The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-17
ST. GLENN nMr's czuAcz.
A SERMON

Delivered by the Rev. w. II. N. Stewart,
LII. D., in Sc. Clements Church, Phila-
delphia, Sunday evening, April 16, 1871.
"rheu hast brought vine out OF Egypt: thou
hast cast out the heathen and planted It, thou
madest room for II, and when 1t had taken reot it
filed the land."-Ps. so, verses and Q.
Ipropoee this evening to present you with q
brief sketch of the fret church which ever held
services for the worship of Jesus Christ, our
Lord, in America. In doing so 1t will be nee ss-
sary to refer TO many points should willingly
enlarge upon, as full Of instruction, example,
and warning, but which / shall be obliged to
pass with scanty notice and often the barest
mention.
1t is commonly supposed Cy New Eng
landers) that the 22d Of December, 1920, which
is now yearly commemorated as "Forefathers
Day." was the day on which Protestant Chris
tianity first reached the shores of North America
And the general admiration of the Pilgrims who
then landed on Plymouth Rock has obscured
the fact of the earlier introduction into this
then pagan land of pure and primitive Chris
tian worship. On the 18th of May, 1907, two
years before Canada was settled by the French,
seven years before the founding of New York by
the Dutch, and thirteen years before the land
ing of the Pilgrims five hundred colonists dis
embarked at jamestown, In Virginia, which
was the very first permanent settlement of the
English race on these shores. The Rev. Robert
Hunt accompanied these colonists-a man of
rare virtues and eminent services. He and those
he came with were devoted members of the Epis-
copal Church of England. One clause OF the
charter discloses the character of this expe-
dition and an avowed object of the under
taking. It is ordered in 1t that the
presidents, councils, and ministers shall provide
that the true word and service of God be
preached, planted, and used according to the
rites and doctrine of the Church of England,
not only in the colony, but also as much as may
be amongst the savages bordering on it, aud all
persons shall kindly treat the heathen people in
those parts, and use all proper means to draw
them to the true service and knowledge of
God"
Mr.. Hunt, therefore, on the 14th of May, the
day after landing, administered the holy COM
munion to the united company. This was the
first time but one that the Lords supper was
celebrated, and the benefcialscareer of civiliza-
tion and enterprise which the Anglo-Saxon race
has since carried on was thus inaugurated by
the most significant institution of our divine
religion. These godly colonists at once erected
humble church of boards thatched with reeds
and having dedicated it to the service of AL
mighty God, they assembled there for worship
not merely on Sundays, but every day in the
week. The remains of an old tower of brick
still stands about forty miles from the
mouth of the James river, aud marks the spot
where the first church rose In the territories of
the British colonists The island, once PENN.
sula projecting from the northern shore of the
river, with this lone tower and battle-ground
around it, is the only visible memorial Of that
James town, and the actual birthplace not only
of our nation but the place of the first effectua
beginning of our Church and of Christianity
itself in the limits of the original United States
na singular seem Hawks the
writer from whom I quote, prove
that the Protestant Episcopal Church preceded
by thirteen years the arrival of the Pilgrim
Fathers at Plymouth. But it was not in Vir-
ginia alone that this occurred. In August,
1907 (the same year of the jamestown settle
ment, colony was founded on the western
bank Of. the Kennebec river near the spot where
the city of Bath in the State of Maine now
stands. church was built there, and was
served by clergyman of the Protestant Epis-
copal Church for some time.
But before either of these Tin the year 1575)
forty five years before the arrival of the Pill
grims, the Rev. Mr.. Wolfall, chaplain to Martin
Frobisher's expedition, administered, on the
far-off coast of Labrador, the Holy Eucharist to
the captain of the vessel, and to many other
gentlemen, soldiers, mariners, and miners. This
celebration of the Divine Mystery, says the
original record of the event, twas the first sign,
seal, and confirmation of Christ's name and
passion ever known in these quarters" and the
very first in all North America.
Let us recapitulate, and connect the dates of
the arrival of different religious communities.
The Dutch brought their Calyinistic faith to
New York 1914. The Puritains brought their
peculiar theocratic doctrines and rigid discl-
pline to Eew England in 1870. Maryland was
settled on principles OF perfect religious free
Society of Friends settled Pennsylvania In 1881,
while ahead of them all, in point of time, the
English Church had settled in James
town and on the Kennebec in Virginia and
Maine, in 1907 The ground having thus been
occupied by others in every State except Virgil
mia, the English Church had small hope of
growth in them. But she did gain foothold In
Jersey and Delaware, where the Swedes and
Films had introduced Lutheranism in 1897, and,
amidst opposition the most violent and even
bitter, she did secure centres of influence even
In New England. Nowhere was our Church SO
bitterly opposed as in New England, and in
speaking of the English Church, of which the
early settlers and the Pilgrims themselves had
once been members, they seemed to have
changed their natures and become reckless of the
sense of words and force of language. Let me
contrast the words they uttered and printed on
leaving England, as they are given by Hutchin-
son in his History of Massachusetts, and the
words in which they allude to the Church Epis-
copal, as they are given In the Cambridge Plat
form, and the principles of the New Haven set
tlement. A few days after Winthrop left Eng
land for Salem, in the year 1880, little writing
was published entitled 'The humble request OF
the Governor and company lately gone TO New
the Church of England, for the obtaining OF
their prayers, and the removal of suspicious
and misconstructions of their Intentions" "We
desire" says Winthrop and his followers, who
sailed from England In ten ships I'VE desire
you would be pleased to take notice of the prin.
cipals and body of our company, as of those
who esteem IL our honor, to call the Church o.
England, from whence we arise, our dear
mother, and cannot part from our native land
where she specially resideth, without much sad
ness of heart and many tears In our eyes, ever
acknowledging that such hope and par
as we have obtained In tn,
common salvation, we have received it in he
bosom and sucked Ii from her breasts w,
leave it not, therefore; as loathing that mill
wherewith we were nourished there, but a
blessing God for the parentage and education
AS members of the same body we shall Away
rejoice in her good, and unfeignedly grieve TO
any sorrow that shall ever betde her; and Will
we have death, we shall sincerely desire and en-