; in the variety of 
 his gifts and the versatility of his talents; but he 
 differed wholly in look, manner, style of oratory, favor- 
 ite subjects of study, and mode of action. The dif- 
 fering mould in which their thoughts were cast shows 
 itself in the differing forms of their composition. 
 There are three types of mind: — 
 
 ist. The logical; in this the understanding prepon- 
 derates. 
 
 2d. The analogical; in this comparative imagination 
 is preeminent. 
 
 3d. The prophetic; in this is seen the intuition of 
 cause and effect. 
 
39 
 
 At the risk of anticipating our conclusion, before 
 the evidence is given, let me say here, that Holley's 
 mind was preeminently logical ; Pierpont's, analogical ; 
 and King's was prophetic. 
 
 Not that either of these remarkable men was desti- 
 tute of the mental traits and powers thus apportioned 
 by preeminence to the other. Pierpont had in a 
 marked degree the prophetic power, the divination of 
 cause and effect, in all the medley of sequences in 
 which the life of nature and of man goes on. Some- 
 times his imagination got the better of his spiritual 
 discernment or intuition of the cause, and then he 
 was merely a surface composer, like nine-tenths of the 
 rhetoricians and rhymsters of every age, only far more 
 witty than most of them. But in the times when his 
 genius played freely and purely, he was a true discerner 
 of vital issues and real relationships. He was the most 
 original of this remarkable trio of preachers. Had his 
 mind turned exclusively to metaphysical studies, he 
 would have originated something where Holley only 
 furnished a convenient classification, a logical system 
 and brilliant lectures. But the whole trend of his 
 nature was towards moral reforms, social problems, 
 national questions. Not thinkings but things were his 
 studies. His objects of thought were not abstractions, 
 but men and women. 
 
 He could not think "sin" without imagining the 
 "sinner," and all the hatred we are taught to feel 
 towards "sin" came from him in the shape of personal 
 
40 
 
 attack upon the sinner. Now, no man is a sinner and 
 nothing else. The worst of us have some good in us, 
 and we do not like to be treated as if we were incarnate 
 sin, because some sins are justly laid at our door. Some 
 people have a way of correcting your faults as if you 
 were no better than an Augean stable. I have no 
 doubt that the lively imagination, the objective mental 
 habit, the practical identification of wrong and the 
 the wrong-doer, which were constitutional in Pierpont, 
 led him sometimes into unjust insinuations and unmer- 
 ited condemnation. I very much doubt if he knew, or 
 could know, never having experienced it, how much his 
 face and manner added to the weight of his rebuke and 
 the aggravation of his ridicule. 
 
 I shall never forget the only occasion, since I have 
 arrived at years of manhood, when I saw this remark- 
 able man. It was in Brooklyn, at an autumnal con- 
 ference. We were holding a conference meeting, pre- 
 paratory to the communion service. A hazardous 
 arrangement, and, as it proved, an unhappy one. For in 
 the midst of the conference a gray-haired, gray-bearded 
 man arose, and, pointing with deliberate finger towards 
 the centre of the broad aisle, declared that the ministers 
 had seen a dreaded figure there, daring them to speak 
 out on the subject of slavery, and they had not done it. 
 This was John Pierpont. " Did he mean to apply that 
 remark to that church ?" was the excited inquiry of its 
 minister. "Yes,. and to all the others," was the blunt 
 reply. And, furthermore, when Dr. Channing's church 
 
4i 
 
 was wanted for the commemoration of Follen, it was 
 refused, because of Follen's anti-slavery principles. Up 
 rises the grieved and indignant minister of that church, 
 denying, as he said he had been compelled to do before, 
 under the same provocation, the truth of the impression 
 made by the speaker's words : — 
 
 " Do I understand Dr. Gannett to deny that the 
 church was refused to the friends of Dr. Follen for his 
 eulogy ? " 
 
 Again, the grieved, indignant protest against erro- 
 neous inference from incontrovertible facts. 
 
 Then a repetition of the charge by this merciless 
 voice, with the added injury of claiming Dr. Gannett's 
 corroboration of his statement, and by-and-by the end, 
 which, alas! no communion service could sweeten. I 
 thought I saw in this incident how completely Pierpont's 
 absorption in some needed reform or really just cause 
 might make him heedless of occasions and merciless 
 towards opponents. If his manner had such power to 
 provoke a saint, what might it not do with people who 
 did not affect or aim to be saints ? 
 
 I mention this incident because it illustrates what I 
 believe, — that it was the manner as much as the matter 
 of Pierpont's preaching which gave so much offence to 
 his people. The charges on which it was sought to 
 sever his connection with this church were passed upon 
 at the time by both ecclesiastical and civil tribunals, 
 and decided in his favor. They do not need rejudg- 
 ment at this day. More especially as time has vindi- 
 
42 
 
 cated the moral worth and pressing importance of his 
 leading reforms, — anti-slavery, temperance, and the 
 abolition of imprisonment for debt ; the harmlessness 
 at least of his phrenological speculations ; the excellence 
 and propriety of his literary work and efforts on behalf 
 of education, and the innocence of his practical inven- 
 tions. To-day, these excursions from the traditional 
 work of the ministry would add to his popularity and 
 influence. For there must either be greater latitude in 
 the choice of pulpit themes and the range of ministerial 
 walks than the conventional standard of that day 
 allowed, or ministers of generous gifts and great powers 
 will steal a vacation for their minds, in literature, science, 
 and practical invention. 
 
 I know the perils attending universal sympathies and 
 indiscriminate work; perils of diffused powers and 
 talents scattered abroad. No man can be all things, 
 without becoming nothing. If Paul be cited to the 
 contrary, I reply, that no man was more stubbornly 
 himself and not another, under all circumstances, than 
 was Paul. It was only in surface agreement that he 
 accommodated himself to all men. Meantime, under 
 his tunic, he was always Paul, the apostle to the Gen- 
 tiles, an ambassador of Christ. A burning individuality 
 and consuming religious purpose like Paul's converts 
 every good service into Christian ministry. Every tent 
 he makes is a tabernacle, and every letter he writes is 
 Scripture. 
 
 Something of the Pauline catholicity of heart and 
 
43 
 
 mind belonged to Pierpont. If only with his severity 
 he had combined more love, or had more of Paul's 
 affectionate expressiveness, the result of his preaching 
 here might have been different. It must not be forgot- 
 ten, in this review of his ministry in this church, that 
 for eight years of warfare there were eighteen years of 
 peace, prosperity, and mutual edification. 
 
 History is partial to war. Pierpont's name is always 
 associated with the great controversy. But behind that 
 are long years of eloquent and tender services, whose 
 memory endures in grateful hearts to this day. The 
 dignity and distance of his ordinary manner concealed 
 the fount of sympathy within his heart. But it was 
 there. Those who knew him in sickness or bereave- 
 ment bear testimony to his affectionate comforting. In 
 the pulpit he fully supplied the place of Holley, his 
 moral earnestness adding heat to his predecessor's in- 
 tellectual fires, and his poetic sense adorning his ser- 
 mons with rare beauty of illustration and grace of 
 composition. His eye for likenesses in things most 
 distant from each other in time and association often 
 gave his similes or quotations the effect of novelty and 
 the charm of surprise. This came of his poetic con- 
 stitution and aptness for analogy. If it sometimes ran 
 into the unreality of fancy, it more often stopped within 
 the confines of wit. I do not know that in his sermons 
 it ever savored of irreverence. But in some of his 
 letters he certainly made free with the language of 
 the Bible with unwonted assurance. But the life of 
 
44 
 
 correspondence is in its freedom. His preaching was 
 in the main so good that nobody expected to improve 
 upon it by a change of ministers. His reading of the 
 Bible and hymns was refreshing. Familiar chapters 
 and tired verses were winged anew by his divining 
 spirit and interpreting voice. But he not only inter- 
 preted, he wrote. In a little book compiled for the use 
 of this church, there appeared eight hymns for com- 
 munion, attributed to G. Carseer. They were John 
 Pierpont's. Here is one of them, with the text: "And 
 when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the 
 Mount of Olives." 
 
 " The winds are hushed ; — the peaceful moon 
 Looks down on Zion's hill ; 
 The city sleeps ; 'tis night's calm noon ; 
 And all the streets are still, — 
 
 " Save, when, along the shaded walks, 
 We hear the watchman's call, 
 Or the guard's footstep, as he stalks 
 In moonlight on the wall. 
 
 " How soft, how holy, is this light ! 
 And hark ! a mournful song, 
 As gentle as these dews of night, 
 Floats on the air along. 
 
 " Affection's wish, devotion's prayer, 
 Are in that holy strain ; 
 'Tis resignation, — not despair; 
 'Tis triumph, — though 'tis pain. 
 
45 
 
 " Tis Jesus and his faithful few, 
 That pour that hymn of love ; 
 O God ! may we the song renew 
 Around thy board above." 
 
 His consecrated muse inspired the ordination hymns 
 of William Ware and Sewall, Burnap and Motte, Barry 
 and Bigelow, Sargent and Holland and Dorr. It dedi- 
 cated with holy verse the churches in Quincy, Cincin- 
 nati, Plymouth, Salem, the South Congregational Church 
 in Boston, the Bethel, Mariner's Home, and the chapels 
 in Chardon Street and Suffolk Street. Nearly all the 
 charitable institutions of Boston received a song for 
 their anniversaries. Temperance festivals needed noth- 
 ing stronger for their cheer than his ardent verses 
 supplied. And days of national celebration courted 
 and received the approbation of his pen. The wide 
 compass of his poetic endowment may be seen by 
 contrasting the delicate fancy and pathos of " Passing 
 Away" with the spirited address of Warren to the 
 American soldiers : " Stand ! the ground's your own, 
 my braves." These verses were nearly all written 
 during his ministry in this church. One wonders in 
 looking over his full and accurate church records, 
 written in a style that shames all other writing with 
 its matchless grace and clearness, how he found time 
 amid such crowded parish and inter-ecclesiastical duties 
 to do so much in literature and reform. I find the 
 names of most of the Unitarian clergymen of Boston 
 in these records, and many others, accompanied by 
 
4 6 
 
 votes of the church to attend their ordinations. Gan- 
 nett, Young, Barrett, Capen, Motte, Emerson, Newell, 
 Putnam, Fox, Thompson, Bigelow, Robbins, Lothrop, 
 Briggs, Barnard, Gray, Hall, Everett, Ware, Bartol, 
 Weiss, all were planted during Pierpont's ministry, 
 and sought the fellowship of his church, and many of 
 them the assistance of his word. Our missionary to 
 India, C. H. A. Dall, was getting inspiration for his 
 life-work in this church, at this time, and the first army 
 of the Warren Street Chapel was recruited and drilled 
 by Rev. Charles Barnard in our vestry. 
 
 The sonorous bell, which still hangs in our steeple, 
 was purchased for the church in Pierpont's time. It 
 was cast in Medway, Mass., by George Handel Hol- 
 brook, and bears date 1828. It was pronounced by 
 Dr. Lowell Mason and Jonas Chickering the most 
 musical-toned bell in the city. And Pierpont took 
 especial delight in its prompt, clear, far-resounding 
 tones. He would listen for it in his study, and per- 
 chance pitched his own fearless song by it. Around 
 its head, cast into its enduring substance, is this 
 legend : — 
 
 " I to the church the living call, 
 And to the grave do summon all." 
 
 Three hundred and eighty couples, led off by Nathan- 
 iel Butler and Mary Rose, make up the record of mar- 
 riages. Six hundred and forty-five baptisms attest the 
 frequency with which this beautiful rite was adminis- 
 
47 
 
 tered, and the healthy increase of the flock. John 
 Langdon Coffin, Catherine Everett, and John, son of 
 John Pierpont, came in the first year. The report of 
 five hundred and sixty deaths shows how large a claim 
 was made upon Mr. Pierpont's sympathies and powers 
 of consolation. 
 
 No wonder that he suffered, despite his vigorous 
 frame, under these accumulated labors. In 1829 he 
 was compelled to journey, and went westward on a 
 three months' trip, preaching during his absence in 
 the larger cities which he visited. Six years later he 
 was sick for five months, and was allowed a year's leave 
 of absence for travel in Europe. The payment of his 
 salary in full, and a large donation of money besides, 
 show the generous regard in which he was held by his 
 people. The man who could hold and satisfy this 
 church for twenty years, following closely in the foot- 
 steps of Holley, was no common or unattractive man. 
 We have seen some of his gifts, and traced, not untruly, 
 I hope, the leading lines of his character and work. 
 
 But I cannot feel content to dismiss so remarkable a 
 man and so prominent a figure in the annals of this 
 church, with no more than the dull recorder's list of 
 parts, properties, and events. Of these, there are many 
 who hear me, to whom I had better listen than recite. 
 I have but gathered up and presented to you, with all 
 the fulness the limits of time allow, the testimony I 
 have received from yourselves. Now a word for my- 
 self. I know not, by personal observation, what faults 
 
4 8 
 
 this man may have had, or what indiscretions he may 
 have committed ; but for one, I honor him, yes, with all 
 the passion and admiration of my heart, I love and 
 honor the courage of the man, and his uncompromising 
 faithfulness to the truths he believed. I pray to God, 
 that when I come to stand beiore that Judgment-seat 
 which alone can exalt and cast down, I may be found 
 to have been as true as he was to the absolute demands 
 of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. 
 If I do not repeat his ways, it is not that I love his 
 cause the less. Hail ! mighty shade ! If mortal sound 
 can now reach you, if you are lingering still, grieved 
 and indignant at the lasting wrongs of earth, or if 
 attentive to the old church bell, whose tones you used 
 to ope your windows to hear in the solemn night, you 
 come again to worship within these walls, — your son 
 salutes you ! 
 
 " On the warm dry slope of Auburn's wood-crowned hill, 
 That overlooks the Charles, and Roxbury's fields 
 That lie beyond it, as lay Canaan's green 
 And smiling landscape beyond Jordan's flood, 
 As seen by Moses." 
 
 Pierpont chose his grave in the hour when he made 
 choice to leave this church. In tender verse, he thus 
 addresses it : — 
 
 " Standing by thy side, 
 I see the distant city's domes and spires. 
 There stands the church, within whose lofty walls 
 
49 
 
 My voice for truth, and righteousness, and God — 
 
 But all too feebly, — has been lifted up 
 
 For more than twenty years, but now shall soon 
 
 Be lifted up no more. I chose this spot, 
 
 And marked it for my grave, that, when my dust 
 
 Shall be united to its kindred dust, 
 
 They who have loved me — should there any such 
 
 E'er stand beside it and let fall a tear, — 
 
 May see the temple where I toiled so long, 
 
 And toiled, I fear, in vain. No, not in vain 
 
 For all who've come to offer, in that house, 
 
 Their weekly sacrifice of praise and prayer ! 
 
 For there are some, I humbly hope and trust, 
 
 To whom my voice, in harmony with truth, 
 
 Hath helped to make that house ' the gate of heaven.' 
 
 May there be many such ! But, oh ! my grave, 
 
 When my cold dust is sleeping here in thee, 
 
 The question that shall most concern the spirit 
 
 That shall have left that dust, and gone to give 
 
 Its dread account in at the bar of God, 
 
 Will not be, ' What success hath crowned thy labors ? ' 
 
 But, 'With what faithfulness were they performed?'" 
 
 Is there any heart so cold that it will not join the 
 message of reconciliation which this church sends to 
 that appealing grave to-day : "Peace be to thee ! " And 
 let all the people say " Amen." 
 
 The monument which marks his body's resting-place 
 reports that, after leaving us, he was minister of the 
 church in Troy, N. Y., in 1845, and in Medford, Mass., 
 in 1849; Chaplain of the Twenty-second Regiment of 
 Massachusetts Volunteers before Washington, in 1862, 
 
5o 
 
 and died in Medford, Aug. 27, 1866. And then, with a 
 power of truth which gives impressive dignity to the 
 alliteration, come these words : Poet, Patriot, Preacher, 
 Philosopher, Philanthropist, Pierpont. 
 
 From 1846 to 1847, Rev. David Fosdick was the 
 minister of this society. His brief term of service 
 does not furnish material for lengthy commemoration, 
 and his life, still spared by death, exempts him from 
 public eulogy. But there are people in this church who 
 remember him with affection ; and justice bids us say, 
 that if he failed, he only failed to accomplish the impos- 
 sible. 
 
 What other man could be found brave enough and 
 strong enough to rally the scattered members of this 
 society, form them into line, recruit their decimated 
 ranks, restore their depressed valor, and lead them to a 
 new advance ? The Rev. Ephraim Peabody, of New 
 Bedford, had been selected for this superhuman task, 
 before Mr. Fosdick was called. But although his spirit 
 was willing, and eager, even, to undertake a work so 
 difficult, yet so congenial to his pacific nature, the flesh 
 was too weak to warrant the attempt. 
 
 The same consideration of uncertain health compelled 
 the Rev. Thomas Starr King, of Charlestown, to decline 
 the call extended to him by this parish in May, 1848. 
 But in October of the same year, after a sea-voyage had 
 restored his bodily vigor, Mr. King accepted a second 
 call. In the whole range of the ministry eligible to this 
 pulpit, no man could have been found better fitted for 
 
 , 
 
5i 
 
 the peculiar task awaiting him here. A natural orator, 
 his kindling countenance and ringing voice charmed his 
 audience into delighted attention, even before the wis- 
 dom of his thought and the richness of his illustration 
 had made their claim upon his hearers' respect and 
 admiration. The son of a clergyman, he came to the 
 ministry as to his just inheritance. His father's early 
 death had laid upon him the responsibilities of manhood 
 while he was yet a boy, and the quick maturity of his 
 mind and character was doubtless hastened by this 
 circumstance. 
 
 It also deprived him of that academical training, to 
 which his rare intellect entitled him, and which his 
 scholarly ambition coveted. But few graduates of the 
 university could show, at twenty-four, the varied knowl- 
 edge, the clear understanding, the true discernment, and 
 the ready command and felicitous expression of his 
 thoughts, which distinguished this young clergyman of 
 Hollis Street Church. He had kept the best company 
 in reading, and, so far as his opportunities allowed, in 
 his literary friendships, and the fruits were abundant in 
 all his work. A judicious critic and high authority in 
 mental philosophy, Dr. James Walker, on being asked 
 if Mr. King's lecture on " Goethe " was not remarkable 
 for a young man, answered : " Remarkable for any man." 
 His love of the beautiful in art and nature, and the 
 breadth of his literary sympathies, tempted his powers 
 into vigorous play outside the beaten track of theology 
 and homiletics. 
 
52 
 
 His lectures on " Socrates," " Goethe," " Sight and 
 Insight," and other kindred topics, gave him a wide 
 reputation as a lecturer, and the solid worth of these 
 addresses, combined with the grace and charm of their 
 delivery, attracted to the church many strangers visiting 
 in the city. Add to these exceptional gifts of mind and 
 attractions of manner, a happy temperament teeming 
 with health and cheerfulness, a heart of only too gener- 
 ous susceptibility, a nature incapable of understanding 
 malice, and you will see how rarely this man was fitted 
 for the ministry of reconciliation to which he was called. 
 Men might differ from his opinion, but they could not 
 have a difference with him. His earnest sympathy with 
 freedom, and temperance, and every true reform, found 
 expression from this pulpit, in no measured terms ; but 
 no man loved him the less for his faithful speaking. 
 
 The gradual restoration of the society under his in- 
 spiring prophecy and genial companionship was as 
 natural and inevitable as the renewal of spring-time 
 after the desolation of winter. Nothing could long 
 withstand this incarnate sunshine. Always giving, he 
 provoked generosity in others. The cold-hearted were 
 melted by his heat ; the downcast cheered by his con- 
 tagious good-will; the sick enjoyed his visits as they 
 enjoyed the air and light; the afflicted knew that he 
 was afflicted with them, and found comfort in his uncon- 
 querable faith and grand confession of immortality and 
 the life everlasting. His friend, E. P. Whipple, says of 
 him : " He so bound others by the occupancy of their 
 
53 
 
 hearts, that they loved him as a second self. Every one 
 he met he unconsciously enriched. Meanness, envy, 
 malice, avarice, hatred, all bad passions shrank away 
 abashed at the heat of the sunlight of his nature." 
 
 The growing confidence and sense of recovered power 
 in the church is shown, when in May, 1854, ample pro- 
 vision is made for extensive repairs, and the spacious 
 pulpit, which still stands, is built. Two years later a 
 new organ responds to the pulpit with fitting symmetry 
 of form and harmony of tones. Private generosity 
 gives the pure and graceful font, with its perpetual 
 promise : " To you and to your children." It was pre- 
 sented to the church by Mr. A. W. Thaxter. Mean- 
 time the increasing reputation and influence of Mr. 
 King outstrips even that of his church, and he is 
 wanted on both shores of this vast country at the same 
 time. The church in San Francisco calls to him as to 
 the one man who can restore her deserted temple, and 
 after long delay and questioning, balancing between the 
 duty there and the duty combined with inclination here, 
 he decides to make trial of the Pacific Coast. 
 
 He tenders his resignation of his office as pastor of 
 this church in January, i860, but is induced to with- 
 draw it at the solicitation of the proprietors, and take 
 a release from his duties here for fifteen months. This 
 enables him to make the trial in California without 
 severing the ties which bound him so strongly to Bos- 
 ton. On Sunday, March 20, i860, he delivered those 
 " words at parting," which are among the treasured 
 
54 
 
 memories of his friends worshipping in this church, 
 still true to the charge he left them, and a month later 
 he sailed away never to return. But the story of his 
 glorious service in California, in those eventful years of 
 the great rebellion, through all the varied and multiplied 
 labors of minister, lecturer, and active citizen, not only 
 justifies his mission and forbids his friends' regret, but 
 fills them with a proud thankfulness that their loss has 
 been to others so great a gain. It does not come 
 within the province of these brief memorials of Hollis 
 Street Church to follow its ministers, beyond its portals, 
 with the eager and particular inquiry of fond and be- 
 reaved friendship. But for nearly two years after Mr. 
 King left this church, he still held his place as its 
 cherished pastor. His work in California at this time 
 has its commemoration, through correspondence and 
 report, in the records of this church. And his own 
 words assures us that the zeal and devotedness with 
 which his friends in Boston sustained this society were 
 a joy and support to him amid his labors on the Pacific 
 Coast. He dwells upon their fidelity and enterprise 
 with such grateful satisfaction as a general in the field 
 might experience at the safe-keeping of his army in 
 reserve. And he had reason to feel proud and thank- 
 ful for these people. For if San Francisco was his 
 " crown" in the ministry, Boston was his "joy." Writ- 
 ing from California in November, 1861, that conclusive 
 letter which contained his resignation of his pastoral 
 relations here, he says : " At no moment of my resi- 
 
55 
 
 dence here has my heart wavered in its allegiance to 
 New England and Boston. The ties have strengthened, 
 or rather, absence and distance have shown me how 
 much of a New Englander I am. . . . Never again in 
 life can I expect to be associated in parochial fellow- 
 ships so honorable, satisfactory, and precious." 
 
 The response of the proprietors is in the same tenor 
 of regretful acquiescence in a painful necessity and 
 hearty appreciation of the noble motives which act- 
 uated their minister. The separation had at this time, 
 January, 1862, become a necessity with them as well 
 as with Mr. King. Prolonged attachment to a church 
 in the absence of a minister is not a general virtue in 
 Protestant Christendom. And the faithful and devoted 
 few who upheld the society could not contend much 
 longer with the disintegrating effects of a non-resident 
 ministry. But they fought a good fight. At the expi- 
 ration of the first year of Mr. King's absence they had 
 made a record of Christian activity which would have 
 done credit to any society. It won the jubilant greeting 
 and praise of their far-away minister. 
 
 Not only had the worship of the church been main- 
 tained with its usual regularity, and its teaching con- 
 ducted by men of ability, but the society had organized 
 its social and charitable elements with unwonted energy 
 and success. Their compulsory self-reliance had proved 
 the sufficient motive for self-help. Undismayed by 
 their loneliness they prepared to keep the fiftieth anni- 
 versary of the building of their meeting-house, with 
 
56 
 
 becoming services. And on Jan. 31, 1861, they kept 
 their festival of memory with undaunted hope. At 
 these services, Dr. E. S. Gannett and Rev. E. E. Hale 
 reviewed the history of this church, and Rev. John 
 Weiss spoke upon the New England pulpit. Although 
 separated from these services by the breadth of a 
 continent, Mr. King's participation in them was almost 
 visibly felt. His love, his longing, his sympathy, his 
 thankful appreciation of the people's devotion to their 
 church and his church, his faith in the truths it repre- 
 sented, the liberal Christian belief it professed, the 
 humanities it fostered, the spiritual realities it revealed, — 
 all made him present on this occasion, in power, if not 
 in body, to the friends who loved him and worked in 
 his spirit. 
 
 If any premonition of what the year would bring 
 forth attended pastor or people it was not expressed on 
 either side. And when the final act of separation in 
 November, 1861, was done, one, at least, of them, had 
 begun to feel that a sadder parting was not far away. 
 But the sense of having passed the meridian of his life 
 only quickened him to new endeavors, and the afternoon 
 was charged with such a glorious, untiring, and success- 
 ful warfare for liberty and truth — Liberty his Country, 
 and Truth his Church, — that it seems as if Joshua's halt 
 to the sun had been repeated by this conqueror of a new 
 land of promise, and with vaster issues. On Friday, 
 March 4, 1864, he died. While this church endures, it 
 will remember him and bless him. 
 
57 
 
 On the first Sunday of the New Year, 1876, one year 
 ago, I was preaching in San Francisco, California. I 
 remember the thread of the discourse. It was designed 
 to show how the spirit of Christ overcame the separat- 
 ing effect of exceptional endowments or accomplish- 
 ments of any kind, and made the great artist, poet, 
 orator, preacher, or prophet the something more than a 
 prophet, a man. At the close of the sermon the com- 
 munion was administered, and Mr. Stebbins made the 
 adaptation, from which I had only refrained, that my 
 hearers might do it, of the preaching to its fitting ex- 
 ample, — Thomas Starr King. It was an occasion of 
 uncommon interest and heartfelt religious joy to the 
 two men who had succeeded Mr. King, the one in 
 Boston, the other in San Francisco. The company of 
 the faithful people, in whose mindful souls the spirit of 
 King still lived in grateful memory was with us, and in 
 the communion of Jesus we were brought near to those 
 who had died in him. 
 
 Of the three men who have claimed the larger share 
 of our commemoration this morning we naturally linger 
 longest over Starr King, because we knew him best and 
 love him most. His early life wherein filial affection 
 made its sacrifices of scholarly opportunities, yet all the 
 while maintained a high ambition and intellectual indus- 
 try, is well known to you. And his eleven years of min- 
 istry in this church, 1849 — 1860, nave left a heritage of 
 loving remembrance which time cannot destroy, and a 
 continuing sense of bereavement in his loss which con- 
 
58 
 
 versation does not heal. How can I coolly dissect the en- 
 dowment, the character, and the life-work of one who is 
 still remembered so clearly and loved so fondly in this 
 church. You will not ask it. You do not need it. No; 
 let us rather prison speech, lest speech should rob us of 
 regret. 
 
 Holley, Pierpont, King ; light, heat, and electricity ; 
 reason, moral earnestness, the enthusiasm of humanity. 
 These three ! Such are the ministries whose successive 
 and companionable powers and glories have poured 
 forth their convincing, convicting, and animating elo- 
 quence from this pulpit in the times that are gone. 
 Those were fiery times that tried men's souls of what 
 substance they were. To my brooding mind and striv- 
 ing imagination, these men seem to me like " the three 
 who were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their 
 hats, and other garments, and cast together into the 
 furnace seven times heated. And lo ! I see four men, 
 loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no 
 hurt ; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of 
 God." 
 
MINISTERS OF HOLLIS STREET CHURCH, 
 
 1732 to 1861. 
 
 MATHER BYLES. 
 1732— 1776. 
 
 Born in Boston, March 26, 1706. 
 Died in Boston, July 5, 1788. 
 
 See Sprague's " Annals of the American Pulpit," Vol. I.; Belknap's Papers, Col- 
 lections of Massachusetts Historical Society, 5th Series. 
 
 EBENEZER WIGHT. 
 1778—1788. 
 
 Born in Dedham, Sept. 24, 1750. 
 Died in Dedham, Sept. 25, 1821. 
 
 See "Memorial of the Wight Family," by D. P.Wight. Massachusetts Historical 
 Society, Boston. 
 
 SAMUEL WEST. 
 1789— 1808. 
 
 Born in Martha's Vineyard, Nov. 19, 1738, O. S 
 Died in Boston, April 10, 180S. 
 
 See Biographical Memoir, by Rev. Thomas Thatcher, and Funeral Discourse, by Dr. 
 J. Lathrop; Autobiography in MSS., in possession of John J. May. 
 
6o 
 
 HORACE HOLLEY. 
 
 1809— 1818. 
 
 Born in Salisbury, Conn., Feb. 13, 1781. 
 Died at sea, July 31, 1827. 
 
 See Memoirs of Holley, by Charles Caldwell M. D. 
 
 JOHN PIERPONT. 
 1819— 1845. 
 
 Born in Litchfield, Conn., April 6, 1785. 
 Died in Medford, Aug. 27, 1866. 
 
 See Sermons, and pamphlets in Boston Public Library; Poetical works. 
 
 DAVID FOSDICK. 
 
 1846 — 1847. 
 Lives at Groton, Mass. 
 
 THOMAS STARR KING. 
 1848— 1861. 
 
 Born in New York, Dec. 16, 1824. 
 Died in San Francisco, March 4, 1864. 
 
 See Tribute to Thomas Starr King, by Richard Frothingham ; "The White Hills 
 their Legends, Landscapes, and Poetry," and printed sermons. 
 

 Original Subscribers, Feb. n, 1730. 
 
 Jonathan Belcher, Governor of 
 the Province of Mass. Bay. 
 Silence Allen. 
 John Bennett. 
 John Blake. 
 Sutton Byles. 
 Alden Bass. 
 John Clough. 
 Ebenezer Clough. 
 Thomas Clough. 
 William Cunningham. 
 James Day. 
 Caleb Edey. 
 Hopestill Foster. 
 
 Nath'l Fairfield. 
 Henry Gibbon. 
 John Goldsmith. 
 Israel How. 
 Joseph Hambleton. 
 Isaac Loring. 
 Thomas Milvin. 
 William Pain. 
 Joseph Payson, 
 Benjamin Russell. 
 .Thomas Trott. 
 Thomas Walker. 
 John Walker. 
 Samuel Wells. 
 
 PROPRIETORS 
 
 John Allen. 
 John Alcock. 
 Rebeckah Amory. 
 Josiah Allen. 
 Samuel Andrews. 
 James A. Allen. 
 Thomas Amory. 
 William Butler. 
 Robert Brown. 
 Peter Boylstone. 
 Samuel Brown. 
 Samuel Butler. 
 Gawen Brown. 
 Thomas Bayley. 
 
 OF PEWS FROM 1731 TO 1810. 
 
 Benjamin Bass. 
 Joseph Bradford. 
 Edward Blake. 
 Aaron Blaney. 
 Henry Bass. 
 John Butterfield. 
 Isaac Bird. 
 Moses Belcher Bass. 
 John Bosson. 
 Josiah Brown. 
 David Brewer. 
 William Bird. 
 William Brown. 
 William Blake. 
 
62 
 
 William Billings. 
 Josiah Brown. 
 William Bordman. 
 Bela Bullen. 
 Thomas Blake. 
 William Bartlett. 
 William P. Blake. 
 Jeremiah Bridge. 
 James Barry. 
 William Bacon. 
 Joseph Blaney. 
 Henry Bass, Jr. 
 James Blake. 
 Nath'l Bradlee. 
 Benjamin Bussey. 
 James Barry. 
 Henry Blaney. 
 Aaron Bean. 
 Aaron Baldwin. 
 Lemuel Blake. 
 John Clark. 
 John Cravath. 
 Lemuel Cravath. 
 William Clear. 
 Benjamin Church. 
 David Colson. 
 James Cunningham. 
 Obadiah Curtis. 
 Joseph Clark. 
 Giles Church. 
 Benjamin Cobb. 
 Samuel Cookson. 
 Joshua Clark. 
 - Nath'l Curtis. 
 Abijah Crane. 
 Nath'l Cobbett. 
 Elisha Cowley. 
 John Cabot. 
 John Corbett. 
 William Cunningham. 
 
 Gregory Clark. 
 
 David Cobb. 
 
 Sarah Cheever. 
 
 David Cheever. 
 
 Andrew Cunningham. 
 
 David Child. 
 
 Joseph Cutler. 
 
 Henry B. Curtis. 
 
 Elisha Copeland. 
 
 William Dummer, Governor. 
 
 Jonathan Dwight. 
 
 Joshua Dodge. 
 
 Charles Dupee. 
 
 Caleb Davis. 
 
 Amasa Davis. 
 
 Ebenezer Dorr. 
 
 Joseph Dorr. 
 
 Nath'l iSavis. 
 
 Joshua Davis. 
 
 Robert Davis. 
 
 William Donnett. 
 
 William Dall. 
 
 Elijah Dix. 
 
 John Denton. 
 
 Charles Davis. 
 
 Andrew C. Dorr. 
 
 James Dawson. 
 
 John Dorr. 
 
 John Eliot. 
 
 Thomas Edes. 
 
 Joseph Eliot. 
 
 Thomas Emmons. 
 
 Otis Everett. 
 
 Jabez Ellis. 
 
 David Ellis. 
 
 Robert Fairservice. 
 
 Gustavus Fellows. 
 
 Joshua Farrington. 
 
 Benjamin Fessenden. 
 
 Alvan Fosdick. 
 
63 
 
 John French. 
 Oliver Fisher. 
 Oliver Fuller. 
 James Freeman. 
 Hopestill Foster, Jr. 
 John Foster. 
 John Gridley. 
 Jeremiah Gore. 
 Stephen Gore. 
 William Gough. 
 Peter Guyer. 
 Henry Geyer. 
 William Gooch. 
 Jacob Gould. 
 Benjamin Goddard. 
 Nath'l Gardner. 
 John Gibson. 
 Abraham Gibson. 
 Jeremiah Gore, Jr. 
 Stephen Gore, Jr. 
 Amos Green. 
 Henry Ch. Guyer. ^ 
 Peter Harrot. 
 Samuel Holbrook. 
 Sarah Hobson. 
 William Henshaw. 
 Richard Hunnewell. 
 Ebenezer Hinckley. 
 Samuel Healey. 
 John Hopkins. 
 Stephen Harris. 
 Samuel Hastings. 
 William Hagar. 
 Joel Hagar. 
 John Hurd. 
 John Haskell. 
 Barzillai Holmes. 
 Edward C. Howe. 
 Zachariah Johonnot. 
 - Johnson Jackson. 
 
 Peter Johonnot. 
 Joseph Jackson. 
 Jacob Kuhn. 
 Jonathan Kelton. 
 Josiah Knapp. 
 William Lowder^ 
 Robert Lovering. 
 Nath'l Lovering. 
 John Lucas. 
 Joseph Lovering. 
 Ebenezer Lewis. 
 Arthur Langford. 
 Robert Lovering. 
 James Lamb. 
 Thomas Lamb. 
 John McLane. 
 Ephraim May. 
 Aaron May. 
 John May. 
 Thomas Mather. 
 Moses May. 
 Diamond Morton. 
 Samuel May. 
 William Marshall. 
 Elijah Marsh. 
 John McFadden. 
 Ebenezer May. 
 Israel Mead. 
 Samuel Marsh. 
 Jonathan Mason. 
 Philip Marett. 
 Peter Mackintosh. 
 Solomon Munroe. 
 Phebe Marsh. 
 P err in May. 
 Edward McLane. 
 Nath'l Meriam. 
 Ephraim Marsh. 
 Benjamin Neal. 
 Eleazer Nichols. 
 
6 4 
 
 Henry Newman. 
 
 John Osborn. 
 
 William Powell, Governor, 1732 
 
 Mary Pollard. 
 
 Moses Pratt. 
 
 Moses Pierce. 
 
 Eleazer Price. 
 
 * John Patten. * 
 John Potter. 
 
 Ebenezer Perry. 
 
 Nath'l Phillips. * 
 
 William Phillips. 
 
 Joseph Pierpont. 
 - -- Remember Preston. 
 ~John Parker. 
 
 Enoch Pond. 
 • Nicholas Pearce. 
 
 Joseph Pierce. — 
 
 John Perry. 
 
 Henry Proale. 
 
 Noah Porter. 
 • Samuel Phillips. 
 
 John Phillips. 
 
 Nath'l Richardson. 
 
 Eleazer Rice. 
 
 Edward Robinson. 
 
 Samuel Richards. 
 
 Samuel Ruggles. 
 
 * John Roulstone. 
 
 Mark Richards. *- 
 
 -» Paul D. Richards. 
 Giles Richards. 
 George Rex. 
 Cornelius Rex. 
 Robert Robinson. 
 Joseph Richards. ""' 
 
 Robert Ruggles. 
 Elizabeth Simpson. 
 John Simpson. 
 Abigail Stacey. 
 
 >e m 
 
 Joseph Scott. 
 William Simpson. 
 Nath'l Simpson. 
 John Salmon. 
 Nath'l Sheppard. 
 Samuel Swift. 
 Thomas Spear. 
 Ebenezer Seaver. 
 Nath'l Smith. 
 Thomas S to well. 
 Samuel Sprague. 
 Nath'l Sparhawk. 
 Joseph Sprague. 
 Ephraim S eagre. 
 William Stevens. 
 Henry Stevens. 
 John Sprague. 
 Ephraim Thayer. 
 John Turner. 
 Gideon Thayer. 
 Samuel Trott. 
 Peter Trott. 
 George Trott. 
 Edward Tuckerman. 
 Josiah Torrey. 
 Obadiah Thayer. 
 Timothy Tileston. 
 Samuel Torrey. 
 David Trask. 
 Elisha Ticknor. 
 Benjamin Thomas. 
 Benjamin Thompson. 
 Samuel Topliff. 
 Isaac Vose. 
 Joshua Vose. 
 
 T Wheeler. 
 
 William Winter. 
 Abigail Whitton. 
 Joseph Woods. 
 Benjamin Wheeler. 
 
6 5 
 
 William Wheeler. 
 *«) David Wheeler. 
 
 Sanderson West. 
 
 Samuel Wheat. 
 ""Stephen Wales. 
 ■ Josiah Wheeler. 
 
 Nath'l Wheeler. 
 
 Isaac White. 
 
 Joshua Witherle. 
 r- Thomas Wheeler. 
 
 Nath'l Wales. 
 * Robert Wier, Jr. 
 
 Arnold Welles. 
 
 William Wyman. 
 
 Amos Whitney. 
 Ezra Whitney. 
 Joseph Whipple. 
 Edward Weld. 
 Jesse B. Willcox. 
 John Weare. 
 Jacob Whitney. 
 Thomas Williams. 
 John D. Williams. 
 Edmund Weld. 
 Benjamin West. 
 Hannah Whitmarsh. 
 William S. White. 
 Samuel Wheeler. 
 
 PROPRIETORS OF PEWS IN NEW MEETING-HOUSE. 
 
 I8ll. 
 
 Samuel Andrews. 
 James A. Allen. 
 
 — Aaron Bean. 
 
 - Asa Bullard. 
 Benj. Bass, Jr. 
 Henry Bass. 
 Henry Bass, Jr. 
 Nath'l Bradlee. 
 Nath'l Bradlee, Jr. 
 William Brown. 
 William Brown, Jr. 
 Benj. Bussey. 
 Henry Blaney,. 
 Edward Blake. 
 James Barry. 
 Elisha Brigham. 
 Elias Beers. 
 Jabez Bullard. 
 Philip Bonner. 
 Joseph Bancroft. 
 Aaron Baldwin. 
 Thomas Blake. 
 
 Zebedee Cook, Jr. 
 Elias Cobb. 
 Lucy Cobb. 
 Abijah Crane. 
 Elisha Copeland. 
 Henry B. Curtis. 
 Joshua Davis. 
 Charles Davis. 
 Amasa Davis. 
 William Dall. 
 James Dall. 
 James Dawson. 
 Andrew C. Dorr. 
 Jabez Ellis. 
 Luther Ellis. 
 Otis Everett. 
 Winsor Fay. 
 John French. 
 James Freeman. 
 Oliver Fisher. 
 Jacob Guild. 
 Abraham Gibson. 
 Charles Guild. 
 
66 
 
 Jeremiah Gore, Jr. 
 
 Stephen Gore, Jr. 
 
 Amos Greene. 
 
 John Gibson. 
 
 Simon Hastings. 
 
 Benjamin Howland. 
 ^-Thomas Holland. 
 
 Calvin Howe. 
 
 John Haskell. 
 
 Barzillai Homes. 
 
 Johnson Jackson. 
 
 William Jackson. 
 ^- Edward Johnson. 
 - Josiah Knapp. 
 . William Lovering, Jr. 
 
 Joseph Lovering. 
 
 Arthur Langford. 
 
 Isaac Mansfield. 
 
 Peter Mackintosh. 
 
 Ephraim Marsh. 
 
 Jesse Mayo. 
 
 Perrin May. 
 
 Samuel May. 
 
 Amasa Murdock. 
 
 Eleazer Nichols. 
 
 Spencer Nolan. 
 
 Henry Newman. 
 
 Elisha Penniman. 
 
 John Perry. 
 
 Jesse Putnam. 
 
 Lemuel Packard. 
 
 John L. Phillips. 
 
 Samuel Phillips. 
 
 John Parker. 
 
 Paul D. Richards. 
 
 Joseph Richards. 
 
 Luke Richardson. 
 
 Joseph Saunders. 
 
 Ebenezer Seaver. 
 
 John Smith. 
 
 Mrs. Sheppard. 
 Philemon Stacy. 
 William Spear. 
 Timothy Tileston. 
 John Tyler. 
 Andrew C. Trott. 
 Jonathan Trott. 
 Ephraim Thayer. 
 Edward Tuckerman. 
 Josiah Vose. 
 Isaac Vose. 
 Elisha Vose. 
 Daniel Weld. 
 Benjamin West. 
 Nath'l Wales. 
 John D. Williams. 
 Thomas Williams. 
 Joseph Willett. 
 William S. White. 
 Josiah Wheeler. 
 Hannah Whitmarsh. 
 Samuel Woods. 
 William Wyman. 
 
 1812. 
 
 Joseph Balch. 
 Robert Elwell. 
 John Pickens, Jr. 
 Stephen Thayer. 
 Samuel S. Wheeler. 
 
 I8l6. 
 Oliver Clark. 
 
 1819. 
 
 Andrew Aitchison. 
 Thomas Brewer. 
 
 1820. 
 
 Charles Bemis. 
 Richards Child. 
 
6 7 
 
 David Dudley. 
 Henry K. Hancock. 
 Josiah Wheeler Homes. 
 Ephraim Harrington. 
 Josiah Loring. 
 Benjamin M. Nevers. 
 Benjamin Stevens. 
 Zeal Skidmore. 
 John Thompson. 
 
 I82I. 
 George Gay. 
 John Fox. 
 Thomas Rundle. 
 
 1823. 
 
 Joshua Crane. 
 Samuel H. Hewes, Jr. 
 Theodore Wright. 
 
 1824. 
 
 Cyrus Alger. 
 Ruel Baker. 
 Nahum Cutler. 
 Lewis Dupee. 
 Peleg Mann. 
 
 1827. 
 
 Henry Adams. 
 Abraham Bird. 
 Henry Baldwin. 
 James Boyd. 
 William W. Clapp. 
 Stephen Child. 
 Isaac Cutler. 
 Nathan Cutler. 
 Moses Everett. 
 Stephen Fairbanks. 
 Jabez Fisher. 
 Thatcher Goddard. 
 Charles Guild. 
 
 «*" 
 
 Joshua Holden. 
 Joseph Hay. 
 Eben T. Inglesby. 
 Benjamin Leeds. 
 George W. Lord. 
 Ephraim Marsh. 
 Oliver Mills, Jr. 
 William Phillips. 
 Isaac Parker. 
 John Pickens, Jr. 
 Joseph E. Smith. 
 Henry Smith. 
 Jonathan P. Stearns. 
 Josiah Stedman. 
 Samuel Sprague. 
 James Spear. 
 Samuel Shepherd. 
 I. P. Townsend. 
 David Townsend. 
 Thomas B. Wales. 
 Thomas Whitmarsh. 
 Warren White. 
 Charles White. 
 Moses Williams. 
 
 1829 to 1840. 
 
 Henry Atkins. 
 Jonathan Bowditch, Jr. 
 Calvin W. Clark. 
 William Coffin. 
 Benjamin D. Emerson. 
 George Foiling, Jr. 
 Abraham Howard. 
 Edmund Jackson. 
 Stephen W. Jackson. 
 Caleb G. Loring. 
 Samuel Lynes. 
 Jonathan Minot. 
 Samuel Payson. 
 John Redman. 
 
68 
 
 A. W. Thaxter, Jr. 
 Luther Thayer, Jr. 
 Nathan Upham. 
 Nathan Viles. 
 Addison Ware. 
 
 1845. 
 
 Charles H. Ayling. 
 Nath'l Brewer. 
 Stephen G. Bass. 
 Jabez Bullard. 
 Charles W. Clapp. 
 Henry Carter. 
 Barney Cory. 
 Gilman Davis. 
 Nath'l B. Doggett. 
 Luther Ellis. 
 Thomas Emmons. 
 Henry H. Fuller. 
 William C. Fay. 
 A. D. Gamage. 
 Daniel Goodnow. 
 William A. Hyde. 
 William F. Haynes. 
 Charles E. Loud. 
 Ellis G. Loring. 
 George May. 
 John J. May. 
 William C. Martin. 
 G. W. F. Mellen. 
 Charles D. Merriam. 
 William H. Odiorne. 
 Marshall S. Perry. 
 Thomas Pollard. 
 Jonathan Patten. 
 Edward Page. 
 Henry Prescott. 
 Payson Perrin. 
 George Revere. 
 John H. Rice. 
 
 Henry Robins. 
 John H. Smith. 
 Sherlock Spooner. 
 N. A. Thompson. 
 Benjamin L. Tileston. 
 Addison Ware. 
 John D. Weld. 
 Moses W. Weld. 
 David W. Williams. 
 G. Foster Williams. 
 G. B. Wheeler. 
 
 1848. 
 
 Timothy Bigelow. 
 Elizabeth Child. 
 Lemuel A. Cooledge. 
 G. Henry Lodge. 
 
 1853. 
 
 George A. Allen. 
 William H. Brown. 
 Abel Ball. 
 Nath'l J. Bradlee. 
 O. G. Chapman. 
 David Dyer. 
 Caleb Eddy. 
 Edward H. Eldredge. 
 Charles B. Fessenden. 
 G. H. Folger. 
 Joseph Greeley. 
 B. H. Greene. 
 B. W. Gilbert. 
 Nath'l Harris. 
 T. R. Holland. 
 G. H. Hunnewell. 
 John Hatchman. 
 John H. Hollis. 
 Daniel N. Haskell. 
 Thomas H. Hickey. 
 H. A. Kendall. 
 
 
69 
 
 C. F. Lougee. 
 Joseph Lewis: 
 Charles A. Locke. 
 Charles S. Lynch. 
 C. F. Mayo. 
 William C. Morey. 
 George H. Preston. 
 George Paul. 
 Joshua P. Preston. 
 Charles T. Plympton. 
 Edward T. Russell, Jr. 
 Thomas W. Robinson. 
 W. J. Slade. 
 Charles Wells. 
 J. D. W. Williams. 
 George W. Wyer. 
 
 1854. 
 
 Warren Sawyer. 
 Ezekiel Merrill. 
 C. H. F. Moring. 
 David Leavitt. 
 Charles S. Parker. 
 Porter Hartwell. 
 
 1855. 
 
 Milton Fuller. 
 Ira B. Carlisle. 
 Jonathan Preston. 
 J. W. Ridgway. 
 Otis Kimball. 
 John Center. 
 John Worster. 
 J. H. Cheney. 
 Andrew G. Greeley. 
 William Bacon. 
 Seth E. Brown. 
 Hayward P. Cushing. 
 Joseph Hurd. 
 Henry A. Ayling. 
 
 E. Baker Welch. 
 G. H. Cutter. 
 C. C. Kurtz. 
 Sidney A. Stetson. 
 E. B. Sampson. 
 Frederick Cabot. 
 B. G. Samson. 
 Solomon J. Gordon. 
 W. G. Cutter. 
 
 B. T. Manson. 
 Lucius Seaverns. 
 Sidney Fisher. 
 
 J. M. Bradbury. 
 A. H. Poor. 
 J. T. Vose. 
 Ivory Bean. 
 Phineas S. Fiske. 
 John H. Everett. 
 George H. Houghton. 
 Maria S. Wood. 
 
 1856. 
 
 Spencer W. Richardson. 
 Lyman Tucker. 
 
 C. S. Hunt. 
 Asa F. Cochran. 
 
 John Coffin Jones Brown. 
 Charles Canterbury. 
 Thomas Bancroft. 
 William S. Thatcher. 
 James F. Athearn. 
 
 1857. 
 
 P. Adams Ames. 
 Edward S. Taylor. 
 Elisha Atkins. 
 John Mason. 
 John M. Robbins. 
 Charles E. Bosworth. 
 
7o 
 
 ' 
 
 1858. 
 
 William F. Freeman. 
 Francis S. Russell. 
 James P. Gordon. 
 Thomas J. Welch. 
 
 1859. 
 
 Stephen Augustus Dix. 
 Cornelius Hersey. 
 
 i860. 
 
 Jonathan Hammond. 
 Robert W. Lord. 
 
 1 86 1 to 1874. 
 
 E. Livermore. 
 Lyman E. Sibley. 
 James Beck. 
 Freeman Cobb. 
 Benjamin D. Osgood. 
 Horace H. Lewis. 
 Daniel F. Long. 
 John Capen. 
 James B. Case. 
 John Stetson. 
 Gilbert Clark. 
 
 Freeman J. Doe. 
 C. A. L. Pomeroy. 
 Edwin Read. 
 Walter B. Hewins. 
 Edward Russell. 
 Otis Everett Weld. 
 James A. Dupee. 
 Henry Nash. 
 Samuel Hale. 
 M. S. Stockwell. 
 Benjamin W. Taggard. 
 Ann Bradlee. 
 Mrs. Arria Cotton. 
 Dudley R. Child. 
 Benjamin Hammond. 
 Mrs. Zabiah May Smith. 
 Sarah H. Mann. 
 Thomas Popkin. 
 Almond F. Nason. 
 Henry Revere. 
 Henry T. Bonney. 
 George F. Mann. 
 Henry H. Sprague. 
 John Cummings. 
 Francis Revere. 
 Franklin Brown. 
 Abraham Firth. 
 
 * 
 

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