USA > Maine > York County > Parsonsfield > A history of the first century of the town of Parsonsfield, Maine > Part 20
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I trust a good work was done in the school. An equally good work might now and ought to be done. It is only necessary to breathe the breath of life into it and give it a good supply of wholesome food. This food should be a hash, con- sisting of the following ingredients: wise planning, hard work, good students, and some money, well seasoned with live interest, sound virtue, and true piety.
An institution of learning is an honor and a blessing to any town.
God bless Parsonsfield Seminary and its present guardians.
GEO H . WALKER & CO DOSTON
L.O. Emerson
PROF . L. O. EMERSON.
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MUSIC AND MUSICIANS OF PARSONSFIELD.
BY PROF. L. O. EMERSON.
Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen :-
I am happy to respond to the call to say a few words on so interesting an occa- sion as this, an occasion of which every son and daughter of this grand old town of Parsonsfield may well feel proud. While the institutions of learning of this town, its doctors, its ministers and its lawyers have all received their well merited meed of praise, it is but just that a passing tribute should be paid to those who have labored in that not less important sphere, the field of music.
On the subject of music in this town I can say but little. The most that I can do is to give my own personal recollections. So far back as I can remember (and this period covers over half a century), Parsonsfield was noted for its musical talent. Go where you would, you invariably found a large choir of good singers; and this part of divine worship was always performed with as much good taste and enthusiasm as I have known it to be in larger towns and cities that had greater facilities for its cultivation. In my young days a good deal of pride was taken in having the service of song in the sanctuary performed correctly and in good taste; and while musical culture since that time has made great progress, and there has been great productiveness in musical composition, and great addi- tions to the solid and enduring treasures of sacred song, yet, I believe that this part of public worship is not, even now, generally performed to more edification and inspiration than it was fifty years ago. This is true, not only of country towns, but of large cities.
I recall with much pride the standing of this, my native town, in this respect at that time; and also some of those, who as teachers of singing schools and con- ductors of the song service in the sanctuary, did a great deal for the cultivation and improvement of musical taste.
I well remember that in my very early years Mr. Harvey Moore was considered a most excellent chorister and teacher of singing schools. He did much in his day, which stretches back into the latter part of the last century. At a later date his son, Dr. John Moore, was a successful teacher and chorister. I recall, also, Mr. Charles G. Parsons, a grandson of the proprietor of this town, and Mr. John Garland, as for many years prominent and excellent teachers of singing schools and conductors of choirs. Mention should also be made of my brother, Joseph P. Emerson, lately deceased. There has probably been no singing master in this town who has been as prominent in this department as he was; no one who was better qualified for his work, no one who for so many years occupied so wide a field as a music teacher in this section of the country. He was always very en- thusiastic on the subject of music, and did more, probably, than any one man in the town to stimulate and promote its cultivation. Dr. John T. Wedgwood, also
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in his earlier life, taught much and enjoyed an enviable reputation as a teacher of vocal music-a reputation which he still sustains.
In all parts of this town the singing school was ever a great institution. It was always well patronized, and was the source of much culture and enjoyment.
Among former residents were a good many musical families and teachers of music, with some of whom I had no personal acquaintance and cannot name. I can name, however, as always associated more or less prominently with the ser- vice of song in the sanctuary, the Parsonses, the Garlands, the Moores, the Rick- ers, the Pipers, the Wedgwoods, the Colcords, the Parkses, and the Emersons.
Of instrumental music there is not much to be said. We had sometimes the bass viol and the flute and the tenor viol, but these were not very common. The cab- inet organ that now is found in so many homes, was not known in my young days.
Let us hope that in the future of Parsonsfield, that in the house of God, about the hearth of home, and wherever brave men and true women may congregate, as always in the past, the purifying, ennobling and gladdening influence of music may be felt with that power for good from which it is never separated.
We have no useless regrets for the past, we need not sigh vainly for the good old days that are gone forever, but with an unwavering faith that our birth-place is capable of as noble works, as grand songs, and as wide-spreading an influence in the future as in the best days of her past. We look forward with steady hope to what our sons and daughters-those who will come up and follow you and me when our voices no more are heard-will do for this town of Parsonsfield, dear with many sacred memories, not only along the line of music, but along the lines of all true progress that works with that law that maketh for righteousness here and hereafter. L. O. EMERSON.
GED .H.WALKER & CO. BOSTON
Russell Hb. Conwell
REV . R. H. CONWELL. PASTOR GRACE BAPTIST CH. PHILA. PENN.
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SERMON BY REV. RUSSELL H. CONWELL, OF PHILADELPHIA, AT NORTH PARSONSFIELD, AUG. 30, 1885.
THEME : CHRISTIANITY NOT A FAILURE-ITS PROGRESS FOR A CENTURY.
[Condensed Report.]
LUKE 21: 33.
A HUNDRED years ! The events connected with this celebration, and the talented presentation of Parsonsfield's history, have shown us what wonderful progress, Science, Philosophy, Literature, Commerce, Manufacturing and Agri- culture have made since this town was first settled. But the strides forward which all these features of a Christian civilization have made are fully equalled by the marvelous advance made by Christianity in church forms and church life. Religion makes even greater progress in the administration of its affairs than any other enterprise of mankind.
The word of God does not change nor can it pass away. But the interpretation, the application, the exemplification of its precepts and principles do greatly change with the flood of years. The church must make swift advance if it would hold its moral and religious influences over the hearts and customs of the people. These great changes the church has made, and a glance back at the condition of religion one hundred years ago, and a comparison with the practices and beliefs of today will convince the most skeptical that the church has kept her place in the line during all this century of progress.
I have been impressed very much of late with the mighty progress which has been made by Christianity in this country within the last fifty, sixty and eighty years, and the mighty upliftings which have come as a result of the preaching of the Gospel, along with the sweeping changes in civilization which this Bible has wrought within that time.
I read an editorial in a New York newspaper, in which it declaimed about the degenerate times. It told first about the cashiers of banks, and enumerated eight or ten of them who had stolen money, and had gone to Canada. It recorded the number of defalcations; it spoke of Sunday school superintendents, and ministers of the Gospel, and professors of religion, who had cheated men in different sta- tions; and then said that, if something was not done at once to stay this tide of corruption, the nation must soon be utterly ruined. And among other things, it spoke of the newspapers; it told of the vile trash put forth for every one to read, and it said there was scarcely a respectable newspaper in England, and only about half a dozen published in this country. . It declaimed against all the newspapers (itself being one), and spoke of the horrid details of murders, robberies, and suicides published every day. It reminded me so forcibly of the editorial pub- lished in the "Era" in the year 1800, that I could not help referring to it.
In this-I wrote it down-in this paper, the "Era" published in the year 1800, it said: " Unless this tide of vice, unless this tendency to crime is immediately checked by legislation or moral reform, the nation must soon lose its standing among the civilized nations of the earth."
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That is what they said in 1800, and if you will take the newspaper of 1800, and compare it with the papers of today, you will be astonished; for while you see crimes of all kinds now mentioned in the newspapers, and while you see edi- torials with reference to things that should not be mentioned in public, the news- papers of these days are pure compared with many of the leading newspapers of the year 1800. You read the newspapers of 1796 and 1794 especially, and see the fearful names that the influential newspapers of New York and Philadelphia called George Washington ;- the names given to the politicians in the last cam- paign were respectful compared with the terrible abuse then uttered by both parties. When you go back to those newspapers of 1794, 1796 and 1800, and see what they said about politics, there you find they openly accused the presidential candidate of being a destroyer of human life, of being a licentious rake and a thief, and no reserve about it whatever. You find few such barefaced libelous statements made today as were made then about candidates for office; and yet people, not stopping to think, or comparing the present with the past, believe everything is much worse now than it was then. Christianity-this enlightening, purifying spirit of God, this uplifting, refining power-has been at work, until the newspapers in this country today dare not utter the hideous infidelity and atheism and terrible profanity which they then printed in bold type. By the reports taken in the year 1800 in the legislative councils of this country, we see that profane swearing was common and without reproof in the legislative halls. Now, it is an unusual thing for a man-even the worst of men-to swear, know- ingly, in a lady's hearing. Then they swore everywhere. Men in the presidential office swore, and in 1833 it was full of swearing; and till the year 1844 to swear in public was almost universal. The President would sometimes use profane oaths in making public speeches, and so did Congressmen and political speakers. People and newspapers laughed at it, and nicknamed them after the oaths they used.
No man in this country dare use profanity in the Senate of the United States, or in the House of Representatives, today, as they used it then. He would be expelled from the House; if not by the members, he would be by the voters. Christianity-this living power-has been at work in the community, until public opinion has risen to that place where it thus utters its anathemas against these things; and although they are often uttered now, it is more out of sight,-they are hidden. As recent as 1800 this country was filled with duels. There were duels fought in Philadelphia in 1796, in which there were two men killed; and in 1797 eight men were killed in New York in duels. It was a common thing for men to shoot each other for any little quarrel or difference concerning money transactions. Then, respected men would pull out their pistols and shoot at each other; but now, in this Eastern country, and away to the Mississippi river, this whole question has been so utterly crushed out of sight by the Christian public opinion, that nowhere, exceptin certain low communities, do men indulge in such
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1
a terrible and unchristian pastime. In the year 1800, every one drank wine. No, every one did not drink wine: it would have been better if they had. They drank New England rum, and brandy, and gin, in vast quantities. In the year 1801, there were drank in this country, seven and a half gallons of alcoholic liquors to every single person in the nation; so if every person had drank his share he would have consumed seven and a half gallons in that year.
In the year 1880, there was but one gallon and a half drank to every person in this country. And yet there are people who think the country is going to ruin on the question of intemperance, because they actually see much of it, and make no comparison with the past.
In the year 1798, in Massachusetts, two Congregational ministers were so intoxi- cated, that they were carried home; and when the question arose with regard to having them expelled, the decision was "that there is no known discipline in the church for getting drunk."
In the year 1800, in New England, in old New England, nearly all the ministers put the wine (if they could afford it, and if not, then some cheaper liquor to drink), on their tables when their deacons came to see them.
Four of the leading ministers of this country were found too intoxicated to put themselves to bed, as late as the year 1800; yet they were supposed to be the lead- ers of the morals of the country. In the year 1805, this country was said to be away at the lowest point in its history as far as intoxication was concerned. Crime was rampant, as a natural result of drink. England looked upon us and cried out " For shame! The drunken Americans." There was a bottle on every dinner- table, everybody drank. They drank before breakfast and after breakfast, before dinner and after dinner, and in the evening, and sometimes got up in the night to get drunk, among respectable and successful people in other respects.
Today, men who do not believe in temperance associations, or at least, have nothing to do with them, prefer temperance men in business; and when they go to hire a young man the first thing they ask him is, "Do you drink ?" and if he drinks, they do not want him, no matter what his other qualifications are or what their own habits are, they don't want him. Everywhere through this country, public opinion now supports at least the theory of total abstinence from intoxicat- ing liquors as a beverage.
And yet, eighty years ago the temperance movement was unthought of, and the church was not in favor of it, but helped intemperance.
Eighty years ago, in this country, men owned their wives. Men owned their wives ? You say, this cannot be; but I say, what do you do with any thing you own ? If a man owned a slave, he ordered it about, and if it did not obey his ordering, he gave it a whipping; and eighty-five years ago, a man, in every State but four, of all the United States, could whip his wife (and the law encouraged him), if she did not obey him. Ninety-two years ago, in two States of the Union, they had a law still on the statute books, by which, if a wife scolded more than
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her husband thought she ought to scold, she could be placed on the end of a plank and ducked in the pond.
A man owned his wife and he could say go there or here, and she must go, and by law could do as he pleased with her except maim her, in every State but four.
Today, there is not a State, territory, or district, where public opinion or the law, will allow a man even to strike his wife, though the provocation be ever so great; and today the leaven of Christianity has worked out into society and into the hearts of men and women, until woman stands the equal of man everywhere and in every station.
Why, it was only thirty years ago that they had an auction block in the Capital of the United States, where they sold children from their mothers. In this country there were four millions of human beings held in that slavery by which they - these colored men - could be bought and sold like cattle.
But Christianity was working, working against this horrid institution; the whole spirit of the Bible being against it. Christian people began to take up this war against slavery, until at last, when armies arose, there were found heroes ready, with their faith in God, and in every principle of Christianity, to stand against it. And today, no slave clanks his chains within the bounds of our country-not one of them but is as free before the law as you or I. This nation did leap by war at a single step up to the higher and more glorious cliffs of Chris- tian freedom. And yet, men will now say the country is going to ruin, because they have not thought back to the time when slavery was here.
We have a Sabbath Association, and a great institution it is. We do not ob- serve the Sabbath as we should; and it should be observed in many ways in which it never has been yet; but look back only as late as 1835, why, the United States opened its post-offices on Sunday, and ran stages. The State governments trans- acted their business the same on Sunday as on any other day. All public busi- ness went on just the same. Men broke the Sabbath in various ways, as many people do today; but there are not near so many in proportion to the population today who neglect the Holy Sabbath day, as in 1830. It was desecrated in Phila- delphia and New York. It was regarded no more than as a day of pleasure by persons of the most fashionable society. And the reports of the missionaries show the most terrible condition of affairs concerning the observance of the Sab- bath at that time in all the New England cities. There is a greater quietness, and a greater proportion of people worship now on the Sabbath day than fifty years ago.
In that year of 1800, infidelity was rampant. You know Tom Paine and others had assisted this country in its hour of need. They had been strong men, and thinking men and patriots, and so they gained favor with the people of this country, who honored them for their kindness to us. And the French infidels when they put forth their books found favor everywhere, until people began fast to secede
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from the churches, and in the year 1800, seventeen of the prominent ministers seceded from the church because they did not believe the Bible. And a great tide of infidelity swept over this country after the Revolution; many churches were closed, and no new ones built. Persons high in office advocated infidelity in public speeches, and were respected and honored. Today such a thing would be a disgrace; today it is a disgrace. Today a man that believes not in the Bible, or who reviles and assails that which so many millions love, is in a position of disgrace in this country, and he feels it.
In the year 1800, can you tell how few Bibles there were in the land? Now we have a Bible in every home, and with dust on many of them, but it is a far better thing to have a Bible in the house with dust on it than none at all. It cost so much to buy one then, that people could not afford to get them, but now they are published by the million every year, and the Word of God can everywhere be had for nothing, Christianity has made such wonderful progress. Eighty years ago there were no Sunday schools, but now six and a half millions of children in this land are studying the Bible every Sabbath in all parts of the country.
And in that day the land was filled with crime. We read a newspaper today- how many murders, thefts, robberies and suicides there are ! We think the world is getting very wicked. But now there is a reporter on every corner, there is a reporter that goes into every town, and the telegraph wires connect every village in this country and other countries today, and when we read the newspa- per we read of every crime that has been committed in the civilized world.
In the year 1800, if a man committed murder in New York you would never hear of it, except in a private letter from some friend; and you would never hear of a crime in any of the Southern States; it was too far away. If a murder was in Chicago, or the place where Chicago now stands, we would never have heard of it. But now we get it all, instantly, by the wonderful telegraph, and people think the world is growing worse.
The statistics show, that in the year 1800, there was one murder to every ten thousand inhabitants in New England. It would be considered the most hideous thing on earth today if there was one murder to every ten thousand people in a single year-it could not be today.
Now we can look back and see what Christianity has done for this country in elevating the morals of the community. I remember reading a report on the treatment of the insane in 1795; I looked back to see the first reports. The peo- ple then believed an insane person was possessed of a devil, and a very bad devil; a very wicked and very spiteful, develish devil. I cannot describe it, so frightful, so cruel in every instance did they regard it. So, the way to cure insane people, which they recommended to the Legislature, was to prick them with pins, or to whip them until the devil left them. What a hideous picture ! And they pre- tended to take the doctrine from the Bible, that the way to get the devils out was to drive them out, and consequently they tried and kept on trying until they
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multiplied the insane very fast, and people began to think that instead of driving out devils, it drove them in. But Christianity has advanced, until now a person taken insane is treated with the greatest kindness, and placed in a palace home where you and I could not afford to dwell if sane. It is one of the sweetest thoughts now for me that, if my mind is broken at last, I shall not be taken into a dark, damp dungeon, and every day whipped until the blood-letting makes me swoon away.
No, I will be taken into a home, if not wildly insane, where the beds are soft, and carpets on the floor, and pictures on the wall, and every comfort and luxury, and all the sweetness of Christian love around me, shall show me all that there is of life to love, and all I can get, in the state of my mind, to possess and enjoy in this life. Christianity has changed all that, and it has changed all by the force of its teachings from the Bible, the pulpit, and from the Sunday-School.
There was a day, in the year 1810, when there was not a public home for old men, or women, or orphans, in this country; not one - not a " Home " in this country -and yet, now, there are forty-two thousand public institutions of this kind, - public, so far as the candidates for admission are concerned, - where people have given money, so that afflicted persons may come in; such "Homes " are now found in every town and city and State with, perhaps, one bare exception. In this country, today, no man needs to be poor - when I say poor, I mean the extremes of want. No man needs to be poor in this town, no man needs to come to your door and say he is hungry. No man needs to do that, because there is ample Christian provision for every deserving poor man in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and all the towns of the States. And yet, in the year 1800, there was no provision of the kind except a public workhouse. In the year 1800, per- haps 1810, there were no descriptive or explanatory books of the Bible outside of the bare reading of the text itself. Now, millions on millions of helpful aids to the understanding of this Bible are published, until now "he that runs " may understand every page of it. We have had it translated and re-translated. We have had no less than five within the last twenty-five years, and now, there is one authorized, and nearer what the meaning was in Greek and Hebrew.
The time was, not a century ago, when Christians persecuted each other. The time was, when to be a Baptist or a Quaker, was to be shut out from all the privileges of a citizen; and the time has not passed over sixty years since old Massachusetts, the good, old Puritan State, had a law that the members of certain Evangelical denominations, should not exercise the rights of citizenship in the Common- wealth; and the time is not far back when the denominations clashed and fought with an exceeding bitterness, and to belong to the church, one almost needed to carry about a spear and sword, to fight the battles between denominations.
Within the memory of some here present, denominations would have nothing whatever to do with each other in religious matters. The feeling between denomi- nations was exceedingly bitter. There were four different churches burned in
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the State of Maryland in 1804, each burning the other's house of worship; and such was the state of Christianity that the different denominations never would meet together.
The time has come when Christianity gets up and peeps over the fences. They become perplexingly mixed sometimes. Christian denominations are getting wonderfully mixed up now. People are able to get on tip-toe enough to see some other flocks of Christians in some other pasture than their own. The time has come that, if a man loves Christ, - whatever he may believe with reference to the forms that any particular church may practice, - if he believes in Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, - if he desires every one else to do so, he is one of my Father's flock, whatever fence encloses him. The time has come when men meet and clasp each other as brothers. They generally stay inside of these dif- ferent denominations because God has permitted denominations to exist for some wise and good purpose.
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