USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Waterbury > A century of history in the First Baptist Church in Waterbury, Conn > Part 6
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The address of the evening was by the Rev. Albert Arnold Bennett, D.D., of Japan, who spoke on the subject, "A Century of Japan." Dr. Bennett has been a missionary in the country of the Jap for more than twenty years, and has a clear and wide knowledge of the country and its people. His address was intensely interesting, and showed that the man and his subject were closely akin.
He commenced his address by stating that it was a difficult thing to confine himself to any particular century of Japan's history, because a great many centuries of her career as a nation have been eventful. And the present century has been perhaps the greatest in her history. Dr. Bennett spoke interestingly of the thousands of islands surrounding Japan, and sketched a short history of their relations with the surround- ing countries.
As to the climate, the missionary said that it
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ranged from hot to cold, because the most north- ern part of Japan is about as far north as Labra- dor and it extends as far south as the latitude of Cuba.
"For the first fifty years of the present cen- tury, when the door of Japan was closed to the world, the civilization of the people was under- estimated. They were not barbarians a hundred years ago, although the dress and manners of some of the people there today would make some of us believe that they are barbarians. A hun- dred years ago, when some of our ancestors were rude and crude, they were wearing silks and satins in Japan. They had a civilization which was distinctly their own.
" In 1853, when Commodore Perry knocked at the door of Japan and presented his card and said that he would return the next year, there was a feeling of great consternation among the Japs. They called upon their people to put out the foreigners, and only Perry's tact prevented seri- ous events. And during the past few years the Japanese have erected a monument to the mem- ory of Perry in appreciation of the great value he had been to the people."
Dr. Bennett told of the wild state of some of the inhabitants of many of the mountainous is- lands, and told of one tribe that had sold their homes and lands for drink and were gradually decreasing. They are said to be the last remains of a prehistoric race. Their flat bones suggest
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it. Yet no matter how wild the state of the savage, Dr. Bennett stated that there was al- ways an evidence of the instinct to worship a Godhead. There was a supreme being to whom they offer prayer before they eat or drink. The speaker told of the dangerous tribe, "The head hunters of the mountains," and the danger of working for the cause of Christianity among them. No man is a man among them until he has two or three Chinese skulls dangling from the door of his hut. He cannot marry until he has shown his ability to get a number of skulls of his enemies. Yet these people offer a prayer to high heaven.
Dr. Bennett then told about the different re- ligious sects in Japan, the Confucianists and Buddhists prevailing. He also spoke of their unique and absurd practices.
An interesting feature of Dr. Bennett's ad- dress was his reference to the political situa- tion in Japan in relation with the other world powers. He was of the opinion that a collision between Japan and Russia was bound to come some time, and on account of the Japs being so closely united to the emperor there will be serious trouble. In the event of a war between Japan and Russia the speaker thought that England would stand by and see fair play, but if France or any other power were to ally herself with Russia England would immediately join forces with the Japanese.
OLD HOME DAY EXERCISES.
The first speaker of the day was Elder Palmer G. Wightman, a lineal descendant of Edward Wightman, the last English martyr, who was tried and condemned by the Bishop of Lichfield in Protestant England for rejecting infant bap- tism, and other similar offenses, and burned at the stake in April, 161I.
Elder Wightman has recently received the con- gratulations of his friends upon the completion of his 84th year. He is now retired, but has been pastor of Connecticut Baptist churches more years than any man now living.
MR. WIGHTMAN'S ADDRESS.
After speaking of the martyrdom of his ancestor and its effect in arousing a popular protest against such savage treatment of Baptists, Mr .. Wight- man proceeded to re- late incidents con- nected with the early history of Connecti- cut Baptists. Valen-
ELDER P. G. WIGHTMAN.
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tine Wightman, who came to Connecticut from Rhode Island, where the principle of religious freedom had been proclaimed by Roger Williams, established the first Baptist church in the State, at Groton, in 1705. He and his son and grand- son held the pastorate of this church for an almost continuous period of 125 years, a fact which would seem to show that the Wightmans were satisfactory as pastors, and the speaker had been pastor of the same church for 12 years. From this church Baptist sentiments naturally spread across the Thames to New London and elsewhere in the State. Elder Wightman then proceeded to speak of the prominent pioneer Baptists of Connecticut who were old when he was young.
Jabez Swan was perhaps the most prominent of the New London Baptists in his day, which was a day of heroic faith. Learning that a move- ment was on foot to build a Universalist church in New London he said: "Let them build it; the Baptists will have that church in the end." Then the Universalists came to him and said : " Elder Swan, if the Baptists are going to have our church, you ought to contribute something towards building it." Elder Swan had made the
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remark not as a boast but as a belief. He promptly accepted the challenge, entered his name, and put down as liberal a sum as could be expected from a Baptist preacher under the cir- cumstances, and in five years from that time he was preaching to a Baptist congregation in the church which the Universalists had built.
Another story of Elder Swan related by Mr. Wightman seems almost as if it had been taken from the Old Testament Scriptures. He was conducting revival services in connection with the church in Voluntown, where the owner of a mill was running his works day and night and in consequence his numerous employees could not attend the meetings. He was requested to close his factory evenings, so that the operatives could attend the meetings, but refused. Then Elder Swan and the Baptists prayed that by some means these laborers might have the opportunity of hearing the preaching of the Word. And, to speak in Scripture phrase, the Lord sent a great swarm of eels which got into the water way and clogged the great wheel so that it could not turn, and the weight of the water on the immovable wheel broke the shaft, so that the works had to be closed. After this the operatives attended the
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meetings, both day and night, with the result that there were many conversions from among their number .*
It was the custom in those early days to hold evangelistic services at the close of all Associa- tional gatherings, or, as Elder Swan once ex- pressed it : The Baptists of those times " went in for salvation whatever the meeting was."
Elder Emory Shailer was State missionary for over 30 years and planted many churches. Elder William Bentley was known as a pioneer of Bap- tist doctrine from Virginia to Maine. His zeal is attested by the fact that he traveled 3,000 miles in one year, riding in his own chaise, attending meetings, associations, and conventions in the in- terest of the Baptist cause. He baptized 31 per- sons in 14 minutes at Vernon, to prove that 3,000 could have been baptized on the day of Pente- cost. (We may add here that Elder Bentley visited Waterbury and baptized converts into the fellow- ship of the Baptist church during the time when
* It is not stated whether or not, as would be natural, a quantity of mud and stones may have been dislodged with the eels, and swept with them into the waterway, thus helping to block the wheel, but there seems to be no doubt that the wheel was blocked and the shaft broken while Christians were praying that the opera- tives might have the privilege of attending the meetings.
REV. IRENUS ATKINS - p. 156. Elder Atkins was also a descendant of the Martyr, Edward Wightman, his mother being the daughter of Elder John Wightman. +
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Deacon Porter was the preacher.) Lester Lewis, Baptist pastor in Middletown, was so loved and esteemed by the people that the Superior Court sitting in that place adjourned on hearing of his death, as a mark of respect. Harvey Miller of Meriden, of whom it might almost be said that he was the most lovable and genial of men, was per- haps the most brilliant and eloquent preacher that the Baptists of Connecticut ever produced. His gift of language was so perfect that he never hesi- tated for fitting words to express his thoughts, and his rapid, impassioned utterance was the de- spair of stenographers. He was intimate with Mr. Wightman and was with him at the seashore in hope of recovering his health almost the last fort- night preceding his death. When the end finally came, and after his dying charge to his family, he said: "Now all of you go out of the room and leave me alone with God to die," being thus willing to emulate Moses, the man of God, in the manner of his death. Mr. Miller preached many times for the Waterbury church, but declined its pastorate in favor of Meriden.
Those who represented the centenary churches of the Association related many interesting in- cidents concerning the trials, the persecutions, and the heroic faith of their respective churches
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in the early days, as contrasted with their present comparatively comfortable and prosperous con- dition. Rev. R. A. Ashworth of Meriden told how his people still cherished the memory of Harvey Miller, who might almost be regarded as the patron saint of Meriden Baptists, and pre- sented a memorandum in Miller's own hand- writing showing that the Meriden church had sent a liberal contribution by the hand of E. W. Frost to help the Waterbury church in its hour of need.
MR. HANNA.
If any one participating in our Old Home Day exercises has by inheritance as good a right to be a Baptist as Elder Wightman, the descend- ant of the martyr, it is Rev. T. A. T. Hanna of Shelton. He is a grandson of Dr. Alexander Carson, one of the greatest scholars and the- ologians of his time. As a young man, Carson had taken the highest honors of his class in the University of Glasgow, being especially proficient in Greek, after which he settled as a Presby- terian minister in the north of Ireland. But here the Baptists began to trouble the minds of the people of his parish, and he thus had occasion to examine their claims with a view to refuting them. He found the task a difficult one; and after a month devoted to prayer and a critical
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examination of the New Testament and the Greek literature, he became a Baptist himself, and so remained and taught to the end of his life, being highly esteemed and honored both as a minister and a scholar. Indeed, his people had such confidence in him as their teacher, and were so convinced by his reasons, that they practically all followed him into his new church relations, though by doing so they were obliged to give up their house of worship and provide themselves with another. Being the descendant of such a man, Brother Hanna would seem to have a full prescriptive right to the Baptist faith.
But his claim is still better than that. His wife is the daughter of Dr. Adoniram Judson, the famous missionary to India, and of Emily Chub- buck Judson, his wife, a gifted poet and author, better known by her nom de plume as Fanny Forester, and who on the birth of this daughter wrote the beautiful poem commencing :
Ere last year's moon had left the sky A birdling sought my Indian nest, And folded, oh, so lovingly, Its tiny wings upon my breast .*
* We do not deem it inappropriate to insert here another poem by this gifted woman, written on her re- turn voyage, after the burial of the noble man who had left her a widow.
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TO THE SOUTHERN CROSS.
Sweet Empress of the Southern sea, Hail to thy loveliness once more ! Thou gazest mournfully on me, As mindful we have met before.
When first I saw the Polar Star Go down behind the silver sea, And greeted thy mild light from far, I did not know its mystery.
My Polar Star was by my side, The star of hope was on my brow; I've lost them both beneath the tide, - The cross alone is left me now.
Not such as thou, sweet Thing of stars, Moving in queenly state on high, But wrought of stern, cold iron bars, And borne, ah me! so wearily!
Yet something from those soft, warm skies Seems whispering, "Thou shalt yet be blest !" And gazing in thy tender eyes, The symbol brightens on my breast.
I read at last the mystery That slumbers in each starry gem; The weary pathway to the sky, - The iron cross, - the diadem.
Dr. Judson was sent out to Burmah by the American Board of Foreign Missions, a Con- gregational society. But the English Baptists, the pioneers in the great modern missionary en- terprise, had already established missions in
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India. Dr. Judson knew that he might come in contact with some of these English Baptists, and on his long voyage in a sailing ship to India, he devoted his time to preparation for refuting their views and defending his own. The result was that he also became a Baptist, and was supported by Baptist societies to the end of his long, la- borious, and most honorable and profitable life in the missionary field.
So the Hannas, being descendants of men so earnest and sincere that, contrary to their per- sonal interests and affiliations, their natural pre- dilections and preconceived opinions, they both became Baptists while engaged in the process of seeking grounds from which to refute Baptist arguments, - being descendants of two such eminent and conscientious men, the Hannas are themselves Baptists by the best of right on both sides of the house, and are in no wise unworthy of their distinguished ancestry. Mr. Hanna him- self, besides being a ready and effective speaker, is one of the best scholars and clearest thinkers among Connecticut Baptists.
THE TESTIMONY OF ONE HUNDRED YEARS.
ADDRESS BY REV. THOS. A. T. HANNA.
A hundred years may seem to be a long time, or only a moment, according to the background against which we measure it.
" The memory of the withered leaf In endless time is scarce more brief Than of the garnered autumn sheaf."
A baby may live but a year, yet dur- ing that brief transit, out of the night into the light, the little one may have awakened a love like unto the love of God in this, that this love shall never die. The little hands REV. THOS. A. T. HANNA. and lips have smitten upon the harpstrings of the heart, and have awakened echoes that may abide with the immortality of the Lord.
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So a hundred years is but a brief period to measure against the dark expanse of Eternity ; yet how much of divine love and power may have been shown during the transit of a hundred years !
The testimony of these years has expressed itself doubtless in at least three ways: It has sometimes been an Affirmation ; it has sometimes been a Protest ; it has sometimes been an Experi- ence.
I. A TESTIMONY OF AFFIRMATION.
Think of the grandeur and importance of what you have had to affirm, the character of God; you have had to remind the world of its Creator and Judge, that he is Jehovah God, merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, yet who will by no means clear the guilty ; a just God, and yet a Saviour ; one who is mighty to save, yet speaks in righteousness. You have had to sound the bell of eternity in the ear of time ; you may have had to do this in times of great spiritual darkness. Imagine what a dreary land must be Cape Sable, or Cape Hatteras, shrouded in the wintry fog. Yet, doubtless, they have each a fog-bell on that melancholy and desolate shore; its tones are solemn, but salu-
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tary, as they pierce the murky air, and are heard upon the vessel's deck.
What glorious things you have had to affirm during these hundred years! When I traveled in Ireland, not so long ago, they showed me fine business places, and told me how many years they had been distilling the best whisky there. Some of them were proud of having done a cen- tury's work of that kind. But your witness and your labor have not been of low things. You have had the mighty facts of God and of Christ. You had heaven's business to carry on. When Samuel Rutherford lay a-dying, there came the warrant from the wicked King Charles Second to make him a prisoner; the dying man said : " Tell them I have received a summons from a greater King, and I behoove to answer my first summons." Now your mandate of testimony has come not from man, but from God. You are subpoenaed to testify in the greatest of all causes, God's controversy with man ; you were called to tell all that you knew of Christ and of His sal- vation, and your own part and interest in it. Facts, then, facts; the great facts of Christ: His incarnation, His suffering, His death, His rising from the dead, His going up to the throne; His
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pleading there for his people, His reign over heaven and earth, His coming to judge the world in righteousness.
II. A TESTIMONY OF PROTEST.
It has been a part of your work to lift your voice and use your influence against error. Not only error in regard to Baptism and the Supper of the Lord, but errors with still longer roots than these ; errors in the things of Christ and the gospel; errors that would leave no standing- ground for the believer, no anchorage for the soul. Like the morning and the evening gun of the fortress, your witness against destroying heresies has reverberated for a hundred years.
As in algebra (which some of the young people now present are studying daily) you know that the negative quantities are as important as the positive, and if they were neglected the prob- lem could not be solved, so we may learn much by considering the possible negations of history. It has been said, for instance, that the name " Protestant " itself is partly a negative term. Yet, what would this world have been the past four hundred years without that tremendous Pro- test ? Our Lord Jesus Himself made such a
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negative appeal : " If I had not done among them the works which no other man did, they would not have sin." There is a royal highway in one of the British colonies, and it was the practice, on one day of the year, to shut the public from that road, in order to maintain the royal title to it. By doing without that highway once a year, the people were reminded of two things: first, who it was that owned the road, and second, how important it was to them. Smeaton's lighthouse on Eddystone faced the unbroken Atlantic, and warned the stately ships, for more than a hundred years and twenty. Bell Rock light has lit the eastern Scottish coast for nearly a hundred. Now, if the lighthouse had not been there at all during the last hundred years! Well, then, the lighthouse is a protest against the rashness of the ships. Accordingly, in this place, and at this time, let us think what would have been the loss to Waterbury, to Connecticut, to the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ, if this pillar and ground of God's truth had not been standing here during the hundred years ending now.
Remember the record, that when the armies of Israel and of Judah joined to fight against Moab, they were in great fear and perplexity, till the
EDWY E. BENEDICT, Chairman of Church Committee - p. 134.
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prophet said : " Make this valley full of ditches ; " when they had done so, there came no rain, no flood, yet the Lord filled the ditches all; and not only filled them, but turned them red with blood - inundant sanguine fossae; and all the channels of your past career, I think, have had the red blood of Christ's atonement in them, and the fountain filled with blood has been ever flowing here; here, the Holy Spirit has turned the water of a mere moral reformation into the red wine of a complete and glorious atonement for sin. Alas that this should seem so strange to some ears now; but the scandal of the bloody cross has not ceased. I find upon your program the noble hymn, "Not all the blood of beasts on Jewish altars slain." I find that, and I welcome it. You call this day your " Old Home Day." Well, that hymn makes me feel quite at home here. Sir Philip Sidney said that to read the ballad of Chevy Chase, with its " stout earl of Northum- berland," stirred him like the sound of a battle- trumpet. So these hymns of Christ's atonement are to us. How many times, in the years now gone, has the trumpet of the great day of atone- ment been made to sound here, in song and ser- mon ! " It shall come to pass that the great
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trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come that are ready to perish."
III. A TESTIMONY OF EXPERIENCE.
You not only have had to proclaim and main- tain the great things of God and of the gospel, but you have had to bear witness to your own knowledge and experience of these things. You have had to see that the lower lights were kept burning, as well as the lofty ones.
Once upon a time, and many a year ago it was, I journeyed by rail along the part of the coast of Italy called the Riviera di Levante; a beautiful name, and the region is worthy of the name. Through many tunnels we sped, and as we came out of each, a splendid prospect of land and sea was before us ; but the journey was long, the day waned, it grew dark ; now when we came out of a tunnel, we knew that at our right, south- ward, lay a glorious scene, yet we could not discern it. But what did we see? At the mouth of every tunnel a poor lone figure, a man, lift- ing up a lantern, to signal to us that all was well. The glorious outlook over the vast Mediterranean was blotted out, but the faithful little lamp of the watchman was shining for us. Now, there
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are two things which a church of the Lord Jesus ought to do: In the preaching and exhortation there should be opened up a far prospect from time into eternity, a view over that wide sea ; but there are those whose souls are so involved in darkness that they will not behold the glorious outlook of the gospel believer ; now, the next thing to do is to let every little lamp so shine before men that, if they cannot see heaven, they can see the track by which we go. Multitudes, who will never lift up their eyes to behold the great sea, and the things of the land beyond the sea, yet may be ready to look at your little lantern, to see if that burn all right, and if it burn all night.
In a silent midnight lake of the northern wil- derness, the stars of the Great Bear form their shining image ; but when day comes, no film of that image remains. When, however, one soul shines into another soul, it leaves that which the years of eternity cannot wholly make to pass away.
Tell the lovely story of what you know and have felt of the glory and loveliness of Immanuel, as has been told by the generations that are silent now.
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As I was journeying near your city, I saw a long building, with many windows lighted; and it was built close beside a broad running stream. It was early evening, growing dark. Cold and swift was the flow of the water, but the bright- ness from all those lighted windows was re- peated in the stream; and each new wave, as it rolled on after its predecessor, had its own share in the shining of the many windows. Shall I expound my little parable? This church of a hundred years has been that long building; its many faithful members, letting their light shine, have been as those many windows; and the multitude of the souls sweeping by, during these three generations, have been like those cold and countless waves, and all the light that fell upon them was the testimonial light of your shining lives.
STUDY YOUR OWN HISTORY.
You will not see the spiritual brightness of these hundred years, unless you climb to a height of faith yourselves. A traveler tells us how he went up the Peruvian Railway, 12,000 feet above the sea; and then took boat upon the level of a vast lake ; and from that high level he saw, east- ward, a hundred peaks of the Andes, ten thou-
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sand feet above him still. Arise then, and sur- vey the hundred years of your history, and from every peak let a voice fall toward you; for it is God's strength that has set fast these mountain years of gospel history in Waterbury.
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A CONTINUOUS TESTIMONY.
As our beloved brother the Apostle Paul said, so you can say : " Having therefore obtained help from God, we continue to this day, witnessing both to small and great." Your testimony has never been brought to silence, nor have your songs been made to cease. A certain French poet describes the cruel fate of the Knights Templar, who were all condemned by the command of their King to die by fire. As they stood upon the great funeral pyre, they lifted up their voices in sing- ing of psalms. While they were yet engaged in this, the flames began to rise about them. After a little while came a rushing messenger from the King, that they were to be pardoned and pre- served. "But," says the poet, " it was too late for that, the songs had ceased."
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