Life of Edwin H. Chapin (Volume 4 )

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1883. Excerpt: ... MINISTRY IN NEW YORK On the first Sunday of September, 1838, a little group of Universalists met in the Apollo Rooms on Broadway, and listened to a service conducted by Rev. William Whittaker. In that day of small things the number assembled seemed hopeful, and the spirit of courage possessed them. Electing Mr. Whittaker as their leader, they continued their meetings, and on the 11th of November organized as the Fourth Universalist Society. On the first Sunday of December they began to hold their meetings in the New Jerusalem Church on Pearl Street, and rented at once forty-three of the fifty pews in the humble structure. The remaining seven were soon taken, and there were earnest calls for more. A committee was appointed to look for ampler quarters, and a church on Duane Street, near Chatham, was leased for two years, and on the following April it was occupied. It was the third home of a society not yet a year old. At the close of the two years the society removed to the lecture room of the College of Physicians and Surgeons on Crosby Street. Resting here a couple of months, like an Arabian encampment, it went into its new church on Elizabeth Street on the first Sunday of May, 1841. In three or four years, as if smitten by a migratory mania, it sold this church and returned to the Apollo Rooms, where it held its first meetings and from whence it started on its wanderings. But if the rolling stone gathers no moss, the moving society had steadily augmented its ranks, and ripened an ambition to do some signal thing at its next turn. In short, it had come to the determination--at least, its leaders had--to engage the Rev. E. H. Chapin of Boston as its minister, purchase a commodious temple in as good a location as possible, and command the favor of the publi...