The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-06-10
ONE OF THE SERIES
"COngregatiOnaliSm' the Subject Of
Mr.. GrOeneveld'S Address.
THE DAYS OF PURITANISM
Interesting Discussion of Religions
Historical Events From Ancient
Times Up to the Present
and Progressive Age.

-
church on THE Good and Evil in the
Various Denominations" are proving
immensely popular. and the church is
crowded to it's greatest capacity every
Sunday evening. Mr.. Groeneveld han
dies his subjects in a most interesting
and unprejudiced manner and is en-
HANGING his reputation for dealing with
timely topics entertainingly.
His subject this evening was Con-
gregationalism," and he addressed an
other large audience substantially as
follows:
organized ConSregationalism APP
pearcd about 800 years ago. To-day
there are in the United States and in
the various foreign mission fields 5000
ministers and $500 churches. with a
membership of about 100000. Besides
this church is the largest non-conform-
list body of Christians i'm England with
a membership of half a million. Their
conception of church is their distinct
i've tenet. and the prominence into
which they have lifted this tenet has
given this denomination it's name.
Their government is pure democracy,
and their theology is generally evan
gelical. Each congregation is totally in
dependent of every other, managing
it's own affairs throughout. submitting
10 TO ultldllOn llpin any eAAib
recognizing no ecclesiastical officers
but those OF the simple congregation.
"Thore was a strong protest 300 years
ago against the partial reformation of
the English church, which had taken
place under Henry VIII. In this pro-
test were represented the two branches
of the Puritans. viz: The Presbyte-
rians and the Independents. The lat
ter became dominant during the COM
monwealth. The religious side of man
for a millennium had been suppressed 1t
now found expression. No wonder IL
went to an extreme in this. The Gus
toms and traditions of centuries were
thrown to the wind and individualism,
free and untrammeled, was proclaimed
by many. The pendulum swung to the
other side when men discarded the
yoke Of ecclesiastical slavery. Con-
victions, as a result of the study OF the
Bible, were diverse. and so many de-
nominations arose. The Independents
did more than any others. probably, to
defend at this time the priceless boon
| of religious and civil freedom.
They refused to conform to the GER
emonies of the Church of England.
| They suffered untold prosecutions and
| many became martyrs. They claimed
| the God-given right to establish the
| worship of God in accordance with the
conclusions of their own study of the
| Bible They were driven from England
and sought refuge in Holland. Thence
| 1O1 i'm 1920, in the Mayflower. sailed for
| the new world, where they laid the
! foundation of the New England and
| American Congregationalism. Twenty
| two thousand non-conformists soon fol
! lowed them. INDEPENDENCE grew and
| became very important factor in all
| New England and American history
| ever afterwards. In England they be-
| came temporarily dominant under Oil
| yer Cromwell. and five of their most
| ,fV,ot 1fxvin
| Presbyterians in the deliberations of
| the Westminster assembly.
| THE history of Congregationalism
| on the whole, is an excellent and in
| spring one. In the days when pope
| and bishop were supreme its members
| stood firm as a rock. even unto blood,
| for religious liberty. claiming that the
| conscience is in the keeping of the in
| dividual alone. and that neither mag
/ istrate nor priest may usurp the place,
which rightfully belongs to the Lord of
| Heaven. The old New England Puri-
| tans were made of stern stuff. We to-
| day would call them unlovely. They
| had been bounded so long and so cru
| ely that life always wore serious as
| pect to them. When they first bought
| land and made their home in this coun-
| try they enacted laws and established
| customs which do not seem to us now
| TO be in harmony with the free and
| glorious institutions of our age. They
| have since been abolished. But who
| can blame them for this when he re-
members what they suffered before
| they reached the land of freedom from
| religious thraldom? They resolved to
| make a repetition of the cruelties of
| the post to them impossible.
| "A peculiar belief and excitement
| were prevalent i'm all the so-called civ
ilized nations in the sixteenth and sew
| enteenth centuries, which resulted in
| many instances in the burning of what
| were called witches. The colonies were
| carried away in this to us inexplicabie
| frenzy. Still. i'm Boston and Salem.
| only a few suffered death, while in Eu-
| rope more than a hundred thousand
fell victims to this popular Illusion. The
| best men of the age were carried away.
| The noted Sir Mathew Hale, Sir Owen
| blackstone and Richard Baxter were
| convinced of the existence of witch
| craft and were carried away by the
witch craze. And the Puritans also
! ill-treated the Quakers. But this is TO
he said. the descendants of New En-
| gland, while they mourn the mistaken
| zeal, and dark deeds of their otherwise
| illustrious ancestors, have never made
| an attempt to whitewash what candor
/ compelled them to acknowledge was in
| trinsically and irrevocably black.
| The government of this church is
it's weakest feature. 1t is pure democ-
! racy. In case an injustice is done 10
| member by a local church he has
| no redress. There is no higher court
to which he can appeal \ few years
| ago church with the Congregational
/ form of government actually expelled
4 from it's communion for what seemed
| utterly insignificant reasons an aged
| minister. who had served with distin-
| guished honor in the pulpits of that
! denomination for nearly 80 years, and
| the minister had no opportunity to APP
| peal his case 10 a higher and larger
/ court because there is no higher than
/ the local church in this system of
| church government Injustice is often
| done in this way. our civil fabric could
| not be maintained a single year under
/ such a system. 1t would restore TO US
| the disordered times Of the confederacy
| Of III We prefer our Presbyterian
| government. which presents a system
! of graduated courts. with the right Of
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