society is under no common debt. To him may be ascribed the origin of a charity which among the latest forms of doing good may take the first place. The Ministry at Large, through which so great an amount of religious instruction, comfort, and guidance is dispensed to the needy, calls our lately deceased friend its founder. Coming from a small parish in the neighborhood to the metropolis, he very soon devoted himself with a true missionary zeal to the moral elevation, which necessarily includes and supposes the physical well-being, of the neglected poor, neglected by others, neglected by themselves,— always a numerous class in cities. With what a holy warmth he pursued this work is known to all who knew him; with what important results, the three full churches in this city which have sprung from the first small chapel in Friend Street, and the grateful echo of his name from various parts of our country and from abroad, will bear ample testimony. Benevolence was, in him, genius supplying the impulses and performing the offices of genius. He felt that his duty was one which was not to be comprehended nor discharged in a day; and he gave to it his days, his thoughts, his affections, and his strength, and performed in it that which mere genius cannot perform. Every successive year found him more acquainted with its multiplied bearings, more practised in its crowded details; and a body of practical knowledge relating to it is to be obtained from his periodical Reports, and from the volume which he published on the Ministry at Large, which is not to be met with elsewhere. His labors in the cause which he had espoused with his whole soul were unremitting, frequently exhausting, and they no doubt contributed to break down a naturally slender constitution. But in this service he was willing to be spent; and no service, surely, could be worthier of a costly sacrifice. So long as the poor are with us will his memory be cherished."

The names here recorded illustrate the part contributed by King's Chapel to that elder form of liberal piety sometimes known as 66 Channing Unitarianism." Dr. Greenwood's death followed that of Channing at an interval of just ten months; and it was the great felicity of this congregation, that the purest and noblest spirit of the earlier period was so fully exemplified in the ministry of his successor, which we have now to trace.

T

CHAPTER XXV.

THE MINISTRY OF EPHRAIM PEABODY.

HE death of Dr. Greenwood, although long foreseen, had come with sorrow to the Parish that had so long cherished him with loving pride. His destined successor was to be one already well known in Boston; but there was first a considerable delay. Six months before Dr. Greenwood's death, in February, 1843, a circular letter had been addressed by the Vestry to the members of the Parish, saying that there was reason to believe it possible to secure the services of Rev. Ephraim Peabody of New Bedford, as Colleague Pastor, "if proper measures were adopted in relation both to him and the Parish with which he is now connected." At the Proprietors' meeting to consider the subject, March 12, Mr. Curtis reported for the Wardens and Vestry that "they had hoped to make this arrangement, but a letter since received from Mr. Peabody precluded all hope of such a result." There may well have been a lingering hope, however, that this might come to pass later; and it is probable that this interfered later with a different arrangement that was had in mind.

In November of the same year it was debated whether to extend an invitation to Rev. George E. Ellis,1 but without result. An interval of nearly two years now elapsed, during which no permanent arrangement was made, but the pulpit was supplied by various able ministers. As the First Church worshipped with this Parish during the repairs of their own building, from June I to Nov. 26, 1843, the pulpit was supplied during that time by

1 Dr. Ellis's only pastorate was at Charlestown, where he succeeded Dr. James Walker in March, 1840, remain ing till June, 1869 A sketch of his life and a complete bibliography of his writings to 1879 are in Mr. Henry H. Edes's History of the Harvard Church

in

Charlestown, pp. 208-247. [Dr. Ellis was President of the Massachusetts Historical Society at the time of his death, Dec. 20, 1894. Tributes to his memory will be found in the Society's Proceedings for January, 1895 (Second Series). ix, 244267. See ante, p. 459, note. - EDITOR].

Rev. Dr. Frothingham. For a considerable time the Rev. George G. Ingersoll, D. D., then occupied the position of temporary minister of the Parish, and did all that could be done in such a relation, by the dignity of his character and the acceptableness of his preaching, to hold the Parish together.2 A sermon of Dr. Ingersoll's delivered just at the close of this connection, which was printed at the request of the Proprietors, is marked by the chastened religious feeling and beauty of thought and expression which distinguished all that he did.3 Still, the Church needed a minister of their own. Among the signs of this it is to be noted that a custom which has since become the usage of many city churches was first sanctioned here May 15, 1845, when it was "Voted, to close the Church from the first Sunday in July to the second Sunday in September."4

At this time, however, the congregation was recalled to its earlier usage by a request from the Church of the Disciples to

1 It was during this interval that the sky-lighted ceiling, constructed in the Chauncy Street meeting-house to obviate the dusky gloom cast on it by the high buildings around it, occasioned a saying of Rev. Caleb Stetson, that in the First Church in Boston "Christians were raised under glass."

2 Dr. Ingersoll, son of Major George Ingersoll, of Keene (1754-1805), one of the younger officers in the army of the Revolution, was born in 1796, graduated from Harvard College in 1815, and had been minister at Burlington, Vt., from 1822 to 1844. After taking temporary charge of other churches besides King's Chapel for several years, he resided in Keene, N. H., where he died in 1863, beloved and honored by all who had known him, a man of invincible courage and unfailing humor.

3 "Home; A Thanksgiving Sermon, preached at King's Chapel, by George G. Ingersoll. Boston, 1845." "One of a thousand." It was a pleasant expression of regard which led the Proprietors, by a vote of Dec. 2, to appropriate $200 "to secure the copyright of Dr. Ingersoll's Sermon."

• The Vestry had voted to close the church during July and August in 1844, but the Wardens were requested to prepare a statement of their reasons in the form of a circular to the Parish. They were, first, for repairs on the organ, and, second, for the following reason:

"The cushions, carpets, and other woolen furniture of the church require examination, in consequence of the existence of moths in some, and probably in many, of the pews; and it was deemed expedient that this examination should be made at the general expense, as the damage would be general, if the multiplication of these destructive insects were permitted to go on without interruption. . . . It was deemed clearly expedient to avail ourselves of the usual thinness of the congregation during the hot months of summer, to do all that was necessary in the most complete and satisfactory manner. Upon examination of the list of Proprietors, it was ascertained that a considerable majority would be out of town, the greater part, if not the whole of the summer; and it is well known that the attendance on the services of the Sabbath in this church is so thin during the hot weather as to excite remark from many who are unacquainted with the reason of it." The examination disclosed fewer "destructive insects" than was expected, - only five pews being affected thereby. On this occasion the members of the Parish remaining in town were invited to worship with the First Church, the members of which expressed gratification "if we can return in some degree the sacred and endearing hospitality" received during the previous season.