USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Salem > The first centenary of the North church and society, in Salem, Massachusetts > Part 8
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THE PRESIDENT.
I am happy to say there is in our family a robust sister. The First Church did not send forth the North Church alone, but she also established a branch in the town of Marblehead. I have the pleasure of introducing to you the Rev. JOHN W. CHADWICK, of Brooklyn, N. Y., who will respond for that branch.
ADDRESS OF THE REV. JOHN W. CHADWICK.
MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN : Once upon a time Parson Brazer, of the North Church in Salem, and Parson Bart- lett, of the Unitarian Church in Marblehead, had arranged for an exchange of pulpits and when the Sunday morning came and the time for the services had arrived, Dr. Brazer, I think, got to his post in good season, and the Marblehead people were duly edified by his preaching. But the people of the North Church in Salem came to church and the time came for the services to begin, but no minister appeared. After waiting about fifteen or twenty minutes beyond the usual time, and wondering very much what had hap- pened, Parson Bartlett, who was always a person of rubicund and florid appearance, arrived, looking somewhat more florid than was his wont. No explanation was given but the parson went on with his services with as much composure as he could command. It was afterward discovered that he had undertaken to walk from Marblehead to Salem (and at that time I may say the Sunday omnibus was not regarded as a means of grace) and, to save as much time as he could, he walked "across-lots." Mr. Hale has a sermon he is fond of preaching about the way of the transgressor being hard, the transgressor being the man who goes "across-lots." On this occasion the way of Parson Bartlett was particularly hard, for he was chased by a bull. It so happened, however, that he was in the close vicinity of a stone wall, and he climbed over ; the bull came on with such tremendous velocity that as he went over
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the wall, he went over the parson too, and did not discover for some time that the parson was not ahead of him. By that time the parson had got back over the wall, and over the bull went again. And so it went on for some twenty minutes, the "artful dodger" being now on one side of the wall and now the other side, the contest growing continually more lively and exciting, until the owner of the bull, by some happy conjunction of affairs, happened to discover what was going on, and sent some one to call off the bull, and the parson proceeded on his way rejoicing. The moral of which is, that under the circumstances I think I should be justified in "dodging," for two reasons, one of which is that this is the first warning I have had that I was to speak at all. Mr. Willson said something about coming prepared to sing, and I have sung with the rest. Another reason is that these speeches have gone on so long and so pleasantly that we have come to that time when it is always proper to say that " so much has been said and so well said that I will not occupy your time." I was glad to have the President date me from Marblehead, for I was somewhat in doubt when I found he was aiming at me whether I was here as a representative of Marblehead or as a representative of Brooklyn, and certainly it is as a representative of Marblehead I am here in my thought, because as I sat in the church and heard the pleasant words of the speaker, singing that pleasant song of departed days, my thoughts were thoughts of Marblehead and not of Brooklyn. My heart almost condemns me for having allowed Parson Bartlett to appear before you in a ridiculous aspect at a time when almost everybody was afraid of the minister. I am sure I never was afraid of him, for it was always a very pleasant time when he came into the house, except when I was sick and he would order me some medicine, for you must remember, he was a physician of bodies as well as of souls. The town people generally used to think his medicine was orthodox, whatever they thought of his creed ; perhaps, because they got the medicine for nothing. My
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thoughts were of him and all his kindly pleasantries, and of one other who only a year or two ago passed beyond this life, and with whom year after year I entered into "close communion." So that as I heard your preacher talk of Parson Barnard and Mr. Abbot, of Mr. Brazer and Dr. Prince, the names did not seem at all unfamiliar to me because I had heard my good grandmother talk of them so often that I felt I really knew them. There was one sermon, too, that she was very fond of reading to me, by Dr. Prince, with the beautiful text, as she thought, "In the day that I make up my jewels." Through her, therefore, I entered into communion with these people. As I listened to Mr. Willson's address, I wondered with what eyes they would regard us from their heavenly seats, we who are working in their places, but by such different methods and such different ways, and thinking this over I was glad when the key of explanation came from Mr. Willson's own lips ; when he told us that the corner-stone of their preaching and of their hold upon the people was the liberty, the humanity, the holiness and love they taught. So I felt we were with them. We are doing our best in our way, and we are with them in the most essential way of all. Being in this Normal School building reminds me of that motto of Dr. Pierce of Lex- ington, "Live to the truth," and I am sure if we of this day and generation are true to our light, to such light as is given us, working on as faithfully and steadfastly as we can, doing our work in our own way, there is nothing existing in this world or in any other that can separate us from the love of Christ that was in those men and women of the elder days, who constitute with us one family in earth and in heaven.
THE PRESIDENT.
The relations that existed between the distinguished men of the time when the Rev. John Pierpont sang his great song in Eos- ton, and when the liberty-loving people of Salem listened with
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so much gladness, have continued to this day. I am happy to introduce to you the Rev. GEORGE L. CHANEY, minister of the Hollis Street Church, Boston, a society that was old before this church was born. Mr. Chaney came from Salem.
ADDRESS OF REV. GEORGE L. CHANEY.
MR. PRESIDENT : There are three blessings for which I desire to give thanks. First, that I was born in Salem; second, that I went away from Salem; and third, that I have returned to it to-day.
You remember the old tribute which the wandering sons of Salem were wont to pay to their native town :- that it was a good place to have come from. But as often as we come back to the old city her motherly love makes us feel that it is an equally good place to return to. That we never know our blessings till they take their flight is nowhere better shown than in the experience of a Salem exile from home.
Just as people who have most to boast of fall into self-dispar- agement, so it has long been a practice, among the rising genera- tions at least, to laugh at the slow gait and drowsy habits of the good old mother city that bore them. But a very short acquaint- ance with other towns and life in other countries opens our eyes wonderfully to the advantages we had at home. How should we know until we had tried other places that every city did not have a grand parade ground in its centre, with a green-coated company of valiant elm trees keeping perpetual guard around it? Or how were we to learn that the old museum was a Salem specialty ? That only here could a man be at home in all the world without leaving his native city? We should have regarded it as local prejudice if any one had claimed for Salem the possession of a peculiar institution in the Essex Institute or the Athenaeum. These nurseries of science and letters were so much a matter of course in our youthful life, that any Salem boy taken to Timbuctoo
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or Terra del Fuego would have innocently asked the way to the Institute or Library, not conceiving of a land in which these things were wanting.
Then there were the ships, the merchants, the barques and brigs of every clime, the stately Custom House, making a long arm of Derby Wharf to catch and treasure all the products of the world ; the magnificent poor-house, as the old conundrum had it, "just like your head-because it was on the Neck"; the real home houses of the citizens, each with its yard and garden, where better things than the perishing flowers that grew there were planted in the young folks who made those flowers their care; and, last of many graces, there was the beautiful resting place of the dead, one of the earliest signs of the high level to which christian civilization was advancing in the new world.
It is not surprising that a city thus open to communication with foreign countries and thus supplied with the apparatus for receiv- ing, preserving and transmitting knowledge from generation to generation should have nurtured thoughtful people. It is not surprising that she should have come early to broader views of religious truth and more comprehensive schemes of christian activity than were common in other cities. I take equal pride in the thought that here were consecrated the first missionaries, and here were some of the earliest defenders of a gospel too humane to omit one of God's creatures from his saving purpose and declared power in Jesus Christ, his Son.
It is impossible for a man who comes in contact with humanity in many nations, and finds it the same under all its disguises of color, language and dress, to accept any plan of salvation, which cannot survey beyond his native city. Every seaboard town in active communication with the Indies, or the Mediterranean, is always exposed to liberal infection. No quarantine can keep out the heresy that man is man, and although in ignorance, sin or shame, still an object of providential love and care. Thus it
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happened of necessity that churches of humanity were formed and maintained in this cosmopolitan city. One such church has called us together to celebrate its one-hundredth birthday. We have listened to its record of service, its story of long-tried fidelity to truth and God's humanity under the guiding inspiration of the christian gospel. In every street of this city, homes have been visited and hallowed by its sacred ministries. In sickness and in health, in sorrow and in joy, this church has been the faithful partner of the homes united to it. Commerce and trade have felt its call to honorable dealing. The courts of justice have been more just for its maintenance of the just cause. Corrupt politics have felt the lash of its indignant rebuke, and ancient wrongs have sought in the grave a refuge from its strong attack. Proud as we are of the literary renown and commercial enterprise that have distinguished our native city, have we not, in the memories that throng the church and that pursue us wherever we assemble on this day, deeper cause for devout pride and thanksgiving? For what were stores of knowledge or stars of genius or fires of enter- prise in us or in any people, unless governed by religious prin- ciples ? What, indeed, but the material for ruin to their possessor and his unfortunate companions ! Religion gives to every other gift or accomplishment its safe direction. And as the rocket sprinkles the sky with a rain of innocent splendor, or carries fire and destruction over the earth, according to its pointing, so human talents depend upon the divine hand of religion to uphold and direct them.
But, Mr. President, I have another claim upon your indulgence than that of my nativity or my calling, both of which, as you see, I am not slow to magnify. I cannot forget that I am the minister of a church which had attained a vigorous majority when your church was in its cradle. You must have heard of its old-time minister, the Rev. Mather Byles, the ministerial wag and tory of his day. I take no stock either in his wit or his treason, for both
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of which he got his due in being expelled from his church. But I recall a story of him which may do service in illustrating my final word of congratulation. Dr. Byles was so open a tory that he was constantly watched by a guard, who used to walk up and down in front of his house to see that no mischief went in or out. The doctor playfully called the guard his observe-a-tory. One day being in want of something at a neighboring store (sermon- paper, perhaps), Dr. Byles persuaded his guard to do the errand for him, agreeing to take his place during his absence. So the doctor was seen walking up and down in front of his house, with gun a'shoulder, keeping watch over himself.
I used to fear, Mr. President, that such would be the end of the liberal church ; every minister and every church and every man with gun a' shoulder, keeping watch over himself-the last result of individual isolation. In such a gathering as this, how vain the fear ! In this commemoration of a hundred years of work well done, we give a pledge of sympathy in the work of the future. A hundred years to come, may the churches that stand for freedom in the choice of the christian religion and consecration in its prac- tice make one brotherhood, and on this day, 1972, may they meet to repeat this festival with greater fulness and even grander cheer than have been ours to-day !
The PRESIDENT then read the following letter from THE SALEM UNIVERSALIST SOCIETY, as showing the sympathy which persons of different denominations feel towards each other, and especially as evincing the friendship of this sister church, of another and yet a kindred faith ; that church being represented on this occasion by its pastor, Rev. E. C. BOLLES.
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SALEM, June 15, 1872.
FRANCIS H. LEE, Esq.,
My Dear Sir :- In parish meeting, held June 10, 1872, it was
Voted, that the accompanying letter of congratulation be adopted, and that a copy be sent by the clerk of the First Univer- salist society, to the secretary of the committee of the North Church and society, for their centennial celebration.
Very truly yours, T. H. BARNES, Clerk.
"TO THE NORTH CHURCH AND SOCIETY, SALEM.
Dear Brethren: - We have learned through your invitation to our pastor that you are to observe on the 19th of July next, the centennial anniversary of the founding of your society and church. We would not lose this early opportunity of conveying to you our congratulations. We rejoice that you have thus com- pleted a century of church life, and through fathers and sons have so long and so well upheld the interests of liberal religion in this community.
It is a matter of even greater pleasure to us that the hundredth anniversary finds you ready and in earnest to add another chapter to the story of the devotion of the past.
We would join you, therefore, in the pleasant thoughts of this memorial day, and beg you to remember that we are with you not only by the bond of neighborhood but by that of fraternity as well."
THE PRESIDENT.
I regret that the eloquent pastor of this church extending a kindly hand to us has been called away. I should have urged him to remain had I known he was about to leave. I know of no better service I can perform than to ask another son of Salem to respond for the Universalist Church. I ask the Rev. Mr. WHITE of Keene, N. H.
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ADDRESS OF THE REV. WILLIAM ORNE WHITE.
You will pardon me, sir, for thinking that here is an excellent opportunity for me to act upon what Rev. Mr. Chaney has just told us about "Mather Byles." For, at this late hour, what better can I do, than in emulation of that ancient worthy, to "mount guard over myself?"
Having had no premonition of the sentiment to which I am expected to respond, I am, nevertheless, very thankful for the privilege of saying, that in my own immediate neighborhood, we Unitarians and Universalists have very pleasant fellowship, one with another. Upon the shelves of our Universalist brethren, you can often find the volumes of Channing and Ware and other leading Unitarians, side by side with those among their own writers who are closely allied to us in liberal thought, and in great and beneficent work. Let us all unite in cordially wishing our Universalist friends increasing success in the new century of effort upon which they have recently entered.
It is tantalizing to think, sometimes, how near you come to escaping your fate. I was just thinking, as you called upon me, sir, that two minutes more from each of these excellent gentlemen who have spoken, and it would have been out of the question for you to have called upon me at all, without drawing unduly upon the next century.
Do we not find, in the absence of some of our friends, in this intense midsummer's heat, a sad warning against our being so prone to act upon the familiar saying, "It will be all the same a hundred years hence?" What could have set this people out to form their church on the nineteenth of July? As we miss familiar sons of Salem who are in their "tent on the beach," or climbing the mountains, we can call back, across the cliffs of the century, to Thomas Barnard and his friends, "It was not all the same a hundred years hence !" Even so small a matter as fixing the day
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of your being "set off" as a church made a difference, a hundred years afterwards, in our celebration.
I feel a little like a child, as well as a guest, of the North Church to-day. For although a son of the old "First Church," with which my maternal ancestors were identified, I can recall with much pleasure my brief connection with the North Church Sunday School, just before such a school was established in the parent church. How much grace and dignity Hon. Leverett Saltonstall lent to it as its revered superintendent ! My own teacher was that excellent man, the late E. K. Lakeman, whose genial presence and kind words it is always a pleasure to recall.
My earliest remembrance of anything is the marriage of a beloved relative, at which Rev. Dr. Brazer officiated, when I was between three and four years old. How gracious was his way of greeting his young friends upon the street! How vividly can we recall those plaintive cadences which gave such effect to his reading of the one verse of the hymn! Again and again, upon his exchanges with our own minister, I remember the fearful solemnity which marked his reading of the words :
"And now, my soul, another year Of my short life is past; I cannot long continue here; And this may be my last."
Of Rev. John E. Abbot, the most distinct impression I have received was from the faithful friend who accompanied him in his unavailing journey to Havana, and who said of him, referring to his period of comparative health, "wherever he was, whatever he said, even though he were chatting cheerfully with you at 'a party,' he always seemed to be in heaven."
It so happens that Keene, which has been my home for more than twenty years past, is the town to which Rev. Asa Dunbar retired, after seeming to stand as a stone wall between the elder Thomas Barnard and his son. How brief was his term of service
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in the First Church ! His declining health soon threw him into the profession of the law, which he honorably pursued for a few years in Keene, and then died, at the age of forty-two. Had he, or his past friends in Salem, foreseen the brief and chequered years that remained to him, and the long and brave career of the young Barnard, may we not feel that the disruption which was occasioned by the rivalry of these men and their friends might have been prevented ?
But in that case where should we have been to-day, and where my opportunity of thanking your committee for their kind invita- tion, and yourself, sir, for the privilege of expressing the pleasure which I feel in being here ?
The following hymn was then read by the REV. GEORGE BATCH- ELOR, of the Barton Square Church, and sung by the company :
Great God, we sing that mighty hand By which, supported, still we stand ; The opening year Thy mercy shows ; That mercy crowns it till it close.
With grateful hearts the past we own; The future, all to us unknown, We to Thy guardian care commit, And, peaceful, leave before Thy feet.
In scenes exalted or depressed, Thou art our joy, and Thou our rest ;
Thy goodness all our hopes shall raise Adored through all our changing days.
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CONGRATULATORY LETTERS.
The President said he had two or three pleasant letters, indic- ative of the kind feelings which old friends had after they had left the city. He then read the following :-
YORK, ENGLAND, June 21, 1872.
My Dear Mr. Willson : - Your letter reached me just as I was leaving London for a short tour northward, and I take my first leisure to thank you for the invitation to join in the approaching centenary of the "North Society." Most gladly would I, if I could, leap the space that separates Old England from the New, to be one of the gathering that will meet to renew old ties and to refresh themselves with the memories that hang about our loved church.
I have visited during the week one of the colleges in Oxford that had just celebrated, two days before, its ten hundreth anni- versary. It was good to think that, amid all the changes and revolutions of those thousand years, so valuable an institution had preserved an unbroken life, and had twined about itself rich associations with every portion of so long and varied a history ; and I was glad to be reminded by your letter in my pocket that, in our country too, there are some among the best institutions we possess which, if they cannot claim so great antiquity as that, are relatively to the period of our national life almost as old.
Let us make much of their anniversaries when they come round, and may they be dearer and stronger the older they grow.
My own connection with the society covered only two out of its one hundred years ; but when I recall the rich experiences and the consecrated friendships that are to me inseparably associated with the church, I realize the more how much that is precious must have accumulated about it to the multitude of souls it has welcomed and nourished during all the hundred years. How much I should
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like to look in upon your celebration. I should meet many whose faces and forms are almost the same as when they greeted me eighteen years ago. There are others whom I knew as children and who are grown I suppose wholly out of my recognition ; but I should like to look in their faces and take them by the hand and see how far they have realized the anticipations I used to like to form about them when I was privileged to look on them as members of my flock.
But very many of those who were nearest and dearest to me during my ministry have left this earth and will not be with you- I am almost startled when I count them over and see how many they are. Inasmuch as I am forced to be among the absent ones I take a kind of solemn joy in thinking in what a company I am ; for whether the absence is occasioned by a difference of continent or by difference of sphere may be less of a distinction than we are apt to suppose. I think it would be hard to find anywhere in the world truer exemplifications of the christian life than we had among those dear departed ones, whose loveliness and unselfish devotion to duty and religious fervor give now an odor of sanctity to the church they loved so well ; and what a testimony they give to the value of that form of religious faith which has borne such precious fruit ! May their memory stimulate us and make us strive that it may work in us also the same perfect work !
May God bless you in your ministry, and bless the people- who in every true church are ministers too - and may you and they so labor together as to help on the kingdom of righteousness and truth and love.
I am ever sincerely yours,
CHARLES LOWE.
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PORTLAND, MAINE, July 16, 1872.
My Dear Mr. Willson : - It is a great disappointment to me, that I shall not be able to be present at the centennial celebration of the North Church. I should not allow any light thing to detain me from it; for I would not willingly neglect so filial a duty ; but an engagement of long standing, and involving the convenience of others beside myself, takes me out of communi- cation with Salem for a week to come.
I trust that the occasion will be successful in renewing the recollections which are too good to be allowed to perish, and that the elements will be as propitious as the occasion, that the ther- mometer may not see fit to celebrate the centennial by itself rising to one hundred degrees.
My chief contribution, if I could be as present as I am in desire, would be an interest loyal to the old church. My mem- ories of its history go too little way back, and are too largely personal to be of value to others, though to myself they are a part of the most precious things in my life ; and yet, though one of its younger children, I can touch directly or indirectly along the whole span of its century's life. The church was founded in the dark days just before the Revolution, -an act of faith not the least memorable among the many historical events in the history of Salem. It is ninety-seven years since some of the parishioners of one of my predecessors at King's Chapel came down to Salem in their red coats seeking powder, and found Mr. Barnard standing at the old North Bridge. The clerical dress and manner of that noteworthy figure among the worthies of the old town, were a tradition still, - the beautiful youth of Abbot, all fragrant with piety, was an inspiring memory not yet dim, twenty-five years ago.
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