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 13
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"Alas ! for them - their day is o'er, Their fires are out from hill and shore ; No more for them the wild deer bounds ; The plough is on their hunting-grounds ; The pale man's axe rings through their woods, The pale man's sail skims o'er their floods, Their pleasant springs are dry."
Bishop Whipple says in his preface to H. H. Jackson's Century of Dishonor : "It may be doubted whether one single treaty [made with the Indians] has ever been fulfilled as it would have been if it had been made with a foreign power."
Look now upon a sweeter scene, - THE FOUNDING OF A CHURCH. The first requisite to a town government was the founding of a church, " for in it lay the roots of all secular as well as ecclesiastical author- ity." Out of the church came the town and the state. Church mem- bers alone could vote and hold office. William Sargeant and students from Cambridge preached to the scattered flock in 1648 ; but May 11, 1649, O. S., marked a new epoch in our civic life ; for the agreement of the inhabitants was ratified by the General Court, and the men of Mystic Side were " granted to be a distinct towne, & the name thereof to be called Mauldon."
And now begins a painful and, at times, a pathetic story of con- flicting opinions, stubbornly defended, of heartburnings, troubles, and schism, illustrating the truth that a man believing himself to be conscientiously right, like Saul, who verily thought he was doing God's service when he persecuted the church of God, is the worst antago- nist and the most bitter foe in the world. I fear that a few of those old mantles have fallen upon modern shoulders. The men who sigh for " the good old times " do not know for what they pray. May the Lord forgive their ignorance. The former days were not better than
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these. Nor was the piety of our ancestors one whit more pure or spiritual than our own. On the contrary, they lived in the type and shadow of Old Testament doctrines and teachings. Their inner life was darkened by their conception of God, and their thoughts " seemed to have been set in a minor key." As Mr. Corey remarks, " Even the hopes or certainties of a blessed immortality were transmuted in the alembic of their gloomy minds into denunciations of wrath to the chil- dren of men." No wonder that a revolt from the stern Calvinism of those ancient days appeared about one hundred years later in Metho- dism (1766), Universalism (1770), the doctrines of the Free Will Baptists (1780), and the Unitarian forms of religious thought (1785- 1815).
The First Church of Malden contended for the independence of the churches. "Its members asserted the freedom of individual thought, limited by conscience and the Word of God." The names that appear upon the records of the church of our beloved town are worthy of high honor : Marmaduke Matthews, Michael Wigglesworth, Joseph Emerson, Peter Thacher, Adoniram Judson, and Gilbert Haven, - men whose names and influence can never die.
The third picture is THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. The glory of our New England life is found in the fact that church and school go hand in hand. It was a happy thought to reproduce that ancient structure upon the High School grounds, as an object lesson to Young America.
My first experience in swinging the pedagogic birch was in a similar house at the head of Lake George. Standing in the centre of the room one might almost touch every pupil in the school. One grows sad in the remembrance of the poverty of time and appliances of the old-time school.
Next come to us pictures of THE COUNTRY TOWN. The evolution of the town from "an uncouth wilderness " brought the usual accom- paniments of civic life. The public house, or tavern, with its some- times unsavory record ; the licensing to sell " bread and beare ; " the town-meeting, - a school for rising applicants for public honors and office ; training-days and husking-bees ; " raisings " and ordinations ; all played their part in forming colonial life.
One item of information is given in the History of Malden, which may be as new to some in this congregation as to me. In 1767, there were found thirteen negroes who were reckoned as a part of the valu- ation of the town. "There were forty-eight negroes in Malden in 1764-65," says our historian, "many of whom were slaves." It seems that " slavery was here from the beginning, and remained under the protection of the law until after the Revolutionary period." Under the date of May 18, 1663, is found an order of the General Court relative to the servant of Job Lane, who had been found guilty of
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" running from his master ; " and in 1667, a negro boy is sold to Job Lane. The world does move, but slowly.
Now look upon a fifth picture, one of LOYALTY. I quote freely from the History of Malden. The Boston Massacre had come and the country was aflame. "At length, November 2, 1772,. Samuel Adams, standing on the floor of Faneuil Hall, offered that celebrated motion which, in the words of a recent writer, 'gave visible shape to the American Revolution, and endowed it with life and strength.'" On January 5, 1773, the men of Malden met to consider a circular letter addressed by the citizens of Boston to their brethren, and " their own duties in this crisis." Said the letter, " It is more than time to be rid of both tyrants and tyranny." The men of Malden answered, " With our best blood and treasure ; " and to their repre- sentative they said : "It is our firm, our deliberate resolution, rather to risque our lives & fortunes than to submit to these un- righteous acts of the British Parliament." Then appears in the records a series of patriotic papers, - " a series of which Malden may well be proud to her latest day."
As a spot upon the brightness of this patriotic picture, let me call attention to the survival of a species of genus homo which, it is believed, has left our city for the city's good. He was known in Revolutionary days as " Tory." Later, in the time of the Civil War he was called "Copperhead." In Cleveland's time his sobriquet was "Mugwump," while in our own day he is recognized as an " Anti-imperialist." But the breed is all the same. The Grand Army of the Republic does not hesitate to call him "Traitor ; " and a veteran of the Grand Army ought to know the article when he sees it.
Every boy who has studied the history of the United States knows that one of the principal causes of the Revolution was the enactment of the Stamp Act by the British Parliament in 1765. The colonists were terribly indignant; and, not being represented in Parliament, they took the ground that "taxation without representation is tyranny." The day appointed for the act to go into effect was uni- versally observed as a day of mourning. Bells were tolled and funeral processions were everywhere. Great meetings, and great speeches by Samuel Adams, James Otis, Patrick Henry, and John Adams aroused the people and alarmed the British government. The repeal of the Stamp Act followed, and there was a great rejoicing. In Malden, the Tory element rallied its forces, and by vote the town refused to " pay for the powder spent at the Rejoyceing for the Repeal of the Stamp Act."
Time fails us to tell of the parts played in those stirring days by the army and the navy and the men whom Malden gave to that heroic
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struggle. Waters and Thacher and others, and earlier in civic life, Joseph Hills and John Wayte are the names of the leaders whom memory will not willingly let die. All honor to these fathers of our city and commonwealth. Their memories are immortal. For what they were and what they did, we meet to-day to do them reverence. Ages hence shall repeat their story, even as we now recall Ther- mopyla and Marathon.
The courage, the self-denial, the endurance, and the faith of our fathers had their sources in the word and truth of God; and they obediently followed the pillar of His leadership.
We have spoken of the beginnings of church life. Here the history of our own church ought to be noted, for it was the first organization in East Malden, and the third of the Methodist Episcopal societies in the town.
The first meeting was held by Father James Blodgett, a Methodist local preacher, in the year 1837, at Linden in a private house, occupied by Mr. Samuel Burrell, on Salem Street, near Beach Street. During the winter of 1839-40, a great revival followed, reaching most of the families in this part of Malden. In 1840, thirty-five of these converts joined the Methodist Episcopal Church at the centre. Among them was Mrs. Lydia Reagh, who organized, in 1843, the first Sunday- school held. in Maplewood. Joseph Cheever was superintendent; but for some unknown reason the school was not long-lived. In 1850, a second attempt was made in the schoolhouse built on the spot where the present Grammar-School building stands. Sanford B. French was the first superintendent, and Wilbur F. Haven was the second.
Preaching services were begun by local preacher Staples of Lynn. He was followed by Rev. Edward Otheman of Chelsea, and he in turn by local preachers Blodgett and Poole of Lynn, who alternated in preaching. These brethren started and completed the movement to build a Methodist Episcopal Church on the spot where the present edifice stands. On April 7, 1857, the original proposition was made and signed by Joshua Webster, William R. Fernald, and James F. Eaton, looking to giving land and building a meeting-house. The deed of Webster and Fernald was signed May 15, 1857; and the church was probably organized between the above dates. The build- ing committee consisted of Silas Anderson, William R. Fernald, Edward Fuller, George Barker, and John Everson.
The church edifice was dedicated in 1858. In 1861, it was de- stroyed by fire ; and it was rebuilt in 1863, during the pastorate of Rev. L. P. Frost. During the winter and spring of 1889-90, under the pastorate of Rev. Seth C. Cary, this latter chapel was raised, new vestries added, an organ-loft built and the main auditorium renovated,
ST. MARY'S CATHOLIC T. A. SOCIETY
FLOAT
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new pews put in, and extensive repairs made at a cost of about fifty- five hundred dollars.
The Ladies' Aid Society was organized by Mrs. Lydia Reagh, president, Mrs. Henry Oliver, and Mrs. Jane Fuller for the purpose of furnishing the first church. Their successors in honor and office have done a great work. Mrs. E. F. Buckminster was president for several years, and Mrs. Evelyn M. Campbell, the present presiding officer, has held that position for about eighteen years. In February, 1899, this society purchased the pipe-organ which is now in the church.
Among the names of the class-leaders who have served the church at various times, I find those of James Blodgett, William J. Buck- minster, John A. Spofford, and Levi W. Rockwell; while those of Edward Fuller, Charles H. Wise, Arthur Bayrd, Samuel Jordan, Thomas Reaghi, Edward T. Rawley, Fred H. Towns, and Moses Hol- brook appear among the trustees, the latter having been president of the board for several years.
The pastors who have served the church, in addition to those already named are : -
Erastus O. Haven, 1858.
H. P. Andrews, 1861.
Wesley C. Sawyer, 1865.
John W. Hamilton, 1868-69.
James Trask, 1870.
C. C. Wilbor, 1871.
R. W. Copeland, 1872-73.
Isaac H. Packard, 1874.
Charles Young, 1875.
Charles N. Smith, 1876-77.
George H. Clarke, 1876-77.
R. W. Allen, 1878.
S. L. Rodgers, 1879-80.
J. H. Emerson, 1881-83.
Seth C. Cary, 1887-89.
J. White McCammon, 1892.
L. W. Adams, 1894-95.
Charles H. Sewell, 1859-60.
L. P. Frost, 1862-64.
Stephen Cushing, 1866-67.
Joseph Candlin, 1884-86.
James W. Fulton, 1890-91.
Henry L. Wriston, 1892-93. John R. Cushing, 1896-
Let us now consider, for a moment, some of our advantages and responsibilities as " citizens of no mean city."
The advantages of country life to a physical constitution have rarely been questioned. A farmer's life for a boy seems theoretically ideal. Pure air, green fields, wholesome food, simple habits, good homes, few excitements, all tend to the development of the sound body for the sound mind that is to be. But, when childhood days are gone, there is no field for discipline, or action, or enjoyment like the city.
When Robinson Crusoe was alone on his far-famed island, he could go to bed when he pleased, with his boots on or off. He could do his washing on Wednesday just as well as on Monday; eat his breakfast at night and his dinner the next morning, or vice versa ;
9
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and nobody cared. But when his man Friday appeared, the situation was completely changed. There were mutual rights that must be respected ; duties that must be reciprocated ; and laws, written or unwritten, that must be obeyed.
The civilization of our fathers was simple ; ours is complex. The old civilization was individualistic ; the new is collective. That was the age of homespun ; this is the age of the factory. Then men were independent ; now they are dependent. The typical family then was a little world in itself; now the world is rapidly becoming a great family.
New adjustments bring new duties. As a town grows from forty persons to forty thousand, the problems in the one case are wholly unlike the other. Our city is an illustration in point. First, the set- tlement ; then, the church ; then, the school. Allotments and taxes follow. Then the courts, registration of deeds, highways, police, town crier and tithingman, sewers, libraries, works of art, transporta- tion, provision for the sick and the poor and the dead, and the long list of industrial, municipal, and national adjustments which marks the growth of a settlement, a town, a city, a state, a nation.
Consider the advantage of mutual helpfulness. One alone cannot well build a church or carry on a school. One cannot build a bridge or launch a ship. Note the resources in our city for the enrichment of every life within it : libraries ; literary associations ; art and archi- tecture ; the best means and models for the cultivation of the intel- lect ; the study of wise benevolence ; and the inspiration of spiritual attainments, - facilities inadequately found in the ordinary country life. Hither throng the ablest men and women of the land, famous in their varied professions. Here are culture and refinement at their highest mark.
The city is the storehouse of the country's capital. Here are settled the great questions of policy and politics, trade and transpor- tation, fashion and finance, books and business, press and post, navy and nation, streets and schools, vice and virtue, crime and criminals, that confront the world.
The best of everything, and the worst as well, flows to the city as water runs downhill. Here the intellectual powers find great stimulus. Men learn without study, becoming educated by induction, as it were. Here the individual is developed insensibly by the intelligence which floats upon the air he breathes. He grows dextrous and self- relying. He acquires tact and shrewdness by personal contact with men and things.
Hence the responsibilities of dwellers in cities become momentous. The press, the politicians, and the pulpits of the city largely control the country. The churches of the city are indeed lights in the world.
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They ought to be world-models as well. They are sacredly bound, in the divine economy, to be first in every holy enterprise, the most intelligent, the most liberal promoters of every good work. How else can we explain the fact that God has sent hither vast peoples ?
Take the city of New York for example, where there are sixty thousand Italians, forty thousand countrymen of John Huss, thon- sands of Chinese, to say nothing of the Irish, French, Dutch, and Scandinavians. Why are they here? Let history answer. God called Israel out of Egypt. He inspired the heart of Columbus. He sent a Vermont missionary to Manila a year ago ; and He holds us responsible for the opportunities at our very doors. These nations are His children. They are here to build with us the commonwealth of the twentieth century. They are here to be Americanized. They are here, not to destroy our Christianity, but to be evangelized by its power. " To whom much is given, of him shall be much required."
This is not the time to discuss methods of work ; but it is a time to look the future fairly in the face as citizens of a Christian city, and to pray mightily for the enduement of power from on High. The Methodist Episcopal Church faces the century with the cry, "Two million souls and two million eagles in the next three years !" Nothing like it was ever heard before. No battle-shout of ancient . knight ever rang out its challenge more triumphantly than do our leaders this day. Brethren, let us stand together for our part in the conquest of this world for Christ. Then shall our translation be peaceful, serene, and bright from this " city of homes " to our home in that city whose maker and builder is God.
ST. PAUL'S CHURCH (EPISCOPAL). REV. FREDERICK EDWARDS, Rector.
THE two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, falling on Whitsunday, was observed in this church with services appropriate to the ecclesias- tical and civic occasion. The church was decorated within and with- out in red and white, the colors of Whitsuntide, relieved by wreaths and festoons of laurel. The chancel was hung with banners, on which were painted seals commemorative of the civil and religious history of the day. These were as follows : the seals of the city of Malden, of old Maldon, of the county of Essex in England, of Massa- chusetts, of England, and of the United States. On the ecclesiasti- cal side were the emblems of St. Paul and the Trinity, and the seals of the Bishop of Massachusetts, the Choir Guild, and the archbishop-
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rics of York and Canterbury. Back of the altar was a dorsal of ferns, sprayed with white stocks, against which flamed vases of red and yellow tulips and carnations.
The service in the morning consisted of Morning Prayer and the celebration of the Holy Communion, the musical portion of which was of a high order and was most effectively rendered. The preacher was the Rev. Dr. Cunningham, vicar of Great St. Mary's, Cambridge, England.
In the afternoon, there was a service for the children, with appro- priate music and recitations. An original paper - A Sunday Two Hundred and Fifty Years Ago - was read by Miss Edith James, and an historical address, of which a brief abstract is here given, was delivered by William B. de las Casas, senior warden of the church.
SERMON.
BY THE REV. WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM, D.D. +
VICAR OF GREAT ST. MARY'S, AND FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, ENGLAND.
HEBREWS Xi. 10. - A city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
ON the other great festivals in the Christian Year we call to mind some of the events in the life of our Divine Lord when He sojourned on earth : His birth, as on Christmas Day ; His resurrection on the first Easter; and His ascension into Heaven. But on Whitsunday we thank God for His unspeakable gift, - for that living Spirit which carries on in all places and for all ages the work which Jesus Christ accomplished in the little land of Judea long ago. His sacred Pres- ence there convinced of sin : " Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord," said St. Peter ; the convicted accusers of the sinful woman slunk out one by one, while His gaze was averted. They dared not face it. And He convinced of righteousness, too : He spoke as one having authority ; He had the words of eternal life. And that divine power is working still ; it is not a thing of the past. The power of the world to come was brought by Him to bear on men's hearts and lives ; and still through His Spirit the same work is done; the old truth comes home from time to time with intense force. Through God's Spirit we may all experience the same sense of guilt before God and the Son, and the Power of God to save, as was burnt into the very soul of the weeping Magdalene or the penitent thief by the words of the Incarnate God.
Whitsunday is the pledge of God's power to give all men and all races the same opportunities of personal religious experiences as were
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vouchsafed to those who companied with our Lord long ago. This festival ought to make us feel the need and the duty of attaining to deep personal conviction, like that of St. John, or St. Peter, or St. Paul, since God has given us the opportunity. We are so apt to for- get the importance of personal religion, personal conviction, personal faith. We need to cultivate a horror of sin as a contagion we guard our own minds against, and a sense of our own infinite littleness in the presence of God. Our religion is so apt to be a set of opinions that we feel to be useful maxims for society, important ingredients in civilization, etc., or an adjunct, like good manners, that is an appro- priate habit to wear among men, to a Christian community. But whenever we lose the sense of personal religious needs, and cease to make personal efforts after religious progress, there is a danger lest our religion should become mere formalism, - a formal acqui- escence in principles or practices that have no power. There was need to protest against the spirit of formalism in England under Elizabeth and the Stuarts, as the Puritans did. But the danger of formalism is persistent. It is not necessarily involved in adherence to any religious system, and there is no profession of faith, however spiritual, that gives immunity from this blighting influence. It may by God's grace make the most simple external observances real by using them as the vehicles of personal devotion ; or, on the other hand, we may hold the most broad opinions in a formal manner, as things we acquiesce in, but which fail to make a deep difference to ourselves in our own lives. If we rely on God's promise, pledged to us personally in Confirmation, to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask, then assuredly we may seek to-day for a greater measure of that best gift, with this special desire in our minds, that God would so move our hearts that all our expressions of belief, and all our confession of sin, and all our songs of praise and adoration shall be more habitually filled with deep conviction and personal devotion.
It is not uninstructive to note the conditions which prepared the Apostles for the reception of the promised gift. The promise is to us, as it was to them, to us and to our children and to all that are afar off, as truly as it was to the Apostles ; perhaps if we would follow their example of obedience and of conscious association, we might inherit a fuller measure of the blessing that was so richly bestowed on them at Pentecost.
The Apostles had got their instructions from the Lord, and they carried them out ; they were to stay at Jerusalem and to wait; and their obedience had its reward. And we would do well to make simple obedience the very corner-stone of our religious life, - faithful compliance with our Lord's command, "This do in remembrance of Me." Sunday after Sunday, the church offers the sacrifice of praise
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and thanksgiving, and shows forth the Lord's death till He comes. But how few there are, of those who profess to be Christians and to take Him as their Master, who love Him enough to obey Him in this very little thing ! How can we hope to have our own life guidanced and strengthened by Him, if we neglect to come into His presence and to thank God, as He bade us do, for His exceeding great love in dying for us? We must begin to keep His commandment ; we must obey, if we love.
And there was to be association, too, as well as obedience ; they were to wait together ; when the Gift was vouchsafed they were found with one accord in one place. In the Old Testament times God's spirit was given to Moses, alone at the Burning Bush, or on Mt. Sinai ; to Elijah when the sense of his utter loneliness was strong- est; and God cheers and blesses times of solitude still; but the promise is made, not to the hermit only, but to the company of the faithful. " Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of you ; " the agreement of disciples is put forward by our Lord as a condition of blessing in prayer. We need not cultivate an isolated Christianity or a solitary spirituality ; we are to seek Christian fellowship as the divinely instituted condition of personal progress in the religious life ; not to take our own way and follow our own religious devices according to taste and temperament, but to abide in the Apostles' doctrine, and fellowship, and breaking of bread, and prayers ; the more we love the brotherhood, and habituate ourselves to intercourse with those who are waiting for the Lord, the more completely may the personal character be infused by that envi- ronment of faith, and earnestness, and devotion.
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