urch, I have no objection;
I neither expect nor wish to remain with it; but it appears to me to
assume a right and authority over my opinions to which I cannot submit."

At the end of the year passed in Gloucester, it appeared that the
congregation was about equally divided on the question of retaining me
as pastor; at any rate, the circumstances did not permit me to think
of it, and I went up to Boston to assist Dr. Channing in his duties as
pastor of the Federal Street Church.

But I must not pass over, yet cannot comment upon, the great event of
my year at Gloucester, the greatest and happiest of my life, my [49]
marriage. [FN 1] It took place in Boston, on the 26th day of December,
1820, the Rev. Dr. Jarvis officiating as clergyman, my wife's family
being then in attendance upon his church. As in the annals of nations
it is commonly said that, while calamities and disasters crowd the page,
the happy seasons are passed over in silence and have no record, so let
it be here.

My going up to Boston, to be acquainted with Channing, and to preach in
his church, excited in me no small expectation and anxiety. I approached
both the church and the man with something of trembling. Of Channing,
of his character, of his conversation, and the great impression it made
upon me, as upon everybody that approached him, I have already publicly
spoken, in a sermon [FN 2] which I delivered on my return from Europe
after his death, and in a letter to be inserted in Dr. Sprague's "Annals
of the American Pulpit." In entering the pulpit of Dr. Channing, as
his assistant for a season, I felt that I was committing myself to an
altogether new ordeal, I had been educated in the Orthodox Church;
I knew little or nothing about the style and way of preaching in the
Unitarian churches; I knew only the pre-eminent place which Dr.

[FN 1: To Louisa Farnham, daughter of William Farnham, of Boston. M. E.
D.]

[FN 2: This sermon, a noble, tender, and discriminating tribute to
Dr. Channing, was reprinted in 1831, on the occasion of the Channing
Centennial Celebration at Newport, R. I.--M. E. D.]

[50] Channing occupied, both as writer and preacher, and I naturally
felt some anxiety about my reception. I will only say that it was kind
beyond my expectation. After some months Dr. Channing went abroad, and I
occupied his pulpit till he returned. In all, I was in his pulpit about
two years. On my taking leave of it, the congregation presented me with