F 74 
 .C4 C58 
 Copy 1 
 
 THE 
 
 COMMEMORATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 jpirst Ct)urct). Ct)arlestoV»n, iWass 
 
 November 12, 1882. 
 
 
THE 
 
 COMMEMORATION 
 
 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 Jftrst Ct)urdj, CijarUstoton, JHass. 
 
 November 12, 1882. 
 
 
 PRIVATELY PRINTED. 
 
 1882. 
 
33" 
 
Sermon 
 
 By rev. ALEXANDER McKENZlE, D.D. 
 Br JAMES F. HUNNEWELL. 
 
 BY 
 
 EEV. RUFUS ELLIS, D.D., ' ' REV. HENRY M. DEXTER, D.D. 
 HON. CHARLES DEVENS, REV. A. S. FREEMAN, D.D., 
 REV. A. S. TWOMBLY. 
 
DISCOURSE. 
 
 Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest tiiou 
 forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart 
 from thy heart all the days of thy life ; but teach them thy sons, 
 
 AND THY sons' SONS. Deut. W. d. 
 
 IT was the steadfast belief of the Fatliers of New England 
 that the hand of God works in the affairs of men. 
 From the beginning they traced his purpose moving persist- 
 ently forward towards the accomplishment of his design. 
 Men might work with it or against it; kings might favor 
 or oppose it ; nations might ally themselves with it, or set 
 themselves in array to defeat it; the will of God pressed on, 
 neither changed in form nor lessened in force. Within the 
 purpose of God they saw human freedom, whicli it was their 
 glory to accept and employ. They believed that man's liberty 
 comes from God's sovereignty, and that it is his decree that men 
 shall be free. Their thought was expressed in the robust and 
 reverent words of their own period, which declare that God 
 " hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass." In this confi- 
 dence was their strength. They set themselves to the obedient 
 and intelligent working out of the divine purposes. In this faith 
 they were willing to go or stay, to live or die. They would 
 have been glad to sing the woi'ds of one of our own poets in 
 this later day : — 
 
 " The word of the Lord by night 
 To the watching Pilgrims came, 
 As they sat by the seaside, 
 And filled their hearts with flame." 
 
This lias been the faith of this church through the past 
 which wc are now reviewing. It is this which gives its chief 
 interest and value to the record we are reading. Upon this 
 phm liistory is not an account of detached events, which have 
 been subject to the varying tastes and principles and experiences 
 of different generations. It is the record of a purpose held by 
 a master-will, and reaching to a predetermined end. It has 
 dignity and unity. It deserves to be written and retained. 
 The father may instruct the son, whose life is to move in the 
 same plane. The son may draw wisdom from the experience 
 of the father, to whose career he joins his own. It is not the 
 past, then, which we are studying, as if it were a finished thing. 
 It is the present in which the past still has its being, with 
 which it is to live on to the great consummation. We are 
 looking through the years of the life of a church. We may 
 surely expect to sec here the divine thought and plan clearly 
 revealed, and to be instructed concerning the divine will for the 
 days which are our own. 
 
 It is not for me to tell in detail the story of the years which 
 have gone over this church. That has been already written, 
 and will be told again by one " to the manner born." Few 
 places have had their annals more fully opened ; few churches 
 have had their history more completely narrated. The town 
 and the church deserve their fame. It is for me to trace out 
 certain courses of principle and of influence which are discov- 
 ered here, and which are to continue to work with power in 
 the years to come. 
 
 Tlie history of our New England churches is a history of 
 men. It describes the action, not of kings or armies or hier- 
 archies, but of individual men, in whose separate personality 
 was a common belief, and a common will. The beginning is so 
 recent, and the record so full, that we can count the men, tell 
 their names, read their biography, mark their contribution to 
 the common stock of manhood and religion. When we run back 
 the line of the life of this ancient church, we are not able to 
 stop at the end of two hundred and fifty years. If this be 
 necessary in making up the calendar, it is not permitted in 
 making up the history. At the point from which this anniver- 
 
sary is modestly reckoned there were certain ceremonies of 
 convenient re-organization, l)ut it was of men and women who 
 had been living here, and had been associated in the cluirch 
 here. They were separated from persons wlio had been with 
 them in chnrch-fellowship, and who had made to themselves 
 new homes on the other side of the river. It does not seem 
 eqnitable that those who remained liere should lose two years 
 of church life because others had gone away from them. In- 
 deed, if the Rev. William Blackstone — the Church of England 
 clergyman, " who left England because he liked not the ' Lord's 
 Bishops,' and Boston, afterwards, because he liked not the 
 ' Lord's brethren ' " — had been content to live by himself in his 
 solitary cottage, and had not enticed the governor, and the peo- 
 ple who were here, to settle about his excellent spring, the sep- 
 aration might have been deferred, perhaps, until there were 
 more to remain than to leave. It is fair, certainly, that this 
 church should claim a share in the two years which were ferried 
 across the stream. They form, at least, an introductory chap- 
 ter in this history, to be written and read as an essential part 
 of the record. 
 
 We go back, therefore, to the 30th of July, old style, or the 
 9th of August, 1630. It was a time of trouble in the colony. 
 Men were suffering and dying. Bread was becoming scarce, 
 and the summer was passing with small promise of relief. 
 Capt. William Pearce had gone to Ireland for provisions. They 
 did what they could, for they were men of great good sense, 
 who joined works and faith. But they were God's people and 
 were here by his command. To him they turned for relief, and 
 that midsummer day was devoted to fasting and prayer. The 
 prayer took on a definite and permanent form. They remem- 
 bered for what end they had been brought to these shores, and 
 they set themselves promptly to the execution of their pur- 
 pose, God's purpose. On that day four men signed the cove- 
 nant by which they bound themselves, solemnly and religiously, 
 to walk in all their ways according to the rule of the Gospel, 
 and in all sincere conformity to God's holy ordinances, and in 
 mutual love and respect each to other, so near as God should 
 give them grace. This was a church covenant, and by their act 
 
they constituted a church. It is probable that this covenant 
 was written by Governor Wintlirop. " That old covenant," 
 remarks the present distinguished representative of that name, 
 " is one under which any man might well be willing to live and 
 to die." It is quite possible that the men who signed it at the 
 first did not perceive the full import of their act, or consider 
 that they were parting finally from the government and the 
 methods of the church to which they belonged, and making a 
 part of the beginning of a new church in the new land. But 
 the covenant looks forward and declares a purpose and a faith 
 Avhich were equal to the work committed to their hands. 
 "Meantime, beyond all doubt," — I quote again the words of 
 the Winthrop of our time, — " that day, that service, that cove- 
 nant, settled the question that Congregationalism was to be the 
 prevailing order, and for a long time the only order, in early 
 New England. Nor, let mc add, have I ever doubted, for a 
 moment, that Congregationalism was the best and the only 
 mode of planting and propagating Christianity in this part of 
 the country in those old Puritan times." 
 
 But let us look for a momejit at the four signers of this 
 covenant. They had been brought by the most wise and good 
 providence of the Lord Jesus Christ into this part of America, 
 in the bay of Massachusetts. Being here, they were desirous 
 to unite into one congregation, or church, "under the Lord Jesus 
 Christ our head." Who were these men ? It is the thoughtful 
 remark of a careful observer, that among the Massachusetts 
 colonists " the religious and political elements are more marked 
 in the views and pui-poses of the men of the eastern counties 
 of England," wdiile " the commercial element existed more 
 visibly among the adventurers from the western counties of 
 Dorset and Devon." The former came to be known as " the 
 Boston men : " the latter as " the Dorchester men." Now the 
 four men who first signed the church covenant here were all 
 from the eastern part of England. John Winthrop was born 
 in the county of Suffolk, on the extreme eastern coast. 
 Thomas Dudley was born in Northampton. Isaac Johnson 
 w^as born in Rutland, and the Lady Arbella was the daughter 
 of the Earl of Lincoln. John Wilson, whose name, though he 
 
9 
 
 was the minister, was modestly written last of the four, was 
 born at Windsor, in Berkshire. These were all, therefore, 
 from that part of England which furnished the religious and 
 political elements of the colonial life. Whatever importance 
 we may give to this matter of locality, it is certain that in the 
 men themselves these elements held the conspicuous and con- 
 trolling place. Familiar as this general statement is, it is 
 well from time to time to assert it and illustrate it. It is the 
 potent and indispensable feature in the origin of this church, 
 this town. Leave out anything else, and this settlement could 
 have been made. Leave out this, and the settlement would not 
 have been made. Other men might have built houses and 
 founded cities on these shores ; but such communities as these 
 would never have been made. Different causes would not have 
 produced these results. Society would not have centred in the 
 church under different conditions. We are dealing only with 
 things which are. 
 
 Let us look for a moment at the man who heads this cata- 
 logue of names. The first governor of Massachusetts would 
 have been a clergyman, probably, had not the persuasion of 
 his friends induced him to adhere to the profession of the law. 
 But he was a man of deep spiritual thought, and willing to 
 exercise "in the way of preaching" when it was necessary. 
 His " religious experiences," recorded by his own hand, have a 
 charm in the reading which has reminded his biographer of Bax- 
 ter and Bunyan. In England he was called into the counsels 
 of the Massachusetts Company, whose " maine pillars," as he 
 described them, were " gentlemen of high quality and eminent 
 parts, both for wisdom and godlinesse " who were "determined 
 to sit still if I deserte them." -It was then that the patent and 
 government were to be transferred. Colonization was to be- 
 come a larger fact, with more force and more freedom. The 
 times were moving, and these men were moving with them. 
 Already, as early as 1622, royalty had given the name to the 
 state rising out of the sea, when Prince Charles called it New 
 England. They were to make the state more than a name. 
 It was more than that in their design. Those were troublous 
 times for such men. The king was entering on the path which 
 
10 
 
 bronglit him to the block. Laud and his subordinates were 
 ruling- the church in tlie interest of despotism. Parliament 
 "wafe dispensed with. The instruments of government were 
 proclamations, the star-chamber, and the courts of high-com- 
 mission. Foreseeing the disastrous days which were awaiting 
 the land, Winthrop looked for " nearer communion with tlie 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and more assurance of his kingdom." With 
 the spirit of prophecy upon him, he wrote to his wife : " If the 
 Lord seeth it will be good for us, he will provide a shelter and a 
 hiding-place for us and others ; ... if not, yet he will not forsake 
 us." That was May 15, 1629. On the 26th of the following 
 August, at Cambridge, perhaps within the university w'hich 
 gave to New England so many " of her brightest luminaries 
 and noblest benefactors," the agreement was signed by which 
 Winthrop and eleven others bound themselves '• to pass the 
 seas (under God's protection) to inhabit and continue in New 
 England." They guarded their purpose with careful provisions, 
 but they wrote their names with a firm hand. They made this 
 engagement "having weighed the greatness of the work in re- 
 gard of the consequence, God's glory and the church's 
 good ; " words which deserve to be written on the walls of 
 these churches and at the corners of the streets. 
 
 In addition to this agreement there remains in Winthrop's 
 handw'riting a statement of nine reasons justifying and en- 
 couraging the plantation in New England. These reasons are 
 full of a humane and religious spirit. It will be a service to 
 the Church to extend its influence into the remote parts of the 
 earth. It will enlarge the worth of manhood and promote 
 righteous living. "It appeares to be a worke of God for the 
 good of His Church." The rulhig motive of the first governor, 
 the first signer of this church covenant, is perfectly clear. 
 Dudley and Johnson, who signed the church covenant with him, 
 signed also with him the agreement at Cambridge in 1629. 
 
 It is true that these men had commercial relations among 
 themselves and with men in England. Of course they had, 
 and they dignified trade and commerce by bringing them into 
 such connection. These were not altogether inhospitable shores. 
 The fisheries along this coast were well known. They had drawn 
 
11 
 
 the ships of France and Holland, and they brought ships from 
 the southern ports of Great Britain. The emblem of this bold 
 and characteristic enterprise has long hung before our legisla- 
 tors under the gilded dome. There were indefinite opportuni- 
 ties to trade with the Indians, and to carry into the homes of 
 England the furs of the wilderness. 
 
 Business of some kind, remuneration for industry, the means 
 of livelihood, must enter into the being of a state. Not even 
 for religious men, exiles for liberty, the founders of a nation, 
 — not even for stout Puritans, — was there such vitality in the 
 air of these forests, or the breath of the sea which lay along 
 these shores, that they could live without bread. Their faith 
 was strong, but not so simple that they fancied the skies over 
 the new world were dark with falling manna, and the gloomy 
 rocks were bursting with w^ater-brooks. They belonged in civ- 
 ilized communities, and were familiar with the fact that in 
 these stores and shops, fields and farms, money and merchan- 
 dise, have their place, as really as churches and schools and 
 homes. Their godliness was of that practical sort which in- 
 cludes prudence and economy and industry and enterprise, 
 and holds the promise even of the life which now is. John 
 Winthrop was over forty years old when he engaged to lead his 
 company across the sea, and all his manliness was in all he 
 did, — in his political engagements, in his commercial arrange- 
 ments, in his spiritual designs, in the last request for the 
 prayers of those who remaine din the old homestead when the 
 Arbella sailed on her tedious voyage. " We are entered into a 
 covenant with God for this work. . . . Let us choose life, that we 
 and our seed may live, by obeying His voice and cleaving to Him, 
 for He is our life and our prosperity." Thus preached the 
 almost reverend governor while they sailed. Scarcely had they 
 touched the shore when they were formed into a church " in the 
 name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in obedience to his holy will 
 and divine ordinances." When they held their first court of 
 assistants on this side of the Atlantic, the first question pro- 
 posed was : " How the ministers should be maintained ; " and 
 it was decided that this should be " at the common charge." 
 Here was our beginning. The east of England was on the 
 
12 
 
 east of New England. This beginning was on our side of the 
 river, at Mishawum. 
 
 It may be promptly confessed that the amount of the religious 
 element differed widely among different colonists. In some it 
 was a passion ; in others an influence which shaded away until 
 it was lost in the commercial spirit and the love of adventure. 
 But in the men who created the plan, and gave it body and char- 
 acter, it was the strong, controlling force. It is the summing 
 up of a writer who has made our history his especial study, that 
 " a deep religious design in the purpose of the leaders is the key 
 to the enterprise." How pleasantly and harmoniously the two 
 essentials are set forth in these sentences, written by Winthrop 
 in 1080 ! In one letter : — " We here enjoy God and Jesus. 
 Christ. Is not this enough? What would we have more?" 
 In another: — "My dear wife, we are here in a paradise. 
 Though we have not beef and mutton, etc., yet (God be 
 praised) we want them not ; our Indian corn answers for all. 
 Yet here is fowl and fish in great plenty." 
 
 We are celebrating at this time the formation of a church. 
 It was composed of the men who have been named, and others 
 of a like mind. Soon there w^ere sixty-four men and thirty-two 
 women who were in the covenant. On the 27th of August there 
 was the formal completion of the organization of the church, 
 when John Wilson was appointed Teacher ; and with him were 
 associated a Ruling Elder and two Deacons. The institution of 
 these officers was by those wiio chose them. The hands of the 
 church rested in consecration upon their heads. It seemed a 
 new way : they thought it an older and better way. 
 
 Who were these ninety-sis persons who had become a church ? 
 I do not repeat their names. Their character is described in 
 their own words. They were persons whom the Lord Jesus 
 Christ had " redeemed and sanctified to himself." I repeat the 
 statement of their action. In his presence, solemnly and reli- 
 giously, they promised and bound themselves to walk in all their 
 ways '"■ according to the rule of the Gospel, and in all sincere 
 conformity to his holy ordinances, and in mutual love and re- 
 spect to each other," so near as God should give them grace. 
 With this character, with this spirit, these men and women were 
 
13 
 
 here, three thousand miles from EngHsh cathedrals and tribunals. 
 The church was a necessity. What should it be ? To that 
 question there was but one answer, and that is expressed in 
 their covenant. What form should it have ? The practical 
 answer to that question was almost as easy. They were greatly 
 in earnest. They were concerned chiefly with essentials. They 
 were in a new land, making new homes in a new community. 
 Theybroughttheirpiety and good sense and independence, their 
 learning and their experience, to the forming of that which was 
 to be the centre of their life and their state. In England they 
 might have varied their methods ; here they did as earlier 
 colonists had done. No bishop but their own lifted his rod 
 above them. No palace cast its long shadows on their path. 
 The land was wide and the winds were free. Their enlarged 
 souls exulted in their liberty. It was the liberty of prudent 
 and religious men ; it was the liberty of intelligent men. It 
 may be helpful to notice what books they had. Some were 
 men of substance and culture. All of them felt the influ- 
 ence of the writings which were affecting society. We stand in 
 1630. Our present English Bible was first printed in 1611. It 
 was still the new gift of God to men. Shakespeare died in 
 1616, and Bacon in 1626, and George Herbert in 1632. They 
 stood near these men, and had their works fresh from their 
 hands. They were themselves able to make books. It is thought 
 that during the first fifty years after the printing-press was set 
 up here, more than three hundred separate publications were is- 
 sued in Boston and Cambridge. Nearly two thirds of these 
 were religious works in English, to which were added religious 
 tracts and books in the Indian tongue. The books did not 
 largely increase the world's literary wealth ; but, as another has 
 strongly said of these men, "their virility created not so much 
 letters as empire ; it contributed to found a people rather than to 
 stamp a literature." The " fruit was in character rather than 
 in letters." The culture of the leaders of thought and action 
 here is suggested by the fact that nearly one hundred university 
 men joined the new colony between 1630 and 1617. Of these, 
 two thirds were from Cambridge. There these settlers were as- 
 sociated with scholars and the things of scholars. Some " had 
 
u 
 
 trodden tlie banks of the Cam with John Milton and Jeremy- 
 Taylor." 
 
 If any other testimony were wanted to the literary taste and 
 the love of learning of the men who were here, it would be 
 found in their early provision for education ; in the setting up of 
 a college in an open field, and the enriching it out of their pov- 
 erty. In all this the religious element was conspicuous. The 
 college must be for the church, as the church was for the laud. 
 
 On whatever side we view them, the men who made the settle- 
 ments here and along this shore were no common men. They 
 stood confronting the future. But they had a past. They were 
 Englishmen, and the history of England was their history. Her 
 great names and great deeds and great hopes were theirs. 
 
 They were members of the Church of England, and her saints 
 and scholars, her treasures of truth and righteousness, her glo- 
 ries and her duties, were theirs. They had left England, but 
 they were Englishmen still ; and in her name did they set up 
 their banners upon these hills, and up and down this coast. They 
 had left the stately buildings and the humbler structures where 
 they had worshipped after the manner of their fathers. But the 
 worship of the English Church they had not left, nor her truth, 
 nor her trust. They were not content with her ways. They were 
 offended by her spirit. They were harassed by her madness and 
 cruelty. Some men of kindred disposition made for themselves 
 new sanctuaries in England and on the Continent, and finally in 
 this new land. These Puritans, while holding their allegiance 
 to their church, were formed by circumstances, that is, by Prov- 
 idence, into a new society. They had fellowship in a common 
 purpose. Their piety took on new and freer forms for a more 
 ardent life. Buildings and books l)ecame of less account. 
 They found a temple where they wished to pray. They fixed 
 their gaze upon the Book of God. Priests whom they could not 
 respect receded behind the spiritual priesthood of which they 
 read, and to one Shepherd and Bishop they pledged and paid 
 their willing homage. This which was done here was but a 
 part of a great movement which, in different methods, wrought 
 wonders for England and for humanity. It is startling praise 
 which has been written bv historians in England, that to the 
 
15 
 
 Puritans " the English owe the whole freedom of their Consti- 
 tution," and that they " were the depositaries of the sacred fire 
 of liberty." It was a long work which tliey had to do. It was 
 the completing of the Reformation, and the purifying and enno- 
 bling of the land. " In the Revolution of 1688 Puritanism did 
 the work of civil liberty which it had failed to do in 1642." 
 Thus writes a late historian of the English people. I add these 
 words of the same calm writer : " Slowly but steadily it intro- 
 duced its own seriousness and purity into English society, Eng- 
 lish literature, English politics. The history of English progress 
 since the Restoration, on its moral and spiritual sides, has been 
 the history of Puritanism," 
 
 The sturdy men who wrought so manfully may well be con- 
 tent with the growing admiration which is given to them. 
 Tliey were men. If their manners were stern, their hearts were 
 strong. If their faults were rugged, their virtues were robust. 
 If they drew apart from their fellows, they founded a home 
 and a state for men out of all the earth. If the vessel was 
 earthen, the treasure was gold. The form of the vessel 
 may not have been tasteful sesthetically, but its lines have a 
 comely look as it stands among the caskets and urns of kings 
 and courtiers. 
 
 In the work of the Puritans a part was done here. Much of 
 the hardest work was done here. There were peculiar difficul- 
 ties and hardships here and in England. There the contest 
 was against men who were entrenched in the system it was 
 desired to change. They were in power and were determined 
 to retain their places. But the Puritans were numerous and 
 strong, and their spirit was " as old as the truth and manliness 
 of England." In England they had the strength and comfort 
 and refinement of their own country, and with large resources 
 contended for the triumph of their cause. They conquered. 
 The victory of such men, with such a cause, is sure if the men 
 have courage and patience. Time is on their side, and truth. 
 They made the church feel their power and bend to their will. 
 They brought royalty to the block, and enthroned the people's 
 will. It needed years, but they had the years. What did they 
 do here, the kindred of these men ? All outward circumstances 
 
16 
 
 were different. Here was the wilderness. Only the Red man 
 was near them. There was no church, no dignitary, no vener- 
 able custom, no violent superstition or stubborn error. It was 
 a wilderness, with trackless forests and barren fields, with 
 frowning rocks and wintry storms, but with an ample oppor- 
 tunity. Clinging to their charter, defending themselves against 
 treachery and injustice, guarding their imperilled homes against 
 savage cunning and cruelty, they gave themselves to the mak- 
 ing of a state and a church. They made both. They took the 
 years for the building of the state, but they made the church 
 at once. For tliis they had all the materials and an open 
 ground. Familiar as the story is, it is full of fascination. It 
 is not for me to tell it to-day. They had the things essential to 
 a church, and they cared for little more. They had themselves 
 which was the grand requisite, and they were here with God 
 and at his bidding. They had the Bible and they were free. 
 What more was needed ? They had the clmrchly ideas of rev- 
 erence, obedience, and the spirit of worship. To establish here 
 the institution which they had left beyond the seas they neither 
 attempted nor desired. They did not think to leave it so com- 
 pletely ; they cherished natural and tender thoughts towards 
 it ; they did not know that they were separating themselves 
 from it when they took their last look at its towers and spires. 
 But they had left it. Out of its doors they opened the New 
 Testament to find what a Christian church was at the beginning ; 
 and finding the divine model, as they believed, they formed the 
 church. Christ alone was Lord ; the Bible alone was author- 
 ity ; and all Christ's men were brethren. They made the town 
 and the church after one idea. God was supreme ; man was his 
 child ; man was able to govern himself under tlie law of God. 
 A man was entitled to his vote in those things which concerned 
 him, and was held to the responsibilities which belong with 
 manhood and its liberty. 
 
 It is to be remembered that they were men of years and of 
 character and of learning, competent to read the New Testa- 
 ment for themselves, and to conform to its teacliings They 
 were likely to know what was suited to their condition and 
 their design. They were here by the call of the Lord. Their 
 
n 
 
 hearts and lives were open before him, and they consented to 
 obedience at a cost. It is impossible to doubt that they were 
 guided by the divine wisdom which they sought, and that in 
 their work they followed the counsel of the Almighty. It is 
 impossible not to believe in their judgment and their enlighten- 
 ment, more than in the methods and maxims of those who were 
 too blind to see the character of the men they were hounding 
 to exile, too narrow and selfish to recognize the breadth of 
 truth, tbe divinity of liberty, the sweetness of charity. There 
 is a grandeur in the men who stood here, an earnestness, an 
 intelligence, a piety, which make us confident that it was good 
 work Avell done, which it was given to them to do, and to us to 
 celebrate. Men who were possessed of their grand purpose, 
 who counted themselves able to make a better England, justly 
 esteemed themselves competent to make a church after the sim- 
 ple rules and methods of apostolic days. Under the oak tree, or 
 in the Great House which sheltered both church and state, they 
 acted from their manhood. They did their work. To our eyes, 
 at least, the hand of the Lord was with them. There was no 
 sound of hammer or ax ; but there were prayers and songs. 
 Their covenant has stood. Their churches live. Their work 
 may have reached beyond their thought ; but their thought was 
 large enough for their work. It is surprising to mark how 
 simple their work was made for them. Stately ceremonies 
 they could not have. High officials, there were none. An 
 eminent writer, whose name is of special authority here, has 
 called attention to the fact that we look in vain among the 
 relics which have come down to us, and through the inventories 
 of the property of the first settlers here, for the Book of Com- 
 mon Prayer. " Tbe book seems to have been as rare here 
 as the holly and the mistletoe." Nor do we firid in their letters 
 and sermons sentences and expressions which were taken from 
 the book which before had been in constant use, and whose lan- 
 guage must have been familiar. It is plain that they had come 
 into freer modes of worship, which they found sufficient for 
 their needs, and well suited to their condition. They went 
 back to the New Testament and were content. 
 
 Affairs abroad, if they knew of them, were suited to break 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 them completely from the old ways, and those who made them; 
 for Laud was flourishing in authority and tyranny, and five 
 ministers had just been arraigned before the Court of High Com- 
 mission, and among them John Cotton, the friend of John AVin- 
 throp. As I think of the madness which ruled in tliat time tliere 
 comes to my mind the shrewd saying of the Concord sage, that 
 in 1775 our one benefactor in England was King George the 
 Third. The time had come Avhen the colonies must enter 
 upon the independence to which they could only be driven " and 
 the inscrutable Divine Providence gave an insane king to Eng- 
 land." By similar instruments Divine Providence had wrought 
 in the earth a century and a half before, and what just rulers 
 might have prevented tyrants effected, and the free church 
 was made, and the beginning of the free state. 
 
 Out of their high thought of manhood the nation has sprung. 
 In their thought of an intelligent, religious, responsible man- 
 hood, the nation must find its honor, and the stability o':' its 
 life. Free churches, free schools, free communities, demand 
 the strength which comes from the devout recognition of God's 
 law, and steadfast obedience rendered unto it. So they 
 believed. Their confidence has been our glory ; our self-con- 
 fidence will be our shame and our ruin. We ought at least to 
 be able to enjoy and to transmit that which has come down to 
 us, and to be above the folly of trying upon society any experi- 
 ments which are alien to the methods which worked so grandly 
 in the beginning, and have been so often proved in later days. 
 
 There is one word which is often used in connection with the 
 work which was done by the first settlers upon this coast which 
 is singularly expressive. It is the word plant. It was written 
 in the cabin of the Mayflower, by rnen who had " undertaken, 
 for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith, a 
 voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Vir- 
 ginia." They did not propose to build a house or a city, which 
 they could finish, but to plant a colony, which should take root 
 in the ground, and rise into the air, and spread its branches 
 abroad, and give pleasant shade and nourishing fruit. They 
 did not know into what it would grow, but they had great faith 
 in the seed, and in the rain and dew of heaven, in the sunshine. 
 
19 
 
 and even in tlie storm, and in the rich virgin soil. They be- 
 lieved that they were planting life, and that life would spring 
 up; that the living seed would yield a living society and a liv- 
 ing church. It was a handful of corn ; but the fruit is shaking 
 like Lebanon. It was our Lord who said that the king(U)ni of 
 Heaven is like to seed, which, when it is planted, grows into a 
 tree. The parable is written here, with living illustration. 
 
 The church here was formed with a covenant. It was a sim- 
 ple and solemn compact, by which they bound themselves one 
 to another, and all to Christ. But they had more than their 
 covenant. If there were no written articles of religion, there 
 were living articles of religion, based on the Holy Scriptures, 
 declared in all their teaching, and in substantial agreement with 
 the belief of the church from which they were separating them- 
 selves. Their conviction of the importance of a settled reli- 
 gious belief is beyond question. Their requisition of all who 
 would join them, that they should agree with them in belief, and 
 should give evidence that they were regenerate by the grace of 
 God, is apparent in their teaching and their acts. It is a grave 
 historic error to think that because those who planted religious 
 institutions here had no articles of belief, arranged and num- 
 bered, they had no creed and felt the need of none. It was 
 with very clear and very decided convictions that they planted 
 the. seed of state and church in a new world. 
 
 For the purposes of this occasion I have reckoned the life of 
 this church from the planting in 1630. Into the questions con- 
 nected with the transplanting I will enter no further. The four 
 men who first signed the covenant removed with many others 
 across the river, and the church w^as planted there. But some 
 who were of tlie church remained, and the seed which had not 
 been taken fi'om the ground continued to grow. The covenant 
 was signed again, with only such change in its terms as suited 
 tlie new conditions of the signers, as residents and not new-com- 
 ers. Thirty-five persons signed the covenant on the second, or 
 twelfth, of November, 1632. It is a good list of names, as it 
 stands at the beginning of the church records. Increase Now- 
 ell was one of the assistants in the state and a ruling elder in 
 the church, a man prominent and useful in public affairs, and 
 
20 
 
 held in honor by the people. He sent two sons to Harvard Col- 
 lege, one of whom entered the ministry, and in important sta- 
 tions served the colony. More than any other man, Mr. Nowell 
 "may be considered the father of the church and the town." 
 It was good parentage. It is interesting to notice the name of 
 the wife set into the name of the husband througliout this list, — 
 Increase, Parnel, Nowell, Tho : Christian, Bcecher, and so on. 
 Ralph and Richard ^prague are in the list, men who were 
 living here two years before Winthrop's arrival. William, 
 Ann :, Frothingham, give tiieir names to the covenant, as tliey 
 gave their name to a family which for niany generations was to 
 serve the church and honor the town. In Tho:, Elizab:, 
 James, we have tlie name of the first j)astor of tlie church, after 
 its new beginning, and his wife. It is a good list of men and 
 women. They were strong in character, determined in purpose, 
 able to bear their part in constituting the state and establishing 
 the church. Their work remains to praise them. They have 
 had successors worthy of them. Good men and women liave 
 never failed. There have been good and learned ministers here 
 from the beginning. The name of John Harvard and the fame 
 of his devotion to sacred learning are abroad in the earth. The 
 words of the saintly and sainted Budington have been read in 
 your hearing this afternoon, recalling his venerable presence 
 and the fidelity and higli service of his life. This day bringsi us 
 near the anniversary of the departure from this world of James 
 Browning Miles, whose abundant labors jiasscd into the wider 
 service of the Prince of Peace. I could name more, the living 
 and the dead, and the whole list would be read with thanks- 
 giving. The sanctity of the ancient covenant has been regarded. 
 The piety and heroism of the early signers have been renewed, 
 with no break in the line. The truth of God has been preached 
 in the sanctuary, taught to the children, sent up and down the 
 streets. The hand of charity, which the fathers stretched out, 
 has never been withdrawn, and the voice of the sons has reached 
 further than theirs through the wide world, with its messages 
 of grace. The sons and daughters have carried the ancient faith 
 through the land, and the lands. Other churches have arisen 
 around this centre, witnesses to the strength and beauty of the 
 
21 
 
 truth which good men brought to these shores and good men 
 have preserved. The fathers woukl praise the children, if tliey 
 were here, and commend the work which lias never ceased. The 
 ^ hands of the men of the olden time would be stretched in ben- 
 ediction over the heads of the men of to-day ; voices tremulous 
 with age would bless them ; faces which found small leisure for 
 smiles between the winters of the wilderness would laugh with 
 joy at the fruitage of two hundz-ed and fifty summers. 
 
 Those men are needed here now, you say, to fill up the ranks, 
 to enlarge the gifts, to increase the prayers, to multiply tlie 
 force ! But they have earned their rest. Their prayers are still 
 with you who remain ; their lives live in every true heart. 
 Their work is yours. It needs but their passion and patience to 
 finish it with renown. The story of the years which have borne 
 us to this day gives honor to those who first were here and to 
 those who in successive generations have entered into their 
 labors. That story should be told to the children. It should 
 be in the hands and the heart of every member of this parish, 
 and should stand as the commentary on the covenant, the illus- 
 tration of the creed. 
 
 We pay deserved honor to the men who made this church 
 after the pattern they saw in the Mount. Let us pay honor to 
 the land and the church in which they were born, out of which 
 they came. They left England, but they brought the English 
 spirit with them, and the English Bible. They left nothing 
 which was essential to the Englishman. They were letting the 
 English character rule when they set their faces towards the 
 West. The English spirit never could be bound. The people 
 rule. The divine right of kings lies within the people's right to 
 be free. Kings are for men, not men for kings. The Sabbath 
 is for man, not man for the Sabbath. The church, with all its 
 offices, is for the people, not the people for the church. This is 
 the English idea, which pays small respect to meridians. Yet 
 the truth committed to the church, the promises made to it, the 
 commission intrusted to it, were neither to bo altered nor aban- 
 doned. That was the divine idea to which Englishmen bowed. 
 To this church idea they loyally adhered, and for it made a nation. 
 To certain things they clung with a tenacity which balanced the 
 
22 
 
 readiness with which they parted with other tilings. For what 
 they held to be essential they would be exiles and martyrs. 
 Their liberty was under law. They did not suffer and endure 
 for religious liberty so much as for religion. They were obedi- 
 ent by nature ; only the obedience must be well placed. " In 
 politics, the Puritan was the Liberal of his day," Dr. Palfrey 
 has written. " The Puritan was a Scripturist, . . . the Puritan 
 was a strict moralist," — the same impartial pen has written. 
 They bowed their will and laid their life before the Bible, as the 
 AVord of God. Truth, Duty, Righteousness, were their watch- 
 words. No ships ever sailed, no villages ever rose, no churches 
 ever opened their doors, under stricter laws than they acknowl- 
 edged. In this broad land there was room enough for the state 
 and the church in which they believed. Unwilling to have their 
 work ruined at the start, jealous of interference, stern in their 
 method of defence, they may have been. But they kept in their 
 own place. If other men preferred other ways, the land was 
 wide. 
 
 I do not wish to claim for the Puritan all the virtues in per- 
 fection. But where was there a taller, broader man in his 
 time? We talk much of Liberality. It is too good a word to be 
 carelessly used ; it has its limits which we must regard. I 
 may be liberal with my own. Can I be liberal with that which 
 is your own, or God's own ? The Puritan was free with that 
 which was his. That which belonged to God, or to which he 
 ascribed such ownership, he held with careful hand. The Bible, 
 the Sabbath, the truths of morality and religion, it was not for 
 him to enlarge or diminish. For himself, for his house, for the 
 community in which he ruled, the divine proprietorship must be 
 regarded. This is Fidelity, a word of as grand sound as Liber- 
 ality, — a word more common in the New Testament, a word 
 which enters into the judgment of the Great Day. One may 
 question the Puritan's application of this principle, but from 
 the principle itself no honest man withholds his approbation. 
 
 The Puritans have done great honor to the Church of Eng- 
 land. It is a fine testimony to it, that truth was held in such 
 force and measure that men were willing to venture their lives 
 upon it. They had found enough truth in it to be the beginning 
 
23 
 
 of the kingdom of Leaven in this land. If they cared little for 
 its luxuries, they were fond of its bread. It is to the honor of 
 the English Church that it could raise up such men. They were 
 a credit to it when they went out from its training to prove the 
 value of it. They were a credit to the church when they rose 
 up in defence of its purity and safety, forgetting its robes while 
 they fought for its life, disowning its servants while they con- 
 tended for itself. It is unjust to make a sweeping denunciation 
 of the English Church, which has done so many glorious things 
 and stood so stoutly for liberty, because of the madness of its 
 leaders at this period. The king was not the people. The 
 bishops were not the church. Men suffered at the hands of 
 king and bishops, but as they turned away it was with a tender 
 farewell and a tearful prayer. They had been taught to be true, 
 and they had learned the lesson. They had inherited the Eng- 
 lish spirit, and bravely they let it work its will. It is a rare 
 witness to the English Church, that they were able to live away 
 from home; that their virtue stood the strain of the outer world ; 
 that they could transfer their devotion from stately minsters 
 and jewelled altars to houses of logs and tables of plain wood ; 
 that they could part with imposing ceremonials and keep the 
 spirit of worship in its integrity ; that they could be free from 
 ecclesiastical control, and govern themselves by the Word of 
 God. We praise the men. Let us not withhold our admiration 
 from the institutions which reared the men, and gave them a 
 manhood which was strong and heroic, reverent and loyal, true 
 and determined, the manhood which alone can constitute the 
 state and the church. 
 
 Brethren, the work of the men whom we celebrate is done. 
 To-day is yours. To-morrow the church will be what you have 
 made it. What profit shall you bring from these commemora- 
 tive services, unless it be in the wise understanding of those who 
 have been before you, and in new vigor for the will which must 
 advance their work ? Remember, then, that these men were men 
 of God. They were the followers of his Son. They received his 
 Spirit. They believed the Bible and walked in its light. They 
 kept the Sabbath-day holy. They had faith in prayer. They 
 knew the stability of righteousness. They were willing to Avork, 
 
24 
 
 to give, to suffer, to die, in the name of the Lord. Tlicy were 
 brave, constant, earnest. Tiicy recognized an individual respon- 
 sibility. In tiieir church every man had his part, and was 
 essential to the well-being of the whule. These were the simple 
 principles of the Puritan churches. They are the life of our 
 Congregational churches to-day. Our churches are republics, 
 with only the Lord for king. Upon every member rests a duty 
 which it is needful that he should do. His counsel, his money, 
 his prayer and service, his presence and faith, must be liberally 
 bestowed. There can be little question that these principles, 
 made efficient by the men of- this day, would renew the vigor 
 which for two centuries and a half has been felt through this 
 community. The past is with you. The ground is hallowed. 
 The graves of holy men are close about you. The prayers of 
 the saints are pleading before God. It is an hour for new cour- 
 age, and for a new and brave beginning. It is a grand history. 
 It is a hopeful prophecy. The time itself is good. We are re- 
 peating in our day the rational process of the grand and simple 
 time when the Puritan was doing his first work. He believed 
 that reformation had not gone far enough, and was unwilling to 
 stop at men who were but a little removed from himself He 
 pushed back of them all, till he stood with the men who stood 
 with Christ and heard his words. Then he was content and de- 
 termined. He was prepared " to practise the Positive Part of 
 Church Reformation and propagate the Gospel in America." 
 The Puritan method has been revived. Men are again going 
 back of human forms to the teachings of the Lord. Tiie Bible 
 is rising into greater prominence. Its simple forms, its gracious 
 teachings, its divine spirit, are drawing the hearts of men. Be 
 glad of this Puritan revival. Enter into it and be true. Exalt 
 the Gospel of God and live in its power, and God shall bless 
 you. Change but a single word, Avhich I will not take from out 
 the melody, and sing the English song again : — 
 
 *' I will not give mine eyelids sleep, 
 
 Nor shall my sword rest in my hand, 
 Till we have built Jerusalem 
 
 In England's green and pleasant land ! " 
 
25 
 
 In the presence of your fathers and your heroes, renew your 
 vows and move on. son of a noble line, — " Take heed to thy- 
 self and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things 
 which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart 
 all the days of thy life ; but teach them thy sons and thy sons' 
 sous." 
 
EVENING. 
 
 A SKETCH 
 
 OF THE 
 
 HISTORY OF THE FIRST CHITRCH, CHARLESTOWN.i 
 
 By JAMES FROTHINGHAM HUNNEWELL. 
 
 IN July, 1630, several hundred English — men, women, and chil- 
 dren — were trying to live in huts and tents on or around the 
 Town Hill in Charlestown. They had recently escaped discomforts 
 on the sea for privations on shore. Seven small vessels, that had 
 brought them from kindred and former homes, lay in the river. 
 Forests and wild lands, where there were men as wild, spread 
 inland. There were no mines or great extents of fertile land, and 
 there were few to welcome or to help them. Nearly all of the 
 inhabitants were Indians, so called. Along the coasts of what we 
 name New England there were only scanty groups of countrymen : 
 in Maine perhaps five hundred persons ; in Rhode Island and Con- 
 necticut were none ; in Massachusetts were a few, but little more 
 than those at Salem, Beverly, and Lynn, at Dorchester and 
 Plymouth ; there was one man on the neighboring peninsula of 
 Boston, and on Noddle's Island, Samuel Maverick. 
 
 Plainly reasons that had brought these people from their mother 
 land to this Town Hill were strong, and principles that they estab- 
 lished had a vital power, attested by the presence on the spot of 
 their successors now that two centuries and a half have passed. 
 The reasons for their coming, like the reasons for most of the great 
 events of history, were of long growth. The Reformation in the 
 
 1 Several parts of this article were not read on Sunday evening. Some 
 subjects treated by Dr. McKenzie are mentioned here in order to complete the 
 sketch. 
 
28 
 
 sixteenth century had been marked by important changes in the 
 thoughts and the belief of English people. The Eoman Church, 
 acknowledged for a tliousand years, at length became no longer 
 dominant. A large proportion of the people were, in some form, 
 Protestants. These, while agreed substantially in faitli, had differ- 
 ent opinions upon some points held to be of profound importance. 
 Out of the religious change arose the Church of England, with the 
 Bovereign, not the poi)e, as its appointed earthly head, and a 
 reformed but yet conservative obsei^vance of some forms and words 
 and usages that had been known since Christianity became an 
 organized and wide-spread power. Within the Church, at first, 
 there was, however, a great body, with a large amount of piety and 
 learning, that desired still greater change. This, at length, in King 
 James's reign, could be reduced, it has been stated, "to these four 
 heads : j^urity of doctrine, the supply of the churches with good 
 pastors, the Scriptural administration of church government, and 
 the improvement of the Book of Common Prayer." Tlie advocates 
 of greater change — and greater purity, as they believed — were 
 known as Puritans. The Church of England became the ruling 
 power ; and, world wide, ruling powers in church and state, when 
 James I. was king, regarded a dissenter as a sort of rebel who 
 should be suppressed. The Puritans were made to feel this fact. 
 
 And thus a vigorous, intelligent, determined party chafed in 
 England under rule from wdiich it naturally souglit relief or an 
 escape; and sundry men within it were considering not only an 
 escape, but realization of a grand conception. 
 
 John Winthrop, a well educated, wealthy gentleman of rare and 
 noble character, who lived at Groton in the pleasant rui-al lands of 
 Suffolk; Thomas Dudley, once a soldier, later a good steward to 
 the Earl of Lincoln ; Increase Nowell, well bred and long tried, 
 among whose nearer ancestors or relatives was Alexander, the 
 prolocutor of Queen Elizabeth's first convocation, so decisive to 
 the Puritans ; John "Wilson, son of William, prebend of three of 
 tlie grand old churches of Old England, — these and many others, 
 scattered tlirough that country, thought and acted. 
 
 Meanwhile different events prepared a way for them. At a time 
 when, says Dr. Haven, English "colonization [of America] had 
 been virtually abandoned in despair," two men to whom this 
 country owes much, sought "a proper seat for a plantation" in 
 New England. The illustrious friend of Shakespeare, the Earl of 
 Southampton, largely paid the cost, in 1602, of an irai)ortant 
 
29 
 
 voyage made by Bartholomew Gosnold directly to the Bay of 
 Massachusetts, to Cape Cod and islands south of it. He brought 
 back such good accounts of what he found that, four years later, for 
 the purpose named, a charter was procured, "from which," con- 
 tinues Dr, Haven, " the ultimate settlement of the United States, 
 and the resulting heritage of territorial rights, are to be dated." 
 
 It may be sufficient here to state that after various difficulties 
 there was formed — November 3, 1620 — The Council at Plymouth 
 in Devon for Planting and Governing New England in America. 
 There were forty patentees of whom several were peers, the others 
 men of consequence. From them the Pilgrims by the Mayflower 
 obtained a patent dated June 1, 1621. From them, March, 1628, 
 a grant was had of lands "extending from the Atlantic to the 
 Western Ocean," and between a line " three miles north of the 
 River Merrimac," to one "three miles south of the Charles." In 
 one year after that, a Massachusetts Company was chartered, with 
 the power to colonize, to govern, and repel by sea or land all per- 
 sons who attempted the destruction or the detriment of planters. 
 It, indeed, was a commercial and a planting company, and soon 
 prepared to prosecute its business. 
 
 " Meanwhile," wrote Dr. Palfrey, " a movement of the utmost im- 
 portance, probably meditated long before, was hastened by external 
 pressure." Puritans, who felt the strong repression of their prin- 
 ciples in England, had resolved, but after " sorrowful reluctance," 
 "to emigrate at once to the New World." Most of them were 
 from the eastern counties, Suftblk, Lincolnshire, and the East 
 Riding. The leaders were well educated, thoughtful, and far-look- 
 ing men, with no small fortunes, and exalted purposes. The wise 
 and energetic use of all their means resulted in the chief attempt 
 to colonize Neys^ England that had yet been made, and the presence 
 on Town Hill in Churlestown, July, 1630, of large numbers of the 
 colonists associated with them. Many, and perhaps the great 
 majority, appear to have been plain, substantial country-people, — 
 they, like their leaders, thoroughly devoted to the strong religious 
 principles of Puritanism, and endowed with strong and energetic 
 English sense. 
 
 Their purposes could not be fully told in England, where and 
 when these might be hindered or prevented. They came here to 
 settle, plant, and build, to earn an honest living, and make homes 
 as good as could be, for they knew the worth of homes. 
 
 But wider and far hiccher thah material things was the great 
 
30 
 
 purpose of their coming. It was not for M^ealth alone, or power, or 
 toleration as we know it. " Their lofty and soul-enthralling aim," 
 said Dr. Ellis, ''the condition and reward of all their severe suffer- 
 ings and arduous efforts, was the establislnnent and administra- 
 tion here of a religious and civil commonwealth . . . founded " on 
 <'the Bible, the whole Bible;" or as Governor Winthrop wrote, 
 "whereas the way of God hath always been to gather his churches 
 out of the world; now the world, or civil state, must be raised out 
 of the churches." 
 
 Without delay the colonists began, with sturdy English pluck 
 and sense, the ordering of things material by which they were to 
 live, of needed civil institutions, and above all of their churches 
 that were as the soul to the material body. 
 
 July 8, 1630, they ke])t a ])ublic day of thanksgiving for their 
 arrival, a day observed through all the plantations ; one that might 
 be called the first great New England Thanksgiving, and observed 
 upon Town Hill by probably the largest number of English that 
 had yet been gathered on New England ground. 
 
 Friday, July 30, the covenant of a church was signed, upon or 
 or near this hill. On August 27 John Wilson was appointed 
 teacher. Increase Nowell ruling elder. The number of members 
 was about one hundred. The first place of meeting is said to have 
 been under the Charlestown Oak ; afterwards the services were in 
 the Great House, so called, built for the governor, and standing 
 near the sovtthwest corner of the present City Square. 
 
 The settlers failed to find good water that existed, and disease 
 prevailed. A movement was begun across the river to a neighbor- 
 ing peninsula. By autumn a large number were established there ; 
 and on September 7, old style, the town that they began was 
 known as Boston. In November the governor, the minister, and 
 other chief men moved there. Church service, it is said, was held 
 alternately in the two places. It was two years later when the 
 first meeting-house in Boston was erected. As Hubbard said, " they 
 made but one congregation for the present." As Governor Hutch- 
 inson wrote, "they considered themselves, . . at first, as but one 
 settlement and one church, with Mr. Wilson for their minister." 
 At length a large part of the people were in Boston, services were * 
 chiefly held there, storms and ice in winter made the passage of 
 the river difficult, and when the fall of 1G32 was closing, it was 
 thought best that a separate church should be established here. 
 Governor Winthrop states that "those of Charlestown who had 
 
31 
 
 formerly been joined to Boston congregation were dismissed" from 
 it. They numbered nearly one fourth of it. The Records of the 
 Fii'st Church, Charlestown, state that the first (35) signers of its 
 covenant "were dismissed from Boston Church," — one that from the 
 beginning has been very prominent and influential, known as the 
 First Church, Boston, of which Hubbard wrote two hundred years 
 ago, " some have been heard to say, they believed [it] to be the 
 most glorious church in the world." 
 
 Friday, November 2, 1632, — November 12, new style, — was 
 made a day of fisting and of prayer in Charlestown. Sixteen men, 
 all with their wives, and three men singly, signed a church covenant, 
 and formed the organization to-day existing here. The Rev. 
 Thomas James, a graduate of Emanuel College, Cambridge, was 
 elected and ordained the pastor. Ralph Mousall and Thomas Hale 
 became the first two deacons. With serious contemplation of their 
 place and mission, this small band of thirty-five began their work. 
 The territoi-y of the town at first was large and long, extending 
 eight miles up into the country, but soon became diminished by 
 formation of new towns. In ten years Woburn was incorporated ; 
 seven years later, Maiden. 
 
 A great part of the population for a long time occupied a village 
 near the present Square and Boston ferry, or along " the Country 
 Road," now called Main Street. Moving out of Charlestown, that 
 began so early and extensively, has always since continued ; yet the 
 town has constantly increased in population. Of the nineteen 
 families that had been represented on the covenant of 1632, eight 
 were gone within a dozen years, two more in fifty, six more in 
 about a century. The settlement of the first minister lasted less 
 than three years and a half, but after his time settlements were 
 long ; nine made before the Revolution averaged more than 
 twenty-five years each, including two that prematurely closed by 
 early deaths. 
 
 The first name on the covenant signed here, November, 1632, was 
 Increase Nowell, who. Dr. Budington wrote, " may be considered 
 the father of the church and the town. He was a zealous Puritan 
 and active and devout Christian, and deserves to be held in grate- 
 ful esteem by the citizens of this Commonwealth, and especially by 
 the inhabitants of this town." He left abundance in Old England 
 for privations here. His immediate family, before and after him, 
 was honorable. His sons, Alexander and Samuel, were graduates 
 of Harvard. The former wrote an almanac for 1665, printed by 
 
32 
 
 Samuel Green at Cambridge in tliat year. The latter was styled 
 the " excellent " and " never to be forgotten," the " Fighting Chap- 
 lain in Philip's War." Both were among the very earliest wi-iters 
 in this town whose Avork was printed in America. Another name 
 is Ralph Mousall, one of the first two deacons. He was a select- 
 man for nearly twenty-five years, and from 1686 to 1638 a repre- 
 sentative to the General Court, that expelled him, after questioning 
 him about what he had said in fiivor of Mr. Wheelright, who had 
 delivered an obnoxious Fast Sermon. Historians tell us now that 
 the Court was wrong and the Deacon was right. John Hale, the 
 other deacon, was a selectman for eleven years. His son John, 
 baptized here, 4th month, 5th day, 1636, became the first minister 
 at Beverly, and author of "A Modest Enquiry into the Nature of 
 Witchcraft," printed in 1702, — perhaps the rarest book on witch- 
 craft in New England, and worth more now, for its size at least, 
 than perhaps any other New England book of the 18th century. 
 
 Tw"o other signers w^ere William and Ann Frothingham, the only 
 signers whose name and lineage now remain, or for many years 
 have remained, in this town. Their descendants have been numer- 
 ous ; constantly some of them have been in ])ositions of trust. 
 Three of them successively were deacons of this church, their 
 terms of oflice reaching ninety-seven years. And, at a time like 
 this, how we lament the absence here of one in whose too early 
 death so many of us lost a friend, and Charlestown one of its 
 most cherished citizens and its historian, — Richard Frothingham. 
 
 December 22, 1634, the Rev. Zechariah Symmes w^as here 
 installed. Born in Canterbury, that delightful ancient city closely 
 associated with the planting of the Christian faith in England, — 
 another graduate of Emanuel, — he labored here for thirty-seven 
 years. Meanwhile, the common school was here established, — 
 eleven years before the law of Massachusetts ordered that a town 
 must have one. 
 
 On the 6th of November, 1637, the Rev. John Harvard, still 
 another from Emanuel, became a member of this church. He, for 
 some portion of his brief time here, supplied the pulpit, and died 
 on September 14, 1638. We all know how and where his name 
 has been enshrined, and how in those days of small things, great 
 things arose, and Puritans here in the Bay of Massachusetts testi- 
 fied to their belief in true, sound learning. John Harvard of 
 Charlestowni gave about twice as much as the whole colony had 
 dared to i)romise for the college that was begun at Cambridge. 
 
33 
 
 In 1G39 tlio Rev. Thomas Allen was installed, or was ordained, 
 as teacher and assistant. He, like many of his people, was an 
 Eastern County man. He remained here for twelve years. 
 
 Meanwhile the j^m'poses of tliose who founded Massachusetts 
 were developed, and affairs with which they or their children liad 
 to deal. The Synod of 1687 was assembled to consider doctrines 
 held by Mrs. Anne Hutchinson ; a second in 1648 to form an eccle- 
 siastical constitution; and another in 1662, of great importance, 
 respecting bajDtism and a consociation of churches. In 1648 ap- 
 peared a case of witchcraft, said to be the first in Massachusetts, 
 and originated in this town. A few years later occurred the deal- 
 ings with the Quakers, so often mentioned. The leading member 
 of this sect in Charlestown was severely fined. 
 
 Grave charges of intolerance, of persecution, and of superstition 
 have been made against the Puritans in Massachusetts. The plain 
 statement of their rights, of their i)osition, and their purpose here, 
 is quite sufficient answer to niuch said against them. They^vere 
 here at first as members of a private corporation, through Avhich 
 they had honestly obtained their lands for homes where they pro- 
 posed to carry out their plan of a religious state, as they could not 
 in Enghind. They had invested, labored, suffered for their purpose. 
 Through all their earlier period of weakness they must do no less 
 than keep out those who woi^ld impair, imperil, or would ruin their 
 great plan. It may be questioned whether any church, society, or 
 club, or school, in its own building, now, could safely do much less. 
 Whatever may be thought about their plan, it was one well worth 
 trying, and Americans owe quite enough to them to be at least 
 both just and civil to them. 
 
 All of the Quakers, two centuries ago, were not the counterparts 
 of estimable Quakers of late generations and to-day. It is a ques- 
 tion whether sundry of their ways would be allowed in public now. 
 "The Puritans," Judge Parker wrote, "had no peace, but 'torment 
 upon torment' from the Quakers." And, indeed, "so far from the 
 Puritans persecuting the Quakers, it was the Quakers who perse- 
 cuted the Puritans." 
 
 What is now. called the witchcraft delusion Avas once a belief, — 
 one of the few beliefs in wliich, it has been said, the various divisions 
 among Christians once remarkably agreed. A person who may 
 use names and dates and facts found in New England in the 
 last half of the seventeenth century, and counts no others, may 
 make it seem that our forefathers were a superstitious and blood- 
 
 5 
 
34 
 
 thirsty race. They did act harshly in some cases; we wish now 
 we could say in none. But things in this Avorld are comparative as 
 well as positive. Men should be judged by their own age, and 
 not by our age. When the wide, long, prevalence of a belief in 
 witchcraft and its punisliment are thought of, we realize that a 
 curious cliaractcristic that marked their times, to but a moderate 
 extent marked tliem. 
 
 It is sad that even one trial of a man by torture ever has oc- 
 curred in Massachusetts ; but when we examine what the seven- 
 teenth century was through Christendom, — the appalling use of 
 torture in ecclesiastical and civil cases, the abominable dungeons, — 
 we can feel deep thankfulness that our forefathers were so much 
 less cruel than their age. And furthermore, there seems to be 
 good reason for believing that instead of being chief among the 
 sinners, they were first among those who reformed, and who re- 
 nounced what we now hold to be an error. Tliey had their faults, 
 of course, and we may now be even glad that we did not live with 
 them ; but when Americans must make apologies because they 
 hurt the feelings of George III., it may be time to make apologies 
 for our old Puritans, and not until that time. 
 
 Their virtues and heroic faith have been already here to-day 
 revealed afresh with eloquence and truth, in a discourse to which 
 no other words than those of thanks and appreciation can be 
 added. 
 
 In 1658 died good John Green, the only ruling elder of the 
 church, admitted to it less than five montlis after it Avas organized. 
 He kept its early records and those of the town. Ilis admirable 
 writing is a model, testifying to his careful thoroughness. 
 
 In 1669 another celebrated Boston church was organized in 
 Charlestown, — the Old South. Its first minister, the Rev. Thomas 
 Thatcher, was a member of this church. 
 
 Two names distinguished in the ministry appear about this pe- 
 riod. Thomas Shepard, ordained in 1659, died 1677, and Avas suc- 
 ceeded, after an interval of some uncertainty, by his son Thomas, 
 in 1680. The latter died in 1685, aged only twenty-seven. The 
 former, in 1672, preached the Election Sermon at Boston, — prob- 
 ably the first sermon by a Charlestown minister printed in America. 
 An elegy upon his death, composed by Rev. Urian Oakes, was one 
 of the earliest poems composed and printed in this country. He is 
 said to have been " a very holy man, much distinguished for his 
 erudition, his various virtues, and winning manners." He was " a 
 
35 
 
 watchful guardian of Harvard College." He was a son worthy of 
 his honored father, the Rev. Thomas Shepard of Cambridge Church. 
 Thomas, the third thus named in this remarkable family, was also 
 distinguished for learning and for piety. His salary, it is of inter- 
 est to note, was £100 a year. He was the only minister of this 
 church who was baptized in it. His labors were unusually suc- 
 cessful. His early death was much lamented. His funeral was 
 attended by the governor and magistrates, by many of the clergy, 
 and the faculty and students of the college. Cotton Mather 
 says he was " A So7i that was the Lively Picture of his [father's] 
 Virtues," a " Confirmation to that Obseiwation, That as the Snow- 
 JBall, the further it rolls, the greater it grows, thus the further that 
 the Grace of God is continued, and received, and valued in any 
 Family, the Greater EffecU of that Grace will be still appearing." 
 
 For a year and five months the church was then without a pastor. 
 Various ministers supplied the pulpit ; among them, Rev. Cotton 
 Mather preached to the Artillery Company. In July, 1686, the 
 Rev. Charles Morton came from England. His family had been of 
 honorable character for full three hundred years. He was a gradu- 
 ate of Oxford, and a scholar widely known. " The Worthily 
 Famous," wrote John Dunton, with " Sense Enough for a Privy 
 Counsellour, and Soul Great Enough for a King;" "a person too 
 considerable in his Generation, to want any of our commendation," 
 said prominent ministers near here. He was received, with enthu- 
 siasm, and in about four months was installed the pastor of this 
 church. He died here, after ministering about eleven and a half 
 years. 
 
 The disturbances arising from the conduct of Governor Andros, 
 and the Revolution of 1688, also made Mr. Morton prominent. 
 His sermon. Lecture Day, September 2, 1687, contained expressions 
 deemed seditious. He was pi'osecutcd and acquitted. He, by 
 some ninety years, was a precursor of the patriots of another "glo- 
 rious Revolution." 
 
 To the close of Mr. Morton's pastorate, and nearly also of the 
 seventeenth century, the number of admissions to the church Avas 
 649, and of baptisms 1675. The earliest baptism of an adult is 
 thought to have been in 1673. The only marriages recorded here 
 were from 1687 to 1697, by Mr. Morton. 
 
 The history of the church from this time to the end of the Colo- 
 nial Period must be briefly sketched. The Rev. Simon Bradstreet 
 was ordained in 1698. He was minister for forty-three years 
 
36 
 
 Rev. Joseph Stevens was ordained in 1713, and died aged thirty- 
 nine, wlien he liad been here hut eight years. Rev. Hull Abbot 
 was ordained in 1724, and was a pastor fifty years. Associated 
 with him nearly thirty-five years was the Rev. Thomas Prentice, 
 installed in 1739. He died aged eighty, in 1782, after a pastorate 
 of forty-three years. All these four were natives of New England, 
 and were graduates of Harvai-d College, — good and true men, 
 faithful and successful in their work. 
 
 The number of admissions from 1698 to 1775 was about 954 ; of 
 baptisms, 4,381. The Record from 1632 gives over 7,600 names, 
 that must belong to nearly 7,000 persons. Among the many mem- 
 bers of the church esteemed here, and too many to be mentioned 
 now, we should, at least, recall some names. General Robert Sedg- 
 wick, admitted at the end of 1636, was, in 1652, made the highest 
 military officer in the colony. In the last two years of his life he 
 served Oliver Cromwell. Thomas Graves, from the same ruler, 
 received the title of Admiral.^ Francis Willoughby, an enterprising 
 citizen, was " almost coiistantly " in public office. All these three 
 were merchants. Five generations of the Russell family in turn 
 supplied the church and town with men who were among the most 
 distinguished in them both. In 1640 Richard came from Hereford. 
 James, his oldest son, was born liere in that year. His son Daniel 
 lived till 1763. The fourth was James, the son of Daniel, born 
 here 1715. The last was Thomas, second son of James, born 1740. 
 All bore well the title Honorable ; all were business men or 
 merchants ; all were benefactors of this church. The clock uj^on 
 the gallery bears the name of Thomas Russell, who gave it. 
 One sacramental tankard bears initials, probably of Richard, who 
 died 1676. 
 
 In 1686 Judge Samuel Penhallow, the author of the " History of 
 the Wars of New England with the Eastern Indians," joined the 
 church, and was a member nearly thirty years. In 1703 died Cap- 
 tain Richard Sprague, descended from the early settlers of that 
 name. He gave money for the ministers, the school, the pooi", and 
 for sacramental plate (two tankards of which now remain), and, 
 chiefly, the old parsonage, with house and land. In 1705 Rev. 
 
 1 Tliis cliurch and society were not only represented in the great Civil War or 
 the public service in England over two centuries ago, but also in the great Civil 
 War in the United States. Among those who have been members of this church 
 or congregation were four officers who then attained the rank of Admiral. Com- 
 modore John B. Montgomery, also, was many years a member of this church. 
 
37 
 
 Timothy Cutler, afterwards president of Yale and more than forty 
 years the rector of Christ Church in Boston, became a member. 
 Rev. Joseph Lord was brought up here. He, February '2, 1696, is 
 said to have officiated at the first communion in Carolina, near 
 Charleston. Rev. Stephen Badger, missionary to the Natick Indi- 
 ans, also was a member. 
 
 The great subjects of the times appear to have been treated in 
 this pulpit, as at earlier dates. Thomas Prentice preached on the 
 Reduction of Cape Breton, and Hull Abbot on the Scotch Rebel- 
 lion, both in 1745. Here Rev. George Whitefield preached to 
 crowded congregations, and the great revival of 1741 ensued. In 
 that year there were sixty-six admissions to the church — the 
 largest number in any year. The chair and Bible that he used 
 are still preserved. 
 
 The place of worsMi) of the church, although close to this spot 
 from the beginning, was not permanent till 1639. Then a meeting- 
 house was built upon the hill-slope toward the Square. With vari- 
 ous changes it existed seventy-seven years, and was then replaced 
 by a framed building with a steeple, that was burned upon the 17th 
 of June, in 1775. So fir as now appears, it was a wooden structure, 
 in the general style of the old meeting-houses in this region. In 
 the claims for losses it was valued at £3,000. 
 
 The material things remaining from the times before the Revo- 
 lution, and associated with this church, are small and few, but their 
 value is thus made the greater. 
 
 The original Church Record from 1682, kept by Elder Green, 
 and after him by the successive ministers to 1768, is carefully pre- 
 served. Its contents have been printed, three quarters in the His- 
 toric-Genealogical Register, and all in a large quarto volume, copies 
 of which have been placed in various libraries. Every name and 
 statement in the Records will be found there. Several pieces of 
 communion-service also still remain. The tomb in which the min- 
 isters were buried stands in the old graveyard of the town, and has 
 been marked anew. Some of their discourses have been printed, 
 but copies have been seldom seen here in this century. Some man- 
 uscripts of sermons are preserved. Nineteen, preached by the Rev. 
 Thomas Shepard (2d), in 1668 and 1669, are owned by the Ameri- 
 can Antiquarian Society. 
 
 The spring of 1775 brought its peciiliar trials to the town and 
 church. A great alarm was caused in April, when the royal troops 
 returned from Lexington, and many of the people left their homes. 
 
38 
 
 The fnthei- of good Deacon Miller was then killofl. Removals, both 
 of families and property, continued, so that by the middle of the 
 month of June about two hundred persons only were left in the 
 town east of the neck. Upon the 17th of June a large part of 
 the members of the church and congregation lost their houses and 
 much other property in the great conflagration. The patriotic 
 Deacon Miller, with his gun, went up to Bunker Ilill and did good 
 service. The Records of the church state that more than three 
 hundred and eighty buildings were destroyed, and that two thou- 
 sand persons were " reduced from affluence and mediocrity to the 
 most aggrivated exile." The endurance of the people was severely 
 tried, but, in the words of a rare poem of the time, — 
 
 " Not Charlestoivn'ii flame that spiring high arose; 
 Nor all the smoke that aided to oppose; 
 Could shake the firmness of Columbia's Band, 
 To yield submissive the adjacent land." ^ 
 
 After the town was burned, and after hostile troops had left it, 
 some of those who had been living here returned. The place was 
 dreary. Grass, indeed, was growing green on Bunker's and Breed's 
 Hills ; but all around the Town Hill and the Square, and streets near 
 by, were ruins of their homes. The dwellings of the dead upon 
 the Burial Hill alone seemed to be spared. 
 
 When first the town was built, the forests grew around in wild- 
 ness, yet in peace and beauty ; but when the rebuilding was begun, 
 the recent havoc of a cruel war, and dismal evidence of trying loss, 
 confronted everywhere the builders. A memorial informs us that 
 in 1777 " the returning inhabitants in their distressed situations " 
 at once provided a place of worship. They " found no other or 
 better than an old block-house left by the British troops upon 
 Town Hill." This building was used for the town and school 
 house, and the meeting-house, for half a dozen years. The Record 
 states that "the first administi-ation of the Lord's Supper in Charles- 
 town, since the destruction by the crudest British Enemy, was 
 Nov. 8, 1778, with great solemnity, and fulness of members be- 
 yond expectation." The venerable Thomas Prentice conducted the 
 services. The scene was one, indeed, of the most solemn and most 
 touching ever witnessed in this old historic town. 
 
 In this block-house, Sept. 4, 1780, the townspeople first voted 
 for magistrates under the new State Constitution. There were 
 
 1 America Invincible, 1779. 
 
39 
 
 forty-eight votes. On Oct. 27, 1782, the town voted to convey to 
 the First Parish in it the Town-House Hill, for the purpose of 
 erecting thereon a meeting-house, within five years. 
 
 In the next year, 1783, the meeting-house required was built 
 upon the present site. It was 72 feet long and 52 feet wide, a 
 wooden structure, with a steeple 162 feet high, designed by Charles 
 Bulfinch. The front lot on the Square, the former site, appears to 
 have become private property at about this time. The bell was 
 presented by Champion, Dickason, and Burgis, merchants of Lon- 
 don. It has since been broken and recast, — once by Paul Revere, 
 — was claimed by the town for town uses, delivered to it by the 
 parish, and finally became private i)roperty by purchase. It now 
 hangs in the tower, where the parish has the use of it while the 
 parish does not change its past religious faith. 
 
 No minister was settled here until the 10th of January, 1787. 
 Rev. Joshua Paine, Jr., who had been unanimously called, was min- 
 ister about a year, when he died at the age of twenty-five. His 
 piety and social virtues were esteemed. " His remains," a record 
 states, " were decently and respectfully entombed at the expense of 
 the parish, March 1st, 1788." He was the last minister w^ho died 
 in oflice in this church, and was buried by it. 
 
 In November, 1788, Rev. Jedidiah Morse was unanimously called 
 to the pastorate, and on April 30, 1789, he was installed. His min- 
 istry of thirty years extended through a period marked by the 
 change of thought and modes, both in religious and political afiliirs, 
 that took place under our new institutions. He not only was the 
 pastor of this church, but was also prominent in various public mat- 
 ters, and in the early literature of the nation. Five years before 
 he came he published at New Haven his " Geography made Easy," 
 said to be the first geography published in this country. In 1789 
 his larger work, " The American Geography," appeared at Eliza- 
 bethtown. Each of these works passed several editions, and began 
 a series of like publications, that his sons continued. Altogether 
 several hundred thousand copies were issued by this fiinily in sixty 
 years. The various other works by Dr. Morse were numerous. His 
 Gazeteer is an important, and perhaps unrivalled, " picture of what 
 this country was " immediately after the Revolution. The maps 
 and the Reports on Indians that he published, cannot be dispensed 
 with in the illustrations of the early national history and art. Some 
 of his works received the honor of reprint in Bi'itish cities, some of 
 translation, and some were thought worth stealing. 
 
40 
 
 In 1802 Dr. Morse, assisted by members of this parish, issued 
 nineteen religious tracts, " of which 32,600 copies Avere circulated." 
 His son states that "there can be little doubt that, in 1802, the 
 pastor and people of the First Parish in Charlestown had done 
 more in circulating religious tracts among the poor and destitute 
 in the United States than any other people in New England." 
 
 To one man alone belongs an even greater honor. He was, in 
 his time, a chief supporter ot this church, and of him it is stated : 
 " Richard Devens, Esq., of Charlestown, had no equal in America 
 in this benevolence. For him [were] printed more than 100,000 
 tracts for gratuitous distribution." He died in 1807, aged eighty- 
 six, full both of years and honors. 
 
 On the day Dr. Morse was installed there were 135 church-mem- 
 bers, — 43 men and 92 women, — of whom 40 were widows. On 
 June 1, 1800, the total number was 143. Until this year the 
 First Church had been substantially the one church of the town. 
 In 1800 the First Baptist Church was organized, and May 12, 1801, 
 its meeting-house was opened. Dr. Morse made an address, and 
 Oliver Holden wrote the music for an anthem. In 1800 the town 
 had 2,751 inhabitants and 349 houses. Both of these numbers 
 gradually grew. 
 
 In 1803 the increase of the population of the town made neces- 
 sary an enlargement of the meeting-house, and 15 feet were added 
 on each side. There were then 162 pews, of which 92 were held 
 by the parishioners. In 1806, June 10, the number of church 
 members had increased to 235, of whom 171 were women. There 
 were 40 widows, as in 1789. Within a few years the navy-yard 
 and prison were established, and the general business of the town 
 increased. In 1810 the Universalist Society built its meeting- 
 house, and gathered there some both of the older and the later 
 inhabitants, and some Avho were not jxarishioners or members of 
 this church. In 1815, Dr. Morse, with his son Sidney E., and N. 
 Willis, established "The Boston Recorder," said to be the first 
 religious newspaper ever published in this country. 
 
 The efiects of the last war with England were severe in this vicinity. 
 In 1815 the town, that then contained about five thousand peo- 
 ple, was recovering from them. There were here a dozen or more 
 professional men, seven or eight school-teachers, and an artist, 
 James Frothingham. The community was active and intelligent. 
 Diffeiing beliefs in politics and in religion had grown with the insti- 
 tutions of the young republic, and these last were showing their 
 
41 
 
 effect upon the various divisions of the people. The benevolent 
 operations, and what might be called the Charlestown literature of 
 the period, show that good work was done by every class. There 
 was strong feeling then on several subjects, that affected even flim- 
 ilies, and there was change by death and by removal. Some old 
 names came to be borne by but few persons, or to be upon oppos- 
 ing sides. A notable division had for years been growing up among 
 the Congregationalists in this region, and, 1815-17, it extended to 
 this town, and here resulted in the formation of the Second Con- 
 gregational Society, that, in 1837, was called the Harvard Church. 
 A majority — a very large one in the church — remained in the 
 First Chui-ch and Parish. The latter lost a valuable minority. 
 Among those who remained members of the First Church at this 
 period were Jeremiah Evarts, — one of the most distinguished phi- 
 lanthropists at that time in the country, and father of Hon. Wm. M. 
 Evarts, — and Samuel Finley Breese Morse, artist and inventor, the 
 only native of the town, it is thought, who received national hon- 
 ors at his death ; his foreign decorations also were remarkable.^ 
 
 In 1819, Dr. Morse resigned the pastorate,'^ and was succeeded 
 by the Rev. Warren Fay, who was installed on February 23, 1820.3 
 In that year, the Methodist Religious Society in Charlestown was 
 incorporated. 
 
 Another large division of the Congregationalists came in 1832, 
 when, December 27, thirty-four •* persons about double the num- 
 ber of church-members who originally joined the Second Church — 
 were dismissed from the First Church, and formed the Third, or 
 Wiuthrop Church. The First Church has supplied members to per- 
 
 1 
 
 It is of interest to note what was felt and was recorded by this steadfast Puri- 
 tan cliurch during trying experiences early in this century. No bitterness or 
 desire to control the conscience appeared ; sectarian terms were avoided. When 
 members desired to join the Second Church, for instance, the connection was dis- 
 solved at their request (that is the expression), and the pastor added to the llec 
 ord that " the above-named have remained in regular and good standing in this 
 church from their first union with it to this time." 
 
 2 There were passages in the life of Dr. Morse, here before 1818, that are pa- 
 thetic. An account of them is perhaps unpublished. He had severe trials in 
 obtaining means to bring up a family, which has honored more than this town 
 
 alone. 
 
 3 The number of admissions by Dr. Fay (1820-40) was 383 ; by Dr. Morse 
 (1789-1820) was 400. There were only five admissions in 1815, but in the three 
 years, 1816-18, there were 83. In these three years less than twenty members 
 left to join the Second Church. 
 
 * January 7, 1833, one more was added. 
 
 6 
 
42 
 
 haps every other religious organization in the town, and to several 
 churches in other places, but this appears to be the largest body that 
 has gone from it to any one of thera. At the end of 1835, how- 
 ever, the number of its communicants was 271, of whom 79 were 
 admitted by Dr. Morse. 
 
 On April 22, 1840, the Rev. Wm. Ives Budington was ordained 
 pastor, eight months after Dr. Fay had left. This year, 1840, was 
 the annus mirahilis of the ministry in Charlestown, for then came 
 here three ministers, each to be pre-eminent in his denomination, — 
 Dr. Ellis, Dr. Chapin, Dr. Budington. Dr. Budington, as he told 
 the speaker near the close of his life, came here with all his young 
 enthusiasm to devote himself to this old church. Within three 
 years he, in nine lectures, told its history, that was printed, and 
 that is among the earlier productions in its class. His work bears 
 testing, and has literary character that was soon acknowledged. 
 A few years later, after he returned from his first tour in Europe, 
 he conceived the project of remodelling the meeting-house. 
 
 The wooden edifice of 1788 became decayed, and was replaced by 
 a brick building, dedicated 1834, — the one in which we meet. The 
 style was then thought classic. The interior was square and j^lain. 
 The ceiling, low and nearly flat, av as whitewashed, and the walls were 
 yellow. Mr. Alexander R. Esty supplied designs, and the existing 
 form and aspect were given to this building. The interior was the 
 first in town to show some of the more established lines of Christian 
 art, ecclesiastical in character. The plain hall of the meeting-house, 
 known for two centuries, became tlie nave known for a thousand 
 years. In 1868, Miss Charlotte Harris, then of Boston, gave sixteen 
 bells, now in the tower of this meeting-house, and called the Har- 
 ris Chime. She wrote : " My ancestors, Harris and Devens, were 
 for a great number of years inhabitants of Charlestown, and wor- 
 shipped in the church of the First Parish." On this account, as 
 also from interest in this society and its pastor. Rev. J. B. Miles, 
 she gave the chime, then one of the largest in the country. In 
 1870, the present coloring of the interior was applied, with some of 
 its significance in early art, and its expression of religious teaching, 
 Over all the congregation, in the nave, — the Latin navis, that 
 great ship of tlie church in which we all are carried through the 
 storms of life to the celestial haven, — was spread deep blue, the 
 emblem of the peace of heaven. Upon the wall, before the people, 
 is the gray, expressive of humility. And from the language in 
 which the apostles wrote are taken letters joined as tliey once were 
 
43 
 
 upon the tombs of the first martyrs, and here written in bright gold, 
 the emblem of celestial glory, to tell the name, above all other 
 names, before which every knee shall bow, — the Christos, Alpha 
 and Omega of the Church's faith. 
 
 The pastorate of Dr. Budington closed July 24, 1854, and Rev. 
 James B. Miles succeeded him on January 2, 1855. In 1856, the 
 number of church-members living was 297. The faithful services 
 of Mr. Miles were closed September 30, 1871, when he went to a 
 Avork, wide as the world, that placed his name in honorable prom- 
 inence among those who have labored for the spread of peace and 
 of good-will. His sudden death occurred November 18, 1875. Dr. 
 Budington died November 29, 1879, at Brooklyn, where he had been 
 pastor of the large church on Clinton Avenue for more than twenty 
 years. Charitable towards all, learned, eloquent, chivalrous and 
 courteous, devoted to the highest requ.irements of his sacred office, 
 he lived and died a true Christian gentleman and teacher. 
 
 And thus, within a few years, both these long-endeared and valued 
 pastors of this ancient church have, in their turn, been numbered 
 with the many faithful and lamented ministers whom they so worth- 
 ily succeeded. And at these latest deaths of pastors and of friends 
 we look back on the past, and view the present of the four-hilled 
 town. For, after we have had this brief review of a long history, 
 we who live here now may well think of the deep significance that 
 changing times at length have given to the four hills that stand on 
 the diminished territory we still call by its old name. 
 
 On this hill many of the Fathers of New England did their por- 
 tion of the labor in the founding of our institutions ; on a second 
 stands a monument that testifies their strong devotion to sound 
 learning ; on a third there is a lofty spire that bears the name of 
 that great bishop of Geneva, filmed for "all-embracing charity;" 
 upon the fourth is that grand obelisk to tell the meaning of the 
 Revolution. 
 
 We are all here to live, — each with individual belief and sense of 
 duty, all in peace and quietness. And here we daily see the fiDur 
 hills of the town with their impressive lessons, — of the open Bible, 
 of sound learning. Christian charity, and civil freedom. May they 
 never teach less to the people here, and always may there be around 
 them benedictions on the " Church of God in Charlestown." 
 
44 
 
 ADDRESS BY REV. RUFUS ELLIS, D.D., 
 
 Pastor of the First Church, Boston. 
 
 The anniversaries of the foundation of the First Church in 
 Boston and of the First Church in Charlestown might well have 
 been observed together. If we go back to the fountain and origin, 
 the two churches are really one church. If Winthrop, Dudley, 
 Johnson, and Wilson are ours of Boston, they are just as truly yours 
 of Charlestown. It was this soil that they hallowed by prayer and 
 fasting. Tliis was the centre towards which so many eyes and 
 hearts were turned when those leaders and pioneers set forth the 
 touchingly simple words of their Christian covenant. The tree 
 which sheltered their first worship was rooted in this earth, and 
 Ufted its branches to these heavens. It might almost be said to us 
 of Boston, "Thou bearest not the root, but the root thee!" and of all 
 things it would least become us to boast ourselves against a branch 
 which was indeed a companion growth, — another trunk from the 
 game root. We crossed the ocean together; we explored the banks 
 of the Charles together; we began our New England Congre- 
 gational life together ; and to this earliest abiding-i)hice your reli- 
 gious ancestors soon returned, to keep their Day of the Lord where 
 their homes and their week-day occupations were ; and yet, not par- 
 ent and child, but sisters and town-sisters these churches walked 
 together for long years, side by side, thinking the same thoughts, 
 cherishing the same aspirations, striving together for the faith of the 
 Gospel. It was only a brief episode in your church life, those jour- 
 neys of yours in the early days, and sometimes in great stress of 
 weather, to Boston ; it was very kind of you to stay long enough 
 to render substantial help in the building of the little church and the 
 parsonage; but I have no doubt you were glad to get back into the 
 Great House on this side of the river, and then to build a house of 
 worship of your own. 
 
 I have said that we might well have had but one celebration. 
 But it is far better to liave two ; for there have been two lives and 
 there are two histories, and there are two First Churclies. We, in 
 Boston, and you, in Charlestown, have had each our own experiences 
 to tell ; and twice Avill not be too often to refresh our minds and 
 our hearts by recalling what we have in common, — our rich heri- 
 tage in the founders and first days of these First Chuiches. We want 
 
45 
 
 to behold those grave<ind earnest faces of our fathers, if only that 
 through beholding we may in some degree bo changed into the same 
 image. Those men came out from our mother-land in what we must 
 call her heroic age, — some of them the friends of those who were 
 soon to become magnates of the English Commonwealth. They 
 were alive with a life which was a life indeed for Church and State ; 
 a life which, as it came forth in the new conditions of this new 
 world, proved to be even creative. Their light was the light of 
 life, — to be seen, not in letters or in art, but in character and con- 
 duct ; not the spice, but the salt of the earth was that little com- 
 pany. We cannot too often recall them, amidst the increase of our 
 modern life, as those who could not live by bread alone. With all 
 their English energy and thrift they were idealists ; they walked by 
 faith, not by sight, — faith, which in all ages is the substance of things 
 hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And their idealism was 
 all the more precious because, like all true idealism, its foot, like the 
 patriarch's ladder, rested upon the earth, whilst the top reached into 
 the heavens. Their dreams were religious ; but they were none the 
 less persuaded that something would come of them, here on earth 
 and amongst men. And a fresh study of their way of life woula 
 seem to be especially helpful in these days of high pressure, and 
 wear and tear of mental and moral and material substance. In the 
 presence of these men we can study to be quiet, to make up our 
 minds, to recover oui-selves in the deep things of God and his 
 righteousness, and be sure that life is worth living because we are 
 alive with some worthy aims and expectations. As we think of our 
 fathers in this church, intellect, genius, beauty, are outshone and 
 obscured by goodness of heart, purity of life, a high moral purpose, 
 and a singular humanity, — and that amidst the manifold problems 
 of duty, the complications and temptations of real life. In many 
 respects, as history has interpreted the everlasting word of Jesus, 
 as in the Divine Providence our heavens and our earth have passed 
 away, these First Churches have changed the modes and forms of 
 truth, — the one more, perhaps, and the other less; but God forbid 
 that in the mind and heart, the innermost of our Christian faith, 
 hope, and love, we should ever depart from the way more excellent 
 of our religious ancestors, that we should cease to look upon our 
 world as they looked upon it, with earnest, serious eyes, piercing 
 beneath all that is phenomnal to what is real,— all which is good only 
 for the moment, and satisfies only the senses, to that which is divine 
 and undying. Without that vision the people perish, no matter 
 
46 
 
 how magnificent their outward civilization ; and this inmost life cre- 
 ates and nourishes all other life. They say — our latest critic says 
 — of this people that they make too much haste ; but he who 
 l)elieveth will not make haste. The fathers of these churches 
 declined the invitation to sit in the Westminster Council ; but the 
 result of that council was a catechism, the opening sentences of 
 which I trust we shall never depart from. They were these : " What 
 is the chief end of man ? The chief end of man is to glorify God 
 and enjoy Him forever." Can philosophy give us any better rule 
 of life than this? 
 
 ADDRESS BY HON. CHARLES DEVENS. 
 
 The occasion has been one of the greatest interest ; while I have 
 listened Avith pleasure and instruction, I could have wished that it 
 might have passed without any words from me, — not, certainly, 
 that I would fail in anything that could do honor to the founders of 
 this church, but that I feel how little I can utter anything worthy 
 of the occasion. 
 
 The anniversary of this church is inextricably mingled with that 
 of the First Church of Boston. It is not so much an outgrowth, or 
 an offshoot, as one of its integral parts ; while "its formal organiza- 
 tion dates from 1632, its real organization is that of the church 
 formed here in 3 630. The charter of the Massachusetts Company had 
 been transformed by a large latitude of construction, and by a yet lar- 
 ger latitude had been deemed to authorize the foundation of a colony 
 which was to govern itself. A state was to be founded here which 
 was to rest upon the rock of the church. While the immigrants were 
 houseless, scattered around this hill, seeking to satisfy the most sim- 
 ple and necessary wants, yet spiritual needs must be satisfied first. 
 We stand upon the hill upon which they stood, — almost, it may be 
 iipon the very spot. It was here, too, that the Court of Assistants 
 first met, and the 2:)olitical life of the colony commenced almost 
 contemporaneously with that of the church. Clearly, to use the 
 words of Dr. Johnson, "ours is not the frigid philosophy which 
 Avould conduct us indifferent and ixnmoved over any ground which 
 has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue ; " and the place 
 where we stand may well inspire us with elevated thought and 
 solemn reflection as we contemplate these men and their work, 
 
47 
 
 aided as we have been by tlie noble commemorative discourse of 
 the afternoon, and the interesting historical paper of the evening. 
 
 It has been the pleasure, sometimes, of historians to attribute fab- 
 ulous qualities to the early chiefs and founders of the nations whose 
 annals they celebrate. The Greeks and Romans claimed theirs to 
 be among the gods of classic mythology. The King Arthurs and 
 King Alfreds of Britain's centuries of romance may be invested with 
 such qualities, or seen through such colors, as romance or poetry 
 may select. But we know the founders of New England as they 
 were. They live for us in their works, in the legislation of their 
 colony, in the chronicles of their churches, so faithfully recalling 
 their doubts and their trials. We knoAV them in the intercourse of 
 daily life, — in their struggles with want, with the savages who 
 encompassed them, and their for severer struggles to reach that 
 exalted faith and experience more valuable than any earthly bless- 
 ings. We know them in their most intimate correspondence with 
 friends, revealing the deepest and tenderest secrets of their hearts. 
 Everywhere they are the same in this, that they have no fears of 
 any earthly power, — no repinings, however hard misfortune may be 
 upon them, so long as they feel they are doing the work of the 
 Lord. For them, earthly honors were nothing, their religious and 
 spiritual freedom everything ; and yet, with this, they knew that 
 their civil freedom was united. As we behold them, — grave it 
 may be that they were in asj^ect, for the responsibility they have 
 assumed is solemn and it is due to no earthly dower, — stern it may 
 be that they were in feature, for an indomnitable will can alone sus- 
 tain them, — plain, it may be even to rudeness, they may be in 
 dress, for the work they are to do in the world is not for those who 
 wear soft raiment or who dwell in kings' houses ; yet could we see 
 them as they once stood here, we should know how high resolve, 
 earnest purpose, devoted faith, had impressed itself upon and dig- 
 nified their rugged features. 
 
 But although the means of knowing them well are revealed to 
 us in so many ways, it is not easy to judge them fairly. It is because 
 we cannot separate ourselves from that which surrounds us so as to 
 look out upon life as they looked upon it. They have a right to be 
 judged from their own standpoint, and from the temper, spirit, and 
 thought of the age which was about them. They were men in lofty 
 conception far above the age in which they lived ; yet the age in 
 which they lived constituted an environment out of which no man 
 ever entirely burst. 
 
48 
 
 " The Puritans," says Mr. Macaulay, " were perhaps the most re- 
 markable body of men the world has ever known." There has been 
 far too great a disposition to describe them by their deficiencies and 
 limitations, rather than by their great and positive merits. It is said 
 that they sternly repressed here every form of religious worship ex- 
 cept their own. Yet it is to be remembered that they lived in an age 
 when no such thing as toleration was known. Persecution was the 
 rule and not the exception. They deemed also — and perhaps 
 riglitly deemed — that in no other way could they ])reserve and sus- 
 tain the faith which was the anchor of their hope, than by confining 
 their colony to those of their own church, or those affiliated to it. 
 This was the extent of their claim. For the enjoyment of that 
 which was dear to them they left the homes of their fathers, had 
 braved the stormy sea, had contended with the stern soil and inhos- 
 pitable climate, and all the terrors of a savage wilderness. They 
 had invited no one to share their dangers; they desired no one 
 whose presence might imperil the existence of their faith. It was 
 the peculiarity of their situation here, rather than any erroneous 
 general view of the rights of all men to civil and religious liberty, 
 that caused them to wish that all who came should be of their own 
 faith. The emigration to New England Avas largely developed by 
 the struggle which had already commenced between King Charles 
 and his Parliament. However that might end, one place these men 
 were determined should exist where they could worship God in 
 their own way. For this they must hold their power untrammelled 
 by those who cherished other modes of belief. That emigration 
 went on, as it is usually estimated, until something over twenty 
 thousand had arrived here from England, It ceased then, for 
 Charles and his Parliament were at last in open war, and the place 
 of all who thought as they did was in England. Many men who 
 had come to Massachusetts returned to join in the struggle there. 
 They went to stand in the ranks of Skipiion and Ireton ; or to ride, 
 it may be, by the side of Oliver himself, as with his Ironsides, he beat 
 down and trampled under foot Prince Rupert and his cavaliers ; or, 
 it may be, — like the noblest of their number, Hugh Peter and Sir 
 Harry Yaue, — to seal their devotion to their faith upon the block. 
 When power came — as it did come — into the hands of the English 
 Pui-itans, the religious belief of others was respected. Mr. Hume, 
 the bitterest of tlieir critics, says of them : " Of all Christian sects, 
 this was the first which, during its prosperity as well as its adversity, 
 always adoi)ted the princi])le of toleration." Of course Mr. Hume 
 
49 
 
 is careful to add one of his usual sneers, by remarking that it is 
 extraordinary that what is so just should have proceeded, not from 
 reasoning, but from extravagance and fanaticism. 
 
 The connection Avliich our fathers of KioO made between the 
 government of the Clmrch and that of the State — or more prop- 
 erly tlie Colony — was soon dissolved. Wiiile the law that each 
 freeman must be a church-member appears to have continued until 
 the colonial passed into the provincial government, yet it was lat- 
 terly neglected and disregarded. The things which were Ccesar's 
 went to Csesar. 
 
 But although all this was just and necessary, — and although the 
 Massachusetts which they knew as but a feeble colony, fringing 
 with its scattered hamlets the stormy sea, and that which we know 
 is a wealthy and powerful State, an integral portion of a vast 
 nation whose gateways are upon the Atlantic and Pacific seas, — let 
 the example of our Puritan founders remain with us always. The 
 noble lives they led in want and privation and danger do not pass 
 away utterly. We will strive at least that the lessons they taught 
 of self-devotion, the sacrifices they made for liberty, the high ideals 
 they held up of virtue and courage, the lofty standard they main- 
 tained of religion and piety, shall not be altogether forgotten. No 
 men have ever impressed themselves more upon a nation than have 
 the Puritan founders of New England. The principles dear to 
 them, and to which they devoted their lives, are in the vanguard of 
 every struggle for justice or liberty. 
 
 I cannot conclude without one earnest wish for the prosperity of 
 this ancient church. Apart from its great historic associations, it 
 is dear to me by tender memory of many who were its honored and 
 respected members, with whom I am connected by blood and fiim- 
 ily ties, two of whom are commemorated on the walls around us. 
 For two hundred and fifty years its voice has been heard, instructing 
 and inspiring thousands of grateful and responsive hearts. So may 
 it be for centuries to come ! Still may its voice go forth summoning 
 ■men to higher and nobler lives, in solemn remembrance of him to 
 whom they are accountable, rebuking — if rebuke be needed — 
 tenderly and charitably, yet encouraging and consoling always. 
 Although forms of worship may change, although the solemn swell 
 of the organ or the pealing of the chimes above our heads might 
 have seemed to those who founded this church inconsistent with the 
 severe simplicity dear to them, yet these are but accessories only. 
 We will not doubt that in the brighter light in which they stand, 
 
 7 
 
50 
 
 and with tlie larger vision with which now they see, they will ac- 
 knowledge their communion with it so long as, in the language of 
 the covenant made here, — often quoted to-day, and yet not too 
 often, — it shall teach men to walk in all their ways according to 
 the rule of the gospel, and in all sincere conformity to the holy 
 ordinances of our Saviour, and "in mutual love and respect, each to 
 the other, so near as God shall give us grace." 
 
 ADDRESS BY REV. HENRY M. DEXTER, D. D. 
 
 The interesting and instructive paper read by the learned and 
 widely known liistorian of Congregationalism should also be 
 read to other audiences. It could be adequately described only 
 by a full presentation of all of the details that it contained. An 
 imagined call was made upon one of the fathers of New Eng- 
 land, who, in a conversation with him, gave an account of the 
 colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts as they were when 
 this chuicli was formally organized. The weakness and the 
 isolation of the settlements, from which so much has grown, was 
 shown; and hearers could realize the difficulties that beset tlie 
 colonists, and the enduring faith and courage with which they 
 surmounted them. The astonishing contrasts between the lie- 
 ginning and the end of the two centuries and a half just passed 
 were vividly illustrated. 
 
 • REV. AMASA S. FREEMAN, D.D., 
 
 Began his address with these words : — 
 
 I am announced as a descendant of a former pastor of this 
 church, the Rev. Thomas Prentice, my mother's grandfather, and, 
 consequently, my great-grandfather. I am proud of the relation- 
 ship, if it is somewhat remote ; and I esteem it a great privilege 
 to take some part in the services of an occasion as rare as it is inter- 
 esting. It is true my venerable ancestor is not here in person, 
 although his features are so Avell preserved in this portrait that it 
 almost seems as if he might speak to us. 
 
51 
 
 I have been so fumiliav for years past witli his pleasant face, that 
 I find it difficult to separate in my thoughts the painting from the 
 living,. breathing form. 
 
 Dr. Freeman then gave an account of the travels and expe- 
 riences of tlie portrait of Rev. Mr. Prentice, owned by liim and 
 shown upon the front of the gallery. He stated that in 1847 
 he spent a Sabbath with Rev. Dr. Budington, and then preaclied 
 " to two aged persons whom [his] great-grandfather Prentice 
 had baptized eighty years before." Of the latter days of his 
 ancestor, Dr. Freeman said : — 
 
 And so he labored on, ministering after the Revolution to his 
 scattered flock, until, in his age, on the last Sabbath of his public 
 ministry, with failing memory but with loving heart, lie is said to 
 have repeated the same sermon in the afternoon which he had 
 preached in the morning. 
 
 And then he fell asleep and was gathered to his fathers on the 
 17th of June, 1782, at the age of eighty. As two of our Presidents 
 died on the anniversary of our National Independence, so it is a 
 touching coincidence that this aged pastor closed his labors and his 
 life on the anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, and of the burn- 
 ing of the church in which he had loved to preach. 
 
 Dr. Freeman closed his address with these eloquent words : — 
 
 May I be permitted to add one or two thoughts suggested by 
 these services. 
 
 First, — What a blessing is a pious ancestry. It is true that piety 
 is not hereditary, but, thank God, His covenant mercies and faithful- 
 ness are. " Although my house be not so with God, yet He hath 
 made Avith me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and 
 sure; for this is all my salvation and all my desire." What are 
 wealth, or pedigree, or station, or earthly fame compared with this, 
 — a godly parentage ? 
 
 With Cowper, may we not say : — 
 
 " My boast is not that I deduce my birth 
 From loins enthroned, and rulers of the earth ; 
 But higher far my proud pretensions rise — 
 The son of parents passed into the skies'"? 
 
 Again, — the occasion we observe forcibly suggests God's care of 
 His church. Buildings may decay, — the material structure fall in 
 
52 
 
 ruins, nnd be rej^laced by otliers. Pastors die. Voices we have 
 loved to hear are silent in the grave. Yea, whole congregations 
 pass away, but Christ lives King in Zion, and His church lives. In 
 the ])lace of the fathers shall be the childi-en. 
 
 Ani\ ^finally, — the <bity of children to commemorate and transmit 
 the virtues of their j/ious fathers. 
 
 In the words already sung to-day: — 
 
 "Let (;liil(]ren hear the niitjhfy deeds, 
 Which God performed of ohl ; 
 Which in our younger years we saw, 
 And wliicii our fatiiers told. 
 
 Our lips sliall tell them to our sons. 
 
 And they again to theirs ; 
 That generations yet unborn 
 
 May teach them to their heirs. 
 
 Thus shall they learn, in God alone 
 
 Their hope securely stands ; 
 That they may ne'er forget His works, 
 
 But practise his commands." 
 
 Dust is on the lips of the long and honored line of pastors of this 
 venerable church. 
 
 But though dead they speak. They live in history ; they live in 
 the influence they excited, in the characters they moulded, and in 
 the children of those to whom they ministered, and whom they re- 
 ceived to tlie fellowship of this church of Christ. 
 
 And how can we best honor their memory? By Avalking in their 
 steps ; by following them so far as they followed Christ ; by sacredly 
 maintaining the doctrines and ordinances of God's house as they 
 observed them; and by transmitting these blessings of the gospel as 
 a precious legacy to those who come after us. 
 
 Thus shall the seed they sowed reproduce itself in successive years, 
 until, in the great harvest, they that sowed and they that reap 
 rejoice together. 
 
 May God bless this church of our fathers, and may these recur- 
 ring anniversaries be observed by those who come after us, until 
 the angel sttmding upon the sea and upon the earth shall lilt his 
 hand and swear that time shall be no lonoer. 
 
53 
 
 ADDRESS BY REV. A. S. TWOMBLY. 
 
 The Wintlirop Church, which I represent on tliis memorable 
 occasion, is the offspring, the daughter, of this ancient and venerable 
 First Parish Church. Ancient and venerable! yet, by the perpetual 
 miracle which keeps the Church of Christ ever fresh and young in 
 its living membership, the mother seems no older to-night than the 
 daughter. As a daughter, however, the Winthrop Church owes a 
 filial duty to the parent church, and gladly ofters congratulations 
 and a hearty Godspeed. 
 
 After a reference to Rev. Thomas Prentice, Mr. Twombly 
 said : — 
 
 We are another household now, it is true, — we have an edifice of 
 our own, — but never shall we be forgetful of the old home. As child- 
 ren and grandchildren gather in the homestead at a golden-wedding, 
 we are here to-day to share, by right of birth, the honors and mem- 
 ories of the festival. Although having a special history of only fifty 
 years, which we shall commemorate next January, we claim now 
 our lot in the inheritance of our noble ancestry. The names of the 
 founders, which to-night are set anew in tablets of remembrance, 
 are our pride also. Our hands would help twine the garlands about 
 their graves. Those that followed them are also our hereditary 
 possession. The Rev. John Harvard, " Charlestown's just glory 
 and New England's pride," belongs to us as well as to you ; and all 
 the long array of eminent divines, wiio in the earlier days served 
 you in the Christian ministry, served us also, — for are we not the 
 children of their doctrines and their prayers? Have we not main- 
 tained, as a precious legacy, the truth which they taught ? And 
 have we not stood out, as this First Parish has always done, for the 
 dignity of worship, and an educated ministry, in the good old way? 
 With the clergy, also, who have occupied this pulpit since our sep- 
 aration, we have always sustained the old family relationslii}). 
 
 Not to speak now of living men, we remember that the eloquent 
 Dr. Budington assisted at the laying of the corner-stone of our 
 present church edifice, and that he wrote the memoirs of one of our 
 pastors. Rev. John Humphrey, of whom he said: "His society glad- 
 dened the days of ray early ministry, and the hope of meeting him 
 again brightens my anticipation of heaven." Truly, this was Chris- 
 
54 
 
 tian fellowship, making the two now sainted colleagues like pastors 
 over the same fold. We also remember, with a warm pulsation of 
 the heart, the debt we would never cancel to Mr. Miles, who, when 
 our church had no pastor for a season, made our flock so much his 
 care, that the distin(;tion between the two parishes was wellnigh 
 lost. I can also give thanks myself for the privilege of imitating 
 these excellent examples, inasmuch as it has often fallen to my lot, 
 having been an old Sabbath-school scholar of this church, and now 
 the nearest minister of the denomination, to serve this parish ofii- 
 cially, even as I do to-day, and to minister to it in time of bereave- 
 ment, when it has had no pastor ot its own. 
 
 Give then to us to-day, ftithers and brethren of this revered church, 
 give to us — who left the ancestral home, when the Lord showed us 
 new fields for tillage — leave to share your joy in the past, although 
 we have relinquished the old possessions and the ancient name to 
 you ! Nay moi'e ! Since we come Avith a name upon us, the name 
 of Winthrop, the patronymic of the whole family of which you are 
 a part, join with us in perpetuating the memory and the piety of 
 our common ancestor. 
 
 After ail eloquent tribute to Governor Winthrop and the 
 founders of the old church, Mr. Twombly closed his address 
 with these words : — 
 
 And now we pray that it may always be said of you and of us, — 
 as Mr. Mather told his countrymen at home, concerning the har- 
 mony of the colonial churches, — that the only strife between us is 
 for the " magnifying of the grace of God." And may we ever labor 
 side by side, — as Mr. Wilson declared of the churches of his day, — 
 in earnest effort " to advance that grace in both." 
 
 Let us " consider and remember alwa^'s," in the Avords of the ven- 
 erable Zechariah Symmes, tlie second pastor of this church, " that 
 the books that shall be opened at the last day will contain geneal- 
 ogies in them, and that then shall be brought forth a register of the 
 genealogies of New England's sons and daughters." And let us 
 see to it that the precious legacy to which we have succeeded may 
 ever be a sacred trust, in the name of Him " whose mercy is from 
 everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and his right- 
 eousness to children's children, to such as keep his covenant, and to 
 those that remember his commandments to do them." 
 
55 
 
 Sunday, November 12, 1882. 
 
 The sky was clouded, but the temporatuie was mild. At the 
 Meeting-house the Harris Chime gave appropriate music fore- 
 noon, afternoon, and evening. The interior of the building was 
 appropriately decorated. The pillai-s beside the pulpit, and the arch 
 above it, boi-e long festoons and pendants of green leaves, along 
 which were hung wreaths of flowers. Below the centre of the arch 
 was a star formed of red and white flowers. Baskets of flowers 
 were placed on or beside the pulpit, and on the wall before the con- 
 gregation were the dates 1632 — 1882, in white flowers on a ground 
 of green. On the front of the side galleries were six portraits : 
 Rev. Thomas Prentice, by Badger, Boston, 1755 ; Rev. J. Morse, 
 D.D.; Deacon Tliomas Miller,* — more than forty years in oftice, 
 who died in 1832, aged eighty-five, who saved the communion-plate 
 in June, 1775, and was an ensign in the battle; Richard Devens, by 
 H. Sargent, 1798, — who was born in Charlestown, and who died 
 there September 20, 1807, aged eighty-six; Rev, Dr. W. I. Buding- 
 ton ;* and Rev. J. B. Miles.* ^ 
 
 In the forenoon, the Sixty-sixth Anniversary of the Sunday- 
 school was commemorated. Mr. H. Brower, Jr., read the Annual 
 Report, and there were addresses by Mr. T. S. Wentworth, the 
 present superintendent, and by S. B. Pratt, B. F. Perkins, George 
 H. Rugg, Deacon James Rea, and Deacon A. S. Morss, former 
 superintendents. Major W. 11. Hodgkins, formerly a member, 
 and Rev. A. S. Freeman, D.D., also spoke. Their interesting 
 historical or biographical statements would well fill a separate 
 publication. 
 
 In the afternoon and evening there were very large congre- 
 gations, and great interest was shown in the Two Hundred and 
 Fiftieth Anniversai'y of the formal organization of the church. 
 Invitations had been sent to present clergymen and past mayors of 
 Charlestown, eight out of twelve of whom are now living. Rev. 
 H. L. Kendall, the last jDastor, was present, but his health did not 
 permit him to speak. The afternoon services occupied nearly two 
 hours. Rev. A. S. Twombly read portions of the Psalms, and an 
 impressive prayer was offered by Rev. George W. Blagden, D.D., 
 of the Old South Church, Boston, whose ])resence has been wel- 
 comed in this church during many years. Deacon A. S. Morss read 
 
 1 The paintings raarlied witii a * belong to the churcli. 
 
 L.bFC. 
 
56 
 
 an extract from a letter by the late Rev. Dr. Buflington, expressing 
 his interest in the approaching anniversary, and his desire to be 
 present. Deacon Morss also read an Ode by Miss Mary Devens 
 Balfour, who has composed poems for several prominent services in 
 the history of this church. The Ode, already printed, ends with 
 the following stanza: — 
 
 " For tliis church of the fathers, we tliank thee, God ! 
 And long may its soil by the faitliful be trod, — 
 
 The glory be thine : 
 "We pass to the future, — the Cross for our stay. 
 Where the sin-sick and sad tlieir burdens may lay, — 
 
 All glory still thine." 
 
 Rev. Alexander McKenzie, D.D., of the First Church, Cambridge, 
 delivered the sermon, and Dr. Blagden pronounced the benediction. 
 
 In the evening, Rev. Dr. Freeman read from the Book of Deu- 
 teronomy and oftered prayer. He also gave the benediction. A 
 portion of the Forty-Fourth Psalm from the "Bay Psalm Book," — 
 printed in the programme, — was sung. After it the addresses were 
 made. The services and speaking occupied about two hours and a 
 half. Among letters received, one from Rev. Charles Follen Lee 
 should be especially mentioned, and also one from Rev. George E. 
 Ellis, D.D., wlio had been invited to attend. Dr. Ellis writes : 
 " With two of your honored pastors I stood for many years in rela- 
 tions of esteem, friendship, and social intimacy. In the long line of 
 your pastors, Drs. Budington and Miles faithfully served their offi- 
 ces with a professional devotion, with mental jiowers, and with 
 examples of Christian piety and virtue, giving them high places of 
 love and honor upon your roll." Dr. Ellis, after writing of his 
 pleasant intercourse with members of the church and parish, and 
 expressing a high encomium on the history by Dr. Budington, closes 
 his letter with these words: "Let us hope that the old Congre- 
 gational Churches — the glory of our State — may so fitly com- 
 memorate their founders, and their early honors and services, as 
 to revive their work and blessing for new generations." 
 
 The Meetinff-house, burned in 1775, is shown in two or three 
 general and distant views, bitt no near and reliable view is known 
 to the writer. A large and excellent view of the meeting-house 
 built in 1783 is given in INIr. Frothingham's history of the town; 
 
57 
 
 and also a wood-cut, quite imperfect in details, of the house built 
 in 1834. 
 
 The memorials of Historical Anniversaries in the town have been 
 very few, except those relating to the Battle of Bunker Hill. In 
 1830 Hon. Edward Everett delivered an address to the Lyceum, 
 on the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the Arrival of Governor 
 Winthroj^. 
 
 The historical works on this church are : 
 
 By Dr. Budington, — 
 
 The History of the First Church, Charlestown, in Nine Lectures, 
 with [sixty long] Notes. Portrait (?) of Rev. John Wilson. 8vo., 
 pp. 259. Boston, 1845. 
 
 Our Puritan Fathers, our Glory. A Sermon in Commemoration 
 of the Two Hundred and Twentieth Anniversary of the Founding 
 of the Church : November 14, 1852. 8vo., pp. 32. Charlestown, 
 1852. 
 
 By Rev. J. B. Miles, — 
 
 A Discourse, January 2, Reviewing the History of the Church. 
 8vo., pp. 20. Boston, 1859. 
 
 Semi-centennial Celebration of the First Sabbath-school Society 
 in Massachusetts, and of the First [Church and] Parish : Sunday, 
 October 14, 1866, at the First Church. Discourse by Rev. J. B. 
 Miles. History, List of Officers, Biographical Accounts, etc. Por- 
 trait of Rev. J. Morse, D.D. 12mo., pp. 97 + 9. Boston, 1867. 
 
 Records of the First Church in Charlestown, Mass., 1632-1789. 
 Prepared by James F. Hunnewell, and printed under his care. Six 
 plates. Royal quarto, pp. (8) + 168 + xii +(2 4- 2) to xxvii. 
 Sixty-two copies. Boston, 1880. 
 
 See also : — 
 
 New England Historic Genealogical Register, 1869-79, vols. 
 xxiii. to xxxiii. 
 
 Bibliography of Charlestown, Massachusetts, and Bunker Hill. 
 By James F. Hunnewell. Two plates, one map. 8vo., pp. viii + 100. 
 James R. Osgood & Co. Boston, 1880. 
 
 The writer published this work, on his own account, as a contri- 
 bution to the commemoration of the two hundred and fiftieth anni- 
 versary of the formal settlement of the town. It contains, among 
 much other matter, a list (and some notes) of the publications of 
 
 8 
 
58 
 
 all the ministers of the First Church ; a f ac-simile of the title of Rev. 
 T. Allen's " Scripture Chronologic," London, 1659, and of Rev. U. 
 Oakes's « Elegie " on Rev. T. Shepard. Cambridge, 1677. About 
 one hundred and forty-five titles are given of works by, or relating 
 to, the pastors of the church. The Bibliography also contains 
 references to a large amount of biographical and obituary matter 
 that has been published about members of the church and congre- 
 gation. There are about four hundred and fifty articles referred to, 
 relating to about two hundred and forty inhabitants of the town. 
 
 3Icmuals of the Church were issued in 1836, 1842, 1856, and 1876. 
 There are engraved 2:>orfraits, on stone, of Rev. T. Prentice, Rev. 
 J. Morse, and Rev. W. Fay ; and, on steel, of Rev. J. Morse and 
 Rev. W. I. Budington. 
 
 TOWN HILL, CHARLESTOWK 
 
 Church history, important as it is, is not all that is associated 
 with this hill. The writer gave a brief but comprehensive sketch 
 of more than the preceding subject might require, in a long article 
 that first appeared in the New England Historic-Genealogical Reg- 
 ister (vol. sxiv., July, 1870), a part of which may properly be added 
 here. 
 
 As early as 1629, when the shore of the "Bay of Massachusetts" 
 was an almost unbroken wilderness, the strongest settlement yet 
 made upon it w^as around this hill ; and on its summit was built, 
 under direction of Mr. Graves, a defensive work called the " Hill 
 Fort, Avith pallisadoes and flankers," — during more than forty years 
 the chief building on the hill, and one necessary for the protection 
 of the settlers. Again, in 1675-76, during Philip's War, the most 
 trying in which Colonial Massachusetts engaged, and when hos- 
 tilities were committed by Indians within a few miles distance, this 
 fort appears to have been again put in defensive order. The 
 first burial-place of the town, where many of the earliest settlers 
 were interred, was for several years upon this hill, until after 1640, 
 when the still existing Old Burial Ground, about an eighth of a 
 mile distant, was used. In 1635 Robert Hawkins built a mill upon 
 the hill, and hence it was for a long time called Windmill Hill. 
 In 1648 the earliest (?) schoolhouse of the town " was ordered to 
 
59 
 
 be built [here] and paid foi' by a ' general rate.' " Since that date 
 a public school has been maintained almost uninterruptedly on the 
 hill, to provide education for the practice of civil government, the 
 local seat of which has been, from the very beginning of civilization 
 on the Bay, almost continuously at the base of it. The time 
 when school or court or town house were removed, was when the 
 town became the first great material sacrifice for American Inde- 
 pendence. And as the town grew first around this hill, so, also, it 
 arose there from its ruin to new life. 
 
 The worship of the church was first beneath the Charlestown 
 Oak, that grew upon the slope of the Town Hill; and all the places 
 for that worship since have been upon the summit of the hill, or sev- 
 enty yards from it, upon one of the slopes, or, when in the Great 
 House, only about one hundred yards from it. 
 
 No other hill throughout New England, except the hallowed 
 Burial Plill at Plymouth, has a longer or more suggestive history, 
 and none has one more varied. These two hills have also a peculiar 
 historic resemblance. Each bore the first permanent and important 
 civilized settlement on its respective bay. On both was a fortifica- 
 tion, necessary for defence against Indians, during many years after 
 the beginning T)f colonization upon and around them. On both 
 were buried some of the earliest settlers in the region. At tlie base 
 of both, the Puritan faith was long maintained in churches founded 
 by members of its earliest arrived representatives. . . . 
 
 Certainly, if in America there are few spots that have become 
 invested with long, continuous, and varied and interesting historical 
 associations, we may be permitted to feel that this hill is one of the 
 spots thus ennobled. In " the forest primeval " of oaks that grew 
 on it, the first Christian settlers made homes. On its summit they 
 built a defence against savage tribes close around them. On its 
 slopes they assembled in prayer and thanksgiving and fasting, and 
 there they showed that strength of material resources should be 
 joined with devotion of soul, and in the New World establish a 
 nation for Christ. And in its stern drift, when their griefs and 
 their labors were ended, were laid their mortal remains to await 
 the upbuilding on earth of the city not made with human hands. 
 True, indeed, "were they in their time, and . . . God them de- 
 fended." And those who in later time enter upon the precious 
 inheritance their endeavors secured, and who can see and enjoy the 
 blessings it brings, may well guard and honor this ground that bears 
 consecration by them and by virtues of long generations; for its 
 
60 
 
 history is not alone of one local body, of one small town, or of one 
 great sect, but a history rendering this low mound of earth a memo- 
 rial spot of a mighty nation. 
 
 With reverence we visit the old English Canterbury or Scottish 
 lona, the Roman Janiculum or Capitoline Mount, sites where the 
 Christianity of nations was — by a chosen few — founded in sor- 
 row, and yet in hope, to grow and spread through great commun- 
 ities that gathered around them. 
 
 And this historical and time-honored Town Hill is truly a Can- 
 terbury, an lona, not alone of the " Church of God in Charlestown," 
 but of the broader church of the great American Republic; and 
 both of church and of civil institutions, and of varied history and 
 of noble virtues and labors, we well may esteem it and name it 
 
 An American Shrine. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 These p.ages illustrate the stability of old New England in a manner that may 
 be considered worthy of some mention. 
 
 When first, in 1073, a sermon hy a minister in Charlestown was printed in this 
 country, the manuscript was taken to the College press at Cambridge. And now 
 the latest one delivered in his pulpit, that is to be printed, goes to the same press. 
 On it was also printed, 242 years ago, a psalm sung in the evening of this Anni- 
 versary. It pleases a representative, as he may be termed, of the same church, 
 to call — even after an interval of over two hundred years — and find the same 
 establishment, developed in a way that would have much amazed our wise fore- 
 fathers. 
 
 The programme inserted, the one used Nov. 12, was printed by Mr. Caleb Rand, 
 Main St., at the foot of Town Hill. 
 
 This commemorative work has been printed under the care of Jas. F. Hunne- 
 well, Cliairman of the Committee of Arrangements for Sunday, Nov. 12, 1882. 
 The printing was finished Saturday, Dec. 2, 1882, at the University Press, 
 Cambridge. 
 
NOV 4 1901 
 
 250th 
 ANNIVERSARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ORGANIZATION OF THE 
 
 FIRST CHURCH, CHARLESTOWN, 
 
 Nov. 2 (o. s.) 1G32. 
 
 IN THE MEETING-HOUSE, 
 
 Sniiday, ISTov. 12th, 1882. 
 
 AFTERNOON, — at 3 o'clock. 
 A.YTHEM. 
 
 READIJ^G OF THE SCRIPTURES, 
 
 By Rev. Alex. S. Twomblt, 
 
 Of the Winthrop Church, Charlestown. 
 
 PRAYER, 
 
 By Rev. George W. Blagden, D. D. 
 
 Of the Old South Church, Boston. 
 
 Ode b}- Miss Mary Devens Balfour, will be read. 
 
 S IJ^TGIjYG. 
 
 Hymn 1090, — "Let children hear the mighty deeds." 
 
 SERMOJY 
 By Rev. Alex. McKenzie, D. D. 
 Of the First Church, Cambridge. 
 
 SIJVGIJ^G. 
 
 Hymn 180, — "How firm a, foundation." 
 
 BENEDICTION. 
 
EVENING-^t 7 o'clock. 
 
 VOLUNTARY,— ORGAN. 
 
 READING OF THE SCRIPTURES, AND PRAYER. 
 
 Psalm 44, from the Bay Psalm Book. 
 
 The earliest New Enshiud Version of the Psalms, Cambridge, 1G40. The first 
 
 book printed witliiu the limits of the United States. 
 
 Wee, with our eares have lieard, o (iod, 
 
 our fathers liave us tokl, 
 what works thou diddeft in their da3-es, 
 
 in former daj'es of old. 
 
 H(yw thv hand drove the heathen out, 
 
 and them thou planted haft ; 
 hoio thou the people didft afflict, 
 
 and thou didft them out-cast. 
 
 For they got not hy their owne fword 
 
 the lands potfeffion, 
 neither yet was it their owne anne 
 
 wrought their salvation : 
 
 But thy right hand, thine arme alfo, 
 
 thy countenances light ; 
 becaufe that of thine owne good will 
 
 thou didft in them delis-ht. 
 
 A BHIEP ACCOUNT OF THE HISTORY OP THE FIRST CHURCH, 
 B3' James F. IIunnewell. 
 
 si3Nro-i3:src3-. 
 
 Hymn 1019, Sabbath Hymn Book. 
 
NOV 4 1901 
 
 ADDRESSES 
 
 By Rev. Rufus Ei.lis, D. I)., 
 
 Of the First Church, Boston. 
 
 And Rev. A. S. Freeman, D. D., 
 
 A descendaut of Rev. Thomas Prentice, (1st eh. 1739-82.) 
 
 Rev. A S. TwoMBLY. 
 
 " Coronation," comTpoacd by Oliver Holden, Cliarlestown, ITD.'?. Words from 
 " Selections" by Rev. Wra. Collier, Charlestown, 1812. 
 
 ALL-liail the power of Jesus' name ! 
 
 Let angels prostrate fall ; 
 Bring forth the royal diadem, 
 
 And crown him Lord of all. 
 
 Let every kindred, eveiy trilio, 
 
 On this terrestrial ball, 
 To him all majestry ascribe. 
 
 And crown him Lord of all. 
 
 O that, with j^onder sacred throng, 
 
 We at his feet may fall ; 
 There join the everlasting song, 
 
 And crown him Lord of all. 
 
 ADDRESSES 
 By Hon. Charles Devens, 
 Rev. Henry M. Dexter, D. D. 
 
 siosro-insro-. 
 
 "Old Hundred." " 
 
 BENEDICTION. 
 
NOV 4 i-jw-. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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