The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1892-11-04

gees, who fled from the cruelties and OF
preston and the prosecutions in those |
troublous times in England and on the
Continent, when Romanists, churchmen,
Purtans and all We'd with each other in
so-called religious zeal but really in in
human cruelty. Many Of the subsequent |
settlers were different type from the
pioneers, but as a class the Puritans
brought with them very much good.
Personal religion, pure morality, re
ligious liberty, these were Puritan be
quests to posterity and they have stamp
ed their Influence upon the life of New
England especially, and through her,
upon the life of large part of the ma
ton.
From the religious point of view we
may say that under the providence of
God our land has become the home of re-
ligious liberty, of pure morality and OF
personal religion to degree unequalled
by any other nation on the earth.
think we may point to the French
and Indian War as another Significant
event in our history. The victory of
England again settled the question of SUI
premacy here. The development hence
forth was to be, not French with its pc
culiar national characteristics of a cor
rupt Christianity and its subsequent inf
deity, but rather our growth became es-
sentially Anglo-Saxon with its superior
type of humanity and its purer form of
religion. In this too, my brethren, is
there not traceable the overruling Provi-
dence of God?
Finally came the great decisive and
critical point in all our history,
| THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
or as it is better called, the War of indie
dence. That settled the question of our
local self government 1t prevented for
ever any foreign interference with our
own home affairs. 1t made possible our
distinct and separate national existence.
1t also revived the attempt of republic
as form of government. And that
great crisis involved also another event
which to churchmen is all important
though to the average student OF history
it is little thought of. The religious de-
yelopment of this country was not confin-
ed to the Roman Catholic type and the
Puritan type; between these there had ex-
listed a third element to which [ have in
directly referred, but which the War of
Independence seriously affected.
That one great Christian body profess
ed allegiance to foreign ecclesiastical
bower. while the many forms of dissent
which grew out of the Puritan move
ment could exist independently of either
national lines or foreign churches. Not
so with the ~. ..s-e
CHURCH OF ENGLAND
in the colonies. Being branch of the
historic church, which had existed in
England from the ages Immediately sub
sequent to the times of the apostles and
depending upon the Older World for it's
continuity and its authority to be deriv-
ed, it was necessary that there should be
in the newly formed nation an independ-
emit and autonomous national church,
rooted firmly in the past.
Political prejudices and national jeal-
ousies influenced the bishops of the
Church of England to withhold their
consent to the conservation of an Ameri-
can bishop But that convention which
was held in the neighboring town of
woodbury. in 1888, just after the close OF
i the Revolution, was determined, under
/ the providence of God, to secure to its
appointee, DIR Seabury, the authority OF
a regular conservation with the right to
exercise the office and work of a bishop
in the church of God.
THOUGH HIS REQUEST
was refused in England for the time, ne
was consecratedby the Scottish bishops,
and the prejudice soon dying away in
i ENGLAND. the conservation of two other
4 hishons there assured the Independent
national existence Of that branch of the
historic church of Christ of which we are
privileged members.
/ To the intelligent churchman, that
event following closely upon the Revoiu-
/ tionary war, is an evidence Of the Provi-
dental care of God over the nation which
serves Him and the Church which he
! founded.
We are traversing familiar ground no