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 18
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Oh, what visions of advancement and glory shall have dawned upon the world, when in a spiritual sense the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun as that of seven days !
My hearers, I have faith in science and the future progress of our race, but I have more faith in God ; his promises are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. He shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied ; and in fulfillment of prophecy, the king- dom and dominion and greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the most high God.
17. RESPONSE, by the Rev. Gurdon W. Noyes : -
MR. PRESIDENT, - It has become quite fashionable of late to disparage the office of deacon, and even to pour upon it a run- ning fire of caricature, satire, and ridicule. This course is to be heartily deprecated and earnestly stemmed. The office is one of
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divine appointment, of special honor, and opens a sphere of wide usefulness. Though into it, as into the kindred one of the min- istry, an unfit and useless person may now and then slip, yet for the most part, from the days of Stephen to the present, it has been filled with men of signal merit, tact, and piety, - men who have been real Aarons and Hurs in staying up the hands of pas- tors, and so securing the successes of Zion; men who have thereby " purchased to themselves a good degree and great bold- ness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus." I am confident, my friends, that many such will readily occur to your minds as con- nected with the churches of this State, both among the dead and the living. This Church has had its share of them.
By way of personal reminiscence, I esteem it a privilege that I can say a word or two of Deacons Ebenezer Denison and Noyes Palmer, who were officiating here during my childhood and youth. They were very unlike in endowment, temperament, and task, but were alike in being good and true men, and well fitted by nature and grace for their work. Mr. Denison, the senior, was always serious in look and manner, strictly mindful of ordi- nances, and faithful in word and deed, thoroughly versed in doc- trine and polity, and so securing the confidence and esteem of the older portion of the Church and community, but throwing over religion too sombre an aspect to make it attractive to the young, though ever impressing them with its reality and value. Deacon Palmer, on the other hand, was genial in look and man- ner, full of tenderness, sympathy, and song. I can now, after the lapse of years, almost see the smiles upon his face and catch the peculiar sweetness of his voice as he raised " Silver Street " or "St. Martin " in the Sunday-school or the prayer-meeting. His heart turned as naturally toward children and youth as flower-petals to the sun, and they responded to his persuasive counsels and appeals. At the last day it will be found that Christianity was insinuated into many a youthful heart through the sunshine of his example and teaching. This Church owes much of its pres- ent stability and prosperity to the prayers, efforts, example, of these worthy deacons. I am conscious to-day of special benefit from them, and shall never cease to cherish their memory with respect, gratitude, and affection.
As the Apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Philippian disciples, associated the deacons with the bishops, it seems fitting that we
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should do the same in recounting the history of this Church. They are entitled to the honor, and I trust their mantle may fall upon their successors.
It is a rich boon to a pastor and church, to have deacons of discretion, energy, piety, who will plan, pray, and toil for the peace and prosperity of Zion, with a zeal that never slackens and a faith that never wavers. And the members, by avoiding unfriendly criticism and fault-finding, and furnishing instead, timely words and acts of aid and cheer, can do much in securing this boon. The church thus employed, shall find how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity, for there the Lord will command his blessing, even life forevermore.
18. RESPONSE, by Eugene Palmer, M. D., of Houston, Tex- as :
Among the eminent divines who have presided over this con- gregation for two hundred years, -and not a few of them were distinguished for their learning and eloquence, -the name of one, which was cherished as a household word among his parishioners, and more identified with the history of this Church and congre- gation than that of any other, was the name of our distinguished ancestor, the Rev. Ebenezer Rosseter. I regret that no written record of his life has been preserved; and I regret yet more my incompetency to eulogize his life and character. But to justly estimate a man, we must judge of him by the times in which he lived, and by the advantages at his command. Ebenezer Rosseter was born and educated at a time when this now proud and powerful nation was a feeble, oppressed, impoverished, and dependent colony. Its institutions of learning were then in their infancy, unendowed, poorly sustained, and the means for obtain- ing a liberal education (as it then was called) were denied, except to a very few, and yet, at such a time, and under such circum- stances, he stamped his name and his virtues upon the generation he lived in; now, that these same institutions have, long ago, ripened up, to rival the emporiums of science, the time-hon- ored colleges of the Old World, and a liberal education of the highest order attainable by us all, and in our own country, it must be said to our own discredit, or rather to his enduring fame, that among his numerous descendants, who have already attained to the fourth or fifth generation, with all these advantages within
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our reach, if in the different walks of life any of us may have equaled him, not one has surpassed him. We may well be proud to have descended from such an ancestor, the venerable patriarch of a numerous kindred lineage. Long ago, some threescore years or more, it has been my lot to have met with a few of the remnants of his flock, who had tarried behind him : they were then old men. I remember to have heard them extol his many virtues. I have heard them speak of his surpassing eloquence. I have heard them praise the daily beauty of his life. They seemed to wear him in their hearts, and to bear him on their lips, with a reverent and manly praise : and for him who was so useful and so beloved in life, I have thought it my duty, as one of the oldest among his descendants, to bring forward his name on an occasion like this.
19. RESPONSE, by Rev. P. G. Wightman, Mystic, Conn. : -
Sentiment, -" The Road Church, the Jerusalem, the mother of us all, God bless her."
Mother is one of the sacred words in the vocabulary of civil- ization and refinement. It is suggestive of veneration, love, gratitude, and tenderness in all filial hearts. This is so even when age has faded the beauty of earlier days, and the fingers of time have plaited wrinkles upon the loveliness of the cheek and brow, and the weight of years has bowed the once elegant form. How much more then does this word suggest when, as we see it to-day in this mother Church, loveliness increases with years, and centuries promote beauty in the fullness and symmetry of the Christian graces. We never know how to prize a mother. We can recall a few incidents here and there which are only an index, and put them upon the page of history, but the life of a mother can never be written.
When my great-great-grandfather Valentine Wightman came from Kingston in the Rhode Island Plantations and formed in 1705 the First Baptist Church in Groton, which is the first Bap- tist Church in Connecticut, this Road Church gave them Isaac Lamb, a great and good man, to head the list of our constituent members, and to be the first deacon through a long life of useful- ness. There was a strong impression in many minds that " Jeru- salem is the place where men ought to worship," and any Church might be unwilling to lose such a man as Mr. Lamb ; yet the
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harmony between the two churches seems not to have been in the least impaired. Such motherly acts toward a great many other churches have been repeated down to the present time.
After a pastorate of more than forty years, Mr. Valentine Wightman was succeeded by his son, Timothy Wightman, who also was pastor more than forty years, and was then succeeded by his son, John Gano Wightman, who was also pastor forty years ; and through all three pastorates, covering a time of one hundred and twenty-six years, there was manifested between them and the cotemporaneous pastors of this Road Church a dignified Christian courtesy and mutual regard for each others' welfare as co-laborers in the vineyard of the Lord.
It is the calling and mission of these churches in the country to raise up men and send them into the city churches, who be- come successful business men and pillars in those churches : but if, like your Stanton and others, they remember their mothers in their benefactions, we do well to recognize the fulfillment of the divine promise, " He that watereth shall be watered also himself."
Long may this old Church continue to send her healing influ- ences to the ends of the earth by her power at the Throne of Grace, and to send her sons to strengthen and adorn the churches of many cities, still increasing herself in numbers and graces, and bringing in a revenue of glory to Christ, who loved the Church and gave Himself for it, all down the ages to come.
20. RESPONSE, by Rev. Andrew J. Hetrick, of Preston City, Conn. : -
MR. MODERATOR, -I think your Church has been greatly honored, in having been made the mother of so many blooming daughters. Few churches, comparatively speaking, in our highly favored land, have sent out so many vigorous colonies as yours has. When we reflect on its small beginning and its great accomplishments, we may truly exclaim : " What hath God wrought !" " How has the little one become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation !" You were weak at first, but as the years rolled along, you acquired strength ; and after a while, either the old home became too " strait " for the children, or, what is more probable, they had taken up their abodes too far from it, and so they went out from you ; but to-day, their
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descendants gladly come back to invoke blessings upon their venerable parent. Although I am not authorized to speak for any of them, yet I willingly join them in a service, at once so pleasing and fitting. Coming from a church that has recently betrothed or given up a spiritual husband to one of your daugh- ters, I am happy to present to you their congratulations on this festal occasion. The Church at Preston City, which I have the honor to represent, is not, indeed, as old as yours, and yet, dating our origin from November 16th, 1698, we are, within a quarter of a century, as old. No doubt, the pious ancestors who founded our Church were the friends and acquaintances of those who founded yours. Probably, they occasionally met together and interchanged views on the great questions which were agitated in their time, as we now do on those that are agitated in our time, and so we feel that we are, in more than a geographical sense, nearer to you than to Christians more remote from us. At any rate, we can cheerfully unite with all your daughters and all your other numerous friends in wishing you a hearty God bless you ! And how much there is in that !
""' God bless you !' more love expresses Than volumes without number; Reveal we thus our trust in Him, Whose eyelids never slumber."
Yes, we can most heartily say, "God bless you," - bless you in your organization, bless you in your pastor, in your officers, in all your members, in your relation to the various families of this community, to the different churches about you, and the great world without ! The glorious Head of the Church has furnished you with a pleasant place for his public worship ; may you find increasing delight therein, and be always as united in everything that pertains to the interests of his kingdom in the world, as it is intimated you should be, in the name which you anciently bore, and which it is " devoutly to be wished " you might assume again, because it is more euphonious than the prosaic one you now bear. You have done much towards the prosperity of Zion in the past, -may you be enabled to do even much more in the future, to draw many, who are ready to perish, within her protecting walls, and to afford great comfort and consolation to all her children! You have fought a good fight and have kept the faith, - may you continue to wage
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successful warfare against the common foe, and come up to the help of the Lord against the skepticism and infidelity of the day, which are rolling in upon us like the waves of the sea ! You have lived two hundred years since your organization, - may you live until the millennium, and through it, if there be a necessity for your existence then ; and as one and another of your members retire forever from "the Jerusalem which is the mother of " so many, may they be conveyed triumphantly to that " Jerusalem " which is really " the mother of us all " -
" the golden mansion Where saints forever sing ; The seat of God's own chosen, The palace of the king !"
21. HYMN, written for the occasion by Mary F. Kirby.
1674. HYMN. 1874.
Our fathers' God, with gladsome hearts We greet this festal day, And in thine earthly courts, to thee Our grateful homage pay.
We bless thee, for redeeming love ; For all thy grace divine ; For all the light which from thy Word Of truth on us doth shine.
We bless thee, that thou didst, e'en here, Thy chosen servants bring,
To plant, in centuries past, thy Church, Thus owning thee their king.
We bless thee, for the pious dead, Our fathers ! in thy sight All honored be their names, to-day, Their virtues, rare and bright.
We bless thee that thou hast preserved Thy Church, through weal and woe ; For all the precious means of grace Which from this fountain flow.
We bless thee, Lord, with heart and voice : And now, bless us, we pray,
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Who thus commemorate thy love This anniversary day.
Enrich us with thy heavenly gifts, That we, like those of yore, May the Redeemer's cause extend, Till time shall be no more.
And when the archangel's trump shall sound, Grant, Lord, that we may meet With saints of every age and clime, To worship at thy feet.
22. RESPONSE, by Rev. William McK. Bray, Mystic, Conn. :-
With other " bairns of the dear mither," we return to-day to the old homestead, to congratulate her upon her vigorous age, her splendid achievements, her almost world-wide influence. Her children are found in almost every clime, in every church, and in all professions. For two centuries her leaven has been spreading, until multitudes scattered all over our vast republic have felt and yielded to its power. The small seed of gospel life, dropped in this soil two hundred years ago, has grown into a majestic tree, spreading its genial branches over all the land, and shaking its blessed fruit into thousands of happy homes. Never, until revealed by the grand disclosures of the Great Day, can it be known how wide-spread and powerful for weal has been the influence of this single Church.
In addition to the many who have been led to the Saviour through the manifold influences and ever multiplying agencies she has sent out into the world, she has transmitted to us that priceless treasure, that peerless power which she herself received from the denomination that gave her birth, a loyal, daring, un- impeachable conscience. More than to all other sources, Amer- ican Christianity is indebted to New England Congregationalism for the sturdy, massive conscience she bequeathed to the churches, - a conscience which in its resistance of wrong is as granite, iron, adamant. If the denomination I represent has lent you something of its fiery enthusiasm, we are more than recompensed by the steady, inexorable conscience you have created in us, - a power that puts an inextinguishable blaze into our fire, render- ing it all the more destructive to the dangerous structures of sin.
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We thank you for the part you have borne in the great work of New England Congregationalism, which has done so much in filling the land with revered Bibles, sanctified Sabbaths, house- hold altars, virtuous homes, and an imperishable conscience, - all of which have enabled us as a nation to meet the terrible on- slaught of political corruption, licentiousness, and knavery with which we have in these latter years been compelled to contend.
Permit me to close with the prayer, that the holy influence of your denomination may, like the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, continue to increase until its swelling base shall reach from horizon to horizon, and its stretching peaks pinnacle themselves in the zenith, and the whole earth be filled with its glory.
23. RESPONSE, by Rev. Charles Cutling, Ledyard, Conn. : -
A't stated times the Tribes went up to Jerusalem. Each fes- tival day, they sought the Holy City and the sacred Temple. No distance detained or hardship prevented them. To reach it, they toiled over the arid desert, beneath the burning sun. They dug wells in the sand to procure refreshing water, leaving their fountains, thus made, for those who should come after them.
At length, after the weary journey, pursued with such untiring energy, the lofty city, temple-crowned, broke upon their vision.
For a moment they stood fixing their gaze upon roof and min- aret and tower as they glistened in the bright sunlight. Then with more vigorous step they hastened up the eminence, entered the streets, and sought the Temple itself. There, joining in the service, and mingling in the festivities, their whole being was re- freshed.
Perhaps for a similar reason, the Road Church may have been a Jerusalem to our ancestors. With Puritan zeal and devout life, as the Sabbath morning dawned, they may have made a hasty preparation and wended their way toward this Church.
We look back almost two centuries, and even now seem to see the sturdy settler with staff in hand or mounted upon his faithful horse saddled and pillioned, with his wife behind, pur- suing the narrow path; now they ascend the rugged hillside, now descend into the valley, and ford the shallow stream. At times they pass through dense forests, at times enter the open field cleared for the raising of grain and a few necessary products of
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the garden. Thus toiling patiently along, at length this ancient church breaks upon their sight, and soon they enter its portals. Here the cares of the week are forgotten, and the depredations of hostile Indians for the time being dismissed from mind ; join- ing in the simple, fervent prayer that is uttered, and listening to the long-drawn-out discourse, their weariness is put to flight, and sweet peace and refreshment is found.
Then, venerable Church, wast thou not a Jerusalem indeed to our ancestors ? Did they not joyfully seek thee, their precious bourne of earthly rest? And hadst thou not a balm for their wounded breasts, a cordial for their woes, a peace for their weary and disturbed spirits ?
If this picture we have drawn be true to fact, then the Church to which this sentiment is given for a response, bears her ancient benefactress a tribute of lasting gratitude. For though others may claim the honor of its formation, and deny to this more an- cient Church its assumed motherhood, yet, laying aside the ques- tion of birth, there is no doubt but her influence and the warmth of her Christian zeal, first pervaded this whole community. And we are happy in being able to say that the fires so long ago kin- dled at her sacred altar are still burning brightly. Hearts here are to-day aglow with the flame of divine love. The descendants of those who in ancient days may have wended their toilsome way to their Jerusalem, love as intensely their house of God, for by his grace, from time to time, there has been here a refresh- ing from his own presence. And though not enjoying at present a revival season, yet many, by earnest lives, a sincere faith, and unfaltering zeal, are doing service in the Master's cause.
Notwithstanding this Church is remote from busy thorough- fares, and feels not so keenly the pulse of commercial life or the throbbing excitement of more business centres, yet, situated amidst nature's rougher and grander scenery, she has prospered at God's bidding. By the testimony of others, framed from statistics, she includes a larger proportion of the community than any other church in the State, and we hope that her merits consist not simply in numbers, but rather in humble, earnest, consistent piety ; that her members, though not faultless, yet as a whole, bear, along with the outward profession, hearts and lives that may meet the searching scrutiny of the omniscient God. Then from every one of these followers of Christ comes there not this hearty ejaculation, God bless the Road Church !
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If her influence was so keenly felt by our ancestors, if that in- fluence has strengthened and deepened as the generations have descended, and if we and so many who have gone out from us, may trace the blessings of the Gospel of peace back to this an- cient beacon-light, then the sentiment to which we are asked a response, is but the true expression of our grateful hearts. May her light continue to shine and with increasing brilliancy to the end of time !
" The Road Church," we love her strong, homely, old Saxon name! We love her sons and daughters all! God bless her ! And may she ever be a Jerusalem to all in her vicinity, where every weary, wayworn disciple of Christ may find spiritual rest and refreshment.
24. RESPONSE, by the Rev. John P. Sheffield, Mystic Bridge, Conn .: -
Representing another denomination, I hardly feel at liberty o trespass upon your precious time. But we have one common interest, and, as churches, we sustain such friendly relations, that my heart prompts me to express a few words, and extend to you the fraternal greetings of the Church of which I am pastor, and the denomination with which I have the honor of being con- nected. I occupy this place the more cheerfully because my ma- ternal ancestry were wont to meet in this ancient and honorable sanctuary. My mother first became a member of a branch or offshoot of this Church in North Stonington, my native town. Subsequently with my father she became a member of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church.
Members of my present pastoral charge refer with pleasure to their early days, when they were wont to meet here with their friends and relatives, some of whom were for years reckoned with the prominent members and supporters of the First Church of Stonington.
The influence that has gone out from this sacred place has been immeasurably great and good. Many will rise up to call this Church blessed. During the ages to come, may her pros- perity far exceed that of the two centuries just closing.
25. The Baptist Church, North Stonington, Greeting, to the Road Church, the Jerusalem, the mother of us all, God bless her : -
The Third Baptist Church in North Stonington, send affectionate
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greetings to the mother of all these Christian churches. Thanks, then, to the aged matron for her kind recognition to this daughter, living amid the hills and glens of the Northern town. Though differing a little in denominational points, yet all akin to the parent stock, and hoping ultimately to reach the New Jerusalem, where we are striving to be worthy being recognized as the one great family of Christ. In our prayers shall mingle a desire for her prosperity, and the indwelling of the Spirit. We would wish the next century might find her as vigorous as now, and may all the branches of the vine bloom once again about the parent stem, bringing then, as now, the flowers of Christian love, whose perfume is a sweet incense to burn upon the altar, rendered sa- cred these two hundred years by holy teachings and trusting faith, which have come to us from generation to generation, as a holy benediction from heaven.
God bless and sustain the Parent Church ; the " Habitation of Peace," the mother of us all.
Yours in Christ, THIRD BAPTIST CHURCH, North Stonington.
Mr. EPHRAIM W. MAIN, Committee.
Mrs. D. W. STEWART,
26. The Union Baptist Church of Mystic River, to the First Congre- gational Church of Stonington, send greeting and Christian saluta- tion : -
It is with great pleasure and thankfulness that we see you preparing to celebrate your two-hundredth anniversary. We thank God that amid the changes and revolutions in the political and social world, you have stood firmly to your principles, and have, during all the days of your existence, been a bright and a shining light; that you are more vigorous to-day than ever before, and that you number among your worshippers so many noble, God-fearing men and women.
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