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Patriotic Addresses in America and England (1887)
Patriotic Addresses in America and England - 1887 Author:Henry Ward Beecher Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: IV. PLYMOUTH CHURCH: PERSONAL TRAITS. Congregationalism, as a denomination, had down to 1840 made but small progress outside of New England. A movement for i... more »ts extension began very actively about that time. One of the very earliest efforts of that activity was the founding of the Church of the Pilgrims in the city of Brooklyn in 1844. Shortly after its successful inauguration, some of its members determined to start another Congregational church and proceeded actively to accomplish that, by purchasing the building of the Old First Presbyterian Church, then just vacated for a new one. The first services were held on Sunday, May 16, 1847. Mr. Beecher, who had met with a welcome at the Anniversary meetings in New York largely on account of his father and elder brothers, had made a marked impression there by his own addresses. Mr. William P. Cutter, of New York, who had known and admired him in the West, had already mentioned him to the gentlemen who had initiated the new church project; and the young preacher was invited to be present at the opening services of the church and preach the first sermons, which he did with marked acceptability, morning and evening. The church was organized on Sunday, June 13, with twenty-one members. The wife of one of the promoters had suggested "Plymouth Brethren" as a name, and " Plymouth Church" was the title adopted. Young Beecher, who had gone on to Boston after his first preaching, returned a few weeks later and preached again, for two successive Sundays; the consequence being that on June 14, 1847, he wasunanimously invited by the church and society to become their pastor. With many misgivings as to the wisdom of leaving his Presbyterian associations and his well-loved parish in the West, Mr. Beecher was influenced primarily by the evident...« less