The Newtown bee., 1880-07-07

past and fit like ghosts before us; we listen to these revelations until we are weary of the ceaseless. monotoaous story and then we remand the past back 10 it's tomb--history, break off the connection. and plunge into the busy present again a, if there were no past. But in this cen tennial era and on the anniversary of the Republic, there is, all over our land, revival of interest in the past; We love, revere, and almost worship it. The na- ton is now more than one hundred years old; one hundred and four years ago this very day she took her place among the nations of the earth. It is therefore favorable time once more to bring our selves into contact with this mysterious nast to run a wire, as it were, into the very heart of the days that are gone, so that their subtle spirit may flow into and
 fill our spirits by pouring into them their tide of memories. We will not, howev-
 CT, allow the past to talk to us at random,
 and at 'sits own sweet will, for
 then it would become garrulous and tire
 some, telling us many things We do not
 care to know But taking a hint from
 the text, we will interrogate the past and
 task of the days that are gone such
 questions as we in this place and at this
 time, specially desire it to answer. We're
 we to go into a telegraph office and hear the monotonous click of the instrument
 we would care little or nothing for it's
 story, but if we should ask question
 and snnd it flying over the wires how
 eagerly would we await the answer! So I know of no better way to become inter-
 ested in the past and it's story to-dayth
 to ask questions of the past and then lls7
 ten while it tells us of the history of our
 world, of our town, of our church, of the scenes which have transpired on this very spot, and of the men who here have lived and toiled in the generations that are gone. It has been pleasant tiLSk for me, my friends, thus to put myself iii communication with the past, and as have been gathering these facts 1nd sta- tistics, putting the questions to the past and receiving answers, l have felt an lil- creased interest in this goodly town and in this his: oric church, and I regret that the limits of time and space will prevent mo from bringing before you the great mass of facts and details which l have at my command. All 1 can do in this dis c.ur5e is to give you d meaSre outline and to assist you in hanging on the walls of the fn emory few pictures without any elaborate framing or colorinS. l hope the time Is not distant, and in this hope 1 notice others ympathize, when a compe- tent person will be found who will pre- pare and publish 8 complete and accurate history of this town and give to the world sketches of the men and women who laid the foundations upon which we build, who sowed the harvest we are now reaplng. But to our task Let Is now make con nection with tine past through the mystic agency cf reflection and memory and ask of the days that are gone these questions HISTORICAL PREPARATION POUNDING OF
 TOWN.
 1. What has the past to tell us of the history of our world from the beginning up to the year TOO, when the authentic history of this town and church (as pre- served in documents and records) begins. I say from the beginning, for propose to begin at the beginning, as every histo- rian should. We need not wait long for an answer to this question. The oldest and the pest history of this town and all towns and all parts of our world-writtan by spiration-replies. In the begin ming God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form, and void These arc the first words of the Bible and of our Sunday school lesson to-day. The elements which compose the soil of this continent and of this town, then, were brought into existence by the creative act Of God, and for time, a long
 time, i've know not how long,) were formless, confused and unfashioned. But He who created was not idle, and ill the successive periods of creation so vividly and beautifully described in the 1st chap ter of Genesis, He separated earth from water and light from darkness.
 He gathered the waters together into yonder seas, and lakes. and rivers, and depressed the land into these valleys, or uplifted it into these hills; and when. fi- nally the firm world stood forth with it's rocky skeleton, he covered it Gn the course of a. 5es) with the soft soil, ,and then clothed this huge body with the verdurc of trees, and shrubs, and grass, each hav- ing it's seed within itself. Finally he placed on a selected portion of tlIe earth, Man created in his owR image, and made him lord and possessor of all. When God saw what he had made he pronounced it very good I believe this town was in- then rose toward Heaven as now; the same streams flowed through these val leys-ind these places. now so familiar to us, were then fully prepared for our halo itation. The dust beneath our feet i as old as the world; the rocks in our alcti3, the boulders upon our meudows--soa,lc lake hoflowed out from the midst of the hills and filled with the wi,- ter of heaven-this air, this sky, the stars which will look down upo.l us to-nigit- all are as they were in the beginning, or rather at the end of the beginning, when God looked upon the rolling earth and it finished. To be continued next week.