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I 
 
 ^^^Utr^ ^^K^/^^'--^*^ 
 
 Centennial Sermon, 
 
 pki giAltit •! IPrwi Utwiifit 
 
 nSLn B7 BEQVSST. 
 
 Sermon, preached before Staff Officers 45th Battalion, and Offi- 
 cers and Men of No. i Company, Volunteers, in St. John's 
 Church, Bowmanville, on Sunday, 13th July, 
 1884, by the Re«tor, th« 
 
 >^^*PvEV. A. Macnab, D. D., 
 
 Second Revised Edition. 
 
 BOWMANVILLE : 
 
 MKWg BTBAM rRtlTr, COR KtMO AMD MILVKR STRBBTH, 
 MDOOCLXYXIV. 
 
/^«V 
 
 
 ii« M ii ^ 
 
 ■^i 
 
 CENTENNIAL SERMON. 
 
 THERE is perhaps no civilized nation, or savage tribe, in which ven* 
 eration is not felt for a remote ancestry. With what strange pleasure 
 does the Scottish mountaineer listen " through the livelong night," to the 
 wild notes of the border minitrel ! With what transport do the iHld men 
 of America recount in the rude war song, the valour and sufTerings of 
 their forefathers ; and how does it charm away sleep from the little prat- 
 tler by our fireside, to hear the simplest tales of other times ! 
 
 There is somewhere a chord in our " harp of a thousanc' strings," 
 which is mysteriously touched by every whisper that steals upon us from 
 regions and objects over which a remote period has cast a solemn and 
 deepening shade. i 
 
 There can be no doubt, that this deep and heart-stirring interest in 
 the antiquities of the nation or community to which men belong, and 
 this innate reverence for their ancestors, may be carried to an extreme. 
 Extravagant panegyric never fails to detract, even from a well-earned . 
 reputation — and when men ascribe tha glory to their fathers, which be- 
 longs only to the Sovereign of the universe, such impiety deserves the 
 severest reprehension. 
 
 i But something more than mere cold and casual allusions, is certain- 
 ly due to the memory of those, from whom, under God, a happy poster- 
 ity have received all their civil and religious blessings. And if ever the 
 founders of a community were entitled to live in the grateful recollection 
 of all generations, this honor belongs pre-eminently to the first settlers of 
 tJpper Canada. Surely the United Empire Loyalists, who were its fathers, 
 and to whom their descendants are indebted for richer blessings than any 
 other people ever enjoyed, ought " to be had in everlasting remem- 
 brance." For, it is not too much to say that, the whole world may 
 IMfely be challenged to produce a single example of sound wisdom, high 
 minded patriotism, and marvellous forecast of the future, in iht founders 
 of any ancient^ or modern community, which can for a moment be com- 
 pared with the instance which Western Canada has furnished. But, in 
 celebrating their virtues let us not forget who it was that endowed them 
 with such uncommon powers, mental, moral and physical. ** We have 
 heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us what work Thou 
 didst in their days, m tl^e times of old." Had this passage been designed 
 by the sacred writer, for our recent celebrations of the Centennial of 
 of the Province of Ontario, it could not have been more appropriate ; 
 «nd wtf e our fathers now permitted to appear, and write their own 
 memorial in the skies, it would most certainly begin and end with, "Not 
 unto us, O God, not unto us, but to Thy name give glory." And it ii a 
 
 ';'rD,6C 
 
CENTENNIAL SERMON.) 
 
 itc; 
 
 own 
 
 fNot 
 
 ii a 
 
 
 i 
 
 most gratifying fact to recordt that throughout the joyful solemnities of 
 the last few weeks our people have steadily kept their eye upon the 
 hand of God, scarcely less visible in the first settlement and subsequent 
 prosperity of Upper Canada, than it had been, in behalf of His ancient 
 people to whom reference is made in our text. In the Psalm, whence 
 It is taken, the Church is taught to own with thankfulness, to the glory of 
 God, the great things He had done for Israel's fathers. 
 
 And to-day, the Church — which "is a witness and a keeper of Holy 
 Writ," teaches us that every age owes to posterity, to keep an account of 
 God's works of wonder, and to transmit the knowledge of them to the 
 next generation. Of this we have in the Scripture a sure word of history, 
 as sure as the word of prophecy. " One generation " says David, " s'^ **!! 
 praise thy works to another, and shall declare Thy mighty acts." " The 
 fathers to the children,^' says good king Hezekiah, " shall make known 
 Thy truth." The iess praise this allows »x, the more comfort it admin- 
 isters, that we may see all our successes and trnlargements, coming from 
 the favour of God, and the light of His countenance. This principle 
 was solemnly maintained m the recent Centennial celebration at Adol- 
 phustown, where, in laying the corner stone of a memorial church tiiere, 
 His Honour, Lieutenant Governor Robinson, a descendant '^f a distin- 
 guished U. E. Loyalist family, said " we lay this stone of foundation to 
 the honour and glory ot God, and in memory of the United F^mpire 
 Loyalists, who, a hundred years ago, laid the corner stone of our Province 
 in peace and righteousness, and in loyalty to the British crown and 
 empire." 
 
 And a scene of touching sublimity was witnessed at the Pavilion.Tu- 
 ronto, on centennary day, when, in the presence of an immense con\ 
 course, the Lord Bishop ot Niagara, Dr. Fuller, a native Canadian, 
 accorded their public recognition of divine Providence in the early settle- 
 ment and subsequent prosperity of Upper Canada, and closed the festiv- 
 ities of that grand occasion by pronouncing the Apostolic benediction. 
 What added much to the impressiveness of the scene was the considera- 
 tion that from his lordship's great age and feeble health it was probably 
 one of the very last acts of his official life. r.iuii\ \ > rj^,t\<~ 
 
 Another simitar Centennial celebration is shortly to take place on 
 the old historic plains at Niagara 
 
 Ontario haj a noble parentage, the remembrance of which its inhabi- 
 tants may well cherish with respect, affection and pride. To do full 
 justice to the fathers of Upper Canada, would require the collecting, ar- 
 ranging, and digesting materials tor several volumes. It must be obvious, 
 upon a moment's reflection, that the limits of a single discourse will 
 barely admit of a very general and rapid outline. The utmost to which 
 I can aspire on this occasion, is to exhibit a brief and intelligible sketch 
 of the ordering and protection of a wise and mysterious Providence in 
 the sacrifices, sufferings, penis, and deliverances of our Upper Canadiaxi 
 fathers — together with a few of the prominent features of their character. 
 
■ 
 
 CENTENNIAL SERMON. 
 
 and Hi« bapp7 rciult of the whole in the uncxunpled well-being of thre« 
 genenitionf. 
 
 In briefly tracing the chain of events which led to the fint fettle- 
 arnt — a hundred yean ago, of Western Canada, I ihall begin witii the 
 cauaet that operated to bring to our ahcrea about ten thousand American 
 loyalists. The *' United Empire Loyalist " was one who advocated, or 
 wished to have maintained, the unity of the British empire, who felt as 
 m*ich a Briton in the colony of America, as if he were in old England. 
 Ireland, or Scotland; who desired to perpetuate British monarchical 
 rule in America ; not blindly believing that no impcriections could exist 
 in such rule, but desiring to seek reform not in a rebellious but oonaer* 
 vative spirit. This class became, as the tide of rebellion in the 13 re- 
 volted colonies — now the U. States — gained strength and violence, 
 exceedingly abnoxious to those who had arrayed themselves against 
 their king and Parliament Dr. CanniflT, the admirable historian of the 
 early settlement of the Bay of Quinte, by the U. £. loyalists, himself 
 one of their most enthusiastic descendants, divides them into three 
 classes, viz. : — 
 
 I. Those who were forced to leave the revolted provinces during 
 the contest, many of whom took part in the war. 
 
 3. Those who were driven away after the war, because they were 
 known or suspected to have sympathy with the loyalist party. 
 
 3. Those who would not remain in the Republic who voluntarily 
 forsook the land of their birth or adoption and removed to a country 
 which acknowledged the sovereignty of the king of England. 
 
 The majority ot those who settled Upper Canada, were natives of 
 the old British Provinces of New York, Pensyivania and the New Eng- 
 land States, but there came, as well, many a true son of England, 
 Ireland, and Scotland, as also a sprinkling of Huguenots and Gennans. 
 This noble class preferred to enter a wilderness and hew out for them- 
 selves and their childi^n, a new h<m)e under the good *'old flag which 
 for a thousand years has braved the battle and the breeze." 
 
 From the accumulated testimony of those who have supplied sttte- 
 ments of family history, it could be easily shown how cruel were the per- 
 secutions raised against them, how relentless the spirit of reven^efulness. 
 During the rebellion the Loyalists having been stripped of their rights and 
 property, driven from their homes, killed at pleasure, at the close of the 
 war were exiled from all right of residence and citizenship, their enemies 
 having taken possession of their comfonahle homes and valuable estates, 
 without either remorse or compensation. All this, however, it may be 
 said very properly should in a sense be forgotten — buried in the past A 
 course this, which would seem to be indicated by the great Ruler—- the 
 sovereign disposer of all events — and it is one that comnMnds itself to 
 the magnanimity of 'all true Christum Patriots. And as a matter of fiic^ 
 I am happy to know, as an old Canadian, that the anunositim which 
 long existed between the Americans and Canadians, are gradually sub- 
 

('- 
 
 CENTENNIAL SERMON. 
 
 siding, and are being gradually superseded by feelings of mutual respect 
 and friendship, strengthened by extensive commercial and social rela- 
 tions. 
 
 But, while the statesman and politician of the present day,roay with 
 advantage study the lesson suggested by the events of those times, let it 
 be our humble occupation to remind you of the sufferings, the hardships, 
 incident to the pioneer life, and recount the motives that actuated the 
 self-denying heroism of those who laid the comer stone of this great 
 Province of Ontario. 
 
 The obstacles, privations, and miseries the U. E. Loyalists had to 
 encounter may be readily imagined in coming to a country where the 
 primeval forest covered the earth, and where the only path was the river 
 or the lake. Upper Canada was then unknown, or known only as a re- 
 gion of dense wilderness and swamps, of venemous reptiles and beasts 
 of prey, the hunting grounds and encampments of numerous Indian 
 tribes, intense cold ot winter, and with no other redeeming natural 
 feature except abundance of game and fish. 
 
 Within my own recollection, all this part of the Province, known 
 formerly as the Newcastle District, now the counti^i of Northumberland 
 and Durham — so beautiful and wealthy — was almost an unbroken forest 
 A little more than sixty years ago, in passmg through this neighborhood 
 on my way to York, there were to be seen only a few houses certainly 
 not more than half a dozen, where now is situated the picturesque town 
 we inhabit. And of by far the greater portion of this remarkable trans- 
 formation in these parts, I have myself been an eyewitness, having been 
 Rector of the parish of Darlington for the last two and thirty years. 
 
 But our Canadian fathers were willing to live anywhere, endure any 
 toil, undergo any privations, so long as they were in British Dominions, 
 and often declared that their bones should lie on the king's soil. They 
 settled chiefly in Lower Canada, on the nonhern banks of the St 
 Lawrence, between Montreal and Kingston, on the Bay of Quinte, 
 Prince Edward, the frontieris of the Niagra District, and the northern 
 shore of Lake Erie. Their journeyings thither were of untold hardship, 
 privation and exposure, and occupied in many instances from two to 
 three months. To gain the north shore of the St. Lawrence and Lake 
 Ontario especially, was a task of no ordinary nature, and their progress 
 towards those points, was as it were, inch by inch, attended by hard 
 and venturesome labour. Supplied with limited comforts, often only the 
 actual necessaries of life, they advanced slowly by day along dangerous 
 paths and at night rested under the open canopy of heaven. They 
 were not unfrequently reduced to the verge of starvation. This was 
 specially the case the second year after their settlement of the Bay of 
 Quinte country. The government at Quebec was to provide food for 
 two years as it could not be expected that men could go into the woods 
 with their families and clear up and raise enough for their support, the 
 first or even second year. The second year's government supply, through 
 
 
 •>4 
 
CENTENNIAL SERMON. 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 lome bad management, was frozen up in the lower part of tiM $k. Law- 
 rence, and in consequence the people were reduced to a sute of famme. 
 One of the finest farms that can now he seen at the Bay of Quinte, was 
 offered, it is said for a half hundred of flour, and refused. A very respec- 
 table old lady — whose offspring are now luxuriating in comfort above 
 the middle walks of life, it is related, was wont in those days to wander 
 away early in the spring to the woods and gather and eat the buds of the 
 basswood, and then bring an aprou or basketful home to the children. 
 Glad were they to pluck the rye and barley heads, as soon as the kernel 
 had formed, for food ; and not many miles from the town of Picton, a 
 beefs bone passed from house to house, and was boiled again and again 
 tn order to extract some nutriment. It seems incredulous, but it is de- 
 clared to be no fiction. 
 
 Those early settlers were indeed trained for years in the school of 
 adversity, but overcoming by degrees every obstacle in the way ot their 
 advancement, the wilderness, by their labour, energy and enterprise, 
 soon blossomed into a goodly fruitful land. 
 
 From first to last, in daring and fortitude, our U. E. Loyalist 
 fathers were men ot no ordinary stamp, and did not come behind the 
 moH renowned adventurers of antiquif}'. Some of them were endowed 
 with great natural abilities and had received a good e(*ucation and the 
 greater part of them were men of sound church principles and ardent 
 piety. In the learned professions even, there were to be found a few 
 well read men, some of whom distinguished themselves in the legislature 
 of the Province. When these, our fathers, came, in the course of years 
 to legislate for their loved country, they brought a ripe experience to the 
 task of providing for its various necessities. 
 
 To supply the want of literature and the fine arts, we have their laws 
 and institutions which bear the stamp of transcendant wisdom and fore- 
 sight. We need but instance two of their Legislative enactments. In 
 the earliest Parliament of Upper Canada an Act was passed to prevent 
 the further introduction of slaves, and to limit the time of contract for 
 servitude within the Province, and this was done seventy years before 
 slavery was abolished in the United States, where it is known to be their 
 boast that "all men are born free and equal." Thus our U. E. Loyalist 
 legislators from the first, decreed that Canadian "Britons never shall be 
 slaves.'* And their freedom to be rational, should, they determined, be 
 based on public intelligence under a system of general and sound edu- 
 cation. Hence provision was made in those early days, by the munifi- 
 cence of our fathers, for the founding of Grammar Schools and Colleges 
 throughout the province. The promotion of sound learning in public 
 Seminaries and of general education among the people, were objects 
 which lay very near their hearts. Whoever may think it worth his while 
 to look into the laws of Upper Canada, will find the broad basis of our, 
 present system of Education carefully laid by our wise and provident 
 
CENTENNIAL SERMON. 
 
 • • ■• • f*« < 
 
 laws 
 fore- 
 In 
 event 
 for 
 efore 
 their 
 iralist 
 be 
 ,be 
 edu- 
 nifi- 
 [eges 
 iblic 
 lects, 
 Ihile 
 our 
 lent 
 
 fathers. We have built upoii the foundation which they had laid. In 
 regard to that point, I know whereof I affirm, having been for tome 
 yean officially at the head of one of our I' niversities, and having alio, 
 in that period, administered, as chief Superintendent of Education, the 
 Common School Act of 1844. 
 
 Are we not, therelore, primarily indebted to their wise and liberal 
 policy for the vast number of our public and High Schools, as well as 
 those Institutions for higher Education, which are an honor to the Do- 
 roinioD, even to the Empire at large ? 
 
 Nor were our U. E. Loyalist fathers other than liberal patrons and 
 promoters of the great agricultural and other material interests of Western 
 Canada. Is it then too much to say that the thousand smiling villages, 
 large and flourishing towns and cities, and innumerable well-cultivated 
 farms within our borders, with the untold millions of acres of fertile terri- 
 tory in our magnificent North-West, fast filling up with the right kind of 
 immigration, all pointing to a glorious destiny in our future, are but the 
 legitimate results of the integrity, and devotion to a principle which they 
 held sacred, of the fathers of Upper Canada, a hundred years ago? 
 
 And now, In finishing this hasty and imperfect sketch of the worthies 
 of Upper Canada in her first age, while I repeat and emphasize the fact 
 that they were the steady friends, the active promoters, and the fearless 
 champions of Christian Loyilty, I must not fail to add, that, in truth, the 
 patriots and heroes of later times and their associates — the Lbyal Militia 
 and Volunteers of Ontario, who have been the chief means under God, 
 at different periods of our Colonial history, of preserving this country to 
 Great Bfitain, have faithfully followed up and ^nished what their gallant 
 sires had iftore than begun. While therefore, we commemorate the he- 
 roism and perils of the men of 1784, we can never forget our indebted- 
 ness to the defenders of our frontier, of a thousand miles, in the war of 
 1812, who with the aid of but a few regiments of regular soldiers, so em- 
 inently resisted the whole military power of an adjoining nation — nor 
 our obligations to those loyal militia and volunteers who put down the 
 rebellion of 1837, as well a0 to those brave young men of the "Queen's 
 Own," who, at the immense risk of the sacrifice of life, enthusiastically 
 hastened, at the sudden call of duty, to repel the infamous Feiiian raid- 
 ers from our soil at Ridgeway. 
 
 Hence, while the merits of our militia and volunteer force have al- 
 ways been duly appreciated by our own people, it is no marvel that they 
 have commanded the admiration of the highest Military Authorities in 
 England. 
 
 Among other things, the congratulations received by our Canadian 
 teams at Wimbledon, from those distinguished personages, amply prove 
 the high estimation in which they are held in the mother country. I 
 have personally listened to those commendations, and as a Canadian 
 felt proud of them, as I had felt years before, when, at a Levy at the 
 Horse Guards, His Royal Highness, The Duke of Cambridge,Command- 
 
8 
 
 CENTENNIAL SERMON, 
 
 •r-in-Chld| axprcMed hi« aduinition of the pluck oi our men al the 
 kidgeway nml^r — which had juat then occuned— at the aame time deair- 
 ing me to aaanne mv Canadian fello'^ lubjccti on my leturn home, of the 
 unabated interest felt bv the Royal Family and Imperial Military Au- 
 thorities, in all our endeavours to improve this branch of the Mititia 
 service for the defence of the Dominion ; and also that Canada might 
 depend upon being amply supported in any future necessity by the 
 Military aiid Naval Forces of the Empire. Mention is made of these 
 facts for the encoungement of young Canadian volunteers, and, with 
 the same object, perhaps I nuy be permitted to add, that any special 
 mariu of Royal or Imperial favour, of which in years gone by I have 
 been the fortunate recipient, have been chiefly owing to the fact that I 
 am a native Canadian and the grandson of one of " the U. E. Loyalist 
 fathers of Upper Canada." 
 
 I may say, finally, that the same spirit that characterized the loyal- 
 isti of 1784, the militxa and volunteers of 181 3, and those of 1837 and 
 1866, breathes in their descendants now, who, almost to a man, I am 
 perfectly satisfied, are at this hour in heart and soul, " United Empire 
 Loyalists," and who in the future, as in the past, will resist to the death 
 all efforts, whether from intestine or foreign foes, to dismember the 
 glorious empire of Her Gracious Majesty, our Noble Queen. 
 
 A few unscrupulous and self-seeki|ig men undoubtedly there are, as 
 in all other countries, who wish for change, but that the heart of the Do- 
 minion of Canada in that regard, is politically sound to the very core, is, 
 in my judgment, a moral certainty. 
 
 In conclusion, let me remmd you, desr brethren, ol the great and 
 solemn fact, that'one generation |>asseth away to make room for another. 
 "The fathers^ where are they ?" We shall soon follow M«m, and our chiJ- 
 drm will come and lie down c)uietiy by our side. When another hundred 
 years shall have passed away not one who hears me to day will be alive 
 to commemorate the second Centennial of the laif^diog of the U. E. 
 Loyalists. But the same sun wiil sfiine, the same valleys will smile and 
 ung, the same church will live, and the same God and Saviour will 
 reign. May ve cot hope, also, that a glorious destiny awaits unborn 
 generaticms, who will Jook back with thrilling intemt to the U. !£. Loy- 
 alists as thdr fathers t And then who can describe with what rapture 
 they shall, on the shores of two oceans,and throughout all the vast inter- 
 lining regions, jnite in one grand double chorus, m our famous old 
 j^aiional Anthem, and in that divinely inspired song, ^* Alleluia, for the 
 Lord God omnipotent reigneth !" 
 
 And now, to God the Father, God the Son, God the Holv Ghost, be 
 itcribed, as is moat justly due, aU praise asMl glory. Might, Majesty uid 
 Pominion, henceforth and for evermore I Amen. 
 
f