m% 9 £? v7sa3AINa-3V^' w^lL!BRARY6>/r^ ^ ^'^ i -■'•-^•'"^^ .^-.-t;i^-'^ .# .-..^ff^^ ^^OJIlVDiO^ ^OFCAIIFO/?;)!^ \ § 25 2: \i.^^ W^n^ ^10SANCEI% %a3AINn-3WV^ <^lOSANCEia^ 'c/Aavaaiiix'^" w -'oxunmi'i'^ ''■mmiQV<^' ^mmmiw yoxmmi^ mwm/A CAIIFO;?^ ^OFCAltF0%^ ^^lUBRARYOc \^myi^ ^ojiTVDjo-^ ^.oFCALIFOff^ ^OFCAllFOff^ ^^Ayv«gni^ ^^Aaviian-1^ ^LOSANCEl% o ^^^^ ^^ ^•TilJDNYSOl^ %WAiNnmv' '^SANCFlfT* 1 :^ ^lUBRARYQ^ ^iJOJIlVD ^OFCAUFOR^ ^OFCAllFOff,)!^ CO o ^jnvjjo't^ ut find joy in so doing, and make its object feel that neither father nor mother, son nor daughter, is so dear ; a love so pure, so strong, that only love for God can Ije purer or stronger. Feeling this love, dwelling in it as in an atmos- phere of love, and able to characterize such a heart only by saying it is all love, we come to understand something of Divine love — but only as, from a single drop, we understand tlie ocean whence tlie drop comes. Then we learn something of Divine love from its effects, its production of love like itself. As all tlie waters of tlie continents in dew, rain, snow, in springs, rivers, and lakes, come from the ocean, raised by the sun and borne in clouds on wings of winds, so all true love and the joys thence arising come from the great ocean — God — through our Sun of Righteousness. Who measure the good thus l)rouglit to us ? Who number the streams so full, filling myriads with holy joy, causing exulting anthems to burst forth from happy liearts ? What the fountain compared witli wliich all this is but a drop ? To heighten our conceptions of tliis work of love, we re- member in what kind of liearts this is done. A mother's love for the true and loving child is wonderful. But the love that holds out, grows strong, finds ways of expression towards the child wayward and wicked ; the love that can hold on to him, reach him in his farthest wanderings, find his heart in his worst degradation, and in holiest communings bear him up and hold him up before the throne, of grace, and there wrestle in pleadings more than if for life ; the love that, through God, can soften and save, that can awaken love like itself — 0, that is a greater love. 0, the love of a good mother ! Thank God for the priceless treasure ! So the conjugal love for the true and noble, responding to its every sign and token, is great. But the love that lives, 16 moves, and has its being for one who has put off his human- ity ond has put on the ferocity of a brute ; the love that can live, grow strong, turn God-like in expression, win, save such an one, bring him back to a better love than his first — this is most wonderful. 0, the wealth of affection in such a heart ! so like Christ's love that it could go to the cross for its object ! But the love of God in Christ, doing the wisest, kindest, best possible things for beings whose guilt and degradation no language can express ; love making the greatest sacrifices, most affecting demonstrations of itself for enemies ; Love In- carnate moving among the guilty in all the winning forms of goodness ; stooping down to touch bosoms warmed by no love in return, pressing down to the lowest, touching hearts the hardest, opening the gates of life before the worst ; love that can reach cold, dark, guilty spirits, make them all pure, glow- ing, God-like in love ; the love that can do this we compre- hend only as we comprehend God. Could we now gather up the trophies of this victorious love, have in one view the whole work of Love Licarnate in souls purified, enter the inner life and learn the joys unutterable in fellowship with the God of love, foresee the growth — the future greatness — of souls in love, and still with a power of growth above all present power of conception, then might we have some worthy view of the work of Him who is Love. We sometimes feel the poAver of this Divine love, are warmed, lifted, filled with it. But we cannot express it. Many others have felt tbe same. 0, how many here in con- nection with this church during the century past, have rejoiced in more than could be expressed ! They have comprehended something of the breadth and length, depth and height of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge ; and so they came to be filled with all the fulness of Him who is Love. This — all this — here, as the fruit of that love. But how much more there, in the presence of Love, where all are changed into the same image ! Some very dear to us, beloved pastors, deacons, and members of this church, and of others, are in that home of love — some long there ! How much they know of Him who is Love ! 17 There is a great multitude there. Many more are to be gathered in. We, many of iis, enjoy foretastes, expect soon to be filled full with that love. 0, that all might ! Note this also : that God is revealed not only in what His love does, but in what it is fitted to do. Made to love and be loved of God, every heart should be filled with His love. He would have a great tide of love flow through every bosom. He would have every heart-beat a throbbing of pure love. So the God of love would have it. What if here, for a century, the love of God had wrought out all that it is fitted to do in every heart and life ? What blessed results in this old church and town ! Such a state — blessed beyond our present conceptions — redeeming love will yet produce. Bad as the world is, cold in s})iritual death, Divine love, as the breath of life, shall be breathed over this great vale of deatli. As the Prophet stretched himself upon the widow's son, hands upon hands, face to face, till by his warmth and life he restored the child to his mother ; so God, in Christ, comes to us with all the warmth and life of Infinite Love Incarnate, to come into contact with our race, to impart His life to dead souls. The Finlanders have a beautiful legend to show the power of love. It states that a mother having lost her only son, sought him with unwearied diligence, with long and patient toil. At last she found his remains, torn into a thousand pieces, at the bottom of the river of death. Eagerly gather- ing the scattered fragments of her child, she folded them to her bosom, sang to them, and rocked them, till, such was the warmth and power of her love, it restored her boy to form and life. Thus our Father in heaven loves and seeks us 9,11. We, spiritually dead, should remain forever in hoi)eless ruin but for this love, holier than a mother's, which seeks us, lifts us to the Divine bosom, sings to us of Bethlehem, Gethsemane, and Calvary ; and so heals our wounds, restores to our souls the lost life of love, and fills with eternal joy. Amazing love! God Incarnate, that He might search us out, be bruised for our iniquities, torn to pieces for us, that in dying 18 He might by the wonderful power of His love, reach our dead souls and restore us to life immortal ! Dear friends, this love it is that comes to us now, seeks us, speaks to us, tries to save us — you, me, all. 0, will not all your hearts open to this love, be made active by it ? find your heaven in it ? Thus only by the heart can we come to know that " God is love." This vieiv of God should correct some wrong impressions re- specting his JProvidences. They look dark sometimes, seem unkind. In spite of His goodness suspicions exist that back of all is something very different from love. There is enough in God's treatment of sinners to disturb their fears. There is what seems to neu- tralize the tokens of benevolence. How can the sinner, con- scious that he is against God, rid himself of the idea that God is against him ? Looking through the medium of a troubled conscience, how can he see the God of love in any thing ? But as we may now look into the face of Immanuel, are we obliged to look at God through guilt and fear ? must we always find dark powers in the trials of life ? To be rid of all such feelings we must find God, not only as kind, lovely, but as Love itself, and as love working all His works. Above, beyond all works of power, God has had His eye on the Cross to be set up for us. He with such power. He with such wisdom. He with such goodness, did in the beginning purpose to come in person to show us that He made all — manages all, in love. What> ever long ages He took to fit up this world for moral beings, they were ages in which love was working for us. Hear the wonderful words: '■^ Froin before the foundation of the tvorld, He loved us.'" The love that from the foundation of the world, in the foundation of the world was working for us ; the love that endured the cross for us, that now reigns and intercedes for us ; that same love appoints our discipline — every trial, every cross — in all aiming to bring us to the highest possible human experience of God, as love, in the heart. With this revelation, this experience of God, the soul. 19 even in darkest hours, moves in the clear light of Divine love ; amid greatest troubles rests in sweet peace on the calm ocean of Infinite Love. See nrinciple, abstraction, im- personality ; sometliing distant, cold, dead — such are the gods of reason, of philosophy. Or the universe robbed of God and then called God — empty, cold, soulless Pantheism — leaving the soul of man empty, cold, dead ! In Christian as in heathen lands, to how many is the God of love " unknown ! " To all unrenewed hearts He is the "unknown." Not till turned from all forms of idolatry, not till we find God in Christ Jesus, can we know the God of love. But alas ! how many find nothing in Christ to admire, nothing to trust, nothing to love. Dear friends, God in Christ comes to you, seeks you, longs to be recognized, loved. Open your hearts, let the Holy Spirit reveal our Lord Jesus to your hearts, that you may joyfully exclaim, " My Lord ! my God ! " 20 See How to regard the means used to hring us to Christ. They are not the arbitrary arrangements of one with no living interest in us. They are the expressions of love. In them the yearning heart of God is seeking our hearts. At this moment He draws near to you. Do all hearts open with a welcome ? The fable is that the Rocky lips of Memnon moved in music at the first touch of the morning beams. The story is that as Florence Nightingale performed her midnight ministrations in Crimean hospitals, the grateful lips of suffering soldiers kissed her shadow as it quietly passed over their pil- lows. The record is that in Jerusalem many, moved by the wonders of love wrought by the Apostles, brought their sick and laid them in beds in the streets, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by, might fall on some of them. And should not the shadow of Immanuel, falling on us, move our hearts to love and our lips to praise ? That shadow, in this service, passes over you, rests upon you now. Nay, not the shadow ; the Lord is here. God in Christ comes near, breathes out His love over us. At this moment the Lord Jesus reveals the great proof of His love — His Ci-oss. Behold it ! behold it ! At this moment God the Spirit, moving on our hearts, would breathe into them the breath of life. In ways numberless Love Infinite seeks all our hearts. O, yield to the power of Infinite Love, open your hearts to it, welcome it, be folded to its bosom, be warmed to life by it, find your bliss in it. Will you ? Or must the very God of love turn away from you ? The Lord of life banished from your heart ! Remember ! the same love that calls to life, tells of death. The same love that wept over Jerusalem, left it to its doom. The same love that will say, " come ye blessed," will say, " depart ye cursed." Which utterance, dear friends, shall we hear, " come," or <' depart?" Which? What do our hearts now say to God, " come," or " depart ? " If in love we say, come, come, be mine, come fill me, come reign in me, then shall we hear 21 the glad welcome, " come ye blessed ! " 0, the joy, the glory of tliat welcome ! But if any heart can say to the God of love, and persist in saying, " depart, depart from me," then, then, must you, poor soul, hear the same words — your own words — " depart ; depart from me ! " 22 REMARKS OF REV. DR. BODWELL AT THE SACRAMENT. After fitting allusion to tlic Scripture read, and the insti- tution of this supper by our blessed Lord, he continued sub- stantially'as follows : " I am most unwilling to disturl) the impression wliich was made on all our minds by the very beautiful and appropriate discourse of my dear brother and early friend, but in compli- ance with the request of your Pastor, I will give you, briefly, some of my recollections of former deacons of this church, who have long since gone to their rest. I see them still, as they moved with solemn step along the aisles of the old meet- inghouse, distributing the sacramental l)read and wine. Some of them were accustomed to sit always in the " deacons' pew," directly under and in front of the high pulpit. One of these was Dea. Simeon Moulton, of very dark hair and eyes, and pale, consumptive face, who impressed me as a quiet and a reverend -man. He died when I was still a child. Dea. Benjamin Philbrick sat by his side ; a man whose high conscientiousness and sweet Cln-istian simplicity, and strong attachment to the House of God, some of us well re- member. Though lie lived so far away, no summer heat nor winter cold could keep him from the Sabbath service, the monthly concert on the first Monday afternoon of each month, and the preparatory lecture. Hardly was his natural strength abated at ninety years of age. Certainly his intellect was clear, and his affection for this church, and his concern for its spiritual prosperity were strong to tlie last. 23 A worthy associate of these two good men, Moiilton and Philbrick, was Dea. Joseph Hanhorn. He was a man of rare endowments, of strong iniderstanding, Mith a love of BibHcal study, an easy command of words, an habitually devout and reverent sj)irit, and a voice of unusual depth and richness. His gift in prayer was marvellous. How often did I hear the remark made by strangers wlio listened to him, ' That man ought to have been a preacher.' One other man who ' used the office of deacon well ' in this church, and whom I love to remember, was the upright, generous, and fearless Moses Emery ; of warm sympathies and an unswerving prol)ity, ready to every good work. I seem to hear still his voice in the i»rayer-meeting, whose i>eculiar tone ex[)ressed so well the sincerity and earnestness of his spirit. Such wen- Ibc good men whose united terms of office cov- ered the entire j)eri()d from my earliest recollection to the linic when I left my pleasant home to enter college. The fra- grance of their good names abides with us still. How im- pressive was the scene to me, even as a child, when those men, with my beloved and honored father, ministered in this solemn sacramental service. Would that the mantle of Ihcii- deej) sincerity did more truly icsf upon »is all !" 24 REMARKS OF REV. MR. PERKINS AT THE SACRAMENT. After alluding to the sketches just given by Mr. Bodwell, " as pictures passed before us," he remarked that could we have all the scenes and characters of the century unrolled before us in one panoramic view, we should have, with what- ever sombre shades and even dark colors, also many illumin- ated scenes and characters shining with Divine brightness. The fact was then emphasized that the reason why this his- tory is not all dark, is to be found in the great truth consid- ered in the morning, that every bright scene and illuminated page in all this history of one hundred years, written or un- written, that every blessed influence and transformation, every comfort and hope ; that all the good that has brightened and gladdened personal histories among these liills and val- leys, had come from the one original fountain — the God of love through Jesus Christ. Reference was made to the fact that this church has been signally blessed in its ministers, having in each just the man for his time, and in having them all live among their people till death. Mention was made of " Father Bodwell " as the man of whom all his parishioners, for fifty years, said, " Blessed are the peace-makers ! " A hearty tribute was paid to his successor, Mr. Boutwell, with an account of his last Sabbath — how, as he was borne to the church in extreme fee- bleness, and during all the services, especially as he read from the 17th chapter of John, partook of the memorials of our Lord's death, and read the Hymn, " We speak of the realms of the blest ; " 25 he seemed to be filled with blessed anticipations and l)right visions of those realms, and to enter with deep meaning into the lines, " And shortly I also shall know And feel, what it is to be there." In illustration of the blessed work of the gospel in this church, one of its noble women was called to mind — the speaker's grandmother Sanborn — a woman whose large heart and generous sympathies were ever active in ministering to the needy, the sick, and suflcring ; a beloved member of this church for seventy-five years, the wife of " the beloved physi- cian," and to the end of her long life of ninety-six years, blest with an active mind and a cheerful spirit, which to the last, shed over this community most happy and blessed influences. Only a few years before her death, when telling how much she enjoyed reading the- gospel by John, she said, " I read twelve cha|)tcrs right off the other day." Allusion was made to her bearing at a time of great and sudden bereavement, by the drowning of her oldest son. Col. Christopher Sanborn. Speaking of that allliction many years afterwards, she said, with all the animation of youth, " Why, Frederic, the Son of Man was Vith me as I walked my room, in the great sorrow of my heart, as really and as distinctly as you are now." Blessed woman ! Clear and bright to the last! And when her speech and sigiii had failed, she expressed her joy in the fjoid by :in eager, upward ga/c, and by clapping her feeble hands, till she " entered in tiirough the gates into the city " of our God. What the value of the grace of Christ to her during her long life! What the measure of comfort and of joy to all who here have believed in the Lord and have gone or are on their way to the Better Land ! Mr. Perkins made brief but grateful mention of the great revival in 1816, when his mother was converted, and to that of I80I, when he bowed to the liord. The ages endless will reveal more and more of the blessed work of God here dur- ing the century now past. 4 26 To excite a thought of the value of what has come to the community through the church, the supposition was raised that all that the Gospel has put into the history of the town were taken out of it ; and it was maintained that but for the church of Christ, the history of the town — if history it could have had — would have been the history of men roaming over these hills in the wildness of barbarism, and these acres of earth now fertile would have remained wild and worthless. An appeal was made to Christians to make the future of the church better than the past, and all were called upon to con- sider the value of the church of God to a community, and to understand their place and duty in regard to it. 27 HISTORICAL ADDRESS. The glory of New England has l)ccn its Christian men. They came to a wilderness and changed it to a garden of God. The ronghness of its climate and wildness of its scenery, were far hotter suited to the mettle of those heroic souls than the siumy fields of the south. It was a concinnity such as God delights in ; a combination by Ilis foreordaining Providence, out of which grandest results have been wrought, far less in a great material prosperity, in the productiveness of the soil under inclement skies, and the beauty of multitu- dinous villages and cities, than in the production of men, whose influence is felt to-day, not only wherever a Christian civilization is known, but (]uite beyonil the bounds of civili- zation, to Ihe uttermost ends of the earth. It is obvious to remark how the brave spirits of the men have grappled with almost unparalleled i)hysical obstacles, and subdued them ; but is it not just as true that those very difficulties have developed in the men a measure of intellectual and moral power which, without the struggle with those difticnlties, they never could have possessed ? Our great statesman, Daniel Webster, ut- tered a truth of which God is directly the author, when, in reply to the sneering imiuiry of a conceited son of the south, " What has New Hampshire produced ? " he proudly an- swered, " Granite and men ! " The names which New Hampshire has given to the pages of history, in jurisprudence, and statesmanship, and theology, 28 and education, and literature, are such as her sons will never have reason to be ashamed of. And yet, in a grand summing up of the fruits which have come of the labors and sacrifices of the Christian men who have made New England, must we not admit immeasurably the largest aggregate result in the quiet godly lives of that vast multitude of men and wo- men whose names have hardly been pronounced outside the boundaries of their own town, or the fellowship of their own church. This world was made for Jesus Christ ; " by Him and for Him," an inspired Apostle says. The end will be accom- plished when His elect of all the nations shall be gathered into His everlasting spiritual kingdom. Then the last will be first and the first last. That which men call glory now will then disappear forever, like tlie temples and palaces of a great city swept by tlie devouring fire. It is true, at the same time, that Christianity is the grand source of whatever is most valuable in the present life, and according to present earthly standards. For almost twenty centuries it has supplied the most steady and healthful stimu- lus to all the industries which have built cities, and spanned rivers, and enlarged the domain of science, and brouglit na- tions into those intimate relations of commerce which are the surest guarantee of peace ; constituting, meanwhile, most beautiful of all, innumerable homes of rest, and love, and joy- Does not the history of your town during the first century of its existence, furnish a continuous illustration of these truths ? As we look back to-day through the period of a hundred years, what, in your estimation, have been the things of chiefest value in all that time among the hills and valleys which combine to make up the unsurpassed natural beauty of this town of Sanbornton ? There can be but one answer : its churches and its Christian homes. Take these away and nothing would remain worth remembering. All the rest would be of hardly more value than the Indian relics which are occasionally found in plowing up its soil. The organization of the first church, therefore, and the set- 29 tiement of the first minister, one hnndred years ago, were evonts of deeper interest and sii^nificance, than the incor- poration of tlie town. On the first day of March, 1770, San- bornton was incorporated as part of the great empire of His Britisli ^rujcsty, (Jeorge III., and tlic first town meeting was held under his appointment and royal permission, on some day between that first of Marcli and the tenth day of the May next following. This was in the house of Lieut. Chase Taylor, father of the lion. Nathan Taylor, the first house built in Sanbornton, and occupied to-day by Mr. Thomas Taylor, great-grandson of its builder and first occupant. No record of that first town-meeting remains, although the room in which it was held is still shown. From subsequent records we learn that Aaron Sanborn, Cole Weeks, and Ste- phen Gale were there and then elected first selectmen of the town ; an event of interest to us, forasmuch as for many years aflcr the incorporation of Sanbornton no more inijjor- tiint business was transacted by the selectmen tlum that which pertained to the churcii of God. From the day on which those Christian men, whose names we venerate as the fathers of our town, first i)enetrated the nolde forests which then crowned all these njagnificent hills, their primary con- cern was for a minister and a meeting-house, a church of liv- ing members, and stated Christian ordinances, for themselves and for us, their posterity. Acconhngly, at the second town- meeting, held on Tuesday, March :2i), 1771, in the house of Daniel Sanborn, subsequently, with enlargement, for many years the residence of Dr. Benaiah Sanborn, and now occu- pied ]»y Mr. Thomas M. Jaques, a very important item of business was the passing of a vote " to apjjoint and clear a place for a meeting-house this year ; to set said house on ye center range line, near ye main rode ; to l)uiUl it l)y ye sale of ye pews, and according to ye i>lan drawn of ye same ; to put up ye frame and cover it within 2 year from May next, and chuse a committee to vandue of ye pews and stutf for build- ing said house." The history of the building of that first meeting-house on the hill, which some of us so well remember, would make a deeply 30 interesting chapter in the annals of Sanbornton. Howthe forests rang with the stiurdj strokes of the axe, startling the bears and wolves then so numerous ; how, on the appointed day, the in- habitants of the neighboring towns came to help at the rais- ing, and then how, in the poverty of the people, the necessity of incessant toil in clearing away the forests and ploughing and planting for their own sustenance, and the absence of some of their best men to fight in our country's great battle for liberty, the work went slowly on for a series of years, and the first minister, the Rev. Joseph Woodman, preached in it to those noble-hearted men and their noble-hearted wives through summer's heat and winter's cold, when it had no pulpit and no pews, and was less comely in its exterior, and less comfortable within, than the barns of some of you are to-day — these are things which our fathers told us, and which may be gleaned from the early records of the town. It need occasion us little surprise that the vote passed on the 26th of March, 1771, was not carried into effect. Wheth- er they managed to " appoint and clear a place for a meet- ing-house " that year, we do not know : but it is quite cer- tain that they failed to " put up ye frame and cover it, within 2 year from May next." The delay, however, only made them the more resolute, for, nearly three years later, on the thirteenth day of December, 1773, a special town- meeting was called for the sole object of taking further measures for building and " compleating " the meeting-house. The hearts of our fathers were resolute on that cold December day, as they looked on each other's faces in one of the large, unfin- ished rooms, as we suppose, of Daniel Sanborn's house, with-, in a stone's throw of the spot where we are now assembled. They prayed, doubtless, then deliberated, and looking wist- fully toward the hill where, aecording to their former action, the frame of the meeting-house should have been put up and covered in more than six months before, they stoutly resolved "to build the m. h. on an entirely new plan, viz: sixty feet in length by -iH feet in wedth,and to build 36 pews below as by said plan ; to choose a committee to vandue off ye pews and stuff, and to build said house as far as said pews will go, 31 with je money that je proprietors of the town have and shall vote for said house ; " also that •' the meeting-house akriU he rained^ boarded, shingled, and ye lower flowers laid, and ye lower part of ye house glassed, by the first of November, 1774; that the house ahall l>efinislied so far as the pew money shall go towards it by November 1, 1775 : " and, finally, "that all ve stuff for ye frame shall be brought to ye meeting-house green by ye last of April next, and ye lx)ards. shingles, and other covering by ye last of September next." Is it not strange, when we remember the circumstances of that dark and perilous time, that our fathers had tlie courage to resolve on so much ? That they found it simply impos- sible to accomplisli all they marked out in the time specified, we can easily Ijelieve. At the town-meeting of 1777, one vote passed was " -^50 of ye money in ye selectmen's hands to Ix; laid out on ye meet- ing-house this year." On the following New Year's day, namely, on the first of January, 1778, the town met for the first time in tlie new meeting-house, and there all the town- meetings of Sanbomton were held for almost half a century, till the year 1><34, when the town declined to repair the house, and surrendered it, by a vote, to the proprietorship of this Society. Evidently the liouse was exceeding bare and com- fortless on tliat New Year's day, 1778, for it is recorded that on the 26tli of March, 1782, it wa.s voted " to get thirteen thou- sand of claboard nails, and one liundred feet of glass, for the meeting-house ; also, 2000 shingle tens, and one thousand double tens." One year and a half later it was '* voted to finish ye gallery in ye meeting-house," and " to build seven pews at each end of sd gallery, and six pews on ye fore side, to Ije equally divided as to length, and to be 5i feet %nde ^vithin board." On the 23d of June, 1783, a special town-meeting was held in accordance with the warrant of the constable, to set- tle " disputes " that had arisen " concerning some of ye pews in ye meeting-house," and a seat for the children was voted in " an ally of two feet and four inches wide." During all this time, though they had had a settled minister 32 twelve years, and had helped generously in the building of his house, there was no pulpit in their meeting-house, for at a special town-meeting held August 15, 1785, Lieut. Chase, Ens. True, and Ens. Nathaniel Grant were chosen a commit- tee to build a pulpit with the money which had been raised for the building of the pews, and they were instructed to build it by the March meeting of the following year. It was not their fault that when the fathers assembled at that March meeting they saw no pulpit in their meeting-house, or at least only one that was partly finished, for at that meeting, March 28, 1786, the same committee was re-appointed, with instruc- tions to finish the pulpit by the first of October following, as far as the money raised for the pews would do it. AVe may believe that in that year, 1786, the good people of Sanborn- ton had the inexpressible pleasure, on some briglit Sunday, to see the minister who had been with them fifteen years, and .baptized their children, and buried their dead, ascend to that high pulpit, which had been so long in building, and to praise its beauty as they returned to their homes ; for in August of the very next year the town " voted to build two pews at west end of men's seats, on lower floor, in lower part of meeting-house, and two pews at east end of women's seats ; about six feet square, the selectmen to sell said pews and procure ye pay." A strange picture, as it seems to us, that congregation must have presented to the good minister, as lie looked upon them from his high pulpit painted thick of a deep mahogany color, the men by themselves at one end, and the women by themselves at the other end, with a seat for the children " in an ally of two feet and four inches wide." So far as the records inform us, we are led to suppose that during these first years the care of the meeting-house was no expense to the town. But this could not be expected to last always, albeit no lighting and tending of fires was included, and accordingly we find it recorded that on the 5th day of April, 1790, the town " voted James Sanl)orn to keep key of the meeting-house, and to sweep said house, at one dollar per year." For the next ton years after the pulpit was finished, reso- 33 liitioiis were passed fVom time to time, tor lathing- and plas- tering, shingling, "• painting the rongh," and underpinning, till the last stone was placed under the heavy sill ol" the back or north side, in the y<*ar 17i>T. At the same time they voted not to "' huild a sieeple and porcli thf present year," and that, as we know, was never done. Tiuit much good preaching and praying was done in that homely and unfin- ished meeting-house on the hill, it is impossiljle to doubt. We can as easily believe that the songs of Zion had no mean rendering in the trumj»et tones of the men who leveled the forests, and the full rich treble of their wives and daughters, witli the accompaniment of stringed instiuments, which our fathers were skilled to phiy. liong slips were made for their special accommodation, running from east to west on the ground floor, and near the centre of the house. There, till the last year of the century, they stood u|» in the midst of the worshipping assemlily, and, with heait ;ind voice, poured forth ()hl llnndied and Ilaniltuig. and Lenox, and Noith- fit'hl. On tb:it last yeai' of the century, thi; town earance, and of very pronounced magisterial Itcaring, he walked w iili a conscious dignity, to the movement of his large ivory- beaded cane, and, in flic reverent and admiring eyes of all bis little subjects, was a lit lepresentativc of George 111. Al- tboiigh of a stern make, and accounted severe in disci- pline, iherc was a dash of humor in " Master P«'rkins.'' At a considerably later day than his. as some of us rememl)er, it was customaiy in the summer schools (jf Sanlioiuton, [\)v tbe girls to i)ring their sewing and knitting, and wben young brains were tireil with severer lalfors, in reading and six years before. iJenjamin F'ranklin bad written home fi-om LoimIom tiiat the sun of liberty was set, and the t(»reh of industry must be lighted in every cot- tage. The indignant and burning elo(j[uence of Patrick Henry had raised the s[)irit of patriotism to blood-heat in the Assembly of Virginia; blood had been shed in Boston in an affray between armed British soldiers and unarmed citizens; ladies of fashion in all sections of the country, were carding, spinning, and weaving the fabrics for their own dresses, and mutton was forl/idden to be eaten, lest the supply of wool should fail. B8 It was at such a time that our fathers, pressed with bur- dens and difficulties all but intoleral)le, and expecting still worse, met in special town-meeting, in the house near by, for the sole purpose of securing the settlement of a minister. What was the result? They voted, those great-hearted Christian men of Sanbornton, " to give Mr. Joseph Woodman a call to settle in ye gospel ministry in this town.'' Mr. Jo- seph Woodman was a young man of fine talents and educa- tion, a graduate of Nassau Hall, and at that time twenty- three years of age. They meant to have him, and so they also voted, at the same meeting, to give him a " sallery " of two hundred dollars, of which one hundred and eighty dol- lars was to be in money, and twenty dollars in labor, at money price, for the first two years ; and afterward, one hundred and twenty dollars in money and eighty dollars in labor. This was not all. Twenty cords of good fire-wood, cut into cord-wood length, were to be hauled yearly to Mr. Woodman's door. What huge logs of curly rock-maple were rolled, without split- ting, into that gracious pile of twenty cords, some of us who are old enough to remember similar things, can believe. Still further, Mr. Woodman was to receive, " if he settles in ye gospel ministry here, the valine of 100 dollars in labor and stuff, for to build him a house, to be paid, so much as will set him up a house frame, next spring, and the remainder in boards, shingle, and clapboards, in ye fall of ye year fol- lowing." Two months later, having, no doubt, conferred freely with Mr. Woodman in the meantime, and found out the state of his health, and how much he was willing to undertake, the town very kindly voted, that "' Mi-. Woodman, if he settles in ye gospel ministry in this town, shall have liberty to preach old sermons when his health will not admit of his making new ones ; " also, that he " shall liave liberty to be aljsent three Sabbaths in a year, yearly, to visit his friends." In ad- dition to all the rest, Mr. Woodman, as the first settled min- ister, received of the town the present of a farm, not tliat which we all know as the Woodman farm, but another which he exchanged for that with Esquire Harper, a business trans- action in which the people of his congregation — that is to say, 39 all the town — were pleased to see that their minister was not entirely lacking in worldly wisdom. The town, at a very early period in its history, set apart for- ever, for the support of the gospel ministry, a tract of land called tlie parsonage, the income of which seems to have been given to Mi-. Woo(huan. For at a town-meeting held May 26, 1795, William Harper, Esq., having been chosen agent at a previous meeting, " to lay a copy of the records before our attorney and take his advice in writing," reported that accord- ing to Mr. IJradbnry's opinion, "the income of tiie parsonage Itelongs to Mr. Woodman." The people, no donl»t, knew Mr. Woodman's mind in re- lation to the business in hand, well enough to lie sure they were not acting jirecipitatcly in fixing the day for his or- dination, and making a list' of the churches to be invited, before he had signified his accejitance of the call. This was done by the same town-meeting which voted the call, and the " sallery," and the " twenty cord of good lire-wood." '' Wed- nesday, the tbiiteeiith of November next for the day of Mr. Woodman's oiibiiation," in case he should accept the call, was the action recordeil ; also "• to send to ye churches of Can- terbury, Concord, Pembroke, Epi)ing, ye first in Rowley, ye second, tliird, and fourth in Newbury, to assist in ye ordination." xVU this is from the records of the town, and shows the ac- tion of the town. Tiie church had not yet been organized. At the time appointed, one hundred years ago to-day, the or- dination of Mr. Joseph Woodman look place in the liouse of Daniel Sanb(jrn. We supi)ose Ihal the church was lirst organized, and that lie was installed as the pastor, at the same time and place. This, our centennial service, is, therefore, to commemorate the formation of the church and the settlement of its first pastor. There are some here present who remember, that just sixty- five years ago to-day the second pastor of the church was ordained in the meeting-house on the hill. Of that solemn service of ordination one hundred years ago, no record remains to us. The first entry in the first Book of Church Records, is the covenant of the church, in 40 the baud-writing of Mr. Woodman, signed by seven men, wbose names are as follows : James Gates, Nathaniel Tilton, Daniel Sanborn, Benjamin Darling, Josiah Sanborn, Aaron Sanborn, Abijah Sanborn. Directly after these names is a brief form of admission, and on the two pages following, the Confession of Faith. The record of what seems to have been the first regular church-meeting follows immediately after the Confession of Faith, and is dated, " Jan'y ye 2nd, 1772." The first business taken in hand is thus recorded : " This day, the churcli being met, agreeable to previous warning, after Sol- emn prayer to the great Head of the Church, for direction and acceptance, unanimously vote«:1 the al)ove written as a Standing Confession of Faith in this Church." This confes- sion is remarkably full and clear, and would seem to show that the original members and their pastor, Mr. Woodman, were well established on the great fundamental doctrines of Christianity. Other matters attended to at the same meet- ing are entered thus : " 2. Voted, that Benjamin Darling be chosen first deacon. 3. Voted, that Nathaniel Tilton be chosen the second deacon. 4. Voted, that the Lord's Supper be administered upon the second Lord's Day in each month, omitting the months of Dec'r, Jan'y, Feb'y and March. 5. Voted, To receive Lucy, Mary, and Anna Sanboi'u by letter of dismission and recommendation from the church of Christ in Northampton." More than a year seems to have passed before another reg- ular church-meeting was held. This was on the fourth of March, 1773. The business at this meeting was of very grave importance. You are aware that, in the early period of the his- tory of New England, there was, in the cluu-ches generally, what was called the half-way covenant; the meaning of which was, that any members of the congregation, not being " in full communion with the church," as it was expressed, were yet per- mitted and urged to " recognize the covenant," (which meant no more than that they acknowledged that they ought to be 41 Christians,) and to bring their children for baptism. Thus we find the record, "Jacob Smitli, Jr., and his wife, recog- nized tlieir baptismal covenant," and a little onward, " Bap- tized a child of Jacob Smith, Jr., by the name of Oliver." A year or two later another child of Jacob Smith, Jr., was bap- tized by the name of " Molly," but neither father nor mother was at any time a member of the church. The working of so unscriptural a usage as the half-way cov- enant was most disastrous here as elsewhere, as the record of the proceedings at this second regular church-meeting shows. " After prayer to ye great head of ye church for direction, They, considering the great rcuiissncss which is at this day so common in regard to those who recognize their cov't, agreed : 1. That they esteemod Immorality a Sufficient bar to per- sons being admitted to Baj)tism for themselves or children. 2. That they would regard those who were Baptized in In- fancy and tliose who have recognized their baptismal covenant, as members of the visible Church, or persons visibly in cove- nant, and as Such, Subject to the watch and discipline of the church and would treat them as such. 3. That those who have recognized the covenant in other places be required to get a dismission or ccrtilicatc of their having recognized the covenant in those places, and of tlieir regular Standing there, in order to their having their children baptized in this church. 4. That , on account of Some Immorality alledged against him be debarred from having his child baptized, until he shall make satisfaction to the church.''' At what time and in what way this usage was discontinued does not appear. The latest record of such a i)roceeding is as follows: "Sept. 10,1780. William Taylor and wife re- newed covenant, and had their cliild baptized by the name of " Chase." The records show that cliurcli discipline was maintained, and that in March, 1794, the pastor and Deacon Tilton were appointed " a committee to make a prudent enquiry with respect to their performance of family worship by those who are mem- G 42 bers in. full communion, and also those who have recognized their covenant in this church." The ministry of Mr. Woodman, beginning on the 13th of November, 1771, one hundred years ago to-day, was termin- ated by his dismission Nov. 13, 1806, the same day on which his successor was ordained. He was a man of commanding personal appearance and dignified bearing, and for talent and education took rank with the foremost ministers of New Hampshire. He was of medium height, of a broad, com- pact frame, with large head well set on ample shoulders, and decidedly marked features. I have heard it said, by men who knew him, and who have passed away, that he had nat- ural endowments which would have fitted him admirably for the courts of law or the halls of legislation, if such had been his choice. The estimation in which he was held by the town may be gathered from the fact that, at a special meeting held January 17, 1775, it was " voted that the Rev. Joseph Woodman be a deputy for this town to join the deputies of the other towns in this province, at a meeting to be held at Exeter on the 25tii day of this instant, to choose delegates for the Continental Congress, and to choose a committee to proportion each town's part of ye charge of sending delegates June 3, 1802." That he was held in high respect beyond the limits of his own town it is evident, for we find that on the third day of June, 1802, he preached to the Governor of the State and his Council, with the Senate and House of Representatives, in Concord, then a pleasant village, and tlie discourse was pub- lished. It was in the appointed duties of the Christian ministry, however, that he was chiefly occupied during the thirty-five years of his })astorate, preaching the gospel, visiting the sick, and from house to house, uniting the young in the bonds of matrimony, baptizing the children, and officiating at the bur- ial of the dead. In less than a year from the day on which Mr. Woodman was dismissed, God. called him to his reward, at the compara- tively early age of fifty-uine, and his frame, wasted by suf- 43 fcring, was laid bj tliat of Esther, the much loved wife, wliose death f.jur years earlier had filled him with deepest grief. Very touching and beautiful is the allusion made to the afflictions, whose effect had been to unfit him, in a great measure, for his work, in a letter addressed to the town about a year before his dismission. It begins thus : " FriendH and Brefhrm :_An all-wise, holy, and sovereign God, in whose hands our times are, was pleased, more than two years since, to visit me with the epidemic sickness which that season prevailed among us. This was succeeded by l)ili()us and rhemnatic complaints, from which I am not fully recovered, but still remain in an infirm and debilitated state, so that I am not able at ])resent to attend to all tlie duties of the ministerial oflice at all seasons. * * * * ^nd es])ecially does this, together with the sore bereavement with wliich God was pleased, just before, to visit myself and family, afford me in particular a!)undant cause for deep humiliation and repent- ance, and huiiible enquiry wherefore He contcndcth with me. And while they give me a claim to your candour, your sympa- thy, and compassion, I earnestly request the prayers of all who have an Interest at the throne of grace, that God would sanctify those heavy and long-continued afflictions, support me under them, and grant an happy issue of them in his own time." The liappy issue came : God's time was not long delayed, and he passed, on the 28th day of September, 1807, from un- der the dark cloud which cast so distressing a shadow over his last days, into the world of which Christ is the everlast- ing light. His retirement from the ministerial office in order that a younger man might take his place, when he became convinced of his inability any longer to perform its duties, was a grace- ful and generous act, which could hardly have failed to com- mend him to the admiration and sympathy of the whole com- munity. He sent to that community (for he looked upon them all as, in a sense, his flock) a long letter, and worthy to 44 be tliG last of all his labors of love among- them, as we may suppose it was. A copy lies before me, well preserved. He addresses it " To the Inhabitants of Sandboriiton, more espec- ially to the Congregational Church and Society," and then proceeds : " Men and Brethren : — In the wise, righteous, and sovereign providence of God, my health has been greatly impaired since the severe sickness with which He has been pleased to visit me ; and for nine months past I have been unable to supply the desk. There appears but little prospect of my being able to discharge the duties of the ministry among you for the future." After alluding to an unsuccessful effort which had been made to settle the contract between him and the town, lie goes on to say : " Your present situation is alarming, affecting, and, to me, very distressing — destitute of the stated administration of God's word and ordinances — the meeting- house unopened — the desk unoccupied on the Holy Sabbath." How ready and anxious he was to do anything in his power to bring so sad a state of things to an end, is seen in what comes immediately after: "Apprehensive of the evils which will be the probable consequences of continuing in such a state, and desirous to do all in my power to prevent them and to promote the peace and prosperity of the Church and Society to which I have so long ministered, I have been induced to give up that which I have ever considered as entitling me to support in case of sickness, or of age. I therefore propose to give up the contract with the town on the following condi- tions, viz : that my poll and estate be exempted from taxes dur- ing my life." He then addresses himself to the church and congregation, whom he calls "Friends and Brethren," reminds them, in tender and touchi)ig words, of his lengthened ministry among them, refers to the severe afflictions by which a wise and sover- eign God has brought liis labors to a close, and urges them, in most earnest terms, to look for another pastor without delay, giving them excellent counsel how to proceed. He enjoins 45 upon tliem in particular " the due observation and snnctifica- tion of the Holy Sabbath," warning them of the sad results of Sabbath desecration, and recommending to the heads of fam- ilies to use their autliority and influence in the matter, with all under their care. He brings his letter to a close as follows : " And now, brethren,! commend you to God and to the word of his grace. May he preserve you from the evils to which you are exposed, pour out His Spirit and unite your hearts in Christian truth, love, and holiness, build up His cause and interest among us, smile upon and succeed your exertions to obtain an able and faithful minister of the New Testament, who may l)e a rich blessing to you and your children. Finally, brethren, be perfect, be of one mind, live in peace, and the God of peace shall be with you. (Signed,) JOSEPH WOODMAN. Sandbornton, April 22nd, 1806." On the 22d day of April, 1S06, a special town-meeting was assembled in the meeting-house on the hill, and Deacon Samuel Lane, Dr. Samuel Gcrrish,and Major Jeremiah Tilton, a com- mittee appointed for the purpose, waited on Mr. Woodman, in the house still standing, and shaded by the fine old elms which to some of us seem no larger than when we were little children, and returned with that noble epistle in their hands. If the reading of it did not touch the hearts and moisten the eyes of the strong men in that special town-meeting, then we have judged wrong as to their character. That it had the effect which Mr. Woodman so earnestly desired, is very cer- tain ; for the meeting accepted unanimously its terms, and immediately voted to raise two hundred dollars for supplying the desk of the Congregational Society the present year, and chose Jeremiah Sanborn, Dr. Samuel Gerrish, and Brad- street Moody, as a Committee of Supply. That the letter of Mr. Woodman made a happy impression seems evident from the fact that it was printed in elegant style for that time, and distributed through the town. 46 The last record in the Church Book relating to Mr. Wood- man, is of a very gratifying character, as follows : At a church-meeting Oct. 14, 1818, " Voted, that brother Ebenezer Sanborn, Jr., and Moses Emery, be a committee to obtain subscriptions for the purpose of purchasing grave- stones for the late Rev'd Joseph Woodman, former Pastor of this Church." No time was lost in any delay to seek a new pastor, as was to have been expected of a congregation that had settled their first four years before the frame of their meeting-house was raised. How many ministers and who, supplied the pul- pit as candidates, we do not know. It is certain that a Mr. Daniel Staniford preached, and made so good an impression that his name was given to the eldest child of Benjamin P. Sanborn, born some time after. The people had heard a favorable account of a'youiig man in Massachusetts, who had graduated at Cambridge the year before, and had spent about three months in the study of the- ology with the Rev. Jonathan French, at Andover ; that ar- rangement being all there was at that time of the Andover Theological Seminary. His name was Abraham Bodwell. The town sent "■ Squire Emery " all the way on horse-back to Andover, seventy miles, to invite Mr. Bodwell to come to Sanbornton and preach as a candidate. " Squire Emery " made so favorable an impresssion upon him that he assented, notwithstanding tlio fact that overtures, looking to a settle- ment, had been made to him from Haverhill and Newbury. It must have been near the beginning of June in the year 1806, when he came. The forests were in all their leafy beauty, tlie birds were singing among the branches, and the hills and mountains around and far away must have appeared exceeding grand in comparison with the tamer landscape of eastern Massachusetts. He brought with him his licensure to preach, as follows : " Stoneham, April 30th, 1806. This may certify that Mr. Abraham Bodwell, A. B., of Methuen, offered himself to the Westford Association to be 47 examined and approbated as a Candidate for the work of the Gospel Ministry. And tlie Association having carefully at- tended to his moral character, his Clinrch standing, his knowledge of theology, and the various requisite qualifica- tions ; do cordially approbate him as a Candidate, and unaaii- mously recommend him as a person well qualified to preach the Gospel, wherever he may be called in divine providence to labor. PAUL LITCHFIELD, Moderator, Attest. FREKGRACE RAYNOLDS, Scribe. The time of probation was about three months, and the numl)er of sermons preached was twenty-three. On Sunday, August 24th, two very close and pungent sermons were preached from the text, '' Israel doth not know ; my people doth not consider." On Friday of the same week a meeting of the church was held, the first business of which was the appointment of a committee to confer with Mr. Woodman, and learn whether he would prefer to continue his relation as Senior Pastor, or to be dismissed. The committee waited on him, and brought l)ack for answer that he requested dis- mission. The church acceded to his wish, then voted, " To give Mr. Abiahani liodwell a call to settle liere as Pastor of said Church. Also : That Josiah Emery present this vote to the selectmen of tliis town, and request them to call a meeting of tl>e quali- fied voters (in ministerial matters) to see if they will join this Church in settling Mr. Bodwell as Pastor of this Churcli and Congregation, as soon as they shall think it convenient." The town-meoting was held on Tuesday, loth of Scptemlier, and a vote was passed " to give Mr. Bodwell a call to settle in the Gospel ministry in this town." A committee of i\\c — Dea. Samuel Lane, Nathan Taylor, Esq., Dr. Samuel Gerrish, Jeremiah Sanl)orn, and Joshua Lane — were chosen to inform Mr. Bodwell of the town's vote, and treat with him on terms of settlement. Two weeks later, on Wednesday, September 30th, the town met again, when the committee of five re- ported the following contract : " That the town of Sanborn- 48 ton pay Abraham Bodwell $450, annually, for preaching and attending to all the duties incumbent on a settled minister of the Gospel in said town, until two-thirds of that part of the town generally denominated Congregation alists, shall wish to discontinue the salary, and it shall be discontinued in one year after a regular notification, in writing, from the town to said Bodwell, purporting such wish; and the said Abraham Bodwell contracts to attend to all the duties before mentioned, until he shall give the same regular notice to the Selectmen or clerk of said town, at the expiration of which time he shall be released from this contract." This report was accepted by a vote of the town, and the same committee was re-appointed " to wait on Mr. Bodwell, inform him of the vote of this meeting, and likewise to make arrangements for the ordination." What tlie arrangements were we only know in part. Invitations were sent to the churches in Canterbury, Concord, Gilmanton, Methuen, Ha- verhill, and Newbury. The day lixed was the thirteenth of November, the thirty-fifth anniversary of the settlement of the first pastor, and, as we suppose, of the organization of the church. It was a high day in Sanbornton, that thirteenth of November, sixty-five years ago to-day. A goodly number of pastors and delegates were present, in- cluding the Rev. Messrs. Smith, of Gilmanton, Patrick, of Canterbury, McFarland, of Concord, and Perley of Methuen. The ample house of Dr. Benaiah Sanborn, in which the pas- tor elect had his home, was the scene of large and most gen- erous hospitalities. Most, if not all, tlie ministers from abroad were assembled there, and how they looked and what some of them said and did, is well remembered still by sur- viving members of the family. At the appointed hour, all wended their way to the meeting-house on the hill. An or- dination in those days, like a grand military review, was an attraction to all the towns around. The beautiful green slope in front of the meeting-house was covered with peddlers' wa- gons, and tents. By far the larger part of the multitude as- sembled cared nothing for religious service, and yet the house was so crammed that it was thought necessary to shore up the 49 galleries, lest they should fall. So great was the num- ber of those who wished to get in Imt could not, that the appearance is described by one still living as having been like that of bees hanging from a hive on a hot summer day. The man who says this was a lad thirteen years old at the time, and after tiying in vain to get into the meeting-house, he went to see a show which was going on at tlie same time in the large square house of Mr. Harj)er, which large square house some of us remember to have seen burn down, early on a cloudy summer evening, a good while ago. The house now occupied by Mrs. Wadleigh is on the same site. In that great square house there was also, on that day, a counter, behind which stood a grandson of Master Perkins, one of the fine young men of the congregation, then twenty-two years of age, and who stands erect among us to-day, the oldest member of the church and the oldest man in the town, who lias lived eiglity- seven years from his birth, in Sanbornton — a longer time, as he believes, than any other man has lived in the town, though many have died here at a greater age. And what did he do l)ehind tliat counter on that ordina- tion day ? Measured out rum to saints and sinners! It was the custom then. The godly ministers assembled would hardly liave thought they cuuld properly install the young pastor without the cheering influence of ardent spirits. And years afterward, when the young pastor had become a father, his son, then a little boy, rememl)crs pleasant days on which he was permitted to go in the chaise with him as he rode over the parish, and how, at each successive house where he called, the good people, anxious to show their great respect and love for their minister, ottered him spirits, and would have been offended if he had refused ; and how cautiously he only sipped, lest such oft-repeated kindness should prove more than he could bear. The ordination sermon was preached by the Rev. Dr. Mc- Farland, of Concord, from the words, " The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." Titus, ii., 11. 7 50 This is all we know of the public services of that day. When the early sunset came the meeting-house was empty, the peddlers' carts and tents and show-men all were gone, the throng was dispersed, and the stillness of night settled down upon this young village and this glorious landscape. The Rev. Joseph Woodman, firs-t pastor of the church, had been dismissed, and Mr. Abraham Bodwell, whose labors were to extend over the long period of forty-six years, had been settled in his room. Sanbornton was at that time a place of considerable enter- prise, and a center of trade to a circle of towns around. On pleasant summer mornings people were seen on their way to the stores from distances of ten and twelve miles, with butter and cheese and fresh-laid eggs, to barter for tea and coffee and sugar and calico and snulf. Tlie meeting-house was well filled on the Sabbath with a congregation of sober, earnest, and intelligent men and wo- men, coming from all parts of the town, and none were more constant than those who drove five miles up and down these invigorating hills. How full those great square pews used to be, morning and afternoon, summer and winter! Many of us remember what a merry sight it was to us children, at a more recent period when, on bright cold winter days, the con- gregation poured out from that old meeting-house, in which there had been no fire save what our mothers and grandmoth- ers brought in their little foot-stoves, and packed themselves by families in their ample sleighs, single and double, and went down the hill to the music of their many bells, in long pro- cession, at a rate of speed which made it plain that tlie horses were as glad as the children who had sat shivering on the cold hard seats, that meeting was done. If the two sermons preached by my father on the last Sab- bath of his probation, and to which I have already referred, are a sample, as no doubt they are, of what came after, then his ministry was faithful and earnest in no common degree. He presented habitually, as though he believed them with all his heart, the great fundamental doctrines, ruin, redemption, and regeneration. 61 I can remember, when a child, being so moved by the ear- nestness and solemnity of his appeals to the impenitent, as I sat in the pew at the right hand of the pulpit, that I strug- gled hard to conceal my emotions, fearing that all around would see, and was glad when Monday came, that I might go to school and to play and forget. That he was deeply anxious for the salvation of his people, and that his anxiety grew un- til it was almost more than he could bear, is a fact of peculiar interest to us. I well remember listening, when very young, to a conversation between my father and a very godly minister, who was a visitor at the house, but whose name is forgotten, on the great revival which wrought such a wonderful change in this town in the year 1816. The thing which made the deej)est impression upon me was the statement, by my father, that his anxiety for tiie salvation of his people became so in- tense that it was agonizing, insomuch that it seemed to him at last that he could not live unless the Spirit of God was poured out upon the congregation. And thus, without any revival measures, or any special means, through the faithful preaching of the word by the or- dained pastor, and in answer to his earnest prayers, the Spirit was poured upon them from on high, and the whole town was shaken. Quietly and powerfully the work went on until more than a hundred were hopefully converted to Christ, many of whom were fathers and mothers, among the most respectable and influential members of the congregation. From July to the end of the year 1816, the records of the church are of exceeding interest. On tlie fourteenth of July ten fathers and mothers were admitted to the church on pro- fession of their faith, and five of them were baptized. Two weeks later sixteen children of these parents were baptized. On the eleventh of August fourteen were admitted on profes- sion, mostly heads of families, and on the eighth of September forty-one persons were received, and seventeen were baptized, of whom thirteen were children. Thus onward to the end of the year, twelve being admitted on the tenth of November, the last communion Sabbath of the year. 52 The full results of that outpouring of the Spirit of God will not be known till the day of judgment. We may confidently say that its blessed effects are felt to the present time, not only in this church and congregation, but by the whole town. There were other seasons of special religious interest during the forty-six years of my father's ministry, but none compar- able to the great awakening of 1816, The entire number received by him to the fellowship of the church in the forty- six years of his ministry, was three hundred and seven, and the number of baptisms, four hundred and eighty-four, mostly children. I think you will sustain me in the assertion that the character of my father's preaching was eminently adapted to promote sound conversion It was not superficial nor sen- sational, but Biblical, discriminating, and searching ; not to the speculative understanding, the proud and self-sufficient reason, but to the conscience and the heart. The fruits of this have been manifest, and are manifest to-day, in the sound- ness in the faith of the church, its purity of discipline, and its steadfastness in all good ways. During the entire century of its existence, indeed, this church has been little troubled with crotchets and isms, and has manifested the soundness and vigor of its spiritual life in the rapidity of its recovery from any mild attacks of religious weakness or derangement. It had at one time an attack, very mild indeed, of perfection- ism, called in our day the " higher Christian life," (it is all the same thing) ; but the body of the Church was too sound and healthy to be affected by it. Hardly did it get through the skin ; and it was very severely let alone. Neither were blisters applied nor purgatives administered, but the body was nourished up in sound doctrine, as aforetime, and in a won- derfully short time almost every trace of the malady dis- appeared. I think you will not only bear' with me, but add your testi- mony to the fact, when I say, that I have never known a man who equaled my father in the faculty of holding his tongue. How he combined the utmost meekness of spirit and for- bearance of demeanor with a declared decision and firmness of principle, like the great granite mountains round about us, 53 was to me a mystery, and it is a mystery still. I am quite sure that this whole town of Sanborntoii would rise up to-day and bear emphatic witness, that this singular combination of gentleness with decision, was largely the secret of his influence and usefulness. The first Sunday school was formed in the year 1819. One half of the brief intermission of one hour was devoted to it, and the chief exercise was the repeating of portions of Scrip- ture, and the hymns of Dr. Watts. 1 am by no means sure that tlie present methods are, on the whole,, any improvement upon that. 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