USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Middleborough > Two hundredth anniversary of the First Congregational church in Middleboro, Mass > Part 3
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R. F. Thompson, W. P. Fessenden, L. I. Thompson, and
G. A. Cox
Arranged from T. C. O'Kane
HYMN, " I love Thy Kingdom, Lord "; Tune, " State Street," by Choir and Congregation Dwight
The twelfth pastor, Rev. Nathan T. Dyer, was then intro- duced, and his address was as follows : -
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MR. DYER'S ADDRESS
ADDRESS OF REV. N. T. DYER
Dear Brother Stearns, My Dear People, - now his people, but ever the people of my first love :
The first remark I have to make is one very trite and often to be heard during these days of grand and glorious jubilee, -- I am most happy to be here on this delightful occasion, which shall remain ever memorable and grow increasingly precious with the advancing years.
Some time ago, I remember to have met with a company of invited guests in a happy home to witness the unfolding of a rare flower into beauteous blossom. For months and years had that plant been watered, nourished, and cared for, with ten- derest solicitude, and now neighbors and friends were gathered with that deeply interested family to witness the first flowering, after so many long years of anxious waiting. Many and most emphatic were the expressions of delight and appreciation which came from those witnessing one development after another in that astonishing process of nature. And after those hours of delightful watching, we returned to our several homes, feeling greatly benefited and even the wiser for having beheld that wonderful sight.
With how much greater delight and enthusiasm, with how much larger prospect of profit and blessing, are the several daughters and granddaughters of this ancient and honored household of faith, with deeply interested neighbors and friends, now gathered to witness the bright flowering of this rare century plant, in historic interest towering majestically above the younger plants in the garden of the Lord: yea. second bursting into glory of this justly proud old church. during these two hundred years slowly but steadily gathering strength and beauty for its bloom to-day.
And so I confidently speak for others as well as for myself, when I say we are all more than glad and happy to be here and
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have some part in this great and glorious celebration of two centuries of honored and fruitful service completed, and with these who yet bear the burden and heat of the day, rejoice in the abounding evidence that our faithful God has guarded the foundations here laid through many successive generations by his faithful servants, and raised up in these last times also such true and faithful workers as " give assured promise of abiding prosperity to the glory of the Most High," and make it possi- ble in the coming years, so long as time shall last, to mark these century mile-stones, yet to be, with no more to mar and no less to cheer than that which now fills our hearts full to overflowing with glad exultation.
Were I to voice, in the words of prophecy, the future as well as the past of this ancient church of the Living God, it should be in the words of Isaiah (lx, 15), "I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations."
Whatever else may be said of the glory and excellence of other institutions, grandest creations of the noblest human genius, of none can it be truly said, as of the Church it may be and here is affirmed, that to her belongs the element of stability and permanency expressed in the promise of God to the Jewish church, and meant for the encouragement of his people in all ages, -"I will make thee an eternal excellency."
The truth of this assurance all history and experience have demonstrated. In all ages has the Church of God been pre- eminently the object of his delight and constant care. Under whatever assaults of its most bitter and determined focs in every form, through all its trying experiences of whatever kind, has the confirmation of this prophecy been verified to the world, that the Church of the Living God was ever dear to him as the apple of his eye, and should be made by him "an eternal excellency," and its influence, an ever-living power, be extended " from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth."
And because of the gracious fulfilment of this divine promise in the history of the church at large throughout the ages, we
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are here to-day assembled in joyous observance of the two hun- dredth anniversary of this particular church. For those blessed words of prophecy and of promise have as truly a specific application to this visible local church as to the Church uni- versal, -"I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations." Yes, it is God who hath made this partic- ular church an eternal excellency by his manifold mercies and abundant grace. Wherefore, in passing this mile-stone to-day. we shall do well to inscribe thereupon the fitting tribute. " Hitherto hath the Lord helped us," and should make this " hitherto " of divine help the hopeful assurance of a glorious henceforth for this church.
May this much now suffice concerning generalities. The occasion moves me to speak more along the line of personal reminiscence.
You are aware that the speaker sustains a peculiar relation to this people, distinguishing his seven years of most happy service among you in some respects from that of all your other pastors, at least for the last century and a half.
This was our first-love parish and our first married home. Here I was ordained to the ministry, being the youngest but one of all your pastors down to this present day. So striking was the contrast that, as I well remember, one now present then told me that in all her remembrance so aged had been the pastors she had come to think ministers never died; and another, Col. Thomas Weston, man of fragrant memory, now looking down upon us from the world of glorified spirits, remarked that he was glad at last to have a pastor, sound in body at least, being neither blind nor deaf nor lame.
To the older people in the parish I seemed but a mere strip- ling, only a boy, as indeed I was. After doing my best as a timid and somewhat bashful young candidate, good old Deacon Thomas, who later secured a large place in my heart's deepest affections, now gone to his blessed reward, being asked what he thought of me, significantly replied : " I think he did very well for a boy." And as marking this difference of age
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and experience in the work, you may recal the fact that soon after my coming the last of all my living predecessors passed on to receive his crown at the hand of the Lord.
This, being our first-love parish and our first married home, became also the birthplace of our children and the scene of their baptismn.
Cora Ethel, who is with us, you will remember as the first parish baby, and, - other than our own dear Perley, who in the mysterious providence of God was carly called to the tender Shepherd's arms, and whose headstone in yonder yard marks his resting place on earth, - the only child born to your pas- tors who have occupied the present parsonage, which is now approaching three quarters of a century in age.
In view of these facts, you can easily believe me when I tell you that this place and people are very near and dear to us, - nearer and dearer, I may as well confess, than any other has since been or can ever be.
But how eame I to be your youthful pastor? The committee may remember with what indifference I replied to their request to set a day when I would appear before you as a candidate. They may recal that it required not a little patience and per- severance on their part to secure my consent. But, after one failure through physical indisposition, I came at last in fulfil- ment of a second appointment. Imagine my surprise, not long after arrival in town, upon meeting another who had also come as a candidate for this same pulpit. At once the question was raised between us as to who should hold the fort. However magnanimous it may have seemed, with no inner feeling of personal sacrifice, I volunteered to make way for him. But your committee objected to any such arrangement, and finally settled the difficulty by ticketing him back to Boston. I was most delightfully entertained at brother Franklin S. Thomp- son's, and the resulting agreeable first impressions helped greatly in determining my ultimate decision.
I have in my possession a copy of Dr. Putnam's first impres- sions of this place and people, written to his wife in Ports-
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mouth, and dated, " Middleborough, Aug. 22, 1835,"- fifty-nine years ago yesterday and to-day, for the letter was written on Saturday and continued on Sunday. Speaking of " this silent retreat," he said, "I wonder the Society should have built their church here." Of the people, he wrote, "It is a plain, solid, good-looking congregation." My own impressions, then penned to one who was soon to become your pastor's wife, I now recal. Some things struck me on the ludicrous side. In those massive doors were the little brass knobs, no larger than a medium-sized English walnut. As with some difficulty I reached aloft to open the door, unbidden came the thought how even the not very young lambs of the flock were hopelessly shut out in the cold unless another's hand should open to them. Yet another reflection, penned at that time, was the observation that the only appointment missing from the pulpit was a spy- glass to bring the choir down within counting distance. Wonder was also expressed at the diminutive size of the stoves in the vestibule, then the only means of heating this spacious auditorium : and this moment I recal, vivid as though it were but yesterday, with what a smile of triumphant satisfaction the faithful sexton for quarter of a century or more, brother Lorin Bryant, not long thereafter called to service in the upper sanc- tuary, met my expressed doubts about the efficiency of his heating apparatus with the proud assurance that he had " several times started the frost on the northwest windows at the right of the pulpit."
It occurred to me that here was room for improvement, and a good opportunity for some one to do the people a lasting benefit by providing for their greater comfort. Many here present know how this was accomplished before the next winter by the substitution of steam heat, at the suggestion of your newly chosen pastor, and through the persistent energy and unflagging zeal of brother James Sparrow,1 whose thought
' The neighboring Sparrow mansion was the parsonage in Joseph Barker's day. Men used to go there during the noon intermission of worship to re- plenish the foot-stoves with coals from its generous hearth.
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. and service were for many years given to the interests of this church he so much loved.
At our first meeting you were judged to be a very cordial and social people, which early opinion I have never found it necessary to change.
After a second visit, with its interview concerning the prob- able acceptance of a proposed call, your committee received the indifferent reply, " I will not say No." Forthwith the call was extended.
Not over-anxious to come, I did not hesitate to make the conditions of its acceptance strong enough to insure, as I thought, my release from all moral obligations to comply with your expressed wishes. Dr. Putnam, in the letter already cited, wrote, "Esquire Eddy says they want a minister who, having sermons already written, can go through the parish and stir up the people."
I had no "stock " of sermons on hand, and also recognized the large demands upon your pastor's time for much-needed parish work. Therefore, the first and most important condition of my coming was that one of the preaching services should be discontinued. Much to my surprise, this and all else was granted by this staid old conservative church, and I was thus in honor forced to become your reluctant pastor. Nor have I once, for a single moment, regretted the direction affairs took, which, by the overruling providence of God, as I fully believe, compelled me to this decision much against my inclination. During my seven years' stay, I found you, -
First, a willing people, cheerfully and heartily executing such plans as the pastor might suggest for the good of the church.
Secondly, kind and generous, bestowing upon us so many tokens of esteem as to supply every room in the Medfield parsonage with pleasant reminders of our Middleboro people.
Thirdly, sympathetic, rendering tender and loving ministries in painful sickness and deep affliction.
Fourthly, most patient, uncomplainingly making the best of
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a " boy's " mistakes, and enduring his preaching all those years.
Ever green in my memory are the many hallowed associa- tions of those years with this dear people. Most delightful have been the cordial greetings of this day. But I sadly miss from their accustomed places many of the beloved elders, so great are the changes ten years have wrought. Gladly do we see their children entering into their labors, and nobly carrying on the work they resigned at the call of God to higher service in the life beyond.
With deep interest have I marked the growth of little ones we so much loved, whom then we affectionately held upon the knee. Some of these we baptized. Others of them also we prayerfully tried to lead to Christ. Of the more than fifty whom at this altar we received into communion and fellowship, there are those now filling positions of responsibility in the work of this church. And as we are reminded to-day of the two hundred golden links which number your increasing years, I am glad to think that I had something to do with fashioning seven of them. Yea, I esteem it a rare privilege to have been for any length of time the honored pastor of a church with such a grand and noble history as has this; and it is a great joy and comfort to believe, as verily I do, that much of our very best work for Christ and the world is done through the faithful lives and noble example of those whom we have helped to train for Christian service.
No grander monuments are anywhere to be found on earth than these monuments of Christ's redeeming grace, - the churches of his eternal love.
Upon all else is the stamp of universal decay. For centuries have stood the pyramids of old Egypt, "amid the waning glory of the nations which once flourished beneath their shadows." But these mightiest monuments ever reared, which suffer as little as anything can from the friction of the passing years, plainly show that irresistible decay, however slowly, is never- theless surely doing its work upon them. Moreover, the worlds which make up the great universe of God report to
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the inquiring scientist that they are serving only a temporary purpose ; that some of them have already burned out and become a mere cinder, and that all the rest, including our own. must in their turn be reduced to the same sterile condition, so perishable is the substance out of which are fashioned even the most enduring monuments of human genius. But, to this unchanging and unchangeable law of decay, the Church of the Living God is the one grand and glorious exception. Immor- tal are the shining jewels built into her walls. Hers is an "eternal excellency." Wherefore, better, far better, were it to have our names inscribed upon the roll of a church which has completed two hundred years of most eventful and blessed history, than have them graven never so deeply upon loftiest pyramid or any most admired triumph of human genius, which shall crumble and pass away, while it blesses nobody.
From of old has this continued to be a Congregational church. It is one of the noteworthy few in our grand old denomination that did not, during the trying times of the early part of this cen- tury, forsake " the faith once delivered to the saints," but firmly resisted that religious error, which then swept like wild-fire over New England. "Jesus Christ and Him crucified " has ever been the grand central thought of the preaching from this pulpit. It has recognized the desperate condition of man as a lost sinner. At the same time, with no less emphasis, has it set forth the infinite compassion and love of Jesus, the Christ, as Lord and Savior. So has it hitherto unfailingly met the needs of the human heart. And since those needs, in their essence, are the same in all ages, yesterday, to-day, and for- ever, we may be sure that the same gospel of grace for lost and dying men, which past generations, from the first, have heard within the four walls of this dear old First Congregational church of Middleboro, is the only gospel that can meet and satisfy the needs of the present, and of those who shall come after us, down to the latest generation.
Such has been the teaching of this pulpit unto the present hour ; such may it ever be. And may this people all go for-
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LETTER FROM MR. KINGSBURY
ward to know more and more of Jesus and do better work for Him. So shall the future of this ancient church be no less, if not even more, prosperous and illustrious than her past has been, and her " eternal excellency " prove to be the joy of each successive generation, down to the end of time.
The following letter of regret from the fourteenth pastor was then read :-
BRAINTREE, MASS., Aug. 18, 1894. REV. G. W. STEARNS,-
Dear Brother: Your note was duly received. I most heartily approve the growing custom of commemorating historic dates. It is especially fitting that the First Congregational Church in Middleboro, after two centuries of growth and usefulness, review and remember all the way in which the Lord has led them. I have delayed replying, not knowing just what my engagements might be. . . . A certain work . .. will cut me off from participation in your celebration. . .. May the day be favorable. . .. Accept for the church and yourself the congratulations of myself and family. Very truly yours,
JOSIAH WEARE KINGSBURY.
The thirteenth pastor, Rev. Howard A. Hanaford, of Win- chester, N. H., was then introduced.
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ADDRESS OF REV. H. A. HANAFORD
Beloved Friends of the First Church, and citizens of Middleboro :
I am filled with unaffected and inexpressible pride and pleasure in being accorded the privilege of celebrating, with this numerous and deeply interested assemblage, the two hun- dredth anniversary of your incorporation as a church of Jesus Christ, in accordance with the usages of the Pilgrim faith and polity.
I remember passing well how, some six or seven brief years ago, I was wont to think : should I remain here sufficiently long, I shall, Providence being propitious, enjoy the pleasure of joining in and superintending, very possibly, the bi-centen- nial anniversary of this venerable and venerated church. It was not so written.
A bird of passage, I came, enjoyed, wrought, and vanished from the scene in the short space of thirty-three months ; but those years were filled with never-to-be-forgotten experiences, sunny days, sweet and somber hours ; bridals and burials, worship and the preaching of the Word, in this spacious and time-honored temple,- in a word, years of peace and joy, of usefulness and unselfish toil, I trust, in the grandest work given mortal man to do on these shores of time; a work that seraphs may not essay, and that employed an omnipotent Redeemer's hands and heart.
Never while memory holds her seat shall I forget the years spent in this dear Old Colony and in association with this Christian community. My friends were scattered through the hamlets of this widely scattered parish, this parish of magnifi- cent distances, but were not a meager band in yonder beautiful and flourishing village, known in Middleboro parlance as " the Corners." Nor were my dearly cherished parishioners my exclusive friends, since among the various Christian sects of Middleboro's chief village I counted many most valued friends
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and helpers. The uniform courtesy and kindness of Rev. Messrs. Grant, MacBurney, Hyde, and Bowen I beg leave to thankfully recognize at this hour, while calling to mind the delightful hours of social intercourse enjoyed with those Chris- tian brethren, their families and people.
The period in my career enclosed between the dates 1885 and 1888 I am in the habit of designating the happiest in my ministerial course. Coming to Middleboro at thirty-four, I had been the pastor or acting pastor of several Christian societies ; hence was no novice in Christian activities, having begun my public life at the early age of twenty-one years and six months, assuming then my first acting pastorate.
In an incredibly brief time, friendships were formed here- about and associations created which have bound this church to my heartstrings, as none other has ever been linked, and to my latest day this side the gates of light shall I remember, with affectionate and ardent devotion, this beloved people, alike in the Church below and the Church triumphant in the skies ; for as Wordsworth causes his wee maiden to sing of her little brothers here and there, " We are seven," so let us, beloved fel- low men and women, say of our achieving and our ascended brothers, they are ours, not were alone, for not long parted shall we be, and evermore is it grandly true that
" The Church on earth and that in heaven But one communion make."
We are one !
" For us the elder brethren stay !"
Ah, yes, thou sainted Wesley !
They are waiting for us, and soon the eternal gates will be lifted high, and we shall enter gladly upon the rest that re- maineth, and be forever with the Lord and the fathers and mothers of our Israel.
Secretary Lamar, once at a Northern summer resort, was suddenly surprised by a half-known lady acquaintance, who rallied him on his not wholly concealed bewilderment by say-
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ing, "I fear that you hardly remember me, but we met two seasons ago at this very hotel." " Ah, madam," said the courtly diplomatic scion of Southern chivalry, "I have been striving for two years to forget you." My friends, that was idle, ful- some, conscienceless flattery ; but though for six years I have shared the joys and sorrows of another parish, and though they have done their very best to make me forget my earlier friends and supporters in this dear town, at old Bedford, and my native Nantucket, I can, notwithstanding, say in this presence. what I have said unconstrained by circumstances like the pres- ent, that I never, before or since, have felt so deeply attached to a place and people as to this old church of Middleboro.
The years of my ministry here constitute a red-letter period in my life. There were reasons which I may not recount, and circumstances and occurrences which only I and mine can fully appreciate, which made my ministry here at Putnam's a pecu- liarly romantic episode in my life. But enough.
We are met to call to mind, in vivid fashion by song and speech, that this church of our love and pride and pardonable vaunting (for we New Englanders are a boasting company) is two centuries old. Old, did I say? I should better have said two hundred years young. Yet, antiquity is highly in honor.
I come from a church which is just forty years younger than this ancient organization in whose interest we are met.
At the date of the publication of the Historical Account of the First Church in Middleboro, 1854, your church was just where in age my present church, near the storied Connectient and amid the granite hills of the State of Stark and Hale and Webster, is in this year of grace, 1894. Now, if we can boast of antiquity up there, as we do, how much more loudly you can speak the praises of a church that dates back to a period when a child born at Plymouth at the time of " the land- ing," or soon after, would have been but a little over three score years and ten !
Why, the men and women who started this venerable Chris- tian organization may some of them have looked into the faces
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of the sagacious Bradford and the redoubtable Captain Miles Standish, and have remembered easily or hazily the fine fort-like church on the hill at Plymouth, with its cannon-mounted roof overlooking the bay, where once the " Mayflower " lay at anchor, and the somber forests where the wily savage lurked, and beasts as fierce as he.
What an old, old church you are ! The word "old " is some- times used invidiously, but it is sometimes employed most re- spectfully and tenderly, too. And thus we use it now. Others may mention the fact, but I will venture the assertion : there are thirty-one churches older in the Bay State, and five hundred and. forty-seven younger than your own, - our own, may I not say ?
The roll of churches in this portion of our State older than ours is as follows, with date of the organization of each : Old South, or Third church of Boston, 1669; Charlestown, 1632; Ded- ham, 1638; Edgartown, 1632; Newton Center, 1664; Sand- wich, 1638 ; Scituate, 1639; Marshfield, 1632; West Taunton, 1634; Wrentham, 1692; and Yarmouth, 1639.
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