THE

CHAPTER VIII.

THE METHUEN PASTORATE.

HE denominational work of Alonzo Ames Miner, his effective service as a Universalist minister, as stated in the preceding chapter, may be said to have begun in the month of November, 1839,- specifically in his acceptance of a call to the pastorate of the Universalist Church in Methuen, Mass. Previous to entering upon this new duty, his ministerial labor had been scattered, itinerant, and with little of the pastoral accompaniments: it had been an avocation rather than a vocation, — a training period preparatory for regular and efficient service. On entering the Methuen pulpit as its chosen incumbent, the ministry, never exclusive of all other interests, became first and foremost, and so remained to the end of his earthly career. He went to Methuen no longer a novice, but a tested and approved workman in his Master's service, -a "workman who needeth not be ashamed" of his equipment. Avocations were to come, must come, to the many-sided man. No parish, no sect, no party, could furnish avenues for his full ambition to be useful. But "on and after" November, 1839, the Universalist ministry gave to A. A. Miner his supreme vocation. He stepped at once into the setting of antecedent, consequent, and corollary

which have been described in the two chapters immediately preceding, and became earnest in the work, yes, and in the strife.

Particulars have been given of Mr. Miner's baptism and ordination on occasion of the annual session of the New Hampshire Universalist Convention, held at Nashua in June, 1839. The settlement in charge of a particular parish was, of course, the occasion of a service of installation. This took place the November following. The community was deeply interested in the event, and thronged the lofty and steep steps that led to the church. Rev. Otis A. Skinner, a friend of Mr. Miner's youth, at one time his teacher in the district school, read the Scriptures and preached the sermon; the introductory prayer was offered, and the Scriptures were presented with the accompanying charge, by Rev. Henry Bacon; the prayer of installation was offered by Rev. Henry Jewell; the right hand of fellowship was extended by Rev. S. P. Landers; the address to the Society was by Rev. Thomas B. Thayer, who also offered the concluding prayer; the benediction was pronounced by the pastor. With the approval of his brethren, and with assurance of their sympathy and help, Mr. Miner then began "in due form," and with earnest and solemn purpose, his active ministry in the town of Methuen.

Particulars make it appear that at the time of his installation Universalism had made inroads upon the older churches, and had occasioned alarm, leading to what in these days would be called a "syndicate" for its systematic, organized suppression. Orthodox Congregationalists, Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians even,

for the exigency, suppressed their differences, and worked together for the extermination of the Universalist heresy,

- it may be added, in passing, with the not unusual result of extending and making stronger the foe at whose life they so confidently aimed. The Rev. Matthew Hale Smith, of strange and even eccentric antecedents, was selected as the instrument through whom the crusade was to be made effective. He had been pastor of the Universalist Church in the historic city of Salem. A man of versatile abilities, quick of thought rather than profound, of graceful address and fluent diction, he had been signally successful in drawing large congregations to his church, and in making personal friends. There need be no occasion here to give the particulars antecedent to his renunciation of Universalism, of his renouncing his renunciation, and then of the resuming of his renunciation. It will be sufficient to say that his second renunciation of Universalism held firm, and was followed by a most determined spirit of opposition to his former co-workers, and by his entering the field as author, lecturer, and preacher, in order to destroy the cause for the building up of which he had been ordained. The "syndicate" gave him his opportunity, and in various communities the pulpits were open to him, and the several congregations of city or town met in a single assembly to give him sympathetic hearing.

The postulate at the base of Mr. Smith's attacks on his former creed and associates was to the effect that Universalism is but covert infidelity; that it "opens the flood-gates of iniquity;" that it is destructive of the spirit of worship, impious in thought, and the cause