USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > West Simsbury > Historical sketch of the Congregational church and parish of Canton Center, Conn., formerly West Simsbury. Organized 1750 > Part 4
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. By doctrines fashioned to the varying hour; Far other aims his heart had learned to prize, More bent to raise the wretched, than to rise. . .
" At church, with meek and unaffected grace, His looks adorned the venerable place;
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Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway,
And fools who came to scoff, remained to pray.
The service past, around the pions man,
With ready zeal. each honest rustic ran;
E'en children followed with endearing wile, And plucked his gown, to share the good man's smile.
His ready smile a parent's warmth expressed;
Their welfare pleased him, and their cares distressed,
To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given,
But all his serions thoughts had rest in heaven : As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form.
Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm,
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, Eternal sunshine settles on its head."
On Mr. Hallock's tombstone is inscribed the following epitaph :
" The grave's the pulpit of departed man, From it he speaks; His text and doctrine are Thou, too, must die and come to judgment.
"He shone with distinguished piety, humility, and heavenly wisdom. Sound in doctrine. faithful and unwearied in the service of his Lord, and deeply solicitous for the salvation of precions souls, and the immortal interests of his people. He made full proof of his ministry.
" May his mantle fall upon his successor."
Mrs. Hallock died Nov. 3, 1826, aged sixty-three. Her epitaph shows the people's estimate of her :
"As a parent she was affectionate and faithful; as a Christian, exemplary and watchful, and as a companion of a devoted minister of Christ,
"She doubled his joys, and half sustained his cares." " Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord."
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF REV. JAIRUS BURT.
I was born in Southampton, Mass., the sixteenth day of March, 1795. My father's name was Samuel Burt, whose father's name was Samuel, the son of David, the son of Henry, the son of David, who was one of the settlers of Northampton. He was the son of Henry Burt, who removed from Roxbury to Springfield soon after the settlement of that place. My mother's name was Charity Pomeroy, daughter of Captain Abner Pomeroy of Southampton. My grand-
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father was one of the first settlers of Southampton. and was, as I have been told. a man of some consideration in public affairs. My parents had eleven children, six sons and five danghters. I was the fifth son and ninth child.
Among my earliest recollections was the burning of my father's house, when I was two years, two months old. I remember little more than the fact that the younger children were sent to the barn under the care of some of the elder, and seeing the men come to the barn-well for water. I saw them lift off the curb and dip the water from the top, it being full to the brim. I have no recollection of any feeling of sadness or regret. My views of the whole scene were those of a child, doubtless, with little or nothing of practical result.
In early childhood my mind was occupied more or less with the question of personal religion ; but my seriousness. a temporary hope cherished for a time, was like the morning cloud and early dew that pass away.
In the autumn of 1808, when I was thirteen years old, I had a very severe attack of inflammatory rheumatism, which confined me through the subsequent winter, and brought me to the very door of death, in the view of my friends. My recovery was very gradual, and my system left in a state pre- disposing to rheumatic attacks.
During this early period my life was marked only by the common incidents of boys on a father's farm in an out-section of the town.
The ninth of July. 1516, I was married to Electa Carpen- ter, daughter of Israel Carpenter of Norwich, Mass. She was a native of Coventry, Conn. We lived together till March, 1818, in which month I buried her and her infant son of twelve weeks, born January 20, 1818. She died the fourth day of March, and onr son, Joseph Carpenter Burt, on the twenty-seventh.
During the summer of 1815, the year before my marriage, my mind was for months occupied with the fact of my lost condition as a sinner, and the necessity of my becoming a new creature in Christ Jesus. The result was a hope of
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salvation through the blood of Christ, which was shed for remission of sins. This change of views and feeling on the subject of religion took place in the latter part of the autumn of that year. She who was to be the wife of my youth was converted to Christ. as she hoped, the winter following: and we made public profession of our faith in Christ, and united in covenant with the Congregational Church in my native place, then under the care of Rev. Vinson Gould, the first Sabbath in May, 1816.
My state of health became so impaired in the spring and summer of 1818 that I was unable to labor on the farm with profit; and with advice I went, in July, to spend some time with my brother. Rev. Sylvester Burt of New Marlborough, Mass., to qualify myself for the business of school-teaching, and meanwhile to raise, if possible, a better tone of health in my system. The result was my commencement and prosecu- tion of a course of study with a view to the preaching of the Gospel. I pursued my preparatory studies with my brother, and entered Williams College at the Commencement in 1820, a freshman. About the middle of the next summer I left college and entered the Collegiate Institution in Amherst at its opening the following autumn. There I continued my course of study until I had completed the prescribed four years, and graduated at the commencement in 1824. In the autumn of that year I entered Auburn Theological Seminary in the State of New York, where I engaged in the course of theological study, and continued there till January, 1826.
From Auburn I returned to Great Barrington, Mass., and pursued my studies there till I was licensed to preach the Gospel by the North Association of Litchfield County, Conn., on the first day of June, 1826, at the house of Rev. Timothy Stone in South Cornwall. The licensure was in the following form :
" At a meeting of the North Association of Litchfield County, on the first day of June, at the house of Rev. Timo- thy Stone in South Cornwall, Mr. Jairus Burt of Southampton. Mass., was introduced to us to be recommended to the
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churches as a candidate for the Gospel ministry. After a full examination as to his actual and experimental knowledge of the truths and duties of Christianity, his aptness to teach, his views of entering the ministry, and his general qualifications, we do hereby approve and recommend him to the churches for the term of four years, according to the rules of this body.
"Signed,
L. P. HICKOK, Scribe.
I returned to my brother's in Great Barrington, and preached for him the next Sabbath, the Sabbath following in South New Marlborough, and the second of July commenced preaching on engagement in Coleraine, Mass., where I sup- plied ten Sabbaths. During that time I received an invita- tion from the committee of the Congregational Society in Canton, Conn., to preach, with a view to settlement in the work of the ministry, should that appear to be the will of God. I accepted the invitation, and preached my first ser- mon in Canton, September 17, 1826. My texts on that Sab- bath were, Gal. i, 9; Ps. cxxxvii, 1. Subjects, "The Curse of Preaching a False Gospel," and " Weeping Over the Deso- lation of Zion." The impression was apparently good, and at their request I consented to preach and visit, as I could, till their annual society's meeting, which would be held the last of October.
At the annual meeting. the last Monday in October, I received in form an invitation from the society, through their committee, to settle with them in the work of the ministry, stipulating to pay me an annual salary of $500. A unani- mous invitation from the church preceded this call from the society. The call of the society also purported to be unani- mnous, eighty-eight members being present. In due consider- ation of the proposal in the circumstances, I was constrained to listen to it as a call of God to this field of labor. I signi- fied my acceptance of their invitation, accordingly, and was ordained to the work of the Gospel, by arrangement, the twen- tieth of December, 1826, by the North Consociation of Litch- field County, with which this church was then connected.
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Rev. James Beach of Winsted. presided on the occasion. Rev. Frederick Marsh of Winchester offered the introductory prayer. My eldest brother, Rev. Sylvester Burt of Great Barrington, Mass .. preached from II Cor. v, 20; the ordaining prayer was by Mr. Beach; charge to the pastor by Rev. Ralph Emerson of Norfolk ; right hand of fellowship by Rev. Erastus Clapp of Burlington ; the concluding prayer by Rev. Leonard E. Lathrop of Salisbury. My relations to the church and people as their pastor and minister being thus consum- mated according to Congregational usage, I preached the following Sabbath in the morning on the position and duties of a watchman, from Ezek. iii, 17. and in the afternoon from Romams xiv, 19, on following after the things that make for peace. January 24, 1827, I was married to Miss Betsey C. Ward of New Marlborough, Mass., and was thus again set- tled in family state. We commenced house-keeping immedi- ately, my youngest sister, Persis, living with us for a time. I was now established in my parish and in my family. under the responsibility of the pastorate and the household. The people were kind, and liberal in their expressions of respect and regard, and everything seemed to promise a happy and useful ministry. But it was soon manifest that sin had its strongholds in Canton, as well as elsewhere; and that the ministry which would be faithful must not shun to grapple with evil habits and customs, however hoary or strongly intrenched.
On the fourth of February, 1827, I preached two sermons against intemperance from the text, " Strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." Prov. xx, 1. After an introduction showing the nature of intoxicating drinks as a raging element I went on to show -
I. When men are deceived by them :
1. When they think them necessary as drinks.
2. When they think the stimulation of them will help them to accomplish more business.
3. When they think there is no danger in their use.
4. When they think them conducive to the prevention of evil effects from cold and heat.
لل ملف
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5. When they are deemed necessary for the polite enter- tainment of company.
6. When they drink more than is for their health and usefulness.
II. That it is unwise to be thus deceived by them, because :
1. The use is a waste of property.
2. The use is a waste of health.
3. The use is a waste of reputation, and jeopardy of the soul.
4. The use is productive of great wretchedness in others.
The two sermons were then closed with an appeal on the question, " What can be done to check this spreading evil ?" It was said, " Look at the savage monster lurking about from place to place, hunting for the body and the soul. I wish the attention of every man, woman, and child could be arrested that they could all have a full view of the tremendous evil." "Did von believe a beast of prey prowling about your folds, how you would fortify every point, that your flock might be safe."
" Were the Indian of the forest lurking about your dwell- ing in thirst for your blood and the blood of your children, would you feel secure : Would you open your doors and invite him in? Here is an enemy not less dangerous, one who has destroyed more lives than all the American Indians. Deal with him then, as with a savage foe ; fortify every place exposed ; keep out your guard ; let the alarm be given, and when given, taken." "This enemy is making families wretched ; he is warring on the authority of God, and the peace and well-being of man. Nor does he spare the church, her sacred enclosures are entered. Can nothing be done? Place on your banners entire abstinence, and something will be done."
The following Sabbath I preached a sermon (February 11) on the text Hab. ii, 15. This was designed to hit the case of manufacturers and venders. The plan of this sermon was to -
I. Notice some prevalent practices in the community.
II. Show that these practices are needless.
III. Consider the evils resulting from them.
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Thus my position was early and clearly defined on the nature and use of alcoholic liquors, particularly in their spirit- nous form as distilled. The waking to the evils of fer- mented liquors as equal to those of distilled, and as alike to be abandoned, was reserved to an after day in the progress of temperance knowledge.
1827. Just at this time were manifested in the congrega- tion and community the tokens of God's presence in the person of the Holy Spirit. The assemblies for religious worship were filled, the attention to the truth increased till in the fol- lowing spring and summer we were in the midst of a powerful work of grace. Believers were revived and quickened, and sinners in great numbers converted to God.
September 2, 1827, eighty-eight were received into the church on profession of their faith, and in October and Novem- ber twenty others, making in all one hundred and eight, and in the following year eleven on profession, making one hun- dred and nineteen, which may be considered the fruit of that season of refreshing.
Among the early developments adverse to the success of the ministry was not only the use of intoxicating drinks ; but also the institution of Freemasonry, which became more openly hostile to gospel truth in consequence of its exposure by William Morgan of Western New York, who published his book on Masonry in the latter part of 1826. Its extra- judicial and wicked oaths as exposed by Morgan and corrobo- rated by other Masons, who renounced their connection with the order and took grounds in opposition to the system, aroused extensive opposition to an institution based on such obligations of secreey. In this state of things the preaching of the Gospel in its principles and spirit was charged as anti- Masonie. So a disposition was manifested by those in sym- pathy with the order to make an impression by formally withdrawing from the Ecclesiastical Society by lodging their certificate with the clerk of the society. Two per week were thus to withdraw, it was said, till some fifteen or twenty or more had left. The certificating commenced and proceeded till four individuals had left on two succeeding weeks. Here
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it stopped. But the excitement was high and protracted, seeming for a time to threaten ruin to everything valuable and sacred. But the Lord delivered us from the rage of the people, though not from the evil working of this secret association. Not having been initiated into the secrecies of the Order, I could only say what I did say and defend, " that if the Masonic oaths were as represented in Morgan's book, they were wrong, wicked in the extreme, and deserved the reprobation of every lover of God and man." This was my doctrine on the sub- jeet of Freemasonry, nor have I yet seen cause to renounce it as an error. I viewed it then as I now do that that, and the whole family of secret associations, was wrong, and a danger- ous element in civil and Christian society.
On the fifteenth of June, 1829, we had a son born whom we dedicated to God in baptism, naming him Jairus Ward. A new relation to us clustering about itself untold interests and responsibilities. " The future all to us unknown."
In the autumn of 1831 were held in this as in many other places protracted religious exercises from day to day, which were attended and followed by the special influences of the Holy Spirit. In the following year, 1832, twenty-six were added to the church on profession of their faith in Christ.
The year 1834 was marked by special religious interest to a limited extent, adding to the church seven young persons.
In August, 1835, I was laid by with a slow bilious fever, in which my system was greatly damaged. Through the month of August I did not preach ; but resumed my labors in Sep- tember, and was enabled to preach on the Sabbath, though with great difficulty, till the latter part of December, when a violent cold brought on a severe attack of acute bronchitis, and laid me by from preaching for three months. My recov- ery from this attack was exceedingly gradual, so much so that at times I thought my work in the ministry was nearly closed.
In the years 1837 and 1841 there were some pleasant mani- festations of the Holy Spirit, which added a few individuals to the church.
About the year 1833 dates the waking of new and deter-
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mined interest in the country on the institution of American Slavery. The meeting of a convention in Philadelphia, in December, 1533, and the organization then of the American anti-slavery society, under God, set in motion a entrent of events the end of which is not yet. My own mind was turned to the subject, and my inquiries soon satisfied me that a great question was to be met and religiously answered. My con- victions became deep that the watchmen on the walls of Zion had a duty to perform. Nov. 20, 1836, I preached two ser- mons on the subject. One from Isa. xxi, 12, "On the duty of investigating important subjects "; and one from Heb. xiii, 3, "On remembering those in bonds as bound with them." The following Sabbath I preached another sermon on " Scrip- tural servitude." In these sermons I fully committed myself as a Christian and a Christian minister to the cause of human freedom against the institution of slavery. I followed up this beginning as I was able, and felt it to be my duty, ocea- sionally addressing assemblies in this and other places on the subject (with the favor of some and the frowns of others).
[Inserted by the Compilers. ]
[At one period in this struggle there were more who frowned than favored. At the sale of the seats in church in 1844 over forty who had been accustomed to take seats re- fused to do so. Deacon W. C. Humphrey took most of these seats in his own name: but was relieved of them before the end of the year by those who ought to have taken then.
In November, 1544, three persons in Canton Center, Rev. Jairus Burt, Calvin Case, Sr., and Deacon W. C. Humphrey, voted for James G. Burney, the abolition candidate.
Many interesting ancedotes are related of Mr. Burt's firm stand for anti-slavery. One, which I recall, is often told by older people. When the discussion was hottest, meeting after meeting was held by the people to compel Mr. Burt to resign or modify his opinions in some slight degree; but he stood firm, though well nigh alone. After one of these meetings, a gentleman said: " Mr. Burt is like his own son Jairus; you can't make him pick up the last chip." When Jairus was a
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very small boy he brought in a basket of chips and threw them on the floor. His father's command to pick them up was obeyed until he came to the last one, and alternate prayers and whippings, with difficulty, induced him to complete the task.
During the progress of a similar meeting some members of the society requested Mr. Burt to stop praying publicly for the slaves. Mr. Burt replied: " I cannot promise to do that, for the time may come when you will want me to pray for them."]
The struggle was hard and protracted. A new element was working in the public heart, and as always has been true since man's fall, the right and the wrong had respectively their advocates and opposers. The opposition affected to despise the anti-slavery movement at the first as a bubble that would break and pass away; then they undertook to stop dis- enssion, and thus prevent agitation. Meanwhile the friends of freedom were everywhere spoken against. But the work of inquiry went on, and the true anti-slavery cause has ad- vanced steadily from that day to this. Gag laws and rules have even seemed to awaken the people more and more, till it begins to be felt that the people are the masters and not the slaves of the unserupulous politicians.
November, 1854, the discussion is everywhere, in Congress and without.
There was a season of precious religious interest, among the youth especially, in the spring of 1847, after a long winter of anxiety and labor, with little sympathy and aid from the members of the church. The harvest, if not large, was rich in its character. In 1850 there was special interest again, and a few were added to the church. Thus God has not left us to utter despair. On the contrary, He has shown His readiness to bless His church and people when they would seek Him, according to His word.
The year 1833 we were called to drink most deeply of the cup of affliction, in the death of our dearly-beloved son and only child. He died in Suffield, Conn., at the home of his 7
THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY CHICAGO
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friends and ours, Rev. Daniel Hemenway, of typhoid fever, after a confinement to his bed of only about one week. Octo- ber Sth. His remains were brought to Canton the Monday following, the 10th, where an appropriate sermon was preached by Rev. Cyrus Yale of New Hartford, and his body commit- ted to the dust, the home appointed for all living. But for the sustaining grace of God in this bereavement we must have been crushed. [Mr. Burt was wont to say, "It comes over me like an avalanche."] O what debtors to that promise and its fulfillment. " My grace shall be sufficient for thee ! " He died a quarter past ten Saturday morning, and we returned lonely and sad to our desolated home to await the arrival of the precious dust, and be ready for the funeral services on the following Monday. I was enabled to appear before the people in my usual place on the Sabbath, and to preach both morning and afternoon. I preached in the morning from Ps. xcix, 1, " On the reign of God "; and in the afternoon from Job ii, 10, " On adversity from the hand of God." Our people were exceedingly kind and sympathetic in the expres- sion of their feelings and their sorrow with us. Smitten, may it be for our profit.
1854. The last of June, though feeble from the effects of a severe cold and consequent fever, I fulfilled an appointment of the general association of Connecticut to represent that body in the general conference of Maine, which met in Ban- gor, June 27th. Returning, spent the fourth of July in Boston, and the fifth reached home, decidedly improved in health and spirits.
The year 1854 was distinguished by a new political organ- ization (secret), put forth to work in sustaining the slavery and rum interests, and which at the town elections in Octo- ber had the control of this town completely. Another secret society.
1855. March 10. I am this day three score years old. Onward, ONWARD I go. May it be in the right way till death. All of mortal life before me is but a brief moment. May it be toward the land of the blessed.
1856. January 6. Sabbath. The ordinary worship in
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the house of God was prevented by a drifting snow-storm the last evening and this morning. Expounded Matt. xiii, 3-9, and had a season of prayer. Communion deferred, and public services in the afternoon omitted.
January 13. Great storm last night, which continues this morning, snow and wind filling up the roads to impassable- ness. Prospect, we shall have no public meeting to-day. This Sabbath has been such a day as no other in the last twenty-nine years. The state of the roads and the continu- ous storm were such that the house of God was opened neither morning nor afternoon. The Communion service for January still postponed, of course. In my family, at half-past ten o'clock, we sang a hymn, prayed, and read an exercise in " Primitive Piety Revived, or Christian Self- Denial as a Present Want in the Churches."
February 2. N. P. Banks of Massachusetts, was chosen Speaker of the House of Representatives in the American Congress after a two-months' contest with the supporters of slavery in the embodiments of the Pierce Democracy and American Know-Nothingism. The vote stood :
Banks, - - 103.
Aiken, South Carolina, - - - 100.
Scattering, - - 10 or 11
The election, by agreement, was under a plurality vote. May it be a true index of freedom's triumph. and a beginning of return to the early legislation in this country.
February 6. Just finished reading "Primitive Piety Revived." Truly a book for the times,
August. The session of Congress closing in August has been one of the most intensely exciting and important in our national history. The election of speaker, of a committee to investigate frauds in Kansas elections, disagreements of the two houses, violence of Brooks on Senator Sumner, and other things, are waymarks to the observer.
August 24. In the afternoon preached on public affairs, their signs and our duties, from Matt. xvi, 3. James Buchanan of Pennsylvania, being the candidate for slavery
كميه
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extension, John C. Fremont the candidate for slavery restric- tion. The issue, slavery or freedom; the battle-ground, Kansas.
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