USA > Iowa > Dubuque County > Dubuque > Semi-centennial celebration of the First Congregational Church, of Dubuque, Iowa, May 12th and 13th, 1889 > Part 2
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I have said that the superiority of Christian nations to all others in science and art, has the effect to recommend their religion as has been strikingly illustrated in Japan. They see Christianity associated with all the wonderful discoveries and inventions of modern times while these discoveries and inven- tions demonstrate the utter falsity of pagan philosophy and religion.
For instance the religion of the Brahmins of India forbids the destruction of life and the use of animal food. Let then the mis- sionary show them, as he may with the microscope, that every drop of water they drink and every particle of vegetable food they eat abound with animal life and they will see the impos- sibility of the strict enforcement of their religious principles, for it would be equivalent to a sentence of death.
IV. Another " sign of the times" consists in the spread of enlightened views of government and human rights.
Despotism is one of the greatest hindrances to the spread of the Gospel. A true and enlightened Christianity asks not
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the patronage of power nor seeks any alliance with the state; but only desires toleration and freedom of appeal to all hearts and minds. Give it a fair field, free speech, a free press and a free conscience and its success is secure. And the rapidity with which these are being conceded is truly wonderful. Once, and that was not long since, these were almost unknown and no one could anticipate that not only in Turkey, Japan and China, but in Italy, Spain, Mexico and Central and South America they would be found as they are now in all these populous countries. The days of religious establishments are being rapidly numbered and other old errors are passing away. "The world is attaining a higher sphere and acting on larger, freer, nobler principles and will ere long be done with the divine right of kings, priviliged classes, imperialism, dogma- tism and its child persecution, the tyranny of the priesthood over the souls of men," the degredation of woman and the accursed system of slavery, while the appeal to war will be superceded by national arbitration. The influence of the ex- ample of our free country and its institutions is being felt all around the globe. All this is fayorable to Christianity as it is its product.
V. The wonderful opening of all parts of the world for Christian missions and their success is not least among " the signs of the times."
A few years ago the problem was to find an opening for the introduction of the Gospel in any heathen land. India, Tur- key, Japan, China and all papal and nearly all heathen coun- tries were closed against it; now there is scarcely any hinder- ance to the planting of missions anywhere, and the problem is to find missionaries to enter the open fields and the means of supporting them. "Evangelization is fast coming to be universal; with a rapidity unexampled in history, the golden net-work of missions is expanding over the realms of pagan- ism from where the most refined followers of Brahma and Budha dwell, to where the lowest, coarsest, fetish worshipers
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bow to idols, over the land of Islam, from the gates of the Golden Horn to the pillars of Hercules and the heights of the Himalayas, and even over the dominions of the Pope, from the Gulf of Mexico to Cape Horn and the very neighborhood of the Vatican."
And the success of Christian missions in Burmah, the Sand- wich Islands, the South Seas and Madagascar and Japan is not inferior to that wrought by Christ's apostles. In every century of the Christian era there has been a steady forward movement of Christ's kingdom, but none so wonderful as in ours. In the first century about 500,000 converts rallied around the cross; by the close of the third century there were five millions; in the fourth fifty millions; in the year 1500 one- hundred millions; in 1800 two-hundred millions; while in 1880 they had more than doubled and were four-hundred and eighty millions, and more converts have been made and ad- ded to Christianity in the last eighty years than in the eighteen centuries preceding. Dr. Dorchester, who has furnished these satistics, also calls attention to the fact that one-half of the 1400 millions of the earth's population are controlled by Christian governments.
But some will say that infidelity is becoming ascendant even in nominally Christian lands. But such is not the case as the testimony of census reports will show. In Canada there are reported to be but 5,500 avowed disbelievers out of 3,500,000 inhabitants; in Germany, supposed to be better headquarters for infidelity, the declared atheists and free religionists were but 7,000 out of 24,500,000; in France, which ninety years ago blotted out religion by law, there are but 82, 000 out of thirty-six millions who declare they have no reli- gion, while in Great Britian and the United States they are but the merest fraction of the whole people. There is a blat- ant minority but their influence is small. In the United States in 1800 we had 3,030 Christian churches with a membership of 365,000; in 1880, the last census showed 97,000 churches with over 10,000,000 members. While the population had in-
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creased nine and a half fold, the churches had increased thirty- two fold, and the communicants twenty-seven and a half fold. Since 1850 the population has grown 116 per cent .; but the church meinbers 185 per cent. During the decade from 1870 to 1880 the population increased 30 per cent., but the church membership 50 per cent. The Gospel is gaining and not losing its power over the minds and hearts of men.
VI. The sixth and last "sign of the times" which I shall mention is, the remarkable spirit of enterprise which character- izes the Christians of this age.
The church, as I have said, expects to conquer the world. Never before was there a more undoubting faith among the people of God in the practicability of the conversion of the world and of the duty of Christians, under God to accomplish it; never was there so earnest and universal an utterance of the prayer which our Savior inculcated, " Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven"' as now; never so ready a contribution of pecuniary means for carrying on the work and so much activity and perseverance in its prosecu- tion. Eighty years ago the total sum contributed for Pro- testant missions hardly amounted to a quarter of a million dollars. In 1879 England and America gave eight mil- lions, and since 1880 more than sixty millions for foreign mis- sions, and from 1820 to 1880 seventy-two millions for home missions. In one year lately less than twenty donors gave nearly four millions, and more were added to the converts from heathendom than the total number of converts when this century opened. At the beginning of this century the Scriptures existed in some fifty translations and not more than five millions of copies were circulated; now they are found in whole or in part in more than two-hundred and twenty-six languages and the circulation amounts to one-hundred and fifty millions of copies. At the close of the last century there were but seven Protestant missionary societies. To-day there are in Europe and America seventy or more. At the begin-
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ing of this century the whole number of missionaries in the field was one hundred and seventy, of whom one hundred be- longed to the Moravians; to-day there are six thousand or- dained missionaries and forty thousand native assistants and trained workers.
We do not realize how very recent is the present era of Christian enterprise. Just before the opening of this century the first foreign mission society on any considerable scale was formed in England. Our own great American Board, the first on this continent, was established in 1810, two years after I was born. The first missionaries went to India in 1812 and to the Sandwich Islands in 1819. Between 1814 and 1824 the Bible, Tract and Home Missionary Societies and the American Sun- day School Union were started and still more recent was the birth of Education, Temperance, Anti-Slavery, Seamen's Friends, Y. M. C. A., and Christian Endeavor Societies, Prison Discipline and other organizations. So we see that all these great systems of combined and world wide enterprise for the renovation of society and the conversion of the world have been invented, or perhaps better, inspired of God, with- in less than a century. In view of which we are ready to say, " What were Christians thinking about and what were they doing previously?" But the world was not ripe for this great movement of which I speak before, nor were there the facilities for doing the work which we possess now.
In reply to one who undertook to show that foreign mis- sions have been a blunder, Secretary Clark of the American Board said: "The Bible and a Christian literature in most if not all the many tongues of men, the undermining of heathen- dom, the despair of the popular false faiths, the conviction that the truth is with us and the vast preparations made for the final conquest show that missions are not a blunder. Give us fifty years more of such 'blundering' and we will hope to have the Gospel in every household and opportunities for Christian instruction within the reach of every child of the human race."
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"The world has still its idols, And flesh and sense their sign ; But the blinded eyes shall open, And the gross ear be fine.
" What if the vision tarry ? God's time is always best ; The true light shall be witnessed. The Christ within confessed.
"In mercy and in judgment, He shall turn and overturn, Till the heart shall be his temple And all of Him shall learn."
It is not a quixotic enterprise then in which the Church is engaged of converting the world to Christianity. Compare the aspect of the world now, the progress of exploration, the improvements in the arts and all the facilities for prosecuting the work of evangelization with those of apostolic days and tell me why, if you can, with the same zeal and self-consecra- tion and prayer as distinguished the first Christians we should not see vastly greater results. We have the same Gospel now, the same promises, the same Almighty Spirit to co- operate with us, and men are to be converted in the same way now and society revolutionized as in Apostolic days.
And how grand an enterprise is this in which we are en- gaged! Not the extension of national power and domin- ion, and the achievement of worldly glory, but the spread of the kingdom of the Prince of Peace, the elevation of a degraded humanity, the establishment of human rights, and the reconciliation of men to God and their eternal salvation.
The Great Leader under whom we serve is operating with a plan. How inspiring to detect that plan and to co-operate with him in it! Celsus, an early opponent of Christianity, deemed it absurd to attempt the propagation of a universal religion. But the progress already made renders its practi- cability plain to sight and almost obviates the necessity for
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faith. "Prophecy sounded the charge and now history is be- ginning to shout the victory !"
There is something sublime beyond compare in the steady onward progress of Christ's religion on earth, in spite of all obstacles and opposition. We are stirred as we read the campaigns of Alexander and Napoleon, but far more thril- ling and impressive to me are the visions which by the eye of faith I see of the spiritual and moral conquests of Jesus; kings yielding to his supremacy and nation after nation ac- knowledging his sway, until finally "every knee bows and every tongue confesses that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. '
" No conqueror's sword he bears, Nor warlike armor wears,
Nor haughty passions stirs to conquest wild; In peace and love he comes And gentle is his reign Which o'er the earth he spreads by influence mild.
The peaceful Conqueror goes And triumphs o'er his foes,
His weapons drawn from armories above, Behold the vanquished sit Submissive at His feet,
And strife and hate are changed to peace and love."
" Beginning," says Prof. Raymond, "with the introduc- tion of the steam engine and the assertion of the rights of man, and crowded full of such mighty forces and events as beggars the fancy of Arabian romancers-the railway, the steam-ship, the lightning press, the telegraph and telephone, the electric light and motor, the amazing leap to the fore- front of the nations of the earth, of the United States of America, born with the beginning of the century ; the aboli- tion of slavery throughout the world; the illumination of dark continents with civilization and Christianity ; the multi- tudinous stir of human hearts all around the world, that now for the first time feel each other beat-these and many other
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things point in one direction, the elevation and emancipation of man.
" If it were true (as some would have us believe) that this old weather-beaten earth has been drifting unguided through the ages, we must now recognize that she is sailing in the line of some one's purpose. Some One has a compass ; some One knows the stars and seas ; some One's hand is on the helm. The Power that makes for righteousness is a guiding Will."
Oh, I pity the man who has no sympathy with the work of the world's salvation, but is content to plod along through life immersed in worldly cares and schemes, feeling no enthu- siasm to join in this great enterprise in which Christians are engaged and who is destined to have no part in its final tri- umph, when angels and "just men made perfect," shall raise the anthem, "the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ," and who can never know the satisfaction of feeling that he has had some humble part in the achievement of the glorious end!
It has been a great privilege to have lived in this century when such advancement has been made in the arts and sciences, in social development, in the recognition of human rights and the establishment of civil and religious freedom, and in the expansion of Christianity.
We have just celebrated the centenary of our nation, which has had nearly its whole existence during this remarkable and interesting period of which I am speaking and in which we live, and whose example and influence in the earth is des- tined, we trust, to be a still more mighty factor in the world's conversion. To-day we also celebrate the semi-centenary of this Church, born during the same period. Do you realize that this Church is half a century old, or half as old as our nation under its present constitution ? As we have been cheered by the contemplation of the prosperity of our nation and of the part it has had in human advancement already, so I rejoice that I may participate with you in the recognition of
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the prosperity that has attended this church, and on the part it has had in promoting the progress of this city socially and morally and within its sphere of advancing the kingdom of God on earth.
I will not now anticipate what may be said on this latter point at some subsequent gatherings on this occasion, but only remark, that as I look back and see a little feeble band of nineteen men and women associating themselves together for mutual spiritual improvement and for aggressive Christ- ian work, in this then new mining town, reputed to be one of the wickedest places in the region, and when I recall all the trials through which the Church has passed, and all the ob- stacles over-come, and see it now standing prominently in the city and state, and realize what has been accomplished, I am ready to exclaim, "What hath God wrought!"
I cannot express the satisfaction I feel in being permitted to meet with you on this interesting occasion and in review- ing with you the history of your organization and perceiving the evidence we have of its usefulness. Could we have spread before us and take in at a glance all that has been ac- complished under its instrumentality-the Christians that have been edified and fitted for glory, the souls that have been converted and saved, and all the moral and social in- fluence exerted in this city and region, and the part it has had in the home and foreign missionary work,-we should be amazed and we may well thank God that it was ever called into existence. My friends of this Church and congregation, a high responsibility rests upon you, and you enjoy a great privilege. God has given you a position in which you can exert a mighty influence for good. I trust you will be faith- ful and continue to enjoy the blessings of God, and not fail to do your part in bringing about the glorious consummation of which I have been speaking, the conquest of this world for Christ, when it shall be that
" One song employs all nations, and all cry Worthy the Lamb for he was slain for us!
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The dwellers in the vale and on the rocks Shout to each other and the mountain tops From distant mountains catch the flying joy, . Till nation after nation taught the strain Earth rolls the rapturous Hozanna round."
Following the sermon Rev. W. H. Brewster of Benton Harbor, Michigan, offered prayer, and after singing in which choir and audience united, with inspiring effect, Dr. Holbrook pronounced the benediction and the exercises of the morn- ing were closed.
REV. JESSE GUERNSEY, D. D.
SUNDAY AFTERNOON MAY 12, 1889.
THE COMMUNION.
It is a happy co-incidence of divine blessings that this Church which has often been favored with revivals should
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come to the celebration of its fiftieth anniversary just at the time when the fruits of one of the largest revivals in its his- tory were being gathered. Promptly at 2:30 P. M. the main floor of the auditorium was filled with those who had come together to participate in the interesting exercises of receiv- ing forty-six new members, forty of whom came by profes- sion of faith. Fifty had been received at the March com- munion. In receiving the members the Pastor conducted the services and was assisted in administering the rite of baptism by Dr. J. C. Holbrook and Rev. C. E. Harrington.
The following hymn, written with the music for the occa- sion by Col. Samuel Taggart, was sung as the candidates stood at the altar:
WHAT WILT THOU HAVE ME DO ?
The darkness has gone and the morning has come, What wilt Thou have me do ? The sun has arisen, there is work to be done, What wilt Thou have me do ?
CHORUS .-
What wilt Thou have me do, Lord, to-day, What wilt Thou have me do ? For thy Kingdom on earth and thy Kingdom in Heaven, What wilt Thou have me do ?
All blinded by sin, Thou, my sight has restored, What wilt Thou have me do ? My paralyzed heart Thou hast touched by thy word, What wilt Thou have me do ?
With Helmet of Grace and with Faith as my sword, What wilt Thou have me do ? With thy Cross for my banner, I am ready dear Lord, What wilt Thou have me do ?
Out in the world with thy Love as my shield, What wilt Thou have me do ? To prove me a friend that never shall yield, What wilt Thou have me do ?
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Following this part of the service Dr. Lyman Whiting and Dr. J. S. Bingham administered the communion to the largest number of communicants in the history of the Church. Their words were tender and beautiful, and the whole service was most precious. Surely none who were present can ever forget how, in breaking the bread, Dr. Whiting unfolded the successive shades of truth, in reference to the Lord's Supper conveyed by the various expressions used by the four different Evangelists ; nor the thrilling impression produced by Dr. Bingham's first words as, with great deliberation, he lifted the cup to the full view of the audience and said, "I do not won- der that the Savior gave thanks." His tenderly impressive manner, combined with the words seemed to unfold their startling declaration without the need of comment. We all saw at one glance, what his further remarks enforced, that Christ saw before him a great work, for the relief of human suffering and the redemption of human souls and gave thanks that he had the power to accomplish that work. "To see hu- man need and not to be able to relieve it is misery. But to see the need and to realize in one's self the power to meet it, ah! that is something to give thanks for, and that is the thought which thrilled the heart of the Son of God." To many, this utterance came like a revelation and it is perhaps within bounds to say that there were few dry eyes among the many persons who partook of the communion, "giving thanks," as never before. The entire service of the afternoon lasted till 4:30 and then closed too soon. It was a place where, with the disciples, we felt like building tabernacles that we might abide. The following is the list of the forty-six who united at this communion:
MR. AUGUST BRULOT. MRS. JOSEPHINE BRULOT.
*MISS EDITH BRULOT. MISS ADDIE BRULOT.
MISS HETTIE BEEKMAN.
MRS. CHILOE BASSETT.
MISS MARY PICKUP.
MISS DOLLY PIER.
MR. ARTHUR PATEY.
MISS SARAH PRATT.
MR. LOUIS REIFSTECK.
MRS. ANNA REIFSTECK.
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MISS ANNIE BONSON. *MR. LIONEL G. BALE. MISS EMMA BUEHLER. MISS KATE BUEHLER. MISS LUCY DICKINSON. *MR. JOSEPH C. GARLAND. *MRS. EMMA GARLAND. MISS ANNIE HELMER.
* By letter.
MR. HENRY RIKER. MISS CARRIE RIKER.
MR. WALTER H. P. ROBINSON.
MRS. S. L. SMITH.
MRS. FANNIE STUART.
MISS IDA SWAGER.
MISS LYDIA SMEDLEY.
MRS. EDITH TALLADAY.
MISS CORA HOLMES.
MRS. MARY HAMILTON.
MISS MILLIE LUTHER.
MRS. FANNIE WARE.
MISS WINNIE WOOD.
EUGENE R. LEWIS. MISS LIZZIE MICHAELS.
MRS. ELIZA WAGNER.
MR. ALBERT C. MARUGG.
MISS MAE MASTERS.
MRS. CHRISTINE NELSON.
MISS JENNIE PICKUP.
MISS MAMIE WYBRANT.
*MR. FRANK H. WILLIAMS.
*MRS. LILIAN A. WILLIAMS. MISS GRACE YOUNG.
SUNDAY EVENING, MAY 12.
At 6:30 occured the meeting of the Young People's So- ciety of Christian Endeavor, at which in addition to the reg- ular exercises of the prayer meeting, Dr. Whiting and Dr. Bingham were called on and responded in excellent words suited to the occasion.
At 7:30 the house was again filled to its utmost capacity. The music by choir and chorus was inspiring and the audi- ence joined with great spirit in the singing of the hymns. Prayer was offered by Rev. Herman Ficke, Pastor of the German Congregational Church of this City, who was present with numbers of his people. Other parts of the service were taken by the various Pastors. Dr. J. S. Bingham was the first speaker of the evening, his theme being, "Still Pressing Toward the Unattained." The address was original and striking in thought and expression. In it the Doctor set forth his conception of the liberty and opportunities of modern
MISS ALLIE TAYLOR.
MRS. ANNA VANDERPLOEG.
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religious thought. "No one man, or any council of men in the past or present can so formulate the doctrines of the Scriptures as that they shall be received as the Creed of the Church in all coming time." "The door is open to all pos- sible progress in truth and righteousness."
ADDRESS : "Still Pressing on Toward the Unattained."
DR. J. S. BINGHAM.
It would seem that a Creator and Constructor possessing infinite attributes and inexhaustible resources, would con- struct things at the outset as perfect as they ever could be conceived to be. Improvement in successive years would argue imperfection in original design, unless the improve- ment was incorporated as a constitutional factor automatically resulting from use. In such a case the original thing would only be the germ of what was to be, with all the forces coiled within itself of infinite expansion into an endless progression toward an unattained ideal. This seems to be the divine idea in the construction of the universe in which we are. In the germ condition it does not yet appear what the thing is to be. Even angelic minds could not have formed any ade- quate conception of what God would make out of that dark, formless, nebulous thing now called earth, for so many cen- turies floating about in the solar system without any seeming destiny. Who would have conjectured that God had depos- ited within that germ and its surroundings the possibilities of advancing to such a beauty and glory and productiveness as to be the most suitable place in the universe in which to locate and develop to perfection of nature and character that race of beings created to be the next in rank to the angels, and to be endowed with full power to become the honored
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and glorified sons of God in endless ages of duration? It is manifest therefore that we must not be too hasty in forming our judgment of what things are to be, from what they seem to be in their germ condition. And this is as true of the Christian Church as of anything else to be developed on earth. Christ did not organize the Church in the beginning as it is to be when developed to perfection, but as in every thing he has made, he put in those fundamental forces of self- adjustment, which could be educated to catch divine ideas as they could be communicated from time to time on the one hand, and such fidelity to convictions on the other, as should constitute a class of men as invincible in moral conflicts as the truth itself; but it must be truth as each one sees it for himself. Of course none but an infinite mind can see the whole truth in its absoluteness, and God himself can only communicate that truth, as men are able to receive it. Hence says Jesus to the disciples, "I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." Evidently, then, we are not to look back to the primitive or apostolic Church for that order of things which is to prevail when the kingdom of Christ has fully come. We know how difficult it was for Christ to make his own most intimate disciples un- derstand that his kingdom was not of this world; that his kingdom was purely and simply a spiritual kingdom they could not understand, and hence they could not keep out of their own record of Christ and his teachings that he was to come a second time and reign in bodily presence on earth, rather than by his spiritual presence in the heart and con- sciousness of every believer. It is manifest then, that we are not to go back to the Hebrew or Greek to ascertain what was the original meaning of the words used by the writers of the Scriptures, but rather to press on in our own spirit life so as to secure so much of the Spirit of God who inspired those writers as to know just what that Spirit designed to commu- nicate to mankind through those Scriptures. Spiritual things can be discerned only by those who are spiritually minded
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