USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Danvers > Exercises in celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the First Church, Congregational, Danvers, Massachusetts: October 8th to 15th, 1922; with an address at the centennial of the Sunday School, November 17th, 1918 > Part 6
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It would be impossible for a company of God's servants situated as we are not to turn their thoughts habitually, with reverence and appreciation, to the past. Its memorials are on every hand. Here is the Upton Tavern where, in the olden time, the people rested in the noon hour, with the hall
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on the upper floor in which Parson Wadsworth moved the congregation in prayer after the burning of the meeting- house. Here are the sycamores, twin sentinels, that for over a century have guarded the doorway of the parsonage. Here is the giant elm, set out by Dr. Braman in the parsonage yard, which Deacon William R. Putnam bound together with iron rods wlien the shafts rising from the great trunk were strained apart by their enormous weight. Here, too, the little maple slip which Dr. Rice brought from his father's farm in Conway, now grown into a stately tree.
Here are the old homes in which the fathers dwelt, many of them still occupied by families which have come down from the beginning of our life as a community. We count ourselves happy that to such unusual degree the old names are still preserved among us.
We cherish the memory of individual men and women who "cheerful have walked, with growing strength," serving the community and the church. The inspirations of the past come to us rich and sweet through tradition of persons who before us have lived and labored and prayed. We rejoice in the love by which the church has been upheld and forwarded. The characteristic thought of the people through the years finds expression in the lines under one of our memorial win- dows-"Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honor dwelleth."
A favorite hymn of the olden time was
"How pleasant, how divinely fair, O Lord of Hosts, thy dwellings are! With long desire my spirit faints To meet the assemblies of thy saints.
We are blest and uplifted by recognition of this rich and sacrificial love.
But we do not confine our thought to the days gone by. A church is a community of memory and hope. We have the memory, choice and sweet and strengthening. We also have the hope growing out of that memory, warranted by the recollection of all that has here been wrought. We have hope for this church of the fathers, that its future may be even greater than its past. May the Lord bless it and keep it! We have hope for this people around us. May we so minister
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as to inspire them with the spirit of the living God and of our Savior Jesus Christ! We have hope for the spread of the divine rule till all the kingdoms of this world shall be the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.
We cherish the highest hope and deepest faith in the "land that is very far off, a place of broad rivers and streams." We are not ashamed of the chord that thrills responsive in our hearts to the old, old song :
"Jerusalem, the glorious! the glory of the elect !
O dear and future vision that eager hearts expect !"
We look with confidence and joy to the consummation of all our hopes and the meaning of our life in the morning land.
A church with such a past, such a present and such a hope for the future, is fitted to serve mankind in this day and generation.
THE THIRD MEETING HOUSE, 1786 - 1806
THE FOURTH, " BRICK," MEETING HOUSE, 1806 - 1839
FELLOWSHIP MEETING
The Fellowship Meeting at 7.30 taxed the capacity of the auditorium, many of the churches of the neighborhood giving up their services that their people might attend. There were addresses and cordial greetings by representatives of the First Church of Salem, the "mother church"; the South Church of Peabody, a "sister church," known as the South Church of Danvers before the setting off of the Peabody portion of the town, and organized only a few years later than our own; the Middleton Church, a "daughter" of the First; Maple Street Church, Danvers, also a daughter; the other Protes- tant churches of Danvers and other neighbors.
The exercises were carried out as indicated on the pro- gram excepting that the devotions were conducted by Rev. Watson M. Ayres, pastor emeritus of the Danvers Methodist Church, Rev. James Richmond, a son of the First Church, who had been designated for that service, finding it impossible to be present; and that Rev. John A. Hayes, of Danvers Com- munity Church, did not appear, being unavoidably out of town.
Rev. L. C. Greeley of Marblehead, who presided, spent a large part of his boyhood and young manhood in Danvers and was for years a member of the First Church. His ad- dress follows :
REV. LESLIE CAMPBELL GREELEY
There are two reasons especially why I am glad to par- ticipate in this gathering. One is perhaps rather selfish and personal for myself and the other relates to the purpose of our service, which is a fellowship meeting. When your pastor in- vited me to share in the service tonight as a "friend of the church," I was proud of the fact that ever I had any share in its life and activities.
My memory goes back to the days of Dr. Rice, then of Dr. Geer and of Mr. Adams. It was during the early portion of Mr. Adams's ministry that I graduated from the theolog- ical seminary and took a church of my own, and thus my immediate connection with this organization ended, but my interest in it has never ceased.
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The second reason why I am glad to participate in this meeting is because it is described as a "Fellowship gather- ing." This afternoon you have listened to a scholarly and eloquent address on the history of this ancient church. But tonight our theme is "Fellowship." A hundred years ago the word was not so familiar as it is today. We sing with a new meaning, I think, that old hymn, "Like a mighty army moves the church of God."
We have represented here tonight different types of Chris- tian service exemplified by these neighboring churches which bring to this gathering their cordial greetings and expres- sions of good-will. When I looked over the Salem News last evening, and read the rather lengthy program in detail I must confess I was somewhat appalled ! We wonder just when we will get through! Therefore, as there are many speakers, let us remember that the soul of this service is brevity. We will wish to have strength left-and appetite- not only for the banquet but for all the splendid things which are promised us throughout the week.
Our first speaker is a representative of the mother church, parent of this organization, the old First Church of Salem.
MR. C. A. WHIPPLE, of Salem
Mr. C. A. Whipple, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the First Church of Salem, the "mother church," entered sympathetically into the early history of our church, display- ing familiarity with the stormy story of its beginnings. He gave congratulations on the completion of two hundred and fifty years of service and God-speed to the church as it con- fronted the future.
REV. WALTER G. THOMAS Pastor of Baptist Church in Danvers
Pastor and Friends:
I am afraid I did not just exactly catch the meaning of this service at the time when I was trying to find something to say. I never knew before that this was to be what the presiding officer just spoke of. He said that the soul of
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this service is brevity. What he means is that wit must be the soul of brevity.
I am here to bring the greetings and congratulations of the Baptist Church to this mother church indeed.
In this field among the churches there is a feeling that is very much older than any one alive tonight. It is an old, old thing and I tell you in whose hearts it was, in the hearts of all of those that have the spirit that was manifested and shown by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is true that in the history of the church there are some things that we would perhaps recall; there are some things in the history of this church that we would be glad to blot out, and yet we would want to know one thing concerning the witchcraft in those days. It was not that there was any unkindness in the hearts of those dear old people whose graves we are to visit some day. Those people were honest. They went be- yond all that the other people or other places went, but that was because they were in Danvers and when Danvers does a thing it does it thoroughly.
Friends of this church, you have had great laymen, but I don't believe, somehow, much as I read the history of those men and ministers of the past, I don't believe there has ever been a day in the history of this church when it was better organized, when it had a better and stronger minister, and today you are to be congratulated by every church in Danvers.
I heartily congratulate you. God bless you, Brother House.
REV. JONATHAN CARTMILL Pastor M. E. Church in Danvers
Members of the First Church and Friends:
I bring to you our sincere congratulations from the Meth- odist Episcopal Church.
I have been amazed and lost and awed at the splendid his- torical address that was given by your pastor this afternoon. The great mass of history that went down in my mind was remembering all the people as they came and were here in Colonial times and again when this country began the Rev- olution. What a difficult time this church went through! But it straightened out strong, and today my mind runs
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over the business men who are connected with this church, fine, splendid, clean-cut, Christian men who are doing busi- ness in Danvers. This church lives today and is doing a worthy work and I am very glad to bring from our church our greetings to you in this 250th anniversary.
This is a great day in which we live. It is marvelous to stop and think of the possibilities afforded us all. The min- ister while in the olden days was looked up to as a great man, and so he was, yet today, he rolls his sleeves up and goes after business for the church. He does not care whether the people lift their hats off to him any longer.
I am glad to participate in this friendship meeting this evening and I want to bring to you not only the congratula- tions from our Methodist Church, but I want to bid you God-speed in the next fifty years, and I believe that in the next fifty years that are before us you are going to see greater work done in this community through the church. Once again, our hearts are with you.
I have a feeling of friendship tonight for this old church and its splendid history. I feel, somehow, that this is noth- ing other than the Gate to Heaven. May God bless you, every one.
REV. NATHAN MATTHEWS Rector of Calvary Episcopal Church, Danvers.
Two hundred and fifty years ago an old-fashioned Con- gregational Meeting-House was erected on this spot, and I am sure that you are reaping the fruits of that past. I am sure you are proud of it, and you have every reason to be, proud of the leaders this church has brought to this town, and more proud of those leaders who have been trained here and sent out into God's great vineyard.
I have known only one of your ministers, that is the present one, Mr. House, and have ever found him a man.
The church is a builder, and it takes time and the work of our hands and hearts with the aid of God's Holy Spirit to lay a good foundation and to build thereon, so do not be alarmed at your age. Wise builders build slowly.
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I bring to you the congratulations of Calvary Episcopal Church and its very best wishes for your future.
MR. LEON E. GRUBAUGH
Acting Pastor Maple Street Congregational Church, Danvers
It is indeed an honor for me to represent one of the daugh- ters of this historic Church of Christ at this your 250th anniversary of Christian service. We are, indeed, glad to share in your rejoicing at the successful completion of two and a half centuries of preaching, teaching, healing and serv- ing, in the love of the Master and the building of His King- dom. We congratulate you on the great work of your past, on the part you have taken in the development and advance of the great Church Universal.
Jesus Christ came into the world over two thousand years ago, revealing to men the loving Fatherhood of God and chal- lenging them to realize the Brotherhood of Man. The Church that was founded on the spiritual rock of Jesus Christ has grown and expanded like the leaven of Jesus' parable until the whole world bids fair to be leavened with the Gospel of love. We have here on this platform tonight representatives of different branches of the Church whose work has been car- ried to the uttermost corners of the earth. Your Church is a member of this great spiritual family. Yours has been a share in giving the priceless heritage of the Gospel to the present generation. Noble has been your service, steadfast your faith, and invaluable the contribution you have renederd.
I happen to have had the misfortune of being born a Methodist ; but that does not hinder my appreciation of the Congregationalists and what you have done for the cause of Christ. We admire your spirit of democracy, that spirit which is affecting the whole world. Your spirit of fraternity and un-denominationalism is spreading from the Atlantic Ocean to the Golden Gate. Coming from the Mid-Western part of our country, I know the reverence with which the memory of your Pilgrim Forefathers is held throughout the length and breadth of our land. The very mention of New England stirs a warmth in the breast of the western Amer- ican and his mind is turned to the religion of our fathers which has been preserved and enriched by you. "Faith of
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our Fathers, Holy Faith; We will be true to thee till death."
But we congratulate you not only because of your glorious past but because of your undying faith and unlimited future. The very fact of this anniversary proves your loyalty to the great cause for which your fathers have given their lives. Your longing gaze is not backward but forward, as you press on toward the goal, "to secure the prize of God's heavenward call in Christ Jesus." Yours is the greatest cause the world has ever known. Christ Jesus is your Captain. He beckons you forward. He is not back there in Galilee. See! He is yonder ahead, calling-"Follow thou me!" The world is hungry tonight, hungry for bread, hungry for the bread of Christ, hungry for peace, hungry for righteousness, hungry for love. Lovest thou Christ? He, the Master commands thee-"Feed my sheep! Feed my lambs !" A glorious past is your heritage. A solid rock is your foundation. But your goal lies yonder ahead. It is yours to aid in the building of God's Kingdom, which is yet to be realized. The golden age is yet to come. The Christian Church has the only food and drink that will satisfy the hunger and quench the thirst of this hungry, thirsty, war-torn, sin-sick, weary world. That is the Gospel of Christ. It is the glorious possession of the Church. It is yours ; it is mine; our precious gift from God. It is ours to carry to the ends of the earth, until the king- doms of the world shall become the Kingdom of our Lord, and His prayer may be answered "that all may be one." May God bless you in your mission !
REV. H. A. G. ABBE Pastor Congregational Church, Middleton
I am very glad indeed to bring tonight the greetings and congratulations of the church of Middleton, which is a daugh- ter of this church. This church is 250 years old; ours is over 190, and the oldest daughter of this church.
We have a friend visiting us who is a direct descendant of Elizabeth Putnam, who was one of those condemned as a witch during the witchcraft period. There are many others of Elizabeth's surname in this section, who may also be her descendants. But it is no disgrace today to any of them
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that their ancestress was regarded as a witch. In fact, it is a mark of the sterling character of the Puritan Fathers that they so quickly recovered from the delusion. Our town was heir to those who possessed such sterling qualities, as was yours. And as our town borders on this, the people of our town we can imagine taking their long Sabbath journey in the old days over here to this mother church. Finally, Middleton was set apart from old Salem, and our church was organized as a separate body.
And so I come to bring the congratulations from this old daughter church to yours. Our church cannot be like yours, but the same Christ broods over us all; we can at least have the same Christ, the same gospel. Some of our daughters admire their mothers so much that they delight to be like them. As a daughter church, I may say I wish we may in the years to come more resemble the mother church.
REV. JOHN REID Pastor South Congregational Church, Peabody
The South Church of Peabody is situated in the Square, at the very center of the life of the city but rather north and east of the geographical center. Some people who have no historical background may well wonder why it should be called "South" when its location so emphatically belies its name. But we cherish the name with such affection that there would be serious resistance to any attempt to take it away. We cannot forget the former days and by our name we commemorate the time when Peabody and Danvers were one town and the South Church was in fact the South Church of that one town. Town lines have divided us but cannot take from us the old relationships.
Moreover, we must not forget that our two churches are daughters of one mother, the original First Church of Salem, which has the distinction of being the first church to be organized in New England. The older church at Plymouth was organized in Holland before the Pilgrims set sail for their new home. Our two churches, then, are sisters, a relationship which means much to us.
As I sat here tonight and listened to the various addresses,
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my mind went back over the centuries and I tried to imagine the members of this church in the earlier days. How I wish that by some magic we could bring them back to this occasion and this very room to listen to the story of the past. Their advent might be somewhat startling to us, but I venture to think that we, too, might have some surprises for them. How they would open their eyes and stare at the things all about us which have become commonplaces to us but which were all unknown in their day. How they would marvel at the light which so brilliantly floods this room ! They would have been ruined financially if, with candles, they had tried to produce an equal degree of illumination. Even if they had been spendthrifts enough to try they would hardly have succeeded.
It is difficult for me to believe as I look about that you are 250 years old. Most things that are as old as this show marks of age. You do not look the part. No signs of such venerable age appear in your faces or on the walls of this building or in anything connected with your church life. Yet here you are celebrating a two hundred and fiftieth anni- versary. Your old records will prove it to me and how in- teresting they must be. I frankly confess to a love of old things and I would heartily enjoy reading your old records. I love the stories of the fathers, of their hardihood, loyalty and faith. But I love also new things, and I like to realize that we are living in a brand-new day-and what a new day this is, with all the wonders of modern science and invention. It does not seem to me out of keeping with your historic past that there is a newness about your church building. I am not interested for very long in a museum of antiquities. I like to see how the old loses itself in the new-
"The old order changeth, yielding place to new, And God fulfills himself in many ways,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world."
Just think of the possibilities which this new age brings to us. Life has become infinitely more varied and rich than that of the fathers. We would not live in their day if we could. We turn back to the old days on such an occasion as this to recall the heroism and devotion of those who have gone before us. We would not be disloyal to the past or
REV. MILTON P. BRAMAN, D.D. Pastor 1826 - 1861
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ungrateful in our appreciation of the fathers. What a background they have created for our life in this day and generation ! But far beyond their vision or dream, how marvelous are the possibilities of earnest efforts in these days ! For example, there is an ancient injunction of Scripture- "To do good and communicate, forget not." They had but clumsy and laggard ways of communicating in the old days compared with those we possess. An orator might train his voice to great capacity so that, roaring like a fog horn, he might be heard in a great amphitheatre to its farthest benches. But today he can speak quietly into a telephone receiver and have his voice broadcasted not merely to the audience before which he stands but far away to numberless cities and towns and even to the lonely farmhouses of the distant countryside. The time is not far distant, in fact, when a president of the United States delivering his in- augural address at Washington in an ordinary tone of voice will be heard not only by every person in the vast concourse before him, but by all who will listen in their own homes in every city and town and village of the entire country.
Wireless broadcasting is only one of many ways in which the power of communication has been enormously developed in our day. It is more possible to communicate our good and to multiply the communication than it ever was in any past history of the church. When we do good we can com- municate it as the apostles never could do, as Paul never could do. We can go beyond them all because of the power which this new age has placed in our hands. This is but one illustration of the way in which old truth becomes marvelously new in the vigor and freshness of the new day. "Old things are passed away; behold, they are become new."
On this, your anniversary, I bring you the greetings and congratulations of your younger sister, the South Church of Peabody. The glowing new future is beckoning to your old church. I rejoice that yours is an old church that remains new. An old church should not become helpless and feeble as it gets older. An old church need not die of old age. An old church is an institution which should grow younger with the years, more vigorous because of the very strength which its cherished past adds to its life. An old church should
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renew its youth in the great opportunities of this wonderful new day. In bringing you the greetings and congratulations of our church I bid you God-speed in the future of the new day we are facing !
MR. N. H. SCOTT
Acting Pastor Congregational Church, West Peabody
Members of the First Church, and friends of the First Church, and all of you-in fact, that does include all of you :
I am indeed proud of the fact that we have a Congrega- tional Church two and a half centuries old, and as I stand before you, I feel that I should begin my greetings as the evening was begun, with a proverb-in this case: "Little children should be seen and not heard."
I say this because I represent a comparatively young church speaking to a church that had passed through more than two centuries of history before we came into existence. On looking over the records of our church, the West Congrega- tional, of West Peabody, I found that we were established only thirty-nine years ago.
I know that I cannot say anything which would be of help to a church far the senior of mine in number of years and diversity of experience. However, the end is not yet: the age, the world, the possibilities are yet with us. Whatever the age of the church, the opportunities are still in their infancy. The world needs us. The world needs the work and the activity and the enthusiasm of the young churches and the old alike. The world needs us all : the young church, that shall do in the years to come as this one which has passed through 250 years of service has done and is going to do. The young churches need the steadying influence and noble examples of the older churches who have passed through grave crises and risen victorious from the strife.
We are all one in design, in hope, and in Christian faith, no matter what our age. What the future may hold we cannot say, we only know that in the strength of our great Master we will do our best as long as there is need of and room for us.
I rejoice in being able to bring to you words of congratula-
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tion from the West Church. Our section of Peabody was once a part of Danvers, which fact accounts for my presence here today, but that was before we as a church existed. Civil adjustments have separated us, but in spirit we are becoming more closely united as time goes on in the Universal Church of Christ. There our unity must ever remain.
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