USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > Jubilee of the South Congregational Church : November the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth and sixteenth, nineteen hundred > Part 2
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sure from the first day I went into your pulpit as your minister." Dr. Todd himself was an imperial man, both in his personality and his gifts. He flung off inspiration and compulsion in every direction as the sun in his revolving flings off heat and light and swings the stars around him.
But a horror of darkness was creeping over the bright light of those days as the moon's shadow creeps over the sun and darkens him at noonday. The Mexican war and the questions arising out of it made the volcano of slavery rumble as if the Devil him- self with his trident had gone down into the crater and madden- ed the fires. In January, 1850, Clay introduced his "Omnibus Bill." The nub of it was that in return for free California the North should give the fugitive slave law. The debate which fol- lowed was one of the most exciting and dramatic in our history. Clay, a feeble old man of 73, racked by a cough, so weak that he had to lean on the arm of a companion as he mounted the steps of the capitol, stood again in the Senate Chamber to plead for compromise and union. As he rose to speak all feebleness feli from him, like the folds of the cloak which he flung from his shoulders. The fire of youth kindled again in his eyes, and his voice rang with the moving eloquence of his best years. When he had finished, women kissed his cheeks. Calhoun, swathed in flannels, already marked for death, listened to the reading of his speech by Senator Mason. The speech was virtually a demand for unconditional surrender to slavery on penalty of secession. Then came the 7th of March and Webster, giving his voice for the compromise. The effect in New England was as if the arch- angel Michael, captain of the hosts of God, had knocked at the gates of hell and offered his sword of renown to the Prince of Darkness. In the same debate Seward spoke of a higher law than the constitution. The fugitive slave law which already had received the approval of the Senate passed the House Sep-
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tember 12th, 1850. Indignation meetings were held through- out the North. Charles Sumner addressed a notable assembly in Faneuil Hall, November 6th, less than a week before the or- ganization of this church, and yet Dr. Hopkins' sermon at the dedication reads as if tranquil peace brooded over the country, and not a breath of danger fidgeted in the fringe of the smallest feather of the eagle's wings. One of the poems read at the Berkshire jubilee in 1844 contained a rather savage stanza against the South and slavery. A note in the printed volume says "This stanza was omitted in the reading, as it was thought not to be in strict harmony with the occasion." Sober men in those days put their hands upon their mouths until they might know what to say, not because they were awed by the threats of men like Calhoun, but that they might do nothing to widen the breach of feeling which portended disunion. The silence, however, was like the silence in heaven before the judgment books were opened. In such a time the walls of this church were reared. In the fierce heat of such a perplexed moral and political question the hearts and minds of her men were tempered. According to the best light I can get, this church was not in the beginning pur- posely an anti-slavery organization. The motive for forming it was that stated in the resolutions drawn up by Dr. Todd and passed by unanimous vote of the First Church when the let- ters of dismission were granted, namely: "A single desire to afford more ample accommodations for the enlargement of Zion." When separation had been determined, those whose views on the slavery question were more radical than Dr. Todd's naturally took their chances with the new church. But men were prominent in it at the beginning who never would have joined an extreme anti-slavery body, and its first minister, Mr. Harris, had nothing of the agitator in his make-up. He was
1
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against slavery, but he rarely if ever discussed the matter in the pulpit. Like Mr. Lincoln, like hosts of good men, he was clear that the institution was wrong, but he was not forward to say how the nation should get rid of it. In 1852, the fourth of July fell on Sunday. Mr. Harris preached a patriotic sermon The ser- mon was printed. Both parties had made their nominations for the Presidency. Both had approved the Compromise of 1850, including the fugitive slave law. The Free Soil party was getting ready for its convention in August. Defiance of the fugitive slave law was still hot and resolute, but that dis- course contains no remotest allusion to passing events and no reference to slavery except in the harmless reflection that free peoples often have held slaves. And yet the preacher's earnest contention that justice rather than liberty is the touchstone of national greatness shows that the controversy of the hour had kindled the passion of a prophet in his soul. In an article writ- ten while he was minister of this church, and published in the New Englander for May, 1854, he says: "We make a broad dis- tinction between preaching politics and preaching the Gospel in its application to politics. No minister has a right to preacil politics.Every minister is bound to preach the Gospel in its ap- plication to politics." That his attitude was taken in sobriety and reason and not from cowardice or vacillation is plain from what he said in a sermon preached at the ordination of Oliver M. Sears in Dalton Sept. 29, 1847: "There are exciting subjects as to which the minister may not be silent. He cannot always do this without standing in the way of some Diotrephes who loveth to have prominence, some Demetrius who makes silver shrines, some powerful self-willed Ahab."
When Mr. Harris went away, much to the regret of all the peo- ple, a very different man came to take his place. Judging from the men who were most active in calling him, one suspects that
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the difference was intended. Mr. Boynton was not an unknown man. His church in Cincinnati was a station of the under- ground railroad. He had made a trip through Kansas, and written a pamphlet about the territory. In that pamphlet, he said, "Instead of mourning that the North has been opened to slavery, let us rejoice that all restrictions upon the progress of liberty are taken away, and that there is not a foot of soil now on our continent where she may not set up her banners and plant her institutions. If Northern freemen were fully awake and prepared for the performance of their whole duty this would be the appropriate feeling and instead of aggression upon Northern territory by slavery we should hear of the march of free institu- tions toward the Gulf." That was very advanced doctrine for those days. It was abolitionism pure and simple, and few men were ready for such a venture. Dr. Humphrey, who was very active in organizing this church, addressed several public meet- ings against slavery, but was at pains distinctly to disavow as- sociation with the abolitionists. When Mr. Boynton came he lost no time in prodding the old serpent of slavery to make him "swinge the scaly horror of his folded tail." Prominent men in Pittsfield, not members of this parish, used to come to hear him preach and go away muttering and shaking their heads and mad as if a hornet's nest had been thrust into their heads, but they were back again the next Sunday night, to get another nest. How Mr. Purches, who was sexton then, used to rub his hands as he told the story. I imagine that the eloquent, ardent, young abolitionist, fresh from the freer atmosphere of the West, fresh from the bitterness of the Kansas struggle, may have enjoyed. rasping the conservatism of this old town and calling a spade a spade to their horrified faces. Pittsfield is still a very conserva- tive community, as we all know. It is as hard to move as the hills around it. If the spies had come here with their immense
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clusters of grapes from the Promised Land, our instinct would have been to suspect that this was only a variation of the salt- ed mine and gold brick deceptions. We are protected by a thick cuticle of conservatism. For one I do not altogether regret it. I am by turns amused by it and impatient at it and glad of it. The common report, therefore, that we were in the beginning an anti-slavery church dates, I think, from the first ministry of Mr. Boynton.
Men in those days had their faces towards the morning. They had the confidence and courage of prosperity. They had the discipline of a great moral question. They had one thing more, a high type of personal religion. The years from 1840 to 1845 were years when men in these parts felt their personal respon- sibility to God with special power. The preaching of the Gos- pel, it is true, was accompanied by an arbitrary and tyrannical requirement of belief and experience. Under its sharp distinc- tions, men were branded as goats who were sheep of the true fold. When I think of those days, therefore, I am grateful for the parish, which has been a sort of outpost of the church where men of faith and honor and integrity have stood guard over the interests of Zion. Men who have been, as genial Mr. Dodge -- blessings on his name-used to call himself-"Brothers-in-law" of the church. But that old-fashioned preaching did mightly stir the souls of men. They hearted and minded religion every man for himself. They trembled in the presence of God as this church trembles when the bell in the tower swings out its call to worship. Doctrine aside, narrowness aside, that strenuous religious life, helped to make self-reliant, strongly-marked, deep-rooted men. I do honor them. I love them. They are exhilarating. They stand. They wear. They are towers of strength. And yet I believe that the modern habit of bearing down heavily upon the ethical and social manifestations of the
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Christian spirit will bring us into vital and personal relations to God such as the piety of the church never has known before. We shall need first, clearly and practically to take in the truth that the new emphasis is really the pressure of God upon us. But when we have been convinced, an apostolic company will come forth from a new Pentecost who can say of the men whom we honor today, "They without us are not made perfect."
I come back, therefore, to the place where I started. The glory of this church is her men .What would we not give if we might see them coming down the aisles this morning, shining with the light of God, Humphrey and Harris walking ahead, and a sanctified company in their train filling the church with an apparition of glory, to stand by this Lord's table and take a pledge of us that we will put our hands with greater singleness and zeal to the splendid Christian business of making men.
DEACON ALBERT TOLMAN 1824-1891
.
REMARKS
BY EDWARD TOLMAN.
SUNDAY EVENING NOVEMBER THE ELEVENTH.
Pastor and Friends:
I was asked to talk to you to-night and it is my part to tell you of the work of the Sunday School. I looked up the records, which have been somewhat lost, and have the names of the su- perintendents since its formation and I would like to read them to you.
1850 to 1868,
Deacon J. H. Dunham
1868 and 1869,
Deacon William Robinson
1870 and 1871,
Deacon William B. Rice
1872 and 1873, Deacon Albert Tolman
1874 and 1875, Deacon William B. Rice
1876 to 1881,
T. P. Tobey.
Mr. Tobey died in office May, 1881, Assistant Superin- tendent George Shipton filling out the term.
1882 and 1883,
Deacon George Shipton
1884,
P. F. Cooley
1885,
William Tolman
James D. Shipton
1886, 1887 to 1889,
Deacon George Shipton
1890 and 1891,
S. D. Andrews
1892 to 1894,
F. G. Ferry
1895,
C. H. Mattoon
1896 and 1897,
Deacon J. P. Sayles
1898 to 1900,
Edward Tolman.
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The first Sunday School was formed December 15, 1850 with an attendance of 84. In the same year, the 29th of December, they commenced taking collections in behalf of foreign missions. November 16, 1851 it was voted by the school to appropriate the amount of collections up to this time ($54.63) toward constitut- ing William Robinson an honorary member of the American Board.
The first infant class was formed in 1850 by Helen D. Little with a membership of 45. The average attendance in 1850 was 120. It has been all the way from 145 to 200 since. In look- ing over the records of the primary department I found the names of people who are now, many of them, active members and active workers in this church and it is very interesting to me to see the familiar names as little children in the primary de- partment. Some of the teachers of that time were Dr. Stephen Reed, Daniel Day, H. M. Peirson, P. F. Cooley, Albert Tolman, William Robinson, and many, many lady teachers, although not prominent as officers, were then, as now, the great working force of our Sunday School. In looking at the past of the Sunday School there is nothing particularly interesting to relate. The history is made up of active, honest, industrious work for Christ and His Church. Since its formation there have been con- tinuous sessions of the school with the exception of a rest of a month or two in the summer, during the first twenty years. With that exception there have been continuous sessions of our Sabbath School for fifty years, working Sunday after Sunday to help themselves and to help others to Christ. When we had afternoon services, instead of evening services, every month the first Sunday was devoted to a missionary concert or a Sunday School prayer meeting, and this was carried on for a long time. In looking back to my childhood and to the people who to me were the fathers of this church, I cannot help surrounding them
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with a sort of halo of goodness and uprightness. I remember well running along with my father (this goes half way back, to 1875) to attend our church prayer meeting which was held in the lower room in the ladies' parlor; the ap- pointed leader in the center at the central table and the pastor on the opposite side who always made a few remarks at the close of the meeting; good Deacon Dunham to lead the sing- ing, and although I remember hearing serious talks about fi- nance, they seemed to get along pretty well without a piano or an organ, but I know they had what they wanted, and if an organ had been necessary, they would have had it. They seemed to like this way of having one lead the singing, or pitch the tune, I believe is what it was called, and then all join in. It made fine singing, to my younger feelings any way. It was there I first heard "Sweet Hour of Prayer" and I can never forget the impression that that song made on me. We had talks and prayers and the men who took part were Daniel Day, Dr. Ste- phen Reed, Deacon Taylor, Deacon Dunham, Deacon Peirson, Deacon Robinson, P. F. Cooley, and, among the younger men, T. P. Tobey and Vinet Walker, men who thought of Christian things, who thought of the prayer meeting, who came prepared to help in that meeting, and as I hear the older men talk about the "good old days," I think of the prayer meeting of those days and those good men. As I look at them, they surely had their virtues, and I suppose they had some faults, the same as the rest of us, but they had an honest desire and an honest purpose to serve God and upbuild His Church. I cannot help thinking, many times, of our heritage. When I have gone in- to other states it has always seemed to me that there was some- what of a different moral tone in the communities of New Eng- land and I have laid it to our Pilgrim Fathers who, by law and by conscience, strove in every way to serve God and honor His
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Name. When we go back to this community, before the time of railroads, before they had communication with the outer world, all wove itself around the parish, around the church. How they kept Thanksgiving; how they sought in every way to honor God and upbuild His Kingdom. It seems to me that we, as young men, ought to think of this, and in taking this heri- tage, try to bring it forward; do as they did; give of our best understanding; they did it; give of our time and our money as they did; honor and worship God as they did, and at all times strive to help others and to upbuild His Kingdom in this world. We have a great history for this church for fifty years; we have a greater history of New England which it is our part to honor and to carry on to a great and glorious future.
E
THE REVEREND WILLIAM CARRUTHERS
REMINISCENCES
BY THE REVEREND WILLIAM CARRUTHERS,
ON SUNDAY EVENING NOVEMBER THE ELEVENTH.
There is more gladness in my heart than I can tell of in find- ing myself with you in this time of your rejoicing. Pittsfield has been a Mecca to me this many a year. The charm of it has not lessened. From the time of my first coming and my first entering into one of her homes to this evening I have felt her fascination. I am not skilled enough in the use of language to tell you the fullness of my thought concerning Pittsfield, and even were there the skill, there is not the time. I can only in very simple phrase tell you a little something of what is in my heart as I stand once again in your presence. Ever since your invitation to this festival of joy reached me, my memory has been busy in bringing out that which it had stored up. For part of what it has cherished it goes back to the year 1857, when the first pastor of this church was theological professor in the Ban- gor seminary, and I hardly more than a boy, came into personal acquaintance with him, and found my mind enriched by his scholarly unfolding of the treasures to be found in the Holy Scriptures. What a teacher he was! How he stimulated the boy to study! How his spiritual insight into truth was to me the opening of a world of thought of which I had never dreamed. Sitting at the feet of Dr. Harris as a learner was to me as if I were sitting at the feet of another Gamaliel.
Another day which has preciousness to me is that which found
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me entering the pastorate of this church. I can see now the revered and beloved Buckingham as he presided over the install- ing council. What a gracious dignity his was! What a royal heart he had! The expression of his face seemed to me like that which must have marked the countenance of the disciple whom Jesus loved. How kindly considerate he was in his question- ing. No wonder my remembrance of him has in it the elements of reverence and affection. No wonder I counted the being in- ducted into the pastoral office by such a man as an honor to be spoken of with thankfulness.
My memory has grouped together the men who then were leaders in this church but are now doing service in some other part of God's realm.
Deacon Peirson, who was so given to hospitality; towards whose house the feet of a minister moved as by very instinct- the minister confident of an open door and a generous welcome; sure of finding in that home another Bethany into which he could enter for the rest and refreshing his heart needed.
Deacon Dunham, a man whose convictions were sacred to him -too sacred to be trifled with, too well-grounded to be up-root- ed; a man always loyal to his own conceptions of truth and duty ; a man who continuously and in most practical ways made manifest his love for this church. Even now when I enter his home or sit in the room below the air seems vibrant with the voice which in home and lecture-room was so often heard lead- ing in the service of song.
Then there was Deacon Tolman who embodied in himself qualities which made his companionship a pleasure and his friend- ship something to be very greatly prized. How large a debt of gratitude Pittsfield owes to the memory of the man who was for so long the leading educator of her youth. And surely an equal debt is due his memory from this church, for his fealty to it was
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most pronounced, and the service he rendered it was manifold and always marked by a delightful spontaneity.
In speaking the name of Deacon Day I call to remembrance a man whose Christian character was of that type which makes the word, "Christian," stand for something very real, something luminous with brightest significance. You who knew him can- not fail to recall his devotion to this church, his loyalty to the principles for which this church stood then, and for which it stands to-day. How could I help enshrining his memory in my heart. He gave me his confidence without stint-his affection in most generous measure. Cultured, broadly intelligent, most kindly in disposition, his courtesy genuine, the fine pro- duct of a noble heart, a heart incapable of other than generous impulses, how could I help loving Deacon Day.
I could never forgive myself if I kept silence concerning Dr. Stephen H. Reed, a man of large natural gifts, and who to these gifts added powers which were the product of what we call a "liberal education." I wish I had time to draw his portrait for you. Were I to do that you would see the face of a man -a man of God-one of those of whom Mr. Smart spoke this morning: a stalwart man; a man of positive views, with never a thought of concealment; never playing the traitor to his convictions; a man who could stand at the post of duty immovable as old Grey- lock, and yet, withal, a man of most genial temper, of kindliest disposition, and always breathing the spirit of the Master.
And there was dear, good Henry Purches -- good, not in any mere- ly negative way, but having a goodness as positive as the flow- ers of the summer; positive as the stars which make the night beautiful; positive as the rains which bring refreshing in the days of summer heat to garden, and lawn and meadow. What fervor of spirit he brought to the service of this church. Asked to serve, his response was instant and cheerful. Some of you
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well remember the distance he would walk in order to be pre- sent at the devotional meeting of Friday evening. I can recall the richness and mellowness of his voice which made it a delight to hear him read and speak. Deacon Day used to say that he had never heard any one read the Scriptures as did Mr. Purches -bringing out by his very reading some of the deeper beauties of the text. Blessed indeed is the memory of such a man as he. What a greeting we'll give him when we meet within the gates of the New Jerusalem.
Those of whom I have spoken have gone beyond the reach of my voice, but I cannot refrain from giving them my salutation, for I feel the glory of their spiritual presence in these days of your rejoicing. There is living with you a man who long ago won my heart. Such men as he are rare. He is of a type which needs to be greatly multiplied in our churches. To be in his presence is to find yourself compassed with an atmosphere radiant with sunshine. Love swells in his soul and makes his life as full of benedictions as mountains make the streams in spring. Hope to him is the sun by day and the moon by night. My thought lingers lovingly over the name of Deacon Robinson, and my heart speaks its blessing upon the man whose house is on "the hill-top of cheerfulness-so high that no shad- ows rest upon it; where the morning comes so early and the evening tarries so late that the day has twice as many golden hours as those of other men." Would that even now, whilst still in visible presence, he might renew his youth, and so for many years more continue to let the cheerfulness of his spirit brighten the life of a church which has been and still is dearer to him than any other treasure. There is another man whose name my lips are urgent to speak, and if he who bears it were not within hearing distance of me the lips would break their sil- ence. It is the name of one whose service of the South church
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covers many years, and who has brought to that service a ripe judgment, a mind enriched by extensive reading, rational inter- pretations of the Scriptures, and an equally rational conception of personal religion and of the mission of the church. I rejoice in having long ago been allowed entrance into the sanctuary of his friendship.
There are names to-day upon your roll of membership which may well be taken as sure prophecies of this church's pros- perity in the days that are coming-names of men and women who are ready for any service, even for the service which in- volves sacrifice.
I look into your future with a great nopefulness, with confi- dent expectation that with the passage of the years will come great increase of strength; that the Jubilee with which the church shall celebrate the hundredth anniversary of its birth shall find it full of vigorous life. May this church become more and more a radiant center, striking light into darkness. May it never be wanting in men like Peirson, Dunham, Tolman, Day, Reed, Purches and Robinson. May it never lack women who shall be the peers of those whose names are engraven on my memory. Some of them have passed into the heavens; others still live and work; women zealous, ambitious, having a passion for serving. May he who shall be historian of the church fifty years from now be able to tell of its growth into a power which shall be so abundant and beneficent that human hearts shall greet the church with a joyous acclaim, and human lives shall give it salutation as an inspirer of purity, righteousness and love,
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