On Sabbath morning the 11th of April I preached for the Rev. Mr.
Blagden, in the Old South Church. This is a large old-fashioned square
building, having two galleries, one above the other, on three of its
sides. It is rich in historical recollections. Here Whitfield preached.
Here patriotic meetings were held even before Faneuil Hall was built;
and here the British troops were quartered at the time of the
Revolutionary War. Here, too, the lamp of truth was kept feebly burning
when all around had sunk into darkness and heresy. At the commencement
of this century, the ministry in all the other Congregational Churches
in Boston had become Unitarian. In the Old South, however, there were a
few people, eight in number, who formed a "Society for Religious
Improvement." They could not at first _pray_ together; they only read
the Scriptures and conversed on religious subjects. But they grew in
wisdom, fervour, and zeal, and were eventually the means, not only of
reviving religion in the Old South, but also of giving an impulse in
Boston which is felt to this day. Church after church on orthodox
principles has been instituted, till there are in Boston more than a
dozen large and vigorous churches of the Congregational order; and the
Old South, the honoured "mother of churches," has had her "youth
renewed like the eagles.
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