Sharp became pastor of Charles Street Baptist Church in Boston in 1812, having previously been invited to preach there in 1809 and 1811.[3] He was secretary of the Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in India and Foreign Parts when it was formed in February 1813 and he prayers for the missions a regular practice for his congregation. Throughout his career he held administrative positions in the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society.[4] He was a fellow of the corporation of Brown University and a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University.[2]
As the head of a congregation and a leader of Baptist organizations, Sharp faced the dilemma of maintaining unity while providing moral guidance on the most contentious issues of his era, war and slavery. Preaching on April 2, 1846, on the subject of war and peace, he described the pastor's duty and used slavery to make his point:[5]
Although a minister of the gospel may not, without stepping out of his place, discuss party questions; yet he may, and ought to ... seek to give a direction to public opinion. If need be, it should stir up the public mind in regard to long perpetuated evils....
In these respects, in all past times, the pulpit has done much to elevate the character and to improve the condition of Christian nations.... It has pleaded the cause of the poor slave; nay, it has done more than any other single instrumentality to break the fetters of the bondman, and bid the oppressed be free.
Sharp was a member and at times a vice president of the American Peace Society,[6] which sought non-violent resolution to international conflicts. Though many Baptist pastors thought differently, he opposed the Mexican–American War and in June 1846, shortly after the U.S. declared war, he published a "Discourse on Peace" that called it "a war for southern territory, waged against justice, against humanity, and against the voice of God."[7]
His health declined in 1852 and his service as pastor in Boston ended about 1853 when he traveled south seeking warmer weather. He died on June 23, 1853, at the home of Robert P. Brown in the village of Stoneleigh, in Baltimore, Maryland.[3] The Boston Journal wrote in an obituary that "his views upon public affairs, and upon the great movements of the day ... were sound, practical and conservative, and fraught with benevolence."[3]
Sharp received a Doctor of Divinity degree (D.D.) from Brown University in 1828 and from Harvard University in 1843. He was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
123"Death of Rev. Dr. Sharp". New York Times. June 27, 1853. Retrieved October 2, 2022; this obituary appeared originally in the Boston Journal on June 23, 1853.
↑"Publications on Peace". Advocate of Peace. 7 (5/6): 59–68. 1847. JSTOR27891040.
↑"Proceedings at the Anniversary of the American Peace Society". Advocate of Peace. 11 (6): 81–89, esp. 87. June 1854. JSTOR27891319.
↑Ellsworth, Clayton Sumner (1940). "The American Churches and the Mexican War". American Historical Review. 45 (2): 301–26, esp. 312. doi:10.2307/1906279. JSTOR1906279.
↑Moses King. Mount Auburn Cemetery: including also a brief history and description of Cambridge, Harvard University, and the Union Railway Company. Moses King, 1883; pp. 38ff.
