USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Winchester > Annals and family records of Winchester, Conn.: with exercises of the centennial celebration, on the 16th and 17th days of August, 1871 > Part 51
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essential equality of all men is seen, and what is known to our highest civilization is soon to be known everywhere.
A hundred years ago despotism prevailed in the world. Chattel slavery, with all its abominations, existed under all governments, and the labor and life of the people were sacrificed to the aggrandizement and luxury of kings and nobles. The young giant of freedom now stalking over the earth and shaking thrones was in the birth throes.
Now slavery is virtually abolished everywhere. The mightiest governments are free, and kings hold only a barren scepter. The people are rising in their majesty with the rising tides of intelligence to their true place.
A hundred years ago and Christianity was confined within narrow limits. Darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people. Now the outposts of the church are in all lands, the Bible is known in all human languages, and the onward march of time is pregnant with prophetie voices, saying, "Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ."
To come back to our text. How much have this church, and others like it. done in the line of these changes? "Out of Zion the perfection of beauty God hath shined." How much have they done for popular education ? General Garfield, in a speech at Williams College at the last commencement, said he was at the Paris Exposition in 1867, and one morning a friend called him out of the building to show him some- thing. Going outside he saw a farmer's house, a cottage, framed in our west, taken across the water, and set up there, and beside it a school- house, and the crowned kings and representatives of the nations were looking at it. It needed but one thing more to represent the trinity of our American life - the home, the church, the school-house. Our fathers built their rude homes, then the church of God, then the school-house, and their children, as they have created new states, have followed their example, only often the school-house has come before the church and served the double purpose.
Popular education is an outgrowth and a necessity of our congrega- tionism. A democratie church, as well as a democratic state, must have an intelligent constituency, and the New England Church inaugurated popular education for the world.
How much have these churches done for freedom ? A few weeks sinec, in the first flush of this summer's verdure, I stood in one of those cities of our patriot dead that are here and there in the South. It was on the bank of a running stream, and was well enelosed, with graded drives and walks, and more than two thousand graves. A thousand flags waved from the head boards, the skies were bright and peaceful, and as the procession filed in, marshaled by the colored police of the city, lately
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slaves, and a colored band playing the dirges, followed by hundreds of colored citizens, and the children of the schools singing patriotic songs, and scattering with their dusky fingers floral offerings on the graves of the heroes ; the scene was both touching and significant. New England first lighted the fires of freedom. New England said the virgin soil of the continent should be free. The place was holy with the dust of the sons and grandsons of New England. New England sent the men and women who opened the mysteries of knowledge to these dark souls, fron whose hands New England bravery had wrenched the manacles. And these are but the vanguard of a mighty host, redeemed themselves, and ministers of redemption to a mighty continent soon to stretch out her . hands unto God.
The congregational church, arising out of the fires of persecution a free church, gave type to the civil government-created the Republic. The leaven of freedom that was in her beginning is fast leavening our humanity. New England saved the Republic in the day of her mortal peril. No thoughtful man who was in the Northwest in the great Rebellion could fail to see that New England principles vitalized those great states, kept them true to loyalty, and sent their armies into the battle fields, over which our flag of victory finally waved in triumph.
How much have these churches done for Christianity? There is a germ of infidelity in every human heart. "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God." There are two things that are ever alive in the world as antidotes to this : the providential government of God and the church. When I see one who has spent life in the service of an unseen God, trusting in him, when his days of active service are over receiving in ways as unexpected and supernatural as though it had dropped from heaven, the supply of daily want, I cannot be an infide 1. Sodom in her day, Jerusalem in her day, Rome in her day, Paris in her day, have pro- claimed through the centuries the presence in human affairs of an unseen almighty and all-avenging God.
Men may reason as they please. Darwin, Huxley, Herbert Spencer, Renan. We who have felt the influence of the ministry of Frederick Marsh, and heard Lorrain Loomis and Levi Platt pray, and seen how they lived, and the holy men and women that were around them fifty years ago, cannot be infidels. John Randolph said he should have " been an infidel but for the remembrance of the hour when his mother laid her hand on his head and taught him to say 'Our Father who art in heaven.' " How many of us have felt the same influences. A church with such mothers as we had is impregnable against all the assaults of infidelity. -
How much have these churches done for missions for the regeneration of the world? I know of no spot where this question could be better answered than in this hill country of Connecticut. Six miles from this
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spot, eighty-eight years ago, there was born a son to the pastor of a sister church. Grown to manhood, he became the subject of a remarkable religions experience. In one of the most beautiful valleys on the face of the earth, among the majestic hills of Northern Berkshire, in sight of one of our honored colleges, is a park of twenty acres, and a grove and a marble monument, marking the spot where that young man gathered his companions for prayer, and where one day, when they were sheltered from a passing shower by a hay-stack, he first proposed to them to go on a mission to the heathen. He stimulated a missionary spirit everywhere. Samuel John Mills is known through the earth as the father of that mighty missionary movement of modern times which has its home in this country. He it was who said to a friend, "You and I are very little beings, but we can make our influence felt to the ends of the earth," and he did, whether you measure space or time.
Fitty-two years ago, in sight of this ground, two young men were ordained to the missionary work. They were the actors in that mar- velous drama of modern times, the creation of a Christian state in those voleanic islands in the Pacific, once peopled by savages. Why were they ordained here? Because this was historic ground. Here Mills was born. Here was the first auxiliary of the American Board. Here was the Foreign Mission School which grew out of the romantic history of the landing of Henry Obookiah on our shores. Here was a group of pastors who were fanning the missionary spirit into a flame, whose glorious brightness fills the land.
The first pastor of this church had a grandson, born just over our border, near the spot where the first settler of the town made his home, who ended a devoted and brilliant, but brief, life as a missionary in Persia.
Hlas this church done her part in the mighty changes of the century in which her sisters have had so potent an agency. If she has not, her . centennial year is not worth celebrating. Samuel J. Mills was not born here. The first missionarie ; to the Sandwich Islands were ordained at Goshen. The Foreign Mission School was at Cornwall. I do not know that this church has ever sent any of her members to the heathen, though Mr. Daniel 11. Austin, who was born here, was a missionary to the Osage Indians, but I do not believe that any pastor ever did more to foster a missionary spirit among his people than Mr. Marsh. I do not believe that any member of any of our churches, that did not go or send a child to the field, ever did more for missions than Deacon Loomis or Deacon Platt. I know that this church has had many members that have been mighty in prayer for the extension of the Kingdom of Christ. I know that she has had a great many sowers and reapers in the great field of the world. A considerable number of ministers have grown up here
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for come rom families who have emigrated from here. I mention Rev. Noble Everitt of the early days, Rev. David Goodwin, Rev. Eliphaz A. Platt, Rev. George Baldwin, Rev. James R. Coe, of the Episcopal Church.
This church has not been behind in the reformatory movements of the age. When Mr. Marsh came here he found the usual drinking customs, but after the attempt to accept the proffered hospitalities of his people for one or two whole days of pastoral visitation, he told them they need never more offer him any alcoholic drinks, and when the temper- ance reformation began, lie and the leading men, and the great body of the church, came promptly into it. and there they have remained.
If the church did not come into the anti-slavery movement as soon as some others, she was true to freedom and loyalty in our great struggle, and gave of her life for the life of the nation.
I know not how it was with the early pastors of the church, but I know that Mr. Marsh always supervised the schools, as he did every thing else, thoroughly and well, and the church fostered education.
We have sent forth a great many teachers of the young. Fifty years since there was a quiet, silent young man here, who did a great deal to stimulate culture and prepare teachers in all the surrounding country. He fired many a young heart with his own love of learning, and sent many with his own stamp on them to every corner of the land. Only when we fully comprehend that mysterious spiritual thing we call influ- ence, which grows broader and deeper, like the rivers as they near the sea, and lasts through the centuries as the forests that grow from the scattered seed, will it be known what Silas H. McAlpine did for the world. The same influences have been at work since, are at work now here, and I know of no spot more favorable for the training of the young.
And what shall I say of the work of the church in these hundred years in our sainted ones and in ourselves ? How many struggling with imperfection and sin have been made meet for heaven? How many have crowned a Christian living with a Christian dying? This air seems to me to be astir with the breath of lives that have been transferred to immortal scenes, and yet are immortal here. Our fathers and mothers, though dead, yet speak. Our dead ! Their life was far away from the scenes of excitement that consume us. Engaged in the same round of toil day by day, and year by year, they found their pleasure in their religious life. The Sabbath was to them a day of benedictions. They delighted in prayer. From youth to hoary age they walked with God, and when they came to die, though we saw it not, they saw in the golden sunlight the chariot and horses of fire, and the cloud of glory on which the spirit went up to its home.
We who know something what we owe to a mother's prayers, and who
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cherish her memory in our heart of hearts, know that she received the secret of her power and drew the inspiration of her life in the church. If there is a God, Infinite, Almighty, and full of love, He has been in the church. If there is a home of goodness, glorious above all description, she has been furnishing residents for it. If you would measure her work you must measure eternity. If you would compute her work you must compute the bliss of heaven.
Let our dead, whom the years one by one have been carrying away to their rest, from their high seats as they wait in their songs to greet us to- day, tell what the church has done. Let the children and grandchildren of the church scattered over the earth, working for our humanity, give in their testimony. Let the unfolding future, the better ages that are com- ing, reveal it. We commit the question to that eternity which alone can show the boundless wealth of good there is in a true church of the living God !
How shall we greet the new century of our organized life ? Will it see as many changes as the buried years ? Will it see as many holy lives and as many triumphant deaths as the old ? Will it send forth as many sons and daughters to help in the final battles and final victories of truth and righteousness in the world ? There have been times when it has seemed that the new agencies would depopulate the hills, and cause some of these old churches to become extinct. Now I have a fancy that the same agencies, bringing these hills with their health-bearing breezes and their summer beauty near the great centers of life, may soon repop- ulate them, covering them with new homes of beauty and a better culture, making them radiant with new life. May it be as good as the old, and better ! The church, fragrant with the memory of our sainted ones, en- shrined in the perpetual life of those who have entered into rest, will live and God will live in her. The coming years will take us from this earthly scene. May they take us to the departed, the general assembly and church of the first born !
Let us be glad and rejoice ! This world has been waiting long for its king. He who died once is to reign forever, and the mightiest changes are to go on till He comes. The children of men are not always to sit in the region and shadow of death. Poverty, enforced and unrequited toil, ignorance and vice, pestilence and famine, are not to curse the earth for- ever. Not forever are the nations to seek glory in the destruction of each other. Not forever shall the earth groan beneath the battle of the war- rior with confused noise and garments rolled in blood.
Down the dark future, through long generations,
The echoing sounds grow fainter and then ccase ; And like a bell with solemn sweet vibrations,
I hear once more the voice of Christ say peace.
.
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Peace ! and no longer from its brazen portals, The blast of war's great organ shakes the skies, But beautiful as songs of the Immortals The holy melodies of love arise.
The choir then sang the hyinn, " Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing," &c.
ADDRESS OF WELCOME BY THERON BRONSON, EsQ., PRESIDENT OF THE DAY.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN :- In assuming the duties assigned me I have but a word to say.
I rejoice at seeing so many familiar faces before me of half a century ago. It calls to mind most vividly many pleasing scenes of our early childhood; and I rejoice at the privilege of tendering to you to-day a most joyous welcome.
Welcome in our hearts; welcome to our homes; enjoy with us this social gathering. And to all the friends who this day honor us with your presence, we bid you a hearty welcome; doubly welcome to the humble entertainment which it is our privilege to offer you.
And to my venerable friend on my right (Deacon Ira Hills), from the State of New York, in behalf of our Reverend Father (Rev. Frederick Marsh), permit me, sir, to extend to you a most joyous greeting ; and to you, venerable fathers, whose years reach back almost to the period we this day commemorate, who, under a kind Providence, have stood for so long a period of years as beacon lights, thus uniting the past with the present-and may we not hope with the future, by the divine permission, to the completion of a full century - may your last days be your best days ; and as your setting sun shall wane, may your remaining days be as calm, as peaceful, and as joyous as your former ones have been prosperous and victorious; and beyond life's pilgrimage may a glorious immortality be yours.
And now to the young before me : - Permit me to ask where are the fathers and the mothers, that little band of fourteen, for the commemora- tion of whose noble acts of a hundred years ago we are this day assembled ? For an answer, go to yonder grave-yard ; see there inscribed the names of that immortal band, upon the most unpretending, humble tablets, and that apparently almost by nature's hand. And the question recurs to us, where, at the next centennial, will be every person here assembled to-day? The history of our fathers but too plainly answers. We stand here to-day as did our fathers, occupying the front ranks in the history of the next century. Let me say to these youth, remember that little band; emulate their example; cherish their memory; live lives devoted to usefulness,
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that unborn generations, whose privilege it shall be to celebrate the next centennial, shall rise up and call you blessed. I doubt not the recollec- tions of to-day will be with you until these hearts shall cease to beat.
The formal exercises of the forenoon were then closed with a benedic- tion by Rev. Frederick Marsh, as follows: May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the IIoly Spirit, be and abide with us now and forever, Amen.
A procession was then formed to visit the locality of the first church, and after returning to the scene of the previous exercises, upon the green in front of the church, a most bountiful collation was partaken, the divine blessing having been first invoked by Rev. Joseph Eldridge, D. D., of Norfolk :
INVOCATION.
Our Father in Heaven, we thank Thee for Thy providential government over the world and for the establishment and preservation of Thy church among men. We thank Thee that Thou didst extend Thy care over those that came to this land and those who have descended from them. We thank Thee for all Thy favor to those who, one hundred years ago, dwelt here ; and for all the prosperity and all the blessings conferred upon them and their descendants, and that in circumstances of so much favor we may meet on this beautiful day ; and that this day we have been permitted to commemorate their history and derive lessons from their experience and their service, and enter into the blessings that, through Thy grace, they have transmitted to us. We thank Thee for all the blessings of the past and of this occasion. May we deliver the blessings granted to us unim- paired to those who shall come after us, so that when a hundred years have passed away, our descendants may look back towards us as we now look towards those who dwelt here a hundred years ago; through Jesus Christ our Redeemer, Amen.
The collation occupied nearly an hour, and was everywhere praised for its richness and abundance.
AFTERNOON EXERCISES.
The assembly having been called to order by the President of the Day, Rev. Samuel T. Seelye, D. D., of Easthampton, Mass., was introduced, who spoke briefly as follows :
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ADDRESS OF REV. SAMUEL T. SEELYE, D. D., of Easthampton, Mass.
MR PRESIDENT, LADIES, AND GENTLEMEN :- I have had the pleasure of looking over your programme, and I see you have a very large and rich entertainment provided for the afternoon. I will not, therefore, venture to trespass npon your time, allotted to those who have specially prepared themselves to entertain you. But it requires an effort on this occasion, with so much to inspire one, not to indulge in the luxury of making a speech for I fully enter into sympathy with this occasion, and am glad to see Old Winchester to-day in all her glory. As I was for twenty-five years the minis- ter in an adjoining town, and used to come here occasionally to see you, I am glad to find so many here to-day whom I did not expect to see. High as my opinion was of the good people of Winchester, I must say I did not know you could do as well as you have done to-day ; and I am glad to be here. I can say this with special unction and force after the grand collation you have provided. And if everybody, and more too, is not satisfied, it is not the fault of the good people of Winchester ; and what the speakers are to do after having eaten so much just now, I do not know.
While I rejoice to be here on this grand occasion, and feel the inspiration which stirs all your hearts, I am especially glad to see here my honored Father Marsh ; and in fact I came to Winchester expressly to see him and take him by the hand. I never shall forzet him ; for although my relations with my brethren with whom I associated in Litchfield county were always pleasant and profitable, no man did so much for my good, by his example and teaching, and the influence which I felt coming from him, as Father Marsh. I shall never forget his kindness at my examination, when theological controversies were more in vogue than to-day, and how Father Marsh poured oil upon the waters ; and he has always been a peace-maker, not given to strife. I have hon- ored him for the way in which he has lived, for the example he has set his brethren in the ministry ; and I am sorry, for one, that I have come so far short. But that is not his fault ; his light has been shining steadily all the time.
One thing I know of him that perhaps many of you do not, and which has been of great service to me. You know what Father Marsh's estate has been; how many acres of land ; how large an income he has had. Ile said to me years ago, that not- withstanding his wants might be ever so pressing, he always had the Lord's drawer in which was something, though not very much, which he consecrated to the Lord, and which he used for benevolent purposes. He said that more than twenty years ago. That has remained in my heart and influenced me as much as any one thing I ever heard. And I bless God for that example, and for that evidence of the consecration of property and all that he had to God and His service. And I have tried to do my duty better and be more liberal and more generous, because of my reverend father.
But Father Marsh is not perfect. There was one thing that I heard long ago that was a comfort, one thing that showed he had our weak, human nature; and to a man who is as great a sinner as I am, that is a comfort. But I never heard that Father Marsh came short and came to a dead halt, and lost his faith in his Christian principles but once. A good lady in Wolcottville related this, and said she never knew but one bad thing of Father Marsh; that on one occasion, when his good wife pre- sented him with a pair of twins, the good man was overcome. (Laughter.) That was the only time when his faith was staggered. (Renewed laughter.) But that did not last long : he soon got over that. I told the lady, my informant, that probably the tears shed, if any, were tears of joy, because the blessings God sent him were so much more abundant than he expected. (Continned laughter.)
I could say much more to show my appreciation of Father Marsh, but I can simply express the hope that God may keep him to his hundredth year and more to bless us and our children, if we are so fortunate as to have children. (Applause).
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ADDRESS BY REV. ARTHUR GOODENOUGH.
It is thought proper that I should say a few words on this occasion, not because it was thought I have anything to say to this audience that may be especially interesting, but to show that the church in Winchester has a pastor, and I come forward on this occasion to make that announcement.
Our chairman has already extended to you a cordial welcome here, and in the words that he has used I have no doubt he expressed the sentiments of this entire community. I can but repeat that we are glad to see you here to-day, that we sin- cercly hope that nothing has occurred or will occur to mar the joy of this occasion.
As we recall the events of our local history for the past hundred years, we valne that history not alone for the fathers' sake, not alone for the sacred influence which it throws around our homes to-day, we value it for the bond by which it unites so many loving he rts, separated so far and wide, with a common love of these old memories. The fact that I, a stranger to most of you, assume to welcome you on this occasion, shows to many of you undoubtedly that your childhood's home is not in all respects what yon once knew it; that changes are taking place. I myself have known something of the sadness that comes from a consciousness of a past, that will not and cannot join hands with the present, and I sincerely hope that none of you will experience changes to-day that will cause sadness as you visit these old familiar places. Surely the rocks, and the hills, and lakes are ready to welcome you with a glad smile of recognition, and if many well known faces have passed away, and others have changed almost beyond the power of recognition, yet we believe that the spirit of the elder times has not departed, even the spirit of the father's. The spirit that wrought in and with the fathers abides to-day where they dwelt, and will not let us forget them, but pointing to their foot-marks will say to generations yet unborn, "This is the way, walk ye in it."
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