USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The Berkshire jubilee > Part 2
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But there are hundreds, and probably thousands, who are not here, some of whom are occupying equally important and honored stations. The Secretary of State, several of the members of Con- . gress, and many of the judges of the state of New-York; the Chief Justice of Michigan; the U. S. District Judge of Indiana; profes- sors in the Theological Seminaries at Columbia, S. C., and New- ton, Mass., and many, many others who might be named are not with us. We regret that they are not: and so will they, when they know that while the mountains and the rivers are what they always were, the heart of Berkshire has grown a great deal larger, and that it beats with a mightier throb towards its emigrant sons.
The question has often been asked, where did the idea of this Jubilee originate? This may be a fitting occasion for answering that question. A gentleman whose official relation has led him to travel extensively in this country, and who was brought into con- tact with a great number of intelligent men, found those in influ- ential and useful stations in nearly every principal city and State, who hailed from Berkshire. Returning to the county, as he always did once or twice each year, he found the people of a particular town ignorant of the fact that distinguished men had emigrated from adjacent towns; and the emigrants themselves were unaware of the Berkshire origin of men with whom they were familiar in com- mercial, political or ecclesiastical circles. The idea was conceived five or six years ago, of bringing together the emigrants from this county, with the view of forming a band of brotherhood between
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RECEPTION MEETING.
them; awakening on the part of the citizens of the County, an interest in the fame and usefulness of its sons, and furnishing an illustration of the influence which New England is exerting on the country and the world. Wherever the idea has been suggested, it has been cordially approved. The time for its realization has been delayed for various reasons, but chiefly with the hope of such relieving prosperity as the country now enjoys. A year ago last April, he had the pleasure of meeting our respected Orator (Hon. J. A. SPENCER,) in the rail cars west of Albany, and the thought occurred that he had been named as one of Berkshire's honored sons. The inquiry was made whether he retained any attach- ment for his native county? " Yes," said he, "it is a part of my religion to go back there once a year." The plan for this gather- ing was suggested, and he entered into it with all his heart. A programme for the occasion was made on a card, essentially as it is now arranged. On the return of the individual of whom I speak, to the city of New-York, he met the late lamented Col. STONE, who promised and gave the aid of the Commercial Adver- tiser in forwarding the plan. When preparing an article for the Journal of Commerce, suggesting a meeting of the emigrants resi- dent in New-York, it became necessary to have a title, and the " BERKSHIRE JUBILEE" was first written. Some of my associates of the Committee have been mainly instrumental, in conjunction with the efficient Berkshire Committee, in securing that consum- mation in which we rejoice to-day.
I have a single suggestion to make, said Mr. C., in concluding these desultory remarks. Though this is the first, it will not be the last County Jubilee. Hampshire and Hartford and Benning- ton and Hillsboro' and Kennebec counties may have theirs. Let them be held from year to year. A blessing will be in them all. A feeling will be awakened which can only be satisfied with a general gathering of the emigrant tribes of New England. The suggestion then, is, that there be a NEW ENGLAND JUBILEE at Bunker Hill in 1850, and that the Governors of the New England States, and the Presidents of the New England Colleges, be a committee to send out a call for the great convocation. It is time that the world should know what is the influence of the Puritan stock and Puritan Institutions.
In behalf of the New-York Committee and the emigrant sons of
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BERKSHIRE JUBILEE.
Berkshire, I accept and thank you for the generous welcome with which we are received. The preparations made are on a scale of characteristic hospitality. The greeting we have received is more than a compensation for the sacrifices made in coming, as many of us have, a thousand miles or more to attend this festival.
May the blessing of the Most High rest on these beautiful hills and fertile valleys : and may those who abide here, and the thou- sands who shall yet go forth hence to people and to bless other States and lands, dwell under the shadow of the Almighty, until we all " return and come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon our heads."
At two o'clock, P.M., the procession was organized at the Park in the centre of the village, and moved to the hill prepared for the exercises, in the following order, accompanied by music.
ORDER OF PROCESSION. 1
1. President of the Day and Sheriff of the County.
2. Vice-Presidents.
3. Speakers.
4. The Clergy.
5. New-York Committee.
6. Berkshire County Committees.
7. Faculty of Williams College.
8. Faculty of Berkshire Medical Institution.
9. Emigrant sons and former residents of Berkshire.
10. Citizens of the County.
WILLIAM C. PLUNKETT, of Adams, CHIEF MARSHAL.
ASSISTANT MARSHALS.
GRENVILLE D. WESTON, Dalton. ALBERT G. BELDEN, Lenox.
WILLIAM WILLIAMS, Stockbridge.
HENRY H. COOK,
CHARLES M. OWEN, Lee.
JABEZ HALL, Adams.
STODDARD HUBBELL, Lanesborough.
CHARLES W. HOPKINS, G't Barrington.
RUSSELL A. GIBBS,
WILLIAM B. SAXTON, Sheffield.
LEVI GOODRICH, Pittsfield.
WILLIAM WATERMAN, Williamstown.
MOSES DAY, Otis.
CHARLES CHURCHILL, " JABEZ PECK,
PHILIP EAMES, Washington.
JUSTUS TOWER,
AMOS BARNES, 66
HENRY PUTNAM, Hinsdale.
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PUBLIC EXERCISES.
We now insert the exercises as they took place on the afternoon of Thursday, August 22d.
1. ANTHEM.
Wake the song of jubilee ! Let it echo o'er the sea ! Now is come the promised hour; Jesus reigns with sovereign power !
All ye nations join and sing, " Christ, of lords and kings is King !" Let it sound from shore to shore, Jesus reigns for evermore !
Now the desert lands rejoice, And the islands join their voice; Yea, the whole creation sings, Jesus is the King of kings.
2. PRAYER. By the Rev. DR. SHEPARD.
3. SINGING. PSALM. Tune-Majesty.
Our land, O Lord, with songs of praise Shall in thy strength rejoice; And, blest with thy salvation, raise, To heaven their cheerful voice.
Thy sure defence, through nations round, Has spread our wond'rous name; And our successful actions crowned With dignity and fame.
Then let our land on God alone For timely aid rely; His mercy, which adorns his throne, Shall all our wants supply.
Thus, Lord, thy wond'rous power declare, And thus exalt thy fame; Whilst we glad songs of praise prepare For thine Almighty name.
U
WILLIAMSTOWN, FROM THE SOUTH.
STRONG.N.Y
A SERMON,
DELIVERED AT PITTSFIELD,
AUGUST 22, 1844,
ON THE OCCASION OF e
THE BERKSHIRE JUBILEE.
BY MARĶ HOPKINS, D.D.
D
SERMON.
AND this is the Berkshire Jubilee! We have come -the sons and daughters of Berkshire - from our vil- lages, and hill sides, and mountain tops ; from the dis- tant city, from the far west, from every place where the spirit of enterprise and of adventure bears men - we have come. The farmer has left his field, the me- chanic his work-shop, the merchant his counting-room, the lawyer his brief, and the minister his people, and we have come to revive old and cherished associations, and to renew former friendships-to lengthen the cords and strengthen the stakes of every kind and time-hallowed affection.
And coming thus from these wide dispersions, un- der circumstances which must carry our minds back to the first dawnings of life, and cause us to review all the path of our pilgrimage; coming too as natives and citizens of a State on the eastern border of which is Plymouth rock, what so suitable as that our first pub- lic act should be to assemble ourselves for the worship of the God of our fathers, and our God, and to do honor to those institutions of religion through the influence of which, chiefly, we are what we are, and without which the moral elements in which this occasion has origi- nated could not have existed. Coming thus to cele-
- 1
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BERKSHIRE JUBILEE.
brate a local thanksgiving-local in one sense, but extended in another, since this day our family affec- tion is thrown around a whole county, - how fit is it, while we look back on all the way in which God has led us, while our kind feelings towards our fellow men are awakened and strengthened, that we should suffer all the goodness of God to lead us to him-that we should adopt, as I am sure every one of us has reason to do, the language of the Psalmist, and say, " Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee."
This passage of Scripture, which I have selected as my text on this occasion, will be found in the 116th Psalm and the 7th verse:
" RETURN UNTO THY REST, O MY SOUL; FOR THE LORD HATH DEALT BOUNTIFULLY WITH THEE."
These words assert a fact, and contain an exhorta- tion based on that fact. We will first attend to the fact; and then to the exhortation.
The fact asserted is, " The Lord hath dealt bounti- fully with thee." And here, in accordance with what has already been said of the propriety of our assem- bling thus, the first thing which I notice is the agency of God in the prosperity of men. The assertion is, " The Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee."
The Bible differs from all other books in its recog- nition of God in every thing. There we not only find it formally stated that in him we live and move and have our being, that not a sparrow falls to the ground without him, and that the very hairs of our
1
33
SERMON.
heads are all numbered; but we find an incidental reference to him of all those events which are usually attributed to natural causes. There we find no per- sonification and deification of the laws of nature, or of any principles or agencies to come between the crea- ture and God. There we find no identification of God with the Universe on the one hand, and no exclusion of him from it, under the pretence of exalting him, on the other. He is there represented, indeed, as in the midst of his works, but as being as distinct from them as the builder of the house is from the house. He is represented as the proprietor of all things, as sustain- ing and controlling all things, and as furnishing by his all-pervading agency the only conditions on which any subordinate agency can be exercised. Do the Israel- ites triumph in battle ? It is God who gives them the victory. Does an enemy come up against them? It is God who brings him. Famine, and pestilence, and great warriors are the scourges of God. It is his sun that he causeth to rise upon the evil and upon the good ; and his rain that he sendeth upon the just and upon the unjust. "He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by his discretion. When he uttereth his voice there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures." His are the "corn and the wine, and the oil and the flax." His are the beasts of the field, and the cattle upon a
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BERKSHIRE JUBILEE.
thousand hills, and he exercises a providential control over all. What he giveth his creatures they gather; " He openeth his hand; and they are filled with good. He hideth his face, they are troubled; He taketh away their breath, they die and return to their dust." If any are in adversity, it is because God tries and would correct them; if any are in prosperity, it is because God hath dealt bountifully with them. Is success the result of strength and skill ? that strength and skill he gives. The most wise and skillful, not less than the most fortunate, has reason to render thanksgiving and praise to him.
It is this fact of the universal, absolute, and entire dependence of all creatures upon God, a fact elemen- tary to all true religion, which places us in the pecu- liar relation which we hold to God as a Father, which lies at the foundation of gratitude for the past, and trust for the future, of which we would feel at all times, but especially at this time, a deep, abiding, and practi- cal sense. Whatever of goodness and mercy have followed us; whatever of prosperity, and success, and enjoyment have been ours, we would to-day look back upon the way in which God has led us, and ascribe it all to him. We would say it is because "the Lord hath dealt bountifully with us."
Thus recognizing the agency of God, we next en- quire for a moment, what it is for him to deal boun- tifully with us. This would seem to require but little explanation, but it must be noticed in connexion with what has just been said of that agency, lest the evil
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SERMON.
which results from the negligence and folly and vice of men, should be imputed to the provisions and agency of God.
When God is said to deal bountifully with men, reference is sometimes had to the original endow- ments which he bestows upon them. Thus, if we compare man with the brutes, we find him possessed of a commanding intellect, and reason, and conscience, of which they are entirely destitute. These he has received from God, and God may be justly said to have dealt bountifully with him in bestowing them. So also, if we compare men with each other, we find them possessing every variety of constitution and natural gifts, and of some it may be said emphatically and pre- eminently, that God hath dealt bountifully with them.
But in general, when we speak of God's dealing bountifully with men, we do not refer to the original endowments and capabilities with which they are fur- nished. These are taken for granted, and the bounty of God is made to consist in his bestowment of those external gifts by means of which all the faculties and capabilities of man are developed, and in which they find their true enjoyment. Scarcely more dependent is the seed upon the rain and the sunshine to cause it to germinate and grow, than is man upon means and influences external to himself, and to a great extent independent of himself for growth and enjoyment. God is an independent being. He suffices unto him- self. He is infinitely happy in himself, and is depend- ent in no degree upon any external adjustment, or
36
BERKSHIRE JUBILEE.
upon any correspondence to him of things without. Hence no accident can reach him, no change can affect him. In this respect his mode of existence is totally different from that of all created beings. Crea- tures, probably from the necessity of the case, are de- pendent upon God. It is the glory and happiness of rational and moral creatures that they are dependent upon him directly and immediately as the only object to which their faculties correspond, and which is capa- ble of calling them fully forth, and giving them com- plete satisfaction. But in many respects, we, and pro- bably all creatures, are dependent, not immediately upon God, but upon other things which he has created and placed in certain relations to us, and upon God through them. "Every species of creature," says Bishop Butler, " is, we see, designed for a particular way of life, to which the nature, the capacities, tem- per and qualifications of each species are as necessary as their external circumstances." And I may add, that their external circumstances are as necessary as their capacities, tempers, and qualifications. " Both,"
he continues, " come into the motion of such state or way of life, and are constituent parts of it. Change a man's capacities or character to the degree in which it is conceivable they may be changed, and he would be altogether incapable of a human course of life, and human happiness, as incapable as if, his nature con- tinuing unchanged, he were placed in a world where he had no sphere of action, nor any objects to answer his appetites, passions, and affections of any sort. One
37
SERMON.
thing is set over against another, as an ancient writer expresses it. Our nature corresponds to our external condition. Without this correspondence there would be no possibility of any such thing as human life and human happiness, which life and happiness are there- fore a result from our nature and condition jointly, meaning by human life, not living in the literal sense, but the whole complex notion commonly understood by those words."
According to this view, the highest idea we can have of the bounty of God in his dealings with his creatures would be-not, as is commonly supposed, that he should give them large possessions that should be subject to the control of their will, not that he should give such possessions at all-"For a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things that he possesseth," - but that for every internal want, susceptibility, faculty, there should be its corresponding external object by means of which every want might be supplied, every susceptibility niet, every faculty be trained to its highest expansion, and receive the fullest enjoyment of which it was capable. The provision, with given faculties, of such external objects is what we commonly mean by bounty ; and if the expansion and enjoyment of the faculties would flow from the relations in which they are placed spontaneously, and without effort of ours, we are apt to think the bounty would be increased. Perhaps this would be so in a perfect state. Perhaps it will be so in heaven - and perhaps it will not. But it is not so here, and it cannot be in a world intended to
E
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BERKSHIRE JUBILEE.
be a place of probation, or of discipline. Here God makes the provision, but man must apply it in accor- dance with those laws which he has instituted. God makes the provision, and how wonderful is it! How infinite, how varied, how exact are the corresponden- cies between the susceptibilities and powers of living beings, and the objects around them! In no point of view does the universe of God present a more pleasing object of study. Yes, God makes the provision, and though men should apply it unwisely, or not at all; though they should, as they do, pervert his gifts to their own unhappiness, yet it may still be said that " The Lord hath dealt bountifully with them."
We now proceed to the assertion on which I wish chiefly to dwell. The Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. In illustrating this, I shall be expected to dwell chiefly on those manifestations of goodness which are suggested by the peculiar occasion on which we have met. But these, as common to us all, cannot reach the heart as would those more particular instances of the Divine goodness of which we have had individual experience. In these we find the deepest and truest grounds of thankfulness. How affecting to some of us must the remembrance of these be! while there is not one, whether we have wandered abroad and now re- turned, or whether we have remained, who cannot adopt, each with an application peculiar to himself, the language of the verse succeeding the text and say, " For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling." The re-
39
SERMON.
membrance of these individual mercies let us cherish; and I recall them now, that that remembrance may lie warm about our hearts, and give an interest to those more general instances of goodness of which I must speak.
I observe then, first, that God has dealt bountifully with us in the provision he has made for our physical wants. By this I mean, not merely that we have been free from actual want, and the fear of it,-that " bread has been given us, and that our waters have been sure," -but I mean the supply and arrangement of all those substances and agencies by which the physical man is brought to the greatest perfection. How great is the variety in the same species of vegetables and animals, as they are sustained by different nutriment, and are sub- jected to diversities of climate ! How great, from the same causes, is the diversity in the races of men ! Ori- ginally God made all men of the same blood to dwell on the face of the earth ; but now we see the dwarfed Lap- lander, the small-eyed, high-cheeked, swarthy Tartar, the black and wooly headed Hottentot, the slender and delicately formed Hindoo, the tall lithe form of the American Indian, and our own fair race before whom those Indians have melted away. Of these varieties of the human race, some, whether beauty or power be regarded, come nearer the standard of a perfect physi- cal organization than others. Some climates, some articles of food, some modes of life are more favorable than others to the full growth and perfection of the animal frame. A temperate climate, pure mountain
40
BERKSHIRE JUBILEE.
breezes, clear springs of water and running brooks, and an abundance of nourishing food, which is yet yielded only to the hand of an industry that fully developes and compacts and hardens the frame, seem to be the chief conditions of its perfect expansion. And which of these is wanting to those who dwell in these val- lies, and upon the sides of these hills ? We can in- deed boast no superiority here over many others. In some respects, and at some seasons, others may have advantages over us. We hear them speak of the sunny south, and of the milder and more fertile west and southwest. But the bounty of God as bearing on the physical frame is relative, not merely to passive en- joyment, but, from their reaction upon that frame, to habits of active industry and of virtuous self-denial ; and history furnishes no example of a people possess- ing a soil more fertile and a climate more bland than ours, who have not degenerated and become luxurious and effeminate. No doubt the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers where they did, was ordered of God. If they had landed at New Orleans, the result would have been widely different. Nor does it follow, because those who go out from us to regions of greater ease and more abundant wealth say they would not return, that it will be as well for their children of the second and third generations. But without attempting to measure with exactness that which does not admit of it, we are so favored that I suppose there is no where a spot where an occasion like this would draw together a company of people who would on the whole be supe-
41
SERMON.
rior to those before me, in their physical aspect and organization. No doubt there is room for improve- ment. The physical man is not here or elsewhere what it will be when men universally shall learn and obey the laws of temperance in all things, the great organic laws of God. But let us do this, and we are within that range of agencies through which the high- est perfection of man may be reached, and if so, it may be truly said that "God hath dealt bountifully with us."
I observe again, that God has dealt bountifully with us in granting us those aspects of nature, and those in- fluences of society by which we have been surrounded. Nature and society-these, next to the Spirit and word of God, are the two great agencies for calling forth that higher life of man, that life of thought and emotion, of taste and affection, which comes forth from the lower animal life as the flower from the stalk and the enfolding leaves. Each of these has its appropriate office, and compared with these, what is technically called education is comparatively inefficient.
Man is not thrown into the lap of nature simply that she should supply the wants of his animal frame. No, she has voices in which she speaks to him, and a countenance of varying aspects upon which he may look. To these voices and aspects there are spirits that are attuned, and the child is to be pitied who is shut out from nature, or who has not felt a wild and undefinable delight as he has entered the deep woods, and heard the note of the wood bird, and gathered moss and strange flowers ; as he has seen and fled
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BERKSHIRE JUBILEE.
before the coming storm; as he has looked at the rain- bow spanning the heavens; as he has climbed the mountain top and gazed on the wide prospect beneath. To such an one, rightly educated, there is not a single aspect or mood in which nature can be found, from the quiet reverie of her summer noon, to the passion of her storms and tornadoes, in which his spirit does not sympathise.
But while nature has sounds of melody and sights of beauty for all, how diverse are those which she presents by the shore of the ocean, on the level or rolling sea of the western prairie, among the wild and desolate rocks of the White Hills, or among the green mountains and hills and vallies of our own Berk- shire? Nor is it possible, where there is mental deve- lopement, that this diversity should be without its effect upon it. From the variety of soil and climate which it involves, this diversity will not only produce a diffe- rence in the habits and occupations of life, but also in all the associations, and so far as the conceptive facul- ty is concerned, in the whole web and texture of our mental being. From what can our ideal world of forms and colors be framed but from the little actual world that surrounds the horizon of our childhood ? No doubt there are those upon whom, from the hard pressure of animal wants, or the withering effects of oppression, or from early absorption in the rounds of fashion, or from sensuality and vice, the finest sce- nery makes no more impression than the shadow of . the cloud as it passes over the rock. It is melancholy
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