History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 86

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534

USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania > Part 86

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But now he knows, if truth and vice Have one allotment there,

Perhaps may wish a conscience nice Had guided him while here.

His mortal jart which was not small, We now to dust resign,

And if that mortal part be all. He surely can't repine.

-Anonymous.

THE ANSWER.

I am composed of light and shade, As all must freely own ;

So God my constitution made, Nor gave mne heart of stone. Most hard it is to fill the paunch With medicines purgative ;

If with a second dose you drench, 'Twill not the other drive. With farmers a disgrace to drink I never did it deem ; Those sons of earth I always think Most worthy my esteem. Plain honesty, withont disguise, Dwells in their noble breasts ;

With them I'd share my grog of choice, And have them for my guests. But how a plural number noun, As beds must surely he, Unto the singular has grown I really cannot sre.

For rolls cannot be govern'd right, By beds of sulphur blue ; I'd certainly rebel in spite Of all the sinell and hue. As for Anonymous's place I surely cannot tell ; He cannot join the blessed race, Nor yet be doom'd to hell. It is most like the Omnipotent Design'd him at creation, When he on earth his days bad spent, For dark annihilation. So he may sately venture on, And rest in this secure, If he no pleasure knows when goue, No pain can he endure.

-Archibald Me Clean.

365

EARLY POETRY.

ODE TO GRATITUDE.

BY ANNA YOUNG.

O gratitude, thou power benign, That does such warmth impart ! Teach my unskillful muse to sing The feelings of my heart.

Teach me to thank the generous Maid That reared my tender years ; That gives me every useful aid, And mourns my faults with tears.

Her tenderness I can't repay, Nor half her love reconnt : Each rising morn and ending day Still adds to the amount.

All gracious God, who rules on high, Eliza's love reward ! Oh, recompense her piety, Her tender care regard.

Bless her with health, with life, with joy, With happiness and peace, Content, that sweetens each employ, And makes all stations please.

That this be fair Eliza's lot My constant prayers shall be ; An orphan's prayers are not forgot By Hùm who all can see. - May 21, 1770.

SYLVIA'S SONG TO DAMON.

BY ANNA YOUNG.

When first I heard my Damon's sighs, When first I read his speaking eyes,

Against their power I vainly strove, And proudly thought I ne'er could love.

His virtnes oft I warmly praised, I thought alone esteem I rais'd, Till worth like mine he should approve,

And yet I thought not it was love.

The soft compassion I hetray'd With joy the anxious youth survey'l ; His artless sighs my bosom mov'd ; I bappy felt and own'd I lov'd.

Whene'er I heard his angel tongue On all his words I foudly hung ; With ev'ry sound my heart would move, But yet I knew not it was love.

I feel no wish my hosom swell, But still on Damon's heart to dwell ; This tender wish may heaven approve, And kindly bless our mutual love .- 1775.

A SUMMER'S EVENING WALK IN THE CHURCH-YARD OF WICACO.

BY ANNA YOUNG.

The solemn stillness of this pensive scene, The rolling river and the grave-clad green, The setting sun, who sheds his parting beam With fainter radiance o'er the silver stream ; The humble stones which point the dewy hed Where peaceful sleep shall rest each weary head ; The Gothic pile, whose hospitable door First woo'l religion to this savage shore,- All, all conspire to sooth the softened breast And hush each care and earth-born wish to rest. The angry storms which swell life's sea decay, And each rude wave of passion sinks away ; Less and less high o'erflows the beating tide, Till calm, at lengthi, life's shifting currents glide ;

Not one rough breeze d'er the smooth surface blows, And heaven, reflected, its calm'd hosom shows. Within this sacred dome and peaceful bower Truth and religion hold their native power ; They show our hopes and fears, undleck'd with art, And pour their full conviction on the heart .- June, 1775.

LINES ON REPERUSING THE AFORESAID POEM, WHEN THE COMPOSER WAS NO MORE.

BY MRS. E. FERGUSON.

No more from Sylvia's pen those numbers flow

That joys enhanced or soothed the pangs of woo ; Beneath such sods as filled her pensive strains

This lifeless writer with the dead remains. Not sixty years (as lived the saint who sung With seraph's ardor and cherubic tongue) Was Sylvia's date ; not twenty-four were past Ere Laura saw young Sylvia breathe her last ;

But full experience has to Laura taught That length of days are so with evil franght, They chief are blest who soonest run their race,

Screened from temptation and the world's diagrace.

Earth's mantle dropped, then Laura trusts to join This soon-cropped blossom of her parents' line .- 1786.

REFLECTIONS NEAR THE CLOSE OF APRIL, 1804. BY JOSEPH LLOYD.

Hail, May ; sweet season of delight ! Thy presence all desire ; A theme on which the poets write, And all mankind admire.

O, how enchanting is the sight Of nature dress'd in green ! With what keen rapture of delight Do I behold the scene !

The beauty of the vernal flowers And fruit-trees, all in bloom, Which fill the groves and shady bowers With fragrance and perfume.

The birds, in sweet melodious voire, Their notes responsive sing ; All kinds of animals rejoice, All nature hails the spring.

The rural grove, the verdant plain, The slowly rising hill ; The fields adorn'd with growing grain, With joy my bosom fill.

O nature ! thy reviving charms Delight my feeling breast ; The pleasing sight my bosom warins, And lulls my cares to rest.

I often ramble through the vale, To take the cooling breeze : And aromatic sweets exhale, From nature's blooming trees.

I view the lofty mountain's height Or wander through the glade, And hear with most extreme delight The murmuring cascade.

The precipice and mountain steep, Terrific and sublime, Absorb me in reflection deep ; And thus I pass my time.

Secluded from a world of strife. In pure ecstatic bliss ; 0, could I always pass my life In such a state as this !

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

A RED BIRD'S LAMENTATION.

DY DAVID LLOYD.

When I enjoy'd my liberty From bough to bough I play'd ; But now, confined, I here must be By ruthless man betray'd.

I flew from home in search of food Beneath a shady tree, And left behind a helpless brood, Which I shall never see.

Entangl'd in a wily net Contriv'd by wanton boy, Which caus'd me all this sore regret And does my health destroy.

I see my mates at play engag'd, With pleasure on their wing, While here, within this lonesome cage, In solitude I sing.

My wings, impatient, long to fly, And free themselves in air ; I linger here, and know not why I'm doom'd to this despair.

My days must pass away in grief To please a tyrant's eye ; Unfeeling man, without relief, Condemns me here to die .- 1830.

ELEGY ON ELIHU PALMIER.

Elihu Palmer now has gone And left the noisy workl ; He lies beneath the verdant lawn Where Schuylkill's waves are curl'd.

While he in peaceful silence lays The world is rolling on ; Just so the richest flower decays, And all must soon be gone.

Shed no vain tears upon his urn, For such the base obtain ; But let his virtues all return And live in us again.

THIE BEECH TREE.

NY ROBERT M. BIRD.

There's a hill by the Schuylkill, the river of hearts, And a beech-tree that grows on its side, In a nook that is lovely when sunshine departs And twilight creeps over the tide ; How sweet, at that moment, to steal through the grove, In the shade of that beech to recline, And dream of the maiden who gave it her love, And left it thus laallowed in mine !

Here's the rock that she sat on, the spray that she held When she bent round its grey trunk with me ; And smiled as, with soft, timid eyes, she beheld The name I had carved on the tree, So carved that the letters should look to the west, As well as their dear majic became, So that when the dim sunshine was sinking to rest The last ray should fall on her name.

The singing thrush moans on that beech-tree at morn, The winds through the laurel-bush siglı,

And afar comes the sound of the waterman's horn And the hum of the waterfall nigh. No echoes there wake but are magical, each, Like words on my spirit they fall ;

They speak of the hours when we came to the heech And listened together to all.

And oh, when the shadows creep out from the wood, When the breeze stirs no more on the spray, And the sunbeam of autumn that plays on the flood Is melting, each moment, away ; How dear at that moment, to steal through the grove, In the shade of that beech-tree to recline, And dream of the maiden who gave it her love, And left it thuis ballowed in mine !

CHAPTER XXV.

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS-CHURCH HISTORY.1

RELIGION-or a sense of some power above or be- yond ourselves-is the deepest instinct of the human sonl, and it is so nearly universal that no race has been found on the earth destitute of the feeling ; nay, few, if any, have been discovered whose aspirations do not extend beyond the present lite; we may, therefore, appropriately quote the lines of Addison,-

" Whence then this pleasing hope, this fond desire, This longing after immortality ? Or whence this secret dread and inward horror Of falling into nought ? 'Tis the divinity that stirs within us : 'Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter And intimates eternity to man."

Universal perception of the supernatural, and of : causation from some power or agency outside ourselves, is seen in the widespread observance of "signs," ' "tokens," "portents" and "warnings" by the un- educated amongst civilized people and universal superstitions of the savage and barbarous. Hardly . an occurrence strikes the mind but is noted by many as " a sign " or forecast of something more important about to happen ; hence man, of all sentient beings, is said to be "the only religious animal." Next to the germ of vital existence,-human life,-religion, which is educational, is the moulding pabulum of our being. Dawning intelligence muses, "Whence am I, why here and what of my living essence when this body returns to dust, whence it was taken ?" These questions rise so naturally. and the instinctive longings of the human mind are so universal, as to amount to a demonstration of a future state and the immortality of the soul. A further evidence of the universality of religious sentiment may be seen in the fact that nearly all the literature of antiquity has come down to us as a record of the sayings and doings of its gods and demi-gods; nearly all other account of the remote past has perished forever. And further, a judicious writer observes that "the idea a people have of God is both the initiative and con- servative force of its civilization ; " thus all nations grow into and develop after the types that obtain in this realm of thought and feeling. In the absence of an anthenticated divine revelation, therefore, the

1 Histories of individual churches, excepting the Methodist Episcopal, will be found in the townships or boroughis in which they are situated.

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ancient world was subjected to the divinities and doctrine amongst us is the proper religious sanction to quality testimony in law proceedings, the obser- vance of a day of rest, recognition of God's Provi- dence, and the employment of chaplains in the public service, all arising under the common law notion, which assumes the governmental duty of providing things needful for the public welfare apart from individual conscience. forms of worship prescribed by kings and priests conjointly ; hence free denominations, as we under- stand the term, exercising the inherent right of free belief, was a claim and liberty unknown to the ancient world. Even the Christian Church that was united to ancient Rome never conceded this right, because, both being imperial, they not only claimed to be supreme in temporalities, but in matters of conscience Publicists of Europe in the sixteenth and seven- teenth centuries had no conception that a civil com- pact founded upon a presumed right of religions dissent was possible. They thought there would be so much friction at every point, and such universal fanatieism abroad, that society would soon degenerate into crime, anarchy and final demoralization. It remained for us in happy America to demonstrate this great right and doctrine by two centuries of actual experience; it is now so strong in public esti- mation that the very "gates of hell shall ne'er pre- vail against it." It cannot, therefore, be denied that our average social, political and religious institutions have been mainly derived from what we hold as fundamental Bible truths. Our denominations are distinguished by slight differences in belief and external conduct, chiefly growing out of their differ- ent expositions of divine revelation. As Christian theology, however, consists in harmonizing what the Bible teaches, so our current civilization and morals may be regarded as the natural outcome of such composite religion as was established by the people themselves. The symbolic dogma of our country is that religion is strictly a matter between each adult individual and his Maker, that his pre- servation and welfare in the future life are freely and fully committed to his own individual care and custody, just as the preservation of his temporal being is left to his natural instinct and watch- fulness. Of course, the right of parents to guide and instruct their immature children is but a sequence to the doctrine just stated. also. This dearly-bought franchise, the glory of our age and nation, is the legitimate fruit of the great Reformation of the sixteenth century. In that era the Sacred Scriptures were dragged forth from cloisters, translated into the common tongue and sent forth as "The Word of God," to be thenecforth held as the sole, authoritative expositor of divine truth and moral conduct. The Roman Catholic Church denied and still partially rejects the Protestant theory of the right of private judgment, affirming that Christ gave to St. Peter and his successors in that church the sole right of Biblical interpretation, and that the writings of "Christian Fathers" after the apostolic age are of nearly equal authority in matters of faith. Nothing is more patent in our early history than that most of our progenitors fled to a then wilderness shore for this grand idea,-the right to worship God according to the dictate of their con- sciences, the Sacred Scriptures being their model and symbol of faith and duty. For this they were willing to leave civilization behind them, face the wide ocean, a continent of savage men and more savage beasts in America ; nay, for this many of them were even ready at home to lay down their lives as a testimony. All denominations, then, conjoining to settle our now Montgomery County, with a few exceptions, perhaps (however they disagreed in other things), hehl as the most sacred dogma the individual right of dissent or private judgment, only claiming to be bound in matters of religion by the dictates of conscience as determined by the divine Word. This was especially true of the Baptist and non-resistant sects, who, for The central doctrine of Luther's theology was justification by or through faith alone. That prop- osition established as divine swept away from religion (except in elementary morals) all right of civil interference with mattters of religious belief. Free religion, however, on the contrary, accepts the constant tendency to schisms and seets as necessary evils attending a greater good. Still, some of the pro- foundest thinkers of modern times regard these even as emerging naturally from the Providential drift, and that all past religions have flowed toward a proximate object-the better understanding of the divine mind. The following passage from a lecture of Dean Stanley on the significance of Islamism is such precious boon, were willing to encounter pos- sible dissent and schism for all time to come. Now, as E pluribus Unum-many in one-expresses our national character, so does this common ground of unity combine us of Pennsylvania in religious mat- ters, as also in the civil compact. The lead in raising this great bulwark against religious bigotry and intolerance must be awarded to Friends, of course, and, second, to the non-resistant German or Baptist sects. Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Re- formed and nearly all denominations alike, however, agree that the divine Word is the only authoritative standard of religious belief, and that no man, church or government has any right to enforce religious con- ! worthy of quotation in this connection ; he says : formity by aid of the civil arm, or lay disabilities upon any one who believes in God and a state of future rewards and punishments. "Mohammedanism should be regarded as an eccentric form of Eastern Christianity, for Islamism-resignation to the will of God-and image-breaking constituted The only seeming exception to this great rule and those zealots' grand mission to the world ; " he adds,

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

" the iconoclasm of Mahomet far exceeded that of classify our religious denominations of Montgomery either Leo the Isaurian or John Knox. Islamism was, County. in fact, the extreme Protestantism or Puritanism of the East."

Thus sects or denominations have their mission, al we shall proceed to show even in the progress of this short paper. All our various churches have undoubt- edly learned one from another, each having a special " testimony " of its own, and there is more true Christian charity and unity abroad amongst the people now and less denominational jealousy than at any period of our history. This should inspire the hearty thanksgiving of all to the Beneficent Power above, which has thus kept us at peace within our borders. Thus it has come to pass, also, that the word " sect " or " sectary " has ceased to be amongst us, as of old, a word of reproach.

As before stated, for nearly a century after the settlement of our county began, emigrants of all nationalities were religious refugees or pilgrims, seeking the right of free worship for themselves and posterity. Thus we perceive the sterling texture of our primitive population. It is only necessary to imagine how different our condition would have been to-day if early emigrants had been identical in char- acter with those who seek our shores from the same countries at present. A short review of the state of society in Europe at the Reformation era will better enable us to understand the progress we have made since that period.

At the commencement of the fifteenth century the Church of Rome, by the confession of learned and pious men of her own communion, contained many hoary abuses, the accumulations of time ; both it and most civil governments ruled by alleged " divine right," few daring to question the justice or tenure of either. Civil power had been first seized by brute force, and transmitted afterwards by legal descent ; hy like inheritance, " the Church" claimed its right from St. Peter. Nothing was held by the individual as an inheritance direct from his Maker, because the church and the state absorbed all power to them- selves. Efforts at reform in church matters at first sprang from the civil power of different nations, but the work only proceeded by the lopping off a few Papal customs, and so far modifying church creeds as to slightly simplify forms of worship. These did not satisfy thousands of zealous believers, who now had the sacred Word in their own hands in the native tongue, and would not thenceforth consent that gov- erninent should define and prescribe the form and modicum of true religion. Hence Europe was full of dissent and unrest, and the wildest theories and doc- trines obtained with some of the people. Religious toleration, also, was then little understood or practiced by anybody. It was left for the non-resistant sects, whose grand idea was "suffering for Christ's sake," to bring this doctrine before the world and establish it forever. It will be proper here to contrast and

They divide themselves into non-resistants, as Friends, Mennonists, Schwenkfelders and German Baptists, or Dunkers ; " Evangelicals," such a> Epis- copalians,. Presbyteriaus, Lutherans, Reformed, Methodists and Baptists ; Prelatists, embracing Epis- copalians, Catholics and, in a qualified degree, Methodists, Mennonists, German and African Method- ists ; Synodists, as Lutherans, Reformed, Presby- terians, and to some extent, Friends, for the last refer matters of truth and order from lower to higher " Meetings" of the body, by appeal or reference. Baptists, being Congregationalists, are in church gov- ernment a pure democracy, their Associations exer- vising only advisory functions. They gain in free- dom, however, what they lose in unity. Methodists, Mennonites and Dunkers, having no clergy higher in rank than bishops, cannot be regarded as diocesan episcopal, in a strict sense, at all. The Synodists are strictly republican in government, the ruling power residing in clerical and lay representatives of the churches, in about equal proportions, convening at stated times and in assemblies having appellate juris- diction.

The different denominations must be treated of in historical order as to their settlement in the county. The first that claims attention is the Society of Friends, usually called " Quakers." These people for the most part came with the proprietary, William Penn, and very soon several " Meetings " were established in the eastern borders of our county, they at first forming the bulk of the population in all the southeastern townships, extending north and westward as far as Gwynedd. In the colonial period there were seven or eight houses of worship of the society within our limits, and now, after the lapse of two centuries, they have not increased beyond the number of a dozen, and these time-honored places are rarely crowded as of old. As their predominating tenets were "the quiet guidings of the divine Spirit," a patient testi- mony against worldly living and arbitrary authority (except as they modify the views and lives of the people of other denominations), they have come to exert less influence in modern than in early times. Through their patient "sufferings," kind precepts and example, however, they have brought Calvinistic and other sects to imhibe, to a great extent, their benevolent and peace principles, as also their quiet defense of the rights of conscience. Though they make few converts now from the outside world, they are wielding no less power in the body politic through otliers.

Friends and Schwenkfelders are distinguished from all other Christian denominations by their non-use of the sacraments, in their testimony against war, oaths, a paid ministry and the pride of life generally. They use also great plainness of speech and attire, testify- I ing against ostentatious mourning for the dead, law-

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suits, slavery, intemperance, worldly sports of every kind, settle their own disputes and maintain their own poor. They believe that all patient seekers after divine truth are led into the right way by the light of the divine Spirit within ; but they place this super- natural guidance above the written Word, and thus open a wide door for individual dissent. Such being their views of truth, Friends wisely formulate no creed, not even accepting the Bible, as some German non-resistant sects do, as a sufficient confession of faith. In common with the societies last-named, they hold that scholastic learning is not necessary to qualify ministers to preach the gospel, and stand alone amongst the sects by including their children as members by inheritance. We shall have more to say of them under the head of " Schisms."

Almost contemporaneons with Friends came the disciples of Menno Simon, usually called Mennonists.1 Ile was a native of Friesland, a principality of Hol- land, and was contemporary with Luther. Penn had made the acquaintance of these people in their native country, and after the founding of his colony invited them to emigrate to Pennsylvania, which some of them did so early as 1683, and many others in the early years of the last century. In faith they are mainly evangelical, as shown by a confession instituted at Dort, 1632. Though they hold peculiar views about the "Persons" of the Trinity, still they are Trini- tarians. They baptize adults only, by pouring, and partake of the Lord's Supper ; originally observed the washing of feet, and only allow marriages "in the Lord," or between church members. Their testimony against war, oaths, litigation, and participation in the affairs of civil government and against civil constraint in matters of religion, has been ever maintained from the first. In industry, frugality, plainness of attire and speech, they are in exact accord with Friends. Mennonists settled in our county rather compactly over the central townships, and had a num- ber of churches erected at an early day. Gordon's " Gazetteer" for 1832 sets down their houses of worship at five, which has been increased, as shown by the census of 1870, to ten, and now probably exceeds that number by two or three. They have been sev- eral times rent by schisms, which will be treated of elsewhere under that head.

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History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 86

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1534

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534