USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Watertown > Memorial history of the First Baptist Church : Watertown, Massachusetts. 1830-1930. > Part 10
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The founders of the school of 1827 did not labor in vain. Their 1930 successors have much of the same vision, consecration and fidelity that secured the early victories over every opposition.
With rare devotion and generosity the Early Fathers gave the first school a needed equipment and what a harvest followed their sacrifice!
A small school acorn, of thirty-five membership di- mensions, has produced a church oak with a member- ship of 831 in one hundred years.
The Modern Church Fathers own the necessary land and hold the nucleus of a fund for the construction of an adequate building for social and educational pur- poses. Such a building must become an early reality if the first half of the Twentieth Century is to witness a new group of "Moulders of Life" trained adequately for their difficult and exacting task. It is a positive in- spiration to picture the thrilling church total of two thousand thirty, if we pledge anew our determination to keep abreast of truth.
Here endeth the written records from which cita- tions were made for this memorial volume. The clos- ing century's achievements cannot be re-written but
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they may be re-read with perennial delight. The finis does not leave us in gloom but facing the future with glad anticipation of greater ventures and larger suc- cess.
Before laying aside our pen we pause to thank God for the strategic location of the Watertown Baptist Church and for the crises and demands which present Baptists face. In the early development of the newer Watertown, Delano March, a Boston merchant and a warm supporter of the First Baptist Church, built a fine residence on the high land adjoining the Arad Bailey estate. This was an act of faith in the future of his adopted village. At that time he had few neigh- bors. There were only a dozen houses on both sides of Watertown's main artery between the Common Street Cemetery and Bird's Tavern at Mt. Auburn Bridge. In the exercise of his faith, Mr. March be- came the pioneer of Watertown Beautiful. In the same year James H. Norcross, a local builder, purchased of Mr. March, his former home, the estate on which the present church edifice was afterwards erected.
At the time of purchase he was dubbed a fool for "moving to the outskirts of the town". But old neigh- bors were mistaken in their judgment of these real es- tate transactions. In course of time, others turned their faces toward the East, and followed the trail of men who could see visions and plan in terms of to- morrow.
At that time Common Street, winding over the hill to Belmont, or joining Orchard Street to the Waver- ley line, was a narrow, dusty road along which huge droves of cattle were driven weekly to the accompani-
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REV. CHARLES HOBEN DAY, D. D. Pastor 1905 - 1923
Watertown Baptist Church
ment of shouting men and barking dogs. Only a half dozen houses, including the antiquated Poor House occupied the entire territory. Everywhere broad acres, underbrush, woods and hayfields greeted the occasional traveller. Watertown's ancient lighting system did little to dissipate at night the eerie effect of these lone- ly stretches.
Just beyond the old High School building, still standing, was the Whiting estate with its acres of valu- able land. On the northern boundary of this estate ran a brook of clear, cold, drinkable water, from which trout could be caught, in whose lower reaches tender water cress flourished, and whose open meadow along Spring Street was gay with seasonable blossoms. In winter the frozen overflow of this brook was trans- formed into a natural skating arena that echoed with the shouts of children at play.
Apart from the wooded height, now known as Whit- ney Hill Park, this superb estate, centrally located and unequalled in contour, for lack of vision on the part of the majority of the voters, was allowed to slip through the fingers of a visionless generation, and can only appear on the page of history as "Watertown's Lost Park". Today Common Street is a broad, well- lighted boulevard winding through the educational center of one of the largest towns in the Commonwealth and leading to growing acres of beautiful homes.
But lost parks have been atoned for, in some degree, by fine church property. Watertown has no churches on side streets. Organized religion, in what has been styled historically, as "Great Little Watertown," makes a frontal appeal to the best in its citizens. From Mt.
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Auburn Bridge to the Waltham line, three Catholic, one Armenian, one Episcopal, two Baptist, one Con- gregational, one Methodist and one Union Church are all on main arteries of travel. The Unitarian Church is a notable exception, but a church "set on a hill cannot be hid".
The man with a vision writes: "Watertown's Civic Center is yet in germ." When the steam railroad and its attendant structures, are dealt with, finally, in Twen- tieth Century terms, even the church on the hill may join those on the Main Street.
The church buildings in Watertown are a credit to their worshippers. They have been placed where religious programs can make their strongest appeal. Their grounds have been beautified and their columns rise like architect's dreams frozen in stone.
The Twentieth Century will demand the best from church adherents, both as regards individual charac- ter and church construction. Our church fathers were men of vision. To the historian it is more than a coin- cidence that the Gothic tower of Pastor Capen's dream, like an index finger pointing heavenward, should crown the artistic structure that rises out of the terri- torial center of Watertown's future religious appeal. Are we not justified in saying with the Great Teacher : "This was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes".
Across the way stretches the old Common Street Cemetery whose first interment was July, 1766. With- in its boundaries sleep many of our Baptist fathers and their descendants, in whose memory "Taps" will be
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sounded at anniversary time. With the passage of years this burial place has been beautified and made artistic by gardener's skill, yet, for three centuries it has spoken but one message : "Here lies the remains". The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston has placed a tablet near the cemetery gate on which is in- scribed : "General Washington passed here to take command of the Patriots' Army." All the voices and records revert to the past. You are looking backward whenever you enter its gates.
On the opposite corner stands the First Baptist meet- ing house whose valuation in 1930 was $200,000 and whose membership numbered 831. What is the out- standing message of these stones and this congregation? "Here lives consecrated personality" with eye un- dimmed and natural force unabated facing the future with courage and hope.
Divinely led, the Baptist Church in Watertown came into being as a protest to the sad, religious drift away from evangelical truth. Divinely led, the Baptist Church in Watertown exists today to keep step with a Conquering Christ whose cause it has espoused. The past one hundred years have witnessed marked changes of attitude toward provincialism, human slavery, the the liquor traffic, education, missions, brotherhood, the cause of peace and the claims of youth. Manners have changed; customs have changed; apparels have changed; tastes have changed; ideals of beauty have changed ; the fashion of each successive age has passed away; but there is one influence that speaks to all ages ; it is sacrifice - the giving up of something in the cause of right.
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From 1830 - 1930 much of permanent value has been accomplished in the eradication of evil and the en- thronement of good, but the ultimate goal of a con- quering Christ is still far away.
The June, 1930, Bulletin of the American Baptist Publication Society contains this arresting paragraph : "History has not three greater tragedies than the three that confront the world today - the determination to bring back free liquor in America, the drive against religion in Russia, and civil war and famine in India and China."
Only the sacrifices of human hearts can heal those tragedies. Time writes no wrinkle on the deeds of those who offer "a more excellent sacrifice than Cain".
The love of Jonathan and David is as young as yes- terday: the devotion of Ruth to Naomi is as modern as this morning; the affection of Joseph for his brethren is as fresh as an autumn field.
The new century is calling Baptists to yearn, speak, act and conquer in terms of sacrifice and God is wait- ing for Baptist response in terms of an open mind, an open heart and an open hand.
The new Biography of Livingston, by R. J. Camp- bell, D. D., closes with this heartening paragraph: "The Nineteenth Century produced no greater moral force than he, and its propulsive energies show no sign of diminution. He has been the means of evoking more zeal for human welfare, more honest belief in the ca- pacities of human nature, more unselfish willingness to labor in the cause of human emancipation from the shackles of hatred, and fear, and hoary antipathies
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than almost any single personal influence that could be named : certainly none other has been more fecund in operation. And the work goes on, and will go on till the race of man has reached that inconceivable distant goal towards which all the men of vision of all genera- tions have raised their eyes and led the way."
According to Tennyson it is both poetical and relig- ious to "Hope to meet the Pilot face to face when we have crossed the bar." But it is imperative that we do meet Him face to face, this side of the bar, if the sacri- fices of christian hearts are to heal the tragedies of this generation.
"It is not so much what you believe as why you be- lieve it, and it is not so much why you believe it as what you do with it when you do believe it."
That is a workable slogan, a concrete method for writing history in the next one hundred years, so that, like our fathers, "we being dead may yet speak."
FINIS
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