USA > Indiana > Johnson County > Franklin > History of the half century celebration of the organization of the First Presbyterian church of Franklin, Indiana > Part 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14
78
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
conqueror has suddenly become the first power and dictator of Europe. What changes in France! What changes in Prussia! And in these changes Catholic Austria has also been forced to drink a bitter cup at the hand of Prussia. French and Austrian bayonets sustained the Pope on his throne as a temporal ruler, and resisted the unification of Italy. But now these intruders and usurpers are broken by a common foe. The lesson is one to think of! France and Austria humbled, the Pope's throne as a temporal prince lev- eled, Prussia the great empire and Italy one nation ! It looks as if God had been in the business. How Russia also has grown! How sublime the enfranchise- ment of her serfs, how she clasps in her arms the great zone of the North on two continents, how stead- ily she reaches out her hands for the coveted Bos- phorus, how great she has grown !
Spain has found freedom of some sort, but is in spasms, the issue of which we can not predict. The land of Ferdinand and Isabella, of haughty chieftain and bloody bigot, what a sight is Spain to-day! But we may hope for the best.
Need I refer to the changes in China, Japan, South- ern India, Brazil, and other parts of the world, to convince you that the last half century has witnessed very remarkable political changes among the nations? And these changes have been mainly beneficent.
I have already mentioned some of the changes which have taken place in this country both in terri- tory and population. We have three-fourths as many foreigners now as we had whites in 1824. Every fourth white male adult in this country is a foreigner.
79
OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA.
How grave are the interests associated with this state- ment I need not stop to unfold.
But the greatest political changes in this country have been effected in another direction. Fifty years ago coffles of slaves and slave marts were common sights even in the District of Columbia. In 1824 the Quaker, Benjamin Lundy, removed to Baltimore, and since he began the war on American slavery, what vast moral, social and political revolutions have taken place! What giants have fought in this war, defend- ing or assaulting this institution! Hayne and Web- ster, Calhoun and Clay, Davis and Seward, Marshall and John Quincy Adams, Toombs and Chase. I name not the editors, the lecturers, the preachers, who also contended. They were great men and fought stoutly over this political and moral heresy. Many of them are dead; and at last, in 1865, the tremendous war which had been evoked to settle it was concluded. How small the beginning, the Quaker Lundy teach- ing in a quiet way Christ's law on slavery, and at last the nation divided into two vast military camps to settle the question by arms. And from the moment the first shot was fired from Sumter, April 12, 1861, to the surrender of Lee, April 9, 1865, what heroism, what suffering, what battles, what dying among those who defended the Union! Oh, how many graves were dug, how many lives went out, how many hearts were broken! All this has rendered possible such eulogy as this, which scares us with its numerical and ghastly reckoning, whilst it thrills us with its pathos.
80
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
" Four hundred thousand men, The young, the brave, the true,
In tangled wood and mountain glen, On battle-field and prison pen, Lie dead for me and you, For me and you: Four hundred thousand of the brave
Have made our ransomed soil their grave, Good friend, for me and you !
" On many a battle plain Their ready swords they drew, And poured their life blood like the rain, A home, a heritage, to gain, To gain for me and you : From western plain to ocean tide, Are stretched the graves of those who died !
" A debt we ne'er can pay To them is justly due ; But to the nation's latest day Our children's children still shall say, They died for me and you : Four hundred thousand of the brave Have made this ransomed soil their grave !"
The evil was one of fearful magnitude and malignancy. It had sent its roots into every part of society. It reached social businesses and political relations and even our religious life. It is not cured yet, nor will it be this year or the next. If it be cured by the end of the next fifty years, we shall have reason for thanks- giving; but he must be very blind who does not note · with amazement what has been done since, in 1824, Lundy, the abolitionist, removed to Baltimore.
Here and elsewhere the drift is toward human ele- vation. God is breaking the chains of man and mak- ing him a freeman. The work accomplished in this
81
OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA.
respect within fifty years is very great. If we except Brazil and Spain, all Christian nations have abolished human slavery. Clarkson and Wilberforce come into this half century, and saw with their own eyes the Brit- ish West Indies delivered from the curse, and the pre- monitions of the end of slavery here and throughout the world; so that we may justly call the last half century the grandest period of history for the progress of liberty.
Death is the monarch of change among men. Since the last half century began this power has vacated every throne in Europe at least once, and has cut down fourteen men who had exercised the functions of the President of these United States. On the fourth of July, 1826, Adams and Jefferson died, and on the . fourteenth of April, 1865, Abraham Lincoln. Be- tween these extremes were Madison, Monroe, Jack- son, John Quincy Adams, Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Fillmore and Buchanan.
The leaders of the world in all its spheres fifty years ago are dead-soldiers, inventors, scientists, authors, orators, capitalists, rulers. It would be tedious to name only a small part of the names of the great dead of the last half century. Let these suf- fice: Wellington, Metternich, Palmerston, Webster, Clay, Silas Wright, Calhoun, Winfield Scott, John Marshall, Thomas Chalmers, Lyman Beecher, Archi- bald Alexander, William Wirt, Davy, Humboldt, Faraday, Morse, and oh, how many more! Aye, if we may come from these exalted heights where the great dwell to the lower level of common life, we find that since the pioneers smote the first tree in Frank-
82
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
lin, twice a thousand million of human beings have died. In all the solemn mysteries of life and death, how much have mankind experienced in that time! Infants have wailed and smiled, the young have run without weariness and have looked to the future with hope, manhood has loved and toiled, old age has looked wistfully back to the past and shrinkingly for- ward to the future, and yet amid the countless varie- ties of human experience, one fact has been.frowning on the world and scaring it-I mean DEATH !
Well may we, on such an anniversary, say of the "stream of time," which has carried away almost two generations of our fellow-creatures, with all apper- taining to them, since the fathers began their work here :
" It is a widespread stream And every valley fills ; It covers the plains, And the high domains --- Of the everlasting hills.
" It is a ceaseless stream, Forever flowing fast ; Like a solemn tide, To the ocean wide, Of the far unfathomed past.
"It is a mighty stream, Resistless in its sway To the loftiest things, The strongest kings It carries with ease away."
I have detained you a great while with this re- hearsal, and yet I trust it may not be in vain. The last half century has been a very remarkable period in the history of God's work in the world.
83
OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA.
The physical, political, social and moral changes wrought under God's superintending providence have been stupendous. What vast progress has science made! how almost miraculous the transformations of inert matter into agencies for human welfare and de- velopment ! how full of hope the vast changes wrought in the social and civil and religious conditions of races and nations. For ages the race has been groan- ing and travailing in pain, under tyrannies of all kinds. Now freedom is shaking down these tyrannies. Ethi- opia for ages has been stretching forth her hands to God, and is now receiving the answer in the model Republic of Liberia, the apostolic mission of Albert Bushnell on the Gaboon, and the peerless work of Dr. Livingstone, in opening to the gaze of the world the interior of Africa. Clarkson, Wilberforce, Lundy, Garrison, Lincoln, have been God's ambassadors to Ethiopia. Romanism, Protestantism, and Christian- ity itself are on trial at the bar of truth. I am glad of it. The furnace is not yet built that can hurt pure gold, and we may thank the skeptics of the labora- tory, the library and the observatory, for putting our religion, our Bible, and even our CHRIST into the crucible to determine their merits. The astronomers who have gone half way around the world to deter- mine the facts of the transit of Venus will not hurt Venus, nor put truth out of joint. No more will the assaults on religion. If any so-called religion goes down in that trial, let it go down; but not a jot, or a tittle of real Christian truth shall perish. And so for fifty years these learned skeptics have been forced to demonstrate that "the words of the Lord are pure
84
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
words; as silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times."
The race is making vast progress toward true lib- erty in government, science, truth and happiness. I say this in full view of the tremendous hold sin has on mankind. The world is far better off, and stronger and more religious than it was fifty years ago.
We sometimes say in our blind unbelief, that "if God works at all he works slow!" but who can re- view the astonishingly vast and beneficent changes wrought in the world during this period without re- pelling the calumny that God is not wise, strong and good enough to push all the forces of his universe forward in the line of progress for the good of a race for whose salvation he gave his Son to die?
We have been reviewing the work done in the world, and especially in our own country, the last fifty years. It seems to me that we can have but one opinion, that the world in many respects has made very astonishing progress.
We stand on the threshold of another half cen- tury. When that shall have been accomplished, the review of its progress must be made by some other chronicler, and before an audience made up of other persons. It is possible that some boy who does not now know his alphabet shall stand in my place, but his hearers shall be made up chiefly of those who are now young or not yet born. Few of us shall be here when fifty years have passed away. And yet, if we desire the reviewer of that period to have the materi- als for a pleasing sketch of God's work in the world, we must ourselves so discharge the duties we owe the
85
OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA.
world and God, as that we can commit our trust to our successors in a better condition than we received it from our fathers. If, in all fidelity to God and to man, we live and work, the waste places of the world shall so blossom, the rough places shall so grow smooth, and the dark places grow so light; the world shall so improve in all its physical conditions, and the race so mount up to a higher manhood, that the chronicler of the next fifty years shall be able to say as I now say, in wonder and hopefulness: "What hath God wrought!" ¡
After the concluding prayer the congregation sang the hymn :
Wake the song of jubilee, Let it echo o'er the sea ! Now is come the promised hour ; Jesus reigns with glorious power !
All ye nations, join and sing, Praise your Savior, praise your King ; Let it sound from shore to shore- "Jesus reigns forevermore!"
Hark! the desert lands rejoice; And the islands join their voice ; Joy ! the whole creation sings, --- "Jesus is the King of kings !"
The services were closed with the benediction.
OF course the children could not be left out in so important an event as the semi-centennial of the church; hence arrangements had been made for a children's meeting, to be held at three o'clock P. M. of the Sabbath.
The other Sabbath-schools of the city had been in vited. At the appointed hour the audience-room of the church was filled with the young people and chil- dren of the congregation, the invited Sabbath-schools and a goodly company of older people, who are al- ways delighted to be numbered with the children.
Mr. Geo. W. Voris, the Superintendent of the Sab- bath-school, took charge of the music, Mrs. Julia Voris presiding at the organ.
(86)
CHILDREN'S MEETING
SABBATH AFTERNOON.
ADDRESSES BY
REV. R. D. MORRIS, D. D.,
REV. ALEX. PARKER,
REV. A. B. MOREY,
AND THE PASTOR.
Rev. Dr. Morris, of Oxford Female College, Ohio, addressed the children as follows:
Your fathers and you are celebrating to-day the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of this church and Sabbath-school here in the wilderness. But these fathers' fathers made another settlement, many years ago, on the Atlantic coast. Now, children, what brought your forefathers to America, to settle in the New World, among the woods and the Indians? You ought to know about this. When your fathers came here to Indiana they came because the land was rich and good. They knew, by and by, they could cut down the trees, and build houses, and plant the fields, and have plenty to live on. They had religion and liberty, and they knew they would have prosperity. But when, more than two hundred years ago, our forefathers left their old homes in Europe to sail over the ocean, they were searching for freedom to wor- ship God. That is what brought them to America first of all. Don't forget that, children. It was not rich land and beautiful countries. It was not great towns, and cities, and ships, and much wealth. No, children. God has given our land and nation abund- ance of these things, but our forefathers did not come to America for this. God had raised up Luther, and Calvin, and Knox. They had translated the Bible into the language of the people, and had preached
(89).
90
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
the gospel of Christ with wonderful power. Multi- tudes were converted and became Protestants against the corrupt and tyrannical Church of Rome. But this anti-Christian Church harassed and tormented them. She burnt the Bible and wasted and burnt the Protestants wherever she had the power. Our fathers' fathers sometimes resisted them unto blood. Years of slaughter and desolation often followed. Once in a while they would triumph gloriously and then they would have peace and prosperity for years. But Rome branded our forefathers as "heretics," and made it a maxim never to keep faith with heretics. They broke their covenants, revoked their edicts, and robbed, and plundered, and murdered the Protestants with remorseless fury. Our forefathers prayed for some land of refuge, and the Lord of Hosts pointed them to America, just discovered and ready for them. And here they came, children, to found a free Church and a free State. The Lord has been to them a pil- lar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. They have gone on and on, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Never, in the annals of time, has a nation been more gloriously blessed of God Almighty. Oh, children, you should study the history of these mighty strug- gles against Rome, and the amazing triumphs that have followed. You are descended from the heroic men who secured these priceless blessings, and their vast inheritance is yours. You must cherish it and keep it. You have your churches and Sabbath- schools, and civil liberties, and you must love them and maintain them at all hazards. And now, chil- dren, how are you to treat the children of those who
91
' OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA.
so cruelly persecuted and slaughtered your fathers ; for they have heard of this glorious land, its liberties, its riches and its greatness? Many have come to America to escape the old tyranny at home; but many are crowding to our homes to regain this land for the Pope of Rome, and to renew on these peace- ful shores the fearful scenes of carnage and blood of former times. The children of these people are taught to despise your Bible and your religion, and to call you heretics. They abuse your common schools, and have nothing in common with our peo- ple but the ballot-box, and even that they would not allow if they could help it. But, children, be careful how you treat these children. Don't feel vexed and angry at them; don't abuse them, and when you see them on the street, don't feel inclined to draw back and strike them between the eyes. This will never do, dear children. This would be very wicked. We must show them a better spirit-a better example. We must show them the gospel of Christ. This is a mighty power, children, among children as well as grown people. You must try to get these children to read the Bible and come with you to the Sabbath- school. We must seek the conversion of all these children and grown people. They can be converted just like other people, if we only go about it aright; be assured of that. Just let me tell you a story, chil- dren, to illustrate how this may be done.
Some years ago, before I came to Ohio, I was pas- tor of the old Presbyterian Church near Philadelphia, where Washington took the Hessians, after their cap- ture over at Trenton, near by. One Sabbath morn-
92
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
ing, just before church-time, an Irishman came to my house and introduced himself and his son Patrick. He wanted a place for his boy among the farmers, where he could be brought up right and taught to work. I soon saw he was a Roman and needed in- struction for himself as well as his boy. "Well, my friend," said I, "it is now time to go to church, so just come along, and when it is over we can have some dinner and talk about little Pat."
"Yis, yis, yer riverence," he responded, "we'll go." And so on we went until we came to the gate of the stone wall around the old stone church. I saw Pat hung back and that his father was earnestly chiding him. But the father came on and up to the minister's pew I took him. After the services were over we found little Pat still outside. During the dinner I found out the reason of Pat's refusal to enter the church. He said "it was wicked to go inside of a heretical meeting-house," and so the poor fellow would not go in. This showed that Pat had some conscience, but that it sadly needed divine illumina- tion. Promising the father to take good care of his boy, and with the present of a Bible from the Amer- ican Bible Society, he was let go to his home some miles distant. Pat was persuaded to go to a school- house meeting that afternoon, and was more comfort- able. After worship that evening Pat was taken to bed. As the little fellow was getting ready for sleep I saw a black ribbon around his neck, with a piece of black leather suspended, about as large as an old- fashioned half dollar.
93
OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA.
"Why, what is that around your neck, Patrick?" I inquired.
"An' it's a char-rum, zur."
"A what?" I replied.
"A char-rum, zur."
"And what is that for?" I asked.
"To kape me from baing burrund and der-rownd, zur."
"And where did you get that?"
"An' shure, zur, didn't my mither buy it from the praste in Ireland, and give him two shillin' for it?"
"And that's a ' char-rum,' Patrick, 'to kape you from baing burrund and der rownd,' is it?"
"Yis, zur, an' it is, zur."
Just then it occurred to me to try the power of Patrick's "char-rum." Having the lamp in my right hand, I took one of Patrick's hands in my left, and then touched the lamp under that wrist. A sudden jerk released Patrick's hand from my hold. " Why, what's the matter, Pat?"
"An' ye burrund me, zur," he exclaimed.
"Burrund me?" I responded.
"Yis," he said.
"Why, Pat, I thought you had a 'char-rum' from the praste in Ireland to kape you from baing burrund and der-rownd?"
Poor Pat fixed a look of searching scrutiny on me, as much as to say: "Ah, you heretic minister, I would not go into your church this morning, but for all that you have burrund and bate me, praste and all! Have I been tricked and swindled in my relig- ion ? " The poor fellow was so disconcerted that he
0.
94
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
was about to forget his prayers even to the Virgin Mary. He was reminded that he ought always to offer his prayers to the good Lord, both on retiring at night and rising in the morning; that God would be his Father, the Lord Jesus his Savior, and the Holy Spirit his Sanctifier. And so he slept. The next day little Pat was safely lodged with a good farmer and went on with his work. By and by he was lost sight of; but after five or six years I was told a young man wanted to see me. As I was not very well he was sent up to my room.
"And good-morning, Mr. Morris.
"Good-morning, my young friend," I responded.
"And you don't seem to know me, sir?"
"No, my young friend, I do not remember you."
"And have you forgotten Patrick Larfey?"
"What! little Pat Larfey, the boy with the 'char- rum ? "
" Yes, sir, the very same."
" Well, well, Patrick, I am glad to see you. And where do you live nowadays, and what are you doing ? "
" Oh," he answered " down between this and Phil- adelphia ; and we don't believe in priests and charms any more at all, at all-not a bit of it. And I came to see you and thank you, and to tell you how we go to the Sabbath-school and the church, at the old Ab- ington Church, where Dr. Steel preaches. We read our Bible now and want to be Protestants."
You may be assured, children, I was very glad to see Patrick, for he was a good-looking young man, and gave good hopes of being of some account in
95
OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA.
the world. He had indeed been charmed into a bet- ter life, but it was not by Popery and its mummeries, but the Bible, and the Sabbath-school, and the Church of Christ. Kind Christian treatment had reached the hearts of these poor Irish people, and they had heart- ily responded to this gospel instruction. And so, dear children, people will often do the world over, if we only treat them in the spirit of love and faithful- ness. A number of such cases have fallen under my own observation. A young man out here in Indiana, and now a successful dentist in one of your towns, is another illustration. A few years after little Pat- rick came to my house, he also came for assistance. He had been converted to God among the Methodists, but his parents were bitter and intolerant Irish Ro- manists. They threatened to kill him, and his own mother drove him from home. But I took him and gave him a home, and sent him to school. By and by he became a colporteur for our Board of Publi- cation, and scattered many good books over the South before the war. Then some became afraid of him, and persecuted him, so that he escaped, and came North to me in Ohio. He was a soldier in the war that followed, and again revisited many of the old grounds and the people where he had before labored as a missionary. So the Lord took care of him, and he is to-day a sound Protestant and a useful man. Then in the Female College where I am, we have two French and German professors, able and successful men, who were Romans, and who were converted to the gospel in that Institution. The pictures they give of Roman tyranny and superstition are shocking
96
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
enough. But they are now good Presbyterians and stanch Protestants. Then, also, the late editor of our Oxford newspaper was an Irish Roman, and a stu- dent for the priesthood. He, too, was in the army, and became converted, and is now a teacher and a local preacher in the Methodist Church. And then, too, we have another case in our town. A young Brazilian student in the university was lately baptized, and joined our Church. The Emperor sent him to the United States to be educated, and he lately told me the first thing that struck him in this country was the teaching of the Bible and the religion of the peo- ple. He said the doctrines of the Bible were so dif- ferent from Romanism, and from the ignorance and superstition of his country. He said he and his father used to paint and prepare images of the Virgin Mary and the saints for the people to worship, and he saw, on reading the Bible, that this was nothing but idola- try. He soon became a thorough Protestant, and, while he is a remarkably intelligent young man, he is so gentle and so good. The love of Christ overflows in his heart. He will go back to his own land a great blessing, and will doubtless help on that great relig- ious reformation that is now moving over that vast Empire.
But, children, time would fail me to tell you of the wonderful things the Lord is doing where the people are faithful to their opportunities. See to it that you love the Lord Jesus, and do all you can to win souls for Christ. Love your Christian homes dearly. Love your Sabbath-school and your Church. You can never repay your diligent and faithful teachers and
97
OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA.
preachers. Respond joyfully to their messages of grace, and seek earnestly to become the children of God unto everlasting life.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.