USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Norfolk > History of Norfolk, Litchfield County, Connecticut, 1744-1900 > Part 11
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Monday, 14. No sleep last night. The whole camp in arms at 4 o'clock this morning, but no approach of the enemy.
Tuesday, 15. General Arnold got in, and his troops that escaped in the woods. Gen. Waterbury with all the prisoners were sent down from Crown Point and are here ordered home. I walked over to headquarters; visited the wounded, and a horrible spectacle they were. Desired by the General to go to Fort George with the sick and wounded of the Fleet. I agreed to go, but it was with re- luctance. The scout discovered a number of the enemy advancing towards this post; Indians and Canadians lurk- ing about.
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Wednesday, 16. At three o'clock set out for Fort George; rowed on; very dark; came by eastern shore; very still because of the enemy; passed a very uncomfortable night; no sleep; noisy swearing sailors. While I was at the bow discovering the islands and Capt. Goforth in the stern, the rudder band broke. We lay at the mercy of the waves, but floated near an island. Came near dashing to pieces several times on the rocks. Tried to land in vain, but at last by a gracious Providence got in the lee side and all lay in the boat until day. It rained hard; my heart grieved for the sick soldiers on board. In the morning we got into Lake George, very wet and benumbed with the cold. Could I once have thought that I could endure and undergo and safely go through such fatigue! Great have been the signal mercies of God.
Thursday, 17. Breakfasted at Jones'; afterwards shifted all my clothes; lay down and took a nap in my blanket. At 2 o'clock, P. M., visited all the hospitals; saw the wounded soldiers dressed by the surgeon. Prayed in four or five wards.
Saturday, 19. Feel tolerably well; rode down to Fort Edward; found a Mrs. Campbell of New York. She was rejoiced to tears to hear Christian conversation. Returned to camp.
Lord's Day, 20. Felt dizzy and weak. Rode to the hos- pital, but not without some fear of the skulking savages. Visited the general hospital in almost every ward. Preached and exhorted the sick and prayed with them.
Tuesday, 22. Rode to the lake; visited every ward through the whole hospital. Two or three just breathing their last. Prayed with them and tried to impress the living. The frequency of death often hardens.
Wednesday, 23. Rode to Stillwater with Col. Syms. Have not the least encouragement to do anything more. Worn down and low spirited; met militia going up.
Thursday, 24. Distress about here in fear of the tories. Called on General Tenbroeck at Fort Edward with a mes- sage from Gen. Schuyler. News of the death of one and captivity of two men at Ticonderoga landing.
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Saturday, 26. Rode down to the lake; found Doctor Stod- dard with the sick just arrived. Helped the sick about dis- charge. Visited the hospital; two have died with their wounds. Their suffering had been extreme; became easy before they died; had their reason. The rest, I hope, may live. Many more distressed creatures came over near night. They have a good surgeon, but physicians of no value to these mangled men.
Lord's Day, 27. Militia proceed on in great numbers to the lake. Came in a boat to Fort Miller, then in a wagon to McNeal's. Kinderhook regiment came up very noisy.
Monday, 28. Came to Gen. Schuyler's; waited on the Gen- eral; told him I was broken down; had in a measure lost my voice, etc. He was very loth to give me a discharge, but very ready to give me a furlough. Came to Bryant. An express passed us this evening with good news from the south.
Tuesday, 29. Came to Albany; did business and pro- ceeded towards home.
Wednesday, 30. Rode on horseback; put up.
Thursday, 31. Arrived at night at my own home, after near three months' absence, in fatigue, perils and dangers, having experienced the most distinguishing marks of Di- vince mercy and favor. Now, O for a heart full of grati- tude and praise and resolution to live thankful, humble and faithful, being laid under the greatest obligations thereto."
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IX.
"A HALF-CENTURY SERMON, DELIVERED AT NORFOLK OCTOBER 28, 1811 - FIFTY YEARS FROM THE ORDINATION OF THE AUTHOR TO THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY IN THAT PLACE-BY AMMI R. ROBBINS."
This sermon, containing so much that is of historical in- terest, and as a specimen of Mr. Robbins' sermons, is here- with given.
A SERMON- ACTS 26: 22, 23.
"Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this. day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come: That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles."
"Time, which is measured by years and months and days, swiftly, and by us almost imperceptibly, passes along, and will soon bring us to that state of existence where time will be swallowed up in eternity; where a thousand years will be as one day and one day as a thousand years. Oh, how short is human life! how soon do we run through it! how quickly do we pass from childhood to old age! To those few whose lives are protracted to that period, a retrospec- tive view of the various scenes and changes which have been passed, is as emphatically represented by Dr. Watts, 'Just like a dream when man awakes.'
This day, never to be forgotten by me, this anniversary completes fifty years since I was solemnly ordained to the pastoral charge of the infant church and people in this town. The several parts of the solemnity were performed
THE H. H. BRIDGEMAN RESIDENCE.
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in the following manner: The Rev. Mr. Lee of Salisbury made the introductory prayer. Rev. Mr. Robbins of Bran- ford, my honored father, preached the sermon from 2 Cor. 5-20. Rev. Dr. Bellamy of Bethlem made the consecration prayer and gave the charge. Rev. Mr. Champion of Litch- field gave the right hand of fellowship, and the Rev. Mr. Roberts of Torrington made the concluding prayer. None of these remain. They were not suffered to continue by reason of death. They have gone to give account of their stewardship.
Thus was I set apart to the work of the evangelical ministry, and to labor in the gospel with the people in this town. And 'having obtained help of God I continue unto this day.' And, oh, that through grace I were enabled in truth to add the following words of the text, 'witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come; That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people, and to the Gentiles.' But alas, I have abundant reason to exclaim in the language of the prophet Isaiah, 'my leanness, my leanness.' Yet through the great good- ness of God 'unto me, even to me, is this grace given, that I should preach among my fellow sinners the unsearchable riches of Christ.'
But who, where, are those with whom I was placed to minister in holy things in this town? Where are the mem- bers of the church with whom I communed at the table of the Lord in the beginning of my ministry? Alas! they are in the eternal world, two only excepted, and but one of these is still with us. (Mrs. Dorothy Case, relict of the late Mr. Asahel Case.) And of the people who composed my audience and joined in public worship, who were heads of families, there remain, if I mistake not, only seven persons. Of the youths, who were over fifteen years and under twenty, six only remain in town. 'Your fathers, where are they?' Yet by the providence of God, some hundreds have moved in to dwell here, and many hundreds have been born.
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It will be expected, it is presumed, on the present oc- casion, that an historical sketch of the church and town, more especially respecting our ecclesiastical and religious concerns, will be given. This will be attempted, after which some serious reflections, exhortations and counsel will conclude the discourse.
The inhabitants of this town were incorporated by Act of Assembly in the year 1758. In the early times of their settlement they set up and endeavored to maintain the public worship of God. From scattered individuals a church was gathered and formed by the Rev. Daniel Far- rand of the adjoining town of Canaan, on the 24th of De- cember, 1760. It then consisted of twenty-three members. Mr. Farrand was very helpful in their infant state by visit- ing and preaching with them, by administering the sacra- ments of baptism and the Lord's supper, and occasionally in attending funerals, and kindly visiting them in times of affliction. These his benevolent services I have often heard them acknowledge with gratitude and thankful remem- brance.
Several candidates for the ministry, such as Messrs. Curtiss, Gregory, Wetmore and Ives were successively em- ployed by the people to acceptance and profit. At length divine Providence directed their application to me. After preaching and becoming acquainted with the people a number of months, by the almost unanimous call of the church and inhabitants of the town, I was ordained to the work of the ministry in this place, on the 28th day of Oc- tober, 1761. The number of families in the town when I came here to reside, which was in June preceding my ordi- nation, was a little upwards of fifty. At the time of my ordination there were about sixty, there having been some accessions from different parts of the state in the course of the year. From that time to the year 1799 there was a gradual increase of inhabitants, till the number of families amounted to about two hundred and ninety. Since that time the number has been rather diminished by means of great emigrations to the northern and western parts of the
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United States. Various and instructive have been the dis- pensations of divine Providence from our beginning to this day. We have experienced seasons of prosperity and seasons of adversity. Situated in a hill country, with a free air, with pure springs and streams of water, we have been blessed with a greater share of health, it is presumed, than has generally prevailed in the state. Many, both men and women, have lived to a great age; several above ninety years and one above an hundred. Nevertheless we have experienced the visitations of severe sickness and fatal disease. In the year 1777, fifty-six persons of all ages from two years old to advanced life, were swept away by death. The next succeeding year, thirty-eight were called to follow them to the great congregation.
Besides these a number of husbands and sons died in the armies in the service of their country. Weeping and lamentation were in almost every dwelling, and the house of God on the Sabbath exhibited among old and young the badges of sorrow, the ensigns of mourning. As a people in our ecclesiastical and religious concerns, we have been blessed with uncommon union, with a general attendance on public worship, and a solemn regard to divine institu- tions.
There have been very few among us of a different re- ligious denomination, and very rarely indeed has there been a different meeting for public worship on the Lord's day held in the town. The first settlers of this town, like the venerable fathers who commenced the settlement of our State, were men who feared God; who sought as a pri- mary object, even in an uncultivated wilderness, the en- joyment of the blessed privileges of the gospel of Christ. 'When they were but a few men in number, yea, very few and strangers in it,' by their exertions, by their example, by their prayers, they laid the foundation of those religious privileges and that harmony which have been so long en- joyed. The people generally have been in the habit, and many I trust from a sense of duty, of resorting to the house of God on his holy day. Hence it has appeared that our
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house of public worship for many years past, although thought to be sufficiently large when erected to contain all the inhabitants that should dwell here at any one time, is often so crowded as to be very uncomfortable, especially in the milder seasons of the year. The number of the mem- bers of the church when it was gathered as before men- tioned was twenty-three.
From the first formation to the settlement of the pas- tor fifteen members were added, the most of them from other churches, making the number at that time thirty- eight. From that period to the present time, the lapse of half a century, there have been added to our number five hundred and eleven members, making in the whole five hundred and forty-nine. The number of baptisms, includ- ing sundry adults, amounts to twelve hundred and seventy- seven.
The ordinance of baptism has been administered to those only who were in full communion with the church. The number of burials in the town is seven hundred and sixty. Of these the greater part have been infants and small children. The average number is a little over fifteen in a year. The number of marriages which I have per- formed is two hundred and seventy-six. Many besides have been joined in wedlock by the civil authority. The first church meeting was held November 19th, 1761, three weeks after the settlement of the pastor. At that meeting Mr. Michael Humphreys was chosen to the office of deacon. He served in that office alone for about four years, when Mr. Abraham Camp was chosen to his assistance. Since that time there have been appointed to that office in suc- cession, Joseph Mills, Abraham Hall, Jared Butler, Sam- uel Mills, David Frisbie and Edward Gaylord. In Sep- tember, 1799, the church consisting of nearly three hun- dred members, it was judged necessary that there be three deacons. From that time to the present three have been in office.
It is the wish of the church ever to have money in their treasury, not only for the support of the Lord's table, but
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also to advance small sums to the poor and necessitous of their number, as may be needed. This has been often done, and this duty is left, unless it be a considerable sum, to the wisdom and discretion of the deacons. The treasury is replenished by an annual contribution.
I have now to observe that it hath pleased the great Head of the Church, the glorious King of Zion, blessed be his adorable Name, to remember this little branch of his visible kingdom with the precious influences of his Holy Spirit, by whose power and grace numbers of perishing sinners have hopefully been brought into the kingdom of the Lord Jesus. There have been some solitary instances of awakening from time to time, in which individuals have apparently become friends to Christ, and have been added to the number of his professing people. Of these there have been more or less almost every year. But we have witnessed three remarkable seasons, which were verily 'times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.' The first of these was in the year 1767, when there was an un- common seriousness and attention to religion generally through the town. Many were alarmed and enquired with solicitude what they should do to be saved. But alas! it was like a vernal shower-pleasant, but of short continu- ance. Some, however, were made the happy subjects of divince grace as we trust, sufficient to show that the work was of God. The number added to the church about that time was eight or ten, but several who dated their religious exercises at that season made a public profession of religion many years after, and united with the church.
But the years 1783 and 4 and the years 1798 and 9 were the distinguished periods for the displays of the power and sovereign grace of God, which will be remembered, I trust, with thankful praise and holy joy through eternal ages. Every recollection of these seasons is a subject of thankful joy and of just reproof. Our present coldness and indif- ference to divine things is such as we then fondly hoped never to see. As a particular account of these glorious revivals has been given to the public in the first volume of
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the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine, published at Hart- ford in the year 1801, I shall not now enlarge. I would only observe that in consequence of the former of these two revivals, fifty-two members were added to the church, and in the letter about one hundred and sixty. Since that period forty-nine have been added to the church, about one half of them by letters from other churches.
It may be observed with truth and justice, that the people of this town generally have been industrious and of regular habits, and attentive to the ordinary duties of life. The education of our youth and children, both in re- ligious and literary instruction, has engaged no small por- tion of our care. Few towns, I believe, have been more assiduous in their endeavors to second the wise exertions of the Legislature for the promotion of this most important object. The tranquillity and harmony which have pre- vailed among us, particularly in our ecclesiastical concerns, have been great, and such as to be noticed by many abroad. On this account it has never been found necessary to form a distinct Ecclesiastical Society. The people have trans- acted their society business in the stated town meetings, when those few who were of a different denomination did not act. They have been careful from year to year to leave out those, and such also as were in low circumstances as to property, when they estimated the necessary expense for the support of the gospel, the expenses for repairing the meeting-house, for encouraging singing for public wor- ship and other society charges. Thus by a kind and gra- cious Providence we have been carried along from the or- ganization of this town and church through a space of fifty years to this day.
It is my duty here to observe with humble thankful- ness to God, that I have not been taken off from public labours by sickness and bodily indisposition, but. ten months in fifty years. For five months in the year 1773 I was unable to perform ministerial duties, when the pulpit was supplied mostly by the Rev. Mr. Potter, formerly of Enfield, and the Rev. Mr. Newell of Goshen. In the last
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year, 1810, I was disabled from public service nearly five months, in which time the pulpit was supplied for the most of the time by the kind labours of my brethren of this As- sociation and three of my neighboring brethren in the min- istry in the county of Berkshire.
I was absent from my people nearly a year in 1776, in the service of my country, attached to the northern army. During my absence the pulpit was supplied partly by neigh- boring ministers, and partly by a candidate, Mr. Abraham Camp, who was hired for the purpose. I have been absent also about eight months in the missionary service in the new settlements, when the pulpit was supplied in the same manner.
As to my ministerial labours I may not, I cannot, I dare not boast. Oh, that I had been more laborious, more zealous, more faithful! Yet I trust 'I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God,' in important doc- trines, duties and precepts of revealed religion, so far as I have been enabled to understand them, with careful study and prayerful attention. I have preached, including those abroad, upwards of six thousand and five hundred ser- mons, and on looking at my preaching Bible I find that I have preached from passages in all the sacred books, ex- cepting the Epistle to Philemon and the second Epistle of John.
My doctrine and manner of preaching, my exhortation and teaching at religious conferences and at funerals, your fathers and predecessors, and ye yourselves also know. My instructing and catechising the children and rising generation, which in the former part of my ministry was generally performed at the meeting-house, has been at- tended latterly, in the respective school districts, twice in the year. My visits and administrations to the sick and dy- ing, many of you who have been bye-standers, must know. And you are my witnesses that I have often wept with those that weep. But why do I thus speak? Should it serve in any measure as a useful example to my children or to any of my younger brethren who may hear these declara- tions, let this be my apology.
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After all, I have abundant reason to acknowledge and humbly confess before God, and in the hearing of this nu- merous assembly, that I have fallen far, very far short of my duty in my ministerial labors, in every branch of my work. I have to lament that I have no more regarded and practised that divine, that solemn charge to ministers, 'Be thou an example of the believers, in word, conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.' I have abundant rea- son to cry out, as before said, 'My leanness, my leanness.' So great and numerous have been my sins and deficiencies in duty, my criminal omissions and commissions, that were it not for the free and sovereign grace of God, through the righteousness and atonement of our dear Saviour, I must be a castaway. On this boundless grace and mercy I desire wholly to rely, and hope for pardon and acceptance through Jesus Christ alone.
APPLICATION.
And now, my Friends, and to many of you I address a more endearing epithet, my children, I request your particu- lar attention while I close this discourse by way of exhorta- tion, and with some serious counsel and advice. And let it be considered as directed particularly to those who are and have been the people of my ministerial care and charge.
In the first place and above everything else, I call on you, I warn and charge you, "seek ye first the kingdom of God." Regard his glory and the salvation of your immortal souls. Be solicitous, be anxious that you become friends to Christ by experiencing a real change of heart. Our Lord Jesus, who will be your judge, hath told you beforehand, "Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." And his Apostle, guided by his spirit, has declared that "without holiness no man shall see the Lord." Let it then be your great, your primary concern, to obtain a title, through grace, to a glorious inheritance beyond the grave.
Your fathers, with whom I was conversant in early life, the most of them "have gone the way of all the earth," and I, your minister, and those of my age, soon must follow.
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You also who are now in the midst of active life, full of cares, public and private, must soon be called off from these busy scenes, and appear naked spirits before God. And you who are in youth, who calculate on many years in this world, must follow in quick succession to the grave, and your eternal state be fixed, forever fixed, in a world of joy or woe. What is this world to which we are so fondly attached? With all its wealth it cannot purchase the salva- tion of one soul. With all its honors, you may be plunged into a 'state of shame and everlasting contempt.' With all its pleasures and amusements, you may be left to "weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth." Oh, then, as you re- gard your God, your Savior and your own immortal souls, let it be your chief concern to repent, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and be reconciled to God.
You, my friends, are my witnesses that I have urged and pressed upon you the importance of these truths. Again and again I have taught and explained to you the great, the essential doctrines of the gospel. I have preached and urged gospel precepts and duties. I have endeavored to preach morality on a gospel footing,-not as a foundation of acceptance with God, but as inseparable from love to him, and evidential of faith in the Mediator, and a title to eternal life. I have laid before you every motive which the powers of my mind could suggest, with the word of God for my guide, to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus, and a life of holiness and evangelical obedience. And to use the solemn words of the holy Apostle, "some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not."
Solemn thought, serious and commanding the reflection, that some of you, yea, I fear many of you, are yet in your sins, without hope and without God in the world. And is it not to be feared that some of you who are in advanced life, to the ninth and eleventh hour, have stood all your gospel day idle.
For Christ's sake, for your own soul's sake, let such be alarmed,-hear and obey the gospel invitation before your eyes are closed in death. Numbers of you, not only of the
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aged but those in middle life, have lived in days of the dis- play of God's power and grace, when many, we trust, were born into the kingdom of Christ, and when some of you were awakened and inquired with trembling, "What shall we do?" But have you not fallen asleep, lost sight of your dreadful state, and become more hard and stupid than be- fore? I again call on you, I entreat, I beseech you, by the love, the compassion, the bowels of a crucified Savior, to awake and flee from the wrath to come, that you may lay hold on the hope, the only hope set before you in the gospel.
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