USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Needham > Needham's bicentennial celebration; a record of the exercises and a memorial of the celebration at Needham, Massachusetts, on the two hundredth anniversary of it's incorporation. Pub. by the Celebration committee; > Part 4
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Second, an intense sense of the authority of right- eousness.
Third, a profound assurance of God's righteous rule.
At last the Puritan looks for the absolute over- throw of all sin and the dominion of righteousness. He believed that God held the individual to strict account.
Fourth. There is a profound sense of the dignity of man.'
To be sure, as we hold up the Puritan we must admit that he had failings, and no one knew this better than himself. There was first the lack of interest in easthetics. Everything must be of the plainest kind. The Puritan was largely iconoclastic. He was like John the Baptist. Not much of a chance for pleasure in his life.
Second, to us there seems to be a lack of affec- tionate sympathy. As one told me she never re- membered of having seen her mother kiss one of her children. Mrs. Sarah Knight tells that her father, Capt. Kemble of Boston, returning from a sea voyage of three years, was put in public stocks for two full hours for the crime of having kissed his wife when she met him at the door. Take up a volume of the sermons of a Puritan preacher, and you find none of the subjects of the so-called popular preaching of today.
But in spite of all that you can say against the Puritan, we must admit that he was sincere. That there was no sham in him. He was a man of great carriage. He felt that one with God was a majority. The uproar of the multitude did not disturb him. He was the same true man in the midst of enemies. Church hierarchies, dignitaries, state authorities did not feaze him in the least. There was his individual responsi- bility to God. 'First pure, then peaceable' was his
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OUR CHURCHES-METHODIST EPISCOPAL EXERCISES
favorite maxim. If he cared little for the things of this world, his mind dwelt on things above. He read much and pondered long over the Apocalypse. The Puritan wife tried to be as the ideal mother of the Old Testament. To her the Chapter of all was the 31st of Proverbs.
In these days are we to look with disrespect on the real spirit of the Puritan? Woe be to us if we fail to remember the Puritan with honor. If we had not this spirit as a foundation, as a nation we would be in ruins.
Let us thank God for the Puritan."
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ST. JOSEPH CHURCH, (Roman Catholic)
ST. JOSEPH'S CHURCH (ROMAN CATHOLIC)
Corner of Highland Avenue and May Street. First ser- mon on Christmas day, 1890. Corner-stone of present house laid September 20, 1891. Dedicated, Memorial Day, May 30, 1894. Pastor, Rev. T. J. Danahy. Assistant pas- tor, Rev. D. Donovan.
This church, on that celebrated occasion, had its fine altar and sanctuary beautifully decorated and an overflowing congregation of devout worshippers, who formally in special prayer thanked God for His mani- fold blessings, temporal and spiritual, civic and eccle- siastical, bestowed upon the town, humbly beseeching Him still more to bless it and pour down more abund- antly upon it His gracious mercies for its conservation, its extension and factorage for good amidst the glories of this greatest of the nations of the earth. Solemn high mass in all its fascinating beauty of ceremony and musical adjunct was celebrated, the Rev. Pastor, T. J. Danahy being celebrant, the Rev. Edmund Daley, deacon, and Rev. D. Donovan sub-deacon. Rev. Fr. J. A. Crowley was master of ceremonies.
A sermon germane to the occasion, was preached by the pastor ; the Te Deum and Recessional bringing to a close this most memorable fact in the history of the town.
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At night, with the same decorations and the added beauty of electrical illumination, the solemn vespral services were sung and the Rev. Pastor again sallied forth into the historical archives of the country and of Europe to show forth the wonderful providence of God in opening up this country for the persecuted of Eu- rope and as an asylum for all anxious, by industrial, intelligent and religious conditions, to improve their own fortunes, while helping to develop the exhaustless and wonderfully variant treasures of this peerless Com- monwealth of these United States.
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CHRIST CHURCH (EPISCOPAL)
Corner of Highland Avenue and Mellen Street. Organ- ized Aug. 19, 1895. First pastor, Rev. Frederick Pender. Present pastor, Rev. Newton Black.
FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST
Christian Science Hall, Fowler Block No. 2. Organized July 28, 1902, with twenty-four charter members at the home of one of its members. First Reader, Henry A. T. Dow. Second Reader, Mrs. Leana L. Clancy.
LESSON SERMON, SUNDAY, SEPT. 17, 1911 SUBJECT : "MATTER "
Golden Text: Luke 6: 49. "But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great."
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17|| WELCOME 19|1
DECOR ORATED FRONT ENTRANCE
ANCE OF THE TOWN HAI L. AND
ALL
ID THE NEEDHAM MILITARY BAND
BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE TOWN OF NEEDHAM, MASSACHUSETTS
SUNDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 17, 1911
In the town hall beautifully decorated and upon the stage filled with prominent citizens, the Sunday evening program of the Needham Two Hundredth Anniversary celebration was rendered with marked interest and success.
From seven to seven-thirty o'clock a sacred con- cert was given by the Needham Military Band, assisted by the Howland Class Male Quartette, and at seven- thirty the speaking exercises of the evening were begun by the presiding officer, W. G. Moseley, Esq., whose opening remarks were preceded by a prayer by the Rev. Charles E. Sawtelle, as follows:
"Almighty God, it is fitting that we acknowledge Thee at the beginning of these happy services. Thou hast led us as a community; Thou hast richly blessed us in many ways; we do thank Thee for the town in which we live; we thank Thee for its history all these two hundred years; we thank Thee that the blessing of God has been upon us in so many ways; we thank Thee for the natural beauty of the place, for the good fellowship and neighborliness of the citizens, for all that makes life rich and full here, and we thank Thee
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especially for the increasing opportunities of ours for usefulness as citizens of this growing community. Will God grant that we may have His wisdom in the future to deal with the problems that from time to time arise.
We thank Thee for the various interests of the town; for its business affairs; for its civic concerns; for its educational interests, and for the religious work of this community. We thank Thee for the work of the various churches, and while there may be differ- ences of administrations, we pray that there may be the same spirit of Christ brooding over all and in all, and may we acknowledge Thee the Father of all, and may we have Thy spirit in our hearts.
We pray as we enter this anniversary season that we may not fix our attention on the benefits which we have had showered upon us, but conscious of thy fatherhood may seek each one in his place by living nobly; by fighting the good fight of faith; by having the spirit of Christ in our hearts, and his sympathy for our fellow-men. May we seek to advance the com- mon good, and may we see to it that we have all of us a citizenship in heaven above; and while we walk these earthly steps may we in every avenue enrich and fill it full and advance the common good, not only in re- ligious ways but also in our more secular pursuit.
We ask, O Lord, Thy blessing on this meeting tonight. Bless every home represented. Bless every individual here. Bless those not able to meet with us; bless those who are sick, and may Thy abundant blessing rest on the speaker of the evening. We thank Thee for his work for the youth of the land. We thank Thee that he is interested in so many things pertaining to the welfare of mankind, and as he seeks to do Thy will in all ways may he have the freedom of Thy spirit and the confidence of Thy strength.
We ask it all in the name of our Lord, Amen."
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EXERCISES IN TOWN HALL-THE CHAIRMAN
Mr. Moseley's remarks were as follows:
"At the opening of the exercises connected with the celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Needham, I deem it but proper as a representative of the town to extend to you a welcome.
It is very gratifying to the committee to say that we have met with very cordial support and co-opera- tion in our efforts to make this celebration a success.
We welcome to our town those who have associa- tions here, and are bound to us by ties of kindred or association, and have returned to the town to help us in this celebration. We extend to you all a welcome to our town, to its hospitality, to its comfortable homes and to its pleasant streets, and to the well kept public buildings and to the town as it is, we extend to you all a cordial welcome. And we ask that you will help us in the other days of the celebration to make these anniversary exercises fitting and proper and in keeping with our town.
I think it is very proper that the town should observe anniversaries of this character; it is well for us to pause occasionally and look back over the history of our country and if possible grasp that which is before us. It is but a very short time between the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth and the incor- poration of the town of Needham,-a matter of ninety years-and those ninety years were for the preparation of the settlement of the different towns in the Com- wealth. As you know the Pilgrims sought this country for the purpose of freedom to worship God, and as an instrumentality for the extension of that idea they had the church organization. The training of those men, it has been said, brought forth men that have astonished the world with the boldness of their
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commercial enterprises; and the qualities recognized, cultivated and developed by the early settlers have been the determining factor in furnishing men fitted to leave the old Bay State and go to the West, and found the states of our western country that have become a power in the whole nation.
Now, if the early settlers were trained along lines tending to fit men for the responsible positions of life, it seems to me that we can learn a lesson from them, and while today we hear so much said about the pro- gressiveness of the country, and that we should cut loose from the old laws and from the old customs, I think it would do us good to turn back and study the history of the State, to recall again that first settlers came here for the purpose to worship God, and so realizing, we should take a firmer hold upon the duties of good citizenship.
I was somewhat interested the other day to find published in a magazine a short poem by James Russell Lowell, which seems to bear upon the popular idea of today. I will read it:
'New times demand new measures and new men;
The world advances and in time outgrows
The laws that in our fathers' day were best; And, doubtless, after us some purer scheme Will be shaped out by wiser men than we, Made wiser by the steady growth of truth. The time is ripe, and rotten-ripe, for change; Then let it come; I have no dread of what Is called for by the instinct of mankind. Nor think I that God's world would fall apart Because we tear a parchment more or less; Truth is eternal, but her effluence,
With endless change, is fitted to the hour; Her mirror is turned forward, to reflect
The promise of the future, not the past.'
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The trouble with the times, in my opinion, is not that they are new times demanding new measures and new men, but that we have mistaken noise for new- ness. What we need, in my opinion, is that men shall realize their responsibilities of citizenship; that there shall be a reawakening of the public conscience; that men shall assume their proper place in the manage- ment and government of the country. Laws may be simple, they may be perfect, but they will not work automatically; they need men to execute them; and as a result of this celebration if we can but get a firmer grasp upon our duties as men, if we may be awakened to our responsibilities as citizens, this observance will be worth all it has cost.
In the early days there was erected on top of a hill in Boston a post with a projecting iron arm upon which was suspended an iron pot, in which a fire could made to serve as a beacon, and from this the hill derives the name of Beacon Hill. It was understood that when a blaze was seen at this point, the men in the surrounding country should come to the centre to give relief to those in danger. There is now in the State House grounds, a granite shaft to take the place of the one first erected, and upon the base are tablets bearing inscriptions. I have always been impressed with the inscription on the tablet on the west side, where we find this: 'Americans, while from this eminence scenes of luxuriant fertility, of flourishing commerce, and the abodes of social happiness meet your view, forget not those who by their exertions have secured you these blessings.' As Needham today observes the two hun- dredth anniversary of its foundation let us not forget those who by their exertions have secured to us these blessings. I bid you welcome."
Needham's Bicentennial hymn, composed by a citizen, Mr. Geo. E. Mitchell, was sung by the quartet.
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NEEDHAM ANNIVERSARY HYMN
PSALM 100
COMPOSED BY GEORGE E. MITCHELL
Moderato
8
Make a joy . ful noise un - to the Lord, all ye
land,
2.
TO
0
9:24
0-4 V-
Serve the Lord with glad - ness : Come be - fore His pres-ence with
Q.b
sing
- ing. Know ye that the Lord
He is God;
9:00
2
b
5
it is £ He that hath made us, and not we our - selves.
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EXERCISES IN TOWN HALL-BICENTENNIAL HYMN
p dim. rit.
pp
We are His peo - ple, and the sheep of His pas - ture.
p dim. rit.
Bright
En - ter in - to His gates with ff, a tempo
thanks-giv - ing, and in - to His
9:00 6-0
8 . O
.
courts with praise : be thankful un - to Him and bless His name,
10
For the Lord is good ; His mer-cy is ev - er - last - ing and His
9
0
truth en - dur - eth to all
gen - e - ra - tions.
A - mer
·
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NEEDHAM'S BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
MR. MOSELEY. "The committee arranging for this meeting tonight had in mind that they desired a speaker to come here to address this meeting whom we could introduce with considerable confidence; as a speaker acceptable at an occasion like this. And in looking over the field, we found a man of national reputation, a man who is known to be one graceful in expression and forceful in utterance, who never says anything but what people are pleased to treasure and remember, and I therefore take pleasure tonight in introducing to you the speaker for this evening,-Dr. William H. P. Faunce, President of Brown University."
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ADDRESS OF DR. WILLIAM H. P. FAUNCE
"Never before have I been in the town of Need- ham, and as I came over on the train tonight I said to myself: 'Shall I not appear as an outsider, shall I not be merely an intruder at a family festival?'
But I cannot be wholly an intruder or outsider anywhere in Massachusetts. In the city of Worcester I was born; five generations of my forefathers are buried on the old Burial Hill in the city of Plymouth; and whenever any community in the old Bay State is celebrating its achievements, and seeking to uplift and enlarge its life, there I find myself profoundly interested.
And for a few minutes this evening, I want to be as one of your family, sitting with you at the same table and thinking with you the same thoughts. I can see at a glance that you have here one of the finest town halls and one of the best musical organizations to be found in the Commonwealth, and I believe that you will throughout this festival achieve a new access of civic devotion, enthusiasm and unity, which will be felt for a long, long time to come.
Woodrow Wilson, who is just now a prominent figure in our national life, when he was president of Princeton University took a journey to the mountains of Tennessee, and one afternoon was seated by the side of an old stage driver for two or three hours. The
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driver was somewhat awed at first by the presence of the college professor, but soon his assurance asserted itself and he ventured the remark, 'I suppose you'uns at college know some things that we'uns in Tennessee don't know.' Dr. Wilson admitted that might be true. Then after a few moments' thought, the old driver said: 'I suppose that we'uns in the mountains know some things that you'uns at college don't know,'-and Dr. Wilson admitted that that might be true. The driver considered the matter for a time and then said: 'Well, how mixin' does learn folks!'
Yes, I believe in that philosophy. You will find that the "mixing" in these days of men and women and children from various homes and various occupations from all political parties and religious creeds,-their mixing in splendid civic vision and devotion will accom- plish much for the future of Needham.
I want to speak with you tonight about patriotism in time of peace,-what it is and what it means.
What is patriotism? It is more than covering your buildings with bunting, it is more than waving flags in a procession, more than pyrotechnics brightening the darkness of the sky. When a man says, 'I love my country,' what does he love? He certainly does not love a spot on the map; he certainly does not love the stones in the street; he does not love trees by the roadside; he does not love the bricks and timbers in the houses. What does he love ? 'I love thy rocks ndd rills,' we say. But that is not patriotism; a man that loves rocks may be a geologist, but not necessarily a patriot. When a man loves his country he loves the ideals which the fathers cherished, and the insti- tutions in which those ideals are embodied. He loves the liberty, the law, the integrity, the loyalty of the fathers, the types of character that they exhibited, and the institution's through which that type of char-
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W.H. P. FAUNCE, D. D
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS
GEORGE K. CLARKE
MRS. J. G. A. CARTER
EXERCISES IN TOWN HALL-DR. FAUNCE
acter has been perpetuated. The man who loves those things loves his country, or his city, or his town.
Patriotism involves three things,-memory, co- operation, and education; memory of the past, co- operation in the present, and education for the future.
They sometimes tell us that our children at school are not having their memories cultivated as much as in former days. It is not simply the individual mem- ory we need to cultivate; it is our national memory as well. Republics have been charged with having very short memories, but all America has a short memory for America has a very short history.
I shall not forget the first time I visited the old world, in the year 1884. I landed at Liverpool and was driving in a cab to the hotel, when I saw the tall tower of a church looming up in the evening sky, and I asked what church that was and when it was built. My informant answered that it was 'About four hun- dred years old.' At once I thought: 'Where was America when that church was built?' Then I began to see that while American civilization is very broad, European civilization is very deep; that American civilization covers much territory, while European civilization covers much time. There is hardly a boy or girl born in Europe who does not grow up in the sight of some famous battlefield; some monument of world wide fame; some old castle; some famous palace that speaks from the past; and there are hundreds of thousands of Americans who never in their lives have seen anything a hundred years old. To them his- torical perspective is difficult or impossible.
Hence the monument that the New England town places in its public square may be quite as useful as any bank or factory, and the tablet erected in marble or bronze, to commemorate the deeds of the past may speak quite as loudly as the voices of pulpit or press.
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The buildings that cultivate memory, that speak to imagination and loyalty, may be the most serviceable building a community contains. Hence, we should carefully mark the spots of local and historical signifi- cance in New England. In every place in these New England states where a great battle was fought; where a famous man lived; where a noble deed was done; where a great family had its hearthstone, some mark should be set up to tell it to the generations that follow. The men who do not revere their yesterdays deserve no tomorrow.
This is especially necessary because of the streams of foreign blood that in these later years are pouring into our American life. I know of one New England city of 125,000 population that has 40,000 Italians; another New England city not far away in a population of 35,000 has 25,000 French or French Canadians. I sometimes think I find more of old New England in Minneapolis and Seattle than I find in Lowell or Fall River.
But I am not afraid of these streams of immi- gration. I am much more afraid of the degeneracy of our American stock than I am of any danger that may come through the inflowing of the old world. Our chief problems are where American families go to sleep and not where alert and ambitious families come to us from across the sea. But these families who come to us from Europe must be made to know for what our country stands. They must be made acquainted with Washington and Adams and Jefferson and Lincoln and Charles Sumner and John Robinson and Miles Standish; they must know for what the Commonwealth of Mas- sachusetts has stood from the days of Roger Williams and Elder Brewster to the present time. They must know what ideals the fathers cherished as they built these towns and cities. If we men and women of the
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true American stock have the right spirit we will not wrap our garments about us to protect ourselves from all foreign invasion, but we shall go to the foreigner as he arrives and say,-'Welcome not only to our soil but to our heritage, to our memories, to our traditions and loyalties, to the responsibilities of our American citizen- ship!' Keep the memories of Needham alive, if you would have the future of Needham a future in which everyone may be proud and happy.
But patriotism in time of peace means another thing, and that is cooperation.
We all know that America has been the home of a superb individualism. Our forefathers had a strain of fighting blood in them. They loved their firesides, but they did not care to stay at home; they wanted to go forth where there was a prairie to be conquered, virgin forests to be felled, oceans to be explored. They had behind them when they came to this country no support from court or church; they had simply 'heart within and God o'erhead.'
The great founders of commonwealths in this country like Roger Williams and William Penn; the great explorers like Se Doto, Hudson, and Fremont; the great inventors like Fulton, Eli Whitney and Edi- son, were all men of splendid self-reliance and per- sonal audacity; men who dared to face the whole world and stand alone and do their work, and the great work of America thus far has been done by the initiative and self-reliance of individuals.
We have had individualism in industry. When there has been a great work to be done in agriculture, it is the individual that has gone out and bought the farm, planted it and raised the crops. When there has been work to be done in manufacturing it is the individual that has planned his factory, hired his men and conducted his business to success or failure. In
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politics our fathers were so much afraid of centralized authority that they delegated only certain specified powers to the general government. We have had more individualism in this country than in any other country the sun has shone upon. Every man has said to the government: 'Simply protect me, and give me a chance to show what I can do.'
Now there is a change coming over the temper of our American life. It is not that the old ideal was false,-it was all true,-but that now is quite inade- quate. It is not that that old idea of self-reliance and individual initiative was a wrong idea,-it was perfectly right,-but it is a bridge that only goes half-way over the stream. The supreme question for America today is,-how to preserve that self-reliance of the fathers, that personal daring which marked their whole career, and yet to attain that corporate consciousness, that sense of social unity and solidarity, which alone can enable us to grapple with the problems of the twentieth century.
A new sense of civic duty, a new sense of partner- ship with the state, is now coming into our American communities. A little time ago a great city in western Pennsylvania awoke to consciousness of its own re- missness and failure. It found that it was one of the most successful cities in the world in the making of steel, but was often failing utterly in the making of men. It did not put on sackcloth and ashes like ancient Ninevah. But it did something better; it appointed a commission; it summoned a traction expert to tell the people to relay their car tracks; it summoned an architect to tell them how to build modern tenements, a landscape gardener to cover the dingy hillsides with homes for working men; and that city is today under- going a process of social and moral regeneration.
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