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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01874 0875
GC 977.202 IN3FI
Fiftieth
Anniversary Service
FIRST FRIENDS CHURCH
1855-1905
INDIANAPOLIS, IND
Fiftieth Anniversary Service
FIRST FRIENDS CHURCH
JUNE 4, 1905
THIRTEENTH AND ALABAMA STREETS INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
PRESS OF THE AETNA PRINTING COMPANY INDIANAPOLIS
Introduction
In order to fittingly commemorate the fiftieth anniver- sary of the organization of the First Friends Church in Indianapolis, Ind., and to preserve for future generations an intelligent and reliable history of the growth and de- velopment of the church during these fifty years, the monthly meeting decided to observe the 4th day of June, 1905, as anniversary Sabbath and to arrange for appro- priate exercises for both morning and evening meetings.
A committee of Friends was appointed to arrange for and have charge of the services, all of which proved to be worthy of the occasion. The auditoriums of the church were tastefully decorated and the choir rendered most appropriate anthems and hymns of praise. The audiences were large, composed largely of Friends some of whom came many miles to attend the services, all of which were marked by great thoughtfulness and such as to inspire all to greater zeal and activity in the work of saving the world.
Fiftieth Anniversary Service First Friends Church
Thirteenth and Alabama Streets, Indianapolis, Indiana
JUNE 4, 1905
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Voluntary.
Hymn, "Holy, Holy Is the Lord."
Responsive Reading of the Ninety-sixth Psalm.
As a further Scripture lesson a portion of the forty- seventh chapter of Ezekiel was read by Morton C. Pear- son, our present pastor, with the following introductory remarks :
"This is one of the most beautiful visions of Ezekiel, the prophet. It is the picture of a river flowing out from the temple of God, and its reading on this anniversary morning serves as an impressive illustration and figure of the origin and growth of the First Friends Church, whose fiftieth anniversary we observe to-day.
"Just as this river had its source and beginning at the foot of the sacred altar in God's temple of worship, so the First Friends Church had its beginning at the very altar of The Most High, when those faithful souls sought earn- estly for the wisdom of God as to its organization.
"And as the river flowed out, ever increasing in depth and volume and life-giving virtue wherever it ran, first ankle deep, then to the knees, then the loins and finally a depth in which multitudes might swim, just so has this church grown, both in numbers, from 57 to 850 souls, and in spiritual life and power, until we have reached that period in our history (let us believe) when all our own
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and hundreds more may swim out into the ocean fullness of love and grace divine, to reach at last the Haven of eternal rest.
"And as long as the river flows, as long as this church shall have an existence, may it bring life and saving health to all the peoples. May our kind Heavenly Father abundantly bless all this assembled people and the exer- cises of this day, making the day a memorable one because of the outpouring of His divine spirit upon His people, and may this celebration mark a new epoch in the his- tory and life of the church we all so much love."
Hymn, "For Christ and the Church."
The pastor then said :
"Now, shall we not all bow our heads in a season of worship and of prayer. I shall call on none to lead this service of prayer, trusting that the Lord will lead us. Any one feeling the spirit of vocal prayer may be faithful, I trust, while we thus wait upon the Lord for His bless- ing."
Prayer, Alfred Johnson.
"Oh, God, our Father, we are invited by the Holy Ghost to come to thee and table our many wants. We remem- ber, dear Father, that we are taught by the Word that if we will draw nigh unto thee thou wilt draw nigh unto us. Oh, Father, we realize, all of us, this morning, who are thy children, that we want help from heaven; we want help that we may draw nigh unto thee, and then we know that now thou wilt draw nigh unto us and we are now in expectation, dear Father, that thou wilt verify thy promises to all thy trusting, believing children. Father, we are invited by thee to come before thee with uplifted holy hands, making our requests known. Father, we realize whilst thou hast been very gracious and very merciful towards this plant of thy planting, thou hast watered it in days that are past, thou hast visited it in wonderful mercy; yet to-day we are needy; we are very needy, Father, and all thy children now are in expec- tation that thou wilt open the windows of heaven and
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pour out upon this branch of thy militant church a won- derful blessing. So we pray, Father. We want the quali- fication to worship and adore and magnify thy great name. We know, Father, that every good and perfect gift comes down from thee out of heaven, and that thou art still on the giving hand; thou art still visiting this vine and ready to do us good. Now, Father, thou knowest our every heart; thou knowest our every need, and we are before thee in prayer with uplifted, holy hearts, asking for that divine blessing. Father, bless those that are aged, those that have been long in the way and have looked back upon the past and said, 'How wonderful are the mercies of God.' Bless those in middle life, Father, that have upon them the burden and care of the church. Oh, Lord, give them a double portion of thy Spirit, that they may go out and in before this people and honor and glorify thy excellent name. And, Father, we are now in prayer for the younger class. Oh, how tender, how tender some of the hearts are. How well we remember when we were members of this church in its infantile state .. Oh, Lord, how we met in love and how thou didst feed us in that day with bread convenient for us. Oh, God, we re- member with interest how thou didst lead this church, how thou didst deal gently with us and how thou didst love the church, and now this morning we want to ac- knowledge thy wonderful mercy and thy great kindness. How long, oh, Lord, hast thou borne with many, many that have come in and have not been steadfast in the faith. Thou hast watered the vine. Thou hast made a way where there was no way, and many times when they were in a great strait. Father, oh, how thou didst come and make a way where there was no way. Now, this morning, oh, Lord, what shall we render unto thee for they benefits to us? We are like the Psalmist where he said: 'I will take the cup of salvation; I will do the measure of God's will; I will take it, calling upon thy name.' Father, help us this morning that we may renew our covenant with thee; that we may pay our vows now in the presence of all thy people. Oh, Father, as we wait before thee, wilt thou dispense the bread of life? Wilt thou hand it to thy servants, and may they hand it
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to the people? Oh, may we, dear Father, look beyond the poor instrument direct to thy bountiful hand, thy great loving power. If there is one heart discouraged, if there is one ready to give out by the way, we pray unitedly, Father, that thou wilt come to that heart and say, 'My son, my daughter, renew covenant with me,' and as they come bowing and confessing, and as they come penitently, oh, Lord, we pray that thou mayest meet them and bless them, and that this church will have put on more strength and may shine forth as a city upon a hill that cannot be hid, and may they know, as the Prophet declared, that this river of water that proceeds from the throne of God is the love of God; that it goes out to all the human race; it goes into channels that have yielded and are willing to receive thy love. Lord God Almighty, help us to walk steadfastly ; help us to say, 'I will take the cup of salva- tion, calling upon the name of the Lord.' Now, Father, bless every state in divine presence, every one here this morning. We all want a special blessing on this anni- versary. Thou knowest it, Father; thou knowest that some of us tremble before thee. Bless every state. Take care of us in all coming time, handing us down to our graves in peace at last, receiving us into an everlasting habitation with thee, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen."
Prayer, Rebecca Flagler.
"Our Heavenly Father, we praise thee for all thy mer- cies in times past; for all thy favors to this church. We thank thee for such wondrous blessings as thou hast given, which we feel have not been merited, but which thou hast given in thy great goodness, desiring to do good unto us, desiring to use thy people for the publication of thy salvation and for the winning of lost souls to thyself. We thank thee that thou hast so continued to bless thy people who have looked unto thee and who have been ready to do thy will. We ask that thou wilt forgive where there has been any unfaithfulness and remissness. We ask that, while we rejoice in coming together and re- membering what thou hast done, we may remember also that we are to learn by our mistakes and by thy wondrous
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mercy in what thou hast wrought. We pray thee, our Heavenly Father, that thou wilt enable us to understand truly what it is to go into thy sanctuary. David said, 'I understood not until I went into thy sanctuary.' He was puzzled and perplexed, cast down, depressed and dis- couraged when he looked abroad in the world and saw how the wicked prospered, and he was about to be so de- pressed as to give up by the way, so depressed that he was almost ready to distrust God and God's word, until he went into the sanctuary of God.
"Oh, Heavenly Father, we ask for the future of this church that this place may indeed be a sanctuary, sacredly set apart for God, for God does indeed eat meat with his people and give them blessings that they cannot find anywhere else. We pray thee, our Heavenly Father, that we may recognize this place as sacred on account of the manifestations of thy presence in the midst of those who gather in thy name, and that we may reverently meet to- gether with thee, and that we may be taught of thee in thy presence, and that others may learn to come, and be glad to come, because it is the house of God and among thy people waiting upon thee, and they find that which they cannot find, that they so much need and which is so unlike the tiresome things of the world, and that they may be so refreshed by them that this church shall grow, shall be more spiritual, stronger, able to do better work for thee; and we feel to praise thee to-day for what thou hast done, for what thou hast wrought here, making us people who bring forth more fruit unto righteousness. For all this we pray as we praise thee. Amen."
Quartet, "Except the Lord Build the House ?"
Offertory.
Solo, "The Publican."
Announcements (remarks by the pastor) :
"You hold in your hands an announcement relative to the evening service. We are expecting a very delightful time to-night, and trust that all of you can arrange to be present at that service.
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"The historical review which will be presented this evening will be of great value, I think, to every one pres- ent, and I trust that you may hear it. We shall have also with us our brother, Thomas Brown. In the evening meet- ing he will speak to us, and other interesting remarks may be made."
ANNIVERSARY SERMON.
ALBERT J. BROWN, PRESIDENT OF WILMINGTON COLLEGE.
"Your fathers; where are they? And the prophets; do they live forever? Old things are passed away and all things become new." My friends, it is with much feeling that I take my position here this morning to speak to you once more. A thousand memories cling around this altar that are as sacred to me as life, and I trust that they are the same to you. On this anniversary morning, when we take both the retrospective and the prospective view of our institutions, I trust that I may be able to throw the curtain back and look at the social problems as we face them-we, a people who are destined, we believe, to accomplish some things which are worth while in the world.
There are three great stages in civilization through which some of the Western nations have passed. If there be any more, we have not yet reached them. Those are: First, the military period, in which the nation has en- gaged itself with building up a power which is to protect it from invaders ; second, a constitutional period, in which the nation has undertaken to give to itselt a code of laws by which it shall regulate itself; and, third, the ethical period, in which it undertakes to criticise and perfect the institutions which it has builded and lead itself out into world progress. Only a few nations of the earth have ever attained this stage of development. Those an- cient ones of which we read seldom reached the second stage.
As we stand to-day confronted with the questions which are before us to be solved by the spiritual activities of
FIRST FRIENDS CHURCH.
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the people they perhaps can be more clearly presented to you by looking into the problems which were before the people when this church was founded. A radical change has taken place in the thought that the ideals of the people in fifty years. When this institution was founded, in 1855, let us say, the great problems of slavery had in- volved all the activities of the people. (In this nation we can see readily that it has passed through the three stages. In the days of the Revolution we were building a wall for protection against other nations. Then came the Constitution and forty years of interpretation. After that came the ethical interpretation of our social life.) In that period there came up men from every quarter of our nation to add their criticism and thereby change and modify our institutions. In those days Whittier lifted his voice, as sweet as ever a song was sung, to tell what freedom must mean through the power of the risen Re- deemer. The orator Wendel Phillips came with his mag- nificent story, which he hurled against slavery and into the hearts of free men, declaring that we must be eman- cipated. And there came other men - statesmen and scholars-to give their contributions toward the criticism of the institutions which had been builded under pressure of the slave regime. When this great event had passed into history the world turned its attention to other activ- ities, and out of these activities have come the questions, moral and political and spiritual, which you and I may be permitted in our day and generation to solve. The critical spirit had to pass also because it had accom- plished its great end in the destruction of slavery. To the moral mind there seemed to be no other question on which it should expend its energies.
Then there began that great period of industrial devel- opment, the like of which has never been seen in the his- tory of the world. Out of it that spirit of empire build- ing began to rise which recurs over and over through the generations of mankind. It is the fever in the blood to-day which stirs us to large conceptions; we want to extend our borders and build more vastly than we ever did before; and so, in the building, there is an infinite amount of waste. Men do not consider how many things
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might be rectified in their haste to build a great state. But as the state is reared toward the skies and we fling out our banners and say to the world, "We are invincible -no power is able to touch us abroad or at home; we are masters of the social problems of life," at this period we shall discover that there are certain weaknesses in our social state, and then again men will turn their atten- tion toward the criticism of the institutions which we are building to-day. I think no period of the world's develop- ment has shown any more striking manifestations of em- pire building than we have seen in the last twenty-five years. The whole political aspect has changed in that time. The men of the former ideals have passed away. Our fathers in this nation sleep in their graves and their problems lie with them. The new age has come and the curtain has fallen back and we look out again-world- wide to-day rather than sectional. Take the educational institutions of our country, for example. No place in the world have we seen such a rapid development, and it is all toward unity and solidarity of the great systems which are being perfected to-day. That same spirit which says that the Constitution must follow the flag everywhere is at work in the school system. In the problem of theology to-day there is the distracting period of change and new interpretation. Whether it be right or wrong, it is sink- ing down into the hearts of the young men and women of this country, and they will hold to the new interpreta- tion. If we are unable to go with them, we shall stand aside after a while and see them build institutions with other ideals and other forms than we have seen fit to follow.
In the ethical questions which are arising we see an infinite field of service for men and women, who, inspired by the spirit of the Redeemer, still hope to lift human- kind toward God and toward righteousness. Never, I think, so far as my knowledge goes, were so many difficult and intricate questions of moral and spiritual and social life before the people of the world as there are at this present time. In the industrial activities of the world we face questions in America which we have never before faced. In their broad conception, in the depth of their
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feeling, in the dangers which threaten, as well as the hopes which show us the way out of our difficulties, they are unique and they are supreme. Out of this spirit of empire building, of constructive administration, they have all come, and they are products of the modern era. Now, do we believe, my friends, as a Friends church, that we shall enter into the making of the new state, into the spiritualizing of the new conditions, with anything of cer- tainty about the outcome of it all? Do we stand and hesi- tate before the titanic undertaking? Do we say that the fathers are dead and their ideals have passed away, and these new, strange ones are ideals which we cannot up- hold? But somebody will settle these questions. Some man with a vision that is as keen as the light of noon- day will be able to penetrate the clouds and find the solu- tion. Everywhere among the progressive races of the world some one has found the way out and pointed us toward leadership and victory. I should as lief live to- day in this period as in any one that has ever been in the world's history. I can conceive of no more fields of activ- ity in the past than there are before us this hour. It will demand the highest morality, the keenest spiritual conceptions and the greatest intellectual genius to solve these questions.
If we were strong in other days, when the period de- manded reflection and criticism and modification of our institutions that we might make progress, shall we not through another half century be equipped through the leadership of the Redeemer to face all those issues that are before us? The individual must be reached. The tide of spiritual life must be borne down to his heart until he shall say, upon his bowed knees: "I have seen the Lord; my heart has been won to Him, and by His redeem- ing power I have been lifted up to stand with Him upon the summits of life, to take a glimpse of what is around me and what I shall do. We are approaching this stage of ethical development. Men have been saying for twenty years that the twentieth century shall be the most remark- able one in history. It is not a guess which they have made, it is not a blind hope which they have expressed, but it is a conviction which is born out of the experience
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of the past that over and over again will come this period wherein all the acts of men shall be held up for public criticism and for public expression. Out of the compari- son of ideas and criticism which are forced upon men we shall find a way out of the difficulties which con- front us.
We are here to-day celebrating this fiftieth anniversary because we believe that we have made progress in half a century. If we had failed in that time we should not be here speaking as we are; no effort would have been made to celebrate this day ; no one would have dreamed, had we failed in the conflict, of assembling a few members to tell of the story of our decline. But as change comes, so progress comes, and this morning, my friends, we are here with the conscious feeling that somehow or other, under the leadership of Jehovah, we shall find men and women who will be able to lead us in the future as we have been led in the past.
But let me speak further yet of the fathers and the prophets, naming some of those who have been the mov- ing spirit in Quakerism in the West. They have all gone, it seems to me. There was Jane Trueblood, of whom I have heard much said in this meeting; a woman of peculiar type, a woman of matchless spiritual conception, who always saw the bow of promise beyond and knew that the Redeemer was able, through His saving grace, to rescue any man. She, I believe, has left her impress upon the city of Indianapolis, and while her name may be forgotten, or not recalled, to the younger generations, the spirit of power which she manifested is still working. It is true in one sense that the fathers are dead ; it is true in a sense that the prophets do not live forever; but, in another sense, though they be dead, yet they are alive.
There was Elwood Siler, that rough, vigorous man, with a wholesome Christianity ; unpolished, yet, I believe, full of power, expressing to Christianity and to the world what God has been able to do for a man.
And in your own pulpit a few years ago stood the lead- ers of a generation. Levi Rees, who has recently gone to
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the other world, was in many respects one of the most matchless speakers that Quakerism in the West has ever produced.
Enos Pray was another; that man, whose voice was sil- vered over with the power of God and who could hold the people enraptured with the simple story of the cross, is gone, and his silver trumpet voice is no more heard in the land.
And there was Calvin Pritchard, a man of executive power, a man clear-sighted in spiritual things, who stood here and told over and over to you in this city the way to God and to righteousness.
Barnabas Hobbs stands as the intellectual product and genius of our Western Quakerism of the generation that is past, a man who gathered into his great intellect all the problems of his age and had an answer for each of them.
My friends, let me say to you, without enumerating any more names, that there were gathered in these humble homes those who had a sufficient conception of Jesus Christ and His kingdom to give to this institution in Indianapolis, and to the Friends Church in the West, an uplift, which has sent her through forty or fifty years of great triumph and success. But, this morning, "the fath- ers, where are they?" Not one of these men is left to tell the story. The prophets, the preachers of that gen- eration, "do they live forever?" No more will you look upon their faces; no more will you hear their voices; but we can say that in their day and generation they settled the questions which were before them. Their ideals are not exactly our ideals to-day. The form of worship which we practice now was not their form of worship. The manner of the expression of their lives is not the expres- sion of life to-day, and with the changing tide of human life we have moved on from their day and their questions to the new era. They did not conceive of what you and I would have to face in the industrial world. There never came to their conceptions the riots of Chicago or the spirit of industrialism which is rife all over our land. They never dreamed that we should own possessions on the other side of the world, and that there would come the
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great feverish development of empire building once more. They discharged their duty, they left their testimony to the world that they had done well, and that is the legacy which they have left to us. Having done well under the inspiration of Jesus Christ, who was to them all and all, they have said in ringing tones to this generation, in Him you shall conquer. In the sign of the cross you shall be led to victory. If you do not meet the same questions which we did, if you do not interpret the forms of church life just as we did, you will, through Him, be able to meet the responsibilities of the hours which come upon you.
The hour of fate has struck for the Quakers of this generation. The future may be certain, but if it be cer- tain it will be because the King of all the ages is en- shrined in every heart that is here and in this country. We are lamenting about the fact that there are not many prophets coming forth in this generation to hold up the ideals of the Kingdom of Christ. It concerns every lead- er of the church at large. Where shall they come from? What are the forces that are holding them back? And we, who look back over half a century of progress, of great achievements, of splendid victory and the fair name in the city of Indianapolis and in the West, how shall we look into the future? With what hopes? With what assurance? In the industrial life which has been going on for twenty-five years, the old ideas which made every family a sacred institution for the development of one child for the ministry and prophecy of the Lord have passed away. There was a time that every father and every mother looked forward to the day when one child should speak for the Lord. But with these new conditions of life, we have turned their attention to other pursuits, showing that there are opportunities for more power, for the accumulation of more wealth, for higher social stand- ing, until these sacred altar fires at home have lost their significance, and in their place have come up strange gods for the future. If there be no prophets born at the fire- side in our institutions, there shall be no history to write of them in the future. If we turn aside for these other things, then we have failed. Our humble fathers and moth- ers who helped to build this church were not unmindful of
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