Article May 10, 1900 Issue

Religious Items

The meeting-house of the First Parish (Unitarian), Concord, Mass., was destroyed by fire recently. This was one of the oldest and most venerated edifices in New England. It was built in 1712 and was approaching the end of the second century of its existence. In this church in 1774 was held the First Provincial Congress, of which John Hancock was president. The grandfather of Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of its pastors, and such men as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Senator Hoar have been regular attendants. The church organization has been in existence since 1635.

The Congregationalist prophesies a religious revival. The editorial says: "We do not know just when it is coming or what form it will assume, but we believe that not many years will pass without witnessing a great renewal of popular interest in religion. Mr. Moody died in the firm conviction that such an awakening was at hand; and as we talk with men of spiritual insight and leaders in Christian activity we discern in them a gratifying degree of hope and expectation."

Robert Louis Stevenson, in one of his letters to Edmund Gosse, wrote: "It is the history of our kindnesses that alone makes this world tolerable, if it were not for that, for the effect of kind words, kind looks, kind letters, multiplying, spreading, making one happy through another and bringing forth benefits, some thirty, some fifty, some a thousandfold, I should be tempted to think our life a practical jest in the worst possible spirit."

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Religious Items

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access