USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Portland > The semi-centennial anniversary of the Free Street Baptist Church, Portland, Me. September 26-27, 1886 > Part 3
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ing this year a new mission school was begun, known as the Deering Bridge Sunday-school, located just beyond Deering Bridge. It was organized April 20, 1873, with ten teachers and forty-three scholars. Free Street furnished the teachers, and Ply- mouth Church the superintendent. At the close of the first year of this school it had thirteen teachers and ninety-eight scholars, with an average attendance of sixty-seven. Their collections for the same time amounted to $98.23. Quite an amount of strictly mission work was done here, and during the same year thirty gar- ments were made, and with twelve pair of shoes and sixty dollars in money, given to the poor. At least thirty poor children who had not decent clothing, were clothed and gathered into the school. The mission existed for seven years, and after Mr. Hierlihy, the first superintendent, gave up his position, he was succeeded by Mr. Rufus Lamson, Mr. B. F. Strickland, and Mr. H. S. Colby. To no one person did the mission owe so much as to Bro. Colby, who was a tireless worker from the time it was established till it was closed, April 18, 1880.
C. Fred. Morse was elected librarian in 1873, and the rest of the old list again chosen. The report of the secretary for 1873- 74 shows that the school numbered three hundred and twenty- nine, with thirty teachers; that it had an average attendance of one hundred and seventy-seven, and that fourteen persons had united therefrom with the church. The annual meeting resulted in the unanimous re-election of all the old officers.
Teachers' meetings were held on Saturday evenings. The school kept on increasing in numbers, amounting in 1875 to three hundred and seventy-seven, and the average attendance went up to one hundred and eighty-six, while thirteen united with the church. Dr. McWhinnie was settled during this year. George M. Bosworth was chosen assistant superintendent at the annual meeting in 1875, and Geo. A. Deering secretary and treasurer; no change occurred in the other offices. We find a vote passed at the meeting, on motion of Mr. Melcher, "That the librarian should look up all the records and reports of the school, and have
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them placed in the library." Whether this was done or not it is quite impossible now to state, but the scarcity of such documents in the library or elsewhere compels the belief that the attempt proved unsuccessful. There were several secretaries this year, and between them the records had a hard time of it. To prevent its recurrence L. D. Austin was chosen secretary, and the remain- ing officers re-elected. The year 1876-77 was one of much spir- itual prosperity; fifty-nine of the school-members united with the church, and the school numbered at its close three hundred and sixty pupils, with an average attendance of two hundred.
At the school meeting in September, H. W. Noyes was chosen secretary and treasurer, and J. H. Morse librarian, while the other officers were continued. Mr. William Merrill served as librarian the succeeding year, but again no change occurred in any other position. The average school attendance was two hun- dred. The year 1878-79 is the banner year of the last twenty- five for membership and attendance, the records showing three hundred and sixty enrolled, and an average attendance of two hundred and seventeen. At the annual meeting in 1879, J. A. Colley was made librarian, but no change was made in any other office. The work for the year shows an enrollment of three hun- dred and twenty-one members, and an average attendance of two hundred, while three united with the church. In the fall of 1881, Mr. Frank Haskell became librarian. A present of a fine cabinet organ to the Infant Department by the " Gleaners," a band of young ladies organized for mission work, was one of the pleasing incidents of the year.
Mr. II. S. Melcher, who had served the school as superintend- ent for thirteen consecutive years, declined in 1883 to continne longer in office. His term of service was longer than that of any of his predecessors, and its results attest the faithfulness of his labors. Over one hundred and thirty-five joined the church from the Sunday-school during his term of office. Mr. Geo. M. Bosworth was chosen superintendent in September 9, 1883, but resigned the office on leaving the city, in February of 1884, and
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Mr. H. W. Noyes was chosen in his place, and has held the posi- tion since that time. A new feature introduced by Superintend- ent Noyes has been the observance of Children's Sunday, and more than one hundred dollars has been given to the American Baptist Publication Society in this way by the school. The pres- ent superintendent and minister are both life members of the society. The last three years of the school's existence have been ones of unassuming, earnest work, half of the time without any settled minister, but in that time nineteen have united with the church, and the average attendance has been one hundred and ninety. There are also at present connected with the school two missionary organizations, one known as the "Willing Workers" and the other as the " Young Ladies Mission Band." The for- mer was organized in 1879, by Mrs. McWhinnie, and has done much for different missionaries and stations; the latter is a grad- uate department of the former, was organized in 1884, and has a similar aim.
During the last twenty-five years of its history, it is estimated that five thousand dollars have been collected by the school for its expenses and benevolent work, while its average attendance for the past seventeen years has been one hundred and eighty- eight. In the year which ends today the secretary and treasurer states that the total number at present enrolled is three hundred and thirty-five; the average attendance has been one hundred and ninety-four, and the largest two hundred and forty-eight; $317.12 has been collected by the school.
It is plain enough that the figures given in this summary way, and the few barren facts gleaned here and there from records or from memory, are not after all the true history of the school. That is written in the mind and heart of every sincere worker who has belonged to it during this time, and knows the effort and sacrifice required by those who patiently persist in the effort to advance God's cause.
No school in this city has had for the past quarter of a century a better conception of its sacred work; none can present more
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worthy helpers in every moral and religious enterprise. The men and women now connected with it, encouraged and inspired by former labors, will press further on into widening fields of use- fulness, and the boys and girls now in it will grow up to follow in the ways of their fathers and mothers, maintain its standard of worthy endeavor, and make its future more successful than its past.
The Children's Chorus "Marching On," was then sung, after which the following address was delivered by
REV. H. M. KING D.D.
On the cross on which the Saviour died was an inscription, placed there by the Roman governor. That inscription was writ- ten in three languages, the Hebrew, which was the language used by the Jews, the Latin, which was the language used by tlie Roman government, and the Greek, which was somewhat preva- lent in that province. It has been suggested that these three lan- guages, being the three prominent languages of the then known world, indicated the progress and final triumph of Christianity. It has also been suggested that we have here the language of religion in the Hebrew, the language of culture and philosophy in the Greek, and the language of law and government in the Latin, intimating that Christianity was to influence man's entire life, all the affairs with which he has to do, and was to make its power felt at all points in human experience, and in the progress of human society.
The Jews, when they found the inscription which was placed on the cross, were exceedingly vexed and annoyed by it, and sent a committee to Pilate, the Roman governor, with the request that he should modify it or remove it; and then it was that the cow- ardly and vacillating Pilate, nerved to something that seemed like strength of will, resolution of purpose, and decision of character, refused to yield to the request of the Jews, and answered: " What I have written I have written." I do not propose to make any
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further concession to you; I have gone far enough in this busi- ness of yours; the inscription has been made, and it shall stand; the record is there, and it is unalterable; what I have written, I have written.
This suggests to us tonight, as an appropriate thought, the changeless record of life, the unalterable record which we are all making. At the close of every definite period, whether it be of one year or of fifty years, and at the close of life we shall each of us be compelled to say, " What I have written, I have written." There have been affections exercised; there have been purposes formed and carried out; there has been duty done or undone; there has been obedience or disobedience to God and truth and right, and the record of the life stands, and will stand. And more than this, this record is not a single record. As the inscrip- tion on the cross was manifold, so the record of life which we are making is manifold; and as the man who uses the modern stylograph, and strikes off several impressions at the same time, is exceedingly careful that every movement should be a right movement, so we, who are writing from day to day, and hour to hour, and year to year, the record of life, should be exceedingly careful that every act, and every thought, and every desire, is right. For we are making, not a threefold record, but a fourfold record, if I may so call it.
There is, first, the record which we are making upon the tablet of the memory; this memory of ours, the faculty of the mind by which we not only retain the knowledge which we acquire, but are compelled to recall past events and experiences; this memory of ours which has no power of discrimination, which, like a sponge, gathers into itself the evil and the good, but which has not the ability of the sponge to wipe out any record which has been made, and which can not unload itself of any burden which presses upon it. It may be doubted if the memory ever loses its hold of anything that is stored there, if there is any such thing as permanent forgetfulness. Sometimes the record seems to be erased and written over, like some old palimpsest, but at some
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subsequent period the thing once recorded is made to reap- pear. Sometimes the record seems to be stored away in some dark, secret chamber of the mind, but at length it is brought forth at an unexpected moment, to confront us. The aged, while they may not be able to remember the things that happened yes- terday, remember the things that happened a half a century ago, showing that they have not been lost or forgotten, but only laid aside. It is said that the drowning man may have flashed upon his mind, as if by electricity, the whole record of his life, which he supposed had passed utterly from his memory.
It is undoubtedly true that the memory will play no small part in the punishment of the unbeliever and the impenitent man by and by. Abraham is represented by Christ in the parable as say- ing to Dives, "Son, remember." Many a man would give all that he has in the world if he could now blot out from his mem- ory the record of some wrong committed, some crime perpe- trated, some misdeed of which he has been guilty. Is it any wonder that the great dramatist makes Macbeth say to the doctor:
" Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd ; Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow; Raze out the written troubles of the brain; And with some sweet oblivious antidote, Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff, Which weighs upon the heart?"
Ah! it was a rooted sorrow; the troubles were written troubles, and there was no earthly power that could uproot the sorrow, or raze out the troubles.
I remember a story that a friend of mine in the ministry told me of a man in his parish, who was a dissipated man. He had a boy attending school, and each day as the boy returned home he would burst into tears in his mother's presence, and say, " Mother, I cannot go to school any more." She said, " Why, Willie ?" " Because they call me a drunkard's son, and I cannot bear it." Day after day he came home with the same complaint. But at 3
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last one evening he did not return, and when the shadows fell and the night had come, they made search for Willie, and found him not. All night long they pursued their search, and still they did not discover him. On the next day, which was the Sabbath, they went to the brook, which was adjacent, and there in the deepest place they found his lifeless body. He could not bear to be called a drunkard's son, and so he had put an end to his sad career. They took up the little form, carried it home, and laid it in the parlor. In a little while the father, in a half-drunken state, came into the house. At first bewildered, he could not account for the condition of things. They led him into the parlor, and uncovered the silent lifeless face of his little boy. He quickly understood it all, and reeled, not with a drunken frenzy, but with permanent insanity. He was taken to Blackwell's Island. His pastor visited him there, and as he looked in through the grate of the cell, the man in his frenzy and delirium cried continually, " Where is Willie, where is Willie ?" His reason was dethroned; he was no longer himself; and yet his memory lived, and he knew the sorrow that he had brought to his home.
But there is a second record which we are making, viz., the record on our own characters. What is character but that myste- rious thing which we call self, the sum and aggregate of all that is written upon us by cherished desire, purpose, and affection, and by the external influences to which we are subjected. This character of ours is receiving from day to day impressions which cannot be effaced. Every year writes its indelible record on the soul. We sometimes talk about character as having been formed, about a man of established character. Character in this sense, as being the resultant of all that a man thinks, all that he does, and all that is brought to bear upon him, is never fully formed while life continues. It is more plastic in childhood than in maturity, and more readily receives the impressions made upon it. But it never ceases to take on new impressions and new growths. It is like the coral reef that grows under the sea, little by little, little by little, until it becomes a rugged island.
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Now this character, I say, is receiving impressions from day to day, impressions that are, it may be, like the scars which we carry on our bodies, when they have been injured in any way. I have upon my thumb a scar which I received when a boy. I was undertaking to cut a bit of hard candy to share it with my playmate, when the knife closed on my thumb, and the cut was made. It healed, but the scar is there still. It may be, if we could see these spirits of ours, we should find them scarred, writ- ten all over by the record of the life which we have been living. We used to hear sometimes about spirit photographs, as if the photograph of the departed could be taken and presented to tlie living. I think the delusion has pretty well disappeared; and yet, if it were possible to take a photograph, not of the departed, but of the living spirit, and that photograph should represent all that is within us, our actual state and condition, the very essence of our life, who of us would want to sit for our pictures? Even now we want all the wrinkles to be smoothed out and all the rougli- ness to be taken away, and the artist who can accomplish this is the best artist for us. But who of us would want to sit before the camera, and have a picture of his spirit taken, with all its weaknesses, and tendencies, and sins, and have it appear just as it must appear in the eyes of Omniscience ?
Let it never be forgotten that everything we think and every- thing we do, reacts upon us, and stiffens into solid character, that we are making on ourselves, on our whole intellectual, moral, and spiritual being a solemn and imperishable record, that we are being affected, molded, written all over by the experiences of these passing years. And not only upon our memories and upon our own characters, are we making a record, but upon the char- acters of others. We cannot live within and for ourselves alone. We are situated in families, in communities, in the midst of the friendships and associations of life, and we are influencing for good or for evil those with whom we have to do, as they also are influencing us for good or for evil. There is none of us that can live entirely shut up within himself without having moral healing
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or disease go forth from us by outward contact and relationship. There is no planet, however small or inferior, but has its attend- ing stars, and sends its influence out into systems beyond. None of us can fence ourselves in, and say we will simply work out our own destiny, regardless of others, and of our influence upon them. There has not been a boy or girl connected with this Sun- day-school, who has not carried forth into manhood or woman- hood the influences received from superintendent, teacher, or classmate.
I wish gratefully to acknowledge at this time the impressions that were made upon my own heart in this school when I was connected with it. I need not say, God only knows, how mighty was the influence in guiding my heart to the Lord Jesus Christ, and my footsteps toward the Christian ministry. I shall never forget the teachers at whose feet I sat, and from whose lips I learned lessons of truth and of life, Henry B. Hart and Levi F. Drake, of sainted memory, and Hanson M. Hart, who, thank God, is able to be with us tonight. May God make his days, as they decline, the happiest and brightest period of his life. The influ- ence of these men upon my boyish heart and life, was incalcula- ble. It would be impossible for me to estimate or express it.
" I shot an arrow into the air, It fell to earth, I knew not where; For so swiftly it flew, the sight Could not follow it in its flight.
" I breathed a song into the air, It fell to earth, I knew not where; For who has sight so keen and strong, That it can follow the flight of song ?
" Long, long afterward in an oak, I found the arrow still unbroke; And the song from beginning to end I found again in the heart of a friend."
In the realm of moral and spiritual forces we are all archers. We place our fingers at every moment on the cord, and the bow
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is bent. What shall it be ? An arrow tipped with poison, the poison of unbelief, the poison of evil influence; or shall it be the song of love, of purity and of redemption, that goes forth from us ? It is a serious thing for us to remember that we are writing upon our memories a record which we shall be compelled to recol- lect and meet; it is a more serious thing for us to feel that we are writing upon our characters a record which will at last stand forth in the light of eternity; it is a still more serious thing when we remember that by our life and precept and example we are influencing others for their everlasting good or ill.
But there is a fourth record that we are making which is the most important of all for us to remember. I refer to the record which we are making in the great book of accounts, the record which we are making in heaven from year to year, and from period to period. Any proper faith in the omniscience of God, without which attribute He could not be God, and any proper faith in the moral government of God over this universe which makes it necessary for him to take cognizance of all our deeds and even of all our thoughts, must compel us to believe that what we speak of figuratively as the final book of accounts, has in it a great and solemn reality. It is declared that we are to be judged by the things " which are written in the book"; that we are to meet in the next world the record of the life which we have lived in this, and that by that record we are to be judged, and our eternal des- tiny is to be fixed. With telephonic accuracy the story of each individual life is repeated on high. Biographies, even the best of them, written by men, are imperfect. But it will not be so with the heavenly record. That will be absolutely correct, marred by no inaccuracies and no omissions.
May God help us to remember, then, that with every breath we breathe, with every step we take, with every word we speak, with every act we do, we are making this fourfold, this solemn and imperishable record of life.
There are two important thoughts which I must suggest here, but upon which I have not time to dwell. The first is that the
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gospel of Jesus Christ makes a place for repentance, and change of heart, and reformation of character. I do not know how it can be brought about, but this I do know, that the memory shall still be active in the mind of the penitent, and yet shall bring with it no remorse; and that somehow the record of sins which has been made against us, may, through the accepted grace of Christ, be remembered against us no more. A second suggestion is this, that inasmuch as life is so serious a thing, it is very nec- essary for us to live it as we ought to live it. We should live bet- ter, more thoughtful, more earnest, and more consecrated lives from day to day, for we know that for every idle word a man shall speak he must give account thereof in the day of judgment. May God help us by the solemn review of the past, and by the solemn lessons of the present, to make this life real, and to make it earnest.
The record of this Sunday-school for fifty years has been read to us with considerable detail. This record presented is undoubt- edly as perfect as human hands could make it. But the actual, the true, the complete record of the school has been written on high. The record which this school has made, upon the charac- ter and its development, upon souls and their training for Christ, upon the hearts of those who have been connected with it, and their unfolding into the light and beauty of Christian character and Christian example-that record only the eyes of the angels and the eyes of God can rest upon tonight.
Dear friends, you are not here tonight to vote to disband. You are here tonight to review the past, and gather fresh inspiration for the next half-century. Some of you may be spared to see its end. You are here tonight to resolve that by God's help and blessing you will push on the work of the Sunday-school, for you may be assured that it was never more important than it is today.
I should as soon think of this church tearing out its article of faith with reference to the cross and its atoning power, as voting to disband the Sunday-school, and engage no more in the work of the salvation of children and the development of Christian char-
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acter and Christian life. We are living today in an age that may be called materialistic. Men estimate things by their money value. Men think more of the perishable today than of the imperishable and enduring. It has been said by some one, with a sort of grim sarcasm, that if the feather of an angel's wing, in his flight above us, should drop to earth, the first man who came along and picked it up would ask how much he could get for it. That is rather a material aspect of the whole thing; a material angel, a material feather, and a material man who picks up the feather.
It is said that a bright young lad, the son of a shrewd business man, in the Sunday-school class one day, was listening with great interest to the teacher as she told the story of Joseph's career from beginning to end; and after the teacher had finished, she said, " Children, you see how wicked a thing the brothers did when they sold Joseph into Egypt. Now tell me wherein their guilt consisted ?" This bright lad, from a home that was filled with business and life, this son of a sharp merchant, said quickly, " They sold him too cheap." This is but an indication of the spirit which is rife in our homes, the spirit which is prevalent on our streets, the spirit which the Sunday-school is to antagonize, the spirit which forgets great moral distinctions, and spiritual values, and the great facts that are revealed in the Word of God.
The Sunday-school is especially necessary at the present time because of the many temptations which surround us, temptations which meet us in every walk and every calling in life. God only knows the mighty influences which they bring to bear on the hearts of old and young. God pity the man who in a moment of weakness begins to have confidence in himself, forgetting that his only hope is in the Almighty. God pity the man who feels that he is sufficient for all these things, that he needs not the constant presence of the Spirit of the Almighty to enable him to resist the temptations that are forever assailing him. These temptations will live with us as long as we live; we do not outgrow them; we cannot outlive them; they will follow us like our shadow until we
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