The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1896-12-31

| cape any share of the burden of public taxa.
ton" They are so desirious to secure re-
| liglous institutions, that they are willing
not only to incur the expenses necessary for
this specific purpose, but to take upon them
selves the burden also of general taxation,
which they might honorably have avoided
by reason of their small number and OF
| their scattered condition.
| And having obtained a town charter they
vote at the very first town meeting a small
sum for the obtaining of occasional preach
ing, and a Rev. Mr.. Murray of Boothbay
was induced to visit them and administer to
| them (as the record expresses it) "the con-
| soatlons OF his Office very good way of
putting it, since consolation Gin their dreary
| condition) must have been what they
| especially needed. Year by year this hard
| toiling, self-denying people vote at their
| town meeting such sums as they can afford
| for preaching, and they get such preaching
| as they can find.
And now comes on the Revolutionary
| War, with its hard times, its depression Of
| business. its great sufferings for all the
| American people, and above all for eastern
| Maine, more exposed along its broad and
| easily accessible coast to the fleet of the
enemy than any other part of the country.
Will not dwell upon the hardships of the
| settlers during the war, farther than to say
that before it came to its close, they saw their
| homes rtled and burned, their crops destroy
ed, their land laid waste, and themselves
| places along the seaboard in the hands of
our troops as promised some partial protec-
| tion. So impoverished and so discouraged
were they that when, after the war, they
returned to their homes, they did not even
revive their corporate existence, and when
after several years Tin 1855 they did so,
| their very first municipal action is to appro-
| pirate sum for occasional preaching, and in
the next year they send petition to the
General Court for liberty to tax all proprie-
tary lands in order to the building of a
Westinghouse. And though this scheme
was dropped for the present, still at every
successive town meeting money was assess
ed for religious purposes with so much reg
ularity that this might almost seem to have
been the principal business of these meet
| ings. When, in 1889, they set themselves
seriously to the building project, they meet
another difficulty besides poverty in the
division of opinion as to where the edifice
should be located. The original settlement
was on the eastern side of the river, but by
the year 1889 the people on this side have
gained very much upon the rival set
tlement upon the other side and it
seems unfair that they should be taxed for
the building of meeting house so remote
from them, and which they could reach dur
ing large part of the year only with diff
Guilty, if at all. 1t is not strange that a good
deal of rivalry, perhaps of jealousy and of
lll-feellng, should have sprung up between
the settlements on the two sides of the
| river, each anxious to be the centre of the
rising town, and neither willing to weld to
| the other the advantage which would come
from its having within its limits the only
place OF worship. The contention betw cen
the two settlements as to the location of the
church dragged on for several years, and
was finally compromised by vote to build
two churches, one on either side,-that on
our side to be built on the lot where stands
the house originally erected by Judge Will
/ a m ,i.1I M, .l.i
that ON the other side at a point about mile
below The bridge, near where the shore road
makes It's hrst great curve towards Searsport
1t would seem that our good fathers, not
Wlthstanding the hardness of their circum-
stances, had an eye for the beautiful in seen
cry, Tor two grander and lovelier spots
could not we'll be found in the whole region
commanding as they do such a ma estic and
lar sweeping view of the bay and It's sur
rounding shores.
And now the churches having been built
the people set .themS elves to the work of
providing minister to occupy them, a hard
er task and one which was destined to lead
to more serious dissensiuns than the loca-
ton OF the churches. | will not 90 into a
Getall OF the ulssenslons-dre they not all
chronicied III the history of our city by Mr..
Williamson with conscientious thorough-
ness, accuracy and fuiluesS of detail which
| leaves nothing to be desired and nothing TO
be done by any future historian nor are
church troubles so pleasant matter of con
temptation that one eares to dwell upon
them If he can avoid it. This ought to be
sad IN excuse of our tathers-tht quarrel
was not 50 much church quarrel as IA town
quarrel, coming from the fact that no action
OF the church was valid unless it was ratiti-
cd by vote of the town at town meeting, and
it is very doubtful whether any modern
church, however fond of harmony could
get along without serious and frequent frc-
mott
Suffice it to say then, that the church not
having probably a large store of candidates
from whom to choose, in this remote, un-
cultivated and tioIrid Wilderness as you
remember the early settlers call 1t, gave a
call to Rev Mr., Price notwithstanding the
opposition of a large and influential and
very determined minority. At the town
meetings, held III quick succession to dis
cuss this matter this minority vote against
the call, vote against the salary proposed, !,
and declare IN almost violent language that
they Will never cease their opposition to Mr..
Price, and that they will try it out Ito use
their expression) to the end of the law if
needful. w hen the ordaning council as
semble, they send in an earnest remons-
| trance to the ordination, and when at length
in spite of all their efforts he is settled they
keep up their opposition year after year till
at length they gain so many over TO their
side that they become the majority and Mr.
Price judges it wise to take himself out of
the way, and after d settlement of i've
years is regularly dismissed. The ecclesas-
tical council who dismiss him acquit him
of fault and throw the blame of the trouble
upon the opposing minority, not altogether
rightfully, it seems to us. Doubtless Mr..
Price was a good man, "lrreproachable in
character and sound in orthodoxy" but his
letters to the town, to the church, and to the
council do not indicate the intellectual
qualities needful to the preacher of a con-
gregation already beginning to include in
| its number many cultivated persons and
graduates of Massachusetts colleges. More
over he shows very great lack of judgment
and of wisdom, due very possibly to his
youth and yet none the less unfortunate in
its influence, and none the less uniting him
for his position-shows it in many ways,
notably in the prime matter of accepting a
call to which so violent an opposition is
! made by so large and so influential part of
the church-quite third part of the few
hoiders-and in accepting it confident
ly as to put himself at once to the work of
building him house, a kind of proclama-
tion that he means to abide where he is
W Inch most parishes that are very well sat
| lshed with their pastors do not altogether
| relish, and winch very often serves as
| KIND OF challenge to uneasy spirits in par
lsh to test the matter and try conclusions
| with the over-contdent pastor. For 1t is
one OF the little eccentricitles of human ma
| ture that when men are doubtful whether
they can secure certain good, they are
very anxious for it; when it is certain they
can have 1t and it begins to look as though
| they must have it, then they become iudiffer-