USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Medway > Fiftieth anniversary of the organization of the Village Congregational Church, Medway, Mass., Friday, Sept. 7, 1888 > Part 3
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responsive to her wishes, and pleased that the society had assumed an obligation towards the support of his " Uncle David" (as he familiarly called our first pastor), and also provided liberally for his associate and successor, offered to give the society $5,000 (and his brother Edwards added $2,500), to establish a fund, the income of which should be used for the pastor's support, or if preferred would donate the same for a public or a town hall, to advance the welfare of his native place and to provide an income to the society, and the Dean Library Association, in the proportion indicated by other subscribers to the fund. Before the project was made public, at a town meeting an article was inserted in the warrant to see if the town would consider any proposition towards securing a hall in the village for town purposes, but the article was dismissed.
At the meeting just referred to this society accepted the offer of the Messrs. Sanford, and a committee consisting of M. M. Fisher and E. C. Wilson was chosen to secure sub- scriptions. Edward Eaton pledged $1,500, Captain Partridge $1,000, the firm of Harding & Bassett $1,000, and John A. Bullard $1,000. In all $15,815 was subscribed, and the hall erected at a cost, including land and removal of old buildings, of $23,000. The price paid for the land was exorbitant, but the location seemed the most desirable. The deficiency was made up later largely by the liberality of the largest donors, Mr. Sanford giving $4,200. The building was christened in honor of the family name of the principal donors, and dedi- cated with very appropriate and interesting exercises on the evening of December 31, 1872. The income from rents is a material aid to the society in meeting annual expenses. Although the meeting house was in harmony with church architecture at the time it was built, and had been kept in good condition, with the advent of a new pastor the desire to modernize the house was general, and in 1873 the committee arranged for radical changes, the people responding most heartily to the call for money, Mrs. Edena Sanford giving $2,000 and Mrs. John A. Bullard $1,000.
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VILLAGE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, MEDWAY, MASS.
The following entry on the society's records will give an idea of the work accomplished :
December 7, 1873.
Today services were held in the church for the first time since it has been remodeled.
The plan presented at the July meeting has been fully carried out at an expense of $6,000, which has been met by subscription. The floor of the vestry has been raised one foot, sufficient for ample ventilation beneath; it has been divided into two rooms of convenient size for the Sabbath- school and for social meetings, has been painted throughout, and the smaller room frescoed. Two new furnaces have been put in, the floor of the church has been raised two feet, the pews have been re-arranged, newly cushioned, and the floor throughout carpeted. An addition has been put on the north end of sufficient size to accommodate the choir and the organ, which has been newly cased and improved. A new pulpit, table and chairs have also been furnished. The alterations have been made in accordance with plans furnished by Mr. Silloway, of Boston, and the work done under the superintendence of Capt. Jesse K. Snow, of Medway.
In mentioning the last work of Mr. Sanford under the care and constant superintendence of our present pastor, I transcribe literally from the records of the society of March 28 and April 27, 1881: "On motion of M. M. Fisher the following resolution was unanimously adopted : Voted, that the thanks of this society be presented to our pastor, Rev. R. K. Harlow, for his very acceptable and gratuitous service in planning and superintending the improvement of the grounds around the church, which has been accomplished with such rare skill and judgment as fully to meet the convenience and gratify the taste of the society and of others personally interested in the work."
"On motion of A. S. Harding the following resolution was also unanimously adopted : Voted, that the successful plan and completion of the improvements upon the church grounds, and the extension of the village water works for
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their irrigation, and the better protection of the church edifice and property in the vicinity, again remind us of the great liberality of our common benefactor, Milton H. Sanford, Esq., to whom the society, and others present, extend a cordial vote of thanks, and request that a copy of the record be forwarded to him by the clerk."
The cost of these improvements, and their care, to the present time amounts to the sum of $3,700. At this time Mr. Sanford gave $500, that was expended under the direction of Mr. Harlow in improvements in front of the Catholic church.
In making these exterior improvements upon the grounds, the division line was again modified between the society land and the estate of Captain Partridge, by mutual and harmonious agreement, advantageous to both parties.
We have now traced the society from its organization through the more important changes upon its grounds and church edifice, and aid received by individuals and by general subscription.
It remains to mention several specific benefactions made wholly by individual members of the society, or others.
In 1849 Deacon Samuel Allen presented a clock, which kept time for the minister, directly in front of, and attached to, the south gallery.
In 1850 Nathaniel Clark gave a pulpit, which was used for years in the vestry.
In same year Pardon D. Tiffarny of St. Louis, a native of the village, presented the clock now in the tower of the church.
Mrs. John W. Richardson presented the society with the marble clock on the right of the platform, in memory of her father, Elias Metcalf, formerly an efficient member of the society.
Mrs. John Cole, Mrs. Clark Partridge, and Mrs. Edward Eaton gave the platform chairs.
Mrs. E. J. Le Favor gave the flower stand and rug for the pulpit, and has recently supplied the pews with new
.
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hymn books and copies of the psalms at a cost of $115, and although absent has shown her interest in this occasion by sending her check for $100, to help defray the expenses.
The carpet in the porch was recently given by Messrs. Harlan P. and E. I. Sanford.
The pulpit and the communion table were given by sixty-two ladies, whose names are all inscribed within the table drawer. The money, $103, was obtained by Miss Eliza Fisher, now 86 years old, and who gives and makes the coffee for this occasion, as she has made for the church gatherings for many years. She, with Mrs. S. B. Metcalf, only one year her junior, has had for a long term personal charge of the annual church cleaning.
The outside lamps were the gift of Mr. Chas. F. Daniels.
The frescoing in the chapel was wholly paid for by Hon. Clark Partridge.
The inside shutters were given by Mrs. S. B. Metcalf, and hung gratuitously by Captain Snow.
Mr. Edward Eaton, by will, gave the society $6,000, the income to be used for support of worship.
The last gift to the society is this day made by Deacon Milton M. Fisher, a deed of the Oakland Cemetery consisting of ten acres, more or less, with the improvements on the same.
The thanks of this society are also due to many indi- viduals, who in time of need have contributed heartily and liberally, in time and labor, for its welfare. Subscriptions, singing, festivals, decorations, and even semi-centennials are not successfully carried through without hard work. Let us be generous in thanks, and sparing in criticism toward the workers.
And now can we not say, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us" ? Let us take up the work before us with new courage, and make this church and society a power for good among us, remembering that " Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people."
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WORDS OF SALUTATION.
From the Grandmother Church, the Church of Christ in Millis, by the pastor, Rev. E. O. Jameson.
THE grandmother church, now in her one hundred and seventy-fourth year, salutes with love, congratulation, and joy, her grand-daughter, on this her jubilee anniversary, and con- gratulates this church on reaching its fiftieth birthday.
She is glad to greet her, on the summit of her success, and rejoice with her, in view of an honorable history, a pres- ent prosperity, and a hopeful future. A little one has become a thousand, and a small one a strong church.
Your grandmother was represented on your natal day, fifty years ago, by her then pastor, the Rev. Sewall Harding, now sainted. She welcomed you to life, and to the love and fellowship of sister churches. She watched by this church in its cradle and early childhood, grew proud of its growth, and rejoiced in its increasing prosperity ; and today is about as happy an old lady as could well be, in being the grandmother of such a united, useful, and promising church. She recog- nizes that this church is a chip of the old block, and like her grandparent in her faith, her piety, her harmony, and the tenacity of affection with which she retains her ministers.
Your grandmother lived with one of her pastors seventy- one years, and after her example you have lived with one pastor, faithful and beloved but now lamented, through a period of thirty-three years, and are living on with your pres- ent minister for how long we cannot tell. It may be that his pastorate will be longer than this of our honored brother here today, the Rev. Dr. Dowse, whose pastorate soon reaches its fiftieth anniversary ; and we fondly hope that it may exceed in length that of Father Bucknam himself. It is something
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to be the grandmother of such a church as this! And some- how it comes to me that, if my church is your grandmother, then is not her pastor, now speaking, the grandfather of this dear man, your minister, and am I not proud of my grandson,, today, whose pastorate over this church so reflects his praises on this anniversary, for fidelity and loving service ?
I congratulate this church as, with one of old, " I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which first dwelt in thy grandmother, and in thy mother, and I am per- suaded still abides in thee also."
Your grandmother has set you the example of " fidelity to the old and hospitality toward the new " in Christian think- ing, and you are showing yourself a faithful grand-daughter.
There is no time to enter into particulars at this stage of these proceedings. You see these dear brethren in the min- istry, and others, stand waiting with their good things to say. But I will simply suggest what a mighty power for good this church and its services have been in this village during these fifty years! What a record of blessing has she made! How many has she directed along the narrow way and helped into heaven !
But mighty as has been her work within these limits of her own parish, and great as is her influence here today, she has sent out Christian men and Christian women into the world, and none can tell how potential for good she is also in other places where her faithful representatives have lived and died, or are still the active witnesses for Christ.
With a tender and loving interest your grandmother con- gratulates her grand-daughter today, and on this mountain top of gladness expresses her best wishes for your continued peace, increase, and prosperity in the days to come.
From the Mother Church, Second Church, West Medway, by the pastor, Rev. Augustus H. Fuller.
BROTHER HARLOW, AND BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF THE VILLAGE CHURCH : I feel older today than ever before, indeed
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quite venerable. For some days I have been endeavoring to determine my relation to this fair church which, in the glory of these autumnal robes, now celebrates her fiftieth birthday. I thus reckon : If you are the daughter of the church to which I am espoused, then, though you are older than I- I must be your step-father. So, with all the gravity I can summon, I say we bring our sincere tribute of hearty congratulations to our fair daughter, on this her semi-centen- nial birthday.
As my residence in town has been comparatively brief, I can say but little from experience regarding the past. My venerated predecessor, in his semi-centennial sermon, in referring to the young church, said that to it, the old church sustained a peculiar relation. In the first place, it was prin- cipally composed of church members from the old church and those who had worshiped with them, and in the second place, your first pastor was grandson and namesake of an honored pastor of the old church.
He also expressed his desire for the success of the new church, though missing their presence. I trust this spirit prevails today - the desire for your success and a hearty Godspeed; and may this ever continue. With a mother's pride we view our fair daughter in her fair deckings on this bright September day.
I bring the mother's congratulations on your material prosperity. We behold your beautiful sanctuary, and all these lovely surroundings ; we have listened to your history, so interesting and prosperous. Surely God has greatly blessed you thus.
The mother congratulates you on your numerical pros- perity. Through these fifty years the Lord has been build- ing you up in numbers, as year by year you have received additions by ones, and twos, and tens, and scores - as was the case last year - until you are now one of our strong churches.
But more gladly than all, I bring the mother's congratu- lations on your spiritual prosperity. Through all these years the old gospel has been preached in its purity and power, and
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here hundreds have learned to know the Saviour, many of whom are now on the other side. You are a light in this place whose beams, diffused far and wide, have gladdened many hearts, and whose strong influence has given an uplift to the whole community and been felt beyond your immediate bounds.
And now, may your future be even brighter than the past. The mother would adopt the words of the Apostle John in his old age, to the church of his tender love and care, " I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth."
May the Lord bless thee and keep thee; the Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
From the Sister Churches of Mendon Conference, by Rev. Jacob Ide, of Mansfield.
AFTER the blessing of the grandmother church has been given, and the benediction of the mother church has been pro- nounced, the loving sister churches of the Mendon Conference eagerly desire to send in to their Medway relative their hearty salutations on this jubilant occasion ; and I have been made a kind of electrical battery, with the understanding that I should take the two ends of the golden chain of Christian fellowship, reaching from Mansfield to Milford, and complet- ing the circuit here, send foward, in one thrilling, concen- trated current, their united greetings and congratulation ; and as I make the connection, by giving you this grasp of the right hand, Brother Harlow, I seem to hear echoing through all the air the benediction of the ancient time: "The Lord bless thee and keep thee; the Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up His coun- tenance upon thee, and give thee peace." Many of the sister churches can speak of a similar experience with yours today, having held, some of them, their semi-centennial, centennial,
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and sesqui-centennial anniversaries, and, with eyes undimmed and strength unabated, are thinking of the style in which they shall make up their bi-centennial robes. Some of them recall with tender interest the time when this our Med- way sister began her religious life, and their pleasure on this occasion far exceeds that of the former time. For as it is more agreeable to welcome back a noble ship from a prosperous voyage, than to cheer her when she is first launched upon the bosom of the deep; as it is far better to pluck the ripe clusters of grapes from the matured vine than to assist at its planting - so today the witness of our sister's prosperous ma- turity is more inspiring than was even the bright promise of her youth. We congratulate her, not simply upon the fact that she has reached the age of fifty years, but also upon the fact that her life thus far has been one of vigorous growth and Christian efficiency. We rejoice with her that it has been her privilege to do so much in building up God's king- dom in this world, and in preparing so many hearts for entrance into the kingdom of glory. We earnestly desire and expect that, grandly equipped and inspired by the successes of the past, she may fill out another half-century with evi- dences of still greater progress and success. We congratu- late her upon the fact, that she has shown the uncommon common sense of selecting good ministers, and then binding them, by affectionate manifestations and hearty cooperation, to her heart. It is well worthy of commemoration here that for fifty years our Medway sister has not allowed any divorce of ministers and people. May the future ever witness the same sacred regard for inseparable connections.
And now, Brother Harlow, pardon me if, yielding to the feelings which overcome me at the remembrance of past asso- ciation, and the sight of the portrait of your beloved predeces- sor, I refer for a moment to that which I believe is now taking place in heaven. I cannot keep back the expression of the opinion that my dear father and dear Brother Sanford, with clasped hands, as ours are now, are looking down with united and sympathetic joy at the sacred festivities of this
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VILLAGE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, MEDWAY, MASS.
occasion, and that they both of them are responding with earnestness to this my prayer, "God bless this dear church in all its future as He has been pleased to bless it in the past."
The Pastor said that he would next call upon one of the sons of the church to represent her children, and introduced
GILBERT O. FAY, PH.D.,
Professor in the American Asylum, Hartford, Conn. Dr. Fay spoke as follows :
IT has been noticed today as a coincidence that this semi-centennial is occurring upon Friday, as did also the origi- nal September 7, fifty years ago. America was discovered upon Friday ; the sufferings and death of our Lord completed human salvation upon Friday; the human race began its career upon Friday; the association of Friday with the his- tory of this church is certainly felicitous.
Last night, as I listened upon my pillow to the measured strokes of your bell- one, two, three, up to eleven - I realized again, as I often do, that no church bell anywhere sounds so sweetly. Fifty years ago, June 13, my childish hands pulled at the rope generously long - or thought they did -that lifted it to its place. Its tones along the years ring all through my recollections of boyhood and youth; and when my remains, upon their last home journey, shall reach your cemetery, yours first today by gift, those tolling tones, if such shall be your custom then, will be my sweetest requiem.
We have listened today to a service of song, appropriate, controlling, perfect; but there has floated to me louder yet, from yonder gallery, the music of fifty, of forty years ago. The big bass viol of Captain Daniels, the violins of his sons, an occasional flute, that bassoon of Cowell Fisher, have sounded clear and high above all floods of organ tone.
Words of eloquent memorial have enchained our atten- tion. They have also released to my hearing other words spoken long ago from another, a loftier pulpit. Those por-
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trayed lips of him, so tireless, so forgiving, so affectionate, open again in fervid prayer and earnest exhortation. I listen again to Father Fisk of Wrentham, ever in haste about his Master's business, to the deliberate Long of Milford, to Dr. Ide, a true bishop of God's own appointing, to the invalid Southworth of Franklin, lingering this side the heavenly gates, to the whole-souled Dowse, today the semi-centenarian of Sherborn, to Sewall Harding of East Medway, clear and impassioned, to the gentle Ropes, to the original Woodbury, to the scholarly Means, to the cultured Tucker, to the sprightly Walker, to the solemn Simmons, and to the faithful Dwight; and we young folks were familiar at the school- house with the stature and the precise enunciation of Luther Bailey, of East Medway. One by one appear again the representatives of the various benevolent societies of that day, the stately Anderson and the eloquent Pomeroy, the earnest Emerson and the entertaining Butler, the intellectual Tarbox and the stirring Bartlett, the dignified Clark and the incomparable Bullard; and of a summer evening there stand again, upon the platform below, the young man Gough, the missionary Hoisington, and students fresh from seminary or college - he of Mansfield, he of Longmeadow, he of Walpole (long sainted), he who has long slept upon the banks of the Tigris, and others, our week-day teachers.
I stand again upon the pew cushion and nestle up to Com- fort Walker and rub my soft cheek upon his age-hardened face. What matters it to me that eleven of the church pews are his? It is enough to know that he loves his fatherless grandchild and the worship of God. At noontime I sit in the Sabbath-school class of Stephen J. Metcalf - I hope he is here today to forgive me for the inattention of those days - or I gather with a score of others into the front seats in juve- nile chorus, and attempt the alto of " There is a happy land." Where are those boys and girls today? Many of the boys marched away in 1861. Too many of their names, alas, con- secrate the Soldiers' Circle in yonder cemetery !
There were mothers in those days. Here are the origi-
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nal records of the Maternal Association, organized Dec. 19, 1838, and continued for twenty-three years until 1861, when it was merged into the female prayer meeting. They are in the handwriting of my mother, the secretary. There was a woman's ticket at that day, and the first president, continuing until her death, was the wife of our pastor, at whose house the first meeting was held.
And here is the primer studied by the children at that time. It is in three parts - doctrinal, historical, and the West- minsters Shorter Catechism. The square cuts of the histori- cal part, two to the page, were calculated to astonish as well as to interest. The whole book is not as large as one of the elegant quarterlies studied now. It had to serve for many years, and needed several covers. But it was drilled in by my mother, and by other teachers, in careful compliance with the recommendation upon the first page, that " teachers exert themselves to make learners repeat the answers distinctly, deliberately, understandingly, solemnly, and in all respects properly." Every line is vividly recollected by the speaker, and I question whether sounder theology or more useful biblical knowledge is taught today, and whether our modern methods of instruction are really better.
And here is a card certifying that I became a member of the Medway Village Sabbath-School Temperance Society, February 7, 1841, and signed by George Fisher, President, and by Orion A. Mason, Secretary. So soon after the pay- ment of the bill, described an hour ago as due to Collins Hathorn for wine and other liquors used at the raising of this edifice, do we have an organized effort to nourish in the hearts of the village youth sound principles of total absti- nence. I have other certificates in my possession, some of parchment, obtained after years of exertion and the expendi- ture of thousands of dollars, but upon none do I set a higher value.
I find myself attending again the Wednesday evening prayer meeting, held for several years in the old school-house, and later in the vestry. We sing St. Martin's or Hamburg
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with Deacon Allen, Duke Street or Golden Hill with Deacon Fisher, and Balerma with Dr. Monroe. We unite with Brother Adams in a prayer most humble and devout, or in confession sit down with Brother White " by the cold streams of Babylon." Besides the leading words of our pastor, we attend to the fervent exhortations of Rev. Caleb Kimball, of Captain Cole, of Deacon Fisher, and of Brother Shaw. Orion Mason is always present and always silent. Long settees are filled with women, but their voices are heard only in song. Nor can I omit the Sabbath evening concerts for prayer, notably the anti-slavery one, held in the upper hall of the old school-house. Deacon Fisher leads it, and reads to us burning extracts from the National Era, or introduces to us some traveling negro fugitive, with his horrible tale of wrong and outrage.
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