The new church was most fortunate in its choice of a minister. Mr. Codman was a man of good social position, fine presence, clear intellect, and thorough education. He graduated at Harvard College in 1802, in the same class with William Allen, Samuel Hoar, and Levi Lincoln, and began to read law, but by the earnest desire of his father, expressed when on his deathbed, he turned his thoughts to divinity. He studied for a time with Dr. Ware, then of Hingham, but preferring a more positive theology, he went to Edinburgh. He was licensed in England, and preached there for a year or more with much acceptance. On his return to his native land his services were in great request, and it was not long before he received and accepted the call from Dorchester. It was an exciting time, theologically as well as politically. A great crisis in the Congregational body was imminent. Parties had been forming, but rather within the denomination, than in any expectation of actual schism. Dr. Ware had gone to Cambridge, to succeed Dr. Tappan in the Hollis Professorship of Theology; and Andover Seminary had just been founded, to counteract what was becoming the predominant influence in the old "school of the prophets." Mr. Codman left no reason for doubt, in the minds of those to whom he addressed his letter of acceptance, as to his position in the rising controversy. After referring to the sermons which he had preached in their hearing he wrote: "Lest, however, there should be any doubt in the mind of any one upon this subject, I think it my duty in the presence of a heart-searching God, and of this church, to declare my firm, unshaken faith in those doctrines, that are sometimes called the doctrines of the Reformation, the doctrines of the Cross, the peculiar doctrines of the gospel. These doctrines, through the help of God, I intend to preach; in the faith of these doctrines I hope to live; and in the faith of these doctrines I hope to die."

At the ordination, December 7, Mr. Channing preached the sermon, Dr. Eckley offered the ordaining prayer, the charge was given by Dr. Osgood, of Medford, and the right hand of fellowship by Mr. Harris, of Dorchester. Mr. Channing's sermon was from the text "Be instant in season, out of season," and was a powerful presentation of the solemn responsibilities of the ministerial office.1 We quote one of its most memorable passages:

1 Just before his own ordination, Mr. Channing wrote to his uncle, the Revd.

Henry Channing: "I feel awed in considering the magnitude of the duties

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The salvation of man is the leading object of the providence of God. This his merciful voice promised to our guilty parents immediately after the fall. For this, the cumbrous fabric of the Mosaic dispensation was reared. For this, prophets were inspired, and were enabled successively to cast a clearer light on futurity. For this, the son of God himself left the abodes of glory, and expired a victim on the cross! For this, the harmony of creation was disturbed, and stupendous miracles were wrought to attest the gracious promises of God. For this end, a church has been erected, and its interests guarded amidst the convulsions of a sinful world. For this end, nations have been, and still are shaken. Yea, in this end, all heaven is interested. Heaven is gladdened by the tidings that a sinner has repented.

Sabbath Evening [? November 27], the Church and Congregation being requested by the Rev. Doctor Eckley to tarry, to express their mind if they would have a Collection for the poor of the Church and Congregation on Thanksgiving Day,

Voted Unanimously, they would.

Mr. Jefferson's administration was near its close, and Mr. Madison, secretary of state, was about to succeed to the presidency. The country was slowly drifting into another war with Great Britain. Bonaparte in the progress of his great struggle for continental dominion had decreed that all merchandise, the product of England or her colonies, was liable to seizure, even on board neutral vessels. The British government had retaliated by orders in council prohibiting any neutral trade with France or her allies. The United States, which was the only neutral power, was thus placed between two fires. Mr. John Bromfield wrote from London, where he was settled in business, April 18, 1808: "The decrees of France and England are ruinous to American commerce, which is a whip-top, scourged by both parties. Though a neutral, it is attacked by all the belligerents." For the protection of American property, the administration had imposed an embargo and other restrictive measures, which the merchants regarded as more harassing than all the impediments placed in their way by the belligerent powers. More than one third of the tonnage employed in the foreign trade of the United States was owned in Massachusetts, and of this trade. the British was of much more importance than the French.

soon to devolve upon me. The church of God, purchased with the blood of his Son; the eternal interests of mankind;

- what objects are here presented! I ask your prayers, that I may have grace to be faithful." - Memoir, vol. i. p. 171.

Said Mr. George Cabot, a prominent merchant and public man: "Our trade with France was comparatively small, and restrictions as to that nation were not so injurious. With reference to England the case was different. Of all the surplus products of the United States, that country bought annually one half, and of all our foreign purchases she supplied two thirds." The merchants of Boston and the adjacent ports were disposed, therefore, to side with England, and to be lenient in their judg ment of her policy upon the ocean, overbearing as it had been for many years. But the leanings of the administration were towards France, and the encounter between the Leopard and the Chesapeake, near the Capes of Virginia, confirmed it in its sympathies, while it greatly intensified the popular feeling against England. "The country had never been in such a state," says the historian Bradford, "since the battle of Lexington.” When the Thanksgiving Day of 1808 came this was the condition of the public mind.

Mrs. Quincy wrote to her husband, the Hon. Josiah Quincy, then in Congress, December 1, 1808: —

Dr. Kirkland disappointed many of his audience this morning by the moderation of his sermon. It was less political than on any former occasion; when it was expected to be the reverse, from the excited state of the public mind. I went to the Old South in the afternoon. Dr Eckley gave a most violent philippic against the present rulers and measures. He spoke of Jefferson, French influence, prejudice against Britain &c. ; made out the title of Bonaparte to the character of the second beast in Revelation Antichrist. Endeavouring to rouse the spirit of the country, he exclaimed, "Where is the warning voice of Washington? where, the spirit of our forefathers? Where is the zeal of New England?" He commanded the deepest attention. I almost expected to hear the people huzza at the close. The musicians in the gallery actually struck up "Washington's March," to the music of which we all marched home to comment on the sermon.

And again, December 7 :

The greatest gloom and consternation prevail at the news, brought by express last evening, of the passage of the Non-intercourse Bill. Every one hoped, to the last moment, that the ruling party would stop short of this full measure of folly and oppression.2

In 1809 there was a temporary relaxation of hostilities, and a 1 Mem. Hist. of Boston, vol. iv. pp. 212, 216.

2 [Memoir of the Life of Eliza S. M. Quincy, pp. 110, 111.]

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thousand vessels were cleared for foreign ports. The Embargo Act was modified, so far as related to provisions and the exclusion of foreign armed vessels; but the restrictions upon importations were continued, with a proviso empowering the president to legalize trade with Great Britain by proclamation.1

O

ANOTHER WAR.

N the first Sabbath morning-New Year's Day-of 1809, the Rev. Mr. Huntington preached a sermon appropriate to the occasion. Among his auditors was the senior deacon, the Hon. Thomas Dawes, who, within twenty-four hours from that time, "resigned his spirit unto God who gave it." On the next Lord's day Dr. Eckley preached a funeral sermon from Job xix. 25. "For I know that my Redeemer liveth," and thus spoke of his departed parishioner :

As a native of Boston, he discovered a very earnest attachment to its interest, and at an early season of life, bent his mind, among other things, to the desire of its exterior improvement. From the calling which he pursued, and in which he acted as a principal, he greatly amended the style of architecture; and there is now a considerable number of private, as well as some public edifices in this town and in