New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-12-23
New.Englnnd Society.

tfe9cf wan butA " NV. III Dtto oasS-
which scene from EleutheraT well given by Mr.
Nash:
1.-THE PILGRIMS AT PLYMOUTH
open thy gates Morning Sun, and let thy Light throw
back from this fair land sar the darkng pail whereElth
earth"
open wide thy gates and let the Star Of Freedom dawn
upon the wanderers who have sought light and stand
these shores prsyerfu pause; the waste bshnd
before them b0undless wlos."
The following quartette from Eleutheria' was very
well rendered By Misses Brainerd and HONEYWELL aud
Messrs Colburn and Bell
Stormy oceans far divide them
From expressions iron hand;
Crossed Their Red Sea Heaven viii guide them
Through their blooming promised land.
Brightly glowing TO receive them,
Dawns the Star Of Liberty,
And their hopes shall not deceive them,
Trust in God will make them free"
The President Of the Society Moses Grinnell Esq }
then introduced the orator Of the evening, Rev. Dr.
Adams, of the Broome-st Presbyterian Church.
of Elmst.
DR.. A. was received with applause, and opened his
discourse with inquiry to the nature Of the sym
patty that had drawn such a number together as he
saw present before him It was something more than
flial regard for an honored ancestry-something
more than fond attachment to the place Of their
tivify though the memory Of the happy homes and
haunts of their childhood bright beyond all Area
that the event they celebrated was Immediately related
to the general progress and happiness of the human
race, that they came together Mere provincial pride
or patronymic pretenson the source Of their cee-
brang the day, the sooner 1t abandoned the bet.
ter. If it were true that the small company that
landed from the Mayfower, December - 1920,
were a double link In the long drama Of human
history if their faith, forude and success des
tined TO speak beyond themselves and their ownmes,
10 all generations and all lands then there
wherever born who had greater or less degree Of
interest in the celebration than another and so long as
they studied the ways of Providence with phiosophi
cal comprehension and kindly heart, they would ind
no place for arrogant pretensiOn but all place for ma
jestic humility, Christian purity and boundless hope
Carlyle observed that "the best thing England ever
did was Oliver Cromwell" With moro smoothness
of STYLE Souhey remarked that there was no part OF
history in which go well behooved Engllshman to
be well versed the age of Cromwell Cromwell
was New England working upon British soil Applause
Puritansm had two homes in historya trans Atlantic
and cis. Atlantic The stream of Puranism was des-
tined to be dvided-a part running down in the regular
channels of British history and part running, as 1t
were under the sea- and then makngts appearance on
shores, with prodgious advantages in lie favor
noble thing Purtansm in relation to the politics.
things had it accomplished there But its greater de-
yelopment had been In a new world, and on virgin
soil removed from those ancient associations which
elsewhere had modified its form. Nor let US suppose
to be an obsolete tradition It now, as hereto
fore an active living pervsding influence of vast power
and force The spread Of its influence lad not yet
terminated - the long continued struggle between
freedom and oppression had not yet been decided
We had still need 10 study the principles OF our fore
fathers for the genial spirit of Christian liberty was st
In danger Of encroachments from the old form of
an, ON the one hand and on the other from
the cold speoulations OF msterslistic philosophy II
was well still to study the lessons which the dead as II
were spoke to from their graves, or as they them
selves would say when alive "When Christ Is in dam
ger of being cruched afresh between two thieves 1t Is
well some Of the saints dead should arise from their
graves and come out and tell men TO repent true and
well written history OF Purtanism needed in the En-
glish literature lie often wished that Milton hsdbroughf
down bis history of England to his own times-perhaps
his poetic genius would be hndrance rather than
help Certain, at all events, we have presented
TO us in such work. and by such author an
accurate life hike portTature Of the early struggles
Of the Puritans of England II one sought an example
Of the pondero.y and solemnity OF the English Ian
eusge let him read Lord Clarendons History Of the
sic eloquence we would find them in Hume. But no
man would expect to md history OF Purianism It's
rise and progress in England in the writings OF either
Az well might we imagine Juvenal writing upon the
obligations Of chastity Congreve arranging church
psalms, Byron discoursing upon morality, or Shelley
upon theology; as well might we imagine all these I'M
probabilities a. that Hume, the sceptic or Clarendon
the aristocra would undertake 70 write the history o.
the Puritans And the task Of writing their history
would indeed be laborious and complicated one truly
In days Of ease oAen were liable 70 pass a false
judgment upon who wrote, and thought and acted
with FIRE within them and real Ere around about them
Open any book in the language and by the style IN
which II was written we could tell to what period In
history its author belonged Look at the works Of
Milton Harrington LAtmer, and we saw At once we
were in a time Of siege, with the redhot shot flying
sbou, Us in ell directions We could not describe
the lives Of the Purtans by ndiscrimnate censure or
admiration; but were only concerned TO know, II,
after making all needfu distractions, the good did not
rredominsie in their characteristics was the greaf
consideration with Us The real interest Of history
consisted in its relation to the best Of all optmism-the
rure law of Christianity. Religion was love-ii was
power politics, everything, and every memory asso-
cisfed with this day honored Religion the parent OF
Republics the pattern OF al well governed states the
soul OF Jusuce enterprise freedom commerce. A~N
not more certain II that the whole body OF the sea
was swsyed by the attraction Of the heavenly bodies
than that all the depths Of society were yet to be gov
erned by the psien, laws Of Christian sway ZAP
plsuse) In view of the relation which Religion bore
to the they were celebrating, he would say WIZ
great delbersriOn that the history Of modern times
was the history Of free Bible. he used the word
Bible because BY the invention Of the at OF printing
What the the Church
sssr Ito be previously, the visible symbol and ex
popa Il Christianity itself The Protestant Reforms.
ton was lot an ecclesiastical sehisr but great mor
movement which sent the impress Of life rhroushoa'
all The channels Of society. In lso2 the Royal Acaa
emy OF France offered . valuable prize for the
he,, answer 10 this question WIS, has been
the influence Of the Protestant reformation upon the
different European States and the progress Of htera