USA > Connecticut > Middlesex County > Haddam > The two hundredth anniversary of the First Congregational Church of Haddam, Connecticut, October 14th and 17th, 1900. Church organized, 1696. Pastor installed, 1700 > Part 5
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They were strong in their faith, in prayer and conse- cration, and in their sacrifices. You have a monument that has defied the tooth of time and the wear of cen- turies,-the Church of God, the pillar and the ground of the truth.
It has been often said, and sometimes in sarcasm, that religion is declining, and that the church is losing its power; but no greater mistake was ever made, for at no period in the history of the church has Christianity had a greater influence or the church greater power than now at this period, and the beginning of the third cen- tury of this church's life.
We do well to remember that power exhibits itself under two distinct forms-strength and force-each possessing qualities and each perfect in its own sphere. Strength is typified by the oak, the rock, the mountain. Force embodies itself in the tempest, the cataract, and the thunderbolt. It is under the former we find the power of the church and Christianity. The oak, its roots buried in the centuries; the oak, with its branches spreading out, giving shelter and shade. The rock, im-
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ADDRESS
movable, solid. The mountain towering aloft as the landmark through the ages. This illustrates this church. Two centuries of Christian and social life; her influ- ence, like rootlets, going forth; her mission to give hope and shelter and salvation.
We congratulate the distinguished lady on account of the ministry, and for the long service of her present pastor, and pray he may long continue to break with you the Bread of Life.
And last, we bring you greeting and congratulate you on the receipt of so magnificent a gift, from one who not only is a friend to this church, but a distinguished member of this faith, in memory of his father, who in the long ago led the choir,-a fitting memorial gift. It will be a source of great pleasure to the giver, in the days to come, to listen to this king of instruments, while the voice of his father will seem to speak to him through these pipes, as the skilful fingers of the organist sweep the keys.
Permit me, then, in closing to present once more our greetings on this happy anniversary, thanking you for the honor bestowed on me, and assuring you that the prayers of myself and the church I represent will ascend to God for your peace and prosperity.
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THE DAY WE CELEBRATE
CEPHAS BRAINERD
L ADIES AND GENTLEMEN : Yielding, as I do, to the too kind invitation of the committee having this anniversary in charge, I undertake the duty of pre- siding.
I think you will readily understand why these services anticipate by a few weeks the actual date of the instal- ling of our first pastor, November 14, 1700.
It would not be becoming for me to occupy your time with extended observations, when we consider the pro- gram which we have before us.
What has been accomplished in these two hundred years will appear with some fullness in what you are to hear from those named on the program, and did to some extent appear in the addresses which were delivered on Sunday last.
We all know, I am sure, what the church is, and many have a realizing sense of what it has accomplished. There is, however, much to be told and much to make our hearts glad and fill them with gratitude, and we have a right to hope much for the future.
In June, 1851, Dr. Horace Bushnell delivered at New Britain, at the opening of a State Normal School, a most interesting and powerful address entitled "His- torical Estimate" of Connecticut. It attracted great attention at the time, and it contained, among other
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THE DAY WE CELEBRATE
things, the following charming forecast for the State of which we are a part:
How beautiful is the attitude of our little State, when seen through the medium of facts like these. Unable to carry weight by numbers, she is seen marching out her sons to conquer other posts of influence and represent her honor in other fields of action. Which, if she continues to do, if she takes the past simply as a beginning, and returns to that beginning with a fixed deter- mination to make it simply the germ of a higher and more per- fect culture, there need scarcely be a limit to the power she may exert as a member of the republic. The smallness of our ter- ritory is an advantage even, as regards the highest form of social development and the most abundant fruits of genius. Our State, under a skilful and sufficient agriculture, with a proper improvement of our waterfalls, is capable of sustaining a million of people in a condition of competence and social ornament; and that is a number. as large as any State government can manage with the highest effect. No part of our country between the two oceans is susceptible of greater external beauty. What now looks rough and forbidding in our jagged hillsides and our raw begin- nings of culture, will be softened, in the future landscape, to an ornamental rock-work, skirted by fertility, pressing out in the cheeks of the green dells where the farm-houses are nested, burst- ing up through the waving slopes of the meadows, and walling the horizon about with wooded hills of rock and pastured summits. We have pure, transparent waters, a clear, bell-toned atmosphere, and, withal, a robust, healthy-minded stock of people, uncor- rupted by luxury, unhumiliated by superstition, sharpened by good necessities, industrious in their habits, simple in their man- ners and tastes, rigid in their morals and principles; combining, in short, all the higher possibilities of character and genius in a degree that will seldom be exceeded in any people of the world. These are the mines, the golden placers of Connecticut. Turning now to these as our principal hope for the future, let us endeavor, with a fixed and resolute concentration of our public aim, to keep the creative school-house in action, and raise our institutions of learning to the highest pitch of excellence.
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I could not think, as a young man reading this at the time of its publication, that it ever could be realized, and that I was to live to see the prophecy and the picture realized; but to-day we live in the midst of the prophecy accomplished. The late census returns show that the State has practically reached its million inhabitants as foretold by Dr. Bushnell. I am sure you will agree that in its beauty, in its scenery, in the prosperity of its people, it realizes substantially what then seemed to me to be a wild dream.
Now when you have heard all that will be said to-day in regard to the part which our State and our town have borne in this advance, I shall wish to ask you if you do not believe, as I do, that the prophecy is realized, and that our town and our church have alike borne their part in procuring this realization.
I shall also want to put to you this single practical question, what are you going to do in the future to main- tain the standard reached to-day ?
The first in order upon the program will be some re- sponses from the pastors of the churches which have grown out of our own; and the first is the church at East Haddam, which was founded only eight years later than ours.
One of the earlier pastors I have a distinct recollection of, the Rev. Isaac Parsons, for he preached in the old church in this town the first sermon to which I ever listened, upon the text:
"And a certain man drew a bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness. . ."
I take great pleasure in presenting to you the Rev. Francis Parker, the present pastor of that church.
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OUR DAUGHTERS: EAST HADDAM, 1704
REV. FRANCIS PARKER
I RESPOND in behalf of a daughter and two grand- daughters of this the mother church upon "ye east side of ye brode river."
The daughter, the first church in East Haddam, was organized in 1704, and is now one hundred and ninety- six years old. The two granddaughters are the church in Millington, organized in 1736, now one hundred and sixty-four years old; and the church in Hadlyme, organ- ized in 1745, and now one hundred and fifty-five years old.
They have returned to the old home, to assist in wip- ing the dust from the earlier picture of the dear mother church, to retouch and reframe it, and to hold it up to view, that all may love and admire her ability, her faith- fulness, and her work. They feel it to be a precious experience when those who have been fostered here can come home to rejoice with the faithful ones whose lot it has been to "stay by the stuff." There seems to be a special blessing when the reunion is held in behalf of an ancient church of God. The very walls are baptized, and the atmosphere beats with the hovering love of a mother over those who are inheriting the prayers of the past. Think of the prayers which have been offered by this church in the quaint phrase of the fathers, that God would bless his own Zion. Is it not clear that there
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HADDAM CHURCH ANNIVERSARY
is an accumulation of spiritual energy in a church that has been permitted to testify for her Lord and Saviour for two hundred years ?
We honor the noble men and women who laid the foun- dations of our sacred heritage. They were animated with high purposes. They adorned their lives with the eternal principles of truth and righteousness.
We can look back with pride to the rock whence we were hewn.
We are fortunate that these ancestors of ours were men and women who believed in God and his sacred Word, in freedom and in knowledge. They were peo- ple of so strong a conviction, so determined a purpose that their influence has come down to our time, has been the germinal principle of our American institu- ' tions, leavening the great mass of the nation.
These ancestors in the beloved mother church had faith in God, and they showed it not only by words, but by deeds. It was like that of Abraham, "who was called to go out to a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, and went not knowing whither he went, and he sojourned there as in a strange country." Let us never forget that these devoted men and women left happy homes in Old England, ancestral fields lying fair among the hills and valleys of that land of comfort. They left them for an unknown country, hard and cold; for an ungrateful soil, for hunger and privation; and this they did that they might build up a purer and better form of religion than was permitted them to have at home. They believed the humblest Christian was equal to the highest, because for each one Christ had died; be- cause each one was loved of God; because each one was heir, through faith in Christ Jesus, to an eternal sal-
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OUR DAUGHTERS: EAST HADDAM, 1704
vation. They wished to establish this ideal brotherhood and make it real. They saw before them the vision of a divine church, full of peace and truth, wherein every one should draw near to God without fear, as his own heart, guided by the Holy Spirit, prompted him. This faith was capable of sacrifices; it was no luxury of de- votion wrapped in soft Elysian airs. They were fellow- workers with God, carrying out his high designs for the redemption of humanity.
These noble men and women believed also in freedom. But they did not seek freedom for its own end, but for the sake of something beyond. Freedom is not an end, but a means. He alone can become really free who has an aim, a conviction, a purpose, and who puts aside all obstacles and barriers in order to reach it. Our fathers sought freedom, and put the Atlantic between themselves and oppression. The free institutions of this country in which we rejoice were established that we might have honest government, justice for all, equal rights and opportunities for life and happiness.
They also believed in knowledge. The wonderful sys- tem of common and public schools which has spread from New England over the whole Union, taking in all ranks and classes, all races and sects, is one of those vast phenomena which make less impression upon us, be- cause so constant and so universal. There are two great forces in this country which work at the roots of society ; one is the free church, the other the free school. This voluntary system has covered the land with churches and schools freely supported by the people.
The spirit of these men and women was also con- structive. They came here to build. They had faith in a better future. They desired to lay at least the cor-
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ner-stone of better institutions. This constructive spirit has passed into the national mind and heart. It shows itself in the remarkable spirit of invention and discovery which is a peculiar characteristic of the American mind. It appears in the innumerable societies founded to carry out all sorts of reforms-political, social, educational, philanthropic, religious.
What a great blessing it is to have a good ancestry- godly, just, honorable; men and women whom we can look back to with love and respect, and feel proud when we think of them. Those who belong to a noble race are bound by stronger obligations than others to live noble lives themselves.
In this spirit thy children and grandchildren come to thee, dear venerable mother church. No one can esti -· mate too highly thy value.
For such an ancient country church we will ever have a reverence that increases with the passing years. Thou hast been a fountain of blessing beyond human compu- tation for our land.
The simple and strong and massive faith in God and his redeeming Christ, in which thou wast gathered in the beginning, has made thee to stand as a tower in Zion, a fortress of spiritual strength, supplying direction and protection to the whole civil and social life around thee.
Every virtue which gives stability and true grandeur to the nation, has been fostered by thee from generation to generation.
Established chiefly that thou mightest lift up before men the Christ in whom stands our salvation and hope of eternal life, and that thou mightest draw men unto
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OUR DAUGHTERS: EAST HADDAM, 1704
him, thou hast been blest of God in being made to many the gate of heaven.
We cherish these hallowed memories, and hold in honor those who, having faithfully served God in his earthly church, have now passed on into the far larger and more glorious church gathered around the Christ enthroned on high.
God bless thee, dear mother church, in thy renewed beauty and all the loyal and loving hearts that gather around thee to-day to rejoice in that beauty. May the new century yield larger and better results than the two that are past. "The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace."
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OUR DAUGHTERS: HADDAM NECK, 1740
HENRY M. SELDEN
T HE Church of Middle Haddam, organized in 1740, greets the parent church : for the growth temporal and spiritual, for the good accomplished, for the sowing and ingathering of many harvests, for the long-con- tinued and the present life, we congratulate you.
The first pastor of the Middle Haddam church was Benjamin Bowers, a man of God and greatly beloved. by his charge. His successor was Benjamin Boardman, who, considering the causes that culminated in the Revo- lution, was just the man for the times. He early re- sponded to the call to arms, and doubtless led others to go with him, for seventeen men from the single street leading northward from the church entered the Revolu- tionary service. He was chaplain of a cavalry troop at Roxbury during the occupancy of Boston by the British, and was called by the enemy, on account of his powerful voice, the "Great Gun of the Gospel."
David Selden, born on my home farm, was the third pastor, and an exception to the proverb as to a prophet in his own country, for he had the unwavering affection of his people during the entire period of his long pastor- ate of over thirty-nine years. His wife was Cynthia May, a daughter of your pastor Eleazer May, whose grandson, Rev. Dr. Munger, will soon address you. As the beloved pastor was about to enter the pulpit, his hand
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OUR DAUGHTERS: HADDAM NECK, 1740
rested habitually for a moment, as if in blessing, upon the head of the boy sitting nearest on a long bench in front of the pulpit, and consequently a strife among the little fellows for the coveted seat was settled by their taking turns. To the poor he was a loving father, in- viting them often to his table, and in their need they received from his house and farm. At funerals he began his discourse by saying, "I wish to put myself in sympathy with the afflicted family." In this he was successful, and his services on such occasions were in frequent demand outside of his parish. He died sud- denly, in full health, apparently; each household throughout the parish feeling as if one from their own home had been taken. To illustrate the general grief, I need only allude to yours when your beloved pastor, James L. Wright, was also called home.
The fourth pastor was Charles Bentley, whose impet- uous delivery was described as "like the dumping of stone from a cart, carrying all before it." In his pas- torate occurred the greatest revival in the history of the church. He was succeeded by Stephen A. Loper, later the pastor of the church at Higganum. Other pastors following were William Case, Samuel Moseley, Philo Judson, and James C. Houghton. At the retirement of the last named, a division in the church resulted in the formation of the Second Church of Middle Haddam, in 1855, at Cobalt. The tenth pastor was William S. Wright, a worthy brother of your James. Next came James Kilbourne, and last at the second house of wor- ship, Benjamin B. Hopkinson, our third Benjamin. After the retirement of Mr. Hopkinson, the church was long without a pastor, and only occasional meetings were held.
5
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The first house of worship, erected in 1744, was located near the old cemetery at the southern end of Hog Hill. It was abandoned in 1811. The second structure was dedicated in 1813, and continued in use until the erection of the present church on Haddam Neck in 1874.
In conclusion, we have numbered many noble and good men and women, among whom were Deacons Ezra Brainerd and Edward Root, and Almira F. Brainerd. If you have any like the last named, thank God for it, and aid such for good.
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OUR DAUGHTERS: HIGGANUM, 1844
REV. WILLIAM J. TATE
SOMEWHERE we have read of a little village nest- ling among the hills of Switzerland, which had no special charm nor beauty of its own. But once in each day, for a few minutes in every twenty-four hours, the little town was transfigured, and kirk and manse and humble cottage alike were bathed in the sunglow. So we come to-day to this loved church and see her aglow in radiant beauty.
These two hundred years of her life, how glorious in spiritual significance, each filled with fragrance of sacrifice, as the alabaster box of old, very precious; each also of these silent years speaking to us of the change- less Christ, who was present at the founding of this church, and who is with her on this bicentennial day. It gives me very great pleasure, in behalf of the Higganum church, which, about two miles away, as a city which cannot be hid, rises up, mother, to call thee blessed; to extend her felicitations and gratulations to the Had- dam church, now completing two hundred years of life and service for our common Master.
We congratulate you for your past; for the noble cloud of witnesses to the faith in Jesus, who compass us about as we with patience run the race that is set before us; for your past achievements; for mighty deeds wrought for God and with God; for souls regenerated, sanctified, edified, transformed by the Holy Spirit's
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presence here. We congratulate you on your present. The past is glorious. We are reaping what others have sown, and gathering what others have strewn. We are building on foundations others have laid, but the build- ing is still growing unto God. Jesus once said, "Other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors," and when the day of final reward shall come, every one in his place-men and women, young men and maidens, and little children, too all who have helped to make this church what it is-not one of them shall fail to receive his own reward and crown; and this day will mean little for us, unless we see that it is our present duty to gather up all the wealth and wisdom of the experience of the past and adapt it to the needs and emergencies of the present. Then there is the joy of the future, when · the reaper and the sower shall alike rejoice together; to this joy we all look forward.
There is coming an even more joyous jubilee, a more beautiful Harvest Home, a more notable feast, through the mercy of our Lord; and may this historic church, in the spirit of increasing religious interest, in present strength, in glowing anticipations and hopes for the future, move forward till all sit down at Jesus' feet. For the sake and in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and King, the great Head of the church, for the sake and in memory of the loved ones who have gone before, let us each consecrate himself to the service of our King. God guide and help you; God bring us all at last to the eternal joy of those who sow and those who reap.
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OUR LONGEST PASTORATE-THAT OF REV. ELEAZER MAY
REV. THEODORE T. MUNGER, D.D.
I HAVE been asked to speak on this occasion because my lineage connects me with the May period in your church history. I am the great-grandson of Eleazer May, who was the pastor of this church from 1756 until his death in 1803. But I have a closer relation to this town and church than any of you are aware of. My great- grandfather ministered to the souls of the people in Haddam for forty-seven years, but my father did what he could for their bodies during a few years as a phy- sician. I confess to a keener interest in this period of your history than in the May period, which is farther off and less stirs my heart. I hope I shall not be regarded as trespassing on the Marsh period if I say a few words about my own connection with it through my parents.
My father graduated from Yale in 1814, studied medicine and walked the hospital in New York for two years, was tutor in a private family on the Hudson for a year or two either before or after his medical studies, and then betook himself to Haddam. It is uncertain what led him to this place. I have in my possession a letter written by my grandfather, Rev. David Selden of Middle Haddam, to my father in 1818, in reply to one asking his advice as to settling in this place. My grandfather advised waiting and further search for an
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opening. It was not quite a fatherly letter, but it read as though it might become such. My father did not take the advice, but came to Haddam. I suspect that a stronger influence emanated from the parsonage in Mid- dle Haddam than that of its head, and that my father was better content to take the risks of Haddam than go farther afield and lose the easy chances of extending his rides across the river to Middle Haddam And so love had its way then as now, and soon Cynthia Selden herself crossed the river, and the young doctor had no occasion to brave the floods and floating ice of the Con- necticut. It was but fair that my mother should come to live in Haddam. Her father had crossed the river and taken away as his wife Cynthia, the daughter of Mr. May,-an exchange that brought me into existence, and, after seventy years, has brought me to Haddam.
Immediately after my parents began housekeeping, Rev. Mr. Marsh, who succeeded Dr. Field in 1818, be- came a member of their family; and thus the young minister and the young doctor were under one roof. In my boyhood, in central New York, where my father emigrated a few years later, I used to hear from my mother many stories-chiefly humorous-of Dr. Field and Mr. Marsh. My grandfather and Dr. Field were intimate friends, and little went on in one household that was not known in the other.
Besides these reminiscences that fell into my child- ish ears and are now somewhat faintly remembered, I have little knowledge of the life of my parents here beyond the fact that a daughter was born to them, and that the physician was himself seized with a fever for which neither his medicines nor the tears of his wife availed. It was a contagious and widely spread disease,
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OUR LONGEST PASTORATE
and was known as the Western fever. Its symptoms were great restlessness and discontent, which increased until the patient emigrated toward the setting sun. Hence, though descended on both sides from seven gen- erations of Connecticut people, and probably connected with half the families in this part of the State, I was born in central New York, where, in a region that yielded three tons of hay to the acre, and all crops in proportion, and there is not a stone that a stout boy could not lift, I was taught by my mother that Middle Haddam was a paradise,-and so I believed until I saw it. But it is a paradise, and so is Haddam, but not for farmers. My mother used to quote a saying of some one of the Darts or Strongs or Brainerds of the parish, that "Middle Had- dam land was like self-righteousness : the more you have of it the poorer you are." But my grandfather was not a respecter of proverbs, except those of Solomon, and he added land to land until his farm stretched from the road a mile away to the river. He died rich in quarries -unworked-sufficient to rebuild Nineveh. And there they are still, adorning a landscape that is indeed a paradise, but not a garden.
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