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 8
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We celebrate to-day the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of our church : The First Church of Christ in Malden. To review in a single discourse this long period, covering one quarter of a millennium of church history, is of course impossible.
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I propose, therefore, to speak to you simply of the early Puritans in Malden, of the beginnings of the church which they founded, and of its first minister.
No one can apprehend truly and fairly the unique history of one of the early New England churches without first attaining a clear and just understanding of the peculiar people who constituted that church.
On some appointed day in the charming month of May, 1649 (the exact date is not known), just as the trees had broken into full leaf, and the wild flowers had opened bright and cheery through all the fragrant woods, a small company of Christian people assembled in their little meeting-house, located a few feet southwest of our historic Bell Rock. The purpose of their meeting was to organize, for the highest and eternal good of themselves, of their children, of all the people in the town, and for the glory of God, a church of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were grave and thoughtful people ; yet on that day, as they came from their several homes along the narrow paths through the fields and the woods, some walking, others riding horseback, now and then a man and his wife upon the same horse, they did not wear sad faces. They were all astir and beaming with thoughts of their new town soon to be founded, of their new place of worship, and of the new church they were to create before the sun went down. They had previously worshipped with the church in Charlestown, of which most of them had been members. But the path over the hill to the Mystic River, and then on beyond the river to the meeting-house in Charlestown, seemed long to them. Besides, they were tired of making that " troublesome " and often dangerous passage, in their little row-boats, over " the broad-spreading river." They were now happy in the prospect of living in their new town and near their own church. They were all plainly but neatly dressed in garments of home-made cloth, cut after the English patterns of the time. But it was not of their outward appearance that they were thinking that day ; rather were they dwelling profoundly and prayerfully upon their preparation of heart and mind to take upon themselves, again before God, vows of holy brotherhood and of personal consecration to Christ and to the service of His gospel and kingdom.
No record of the religious services which accompanied the organ- ization of their church has been preserved. But undoubtedly there was much earnest praying and thanksgiving, with repeated and rap- turous singing of psalms, " lined off" by a grave elder, and a long and most instructive discourse, - all this preliminary to their solemn act of entering into church covenant. A similar service preliminary to the formation of the church at Woburn, seven years before, occu-
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pied " four or five hours." Perhaps equally long were the prepara- tory services here in Malden. Then probably here as in Woburn, those persons who were to be embodied in a church state, " stood forth and made declaration, one by one, of their religious faith and Christian experience, confessing what the Lord had done for their poor souls by the work of His Spirit in the preaching of His Word and Providences." After this, in solemn form, they gave public assent to a church covenant, which had been previously prepared ; and so they were constituted " The Church of Christ in Malden," which under God's protecting and gracious providence has continued to this day.
Unfortunately, the records of this church from the date of its organization down to 1770 - a period of one hundred and twenty-one years - were long ago lost. Consequently, the names and number of its original members have not come down to us in the usual author- itative form of church record. Yet, only two and a half years after May, 1649, thirty-six Christian women, most if not all of whom were doubtless members of the church in Malden, signed their names to a petition addressed to the General Court in behalf of their minis- ter ; and their names we have on record. In other ancient docu- ments we find the names of some, but possibly not all, of the early male members.
This church was the forty-third church established on the territory now included in the commonwealth of Massachusetts. Two of those forty-three churches, however, previous to 1649, removed to Connec- ticut. Since that date nineteen more of those churches have dropped from the list, having either deceased or abandoned evangelical faith and united with some other denomination ; so that to-day there are in this commonwealth only twenty-one churches of our order older than the First Church in Malden. This church is twenty years older than the Old South Church in Boston, and one hundred and sixty years older than the Park Street Church in Boston. It is older than any church of our order in the present enlarged Boston, save that church in Charlestown which is the mother of this church. That mother church was really the Second Church in Charlestown, though now often called the First Church. The really First Church in Charlestown was organized by Governor Winthrop and a few of his people on July 30, 1630 ; but it soon abandoned its place of worship, and erected a meeting-house in Boston, to which town a majority of its members had removed, and so became the First Church in Boston. Long afterward it became and still is a Unitarian church. But on Nov. 2, 1632, another church was organized in Charlestown, and it was this church that sixteen and a half years later dismissed a num- ber of its members to constitute the church in Malden. This vener-
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able mother of our church is still living, at the goodly age of two hundred and sixty-six years, and is still true to the faith it was founded to maintain and proclaim.
This First Church in Malden was the only church in this town for eighty-five years. The territorial parish connected with it was large, comprising not only the present area of Malden, but also the terri- tories now included in the cities of Everett and Melrose. On April 17, 1734, a second church was organized in Malden, but in that part of the town then called South Malden, now Everett. It had a feeble and precarious existence for about fifty-eight years, and then was reabsorbed into the First Church.
Our church was the only church at Malden Centre for more than a century and a half. It lived and wrought here alone as a church through all the long colonial history of New England, save the very earliest years of that period ; through all the bloody Indian wars ; through the long French wars ; through the great war of the Revolu- tion ; and through all the historic events and scenes connected with the birth of our nation. It was the one solitary church here at Mal- den Centre when American patriots gained for themselves imperish- able fame at Lexington and Concord, when men of Malden, some of them doubtless members of this church, pursued the retreating British soldiers to Charlestown, and evidently not to the comfort of the " Red Coats ; " for, as Mr. Corey tells us, Malden men " made several prisoners and took their stores and arms." This First Church was the only church here when the people of all this region were listening anxiously to that terrible cannonade at the historic Battle of Bunker Hill ; the only church here to sing hymns of joy and give thanks to Almighty God, when the Continental Congress, on the fourth of July, 1776, sent forth to the country and the world the immortal Declaration of Independence, and the only church here through the first twenty-seven years of the history of the United States of America.
It helps us to appreciate the long life of our church to consider that it was an ancient church, one hundred and fifty-four years old, when the First Baptist Church in Malden was founded in 1803, and it was one hundred and seventy-two years old when the First Metho- dist Church in Malden was founded in 1821. Our church has now lived side by side with the First Baptist Church of this town, in unbroken harmony, for ninety-six years ; but it had previously lived here alone for one hundred and fifty-four years. Our church has now lived here side by side with the First Methodist Church, in unbroken harmony, for seventy-eight years ; but it had previously lived here without that church for one hundred and seventy-two years.
The founders of this church may have built better than they knew ; but we know now that they were led of God to build for the ages.
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This brings us to the question : what kind of people were those first church-founders in Malden? They were Puritans. They were Protestant Reformers. They were in, and a part of, that tremendous historic movement called The Protestant Reformation, - a great religious and moral revolution, which shook European thrones to their foundations, made even the Roman oligarchy tremble for its life, blocked the way of some of the most remorseless persecutions ever known in the world's history, and at length stripped royal and ecclesiastical despots in England, and in some other parts of Europe, of their almost unlimited power to imprison, hang, and burn the Lord's people. We sometimes forget how near to the times of bloody persecutions in England the fathers of New England lived. The Church of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, for instance, was a part of that church organized at Scrooby, England, in 1606 ; and some of those Plymouth Pilgrims were among the original members of that terribly persecuted Scrooby Church. Of course, all the members of a church organized in 1606 were born in the preceding century, and some of them may have lived, and the parents of some of them certainly did live, under the reign of " Bloody Mary," - a reign which was too terrible to be long, and lasted only five years, from 1553 to 1558.
In the same way the roots of our own church run back into English soil wet with the blood of martyrs. Some of the older men and women who took part in organizing our church in that little meeting-house close by Bell Rock, in May, 1649, may have been born before the year 1600; and the parents of some of them almost cer- tainly had reached maturity before that year. But only seven years before 1600, or in 1593, Henry Barrows, and John Greenwood, and John Penry, scholarly and godly ministers of Christ, all of them edu- cated at Cambridge University, were put to death by hanging at Lon- don, England, and this by order of the Royal High Commission and the Archbishop of the Anglican Episcopal Church, - two of the martyrs having previously suffered a most cruel and revolting impris- onment for nearly six years. What for? Because by a devout study of the New Testament they had become convinced that the churches organized under the instruction of Christ and the Apostles were " Independent," or, as we should say, Congregational churches, each one of them having the God-given right to elect all of its own officers, and to choose its own form and order of worship. Because these God-fearing and sweet-spirited ministers had met with a few people of like faith in private houses and in the woods, some- times at midnight, and had prayed with them and explained God's Word to them, and had observed the Lord's Supper with them - because they had thus interpreted the teachings of the New Testa- ment, and had thus worshipped God with His people, and had pub-
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lished their views in a few little tracts and books, they were, by order of the Episcopal Archbishop and the High Commission, put to death by hanging.
Now, all intelligent people living in England at that time must have had full knowledge of those awful martyrdoms and of similar preceding ones. Those cruel and revolting executions of good men were all public. Some of the older original members of our own church must have been profoundly moved by what they had heard of those murderous persecutions from their parents and others, even if they themselves had not witnessed some of them.
When John Greenwood was in prison he wrote a small book, advocating the views of the local church which he had found taught in the New Testament. His manuscript was somehow taken by friendly hands out of the country, printed, and the books were brought back into England for distribution. At the same time there was in Mal- don, England, a minister named George Gifford. He was a Puritan and a nonconformist ; but he was strongly opposed to any separation from the established church, and to the setting up of independent churches. So he published a treatise in violent opposition to Mr. Greenwood's book ; and the latter, from his prison, answered him in another printed book. This was a public and famous debate. The people of Maldon, England, must have known all about it; for Rev. George Gifford lived and preached there. Now it happens that Joseph Hills, who was, perhaps, the leading man in this town and this church at the time they were founded, came hither from that same Maldon in England. And it is incredible that an intelligent man born in 1603 (though in another place) could have lived in his mature years, as he did, in that English town of Maldon, and not have heard of that most unique and famous debate. The books on both sides were printed and circulated ; and he must have read them over and over and pondered upon them long and deeply. Moreover, if he knew of that public debate, he must have been familiar with all the shocking details of the horrible prison life, and of the savage martyrdom of those brave and good men, Barrows, Greenwood, and Penry. And all this must have deepened his Puritanism, and pre- pared him to go to any place on this broad earth, in spite of all perils and sacrifices by sea or land, if only somewhere he could do his humble part in founding " a state without a king and a church with- out a bishop." With Joseph Hills came also, from that same Maldon in England, John Wayte, another leading man in the early history of this town and church ; and with them came Thomas Ruck. These three men, at least, must have brought with them to our Malden the profoundest convictions of the inestimable worth of civil and religious liberty. All this testifies to the meaning and truth of my words, 6
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when I say that the roots of our own beloved church run back into English soil that was wet with the blood of martyrs. In this instance, as in many others, it was proved true that " the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church."
In the next place, why were these people in England and New Eng- land called Puritans? They never assumed that name. It was given them; and it was given them in the first instance in ridicule. After- wards it became one of the most honorable and renowned names known in history. There had previously been in the world many such people as they were, but they had not been called by that name. Indeed, at that very time there were people similar to them in faith and character in other lands. The Huguenots were the Puritans of France. The Lutherans were the Puritans of Germany ; and those suffering Christians in Piedmont, some of whom were the Lord's " slaughtered saints," whom the great Puritan poet, Milton, in im- mortal verse, called on God to " avenge " - they were the Puritans of the Alps. Yet the English Puritans did have a certain uniqueness of character. That uniqueness consisted in the strenuousness of their religious convictions and the vital union of those tremendous convic- tions with Anglo-Saxon grit and courage. They were called Puritans, because they stood so unflinchingly for purity in Christian faith and worship ; for purity in personal character and life ; for purity in the administration of church and state ; for purity in family and social life ; for moral purity everywhere in the spheres of human responsi- bility and action. They cultivated conscience. They kept the Sab- bath and revered the sanctuary. They had profound convictions of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and of the supernal glory of personal righteousness. With all their power of hatred they hated a lie, and all forms of mendacity, deceit, and fraud. They were understood to be a class of people who at any sacrifice met their obligations on time. They kept all their promises. They dealt fairly and squarely with their fellow-men. They also made it a matter of conscience, and even a part of their religious life, to be industrious, to practise economy, to live at any sacrifice within their means, and so to be thrifty and independent. They had a profound contempt for the meanness of living needlessly on the toil and money of others. Their moral stand- ard was so high and rigorous that many deemed them, as some deem them now, austere and imperious. And they were austere in con- demning all meanness and moral corruption. They were also imperi- ous in demanding what is honorable and right between man and man, and between man and God. Yet their hearts were full of Christian sympathy. Their lives abounded in generous acts, and they were always prompt to help the unfortunate and needy. Their domestic life was sweet and tender. Their homes were full of affection and
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happiness. John Winthrop, the first governor of the Massachusetts Colony, was a typical Puritan ; and no one can read his letters to his wife and children and not see that his home must have given one something of a foretaste of heaven. True, he had more wealth and a higher social position than most of the people in the colony enjoyed ; but such things do not insure a happy home. It was because of his Puritanism and the Puritan training of his family that his home was so heavenly ; and there is reason to believe that the home of every other true Puritan was of the same character.
But how did such a class of people as these Puritans were come into existence? Under God, it was the English Bible that made them what they were. You remember that an African prince, through his ambassador, once asked Queen Victoria to tell him the secret of England's power and prosperity. "Tell your prince," replied the Queen, " that it is the Bible that has made England great." So it was the English Bible that made the Puritans what they were, - one of the mightiest reformatory and ennobling forces thus far known in the world's history.
It should be remembered that the people in England, down to nearly the middle of the sixteenth century, had never seen a single copy of the entire Bible printed in their own language. The Holy Scriptures for long ages had existed only in manuscripts, and even in that form had been kept concealed in dead languages, the ancient Hebrew and Greek. The Bible was regarded by both the civil and ecclesiastical powers throughout Europe as a dangerous book for the common people to read ; and the comparatively few manuscripts of it in existence were kept secreted, sometimes chained, in monastic libraries under the care of monks. As late as the year 1526 - less than a hundred years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth - no scholar in England could translate the Bible or any portion of it into the English language, except at the peril of his life.
The first English translation of the entire Bible was made by Miles Coverdale, an Englishman. It was printed outside of Eng- land, at Antwerp, Belgium, in 1535, and copies of it soon came into England. In 1564, just twenty-nine years after the first English Bibles began to come into England, Puritans began to appear among the people. A printed book could have had then no such swift circulation as books have now. It would then have taken a score or two of years to bring that first printed translation of the whole Bible to the careful attention of any considerable number of the common English people. But it is significant that, at just about the date when the people had had time to examine thoroughly their English Bibles, Puritanism appeared ; and from that date, 1564, the Puritans multiplied with amazing rapidity in England. There is
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evidence, however, that among the ministers of the established church, the English version of the Scriptures had a quicker and much larger circulation. They naturally would be eager to read it, and they doubtless studied it, as they never had studied their Hebrew and Greek Testaments. Many of them soon began to "preach the Word " as they never had preached it before. The Coverdale Bible was published in 1535, and within twenty years, or as early as 1555, hundreds of these ministers had joined the ranks of those who a little later were called Puritans. Both the royal and the episcopal author- ities were alarmed. Something must be done; and so the horrible persecutions under the detested queen called " Bloody Mary" fol- lowed quickly. Within five years no less than two hundred and seventy-seven Puritans were frightfully put to death. But such a reformation once begun could not be arrested. Men might be hung or burned, but God's Word printed could not be utterly destroyed. Their devotion to the Bible was one of the most notable characteristics of the Puritans. They were constant and zealous Bible-readers. The Book ruled their minds, their hearts, and their lives. They could quote a text of Scripture for every article of their faith, and for almost every act in their lives. Their every-day language became in no small degree Biblical. The very names of their children were taken largely from God's Holy Word. It was the English Bible that under the Holy Spirit created the English Puritans, and through them gave to England all the civil and religious freedom she has yet attained. And under God, it was that same English Bible that, through the Puritan fathers of New England, founded our free churches and government, and our free schools.
But another question needs to be raised and answered : What was the interpretation of the Bible which made the Puritans such a power in the world's history? It is a mnost illuminating historic fact that the renowned leaders of that glorious Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century in Europe, investigating the Bible independ- ently, in different countries and in different languages, in order to ascertain what its great revelations and teachings, taken together in their divine harmony and system, really are, all came to substantially one and the same conclusion. They differed only on a few minor and unessential points. This wonderfully illuminating historic fact should never be forgotten. But what shall this one common conclusion, reached by all those separate masterly and devout Biblical scholars be called? Some called it Calvinism ; some called it Lutheranism ; others called it the Westminster Confession. These are only different names of one and the same wonderful statement, in systematic form, of all the great truths and revelations found in God's Holy Word. The Puritans were proud to call themselves Calvinists. The founders of
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this church were Calvinists. This church through all its long history of two hundred and fifty years has been a Calvinistic church. It has continued such for the most part without conflict. Yet in one instance it was driven " to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints ; " to do this too, at the loss of all the pos- sessions which the parish held in trust for the use of the First Church in Malden, - at the loss of its meeting-house, of its parsonage, in which Adoniram Judson, the great missionary, was born, who was a son of one of its pastors ; at the loss of its ministerial lands, of all its funds which had been given for its use ; and it saved its own sacred and dearly prized communion service only by paying for it its worth in money. Nothing but the Puritan Calvinistic faith of its members, which they prized above all earthly treasures, could have carried them through those days of trial. Modern history, as well as the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, proves that there is a religious faith that makes lieroes. Next to the Divine Creator himself, there has been thus far in history nothing like the Puritans' Scriptural beliefs to put iron into the blood, and a spinal column into the back, and to make men - virile and stalwart, as well as true and Godlike men, such as God always has use for at the great and decisive epochs in the history of churches, of nations, and of the world.
I have no time to present, even in outline, this historically powerful and majestic interpretation of the Bible. The most I can do is to state that there is a simple test, to which all intelligent and fair- minded people can bring every system of religious belief that is offered to them, and thus ascertain its true character. Moreover, it is a test which Christ himself taught his disciples to use. Our Lord on one occasion, speaking of religious teachers, said : " Ye shall know them by their fruits." Now it is fair, I submit, that the interpretation of the Bible accepted by the founders of our church, or Calvinism, should be judged by its fruits. Would we know what those fruits are, we have only to read history and learn for ourselves.
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