USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Middleborough > Two hundredth anniversary of the First Congregational church in Middleboro, Mass > Part 8
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By your first minister the ministry of this church is very closely linked to that of the seer and the prophet of Congre- gationalism, the elder John Robinson. Mr. Samuel Fuller, as has been told you, was the only son of the Pilgrim, Dr. Samuel Fuller, the deacon of the Leyden and the Plymouth church. I can pardon you, Mr. Stearns, to-day, if for this day, at least, you feel some self-gratulation in being able to trace your true apostolic succession through such men as old Dr. Putnam, Joseph Barker, Sylvanus Conant, and grand old Peter Thacher, up to the great apostles of Congregationalism in New England, Elder Brewster and John Robinson.
Of the first minister of this church we know less than of any of his successors. We have a copy of the church record kept by him, transcribed by his grandson. He left no printed sermon, and if there is any written sermon or correspondence of his now in existence, it is unknown to me. I had hoped that my friend Weston would have been able to bring some- thing of this kind to light. But he left a precious relic, a
1 See portrait facing page 89.
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manuscript book, in which it was his custom to enter his texts and sub-texts and scriptural quotations to be used by him in delivering his off-hand discourses. That book was preserved by a branch of his descendants down to forty or fifty years ago, when it was given up for safe-keeping to the New England Historic-Genealogical Society. I have in my pos- session a part of a leaf cut from that book before it was given up, and I have mounted it in this frame, where, if any of you are curious to see his handwriting, it may still be seen. He died one hundred and ninety-nine years ago this month, - perhaps, correcting the ancient calendar, it is one hundred and . ninety-nine years to-day, certainly within one day. His people most fittingly buried him on the top of the highest summit of the old Hill burying-ground. With pious eare, they carved a stone and placed it by his grave, and there it stands unto this day. It is of fissile substance, and now after the storms and frosts of so many winters it is flaking and crumbling, and slowly mingling with the dust of him that lies buried beneath it. The legend upon it is nearly effaced, but it is still readable, as you may see by this photograph taken two years ago. It reads : -
[HER]E LYES BURIED Ye [BODY] OF Ye REV' M' [S A]MUEL FULLER WHO [D]EPATED THS LIFE AUGST
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17th
1
6 9 5
IN
Ye
71st
YEAR
OF HIS AGE HE
WAS
Ye
Ist
MINISTER
OF
st CHURCH OF
CHRIST IN MIDDLECh
st
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LETTER FROM MR. DEXTER
Most profoundly we thank our pious ancestors for engraving upon that stone the tale that tells to us, now two hundred years away, the name, the pastoral office, the limits of life, and the place of burial, of their first minister. The debt we owe to our ancestors can only be paid by us to our posterity, and I hope, when the full period of two hundred years shall have elapsed, as it will twelve months hence, that the old stone will be taken within this church and protected from further storms and frosts, and preserved as a sacred memento of a former age, and that a more enduring block of granite shall be placed upon that ancient grave, carrying forward the same legend to the generations that shall be born in centuries yet to come.
After Judge Fuller had spoken, the choir rendered an anthem, " From the third heaven where God resides " ( Ingalls).
The following letter from the literary editor of the Congre- gationalist was then read : -
HOTEL TUDOR, NAHANT, MASS., Aug. 23, 1894. REV. G. W. STEARNS :
My Dear Sir, - I find that it will be impossible for me to go to Middle- boro next Monday. My two editorial associates are away, and I cannot be absent from the office, next week, before Wednesday.
I am greatly disappointed. I did not realize that your celebration was to occur so soon. I met Mr. Weston on Tuesday, and had the time thus recalled to mind, and since then have been trying to arrange some way in which to go. But it cannot be managed.
I hope that you will not be inconvenienced by my delay, so that the only annoyance may be my own.
Wishing you a most enjoyable occasion, I am,
Yours very sincerely, MORTON DEXTER.
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Also the following letter from Ex-Governor Long : -
5 TREMONT STREET, BOSTON, June 15, 1894.
My Dear Sir,- I wish very much I could attend the celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the First Congregational Church in Middleboro. It would be an especially interesting occasion to me be- cause my grandfather, Thomas Long, who moved to Maine in 1806, was for some years prior thereto an attendant at worship in that church. My father was then six years old. His surviving sister, my aunt, tells me that she vividly remembers the interest with which she often listened to her father and mother describing their former life and associations in Middleboro.
I fear I shall be out of the State in August, but if I am at home I shall bear your kind invitation in mind.
Very truly yours, JOHN D. LONG.
The congregation then sang a hymn composed for the occasion to the tune, " America," and was dismissed with the benediction by Rev. C. W. Wood, and an organ postlude " Dona nobis " ( Mozart).
A dinner was served in the chapel at six o'clock, and about four hundred friends accepted the invitation to partake, Mr. John M. Carter's Middleboro Band furnishing music.
The evening exercises of Monday opened with an organ prelude, "Triumphal March, Damascus," from the oratorio of "Naaman," by Costa ; followed by an anthem " The Lord is great " (J. B. Herbert) .
THE PRESIDENT OF THE DAY. - It is said that the prevailing sin of aged men is vanity. Perhaps an old church like ours is inclined to the same besetting sin. Yet, if ever that fault is pardonable, I am sure it is so in the case of a church which has so much reason as the First Church has to be proud of her three blooming daughters. I take pleasure in calling upon the pastor of the oldest of our daughters to speak to us, - Mr. Ellms, of Halifax.
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ADDRESS OF REV. LOUIS ELLMS
MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: In speaking a word in behalf of the oldest daughter of this venerable church, in whose spacious meeting-house we are now happily assembled, we are gratified to recal several faets. Of these the first is that you sent to us, in 1734, a number of remarkable men and women to furnish the beginning of our history. Among these original members was Ebenezer Fuller, grandson of your first pastor ; other examples were Ebenezer Cobb, who lived to the advanced age of one hundred and eight years; and Thomas Thompson, whose father, John, was ancestor of all the thousands of Thompsons in this country.
It gives us pleasure to remember that your offspring was able to be of use to you. It is by no means forgotten that at a certain critical time in your early history you were helped and ably defended by Rev. John Cotton, who was the first pastor of the church in Halifax. It is well known, furthermore, that the lost records of this First Church for the period 1694 to 1708 were providentially restored to you, in 1826, by an ancient copy prepared by Ebenezer Fuller of Halifax, and possessed by his great-grandson.
Our record, we are glad to tell you, - and it is well preserved, -is, in its great facts, the same as that of the parent church. The church in Halifax has ever adhered to the great gospel principles on which it was originally established. It has, I believe, never failed of an honored evangelical ministry. And through the years it has always been blest in having a suitable place in which to worship God.
Representing, as I trust I do, those gathered for the Master in Halifax, most gladly and most heartily do I bring you greeting on this glorious day of yours.
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THE PRESIDENT OF THE DAY. - Another daughter church is represented here to-night, the one youngest and nearest to us. In January, 1847, so our church records say, there was dis- cussed a movement for "a colony church" at the "Four Corners," "in terms of caution and deep seriousness." In February a "small " meeting of eighteen brethren and seven- teen sisters prayed over the matter, and chose a committee to consider the likelihood of permanent support for the pro- posed new church, and also the prospect of the subsequent sustaining of worship here in that event. You know the rest. The daughter was born in March, and the mother still lives, each rejoicing in the other's prosperity. Of this daughter, whose home has always been so near to the maternal nest, one might affectionately speak in the language of the brilliant Roman poet -
" O matre pulchra filia pulchrior ! "
I am happy now to present the pastor of the Central Church in this town, Mr. Woodbridge.
ADDRESS OF REV. R. G. WOODBRIDGE
MR. PRESIDENT AND FRIENDS : It is recorded that Dean Swift once preached a sermon on "Pride." He opened his sermon by saying, " There are four kinds of pride, my friends : pride of birth, pride of fortune, pride of beauty, and pride of intellect. I will speak to you of the first three; as for the fourth, I shall say nothing of that, there being no one among you who can possibly be accused of so reprehensible a fault." I think that if the good dean were present to-night he would add one other point to his sermon, and that, " pride of old age," and with all the wit and eloquence at his command he would seek to justify and commend it. Old people are proud of their years, and young people are proud of the aged, espe- cially when their lives have been marked all along the way by usefulness and honor.
It was my good fortune to know an old mother in Israel who lived to be ninety-nine years of age. She was proud of her lineage, proud of her eventful history, proud of her attain-
-
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ments, proud of the evidences of the Divine Hand and the Divine guidance through the years, proud that she was nearly one hundred years old. She lived with her children and with her grandchildren, and they too were justly proud of the good old mother. On days when special company was ex- peeted in the home, they did not hustle the old lady off to some back chamber, and keep her out of sight. But they drest her in her best silk dress, and put upon her her daintiest cap, and she was the hostess of that occasion, and the center of attention and attraction for all. It was an inspiration and a blessing to sit in the good old lady's presence and to hear her tell of the wondrous things God had done for her through the years.
And as I stand here to-night, dear friends, to represent the daughter of this grand old mother, "the First Congregational Church of Middleboro," I can say for her daughter, whose name is " Central," that we are justly proud of her fulness of years. We are proud of her godly history. We are proud of the manifestations of the Divine favor that have been hers all through the years. We are proud of being present to help celebrate this two hundredth anniversary.
We stand here to-night, dear friends, proud of our lineage. We come from good stock. It is the blood of a royal priest- hood that runs in our veins. It is the blood of saints and martyrs, and the blessings wrought out by their heroism and sacrifices have become a part of our life, and the portion of our heritage. We are glad as a church that we can go back by so straight and direct a route to Plymouth Rock. We are proud of the Pilgrim faith; we are proud of the Pilgrim character ; we are proud of the Pilgrim conscience ; we are proud of the Pilgrim perseverance. It is because our mother possessed these virtues so richly that we, her daughter, have such an abundant life and prosperity in this, our day. The life you poured so generously into our veins, dear friends, in 1847, was pure, true, Christian. It was the quality of that life that shaped, strengthened, and sanctified ours, and for
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which we are profoundly grateful. If the quality of the life of the twenty who founded this church, and the quality of the life of the thirty-three that you gave to ns, had been less pure and less Christian, our life to-day would be less fruitful, and there would be less power in it, too, for the kingdom of God.
Daniel Webster was in the habit, as some of you remember, of taking his children once a year up into New Hampshire to show them an old log cabin that once stood mid New Hamp- shire wilds and New Hampshire snowdrifts, that they might remember, by gazing upon it, the debt that they owed to former generations. One day, as he stood before the old log cabin, he was moved in soul by the very thought of what he too owed his ancestors. He said, " When I forget their labors and their sacrifices, may my name be blotted out from the memory of mankind !" And so, loyally and lovingly would the Central Church keep in her mind the memory of the labor and the sacrifices that have brought to her not only life but continual prosperity.
We are justly proud, too, dear friends, of the fact that the Lord has written over the portals of this church in letters of light, so that the world may read, if it will, these words : "THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST." There are a great many people to-day who are looking for that Church as never before. They believe that the Lord Christ has but one Church in the world, and they want to find it, and to feel its influence. They do not care so much to-day about what material the church is built of, whether it is built of wood, or brick, or stone, or canvas. They do not care so much as to the form of worship that the church engages in, whether men kneel in prayer, or stand, as in the former days, or sit, in reverential mood. All that is a matter to them of small importance. Nor do they care, I think,- I honestly confess it, and rejoice in it,- whether the church is orthodox or heterodox ; whether it was born yesterday, or the day before, goes back in unbroken suc- cession to Wesley, or Luther, or Augustin, or Peter ; whether it belongs to a denomination that is weak or to a denomination
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that is strong. But what men do care for, as never before in the Church's history, is the Church that bears clearly and unmistakably upon it the name of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
We boast sometimes of our denominationalism. We write above our doors "Congregational," or " Baptist," or "Metho- dist," or " Episcopal," and these words have absolutely no power over the outside world to lead them to worship the Father. But when you can put up the name " Congregational " (as some of these changeable signs are put up on the street ), so that as you look upon the word you read the name of the denomina- tion, and then looking at it at another angle read, "Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," then we have put up a name that touches the outside world as well as those who believe, and that lifts them up into the image and the likeness of Jesus Christ. It is as Jesus himself promised, " And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." One of the hopeful signs of the times to me is that the people are crying out as never before, "None but Christ ; no word but his word, no works but his works, no Church but his Church."
Now tell me, how are we going to distinguish, in this day and generation, the Church of Jesus Christ from the churches that are not Jesus Christ's? Shall we point to our pedigree, and say : " Behold ! the church at the Green, Plymouth Rock, Leyden, Scrooby, Pentecost, Jesus Christ "? Behold the line in unbroken continuity ! No, no ! there is a better way than that. It is the way of this beloved church, the way of the Master. "By their fruits ye shall know them." Look back in the history of this church, and what do you see? A claim? You see the claim, and the confirmation of the claim. God has put his seal upon this church, and owned it as the Church of Jesus Christ. The Pentecostal blessings, dear friends, that have come to this church through these two centuries bind this company of redeemed souls to the company that waited in the upper room in the long ago, upon whose heads rested the tongues of flame, and bind them also to Christ, who said :
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" Wait in Jerusalem for my blessing." Out from that room, you will remember, the noise went abroad into the city there- about, until the multitude came to hear of the wonderful words and wonderful works of the Lord. And only last night we were reminded that out from this room the same sound went forth until those living sixteen miles away heard, and came here to learn of the river of life, and to drink from its refresh- ing stream, and to go home rejoicing in newness of life. It is these evidences of apostolic power, these evidences of the in- dwelling and abiding Christ, that stamp upon this church indelibly the name : " The Church of Jesus Christ." By its fruit this church, during the past centuries, has proved itself to be the Church of the Lord, bought by his blood, preserved by his power, filled by his spirit and life, and, blessed be God, still alive with his regenerating power.
There is a story of a Japanese magician who stood once before an amazed assembly, doing very wonderful things. He took a flower-pot; he filled it with earth; he put into the earth a seed; and then, before the eager eyes he began to fan the mold that contained the seed, and the earth was seen to break, and little leaves to appear. The little shoot grew and grew before the astonished spectators, until it became a bush, budded, blossomed, and the magician picked off the blossoms and gave them to those who were near to him. Skilful hands on the yesterday and to-day have been doing for us precisely what the Japanese magician did for his spectators. We have seen the earth, and the Divine seed planted in it, and the earth breaking, and God's seed growing, and the bush, and the bud, and the blossom, and the fruit, - the fruit, redeemed hosts, and mighty influences that still are in the world, pointing the way, even as John the Baptist pointed the way at the Jordan, to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.
I would, dear friends, that we might focus our thought on that picture, and that we might carry home the one great truth that the picture emphasizes : this church and work are of the Lord God omnipotent.
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Then I want to say, in the third place, that we are proud of the fact that, though two hundred years old, this church has not outlived its usefulness. There came once to a town a stranger, and he inquired carefully for the minister of the parish. The parsonage was pointed out, and the minister gave him audi- ence, and he told his story in a few words. His mother was dead ; she was born in that town, and the desire of her heart for many years had been that she might be taken home to her birthplace, and put with the friends of her childhood in the old cemetery. The kindly servant of the Lord expressed his sympathy for the sorrow that had come to this one at the loss of a mother, and the man, full-grown and independent of mother's care now, said : "Well, you see, it is no great loss to us ; our mother was very old; she had been a burden to her- self and to others for a great many years, and though we shall be sorry to say good-by to her, there is a great sense of relief now that it has come, for she had outlived her usefulness." And there are a great many who think just in that way about old people and old institutions. It may be, dear friends, that some of you, as you have listened to these grand things that have been said about the past and its glories, feel in regard to this church : "It is all in the past ; this church, like that good mother, has "outlived her usefulness." I cannot think so. I want to say, with all the earnestness and thoughtfulness and deliberateness of which I am capable, that I believe that this church has still a great work to do: a work in the present as important, nay, more important, than any work that has been done in this community during the past two hundred years.
The conditions in which this church works have been materi- ally changed through the years, but the need of its earnest and sanctified labors was never greater in the past than it is in the present. If this were the last service of a dead church, dear friends, we should need to go home with hearts heavy and sorrowful. Here is a great community about us, needing the light and the salvation of Jesus Christ, and needing it from this church as a center. Suppose the usefulness of this church
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were all in the past. What would become of these scattered homes, one hundred and fifty or two hundred of them in the radius of this church, that need to-day the earnest and the sanctified ministry of the First Congregational Church of Middleboro ?
I was thinking only just after supper that if there had been no church building here, nor organization, when the fathers were here, they had enough of pure and undefiled religion to have the church of God in their homes, where the church started in the beginning. But there are lots of families near this church who have no such godly heritage, and unless the light of this church shines out full and clear, and the love of these earnest, consecrated brethren here is continually exer- cised in their behalf, these must go down to death unknown of Christ and unloved of him.
During the past years, my friends, you have given largely of your life to make others strong. This you will undoubt- edly do in the days to come, but you will not forget, though that kind of work is discouraging, that that too is God's work. But for the pure and consecrated life of the years gone by, the Central Church could not have been, and the church at Halifax could not have been, and the church in North Middleboro could not have been. And but for your pure and consecrated life in the present, other germs cannot develop, and other powers shall not go on working with the Father for the redemption of the world. We are proud because your usefulness is not all in the past, because opportunities for usefulness press upon you from every side. And we pray tonight, as those who owe you a great debt, that the same God who has been with you, guiding and blessing you, and making you useful in days past, will still be with you to guide and bless and make you useful in the days to come. May those who have received from you so richly and abundantly never be so wrapt up in themselves that they shall forget how great a debt they owe to the mother church. When we do forget the debt we owe to you, and others like you, may our name be blotted out from the memory of mankind.
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LETTER FROM MR. JOB
The following letter from the pastor of a daughter church in North Middleboro was read : -
MANOMET, MASS., Aug. 24, 1894.
Dear Bro. Stearns, - I should be most happy to be with you on your interesting anniversary occasion, and I realize that I shall miss much in not being with you. . I am very sorry not to be.
I trust that in every way your celebration may be successful. The grand old mother church has done a noble work in the past, and has still a mission in these stirring times at the close of this wonderful cen- tury, and in an age to come still more remarkable. I am sure that all the members of the daughter church at North Middleboro join me in sentiments of respect and fellowship, and in the hope that the church may be abundantly blest, and that you may be cheered and refreshed by the precious fruits that shall be gathered in the days to come. Though absent in person, my thoughts and prayers will be with you on the day of the celebration, and on many other days. May God bless you and abide with you all.
Yours in Christian love, HERBERT K. JOB.
Mrs. G. A. Cox read some humorous descriptive verses.1 An anthem by the choir was next rendered : "It is a good thing to give thanks " ( J. B. Herbert) .
Mr. L. F. Millet, Secretary of the Middleboro Young Men's Christian Association, was the next speaker. He made a brief address, uttering some kind words relative to the share which the First Church had taken in the interdenominational work that he represented. It is regretted that by accident no full report was made of this address.
1 See the Middleboro Gazette, September 7.
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THE PRESIDENT OF THE DAY. - Many of you interested in Old Colony chronicles may recal that one of our earliest and honored members was Jonathan Cobb. I discover in this goodly congregation one of his descendants in the fifth genera- tion from whom we should all greatly like to hear. Therefore, in your behalf, I take pleasure in asking Mr. Henry E. Cobb, of Boston, to address us.
ADDRESS OF MR. HENRY E. COBB
MR. PRESIDENT : I have been thinking that if those grass- green graves in yonder burial-place should give up their tenants in all their life and strength, and they could come in here and sit in these seats, and hear the well-won eulogiums which we have pronounced upon them, the blush of conscious modesty would rise on their cheeks at once. They would raise their hands in deprecation of our estimate of their lives and work - these heroes, martyrs, saints !
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