many, like President Kirkland, who joined themselves to the company of hearers without being recorded on that more restricted list. Space forbids us from dwelling on these memories, but it is fitting to hang in this gallery a few of the portraits which their pastor drew of them. Of one of his Wardens we have spoken elsewhere;1 of his. associate, Mr. Oliver, he thus spoke: 2 66 “M: Oliver was a man who long went out and in before you, and in whose behalf you can well bear witness that his hoary head was a crown of glory. With approbation, with respect, with affection he passed through a life protracted beyond the assigned age of man. He has left with us a fair character and a happy memory. His youth was not without its struggles and its privations. He began the world in humble circumstances, and laboured hard and long for scanty gains. But by his diligence and constant attention to business he rose to a situation of ease and comfort, and his honesty, fair dealing, and integrity have not been impeached. The estimation in which he was held by the community may be judged of from the fact that for twenty years he held the place of Selectman of this city under its old form of municipal government, and from the circumstance likewise of his having held the office of Warden of this religious society for thirty years, two years as junior and twenty-eight as senior. He was appointed junior warden in 1796, M' Charles Miller being senior in office, and in 1798 he was chosen senior warden, and remained with the present junior warden as his companion till the day of his death. M' Oliver's manners were mild, conciliatory, and friendly, though he could not be accused of a want of firmness. He was kind and cheerful, affable and amiable, yet dignified and selfrespecting. Regular and temperate in his habits, he enjoyed tranquillity of mind and health of body almost uninterruptedly excellent. Till the period of his last illness, his step was light, his walk quick, and his frame without infirmity. He was greatly blessed in life by a merciful Providence. For the space of half a century he lived in happy union with her who is now a widow. He was permitted to see his chidren settled comfortably around him, and his children's children administering to his felicity in the time of his health and strength, and surrounding the bed. of his peaceful death." Among the exquisite productions of Dr. Greenwood's genius (which was never more felicitous than in twining these wreaths of affection and respect), there is no more beautiful and discriminating memorial sermon than that preached after the death of the Hon. John Lowell, in March, 1840:- 1 Col. Joseph May, see p. 483, post. 2 Ebenezer Oliver, Esq., died Dec. 14, 1826, in his 75th year, having served as Warden more than thirty years. In July preceding his death, Mr. Oliver gave the clock, made by Simon Willard, still to be seen on the front of the west gallery. The clock replaced one which was "worn out, and unsafe to put up again." "He was the son of Judge John Lowell, and was born in Newburyport, Oct. 6, 1769. Soon after the evacuation of Boston by British troops in 1776, his father removed to Boston, and occupied the house then opposite this church." After graduating at Harvard College in 1786, "he commenced the study of the law under the auspices of his father, happy that his reading could be directed by the knowledge, and his morals confirmed by the counsels and example, of a man whose sufficient praise it is, that he was invested with the judicial ermine by the hand of Washington." I Lossell Admitted to the bar at the age of twenty, Mr. Lowell at thirty-four had acquired by the practice of his profession a competence, and was able to withdraw from practice. His "fervid genius and rapid pen" were mighty in battle in two causes which enlisted his whole heart, the cause of the Federal party, and the cause of the Unitarian, or Liberal, movement. To those who have had the happiness to know men belonging to that political party in its prime, it is needless to say that never did party contain purer men or leaders of loftier counsels; and though they were on the losing side, no side truly loses which leaves such high examples. Among these leaders Mr. Lowell was reckoned, and his political tracts still glow with fire and are full of conviction. Not less influential was he in his contributions to the Unitarian controversy. As to this, it is needless here to do more than quote the title of one of his most famous pamphlets: "Are you a Christian or a Calvinist? or, Do you prefer the Authority of Christ to that of the Genevan Reformers?" He was a member of the Corporation of Harvard College for many years, - prominent in all he good. institutions which were organized here during the first forty years of this century, a born counsellor of men. Said Dr. Greenwood: "Shall I speak of his religious character? I should do him no justice if I did not. With his characteristic susceptibility and delicacy, he avoided the obtrusion of his religious doctrines or devotional sentiments. But it was impossible not to perceive, from constant indications, that the sanctions of religion were ever present with him. His thoughts of God were of the most reverential and prevailing kind. He referred his life and all things to His holy will." 1 There are notices of Judge Lowell and his distinguished son in William Sullivan's Familiar Letters on Public VOL. II.-30 Characters and Public Events, pp. 381, 395-396. A monument,1 surmounted by his armorial bearings,2 and the legend occasionem cognosce, perpetuates the strong features of Mr. Lowell in a bust by John C. King, and recalls his virtues in the following inscription: LITTERARVM AC DISCIPLINARVM OPTIMARVM FAVTOREM RERVM. RVSTICARVM. MAGISTRVM AGNOVERE PATRIFAMILIAS AMANTISSIMO QVI. SVMMAM SVAVITATEM CVM CONSTANTIA PARI MORTVVS. XII. MART. AN. M DOCO XL Although Dr. Greenwood was far removed from being a partisan, he was earnest in the support of Liberal Christianity, and with his Parish took a part in the organization of the various Unitarian associations which were formed in the early years of his ministry. As he told his people in 1828, "Some of us felt that belonging to a church which, under the care of the venerable man who may be called the father of Unitarian Christianity in this country, had steadfastly maintained their religious liberty and their liberal sentiments through years of obloquy and desertion and solitude, and of a species of persecution which even yet has not entirely ceased-we occupied a situation somewhat conspicuous; and that it was due to our own character and principles so long preserved to do something for the further promoting of a cause which had so long been our own, especially when other churches of the same faith, much more lately avowed, were coming forward on all sides in aid of pure and simple religion." For these reasons the Parish contributed to the American Unitarian Association, and to the Evangelical Missionary Society, besides the special aid to theological students which was given in the form of a scholarship at the Cambridge Divinity School during many years. Dr. Greenwood himself served the same cause by his labors in editing the "Christian Exam 1 Erected by his son, Mr. John Amory Lowell. See p. 523, post. An admirable memoir of Mr. Lowell, by his grandson and namesake, is in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings for April, 1840, ii. 160-169. 2 See p. 526, post. |