The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-12-30

/ was able that afternoon to come to q
station on that road from which a
stage coach after dark carried US to
Lancaster. / may say in passing that
among my fellow passengers to Ian
caster was the Quaker poet, John G.
Whittier: and that from that ride
dated a friendship which was never in
terrupted through his long life. At the
| inn at Lancaster / spent the night, and
| in the morning, joined with another
! gentleman who had been left as l had
| in Boston, l hired a wagon in which
we started at daylight to arrive in
| Worcester in time for me to preach in
the little hall.
Such were the difficulties which l
! surmounted in reaching the town
which was to be my home for 10 happy
| years and such the simplicity of travel
which arrested from Saturday noon to
Monday morning the progress of the
two persons who in that time went
from the capital to the Heart of the
| Commonwealth.
Il am not the best person to relate
the inner history of the spiritual life
! of the church founded by these five
and twenty young men with their
| wives and those who were to become
their young wives. l will say, however,
| that 7 think that any one who knew
the biography of these men, and a few
| of us still survive, would trace in their
| manner of life a certain determination
| to apply to daily affairs the great
spiritual verities of the universe which
as I believe distinguishes this church
; now after more than half a century.
1--WE We're desperately unecclesiastic
I was the only person who knew even
| the names of some of the formulas OF
| the old Puritan church. On the other
| hand hppq1gn ppplAgi1 81 FL
cal, there was a certain stiff determine
ton on the part of the founders that
! they and their companions should do
their duty in the trials of the day, in
its difficulties as well as in it's successes
and glories.
It heard with great pleasure here a
few years ago a definite review in
| which Mr.. Hoar named some of the
more important crises and more i'm
portant duties in which they engaged
themselves. I had myself made my ac-
uuaintance with Judge Thomas when
he was in the Massachusetts Legisla-
| ture. I met Judge Merrick for the first
| time in conversation with the governor
of the Commonwealth. Joseph Sar-
gent. hardly 30 years old, had brought
from Paris some Of the most recent
discoveries of Louis and the rest of the
new schools In medicine. When, three
years later. lDe llTIn OI lOliIldn az nus
sell was invited to fill the order for
Uncle Sans wagons for the Mexican
war. 1t refused the hattering proposal
because it did not believe in the Mexi-
can war and would not make money
from it.
IT say that I think that that sort Of
readiness to stand in front of public
duty and public enterprise distin-
guished the little church of the begin
ming, as 1t has distinguished it through
half a century and will, hope, for a
century more.
"I do not know, but suppose Wor-
cester is no longer the training place
which 1t was then for half the rest of
America But at that time we built a
great deal of machinery here and sent
that machinery to different parts of the
world I remember that when I had
been here only two years. I made list
of those men who had already left our
church in charge Of mechanical i'm
provements of Importance which they
were to introduce in other states or
other lands.
This company OF emlgrants who
were to be leaders in the places to
which they went were already residing
in "a states Of the American Union
and in Europe. Asia and Africa.
ut was early intimated to me, and I
= do not wonder. that II WOuld pc most
I acceptable to the parish If I would ex-
change pulpits with my friends in the
county as often as every other Sunday
and I tried to do so. I should think
that three-fourths Of my parishioners
were not born in the town. They had
come mostly from the county towns. L
hope that that sort of intimacy be-
tween everybody in the county with
everybody else in thdcounty-that that
intimacy with the county pride which
IL arouses-exists to this day l know
: that the young parish respected and
loved DR.. Allen of Northboro. Mr.. VIII
son of Grafton. Mr.. May Of LeiceSoer,
Mr.. Prentice Allen of Sterling, young
Ouithington, who died too early for us,
of Leominster, and the dear saint Cal
vim Lincoln. of Fitchburg. as well as
their own people knew them or as well
as Worcester friends knew DR.. Hill,
DR.. Smalley and me.
81 do not wonder that Worcester
County takes such pride in her sons,
and in those who have made themselves
her sons. To that self-respect and re-
gard and confidence Worcester ~~oME--.
largely the leading part which she
holds in the history of the world in the
last half century. We have no time in
which to state. however briefly, what
have been the steps upward and for
ward in the work OF the Christian
church in the 81 years which have
passed since 1s45 In an enterprising
town such as this was when l first
knew it. or in a city such as this is to-
day. whose population is nearly 20
tirces what is was then. a place self
respecting and everywhere respected.
the main interests were not confined to