USA > Illinois > Kane County > Geneva > Fifty years of Unitarian life : being a record of the proceedings on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the organization of the First Unitarian Society of Geneva, Illinois, celebrated June tenth, eleventh and twelth, 1892 > Part 9
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Letter. 109
or make a churn, or preach a sermon, or minister to the passing soul. How dear was his name to every Unitarian in the State, and how treasured the memories and associations of this church at Ge- neva, which owes its existence to his consecrated energy and enthusiasm!
Under the careful husbandry of such hands as Conant, Ed- dowes and Herbert your Society took such vigorous root that we must now look upon it as one of the established things,-if Unitar- ians can ever consent to consider anything in the shape of a church as "established." As you meet together the hearts of many who are absent will be turning toward Geneva with congratulations on your past and good hopes for your future. Regretting that I can- not be with you and with hearty good wishes for a successful meeting and continued prosperity,
T am yours most cordially,
Chicago, June 9, 1892. JOHN R. EFFINGER.
Letter.
PROF. SAMUEL CLARKE.
I will also call upon Mrs. Agnes Hoyt, who has a letter that she will read to you.
LETTER READ BY MRS. HOYT.
After a few words to myself he says :-
* * * * * The little picture of the dear old church on your invitation stirs many memories of my early life that are among the things to me most valued, held most sacred.
I have to recall the Sundays with each one of our dear good people in their well-known scats. I remember clearly the delight- ful feeling of being entirely at home among the best of good lov- ing friends; the blessed sense of peace and helpfulness that came equally from our good friend in the pulpit and from those with whom we sat. Such a center of genuine goodness to stimulate and help everything that makes for true living, carried on bravely and joyously and withal, humbly, I have never found elsewhere.
With this I always associate my impressions of the Prairie life as I came to know it in those days. The picture is very vivid to me of June afternoons on the fields that reached the horizon and knew no bounds. There never was a bluer sky, light clouds never sailed more freely; the afternoon breeze was delicious in its sweet freshness; the notes of the prairie birds are clearer than all others; the beautiful prairie flowers were out in endless profusion, fragrant and brilliant; and the wonderful insect life in countless numbers seemed full of cheer and joy as they went swiftly about their beneficent work. What a glorious world that was! How it
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Cui Bono ?
touched and stimulated every particle and fibre of worth within one.
Never has there come to me such a sense of glad freedom, of unbounded room and beautiful, good things for all, as there on the prairie. Everything was so pure and true and unlimited that it seemed to be God's storehouse, and it was the greatest privilege to be there: -
And so two of my most prized memories of the West, most prized because they have been most helpful to me, are of our church with you dear people, and of the wider church outside all walls.
All greetings to you and, with a full measure of its old time meaning-Good bye. Yours always,
Williamstown, June 8, 1892. SAMUEL F. CLARKE.
Cui Bono?
REV. T. G. MILSTED.
We have with us to-day another of the Chicago min- isters whose name, but for a miscarried letter, would have appeared on our program; but I know we will all be glad to hear from Mr. Milsted.
MR. MILSTED'S RESPONSE.
Dear friends, ladies and gentlemen: They say that man pro- poses but that God disposes. Some of us, however, have disposing powers a little nearer to us. or that perhaps act upon us a little oftener and a little more forcibly perhaps than that greater dis- posing power. When I told my wife recently that before my church closed I was going to Davenport to see my mother, she said, "Very well, then you must go this week." That settled it for me, and this week I prepared to go. We had heard of this celebration at Geneva, but, through the miscarriage of the letter of which Brother Penney spoke, we did not know what the nature of it would be: when we found this out, my wife said, "You can't go to Davenport this week; you must go to Geneva." So here I am.
Mr. Penney had asked me to speak on the subject, "Cui Bono?" "What is the good of the church; for whose benefit is the church?" And as I had told him I would be in another State at that time, I supposed that, of course, he would have assigned that subject to someone else, so I came expecting to have only the pleasure of listening. So you see there may have been some special Provi- dence in this arrangement after all, for if I had planned to speak of the "Cui Bono?" of the Church; you might not have escaped so easily as you now will, because I have had only a few moments to think of the question, "What is the use and benefit of a Church like this."
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Cui Bono ?
If I could only point to the two or three sainted characters that have sanctified this Church, and have given the blessing and the benediction of their spirit to the world, I know that all of the faithful men and women who have toiled here would say that all the toil and work of their lives was not in vain, in having given to our denomination and to the religious world the lives of such men as Conant and Herbert and the other workers here. I hold that such characters are unique in modern Christendom, and their only parallel is in the early days of the martyrs when men's souls were stirred to their depths. They could not have found room for such characters in other churches, because their souls were open to all God's stock of truth, and they did not have to apologize for it; they did not have to blind their eyes; there were no secret recesses in God's creation into which they did not dare to look, but they gave their great characters to our modern life, and that is one of the benefits that this church has been, not only to this place but to our country. This church is to be the great school of your souls and of the souls of your children. There are in your midst schools to train the minds of the young; you should also have a' place to train their souls, for we do not come into the world full-grown men and women of God. We are born with our Godlike faculties in the germ, just as we are born with our mental and physical natures in the germ, and just as it takes the school to unfold all our powers of mind, and just as it takes all the great benefits we have of a physical kind to unfold and develop our physical natures, so I hold it needs the church to unfold and develop the divine nature; and for that purpose the church exists here for you and for your children.
As I was coming out here to-day I looked out of the car win- dow and I saw some birds sitting on the telegraph wires, and I was reminded of the beautiful poem by Mrs Whitney, in which she tells about these little birds 'sitting on the telegraph wires, and how that they chitter and flitter and fold their wings, and think that for them and their sires were stretched always on purpose those wonderful wires.' And as they sit there and think, if they think at all, that those strings were stretched for themselves, the news of the world runs under them: how values rise and decline; how great souls are taken away from our midst; how armies meet in battle-shock, and while that is going through the wires, they only see the wires stretching away. So the lines of eternity, and immortality, and the thought of God and the diviner life run throuhg our lives. Often like the birds we only see the visible thing and forget that through the lines of our lives are flying the messages of God and eternity too deep and vast to be wholly comprehended by our mortal powers. The church is continually in our midst to call these messages to mind, to interpret them to us that their grand meaning may strengthen and uplift our souls.
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A Living Saint.
The Church can only be good and great with great and good and loyal men and women within it. The Church is only made of those that are within it, and unless you are true, the Church will not have the influence in this community that it should have. Your Church does not exist for freedom only. Read when you get home all that beautiful poem of Bryant on Freedom, in which he explodes the fallacy held by so many people that freedom is simply to do nothing, and in which he says:
"O Freedom! Thou art not, as poets dream, A fair young maid, with light and delicate limb, And wavy tresses gushing from the cap With which the Roman master crowned his slave When he took off the gyves. A bearded man, Armed to the teeth, art thou; one mailed hand Grasps the broad shield, and one the sword."
Then he goes on to tell how he is scarred, and how his
"Massive limbs
Are strong with struggling." * *
And how he has even been imprisoned in "dungeon deep," but that he broke his walls and chains and came out to do good; and so freedom in religion is not some light and delicate thing, it is some- thing strong. It rises up equal to all responsibilities, and we hope this Church through the next fifty years will be as good and great and glorious as it has been in the fifty years that we celebrate to-day.
A Living Saint,
MRS. J. D. HARVEY.
Before we proceed with the second half of our pre- pared program, there is one more toast that is not down here. It does not need to be, because the people of Ge- neva and those who know and have come in contact with the people of Geneva, find it written on their hearts. I shall call upon Mrs. Harvey to respond to the toast, "A Living Saint, Timothy Harold Eddowes."
MRS. HARVEY'S RESPONSE.
At the risk of appearing before you again with a very red fac? and the engine having the best of it, I have come to say one word outside of the program. You have heard about so many Saints that we have had with us in the past, but we are so fortunate as to
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Response.
have still another one who is here, and who, we hope, will be here for many years.
We have a great many ministers here to-day who are doing a great work in the world, but it seems to me to be a small thing to preach, to what it is to do everything except preach; but that is what our Saint does who has been here twenty-five years, any- way. He has not preached here regularly for many years, but he buries us all, marries us all, does all the work in between-I could not tell you all the things he does, but he is what keeps this Church going. He manages the Sunday School, and above all, he has faith that we will always have some money to keep up this Church and will always have a minister, even when no one else be- lieves it.
Last year, the trustees were very much discouraged and it was even feared that we could not go on, but we handed everything over to him, and how successful he has been you can judge from our Church and our fine young minister who is here. He believes in young ministers; imports them every few years; teaches them how to preach; warns them off the breakers, and does everything that can be done. And that is our "Living Saint" whom I wanted you to know about. [Calls for Eddowes.]
Response.
REV. T. H. EDDOWES.
They insist upon hearing from Mr. Eddowes. MR. EDDOWES' RESPONSE.
I have always liked Geneva very well, but I did not know I had got to heaven. It is very true that I have known this Church twenty-seven years, and it was the first Church that I ever had, but I felt as soon as I came to Geneva that this was my home. There was something about my earlier home that I had never liked: it was at that place, Galena, that I spoke to you about this morning where my father's family had such hard times starting a Unitarian Church. The rest of my family were very much attached to Ga- lena, but from my childhood on, I was always glad to go away from it and very sorry to go back to it even while my folks were living there; so when I came to Geneva and found there was a Unitarian Church here, and I could have charge of it, I was at home, and if heaven and home are the same things, I am perfectly willing to take this for heaven. Mrs. Harvey has told you of what I do for this Church. I am vain enough, or weak enough, or something or other enough, to say that it is just the one thing in this world I had rather do than anything else, because I became so interested in the people who were here when I came; and there is something or other about the Eddowes family that is always putting them in
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The Illinois Conference.
situations where there is a forlorn hope to carry. Whatever un- der the sun I should do in a place that didn't need a "factotum" or with a church that could run itself, I don't see. I should have to emigrate or else should have to say that I was not in heaven. [Cheers for Eddowes.]
Letter. REV. CHESTER COVELL.
When Mr. Duncan, as he says, "discovered" me, he sent me down to Buda, and then to Geneseo to have Mr. Miller and Mr. Covell look me over, and I have here a letter from Mr. Covell which I think will serve as a very good introduction to Mr. Duncan, who will respond to "The Illinois Conference."
DEAR FRIENDS :-
It would be a great pleasure to me to be with you on the oeea- sion of the anniversary exereises of which you speak. Honored names will be then called up, which have been connected with your organization-names I mueh revere. Conant and Herbert can never be forgotten. A line from the latter in '81 speaking of our Illinois Conferenee, says, "That Fraternity will always be very dear to me, however far from it I may physically be." And how very dear he was to the Geneva Church, and our State Conference. I must say circumstanees will not permit my attendance; but I rejoice in the good time that awaits those who attend.
Fraternally Yours,
Buda, June 3, 1892. C. COVELL.
The Illinois Conference.
REV. L. J. DUNCAN.
We hope to leave behind us an enduring work whereby those who come after us may "Climb by our labors and thank God for our lives."
Mr. Duncan will now respond to "The Illinois Conference. "
MR. DUNCAN'S RESPONSE.
Ladies and gentlemen: It were far better if Father Covell himself were here to speak to this toast, for he is one of the fathers of the Illinois Conference and for many years its seeretary and missionary in the field. I would it were that he could be here and say to you the words that I must speak.
In responding to this toast, I am first of all glad to remember
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The Illinois Conference. . / 115
that it was in the Geneva Church that the first steps were taken to incorporate the Illinois Conference on its present basis. Prior to October, 1885, there had been for ten years a talking conference in this state called the "Illinois Fraternity of Liberal Churches;" but in October, 1885, they thought it was time to begin to do some thing more than just talk about this liberal religion, and so at the meeting of that Fraternity held here, steps were taken towards the incorporation. Officers were elected; the name was changed to "The Illinois Conference of Unitarian and other Independent Societies;" the motto, "Freedom, Fellowship, and Character" was adopted; Mr. Effinger was elected the Secretary of the Conference and we started out to be a working organization. Through all the sixteen years of this Conference life, for I count the Fraternity and the Conference as at present organized one living body, through all the life of this Conference, I find that the Geneva Church has been most loyal; sharing in all the responsibilities which that Conference has had to face, sharing also in the tri- umphs which that .Conference has achieved. And so I feel per- fectly confident that the constituency which I represent here would feel glad to have me say to you that you have the hearty congratu- lations, on this anniversary occasion, of the Illinois Conference, and to express the carnest hope that the relations which have been so pleasant and so profitable between us in the past may be continued in the future.
The Illinois Conference to-day is doing all the work that comes to its hands; all that it can find to do. It has only been about six- teen months since the active work of the Conference has been carried on. Prior to that time, for various reasons, we were un- able to do very much in the field for several years, but in the last sixteen months we have been prosecuting a pretty vigorous work. The Sunday Circle at Princeton has been revived and set to work in a practical way which bids fair to give us before long another liberal Church in Illinois. A Sunday Circle has been started at Ottawa, Ill. I noticed to-day in the history that was read, that the first communion service of this Church was attended by thirteen people; the first service that was held in Ottawa was attended by thirteen people. Let us hope that Ottawa may have as rich a his- tory in the next fifty years as this Church has had in the past fifty years. A little Circle has been started at Wenona, a most inter- esting Circle in that it is representative of so many different lines of thought, there are Universalists, Unitarians, Quakers and some peo- ple who call themselves "What Nots" for want of a better name. There has been a new movement started at Sterling and Rock Falls, where I shall go to-morrow, that gives promise of abundant success. Prior to last December, there never had been a liberal sermon proached in that town; and I found people there who did not know, as close as they are to Geneva, that there was such a
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ยท The Illinois Conference.
thing as a Unitarian Church. There are other places I might mention, but particularly I want to speak of the new work which is just coming to us at Streator, which gives good promise of grow- ing to a strong movement. It started under particularly discour- aging circumstances. Indeed, the beginning of the Streator movement was no start at all. I went down there and after can- vassing for several days, gave it up completely as a hopeless place; but not many months after, there came the word, "Where is that young man who came here last fall?" They had lived, just the few informal words that had been spoken there, they lived, and somebody had been interested enough to find out where they could have some more; and so the work has been carried on, and it is growing.
This Straetor movement is something of and indication of the spirit which is all abroad in Illinois. Go where you will, you will always find some one who is ready for our message. Never have I gone to a place yet and made inquiry for people of Liberal. re- ligious opinions and convictions, and failed to find some. I believe most earnestly that if we would realize our opportunities and our dutics we would find in a short time that the work in Illinois would be growing faster than one missionary could possibly take care of. I tell you, friends, we have for these people what is to them the very Bread of Life. We have to feed to spiritual babes the sincere milk of the Word, and speaking of milk reminds me of a story with which I will close.
A few years ago, a young couple, city-bred and accustumed to the fare that we who live in cities have to put up with, concluded that they would spend a summer in the country; so they went into the country and bought their milk, and other supplies, of a neigh- boring farmer and enjoyed it. They believed that farmers were perfectly honest and perfectly trustworthy, and that they could drink that milk without any fear or apprehension whatsoever; but unfortunately one night they kept some of it over, and their confi- dence received a rude shock, for the next morning there was a suspicious look about that milk that sent Mrs. Younghusband over to the farmer's to inquire about matters. She said, "I thought that when I came out here into the country I certainly could find unadulterated food, but I find that it is not so, the milk that you sent us is adulterated." They inquired what was the matter. "Why," she said, "this morning when I looked at the milk I got of you yesterday, it was all covered with a thick yellow scum, and then my husband and I noticed furthermore that the milk was of a much yellower color than that which we have been accustomed to get." "Well," said the farmer, "you must understand that this scum you are talking about is the cream, and that the rich yellow color you are speaking of is a sign that the milk is perfectly pure and unadulterated." "Don't tell me, don't tell me: we always paid
Letter. 117
the highest market price for milk, and always got our milk of a reputable dairyman, and I guess I know purc milk when I see it. Pure milk is characterized by a beautiful pale blue tint." And vain were the efforts of the farmer to convince her that that pale blue tint was a sign of adulteration. Now, what is the point ? Simply this: the difficulties we have to contend with arise from the fact that the people to whom we go are so accustomed to having their religion adulterated; it is so watered with orthodox theology that they expect it to have a pale blue tint, and cannot recognize or appreciate pura and unadulterated natural religion when they get it. It is our mission, friends, to so educate those people, and so to cultivate their taste for the "sincere milk of the word" that when we come to them with natural religion, God's blessed gift to man, and say to them; "This is yours; yours to develop," that they will receive it in perfect confidence, and without that fear and trembling and distrust with which they meet us.
Oh, friends, let us fill ourselves full of the mission that is be- fore us. Let us be imbued with the spirit of those men and women who were the founders of this Church and go forward unfaltering- ly with our work. If we will'only put the spirit of pure and un- defiled religion into our work we can reap as rich a harvest as did they, and leave behind us as goodly a heritage.
Letter.
REV. JAS. H. WEST.
Before I introduce Mr. Byrnes to respond to the toast "Freedom of Thought and Speech," it seems to me it would be very proper to read to you the greeting from Mr. West who found here, what he feared he should find no- where, absolute freedom of speech.
MR. WEST'S LETTER.
MY DEAR MRS. HOYT, AND FRIENDS OF THE GENEVA CHURCH :- That it does not now soem possible for us to be with you on the occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary, is, believe me, a matter of large regret to us, for we have earnestly desired to be present. We thank you heartily for your invitation.
As you well know, our three and a half years' work with you was a bright chapter in our lives. We always think of you with love. And that the little society still continues, and continues fairly prosperous considering the many limitations amid which it labors, is matter for congratulation for all. That it may continue always with the Progressive Spirit we may well hope and labor to- wards. In repetition the soul can never rest satisfied. It has been
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Letter.
perhaps the greatest drawback of the Christian Church that it has deemed itself a fixed body; the possessor of a completed system; anchored to an infallible word, to which nothing might be, nor needed to be, ever added. For when new discovery, scientific re- search, deeper thought of students, have found out certain things of Nature and the Soul which cast cloud on things former, and proved them fallacious, the Church has-and naturally, consistently from its standpoint-deemed it its duty still to uphold the error. It thus has weaned from itself the allegiance of many (the deepest thinkers perhaps; the truth-lovers; the men of the largest soul and largest faith),-whose company, could the Church but have looked upon itself as the repository of a "progressive" rather than of a "fixed"Word, and thus been able to retain them in its midst, would have made it the great power for good in modern restless time which in earlier years it was in matters of faith and the amalga- mating of intermixing nations.
In the present era, however, it would really seem that the Church is waking up to a nobler consciousness of itself; to a nearer right appreciation of its opportunities, of its privileges, of its du- ties. The great word in Nature, sounding throughout the universe from farthest new-circling sun condensing out of fire-mist down to the latest expanding chestnut or maple tree by our door, is Progress. And this great word the Church is now beginning to make its own.
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In repetition the soul can never rest satisfied. Without growth it must forever feel that something is lacking. And something is lacking.
"In the same brook none ever bathed him twice To the same life none cver twice awoke. We call the brook the same,-the same we think Our life, though still more rapid is its flow, - Nor mark the much irrevocably lapsed And mingled with the sea."
There is indeed, for all men and things, a certain unconscious change, as thus hinted in the lines of the poet Young. But how much better the progressive spirit ;- the Progressive Spirit, con- sciously a co-worker with God! The Spartans in battle threw their shields before them, and then fought their way up to them. Well for us that, seeing how inadequate much of the old is, -how meagre, often repellant, largely unsatisfying,-we to-day find a "Liberal" fold open to us, which our fathers knew not, wherein we may dare to propagate our highest dream, speak our deepest faith, and, if indeed we cannot yet wholly justify all we utter, or give scientific chapter and verse for it, may still launch our faith for- ward for the world to ponder, and then courageously, month by month, year by year,-gathering argument, fact. inferenc3,-fight
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