USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Stratford > The quarto-millennial anniversary of the Congregational Church of Stratford, Connecticut. The historical address by the pastor, and a full report of all the exercises, September 5th, 1889 > Part 6
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MR. IVES. You will listen now to the greeting from the church in Washington, another granddaughter, by Deacon E. W. Woodruff.
RESPONSE from the Church in Washington,
DEACON E. W. WOODRUFF.
WELL, Grandmother, I bring to you Mr. Turner's best and sincere regrets that he cannot be here to-day to greet you, therefore I come in his place. You will not let me tell what we have done up there, I can't with that five minute sword hanging over my head; but I will tell you what we have got, and I bet you can't guess. What do you guess? We have got a Swedish baby. It was born the first Sacramental season in May, 1889. The way of it is this. Up in our farming country towns, years ago and now, all the brightest and best boys and girls go off to the city and out West, where they can get knowledge and make money a great deal better than they
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can here, and leave us poor sticks at home; and what is father and mother to do? They had before called in Pat and Bridget, from the land of the Celt, but we up there in Judea think we know a thing or two, and we called in Gustavus and Lena from the land of the Swedes. The Swedes brought the Bible with them and wanted to worship God in their own language. They had their minister come; they built a hall, or started to build one; and we chipped in and helped them. They wanted to form a church. Well, Yankee ingenuity came in and we said, here, suppose you come and join our church, meet down in the hall and worship in your own language'; but you shall belong to our church and be a branch. Very well, so on that Sab- bath there were over thirty that joined our church. Our arti- cles of faith and covenant were translated into Swedish and the Swedish minister read them to the communicants and the communion service was administered in both Swedish and English. Well, now, what was all this for? These Swedish children come to our church, come to our school. But this is only temporary, remember, and soon the clannish Swede will be supplanted with the millennial English. And when you sent us up into the hills, full of Yandee sagacity, of foresight and hindsight, we were looking ahead. Up in these New Eng- land hills, Congregational churches are, many of them, re- duced so low they are not able to starve one man, but have to do it two together, to do it decently, to starve one minister! We do not expect any such thing is going to arrive there. Our little baby is growing very fast. There is about fifty of her now. The last communion season there was about fifteen more of her admitted. You see the point. We have city people there to be sure, but they come and go. Blessings on them while they stay! But then comes the cold Winter,-what are you going to do? We don't want to go into holes like wood- chucks and hibernate; and as we get old and totter by the fireplace, in comes this buxom Swedish lass and makes things sweet, and, God bless her, she is a source of help and com- fort to us. This we call "the Judea patent process of pre- serving the churches." In three years more we shall be one hundred and fifty years old. Well, may I say one word or
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two? We have done something up on that old hill. We have had some high old fights in the abolition times and temper- ance times, plenty of them; but we had good old "Stratford grit," and we always won in the end. We raised a school teacher there, who was a Gunn, and he shot new ideas into the system of education; and he was one of the first to learn men how to train that animal, the crudest curiosity on God's earth, a boy, through what Henry Ward Beecher said was the "Hell gate" he had to pass through, twelve to sixteen years old. He who had set forward progress in that line of educa- tion lies buried on our hill. We say that a church and town are one in New England, and you cannot separate them, that is impossible. We sent our Senator Platt who lived there until after his majority. and who worthily represents us in the halls of Congress-but I must not linger-only we wish you would come up and see us. If you will come up and make us a real good visit this Fall, some day, we will give you plenty of pumpkin pies and apple sauce; and if you will bring your cap and stay over Sunday we will let you go down and see the baby. Well, I am delegated to give to you our Christian greeting, our heartiest Christian greeting and congratulations, and happy to find you in such a green old age. And we pray that you may live, not only through a green old age, but a thousand years, and not only a thousand years, but to the time when the apocalyptic angel shall stand with one foot on sea and one on land and declare that time shall be no more.
MR. IVES. I am reminded by this that we ought perhaps to have included another church, that we could have put in the place of that blank panel, our Scandinavian Church in Bridge- port, and if there has been any oversight in this regard I will make free acknowledgment at this time.
Is there any one present to represent the church in Rox- bury? No name has been given to us. I will take but a mo- ment to say, that during my first year in the Seminary I was sent up to Roxbury to preach. It was my first output from the Seminary. I took with me the only two sermons I owned, and I preached them and came home!
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We will now listen to a response from the church in South Britain by Brother John Pierce.
RESPONSE from the Church in South Britain,
MR. JOHN PIERCE.
IN behalf of the great-great-grandchildren of South Britain we are here to thank you for the courtesy and kindness extended to us. I might say South Britain is a little village situated in the extreme northwest corner of New Haven county, bounded on the west by the ancient Pootatuck, or present Housatonic river. Our ancestors came from this neighborhood and the adjoining town of Milford, up the valley of the Hous- atonic, thence to the valley of the Pomperaug and Shepaug, into the town of Woodbury, and then returned southerly in this direction, forming the town of Southbury, and latterly the parish of South Britain, a portion of the town of Southbury. Our church, as you will see, was organized in the year 1763, splitting off from the church in Southbury, representing, that the high hills between were such an impediment that it was difficult for them to attend that church. They petitioned the General Assembly for a site, and after some debate and oppo- sition they were organized into a church by themselves. The name of the place, as near as can be ascertained, was origi- nated in this way: South, lying south of Woodbury; and Britain, because the inhabitants were loyal subjects to the. English Crown, a fact which caused them great inconvenience during the war of the Revolution. Perhaps it is not well to say this, but facts are facts. A portion of my ancestors came from this direction, the town of Wethersfield and Glaston- bury. Our early ancestors were most anxious to form a church. They were anxious to serve their Maker according to the best of their abilities. In order to show you the rigidness with which they wished God's commands to be obeyed, I will read to you a writ that has been in the possession of my family ever since its original draft, issued for Sabbath breaking:
"To John Pierce, Esq., Justice of the Peace for Litchfield "County, comes David Pierce and Robert Edmonds, Grand
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"Jurymen for our Lord the King in said County, and by reason " of their office, oath, complaint and presentment make of and "against Stephen Squire, of Woodbury, with County aforesaid, " for that he the said Stephen Squires did on the 9th of May, " A. D. 1773, being Sabbath or Lord's day, he the said Stephen "being in good health refused and neglected to attend on any "publick worship in any meeting or congregation in said Town " or elsewhere, but did wilfully Absent himself therefrom by "gayly staying at home Without any work of Necessity or "Mercy Obliging him thereto which is contrary to our statute "law of the Colony Entitled an act for the due observance and " keeping of the Sabbath or Lord's day, and to the bad Exam- "ple of his Majestie's good Subjects, and prays a writ of our " Lord, the King, may go forth against the said Stephen and " he be dealt with as the law directs.
" Dated at Woodbury the 19th day of May, A. D. 1773.
"DAVID PIERCE, ROBERT EDMOND, "Grand Jury-Men."
I have good evidence that the said Stephen was prosecuted as the law directed and punished for the offense. The idea seemed to be in those days that a church could be supported after the people had acquired a certain amount of wealth. The Society of South Britain represented to the General Court that they had a taxable property amounting to one thousand, two hundred pounds; and the first minister, Jehu Miner, was awarded a settlement of two hundred pounds, and an annual salary of seventy pounds a year. This was a very nice thing for a young clergyman, who had possibly spent the larger part of his money in getting his education; and the idea of taxing the society fell with us into innocuous desuetude about the year 1830. About the year 1803, when a tax was laid upon the society contrary to the wishes of many, an old farmer turned out to the tax collector a large black bear which he had brought from Minnesinks, New York State, with his Bible ; the bear and Bible were sold at the post, and the money used to pay the society tax. That is a fact.
The next minister after Jehu Miner was Rev. Matthew
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Cazier, a man of French extraction, of strong Calvinistic prin- ciples. It was said, I don't know how true it is, that he used to chastise his son almost every day in the week for fear that he might disregard the text, "He that spares the rod will spoil the child."
The next minister of eminence was the Rev. Bennett Tyler whom many of you brethren will remember, who attained great eminence in his profession, one of the greatest theologians of the State in his day and time. Of the fourteen ministers who have officiated in our parish, I believe all have been men of God, and all have striven sincerely and earnestly to worship Him and lead their flocks according to the best of their ability.
CHURCH DECORATIONS. (LOOKING EAST.)
MR. IVES. We will now hear a response from the North Church of Woodbury, by the Rev. Mr. Wyckoff.
RESPONSE from the North Church of Woodbury,
REV. J. L. R. WYCKOFF.
I REPRESENT, SIR, the third generation of a race of ministers,
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and I can remember, when a child in my mother's home, many gatherings of ministers around the table, and I have a very distinct recollection of being compelled to wait when the min- isters were visiting at our home; and my chief anxiety was, when they were eating, whether anything would be left when they got through, for you know those religious eaters. We had the evidence of that to-day; and I confess it was a matter of considerable anxiety to me, while sitting in the pew over there, whether or not there would be anything left when those who preceded me got through in the way of refreshment this afternoon.
I see that I am not recognized here in this home, and it may be necessary for me to make a word of explanation. The thing to do here to-day is in some way or another to connect yourself with Stratford. I have wondered how I could do it. My grandfather was a Presbyterian minister of the old school. My father was a Presbyterian minister of the new school. They left me on the fence. I jumped down between, and the good people of North Woodbury, seeing I was a stranger, took me in. They took me in, for when they had once received me, they administered to me this oath: No man shall preach the gospel in this church except the man who preaches the pure doctrines of the gospel commonly known as Calvanistic, or as 'contained in the Shorter Catechism of the Westminster As- sembly. I said they took me in-with my consent, of course. I want to say in regard to your grandchild to-day, the first thing and the most important thing in regard to her church life, she has held fast to the faith once delivered to the saints. It is the first time that I have ever been privileged to look into the face of Grandmother Stratford. I wonder, if she had the faith to deliver to-day, if she would deliver it as unalloyed, as in those days,-as pure and simple. The time came when the little swallow had to be crowded off the eaves, and she flew away and found herself a nest, a very pleasant one and commodious, capable of accommodating from five to seven hundred little nestlings. She has pushed on in the presence of misfortune until to-day she outnumbers on her list her mother, in the way of communicants; and she has pushed up
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until she reaches almost your own record of church member- ship, seventy-three years of church life, seventy-three years of faithful witnessing to the truth and holding fast to the faith as it is Jesus. It is a pleasant thing for us to come back to-day, and make a report as to the way in which we have served the Master and held to the faith. It is a great thing to be put into the line of spiritual descent, to have the hand of a pious ances- tor extended with benediction over one's life. Descent is important, but ascent is better. We thank God for what has been transmitted to us, for the prayers that have been answered with respect to our church life, and for the sympathy that has been extended to us, although we have not seen your face for all these seventy-three years. It seems a little strange that we should come here to-day and protest our affection, when we have never as yet exchanged a visit; but it seems equally strange that this our grandmother should be so ignorant with reference to our name. I presume there is not a member of my church who would recognize the name on that panel, not one, Woodbury Second. It is North Woodbury, and, just as the brother has intimated, these inscriptions are all on the same level. We don't recognize either first or second. It is Woodbury South, or South Woodbury, and Woodbury North, or North Woodbury. The saints are one, as they have one faith, one Lord, one baptism.
It will not do for me to trespass on this brother's patience. I heard him say over in the aisle, unless I misunderstood him, to Brother Hovey, "The man who exceeds five minutes will be imprisoned." I want to keep my liberty. I was born free, and I want to preserve it. I will simply close by saying to you that all the saints in North Woodbury greet you, and re- quest me to salute you with a holy kiss; and they unite with me in the most earnest and fervent prayer that God may bless you and keep you and cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you.
MR. IVES. We are now getting down toward the children of a younger growth, and the Rev. R. G. S. McNeille, will re- spond for the Second Church in Bridgeport.
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RESPONSE from the South Church in Bridgeport,
REV. R. G. S. NONEILLE.
MR. MODERATOR AND BRETHREN OF THE STRATFORD CHURCH: When Father Tom Burke, the Priest, was pleading in England the cause of Ireland, he laid great emphasis, in connection with his eloquent appeals, upon the fact that he himself was an Irishman. The next day the English Historian, Mr. Froude, in a public address, called Father Tom to account and said he ought not to boast of being an Irishman, because the name Burke was a Norman name. But Father Tom, upon a subse- quent occasion, said that Mr. Froude had claimed that Burke was a Norman name, and, said he, Mr. Froude is correct, although the name has rested upon the old sod for four hund- red years; but, perhaps, Mr. Froude does not know that my mother was a Callihan, though every body knows that Calli- han is an Irish name, and that the boys take after their mother. As I have met here so pleasantly the representatives of these churches in these felicitously arranged exercises, I congratu- late you, first of all, that the descendants of this ancient and honored church follow the general rule and alike take after their mother. They are marked with the imprint of her face. They still hold, the very faith received through her at the first; not the faith of the Westminster Catechism, however excellent: not the faith of John Calvin, however profound; not the faith of John Wesley, however stimulating; these influences, fall into the second place, but the one faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Redeemer, held under whatever system of doctrine and under whatever subordinate human name you please, the faith that makes our hearts glow and brings us into love and sympathy with his divine way of life, of glory and of salvation.
Meanwhile, I do not forget to express a deep sympathy with the idea that has been so often averted to here, the value in church life of historical continuity, and I am glad now at length to attend a celebration of one of the original Puritan Churches, which commemorates in to-day's anniversary an appreciable portion of a millennial of history. And while it is true that
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we who are Congregational claim, even from the earliest Church in Jerusalem, a continuity of principle in regard to faith and practice; yet in these last days, it is felicitous for us to feel that here we are gaining in respect of that outward continuity, which is historically associated with common institutions long preserved and handed down. I feel now, at length, that our Congregationalism begins to assume the type of some of those great European cathedrals, dating back in the origin of their continuous growth and erection to earlier centuries, but added to in every succeeding century by the contributions of an ever fresh, an ever growing and an ever potent piety. I greet you, therefore, first of all from our church, because we have so much in common, we have our histories in common; we have our Christian life from a common source and we have in com- mon the spirit which energizes a pure New Testament faith. I think that we of the Second Church in Bridgeport rejoice also that we may bring you greetings because of the perpe- tuity of the Union of those Churches-a union in organization, and in fellowship-which has arisen from these old centers of New England life and theology, I remember that on one occasion a youthful student in the Seminary spoke to the Rev. Dr. Bacon of the Congregational Churches as being a rope of sand. "Yes," said Dr. Bacon, "you see the sand, I see the rope." And I have often thought that our Churches are as jewels prepared for a crown, separate in their integrity, in their beauty and in their individual value, but joined together as some of the royal jewels are often joined, by a filligree of gold almost invisible, a true and golden bond so that the joints do not appear. I congratulate you, therefore, upon the unity of our Churches, a unity which, however slight it may seem, is sufficiently strong, as seen to-day, for sympathy and work during the two hundred and fifty years which are past and gone.
I congratulate you, last of all, on the continued individuality of the Churches. I am glad to hear from such a one, as the brother who preceeded me, his staunch allegiance and the staunch allegiance of his Church to an ancient and noble creed. I am glad to hear from all of our Churches concerning that
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which, while they are Congregational and united, makes them individual also in the freedom of their growth, in the activity of their life in the pursuit of a common purpose. Each Church values for itself differing forms of thought and we emphasize, somewhat varying theologies, but, nevertheless, individual in our freedom, we do no more than give, as it were, a varied expression to our invaluable and holy Christian faith. I feel that, in regard to our unity, we are to-day, as ever, one. I feel that in regard to our individuality we are to-day, as ever, many, in order that, if any one Church may be able to contribute or preserve any specially valuable thought or practice all the rest are at liberty to receive that contribution, and thankfully using it may at length make it common to us all. Just as in some cathedrals you see the great rose-window which in the west of the church takes up and transmits the light of a perfect day, and when you look at it and look out through it you see the amber and the gold and the royal purple and the amethyst, the shining blue, and the deep ruby,-all these colors perfect in their adjustment,-the perfect picture according to the artist's mind, yet if you turn your back to that window and look toward the altar, you will find that through these many single pieces of stained glass, all of them of different colors, there comes from the whole window, upon the altar of God's house a pure white and combined light. So I congratulate you, that from this ancient church so many churches have arisen, individual in their planting, and individual in their free growth but that through them all, taken together, there still shines the white light of the Gospel of redeeming love. And if there should fall upon some of the young men and upon some of the young women of this church that spirit of proph- ecy that was spoken of by an elder Prophet of by-gone days; if it were given to any here in that spirit of prophecy to look ahead for two hundred and fifty years, I can express no better wish than that catching the light from the mountain top of Zion, across so many sunken and hidden valleys of the unre- vealed future, the spirit of prophecy might discern afar off, that when another quarter millennial shall have been com- pleted, and when history shall have swelled the stream of our
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church life to twice its present magnitude and bulk, that even in that far off time, this ancient and Godly church may still be able to gather around her, her children and her children's children, consecrated to one faith, one Lord, one baptism of the Holy Ghost; to a common penitence and a common hope of everlasting salvation.
COLLECTION OF RELICS AT LECTURE ROOM.
MR. IVES. Dr. Hovey will now respond for the Park Street Church. Will the other gentlemen please come forward.
RESPONSE from the Park Street Church, Bridgeport.
REV. H. C. HOVEY, D.D.
MY DEAR BROTHER: I received from you a postal card clos- ing with the touching words, "Remember the Belle." Thus the Pastor of this church speaks of the dear old grandmother. She is the belle whom we all love, beautiful as in the days of her youth. Far away on the banks of the Muscoka, north of the Georgian Bay last Sunday morning, I met with a group of Christian people to worship God, and one of them said to
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me, you are going to have a celebration at Stratford, we un- derstand this coming week. Dear old Stratford! At New York, in one of the busiest offices on Broadway I met one of the busiest men of all in that great throbbing metropolis, and as we parted, after transacting a little business, he said, there is going to be a great celebration down at Stratford next Thursday. And so we hear from one and another of those who love your belle. Away off in Minneapolis, when a dear brother had expounded the Scriptures to us in such a manner as to make them luminous, and I asked him where he came from, he said he came from dear old Stratford. I am glad to see him here to-day, your former Sunday-School superinten- dent, Brother Plant. Thus we all are here with our tribute of love to the belle; and perhaps after all, deciphering your hieroglyphics which I do with joy and pleasure, my brother, I may have misunderstood the matter, and it may be the young church of which I am the pastor that you wish me to speak of. Remember the Belle! How could I forget that beautiful young church of only twenty years, strong, lithe, ruddy in her youth and beauty. May God bless her, your grandchild, the Park Street Church, with its four hundred and fifty members, its Sunday-School averaging four hundred, take the year around, its Society of Christian Endeavor so full of life and spirits, its Mother's Meeting so goodly and strong,-all its beautiful features, I trace back through its parents to its grandmother. I say its parents; for we have not been able to decide yet whether we were born of the First Church or the Second Church, both claiming us, and we loving both and cherishing them dearly in our hearts. We know who our grandmother is !
But after all I am not sure about the postal card. There is no "e" at the end of the word belle, so it must be that you have reference to the bell that swings and summons to the house of worship; and it may be that in your pride you spoke of that old bell that used to sound down in Sandy Hollow, when all around through Connecticut the Puritans were blow- ing their horns to come to the House of God, or were sound- ing their conch shells, or, as in East Haven, good old Deacon
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Austin in his regimentals was marching up and down the hill beating his big base drum in order to gather men to the House of God. Then you, in those days were swinging the first bell of goodly Connecticut. Yes, remember the bell, don't forget that. I saw the tongue of the bell, the iron tongue that cracked the old bell, not that bell, perhaps; but some other bell, it is there in the hall of relics-I am not sure I am point- ing in the right direction, but you know what I mean-but I saw it. Oh how many times that bell has summoned men to worship God, how many times it has rebuked the profane Sabbath breaker; how many times it has tolled the knell for those, who have passed away from earth to heaven. Yes, re- member the bell, and cherish it, for it is God's voice, it is the voice of God's bride sounding abroad through the land, rebuk- ing the careless, summoning the thoughtful, encouraging those who are ready to repair to the House of God and to enter into his service gladly. Yes, there is one thing that we can boast of in the Park Street Church, and I don't know of any other church that can, we hear the ringing of this bell. Perhaps you can hear ours, as the bells peal on the Sabbath morning, calling men to the House of Prayer. Oh, I love the church going bell and I think of all the bells that have been set chim- ing and still chime to the glory of God. And that first old bell at Sandy Hollow, I say let us remember the bell. I don't know how big that bell was. We don't believe in very big bells in our Congregational churches. In the Cathedral at Montreal they have a bell that weighs 29,400 pounds. That is a monstrous bell, and over in China I have been told that the largest bell there is inscribed with 100,000 characters, and every one of those characters is a prayer, and when the bell is rung all those prayers are supposed to arise to Heaven. And now, my brethren and sisters in this old Stratford church, if we had over there at the Park Street Church a tower like the tower of Eiffel and we had swinging in this belfry such a bell as that in the Cathedral of Montreal, and if it were in- scribed with a hundred thousand or a million characters, and every one a prayer, when the bell rings those prayers should arise to God for you and your church. May God bless you.
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