The Newtown bee., 1888-07-13
July 13, s.

out, through It's Dlylme Head, the offers of salvation, not to one tribe or family only, but to the whole human race. When our Lord commanded little child ren to be brought unto him; when he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them and blessed them; when he de- clared that each of his followers must ssenter the kingdom of heaven as little child, 7 he was showing the identity of patriarchal and the. Jewish and how the best natural affections may be enlisted in communicating Christian instruction to the young and pre-occupying their minds with right views and devotional senti- ments. Future generations and ages to come are helped to the remembrance of religious duty by the good lives and right eous deeds of children as taught by their forefathers. It has always been admit ted to be blessed thing for our Church in Connecticut that it's earliest clergy, with rare exceptions, were men of blame less character. They stamped upon it an impress which it has strongly retained. Every time dip into their work, my rev erence for them is revived and l thank God that he gave us such champions to establish his testimony
 There was no minister of any religious denomination whatever on Bedding Ridge when Henry Gamer came up from the center of his mission in Fairfield in 1727 to look after and serve q, few families here that professed attachment to the doctrines and worship of the Church of England. Among these families were some who well understood the principles of their belief and contended for them with an earnestness and self sacrifice which no amount of opposition or perse- cution could overcome. What was root ed ill this village and ill the neighbor- hood grew into a tree which spread it's salubrious branches far and wide and formed shade and shelter for the re- sired to worship God in the forms of the liturgy. We look back with amazement to the days of bigotry and religious in- tolerance and wonder now how good men could have opposed with so much bitter ness the introduction of Episcopal min istrations into the colony of Connecticut. When John Beach announced to his flock in Newtown, over which he had been set tied as a Congregational pastor for eight years, that, from serious and prayerful examination of the Scriptures and of the records of the early ages of Christianity, he was fully pursuaded of the invalidity of his ordination and had determined
 to conform to the Church of England and seek orders therein, he filled this re- zion with alarm and excitement and a
 lawful town meeting was called to con
 suit what was to be done with him after such declaration. It ended in the sev- erance of MT Beach from the ecclesiasti-
 cal society in Newtown and the appoint
 ment of q day of solemn fasting and
 prayer to be observed by the inhabitants
 of the town ssunder the present difficult
 circumstances.
 And now the dismissed or deposed min
 ister is on his way home, as it was term
 ed at that period, for Holy Orders. Lem
 uel Morehouse and other 'smembers of the Church of England in Reading and NeWtoWn," have put into his hands a pc tition to bear to the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to the effect that he may be returned, according to his own desire, to the scene of his for
 mer ministrations and the petition has been granted. Hither he comes and en- ters in faith upon the work which for
 half a century he prosecuted with singu- lar intrepidity and unremitting diligence.
 The hardships that he endured, thet trials
 and tribulations through which he pass ed, in fulfilling his ministry and defend ing with his pen the church of his adopt ion from the bitter assaults and misrep- lresentations of enemies, made him a prominent figure in the ecclesiastical his tory of the time and drew closer around him people who never ceased to regard l him with love and yeneration During his long pastorate, interrupted only by
 occasional illness, he divided his resi- ldence between Bedding and NeWtoWn land officiated alternately on Sundays in their respective houses of worship, often going from one to the other and holding
 a third service in the evening. His week day manifestations reached out to Ridge field, Danbury, New Milford and other places, in all of which the Church has l since become stronger than on this spot