USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Malden > Memorial of the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Malden, Massachusetts, May, 1899 > Part 12
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compelled him to become a Baptist. On arriving at Calcutta he and his wife were baptized, and severed their connection with the board that sent them out. News of this change being heralded in America, the Baptists, by delegates, formed a " General Missionary Conven- tion for Foreign Missions," and henceforth they supported Mr. Judson in his work.
Being expelled from India by the government, after some adven- tures and many mishaps, Mr. Judson found himself and wife on a vessel bound to Rangoon, Burmah. He immediately adopted the Bur- mans as his in the Lord, and gave the rest of his life in work for them.
His unremitting labors, his sufferings in the death-prisons of Ava and Oung-pen-la, the heroic fidelity of his wife in the midst of miseries and tortures untold, his bodily endurances of sickness and privation, - all tell the story of a life upheld by faith in God and love for poor humanity that has not been excelled, and but rarely equalled. Years passed before he gained one convert. Seven years passed before he ventured to preach to a Burman audience, delaying that when he preached his familiarity with the language might make him competent to answer any doubts or cavillings. Amid incessant labors, he toiled at a translation of the Bible in the Burmese language. This he com- pleted twenty-one years after landing at Rangoon, and then spent six years in its revision. At the end of thirty-three years, enfeebled in body and having buried wife and children, at the insistence of the board at home, he sailed for America, with his second wife, the widow of the late missionary, George Dana Boardman. On the voyage she died, and was buried at St. Helena.
Judson tarried in America for nine months only, and returned to four years more of labor. On a sea voyage for recovery from illness, he died, and was buried in the ocean.
All the foreign-mission effort of the churches in America is due under God to Mr. Judson's persistent determination to preach to a heathen people. Who can estimate the reflex influence upon the churches, in their home work, resulting from this enlargement of their faith and hope of " the heathen for His inheritance "?
Among the Burmans, more than seven thousand have been bap- tized, and hundreds more have died in the faith. There are sixty- three churches, and nearly two hundred missionaries and teachers. Deep down in the Burman heart the light of God's truth and salvation is shining.
Mr. Judson exemplified the power of Christian faith and of per- sonal consecration, under the most fearful trials and tormenting dis- tresses. Only the grace of God could have given endurance to any mortal placed as he was. A man of prayer, he remains one of the heroes and martyrs of the church.
THE CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION 117
THE CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.
REV. RICHARD NEAGLE, Rector.
AT the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Pleasant Street, a Solemn High Mass was celebrated at 10.30 A.M. The celebrant of the Mass was the Rev. John J. Coan, treasurer of St. John's Ecclesi- astical Seminary, Brighton, a former resident of Malden; and the deacon was the Rev. Hugh J. Cleary, a native of Malden. The Rev. Mortimer E. Twomey and the Rev. William J. Casey, resident assist- ants of the parish, officiated as subdeacon and master of ceremonies, respectively. The Rev. Richard Neagle, Permanent Rector of the church, was present in the sanctuary.
The music was rendered by the regular church choir, Mozart's famous Mass being sung, and by the boys' sanctuary choir, which sang the responses.
After the gospel, the Rev. Thomas Scully, P.R., of Cambridge, a former pastor of the church, 1863-1867, ascended the pulpit and preached the anniversary sermon.
SERMON BY THE REV. THOMAS SCULLY.
ACTS vi. 7. - And the word of the Lord increased, and the number of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly.
Dearly Beloved Brethren : - I appreciate most highly the honor I have of addressing you on this happy occasion, the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of your city. After an absence of thirty-two years I come to you at the urgent request of your beloved pastor, to add my voice to the chorus of congratulations and well-merited praise which this jubilee celebration calls forth from the citizens of Malden, and to join with you in praising and thanking Almighty God for the spiritual and temporal favors which He has be- stowed upon you.
Malden is, indeed, to be congratulated on her growth and her prosperity. From a town of a few inhabitants she has developed into the large and flourishing municipality which we see to-day, with its happy, comfortable homes, its many schools, and its centres of busy industrial life. This vigorous and healthy growth is to be attributed, under a benign Providence, to the energy and industry of the people of this city, but still more, I think, to the beautiful union and good-will which binds together the citizens of Malden, both Protestants and Catholics, for the defence of good order and public morality, and for
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the promotion of honest government and industrial success. As citi- zens of this beautiful and enterprising city, you have good reason to be proud ; and it is right that your wise and zealous pastor has joined your hands and hearts with your fellow-citizens, to make the great jubilee what it should be, a grand manifestation of the union of Mal- den's citizens, -a union that has been the source of so much good in the past, and that is rich in its promise of greater good in the future.
As Catholics, too, you have good reason to rejoice and to be proud on this occasion ; for the development and progress of your city has been accompanied by a corresponding development and prog- ress of Catholicity among you. And while the freedom, the order, the prosperity which you enjoy have had no small share in bringing about the marvellous growth of our church in this city, at the same time we do not hesitate to say that the Catholic Church has done much to pro- duce the happy and prosperous condition of the city of which you are so proud. No state, no city of our Union, could attempt a true and worthy celebration commemorative of its honorable career without generously recording its indebtedness to the intellectual, industrial, patriotic, and religious life of its Catholic citizens.
It is the thought of the undying life of the Catholic Church which should be uppermost in our minds to-day, the great festival of Pente- cost. For on the first Christian Pentecost our church began its work in the world. The church was established by Jesus Christ for the purpose of carrying on to the end of time the work of teaching and sanctification which He began. It was to go into the whole world, to make known His doctrines to all nations, to impart to men's souls the supernatural life of grace, and thus make them worthy to share in the glory won for them by the shedding of His blood. "Going into the whole world," He said to His chosen Apostles, "preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved."
Having intrusted to His church this high mission, Jesus Christ bestowed upon it all that was needed to execute His commands. To His Apostles and their successors He gave His own authority. " As the Father hath sent Me," He said to them, " so I send you." And again : " He that heareth you, heareth Me." They were to preach His doctrine, in His name and with His authority. And that it might never teach aught but His truth, He promised to it His own unfailing assistance : " Behold, I am with you all days, even unto the consum- mation of the world ; " and He promised to send it the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of truth, to abide with it forever.
To carry on the mission of sanctification Christ left with His church His Sacraments, those outward signs which were to be the channels of divine grace, by which sins were to be forgiven and super-
THE CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION 119
natural life was to be nourished and made strong. Moreover, Christ gave to His church an indivisible unity by choosing one of His Apostles to be its visible head. To this Apostle He said, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church ; " " I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven ;" "Feed my lambs, feed my sheep."
In union with Peter, the other Apostles formned the teaching and ruling body of the church, and only in union with Peter's successor, the Bishop of Rome, were the successors of the other Apostles to exercise this office. On Peter and his successors Christ bestowed the power and prerogatives which He had given to His church as a whole. The occupant of Peter's chair was to possess supreme authority as teacher and ruler of the church, and his teaching voice was to an- nounce with infallible certainty the truths which had been divinely revealed.
The church thus constituted as a visible society of men on earth, with Peter as its head, endowed with infallible teaching authority, and possessing the means of sanctifying souls, was to remain on earth to the end of time.
The promises of Christ never fail, and He has promised to be with His church even to the consummation of the world. Built by Him on Peter, the rock, " the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." And that it might possess this undying life, He sent to His church, on the tenth day after his ascension, the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of truth, of holiness, and of life, who was to remain in its bosom forever, guiding it in its mission of teaching and sanctifying mankind, and preserving it from all error, and imparting to it His own Divine life.
Armed with these powers, and confiding in these promises, the Church of Christ, on the morning of Pentecost, faced the world in order to win it to God. Peter preached to the multitudes gathered in Jerusalem, and at his words thousands accepted the yoke of Christ. The apostles preached in the streets and in the synagogues the mes- sage of salvation through Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and in a short time " the word of the Lord increased, and the number of the disciples was multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly." From Jerusalem and Judea the infant church went forth into every part of the known world delivering its message of truth and salvation to the peoples of all nations, and all tongues, and everywhere the word of the Lord in- creased and the number of the disciples was multiplied.
In vain did the power of Rome attempt its destruction. The blood of its thousands of martyrs but added to its strength and hast- ened its progress. The Roman Empire itself, at length, bowed before the Cross of Christ, and acknowledged the truth and authority
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of the church. And, when that empire fell, and the vigorous people from the north formed new nations within its provinces, the Church of Christ went out to meet them, won them to the truth, and through her scholars, her monks, and her saints made of them the powerful civilized nation of Christian Europe. This triumph was not achieved without a struggle. At every period of her history the onward march of Christ's church has been opposed by the world. The Master had foretold this. The world would hate His church because it was not of the world. And so in the beginning all the force of Pagan error, vice, and super- stition was directed against the religion of the Crucified. Then came the heresies to prevent her teachings, and schisms to destroy her unity, and the efforts of emperors, kings, princes to make her the subservient tool of their passions, and scandals among her children ; but the church lived on, faithfully discharging the mission intrusted to her. No hostile power could destroy her, for she is indestructible. Her enemies may bar her progress for a time, here and there, may drive her at times from one field to another, but sooner or later they must yield before her. " Have confidence," said Christ to His Apostles, when foretelling the persecutions and trials of His church. " Have confidence ; I have overcome the world." The history of nine- teen hundred years is a record of continuous struggle between the church and the world, and the fulfilment of Christ's promise, "The gates of hell shall not prevail." The church has learned the one word, " conquer," from the Divine founder, and knows not defeat. Nothing is more certain than that the life of the Catholic Church cannot be de- stroyed, and every human institution opposed to her will fall.
When in the Providence of God the New World was discovered a new field was opened to the ceaseless activity of the Catholic Church. She sent her missionaries from Catholic Spain and Catholic France, and long before Protestant colonization of these shores began, the Catholic faith was preached and Catholic missions were founded here in America. It was the beginning of a growth and an expansion of the church as marvellous as that which the Old World had witnessed. There were difficulties to be faced, there were persecutions to be en- dured, especially in the English Protestant colonies, yet the hand of God so shaped events that those difficulties were overcome, those per- secutions ceased, and in the genial atmosphere of American freedom the old church has displayed so much vitality and has attained so large a growth as to be a cause of wonder to the world. This is indeed the Lord's doing, and it is wonderful in our eyes.
With the advent of American Independence the Catholic Church of the United States began to organize her hierarchy. In 1789, Pope Pius VI. founded the see of Baltimore with John Carroll as its bishop. In 1808, Pius VII. erected the Boston see, and John de Cheverus was
ST. MARY'S CATHOLIC T. A. SOCIETY
PURITANS AND INDIANS
THE CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION 121
consecrated its first bishop. His pastorate embraced all New Eng- land. Two priests assisted him in administering to his scattered flock of a few hundred people, and the Catholic Indians of Maine. To-day the Catholic Church of New England counts one archbishop, seven bishops, and over fifteen hundred churches and chapels, thir- teen hundred and forty-seven priests, and at least one million five hundred and fifty thousand regular church attendants.
Who were they through whom God has exalted His church here in our own country, especially in New England ?
Not the rich, nor the powerful, nor the influential ; but the poor, persecuted, downtrodden children of Catholic Ireland. The tyranny of England had made use of every means which hatred and cruelty would devise to force the Irish people to abandon their faith. But, though robbed of their goods, though reduced to want and starvation, thoughi hounded even to death, they never wavered in their loyalty to their church. Their faith was to them a treasure to be kept at the cost of every earthly possession. It is now more than half a century since they began to leave their native land in large numbers to escape British tyranny. They brought with them no riches but their strong arms and willing hearts, but they brought pure and untarnished that faith which had been tried so severely. Through them and their chil- dren God has caused His church to flourish on American soil. They are now numbered by millions, and this broad land is filled with the monuments of their faith.
In the early days of Irish immigration to this country, a few of the immigrants who had settled in Malden and the adjoining towns of Medford, Melrose, Wakefield, North Reading, Stoneham, and the greater part of what is now Everett, were organized into a parish, and the Rev. John Ryan was appointed by Bishop Fitzpatrick to be their pastor.
Forty-six years ago this holy, learned, and zealous Irish priest gathered the few Catholics of his flock into a small hall in Malden. In 1854, Father Ryan had collected sufficient money from his generous congregation to partly purchase this valuable property, and on Christ- mas Day of that year celebrated Mass in the basement of this churcli, as originally designed, and dedicated the parish to the special protec- tion of the Immaculate Mother of God. The arduous work of a large and scattered mission soon told on the health of Father Ryan. To attempt in those days to build a brick church in a country parish was too difficult an undertaking. The Catholics were few and poor. He lived, however, to see the church built, but heavily in debt. Father Ryan was a true shepherd of his flock and a brave soldier of the Cross. He was a safe leader and prudent counsellor of his people in the distressing days of Know-nothing bigotry. His long and severe
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infirmities did not prevent him from going long journeys at night to administer to the dying the consolation of the Holy Sacraments. He died, honored and revered by his fond people, February 26, 1863.
Thirty-six years ago, the first week of March, 1863, I was sent by the bishop to Malden to succeed Father Ryan, and I remained here until May, 1867, when I was ordered to go to Cambridgeport to organize a new parish. My four years of pastorate in Malden were years of peace, contentment, and happiness, and I have regarded them as among the happiest of my life. I came to Malden from the war, where I had served as chaplain to the Ninth Massachusetts Regiment. I had spiritual charge of all the towns embraced within the original limits of the parish. I said Mass every Sunday and Holyday in South Reading, now Wakefield, and in this church. Nearly all have passed away who then came here Sunday after Sun- day, and are now, I trust, with the blessed in heaven. Their children and their children's children are here, true to the religious principles of their fathers, proudly professing their faith, and generously sup- porting the works of their holy religion. Nothing could be more generous than the aid given me by the fathers of many families here in endeavoring to straighten out the legal and financial entanglements of the parish property. What changes in these thirty-two years ! Where I was alone there are now laboring seventeen priests ; and the little flock of those days has swelled to thirty thousand souls or more.
My successor was Rev. John McShane. His stay was short, as was that of Rev. Michael Carroll, who came after him. In 1868, the Rev. Thomas Gleason became pastor, and remained here until 1882. During his pastorate the parish developed rapidly. Houses arose on all sides and fields gave way to streets. The number of parishioners increased greatly, requiring the appointment of two assistants to the pastor. Father Gleason enlarged the church, built a new parochial residence, and made many improvements. But his greatest work was the establishment of the school of this parish, in which the children receive the priceless blessing of a good Catholic education.
In 1884, Rev. Michael Flatley took charge of the parish. This good priest lived here for twelve years, and I can safely say he lived in the hearts of his beloved people. He was kind, gentle, and chari- table. His love for the beauty of God's house made him undertake the task of renovating and decorating the whole interior of the church. Like his immediate predecessor, he loved children and built for them a splendid brick schoolhouse, with a large hall and well-furnished class-rooms. Under his direction the Total Abstinence Society became one of the most flourishing in the Archdiocesan Union. Realizing the necessity of erecting another church and school on the other side of the railroad, he secured a valuable property for that pur-
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pose. In the very prime of life he died suddenly, lamented not only by Malden, but by the archdiocese, to which he was an honor because he was a model priest.
I will not pretend to speak of your present worthy pastor, who came to you shortly after the death of Father Flatley. God knows that the wish of my heart is that he may live to celebrate amongst you and your children the golden jubilee of his priesthood.
It is pleasing to me that after this long separation of thirty-two years I can come back once more to my first parish, where still live some of my beloved and best friends, and find as my successor, Father Neagle, a learned, zealous priest, and patriotic American citizen, whose brave Irish father, my comrade in the Civil War, died on the battlefield in defence of the Union and for the honor of its flag. The parish debt has been reduced fifty thousand dollars since he became your pastor, while religious fervor has increased.
Carry away with you from this grand celebration of Malden's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary deep sentiments of love of country and thankfulness to God for the peace, happiness, prosperity, and freedom that you enjoy.
Value your membership in the Catholic Church as more precious than the whole world, as it is your union with Jesus Christ. Let your lives be in accord with her teaching, - sober, honest, truthful, and modest, - that you may be worthy to celebrate for all eternity with Jesus Christ and His Saints your own triumph hereafter in heaven.
THE CHURCH OF THE SACRED HEARTS.
REV. THOMAS H. SHAHAN, Pastor.
AT the Church of the Sacred Hearts, Main Street, a Solemn High Mass was celebrated, the officiating clergymen being the pastor and his assistants, the Rev. Timothy J. Holland and the Rev. Jeremiah J. Lyons.
The sermon was preached by the Rev. Denis J. Sullivan of West Lynn, formerly assistant at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Malden. The subject of the sermon was Growth Towards God; and the text was from Matt. vi. 33: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his glory." The preacher congratulated his former home upon the occasion of its celebration, and said the city should be proud of its eminent exemplars of trusteeism in wealth and of its high types of manhood, both lay and clerical. The people should rejoice because of their spiritual and temporal prosperity ; and the sermon was con-
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cluded by a fervent expression of the speaker's wishes for a continu- ance of those blessings and for that better growth that leads towards God. A special musical program was sung by the choir.
MAPLEWOOD METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
REV. JOHN R. CUSHING, Pastor.
ADDRESS BY THE PASTOR.
MATT. V. 14. - A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
THE long expected hour, radiant everywhere with preparations for this commemorative day, is here. Let us worship and give thanks while we recount in concise speech the glorious record of His leadership.
At first, I wish to bear my appreciative testimony to the solid worth of that splendid work of art and love, the History of Malden, by Mr. Corey. Its thorough scholarship, its indefatigable research, with authoritative reference and quotation, its fidelity to fact, its care- ful discrimination of material, its purity of language and eloquence of diction, together with its loyalty to the spirit of our fathers, entitles its author to the highest local honors in this Feast of Days. Let me pick out, here and there, a picture of those historic epochs, around which cluster the events which have made us what we are.
The first picture that attracts our attention is that of PIONEER LIFE. The early settlers had a hard struggle with the new conditions of life. Whether at Jamestown or at Plymouth or Providence, it was a story of endurance and privations, which at times grew pathetic. The founders of our town were men and women of hardy stock, simple ways, limited education, but strong religious convictions. The tale of their ways, weaknesses, worth, and wealth will always be both fascinating and instructive.
Their homes had little in them to attract the newly married couples of to-day. One of them is lifted into everlasting remem- brance because it " had a cubbord and bedstead in it." Nor ought we to forget that there was a time when the cheap house-builder had not appeared. Your pastor spent four years of his early life in Shrewsbury, in a house then known to be one hundred and fifty years old, whose oaken timbers of twelve by sixteen inches in dimension turned modern nails when a few repairs were made. The ridge-pole of that house was larger than any timber in our modern dwellings.
How little our ancestors knew of the beautiful in music, painting, or sculpture, or of the treasures their fathers had left in the museums
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and galleries of the old world. Our historian refers to " the destitu- tion of æsthetic sense," - to the "few tunes which they painfully sung in a high and unnatural key in the dreary meeting-houses which matched the tunes they sung."
But their hearts were as true as steel ; for we read that the small- pox had raged among the Indians, that they died by the hundreds ; and the names of Elias Maverick and his wife are mentioned, who buried thirty bodies in one day. It is said that they, with others, went among the sick and dying, " exhorting them in the name of the Lord." Later we read that they were the ancestors of the selfish, cruel, unprincipled men, the treaty makers and the treaty breakers of our modern life, whose wrongs done to the innocent and helpless Indian races are an everlasting blot upon our civilization.
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