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 8
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Not only has this continuity of church life in its inner spirit and power been strongly impressed upon me to-day. There is another; and it is that of the presentation of the faith once delivered to the saints,-loyalty to the standards of truth and to the forms and ordinances of the gospel. I would not have any of you infer that I believe that our fathers of two hundred and fifty years ago did the thinking for us of to-day. I would not have you suppose that I am so bigoted as to feel that we can make no improvement in the termin- ology of our religious creed. I would not have you for a moment think that I am so wedded to uninspired words, to mere forms and statements of truth that men have made, as to think that the expressions and utterances of one Christian age are sufficient for all time. But we may count as certain- ties to-day many things which our fathers would have regarded as wild dreams, while we may have wider and broader vistas
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of truth than they had. While the streams of truth have been growing wider and wider, and our bark may have been driven into broader and deeper harbors of knowledge, yet, still, let us remember to cultivate the spirit of reverence for the past, for only as we have reverence for the past can we have any hope for the future. While we have reverence for the past, let us be deeply humble as to what we ourselves have gained or may gain. Let us remember that though the paths we are treading may lead us into broader fields and open out into wider and more attractive vistas, that these paths are those the fathers marked out for us. We did not mark them out for ourselves. So, with profound gratitude for their work along all the lines of religious and theological life, of social life, of intellectual life, let us, in our rejoicings to-day, con- gratulate ourselves that such a noble lineage is ours. Let our congratulations be in a spirit that I can no better express to you than in the simple words of the familiar heart-touching hymn, "More love, O Christ, to Thee, more love to Thee." Let us lift up on high, as ours, the motto of the early Redemp- tionist Fathers, "All for Thee, dear Christ, All for Thee." And may the blessing of the God of the fathers, that rested upon the fathers, rest upon their children to the remotest generations.
We shall now have the pleasure of listening to a former pastor of this church, Rev. Mr. Fitch.
DENOMINATIONAL ESPRIT DE CORPS.
REV. FRANK S. FITCH.
Why is Protestant Christendom divided into so many sects ? The Church of Rome answers confidently because of the great apostacy from the true church. Human reason was enthroned in the place of the authority of the apostles and their succes- sors, and disintegration is the natural and necessary result. Behold the evils of dissent, say the State or established churches such as the Church of England.
A partial explanation is found in the fact that there were
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various degrees of reformatian in different localities. The movement throughout Western Europe was a general one, but modified in some degree at each separate center. All could agree that salvation is by faith and not by works, and that the Scriptures themselves and not the Pope or the church are the court of final decision, but the accepted doctrine of the right of final interpretation of God's word opened the way for dif- ferences of opinion in reference to the true significance of the Lord's Supper, the mode of baptism, the relation of church to state and the seat of ecclesiastical authority, and hence we find ourselves in this year of our Lord, 1883, strangely divided.
It is not hard to account for these existing differences. We know why they have been and are: our chief interest is in their future mutations. Is denominational spirit diminishing ? Are the fences between the different estates of our Protestant churches being lowered from time to time, with a speedy pros- pect of final removal, as popular speech in our union conven- tions so often and confidently asserts? The ease and willing- ness with which pastors change from the care of churches of one polity to those of another, and the individual members find a new Christian fellowship, according to considerations of personal convenience or business and social interests would seem to answer -- Yes.
There is, confessedly, a good deal of politeness. Our re- ligious assemblies welcome fraternal delegates with great cor- diality and abundant applause when they assure us that the points of agreement between our different denominations are many and important while our differences are few and nearly obsolete. Sermons whose substance is an attack upon the rival across the way are far less common or welcome than fifty years ago. The greater intelligence, wider observation and more kindly spirit of both our clergy and laity is noticeable ; yet we must not forget that there are always counter currents. The Gulf Stream may flow continuously in one direction, but there is no massing of waters on the coasts of Britain or lack in the Gulf of Mexico. From one point of observation it may seem that denominational spirit moves only in warm currents with summer and harvest in its train, while from another the
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chill of party spirit and the shock of unholy competition first arrest attention. These icebergs from a clime where our Lord's kingdom has not been established float far into the blessed region of home and foreign missionary activity and sink many a gospel ship and drown many a brave and self- sacrificing servant of the Master.
Denominational schools and colleges are multiplying on every hand. Each considerable branch of the Protestant church has its educational, church erection, home and foreign missionary societies, and now great book concerns are provid- ing Sunday-School papers, lesson leaves, weekly religious papers, monthly and quartely magazines.
Even the great national societies, whose accomplished work is second to none other in our century, in which the churches of our order have had such honorable place, the American Board, the American Home Missionary Society, the American Missionary Association, are now, in fact, denominational soci- eties. Whose fault is it-ours? No! We desired coopera- tion, worked for cooperation, have given money, men and churches in our effort to secure cooperation. Our sincerity cannot be questioned. Is this a record of partial failure? No! but an honorable and permanent testimony. If we bear hence- forth a denominational name, work by denominational methods, and have need of cultivating more denominational spirit, it is because our younger brothers and children have set up house- keeping for themselves and left us alone with our inheritance of national societies and colleges to maintain as best we may. Many of us do not regard the denominational life of Protes- tant Christendom, as now manifested, as the ideal or ultimate form of the visible church of Christ. It is too narrow and ex- act in doctrinal statement and too confident in ecclesiastical polity. Each branch is positive as to its own teachings and method. It seems to rest all, in true Protestant fashion, on the Scriptures; but Independents, Presbyterians, Methodists and Episcopalians cannot all and at the same time be abso- lutely apostolical and scriptural. Yet they seem to think so. They say so. I cannot believe that the unhealthful and unchris- tian spirit manifested but too often in the past in our home mis-
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sionary work is necessary or needs any increase. Such are some of the evils of denominationalism, yet great as they are and much to be deplored, they are less than those of enforced conformity as our fathers knew and deplored them in England. They are incident to times of experiment and transition, and are already attracting attention. The long-talked of and not much practiced comity between denominations in home mis- sionary work, is beginning to be employed, not very generally, nor with remarkable enthusiasm, yet like Civil Service Reform and other things too good for half sanctified society, it is be- ing demanded by the best thought and piety of the time, and the people will not rest until the work of Christ is done in his spirit and by methods which need no apology.
The rapid enlargement of our cities in the older States, the new empires opening for conquest and development in the New West and Southwest, and the open doors of the whole heathen world, invite men and societies to a nobler work than serving disaffected minorities or building churches for uneasy individuals who have pet theories which they wish to test chiefly by means of the toil and gifts of others.
What is the duty of Congregationalists at this time? Are we to yield the field forever, as our fathers did in hundreds of instances in the Empire State in times past, to our more confident and less scrupulous rivals through fear of showing a sectarian spirit; or are we to enter the lists of the denomi- national race for supremacy in this country and become the most boastful and saucy of the whole ignoble company?
I do not see any need of doing either. A healthful and honorable competition is better than an unchecked and irre- sponsible monopoly, whether we are engaged in carrying breadstuffs from Minneapolis to Liverpool, or transporting citizens from Connecticut to the New Jerusalem. There are now no "licensed carriers." The route which is shortest, cheapest, makes the best time and delivers its merchandise in the best condition will be the "poeple's line." The highest practical utility is the test. The great public is an interested and intelligent observer in this time of construction and com- petition. Should we have more denominational spirit?, Can
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we hope to compete with rival and parallel trunk lines as a great continental agency? We say confidently, yes. Our line is the most direct, and least expensive, our machinery strong and simple, our stock has never been watered-try us.
The creed maker is abroad. For some time he has been without occupation. In common with manufacturer, projec- tor of railroads and merchant marine, he has been under a cloud.
There has been no demand for his wares nor reverence for his person. So long as the fundamentals of church and state were questioned, and the very foundations of existing institu- tions were trembling, the defender of the faith like the resi- dent of regions frequented by earthquakes has been content to dwell in a one-story house with very broad base, with a half preference to live wholly out of doors. He could not be threatened or cajoled into an admission that he believed any- thing in particular or had great attachment for the posses- sions of his fathers. But now how different. The maker of creeds in common with many others is thoroughly convales- cent. His discouragement has vanished. His occupation, in his own judgment at least, is no mean one, and he is making active preparation for spring trade. From basement to loft all the wares of the port are being brought forth, remnants, unsaleable fabrics, dust-covered and faded patterns with here and there a novelty, are spread before the thronging crowd of purchasers with all the eagerness of an Israelite tradesman. All the creeds from the so-called Apostles' down to that of the National Council's Committee of Twenty-five are on exhibition. It is not strange that such a fascinating occupation as creed- making should have an early revival. It is just as delightful to make ecclesiastical raiment for the use of others as to pro- vide gowns for the queen of fashion. Now I am not ambitious to make a creed out of new cloth, but as suggestions are in- vited I wish somewhere between the Apostles' Creed and to- morrow's to insert this single phrase-"I believe in the local church."
I believe in the local church. I believe that it has a Scrip- tural basis; although I do not insist that other ecclesiastical
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systems have not. For one, I am willing to admit that I do not find any one of the great branches of the Church catholic, Congregational, Presbyterian, Methodist Episcopal, Protestant Episcopal, Greek, or Roman Catholic, fully equipped in doc- trine, discipline, and activities in its exact present form in the New Testament. All doubtless have their proof-texts, and with greater or less admixture of human opinion and error have developed their systems from the germs contained in Revelation. All I claim is that we rest our theory of the local church as complete in itself on what is written. To the law and the testimony is our friendly challenge. I regard our theory of the local church, as seen in our Congregational sis- terhood, as a valuable working hypothesis. I am confident that the more severely accurate exegesis of the future, and the careful comparative study of the relative excellence of the many outward expressions of Christianity in church life to which, whether they consent or not, all systems are being sub- jected, will require of us as few changes as of any other, and we have no such superstitious reverence for the mere words or methods of the Fathers, Reformer or Separatist, Puritan or Pilgrim, as to be unwilling to make any modifications, which may be proven to be required by God's word. I believe that our churches are true churches of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have tried, whether with entire fidelity or not, we may not judge, to reproduce the New Testament churches. I believe in our local self-governed churches because of their quicken- ing influence in secular life.
They have cultivated no monastic spirit nor sought escape from the burden of affairs.
They have been in spirit and in fact in the world but not of it.
Burke, in the House of Commons, says Dr. Dexter, once remarked: "Their way (i. e., the Colonists') of professing re- ligion accounts for their fierce love of liberty."
The town meeting and the local church have been the schools of an intelligent patriotism and a thoughtful piety. That each community, however small, must have the care of many of the great interests of men, in matters both temporal
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and spiritual, busying itself continually with facts, theories, hindrances and measures, is vital to the purity and perma- nence of our institutions.
These deliberations may be often unbusiness-like and petty in comparison with the legislation of parliaments and the find- ings of councils, but we must not forget that our growing numbers and widening domain increase the tension upon each individual community, and make new demands for personal intelligence and honor. These come from study, observation and responsibility. Mere assent and conformity never have nurtured men. Personal interest, personal care, personal honor, constant search for truth and unselfish loyalty to it when discovered must not pass away in the land of the Pil- grims.
I believe in the local church because of its adaptation to the work of the future. It is flexible, uses generals to meet par- ticulars, willingly allows time, the remorseless pruner, to cut away much of last year's woody structure now that its fruit has been garnered, that it may be able to bring forth more abundantly. It remembers that only the new wood buds, blossoms, and bears fruit. The old may serve as supports, as anchorages to the past. The leaves, in closest contact with air and sunlight, most sensitive and eager, must eat, digest, assimilate, and even envelop the venerable part with one layer more to increase its bulk, its weight and its value. This new layer must be itself all the time the most thoroughly alive part of the tree, serving as pipes for the sap-currents, as levers to open the clinging bark, that a large life may be possible ; and if now and then a portion be sloughed off it is no matter.
The youth of the future will not break with the Bible. Nothing has been found to take its place. They will not deny Christ. There is none other name whereby we must be saved. They will not cease to use the winnowed grain of other days, but they have no use nor taste for husks.
A revised edition of the English Bible, more Biblical state- ments of Christian dogma, more manuals of Christian songs, enlarged methods of Christian service, a better understanding among Christians as to practical philanthropy, more of comity
€
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between the Protestant denominations in home missionary work, a better temper and more intelligent attitude toward what is best in modern scientific thought, a revival of practi- cal righteousness, a fine sense of personal honor in all the complex relations of modern life that shall compel the respect and secure the imitation of all beholders because the spirit of this world never has, never can counterfeit it, a consecration of the wealth and culture of these days of prosperity and peace which shall equal in measure and quality the sacrifices of the Fathers and make us able to catch the spirit as well as repeat the words of their prayers and confessions,-such are some of the demands made upon the church of Christ in our day, demands which I need not say in this presence are reasonable, earnest, imperative. We must meet them or the fire which will try every man's work will find nothing in the edifices built by this self-sufficient generation but wood, hay and stub- ble easily consumed and leaving as a residue only ashes.
Can the churches of our order do a part of this needed work for which the world waiteth? I believe that they can, that their history, their equipment is inferior to none; that they have the courage to fight again if needs be on historic fields, and the zeal to press eagerly into new regions.
MR. IVES. We now have the pleasure of an address from Dr. Henry M. Booth. I do not know as his name appears upon our church roll, but his father was for many years a member of the church, and others of the family have been members here. We are glad to welcome him.
THE GERMINAL PRINCIPLES OF THE PILGRIMS. REV. HENRY M. BOOTH, D.D.
THERE is but one reason why I should speak at this time, and that reason suggests an appropriate theme. From the first day until now, men of my name and blood have been members of the church of Stratford. In the year 1641, Mr.
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Richard Boothe, an honored ancestor, was here, as an active participant in public affairs, and there is no reason to doubt that he was present, also, in 1639, when this organization was effected. My father, Mr. William A. Booth, and my uncle, Mr. Charles H. Booth, whose hoary heads are crowns of glory, as they are found among us still in the way of righteousness, were instrumental in the erection of the beautiful Sanctuary, which has opened its doors to receive this interesting celebra- tion. The bright, summer days of my own childhood were familiar with the river and the brooks, the meadows and the forests, which seem to have been made, by our considerate Father in Heaven, for the especial happiness of an active boy.
I am here, therefore, in a representative attitude. The church of Stratford has a right to claim my presence; and I am honored by the courteous invitation, which has given me this opportunity of speech.
As descendants of the Pilgrims, we revere the intelligence, the virtue and the piety, which have made our life a possi- bility. Those principles were germinal. Other men labored, and we have entered into their labors. Ours is the harvest, while theirs was the seed-time. Degeneracy is not evident ; but progress. The past is never honored by insisting upon the immorality and irreligion of the the present, the decline of integrity and the prevalence of vice. It is to the credit of the husbandman that his planting yields an hundredfold. The flinty seed is a prophecy, which the full corn in the ear must interpret. Until experience becomes a teacher, no one can imagine whereunto this strange thing will grow. "That which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain, but God giveth it a body, as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body." It is so with principles. Men discover them, and announce them. They drop into the soil of human nature, where they germinate. The future exhibits their quality in freedom, law, and godly living; and then turns back to crown the wise men, who aforetime went forth weep- ing, bearing precious seed.
This then is our conviction. The former days were not
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better than these. We do not wish to exchange 1889, in any particular, for 1639. A decade of life now means more than a half century did then. We have a wider out-look, a more generous sympathy, a clearer intelligence, a stronger faith- and this is true, because the Pilgrims were the men of God's selection, who crossed the broad Atlantic with important ger- minal principles.
But what were these principles? We may name but two, although there were many others. Two, however, were espec- ially prominent in the great and decisive struggle of Puritan- ism, which explains the migrations of the Pilgrims The divine authority of the Holy Bible, and the right of personal liberty in the sight of God were beliefs, which these heroic men held against arguments and threats and persecutions in the old world. To them the Holy Bible was the direct mes- sage of Almighty God. They accepted it without compro- mise. It was the one-and often the only-volume in their dwellings. They read it. at the firesides, during the long, cold, desolate winters; and they talked about it to their child- ren and neighbours until its historical facts and sublime doc- trines had taken complete possession of their minds. "To its pages," says Mr. John Fiske in his recent valuable essay on the "Beginnings of New England," "they went for daily in- struction and comfort, with its strange semitic names, they baptized their children, upon its precepts, too often misunder- stood and misapplied, they sought to build up a rule of life that might raise them above the crude and unsatisfying world, into which they were born." We smile, as we read some of their interpretations. We wonder, as we find them trying to reproduce in New England the mistaken Judaism of the time of our Lord. But they were at work in a rich quarry. They were advancing along safe lines. Immortal principles, long buried out of sight, long neglected by a lazy and a despotic priesthood, were discovered, and, later generations, enlight- ened by the Holy Spirit, could be trusted to separate the gold from the quartz, and to survey and map out the newly dis- covered territory. Thus it came to pass that loyalty to the Holy Bible expressed itself, in 1636, by an appropriation of
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£400, which the General Court of Massachusetts voted towards the establishment of a college at Newtown-"the first body in which the people by their representatives ever gave their own money to found a place of education"-and in 1639, in the Hartford Constitution, which "was the first written con- stitution known to history that created a government." Thus biblical truth secured an early prominence, in education and in politics, whose influence is still manifest, as, at this hour, great and distant territories are organizing to become States of the Republic.
But personal liberty was cherished by the Pilgrims with an intensity, which matched their reverence for the Holy Bible. They would call no man Lord. The heart-searching Judge of all the earth was recognized, as the only Lord of the con- science. They gave up home and friendships to be free. They were, it is true, not as tolerant as they might have been. Liberty was personal, rather than social. They had not learned to measure other men by the Golden Rule, as they expected themselves to be measured. Differences of opinion awakened bitter antagonisms. They could not agree with Quakers and Episcopalians; and they believed that they were discharging a duty, when they put an unsympathetic visitor into the streets. Roger Williams held views, which are now the views of most Christian patriots in our country; and so liberal a man, as Governor Winthrop, advised Williams that it would be safe for him to make his home among the Indians. No harsh judgment, however, need be passed upon this narrow- ness. Catholicity was a stranger to those times. Indeed, we are just beginning to form an acquaintance with a genuine Catholicity. We do not burn and stone one another it is true, and yet our words are sometimes as hot as a flame, and as rough as brick-bats. We are still learning. Two hundred and fifty years have taught many lessons to an appreciative Christen- dom. Freedom of speech is the safety-valve, which has pre- vented frequent explosions. Gas is never very dangerous, if it is allowed to escape into the air. When it is confined, it threatens life and property. My claim to personal liberty covers your claim to the same inestimable privilege: and if I
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demand that you should respect my freedom of conviction, so long as I behave myself in a lawful and an orderly manner, you may make similar demands of me. Thus toleration may be- come social liberty in all parts of this broad land.
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