Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1896-02-01

tloliit paStoI VI w dlpoie, lecN' . -. 1ioW-
ard of Charlestown, Rev. William Brown
Of Gardner, Mass, the son of former
pastor, aud Rev C. B. Elder of Keene.
Letters Of regret were read from Russell
N. Bellows and Charles H. Eaton of New
York city, and Rev. William Brown, for
mer pastor of the church.
The program was not completed until
nearly II o'clock. Lemonade and cake
were served and the orchestra played con-
tinuously until about - o'clock, when the
party broke up.
Again we congratulate the village of
Walpole and the Unitarian society in par
ticular on being the recipients, the bene-
fciarles of Mr.. Hastings devoted and lib
eral generosity.
Judge Bellows Address.
The following is Judge Bellows address
in full:
Mr. Hastings: 1t is with peculiar pleas
ure that ] as the representative of the trus-
tees of the Walpole Town Congregational
Society receive from you in their behalf
this beautiful Memorial House. with which!
you so richly endow our society.
This building, so carefully planned, and
admirably adapted to the uses for which it
is designed, complete in its appointments,
bright, cheerful and homelike, is a very
fitting memorial of one whose symmetrical
and well proportional life ever shone
brightest in her home, which she filled with
the same light and cheer that so pevades
this Hastings Memorial Parish House.
We claim that our church inherits
through direct descent all the virtue, sobrl-
ETY. and privilege of those departed worth
les who first established the town church
under the well guarded palisades of the
Z" old fort Our ancestors originated this
church beneath the shelter of their rude
and fortified homes, and you following
their pious example, and their wisdom that
knew how inseparable are church and
home, preserve that church by giving to it
after the lapse Of century and half an
ideal home, that will, we may hope, cherish
and preserve within its walls through many
long years to come the spiritual life that
fir st sprouted amid the perils, hardships
and dangers of its birthplace.
The life and vitality that has nourished
l &c l,,1rr
life has not been all derived from the
strong and verile support that men have
given it, but it owes its long continued
existence more to the unlaltering devotion
of the sweet and blessed band of women,
who, in unending procession through its his
tory, have continually supplied the energy,
zeal and effort that has preserved it as a
power for good in our community. In our
pulpit we have seen many devoted servants
of God, whose ministrations have brought
comfort, hope and peace, but all their
eloquence, learning, and spiritual skill
would have availed but little, had not their
efforts been constantly supplemented by
the piety and devotion of those noble
women who. one after another, have taken
upon themselves the heavy burdens of the
care and maintenance of its life and work.
| Let us remember, then, as tonight we
dedicate to its kindly uses this church
home, all those departed saints whose devo-
ton in the past has made the present pos
sible, those dear women, such as your
grandmother and my mother and host OF
others. who toiled early and late to pre-.
serve this church as very precious hcrit-
, age for U.S. How well those wise women
, recognized that to secure the results they
| desired they must foster the social life
> life within the church, and how gladly
would they have welcomed the opportuni
t ties that such building as this affords tC
e cultivate this social end. 1t was the natu
: raj revolt against the cold and cherries
e life that Calvinism prescribed, that did a
much as theological discussion to bring il
e liberal religion, and the influence of GU
e church has been quite as marked in it
e overthrow of those narrow ideas that pro
a scribed all innocent amusements as in it
purely intellectual victories.
Vi The belief that at fitting times and sea
Z sons men and women as well as children
must play and even dance has become s.
i universal that the old idea has no adheren