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 16
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On the altar of our country, consecrated to humanity, we must sacrifice selfishness and selfish ambition. No man has attained, nor can attain, to the dignity of true American citizenship until he has learned to put aside selfish motives, until he has learned to work and labor earnestly and steadily in the spirit of humanity's highest law, "each one for others and for all."
To the school, the home, and the church, therefore, must we look for the preparation of the men of the future, - the men of light and leading for noble, patriotic service. May this sacred alliance, this noble trinity, - the home, the church, and the school, - weld together and assimilate the people in national brotherhood to perpetuate our
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glorious charter of equal rights and equal opportunities to the ages yet untold.
HYMN OF PRAISE.
Te Deum Laudamus.
SCHOOL AND AUDIENCE.
Holy God, we praise Thy name ! Lord of all, we bow before Thee !
All on earth Thy sceptre claim, All in Heaven above adore Thee : Infinite Thy vast domain, Everlasting is Thy reign.
Hark ! the loud celestial hymn Angel choirs above are raising ! Cherubim and Seraphim In unceasing chorus praising, Fill the heavens with sweet accord :
Holy ! Holy ! Holy Lord !
Lo! the Apostolic train Join Thy sacred name to hallow !
Prophets swell the loud refrain, And the white-robed martyrs follow ; And from morn to set of sun, Through the Church the song goes on.
UNION RELIGIOUS SERVICE.
AT THE ANNIVERSARY BUILDING, AT 7.30 P. M.
THE persistent rain, which had been falling at intervals during the afternoon, did not deter large crowds from gathering around the Anniversary Building long before the hour which had been announced for the opening of the doors ; and the vast auditorium was soon filled to its utmost capacity. Long lines of people were turned away, and moved towards the First Church, where an overflow meeting was to be held, and to the First Baptist Church, where a service in memory of Adoniram Judson was to be given. Both churches were completely filled, and the three congregations were the largest which have ever been gathered at a Sunday evening service in Malden.
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At the Anniversary Building the anniversary chorus occupied the rising seats at the rear of the speakers' platform and, with the brilliant decorations, formed a most effective background as seen from the auditorium. The chorus, under the direction of the veteran leader, Obadiah B. Brown, rendered the musical portion of the program with precision and a controlled and well-sustained power that gave full promise of the admirable work which it accomplished on the succeed- ing day.
The meeting was under the management of the following -
COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS.
Rev. Henry H. French, D.D., Chairman.
Rev. James F. Albion. Rev. Alberto A. Bennett.
Rev. Frederick Edwards.
Frank J. Bartlett.
Charles E. Mann. Tenney Morse.
The exercises began at 7.30 P. M. by an Orchestral Introduction (Largo, Handel), which was followed by -
THE INVOCATION, BY THE REV. J. CRIS. WILLIAMS.
LINDEN CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
ALMIGHTY and ever blessed God, Thou who art infinite in goodness and boundless in love and compassion : we invoke thy blessing upon this audience. Bless the singing, the reading of the Divine Word, the speaking, and the hearing. We invoke Thy blessing upon our beloved city. O God, we seek of Thee " a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance." We ask it for Christ's sake. Amen.
CHORUS.
Mozart.
Glorious is Thy Name, Almighty Lord; all the angels stand round about Thy throne. Let all nations bow before Thee, and declare Thy wondrous works. We praise Thee, we give thanks to Thee, we adore Thee, we glorify Thee for Thy great glory. Blessing and honor be to Thee for evermore.
RESPONSIVE READING BY THE REV. FREDERICK EDWARDS.
ST. PAUL'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
I will magnify Thee, O God, my King; and I will praise Thy Name for ever and ever.
Every day will I give thanks unto Thee ; and praise Thy Name for ever and ever.
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Great is the Lord, and marvellous worthy to be praised ; there is no end of His greatness.
One generation shall praise Thy works unto another, and declare Thy power.
As for me, I will be talking of Thy worship, Thy glory, Thy praise, and wondrous works ;
So that men shall speak of the might of Thy marvellous acts ; and I will also tell of Thy greatness.
The memorial of Thine abundant kindness shall be showed ; and men shall sing of Thy righteousness.
Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Thy dominion endureth throughout all ages.
Thou openest Thine hand, and fillest all things living with plenteousness.
The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him ; yea, all such as call upon Him faithfully.
The Lord preserveth all them that love Him ; but scattereth abroad all the ungodly.
My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord ; and let all flesh give thanks unto His holy Name for ever and ever.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost ;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world with- out end.
HYMN. Tune, Duke Street.
ANNOUNCED BY THE REV. JOSEPH P. KENNEDY,
BELMONT METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
O God, beneath Thy guiding hand, Our exiled fathers crossed the sea ;
And when they trod the wintry strand,
With prayer and psalm they worshipped Thee.
Thou heard'st, well-pleased, the song, the prayer ; Thy blessing came ; and still its power
Shall onward, through all ages, bear
The memory of that holy hour.
Laws, freedom, truth, and faith in God
Came with those exiles o'er the waves ;
And where their pilgrim feet have trod,
The God they trusted guards their graves.
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And here Thy Name, O God of love, Their children's children shall adore,
Till these eternal hills remove, And spring adorns the earth no more.
SCRIPTURE LESSON READ BY THE REV. JOSEPH M. SHEPLER,
ASSISTANT PASTOR CENTRE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
ISAIAH XII.
1. And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee : though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.
2. Behold, God is my salvation ; I will trust, and not be afraid : for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song ; he also is become my salvation.
3. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.
4. And in that day shall ye say, Praise the LORD, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted.
5. Sing unto the LORD; for he hath done excellent things : this is known in all the earth.
6. Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion : for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.
The PRAYER, by the Rev. James F. Albion, of the First Parish (Universalist), was followed by a RESPONSE (Benedictus, Gounod), sung by Master Frank Rogers. "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest."
THE OFFERTORY ADDRESS BY THE REV. EDWIN H. HUGHES.
CENTRE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
My Friends : - We must all be impressed by several character- isties of this gathering. I speak not as an accurate historian, but certainly as a safe guesser at facts, when I say that we are now met in the largest religious service ever held in the quarter-millennium of our city's history. When in the meeting of ministers we were plan- ning for this occasion, the question was raised whether we could expect to have this Anniversary Building filled with people. I ex- pressed the opinion that we would need to provide for an overflow meeting, - an opinion justified by the sight of the many hundreds who have been unable to find room here to-night; but one of my
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fellow pastors, whose name I shall mercifully withhold, said that we could not expect to crowd this great place, and, in explanation of my large claims, said : " Oh, Mr. Hughes, you're an enthusiastic Metho- dist." To-night I feel like a prophet not without local honor. Beyond my hopeful words, the people have come hither. From Everett's line to Melrose, from Revere's border to Medford, we have turned toward this place, - a high place, we may safely say, whither the tribes have come up, the tribes of the Lord, to the testimony of our wide Israel.
We must all feel, too, the thrill of the larger fellowship. If ever before, since the various branches of the church were established in Malden, all Protestant denominations have so largely closed their doors on Sunday morning or evening to meet under one roof, the fact has not been made known to me. It makes me think, in contrast, of a few lines in Whittier's Miriam, which I am fond of quoting. The poet tells how he and his friend had gone one Sunday afternoon to the crest of a hill overlooking the village. They stood there until that time of reverence, -
" When at last the evening air Grew sweeter for the bells of prayer Ringing in steeples far below, We watched the people churchward go, Each to his place, as if thereon The true shekinah only shone; And my friend queried how it came To pass that they who owned the same Great Master still could not agree To worship Him in company."
If Mr. Whittier were still alive and had seen the out-pouring crowds of people, notwithstanding the down-pouring torrents of rain, - people coming from various altars to gather at this one shrine, - he would surely feel that we were nearing the millennium of religious unity.
But our common heritage of religious life should express itself in helpfulness toward a common service to our city. Therefore our gathering has a third characteristic : so far as I know, it is the only meeting in our celebration in which we are to be asked to do aught in the sweet name of Christian charity. We have recently instituted in Malden the Associated Charities. This organization is already proving itself of good effect and is doing a splendid work in our midst. All the money received in our offering to-night, over and above the amount required to pay the expense of this service, will be devoted to the noble purposes of the Associated Charities. I nrge
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you, then, to be most liberal. Gathered in this genial and generous atmosphere, let us open our purses widely and express practically the fine human interest seen in the thousands of happy faces in this build- ing. If the sound of clinking be not heard in the offering, let it be only because paper money rather than metal money falls upon the plates. Let each person present claim with a glad heart his share in this anniversary giving. The ushers will now receive your evening offering.
An offering was here gathered by the ushers, with substantial results, for the benefit of the Associated Charities.
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS BY THE REV. HENRY H. FRENCH, D.D.
FIRST CHURCH.
My Friends : -- It becomes my high duty and privilege to wel- come you to this extraordinary service, to-night. Nothing but an occasion out of the common order could warrant us in abandoning our customary places of worship, and uniting in this strange place on a Sabbath evening for service together. But we feel that the two hun- dred and fiftieth anniversary of our city is an event so unique and so important as to justify the innovation ; and our hope is that thus the whole celebration that is before us may receive a genuine religious impress. The reflecting mind can hardly help contrasting that early day of small beginnings, two and a half centuries ago, with this rich, opulent, powerful day in which we live; and the devout mind ex- claims, "What hath God wrought !" But God works through agencies always ; and only as he finds men willing to cooperate with Him does He produce such splendid results. There seems to be a great law underlying all human progress and prescribing the manner by which man or nation comes into the possession of the best things. Death is evermore the gateway to life. The ground must be bruised by the plow and torn by the harrow before it will bring forth corn and wheat for the sustenance of man. Plants and flowers yield their richest virtues only when beaten and crushed. The purple grape must suffer violence before it gives up its ruby life. Lower animal forms, by the thousand, are sacrificed to the higher forms, and only so can the fittest survive.
And as we rise in the scale of being the whole structure of civilization is found to be built upon the toil, the hardships, the sacrifices of the few. So it comes about that every nation of history has had given to it, as from the hand of God, some great ideal to work into the fabric of the world at any or all cost. This is a people's
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only patent to nobility ; the only excuse for its existence. Having this, it is immortal till the work is done. Thus the Semitic race has cut deeply into the heart of mankind the religious idea; the Greek, that of beauty and art; the Roman, that of law and order.
But it was left for the Anglo-Saxon to carry forward to successful issue the idea of civil and religious liberty ; and the men for God's hour and God's work were at hand, - men who feared nothing but God's frown, who, persecuted in their native land, made the seas a highway, harnessed the winds of Heaven to be their servant, and, after weary days and perilous nights, anchored by our stern and rock- bound coast. These men came with an idea which they were ready to water with their blood and warm with their ardor, and so make regnant in the earth. And they went about it instantly. In the cabin of their little ship the compact was made that was destined to make a government " of the people, by the people, and for the people." Perhaps they builded better than they knew ; but we ought to thank God for the peculiar type of national life begun on that immortal day. The type might easily have been something other. For two streams flowed forth from the strife of the Reformation which inevitably meant two kinds of government. And both the streams found their way to these shores.
The one came from Catholic France, the other from Protes- tant England. The first found a stronghold to the north in the colonies of the French; the second made its home at Plymouth Rock. But both could not abide so nearly together. A conflict for the supremacy was inevitable ; and on the Heights of Abraham before Quebec it was finally decided that that type of national life untram- melled and unfettered by alliances between church and state should prevail.
And we ought to thank God, too, that the democratic and not the aristocratic idea was seized upon so grandly and so clearly by the fathers. Here again there was an opportunity to copy others and blunder. For a colony in the South, at Jamestown, was already thriving when the Pilgrims landed, and that colony was in its essence aristocratic. The majority of the settlers there belonged to the aristocracy. They came, not to work, but to seek adventure and gold. They were ready for anything but toil. Consequently, some class system was inevitable, which opened the way for that monstrum. horrendum, American slavery, the virus of which had to be cut from the life of the nation, two centuries afterward, at tremendous cost. And nobody can doubt that the seed which grew to be powerful enough to uproot aristocracy from the soil of the nation was planted amid prayers and tears by the men we are here to honor to-night, who believed in a Democracy. But I must not tarry longer upon these
INDIANS - ST. MARY'S CATHOLIC T. A. SOCIETY
THE PARADE
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matters. Those early days were days often of religious controversy and contention. These are days of peace. We meet together in unity and Christian love, illustrating the apostolic motto, " One Lord, one faith, one Baptism." The Puritan and the Ritualist are both here; the radical and the conservative sit side by side. The name of Lawrence is an honored one among us, in church, in state, and in the commercial world. And I now have the honor of presenting to you Bishop William Lawrence of the Diocese of Massachusetts.
ADDRESS BY THE RT. REV. WILLIAM LAWRENCE, D.D.,
BISHOP OF MASSACHUSETTS.
THE PURITANS.
ONE great object of such a celebration as this which you, citizens and brethren of Old Malden, are entering upon is to get at the heart of the men who were in the beginnings of the community, - to reach down into the principles of their lives.
In the next few days you will hear much of the customs and man- ners of the New England Puritans, some of them picturesque, others hard and uninviting ; you may catch a glimpse of their dress, their furniture, and their architecture.
Interesting and important as these studies are, they do not strike the deepest notes of the Puritan character.
On this Sunday evening, at the beginning of the celebration, I want to call your thoughts away for a while from the present to a short study of the past, wherein we may catch a few notes of the essentials of the character of the Puritan, and then with the present New England before us, I want to suggest how the character of the Puritan may take its place in the life of the people as we approach the dawn of the twentieth century. What were the elements of character that founded the colony of the Old Bay State and the ancient hamlet of Malden? How shall these same elements of char- acter enter into the development of the commonwealth of Massachu- setts and the prosperous city of Malden ?
I must ask you first to go back with me many centuries and patiently trace the uprising of the Puritan.
The people of northern Europe were of a different temper from the southern races. The cold winds of the northern seas had tough- ened their fibre, and in giving them red blood had also endowed them with that strong, free, self-confident spirit which, though at times brutal and sensual, was also noble, and with a love of truth and justice. There was a spirit of independence, a love of liberty which,
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if restrained, broke out in lawlessness, but was withal fine and mighty.
Over such a horde of hardy, roving men in Germany and Britain there had been gradually spread, through the influence of mission- aries, scholars, and soldiers from Rome, the system of religion and state which, adapted to the temper of southern Europe, had been silently and unobservedly cast upon the people of the North. Suc- cess in controlling these unconscious and ignorant forces tempted the church to press the system harder and more thoroughly into the lives of the people.
Germany was the home of the Teuton and Goth. In Britain there had come a fusion of races that betokened might and independence.
In time, the rumblings of discontent beneath the pressure of the system of the Latin races began to be heard. From England first, the voice of John Wycliffe was heard as far as Rome ; and in response to the command for silence he put forth the English Bible. Then Germany answered by the life and martyrdom of John Huss, the Morning Star of the Reformation. Soon Luther met the power of Rome with his response : "I can do nought else. Here stand I. God help me. Amen." From that hour, the movement of the North was on foot. It was not a mere religious revolt, not a mere protest against Rome and priestcraft, it was a revolt of the free, independ- ent, and vigorous spirit of the North against the system of the South ; it was the break of modern life from mediævalism. The issue in England came when that great and brutal, but sometimes noble, King Henry VIII. reached the throne ; and his passions became the means by which the people of England shattered the supremacy of the Pope and the reign of medievalism in England.
There are two events which stand forth in my mind as most sig- nificant in the development of the English nation and its world-wide empire.
The first occurred just three hundred and fifty years ago this very day, Whitsunday. In the reign of Edward VI., in response to the pressure from the people and leaders of the church, the Book of Common Prayer, which in substantially the same form has ever since been the Prayer Book of the Church of England and later of the Epis- copal Church in this country, was for the first time used in the service of the churches. On that day, Latin ceased to be the universal lan- guage of Christian worship ; and since that day, English, even in the Roman Church, strong, pure English, a " language understanded of the people," has become the vehicle for the utterance by the people of their deepest thoughts and aspirations.
The other event was the voyage of the " Mayflower," whereby through covenant, courage, and sacrifice a colony was founded that
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has carried the march of English civilization across the continent, and is now encircling the earth.
With an English Prayer Book, and later a Bible not only trans- lated but printed and open in the churches, and with the temper of Englishmen, it was only a question of time when many other tradi- tions, habits, and principles which had their birth in southern Europe would have to go; and in the history of the seventeenth century we have the story of the rough and sometimes brutal, but on the whole just and reasonable, way in which an Englishman regains his rights and liberties. From the heart of England came the forces to make the nation great. Strong institutions and weak and stubborn kings fell before the will of the people.
To be sure, there were periods when the old order seemed too strong to be moved ; when a self-confident king like James I. could for a time hold the reins of power, and when there seemed to be victory to his threat, "I will make them conform or I will harry them out of the land."
There was victory, but not as he expected ; for in harrying the Puritans out of England, he drove them across the ocean, upbuilt a great commonwealth, which in the days of George III. brought even England to her knees, and which stands as the leader in the move- ments of life and politics which James most dreaded.
Now we reach the point in history where the Puritan stands forth. As we watch him in Old and New England, and study his spiritual and martial battles, his theology and philosophy, his habits of life and serious face, the question bears in upon us with fascinating interest, What is the essential element of Puritanism?
We all know the popular impressions of the spirit of Puritanism.
For instance, we are told, doubtless you will be told in the next few days, that the Puritan was hard, narrow, bigoted, and a hypo- crite. No doubt many of them were; we cannot begin to realize the pressure of hard conditions and unjust treatment that made them such. John Milton, John Hampden, and John Winthrop were, how- ever, Puritans. Surely this is not true of them. A system has a right to be judged by its best expression, and not its worst. No! hard, narrow, bigoted, and hypocritical as many of the Puritans were, that was not an essential in the Puritan character.
" Ah! but they made of the Sabbath a day of gloom and spiritual tyranny ; they spurned pleasure and sports ; and under the guise of piety gave themselves up to backbiting and secret sins."
True again of some, especially in the later days of Puritanism, when its spiritual force was declining; but surely Cromwell was a Puritan and a sportsman and a lover of hawking and horses. He would put many a modern sportsman to the blush. Calvin, the
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author of the hardest theology, played his games out of doors of a Sunday afternoon ; and Milton was deeply touched with the spirit of humor and playfulness.
" Jest, and youthful jollity, Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles, Nods, and becks, and wreathed smiles. Sport that wrinkled Care derides, And Laughter holding both his sides."
These lines were not from the Elizabethan poet, William Shakespeare, but from the Puritan poet, John Milton.
No! the spurning of pleasure and sport, which was at first the true and noble protest against the sensuality of the stage of that day and the looseness of morals, was not an essential element in the Puritan character.
" Surely he was morose and even cruel in his theology," we hear. " Have we not right here in Malden the life of our early pastor, the Reverend Michael Wigglesworth, and his tragic poem, The Day of Doom ? Did he not write these terrible lines descriptive of the Judgment Day? Are they not rather barbarous than Christian? -
"' They wring their hands, their caitiff-hands, and gnash their teeth for terrour : They cry, they rore for anguish sore, and gnaw their tongues for horrour. But get away without delay ; Christ pitties not your cry : Depart to Hell; there may you yell and roar Eternally.'"
Yes ! that is barbarous : it is the logical result of a philosophy which overwhelmed all thought in that age, which dominated the theology of Rome as well as of Protestantism. It is the song of a dyspeptic, hysterical, sickly minister, who, burdened with a hard and narrow life, yielded to his philosophy and ran his thoughts into rhyme.
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