The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-10-05

world during the nineteenth century than dur
ing the first century, if no increment O
power had been given to the church of Chris
by the discovery of new continents and o
new facilities of INSTRUMENTATION. w
might well be called degenerate, if we, in tn
use of the printing press, Of steam, and of tn
electric telegraph, cannot accomplish NOR
than could Paul and his associates in the us
of parchments of the Roman roads, and o
the Alexandrian Germ ship Every new
science, every new language, every new inven
ton, every new discovery, every advance il
| civilization, every accumulation of human
knowledge, whatever belongs to the progress:
of human history, all enters into the oppor.
tunity, and of course into the responsibility
of each new generation.
Would we therefore as missionary Boare
discuss intelligently our own present obliga.
| ton as related to a new generation upoI
| which we are now entering, we must distinct
/ ly discern where we are, as related to tht
| generations which have preceded. We cannot
| forget that we are inheritors of sacred trust
and that we occupy a vantage position Of
! power which is ours, as the result of live:
which have ended, and of a work already
accomplished. Other men labored, and we are
| entered into their labors.
| Counting thirty years in round numbers as
a generation, we may appropriately emphasize
| three of these periods as giving significance to
the fourth, which is just commencing. The
first of these periods, which may be regarded
as mainly preparatory, viii include the years
between 1893 and 1920.
FIRST PERIOD, 1790-lS2o.
In the year 1890 DR.. Samuel Spring, of
Newburyport, was forty years of age. His
townsman and friend. William Bartlett was
forty two. Jeddiah Huntington, of New Lon
don, was forty seven, and Jshn Treadwell and
Nathaniel Emmens were each forty-tive. Rev.
Joseph Lyman, of Hatfield, was forty- one
His Honor William Phillips, forty; and Rev.
Timothy Dwight who for seven years had
been pastor of the church in Greenfield, Conn.,,
and who, five years later was to be elected
President of Yale College, was thirty eight.
When such men as these are just in the prime
OF their mature years, representative men
of the pulpit and the laity, we may be sure
that something special is in preparation for
the churches of New England.
The names of certain younger men may be
mentioned in the same connection. In the
year 1890 Jedediah Morse was twenty mine
years of age; Calvin Chaplin, twenty six ;
Samuel Worcester. Edward d. Griffin, and
Zephanlah S. Moore, each twenty Ebenezer
Porter and Jesse Appleton were but eighteen,
Leonard Woods but sixteen, and Lyman
Beecher but fifteen. These young men, how
ever, will soon be heard from.
The names of certain lads still under the
training of the home may be also enrolled
upon the same record. Ono of them is He
man Humphrey, aged eleven, another is
Moses Stuart, aged ten; another, jeremiah
Evarts, aged nine. Three born the same
year, two of them upon the same day, seven
So u I
Asahel Nettleton, and Edward Payson.
Three born the same year, six years of age
in 1890, are eordon Hall, Samuel Newell,
and James Richards. Cyrus Kingsbury
Joshua Huntington, and Serene Edwards
Dwight, have only reached the age of four;
Asa Thursten, Justin Edwards, and Richard
S. Storrs, of three; Adoniram Judson and
Samuel Mott, of tive; and there are six in
fants in their mothers arms, whose age is
co lnted by months, whose names are Ann
Hasseltine Daniel Poor, Benjamin c. Meigs
gis, Daniel Temple, Hiram Bingham, and
Miron Winslow. One year later Levi
Spaulding was born; two years later Levi
Parsons, Pliny Fisk, Sybil Mosely, after
wards Mrs. Bingham, William Goodell, and
Jonas King; three years later, Harriet At
wood, John Scudder, and Cyrus Byington;
four years later, Elias Cornelius, and Ben
famine B. Wisner; five years later, Lucy
Goodale afterwards Mrs. Thurston; and
only six years later, William J. Armstrong
and Rufus Anderson. 1t must never be
forgotten that the fathers and mothers in
Christian homes, and the ministers in Chris
tian pulpits, who were training the children
and youth of the last decade of the eighteenth
century, were the chosen instruments of the
Lord who were preparing the way for the
important events which were soon to follow.
In the year 1898 the pastor of one of the
churches of Connecticut, thanking God fer
the special outpouring of the Holy Spirit
upon the people of his own town and vi
entity, declared that he could stand at the
front dsor of his house, and "number fifty
or sixty contiguous congregations laid down
in one field of divine wonders" Within two
years from that time one hundred and fifty
such revivals were reported among the
churches of New England. Western Massa-
chusetts largely shared with Connecticut
in this wsrk of grace. In the spirit of this
revived church interest, in connection with
the intelligence of revived missionary in
terest in Great Britain, expressed particu-
larly In the organization of several mis-
sionsry societies, there were formed on this
side Of the water, the New York Missionary
Society of 1876, the Berkshire and Columbia
Missionary Society of 1897, the Connecticut
Missionary Society of 1898, the Massachusetts,
Missionary Society of 1893, (2) the Hamp-
shire Missionary Society and the Western
Missionary Society of Pittsburg of 1902, and
the Society for promoting Christian knowledge
of 1908, all on the broadcast scale, aiming
especially for the new pioneer settlements in
Maine, New Hampshire Vermont, New York
and distant Ohio also for the heather Indian
tribes upon our continent 90 yet not wholly
| fOropftiup tha pao{apc hAyOuA ha
| Massachusetts Missionary Society in 1904
elected as corresponding member the Presi-
dent of the London Missionary Society, and
added to its field the "more distant regions of
| the earth, as circumstances shall invite, and
| the ability CT the society shall admit
Then sprang up also the reawakened inter :
! est in evangelical doctrine, a. ministers and
churches beginning to discern the peril of the
hour, expressed in the formation Of the Gen
eral Association of Massachusetts in 1892,
| intensified by the election in 1904 to the
Hollis professsrship of Divinity in Harvard
| College of Henry Ware, co resulting in
the establishment of Andover Seminary in
1908, of Park Street Church in 1909, (8)
of the American Board in 1910, of the New
England Tract Society in 1914, of the Ameri-
can Education Society, and OF the Boston So
ciety for the Moral and Religious instruction
Of the Poor in 1916, and of the Domestic Mis-
sionsry Society in 1918. Ner must we omi
the establishment of the New York Mission
airy Magazine in 1SO0 of the Connection
Missionary Magazine in 1902, of the Massa.
chusetts Missionary Magazine in 1903, united
with the Panoplist in 1908, or the vigorous
theological discussions of the entire period
especially of the second decade of the new
century. 1t was certainly an eventful hou
for the New England churches of sevent,
years ago, when there started from New Ha
ven in the year 1910, upon the same day, il
the same stage COACH Moses Stuart, age,
thirty, bound for the new professorship il
Andoysr Theological Seminary, and his youn
deacon, jeremiah Evarts, aged twenty nint
bound for Boston, to take charge of the Pano
plist.
1t is something to be emphasized, and to b
remembered by later generations, that all thes
educational, theological, reformatory, an
missionary enterprises were carried forwar,
substantially by the same men, and were Civ
ing momentum to the whole movement, a
well as determining its trend for years t
come. It's significant that Samuel Worceste
and jeremiah Evarts were at the sam
time, one the secretary, and the othe
the treasurer, for six successive years