USA > Connecticut > New London County > Stonington > History of the First Congregational church, Stonington, Conn., 1674-1874. With the report of bi-centennial proceedings, June 3, 1874. With appendix containing statistics of the church > Part 13
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pended for Christ and his Church, they will " tick " on through the cycles of time and out into those of eternity.
The more than half-century ministry of the first pastor of this Church is prolonged in the fifth generation by mine, already of a quarter of a century's duration, and is to be continued, I am glad to say, in that of my son, soon to enter college. Then let us one and all do with our might what we can in our day and generation for Christ and his Church. With the increased facil- ities for acquisition and influence which this age furnishes, we may now in zeal and efficiency for right and truth, reach a Me- thusaleh-lifetime, this side of threescore and ten.
Wesley was right in considering the Church in earth and heaven one. You recall his beautiful words : -
" Let saints below in concert sing With those to glory gone; For all the servants of our King In earth and heaven are one. One family we dwell in Him; One Church, above, beneath, Though now divided by the stream, The narrow stream of death."
And we must needs think of it pleasantly to-day. The hundreds who have preceded us in caring for this Zion, now in the spirit land, some of them very near and dear, must be present here in sympathy and gratulation, though we feel not the pressure of their hands and hear no word of cheer from their lips. With our knowledge of their life below and their bliss above, we can com- mune with them, and gather inspiration to press on in our Chris- tian course with courage and hope.
Our time for pleasant fellowship and holy achievement here is fast passing by. We are strangers and sojourners on the earth, as were all our fathers. The Lord help us to go down from this mount of glorious privilege with a fuller consecration to his ser- vice. May we realize anew that for us greater victories over self and the world are possible ; that higher goals of duty may be reached, and richer trophies won for the Master, Then, when called to rest from our earthly labors, we shall be numbered with those who die in the Lord, and whose works follow them, for com- mendation on earth and reward in heaven.
9. HYMN contributed by Miss Harriet A. Stanton, and read by Rev. Williams Clift : -
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Come, wanderers ! to your Father's house With cheerful hearts repair ; Come all and join a grateful song, And breathe a humble prayer. Come, ye who've toiled in " Wisdom's ways," With rich experience blest, Return as doth the wandering dove, And be our welcome guest.
'T is sweet to leave our tasks awhile And seek these pleasant walls, To clasp the hand of pastor, friend, And list to Memory's calls, And while we give the friendly hand, And speak the kindly word, Oh! may the fountains of our hearts For absent ones be stirred.
Though time and distance separate, And other friends be ours, The ties here formed we'll ne'er forget, The fruit of happy hours. As long in Memory's shadowy halls Familiar footsteps tread, These shall reëcho in our hearts Till time for us has fled.
Dear Church ! though others are thy friends, And elsewhere is our rest, Be some protecting angel thine, Thy courts supremely blest, Till the auspicious day shall dawn When friends shall not be riven, And pastors, members, one and all United are in Heaven.
10. COMMEMORATIVE ODE- By Rev. Frederic Denison, of Woonsocket, Rhode Island : - 8
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COMMEMORATIVE ODE. For the Bi-Centennial of the First Congregational Church in Stonington, Conn., June 3, 1874. BY REV. F. DENISON.
The Mayflower bloomed on New England's wild coast ; That planting of truth is a continent's boast ;
Where darkly for ages the savage had trod, Was cleft from the forests a temple for God.
Surpassing the odors of Araby blest Is Freedom's perfume in this land of the blest ; What glories in tropical kingdoms may bloom Are less than the fruits of our wilderness-home.
However we wander afar in the earth, Our hearts will return to the place of our birth ; And the Lord bids us ever count holy the fires That burned on the altars and hearths of our sires.
Like home-beckoned voyagers with pennons aflow, Delighted we hasten, our bosoms aglow With filial devotion and jubilant song, Where memories, angel-like, over us throng.
As the music of ocean will charmingly swell Unspent from the heart of a sea-cradled shell, Even so from this church of two centuries roll Old anthems of worship entrancing the soul.
Inspired for their work were the brave pioneers, Akin in their faith to the world's honored seers ; - The word of the Lord was their banner of right - A pillar by day and a flame in the night.
Still glowing the fire on the altar they built, Enshrining, like Bethel, the spot where they knelt; And all that they wrought in the love of the Lord Survives in its glory their heirs to reward.
Fond History proudly reechoes the voice Of Stanton, and Miner, and Palmer, and Noyes,
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The while in our patriot-annals are heard The stories of Mason's and Denison's sword.
Ennobled as well in the fame of the town Are Chesebrough, and Wheeler, and Williams, and Brown, With Gallup, and Thompson, and Babcock, and Parke, Strong-handed, true-hearted, deserving of mark.
With tender emotion and reverent tread, We visit the precincts where slumber the dead, And full on the ear of affection will sound Such requiem notes as still hallow the ground ; -
But mortal are men till they enter the tomb, And only in dying immortal become ; Dull sense, at the gate, knows the darkness and cold, But faith, looking through, sees the city of gold.
Achievements of worthies die not with the flesh, Predestined through cycles to blossom afresh : And doctrines that rang through the wilderness-arch Were shouts in the vanguard of liberty's march.
With the axe in the oak and the plow in the soil, The settlers rang out the bold chorus of toil, And songs of the reapers, with hymns from the looms, Arose from their prosperous, labor-blest homes.
Fulfilling the edict primeval of earth, The " olive plants " flourished in beauty and worth; Abundant the branches of family-trees, Enlarging, like banyans, to wondrous degrees.
The sons of the town on far missions have gone, And honors and wealth in the hemispheres won, The crag of the mountain and spray of the sea Unheeded by bosoms courageous and free.
Detesting oppression as bitterest curse - Whether tax on the conscience or wrong on the purse - When the British sent shell, they were answered by shot Producing contusions they never forgot.
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As Lantern Hill, peerless among our home-heights, The tempest-tossed sailor to harbor invites, So stands this bold town on Connecticut's coast - A truth-girded sentinel, firm at her post ;
Whose virtues and valor, through centuries proved, So deeply the hearts of her children have moved, That now, at the call of the Church that was reared, Glad thousands have flocked to the shrine to be cheered.
A tribute we bring, as we join in the train, To add to the joy of the jubilee-strain ; - All honor to fathers and mothers of yore ; All blessings and praise to the Lord evermore;
Still the hope of our land is the service of God - The freedom of truth, and the crowning of good ; Communion of men with the Father of Lights Insures to the world the enthroning of rights.
11. SINGING - Hymn 1336. " My country 'tis of thee." 12. BENEDICTION - By Rev. James A. Gallup.
At the close of the morning service the immense assemblage were invited by the President to adjourn to a mammoth tent, which had been placed in the Society lot, opposite the church, where a collation had been provided in bountiful abundance.
There was none of that crush and jam so common on such oc- casions ; the crowd was satisfied that there was enough for all, and their confidence was fully met. After the company were ar- ranged at the tables, the Rev. James Gallup asked a blessing.
AFTERNOON.
Services were resumed at two o'clock P. M.
1. SINGING - Voluntary by the Choir, " Rock of Ages."
2. PRAYER - Rev. N. B. Cook, owing to illness, was pre- vented from being at the celebration, so the Rev. Amos Chese- brough, of Vernon, Conn., was invited to take his place and offer prayer.
3. SINGING - Hymn 339. Tune, " Coronation."
4. SERMON - By the Rev. Paul Couch : -
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"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater : So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth : it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accom- plish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." -ISAIAH lv. 8-11.
These are divine words, embodying divine thoughts. They proclaim God ; they admonish men. They direct us up to the heavens higher than the earth, where He who only hath immor- tality dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto, God over all blessed forever. They assure us that his counsel shall stand and He will do all his pleasure. For this we may adore and praise, in this we may rejoice exceedingly ; for He is won- derful in counsel and excellent in working. He is so through all the material system. He is so through all the spiritual system. In each He is the originating and controlling power, working all things after the counsel of his own will, and having his own glory for his chief end. He is in widest contrast with man. God eter- nal, self-existent, independent, - man of yesterday, a creature, dependent. God omnipotent, the centre and source of all power, man impotent, or with power derived and limited. God filling immensity, man having the bounds of his habitation narrowly de- termined. God omniscient, man just beginning to know. God perfect in holiness, man a sinner. Of necessity, then, God must move in a higher sphere than man, and his plans and operations must not only excel all that is human, but beyond measure excel, and be past finding out.
God has one comprehensive plan of operation, extending through the universe, embracing all things, and eternally present in his thoughts. What can man say or think of such a plan ? If he thinks he is confounded ; if he speaks he betrays his confu- sion of the execution of the divine plan. All lucid and easy with God, how little can man know ! Is not creation to him an infinite sum of mysteries ? and what unfathomable depths in providence ! Why such a world as this ? Why did man made in the image of God so soon lose that image ? Why has a depraved population spread over the earth ? Why so many and such terrible forms of wickedness ? Why so little goodness, and that little hard pressed by persecution ? Is the history of man as God originally planned ? Is his will expressed in the conditions, character, and
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achievements of tribes and nations ? Is He above all, and in all, working out his own counsels, and using men to accomplish them, though they mean not so, neither do their hearts think so ?
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Such thoughts of God are pertinent on this day of commemo- ration, - this bi-centennial of our ecclesiastical life, when we have passing in review the history of this Church, when especially we call up the memory of its founders. Because on such a day as this God should be thought of first of all, and most of all, that we may render unto Him our discreet adorations, our glad hosan- nas, and our deliberate and solemn consecrations. We cannot appropriately think of the fathers, their conditions, their social, civil, and religious character and habits, their relative position, their opportunities and responsibilities, their purposes, hopes, and discouragements, without thinking of the God of the fathers and of that word which has gone forth out of his mouth, and which cannot return unto Him void, but must accomplish that which He pleases, and prosper in the thing whereto He sent it.
Of the fathers, the founders of this Church, the history was given in the morning by one wisely chosen for the service. His elaborate, minute, and accurate narrative of facts will hereafter be a rich treasure, not only to us, but to all who are fond of anti- quarian research, and especially to those who love to study the ways of Providence in dealing with the early settlers of New England. In this history we were carried back, not only two centuries, to the organization of this Church, but two decades of years more, to the first settlements in this locality. The founders of this Church were shown not indeed as immediately representing the pilgrims of the " Mayflower," but in most intimate relation with those who soon followed the Pilgrims, moved by the same spirit, and to accomplish the same great purposes of freedom and right. It was shown still further that later in the history of this Church, the Pilgrims were directly represented in it, and that their blood still flows in the veins of members who maintain the worship of God on this hallowed spot.
I propose therefore to speak of the founders of this Church, not in their individual character, or in their local enterprise, but as merged in that world-renowned company of pious and liberty- loving fugitives from spiritual oppression whom God selected and prepared for what has proved to be the grandest and most aus- picious movement of popular thought and action, since the com-
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ing of Him who is the light of the world, its Saviour, and its Lord.
But what word of the Lord demands our special thought to- day ? The word referred to in the text is a gracious promise given to the people of God. But we may take a broader view. There is a word of promise spoken at different times and in vary- ing forms which has stood from the beginning and will ever stand as the warrant of hope, and joy, and courageous enterprise to all believers. I mean that promise of redemption dimly revealed in Eden, more distinctly made known to patriarchs and prophets, - having its full manifestation in Jesus Christ, and in his name promulgated by the Apostles. In Eden, God revealed Himself in mercy, and inspired hopes in the fallen by his promise of re- demption. In that promise was the sustaining power of faith in Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noah, and all antediluvian saints. It was repeated to Abraham, giving assurance that in him and in his seed should all the families of the earth be blessed. Among his descendants were instituted laws and ordinances to endure with prophetic and typical significance till his seed, which is Christ, should be manifested - a priest after the order of Melchisadec, a king sitting on the throne of David ; - whose priesthood is an unchangeable priesthood, and whose dominion shall have no end. When that priest had offered up Himself once for all and ob- tained eternal redemption, and that king had ascended his throne, his word of love and authority sounded out from Jerusalem, and his ministers were sent everywhere preaching redemption in his name. That word of love and authority shall never return unto Him void, and that mission shall never end till a renovated world shall own its Redeemer and King. That word was power in its earliest proclamations, and that mission in its marvelous begin- nings promised a short work, and a speedy accomplishment. But no ; the end was not yet, - the invincible and all-accomplishing word must be proved against manifold opposition of earth and hell. Its ministers must wrestle not with flesh and blood but against principalities and powers ; against spiritual wickedness in high places. After temporary and signal success there must be a falling away and the man of sin be revealed. The church of God which He purchased with his own blood must pass through fiery trials, surviving the most cruel persecutions from without, yet growing in numbers, moral power, and evangelizing success
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in spite of them, she must suffer in other forms and find her worst foes in her own household.
Pursuing her divine work till homage is paid her from the throne of the Cæsars, she falls into temptation and the snare of the devil. Elated with imperial recognition, and flattered by the half-Christian, half-pagan acclamations of the people as the voice of God, she is beguiled from her high spiritual aim, and, substituting a worldly policy for divine wisdom, she ceases to be strong, in God, and becomes subjugated and pitiably subservient to priestly and papal ambition. Modifying her organic forms and assumptions in agreement with imperial patterns, she loses her prestige of a humble, self-denying, yet efficient ministry of recon- ciliation, and becomes entangled and crippled in the working of a vast scheme of spiritual despotism, whereby individual conscience is crushed out, rational faith and a pure worship are annulled, and peoples and rulers are prostrated in superstitious homage to a pretending vicegerency of God. Here was the masterpiece of Satan's cunning. Baffled in his assault upon the Son of God, he took revenge in subsidizing his ministers. Through them he made the commandments of God of none effect by traditions and pro- fane dogmas. Misleading the people by superstitious fears and hopes, he made them subject to a secularized, ambitious, sensual, and unscrupulous priesthood. Thus holding ascendancy, he turned the organic and centralized forces of the Church against herself, and in the name of Christ assayed the extermination of those most faithful to Him. And sometimes it seemed as if his triumph would be complete, and the word of the Lord would return unto Him void. But no. The Lord is not slack concerning his prom- ise, as some men count slackness. The successes of Satan are no surprise to Him, and no defeat of his plans. Satan may enter the heart of the man of sin, moving him to oppose and exalt himself above all that is called God, or is worshipped, so that he as God, shall sit in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God, while infatuated millions pay him homage. But Satan can- not annul the truth of God, nor deceive and silence his elect. In the darkest days of ignorance, superstition, and papal domination, there were those who knew Jesus, who lived by Him, and could die for Him. But they were not all to die, or their evangelizing power be lost. In due time, from the cell of a monk, the clang of a trumpet was heard, sounding long and loud, reverberating
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over mountains and valleys, and startling nations. Other trum- pet-tones were heard, and many witnesses for truth appeared. The persecuted for righteousness' sake came forth from their hid- ing places and were valiant for a true faith and a pure worship. A controversy then began against priestly usurpations and pop- ular superstitions, which in divers forms and with varying success has continued until now. At one point and in one form of the controversy our ancestors in Old England prayed and preached and covenanted with God and each other. Inspired with indom- itable fidelity to conscience, and harrassed beyond enduring, they fled from their homes and sought out new homes here in the wilderness. They came here for Christ and his Church ; to en- joy a pure worship, and to establish Christian institutions after the patterns which had been shown them in the Mount. In or- ganizing for this purpose they set up what has been felicitously styled a Church without a Bishop, and a State without a King. They came here and wrought as they were moved by their con- sciences, and as also they were moved by the Spirit of God. They had their own purposes, as honest, God-fearing men, for which all honor be given them. God also had his purposes to accomplish through them - purposes more profound in meaning and wider in scope than theirs. Their purposes may be sought out and interpreted in their characters, their professions, and sacrifices - God's purposes are to be studied in the marvelous unfoldings of his providence. They laid the foundations of many generations, not knowing the future, nor comprehending their own work. God, knowing the end from the beginning, laid through them the foundations of this great empire, whose limits are the bounding ocean.
In laying these foundations He had in mind the word that has gone forth out of his mouth, and cannot return unto Him void,- his purpose of fulfillment to be pushed forward still against all the forces of evil, human and satanic, but in new conditions and in new forms of agency. Having this in view, we look back upon the fathers not merely to admire and commend what was excellent in their character, faith, and enterprise, but to think of them as a people chosen, inspired, and formed of God for a special minis- try in the world's redemption. We need to do this, that we may the better understand our own position, opportunities, and duties. Christianity, pure, as proclaimed by the Master, had the political
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power of the world arrayed against it. Christianity, corrupt and secularized, was so joined with political power as to receive its patronage or dictate its policy. Christianity, regaining its true spirit and reasserting its divine principles and purposes, claims the right to be and to do its work independent of state patronage, and unrestrained by state prerogative. This claim rests upon man's direct accountability to God for his religious faith and prac- tice. This fundamental truth our fathers affirmed. Recognizing the supremacy of God, the inspiration of the Bible, and the right of private interpretation, they preintimated and justified the largest liberty of conscience, and the necessary limitations of po- litical power. The free institutions of this country, so invaluable at home, and so potent in revolutionizing and reforming influence abroad, are logical sequences from their assumptions. In the or- ganization and working of their churches was the suggestion and model of democratic government. Whatever mistakes they made, and whatever corrections have since been made in maintaining the right of civil and religious liberty, it is certain that what is best in our social, religious, and civil condition has most intimate relations to the good and the true in their principles and habits. Their Christian families, their Sabbaths and Gospel ministrations, their free schools, instituted first of all that the children might learn to read " God's most Holy Word," with the use of that Word in the schools, and their colleges dedicated Christo et eccle- sia -to Christ and the Church, contained the seminal forces of what has made ours the glory of all lands.
Their settlement here marks an epoch in the history of the world, in the history of redemption, never to be forgotten, but to grow more illustrious as its simple yet sublime facts are better understood in the progressive unfoldings of a wonder-working Providence, - an epoch furnishing a new order of demonstration, both in Church and State ; in which Church and State separately and relatively assume new positions, and exhibit more distinct, yet congruous activity, - combining personal freedom with social unity and strength, and elevating the people to higher planes of opportunity and responsibleness. The dominant purpose was religion - God-inspired, free, spiritual, pure ; recognizing one God and father of all, to be honored by all with devout and filial reverence. Incidental to this was the assertion of man's inalien- able rights and the organization of governments of the people, by the people, and for the people.
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Our fathers, self-exiled from home and settled remote from the great world, were too few to be feared and too poor to be envied, yet had they in themselves the elements of true greatness, riches, and glory ; and He who led them in a way they knew not, so located, conditioned, and disciplined them, that they have be- come illustrious beyond comparison. We do not say they were the greatest, the wisest, the best of men. There may have been many as great, as wise, and as good as they. But God assigned them a place and a power in the Church and the world, which gives them eminent distinction. None before them had such place and power, and none after them can have the same place and power. True, the place was obscure and the power latent ; but all the better for them and the grandeur of their achieve- ments. They had a special work to do, and in doing it they were strong in God. With an enlightened conscience and earnest faith, they were appointed to work at such time and place, that their faith, their principles, and their institutions have had an all- pervading and controlling power in the beginning and marvelous growth of this nation, and still have a conservative and propitious power in shaping its destiny ; and not only so, but, acknowledged or unacknowledged, a reaction from them is going on through all civilized nations, auspicious to humanity, but ominous of mighty revolutions, according as it is written : "I will overturn, and overturn, and overturn, till He whose right it is shall come." Without purpose, or even forecast of their own, but fixed in the counsels of God, the primal compact in the Mayflower was pro- phetic of the declaration of American independence, its brave support and successful issue in establishing a republican govern- ment which has no parallel in history, and is itself a prophecy of the universal triumph of freedom against every form of op- pression. In this connection we may look upon our late civil war, so costly in blood and treasure, resulting in the overthrow of American slavery, and the reestablishment of the nation with brighter auspices, as the providential vindication of moral and political principles involved in the primal compact, but prac- tically ignored and disastrously thwarted by the unchristian and impolitic system of American slavery. Having said this, may we not add, that the same civil war with its issues is a divine warning and admonition to the people to settle back in their convictions, purposes, and hopes upon the everlasting principles
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