Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1896-12-25
EOREEATHERS' DAY.

tive commemoration of the event in
Middlebury, was held at the Congrega-
tional church on Monday evening last.
There was a large attendance, among
those present being people from Rutland,
Salisbury, New Haven, Cornwall, Wey-
bridge and other towns of the vicinity.
Hon. John w. Stewart presided over the
exercises, Mrs. G.. d. Miner was at the
organ and Misses Elga and Jessica Stew
art and Ella Bond, DR.. w. II. Sheldon
and Mr.. George w. Stone composed the
choir.
The public performance, in the main
audience room, began at o'clock. The
order was as follows;
l. Voluntary rand Ianthem. "Angels ever
bright and fair" otto Lob.
II. Invocation and reading of scripture, by
Rev. j. G. Gooding.
III. ode, "The breaking waves dashed high"
Mrs Hemans.
~. Prayer, by Rev. A. w. Dickens.
v. Solo "There is a city bright" by DR.. W.
II. sheldon. 4. r. Loud
VI. Address, by Prot. Brainerd Kellogg, LII.
D., OF Brooklyn, n. Y.
VIIR Hymn, "America", Samuel f. Smith
VIII. Benedction.
Rev. Mr.. Gooding- read the Dist Psalm
as the scripture selection.
Prof. kellogg always has something
to say when he speaks, and this occasion
was no exception to his rule. The fol-
lowing abstract will serve to indicate the
current of his thought and his manner
of expressing it:
am a little tired OF this telling the Pilgrims
year after year, and every year, what we
think of them-ot this annual reading into
their purposes and achievements and lives
what probably was never there, and must
cost them many smile to hear-tor, of
course. they do hear 1t. If one should hest
tate to draw up an Indictment against a
whole people, should he not also shrink from
apotheosizng, in gross the settlers OF great
sc ction OF country like New England? We
have the best of reasons for believing that,
as another has put 1t, "God sitted a whole
nation that he might send choice grain out
unto this Wilderness" | believe that they
were the right kind of stuff with which to
colonize States OF stern soil and sterner eli
mate ! believe that the settlers of New Eng
land were of a stock better fitted for the
purpose OF transplantation than were those
who went to Maryland and Virginia. And
am warranted in thinking so by the results.
There can be no better way of testing a tree
than by its fruits; and / challenge the judg
ment of the world as TO the fruit borne by
this tree and by hdt-by the northern and by
the southern.
| cannot be wrong in affirming that 1t was
the Pilgrim and the Puritan VINO introduced
the leaven that has permeated the popula'
| tions OF the Eastern and Middle States, and
! the States of the West-all that make up what
we call the North. Nay, more. 1t is they
that have given the nation that distinc-
tive spirit that we call, and the world
calls, Am erica. No other national yeast has
| penetrated the living human mass so tar,
| been so powerful in Its effects, lasted so long
and done its work so we'll. At times even the
most optimistic OF us have been fearful that
this leaven had spent itself, that it could no
longer enter INTO, ana raise to lightness the
lump, made up OF .materals now so hetero
geneous. But after such a crisis as that
through which we have just passed so trium
phantly we feel assured that the strength OF
the Puritan, the New England, leaven, is not
yet exhausted. God help us when it is
And this Is all the direct eulogy the Puri
tans are going'to receive from me this even
ing. hope they are satisfied
am a little tired, too, OF this going back SO
tar when we speak of them; as if they lived
275 265 years ago, when their keels grated on
the sands at Plymouth or ploughed the
waters OF Massachusetts Bay, but were not
living now. Let us take them, when we take
them at ALL with a quarto.millenium more
than they then had of liberalizing culture o.
refining manners, of broadening obser
vation, of wider experience, of juster faith
OF truer sense OF relationship to others
OF richer and fuller lite. | want you in i'm
agination TO translate them and to transplant
them into our own times-to think OF then
and speak OF them as If they were, as they
are, bending down now from their abodei
above, watching us their children, and won
dering what we are gong to do or allow tC
be done to the nation they planted here, tC
the nation they agonized for through so many
long and dark, but ever Frightening, years
Better than any other honor we could confer
upon them would be that which we should
show them in Iseektng to know what they
now would haYe us do, and in doing it.
feel sure that If earnestly and with docil
ity we questioned them respecting our pres
ent political and social situation (and car
speak on nothing else this evening" they
would congratulate us that the battle, hence
forth continual one and not to be Tough
quadrennially and during the presidential
campaign alone, has shifted its ground.
has, on our part, gone up higher-to tn
plateaus and to the hills. This is an advan
tage even on the'real field OF battle. Wallac
won Sterling; Bruce, Bannockbun; and We
lington, Waterloo because OF their elevate
position-it commanded that OF the enemy
The strife bet ween the parties hitherto ha
been one OF opinions and beliefs and theories
The war did not enlist everyone, and all ther
is of every one, heart as well as brain. Nc
of our own accord, for the issues have bee
forced upon us, the struggle is now and her'
after a moral one. 1t is and is to be on on
part a war OF principle-a war for principles
and the sooner our IIannas and other real c
. would.be leaders understand this the better.