USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Cambridge > Services at the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the organization of the First church in Cambridge, February 7- 14, 1886 > Part 3
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He was well born. He was trained in hardship for a work which was to be hard. He came by slow and prudent steps to the high ground on which he stood to make up his life. He believed before he spoke. He felt before he sought to make others feel. In a deep experience he found the truth which he read, and in the force of what he had proved he preached. He had the earnestness which attends personal conviction and assurance. He healed him- self and then longed to heal others. He believed in the Saviour because he had himself been saved.
Yet he did not rest in what he had gained. He was a studious man. He took great pains in pre- paring himself before he would address his people. He stored his mind, and gave himself time on Satur- day afternoon to "get his heart into a frame fit for the approaching Sabbath." The report has come down that he rarely preached a sermon but that some one, stirred by his teaching and appeal, cried out, " What must I do to be saved ? "
He was in a position in which his influence would be widely felt. There were men of mark in his congregation, through whom his words would reach far beyond the walls of the humble sanctuary. He
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had offered in himself and his ministry an attraction to the new College upon which so much depended, in which was invested so much of sacrifice and hope, and he fulfilled the desires of those who had trusted in him. He was a founder, an overseer, and a friend. Out of this happy seminary, one has written, "there proceeded many notable preachers, who were made such very much by their sitting under Mr. Shepard's enlightening and powerful ministry." Henry Dun- ster, the first President, was then a member of this church, and among the students were three men who were afterwards Presidents of the College, and William Hubbard, Samuel Mather, William Ames, Samuel Phillips, and Jonathan Mitchel, - strong men, prominent and useful in Church and State. All of his sons who lived to manhood became min- isters, and rendered high service in their calling. If we could trace all the influence of Mr. Shepard upon individuals, we should enhance the respect in which we hold him.
Not alone in his spoken words was he a teacher of men. "He left behind him divers worthy works." His books show his learning, the acuteness of his reason, the fertility of his imagination, the depth of his sincerity. The master-mind of Jonathan Ed- wards drew very largely from Thomas Shepard in illustration of the Religious Affections. His writ- ings are substantial and interesting, even in these days of books. They gained high commendation. They will always be worth reading. We might learn from him the true nature of the Sabbath, and
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gain a spiritual idea of heaven, and derive many an- other lesson in practical life. The three solid vol- umes which now bear his name are entitled to a place where the scholar and the Christian sit among their teachers.
But his work was even broader than this. "By his death," says the old chronicle, "all New Eng- land sustained a very great loss." He was a good counsellor. The churches had a strong guardian in him, and there were times when his judgment and sagacity and firmness were needed. Against those who would disturb and imperil the churches he was vigilant and bold. The synod which put down the Antinomians and Ann Hutchinson met with this church, and was opened with one of his heavenly prayers. Here met, too, the famous synod of Timo- thys and Chrysostoms and Augustines, as Higginson called them, by which was formed the "Cambridge Platform," upon whose broad principles our churches have so long been established. In this foundation work Mr. Shepard had been engaged before, and he brought his wisdom to the orderly deliberation of the wise men who gathered in our meeting-house, the new "Jerusalem Chamber." He was a most useful man, as minister and citizen. He did not for- get that the missionary spirit and intention marked the coming of the Puritans to these shores. They saw around them the people into whose country they were entering, people without the knowledge which they believed to be indispensable to a good life in this world or any other, and they held it both
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a duty and a privilege to give what they had them- selves inherited, what their fathers had received from the hands of strangers. They began at once, in a simple way, to teach the principles of religion. In 1644 the General Court passed an order pro- viding for the instruction of the Indians "in the knowledge and worship of God." Here was the first Protestant missionary society. John Eliot of Roxbury became the Apostle to the Indians. In closest fellowship with him was Thomas Shepard. Eliot's first missionary station was in Cambridge, at Nonantum, where an Indian church was organ- ized in 1651. Shepard could not preach in the Indian tongue, but he wrote tracts which Eliot translated, and he furthered in many ways the en- terprise which was after his own heart. In 1647 we find him at Yarmouth, a member of a council which healed a sad breach in a " bruised church," at once, with his friend Eliot, taking advantage of the time for "speaking with and preaching to the poor Indians in these remote places about Cape Cod." In the same year he sent to London a long tract, entitled, " The Clear Sunshine of the Gospel Breaking forth upon the Indians in New England." The efforts of Eliot, Shepard, Dunster, Gookin, and other men, and the generous provision of the College in behalf of the Indians, make a bright page in the history of those earnest and hopeful days. The name of "Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, Indus," starred the year after his graduation, has a lonesome and pathetic look in the College Catalogue. But it
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is the sign of a generous purpose, more fully real- ized in the many Indians who, in the sunshine which illumined this church, beheld the Light of the world.
It is plain that Thomas Shepard was a man of large industry, of broad sympathies, of learning, ability, devotion, piety, - who made his short life long by fidelity, brought the training of the old world to the service of the new, and used his knowledge of the ways of God for the largest good of man. A good summary of his life is found in his own question and answer: "What is the best and last end of man ? - To live to God."
He was a man raised up of God for his day and for his work. He fulfilled his course. But he had illustrious associates, and his life ran in the deep channels which God had cut through the rocks. He shared in the grandeur of the cause, a part of which he was. The triumph of the cause is the pæan of the soldier. A boulder from the moun- tains of Switzerland marks the grave of Agassiz at Mount Auburn. A stone from the heart of the Puritan heights of the two Englands should stand at the grave of Shepard.
But no account of our first minister should fail to make full recognition of those who shared and enriched and guided his life. To Margaret Shep- ard we. owe a continual thankfulness. She was, indeed, a wife "fitted for me; ... a most sweet, humble woman, full of Christ, and a very discern- ing Christian; a wife who was most incomparably
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loving to me, and every way amiable and holy, and endued with a very sweet spirit of prayer." It was a painful life which she had while they were driven from place to place. It was a brave thing which she did when she urged him to seek another country. It was a stout heart which kept its patience and faith through shipwreck and hardship. Unspeakable was her joy and assurance when in her chamber she entered into covenant with the new church, from which she was so soon to be translated. Not the least of the things which we admire in the young minister is the tenderness with which he speaks of "My deare wife Mar- garet." Nearly two years afterward he brought back to Cambridge and into his own home the eldest daughter of Thomas Hooker. Again was he blessed with one who could adorn and assist his life : "She was a woman of incomparable meek- ness of spirit, .. . of great prudence to take care for and order my family affayres. ... She loved God's people dearly. ... She loved God's word exceedingly. . .. When she knew none else so as to speake to them, yet she knew Jesus Xt. and could speake to him." After eight years and a half of this wedded joy and helpfulness, he was again left alone. In 1647 he once more married. Again there was a Margaret Shepard. But not for long. The call was next for him. But so excellent she was, that in due time, amid the rejoicing of the parishioners and the songs of students, she became Margaret Mitchel. Let us honor the women who
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helped to make the young church what it was, and whose influence is still upon us and our house. In every generation, as in this, there have been daughters worthy of the mothers.
In the commemoration of this time our minds are at the beginning. Here, therefore, I pause, with the name of Thomas Shepard in our ears, and the man in our hearts. I shall not tell again the story of our church since he ascended from its pastorate. It has been said and written. The work of the Puritans was faithfully carried forward in the New England. In their freedom they kept their integrity, and achieved here what they had designed there. There was no change of purpose. Meridi- ans are on the map, not on the earth; men draw them, God leaves the surface whole. The original intent, which had grown in breadth as it had mul- tiplied its years, went steadily onward in its pur- chased opportunity. In this purpose and movement this Puritan church bore its part, vigorously and prominently. In this large way our history must be read. A late historian in England, whose pen has rested too soon, has written with his accustomed carefulness, that "the history of English progress since the Restoration, on its moral and spiritual sides, has been the history of Puritanism." That history has been made in both Englands. The principles and methods of the beginning remain. We seek the same end by the same way. The Bible, the Church, the Sabbath, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, have still our reverent confi-
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dence. The commandments and promises are still in our hearts, the staple of our thoughts, the warp and woof of our word and work. Ten men have succeeded the first minister. Five sanctuaries have followed that in which the church first assembled. The sixty are now six hundred; but three thousand men and women have belonged to this household of the ancient faith. The record of these busy years is written in human lives, and far beyond our gates. The record is on high, increasing "with the process of the suns." This is no place for boasting. But we who are here to-day may gratefully believe and say that this church has done a good work, has kept faith with its founders, has carried forward their designs, has widened their thought and en- larged their endeavors, and that with augmented power and purpose it looks down the opening centuries.
I turn back to those into whose labors we have entered, to repeat the words of the saintly man who for forty years was our minister, and to include him and the two who came after him in the ascription wherewith he greeted those who had been before him: " It becomes us, then, my brethren of this generation, to rise up to-day and call them blessed." It is a fine history which is behind us. The career of this church is one of which we who review its two hundred and fifty years may be thankful and proud. We who have come so late into its work may justly claim that few churches have made a more honorable record. We should be glad that
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we are connected with such a church as this, with such a history, and such men at every stage of it, with such length of days, with such a part in the life of the town which has grown about it, and such a share in the advance of the Commonwealth over whose birth and infancy it watched in love and prayer, -in such essential union with the grand advance of Liberty and Purity among all who speak our English tongue. It is cause for giving God thanks, that one is permitted to write his name underneath the ten who have been the ministers of this church. Of all its pastors, but one has ever left it that he might be the minister of another people. It is a church which deserves the loyalty of all who belong to it or grow up in its nurture. It has proved itself worthy of our steadfastness, devotion, generosity, affection. Its stability should be our stability, and firmness of character should be fostered by firmness of allegiance. The reason of it, its origin, its history, its work, should be known by all of us, and taught to our sons and our sons' sons. The years are before us. The making of them is in our hands. All the memories inspire us. Our history is strength. Our opportunity is incentive. The day is rich in hope. As we stand around the name of Thomas Shepard, let us join our hands and make strong our hearts, while we lift up our voices with his, and make our prayer to Him who " loved the Church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present
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it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish."
In that divine purpose we rejoice, while we rise to its fulfilment, even here upon the earth; and here, on this hallowed ground, in sure anticipation of the day which is to come, when the Church, enlarged and glorified,
" Shall be Triumphant in the sky."
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ADDRESSES
IN THE
FIRST PARISH CHURCH.
Afternoon Service
IN THE
FIRST PARISH CHURCH.
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS.
BY HON. CHARLES THEODORE RUSSELL.
SPEAKING beside Plymouth Rock in 1820, Mr. Webster said: "Let us not forget the religious character of our origin. Our fathers were brought here by their high veneration for the Christian religion. They journeyed by its light and labored in its hope. They sought to incorporate its prin- ciples with the elements of their society, and to diffuse its influence through all their institutions, civil, political, or literary. Let us cherish these sentiments."
Inspired by these sentiments, never more tersely and fittingly expressed, responding to these grateful and pious injunctions, we, the children of the fathers, have met to commemorate an act of theirs, apostolic in character, simple in form, sublimely grand and far-reaching in result. Two hundred and fifty years
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ago there gathered here, in the "New towne," almost within "the sounding aisles of the dim woods," a notable body of Christians, statesmen, and scholars. They asserted no title beyond that of conscientious followers of the meek and lowly Jesus. But they called no man master. In the faith and light re- vealed to them in the Word of God, they came together in Christian equality, with due and appro- priate form and order, by prayer and mutual cov- enant, unitedly to consecrate themselves to the service of their Maker.
How they accomplished their purpose I can best state in the words of Governor Winthrop: "Mr. Shepherd, a godly minister, come lately out of England, and divers other good Christians, intend- ing to raise a church body, came and acquainted the magistrates therewith, who gave their appro- bation. They also sent to all the neighboring churches for their elders to give their assistance, at a certain day, at Newtown, when they should constitute their body. Accordingly at this day there met a great assembly, where the proceeding was as followeth : -
" Mr. Shepherd and two others (who were after to be chosen to office) sat together in the elders' seat. Then the elder of them began with prayer. After this Mr. Shepherd prayed with deep confes- sion of sin, etc., and exercised out of Ephesians v. that he might make it to himself a holy, etc .; and also opened the cause of their meeting, etc. Then the elder desired to know of the churches assem-
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bled, what number were needful to make a church, and how they ought to proceed in this action. Whereupon some of the ancient ministers, confer- ring shortly together, gave answer: That the Scripture did not set down any certain rule for the number. Three, they thought, were too few, because, by Matthew xviii., an appeal was allowed from three; but that seven might be a fit number. And, for their proceeding, they advised that such as were to join should make confession of their faith, and declare what work of grace the Lord had wrought in them, which accordingly they did. Mr. Shepherd first, then four others, then the elder, and one who was to be a deacon (who had also prayed), and another member. Then the covenant was read, and they all gave a solemn assent to it. Then the elder desired of the churches that if they did approve them to be a church they would give them the right hand of fellowship. Whereupon Mr. Cotton (upon short speech with some others near him), in the name of their churches, gave his hand to the elder, with a short speech of their assent, and desired the peace of the Lord Jesus to be with them. Then Mr. Shepherd made an exhortation to the rest of his body about the nature of their covenant, and to stand firm to it, and commended them to the Lord in a most heavenly prayer."
With this simple statement of the event, the commemoration of which has brought us here, my duty ends. It is for others whom you have selected to trace its evolution, estimate its influence, and
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declare its results. And yet I shall hardly meet my whole introductory duty if I do not allude to one later incident in the church's history which gives shape to our celebration to-day. For nearly two centuries the current of this history ran smooth and full, until dark clouds arose, the rains de- scended, and the floods came, and the swollen and angry waters found peace only in two channels, each of which claimed to be the genuine, original stream.
In 1829 the theological and somewhat intolerant discussions and divisions which agitated and dis- tressed our New England churches reached this ancient church and parish, and culminated in con- flicts and separations of no little bitterness.
I do not care to enter at all upon the history of this sad controversy. It is enough to say that, however much we may deprecate its asperities or intolerance, we must ever respect the deep and earnest convictions under which it became inevi- table, and the manly courage with which all its exigencies were met.
To-day we look back upon it through the mellow- ing influences of a half-century, and a more tolerant spirit, as the sun looks upon the ocean, to draw from it and spread abroad whatever is sweet, pure, and wholesome, while it leaves all that is salt and bitter in the depths below. In the words of Lord Macaulay, we believe "it is now time for us to pay a decent, a rational, a manly reverence to our ancestors, not by superstitiously adhering to what
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they in other circumstances did, but by doing what they in our circumstances would have done."
To-day we meet, not in organic union or in doc- trinal or dogmatic agreement, but in mutual char- ity and love; the two branches, each jealous of its rights and privileges, in joint convention assembled, for the special and grateful purpose of recognizing and honoring our common ancestry. In this we abate no jot or tittle of our respect for those earnest and conscientious men and women whose action of a half-century ago we may almost seem to reverse. If we write over the first or later pages of our history, " Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," we shall not detract from its glory, or its consistency, if we inscribe its last page to-day with " Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God."
And so I bid you welcome, from whatever church you come, to our festival to-day. Come, and come all, and help us each, that in all its exercises it may be high and holy; in its influences sweet, loving, and hallowed; in its results blessed of God.
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FIRST CHURCH IN CAMBRIDGE.
ADDRESS.
BY REV. ALEXANDER MCKENZIE, D.D.
MR. PRESIDENT, BRETHREN AND FRIENDS :
ONCE before I have spoken in this house. It was in response to the Latin summons of President Walker, and to his expectation of an Oration in lin- gua vernacula. The theme of that Commencement keeps itself before me to-day. "The rationale of success " was found by the men whose success we now commemorate. It consisted in the men. The distinguished banker whose character has recently been the subject of sincere eulogy said, " I am not in the habit of being connected with things that fail." That meant more than discernment ; it implied the habit of not letting things fail. That was a trait of the Puritan character ; it was strongly marked through the endeavor which created that name. If the spirit of Puritanism is "as old as the truth and manliness of England," the enterprise is ac- counted for and its result explained. English man- hood, renouncing foreign control, asserted itself and refused to fail. It was by no single step that these men reached the high ground upon which they built
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their house. The spirit which was in them had moved forward steadily, but with the deliberation which made it unnecessary to recede. The love of liberty and right, the courage and heroism, the fondness for adventure, the passion for progress, the faith in man, - the traits which had been displayed in many a contest with a king and many a battle with a stranger, - retained their life and were the dominant forces. I have not said the fear of God, for that encompassed and controlled their thought and action. England should be proud that she reared such sons. They should be grateful that they grew up in her nurture. The story of our inherit- ance has been written by the hand of our townsman in the glass which looks down the long aisle of St. Margaret's, hard by the monuments of men whose fame is our possession, -
"The New World's sons, from England's breasts we drew Such milk as bids remember whence we came. Proud of her Past, wherefrom our Present grew, This window we inscribe with Raleigh's name."
It is instructive to mark the sturdy advance of the Puritan's thought and purpose. With everything he gained, or failed to gain, he demanded more. He changed nothing which he had said; he had no plan for compromise. What he learned he re- membered, and he learned something more which he added to it. He protested against men, tenets, usages, and the constitution of things to which these belonged. Holding fast to his desires, he
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determined on seeking a country, making a country, where he could have what he had said that he must have. He had all his thinking in his hand when he pushed off from the Old England to the New England.
The same gradual advance of knowledge and intention is found in the man who is first in our minds in these services. In his boyhood he learned the alphabet of Puritanism. In his birthday, and the associations with it which he was not allowed to forget, was the augury of his career. Puritanism trained him in his homeless childhood, taught him in the University, repeated its lessons one by one, setting them in his retentive memory, till he had be- come such a man that those who knew him best thought him worthy of a place in the better England where he should teach what he had been taught. The confidence of men like Roger Harlakenden and John Bridge in the learning and character of this young Puritan, not thirty years old, is strong testi- mony to his excellence. Laud and the others had thought him worth silencing. Those who knew him better broke his silence, and changed one who might have been a priest into a prophet. He became a leader of men, a master-builder.
There is something sublime in the little company assembled two hundred and fifty years ago in the rude sanctuary of Newtown. They stood among their augmented purposes, making their common confession and covenant. Their cause had not failed; they had attained to that which they had
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sought. They had graduated from school, and were setting their education to its destined uses. The beginning of all which was to be was within that narrow room. Expansion, application, were to come; but they had learned the elements of the highest learning. It was a new day; but they had not broken with the past. The great names of antiquity were theirs; they read the old books which we are studying; the stories of ancient heroism were familiar. From the centuries that are hardly far- ther from us than from them, we are drawing little which they had not secured. Name the large events of the world's life, and see how few of them belong in our modern times. English history was their own; they had been born into it. By look and language they were Englishmen, and in mind and heart. They knew what we know. They retained, not all they would have liked, but all they needed. A short voyage, seven or eight weeks, would carry them to royal palaces and universities and to the newly made graves of scholars and heroes. The small ships which brought them here were large enough to bring the choicest treasures of English life. The best things can be transported. Three thousand miles of water need not break the continuity of a substantial thought or a substantial truth. There was rare wealth in that gathering on that February day.
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