USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Plainfield > Topographical description and historical sketch of Plainfield, in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, May, 1834 > Part 4
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" 11. We believe that a church of Christ is an independent body, having full power to receive, discipline, dismiss and expel its own members, to elect and dismiss its own officers, and to manage its own concerns according to the scriptures, and that councils and associations have only advisory powers.
" 12. We believe that the only permanent officers of the church are elders or pastors and deacons; that the pastor is to preach the word, to administer baptism and the Lord's supper, to oversee the church, and to preside in discipline; and that he is to be highly esteemed in love for his work's sake, and liberally and voluntarily supplied with carnal things according to the respective ability of the members ;- and that the deacons are to oversee and manage the temporals of the church.
" Church Covenant.
" Having been baptized, upon the profession of our faith, in the - name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, we do now, in the presence of the heart searching God, and in the presence of these witnesses, voluntarily devote ourselves to God according to the gospel of his Son, and to this church as members of it, receiving its articles of faith and practice as agreeable to the word of God, and promising to adhere to them in sentiment and practice, and to submit to the discipline of the church, so long as we continue satisfied that they are scriptural.
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" We likewise engage to attend public worship statedly with this church, so far as may be consistent with duty, and endeavor to bring up our families in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; and also to attend church meetings and conferences, and all other appointments of the church, whenever it is practicable.
" Moreover, we esteem it our duty to walk in wisdom towards them, that are without, and to cultivate brotherly love among our- selves ;- to watch over, exhort, sympathize with and pray for each other ;- to bear with one another's failings and infirmities, and, when the case requires, to warn, rebuke and admonish one another, according to the gospel.
" And may the God of all grace enable us always to keep in mind our present engagements, so long as we are continued in this church; and may he still add unto it of such as shall be saved.
" " Now unto him, that is able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, do- minion and power, both now and ever. Amen." "
The number of church members is 22. The meetings of the society are commonly held in the brick schoolhouse.
Deacons.
Chosen,
August, 1833, Asa Thayer;
August, 1833, Jeremiah Stockwell, junior.
NOTICE OF THE MOUNTAIN MILLER, AN AUTHENTIC NARRATIVE, BY WILLIAM A. HALLOCK.
Deacon Joseph Beals, who will be known, through the future ages of the church, as the Mountain Miller, was a native of Bridgewater in this state, and removed with his family to this place in 1779. Here, in 1789, a year of great scarcity, he met with a severe affliction, the loss of his house and nearly all his provisions by fire. Previous to this, he had been depending on his external morality for salvation, considering a change of heart as unnecessary. He now found, however, that he could not truly sub- mit to the will of God, and betook himself to the seeking of his salvation in earnest. After a season of distressing anxiety, the
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Savior was pleased to reveal himself to his soul as the chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely, and " he suddenly broke forth in new strains of devotion, penitence and praise for redeeming love." From this time he consecrated himself to the service of his Savior, and became distinguished for his meekness and humility, his life of prayer, his exemplary deportment at all times, and in all places, particularly in the house of God, his abiding sense of the uncertainty of life and the retributions of eternity, his preciousness to the awakened sinner, his care for the spiritual welfare of his family, and of all, with whom the providence of God brought him in contact, his perseverance in doing good, and his uniform and consistent piety. " His conversation would never tire, and it seemed that he was never tired of religious conversation."
He died after a short sickness, July 20, 1813. " His body," says the writer of the tract, " was interred in the graveyard, near his accustomed place of worship, where a plain and neat marble slab, bearing his name, age and the date of his death, is erected as the only memorial of the Mountain Miller. A notice of his death was inserted in the county newspaper, with this expressive and appropriate remark; " His presence animated the Christian, and awed the sinner;" which would have been his whole recorded story, had not some special indications of providence convinced the writer of this narrative of his duty to communicate it for the benefit, he trusts, of thousands."
The pious traveler will hereafter delight to visit the place con- secrated by the residence of the Mountain Miller, to drink at the spring by the road side, bursting from the rocks, and shaded by the two beautiful sugar maples, where he so often drank in passing between his house and mill, and, above all, to linger at the grave of this devoted servant of the Most High. From this spot flowers have already been culled, and sent to different parts of this country and of Europe.
This tract, which now takes its place by the side of the Dairy- man's Daughter and the Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, was first published by the American Tract Society in 1831. Within one year 140,000 copies were printed, and the whole impression amounted to 168,000. In 1833 the tract was carefully revised, and stereotyped anew, and another edition of 168,000 copies was struck off.
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In the Seventh and Eighth Reports of the society the following instances are given of its usefulness.
" It was presented to a family in humble circumstances in Con- necticut. The wife read it, and, while perusing the last page, became deeply affected with her lost and ruined state as a sinner. Her convictions were pungent and distressing ; and, in two or three days, she was rejoicing in hope. This so affected her husband, that he too became alarmed, and soon found peace in Christ. They sent for the minister of the place, and communicated to him the grateful news of what God had done for their souls. They had rarely attended public worship ;- the husband had kept a tippling shop, which is now closed, and the business relinquished entirely."
" A distributer in New Jersey called on an aged man, who had . never read a tract, and said he did not need nor wish to read one. He was induced, however, to accept the Mountain Miller. He was not only interested in reading it, but his mind became seriously alarmed. He saw that his morality, in which he trusted, could not save him, and that he needed a better righteousness than his own, and he now trusts that he has found mercy with God through him, who was crucified."
In the American Tract Magazine for February, 1834, is the fol- lowing testimony from Mr. Morley of Union College. " In one family," says he, " I left the Mountain Miller. Four weeks after, I called again, and it had been read by twenty families, and was still circulating. As soon as one family had read it, another was anxious to receive it. It was recently read at a prayer meeting, and the whole audience were affected to tears. In a number of families where it was read, it had a similar effect. It has been the instrument of arousing many professors, and awakening a number of the careless from their long slumbers in sin."
The same society has also published the tract in the German language. It has also been reprinted by the Religious Tract Soci- ety of London; and in France it has been translated and published in the language of the country by the Religious Tract Society of Paris.
The author received 50 dollars for writing this tract; (presented to the American Tract Society, to be given as a prize for the best narrative tract.) This sum he generously devoted for the purpose of perpetuating the tract.
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BENEVOLENT SOCIETIES.
Plainfield Tract Society. This society, which was formed ser- eral years since, lately became auxiliary to the American Tract Society at New York.
Foreign Missionary Association of Plainfield, subsidiary to the Foreign Missionary Society of Northampton and the Neighboring Towns, formed in 1824.
Bible Association of Plainfield, auxiliary to the Hampshire Bible Society, formed in 1826. In the grand effort for supplying the United States with Bibles, a few years since, this society paid more than a hundred dollars.
Temperance Association of Plainfield, auxiliary to the Hamp- shire County Temperance Society. This flourishing society was formed June 27, 1828, and now consists of about 500 members, none being admitted under 12 years of age. The inhabitants have great reason to felicitate themselves on the progress of the temper- perance cause among them. Though this was never considered an intemperate place, when compared with its sister towns, yet, a few years since, there were six licensed houses, and, at the principal store, there were sold 12 hogsheads of ardent spirits in a year. Now there are but two licensed houses; and, at the same store, there is sold about a barrel in the same period of time. The num- ber of intemperate persons is greatly diminished; and there is an improvement in the manners and morals of the people, which is truly gratifying.
Home Missionary Association of Plainfield, auxiliary to the Hampshire Missionary Society, formed in 1831.
Female Benevolent Society, formed May 14, 1833.
Maternal Association of Plainfield, formed May 2, 1834.
There are resident in this place two directors for life, and one life member of the American Bible Society, two life members of the American Home Missionary Society, a member for life of the the American Society for Meliorating the Condition of the Jews, and a life director and eight life members of the American Tract Society at New York,
FIRES.
Joseph Beals's house was burnt, February, 1789.
About the beginning of the year 1819, the house of Benjamin
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Gardner, junior, and Warren Gardner was consumed by fire. April 22, 1824, Ira Hamlin's house, including a hat manufactory, was burnt.
February, 1825, the cloth manufactory, belonging to Arnold and Nahum Streeter, was consumed by fire.
December 13, 1833, the house of Stallham Rice was burnt with: all its contents, the family being absent.
Four schoolhouses have been destroyed by fire, the last on the third of December, 1833. Two of these were in the north-east dis- trict. There have also been burnt four mechanics' shops and a. small distillery.
The necessities of those, who have suffered by fire, have been liberally supplied, and their losses, in a good degree, compensated by the kindness of the people. Very few of the inhabitants have availed themselves of the benefits of the insurance office, five buildings only being insured.
The houses are generally of wood; in a few instances of brick, with underpinning and window caps and sills of West Stockbridge marble.
INCIDENTS.
Not long after the erecting of the bellfry, as some fellows were playing around the meeting house, one of them, having a plentiful scarcity of wit, threw up a stone, which struck the cock, which is placed as a vane on the summit of the spire, and bent his tailfeath- ers. His comrades told him that he would be put to death, unless he went up and straitened them. In this dilemma, he climbed up by the lightning rod as far as the bell, where he rested a while, and then ascended to the vane, and, after effecting his purpose, re- turned without meeting with any accident.
In June, 1829, as captain Levi Cook was engaged in shoeing a yoke of oxen, one of the animals being fastened by a chain to a staple, in attempting to extricate himself, pulled out the staple, and, in doing this, threw the chain around the legs of the unfortunate- man, the hook hitching into one of the links; and, in this situation, he was drawn with great velocity about half a mile. The ox was then stopped by a boy, and the unhappy man extricated himself from his truly perilous situation. His body was severely mangled; but, after a tedious confinement, he recovered.
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