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imagine my mind at all anxious or perplexed.
I have plenty to occupy me and the current of thought may float me as it pleases.
Although
Mr. Higginson had fancied his preaching days were over, he received in 1852 an invitation to take charge of a Free Church in
Worcester, an organization which the influence of
Theodore Parker had just brought into existence.
This society was composed of radicals of all descriptions and as a whole was imbued with strong anti-slavery sentiments.
Mr. Higginson wrote to a friend:—
They want me to stay at Worcester where there are 600 come-outers and a very thriving city and a clear Free Soil majority and no anti-slavery preaching, and 40 conventions in a year.
‘Rather to my own surprise,’ he wrote from
Worcester in May, 1852,
I find myself likely to assume the charge of a new Free Church in this city, on a plan resembling Mr. Parker's in Boston more nearly than any other.
This is a very thriving and active place, materially, intellectually and morally; there is as much radicalism here as at Lynn, but more varied, more cultivated, and more balanced by an opposing force; a very attractive place, and this free church movement a very strong one.
I feel a sort of duty toward it, because I see clearly the need and the possibility of infusing more reverence and piety into this comeouterism of New England, to which I belong by nature; and this seems a good place to do it. The congregation is very large and
