Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-01-12

II. >. Z, :.
Goddard 5. Il. Haywood, Ii. Il. Fay and J W.
Carey.
The above interesting facts having been shown
the stockholders, and the list of officers unani-
mously elected, the company was enter tanned
with singing by quartette, consisting of Messrs.
F. Knight, julius knight, VIM. Lyon, and Paul
Bauer; piano solo, by Mr.. Thompson; original
pocm by Mr.. J. C. Mason; song by Miss Allen;
solo, by Miss Todd; piano solo, by Miss Allen,
and more singing by the quartette The music
was so much enjoyed that 4 hearty vote of thanks
was accorded the musicians at the close. The
members of the association thus begin their fifth
successful year, under circumstances which
augur continued and increased prosperity.
REV. w, H. H. MURRAY's LECTURE ON DEA-
CONs.-Mr. Murray delivered his lecture on dca-
cons, in Mechanics hall, last evening, Its popu-
larty is shown by the fact that Mr. Murray has de-
livered it sixty times this season, on consecutive
evenings, with the exception Of Saturday and
Sunday. Enough had been heard about it in
this city to fill the hall at an early hour, to the
satisfaction of the Mechanics association, of
whose course the lecture was one. The half
hour of music previous to the appearance of the
lecturer was occupied by Mr.. VIM. B. Stockwell
of Millbury, who entertained the waiting audi
euce with excellent selections upon the organ.
Mr.. S who has once before played for the asso.
citation, is very young man, scarcely more than
a boy, who is making very creditablc progress
as a musician. He plays the organ at the Meth
odist church in Millbury and owes the prof.
cheney already attained to his persevering efforts
,IoE
But, to return to the deacons:
Mr.. Murray began byIpcturing the typical
Y nkee; or, rather, by showing that no two
Yankees are alike. A Frenchman is French
and Jew is a Jew the world over, and there is
no installing cither-you may always dis
tinguish them by certain characteristics bat
there is no such thing as finding two Yankees
alike; among them bigotry and liberality sit
side by side in the same pew The English,
French and Germans move slowly along in pro-
gress, and are content to subscribe all to
one form of religion; but with us there is a
constant antagonism of views which tends to
create the various sects which we see all up and
down New England. No Yankee can differ
from another in the matter of religion and keep
his tongue in his mouth-he must tell of it and
argue over it. He then went back one hundred
and fifty years, to the time when the
parson was the great man of the
town or village; and following him were
three more great perSonageS-thc squire,
the colonel and the deacon; and the word of the
three was as much a law as any on the statute
book, and this aristocracy was most apparent just
where it ought not to be seen at all--in the
church. To be an officer in the church in those
times was to be village dignitary; the position
was one which minisercd to the pride of the
whole family. The overwhelming dignity of the
parsou and the squire aud the colonel has been
outliycd but that OF the deacon is still main
tanned; and instead of being a co-laborer in the
church, the deacon is a sort of ornamental at
tachment; the original duty of the deacon in
churcl-to wait upon the Lords tablets lost
sight of entirely, and no such humblencss is
recognized in connection With the position.
Many such dcacons still live, a relic of those old
times; and they may be picked out in a conere-
CATION as readily as a crab from among fishes
First, there is the bgoted and namow-minded
deacon-so narrOw-minded that you have to
hold him up sideways in order to see that he has
any mind at all. Then there is the querelous
deacon and the hcresy-hunting deacon, watch
ing the pulpit as a terrier watches Il rat hole,
delighted at a misquoted passage and enjoying
the prayers, pencil in hand; the timid deacon,
afraid of his own shadow; the old Gogy deacon,
who, though but forty-three in years, is in reality
as old as Methuseleh; and the deacon who stud.
led two terms at theological seminary, who
was to have been educated as missionary to
the heather by sympathetic sewing circle, but
who didn' pass examination and didn't become
a missionary-a circumstance wisely ordered by
Providence for the good of the heather.
Mr.. Murray then drew pictures of three rep
resentativc deacons, in a manner most amusing,
and at the same time not so extravagant as to
hide the real errors at which his satire was di-
rected. He began with Deacon Slowup of Eos
silville, who made the same prayer on every oc-
cason for forty years, and was constantly MAX
ing momentous questions of the most trifling
ones. 1--WE have not room for the humorous
debate on sandwiches for Sunday school pic
nic.) Next he took the harsh, unlovely, wick
eddy cunning deacon-DeacOn Sharplace, who
was unfortunate in being born at all; whose
mother was bilious and father rheu-
adding dyspepsia to his inheritance;
whose only recommendation was soundness of
his orthodoxy, which was the mantle of charity
for all shortcomings. In this picture the lee
turer made telling hits at the gloomy uucom-
Portable lives some painfully pious men would
exact of every one, and contrastcd that view
with another, in which he portrayed a beautiful,
whole-souled, happy, generous religion, which
sheds sunshine around the pathway of life, and
lays its possesSor down at last to live forever in
the memory of all with whom he has in life met
and rendered more happy for the meeting. The
last mentioned attributes were developed in
Deacon Goodhean (may his tribe increase), who
differs from all old fogy ideas of deacon by his
rotundity of figure and genial, beaming tace-a
man who welcomes every one to church, and
makes the welcome felt; who prays God to do
a thing and goes from the prayer meeting to the
very work which he prayed to have done; whose
memory is so poor that he never makes the
same prayer twice; whose genial face seems al
ways to wear the appeal "say something funny
and see me laugh;' one whom the little chill
dren all love, and who, when his soul goes up 10
heaven, will be missed by more children than
would mourn the departure of all the other dea-
cons' III inc poIuaNdl ol Tue ldsl lnculOneu
deacon, the descriptive eloquence Of this pOpu-
lar New England preacher manifested itself at
every turn-lrom the ridiculous slipping-down
experience on starting out Of stormy night for
a visit to poor sick child, to the pathetic death
bed scene of the glorded little one, as, cheered
at the last moment by Deacon GoodnCart its
spotcss soul left the troubled little body and 1t
slept the sweet sleep that is not of this world.
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COUNTY NEWS.