The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1904-04-04
REV. MR. BRADLEY
OPENS PASTORATE
Greeted BY Large Congregation oa
His First Sunday at the Uni
YersaIist Church.

Easter was most fttingly observed az
the Universalist church yesterday and a
large congregation attended both the morn
ing and evening services At the morning
service the pastor, Rev. A. NJ. Bradley
preached the first sermon Of his pastorate
here The altar was beautifully deco
rated with lilies and other potted plants
appropriate to the occasion. The choir,
composed 0f Mrs nj % Lamb, Edmund
Mitchell, Miss Carrie G. Stearns and VIM.
Sheriffs, rendered a special musical pro-
gFamme which was very enjoyable. They
were assisted by w. J. Gilbertson, cor
netist aud FL A. Gould, VI, lInist, who adj
ded not little to the success Of the Elasie.
Mr. Gould played sol0 during offertory
very aceeptably
AT the evening service a very successful
concert was given by the Sunday school,
The subject Of the morning sermon vas
Let Go tho Gross, aud the pastor spoke
in part as follows: tsI0ye hope, trust and
believe all ipys are yours. Let go the cross.
If one stays with bis cross bis is OF no use.
Jesus rose above Bis cross leaving behind
all bis sorr0ws and tribnlations Let 10
the cross Is the plea Of Savior who is
nailed to the cross but Of one who has
risen above bis cross to freedom Which
he himself had never known. Shrouded
in mystery as the resurrection was to the
disciples it was net as mysterious as it Is
today
They celebrated the physical resurreo-
ti0n. The life work OF Jesus all rested on
his resurrection. There is 10 fact more
fully realized than that the disciples were
eel
after the cfuc6ctlOn. We should not be
too hard on them Put yourself in their
place. Nothing was even further from
them than that they should ever see Jesus
again, and when be appeared to them they
were inspired with joy. He inspired them
with new faith in himself; and some Of
them recalled His saying, "Some time
you will destroy this temple and In these
days 1t shall rise again.
"The first Easter day did not leave the
disciples where He left them,it made them
into new life with some faith in Jesus.
They still believed him the Messiah but
not the old Messiah, for out Of the old
shall come the new. We know that the
cross Is for the Christians but we rarely
look beyond it We have heard good
deal about the cross bearing but we never
think about letting 20 the cross. On the
dawning of this Easter morning let us
pray that we may let 20 of our crosses and
rise above to lives Of helpfuiness and joy.
The Rev Mr.. Bradley was born in
Brewster, Mass, ia 1856. and comes Of
Pilgrim stock being descendent ot Elder
Brewster. At the age Of seventeen years
he went before the mast, sailing around
Cape Horn. He spent q short time In
South America aud then went to san
Francisco. where he entered the employ OF
the California Furniture company, one OF
the largest furniture firms 10 that state
With this company he spent fifteen years,
being superintendent Of the shops and
manager of q branch store In Honolulu.
He was afterwards employed as craftsman
and designer for G. r. Webber & Co. OK
San Francisco
Then he took up the work OF a lay
preacher, having already had considerable
experience In religious work as superin-
tendent OF a Sabbath school. In 1895,
through the recommendation of the Rev.
Or, Shinn. he was appointed By the gen
eral conference Of the Unlversalist church
as superintendent OF the society missions
/ - Nt4N a ANtAS obaNEns lac kAtNM tNAA Asa NAsST
iness engagements, and gave himself up
entirely to the new activity, Much Of the
time was spent IN travelling.
In the fall OF 1897, on account Of family
affairs, he came east and has since resided
In the state OF Maine, holding past0rates
at Winthrop aud Reedvllle He has been
pastor Of the parishes at SangersYille and
Guilford for the past two years. His pas
torate ia those places has been eminently
successful That Mr. Bradley is gifted
with an unusual amount Of energy is
shown BY the fact that since he accepted
the call to the Barre Universalist church
he has raised debt Of 81, 400 on the San
gervilie church He accepted the call to
the Barre church the Lass Of February.
Besides be has helped very materially In
painting and otherwise repairing the
church, since deciding to come 70 Barre