Morning journal and courier., 1888-04-23

that my labors may be attended with suc- cess. God Almighty bless the church and congregation, Amen" In 1787 President Stiles, preaching MT. Whittelsey's funeral oratioa, said: ''In this candlestick Mir. Whittelsey has shone burning and shining light for about thirty years" Momentous years for these colonies had those thirty years been. The revolution, however, did not interrupt the worship of this sanctuary, and no sign CT note of the war seems to have been left upon the records of the church; 30 quietly and continuously may the powers of the world to come go about their divine calling on earth even amid great changes of empire. But from sermon preached by MT. Whittelsey before the General Court it is evil dent that in those stirring times it was true, as it has always been true in the whole histo- ry of freedom, that religion-I quote his words-s'is the most sure and faithful source of genuine public spirit" And MT. Whit telsey preached Christ Gas example of the spirit of the most exalted patriotism" The fragrance of this pastors sweet piety seems still to exhale from the faded records of his fair fame in the ministry. His successor, Dr. Dana, who was called after he was fifty years old to this pulpit, had also been g pa
 triot, and patriot too in those days just preceding the revolution when all men had not been prompt to kindle into patriotic flame. But none but patriots in those days could have worthily stood in the pulpit which from John Dayenport's bold preaching ! in preparation for the protection of ringing war cries against slavery | unto this day has never failed. and I pray | may never fail, to answer with instantaneous ' trumpet note to every call of country and of liberty. MT. Dana, however, anticipated | by many years Dr. Bacon's final views up- | on the abolition of slavery. In 8 sermon preached in this pulpit befere the s'Soeiety | for promoting Freedom" |" he reviewed those | arguments for slavery with which some half \ a century afterwards we became too familiar; | he remarked that the Mosaic account 'fdoth not inform us what was the complexion of Adam and Eve," and he expostulated with eloquent vehemence against fthe traffic in ! the souls of men," The same clear note he | struck again iu discourse reviewing the 1 events of the eighteenth century, and he f reports that 'fSlavery is abolished in some of the States. In others the abolition is fast progressing" How slowly that king | dom of freedom was to come, and with what | violence its heaven was to be taken by storm,
 he could not foresee, but many graves of our | heroes tell.
 MT. Dana was recognized champion of the old divinity, and behold! new divinity was already on the threshold of the century \ upon which he had entered. The familiar | story runs again through our records of the passing of the old order and the coming of ! the new. As Dr. Dana had seemed unortho- ! dox in the eyes of the younger Edwards. so I Moses Stuart seemed unsound to Dr. Dana. \ He protested that "'the settlement of MT. ! Stuart could not take place in this church \ and society without & manifest departure from the principles and practice transmitted to them by their ancestors" The subsequent ' correspondence between the pastor whom the church had retired and the young preach | CT whom it had called betrays, each letter | in it's characteristic way, that deeper love II IL -s.- zE III which long ere this their temporary estrange- | ment we trust has been forgotten in 8 world | where misunderstanding do not arise. The \ clouds which gathered towards the close of | Dr. Dana's ministry were providentialIy not \ permitted to obscure entirely it's setting. In thS last glimpse which our records afford \ of the venerable pastor we may behold him,
 in the calmness of his dignifed age, sitting \ in the pulpit where for years he hadspreached I in the moderation of the old divinity, and which Dr. Taylor was already filling with the eloquenoe of new thought,-a not displeassd listener, reconciled and benignant presence,
 a tried servant of God willing now to depart \ in peace.
 The coming Of Moses Stuart to this church
 had been like the springing up of the fresh breeze, and the inAowing of the great tide of power. It was the beginning of the revival era of the church. His ministry of only three years' duration waS an innovation, and when
 he changed his reyiving pa.torate for his fearless profsssorShip at Andover, Moses
 Stuart left the heart of his church full of the impulse of the new divinity. But if
 Moses Stuart's ministry was like the coming \ in of the tide over the parched sands of an
 arid theology, Dr. Taylor's preaching wal
 that tide in its full flood and resistle8snesl
 of power. This is not the place nor time fol
 us to pass in review that science of theology
 which Dr. Taylor wrought out in the lecture \ room of the Yale Divinity school to which
 this church was obliged to surrender him
 Bat as that theology had it's beginnings iI
 this pulpit3 and was a theology for the pulpit \ few words of Standardization of the ney
 divinity in distinction from the old should \ not be emitted. The new theology was
 more practical theology of regeneration. Tn \ old divinity taking its predominate tom
 from the more mystical side of the elder Ed \ wards thought had inculcAted the diligsn \ use of the means of grace while mel
 waited for what might be Gods tim
 for their regeneration. The new divinity
 beginning with study of the human mint
 and will, pressed for immediate repentance
 The old divinity said, "Pray, and you ma,
 sometime be regenerated." The new diyinit,
 thundered, Repent or misersbly perish. \ The old divinity exhortsd, "Use the mean
 of grace faithfully, and you may be saved.
 The new divinity promised, Believe an,
 thou shalt be saved" The old divinity re
 piled to the inquirer, "Wait for the Lord'
 time, and you may then have comfortable e ! surance of conversion" The new divinit, ! urged, "Be converted, for now is the accepta \ ble time" Both the old and the new divini ! ty confessed mans dependence upon Hel
 Ghost, but the old divinity found in that de ' pendencs too much occasion for tutelage o
 the soul in fear; the new divinity found in i \ inspiring reason for a new obedience in hope In one word, the old divinity was school o ! moral waiting upon God; the new call | Il mora1 action towards God Naturally fh
 note of the new divinity struck first in thi \ pulpit by Prof. Stuart, and repeated in fulle \ and more harmonious proclamation by Dr
 Taylor, was answered by revival after re
 vival in the congregation. Yet w
 should be wanting in historic insight
 and be unjust to the old order which hs passed away, should we attribute the re \ markable spiritual success of those times o | awakening entirely to the new men and tn
 new methods that superseded the old. God ! new providence always holds the new in tn depths of the old until it's springtlme comes Under the older ministers, by the faithful ad ministration of the means of grace, hundred
 of men and women had been prepared to re
 ceive the freedom of the spirit of which th new preachers were the chosen apostles : There were many waiting to see the salvatio of the Lord. And Dr. Taylor enabled thsr . to see it. The soil which Moses Stuart an Dr. Taylor found ready for their ministr , was full of the seeds and potsncies of life
 So have seen the winters snows mel from broad western fields, and loi the whss , I which the faithful husbandmen had sown i the fall was already green under the return ing sun. But the wintEy waiting had taste
 full long enough when in the ministry c
 these two men Gods new season of grac
 came again to this church.
 And of Dr. Bacon and his works-how h
 preached and prayed, and eomforted tn sick and sorrowful, how he identife this church in momsntous years wit every great cause and all good werks-wha need say9 This church has published in } memorial volume fitting eulogy of the man } Yet still with many of you his name will b. oftenest on your lips to-day, and his spiri seems to belong to the whole history of thi
 people, It was creditable to the church tha it's friendly reasonableness years ago shield , ed the youthful preacher flom the chillin breath of 8 passing discontent which els } might have blighted his promise. The wis dom of his people gave him all that Leonar { Bacon needed to ask. time to strike the vigel l ous root of his manhood down deep into thi , historic soil, and to take up into his larg . growth the best elements of the life of tn | community. Others before me have told an 3 you best know how he grew and fourished ]