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 14
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31
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of right. American slavery must have been overthrown, or the experiment of freedom in this land prove a failure, and the glo- rious Gospel of the blessed God be hindered in regions of its largest opportunity and most inspiring prospects. Further still, reviewing from the first the prosperous and the adverse in colonial and national life, may we not regard ourselves as divinely moved not only to hold sacred the memory of the fathers, but discreetly to imitate their manly and Christian examples, - to imitate them in their devout spirit and evangelical zeal ; in subordinating the secular to the religious, and in the profound respect for the Bible expressed in their institutions and usages. What we admire in them and know to have been so fruitful in blessings to us and the world should not be lightly laid aside as antiquated, and ill- adapted to the times. It cannot be done with impunity. Our condition is different from theirs, and this may allow modification in the forms of action, but cannot alter principles. Our light and advantages may be more than theirs ; if so, our responsibil- ities will be weightier ; but can we without disaster ignore the essentially good in their example ? Had they been different in principles, in dominant purpose, and in action, could they have transmitted to us so goodly an heritage ? Had they not worked at the foundations, and laid such foundations as they did, and with such materials, what superstructure should we have power to build, or what other foundations could we lay, and with what assurances of hope ? We do not forget that they were Congre- gationalists, most rigid and uncompromising, nor that these com- memorative services are of a Congregational Church two hundred years old; but we remember with devout gratitude, joy, and hope, that the fathers were something more and better than Con- gregationalists. They were Christians, calling no man master, and receiving the Bible as the Word of God which every man should study and obey. They planted themselves on a founda- tion broad enough and strong enough to hold up all evangelical Christians, and to hold them together in the unity of the spirit and the bond of perfectness. Honoring their memories and laud- ing their zeal for a free conscience and the Word of God " not bound," we push their principles to a broader application than they made of them ; moved, as we believe, by the same spirit which led them, and studying with like docility the word and providence of God. We welcome, as Congregationalists, the
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duty and the privilege of hastening on by word and deed that grand consummation which is to draw together in closest unity of love and fellowship all who bow the knee to Christ, and with the tongue confess that He is Lord, to the glory of God the Fa- ther. We assert this truly catholic idea in distinction from an- other catholic idea in which is embraced the right of a centralized power forcibly to establish and maintain ecclesiastical unity. That power is now largely represented in this country, and in assenting to the new dogma of papal infallibility, is virtually, if not deliberately and formally pledged to overthrow civil and re- ligious liberty whenever it can be done. True to the spirit and principles and institutions of the fathers, we resent all such claims and purposes, and will do what we may to thwart them. For this we have high vantage ground. By popular assent and by fundamental law, civil and religious liberty is treated as an inalienable right. Whatever may be the logical force of papal infallibility, its practical application here is neutralized by the all-pervading influence of liberty politically asserted and main- tained ; so that any open and successful attempt to destroy it is postponed to the uncertain future. Meanwhile the opportunity is given, and the duty is imperative to study out ways and means for discreet interaction, conciliation, and Christian assimilation, so that mutual fears and jealousies may be annulled, the good and the true held in common be conserved, and such changes in opinion and habit be effected as to warrant a sane and glad ex- pectation, that Catholic and Protestant, drawn together by the spirit of light and love in this home of freedom, may at length mingle in devout laudations of the one God and Father of all, and of the one Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all, and pledge themselves to an enlightened and hearty cooperation to extend world-wide the triumphs of the cross. For such an experiment of holy alliance and Christian propagandism the world furnishes no such opportunity as is furnished here. If it is not made here, where and when can it be made ? If not made anywhere, will not the word of the Lord return unto Him void ? If the world is to be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, must not his Church be one in the true faith, in holy fellowship, and in evangelical enterprise ?
Glance now in another direction and consider another form of duty imposed upon us. With a martyr spirit our fathers achieved
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liberty. That liberty which is our birthright is now imperilled by the extravagance of liberty. That liberty was Christian, mod- ified and limited by the acknowledged prerogative of God, and the regulative authority of the Bible. It is imperilled by an as- sumed liberty, which, ignoring the prerogative of God, and the authority of the Bible, throws off all the restraints of religion. In its rude aspirations it is earthly, sensual, devilish ; by an astute skepticism it denies a personal God, or under the name of physical laws, eternal and immutable, confounds Him with an all-compre- hending but unreasoning pantheism. The liberty we inherit is a liberty to worship God, and execute his will in social and civil relations, unawed and unobstructed by despotic usurpation of priest or king. The liberty we encounter with dread would sweep away our Christian faith and usage as a worn-out superstition, or an intolerable bondage. It surges and dashes on in thé forms of extreme sensuality, greed, and recklessness; or it insinuates its subtle antichristian and licentious forces through the plausible and flattering postulates and speculations of an aspiring and preten- tious philosophy. In one form or another it is working with in- creasing power, and with manifold results of disastrous import. It is working secretly and openly with covert intent or with reck- less audacity ; in city and in village ; through the rude artisan and polished scholar ; in the abodes of ignorance, poverty, and vice, and in the homes of opulence and refinement. We meet it often ; we meet it in many places. We hear it in conversations, in lectures, and shall I add in sermons ? We read it in pamphlet and book. It is a foe we do well to fear, and against which we must fight. And yet the weapons of our warfare must not be carnal, but mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strong- holds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that ex- alteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Reviving in our hearts the faith, the piety, and zeal of the fathers, we may exchange our fears to exulting hopes as we discreetly and persis- tently work with the divine forces of Christian liberty to reduce to order and system, and beautiful proportion, the moral chaos of an extravagant and godless liberty.
Consider another duty pressing upon us. The ruling purpose of the fathers was religion ; but religion chiefly for themselves and their descendants. They had, it is true, Christian plans and
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hopes for the savages ; but these were secondary. Our ruling purpose also should be religion ; but religion with broader and grander applications. They settled upon the outer edge of a continent, with vague conceptions of the continent itself, and in blank ignorance of the marvelous developments of Providence soon to be made upon it. Now the continent is surveyed, mapped out, and largely occupied, not by their descendants merely, but by migrating millions rushing together from the four winds of heaven to possess and control it. This nation, peculiar in many things, is especially so in this, that it is composed of representa- tives from many nations, drawn together by conditions and attrac- tions resulting from the faith, the manners, and the institutions of the fathers ; - conditions and attractions never and nowhere presented before, and not fully appreciated by all who feel their power. Can these conglomerate and heterogeneous materials be consolidated, reduced to order, symmetry, and auspicious unity ? Is there any unifying conservative yet developing power equal to the necessity ? There is ; but it is not in popular lib- erty nor in republican institutions. It is in that which ennobles popular liberty, and insures republican institutions. It is in the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. The permanent unity, strength, and glory of the nation demand that the same Chris- tian forces which were active and controlling at first be active and controlling still. Herein is indicated the necessity of a grand, enthusiastic, and generous enterprise of home evangelization ; - an enterprise wide-reaching as the whole land, and particular as the wants of each locality; an enterprise of faith and toil ; of dis- cretion and fervor ; full of the Holy Ghost and of power ; an en- terprise in which the cost is counted and assumed with determined purpose of execution ; an enterprise which can and will be exe- cuted, if the Christians of to-day emulate the quality of the fathers.
But this enterprise of home evangelization cannot be pushed to its grand issues without making certain and speedy the evangeli- zation of the world. So great a nation as this, and such a nation, with such a beginning, through a Christian enlightenment and inspiration asserting and maintaining as fundamental law the natural equality, fraternity, and inalienable rights of mankind, and by its institutions and manners bringing together and assim- ilating to itself in political faith, and purpose and plan, diverse
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races of men, and the representatives of many nations, if it shall be thoroughly Christianized, may almost be said to have power to determine the religion and destiny of the world. And is it not its special mission to work with unparalleled power and suc- cess in that direction ? How wonderfully adapted to this it is in many of its conditions, relations, and facilities of intercommuni- cation with all the world. In the great counsels of heaven is not this a chief end of its existence, its distinctive character, its posi- tion, and power ? Did not God mean this when He brought the fathers over the sea and located them in the wilderness, where their poverty was their protection, and where unenvied and un- feared they obeyed the inspirations of his word and spirit in laying the foundations of many generations ; in establishing in- stitutions, religious and political, upon such principles, and in such forms, and with such opportunities for experiment and dem- onstration, that their stability, and permanence, and controlling power should be made secure against any foreign dangers ; and in them be accumulated and organized such moral and Christian forces as could sustain the shock of multitudinous immigrations, and mould and dispose the heterogeneous materials to their own use and protection ? Did not God mean that here, though against manifold antagonisms incidental to universal freedom, Christianity should furnish the best demonstrations of its power of popular enlightenment and reformation ? Did He not mean that the sig- nal triumphs of Christianity here shall be in close relation to its universal triumph through the earth ? Is not this included in the word which has gone forth from his mouth and which cannot re- turn unto Him void, but must accomplish that which He pleases, and prosper in the thing whereto He sent it? "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." Let the people be true to their trust, and no future historian shall write the downfall of our Republic, but many shall speak of its growing fame and power as the grand consummation shall be reached, when the kingdom and the great- ness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the saints ; when every knee shall bow to Jesus, and every tongue confess that he is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
5. SINGING - Hymn 1312. " O God, beneath thy guiding hand."
6. POEM- By Rev. A. G. Palmer, D. D. : -
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POEM.
MEN, BRETHREN AND FATHERS,
To-day, in answer to your call, I bring A brief historic song. - The offering However humble and without pretense Of learning, culture, skill or eloquence, Is yet the honest tribute of a heart Grateful to be allowed to bear a part In this memorial service, and to say Some few things in a light and humorous way, Putting in jingle musty time-worn lore, Just for diversion's sake if nothing more, With here and there a side-light episode To brighten up the old historic road.
Premising this, howe'er, that prose and verse, Parson and Judge must kindred facts rehearse ; Each spin his yarn and each his story tell In his own way, as best he can and well ; And, that his story, be adjudged best told, Whose words are few ; whose facts are manifold, All legal tender, specie payment, - gold. The Judge right eloquent, the course has led, The Parson follows with unequal tread, And only aims to glean with humble care, Whate'er the graceful orator may spare, Thankful for crumbs, as the poor poet's share.
For as all know - the Judge 's a splendid man, High browed, broad shouldered, full of girth and span, Of aldermanic type and physique fine, In height a trifle less than six and nine ; In wind and limb, as in digestion, sound, With faith in genealogies profound, In old historic legend, name and date, He reigns alone, Richard the first and great.
But too much humor in an opening lay Seems unbefitting - so we turn away To sing a sober song of this old town - And this old Church of Puritan renown;
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To cull from old historic page and lore And genealogy's capacious store, The names and deeds of men of olden time And let them seem to live again in rhyme ; To sketch their ways and sayings, rudely terse, In corresponding homeliness of verse ; Their homes, town-meetings, and church-meetings too; Their legislation - strong and deeply blue ; Their struggles with a vicious sky and soil ; Their manly industry and stalwart toil ; Their stern integrity and rough good sense; Their conquest of a hardy competence ; Their proud achievement of a Church and State ; With faith in God and man commensurate ; Leaving to us, and each succeeding age On history the brightest, purest page, The radiant record of a people free. In democratic peace and unity, Their laws, their pastors and the magistrate Revered and honored by the small and great ; Knowledge and faith ; the school-house and the church, Culture and prayer united in the search Of what the world had struggled long to gain, Civil and Christian freedom; but in vain.
Such the synopsis of the work before us ; Of times, whose shadows are still lingering o'er us; Changing at times the structure of our verse, To varying moods ; now prolix and now terse ; Now light and gay, now sober and sedate ; Now jubilant with joy, now sad and temperate ; Now with a gentle breeze, now with a well reefed sail ; Now swelling to a song, now sinking to a wail.
O thou who didst the Psalmist's heart inspire, Touch my cold lips with truth's ethereal fire, That I may sing with fitting word and strain And thought, this bi-centennial refrain.
I.
Two hundred years have rolled their annals round, Since first a band of Pilgrims met to raise, Upon this then unconsecrated ground,
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A Christian altar to Jehovah's praise, And rear, upon this dark and heathen sod, A house of worship, for the living God.
II.
All was then wilderness, - a forest grand, From the Atlantic to the Pacific shore, With shade unbroken covered all the land ; A continent of "woods " forever more; Roamed by wild beasts o'er mountain, hill, and vale, And red men on their narrow winding trail.
III.
From Baffin's Bay, and Hudson's icy floe, From northern lake, and old Niagara's bound, Down to the tepid wave of Mexico, Reigned the deep silence of this shade profound ; Unbroken save by scream and muttering growl Of bird and beast, or tempest's crash and howl.
IV.
Huge giant trees - the oak, chestnut, and pine, Maple and walnut, fir and hemlock both Perennial - their foliage entwine, With a luxuriant yield of undergrowth ; A gorgeous park, of rich and varied hue, Green, brown and red, 'neath Autumn's chilly dew ;
V.
With openings, here and there, from hill and ridge, And mountain line, of peaks uprising high, Like arch and column of some airy bridge, Or lofty buttress, 'neath the o'erhanging sky ; Broad based upon some rocky Alpine wall ; As under-bracings, lest the heavens should fall.
VI.
Such are the Alleghanies of the east, And such the Rocky Mountains of the west, And such in miniature from large to least Our own New England hills, of all the best ; White and green ranges stretching south, until They halt, in bold relief, with Lantern Hill.
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VII.
O'erlooking, in one wide unbroken sweep, The underlying region far around, With kindred outlook, o'er the ocean deep, From Newport westward through Long Island Sound ; A bluff dark spur, up-jutting to the sky, First land to greet the home-bound sailor's eye.
VIII.
Of all the shore along the Atlantic coast, Chafed by a restless, fretting, spiteful tide ; This town for hardiness over all may boast, Though doubled oft the rest, and multiplied ; Of " gold and silver," it could say " I've none ;" But give thee freely of my rock and stone."
IX.
In grit and gravel, cold unyielding clay, In worthless bog and fen, swamp, marsh, morass, In barren pastures, moss covered, and gray With vicious herbage of the meanest class, This township must have held a dreary look To those, who first its culture undertook.
x.
But they were men of long tried strength and skill, With cultured powers of body and of mind, And both could use with equal ease, at will, As tools in hands of artists disciplined ; Masters of logic in the realm of thought ; In husbandry severely drilled and taught.
XI.
No lady softness theirs of skin or brow ; Their ungloved hands shrank from no needful toil ; No simpering disgust with work, as now, No shirking of the field and dusty soil ; They held that faith was first a livelihood ; And work was worship, by the grace of God.
XII.
Who are these hardy Pilgrim pioneers ? With open Bible, faith and common sense ?
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With axe and spade and psalms and prayers and tears, Their shield from sham and impious pretense, With hands to labor, and with hearts to pray, For work or worship ready every day.
XIII.
Muscles like brass and sinews strong as steel, Their brawny arms and hands to toil inured, Their hearts aflame with love and holy zeal, Intensified by sufferings long endured ; Their courage fearless, and their purpose high, To keep the faith, or for the faith to die.
XIV.
Why come they hither from beyond the deep ? Why from the father-land that gave them birth Where generations of their kindred sleep, Turn they to seek this distant, unknown earth ; - Leaving their homes and well-tilled fields afar For this outside " terra incognita ?"
XV.
Exchanging treasured store of patient toil : Renouncing joys that make up life's caress For bleak New England's granite, sterile soil, And exile in a hostile wilderness ; Braving the dangers of a wintry sea, As if out-driven by dire destiny. -
XVI.
What fearful scourge or baptism of blood ! What Nemesis, or what protecting power Compels this challenge of the stormy flood And holds 'twixt sea and sky the frail Mayflower, As on she speeds, freighted with truth and grace Enshrined in souls, to find some sheltered place,
XVII.
Where they may worship, with no tyrant's rod, Or mitred priest, or hooded monkish knave Between their altars, consciences and God? From yawning billow and from crested wave, The little craft, despite old Ocean's shock, Casts anchor at the base of Plymouth Rock.
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XVIII.
We know the story and need not repeat Its facts and incidents of tragic power, Though fresh and new as ever, and replete With interest beyond the passing hour ; A tale of heroes and of hero trust, Struggling with persecution from the dust,
XIX.
Which Christian genius shall some day expand, Touched by the puritanic faith and fire, Into a sacred epic, chaste and grand ; Worthy a Hebrew harp or Grecian lyre ; - A hymn of faith to sweeter numbers strung, Than ever flowed from bard or prophet's tongue.
XX.
Let this suffice of Massachusetts Bay, - We turn again to our own "kin and kith," And hasten on to note their deeds, and pay Our homage to the manliness wherewith They braved all danger, and long toil endured, And for their children competence secured.
XXI.
So with strong arms they cut and cleared the town ; Burned brush and stumps, thrust in the old Dutch plough ; Tore out the roots and laid the meadows down And walled them in, much as we see them now ; Their houses, barns, and churches without steeple, The rude, rough symbols of a sturdy people.
XXII.
The first religious service, in the town, Was held in sixteen hundred fifty-seven ; Near where the Anguilla brook still murmurs down, As then, its soft low chant of praise to Heaven ; At Walter Palmer's, on the eastern side Of shallow Wequetequoc's befreshened tide.
XXIII.
The service without doubt was very sweet ; If homely, yet most gracious to the taste ;
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If rough in thought, in structure incomplete, Yet guiltless in delivery of haste ; And if from first to twenty-fifthly long ; Was orthodox and comforting and strong.
XXIV.
The first rude house was built on Palmer's Hill, And built alike for use of church and town; Where votes were cast and sermons preached, until It seemed advisable to take it down; Rebuilding three times - once across the way, And last this house, in which we meet to-day.
XXV.
Long may it stand, and long its walls resound With Christian melody as pure and sweet As we have heard to-day ; and all around From pulpit, galleries, and well-cushioned seat, Go up the congregation's full voiced praise, As in the memories of olden days.
XXVI.
And may a gospel, orthodox and free, A gospel evangelical and true, A gospel full of power and spirit be As now, dispensed the passing centuries through, , If less in word and less in thought profound, Yet never less in doctrine pure and sound.
XXVII.
One quaint old country church I still can see ; And in my dreams oft visit it again ; And mingle in the chaste simplicity Of worship offered there, by godly men, And godly women, modestly arrayed, As well became their sex and saintly grade.
XXVIII.
A rude quadrangle, forty feet or more With oaken plates and braces huge and bare ; On three sides, opening by a spacious door ; An oblong pulpit, pews some six feet square, With galleries deep, slanting towards the center Below, where sat the deacons and precentor.
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XXIX.
The singing then, if somewhat crude and sharp, With nasal twang and notes o'erstrained and shrill And not melodious as lyre and harp, Or organ with its well trained choir and trill Was yet a worship, offered in God's fear; Though unartistic, humble and sincere.
XXX.
If not always with " understanding " quite, Yet with full vocal spirit they did sing ; Fugues, and choruses, in turns recite, Making the ceilings of the old church ring, Filling the area above, around ;
Discord and chord, in wrangling interbound.
XXXI.
Windham and Dundee, China, Wells, and Mear, With plaintive strain and low deep minor swell, Had power to move the heart and start the tear, And hold men captive by a mystic spell, If not of faith and penitential grief Yet of chaste reverence, however brief.
XXXII.
The pastor with gray locks and furrowed face, Rough visaged, but of meek and quiet mien, Looked the embodiment of truth and grace, A likeness now, alas, too seldom seen : In place of which, we have the pulpit swell, With smirk and grimace, brass and tinkling bell.
XXXIII.
Tradesmen were scarce, and the professions rare; Lawyers and doctors were at discount then ; Of clergymen, they had a few to spare, And banished them for heresy, as when They exiled Williams, for his Baptist way, 'Neath wintry sleet, to Narragansett Bay.
XXXIV.
But faithful pastors, orthodox and true, Uncontumacious, and of living mind,
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They kept at home, with work enough to do, To word and doctrine graciously inclined : Their trusty firelocks well within their reach, To shoot down Indians in good faith, or preach.
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