USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > New Canaan > Canaan parish, 1733-1933, being the story of the Congregational church of New Cannan, Connecticut > Part 5
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John-I cannot say, but verily I have dreamed a most amazing dream-most amazing-but 'twas very sweet.
They rise and pass out slowly arm in arm, behind the boxwood.
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ANNIVERSARY SERVICE MORNING
Services in recognition of the two hundredth anniversary of the or. ganization of the Congregational Church, New Canaan, Connecticut, Sunday, June twenty-fifth, 1933 at 11 o'clock and 4.30 o'clock.
ANNIVERSARY PRAYER
O GOD, who didst move the hearts of husbands and wives in simple homes on these ridges to establish their place of worship on this hill, two hundred years ago, we thank thee that thou hast confirmed thine inheritance when it was weary, ever since, and that thy congregation has dwelt therein. We rejoice that in this place we may think, not of generations which rose and passed away, but of those who, having lived in truth and duty here, have gone into thy marvelous light. We thank thee that thy leading, felt in Nature without, in the Bible of long ages, and in the inner light we seek, is a continuing gift, and is ours. May our worship today be of thee, the living God, enhanced by thought of the past, and filling today and the future with the graces of faith, hope and love. Amen.
(Note: The high pulpit is a reproduction of that in the second meeting- house; the upper part being original. The desk below it is the clerk's, where he took the attendance, and gave notices. The wall behind the pulpit was blank; no organ. The choir sat in the gallery.)
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MORNING SERVICE 11 O'CLOCK
Prelude-Largo (from Symphony in C) Haydn (1732-1809) The Hymn of Praise-174 Croft (composed in 1708)
Call to Worship and Invocation
The Scripture Lesson
Anthem-"Prayer of Thanksgiving" Edvard Kremser
We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing He chastens and hastens his will to make known; The wicked oppressing cease them from distressing, Sing praises to his name, he forgets not his own.
Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining, Ordaining, maintaining his kingdom divine, So from the beginning the fight we were winning; Thou, Lord, wast at our side, all glory be thine!
We all do extol thee, thou leader in battle, And pray that thou still our Defender wilt be. Let thy congregation escape tribulation: Thy name be ever prais'd! Lord, make us free!
The Pastoral Prayer
1
Anthem-"Hymn of the Pilgrims" Edward MacDowell
God our Father, Glory, Lord, to thee! Before whose voice is mute the thund'ring sea!
Through wind and foam Thou lead'st us home, To thee be glory through eternity!
Lord, hunger and cold are nigh, Lord, not for ourselves we cry, Let not our children die.
Silence your loud alarms, God is our shield from harms, He will make strong our arms. Christ, who hath calm'd the wave, Christ will uphold the brave.
Christ, our Saviour Father of our Faith,
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To thee we bring faint hearts and failing breath, Be thou our guide, With thee we bide, To love, to labour, and to hope till death!
(Herman Hagedorn)
Notices
Hymn-468 (written in 1740) to tune "Martyn"
The Sermon-"Through Retrospect to Today"
Hymn-902 (written by Leonard Bacon of New Haven, in 1838) To tune "Duke Street" at 852.
Prayer and Benediction, with Choral Amens
The Postlude-"March for a Church Festival" W. T. Best
(The portrait of Mr. Clarke by Pirie Macdonald on the following page was one of but twenty portraits accepted by the Royal Photographic Society of England to be hung at their annual exhibition in 1934.) -
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Copyright-Pirie MacDonald
THE REV. MERRILL FOWLER CLARKE
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THROUGH RETROSPECT TO TODAY
REV. MERRILL FOWLER CLARKE
Can we reconstruct the world of 1733 at least in high light and shadow? Suppose you were living in a log cabin on your tract of land, and that near it you were busy in spare moments erecting your permanent house, central chimney, kitchen, keeping room and parlor and all. A forest lane led to the meeting-house; similar tracks wound up and down hill to Stamford and to Norwalk. At brooks you found no bridge; you forded them. In bogs you plunged in and out unless you were mired. You used an ax as much as a plough in your fields. Housekeeping was hard and never-ending. The sun was your clock. You made most of your furniture and clothes, and grew your own food. Your clothing was heavy, whether homespun or broadcloth. If a man, you possessed perhaps two fine linen shirts. But what we call under- wear was unknown. You ate from wooden trenches and slipware. Two silver spoons were a treasure. You pulled your piece of meat from the common dish with your fingers. No one had ice in summer, and the articles you might buy for your household were not many more than salt, a little sugar, rum and gunpowder. An orange would have been a curiosity. A signal event was the purchase of a bolt of cloth.
Yet you belonged to a world which considered it was living in an age of elegance. The long reign of Louis XIV in France was just over. It had set a new standard of living and of manners for the privileged few, and burdened the great mass to pay for it. Your colony of Connecticut had to give nominal allegiance to George II in England. Perhaps you know that he was a dissolute quarrelsome man who brought the monarchy in England to the lowest estate it ever had as a political influence. His was the type of mind that can see only details. He never forgot a date. His greatest pleasure was in counting his money piece by piece. An intimate said of him: "He seems to think his having done a thing today an unanswerable reason for his doing it tomorrow."
In 1733, if an English newsletter ever was passed around in your neigh- borhood, you might have learned that Voltaire was visiting in England-he whose keen pen pierced through the crust of privilege and injustice in Europe, although not for centuries was he credited with the high motives which actually moved him. He found in England a tolerance absent from France. But with it was a profound religious indifference among writers and the aristocracy. Churches were at a low ebb-absentee rectors and fox-hunting parsons. The Quaker movement was establishing itself, however. William Penn was being prepared for his future leadership in Pennsylvania. And the
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great mass of people were all ready for the message of John and Charles Wesley when they came.
But in 1733 Canaan Parish was nearer the really exciting and creative things in your world. For nearly a century Connecticut had been experiment- ing with democracy. It was not a colony so much as it was a federation of independent towns. The constitution of the first three to be organized said not one word about the "dread sovereign," or the "gracious king" of England. Instead, it claimed for the towns all the rights which the General Court had not assumed, never mentioned the British at all, nor recognized any government outside of Connecticut. That had been exciting. Some one has compared Connecticut towns to the free cities of Greece. And the significance of the quotation from Thomas Hooker which is printed on the Order for this after- noon's service is that he, founder of the first Connecticut settlement, believed in the power of the people to govern themselves, and said it was scriptural. If, said he in effect, they seem not to be able to govern themselves now, give them opportunity and they will train themselves to do so-the Lord will remove the veil from their faces.
That had been in 1639. Canaan Parish was so organized. But I can well imagine that in 1733 a few were not so enthusiastic for pure democracy. The ardor of the fight against the Massachusetts tyrants, the Mathers and the rest, was dying down, and instead, in 1733 the colony was getting a large share of new immigrants out of the hopeless mass of old-world laborers. Broken men, bondservants, "gaol birds" came from England; German peasants and Scotch- Irish from Ulster-two hundred thousand of the latter came between 1718 and the Revolution, to various colonies. They hated the privileged classes, but had little else in common with the first settlers in our towns. It is instructive to find, at the end of the century, how glad Timothy Dwight of Yale was to see them leave for New York State. "Such restless spirits," he wrote, "are impatient of the restraints of law, religion, and morality; they grumble about the taxes by which Rulers, Ministers and Schoolmasters are supported. .. We have many troubles even now; but we should have many more, if this body of foresters had remained at home."
Well, by President Dwight's time, the towns of Connecticut were run pretty thoroughly by the Congregationalist Consociation of Ministers and the Federalist party. Democracy has had to take forced vacations even in Connec- ticut. And to the puzzlement of all future schoolboys must be added this: Pure democracy sprang up here with Thomas Hooker. But in the debate be- tween the democracy which is symbolized by the name of Thomas Jefferson and the federal idea associated with Hamilton, Connecticut was on the federalist side.
The mention of those aspects of two hundred years ago needs no explana- tion in a Congregational Bi-centennial in Connecticut. The economic side of
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life, the political as well, were intimately touched and guided by the form of religious life set up here. By reminding ourselves of them we came closer to them, I feel, than by examining their covenant faith, or contenting ourselves with rehearsing their church customs. We hope that by the character of the service this afternoon, the old style singing, and this effort to simulate the appearance of the old meetinghouse, we may feel what their medium of religious expression was. We shall, however, omit a two hour sermon. And if we are to do so, I should like to bring outselves through this restrospect to today by a survey of that faith.
A good deal has happened to it. It is still sturdy, but, so to speak, it does not make its bearer trudge along under any such burden of impedimenta.
At the historical celebration of last year I ventured to describe the two leading ideas of this people in these words:
1. They sought to support their individual struggle with the wilderness and the stones by a community organization, offering protection, rights and social life.
2. They acknowledged a lofty interpretation of life. The Bible was their source-book for it. It spoke to them of life here in terms of stern responsibility, and of death and judgment, and of salvation by accepting the faith mediated to them by Calvinistic pastors. To us much is distasteful in it. But the discipline which held them was also their hope and their refuge. New Canaan did not become like Bret Hart's "Roaring Camp" in the West, because they acknowledged that a God-ruled society must be a group knowing God in their lives, their hearts and their homes, their church. And it must have reassured and comforted them.
Well, the original covenant of faith of this people was rockbound; it was hard and it was blue Calvinism. But it must be remembered that the people who embraced it were human beings,-the first members were nearly all young married people. They had more than that cold statement for their religion. They had a feeling of the lift and the nearness of God. A transfiguring inner experience was theirs. The Bible had a New as well as Old Testament, even if the God of their covenant seemed more of anger than of love. They knew the words of Jesus. And they knew laughter as well as fears; hopes as well as solemnities.
The truth is that Calvinism thus enshrined began to lose its supremacy in religious thinking with the Wesleys in the 18th century-"Jesus, lover of my soul" was written in 1740. The French revolution brought in a flood of humanitarian ideals-they seeped into consciousness everywhere. The Unitarian movement removed the angry God of the Old Testament and led people to see the father of Jesus as God the Father, binding men in brotherhood. The hopeless repulsive sinner who could never be saved unless God had decided before creation that he should be of the elect was transformed into a man born a son
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of God, who might know in his life the experiences of repentance and of being forgiven for his wrongdoing, and go on in love and trust. Life here was not just a training arena before the great and terrible Day of Judgement of the Lord, but a life that might be infused with love and goodwill, equal justice and brotherhood.
A living religious experience, through many channels, has brought this change. And I would ask those of you who are oldest in membership here: Have you not seen and felt it as you have followed the teaching of the men who have stood here before me? They have mediated a conviction that life is good and it is so because God is good. Jesus is the ideal for every man's life, and his principles for society. When did this change from the old come? Perhaps you can tell, but it must have been gradual. When did you stop hearing that all you have ahead is heaven or hell, according to the judgment of God, and begin to be led to think of your dear ones gone on before as en- tering the larger life where God is in the fullness of his love? When did the Sunday School quarterlies stop describing creation in six days, and begin to introduce you to the grand poetry of the creation passages in Genesis? When were you led to accommodate the theory of evolution to your thinking-from this place, I mean? And when did we begin to see the world movement for international peace as a part of the gospel that men are brothers?
Can any of you, moreover, remember a time when what actually came into your lives from worship and teaching in this place was not the personal communication of bravery and good courage, of trying hard morally and spiritually, of the dignity and the beauty of life,-from those who have here ministered?
No matter whether we can fix exact dates for such things. The things have happened. The Bible has been made over for people, as one said to me only last Sunday-its wealth of religious inspiration is seen as blotting out the framework of the old theology which people used to think was all you could find here. The Jesus of the roadside and the beloved home has come to dwell with us-and each time he does, he makes us surer that God must be like him. We have understood ourselves better, and we know that if we are full of fears, it is perfect love which casts out fear-and that Christianity stands for it.
A few years ago members of this Church were invited to write out what they considered the "Aim and Purpose of This Church." From the answers received I wish to quote one in conclusion:
'To foster and encourage the purest aspiration of the human heart and mind, which is to worship God.
"To inspire in all its members the conviction that life is a great spiritual adventure, as well as a splendid earthly one, and that every act and decision made in it from day to day is the measure of our spiritual progress.
"To make these major aims increasingly successful, all the outward ex-
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pressions of our church life should be gracious and fine. The service becomes the sincere effort of a group of people as one in their common desire to worship. As the church building is fine and dignified in form, so the interior too must always be kept beautiful to the eye in color and pattern. The music must be a spontaneous voicing of praise, and all social intercourse affectionate, con- siderate and friendly. I read the other day a few lines that suggested this Church to me. I quote them: "I like country churches, where He comes in the very door in grass and trees and sky, and then one enters and finds Him within, distilled by the very walls of the little sanctuary into the most intimate of friends."
But our church aims to go further even than this; since in the past the same profound desire, though it has built the most noble of churches for worship, has also through its too narrow vision limited their powers by a separation into many and antagonistic groups; and these have grown far apart from each other, and therefore from their original simple impulse to worship God. Wherever in our community petty differences have isolated peoples and groups whose spiritual adventure and goal should be the same, each church's aim must be persistently to break down these barriers, and make the Christian ideal of brotherly love a power to unite.
"Our Church strives with others to minimize the importance of sectarian group-ways and customs, and join frequently with warm and hearty cooperation in united services. In this way our common religious purpose binds us together without the fear that it will destroy any man's individual expression of his faith. Thus only those differences tend to remain which can enrich us all through the variety of their grace, beauty and helpfulness.
"The Church stands firm at all times in defense of THE GOOD LIFE. It cannot compromise with its honest convictions regarding the acts of in- dividuals or groups that disregard the finest ideals of social justice and enlight- ened humanity that we have already claimed for our Christian standards. As a Church, we recognize these values and by an honest attempt to live by them, and not passively accept them, we can prove the validity of our claim to desire for every man the same good that we seek for ourselves.
"The Church must vigorously and intelligently support all efforts made in behalf of Peace, better education, wider distribution of wealth, and honest government. It must guard against its own temptation to offend through a narrow censorship, or a barren aloofness from the affairs of the world which are its real concern and responsibility. It must know and be satisfied with the sources of its own income, and be generous and broad in its interpretation of where to give and how to share."
Can we not say that the Spirit we seek, which since New Testament times has made life glow, has been with us in this Church during the years, instructing and leading us?
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ANNIVERSARY SERVICE AFTERNOON
GREETING AND REMINISCENCES 4.30 O'CLOCK
"These are the times when people shall be fitted for such privileges (self- government ), fit I say to obtain them, and fit to use them. . . . And whereas it hath been charged upon the people, that through their ignorance and unskillful- ness, they are not able to wield such privileges, and therefore not fit to share in any such power, The Lord hath promised: To take away the vail from all faces in the mountain, the weak shall be as David, and David as an Angel of God" (Thomas Hooker, founder of Connecticut, in his "Survey of the Summe of Church Discipline," 1640.)
Prelude-"Andante"
Gluck (1714-1787)
Hymn-"The Church Hymn"-see leaflet. To tune "Marlowe" at No. 900-(1833)
Prayer-(The people seated)
The Scripture Lesson, read by Rev. Fred R. Bunker, State Missionary under the Church Mission (Raymond) Fund of this Church.
Two Samples of 18th Century Church Music Without Organ
(Note: Paraphrases of Scripture only were sung, in short, common and long meter, until the Wesleyan movement. The precentor, with tuning fork, "lined out" the hymn, repeated by the congregation. The first, to the famous tune "Martyrs" will be so sung by the Choir.)
(a) Paraphrase of Psalm 11
I in the Lord do put my trust; how is it then that ye Say to my soul, Flee as a bird, unto your mountains high?
For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, their shafts on strings they fit; That those who upright are in heart they privily may hit.
Tune, "Martyrs" (1615)
His eyes do see, his eyelids try men's sons. The just he proves But his soul hates the wicked man, And him that vi'lence loves.
Snares, fire and brimstone, furious storms
on sinners he shall rain. This, as the portion of their cup, doth unto them pertain.
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(b) Paraphrase of Eccles. 7:2-6
While others crowd the house of mirth and haunt the gaudy show, Let such as would with wisdom dwell, frequent the house of woe.
Better to weep with those who weep, and share th' afflicted's smart, Than mix with fools in giddy joys that cheat and wound the heart.
Tune, "St. Mary's" (1621)
When virtuous sorrow clouds the face, and tears bedim the eye,
The soul is led to solemn thought, and wafted to the sky.
The wise in heart revisit oft grief's dark sequestered cell; The thoughtless still with levity and mirth delight to dwell.
Reminiscences-extracts from papers prepared by two of the oldest living members: Mrs. Charles H. Demeritt, Mr. Gardner Heath.
Greetings from the Stamford Church-Rev. William H. McCance.
Old Style Paraphrase of Psalm 15
Tune, "St. David's" (1621)
Within thy tabernacle, Lord, who shall abide with thee? And in thy high and holy hill who shall a dweller be?
Who doth not slander with his tongue nor to his friend doth hurt; Nor yet against his neighbor doth take up an ill report.
The man that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, And as he thinketh in his heart, so doth he truth express.
In whose eyes vile men are despised; but those that God do fear He honoureth; and changeth not, though to his hurt he swear.
His coin puts not to usury, nor take reward will he Against the guiltless. Who doth thus shall never moved be.
Greetings from the Norwalk Church-Rev. Augustus F. Beard, D.D.
An 18th Century Connecticut Anthem.
Tune, "Salem"
(from "Select Harmony" by Andrew Law (1748-1821) of Milford, his book containing tunes named for many towns in New England.)
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-
Salem3 holm " BanT
wilt thou no more re-tunk,; wilt thou so mare
Why haftthor caftus off, O God, wiltthou gs mare re - tarn.
wilt
re-ked
re-tura,-
Wilt thou ne more.
wilt dise no moore re-turn, - -
0
does byherce anger bara,
. does
why againk thy chelen folk -
tthy thofry folk
dass thy fierce an -
per 1
m.
does by ferre anger horn,
0
0
Why hast thou cast us off, O God, wilt thou no more return, O why against thy chosen folk does thy fierce anger burn?
The Offering
A Chorale With Organ
J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
(Note: German Reformation Churches did not ban the organ.)
O rejoice, ye Christians, loudly, For your joy is now begun; Wondrous things our God hath done; Tell abroad his goodness proudly, Who our race hath honor'd thus, That he deigns to dwell with us.
In such love he comes to thee. Nor the hardest couch refuses; All he suffers for thy good, To redeem thee by his blood. Joy, O joy beyond all gladness! Christ hath done away with sadness! Hence, all sorrow and repining, For the Sun of grace is shining.
See, my soul, thy Saviour chooses Weakness here and poverty,
The Doxology, Old Style, with Precentor "lining out" (The congregation rising and joining.)
Recognition of Representatives of Other Churches, and former members.
Hymn-902
To "Duke Street," at No. 852
The Benediction-(all standing)
The Postlude-A Chorale Bach
The congregation is invited to walk through the parsonage grounds after the service, and exchange greetings there.
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REMINISCENCES
BY MRS. C. H. DEMERITT
In the early fifties, life in New Canaan, religious, commercial and agri- cultural, went on at a snail's pace, compared to the high-powered rush of today. The atmosphere of this part of New England was austere. Ministers, schoolmasters, even the home life, were more than austere. Duty and obedience were the slogans of the day. If one did not live up to them, there was some- one to see that he did. In the Church was the disciplining by the officials; in the schoolhouse was the rod. Riding for pleasure on Sunday was considered almost a "mortal sin." Except at the appointed hours of worship, hardly a vehicle was to be seen on the streets. So undisturbed was this Sabbatical still- ness that a lusty halloo from the upper end of Oenoke Avenue, where it branches off into the Lambert Road, could have been easily heard at the Congregational Church.
Against this one-time ecclesiastical background, like little rifts of sun- shine, was the keen sense of humor possessed by several pastors, notably the Rev. Mr. Eells, the first ministers, the Rev. Ralph Smith and the Rev. Frederick Hopkins. So ingrained in their natures was the quality that it would occasion- ally out, both in sermon and conduct. Possibly this accounted in a measure for their brief terms of service.
The first minister associated with my childhood was the Rev. Frederick Williams, who came to New Canaan fresh from his theological studies. He took up his work here with a singleness of purpose, that of bringing to Christ those who knew Him not. Like one of his successors, the Rev. Mr. Elliott, he was obsessed with a sense of his tremendous responsibility as a "shepherd of souls." With both, their chief aim was to gather within the fold those that were without. They did not wait for an "S. O. S." call, but went direct with argument and plea to those they considered in danger. I am sure, could one have followed each into his study, one would have found him on his knees, agonizing for the salvation of those committed to his charge.
SENSE OF BROTHERHOOD
The Fairfield "Consociation of Ministers" were occasionally called in. One of its functions was the "settling" (sometimes unsettling) of ministers, and passing judgment as to the fitness of the applicants for vacant pulpits. Its pronunciamentos were final. The entire body of ministers and delegates would descend on a parish to be entertained at the home of the parishoners for a day
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