USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > North Brookfield > Sermon : containing a brief history of the town and especially of the church and parish of North Brookfield from 1798 to the present time > Part 3
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The Sabbath School in this place has been under the fostering care of the church. About 20 years since, I proposed to instruct such youth as were pleased to attend, immediately after the second service on the Sabbath, into some portion of Scripture by way of question and answer. In this sort of Bible Class we had fifteen or twenty young people of both sexes. The time being very inconve- nient, and the service immediately following the common labors of the Sabbath, I was obliged soon to relinquish it. In 1819 some few females in the church undertook to gather a Sabbath School to be instructed in the intermission, which was done in a private house and in a room of common size. The gentlemen, who are now the two senior deacons of the church, being applied to, undertook the ma- nagement of it. A few youth and children composed it. When
Note J.
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السماء
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lads became 17 or 18 years of age, they thought themselves too old to be members of the school, and began to fall off. In 1821 the church by vote requested three other brethren to assist these two in the management of the school. From that time to the present, the church has appointed the Superintendents, and committees to advise and assist them when necessary. A few years since, for the first time, the school was continued through the winter, and the whole respon- sibility was thrown upon one individual as the Superintendent, with the privilege of assistants selected by the church. It was thought advisable, two years since, to observe monthly a season of prayer for God's blessing upon this important concern, which appears to have contributed to its prosperity. Thus the Sabbath School concern has gone forward until, of both sexes and all ages, more than four hun- dreds, embracing all the best informed and most respectable families in town, are connected with it, either as teachers or scholars; and from one Sabbath to another, are making the sacred Scriptures their study. Setting aside all the spiritual benefits of the School, which indeed are the most important, it is worthy the countenance and pa- tronage of every well-wisher to society. Its influence is most saluta- ry upon the morals, the intellect, and the general habits of the people; while it furnishes for youth, especially, a proper employment for the leisure hours of the Sabbath, which might otherwise be filled up with much that is worse than useless. To bring the whole population, as far as circumstances allow, into connection with this institution, and under its influence, is an object of no trifling importance, and which will engage the serious attention of every friend of his country. Ne- ver, no never, let the prosperity of this institution decline, so long as zealous effort and humble prayer will prevent. And while the leading men in the church and town will lend their constant and per- sonal services, there will be but little danger. May the time never come, when such services shall be withheld by your best men. And be not satisfied with the state of the school, whenever it shall fail to embrace your most promising sons who are to be the bone and sinew and life of society, and are to give character to the age in which they live and act ;- nor whenever it shall fail to produce its very best ef- fects upon the mass of mind on which it operates.
Forty years have wrought great changes in ministerial labor and religious services, whether for the better or the worse, I leave others to judge. All religious services expected of a minister when I settled, were two exercises on the Sabbath, a preparatory lecture once in two
4
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months, together with an occasional sermon in accommodation to the aged, infirm and afflicted. Prayer meetings, religious conferences, meetings for serious and personal conversation, stated lectures for general instruction, meetings for humane and charitable objects more or less extended, a third exercise on the Sabbathi, and even seasons of general or special revival of religion, were all unknown in the place at the time of my ordination. If I were absent one or more Sabbaths, there was no religious meeting in the place. No man would consent to take charge of a meeting. When I appointed a conference or' prayer meeting, but one of the church only, Deacon Benjamin Adams, could ever be induced to lead in prayer, until 1817 .* Since that time several have been ready to assist in devotional exer- cises, and the number has been increasing, till more than 30 will now take a part in religious meetings. This circumstance has served, on special occasions particularly, to lighten the labors of the Pastor, and to minister to the edification of the assembly. Whoever comes after me, as Pastor of this church, will find many to hold up his hands, en- courage his heart, and lighten his labors, whenever they become too heavy for him to sustain alone. May the Lord give you a Pastor after his own heart, who shall feed you and your children with know- ledge and understanding, and who for his work's sake shall receive and be worthy of your love and respect.
III. Further to see the great things which God has done for us, let us take a view of the rise and progress of Temperance.
About 1810, many associations of men, called Moral Societies, were formed in different parts of New England, for the purpose of suppressing several prevailing and alarming evils in the community, more especially intemperance. No man thought of broaching the principle of entire abstinence from ardent spirit ; but only to prevent intemperance by drinking less. Some few in this region conceived that the progress of this vice was alarming, and that without some efforts we should all become drunkards. I was fortunate enough to be one of the number. None can wonder that I had a predisposition to take the fever, since in the early part of my ministry rum was al- ways very plentifully used on funeral occasions, and some who called themselves mourners were disguised, and others very loose-jointed, and at such places the rum-drinkers in the neighborhood would ga- ther, and be the most forward of all to lend their aid and mingle their
* Note K.
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tears of joy with those of sorrow shed in the afflicted dwelling. For the first 12 years of my ministry, I never attended but one funeral, but what ardent spirit was furnished as an essential part of customary civility, or a necessary stimulant, for such an occasion : and in this case it was a subject of unfavorable remark and ascribed to parsimo- ny. About this time, the first mission to the heathen was projected, and money was needed to carry the project into execution. For such an enterprise the churches had done nothing. On the last Sabbath in 1811, I preached upon the duty of Christianizing the heathen, and at the close, informed the assembly that on the next Sabbath I would present them with a plan by which they could furnish their part of the expense of such a work, without taking a cent from their pockets, and at the same time increase their gains and their comforts and pros- perity. Having made inquiry into the probable expenses of the town for intoxicating liquors, though afterwards considered extravagant and erroneous ; yet finally confirmed as moderate, I stated the annual ex- penses of the town for this one thing, to be 85,000, aside from the wear and tear, the sin and sorrow, it occasioned. It was proposed so far to curtail the use of ardent spirit as to save a proper sum to be- stow upon the cause of foreign missions. The sum raised was $40. This was small indeed, compared with the annual expenditure for spirit, or the real savings of the plan adopted by the most respectable portion of the community. The plan dispensed with the use of dis- tilled spirit at funerals, at social visits, and on some other occasions ; and what was said and done upon the subject, very much diminished the use of it in town, though it might occasion no reform in the great mass of the people. Some were more ready to use less, because that upon inquiry their expenses for intoxicating drinks were great beyond all their former conceptions, while many were displeased with the ex- posure of the sin and miseries and extent of intemperance.
In 1827 several individuals agreed to use no ardent spirit, even in the most laborious seasons of the year, while engaged in their agri- cultural pursuits. They all testified from experience, that they had better health and accomplished their business with more comfort and better success .* This led to the formation of a Temperance Society in 1828, upon the principle of entire abstinence from the use of dis- tilled liquors, and fourteen names subscribed to the constitution the first evening. The cause slowly advanced and new members were added, and various means used to give it extension and influence, so
Note L.
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that we have had times in which no one in town has been licensed to sell ardent spirit. Five hundred and fifty have pledged themselves to a disuse of distilled spirits and foreign wines and strong beer, and to use all their influence judiciously exerted to prevent the use of them by others ; and 300 or more, are pledged to abstain from the ma- nufacture, traffic and use of all that can intoxicate. The health of the people is improved where the reformation has extended, their happi- ness and outward prosperity promoted, their respectability increased, much mortification prevented, and distress and woe and shame and weeping too : and notwithstanding all the mischief that is still done by intoxicating drinks in those who will not be reclaimed, this town owes more to the temperance reform on the score of enjoyment, re- spectability and thrift, than most are aware ; and I presume the esti- mate was moderate, when I lately said, that the Temperance Refor- mation annually saves to this town $4,000. And $4,000 more may be added to that, as the price of those domestic comforts and many blessings which intemperance destroyed. Let efforts continue to be made, vigorous and united, till all the strong holds of this demon be brought down, and every captive be delivered from his power, and know the pleasure of virtuous freedom. Though there may long re- main a few abject slaves to this tyrant ; men who love bondage and shame better than liberty and honor ; still the cause will prosper and eventually triumph, and your children will live to see it. Yes, I re- joice to say it with confident belief in its correctness, your children will live to see it.
IV. To lead your thoughts to another subject in which we may see what God has done for us, I would mention the efforts he has enabled us to make for some of the destitute portions of our race and the fee- ble sections of the church at home. At this day it appears a very plain duty, when our fellow-men or fellow-christians are destitute of the means of salvation, to make an effort to supply them. It is as reasonable and as kind, as to give bread to a starving man at your door. God opens the way and gives us ability.
In 1807 this church agreed to raise TEN DOLLARS for domestic mis- sions. This was the first effort ever made in religious charity by the people in this place. And -it was a great effort ; we could scarcely raise the sum. Ten dollars does not speak of our poverty, so much as of the narrowness of our conceptions. The next contribution of $40 was for Foreign Missions, of which I have already spoken, to be
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saved by the more moderate use of ardent spirit. The third, amount- ing to $43, was made by the ladies in 1815; and continued with some diminution, for many years and appropriated to the various ob- jects of religious charity ; till the present Associations for the purpose of sending the gospel to the heathen were formed in 1824; when the amount of the united contributions of the ladies and gentlemen, was $71, besides a box of clothing. These contributions have gone on, generally increasing, till the last year, they amounted, besides the Concert money, to more than $390. When we began our contribu- tions at the Monthly Concert for Prayer, they amounted to ten or twelve dollars a year : now they rarely fall short of that at each meet- . ing. The people have contributed to a great variety of objects more or less connected with the interests of the church-to Colleges, The- ological Seminaries, Meeting Houses for feeble churches, the Tract, Education, Domestic and Foreign Missionary Societies, Seaman's Friend Society, and some other important objects. The whole amount of their contributions within my knowledge, for these various objects, since the first of ten dollars in 1807, and most of which has been giv- en within ten years past, is $7,450. The contributions in 1836 amount to more than 81,000, and in 1837 to more than $1,100 .* In this connection I wish to state some other facts, and come to some fair conclusions, for all the people to look at with a wise application, and to correct what some have known to be misapprehensions.
When I first settled in the place every family belonged to this reli- gious society with the exception of a very small number, perhaps ten, which had united with the Baptists from principle. They were Baptist people. All the other property in town was taxed for the support of the gospel here. The estimated value of this property which was tax- ed for the support of the gospel was about $127,000. At present, not less than one third of the families in town have no connection with this Parish, and less than two thirds of the property goes to support the gospel, and this portion of it was valued in 1835 at $218,266, nearly double the amount of the whole valuation in 1798. So that as people have fallen off from this Society, your ability to support the gospel has increased; and you are now almost as able to support two ministers, as you were one 40 years ago. Your strength as a reli- gious society then, compared to what it is now, was as three to five. Almost the whole that has ever been contributed in religious charity
Note M.
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of which I have spoken, has been done by this religious Society, and not by the town, or persons of other denominations.
You may then conclude, contrary to the predictions of some wise men, that erecting this house of worship has not impoverished you- nor has the constant support of the gospel impoverished you, nor giv- ing your thousands for the supply of the destitute and the conversion of the heathen, nor yet abandoning the use and traffic of intoxicating drink and banishing it from your midst, nor yet again has your at- tendance at the sanctuary on the Sabbath and the worship of God in season and out of season, made you poor. And where usually must you look to find poverty-stricken families, except in places where Sab- bath-breaking and rum-drinking and neglect of God's house, and withholding the tithes, and refusing the gospel to the heathen have been, and still are, the order of the day ? Other things aside, the Christian Sabbath, public worship, the cheerful support of the gos- pel, liberal contributions for its extension and the relief of the suf- fering and the practice of Christian sobriety, all the world over, con- tribute to the prosperity and general thrift of society. Every observ- ing and reflecting man must know this. Be persuaded then ever to encourage these things by all your influence and by your uniform ex- ample. When these things decline, your prosperity will decline with them, and the Lord will blow upon your increase, and curse your basket and your store.
V. One more subject I would present before you, and that is our bill of mortality. No land inhabited by man is uninvaded by disease and death-no retreat for our race beyond the reach of those disturb- ers of our peace, can be found, and no scheme devised by which man may live always, or be restored to his original longevity. In respect to the subject before us, it may truly be said, that we live in a favored portion of the world. These hills and valleys of New England fur- nish a healthful region. But though we have ever been exempted from the overflowing scourge, which, in such a population as ours, sweeps away scores of children or adults in a few weeks, and hardly . leaves in health sufficient to nurse the sick and bury the dead, yet we have not been strangers to the invasions of death, nor to seasons of great comparative sickness and mortality. While God has made a difference, we have all tasted of the bitter cup of sorrow, and most have seen the time when they might have appropriately adopted the words of the Psalmist, " Lover and friend hast thou put far from me,
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and mine acquaintance into darkness." No one acquainted with the worshipping assembly in this place forty years since, that upon look- ing around upon the assembly here to-day, could be unimpressed with the change. Let him have been absent the whole intervening period, and now come into this congregation, and not a single indi- vidual would he recognize, nor but few faces would there be that he had ever seen before. There are probably not more than ten men here to-day that had any thing to do in my settlement-they were young men. The population has almost entirely changed, and much of this change is to be ascribed to the wastes of death. "Our fa- thers, where are they !" But instead of the fathers, there are the children, or the children's children, or the children of strangers who have come to inherit among us. The sum of the ages of all who have died for 40 years past, is 24,100 years. The whole bill of mor- tality for the same period, of whom 77 were children, most of them under five years, is 642 ; in the first 20 years, 257; in the second 20 years, 385, of whom 144 were children. The proportion of children to adults the first 20 years, was one third ; in the second, five thirteenths. The last 10 years gives us a bill of mortality of 239, children 98, or five twelfths. This you will observe shows an increase of mortality among small children. Almost twice the num- ber died the last 20 years as the first.
The greatest mortality and the most distressing sickness we have ever experienced were by the prevalence of fevers, and happened in the years 1822 and 1837. Our greatest number of deaths in any one year has been 31. The average number of deaths for 40 years is 16 -of the first 20 years, 13; of the second 20 years, 18, about 1 in 84. No one during this period has arrived to the age of 100; still 19 have exceeded 90 years, or one to every 33 :-
70 66 80 years,
8 :-
139
70 years,
4% :-
221
" 50 years,
66 3 :-
354
20 years, more than one half of the whole by 33.
21 have died between 10 and 20.
51 20 and 30, 66 50 66 66 30 and 40,
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66 40 and 50,
32
66
50 and 60,
50
60 and 70,
.
31
59 have died between 70 and 80, 61
80 and 90,
19 90 and 100.
333 died under ten years of age, and most of them under five. The largest number that died in any other ten years of human life, was between 80 and 90.
The average age for the term of 40 years, is 373 years ;- of the first 20 years, the average age was 433,-of the second 20 years, only 332 years ; or ten years less-the life of man in this place was 10 years less the 20 years past, than the 20 years immediately pre- ceding. This is a serious fact that may well prompt to an inquiry after the cause, if such cause lies within human reach.
In every place there are certain diseases which are most prevalent and fatal. The most common in our country, if not the world over, are fevers, consumptions, and bowel complaints. About one-sixth of the whole on our bill of mortality, have died of fever, 76 of consump- tion, 50 of bowel complaints, and more than 40 of intemperance, or one to every 16 of all the deaths that have happened,-or one to eve- ry 10 of all the adults who die ; or for the last 20 years, one to every six. It is painful to think that so many have committed suicide, and that so many are yet willing to be accessary to the crime. One fact is very noticeable, and needs some explanation, viz. 10 or 11 only, died by intemperance the first 20 years of my ministry; while in the second 20 years, there have been nearly 30. A temperance reform in some measure, commenced 25 years since, and for 10 years has now gone on with power, and wrought wonders for many individuals and families, and for this Christian Society, so that if we had not the suburbs of our territory to come in and lift their hands, you would not probably see ten hands raised against the temperance cause-it is mostly the aliens from our religious commonwealth; men who wish to have no part nor lot with us in such concerns as we have come here to transact to-day, and such privileges as we here enjoy .*
If the temperance cause has made such progress for 10 or 20 years past, how shall we account for the increase of deaths by intempe- rance ? I answer; you know that many people are headstrong, espe- cially when they have some darling appetite to gratify, and are oppos- ed in that gratification. If you attempt to restrain them, the more recklessly will they press on, and burst through every barrier you throw in their way. This appears the fact before us. Some men are
Note N.
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more drunken, the more you attempt to make them sober-they prac- tically tell you that they will not be restrained by any one, and that they despise all your labor of love. 'Who is Lord over us ?' These men were hard drinkers when your reform began, and others besides the dead, are practicing upon the same principle ; they tell the world that they will not be held back from indulgence, and to convince them of it, they must drink deeper and die the sooner. And since the Legislature have come to aid the work of reform, they must put on still more steam, and hasten on the faster. This legal effort will not make drunkards, but it will kill them; and there will probably be a greater mortality among them for a few years to come than there ever has been before. Amidst all the miseries and shame of their bondage they will prove to you their freedom. Ardent spirit and in- temperate living aside, who knows how many of the dead might have been with us to-day ; still in a land of hope ?
In view of this bill of mortality no age or condition can feel them- selves secure from the attack of disease or the arrests of death; not the youngest, nor the healthiest, nor the sprightliest, nor the strong- est, nor the loveliest of all, for such verily have been among the vic- tims of disease and death, scattered all along the extended track of 40 years .*
VI. There remains but one other topic of discourse, and that is the history of myself. When I settled with you, I was young and had but just arrived to the stature of a man, with but little experience, and not half the wisdom and knowledge desirable. Had I possessed more, I probably might have done more good, and perhaps, steered clear of some troubles in which I was early involved. It was former- ly said by those of much experience and observation, that a minister of Christ who is permanently settled must have trials either in the early or latter part of his ministry. What trials remain for me I can- not say, neither am I anxious to know; but some I had in former times. Three years after my ordination an attempt was made to effect my dismission, and the ground of dissatisfaction was professedly the largeness of my salary-400 annually.t
In 1807 there were a number, who, professing to believe the doc- trine of Universal Salvation, introduced a preacher of that sentiment, and attended frequently upon his instructions at the Baptist Meeting House, and finally sued the Treasurer to recover what they paid to-
* Note O.
t Note P.
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ward my salary. But failing in this action, one of them became em- barrassed in his circumstances, another died, another became a slave to the bottle and killed himself, and another moved away, and here ended the universal society and all their efforts, so far as we had any concern with them.
'The next trouble arose from the exposure made of intemperance, its extent, and abominations and effects upon the community, and its alarming demands upon men's purses, which ought, if any where, to be paid over to the cause of benevolence. This produced a great commotion-it was a moving time. The lion had never before been stirred up from his lair. Some thought that the minister had slan- dered the town, and many felt dissatisfied. It would not be advisa- ble to state in detail all the tokens of respect, and all the kinds of at- tention I received in those days of new light.
In 1822 the agitating subject of building a new house of worship was made by some a matter of complaint against the minister ; as though he were some how criminally concerned in the affair. And this was professedly the ground on which individuals declined attend- ing public worship.
The next event which raised a storm that almost drove my ship from her moorings, was a sermon delivered on the annual Thanks- giving, showing the reason we had of gratitude to God, for the suc- cess of the temperance reformation, and how those who traffic in ar- dent spirit are accessory to the evils and the deaths occasioned by that traffic. The misapprehension of one sentence, is supposed to have been the thing which set the world on fire. Most of the hard drinkers readily seized the opportunity, to effect, if possible, my dis- mission ; whilst some who had no part with us in ecclesiastical con- cerns, and of whom we should have expected better things, appeared to fan the fire and by their combined action, threaten my speedy re- moval. For one week, I expected nothing else. God, in his provi- dence and in his own way, extinguished the flame, allayed the storm, cleared the skies, and it has been fair weather ever since-our sun shining brighter and brighter. But most of our disturbances have arisen from the influence of persons given to mischief. And when a society is rid of such men they will generally have peace and enjoy- ment. " One sinner destroyeth much good." We have had some striking illustrations of this sentiment.
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