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 FIRST CHURCH, CHAUNCY STREET. 
 
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 May 10, 1868 ; 
 
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 BEING THE LOjRD'S DAY PREVIOUvS TO THE REMOVAL OF THE 
 
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 CONGREGATION TO THE CHAPEL OF THEIR FIFTH HOUSE 
 
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 OF WORSHIP, ON THE CORNER OF BERKELEY 
 
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 AND MARLBOROUGH STREETS. 
 
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 By RUFUS ELLIS, 
 
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 PASTOR OF THE CHURCH. 
 
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 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE SOCIETY. 
 
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 BOSTON: 
 PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON. 
 
 
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 1868. 
 
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FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
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CHAUXCY-PLACE CHUECH. 1808-1868. 
 
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 JAN 20 1932 
 
 THE LAST SERMON 
 
 PREACHED m 
 
 FIRST CHURCH, CHAUNCY STREET, 
 
 May 10, 1868 
 
 BEING THE LORDS DAY PREVIOUS TO THE REMOVAL OF THE 
 
 CONGREGATIOX TO THE CHAPEL OF THEIK FIFTH HOUSE 
 
 OF WORSHIP, ON THE CORNER OF BERKELEY 
 
 AND MARLBOROUGH STREETS. 
 
 Bt EUFUS ELLIS, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 SHitfj an ^ppenUti. 
 
 PUBLISHED BT REQUEST OF THE SOCIETY. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PRESS or JOHN WILSON AND SON. 
 1868. 
 
S E E M O N. 
 
 " Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where 
 thine honor dwelleth." — Ps. xxvi. 8. 
 
 AT the annual meeting of the First Church and 
 Congregation, in what was then known as the 
 Old Brick Meeting-House, on the 14th of July, 1807, 
 votes were passed and a committee appointed with 
 a view to the building of the house of worship 
 where we are gathered to-day for the lasf time. The 
 committee consisted of David Tilden, James Morrill, 
 Peter C. Brooks, John Joy, Charles Paine, George 
 Blanchard, and Samuel Torrey. Mr. Ashur Ben- 
 jamin was selected to be the architect. In those days 
 it was still customary for the body of communicants 
 to act independently of the congregation at large, and 
 the property of the society must be conveyed by the 
 deacons : accordingly, at a church meeting held on 
 the 7th of September, 1807, the deacons were au- 
 thorized to alienate and dispose of the Old Brick 
 Meeting-House, as might seem just and expedient ; 
 and it was further Voted, That, in the opinion of the 
 Church, four pews in the new house should be 
 
retained, to be let to persons, who might not be 
 able to buy, and occupied under the direction of 
 the deacons. 
 
 By the 21st of July, 1808, this place of worship 
 was completed ; and on that day, Rev. WiUiam Emer- 
 son, the pastor, preached the sermon of dedication. 
 It was not the will of God that he should long oc- 
 cupy the new pulpit. His earthly ministry and his 
 earthly life came to an end on the evening of Sunday, 
 the r2th of May, 1811. Until the Uth of July, 
 1813, the day of the ordination of !Mr. John L. 
 Abbot, the church was without a pastor ; and INIr. 
 Abbot had scarcely entered upon his work when he 
 was brought down by a sickness, which ended in 
 his death, Oct. 17, 1814. Mr. N. L. Frothmgham 
 was installed as his successor, March 15, 1815; and 
 continued, as you know, to pei*form the duties of 
 pastor until March 10, 1850. On the fourth of May 
 of 1853, the charge was committed to the present 
 minister. 
 
 During the year 1843, the house of worship was 
 completely remodelled, the congregation being hospit- 
 ably received, from the 11th of June to the 26th of 
 November, in King's Chapel ; whilst the pulpit of the 
 Chapel, vacant then on account of the illness and 
 subsequent death of Dr. Greenwood, was occupied by 
 your own pastor. 
 
 At the annual meeting of the male communicants 
 of the church, held at the house of the pastor. May 
 
28, 1865, one of the members urged, in a very earn- 
 est way, a removal from what had become a business 
 locality, and the erection of a new house of worship 
 in a place of habitations. His views were warmly 
 seconded; and step by step, almost without a dissent- 
 ing voice, delayed only by the hope of a change in 
 the financial condition of the country, we have been 
 brought to these last Sunday services. The beautiful 
 chapel of our new house of prayer awaits our coming, 
 and will suffice, we trust, during the summer disper- 
 sion ; and we must take leave of the old, which yet is 
 scarcely old, — which indeed, even for our country and 
 times, is only of yesterday. 
 
 Threescore years make up the short continuance 
 of this house of worship, whilst even in this brief 
 period the building has been thoroughly refashioned, 
 and soon not a vestige of it will remain. The tide of 
 traffic, like the waves of the sea, wears away the stones 
 and strong walls of our dwellings and of our sanctu- 
 aries. Born and schooled almost within the shadow 
 of these walls, I have seen a considerable part of the 
 neighborhood rebuilded more than once. One of the 
 first to enter the adjoining school-house, I have ob- 
 served with many schoolmates its last day. Short as 
 its time has been, our church has already outlasted 
 three houses of worship in our immediate vicinity ; 
 and though these walls sprung up from a pasture, and 
 by the side of an almost rural street of gardens 
 and trees, we find ourselves already in the midst of 
 
great warehouses and noisy thoroughfares. I sin- 
 cerely wish that it might have been otherwise; I 
 sincerely hope that more abiding things are in store 
 for the congregation : such changes are not good for 
 us. They increase a restlessness which would be ex- 
 cessive in any circumstances, and break up pleasant 
 and helpful associations ; nevertheless, we must ac- 
 cept the situation, and amidst so much change use all 
 the more diligence to strengthen what remains. I 
 need not ask you, before we take up the ark of our 
 better covenant, and bear it on to our new tabernacle, 
 to give a few moments to the past, to so much of it at 
 least as is not altogether dead, — the deeply planted 
 roots which bear up the fresh branches of what we 
 would fain regard as a tree of life ; the faces and forms 
 that have not yet faded ; the voices with which the 
 air still vibrates ; the memories that have not lost 
 their fragrance in all these years. Let us claim our 
 hour of quietness and thoughtfulness before the keys 
 shall be put into the hands that wait to work the easy 
 work of destruction. 
 
 This church was consecrated in the days of Kirk- 
 land, Buckminster, and Channing. Of Kirkland it 
 may perhaps be truly said, that the charm of the man 
 has survived any fame which the preacher may have 
 enjoyed in his day ; and that at the best he was only 
 the earnest of the good things in store for those who 
 should gather in the churches on Brattle Square and 
 Federal Street, to listen to the words of men who 
 
seemed to have been taught anew by the ever-pro- 
 ceeding Spirit. The rehgious sentiment of Boston 
 had for many years been prevaihngly Hberal, — what 
 would be characterized as Arminian; the churches 
 had been pretty thoroughly uncalvinized, men could 
 hardly tell how or when ; and, if the old words were 
 still everywhere spoken, much of the old meaning 
 had gone out from them. It was not an altogether 
 satisfactory estate for a Christian church. I hope it 
 is not a scandal to say, that the old fervors had died 
 out with the old forms of faith ; and that, of those who 
 came together on the Lord's Day, many could hardly 
 tell wherefore they were come, save it might be be- 
 cause it was the Lord's Day. There was more than 
 the usual amount of routine preaching and routine 
 hearing. We were not moving, as now, steadily and 
 strongly towards realities. But a better day was at 
 hand. With Buckminster and Channing the preach- 
 er's vocation came into new honor, and the word of 
 God, as it went forth from their lips, was gladly, 
 eagerly heard. Those were living men, — men of 
 thought, imagination, culture, men of rich and reli- 
 gious natures, men of faith, hope, charity ; and the 
 roots that seemed to have waxed old in the earth, and 
 the stocks that seemed to have died in the ground, at 
 the scent of that water of life put forth and blos- 
 somed again. Religion and human life met together, 
 — the religion that ever comes down out of the heav- 
 ens, and no man knoweth whence it comes or how it 
 
8 
 
 comes; the life of the human reason, that candle of 
 the Lord ; of the human conscience, that voice of the 
 Lord; of the human heart, that inspiration and ful- 
 ness of the Lord, full and yet consumed with its 
 mighty hunger. It was no more a decent observance 
 in the line of old traditions ; it was no more a Sunday 
 lesson, to be characterized only as characterless, as 
 not Orthodox, as not fanatical ; it was no more a 
 prayer to be " made," a homily to be read. It was a 
 message from heaven ; it was a man of God speaking 
 to the children of God, in the name of the dear Son 
 of God. The Congregational body had not yet been 
 divided; but the day of separation was near, when 
 churches and ministers were to go apart for a time at 
 least, — only for a time, we trust, — not, alas ! without 
 strife and debate ; when disintegration and individual- 
 ism were to be the order of the day, and many should 
 ask very anxiously sometimes, and none should be 
 able to tell, whereunto this thing would grow, which 
 comes to us in the name of Christianity, and yet 
 seems sometimes to threaten the very Hfe of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 Whilst there has been not a little to perplex 
 and disappoint, not a Httle eccentric and extreme 
 movement, not a little crudity and absurdity one way 
 and another, we may still say that in these threescore 
 years the life in which true Christians live has been 
 coming down out of heaven from God, a deeper and 
 a more blessed tide ; our Christianity has been grow- 
 
ing less and less conventional, more and more real. 
 If by some it is more openly challenged, it is by 
 others more heartily loved and recognized as the 
 world's dearest hope. These sixty years have done 
 something to put it in clearer relations to other divine 
 gifts and providences, nothing to unsettle the rock 
 foundations upon which it rests, and will rest for ever. 
 If in these last years the world has grown strong, if 
 luxury has increased and temptations to live unto the 
 senses have been greatly multiplied, so have the con- 
 gregations of Christ grown stronger to resist and 
 overcome evil. I trust that in this time this church 
 also has been increased with the increase of God, 
 and goes out hence stronger than it came in. I do 
 not speak of numbers. My predecessor, in his touch- 
 ing farewell discourse, describes the congregation, 
 a few years after the consecration of this house, as 
 thinned somewhat by discontents, and more by an 
 unusual number of deaths, and adds that afterwards 
 it slowly grew to be stronger ; but when, having been 
 without a pastor for three years, it came under my 
 care, I found it again reduced, — only some ninety 
 families at the most. We number now only twenty 
 or thirty more : but I hope that the word here is not 
 without a power which numbers do not indicate ; that 
 here there are hands, if not many, yet manly, to bear 
 up and bear on the Ark of God ; if not many, yet 
 faithful to nurse the Lamp of Life, and keep it 
 brightly burning. 
 
10 
 
 There are still amongst us those whose childish 
 eyes looked upon the former house, and who sat as 
 children in this place of prayer, it may be on the day 
 of its dedication ; but these are few indeed, whilst so 
 many have gone, born children of the church, or 
 gathered into our household from without. Myself 
 comparatively a new-comer, I am but poorly fitted to 
 bring back into these seats the worshippers whose 
 places know them no more ; who kept their last Sun- 
 day once, not because the house was to be changed, 
 but because they were to be changed. I do not care 
 to name any of them, — certainly not to choose out 
 any who have been specially dear to me, or who, 
 however justly, were accounted famous men. The 
 kingship and queenship of the Christian are often 
 hidden under very humble disguises ; and many have 
 been highly esteemed of God, of whom the world 
 might well ask, were their names to be spoken. Who, 
 then, were they ? " Behold all souls are mine," saith 
 God ; and as souls they came into this house of God, 
 alike and at one in this, however widely apart in 
 the accidents of our being and our condition. As 
 souls they shall be commemorated. For nearness to 
 God in Christ, whether they always knew it and felt 
 it or no, they came here, and he was near to them 
 even when they were not near to him ; and it shall be 
 enough that in his book their names are all written. 
 But whilst the thought that this has been God's house 
 checks the^ lips that are framing themselves to name 
 
11 
 
 the names of his children, it at the same time reminds 
 us how rich have been the experiences of these chil- 
 dren during these years of prayer. As the sun of the 
 coming summer shall bring out the earth's treasure, 
 so in nearness to God life is brought into light, and 
 made inexpressibly venerable and beautiful. Precious 
 thoughts of God in minds striving to be born into a 
 clear consciousness of him ; love of hearts that know 
 that they shall live for ever, — live because God lives 
 and is their Father, live because Christ lives and is 
 their brother; the fruitful sorrow of the truly penitent; 
 visions of the heavenly kingdom on earth ; new com- 
 mandments, not from the Christ who is gone, but from 
 the Christ in the midst of us and within us, to love 
 one another, seeing that the God in whose presence 
 we are is love, — these consecrate the walls ; these make 
 them beautiful, though they may lack any other 
 beauty; these quicken the pulse; these deepen and 
 soften the tones of the voice, even when we pass 
 within the doors on a week-day, and will not suffer 
 us, without many regrets, to resign them to week-day 
 uses. 
 
 It may be a compensation to be set over against 
 the mischiefs of such frequent changes, that the last 
 hours in the old house come laden with the benedic- 
 tions of numberless sabbaths. How distinctly we can 
 recall some of those sabbaths ! On that day the foun- 
 tains of the great deep in our hearts were broken up, 
 on that day the heavens were opened for us, on that day 
 
12 
 
 the mystery of our life was revealed a little, and that 
 sweet brightness has never quite faded from our sky. 
 They say that even common sunlight paints pictures 
 upon the walls of our dwellings, photographs the life 
 that we are living ; and that the impressions, however 
 invisible to our poor senses, are all the while there. 
 If it be so, what are the paintings which your artists 
 can spread upon wall or window of the house of wor- 
 ship, compared ^vith those which have been painted 
 there already as by the finger of God, — real altar pic- 
 tures, waiting, as in some old churches, until the curtain 
 shall be drawn aside, and they shall become again a 
 part of the marvel and the hope of our life. As we 
 gather here for the last time, we are set in the train 
 and by the side of those whom we have accompanied, 
 week by week, in their walk to this holy place, but 
 sought for one day in vain in the familiar seat ; whilst 
 the voice of praise became the voice of submission, to 
 chant the words, " Thy will be done," and the prayer 
 in memory of the dead and for the help of the living 
 was prayed, and the world which now is and the 
 world which is to come became as one world for our 
 dear remembrance and our fond hopes, and here, as 
 there, there was no night. If ever we have vowed a 
 vow in this place, and the payment, certainly for a dis- 
 ciple of Christ, hath been but scant and grudging, we 
 say, The house shall not be dismantled before that 
 sacred debt has been discharged to the uttermost 
 farthing. The beams to be presently torn from their 
 
13 
 
 places plead with us that they may not be accounted 
 more steadfast than we. From the foundation to 
 headstone, pulpit, pews, the table upon which the 
 feast of the Lord has been spread, the carved wood 
 that has held up the baptismal bowl, the organ that 
 was brought across the seas for our use, and this which 
 stands to-day in its stead ; the bell that hath summoned 
 the worshippers, — all, all were set apart from ordinary 
 and common uses for the glory and the service of God 
 in Christ, and that there might be yet another place 
 on earth of which He could say, " My name shall be 
 there." Let them answer these high and holy occa- 
 sions until the very last : it is easy to consecrate 
 what has already been so consecrated, easier to keep 
 than to invite the Holy Presence ; and our earnest re- 
 solves can so hallow even this house, which shall pres- 
 ently be a heap of ruins, that we shall eagerly come 
 and bear away some fragment from the pile, to be 
 handed down as a precious relic, — a bit of rubbish to 
 the rest of mankind, but for our eyes a fragment of 
 the house where once and again, as was written of 
 Jacob, the angels of God met us. You cannot quite 
 desecrate what has been really consecrated. These 
 walls will give place to other walls ; but there are 
 those for whom this spot will ever be covered only by 
 the old house of prayer, the old Chauncy-Place 
 Church, and associated for ever with some very deep 
 and sacred joy, or with some sorrow which our faith 
 made a blessedness. For myself, as the time for our 
 
14 
 
 departure has drawn nearer and nearer, I am less and 
 less willing to go. I was sorry when I found that our 
 stay must be shortened by only so much as a week. 
 I am thankful that it is no part of my duty to disturb 
 the headstone of the old building, as it was to aid in 
 placing the corner-stone of the new. I am sorry that 
 I ever assented when they called the church gloomy. 
 I am glad that the sun shines through it to-day. I 
 shall try not to be near when the first axe falls upon 
 the old timbers. I cannot refrain from rebuilding and 
 repeopling the neighborhood where all my childhood 
 was spent. That Thursday lecture bell still sounds 
 in my ears : I see a few elect women passing quietly 
 into the scantily filled church, whilst, I am compelled 
 to add, the little group of ministers still lingers upon 
 the sidewalk and in the porch. We boys in the ad- 
 joining school are cautioned against boisterous play 
 whilst the service is going forward. Well, the last 
 changes will presently be made ; the old homesteads 
 are almost all gone ; the gardens, which at this season 
 began to blossom, and send forth, even in the city, a 
 " wonderful smell," have shrunk into areas, or disap- 
 peared beneath brick and stone ; the church which 
 gave its name to the green, and received it from the 
 green again, is a shapeless ruin, signalled by a 
 broken spire that keeps watch still over the great bare 
 rafters, brought, they tell us, all the way from Maine 
 by land during war time; the boys have left the 
 school-house, and we are here for our last day. A 
 
15 
 
 fair and stately building, which shall fitly symbolize 
 and shelter our faith, awaits us. But such work as we 
 have had grace to do has been done here ; here we 
 have prayed God join heart to heart, as hand has been 
 joined to hand ; here we have brought the little child 
 for baptism ; here we have paused on our way to the 
 grave, that we might cast the burden of our bereave- 
 ment upon the Lord, the Presence hath been here, and 
 the glory has not been lifted from this house, and our 
 hearts are in the old places. Yet we must go forth ; 
 bearing with us, thank God, in our heart of hearts, all 
 that hath made the place venerable and beautiful ; not 
 going out desolate from a desolation, still journeying 
 and hoping to abide with Him who is at once guardian 
 and dwelling-place in all generations, and without 
 whom we are homeless indeed. These houses of 
 prayer are only for a day at the longest. It is the 
 temple of God, which temple we are, the house not 
 made with hands, that it most concerns us to be ever 
 a-building, to see that no stone of it be thrown down, 
 and none of its adornings disfigured. All, save that 
 building of God, is but the scafi'olding of time, and no 
 part of our everlasting being. 
 
 On the 8th of May, fifteen years ago, I conducted 
 your worship for the first time as your minister, hav- 
 ing been installed on the previous Wednesday ; and I 
 seem to have come to-day to the close of a ministry. 
 I cannot refrain from drawing a line here between 
 the thing which hath been and the thing which shall 
 
16 
 
 be. Until the very last, I had hoped that my honored 
 predecessor and kind parishioner would have been 
 able to obey the dear wish of his heart, and have 
 raised his voice or taken his place, or at least have 
 appeared by some word which I could have read to 
 you, in the old familiar place. But the dear Father, 
 who asks of him in these days of outward darkness 
 and feebleness chiefly submission, — asks it and receives 
 it, — has not so willed it. Our hearts are with him as 
 he sits apart in his dwelling, as his heart is with us in 
 this house of prayer, the place of his ministering during 
 so many years. And as from our hearts there goes 
 up an earnest petition that his strength may be as his 
 day, so he sends his mshes, which are prayers, that ""the 
 best blessings may attend you and the congregation, 
 as the old tabernacle takes its new place." To his 
 " Lord be with you," our response shall be now and 
 ever, " And with thy spirit." He has summed up his 
 five-and-thirty years of service in a farewell discourse, 
 which constitutes the larger part of the interior record 
 of this house. A few words upon my own past may 
 properly enough fill up that record. 
 
 " Let a man so account of us," writes Paul, *' as 
 ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of 
 God." If, in the progress of human knowledge, and 
 the complications of modem civilization, each chief 
 profession and occupation is distributed into distinct 
 departments known as specialties, surely the minis- 
 terial calling may be regarded as specialty enough for 
 
IT 
 
 one poor brain and heart. Let a man so account of 
 us, not as a lecturer upon all branches of science and 
 learning, or as society's man-of- all- work, but as set 
 apart to live in thought, in feeling, in all outward 
 applications, the life of Christ, who alone hath been 
 found perfect on earth. This one thing I do. It is 
 large enough. There is some ground to hope for a 
 measure of success in this. The people do not want 
 from their ministers lectures, which could only be 
 shallow and crude, in every department of human in- 
 quiry ; but they have a right to ask that the minister of 
 Christ shall be a proficient in his own department, and 
 shall try to learn what is the mind of Christ, and how 
 his truth is to be translated into daily Hfe. His use- 
 fulness and acceptableness in the long-run will depend 
 upon his steadfast devotion to his chosen work. The 
 river which has no banks is no river : it only converts 
 the country on one side and the other into a swamp, 
 in which men hopelessly flounder. Of course I do 
 not mean that the preacher is to deal in abstractions. 
 Christianity is no abstraction ; and it gathers its illus- 
 trations from every quarter, it brings its great law and 
 spirit to guide all our works, public and private : but 
 in the hands of its sen^ants the axe is laid at the roots 
 of the tree. The minister has his word to say about 
 public afi'airs, — but as a minister, not as a partisan ; 
 rather in setting forth the great ends which he is 
 bound to recognize, than in recommending measures, 
 parties, and men, and handling matters about which 
 
18 
 
 equally earnest Christians may diifer. The Christian 
 preacher has a word about science, especially in its 
 relations to faith ; and, if he be a man of real faith, all 
 nature will be to him, and through him to those who 
 hear him, a revelation of God. And the Christian 
 preacher has a word about society, its ideal, and 
 everlasting aims ; but I think that, if his sermons be- 
 come scientific dissertations or political harangues, 
 they will be poor dissertations and harangues, and not 
 sermons at all. A young, unpractised writer hopes 
 sometimes to succeed in his composition, by covering 
 a large surface. He finds at length that a single 
 point firmly grasped, thoroughly studied, and fully 
 illustrated, is what he wants. The gospel is rich unto 
 all who will explore it and dig down into it, and with 
 the heart as well as with the understanding declare it. 
 The Spirit ever breathes upon the word, and brings 
 new truths to light. If congregations grow weary of 
 Christianity, and ask, instead, for philosophy, or poli- 
 tical economy, or partisan oratory, or semi-sacred 
 concerts, it is because the preacher has been a poor 
 steward of the manifold mysteries of God in Christ, 
 and has not learned and taught what it is to be a 
 Christian and to do a Christian s work, — what that life 
 is of which it is written, that it is hidden with God 
 in Christ, — hidden, and yet to be manifested in all 
 works and charities, the only redemption of man and 
 of human society. Of my poor eff'orts to do this work. 
 He that judgeth must be the Lord. Not of man's 
 
19 
 
 judgment — or as Paul wrote more significantly, of 
 man's day — can the minister be judged ; but this last 
 time may have a record of the work of the congrega- 
 tion in these last years, and it need not be withheld 
 because it is a good record. Paul said, " I know 
 nothing by myself ; " which is old and obsolete English 
 for against myself. I shall say, " I know nothing hy 
 my congregation," — against my congregation. I have 
 a right to say of you, that you have done in these 
 years some genuine Christian work, — work which 
 will abide ; work according to the patterns which the 
 Divine Preacher showed to the world in the Sermon 
 on the Mount, and illustrated in his own living and 
 dying. Your Christianity has been a practical Chris- 
 tianity ; not a private luxury, but a blessing for all who 
 chose to be partakers in it. You have been found of 
 those who did not and could not seek you. Within 
 these old walls and in our not very sightly schoolrooms 
 you have well begun and vigorously carried forward 
 Christian works, which, should they fail in our new cir- 
 cumstances, instead of abounding more and more, the 
 beautiful church which awaits us would be only the 
 splendid tomb of our once living Christianity. For 
 one thing, at least, the old Chauncy-street Church 
 will be remembered, as the place where the street 
 boys were taught, until the city fathers provided 
 schools for them. I believe that you have a right to 
 live, because you have something to live for, — a Chris- 
 tian ideal to realize, a Christian work to do in this 
 
20 
 
 city, over which the watchmen wake in vain, unless 
 the Lord, through his faithful servants, doth keep it. 
 And since it is the last time, and may therefore have 
 some indulgences, let me bear witness to that loving 
 loyalty, and unceasing helpfulness, and exceeding 
 tolerance of my exceeding individualism and Christian 
 independence, which have left the pastor no way of 
 explaining any want of success, save his own short- 
 comings. God forgive me if I have ever uttered a 
 word of complaint, or fixed my eyes for so much as 
 a moment upon a speck in so bright a sky. I know 
 that I am grateful for the love which I hope to find 
 again in the heavens, which I find now on earth ; and 
 that, whatever may be in the future, a past to be re- 
 called only in thankfulness, a past without averted 
 looks, sharp criticisms, closed hands, a past of genuine 
 and abounding Christian friendliness in deed as well 
 as in word, — is for ever sure. You have earned the 
 right to be better served whenever it seems to you that 
 better service must be had. But I must not linger, 
 unwilling as I am to say the last words of this last 
 sermon. Were I to keep on all day, I should be no 
 more ready to stop than I am now. So farewell to 
 the old house ; and may He who led his people across 
 the seas, and has gone with them from sanctuary to 
 sanctuary, go forth with them from this place also. 
 For a short time we shall be a little straitened out- 
 wardly, and yet our new condition will have its ad- 
 vantages. It may help to break down all barriers 
 
21 
 
 between Christian and Christian, bringing us nearer 
 to each other, — hand to hand, eye to eye, heart to 
 heart, that, when the doors of the great church open to 
 receive us, we may be a Christian household indeed, 
 having life, the life of love, in itself, and therefore the 
 principle of growth. So may the Lord, who is the 
 Lord, not of the dead, but of the living, abide with us 
 evermore, until we come into that world where there 
 is no temple. 
 
OLD BRICK. 1713-1808. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 1\/rR. WILLIAM HAYDEN, one of the oldest members 
 ^ -^ of First Church, and for a long time chairman of the 
 Standing Committee, writes as follows of the " Old Brick" 
 and of the property on Summer Street : — 
 
 " I remember the old church, then familiarly known as the 
 ' Old Brick,' which occupied the present position of Joy's Building, 
 on Cornhill Square. I attended church there, in company with 
 my parents, from 1800 up to 1808, when it was taken down ; and 
 its external and internal structure are well remembered, even to 
 the pew which we occupied. The noise and the dust of the great 
 thoroughfare — now Washington Street, then Cornhill — was, even 
 then, so great as to render the location unsuitable as a place of 
 worship, and the project of removal to Summer Street was agitated. 
 The change, though determined upon by the majority, was vehe- 
 mently opposed by some of the worshippers, and, among others, 
 by the Hon. Benjamin Austin, a well-known political leader of the 
 Democratic party, and editor of the " Chronicle," the Democratic 
 organ of those days. He was the father of Charles Austin, who 
 was killed by Selfridge, in State Street, in 1806. Mr. Austin's 
 opposition to the removal of the church extended so far as to lead 
 him to terminate his connection with it, and I think he never 
 attended at Chauncy Place. He wrote some verses bewailing the 
 fate of the old church, of which the first two lines are aU that I 
 remember, running thus : — 
 
 * Farewell, Old Brick, — Old Brick, farewell ; 
 You bought your minister, and sold your bell/ 
 
 The ' buying the minister ' is in allusion to the fact, that the First 
 Church paid the town of Harvard, where the Rev. jMi*. Emerson 
 
24 
 
 was first settled, a sum of money, to induce that town to release 
 him to them. 
 
 " The estate on which the church, now about to be demolished, 
 was erected, in the years 1807 and 1808, was owned by the pro- 
 prietors of the First Church a long time before they had any 
 thought of erecting a church upon it. The estate was conveyed 
 by deed by Richard HoUingshead, and Ann Hollingshead, his 
 wife, both making their marks, unto ' Robert Sanderson and 
 Henry Alline, deacons of the First Church of Christ in Boston.' 
 The deed is dated ' this seventeenth day of December, Anno 
 Dom'i one thousand six hundred and eighty, and in the thirty- 
 second year of the reign of King Charles the Second over 
 England.' The estate, which had a boundary of 131 feet on the 
 street known to us as Summer Street, is described, in this ancient 
 deed, as being butted and bounded by the street or highway (no 
 name given), ' lying and being at the southerly end of the Town of 
 Boston,^ 
 
 " The premises conveyed by this instrument now constitute four 
 valuable estates on Summer Street, next above Chauncy Street, — 
 the valuable church-lot which has just been sold ; the School- 
 house lot, lately occupied by Messrs. Thayer and Cushing ; and all 
 that part of Chauncy Street contiguous to the property. It would 
 be an ample fortune to any person who owned it now ; and yet 
 the Hollingsheads, who conveyed it to the church, were paupers. 
 They describe themselves, in the deed, as, 'by the Providence of 
 God, both preserved to a state of old age, which is attended with 
 many weaknesses and infirmities, whereby wee are made incapable 
 of labor, or providing for our own livelihood or subsistence.' 
 They were members of the church ; and the church agreed to do, 
 to the end of their lives, what it had done for some time before, — 
 to provide them a support. I have heard, traditionally, in my 
 younger days, from older members of the congregation, that, 
 when the church took the property, it was considered of so little 
 value, that it was quite doubtful whether it was worth the expense 
 of drawing and recording the deed. 
 
 " A century later, there stood upon the premises a wooden house, 
 standing end to the street, with a large garden and orchard, 
 occupied as the parsonage. There lived, in his day, the Rev. Dr. 
 Chauncy, and afterwards the Rev. William Emerson. The 
 writer of these lines has been in the house during the occupancy 
 
25 
 
 of Mr. Emerson, and remembers it and its amiable occupant 
 well." 
 
 BUILDING OF HOUSE OF WORSHIP IN CHAUNCY PLACE. 
 
 As the Temple in Jerusalem " got itself builded," to use 
 the favorite phrase of the day, without noise of workman's 
 tools, so somehow the house of worship in Chauncy Place 
 rose without much calling of meetings or passing of votes. 
 Mr. Benjamin seems to have been told to look after things ; 
 and he did. Church and congregation combined covered 
 only some seven pages of the record with their action, — 
 raising an inquiry, in one instance, about some doubtful 
 bricks ; suggesting a steeple, should the foundation of the 
 tower already laid seem to admit of it ; adding a word about 
 the ground to be left in front of the houses on Summer 
 Street ; but for the rest leaving every thing to Mr. Joy and 
 Mr. Benjamin. The church, in their vote, speak of the 
 deacons as appointed with the committee of pew-holders 
 for building the new house ; but in the record of the pro- 
 prietors it is not so written. 
 
 At the church meeting only eight persons, including the 
 pastor, were present. 
 
 PEW TAXES. 
 
 The taxes upon the pews ranged from 17 to 34 cents per 
 week, the whole amount being $36.63 ; the pastor's salary 
 was twenty-five dollars a week, and twenty-eight cords of 
 wood (afterwards commuted for $125 per annum), with 
 the parsonage on the corner of Summer Street and Chauncy 
 Place. Out of 134 pews, 114 were owned and occupied at 
 the opening of the new house. " The Theological Library " 
 was placed in the vestry. 
 
 DEATH OF REV. WILLIAM EMERSON. 
 
 ^^ Lord's Day^ May 12, 1811. — This day, at forty-five minutes 
 past seven in the evening, our respected and beloved friend, Rev. 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 William Emerson, died, aged 42 years. He was installed pastor 
 of the First Church, Oct. 16, 1799, having been previously the 
 minister of Harvard, Mass." 
 
 At this time the tomb of the society in the chapel 
 burying-grouud was repaired, and Mr. Emerson's remains 
 there repose. This tomb is near the Savings Bank and 
 the front wall. 
 
 ORDINATION OF MR. JOHN L. ABBOT. 
 
 " The members composing the Ecclesiastical Council, with the 
 professors, tutors, and residents of Harvard University, also the 
 Episcopal clergy and Baptist ministers of the town, with all 
 the clergy of the Boston Association, with a large number of in- 
 vited guests, and the proprietors of pews in First Church, dined at 
 Concert Hall. The whole was conducted with decency and in 
 order. Samuel Bradford, Clerk" 
 
 Mr. Abbot died at Andover, * Mass., Oct. 17, 1814. 
 His funeral was attended at First Church, Friday, Oct. 23, 
 Mr. Edward Everett preaching the sermon, which was 
 printed. Mr. Abbot officiated only upon very few occa- 
 sions, but the affections of the society seem even so to 
 have been much drawn out towards him. 
 
 CALL OF MR. N. L. FROTfflNGHAM. 
 
 "Dec. 25, 18U. — Voted, That Mr. N. L. Frothingham 
 be requested to preach four sabbaths from and after the first sab- 
 bath in January next." 
 
 He was chosen by a unanimous vote, Jan. 26, 1815; the 
 salary to be twenty-five dollars per week, and twenty-five 
 cords of wood, with the parish house. 
 
 It was the custom at this time to collect the taxes quar- 
 terly, by passing the boxes in the church. 
 
 ORGANS AND CHOIRS. 
 
 An organ, voted in 1809, arrived from London in the 
 ship '^ Restitution/' June 16, 1816; was received into the 
 
27 
 
 vestry on the 19th, and used for the first time on the 30th. 
 This organ was replaced by a new instrument built by 
 Appleton, which was first used, Sunday, Nov. 26, 184:3. 
 
 At the annual meeting. May 26, 1823, Mr. D. L. Gibbens 
 called the attention of the proprietors to the state of the 
 choir ; observing that it seemed necessary to have a singing 
 school, in order to bring forward such persons as feel an 
 inclination to succeed our present very excellent choristers, 
 who may from time to time be obliged to leave the seats, 
 and to whose gratuitous and generous services he paid a 
 becoming compliment. Steps were taken for training a 
 choir, and for paying a female singer and organist. 
 
 ACT OF INCORPORATION. 
 
 This bears date, '^ The year of our Lord one thousand 
 eight hundred and twenty-nine." The proprietors seem to 
 have been moved to obtain this act by the refusal of the 
 deacons (a refusal afterwards withdrawn) to sign the deed 
 of the vacant lot on the south side of the church, which the 
 Standing Committee had sold to Mr. Gideon F. Thayer for 
 $1.77^ cents a foot. The records show that there was a 
 good deal of feeling in the matter. An opinion was ob- 
 tained from Hon. Charles P. Curtis as to the corporate 
 powers of the society, which was what was termed a " Poll 
 Parish." So far as the present writer understands the 
 opinion, it would appear that the property vested in the 
 deacons. Nevertheless the proprietors voted, July 29, 
 1828, before their incorporation, respectfully to request 
 the signatures of these officers ; but in case they should 
 continue to decline, to execute the deed themselves, or in 
 some way to complete the sale. 
 
 Would it not have been well if the deacons had been 
 even more decided? or if in some other way the sale 
 might not have been consummated ? 
 
 A new pulpit was placed in the church during this year, 
 
28 
 
 and on Christmas the house was used for services by the 
 congregation of Trinity Church. 
 
 SUNDAY SCHOOLS. ^ 
 
 Mention of a Sunday school is first made as follows : — 
 
 " Committee Meeting^ Aug. 13, 1828. — Voted^ That, if applica- 
 tion be made for the vestry to be used for a Sunday school, the 
 disposal thereof be left with the minister and deacons." 
 
 From which it appears, that a portion of the scholars, at 
 least, were to come from without the parish. In 1833, 
 this school is referred to in the record as having applied 
 for thirty dollars' worth of books. From the letter of Eev. 
 Dr. Frothingham, we learn that it was originally an offset 
 from the Franklin Sunday school ; and that, at the time 
 named, two-thirds of the scholars and one-half of the 
 teachers belonged to First Church. The object is com- 
 mended, and the money was voted ; although it was the 
 opinion of the committee, that the multiplication of books 
 in such a school is absolutely hurtful. It was not the age 
 of semi-religious novelettes. An annual twenty-five dollars 
 for the time to come was considered sufficient. 
 
 DEACON JAMES MORRILL 
 
 Died on the third day of April, 1833, aged 82; having 
 been forty-three years in office. 
 
 "the christian psalter." 
 
 A collection of hymns prepared by Rev. Dr. William P. 
 Lunt, of Quincy, was introduced into the services of the 
 church, on the second Sunday of February, 1842, in place 
 of Dr. Belknap's "Psalms and Hymns." 
 
 CHURCH funds. 
 
 During the year 1842, an inquiry was instituted by the 
 proprietors as to the funds held for the church, as a body 
 
29 
 
 of communicants, by the deacons. The reply shows that 
 there were such funds, and that they were held for pious 
 and charitable uses, and were not regarded as in any way 
 subject to the supervision of the proprietors ; and the 
 inquiry was .allowed to subside. An account of these 
 funds is annually given by the deacons to the communi- 
 cant members. 
 
 REMODELLING OF HOUSE OF WOKSHIP. 
 
 The house of worship seems hardly to have been satis- 
 factory from the first. As early as March 12, 1815, there 
 were plans proposed for altering the main entrance, and 
 the ornaments about the pulpit; and the sum of nine 
 hundred dollars was spent in this way during the year. 
 
 The changes during 1843 amounted almost to a recon- 
 struction of the whole interior. It was only stipulated, 
 that the pillars supporting the galleries should not be 
 removed. The plan proposed, that all the light for the 
 church should come in through a ceiling of glass, which 
 was itself the floor of a vast glazed attic. The side win- 
 dows were walled up ; but it was found necessary to re- 
 open them beneath the galleries, so that the result was 
 not as satisfactory as had been hoped. The entrances to 
 the building were altered at this time, and the pulpit carried 
 back into a recess prepared for the purpose, and subse- 
 quently furnished with spiral stairs of iron, connecting the 
 church and vestry. These changes cost from ten to 
 twelve thousand dollars. Could sufficient light have been 
 admitted through the roof, the arrangement would have 
 been very agreeable. As it was, the house was often dark, 
 though not more so than many other churches. At times 
 the ventilation was complained of; but it is believed 
 without reason, as compared with other public build- 
 
30 
 
 Oct. 30, 1861. — The use of the front basement was 
 granted for a Newsboys' School, under the direction and at 
 the expense of a lady of the parish. A summer vacation 
 school has been maintained for two summers in the same 
 place, through the same instrumentality. 
 
 Bears date, Dec. 19, 1849. The correspondence be- 
 tween the society and the pastor is appended to Dr. 
 Frothingham's farewell sermon, preached March 10, 1850. 
 
 DEACON JAMES H. FOSTER 
 
 Died Wednesday, Dec. 10, 1862, at the advanced age of 
 89, having served the church in his office since March 5, 
 1815. 
 
 LAST SERVICES 
 
 Were held. May 10, 1868, in the morning. They were 
 conducted by the pastor, according to the use of the church. 
 The audience was large, and many former worshippers 
 took part. " How lovely are thy dwellings fair '' was sung 
 before the sermon, and the congregation united at the 
 close in "From all that dwell below the skies." In the 
 afternoon there were no services, but many of the congre- 
 gation came to the house to pass yet a few moments within 
 the old walls. On the Monday following, the work of re- 
 moving the church furniture was begun. 
 
SCRIPTURES READ AT THE FAREWELL SERVICES. 
 
 AND Moses said unto the Lord, See Thou sayest unto me, 
 Bring up this people : and Thou hast not let me know whom 
 Thou wilt send with me . . . And the Lord said, My presence 
 shall go with thee and I will give thee rest. And he said unto 
 him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence, for 
 wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found 
 grace in thy sight ? Is it not in that Thou goest with us ? One 
 generation passeth away and another generation cometh ; but the 
 earth abideth for ever. The thing which hath been it is that which 
 shall be, and that which is done is that which shall be done. 
 When one buildeth and another pulleth down what profit have 
 they then but labor ? To every thing there is a season, and a time 
 to every purpose under the heaven. A time to break down and a 
 time to build up. A time to cast away stones and a time to 
 gather stones together. For thy servants take pleasure in her 
 stones and favor the dust thereof. Lord, Thou hast been our dwell- 
 ing-place in all generations. The mercy of the Lord is from 
 everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his right- 
 eousness unto children's children to such as keep his covenant. 
 For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my 
 kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of 
 my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. 
 Behold I will lay thy stones with fair colors and thy foundations 
 with sapphires, and all thy borders of pleasant stones and all thy 
 children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace 
 of thy children. And Jesus said unto them. See ye not all these 
 things ? Verily I say unto you. There shall not be left here one 
 stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. Verily I say 
 unto you, This generation shall not pass till all these things be 
 
32 
 
 fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall 
 not pass away. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God. The 
 temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. Wherefore seeing 
 we also are compassed about by so great a cloud of witnesses, let 
 us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset 
 us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, look- 
 ing unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. So that we 
 may boldly say, The Lord is my helper. I am Alpha and Omega, 
 the first and the last. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar 
 in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out. The grace 
 of our Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen. 
 
 ( 
 
 I 
 
Caylord Bros. 
 
 Makers 
 
 Syracuse, N. Y. 
 
 PAT. JAN. 21, 1908 
 
#*v;':--:v'-i>5feC. .