The Newtown bee., 1892-08-12

LAST WEEK ................ ............ 24O2 First Annual Banquet of the Smith
 Family.
 (HENRY BAGG sMIrHJ
 At Bridgeport, Conn.,, Friday. August 5, 1892,
 at4 pm.
 FAMILY MOTTO:
 "Hope for the best be prepared for the worst"
 Post Prandial Feast.
 Postmaster, Henry.
 "How sweet tor brethren to agree,
 How sweet is unity"
 FATHERS WORK AS PASTOR, REUBEN
 "what is there like father to a son?
 A father, quick in love, wakeful in care,
 Tenacious oi his trust, t,proofin experience,
 Severe in honor, perfect in example,
 Stamped with authority" -[Knowles,
 s'And all that believed were together and had all things in common" l wish to speak of our father as a type, a fore runner of the good time coming. Surely to you who have labored with him, l need speak but briefly of his devotion to his pastoral work. His horse, his sons and daughters, his wife as far as pos sible, his money were as much devoted to this work as he himself. So you find his horse bringing those without convey ance to the church. His boys and girls assisting in the religious services of the parish, in prayer, in song, in recital at public gatherings. His wife, when able, shares in his pastoral visitations and his scanty salary buys Bibles for the child ren of the Sunday school and is laid gen. erously on the contribution plate. Our father was no time server, no half-heart- ed man. At Abingdon, where he was sole pastor, he himself brought singing master into the village to instruct the young in music and he was interested in maintaining the schools at high stand ard by getting the best teachers obtain able. He did not consider himself as an individual apart from the community, but responsible for the general good, par ticularly so as shepherd of souls.
 ''And all that believed were together and had all things in common" Such is the brief statement of Luke as to the or igin of the Christian brotherhood and such Is to be the final condition of things when true Christian spirit has so far permeated humanity that selfishness is swallowed in the general good. Our father, imperfectly to be sure, foreshad- owed the universal experience, was a type of the true Christian manhood that is yet to be realized in the community at large. In making this statement, I am not echoing Bellamy's "Looking Back ward,' but predicting the final influence of the true Christian spirit upon mankind at large. I do not limit it to one, 10 or more centuries. do not foresee wheth- CT peaceably or through seas of blood, but I unhesitatingly declare that, as God is love and, as in Jesus Christ we behold the face of our Father, so surely and in- evitably will the present friction of creeds and clash of classes eventually give place to practical Christian life, love to God and love to man, in which the most honored will be the truest servant of the many and divine love will melt down and mollify our seltishness into zeal for the mutual welfare.
 ''And all that believed were together and had all things in common" A thous- and years with the Almighty are as one day and one day as thousand years. Of the times and seasons, whether it be of our Lords second coming or of the reign of universal righteousness, no man knoweth, not even the Son, but only the Father, so let us not be concerned with the when so much as with our part in hastening the blessed fulfillment. To strengthen our faith and direct our minds to the times in which our lot is cast, let us note where the conflict wages. Until the signing of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, it was strife of subject against ruler. The ruler levied upon his subject for the support of his luxuries, his court, his wars, without regard to in- dividual feelings or rights. But 1776 struck the knell of absolutism. The man for whom Christ died, the many, the poor, the citizen has had his rights to liberty, life and the pursuit of happiness settled for all time. Not that all men are free, or even intelligent enough to be free, but the day star of Freedom has risen in splendor and shall never set un- til knowledge and freedom emancipate the race. Serfdom and slavery have heard their death knell and, while their death struggles may be protracted, the result is as sure as God is good. So sure is it that the heathenish, unrighteous maxim of to-day, 'Every man for him. self and the devil take the hindmost," is doomed to final disaster. It is opposed to God and love and all in such opposit- ion are foredoomed to overthrow. A Jay Gould will be as impossible in a few cen turies hence as Nero, an Alexander the Great would be to-day. We are not al- ways to take our heroes from the bloody of earth, nor is interruptions wealth to always grind the face of the laboring classes. I know not how many Home steads lie in the track, nor what folly of employer and employed we are to see, but, without destroying individual rights, individual freedom or the individual re- sponsibility, wealth is ultimately to con tribute to the welfare of the many.
 ssAnd all that believed were together and had all things in common" I be- lieve that this statement is not merely history, but prophecy of the good time coming, whose gray dawn never expect to do more than herald. As our father devoted himself and his all for the com mon good, so let us be forerunners of that faraway dispensation and be senti- nels on the bulwarks of Time of the final triumph of true Christian brotherhood, when fine message of the angels. ton