THE REV. GEORGE W. BLAGDEN. 501 A meeting of the brethren was held September 19 to make arrangements for the installation, when the following vote was unanimously adopted: - Voted, That the church have received such evidence as fully satisfies them that the Rev. G. W. Blagden has been dismissed from his late charge in a "regular and christian manner," according to the vote passed in Church meeting July 11, 1836. Therefore, the church do hereby approve the same and will now proceed to appoint the committees to make arrangements for, and assist in his installation. Mr. Blagden was installed on Wednesday, September 28, having previously been received into the membership of the church. Dr. Codman preached the sermon, Dr. Jenks offered the prayer of installation, the Rev. William M. Rogers gave the right hand of fellowship, and the Rev. William A. Stearns offered the concluding prayer. Mr. Blagden was born in Washington, District of Columbia, October 3, 1802. His father, George Blagden, was a native of Attercliffe, Yorkshire, England, and was one of the first settlers in Washington; he was a practical mechanic and engineer, and built most of the early public and private buildings in the capital. The son graduated from Yale College in 1823, and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1826. In 1827 he was called to the pastorate of a new church organized in Brighton by a secession from the First Parish there. Of his ministry, in its earlier years, the Rev. Dr. Andrew P. Peabody has said : Dr. Blagden must have been settled in Brighton about the time of my graduation. When, three years later, I returned to Cambridge as a professional student, he had great reputation as a preacher. When he exchanged in Cambridgeport I went to hear him, and probably elsewhere. His sermons were remarkable for clearness and precision of statement, purity of style, and wealth of scriptural illustration. They were the utterances of a man, not specially heated for the occasion, but in so familiar conversance with sacred things that their language was his vernacular. Always reverent, always fervent, never impassioned, he made a profound impression upon his hearers by his entire sermon and service, without their being able to select this or that portion of a sermon as specially impressive. His delivery was calm, yet animated, with no bursts of eloquence, but with no letting down. He kept his audience always in close attention, and was always edifying and instructive. His sermons were much better adapted to men's spiritual needs than such sermons as are specially popular now. It was as second to no minister of his denomination that he was chosen to the Salem Street Church, which needed a strong man to build it up, and that he was translated thence to the Old South.1 We have the following estimate of his character from the same facile pen : As regards his character, he was one of the most truly lovable men I ever knew. I cannot conceive of his ever having said or thought anything that was not true, and pure, and kind. I had frequent conversations with him on religious subjects; indeed, when there was no third person in the conversation, we hardly talked of anything else, and we talked not of things as to which we differed, but of those in which we were of one mind. He, however, made no concealment of his opinions, and professed to the last, orthodoxy of the old school, with no essential change from his early ministry. But he held what he deemed the truth in love. He expressed not tolerance for, but sympathy with Christians of every type. Nor was this with him anything new. He referred frequently to early feelings in that respect. out of line with his brethren at that time, and once gave me an anecdote of his boyhood as to circumstances that led him to believe in goodness outside his own pale. His social intimacies in his later years, have been, I think, largely with persons not of his own denomination, who have held him in reverence and in the dearest love, and for whom he has given every token of fond and high regard. No man has had warmer friends, or has been more honored in life, or has left a more precious memory.2 In 1842 there was a general revival of religious interest in the churches in Boston, and the Old South received fortythree persons to its membership. The following references to this interest appear upon the records : Friday, March 11. At the regular church meeting, after deliberation, it was Voted, at the suggestion of the pastor, with the consent of the officers of the church, to set apart four evenings next week, besides the ordinary Tuesday and Friday evenings, for special religious services, with reference to the present state of the church and congregation. The young men of the church coöperated in this measure, with commendable zeal. Friday eve'g. March 18. It was concluded by silent and general assent, to continue the same special religious services, during the coming week. 1 [See Commemorative Discourse by the Rev. Charles A. Stoddard, D. D., p. 17.] 2 [Ibid., pp. 24, 25. This discourse was preached Feb. 22, 1885.] THE NEW BRICK MEETING-HOUSE. 503 In 1844 the Second Church-the church of the Mathers determined to rebuild its meeting-house, and while this work was in progress, it availed it self of an invitation to worship under the roof of the Old South. In courteous recognition of the hospitality extended to it at this time, it gave a silver cup to the Old South which appears upon its table every Communion Sabbath in testimony of the friendly relations which have subsisted between these historic churches for more than two centuries.1 The meeting house taken down in 1844 was built in 1721; it had been known as the New Brick, and had been the scene of the ministerial labors of Waldron, Welsteed, Gray, and Pemberton. Cotton Mather preached its dedication sermon; and, with the exception of the Old South, its pulpit had been occupied by Whitefield more frequently perhaps than any other in Boston. After the Revolution it became the home of the Second Church, by the union of the Old North and the New Brick congregations under Mr. Lathrop. On the 11th of March, 1844, farewell services were held within its walls, and the Rev. Chandler Robbins preached a sermon, from which we quote a few sentences: We meet to-day for the last time in this venerable house. It has stood a hundred and twenty-three years. It is the oldest temple in the city. Christ Church, its ancient neighbor, is its junior by more than two years, and the Old South by nearly nine. It has been an object of sacred interest to many generations. Its image has been connected with the idea of God, in the minds of myriads who have been born and lived and died within sight of its spire. Hallowed associations gather thickly around it. Its walls are hung with the memorials of ancient days. Shadowy processions of the sainted dead seem to move along its aisles; and a solemn chant, as of many voices, known and unknown, mingling in psalms and prayers, to swell beneath its roof. 1 At or about the same time, the Old South Chapel was placed at the disposal of the Church of Our Saviour, the Rev. Robert C. Waterston, pastor, which was building its new meeting-house in Bed- It is a serious thing to demolish a house like this. It is a solemn act to destroy these time-hallowed walls. It is more, far more, than merely to take down the material pile, which hands, long since mouldered to dust, assisted to raise. These stones and bricks are inwrought with holy sentiments; they are inscribed with honored names; they are written all over with religious reminiscences; they enshrine venerated images; they are the memorials of the piety and faith of our fathers; they are largely and intimately connected with the spiritual life of past and present generations. . . . A sacred, a spiritual fabric of hallowed memories and associations will be shattered together with these crumbling walls, — and fall never to rise again. But everything must yield to the immediate wants and will of the living. The command of present use is in our day incontrovertible and supreme. The marks of its empire are all around us. It takes down and builds up, and knows no veneration. The sacred and the beautiful are continually bowing before it. It has often pointed ominously at this old edifice. It has touched it now, and to-morrow it falls. In 1805 "the proprietors of the Old South Church and congregation" voted to apply to the legislature for an act of incorporation, and appointed a committee for the purpose. It does not appear, however, that any application was then made, and, certainly, no act was granted.1 Probably the measure was disapproved by some of the brethren who were not proprietors of pews. But, in 1844, it had become apparent to all that the time was come for incorporating the society. The property had greatly increased in value; and the uncertainties of the law, together with the fluctuation of population, made it imperative that, without further delay, its tenure should be defined and secured by something more recent than the original deeds of gift. On the 26th of March, 1845, Governor Briggs approved a bill, which had been signed by Samuel Hurd Walley, speaker of the House of Representatives, and Levi Lincoln, president of the Senate, incorporating Samuel Turell Armstrong, Pliny Cutler, Charles Stoddard (deacons), and others, proprietors of pews in the Old South meeting-house, by the name of the Old South Church in Boston.2 "Said corporation," it was enacted, "shall be deemed and taken to be the successors of said proprietors, and are hereby authorized to take and hold to the use of said corporation and its successors and assigns, in fee simple, all and singular that parcel of real estate situate on Milk, Washington 1 See ante, vol. ii. p. 299. 2 Chapter 229 of the Statutes of 1845. The corporate name was afterward changed to "The Old South Society in Boston:" Chapter 88 of the Statutes of 1859. OLD SOUTH BLOCK. 505 and Spring Streets in said Boston, and now known as the estate belonging to the Old South Church and Society, whereon the meeting-house and other buildings stand, for the support of public worship, for parochial and charitable purposes in this Commonwealth, and for paying the debts of said corporation.” The act of incorporation was accepted at a meeting held April 7, 1845, Francis Welch, moderator. Henry Davenport was chosen clerk, and a standing committee was constituted, with the following members: James Means,' Bela Hunting, Peter Thatcher, Increase Sumner Withington, Charles Blake, Samuel Johnson, Benjamin Atkins, Jonathan French, Uriel Crocker. The pew proprietors had already had under consideration the desirableness of taking down the parsonage houses in Milk Street, erected in 1807, and utilizing the site for business purposes. Families were deserting Milk and Pearl Streets, and solid blocks of warehouses were taking the place of the dignified and comfortable mansion houses in which three generations of prosperous citizens had lived and died. A fine building, known as Bowdoin Block, had been erected on the land directly opposite the parsonage houses, formerly owned by Governor Bowdoin ; and the society had received eligible offers for the use of its property from some of the most responsible firms in the city. A small minority, however, protested against the proposed changes, and prevented action for the time. A doubt was raised as to whether the society had a right to improve this land by building warehouses upon it, although it had been allowed to lie vacant for twenty-six or seven years after the death of Mrs. Norton. Nearly half a century before Theophilus Parsons had given an opinion, on the strength of which the society built its stores in Washington Street, in part on the site of the original parsonage, the home of John Winthrop and of John Norton. Another eminent lawyer was now consulted, Jeremiah Mason,2 who gave an opinion, January 14, 1845, in which, having stated the case and the questions raised by it, he said 1 James Howard Means, son of James Means, joined the Old South Church June 26, 1842. He graduated at Harvard College in 1843, and at Andover in 1847; and, July 13, 1848, he was ordained colleague pastor with Dr. Codman over the Second Church, Dorchester. He married Charlotte Abigail, daughter of Sam uel Johnson; she became a member of the Old South Church January 30, 1842. 2 On his removal from Portsmouth to Boston, Mr. Mason became a member of the Old South Church (September 25, 1831). He became afterward a communicant at St. Paul's (Episcopal) Church. |